Latest / The Body Pod / From Frustrated to Free: How Karen Lost 15 Pounds and Reclaimed Her Health After 40

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From Frustrated to Free: How Karen Lost 15 Pounds and Reclaimed Her Health After 40 · The Body Pod

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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, This is Haley and I'm Lara and welcome
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Speaker 1: to the Body Pod. All right, Karen, I'm so excited
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Speaker 1: to chat with you today. I feel so privileged to
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Speaker 1: have watched this incredible journey unfold over. I don't know
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Speaker 1: how long has it been, now a year longer?
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Speaker 2: I actually I think I found you in September, so
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Speaker 2: it's under a year. Yeah. I've been working at trying
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Speaker 2: to get results for over a year, but it wasn't
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Speaker 2: until I found your program that in September. It was
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Speaker 2: September I found Nutrition Happens.
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Speaker 1: Oh, I love this, Okay, So I asked you to
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Speaker 1: come on for this to share your story because it
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Speaker 1: is been so profound and impactful for not only me
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Speaker 1: to hear, but other members in these groups of mine
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Speaker 1: that you've been in. Can you share a little bit
1:01
Speaker 1: of your history and kind of where you were when
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Speaker 1: you I guess found me in September.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely so, and again, thank you so much for having me.
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Speaker 2: I feel honored as well. So I come from a
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Speaker 2: background of being extremely physically active. You know, from a
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Speaker 2: young age, I played soccer, gained a lot of weight
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Speaker 2: right before I turned thirty, got really heavy, got someone
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Speaker 2: to help me lost weight, maintained for ten years a
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Speaker 2: great maintenance level, active lifestyle, great nutrition. Hit forty and boom,
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Speaker 2: I hit a brick wall. And I am a growth
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Speaker 2: mindset person, like I grab every book, I listened to
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Speaker 2: every podcast, and it's really hard to get through all
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Speaker 2: the noise. So what happened was is I was trying
1:54
Speaker 2: to learn what I needed to do, and I just
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Speaker 2: couldn't find the right person to help me figure out
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Speaker 2: because I steadily started gaining like just I would say
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Speaker 2: by the time I was I'm going to be fifty
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Speaker 2: this month, and from forty to fifty, I gained a
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Speaker 2: good thirty pounds and I had lost that much. I
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Speaker 2: had lost forty pounds from twenty nine to thirty or
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Speaker 2: you know around that area. I never wanted to go
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Speaker 2: back there never. I mean, I've done triathlons, I'd done marathons,
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Speaker 2: I worked out at the gym, you know, tried the
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Speaker 2: cardio thing. It wasn't working. Like I've done everything and
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Speaker 2: nothing was working. Fast forward, somebody had recommended Stacy Simms's
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Speaker 2: book to me, probably like a year or two ago. Whatever.
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Speaker 2: I you know, I lost my sister in twenty twenty one,
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Speaker 2: that was like the climax of my weight loss. I
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Speaker 2: think I just ate my way through grief. So by
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Speaker 2: that time, I like pretty much had just given up.
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Speaker 2: I was like, nothing's working. Well, I hate my life,
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Speaker 2: you know, I'm just gonna eat my way through everything.
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Speaker 2: Then I got so uncomfortable. I was like, I can't
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Speaker 2: I can't do this. I have to do something Stacy
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Speaker 2: Sims book still didn't know how to apply it. I
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Speaker 2: decided I'm going to get my Fitness Pal. I'm going
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Speaker 2: to start entering my food on my own and see
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Speaker 2: what I'm eating. Well that was great, but then I
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Speaker 2: didn't know what numbers to use. You know, like I
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Speaker 2: knew how to enter food and track food, but I
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Speaker 2: didn't know what my calorie target was. I didn't know
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Speaker 2: how to figure any of it out. I honestly don't
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Speaker 2: remember the specific moment I was like, I'm getting Nutrition Happens.
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Speaker 2: But I saw you. I think with Stacy Sims on Instagram,
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Speaker 2: you must have been marketing really well for Nutrition Happens.
