Flywheel-At-Home shutters its doors and all their users get a free Peloton!

John Mills listened to the Goldmann Sachs Technology Conference so we didn’t have to and has all sorts of interesting tidbits about the future of Peloton.

More and more people are reporting that their numbers are resetting to zero in the middle of their classes.

There’s a new Peloton commercial.

An Echelon user gets injured by his bike.

People magazine has an article about Peloton.

Barry’s Bootcamp is getting into the bike game.

USA Today features Robin Arzon.

A new meditation program is starting focused on sleep.

All this plus our interview with Tunde!

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Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here:

Our interview with Tunde Oyeneyin Plus Peloton Takes Down Flywheel-At-Home

I am not currently late, but I will be later in this episode.

I don’t even know what that means.

It’s because we our Tunde interview now. I was racing back from the airport, so I could do the interview and everything conspired against me. They forced me to check my carry on. I don’t have a control because the company paid for it. It’s a more expensive ticket that way. Everything was working against me. I was the last piece of luggage off the plane. It was bad.

Then you have to deal with me doing the introductions. Sorry about that.

We’ll look forward to that. That will be interesting to see. What else do they have to look forward to?

We are going to talk Flywheel. That’s all I care about right now. I’m a little obsessed with this whole story. There’s been some other stuff going on with Peloton because when is there not stuff going on with Peloton? All good things, nothing bad. There are some updates that we received. There was an event we’ll talk about. We’re going to talk about some things that happened with Peloton. I know none of that makes sense, but just understand that there will be financial things. There are going to be some tidbits that we’ve alluded to that we have confirmation of. There are also some new commercials. There are new articles to discuss. There’s another competitor in the game, then there are all kinds of things about the instructors and new content to discuss.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure and subscribe, so you never miss an episode. You can also leave us a review. We have a new review. This is from AJS1974. They say, “A weekly ‘can’t miss’ for Peloton Riders. If you’re looking for a way to find out about all things Peloton, this is it. Great recap of recent Peloton developments, nice discussion about Peloton in the news and my favorite, insider news of things that Peloton is planning to roll out. If the podcast ended there, it would be a good 30 minutes and it deserves a five-star rating. They also include interviews of Peloton riders. I do enjoy the interviews of the instructors and staff as well. It’s really impressive that Tom and Crystal take so much time out of their busy schedules to prepare a thoughtful and professional podcast each week. Bottom line, if you’re a Peloton rider or want to be a rider, you must subscribe.” Thank you very much.

What a fantastic review. Thank you.

You can go to theclipout.com, sign up for the newsletter. The new website is so close to ready and I think we’ll be able to roll that thing out. It’s very spiffy. There’s a donate button there. If you want to throw a little money at the stuff that goes on, that’s nice too. Our Facebook page, Facebook.com/theclipout. Like the page and join the group. There’s all that. Let’s begin.

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We’ve been watching the slow demise of Flywheel over the last six months to a year. It got a lot faster this week.

It has sped up. Somebody hit the fast-forward button. It’s related to the settlement obviously.

I think that someone was Peloton’s attorney, general counsel.

They do well. Good job, guys. If you haven’t been following along, for those of you who don’t listen intently to every single episode, we will quickly catch you up. Here’s the deal. Peloton sued Flywheel a few years ago. They said, “You stole all of our technology. Pay up.” Flywheel was like, “No, we didn’t.” A long time period passed, suddenly out of the blue they were like, “Yeah, we did.” They admitted fault. They were like, “We’re done. We’re going to remove all the tech within 60 days,” and that was in the past few weeks ago. This week, there is all of a sudden a major announcement that came out of Flywheel At Home. To be clear, this is Flywheel At Home, not the Flywheel Studios for any of you who are like, “What happened?” They sent out this letter and they were like, “Difficult decision, effective March 27th, we are discontinuing service of our home bike flywheel. We’ll continue to focus our original mission of providing the best in studio cycling experience. This decision will not impact our studio operations.” Then it says, “We have partnered with Peloton to provide an exclusive offer for you to enjoy their world-class At Home product. You will receive an email directly from Peloton shortly with more information on this offer.” The last day you may be billed for Flywheel At Home is Wednesday, February 19th, no actions required to turn off automated payments as Flywheel will.” That’s interesting. That was pretty much like, “What does this mean?”

