Latest / Cameron's Conversations: The last weight loss podcast you'll ever need. / Episode 33: Lainey's weight loss journey, falling in love with fitness and navigating perimenopause
Transcript
- Cameron Cummings: Hey guys, and welcome to Cameron's Conversation podcast. So today I'm here with Lainey, the newest coach in Sorted in Six as well. So we're gonna do a little bit of a chat through her coaching journey and also her own kind of like weight loss fitness journey too. So no pressure Lainey, because we're gonna do little bit of an interview type set up as well. But talk us through kind of where you started with your kind of like fitness journey and nutrition journey from the very, very start. Lainey Lisborg: Okay well I mean I think I speak for a lot of people of my ripe old age of 45 that we had quite a messed up upbringing in terms of nutrition and the diets that our mums were on and but I was thinking about this the other day and I think my issues with my body first started when we were having a physical with the nurse at school. and there were a couple of girls, we were going into a room to be weighed and have our measurements taken. There were these two girls that bullied me all year, but they were sitting there and every girl that came out, they're going, how much did you weigh? How much did you weigh? And especially to the bigger girls. it was just, it was really horrible. But I think, yeah, 11 years old, that sort of awareness began. And then, yeah, I hated PE. I was in America for my teens, was all basketball and baseball in the Florida Heat which were very difficult but I was just never very good at any of it, always last picked on the team. So yeah, was never, I wasn't overweight but I just wasn't the fittest person in the world. Anyway, then I had my daughter at 22, long story short, I put on a lot of weight. I put on about four stone when I was pregnant with her and after I literally just started getting into the gym just before I got pregnant. Cameron Cummings: Yeah. Lainey Lisborg: And then from then on, it was very much trying all the different diet fads, trying the keto, cutting out the carbs, things like that. And it wasn't until my actual fitness journey, my proper one, that actually started at 41. I was like, right, I've had enough of this. I'd actually had long COVID for 18 months. And it was getting to the point where I was just pretty much just eating vegetables, desperately trying to lose weight. And anytime I try and exercise, I get really dizzy and I'd have a relapse. And ⁓ I'd been following a few sort of influencers on fitness and stuff. And there was one lady who stuck out that I just thought, I want that, I want that. And so I started with this online coach. I did pay a grand upfront though, which yeah, which is something we definitely do. It was a big commitment and I didn't have the money and, but I really did stick at it. Cameron Cummings: ⁓ wow, that's a big commitment out the gate. Yeah, that is a big commitment out the gate. Lainey Lisborg: and looking at where online coaching is now. You don't want that to be a barrier for people becoming their best selves. But that said, the journey was fantastic. And I was terrified of the carbs. The calories they gave me were like 1750 to start with. And I just thought, well, that's not going to work because my fitness pal says 1200. So one size fits all. and eat carbs, but the carbs were a game changer. So I think the dizziness that I thought was the remnants of long COVID was actually the fact that I wasn't eating carbs. And it took me like maybe a couple of weeks and I just started, I was cured basically. It was like, just learning that correlation between, so I lost about 16 pounds in 14 weeks. And then I did a photo shoot. Cameron Cummings: Thank you. Lainey Lisborg: my muscle was coming through, like what little I had at the time, but obviously it's slower to build it in a calorie deficit. But I really fell in love with the process of strength training and what that did for my mental health more than anything. But also that maintaining the physique. And it's funny because when I joined you guys, you call the one-to-one Project U and I always referred to it as Project Me. So the planets were aligned, I think. Cameron Cummings: It's funny isn't it? Yeah absolutely. No, I love that. Lainey Lisborg: yeah. Cameron Cummings: That's really cool. I think something you touched on there that's really important as well is like the impact of really restrictive diets. And I don't just mean like being in calorie deficit, but when you cut out large swathes of food groups and sometimes what comes along with that is actually the way you feel isn't great at all. I think this is the thing is that sometimes people kind of feel like, mean, you've got a perfect example where you thought you had long COVID at the back end. And actually it was maybe just the fact that you're trying to do like basically what's a ketogenic diet or really low carb. there's all these impacts when you're like super restrictive with certain food groups, it can have an impact in the same way that I had a client who got given some very strange advice about not having any fruit and veg because that was causing them to gain fat. Not sure where that came from, but I remember then just saying like how run down they felt after like a few months and we're like, okay, well let's go in a different direction. And funnily enough, they