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Topics:
1. Updates [3:32]
2. Introducing our guest [4:38]
3. The origin of Lift Weights Faster [8:20]
4. Jen’s perspective in the gym [11:20]
5. How do you scratch the competitive itch now? [20:06]
6. One strength training exercise every woman should be doing [25:21]
7. Are my squats good enough[26:06]
8. What do you recommend for those new to strength training? [27:11]
9. how should people organize their workouts over the course of the week? [33:16]
10. How to handle training in someone with high life stress [38:46]
11. What are the minimum number of days someone needs to train to get lean and strong? [49:10]
12. Some ways to add Lift Weights Faster to what you’re doing now [52:50]
13. Recommendations for underweight women wanting to gain [57:01]
14. How to eat while lifting to build muscle and not gain fat [1:00:05]
15. How to get the metabolism going when you’ve hit a plateau [1:05:11]
16. Peri- and post menopause strength training tips [1:08:36]
17. Jen’s favorite reason why she loves lifting weights [1:09:45]
18. Final word on Lift Weights Faster and Eat Better Faster [1:11:32]
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Diane Sanfilippo: Hey everyone! Welcome back to episode 132 of the Balanced Bites podcast. Well, I don’t know if you’re welcomed back, because we just started recording this one. But, Diane here this week. I’m giving Liz a break to tend to her goats, chickens, and, I don’t know, maybe ticks at this point in time. So, I’m here with a fantastic guest for an amazing interview this week, and I’m really excited to talk to her. But, before we get into the interview, I’m going to remind everybody about our sponsors. We’ve got Paleo Treats. You can find them at paleotreats.com. If you haven’t tried them yet; if you haven’t even gone to an event where they had samples, or been able to give them a taste, definitely, definitely check them out. I know tons of you are out there just like me where you cannot bake to save your life, and if you want some amazing paleo-friendly, grain-free brownies, cookies, things like that, their treats are actually super dense, awesome, flavorful, nutty, chocolatey, everything deliciousness kind of rolled into one. So definitely check them out. The Mustang bar is one of my favorites. I obviously also love the Mac Attack, I talk about that one a bunch, and their new one is the Bandito bar. So, I think you get 15% off when you enter the code BALANCEDBITES at checkout. Again, that’s paleotreats.com. And of course, Pete’s Paleo, bringing fine dining to your cave. Make your week nights a little bit easier with your frozen Pete’s Paleo meals that you can reheat in just minutes. Get a free pound of bacon with the purchase of any meal plan. The code at petespaleo.com you’ll enter BBLOVESBACON. And just a reminder that 1 penny will come off of your order, that’s just how their code works, but they will know to throw your bacon in there. And, finally, Chameleon Cold-Brew, which is available at lot’s of grocery stores nationwide probably, and spreading. You can check out their website for a store locator, and order online if you need to, which is what we do. I believe they have a brand new flavor; I believe they have a vanilla, now, which I’m actually really excited to try that coming up soon. It’s organic, fair trade, smooth, we love it iced or warmed up, black or with your grass-fed butter, coconut milk, whatever concoction. It’s fantastic any way you stir it, I guess. We still don’t know exactly what the code gets you. I think it’s at least 20% off your order, so at ChameleonColdBrew.com, BALANCEDBITES is the code. So, enter that. Check it out.
1. Updates [3:32]
Diane Sanfilippo: Just quickly, I want to give you guys a couple of updates before we roll into the interview. So, this podcast will air on March 27th, and I just want to remind you all that you can catch me at PaleoFx. I’m not positive that Liz will be there; she’s got a lot of stuff going on back at home. That’s the weekend of April 11th, 12th, and 13th down in Austin, Texas. And, TBB on April 19th, not positive what’s going on with that, but I think there may be an event in New York City, so stay tuned for information on that. And then the weekend of April 26th and 27th, which is right before my birthday, April 26th Liz and I will both be in Denver, Colorado signing books. You can find out details about that on BalancedBites.com under the events tab. And, I am about to confirm, I think, on an event in Boulder on the 27th, I think it will just be me, so come keep me company. So, stay tuned because next week I’ll definitely announce details on that, and I’ll put details on Facebook, and Instagram, and the website, and all that good stuff. So. I think that’s pretty much it on updates. Whoo!
2. Introducing our guest [4:38]
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok. Alright. So now, I would like to introduce my amazing guest today. I do not have a whole write up and introduction for her. I figured the best way to have Jen Sinkler introduce herself would be to just let her roll with it, because she’s going to be the funny one today. So if anybody is interested in what I do {laughs} I basically just show up and hope that the other person is pretty funny. So, Jen are you there?
Jen Sinkler: I am there. And I think you’re very funny!
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: So maybe we could riff off of each other today.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok, we’ll see what happens. So, why don’t you tell folks who you are. I want to just throw it out there; for anybody who’s kind of been around my website or Instagram, I’ve been kind of bombarding folks with this Eat Better Faster guide, and the whole thing came about because of you. So, why don’t you tell folks who you are, what you’re about, and how this whole thing came to be?
Jen Sinkler: Yeah, absolutely. I guess we’ll start from the beginning, which is, about 10 years ago now, actually more than 10 years ago now, I started at Experience Life Magazine as a fitness editor. And, I was always a jock. I played rugby for the US team for a really long time, and I knew my way around the weight room, so a fitness editor was kind of a natural fit. I eventually became the editorial director of Fitness for Experience Life Magazine. Now, because I was coming at it from a jock’s perspective rather than a personal trainer’s perspective, I was starting to feel, when I was editing copy, that I was in over my head a little bit, and like I wanted a little more education so I could do things like write exercise descriptions properly, and cue the exercises well so the people could figure out how the heck to do them, and how to start from scratch on things. So I started going to fitness certifications. And I got my Crossfit certification, did ultimate sandbag, did kettle bell athletics, did Russian kettle bell challenge, the RKC, a couple more in there, Tacfit, and progressive calisthenics, and primal move, and the list goes on just a little bit longer. So, I sort of accumulated all this education, and I eventually wanted to start doing something a little bit more with it. Like, training clients in person. So, I started that a few years ago, and I really loved that aspect of it too, the in real life aspect. I started a Facebook page, called Thrive as the Fittest, and sort of took it outside the magazine and had this other space to play in, and that’s been really fun to develop that community. And then at the beginning of last year, I ended up leaving the magazine to kind of go out on my own, and see what happened, and as part of that process, I ended up writing this eBook, called Lift Weights Faster. It was a collection of all the conditioning workouts that I used with my clients and with myself over the years, and I wanted to share this resource and kind of make fitness a really fun proposition. That’s usually my angle on things. Kind of ditch the “shoulds”, there isn’t a way that things have to be, and I wanted to share some ideas and teach some new skills on a larger scale. And I don’t like pretending I’m an expert in things I’m not an expert in, and so I decided to reach out to Diane to get best in class nutrition information. So she wrote Eat Better Faster as a companion to Lift Weights Faster. And I think that brings us right up to today.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} That was a quick fast-forward. So, what about, one thing I don’t know if people really understand, because unless they’ve heard the little exchange that you had with a reporter, where the whole idea of Lift Weights Faster came from? Because you’re not just {laughs} telling people to lift weights faster and faster and faster, so.
Jen Sinkler: {laughing} Good point.
3. The origin of Lift Weights Faster [8:20]
Diane Sanfilippo: Tell us where that came from.
Jen Sinkler: I was doing an interview with a journalist from Faces of Minnesota a couple of summers ago, and he had said something along the lines, he was asking what common questions I get, and I said by far the most common one is people will say, so what do you do for exercise? And I’ll say, I lift weights. And they say, no, no, no, what do you do for cardio? And I always say, I lift weights faster.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: And I knew, after I said it, I was like, I should probably, and so I posted that particular snippet on my Facebook page, and it went crazy. It went crazy after. And someone ended up making, it was a user generated ecard. You know the ecards?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah!
Jen Sinkler: I could not believe how viral it went.
Diane Sanfilippo: And the Victorian woman
Jen Sinkler: Right!
Diane Sanfilippo: Who’s hanging up her laundry or something.