Then all their catalog content goes away on March 27th.

If you have a Flywheel At Home Bike, you’re in luck because this deal they “brokered” with Peloton, and that’s in quotes because obviously this was all part of the settlement. Here’s how I know. It says, “The world-class Peloton At Home product,” that is straight out of Peloton’s mouth. That is their wording. That is the stuff they use, which I love. I’m not knocking them, but that was definitely Peloton.

You know how much that had to sting for the PR person at Flywheel. They would probably type a couple letters and then they’d have to go and walk around the office building a couple of times, get a drink of water, splash a cold water in their face, come back.

I feel like there was much haggling over this announcement. I feel like this went back and forth between them and Peloton about a thousand times.

I have no doubt.

Peloton sends out a letter and they send it to all of the Flywheel users and it says, “We invite you to trade in your Flywheel At Home bike.” You give your Flywheel At Home bike to Peloton and they will in turn give you a refurbished, to function like new, Peloton bike for free. You are in luck if you are a Flywheel user. That’s stunning. It’s covered for a year. You do have to pay the same $40 fees the rest of us do, but you get a free bike.

You were presumably paying a comparable fee to Flywheel At Home. That should be a wash. You get a Peloton bike and you get way better content. It’s true but it’s subjective. You have to get way more content.

They were offering bike content, now, everybody has access to yoga, weight lifting and running.

I would go to school in bike in my head, but you’re right.

Even if you were going to bike, you’re still right because there was way more classes. This is a stunning turn of events for a lot of reasons. One, as somebody pointed out to me, which I think was completely accurate, Peloton scored their entire marketing list.

It’s essentially like a hostile merger. I can’t imagine there’s going to be very many Flywheel people that are going to say no to this deal. You already spent money on a bike, you might as well swap it out and see if you like it.

The interesting thing is that some people in the Flywheel community think that the Flywheel bike is better. Whether you do or you don’t, some of those same people also feel pissed off at Peloton like, “Peloton is not doing enough.”

What more would they want?

I don’t know.

You’re swapping out for a bike.

You got me. To me, you are an entitled brat if you don’t think this is a good deal because Flywheel is no more at home anyway. If you want to be able to exercise in the comfort of your own home, Peloton is fantastic and the first, best option.

Normally, the concern about these connected fitness products in general has always been, “What happens if they go tits up?” Here’s a situation where it did, and you basically get grandfathered. You get to trade in your RC Cola for a nice, refreshing glass of Coca-Cola.

Some people don’t want to believe that Peloton is the Coke.

I get that in so much that if you selected a Flywheel At Home, you almost purposefully didn’t select a Peloton.

 

You had to go out of your way.

For whatever reason, you have a relationship with the Flywheel gym and you preferred their Flywheel studio and you prefer that, or you’re just a contrarian that likes to be different, and you’re going to wear your Keds when everybody else is wearing Sketchers. Those people are out there and that’s fine. I do understand why you might have some resistance because like I said, Peloton was already the market leader when Flywheel launched. It’s part of the problem. If someone bought one, they were deliberately shunning Peloton.

It will be interesting to see what happens when these people show up in our community because I suspect they’re going to be dicks. Just to be clear, I don’t mean every single person who has a Flywheel. It’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying the people who are mad about this development and they’re mad at Peloton in particular. First of all, that anger should be directed at Flywheel. They’re the ones that screwed up, not Peloton. They stole things. That’s how that works there. There’s a consequence for that. I’m excited for this one. The people who are angry, I wonder how that’s going to work with them integrating because we’re so pro Peloton over on our pages.

My guess is though that if they’re mad at Peloton, they probably won’t interact at all.

They can stay off.

They’ll get on their new bike and they’ll do their stuff and they’ll either come around and realize, “This is as good or better of a product,” and be like, “No harm, no foul.” Or they’ll just peer out. I can’t imagine you’re going to have very many of them and by the time they do all their transfers, they are like, “I’m going to find a Facebook page and yell at people who do love this bike.”

