Latest / HER / Women are Striving for Big not Small

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Women are Striving for Big not Small · HER

0:07
Pam Peeke (Host): Hi, I'm Dr.
0:08
Pam Peeke.
0:09
Oh boy, and this is episode number 566, whole lot of talking, of
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the Bold and BraveHER podcast.
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Now, today I'm joined by a repeat offender.
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That's right, she's been here before, but you can't get enough of her.
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And who am I talking about?
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One of my besties on so many different levels, and this is Colleen Conlon.
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Now, some of you, of course, who understand kettlebell will obviously
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understand she's up there on Mount Olympus, and I'll explain.
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Colleen's a kettlebell expert, two-time, hello, two-time Guinness World Record
0:53
holder, and that is in the Turkish get-up.
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you ever wanna torture yourself and your entire body, try to do just
1:02
one Turkish get-up without weight.
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How about, you know what I'm saying, with weight?
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You're holding a kettlebell.
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Ow.
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Okay.
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Well, she, she became the two-time Guinness World Record holder for her age.
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And, she's all about women's empowerment through fitness, which is where it's at.
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So she's started her career out at awesome gyms, including Equinox,
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I know about that one, and is the author of Kettlebell Catalyst.
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Host also of the Dangerous Women podcast I've been honored to be on, and founder
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of the Phoenix Flex supplement line.
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Woo-wee.
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Okay.
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All I can say is she's one very strong woman.
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Colleen, welcome back to the HER podcast
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Colleen Conlon: Thank you so much for having me, and happy birthday to you.
1:59
Pam Peeke (Host): I know.
2:00
Oh my God, it's my birthday.
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You know, it's like, here I am celebrating with all of you.
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So, I have you back on, Colleen, for a number of reasons, and we're
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gonna be weaving in your past, you know, accomplishments as we
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kind of approach this whole topic.
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But I shared with you a really cool article, and it was about a woman
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who was like, uh-oh, she's gonna get married, and then she's gonna
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do that weird thing, which is starve herself into her wedding dress.
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And it's just like, ugh, there's gotta be another way.
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Well, there is.
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And that is that somewhere along the line, this woman, whose goal was to get small…
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You know, our- as women, how many times are we told to just get
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smaller and smaller and smaller?
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Little, little fragile things, And, I failed that epically.
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and just a little small.
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And so she tried to do that.
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She went to a gym.
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She starved herself.
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Nothing was happening.
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Certainly nothing that was really gonna move the needle.
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And then she had a moment.
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And the moment was, "Hmm.
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Instead of getting smaller, what if I got bigger?"
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and bigger meaning bulking up, getting some muscle going on, changing her body.
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And that article just went viral.
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It's like, well, well, wait a minute, you're supposed
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to be a little small person.
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So what did you think when you read this article and you sort of saw
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her take off in that direction?
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Colleen Conlon: I mean, I personally love that.
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You know, for me, I, I'm an eating disorder survivor.
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So I struggled with an eating disorder starting at age 11 into my early 20s.
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And then it took 10 years after that to realize, you know, just doing all of the
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cardio, the detoxes, the diets, all of the things that most people would deem as
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like a normal, healthy way to get small, it just, it, it wasn't gonna work for me.
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And that's when I decided to, to do a bulk myself.
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So anytime that I see a woman who's open to trying a bulk and doing something
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that I think a lot of women would deem as very brave, it's just something
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that I have so much admiration for.
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Because as women, we're taught small, small, small, so to do something
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completely opposite is kind of rebellious, and I, I love a dangerous woman.
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So I was psyched to, to see that that being the topic of the article
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Pam Peeke (Host): what was your moment when you d- just said, "I'm
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done with the eating disorder.
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I'm done with trying to be like super tiny and whatever and back and forth," and you
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decided to pivot in a major way and, and go to the whole muscle and fitness thing?
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Colleen Conlon: Well, I would say that all, it all happened
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over the course of years.
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So the eating disorder, I, I went to college and the main thing that I was
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struggling with in my teens was bulimia.
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And I was a musical theater major, so having to sing at the rate
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that I was singing in college, I just couldn't keep up with that.
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So I looked for different things to do instead, and I was always just, like,
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moving so much, I tried everything from diet pills to laxatives to having
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days where I wasn't eating anything.
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And eventually I just got to the point where I was like,
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"I can't do this anymore.
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I'm exhausted."
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And that's when I started considering trying things like going paleo and,
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you know, I went vegan at one point.
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I tried keto and I started to get hooked on, all these different
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boutique fitness classes.