Jen Sinkler: Exactly. And it was everywhere. I was like, I think I’m onto something. I should do something with this. So I wrote a blog post about why I say that, and I interviewed a few PhD’s to kind of back the idea that you can get a lot of cardiovascular benefits from lifting weights in a ballistic, dynamic way. So, light weights, ballistic and dynamic. And you do get all or most of the benefits that you get from traditional cardio. And so I ended up making a T-shirt.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: And I thought it would end up just as a T-shirt, and a tank top. But of course, it keeps growing. Because it’s catchy! {laughs} And so, after the T-shirt, I started on the book. It was crazy. I loved seeing photos online of people wearing the shirts; the “Lift Weights Faster” shirts.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think it’s cool, too, because it really does connect a bit with the folks who, I know tons of my readers and listeners and fans are CrossFitters, like myself, and you said you had your Crossfit level 1 certification, and it combines. We learn in Crossfit that lifting weights is a way to get your cardio, because we do do it faster. You know, it’s not just always one on the minute. We’ll do it for time or for reps. So we do learn that, and I think it’s cool. One of the things I love about your approach; and this is kind of what I talk about a lot. I don’t come from “paleo”; you know, I say that in air quotes, and I don’t come from Crossfit. My education and experience is so much deeper than all of that; the fact that I’m here right now, it’s just a product of, you know, all of that together. But I have a huge appreciation for all different kinds of training. I don’t think there’s one right way. Same thing with nutrition; obviously, I think there are things that should be considered food, and not, but I think there are a lot of different ways to do that. Do you want to talk a little bit about your approach at the gym and kind of help familiarize people; you know, if they’re familiar with Crossfit, or different types of modalities; your approach in general. What you guys do at the gym every day with your clients, and just kind of your perspective on all of it?
4. Jen’s perspective in the gym [11:20]
Jen Sinkler: So, I coached Crossfit for a little over a year, and I did Crossfit for a couple of years, and I really like it. I enjoy Crossfit. Especially Crossfit done well. I think it’s hard these days to label; Crossfit doesn’t mean one thing anymore. So, there can be really good boxes, and there can be really shabby boxes, and we all know that. And I’ve gone to both, and I’ve participated in both. I think the pieces that it does well; I think, as far as Lift Weights Faster goes, I think Crossfit is the largest piece of research about, can you get away with not going jogging, or going for long bike rides for heart health and all the traditional cardio benefits. Crossfit is, case in point, what Lift Weights Faster is about, and it’s probably, to be honest, it’s probably the genesis of this idea for me. It’s where I started being able to say, that’s what I do for cardio. Now, what I think in general Crossfit could do better is involve more planes of movement. I think, in a lot of different fitness methodologies, we end up kind of doing just sagittal plane exercise, which is sort of back and forth, you know, frontward and backward exercise, and I like a little more movement. I think our bodies are meant to move in all the ways, so I want to move in all the ways. Eventually, I had had some back pain at the end of my time doing Crossfit every time I would deadlift. And now I realize it was because I was offered one way to deadlift, and that was the conventional way to deadlift, rather than doing different variations, doing what was right for me on that day. And I had ended up, in 2011, meeting my now husband, David Dellanave, and I started going to his gym, and I started doing a couple of training sessions with him, and I learned about his training methodology, which is called Gym movement. A guy named Frankie Faires came up with it, but the Movement Minneapolis implements this training philosophy, and it sounds totally wild, and witchy, and weird, and it did to me at first, and I wouldn’t have believed it, except it solved my back pain, and I see it work so well for clients because it’s essentially doing what your body green lights you to do on any particular day. And what I mean by that, is, if you’ve ever heard of applied kinesiology, it’s that you hold one arm out to your side, for example, so you might have done this at the chiropractor, so your chiropractor gives you a vial of calcium to hold and you're trying to figure out if you have a dairy intolerance. And so he tells you to hold your arm out to the side, and he tries to push your arm down. And if you’re not able to keep your arm up, if you’re not able to maintain your strength, then your body may basically be red lighting to what your holding. Your body isn’t reacting well. And like I said, it sounds witchy to weird, until you see it work. I use dairy as an example because I had that very situation happen to me, and I think it was the reason I was open to applying the same idea to exercise, is because I had eaten so much cheese for a period of time, in the mid-2000s that I had given myself a dairy intolerance, and my chiropractor did exactly what I’m talking about. Gave me a vial of calcium, and we did applied kinesiology, and he said, yeah, you’re not handling this very well. So I ended up cutting dairy out for a couple of years, and fast forward, I meet David, and he says, ok, well to pick which deadlift we’re going to do today, you’re going to do a range of motion test. And I was like, what? So you do a baseline test. You put your feet together, like toe touches. The joint tests are universal. You could do a finger raise test, and it would tell you the same thing. It’s either a yay or a nay on an exercise. And so he said, we’re going to first try the conventional deadlift. And that tested really poorly. I did a range of motion test, and then I did a couple conventional deadlift repetitions, retest range of motion ,and it was shorter. That’s my body saying, nope. I did a sumo deadlift on the other hand, you know test that, and it tested crazy good. And I’d never done sumo deadlift before. And same with Jefferson deadlift, which is this super weird looking deadlift that I really like. It’s called the straddle deadlift. You get some funny looks if you do this in a gym that doesn’t condone it or doesn’t know what you’re doing. You put one foot over the barbell and you straddle it, and you stand right up with it. And that tested really well. And so in doing exercises that tested well on a particular day, I ended up solving my back pain and being able to do anything I want again. I gained all my functions back. And so that is the training methodology now, and I try to apply that to any work. Even Lift Weights Faster. I will test the movements in each workout before I do it. And if one of them doesn’t test well, I’ll just replace it with something that’s comparable and which does test well. No, in Lift Weights Faster, it’s a huge topic, and this is the tip of the iceberg. There just wasn’t space to explain that entire methodology. Now, in the companion strength program that comes with Lift Weights Faster, or that you could opt for in Lift Weights Faster, you can learn a little bit more about this intuitive training model, called gym movement, in Get Stronger Faster, if that makes sense.
Diane Sanfilippo: It does. A lot of that sounds really similar in some ways to the stuff I used to do with a trainer in San Francisco many years ago, I talk about him all the time on this podcast. Every time I talk about kind of my story and what’s kind of gone on, but he was a CHEK holistic exercise coach, and what they do is a lot of this, “let’s see what your body is telling me today,” because you may have thought you were going to show up and do something really hard and intense, and energetically that’s not going to work, and then just movement wise, mobility wise and all of that, that’s not going to work. So, I do think that’s really interesting. And you mentioned that it’s part of an additional program. It is a little bit of a higher level thing; not higher level, but if you’re a beginner athlete, I think, we’ll talk a little bit more about what’s in Lift Weights Faster in a little bit, but I think what’s in there is super comprehensive and useful for everyone. And then I think when you are taking things to the next level, where you can tell that you’ve got a pain doing this thing, or you know you’re not progressing at this thing or that thing, that’s where some of these self diagnostics I think are super helpful, because we have tons of folks who are asking about the program. Well, I do this already, how can this help? And it’s like, well there’s so many different ways to move, finding out different ways to work with your own body, I think is kind of the key there. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry.
Jen Sinkler: You hit the nail on the head. You’re learning what your body is telling you. It can be an advanced topic. We also, though, have really good luck with people are brand new to fitness, because they don’t know enough to think they know better, if that makes sense?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Jen Sinkler: They’re not coming in, going, “Yeah I know this is supposed to be hard and supposed to feel terrible.” We don’t want people to do things that feel terrible.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: And that’s really what it all comes down to.
Diane Sanfilippo: So I don’t have to do wall balls anymore?
Jen Sinkler: No!
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m just kidding.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} They don’t feel terrible physically, just mentally.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah. I understand. And sometimes I’ll be like, please don’t test well, please don’t test well in that exercise, and then it does.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Jen Sinkler: So, there’s no wishing your way out of it. But, even with Lift Weights Faster now, I believe strongly that your exercise regimen should make you feel better, not worse. And so if you’re doing something that makes you feel worse; stop doing it.
Diane Sanfilippo: I like that. Alright, so I got tons of questions. I know you got tons of questions. Let’s maybe answer some questions.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Just about fitness in general, and then I definitely want to give you some time to make sure that people know a little bit more about everything that’s in the program, because this is a huge program that Jen just launched called Lift Weights Faster, that she titled it and it’s not only tons of pages about explanation and information about different exercises and workouts that she’s put together for you, but videos and all kinds of stuff. So it’s super comprehensive. The way I look at it, it’s less expensive than having a personal trainer for an hour, and you have a whole library of exercises, which I think is amazing. So, anyway, I’ll stop pitching your thing. {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
5. How do you scratch the competitive itch now? [20:06]
Diane Sanfilippo: And we’ll talk about questions, because I’m excited to hear what people are curious about. So you mentioned about, obviously, having been a rugby player. So now that you’re not playing rugby anymore, what do you do to scratch that competitive itch. I guess our reader here is curious because he or she is no longer playing soccer, and misses the competition, but specifically being part of the team.