I don’t know. That will be interesting. For those of you who say, “Peloton has been collecting all these bikes, this is what they’ve been saving them up over,” no, Peloton has had a refurbishing program since day one. They have always offered refurbished bikes to their employees. I don’t know what the discounted price is, but it’s been a thing. They did not start doing that for this. They were not counting on that happening just to be clear.

I am hearing rumors from my own Peloton Prophet B. They’re saying that Peloton is going to launch a new comeback program for people that don’t quite succeed at their comeback. They’re going to get one of these old Flywheel bikes.

I’m picturing people who didn’t have that bad of a time, but they still submitted one and then they were like, “You haven’t really struggled, so here.”

“I’m going to learn to play the guitar this year,” then instead you learn to play the ukulele.

It is interesting, what are they going to do with all the Flywheel bikes? Are they going to put them out at the back of the new Peloton headquarters in Burnham and everybody’s going to dance around it and chant, cheer?

You’re probably going to see like kids in underdeveloped countries riding Flywheel bikes while wearing a San Francisco 49ers Superbowl merchandise.

I’m curious though. What are they going to do with it? I can’t wait to find that out.

They will recycle as best they can.

They’ll probably take the tech off. That was never theirs to begin with and use.

It’s fascinating. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a situation like this.

Losing weight for someone else is a different process from losing weight for yourself. Share on X

It reminds me of some asshole on the highway who passes you and then they break check you because you flipped him off. Or they’re just a dick in general like they tried to get over the last second and he never should’ve been getting over or they didn’t use their signal. We are always like, “Where are the cops?” The cops appear out of nowhere and pull them over. That’s what I feel had happened. I’m like, “Watch out, Echelon. You are next.” I can’t wait because they deserve it. Flywheel had been around for a long time. They never should have done this. They suck. With Echelon, no. I’ve got a special place of hate for Echelon.

There was a Goldman Sachs technology conference. John Mills listened in.

I wanted to repeat this because I tried to listen to it and it was a little boring. I love Peloton and I love Jill Woodworth but this whole thing had a somber feeling, it was dry. Thank goodness that John did because he had some great things that he pulled out of it. Four things that he learned that he felt were important. Here we go. First one, we knew Peloton was coming out with a lower cost treadmill later this year, but Ms. Woodworth confirmed it will be the same or similar cost of the bike and it will not use slats. It will have a belt.

That’s interesting, that’s where the savings are.

That’s where the savings are, but it’s where the innovation isn’t. We already have treadmills with slats. I assume some have the knobs and the monitor for those of you who couldn’t see me gesticulating, but I don’t know. That will be interesting to see.

The other belt treads don’t have Peloton baked in.

They don’t, so you can’t get your metrics, you can’t get all that. That’s absolutely true.

There probably are a lot of people that like $4,000 is pretty high.

It is. $4,000 is a lot of money. I don’t mean like it’s not a lot of money because it absolutely is a lot of money. Those slats, I don’t know if they’re too green worth, I don’t know but I love them.

I bet you a lot of people, especially if they haven’t bought a treadmill in the past, don’t fully understand the difference and why that’s important. All they see is $4,000. Here’s an entry point and if they get it and they use it a lot, maybe in two, three years they upgrade. Then you can trade in that for the Flybelt At Home product.

Somehow, I don’t think they’re doing that. Next, Peloton is not only looking to open the Hudson Yard studio next month, they’re expecting to open the Covent Garden Studio in London later this year or early next year. I think we already knew that, but that’s a verification. That’s more of a timeframe for the London. They haven’t pinned that down. It’s been like it’s coming soon, so that’s the first time we’ve heard later this year or early next year. Then we knew the Hudson Yard studio would have four studios under one roof, but Ms. Woodworth also confirmed the Covent Garden studio will have three studios under one roof. Ms. Woodworth indicated that now having seven studios under two roofs, they expect to be able to increase from 950 classes per month to over 1,400. That is stunning.

I’m curious, since Flywheel is top of mind at the moment, how many classes they had total? I’m honestly thinking like I bet you they’re going to produce more classes in a month than Flywheel At Home had in its entirety, but that’s just guessing.