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And I was gaining more weight and I was like, "Okay, I guess this
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is just what happens in your 20s."
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Like I, I'm at the age where I, it, it's inevitable.
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And then I found the kettlebell and without changing anything
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to my diet, my body just started to change naturally on its own.
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And I mean, I attribute that to newbie gains 'cause I had never lifted before.
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So my body was, receiving this stimulus that it just wasn't used to.
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And that worked for a while.
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And then the pandemic hit and I wasn't as active.
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I started to gain weight and I was really upset about it 'cause I
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was like, "I don't know what else I'm supposed to do at this point."
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And that's when I hired a registered dietician, and that's
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when I learned how macros work.
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And she helped me go into a cut.
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And at this point, I had been out of my eating disorder days for about a decade.
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And after going into this cut with her, I was very small, but I was also
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very strong and it was probably the first time that I had a healthier
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relationship between exercise, and food.
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And I remember this was a very pivotal moment, Pam.
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I was about to be intimate with my partner and I put on this really
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beautiful lingerie and it was a size extra small And as I pull up
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my bottoms, they just fall off.
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And in that moment, I realized I am too small.
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I can't stay this way.
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I wanna have some curves on my body.
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I wanna have muscle.
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I want definition.
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How do I do this?
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And I realized I needed to go into a bulk.
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If I'm gonna build this muscle…
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And I'm not new to lifting anymore.
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I've been doing this now for close to seven years.
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I'm gonna have to do something that I see the bodybuilder women doing, and
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I'm gonna have to trust the process.
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And that's what I did.
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So I went into a six-month bulk.
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I gained 30 pounds, and it was one of the best seasons of my life.
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It was the first time that I really got to eat a lot of food and my boobs got bigger,
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my butt got bigger, and I really felt like a woman in my body for the first time.
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And then when I went into the cut, it was 20 weeks under the supervision of
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this registered dietician that I had had a relationship with for years.
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And, oh my gosh, I, I got shredded.
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And the definition I saw on my legs and my abs and my butt, like nothing
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was falling off my hips anymore.
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And to have those curves but still be like so lean, I was just like,
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"I feel like a freaking jungle cat.
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I'm like an, like an animal.
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This is the coolest thing in the world."
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In my head, I'm just like, "This is what I always wanted," but I
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didn't know h- how do you get this.
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Like, for me, even growing up, you know, I think there was a part
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of me that was like, "Oh, I want skinny," but I want skinny and abs.
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I want skinny and definition.
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I want skinny and like defined arms.
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But again, it's like they don't teach you how to do this.
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And like bulking was never something I was familiar with growing up, but it really…
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Pam Peeke (Host): Define bulking for people who haven't heard that term
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Colleen Conlon: Yeah.
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Bulk- bulking is intentionally gaining weight.
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The, the intention is to build muscle, but it's inevitable you're going
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to gain some fat if you are eating in a calorie surplus to an extent.
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And at the rate at which I was going, yeah, I mean, I, I, I
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gained 30 pounds on the scale.
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And then it took 20 weeks to drop the body fat, you see a version of
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me that's like 120 pounds and not a whole lot of definition, and then 150
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pounds and thick and not tight and, you know, there's a bunch of stuff like…
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No, it doesn't look muscular at all.
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Not in the bulk.
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The bulk, the bulk doesn't look like I lift.
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It looks like I'm overweight.
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And then when you see the cut, it's like, "Oh my gosh,
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girlfriend is
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Pam Peeke (Host): so it's a, it's a two-step thing.
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So it's, bulking up by building the muscle and obviously some fat comes
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with it, and then you cut after that.
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What does the cut mean?
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Colleen Conlon: The cut means you go into a fat loss phase.
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So in the surplus, your goal is to build muscle.
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And in order to build muscle, you need to be eating enough.
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And for me, I wanted to build as much as I could in a
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relatively short period of time.
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And because I wasn't new to lifting, the rate at which I was going to
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build was gonna be different than somebody who was brand new to lifting.
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So we decided I would go for however long it took to gain about 30 pounds
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'cause I wanted to do one fat loss phase.
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And we knew I could only be in a calorie deficit for X amount of time
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before, you know, that's too long.
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Like, nobody should live in a calorie deficit as, like, a lifestyle.
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So I spent 20 weeks, which was, like, a long time to be in a diet phase.
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I spent 20 weeks gradually cutting calories to get rid of the body fat.
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But gradually, I was putting on weight to help build the muscle.
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'Cause it's not just a matter of eating more to build muscle.