Jen Sinkler: That is a great question. And the answer, my answer was, I found Crossfit. In particular, I found group training. At the time I joined a kettle bell gym, and they called themselves Crossfit but it wasn’t; it wasn’t like what you think of as Crossfit. There were no barbells or anything. But what I was hungry for was team. I love team so much, and I try to build it everywhere I go. And the minute I walked through the door; I always kind of slogged through workouts on my own. I had my workout program that I was supposed to be following for rugby, and I would take it into the gym by myself, and kind of try to do it. It just wasn’t very motivating. Even though the goal itself was motivating; to be able to play rugby, and to play rugby better, was motivating, I wasn’t enjoying my training and to be honest I wasn’t doing enough of it because of that. And so I thought I would try a different way. So I went to this kettle bell training gym in Philadelphia called urban Athlete; it was then called Crossfit Philly, and started training in a group. And that scratched my competitive itch. The workouts weren’t even timed. That’s why I say, it wasn’t Crossfit as you think about Crossfit. The workouts weren’t timed, but you were sort of in it all together, and that group environment made all the difference to me. And then, eventually, then I started doing Crossfit at a different gym that had a little bit more barbell, as well. And then after a while, I didn’t need the time on the clock, I didn’t need the same sort of, what’s the word I’m looking for; I didn’t need the same measurements as before. I didn’t need to compete, per se. I was able to disconnect my identity a little bit more, realize that I am not what I do, and I think that’s a big thing for athletes and it’s a big thing that leaves us sort of floundering after we retire. We’re like, well what am I now, if I’m not a rugby player, a basketball player, a soccer player, who am I? And it can be very disconcerting. And I think that it’s ok to find a crutch. It’s ok to find a crutch in the meantime. Like, ok, I’m not going to be a soccer player, but I am going to go to this group fitness class that inspires me to push myself, and it gives me the same sense of community and attachment to other people, and that sort of in it together feeling. And then, eventually, if you’re working on yourself, you can figure out other ways to get that sense of community without necessarily having to beat someone. Now, that said, I still play touch rugby sometimes, and I’ll enter lifting competitions here and there. But I feel good, finally, that I’m in a place that I’m like, ok, rugby was my sport, and I devoted so much of my life to it for so long; I don’t need to find a next sport. I can fill that gap in ways largely that involve that same sense of team.
Diane Sanfilippo: I actually had a really, just a similar experience, even though I wasn’t competitive professional or college level athlete or any of that, but even after high school, I was a varsity level athlete for a couple of sports, and it became, I got to college, and it was like, what do you mean I just have to lift weights and be on the treadmill. There’s no ball? {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I was like, I don’t understand the motivation for that. And eventually did find that motivation, because of after years I gained weight and needed to lose it, and found myself at the gym and, you know, was motivated just by that. I agree. I think the camaraderie in Crossfit; I don’t think a lot of it has that much to do with the competition element.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think it’s just that you’ve all done something. I think I’ve seen some T-shirts, or I don’t know what, but Crossfit is like self-induced hardship.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s this thing that, in a lot of ways, and some positive ways I guess, nationwide even like right now what’s going on with the open, how cool is it that I’ll fly across the country and I’ll meet somebody who is doing the open too, and we can kind of have a conversation about this thing that we have a camaraderie around, like how it went for us, and you know, it’s just this cool thing that connects us. But I got that at one point, I was doing cardio kickboxing classes 5 days a week.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: Like a crazy person, that many days, but you’d show up and if you weren’t there, someone said where were you? You know. And that’s almost like that team element. Someone recognized you weren’t there, in your spot.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: And they want to know how you’re doing and where you were and all that.
Jen Sinkler: That’s just it. You can create that team element in anything. Your kettle bell class, your Olympic lifting community. Your Crossfit. The environment we’ve created at Movement Minneapolis had that same atmosphere.
6. One strength training exercise every woman should be doing [25:21]
Diane Sanfilippo: I think that’s really fun. So, ok, let’s see. If you had to pick one strength training exercise that every woman should be doing, what would it be?
Jen Sinkler: Oh man.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: I hate picking one!
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} I don’t like playing favorites, either.
Jen Sinkler: I know, it’s too hard! One of each. I guess it would be a tossup between the squat and the deadlift, but probably the deadlift, since women tend to be more quad dominant, and squats can kind of play into that. So, let’s involve the posterior chain and about every muscle in the body, and go with deadlift.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, I like that. I’m super quadzilla over here.
Jen Sinkler: Me too.
Diane Sanfilippo: So, I could probably be deadlifting more. Ok, alright. I’m going to quick fire these as much as possible.
Jen Sinkler: Ok.
7. Are my squats good enough[26:06]
Diane Sanfilippo: For those of us with less than ideal mobility who cannot squat without leaning forward, do I have to care? What? I can tell I’m working my posterior chain the next day. Are my squats good enough? Wait, what? Oh, so she’s leaning forward in her squat.
Jen Sinkler: yeah, she’s wondering about hip and ankle mobility, it sounds like. I am not a Gumby either. I have some clients who come in, after years of working a desk job, who aren’t super mobile either, and the short answer is yes, your squats are fine. You will get there. Continue squatting the way you can so eventually you will be able to squat the way you can’t yet. I would add in though some hip mobility and ankle mobility drills to sort of hasten the process. But for now, don’t worry. Everybody gets super worried about am I doing this perfectly? And really, there is no perfect form. There’s only perfect form for you.
8. What do you recommend for those new to strength training? [27:11]
Diane Sanfilippo: Interesting. I like that. Ok, so for the newbies. The new strength trainees, what do you recommend they focus on to keep it simple, and this person also says you are super. I love all your cool moves.
Jen Sinkler: Well thank you!
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m going to add to that, I love your cool outfits!
Jen Sinkler: {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: I think you guys are super, too. Ok, so I would stick to the six categories; the hinge, the squat, the push, the pull, the twist, and the carry. So, in the hinge category, for things like kettle bell swings and deadlifts, you want to add one of those to your workouts. Squats, for the newbie, I would start with goblet squats, because they tend to help also with that lean forward thing that our last question asker asked about, it helps keep a more upright torso. Especially in the beginning, goblet squats are a really good way to learn good form. As far as pushes go, I start people, with how many people come in having worked desk jobs for a billion years, and they’ve got the internally rotated shoulders, the hunched forward shoulders, I usually start them, see how they do with pushups, and see how they do when it comes to overhead presses, a bottoms up press. A bottoms up press is where the bottom of the kettle bell is facing the ceiling, and you’re gripping the handle and pressing it upwards. So what happens is, the kettle bell is a little bit more out in front of you than it would be in a straight up overhead press, so it’s a little bit easier on the shoulders. I like to make sure that we’re cool on the shoulders, especially for newbies, at least up front I want to make sure there are no shoulder issues. I don’t want to be exacerbating something that’s sort of latent and that hasn’t come to the surface because they haven’t tried to do any sort of aggressive weight lifting. The pull, I do a lot of rows. Mike Robertson, who is a really fantastic trainer, says that we should be doing twice as many rows as pushes, or twice as many pulls as pushes, and I agree with that. Again, due to our culture, due to the computer and the arms rolled forward, we want to do a lot of rows, a lot of pull ups. The fifth category twist. Now, twist doesn’t always mean your rotating. It can also mean anti-rotation. And this is a big one for core strength. We don’t do a lot of rotation or anti-rotation. Again, we get stuck in this sagittal plane mindset, everything is back and forth, and it can be really useful for our bodies. I’ve seen anti-rotation and rotation exercises solve a lot of back pain issues. And then the last category, I like to have my clients do some form of carry. And that can be a farmer’s carry, racked carry, waiter's carry. What carries do that is so great is they sort of switch on these low back stabilizer muscles in way that nothing else really can. I always just build it right into the warm up. As part of the warm, I have people do farmer’s walks, like laps of farmer’s walks. It just is a back pain prevention measure. But carrying, heavy carries are useful.
Diane Sanfilippo: So, that’s really funny and now I’m not going to complain about dessert anymore. We have dessert sometimes at the gym.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Which is not like paleo cookies.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s like a farmer carry or an overhead carry.
Jen Sinkler: Ooh.
Diane Sanfilippo: Or, you know, a dumbbell carry with no hook gripping. {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: Ooh, yummy!
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. We definitely when it’s warm out probably at least a couple of times a week, and it’s always like, why are we doing this? {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: That’s why.
Diane Sanfilippo: Sometimes, I’m sure they’ve told us, but you know, when you’re just like, really, I have to pick this up right now? I don’t hear anything except, go, and you know. Whatever happens.
Jen Sinkler: Well, I have a lot of my clients that are like, farmers walks! And so I’ll build in pinch farmer’s walks too, because, if you’ve ever lost any sort of lift, like a deadlift, or if you have to come off the bar because your hands are so tired.
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.
Jen Sinkler: I have them do plate pinch carries.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Jen Sinkler: So, you pinch two plates together.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: with your fingertips pointing straight down, and that can help improve grip strength and do what we’re trying to do here with the low back stabilizer muscles.
Diane Sanfilippo: I love it. I think that’s cool. Definitely, so you had 6 categories of movement, and in Lift Weights Faster, I know that a lot of the workouts are kind of combining lots of different types of movements.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Do you want to tell people quickly how, if they’re new, what they’re going to find in Lift Weights Faster. How that’s going to translate and kind of help keep them doing what they should be doing?