Those are great things to know, so thank you, John Mills, for listening to that and reporting out on your awesome Run, Lift & Live Group because if you hadn’t, I would not have seen it and I love passing this stuff along for everybody.

People were having some trouble with their metrics.

This is a weird one. I’m seeing this all over the place, but the interesting thing is it has not been officially called a bug by Peloton. People are riding along and running, all of a sudden their numbers reset to zero. Typically, when that happens to a person the cable has come loose on the back of their monitor. Everything resets to zero and they go and jiggle the monitor cable and it works again. This is happening across the board and then it comes back and everything’s fine. It’s not about the cable, so I don’t know what’s up with that, but I haven’t seen anything come out from Peloton Official. If I missed it, I apologize but I have not seen it. It is a glitch that is happening to a lot of people. You’re not crazy if that happened to you.

If it is officially classified a bug, since the numbers are resetting to zero, I think Peloton should call this the Tom Bug Zero Rides.

You get to ride like Tom did, except they’re actually putting the work in, so that’s not comforting. The numbers are the same.

There is a new Peloton commercial out.

Have you seen this one?

I don’t think so.

They nailed it. I love it so much. This guy is riding with different instructors and I think it was actually just Robin, but it was all of Robin-isms like, “You didn’t wake up today to be a mediocre.” That’s one of hers. He’s doing this, he’s riding and he’s getting all into it every time Robin says something. His daughter’s watching, so they do these little, quick snippets. It’s like one ride and the daughter’s in the background and she’s rolling her eyes and then he does it again. She asked a question, he answers it. It’s four rides in and he’s then getting ready for work and he’s like, “Another meeting.” The daughter walks in and goes, “Dad, you did not wake up today to be mediocre.” I loved it. It was perfect. A lot of kids are watching and they’re learning something from that. They’re like, “My mom and dad are exercising. They’re taking care of them. They’re something to look up to.” It’s not in our house, but it does happen in other people’s houses and it’s cool.

There was an interesting article in Canada about Echelon.

There was this guy and he was riding and his pedal broke off, it completely sheared off. When it sheared off, it left a very jagged edge on the end of it, causing a deep gash in his leg, which he posted in this article. It’s graphic and it required ten stitches. It was not small at all. This dude tries to get ahold of Echelon, not one flipping response, not one for weeks. I heard that apparently, they have said that they’re working on it now. That was their official response. It took weeks for them to do that, and only because it showed up on a news article and got crazy. I’ve heard this before from people who have bought from Echelon that whenever you call up their customer support, nothing, they don’t respond. For any of you who are ever like, “Peloton Customer Support didn’t solve my problem the first time I called,” they still rock compared to most companies out there. Echelon, they suck so bad and they have to suck because what are they going to tell these people? “This is what you should do to fix it.” They don’t have anything to fix it. Their products are crappy and they don’t have anybody working on it.

They will send you a refurbished Flywheel At Home bike.

No, because it doesn’t look just like Peloton’s. It’s a different color.

While we’re talking about this article, I noticed something very interesting about this article that I would like to share with you. It’s interesting in a clickbait-y way in that the URL of this article says, “Echelon workout bike Peloton injury cut.” The article never mentions Peloton, but the URL does for their SEO purposes. I would also like to point out that the people at CBC should probably have a talking to with their SEO guy because in his attempt to clickbait off the Peloton brand, he misspelled Peloton.

He did the classic PELE. Come on, dude, especially if you’re looking for clickbait. This is for SEO. You double check the spelling.

Spell the thing you want to hijack properly. It’s only polite. People Magazine had an article about Peloton.

It talked about the fact that Peloton got in a bunch of trouble for having that video that shall not be spoken about commercial. Then it started talking about what exactly Peloton is, then they finally get to the good stuff, which is members talking about why it’s more than worth the cost. You have Amy Wieland, who is one of the Peloton users, 56-year-old vice president at a software company in Florida saying it’s the best investment she ever made. She said that there’s no better investment than being able to have something that can take care of your health. Wieland has multiple sclerosis, so she knows the importance of health. It talks about her stay, it talks about what Peloton has done for her and all the different groups. There are other people that are highlighted as well. If you have not gotten a chance to read it, you should.