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It's not just enough to lift heavy enough weights in that eight to 12
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hypertrophy rep range to build muscle.
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You need the combination of the two.
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So I took a very strategic approach to build the muscle, knowing that body fat
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would come along with this, and then knowing I'm gonna have 20 weeks to cut
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this fat and get the body that I really want to live in, and that's what I did.
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It was
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amazing
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Pam Peeke (Host): That's one iteration of, of how you can do it.
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and you did it obviously very successfully, and you maintain tremendous
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strength to be able to, do that Guinness Book, World Record in the Turkish get-up.
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there's another interesting new sort of resurgence, within our
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field, in the fitness field right now, and it's called recomposition.
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So you start with whatever body composition you have, you know,
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whatever your baseline is.
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You could be fairly fit or you could be like way off, whatever, it doesn't matter.
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And then in recomposition, it's, basically a slower version of what you did.
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Yours was, you know, a very, assertive, you know, iteration of
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changing up your body composition.
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Body recomposition is basically not having a caloric deficit any more than
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300 calories per day, which is under the radar of the cells that would get all
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bent out of shape and make you feel hungry and deprived and all the rest of it.
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300 is all you're allowed.
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Now, this is for a woman, not a man, obviously.
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And then slowly but surely, and we all know that fat comes off
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with nutrition in a big way.
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Nutrition is absolutely essential to address when you're
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dropping, excess body fat.
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So there you are, and with a deficit like that while you're also lifting
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and building muscle, you know, the, the whole, you know, goal is to be
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able to, optimize muscle over time.
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And with women, it doesn't happen overnight, as we're well aware.
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And then to, minimize, excess fat.
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We obviously need fat, but minimize excess fat.
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So for a fitness professional like yourself, what you did is very
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common among, high-level elite, fitness professionals, which is
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what I would consider you to be.
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And, if you go to, Colleen's website, which is Colleen Conlon,
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and that's C-O-N-L-O-N.com,
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you'll understand in about two seconds, yeah, she's, she's up there.
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She's, got a phenomenal physique, beautifully, toned and muscular, fit.
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And at the same time, very, very beautiful and, appropriate so
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it's not like overly, overly.
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I remember when I was at the, Ms.
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Olympia, I was actually working with one of the, the women, Mari
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Oksanen, who was from Finland, who was impossibly beautiful.
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She was the only person on stage who did not use steroids.
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and so she was smooth in her legs and her upper body was, was unbelievable.
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But she was just extremely fortunate.
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And I remember, you know, sitting back and looking at those physiques,
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the other physiques, this is when Cory Everson was ruling, the Ms.
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Olympia and it-- they, they just looked freakish, totally freakish.
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So wipe that out of your mind when it comes to this whole issue of redoing your
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body composition and recomposing yourself.
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there are just very straightforward, healthy ways of doing this
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and your body will, you know, definitely, thank you for it.
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What's it like once you had done your bulk and cut to sustain your success, Colleen?
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Colleen Conlon: Mm-hmm.
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It was great.
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so I, I still work with a dietician, and we went into a, a reverse diet phase.
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so after we did the bulk, I was eating close to 3,000 calories a day, and
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then we took several weeks to find my new maintenance calories, which was,
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I wanna say we got around somewhere 23 to 2,400 I was maintaining weight.
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So then gradually over the course of 20 weeks, we slowly began to cut calories.
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The final two weeks I got down to 1,400 calories.
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That's not 1,400 calories over the course of 20 weeks.
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Gradually, the final two weeks we went that low.
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So, then it took about three months to build my calories back up to 2,300 while
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maintaining the weight that I dropped.
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And again, just like cutting the calories gradually, we gradually,
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week by week or every couple of weeks, slowly started to increase them.
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And once I got to maintenance calories, it was just a matter of you gotta just, like,
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keep showing up for yourself, continue to train four times a week, continue to
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hit your steps, continue to prioritize your sleep, continue to hit your macros.
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Like, it's just a matter of you need to adopt the lifestyle.
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It's not been a free-for-all.
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It's, it's maintaining.
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And for me, it's been really successful because I never thought of this as, I'm
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gonna do it and then I throw in the towel.
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I love lifting.
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I love how I feel when I get enough protein and enough fiber, but there's
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still room to enjoy something like a chocolate croissant in the morning.
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It's just learning how do I live to not just maintain a strong, lean,
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energized body, but how do I do this and have joy in the process?
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And a lot of it is also just a- adopting a flexible mindset.
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You know, I've had birthdays and holidays where things do get a little
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off the rail, and then you just get back on track instead of throwing in
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the towel or being like, "Oh my gosh, I ruined this, so, like, I'm just gonna
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continue to negatively spiral down."