9. [31:41]
Jen Sinkler: Yeah. So, you’re not going to find 6 neat and tidy categories in every single workout. But if you’re cycling through any of the workouts, you’re going to start recognizing these 6 categories in most workouts, these different movement patterns are going to crop up. Because that variability is what’s going to keep your whole body strong.
Diane Sanfilippo: Cool, I love that. And I love what you said from that one reference, I don’t remember his name, but about rowing twice as much.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Pulling twice as much as you push.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: Because when I first started training with a personal trainer, you know, many years ago. I seriously, am not kidding, I felt like all I did was row.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: I was like, seriously? I’m on this thing again!?
Jen Sinkler: {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: Not a rowing machine, I think I was just with weight.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: And just doing a million different ways. I’m doing cobras on a ball. I’m doing all these things that are rowing. Because I was at a desk all the time, and I still kind of sit more than I wish I did.
Jen Sinkler: Oh, don’t we all.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I think that’s pretty amazing. Awesome. Ok, let’s see.
Jen Sinkler: That’s a good experience. That’s lucky. A lot of trainers.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh.
Jen Sinkler: You end up doing push, push, push, push.
Diane Sanfilippo: No, he was a really fantastic trainer, and I’ve sent so many people to him.
Jen Sinkler: Is this your San Francisco we’re talking about?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. His name is Dave Engen. I think he’s opening up a gym pretty soon. That takes quite some time in San Francisco. He’s an awesome dude. Just, all around awesome. Ok, let’s see. So, building on the idea of the different types of moves people are doing, how should people organize their workouts kind of over the course of the week?
9. how should people organize their workouts kind of over the course of the week? [33:16]
Jen Sinkler: That’s a great question. And the answer, I’m sorry to say, is it depends. It depends on you and your body and how you react to exercise and how your recovery is, your sleep, your stress, your nutrition. But generally speaking, I have my clients do 2 to 4 sort of straight strength sessions, the sort of strict strength sessions a week. I usually work in supersets; so we’ll say 3 supersets per strength session, and then I’ll have them finish it off with a Lift Weights Faster workout. A pretty short one, because I don’t want to undo everything we just did, as far as tucker them out completely, because I want them to be able to bounce back quickly and train again. So I would say 2 to 4 strict strength sessions, try to say that 5 times fast; strict strength sessions.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: A week, 2 to 3 conditioning sessions, and you can either tack those on to the end of your strength sessions, or if you want to go on off lifting days, you can do some of the 20 minute versions or 30 minute versions in Lift Weights Faster, and then I say to do as many leisure walks as you like, and really try to keep your non-exercise activity, thermogenesis, high. And that means just stay active. If you’re on the phone, walk around while you’re on the phone. If you can get out for a 10-minute walk after lunch, do that. Because that really adds up, too.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I think it’s something important to keep in mind for the folks who go to a Crossfit gym, and you were saying kind of early on, there’s good ones and not so good ones.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think that a lot of times over the years, some of them will develop divergent programs where there are different avenues to go down, and figure out which is going to work for you at the time, and I think that’s a really good way to kind of monitor yourself and see what’s working for you. But I think if you’re in a gym where, here’s the workout of the day, and you’re not getting to chose that, necessarily.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: I personally {laughs} I personally don’t love the classroom setting where they don’t tell you the workout ahead of time. Now, if you’re listening, and your coach is like, we don’t tell people because there are cherry-pickers, or whatever. That’s that person’s problem, from my perspective. I think if you show up for personal training.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: You don’t have to know what you’re coming in to. Your trainer is going to work with you, one on one. But I don’t love when you don’t know the workout ahead of time because I think you have to mentally, sometimes nutritionally, prepare for what you’re getting into, and I think it’s important to know what you’re showing up for so that you can know what you’re going to give that day.
Jen Sinkler: I could not agree more.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. Because for me, I know Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at my gym are strength, and there is usually some kind of shortish MetCon.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: But I also know that if I can’t really do a MetCon that day, so the Lift Weights Faster part, if I can’t really do that that day, I can look at it and just see like, well, it’s not that I’m going to sandbag my workout. I’m not going to just not go hard. But if I didn’t sleep well, or I didn’t eat well, but I want to strength train, I don’t get that privilege of going hard for 8 minutes. I have to really monitor myself. And I do think it’s a really hard thing for people to figure out when they haven’t been training for a while.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: They’re new. And sometimes I love that Crossfit excites people and gets them in the gym, but I think this element of the personalization of it; I think it’s something that people are missing a lot. So, I love that we’re kind of able to teach people a little bit of it today, how to listen to their body a little bit more.
Jen Sinkler: It’s so important. One of the last Crossfit workouts I ever did was, I showed up, and it turned out to be a dummy workout.
Diane Sanfilippo: What does that mean?
Jen Sinkler: Like, the one that they posted on the website.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, stop!
Jen Sinkler: They were like, just kidding, we’re doing a 10K! And I was like, no, bye! {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: I would totally do that. I would be like, yeah I’m not going to do that.
Jen Sinkler: I know that my body doesn’t react well to that. If you are able to do that and your joints hold up and running feels great to you, fantastic. But that is not the case for me.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I’m like, I’ll do a 5K. I feel alright with that.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah. I’ll do a 1K.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’ll do a 1K. I’ll do half a K.
Jen Sinkler: {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} We have some really interesting questions in here, but I just want to detail on this topic, because I know I’ve had a bunch of folks asking questions on my page, and this is a question I get a lot. About people who are dealing with different health conditions. And I’m curious how you handle this at your gym. I tell people in Practical Paleo that if they’re dealing with autoimmunity; basically, if they’re dealing with a flare up of it, especially, you know, if they’re in remission, I don’t like for people to consider themselves sick if they’re symptoms are in remission, but Crossfit can be extreme. Some of the different training methodologies can be extreme, and I talk about Crossfit a lot because a lot of our listeners, that’s what they’re doing.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Or that’s what they thing is the best thing to do, which I don’t think that, even though I do it, I think it’s great, but I think there’s a million things to do {laughs}. How do you handle when somebody wants to train, but you know that their overall stress level in their body is pretty high, and I know you guys, you know, with the launch of Lift Weights Faster you felt what that might be for some people who have a high stress job, or maybe a health condition, but what do you recommend for people and what do you end up doing with them at the gym to kind of just not have a beat down, but really build up with system a bit?
10. How to handle training in someone with high life stress [38:46]
Jen Sinkler: Yeah. Holy smokes, that’s a great question. I always say that if your life stress is high, your exercise stress needs to be low. And I fully believe that. Because our bodies do not recognize the difference between various stresses. It can be life oriented, like relationship or work, or it could be physical stress, like the stuff your doing in the gym, but if you’re just piling on yourself, that’s going to catch up to you. So the first thing I do, when my clients come in, is ask how their day was. Because I want to get kind of the lay of the land. And I course correct in real time with them. I’ll be like, ok, instead of that Lift Weights Faster workout, we’re going to do a primal workout, or happy baby time! You know, we’re rolling around on the floor, maybe a little bit of crawling.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Jen Sinkler: And then they still leave the way I want them to leave, and that’s feeling better than they did when they came in. The goal is for them to say, oh yeah, I thought I was having a bad day and now I feel great. That’s the goal. And so, if you’re training yourself, that still has to be the goal. It’s about starting to recognize, pay attention to your own intuition. This is not going super well. Those days that you go in and you’re like, I’m supposed to do triples at 85% of my squat max, and oh my god I’m so weak, why does 175 pounds feel so heavy? And that’s about; like, adjust down. Go higher volume, and drop the weight down, and pay attention to what your body is actually telling you on that day. As far as super high stress people, I try to keep the volume also fairly low. High volume can be very stressful. But again, the intuitive training model that we follow, I just do, the shortest version of the answer is, I do what tests well for them. I have them test every single exercise all the time anyway, so if something doesn’t test well, that’s not what we’re going to do that day.
Diane Sanfilippo: Very interesting. {laughs} I remember; I’m laughing at your “how was your day?” comment.
Jen Sinkler: Mmm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Because as simple as that seems, there was… {barking} Whooo! They’re having a good day!
Jen Sinkler: Yep. My little guard dogs.
Diane Sanfilippo: When I was starting Balanced Bites, originally it was a meal delivery business, and I had days where I would come into the gym to train, and the only thing I was looking forward to that day, or that week, was training a couple of times, because it was like my mental escape from all the stress of work and whatever else. And oftentimes, that’s what we’re doing. We come to the gym; we don’t want to think, you know, we just want to do whatever you tell us to do, right? I’m sure that’s plenty of your clients. But I’m pretty sure I broke down crying on more than one occasion.