ate some fruit and since they were actually getting, you know, some vitamins for a change for the first time, probably, I mean, was like coaching a pirate, I kept joking that they'd have scurvy or something like that from like Lainey Lisborg: Yeah. Hmm. Cameron Cummings: 1800s at this rate, but we kept joking about it, but actually they felt so much better for it. And I think that's a really cool thing to touch on as well. It's like, mean, carbs are obviously different from like micronutrients in your fruit, but there's an impact sometimes with these incredibly restrictive approaches as well. And actually a lot of the time it just leaves you feeling a bit shit. And then that makes it harder to diet in the first place. Cause if your energy levels are in the toilet all the time, sticking to calorie deficits have been harder than it would have been otherwise. Like if you're always knackered because you're super restrictive in some ways. So that's a really cool story as well. And it's quite an interesting one too. And really cool that you kind of came into it, did online coaching and had such a like transformational journey as well. I absolutely love that. Lainey Lisborg: think one of the things that always put me off the fitness was I thought that you had to do loads of cardio. Like I dabbled with running in the past, I'd done the odds, know, race for life and things like that, but I never sort of kept it up. And I thought, ⁓ strength training, maybe that won't make me run. That looks easy. It's not easy. But also, obviously, after getting over the long COVID, a couple of years down the line, then it was like, ⁓ Cameron Cummings: Yes. Lainey Lisborg: I have some perimenopause symptoms now, you know, but it has really helped me with that, especially in terms of my testosterone levels are fine, my oestrogen's fine. But learning about the hormonal factors too has been huge. Yeah, so like HIIT and things like that, I hate HIIT. But it might be someone else's jam and that's okay. But I don't feel like feeling like I'm dying and actually in perimenopause, you've got to really monitor those cortisol levels. Cameron Cummings: Yeah. Lainey Lisborg: ⁓ because that can really have ⁓ an adverse effect on your journey as well if you're on a fat loss journey too and your recovery. Cameron Cummings: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's a nice point as well as like sometimes it's about, to A, about finding something you enjoy when it comes to exercise, which is quite important, but B, it's also about like, I mean, there's nothing wrong with it and I think there's a place for it. And I do think that some people have you really enjoy that. I mean, it's not my bag at all, but then I also play a sport that's really intensive and lots of sprinting and cardio and stuff. it's not, you know, it's in essence very similar in terms of what you'll feel and what you get from it. But actual hip training in a gym doesn't appeal to me, but I think it's really, really important that like you can absolutely do Lainey Lisborg: Yeah. Cameron Cummings: what you enjoy but there's also got to be a balance of something doesn't have to run you into the ground to be effective and I think that's probably like a good point to kind of like touch on there because sometimes with HIIT it's like people have this association of like ⁓ well it gets me really sweaty and I feel absolutely knackered afterwards and it's like that's not a bad thing there's definitely a place for hard training for sure and it could be really really good to push yourself but I don't think that every session you do every single week needs to be like that and I think sometimes we have more capacity than and other times for that as well. So kind of what you're talking about perimenopause as well, like especially if you're juggling a lot, if you've got like family, kids, busy work and you're feeling quite run down anyway, there's got to be a little bit of balance. Maybe hitting a hit session four times a week isn't the smartest thing to do. It might be a little bit better to do something that's a little bit less impactful that you can recover from and maybe do it once a week. So you get to do something you enjoy, but it's in a bit of balance as well. Cause I do think you think sometimes with exercise that can be, as you said, with the cardio, I think there can be a real balance. Lainey Lisborg: Mm. Cameron Cummings: towards doing so much that leaves you run down rather than kind of like coming at a gym session and be like, ⁓ worked hard, but I feel really good. It's almost like everything has to absolutely smash you to pieces. And of course your tolerance and perimenopause is a little bit lower potentially to that. Everyone's different, of course, but for most people, sleep's not great, et cetera. It's quite hard to train like that, recover well and feel good. You can feel run down or if you're hammering hours of cardio, cause you feel like you need to. Different if you love running, but if you don't feel like you, Lainey Lisborg: Mm-hmm. Cameron Cummings: you need to do it, that's a very different kind of scenario. But yeah, I love that. And what were they kind of like, this is, I kind of threw this out to Harry the other day as well, because it's always fun to do this. What were the mistakes you made along the way? What were like some of the more daft things you did with nutrition? And maybe some of the more like just things