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that had been a lesson that I had to relearn again and again
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and again, but after this last one, it finally stuck, Pam.
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And it's been incredible.
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But I think it just goes to show it's more than just the lifting program.
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It's more than just having the right food, amounts to hit.
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It's also adopting the mindset and knowing that this is just the person
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that you need to become if these are the kinds of results you want,
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not the person who's all or nothing.
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You have to become the person who has a flexible mindset.
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Pam Peeke (Host): So what do you say now, going back to this article,
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to women who say, "But you know, I just want to be like super thin and
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super, you know, skinny, a- and I want to be able to fit into whatever."
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I noticed that in Vogue Magazine, right?
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that they, have reverted back to very, very thin models, extremely thin.
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I mean, there's like three feet between their upper thigh.
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You know, it's kinda wild stuff.
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And I look at it and I go, "My God, what are they doing to sustain this
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other than smoking cigarettes all day long and starving themselves?"
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I, I just-- I- it's kinda wild.
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and I look around me and I s- sometimes I think I see two extremes.
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One is women who have just gotten obese, right?
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'Cause obesity is very ubiquitous now in the United States.
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and then I see women who are, especially young teenagers and young adults who
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are like really thin, as though they've bought the, you know, the ethos of,
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"Hey, it's so cool to be skinny."
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I mean, I think we've all heard that as we were growing up.
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We were told that it's so good to be, you know, almost a religious experience to be,
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you know, super thin and people treated you differently and all the rest of it.
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And then there's this article in The Guardian where a woman just
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discovered that, "Wait a minute, maybe I'm going the wrong direction.
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Maybe I need some muscles on board, some toning to have, you know, a body that,
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looks so much more fit and, glowing with, with fitness and the whole thing.
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Maybe, maybe that's the direction I should go."
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I think that women are lost somewhere in there.
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They're like, "Should I do this?"
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And, and then all the messages we're hearing from TikTok and, you know, all
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the social media, and also from guys who say, "Oh, I like them really small and
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kind of fragile like little flowers."
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You know, I wanna s- bitch slap every one of them and just say, "What the hell?"
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You know, w- if you want a flower, go to a florist.
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You know, we're human beings.
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And quite frankly, I think that women now are getting the message that strong is
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the new skinny that this is where it is.
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I look at myself and I say that I never really had a chance because
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I've always been a mesomorph, meaning that someone who tends to lean into,
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being muscular throughout the body.
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it's not like I had a big choice.
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I have 17-inch calves that I was pretty much born with, barely have
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to work out, and they're just sort of sitting there nice and strong.
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And what am I gonna do?
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I'm like, "I am muscular."
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And instead of erring on the side of, you know, being super skinny and all
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the rest of it, I am fit and strong.
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That's what I can say.
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Do you see, you know, with all your clients and the people that you work
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with within your ecosystem, Colleen, what are you hearing from them?
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Colleen Conlon: I hear a lot of people requesting to have a body
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that'll give them access to do the things that they wanna do.
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A body that's not in pain, a body that allows them to say yes to the date,
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a body that allows them to go into their closet and feel like they can
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wear whatever they want without having to change their outfit five times.
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One thing that I love getting to do with clients in the very beginning is
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building their strength, not their muscle, not going into fat loss, but you, you
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have to, you have to get strong first.
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And seeing how excited people get about realizing how capable they are, it unlocks
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something that they're not necessarily looking for in the first place.
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I, I know a lot of women want to be desired by a potential partner.
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And yeah, there are a lot of men who make it extremely clear, "I want them small.
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I want them fragile."
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But who wants to be with somebody who wants to be with
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somebody who's small and fragile?
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Who wants to be manipulated?
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Like, for me, I just see that, that as the patriarchy trying to control women.
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I think what is absolutely incredible, because I've
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been, I've been really skinny.
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I think it's incredible to build strength because then you just feel unstoppable.
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I mean, I could go, I could go rock a beautiful gown and
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knock out 10 pull-ups right now.
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It's very confusing, I think, for people to see somebody like me
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or some of the women that I work with because I'm all natural.
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I don't, I don't take anything other than creatine, and it's a very feminine body
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type that I have, but there is definition and there's an incredible amount of
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strength, and that strength comes from working with the kettlebell and developing
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type 2 fast twitch muscle fibers that allow me to do these incredible things
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that most people are very confused by because they don't train that way.