Barry’s Bootcamp has added rides. I don’t know what that means.

That means they now have rides. They’re not just bootcamp. It’s another competitor. Here we go.

You knock one away, another one pops up.

You can lose the weight, but finding a way to maintain it is when the real work starts. Share on X

We’re going to keep seeing this. The big thing is everybody’s adding as much content as possible. Whatever Peloton does, they copy.

They’re all playing catch up.

There are a lot of people that like Barry’s Bootcamp, so I could see them getting some traction with this. I don’t know much about it. Other than that, it doesn’t interest me because Peloton has their own bootcamp. We live in St. Louis, there’s nothing around here like that.

At this point, they’re probably worried about their customers looking over at Peloton’s content.

Rebecca Kennedy is from Barry’s Bootcamp. They got her from that and she’s a master instructor, so they should be worried.

USA today has an article about Peloton. It’s interesting that when we first started doing this, the articles were like Fitness_foryou.biz and now it’s like USA Today, People.

This article is about Robin Arzon, who we’ve talked about before. She one of those companies that help get gigs, those PR companies. Also keep in mind that she’s already working for ROAR. The picture that’s featured in here is for ROAR. Because of those things, Robin gets featured in higher level things than other instructors who maybe don’t have that level of PR company behind them. This article, if you have not read or you don’t know Robin Arzon’s backstory, you need to read this. She started off as an attorney and then she had a major scare in her life that totally changed everything. She was like, “Life is too short. I’m going to do what I want to do.” Running got her through the trauma that she experienced and it completely transformed her life and the way that she thinks about it and made her who she is today.

Finally, there’s a new meditation program starting.

I’m super excited about this. It is a fourteen-day program called The Power Of Sleep. It’s going to give people a chance to try out all the different methods of meditation that help you sleep. In theory, it’s going to help you fall asleep easier and rest deeper. It’s going to help with shifting the patterns of your sleep, so that it will improve not only your sleep, but your overall wellness. You’re going to learn to use your breath to release tension. You’re going to use the skin in your body from head to toe, relaxation approach and visualization to shift your focus and clear your mind. This is on the Peloton app, but when I say the Peloton app, I mean it’s only available in iOS. For Android users, you have to go to the classes in filter under Relax and Sleep.

The people who have iOS, everything is neatly in Programs. You click on Programs and it goes in order. For the rest of us, we have to go to Relax and Sleep, then it’s there. You’ve got to figure out which one you should do first because none of it’s all posted on the same day, so it sucks. Peloton, come on with the Android. The program itself looks amazing and I’m super stoked to try it because I have time periods where I cannot sleep and I get really crabby, like way crabbier than usual, so I need to sleep.

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Tom is on his way from the airport, so I’m going to do the intro. Joining us is the lovely, Tunde Oyeneyin. I’m excited because all of our readers have crowdsourced all these questions for us. As we go through, I’m going to let you know who asked the question as well as the question itself.

I love that. I’m ready.

The first question we have is, “Can you tell us about your weight loss journey and your mind shift?” That was submitted by Roslyn Amson.

I think everyone when they’re going through the process of losing weight, it’s almost “the bottom of the shelf.” I say that to say that if you’re losing weight to lose weight for somebody else, it’s a different process than when you’re losing weight because you want to lose weight for yourself. You’ve almost hit this bottom shelf where you’re like, “I can’t continue living in this weight because,” whether it’s your health, the confidence, what you feel about yourself, the way that you look or whatever it is. You hit this shelf. For me, when I hit the bottom of my shelf, I’ll never forget. I was at my aunt’s wedding. I was a bridesmaid. Don’t ask why I was a bridesmaid at my aunt’s wedding.

In retrospect, I had no idea why she asked me to be her bridesmaid. I was the youngest person at the wedding. I cannot even remember. I know I was in high school as the first years of high school or middle school. I went to the bridal shop and the bridal shop did not carry the bridesmaid dress in my size. At the time I believe I was a size 16, 18, which for the record, they should have had the dress. The dress that’s 16, 18, it’s ridiculous that they did it. The maker didn’t make a dress at that size. My aunt says that she will purchase a different dress for me that’s in the same color. It was a blue dress we were wearing. The dress that they did make in my size was a much more beautiful gown.