you got wrong? Because I was like finding out like there's always something strange, like Harry did bulletproof coffee. You know, do you remember that? was like the butter in the coffee. Yeah, not such a weight loss strategy after all, as he found out. But like, this is a perfect example. Lainey Lisborg: Ooh, yes, yeah. Cameron Cummings: Talk us through some of that as well. Lainey Lisborg: ⁓ my god, I've done everything. I mean the shakes, the shakes were a big one. Watching my mum have them. But I mean when I was a teenager, was watching my mum go on these diets and she was like, if my mum's watching this, mummy, don't feel bad, it wasn't your fault. Everything was done with love, but I had these body issues and she said you wanna join the diet with me and I would have a shake that was 60 calories in the morning. Or I'd just have one pop tart for breakfast and then I'd have. Cameron Cummings: Thank you. Lainey Lisborg: chips for lunch just a little bit. So just restricting ridiculously. I've got an amazing book from 1982, Encyclopedia of Swimming Diets. I'm going to do a series on it for reals because it's hilarious. But there's even the Champagne and Grapefruit Diet, which I did try. Cameron Cummings: Love it. Absolutely love it. I can see how that one sold to be fair. I feel like that one has some legs to it in terms of branding, doesn't it? Yeah, you can kind of see like some things like you wonder, you like the cabbage diet. But I'm like, really, did that ever appeal to anyone? But the champagne and grapes, I have some clients now that I think would be tempted by that one to be fair, Lainey, so. Lainey Lisborg: Yeah. Yeah, there's no protein and you must make sure you drink the whole bottle in the day. There's a little preface at the beginning of the diet that has the author saying, my good friend in Paris told me about this one and whoever felt depressed about their weight after drinking a bottle of bubbly. Cameron Cummings: Important, very important. Well, Ringo, that says it all, doesn't it? You're too drunk to care. Maybe that's a good strategy. I feel like a lot people could sign up to that one, so... Lainey Lisborg: you Yeah. Cameron Cummings: I no, I love that. And what other kind of things would you say, like, kind of, you've done that maybe you tried, thought would work and didn't. But any other things that you kind of tried? Lainey Lisborg: ⁓ I would definitely say the ⁓ burning off calories mentality, looking at how many calories on your watch that you've burnt in an exercise and then my fitness pal adjusting it saying hey you can eat more but that's literally like if you have a glass of water you drink half of it because you've burned off those calories and then you eat more so you fill it back up you're not going to lose weight. ⁓ So disconnect those smart watches guys. from your Y Fitness pal. Cameron Cummings: Definitely. I think that's it's always a common question. We often get that in sorted in six actually probably I mean this is the first week in sorted in six and be surprised if that question doesn't come up at least a few times and it's always that like can I eat back the active calories I have and I think that for 99 % of people the answer is going to be no to that because the sort of linear heart rate a sort of tracking or algorithm that they use isn't particularly accurate particularly for something like strength training it's incredible. Lainey Lisborg: Yeah. Hmm. Cameron Cummings: because it's just based on heart rate and a kind of an equation for what strength training should burn based on your body weight. But of course, everyone's strength training intensity looks different. The movements they do look different. There's a big difference between me doing my probably 15 year old ⁓ sort of bicep curl session that I would do with 10 different bicep curl variations, all the important stuff. And someone doing like squats, dead lifts, chin ups, it would be very, different in terms of expenditure. But also, when it even comes to the stuff like running and cycling, which it is more accurate for, there's still serious limitations. All you have to do is, if you have a Garmin or an Apple Watch, get that and then look at your Strava and look at the difference between them. I often find it was a 25 to 30 % variance. That's a lot of calories. If you go for a 10K run, that can be a difference of 200, 250 calories. And if you've overeaten by 250, you ain't making much progress with weight loss. yeah, absolutely. I think that's a really cool one to kind of talk about some of the things that you've done and experienced as well. Lainey Lisborg: and Cameron Cummings: terms of your goals now, and obviously your mindset of shift because you've lost that big chunk of weight initially, you've gotten into shape, how do you think about your fitness now and in the long term? Because I think that's something that we often talk about, it's like, look at someone's journey, but where's your head at now with fitness and nutrition? What are the things that you look to do day to day, week to week, but also what are your longer term goals as well, apart from obviously leg press more than all of the guys in sorted and sex, all the other coaches? But you're probably already there, so that's not even a goal at this point. Lainey Lisborg: Yeah. I think very much for me it's a way of life now. It's very much my mental health. It has been just incredible, but my