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It's the most incredible feeling to not just be something pretty to look
25:13
at, but to be something that is very powerful, and that's the thing that I try
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to share with all of my female clients who really wanna stay feminine in terms
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of their physique, but feel dangerous
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Pam Peeke (Host): Exactly.
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Dangerous is good.
25:33
What about women who say, "Well, wait a minute.
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why are you all about kettlebell when you could just do single arm dumbbells and,
25:41
you know, just use the typical weights?"
25:44
Why do you tend to go to the kettlebell place?
25:47
Colleen Conlon: I mean, personally for me, that's just how I got
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started in strength training.
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So I, I lied at a job interview and I unintentionally started
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managing a kettlebell studio.
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And the trainers that I was working with, they were like, "We know you
26:03
have no idea how to use a kettlebell."
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Because anybody can use a kettlebell like a dumbbell, but just because you use
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a kettlebell doesn't mean you actually know what you're doing with a kettlebell.
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So the type of kettlebell training that I practice is called hard style, and it's
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where you learn how to lift relatively heavy weight for relatively few reps.
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the closest thing I could compare it to is something like Olympic lifting.
26:31
But the weight is not as heavy, and we're doing most of the stuff unilaterally.
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You develop an incredible amount of core strength.
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You develop an incredible amount of power and endurance.
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It's great for alignment.
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It's great for cardiovascular endurance.
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It's great for strength.
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It's-- it hits all of these different pillars of fitness in a
26:54
way that you, you have to isolate out with different modalities.
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the biggest reason why I think more people don't train this way is because
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it's very technical, and if you're just trying to get a quick sweat, you're not
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gonna be able to execute the exercises safely or effectively to change your body.
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It's one of those things where, like, you have to take time to learn the language.
27:19
You know, if you show up to France and you've never learned how
27:24
to speak French, it's gonna be pretty difficult to communicate.
27:28
But if you take, you know, a year to learn the language and then you show up
27:32
to France, it's like, "Oh, I can speak, I can communicate, I can do the thing."
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And that's what it is with hard style kettlebell technique.
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Pam Peeke (Host): Now, when we come back, I'm gonna tell you about
27:44
how I got introduced to kettlebell
28:45
And we're back.
28:46
All right, so I'm listening to you and I'm so inspired and it, and it takes me
28:51
back down memory lane where, I was at the Equinox Club and, my, delightful trainer,
28:59
Carlos, it literally is a kettlebell king.
29:02
He's got every certification known to mankind.
29:05
He's, he's a, a baseline powerlifter.
29:08
I mean, he looks like a brick wall, which is what powerlifters
29:12
look like, with a little belly.
29:14
All right, so I just saw a bunch of people hoisting these things
29:19
and I said, "What are those?"
29:21
And he said, "They're called kettlebells."
29:23
And I said, "Can I do that?"
29:25
And he, and he said, "Well, of course you can."
29:28
So to your point, I had to learn the language.
29:32
It's very different than single-arm dumbbells, right?
29:37
or if I'm up on the platform and I'm doing some powerlifting.
29:40
This is different and I had to understand the position of my body.
29:46
And the first thing I did was I got rid of my sneakers because you have to have feet
29:52
on the ground for all intent and purposes.
29:55
So I changed out my shoes to, to real lifting shoes, a number of years ago.
30:02
So I, now I can feel the ground because otherwise you lose balance.
30:08
And I noticed, over the course of time some pretty amazing
30:14
changes taking place in me.
30:16
Plus I felt like I was working in many different planes.
30:20
You know, when you do the halo around your head, and you
30:25
know, when I'm doing a carry.
30:27
I love the carries where I just take some monster weight and hold it, behind me and
30:34
walk as it's sort of banging my behind.
30:37
And I love that feeling of being pulled back and woo, you
30:41
know, it's a whole body feeling.
30:43
So that's when I fell in love with the kettlebell.
30:46
And I, you know, I would mix it up here and there, you know, do some
30:50
workouts with single arms or, curl bars and, and different ways to be able
30:57
to do each one of my muscle groups.
30:59
But kettlebell still ha- is very, very close to my heart to say the least.
31:04
Now when you trained, like what, what got in your mind to
31:10
actually go for the Guinness Book?
31:12
Were you trying to beat someone who had already set a record or were you
31:17
going to establish your own category?
31:21
Colleen Conlon: Yeah.
31:22
So initially I, I was going to beat a record.
31:26
I wanted to go in for the swing record, and at the time I was having some
31:32
major problems with my pelvic floor.
31:35
So I spent about six months training for that record, and then I had
31:40
to stop training for two months.