It was much more expensive gowns. She said that she would buy it. I said, “No.” My mom was kicking me. She’s saying she’s going to buy this pretty dress, pick the dress. My concern was everybody’s going to know that I’m a different dress because they’re going to know that I’m the big one that couldn’t fit in the other dress. My brothers made fun of me and tease me as big brothers do. My mother and father always made me feel like I was the most beautiful girl on the planet. My mother had never acknowledged that I had weight to lose. I was in the dressing room trying on this dress that was the prettier dress, the more expensive dress, the alternate dress. I’m trying it on and I fall into my mother’s lap in the dressing room and I start crying. I said, “I’m tired of this.” She said, “If this is how you feel, then you’re going to have to make a change.”

That moment was for me, her acknowledging that she saw the weight too. The fact that she saw it was by any imagination mean to me at all. She finally acknowledged that I had to weight to lose. For me, that was where I was like, “I need to do something.” I joined a local gym. I walked every day to the gym. I had no car. I wasn’t old enough to drive. I walked every day, two miles to the gym. I’d work out 30 minutes to 1 hour or so. I’d walk home. I’ll never forget. It was a popular big-box chain and they had these group exercise classes. I didn’t know how you became part of the group exercise classes. All I knew is you had to pay an additional fee to do the classes. That’s what I told myself at least.

Here I am with pretty much no money. I’m fighting to find a way to pay the $50 membership that I was paying a month. I had told myself, “I can’t do those classes because I won’t be able to afford it.” One day after going to the gym for maybe three months or so, I mustered up the strength and the courage to walk over to one of the folks that worked at the counter at the gym and inquire about the classes like, “How much do I pay? How do I get to be a part of that?” They told me it was free. When I found out it was free, it was almost admitting to myself that it wasn’t about the money. It was more about me being nervous to go inside those classes and exercise in front of other people. I felt it would be number one, acknowledging that I had weight to lose. Number two, I felt like I would look ridiculous not knowing what was going on.

It was all slow and steady build. I used the equipment that I felt safe with and then I would find out about another piece of equipment and then feel safe with that. Finally, it took a year for me to walk into one of the group classes. I’m super happy that I did. It’s where I found that I had such a passion and a love for working out in a facilitated way like being instructed. Years had passed and by this time in total, I lost about 70 pounds. I probably lost around 40 pounds when the mindset shift came in. I say that because what it took to lose the 40 pounds, it took hard work and discipline.

When I would fall in and out, when my weight would fluctuate, I would find myself almost in a more negative place than I was when I started. When I was heavier, the world thought that I was big. I was living my life and enjoying myself. I had shame based on how people made me feel about my weight, but I was okay. As I started to lose weight and become “more accepted by people” when I started to put weight on, I felt like I was coming in and out of the cool club, if that makes sense. My confidence would shift. I would feel good about myself and then I wouldn’t feel good about myself. The way I felt about myself was contingent on what the scale said or didn’t say.

One day, there was a shift for me. It became less about a number. To be transparent with you, I can’t even remember the last time I weighed myself, which that alone was a process for me because it was something that I was dependent on for so long. Every time I stepped on the scale and it said what I wanted to say, it was approval or the complete opposite. For me, pushing that away and focusing more on a feeling like, “I’m going to work out because when I work out, I feel stronger. When I feel stronger, I feel more confident. When I feel more confident, that drives me and motivates me to get up and to want to do this again.” First, let me rewind and say there’s nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight as an adult.

At the beginning for me, it was only about losing weight, which worked. It got the weight off, but what’s allowed me to then go the extra mile and lose the additional weight and also maintain it, which is the most challenging part is maintaining it. You can lose weight, but finding a way to maintain it is when the real work starts. For me, the ability to maintain it is to focus on the feeling, focus on what I’m gaining out of the process rather than what I’m losing. A lot of times in my classes, I talk about this weight loss process for me has been much more about all the things that I’ve gained versus looking at the things I lost.