Jen Sinkler: {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: And one time, this may not be what happens at your gym, but my trainer basically took me through a guided meditation. He was like, we’re going to go in this room and you’re just going to meditate.
Jen Sinkler: {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} he was like, I’m not working you out today when you’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown! And the truth is, that’s obviously not going to happen everywhere, but I think it’s such a perfect lesson for us individually, because I think about that all the time. You know, a lot of people who kind of end up following paleo, or what I teach, or go to Crossfit, or are motivated to do workouts on their own are super motivated people, but sometimes it’s almost like, to their own detriment.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: I like to remind people about that. If I haven’t’ slept well, if I haven’t eaten well, I would say at least 50-60% of the time, I opt to not even go to the gym at all.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: And either just take a walk or I’ll go, and I’ll be like, I am not at 100% today, I’ll just tell one of my coaches, be like I’m just going to do this, don’t you worry about the weight on my bar.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: Not that they do, but they know what we’re capable of.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: And they’ll just be like, hey Diane, what’s this doing?
Jen Sinkler: {laughs} That’s exactly the way we handle it.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: There was this, I can’t stop thinking about it now that you were talking about that story. There was this one executive at this company I used to work for who, he loved himself some super high intensity workouts. I mean, long duration high intensity. We’re talking, overboard by almost anyone’s standards. But he was a high stress person, and worked all the time, and he, I think, on some level, like emotionally, he’d be like, I feel good. But he was ashen colored, and he looked sickly, and we’d be like, are you sure you like your set up? I don’t know if you know what good feels like, necessarily.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I think that’s the high adrenal. People don’t recognize; sometimes, when you’re used to being so stressed, you don’t feel the return from the workout unless it’s that intense.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: But guess what happens after not much time of that?
Jen Sinkler: Yeah, the crash.
Diane Sanfilippo: You’re going to crash. I actually; I always talk about blog posts that I might write on the podcast.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: It’ll happen one day. But I talked about adrenal fatigue a lot, and recently a friend was writing a book, they were Instagraming or posting something about the stress of it. And I was like, let me send you a picture.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: I have a picture from the Crossfit games, it was maybe 3 weeks after I finished Practical Paleo and while I wrote that book, I literally felt like I was going to die.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: I went and got blood work, I was like, something is wrong with me! And it was just stress.
Jen Sinkler: yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: And I would go into the gym and I would be crying. All these things were going on! And literally, I look dead in this picture. Like my eyes; there’s nothing going on behind my eyes {laughs}.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs} Oh my gosh.
Diane Sanfilippo: Because so exhausted. People don’t realize that that can happen, and they think, we’ll I’ve always done this. And that’s what I’ve always done.
Jen Sinkler: Right. That’s what exercise feels like.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, or like, I was able to run marathons every year for the last 20, why can’t I now? Well, because you did it for the last 20. {laughs} And so now your body is like, I’m done.
Jen Sinkler: So, Lift Weights Faster was the biggest project I’ve ever undertaken, by far. And I will admit freely that I didn’t realize how many moving components there would be, especially toward the end, as far as signing off on design, on getting the website up and running, on even the sales page, and the social media posts, and the guest blogs. That was a huge one. I was literally writing for 20 to 24 hours a day, every day, for the last couple of weeks. It is the hardest I’ve ever been on my body, and as a result, I’ve had to sort of just say, you know what? I’ve got to put exercise on hold for right now, because one of the things I do during the 2 to 4 hours I’m awake right now cannot be to go bang out some sort of circuit, or lift. Even a walk sounded like too much. So, I made the call, and I did that, and now, I’ll be honest, I’m super panicky because I’m supposed to be taking my RKC 2 certification in California, not this weekend, but next weekend.
Diane Sanfilippo: No, you’re definitely not doing that.
Jen Sinkler: So now I’m like, well, I don’t know! I don’t know.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m going to tell you, this should be one of those ties where you have to reschedule.
Jen Sinkler: I know.
Diane Sanfilippo: And take whatever fee they are going to charge you to move your cert. I’ve had to do that with trips for conferences I was supposed to go to, where it was going to be like 4 intense days, I’m like, hold on. I kind of feel like I’m dying right now, so…
Jen Sinkler: {laughs} Yeah. I just keep making mistakes too. I keep learning. I keep learning about this process. Because I scheduled a celebratory trapeze class for the day after the launch.
Diane Sanfilippo: I saw those pictures.
Jen Sinkler: And it was so fun, except that as I was climbing the ladder, terrified, I was like why am I doing something stressful right now?
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Jen Sinkler: And as I’m leaning out off the platform, {laughs} it was like the reverse trust fall. I was like, I don’t! I don’t trust this! And so had a huge heart rate spike, and I was like, maybe this wasn’t the right time. Maybe I should have scheduled a spa appointment.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah! {laughs} A massage!
Jen Sinkler: Yep. Next time, I’ll know.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, and now you know. Hey, a flying trapeze is no joke. I did static trapeze for a year and a half.
Jen Sinkler: Did you?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, the first thing that got me excited about it. When I worked at Lululemon, many years ago.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm. Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: One of the managers there, I was like, she looks pretty strong. What does she do? You know.
Jen Sinkler: Yep. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: And she was an aerialist. And I was like, I want to do that! Like, what’s that. I can do pull-ups. Can I do that? {laughs} Basically found out about the circus center in San Francisco and started training there. It’s like, ok. Let me do this. So, the first time I tried flying trapeze, I was on vacation. I was like, that was amazing! It was out in the open air. And then I tried it again in the gym, and I was like, that was horribly scary, I never want to do that again.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: And I’m going to go over here on the bar that just hangs amongst nothing.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} So I did static trapeze. But, yeah. Flying is exhilarating but also completely nerve wracking. I saw you said something about how climbing the ladder was the most stressful part.
Jen Sinkler: Oh, it totally was.
Diane Sanfilippo: Absolutely. It’s horrible.
Jen Sinkler: The transition from the top of the ladder onto the platform is what really got me.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: I was like, wait. I was splayed out on my belly {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Jen Sinkler: Trying to crawl up. I was like, I don’t know, I don’t know. What if I fall right at that moment? I think some trust issues were revealed on this day.
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s hilarious. I’m picturing the whole thing.
Jen Sinkler: {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: Alright.
Jen Sinkler: David said, you’re usually really athletic. So I’m aware of what it looked like.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, but you’ve just added height to something. I mean, have you done flying trapeze before?
Jen Sinkler: No.
Diane Sanfilippo: Right, so it’s like.
Jen Sinkler: You can’t be athletic when you're terrified! Come on!
Diane Sanfilippo: No. And that’s just something like, nobody’s really done that. It’s not like, hey take this different ball than your used to and throw it. It’s like, no, hang on to this thing and fly across. It’s totally different.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: And were your knees bruised the next day, behind them?
Jen Sinkler: David said his were. But, no mine weren’t.
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s cause his legs probably aren’t as strong as yours in the back?
Jen Sinkler: Yeah, that’s why.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m just kidding. {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: Dammit. We always say in the gym, you’re first rep is your worst rep, and it’s true in anything. It’s not just true in the gym. And I like to make my first rep as ugly as possible.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. My Mulligan! That one’s not going to be good. Especially a snatch. Alright, so, let’s just do a few more questions here. I think we’ve got, 10 or so more minutes, and lots of questions. And you’re pretty good at powering through them. {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: Let’s go.
11. What are the minimum number of days someone needs to train to get lean and strong? [49:10]
Diane Sanfilippo: Alright. What do you think are the minimum number of days someone needs to train to get lean and strong?
Jen Sinkler: Oh, that’s another it depends answer. And it depends on how on point your diet is. Again, it depends on how stressed you how, how much your sleeping. For leanness, you’ve got to have your whole hormonal profile in balance. And, I mean generally speaking, women are able to train more often than men. We recover more quickly than men, so we can train more often than men if we want to, as long as your body holds up. I recommend my clients hit it at least 3 times a week if they really want to make changes. I would say, I guess, minimum days needed to train to get lean and strong, probably 2 to 3, somewhere in that range, but again it depends on you. Now, once you’ve built strength you can maintain your strength; women can, sorry. There’s some research that indicates that women can maintain their strength if they do a heavy lift once every 10 days.
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s so awesome!
Jen Sinkler: Right? We’re so good.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I love that. I actually; I kind of joke that my strength has been almost the same for like, 2 years now.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah!
Diane Sanfilippo: Because I want to get stronger and faster, but I’m like, I am doing a lot of things. I have to give myself a break.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: PRing some things in my life that don’t involve my back squat right now.
Jen Sinkler: Exactly.