31:42
And then I decided that instead of going after that record,
31:47
I wanted to do something that had yet to be done by a woman.
31:51
There was already a record established by men, but nobody had
31:56
dove in yet for the female category.
31:59
So I went in to lift the heaviest weight over the course of an
32:03
hour for the Turkish get-up.
32:05
And then after I did that, I
32:07
Pam Peeke (Host): What was the weight?
32:09
Colleen Conlon: kilo bell.
32:11
And the first time I did it, I lifted about 2,000 kilo
32:16
over the course of an hour.
32:18
Pam Peeke (Host): So this is all aggregated.
32:20
So you're lifting and then you come back down again.
32:23
Lifting and you come back down again.
32:26
And so this is an accrued, amount of weight that is going to be lifted
32:31
over the course of an hour, right?
32:34
Colleen Conlon: Correct
32:35
Pam Peeke (Host): All right.
32:36
So it was-- So your first, world record was how many pounds?
32:42
Colleen Conlon: It was a little over 2,000 kilo in total.
32:45
So I did roughly 120 reps nonstop, and then I realized I could do better.
32:56
And then I went back in and I got over 3,000 kilos that I did 188
33:02
reps over the course of an hour
33:04
Pam Peeke (Host): Okay.
33:05
And has anyone out-bested you since you've set the record?
33:10
Colleen Conlon: Yes.
33:10
A woman who I believe does use steroids
33:15
Pam Peeke (Host): Oh, oh, a-all right.
33:17
So j- a little juicer, in in the mix here, one way or the other.
33:23
But, you know, what a wonderful thing to do to be able to, strive to be the
33:30
strongest within a category where you actually get recognition for it, too.
33:35
So I think that you and I, as we're looking at women today, they come asking
33:43
for help and, and they're confused and lost 'cause, I mean, there's
33:48
so much misinformation out there.
33:51
I think one of the first pieces, and, you know, please correct me if I'm wrong,
33:55
but, and also add, you know, one of the first things is, women expect to look
34:04
very different in a fairly short period of time You know, they're willing to
34:09
sacrifice for a short period of time, and then they, they look and they say,
34:15
"Well, where's the huge change here?"
34:17
And, you know, I'm looking to…
34:19
I wanna look like Colleen Conlon, without realizing that you put years
34:25
and, and thousands and thousands of hours of working out into it.
34:31
you know, people say the same thing about me all the time.
34:33
"I want your arms."
34:35
I said, "No, you don't.
34:36
You want your arms."
34:38
You know?
34:39
My arms are mine.
34:40
Leave them alone.
34:41
what you wanna do is you wanna optimize to where your own genetics, your own
34:50
training, your own nutrition, sleep, and stress management are gonna take you.
34:58
That's where you wanna end up.
35:00
So it's great that, you know, I can be inspirational.
35:04
It's great that Colleen is inspirational, but you're on your own journey.
35:09
So y- you know, you're on a journey of self-discovery, and what you
35:14
wanna do is pay attention to you.
35:18
And what I love about, you know, getting stronger and, as it were, bigger,
35:23
bigger muscles is, is number one, you're never gonna, like, overly bulk.
35:29
That's ridiculous.
35:30
Not unless you've got Serena Williams' genetics.
35:33
That's just not happening.
35:34
Actually, the joke is, and Colleen, you and I would laugh about this, is that
35:39
most of us, you know, who are, you know, trying to maintain muscularity, we, we
35:44
pray for the muscles because, you know, we don't get huge like the guys get huge.
35:50
We just don't have that, testosterone and, the metabolic edge that they get.
35:58
But women, I think, now need to understand that by being…
36:04
and I'm gonna ask you about this.
36:07
By being strong physically, and this has happened to me most of my life 'cause
36:12
I've been doing this fitness thing for decades, is when I walk in a room, like
36:18
a boardroom, I'm on a number of boards.
36:20
When I walk in a boardroom and I'm gonna, you know, say something or
36:23
present or whatever, if I'm physically strong, if I'm taking care of
36:29
myself, my carriage looks like that.
36:33
I walk in a room filled with confidence, I have a, a great sense of self-esteem,
36:41
and I, I feel strong mentally.
36:45
So when you're strong physically, you're strong mentally.
36:49
Go for it, Colleen.
36:51
How does it affect you?
36:53
Colleen Conlon: Oh my gosh.
36:53
I, I don't have to say anything.
36:57
I can walk in a room and people can already tell things about me based
37:01
on how I carry myself, based on how my body looks, and I love that.
37:05
And I know some people would be so upset to hear that, but, you know,
37:10
people see how you take care of yourself and they start to make assumptions.