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Speaker 2: Because it hooked me. Something hooked me. I've always been
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Speaker 2: the type of person that looks for education, Like I
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Speaker 2: don't want someone to just say, like, here's like a
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Speaker 2: cookie cutter thing. Do this because I actually tried that
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Speaker 2: and didn't work. I wanted to know how to maintain
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Speaker 2: good physical health because my dad had a lot of
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Speaker 2: health problems. Rest his soul. He passed away in November,
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Speaker 2: but he pushed through a lot of diabetes, amputation, heart problems.
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Speaker 2: He is my why. And my goal was longevity, like
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Speaker 2: whatever you want to call it, Like let's let's go
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Speaker 2: peacefully and quietly at the end of my time. Yes,
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Speaker 2: but I want to be able to walk. And I
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Speaker 2: had to watch My father was a strong, determined person,
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Speaker 2: but I had to watch him struggle physically and it
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Speaker 2: really it was hard for me. And I decided when
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Speaker 2: I found out he had a hard condition in my
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Speaker 2: late twenties, I wasn't going to let that happen to me.
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Speaker 2: You know what can I do to prevent this? So
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Speaker 2: I said to my husband, this is the last ounce
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Speaker 2: of money I am spending. I stopped all supplements. I
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Speaker 2: was like, I'm done with this. I'm not gonna like,
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Speaker 2: I'm not drinking vinegar anymore. Whatever I was doing, I'm like,
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Speaker 2: I said to my husband, you know what, I'm trying
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Speaker 2: one more thing, one more thing, and if it doesn't work,
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Speaker 2: forget it. Like I'll just eat healthy, I'll eat whole
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Speaker 2: foods and I'll just hope for the best. I signed
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Speaker 2: up for Nutrition Happens and it was like, first of all,
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Speaker 2: the way you lay out the modules that speaks to
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Speaker 2: my soul, like just every special guest you had. It
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Speaker 2: was easy for me to absorb the information. And I'm
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Speaker 2: not a trainer. I don't want to be a trainer,
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Speaker 2: you know, I just want knowledge And that was it.
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Speaker 2: I was so like plugged in because it made sense
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Speaker 2: to me and it was what I was looking for.
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Speaker 2: And I knew that okay this, if this doesn't work,
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Speaker 2: nothing's gonna work. So it was towards the end of
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Speaker 2: Nutrition Happens where you gave out the macros for shred
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Speaker 2: it was brilliant, I think to separate the nutrition from
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Speaker 2: the fitness. I literally did not do any exercise when
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Speaker 2: I was doing Nutrition Happens. I just got my little binder,
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Speaker 2: I printed out your materials. I have my little checklist. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: I love it, and I went yeah, I went through
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Speaker 2: it and it was like common sense. But there's so
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Speaker 2: much noise everywhere that like you don't know what yeah
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Speaker 2: to believe. So I when I got my number, shred happened.
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Speaker 2: Started got the I had your app and everything, and
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Speaker 2: I knew I couldn't for me, I can't work out
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Speaker 2: at home, like I need to get to the gym. Actually,
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Speaker 2: I did CrossFit for two years before I started you
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Speaker 2: which I love the people, but I was trying something new.
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Speaker 2: I had never done it, and I was said, let's
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Speaker 2: do something different. My husband and I did it together
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Speaker 2: and I love the I love them and I love
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Speaker 2: that gym. But I actually had to quit the membership
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Speaker 2: because it was I can't maintain a group schedule. So
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Speaker 2: that helped me find everything else whatever. But it the
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Speaker 2: workouts were exactly what I was looking for, you know.
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Speaker 2: I wanted to be at the gym. I wanted to
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Speaker 2: have something that said like do this for this many rounds.
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Speaker 2: There's a little video, there's this, there's that, and it
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Speaker 2: makes it easy. And I had the numbers. The numbers
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Speaker 2: are the magic. I was like, oh my god, I
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Speaker 2: got numbers. I can do, you know, loss or maintenance.
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Speaker 2: And I'm like the minute I plugged into the deficit,
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Speaker 2: it was like the clouds, you know, disappeared from the sky.
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Speaker 2: The sun came out and it was on like I
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Speaker 2: was consistently dropping like nothing had worked. And I think
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Speaker 2: it was it's his name, Tony BOUTEI bagi.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, like the way.
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Speaker 2: He speaks is. I really like his style of communicating
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Speaker 2: the information because he keeps it simple. And the deficit
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Speaker 2: really sunk in with me and I realized I had
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Speaker 2: been totally overeating, totally overeating. I was trying to change percentages.