Diane Sanfilippo: But my technique on things like a snatch, or a back squat or front squat, my technique has gotten better because I’m practicing more and more. But yeah, I’m able to maintain strength not training nearly as much as I used to. I think that’s awesome. I was going to say too, what you said about 2 or 3 days. I remember when I was kind of newer to the training thing, and newer to the heavier weight and things like that. And by heavier, I mean weight that I would never pick up myself.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: But that the trainers like, don’t take this one. That one’s not heavy enough. I would always say, that’s really heavy, and he would always say, you’re really strong. So I’m like, ok fine.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: But, the difference between two and three days, if someone can handle it stress-wise. I feel like that difference is pretty exponential.
Jen Sinkler: I do too.
Diane Sanfilippo: I know it sounds silly, obviously it’s exponential, it’s another day! But I feel like that 3 days, I don’t know if it’s just because of the frequency, or what it does maybe to the way that your whole lifestyle is working.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Like, you’re there that much more often, holding yourself accountable, maybe it keeps your nutrition on point better. I don’t know all of the things that it may touch…
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: But I remember when I went from 2 to 3 days, feeling like this is really different.
Jen Sinkler: Yep. And if I’m really honest, I prefer more frequency and shorter duration workouts.
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.
Jen Sinkler: So, most days of the week I like to try to get people doing something. So I’ve got my clients that lift 3 days a week, and I will sometimes give them homework, like Lift Weights Faster workouts outside of that, and I assign them quite a bit of just activity, like life activity, like playing with their kids and carrying dog food. We gauge progress in the gym, with one of my clients, based on how many bags of dog food she can carry easily. It’s something that she used to have to get a cart for.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Jen Sinkler: And is now, she’s like, are these the same bags? Because I can carry so many.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} That’s awesome. A couple of weeks ago, I was really exhausted and I didn’t go to the gym, I was like. My WOD for today is carrying as many kitty litter bags from the back of Target to the front as I can at once.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: I think it was only 2, but I’m pretty sure that was like 40 – 60 pounds in my arms. I’m like, this is good.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: But people were all like, can I help you? I’m like, nope, I’m good! {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: {laughs} I’m working out here!
12. What are some ways you see people adding Lift Weights Faster to what they’re doing now? [52:50]
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, this is intentional! I may look like I’m struggling, but I’m just fine. Ok, I think we have a couple of similar questions, so I want to see if you can hit a couple of these at once. How can people use, I don’t know, was this suppose to be Lift Weights Faster?
Jen Sinkler: I think it was supposed to be Lift Weights Faster.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok. So, how can people use Lift Weights Faster if they are training for endurance events at the same time? I’m going to throw in maybe if they’re a crossfitter, or if they do any kind of other activity, what are some ways you see people adding this in to what they’re doing now.
Jen Sinkler: If we’re talking about endurance athletes, like runners and triathletes, I would say go short and heavy and focus on strength. Because increasing your strength is going to increase the force that you’re able to put into the ground. You’re going to get faster if your stronger. As far as pairing up something with endurance training, I would say go short and heavy, because that’s something that you’re not getting in your training. From the 10,000 foot view, what am I not getting in my current training? And then add as necessary. And that’s the same with Crossfit. You look at your training from a 10,000 foot view, and then you say, alright what am I not getting? It might be the transverse plane activities, the rotation and anti-rotation. And so you might then pluck out some Lift Weights Faster workouts that involve a little bit more mobility, and work on those.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes, awesome. That’s exactly what my plan is, for which workouts I’m going to pick.
Jen Sinkler: Exactly.
Diane Sanfilippo: And {laughs} I like that I can cherry-pick, because I’m going to do that based on my body and my needs. And that’s ok.
Jen Sinkler: I actually have never gotten on board with the cherry-picking argument.
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s like, if something really {laughs} if it doesn’t feel good for me or whatever, I’m just not going to do it.
Jen Sinkler: yeah, why am I going to let somebody else pick what’s better.
Diane Sanfilippo: You know, I understand though that there are some folks who are kind of becoming athletes.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Like, they are really new to stuff, and it’s just not ever going to get them better to keep avoiding a back squat, or something like that.
Jen Sinkler: Oh, yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: But I think it makes sense; I think it’s really hard in the group setting where there isn’t a lot of one on one assessment and things like that. Again, some gyms are doing it better than others, to make sure that people are finding ways to move that don’t give them pain.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: Or improve what they are doing so that they don’t have pain. It’s a tough one to balance.
Jen Sinkler: it is.
Diane Sanfilippo: But I opt for personal responsibility on that front.
Jen Sinkler: Always. And in a group setting, it can be done. It’s just a little bit more work on the programmers side of things, and that’s what we do at Movement Minneapolis. We do mostly group training. Like, I have a women’s only strength group, and what we do is list 3 variations for each broader category. So, people are testing and picking within those, the best one of those 3.
Diane Sanfilippo: Right.
Jen Sinkler: So everybody is moving in a way that feels best for them.
Diane Sanfilippo: So if they’re squatting that day, some people might be front squatting, some people might be back squatting, something like that?
Jen Sinkler: Yep. Exactly. So, if somebody would come in and look, they wouldn’t necessarily know that people are doing a group workout.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: And yes, they’re doing the same workout, they are just doing different variations within it.
Diane Sanfilippo: I really like that. And, I would like to come workout at your gym. {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: Oh my god, you’re invited anytime you want!
Diane Sanfilippo: I will get there one day. I’m going to wait until the weather gets warmer.
Jen Sinkler: That’s good, because it snowed this morning.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t like cold weather.
Jen Sinkler: I’m not into it at all.
Diane Sanfilippo: People kept commenting when I would post where we were going for the Paleo Tour book signing, like, oh, come to Chicago! I’m like, no. It’s January.
Jen Sinkler: Oh!
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m just like, I don’t feel bad. I’m just going to tell you know. Because, do you think there’s a reason we go to California and Texas? {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: Absolutely. I mean, Chicago got a terrible nickname this winter, didn’t they? Chicago was so horrible this winter, what was Chicago called this winter? What was their nickname? I forget.
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t know. But I thought the whole, northeastish, maybe that includes a little bit of the Midwest.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: But, I’m pretty sure the whole country was like a polar vortex this winter. We had a mountain of snow just sitting outside. And there are no mountains where I live {laughs}, so.
Jen Sinkler: I’m not into this at all.
13. Recommendations for underweight women wanting to gain [57:01]
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok, let’s see, a couple more. I think we have a few nutrition questions, but I think they kind of go; or should we. Ok, you can do this one quickly, I’m sure. If you’ve got women who are particularly thin, maybe even underweight, and they want to put on muscle, and they’re trying to maintain it and it’s tough for them, what do you recommend? I recommend that they eat more, generally. I mean, I know that sounds weird, but I see so many people who under eat, more people who under eat than not.
Jen Sinkler: Yep. And tactical eating, too. Like, you know what, go ahead and eat before bed.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, totally. I eat before bed all the time. I do not like going to bed hungry.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah, no. And especially if you’re trying to gain weight.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m not trying to gain weight {laughing} I just mean, don’t be hungry, but yeah.
Jen Sinkler: And there’s some evidence that casein is a slower digesting protein, and you should correct me if I’m wrong, but like a cottage cheese snack before bed is going to hold you over for longer than some sort of whey protein.
Diane Sanfilippo: Actually, the casein can help you sleep.
Jen Sinkler: Bonus!
Diane Sanfilippo: I think we had a supplement when I took the Poliquin biosignature cert.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: And it was some kind of casein magnesium, who knows what else. Something like that.
Jen Sinkler: So, if you’re a hard gainer, and an ectomorph too, you’re going to want to keep your workouts shorter duration, as well. If you do really long, like doing longer workouts and more cardio is going to strip away what your trying to build. So you want to keep it short duration, high intensity.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think it’s funny because it’s almost like, people with that build tend to lean towards the stuff that perpetuates that.
Jen Sinkler: Well, and part of it is because they’re built for it.
Diane Sanfilippo: They’re built for it, yeah.
Jen Sinkler: Oh, running doesn’t hurt you, so you’re running. I get it.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. When I ran, I {laughs} This will be funny. When I ran, and did a half marathon and I was running maybe 20 to 25 miles a week, I actually had a thigh gap at one point.
Jen Sinkler: Oh my!
Diane Sanfilippo: But I also had a 6-pack, and also no period.
Jen Sinkler: Ohh.
Diane Sanfilippo: So, yeah. So there’s that
Jen Sinkler: Not the best trade off.
Diane Sanfilippo: Not the best!
Jen Sinkler: I accidentally ran 5 miles once.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: And it’s because I thought I entered a 5K.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} I just can’t.
Jen Sinkler: And I was like, why is this thing not over.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} Why am I still running?
Jen Sinkler: I know.
Diane Sanfilippo: This is not fun.
Jen Sinkler: And then I saw somebody’s shirt, and it was the same shirt I was wearing, it said 5 miles. I was like, what!?
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Jen Sinkler: It was too early in the morning. I couldn’t read.