37:15
And I love when people are like, "Okay, she must work really hard,"
37:19
because I do work really hard.
37:21
And I've learned over time, in terms of changing your body,
37:27
the long way is the shortcut.
37:30
And it's kind of a beautiful thing that it is the long way.
37:33
You know?
37:33
Think, think back to when you had your first car.
37:37
If somebody just gave you the keys to a Ferrari day one, would you
37:42
know how to take care of that car?
37:44
Would you be upset if you wrecked that car?
37:47
Probably, right?
37:50
When we are trying to develop a body that is strong, it's lean, it's energized, most
37:59
people aren't born knowing how to lift.
38:02
Most people don't even know, like, when you say, "Do you track your macros?"
38:06
They have no idea what you're talking about.
38:08
Like, you have to learn how to take care of a body like this.
38:14
And it's a beautiful thing because when it takes time, you
38:20
take so much better care of it.
38:22
You realize the hours that go into it, and there's a sense of pride that you
38:28
get to walk around with because of that.
38:31
I mean, the evidence that I've gained in terms of realizing I can do hard things
38:39
from what I've done with the kettlebells, I mean, my body didn't look like this
38:44
when I went after a Guinness World Record.
38:46
Guinness came to me.
38:47
I, I had the performance goal before I did my body recomp.
38:52
but doing Guinness, it gave me the evidence to believe I can do body recomp.
38:57
I mean, my body recomp took close to three years.
39:01
It took close to three years to get to that leaner, healthier body,
39:06
understanding macros, understanding lifting, and then being open to going
39:11
into the bulk, being open to then doing the cut, then doing the reverse.
39:17
Like, it, like, it's all taken time.
39:20
And it's given me this identity that, yeah, I can do hard things.
39:27
And it's allowed me to then go create my own supplement line.
39:32
It's given me the confidence to then, you know, show up in different spaces and go
39:39
after whatever it is I wanna go after.
39:41
And that's one of the things that I think is so cool about you choosing to get
39:45
strong or you choosing to build muscle.
39:49
You are literally choosing a challenge that is going to then give you
39:53
evidence that you are capable of achieving anything that you want.
39:58
And you can't pay for that.
40:02
You just, like, have to go do the work, and then you get that reward, and you just
40:06
believe in yourself in a way that many people who don't go through something like
40:10
this, they're, they're never gonna feel.
40:13
It's the best thing you could do for yourself.
40:16
it's
40:16
great that it's the long game because then you-- it becomes who you are.
40:21
Anything that just happens quick, not anything, but a lot of
40:25
things, if it happens too quickly, sometimes it's hard to believe
40:28
that, like, "Oh, this is who I be."
40:31
But when it takes time and you keep living the same thing day in, day out, it's
40:34
like, "Yeah, this is exactly who I am."
40:37
Pam Peeke (Host): Yep.
40:37
And I think at the end of the day, if we can all, as women, realize
40:44
we are exquisitely powerful, and we are brave, and we're amazing.
40:52
And if there's one thing that can definitely help here, it
40:57
is the ability to be able to be strong mind, body, and spirit.
41:03
That's what you want.
41:05
And I'll tell you one thing, I don't care how you're beginning, where you
41:09
are at this very moment, doesn't matter.
41:12
You will feel a huge mind-body change when you start really
41:20
strengthening yourself physically.
41:24
And even if it's the smallest changes that you make, if it's walking into a gym
41:30
for the very first time, if it's watching a YouTube and doing something at home
41:35
for the very first time, doesn't matter.
41:38
You will feel an incredibly powerful, positive change.
41:43
So this young woman in this Guardian article, which I found so entertaining and
41:48
you found too, discovered the same thing.
41:52
And that is instead of going for super, super skinny and oh my God
41:57
and back and b- instead, she ended up looking and feeling fit and powerful.
42:04
Fit and powerful.
42:05
It was probably one of the best things she could ever do for herself,
42:10
again, mentally, physically, and spiritually, because it's that powerful.
42:16
I just love it, you know?
42:19
and that's why out there, please, no more of this, "I'm gonna be little, tiny person
42:24
who just sort of disappears in the mist."
42:26
No.
42:27
No.
42:28
We don't want, we don't want fragility, and we don't want frailty either.
42:34
You know, as you get older, that's exactly what you're trying to avoid.
42:38
What you want is strength, just amazing strength.
42:44
Because, you know, as you said, what feels better?
42:49
Nothing.
42:51
I mean,
42:51
it just feels so good.