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Speaker 2: I wasn't looking at grams. Oh, let's do more car
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Speaker 2: Let's just you know, I wasn't looking at the calorie deficit.
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Speaker 2: I wasn't And then got those numbers and that was it.
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Speaker 2: It was like, I think I lost a total of
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Speaker 2: fifteen pounds from the what was it six weeks of shred?
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Speaker 1: Yeah gosh.
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Speaker 2: I also did every single workout like I was and
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Speaker 2: then the hour one like you know, we all have
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Speaker 2: twenty four hours in the day, we all have a
9:03
Speaker 2: busy schedule, but you gotta you gotta make time for
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Speaker 2: what's important. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely, and then you're in and you're in fat loss now. Yes, Okay,
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Speaker 1: So this has been quite a journey and I have
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Speaker 1: I loved when you post, well, I just love when
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Speaker 1: you post in general, because you are a storyteller and
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Speaker 1: it's so fun and just emotional to hear some of
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Speaker 1: your stories and how you write your great you're fantastic
9:32
Speaker 1: writer too, but you can really like you can feel
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Speaker 1: the emotion in it and that this has been I
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Speaker 1: mean that the before and after pictures say it all.
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Speaker 1: But there's more to the story than the physical transformation
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Speaker 1: as well, and I love how you've shared some of
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Speaker 1: that with with me and with you know, within the
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Speaker 1: groups because it is a huge, uh, it's it's it's
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Speaker 1: a huge part of our identity. And while there's so
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Speaker 1: many moving parts at this time of life, your story
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Speaker 1: is so familiar to lots of women that feel like
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Speaker 1: they're just at this end point of why do I
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Speaker 1: keep I don't want to keep trying things and just
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Speaker 1: fail fail fail. Nothing's working, nothing's working, nothing's working. So
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Speaker 1: to get results for you makes my heart sing. And
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Speaker 1: I just love that you took that. You know I
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Speaker 1: had a small part in your journey and you took
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Speaker 1: that step. I don't know what I said in the marketing.
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Speaker 2: I don't remember either.
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Speaker 1: I'm glad our paths crossed for sure.
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Speaker 2: And Bill Campbell, I love I mean when I heard
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Speaker 2: his first lecture in your program. I always look everybody up.
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Speaker 2: That's another thing I do, like, I research everybody. And
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Speaker 2: he lives near me. I mean I didn't meet him
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Speaker 2: in person, but he actually lives near me, and I
11:04
Speaker 2: emailed him and just thanked him for you know, his
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Speaker 2: what he did for us in your program. But the
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Speaker 2: one thing I do want to say, especially to your audience,
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Speaker 2: is that I firmly believe you are not alone. And
11:17
Speaker 2: knowing that you are not alone is so important. So
11:21
Speaker 2: no matter who you are, your story is important. And
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Speaker 2: I used to feel embarrassed to tell my story, but
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Speaker 2: as you get older, you don't care about what other
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Speaker 2: people think, and you'd be surprised that when you start
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Speaker 2: talking to people, you will find out you are not
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Speaker 2: alone and a lot it's not abnormal what you're going through.
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Speaker 2: And you know, when my sister died, I think it
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Speaker 2: probably took me a good three years to get out
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Speaker 2: of a depression of it. You know, I didn't speak
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Speaker 2: to anybody maybe for a year. It was tough, but
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Speaker 2: I wasn't even on Facebook, like and I still am not.
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Speaker 2: I just got in your group just to get in it.
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Speaker 2: So telling a story is important to me because that's
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Speaker 2: why I'm in the group, Like I want to share
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Speaker 2: that with people, and I want to see what other
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Speaker 2: people are saying and see other people's success. But you know,
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Speaker 2: I personally hit menopause at forty eight. I'm not ashamed
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Speaker 2: to tell the world, you know, so I also want
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Speaker 2: people to know that, like I'm post you know, at
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Speaker 2: this point, I'm just this is you know, and I'm
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Speaker 2: having success. It's possible to have success, and I know
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Speaker 2: everybody's different, but I really feel that those numbers are everything.
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Speaker 1: Yes, I mean it is so enlightening because most women
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Speaker 1: that come into the groups, they're not, you know, eating
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Speaker 1: at McDonald's twenty four to seven. They're eating pretty well.