14. How to eat while lifting to build muscle and not gain fat [1:00:05]
Diane Sanfilippo: Like, I’m done right now. What mile is this? I’m done. Yeah, I’m not built for that stuff. And it did start to transform my body you know, in goods ways in some ways for me, like, oh, look at that, that’s cool. And then realizing that that was so horrible for my body and driving me to fatigue. Ok, so, let’s quickly hit on some nutrition stuff and then we’ll quickly wrap folks up with anything else that you want to talk about for Lift Weights Faster. So, about eating and lifting to build muscle without gaining fat. This is probably the number one question we might both get {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: Definitely. And my answer; I’ll go first and then I’ll let you take it from there and get more in depth, but my answer is you’re probably eating too big of a surplus if you’re gaining a ton of fat when you’re trying to gain muscle. You just need a little bit of a surplus. And other people have luck eating to maintenance, they’re maintenance calories. As long as their nutrition is on point and they’re lifting hard enough, then they’re good.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I think one thing that happens, especially with women in the beginning when they’re lifting, is that kind of before they figure out how to eat better, or just the time it might take to have the metabolism shift happen is that you might start to build muscle before you lose the fat, and that’s like a little bit of an uncomfortable place.
Jen Sinkler: yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: Which is why I think, I mean we’re talking about women for the most part, because I think a lot of our listeners are women, but they might lose some body fat at first when they start training or changing their diet. And then they hit the point where they’re not {laughs} losing as much fat, and it looks like they’re getting bigger, but it’s really just, as the muscles kind of build a little bit, and the body fat hasn’t come down yet, and I do think what you said, I think sometimes we’re just overeating.
Jen Sinkler: Right.
Diane Sanfilippo: As much as it’s easy for people to under eat, for especially women if you’re feeling like your body is sensitive to that shift. I’m one of those people where I can way easily overeat, and my body will react to it up to a certain point. I think I have a set point that I don’t really go above, just naturally.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: But, I’ll get to that point if I’m not paying attention at all to really what I’m eating and I don’t need as much as I have on my plate for satiety, and even to maintain muscle. I’ve talked about this before, but let’s just use an example of, it’s really easy to eat 8 ounces of ground beef, I think. If you cook up a pound of ground beef, and you split that with your husband, that’s really easy to eat, I think. I don’t think, I don’t know how many people would argue with that. But, a couple of ounces per meal that you might eat beyond what you need for satiety and for maintenance really can add up over time. And I’m not about cutting calories and counting and all that, but I think there are a lot of people out there that can benefit from, over a small period of time, checking out what they’re eating portion wise. And this is stuff that I talk about in the Eat Better Faster companion for Lift Weights Faster is portion size. There are ranges, and women can eat anywhere from 4-8 ounces of protein in a meal for example, but figuring out what you need for satiety, and again it’s not about cutting, but it’s about saying, well is 6 ounces what I really need for satiety, and I was eating 8 because it tasted good and I liked it.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: And I made this delicious thing, because that’s how I’ll eat, so I’m saying it because I know it can happen. Or, if you’re not eating enough protein. It’s generally going to be the protein that people
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think people are pretty good at figuring out the fat and the carbs as we go over time and not adding too much fat, but adding enough, and you can figure all that out as you go through the portion sizes that I give you in the book, but I do think that the protein is the one place where, if we modulate that a little bit, you’ll find that you don’t need as much as you thought, especially when it’s whole, real protein. It can be highly satiating. That’s kind of the thing that I would check out. And I do think that if you’re curious about what’s going in, and you’re not going to become neurotic about it; for me, it actually makes me feel calmer about my nutrition, to track what I’m eating for a few weeks at a time. For me. I’m like, ok. I know exactly what went in. I’m not sitting here like, ugh. {laughs} Why do I feel weird. I’m like, well, I didn’t eat this, and I didn’t eat this. For me that’s fine. But I think for some people, if it makes them too neurotic, to just go with some basic portion sizes.
Jen Sinkler: I think at the heart of what you’re saying is something that I completely agree with. If you feel like you have control over your destiny, you’re going to be happier and calmer about it. And so it’s like,
Diane Sanfilippo: that was eloquent. Thank you.
Jen Sinkler: That’s what you said, though!
Diane Sanfilippo: But I didn’t say it in such a great way.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s the nice thing about having friends here who are good with words. Liz is good with words, too.
Jen Sinkler: Well, I’m just saying what you’re saying.
Diane Sanfilippo: No, that’s true! Oh, ok, that’s it. I thought there was more.
Jen Sinkler: I think there was more, and then I got shy and forgot what I was going to say.
Diane Sanfilippo: And I was all New Jersey and talking over you, and that’s just how we are. You just have to shout louder, I’m sorry!
Jen Sinkler: {laughs} I will, I will.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, that is true. When you feel like you know what you’re doing, and this is the path. So, let’s see. Do you have 5 more minutes?
Jen Sinkler: Yeah!
15. How to get the metabolism going when you’ve hit a plateau [1:05:11]
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok, cool. So, I know we’ve had tons and tons of questions about this, I’m curious your take. When someone feels like they’ve hit a plateau. They feel like they’re doing everything right, what do you think is a good way. People always say, get my metabolism going, or boost my metabolism, or shake things up. What do you usually do for that kind of situation?
Jen Sinkler: Well, the body is so smart. It’s so smart, and so adaptable, and it adapts to what we’re doing. So, chances are, if you’ve plateaued, then you need to do something different. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s a magic answer. It’s not like, oh, obviously you’re not doing this one thing and this is what you’re supposed to do. It’s that you should be doing anything different than what you’re doing. If you’ve been eating tiny portions, and not eating much, you probably need to eat a little more. Or, if you’ve been training all the time, huge long training sessions, you need to dial that back. Or, if you’ve just been training a little bit, you should amp that up. Basically, look at what you are doing, look at what you have done, and try to change one thing. Change one thing, and see if that gets things moving again.
Diane Sanfilippo: I love that. I think when it comes to nutrition, in terms of eating real food. I don’t generally ever have a, you know, I think eating real food works for everyone.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: And I think that sometimes, people can hit a plateau when it comes to nutrition. I’ve had clients who, on paper, I’m like, you are doing everything right. So if this is what you are really doing, I think you need to just hang out a little bit. I think when it comes to nutrition, your body has to believe you, sometimes.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: Versus the fitness, like you said, we adapt to it. Whereas nutrition, I feel like we a lot of times get into these nutritional deficits, and your body is not reacting to what you’ve done today. It’s almost why I think maybe the people who do a one cheat meal or a cheat day, whatever they call it..
Jen Sinkler: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: And this is actually what {laughs} when you and I first “met” it was because you asked me about the ideas of cheat meals, I think for experience life.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah!
Diane Sanfilippo: Like, years ago.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: So while I think that can be a weird a think, I’m like, eh, I don’t really like the idea of it. I think that because your body almost is like, that’s just a blip on the radar, and is more interested in the 80-90% of what you’re doing
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Than the 10%, whereas with exercise, I almost think, yeah what you’re doing consistently matters, but when what you’re doing consistently is no longer evoking change, you have to change something with that.
Jen Sinkler: Yep.
Diane Sanfilippo: Because it’s like, ok, you’re good at that. {laughs} Next.
Jen Sinkler: That’s why I like lifting so much. Because it’s really tough to get super efficient. Especially when you’ve got so many variables to play with. Intensity, density, volume. Add more weight to the bar, do it faster, or do an extra round.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes! I love lifting weights.
Jen Sinkler: Yeah, it’s so great. It’s really easier to get more efficient at aerobic exercise. And that’s why, when you’re playing with those factors with those aerobic exercise, it’s like, you just end up going longer, and longer, and longer, and at some point, you’re like, this is going to last how many hours?
Diane Sanfilippo: Definitely. Why don’t you tell me, and then we’ll just wrap it up with these. There’s like a million questions, and we just can’t get to them all. Maybe we’ll just have to do this again one day!
Jen Sinkler: I would love it!
16. Peri- and postmenopausal strength training tips [1:08:36]
Diane Sanfilippo: Quick tips for women who are listening who are kind of either peri or postmenopausal who are interested in strength training. How does age factor in and kind of enter the picture, and what are some tips you can give them?
Jen Sinkler: Well, I’ll say that my clients range in age from 21 to 66 and all of them have done the workouts in Lift Weights Faster, and all of them are able to do them with great success. I tried to make the exercises and make the workouts as accessible as possible, and as scalable as possible. As I said earlier, if anything ever feels like too much ,it probably is, and so just scale back. If something feels crappy, don’t do it. And that answer applies across the board. As far as I understand, hormonally, in postmenopausal women, you may do better with shorter duration workouts than longer duration workouts. It’s just different cortisol management that comes with that territory.