42:53
Yeah
42:53
Colleen Conlon: When, when I was struggling with my eating disorder, my
42:58
friend literally told me, "People will like you better if you are smaller."
43:04
So for a really long time, the reason I wanted to be smaller is because I believed
43:09
that would get people to accept me.
43:12
And all of that really changed when I realized I wanted to accept me.
43:19
And I thought to myself, "What kind of person do I want to create to feel
43:26
like, oh my gosh, like you are amazing?"
43:29
And in my head, part of that was I wanted to create like a jungle cat.
43:35
I wanted to feel like a, a panther, a leopard.
43:38
And you know, they're not these frail things that you could snap in half.
43:42
Pam Peeke (Host): Yet they're gorgeous.
43:44
They're
43:44
lean and muscular and fit and, ah, very, very powerful.
43:51
And, and so that's a beautiful visual to kinda keep in your
43:56
head, you know, on the overall.
43:58
You know what I think of?
43:59
Oh my gosh.
44:00
I think that I'm just, you know, one of the, you know, top people
44:06
in Amazonia, in Amazon land, where,
44:10
you know, the women are, you know, tall, muscular, and kick ass.
44:15
That's the way I see myself.
44:17
I love it.
44:18
I c- it's the w- oh, I love the woman warrior thing.
44:21
Like, give me a damn spear, okay?
44:23
I
44:24
Colleen Conlon: I have a visualization practice that I walk my clients
44:27
through called Find Your Fierce.
44:29
And we do this whole reset of envisioning, you know, when you think
44:34
of your most powerful self, how do you actually visualize who it is y-
44:42
you feel like you are on the inside?
44:44
And then that's what we're trying to pull out.
44:47
if you don't see yourself as, you know, this big, bulky
44:51
woman, y- you don't have to be.
44:53
But what does that powerful version of you look like?
44:57
And now can we get you to, train in a way that allows that to come out physically,
45:04
but then can we also get you into a mindset where you're able to embody that?
45:11
it's so cool to get to talk to different women and see, well,
45:14
how do you visualize yourself?
45:16
'Cause I've had other women who describe themselves as like, "I
45:18
see myself as this Amazonian."
45:21
And I've had other women who are like, "I see myself as this, like, Grecian goddess.
45:27
I see myself as this, like, powerful underwater m- mermaid creature."
45:32
It's incredible to see how power shows up for different women.
45:36
For me, it's, it's embodying a jungle cat.
45:39
Pam Peeke (Host): I, know that a lot of women out there, Colleen,
45:42
are gonna wanna know more about you.
45:44
So, you know, I'm telling everyone to go to your website,
45:49
Colleen, that's C-O-L-L-E-E-N C-O-N-L-O-N, colleenconlon.com.
45:58
If you go to that website, your mind's gonna be blown 'cause you're gonna get
46:01
a chance to see Colleen do her thing.
46:04
And, she literally is the living embodiment of everything
46:08
she's been talking about.
46:10
Colleen, I wanna thank you so much for being on the Her Podcast once
46:16
again, and to share these insights in your own personal journey.
46:21
thanks for really doing that.
46:22
That's a real gift to everyone because I'm sure there are so many women out
46:26
there who can definitely identify.
46:30
So thank you once again for being on the Her Podcast
46:34
Colleen Conlon: Thank you so much for having me.
46:36
And you know, those of you who are listening, I'm an
46:39
eating disorder survivor.
46:40
I've had four major abdominal surgeries.
46:43
I was never an athlete growing up.
46:45
If, if there's a part of you that wants to become this strong version of yourself,
46:51
you are more than capable of achieving it.
46:54
You just need the right person to guide you.
46:56
And a great place to find me is actually on Instagram.
47:00
My handle is i am colleen conlon
47:03
Pam Peeke (Host): Okay.
47:04
I am Colleen Conlon.
47:06
Fantastic.
47:08
again, I can't thank you enough, Colleen.
47:10
You're just the best.
47:12
And listen, I wanna thank everyone out there for listening up on this
47:17
episode, and I definitely wanna thank my sponsor, SkinSafe, which is an app
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You're gonna love it.
47:49
And run on over and rate and review the show right now.
47:53
And at the same time, I just wanna leave you with that
47:56
little moment of inspiration.
47:58
I love my quotes, and this one comes from my pal, Albert Einstein.
48:04
" I never think about the future.
48:07
It comes soon enough."
48:10
So the key is stop obsessing.
48:14
Enjoy the moment.
48:15
Be mindful, no matter what you do, and absolutely embrace the day.
48:21
Carpe diem, everyone, and thank you