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Speaker 1: But when we have that education, I mean, it's eye
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Speaker 1: opening for myself as well. When I first started, you know,
12:56
Speaker 1: years ago, I was like, there's no way that this,
13:00
Speaker 1: you know, the money Buddies that I just made with
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Speaker 1: seven hundred calories two cops and it's just easy to
13:09
Speaker 1: snack a little bit here, a little bit there, you know,
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Speaker 1: and then it all definitely adds up. But that is
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Speaker 1: a crucial piece of the puzzle, is that education.
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Speaker 2: Learning portions, like really learning has been enlightening for me because,
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Speaker 2: like you said, I absolutely love this group is definitely
13:28
Speaker 2: a very intelligent, higher educated group in fitness. I mean,
13:33
Speaker 2: and that's another thing I love about it, Like I
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Speaker 2: love when someone posts and they're a trainer or their
13:38
Speaker 2: runner and I'm like, okay, these are people and there's
13:41
Speaker 2: beginners too, so you know, it's a nice diverse group.
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Speaker 2: But as much as I knew about nutrition, like I
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Speaker 2: had no idea, like you said, what the content the
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Speaker 2: number the numeric content of what I was in my
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Speaker 2: body because you know what American portions are astronomical, Like
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Speaker 2: one plate at a restaurant could be your entire calorie
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Speaker 2: budget for the day. Yep.
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Speaker 1: It's it's mind blowing. And this is like why it's
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Speaker 1: so hard, especially you know, I mean, obviously we're in America,
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Speaker 1: so I always speak to America, but it is not
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Speaker 1: set up to live a lean lifestyle anywhere, and so
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Speaker 1: that's really hard. And women feel like they don't have
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Speaker 1: you know, maybe I don't have enough willpower. And it's
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Speaker 1: like everywhere you turn is a you know, pretty crappy
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Speaker 1: option most of the time. I mean, there's there's getting
14:44
Speaker 1: to be better, better options, but it's it's hard.
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Speaker 2: It's tough. It's really hard. But again going like I
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Speaker 2: can navigate we when we do like our Friday night
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Speaker 2: date night, you know, after work, and like I'll look
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Speaker 2: at the menu ahead of time, and a lot of
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Speaker 2: the menus now give a calorie content. But because and
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Speaker 2: it has taken me this long, I mean i'd say,
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Speaker 2: what half a year. It takes a while to learn,
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Speaker 2: Like I'm just now getting used to doing it sort
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Speaker 2: of without the scale, but I always check it on
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Speaker 2: the scale. But like I know now like what meets
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Speaker 2: our leaner, what carbs are better, or you know those
15:28
Speaker 2: things that have a heavier content of each macronutrient. I'm
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Speaker 2: so much more educated on. So when I go to
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Speaker 2: a restaurant, I'm like, well, I can have the bread.
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Speaker 2: I actually can if I want to, I just have
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Speaker 2: to have not two loaves of it.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and those are the This is the
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Speaker 1: conversation that I have not only in my groups with
15:52
Speaker 1: my one on one clients, where I'm like, everything is
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Speaker 1: a negotiation, just like a finance budget. It's like, okay,
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Speaker 1: you know we make these behavior or what I'm hearing
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Speaker 1: you say is you've made these changes in behavior and habits.
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Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy life and
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Speaker 1: go out to dinner. It's just picking and making different
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Speaker 1: like push pull decisions. Well, you know, I won't have
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Speaker 1: the second loaf of bread because I really want, you know,
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Speaker 1: a glass of wine, and so this balance is out.