When you lose weight, you lose weight and then you hit a number, you hit the way that you want to look or the way you want your clothes to look and then what the process is over versus when you look at what you gain, you can continue to gain confidence. You can continue to gain strength. You continue to gain friendships by seeing people on the Leaderboard. Going with people on hikes, maintaining relationships within your romantic relationships. There’s much more that you have to gain in the process versus focusing on the one thing that it is to lose or that what you want to lose.

I have a follow-up question to that. I have always been a person that has struggled with weight loss myself. I find that the closer I get to my goal, the more I tend to not push as hard. I want to look strong, I want to look a certain way but I also want to eat all the food. It’s hard to keep my mind on it the closer I get to my goal. Did you ever struggle with that?

Yeah. You start feeling good and then you want to celebrate. You’re like, “I feel great. Let’s have a Margarita.” I feel great and I’m like, “Let’s go for Tex-Mex.” It’s a real thing. I was watching a show once and the talk show host said something great. She was like, “Why is it that when great life things happen, we want to celebrate with food.” If something great happens, go for a hike. If something great happens, pull up that digital app and log into a strength class with your friends and celebrate. I say that, but then life is moderation too. To live a completely clean life is, for me, it’s like, “I’m living a clean life,” but then what is that? Being able to enjoy and to have a good time from time-to-time. What you’re saying is it’s 100% true. I usually try to plan that out though.

If I have something specific coming up, maybe it’s a photoshoot or something where I’m being a little bit more disciplined than normal, I might hit whatever my target was for the shoot. The next day I’m like, “Let’s have pizza. Let’s celebrate or let’s have burgers.” It’s my favorite food, by the way. Let’s have a burger and some beers and celebrate. For me, it’s like, “We did that, and then we nip it in the bud and then we get back on it.” For example, a cheat day. I try to say, “It’s a cheap meal. I will have as many things as I can shove into my mouth within this meal,” and then we get it back together after that. It goes and it comes but going back to that not holding onto a number.

If I’m saying, “I feel great about myself and I’m going to cheat.” If you cheat and you fluctuate and your goal is not necessarily to be surrounded by this number, your goal is to feel good. It should be easier than to get back on target because you know what you need to do to feel good. It’s hard to say, “This is how many pounds I want to lose within X amount of days.” If you say, “I want to feel good.” You know exactly what it takes to feel good. Maybe drink less, maybe monitor this, maybe monitor that. You’ll get to feeling good a lot faster than you will a number. If you can focus on feeling good, the number of that other stuff comes. It’s part of the process. It can’t come.

I like excess and moderation.

The next question was from everyone, “How do we get your arms?”

My ten-minute arms toning, check it out. Intervals and arms. The funny thing about that, Crystal, is that I started with Peloton a few months before I launched. Since I started with Peloton, I’m joking with the girlfriend. I don’t remember the last time I picked up anything heavier than a three-pound weight. I do so much weekly within all of my classes. Whether it’s an intervals and arms ride or a hip hop ride or a ten-minute arm toning. I’m constantly doing something within my rides that I don’t like to go and to lift anything else later. I don’t focus on my arms too much outside of what I put up on demand. It is all there. Aside from that, I’d say, I focus on body weight. Things like planks, pushups and downward dog, for shoulder specifically and triceps. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to lift the weight in my class. It’s funny.

A lot of the members are like, “How do you not put the weight down during class?” I specifically strategically program my arm sections to hit fatigue. You shouldn’t be able to finish it. You shouldn’t be able to not either drop your hands or your weights. The reason I’m not dropping my weight is that I’m on camera and people are watching me. There’s adrenaline. You better believe it. I’ll do my ten-minute arm toning sessions to see how it felt like a member. I’m like, “This girl is crazy.” I’m on adrenaline from the cameras being on and the energy in the room. Aside from that you better believe I’d be dropping those weights too. If you’re dropping them and you’re reading, you are doing the right thing, you are winning. In the movie White Men Can’t Jump and when she’s in jeopardy she’s like, “Winning is losing, then losing is winning.” I don’t remember the quote, but yes it’s that.