17. Jen’s favorite reason why she loves lifting weights [1:09:45]
Diane Sanfilippo: I like that. Ok, so you’re favorite reason, and then we’ll close out. You’re favorite reason why you love lifting weights.
Jen Sinkler: I love how capable it makes me feel. Capable and confident, and I think it’s that sort of physical strength seeps into every other aspect of your life.
Diane Sanfilippo: I like it.
Jen Sinkler: Thanks. I had brunch with one of my clients and her daughter the other day, her adult daughter, and her daughter said; she’s 64, I believe, and her daughter said, you’ve just been really different since you’ve started lifting weights a year ago. You’re just calmer, and more confident. And that personality change, that comes up again, and again, and again. Like, oh my god, my whole life is different now.
Diane Sanfilippo: Isn’t that amazing?
Jen Sinkler: it is amazing. And I love spreading the gospel of lifting weights because of things like that. Because it makes your whole life better.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} My favorite thing about lifting weights is that you can do it, obviously, in such a short amount of time, and the whole secret to better hormonal balance when it comes to exercise is doing, not in a bad way, but doing as little as possible to get the results you want. Because that’s exactly the point of lifting weights faster, or the point of strength training, is that we do things that deliver results without spending 3 hours in the gym, and that’s not only better for your life, but your stress levels.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: And, to get that positive hormonal response. Now, if you want to be a gym rat and just hang out…
Jen Sinkler: That’s nice, too.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’ve definitely had my moments. {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: The gym is a happy place.
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s a fun place to be.
Jen Sinkler: If you go to the right gym, it’s a third place.
18. Final word on Lift Weights Faster and Eat Better Faster [1:11:32]
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. Alright, so why don’t you just kind of wrap up and let folks know anything else they should know about Lift Weights Faster and I’ll kind of give people a few more insights into Eat Better Faster and we’ll kind of wrap up from there.
Jen Sinkler: So, Lift Weights Faster is 130 workouts that anyone can do anytime and anywhere, broken up into 6 categories. The categories are bodyweight workouts, and we have over 20 of those, minimal equipment or travel workouts, and that takes a pair of Valslides and a resistance band, and you can travel with those easily, so they’re great for people on the go, over 20 of those, 15+ dumbbell workouts, so, again, you could do those in just about any hotel gym workout, so that’s already half of the workouts included that you could do just about anywhere. And then you’ve got 25+ kettle bell workouts, 15+barbell workouts, and then over 20 full gym workouts, and that assumes you’ve got access to all the toys in the gym. And they’re all categorized, not only by those pieces of equipment, but also by the time that they take. So we’ve got 10 minutes or less, 20 minutes or less, or 30 minutes or less. It’s just a really easy to access resource, so you know what you’ve got access to for equipment and you know how much time you have, so you flip straight to that section and you pick a workout that you want to do.
Diane Sanfilippo: I am really excited, because I’ll be away for about a week, and I’m pretty sure at least one of the hotels I’ll be in has a gym.
Jen Sinkler: Perfect.
Diane Sanfilippo: So I am going to guess, obviously I’ll be able to do bodyweight, I’ll probably be able to do dumbbell workouts. I’m not sure about the rest of it.
Jen Sinkler: Do you have a pair of Valslides yet? I’ll send you a pair of Valslides.
Diane Sanfilippo: No.
Jen Sinkler: You need one.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Those seem awesome. I saw them in one of your videos. They pack up, and they’re light. Right.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, so I’m like, I could definitely check these out. Because making up my own workout; I’ll do 2 or 3 movements, and I’m like, ok. I’m done. I can’t.
Jen Sinkler: I know.
Diane Sanfilippo: That might be ok, but if I just have dumbbells, my creativity is a heavy, single arm dumbbell snatch. Like, that’s it.
Jen Sinkler: I know. Sometimes it’s nice to have a prescribed workout. Like, this is what it’s supposed to be.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. I will totally do whatever you’ve written. I’m like, yes, I’ll do that.
Jen Sinkler: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: Alright, let me tell people what’s in Eat Better Faster, because I only made this program because you invited me to come add the nutritional components. So I was super excited and honored. I’ve got over 55 recipes, so if you’ve got my books, it’s going to be a combination of recipes that are from my entire library of recipes, so if you only have one book, you’re going to get a dabbling of recipes that you probably have never seen. They are specifically chosen to be really fast ones, obviously. So, recipes that are basically under 10 minutes, under 20 minutes, and some of them might be a little bit longer, but they might be slow cooker, and things like that. I’m giving you 10 of my top quick prep meals, so just stuff you can throw together any weeknight. I’ve got 20 no-cook options, so you’re just basically putting things together, protein carbs and fat, things you can keep on hand that you don’t have to cook at all. And tips for when to eat and what to eat when. This is probably one of the biggest components of Eat Better Faster was that I sat down and wrote out what I do with my athletes who I counsel. So, if we’re talking about the age-old question of what do I eat pre and post workout, and I put up a blog post on this last week, and essentially I’m directing you to the guide. Because, what I do for pre and post workout nutrition is not a one-size fits all answer, and it depends. So, it depends on a lot of factors, like what time of day are you working out. If it’s in the morning when you’re waking up, if it’s in the evening when you’re going to bed, when you’re eating your meals, all that kind of stuff. So, it really requires that you answer some questions along the way to then figure out what you’re doing. And a couple of meal plans, for fat lass or for athletic performance. And they’re not always mutually exclusive, but just kind of for the different targets. I think that’s pretty much it. Tons of information. Lots of those one page guides that y’all love so much, just kind of in one place. It was really fun to put that together. So I want to say thanks for inviting me on board.
Jen Sinkler: I could not have been more excited that you said yes to this. I think it absolutely changed the game on what this product turned out to be. And so many people opted for Eat Better Faster in addition to Lift Weights Faster, and I don’t blame them. David and I actually printed, you became a binder full of woman in our house.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: We already have both of your books, but we wanted to add to that, so we printed off everything that is part of Eat Better Faster. And that’s how we’re going to eat for a while.
Diane Sanfilippo: I love it.
Jen Sinkler: I mean, we always stick pretty close to paleo, and we cook out of your cookbooks a lot.
Diane Sanfilippo: I know.
Jen Sinkler: I want to follow the rules. I want to see what happens.
Diane Sanfilippo: I love it. And just like in Practical Paleo, how I’ve got advice for fat loss and athletic performance, I’ve kind of got that stuff modified and reiterated a little bit in the guide, so I know people have always asked me about printing this stuff out. This is your chance.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: This is how you can get it in a printer friendly format. A bunch of the recipes that now you can print out. Everything has a photo. Really easy to access. And I know, printing out meal plans, that’s one of the things that people are always asking about. And, we are working on some shopping lists for them. It’s a little complicated, because apparently I wrote “options” in for people, and my teams like, Diane, we can’t write a shopping list if you gave them 3 options, because {laughs}
Jen Sinkler: {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: That makes it really hard, but make sure that you sign up for the emailing list for Eat Better Faster to make sure that you get those updates. You’ll see the link to that right within the guide. We’re working on some special stuff. If you’re interested in all of this, if you’re interested in Lift Weights Faster, there’s a link right on the sidebar of BalancedBites.com, and at this moment Eat Better Faster is only available as part of Lift Weights Faster, but we’re working on something.
Jen Sinkler: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: So if you’re like, you know, glad you guys talked about fitness for an hour, but it’s just not going to be for me.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s fine. You know, I want to make everything accessible to everyone, so Eat Better Faster we will find a way to get that available to you guys if that’s kind of where you want to keep your focus. So kind of stay tuned for that. I’ll definitely mention it on upcoming podcasts when we do have something ready for everyone. Thank you so much.
Jen Sinkler: Oh my gosh, thank you so much.
Diane Sanfilippo: For hanging out with me.
Jen Sinkler: It’s been so fun. Let’s do this again.
Diane Sanfilippo: I can’t wait for your packages to arrive!
Jen Sinkler: Oh my god, I can’t either. I’m already excited.
Diane Sanfilippo: Alright, we’ll I’m going to wait until you Facebook about it or Instagram, because I sent Jen. I’ll tell you guys next week on the podcast, or in a couple of weeks, I’ll tell you what I sent her, but I sent her two very different packages, and I’m excited to see her reaction. So, anyway.
Jen Sinkler: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s it for this week. Be sure to hop on over to iTunes and leave us a review. It helps other folks who are searching for something to listen to who are commuting, or at their desk, or just kind of walking around. It helps them find a fun, interesting new podcast in health and wellness, that would be us, at Balanced Bites. So, until next week, you can find me, Diane, at http://blog.balancedbites.com/. You can find Liz, who wasn’t with us today, at realfoodliz.com. And you all can find Jen Sinkler at jensinkler.com or liftweightsfaster.com to find out more information about the guides. We’ll see you next week. Thanks so much.
Cheers!
Diane & Liz