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Speaker 1: Or I'm eating leaner throughout the day because i know
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Speaker 1: I'm going to go out to this restaurant and it's
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Speaker 1: going to be pretty calorie heavy. And it's just making
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Speaker 1: these small adjustments that doesn't have to rule your entire
16:34
Speaker 1: life and doesn't have to consume you and have all
16:36
Speaker 1: of these no no, no, no no. It's like, yes,
16:39
Speaker 1: we have to be more strict when we're in an
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Speaker 1: energy deficit, but goal is that we aren't there forever
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Speaker 1: and that you get to live this lean lifestyle and
16:48
Speaker 1: now you know, you know, you you can eyeball to
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Speaker 1: a good extent food portions and see what that is
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Speaker 1: now that you have the education for it.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely. I mean, I I wouldn't do this all the time,
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Speaker 2: but I'm not gonna lie like I will take on
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Speaker 2: a maintenance day, I'll like look at my favorite Symphony
17:08
Speaker 2: chocolate bar and I'll be like I'll take my little
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Speaker 2: calculator out, my little macro calculator. I'll be like, how
17:14
Speaker 2: much could I eat of that to fit it in
17:16
Speaker 2: my budget? Because if it fits, yeah, and it's just
17:20
Speaker 2: like one or two days a week, why not, you know,
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Speaker 2: And it doesn't ruin my goals. And I mean, I
17:26
Speaker 2: love chocolate, so I'm not giving it up.
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Speaker 1: But I'm not going, Oh my goodness.
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Speaker 2: So it has been. It's been very liberating because I
17:37
Speaker 2: will say when I was in my thirties, I had
17:42
Speaker 2: learned to eat via the blood type and various testing.
17:47
Speaker 2: Though I had an amazing trainer who changed my life,
17:50
Speaker 2: which is also what I knew once this started working,
17:55
Speaker 2: how great this was going to be because I had
17:57
Speaker 2: experienced already like losing forty pounds when I turned thirty
18:02
Speaker 2: literally changed my life, like not just my health, but
18:07
Speaker 2: my financial life, my work life, my relationship life, everything.
18:13
Speaker 2: And I didn't like feeling like I was getting back
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Speaker 2: to that place of hiding, like I didn't want to
18:19
Speaker 2: hide under everything and behind everything. But I it's liberating
18:26
Speaker 2: not to be feel restricted. So before I was enjoying
18:29
Speaker 2: it because I just got into a groove. But I
18:32
Speaker 2: literally would try to avoid certain foods, which now I
18:36
Speaker 2: don't have. I actually don't have to do that. Like
18:38
Speaker 2: I was like I was avoiding Like if the list
18:41
Speaker 2: said avoid bananas because it's not good for your blood type,
18:44
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I don't want to eat that's
18:47
Speaker 2: not necessarily so healthy. But like you know, at that time,
18:51
Speaker 2: I was very active and healthy and you know, no
18:55
Speaker 2: health problems internally, and so everything was going well. But
18:59
Speaker 2: now now it's like I'm still healthy and I I'm
19:04
Speaker 2: eating meat. I was vegetarian for over ten years.
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Speaker 1: Oh wow, I didn't know.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of layers to the story, but
19:15
Speaker 2: I forgot about that. So I didn't touch animal protein
19:18
Speaker 2: and not because I was, you know, against it, just
19:22
Speaker 2: when I learned via the blood type way, you know,
19:27
Speaker 2: it says Type a's are supposed to be vegetarian. So
19:30
Speaker 2: I was like, well, this is working for me, so
19:32
Speaker 2: why am I gonna mess with it? So when I
19:35
Speaker 2: started your program, like and my friends know all about
19:38
Speaker 2: like my fitness history and everything, they were like, you're
19:42
Speaker 2: eating bacon, You're eating red meat, you know, Like I
19:48
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe I was eating it. I was like,
19:50
Speaker 2: I love the fact now that I could go out
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Speaker 2: to the restaurant and order a steak and not feel
19:56
Speaker 2: like it's gonna be detrimental.
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Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, liberating. I love this, Karen, Thank you so
20:04
Speaker 1: much for sharing your story. I love these and women
20:08
Speaker 1: love them, and I know this is going to help
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Speaker 1: so many women and they're going to see and hear
20:14
Speaker 1: themselves and what you're saying, because well, so many women have.
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Speaker 1: While our stories are different, there's so many similarities that
20:23
Speaker 1: we all face at this age. So thank you for
20:27
Speaker 1: taking the time to share this. Thank you for trusting
20:30
Speaker 1: in me, and thank you for really showing up and
20:32
Speaker 1: doing the work well.
20:34
Speaker 2: Thank you for being you and sharing your gifts with
20:38
Speaker 2: the world.
20:40
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
20:41
Speaker 2: If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a
20:44
Speaker 2: five star review and sharing the body Pod with your friends.
20:49
Speaker 1: Until next time,