confidence. mean, my longest term goal is to spread the word and debunk all these myths for sure and help people do the same because, you know, I'm nothing special. I'm a bit of a stickler for rules and I do like to follow. routine, you know when I've got something like that I'm quite hyper focused on it but having you know it just goes to show it doesn't have to be that complicated I think. So yeah I mean I tend to I mean there have been people at the gym suggesting I compete in bodybuilding and stuff like that and I did think about it at one point but nah I'm okay with that because it really does mess with your hormones women can lose their cycle and I've got enough going on with my hormones at the moment anyway. I tend to do photo shoots every now and then as an act of self-love so I'll build for a while. It's not crazy bulk or anything. I normally do it in maintenance or just above. I just really love the process of learning that direct correlation between your nutrition and a body that you can build. You literally can build a body of your dreams based on how you move it and what you eat. Knowing that you can enjoy food and and be in control rather than, know, of course every now and then I eat a bit of shit and that's normal and that's life. I do go to social occasions. I have found that my relationship with alcohol has completely changed. You know, back in, when I was in my thirties, my partner and I would have, you know, probably a couple of glasses of wine a night and now I can barely touch it. And that's probably because of the effect I know it has on my training. And that is my sort of big outlet. But I think also you do metabolise it differently. As you get into perimenopause too, can raise your cortisol levels. That anxiety can creep in. It's just not worth it for me. The will's there to have half a bottle of, or a whole bottle of champagne on a day. But literally I can get through just one glass. And I think for me it's very much being a great example for my daughter as well, who's at uni and... Cameron Cummings: Yeah, think. ⁓ Lainey Lisborg: She's growing up with social media and everything like that. It's very toxic. She's quite good at the way she moderates that. And just being healthy and having strong bones later in life. So my father-in-law was 94 and he's had a hip hop last year and he's got the war child diet and there's hardly any protein in that. Yeah, so that's, I don't know, was our very long answer. Cameron Cummings: No, it's a good answer because I think it's always good to talk about the what's next because I think sometimes for so many people because they've been such a yo-yo cycle of dieting, it's very hard to see past that thing. It's like you get to your weight loss goal and it's like, I don't know, you ride off into the sunset or something like that. a lot of people don't even know what they would do when they get there. They're like, well... what would I do when I don't have to lose weight? But I think it's quite nice to touch on. And it's interesting what you said about alcohol. I think that's quite a common thing. I often wonder as well, I don't know if it's a as we get older thing ⁓ as well, but also I find for a lot of clients when there's something to discussion about with a client the other day about this is because you feel so much happier and more confident in yourself, you also sometimes don't feel the need to drink and you also probably feel more comfortable not drinking. There are things like you say, the next day the way you feel, you're training, fitness, that's part of it. And definitely in perimenopause, have lot of clients who say the same as like, you know, a glass of wine, I was speaking to one of my clients who used to love wine and it has just stopped drinking at all now because it makes her feel awful the next day, even if she has a glass or so and it's just, she's back in the menopause now, but she was sort of saying that that for her, it's no longer like worth it because she feels truly awful afterwards. But I also sometimes think when your confidence sits higher, you're happier, you find other ways of enjoying your life as well because alcohol is obviously quite a social thing as And I do think like you start going to the gym you do other things like your priority shift a little bit But also what you enjoy shifts a little bit as well And I think that can be quite interesting is like maybe people are less tempted by it because they don't need it as the social Loosener that at once was as well It's not to say that you have to be team portal and I know lots of clients who still drink maybe drink a little bit less and lots of coaches are the same but it's quite interesting to hear that but no that's really really cool and I think we just wanted to do a little bit of a get an understanding of what your kind of journey has been as well for the guys who are just coming into Sorted in six as well so they can have a little listen back and find out all about Lainey and her champagne and grapes diet which to be honest I still think might be the way to go as well but thank you very much for listening guys thank you Lainey for coming on as well and if you guys are interested in one-to-one coaching then you can check out the show notes and there's a link for one-to-one coaching there or my whatsapp number if you want to ping me any questions or suggestions for future episodes thanks for listening Lainey Lisborg: Ha Okay.