This one is from Emily Crane Becker. She asks if you do your makeup before the live rides.

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Thank you, Emily. It’s a funny question because a lot of people have the perception that we have a hair and makeup team that gets us ready before class. We don’t. We all do our hair and makeup. We do a lot of posting as we’re getting ready. Those are mic techs and room techs. These are people that are making sure that everything is fluid in terms of the efficiency of the way that the classes are running. A lot of times when you see people in a post in our stories or whatnot when we’re getting ready, that’s what they’re doing. Even if we did, I’ve done makeup for fifteen years. If we did have a makeup artist, I would tell her to enjoy a long lunch break because I’m young with that piece of it, but no. We all do our hair and makeup, wardrobe and all of it.

I have a follow-up question, which is probably a weird coming from a guy. She’s like, “Oh dear.”

Cody asks me every question that you can probably already ask. He asks me beauty tips. He was watching me put my lipstick on and I do not even want to get into how many things I put on my lip to get at the color that I want it to look. He was fascinated, so go for it. You’re not going to focus.

At some point I’m like, “She doesn’t even need us.” “Do you have to do anything special with your makeup because you’re presumably going to be sweating and stuff?”

I do like to use products that for example, foundation. I like to use things that are longer wearing or perhaps the things that is waterproof. I’ll stay away from using powders because it tends to kick up more. I’ll use creamier products. For example, some of the girls, they’ll go a little bit darker in their foundation so that they don’t look too blown out by the camera. It’s more I would say less about the fact that it’s going to sweat off because it’s going to sweat off. It’s more so about choosing the right colors that look good under that bright of light for the amount of time that’s going to stay on. We have a running joke like, “I start class with brows and blush. By the time the class is over, the only thing that’s on my lips still is my lip gloss and my lipstick.”

That’s dangerous though because that’s how people can tell if you’re phoning it in.

I shot a five-minute cool down and five-minute warm-up ride. Cody looks at me and he’s like, “Tunde, it was a cool down.” I’m like, “I know,” but I’m drenched in sweat. I don’t know if I sweat easily or what that part is. I typically tend to beef up that resistance because I want to be able to feel what people are feeling and then a little bit more so that I don’t go too crazy with some of the stuff that I program.

Alex Nelson wanted to know, “What type of workouts do you like to do on your own?”

This is not a shameless plug for Peloton. It is not. I love instruction when I’m working out. I’m a fitness instructor, but I also love to be instructed. There’s something about having to stay present. If I go to the gym on my own will, a lot of times I’m like, “I’ll do this for a little bit and I get bored with that.” I start floating around the gym and there you go, 45 minutes to 1-hour passed. I’m going home. I showed up. With that being said, not a shameless plug for Peloton, but I do log into the Peloton digital app and take classes with my buddies and my colleagues and things like that. I’ll pop into a Pilates class here or there. For the most part, I do strength and resistance training when I’m not on the bike, which is a great balance in terms of bone health and strength.

Alex also had a follow-up question, “How has your life changed since you’ve joined Peloton?”

We can spend the rest of the interview with that question. I have never been so busy and fulfilled in my entire life. It’s funny because a lot of people don’t know what the life of a Peloton instructor looks like. It’s much beyond the bike, the tread or the mat. There’s much that we do, but it’s with such gratitude. You paint a picture of what you want your life to look like and you have a dream. I would never have dreamt of this. I didn’t know that I could have set my expectations so high, if that makes sense. Every day I wake up and first of all, I’m like, “I live in New York. When did that happen? How did I get here?” Aside from that piece of it, being in this beautiful city, it’s like, “I can’t believe that I’m doing what I want to do.”

This is what I said I wanted to do not by any images on this level, this life-changing but I get to do what I want to do. I get to connect with people. I get to inspire people. I get to come into people’s homes, not in a crazy, creepy way, but I get to be at people’s homes with them and teach. I always end each class by saying, “It’s my honor and my pleasure to get to sweat with you. It’s my honor and my pleasure to serve you on this bike. I believe a life that is lived in purpose is a life that is led in service.” There’s no better way than I could think of to be of service than doing this on this platform.

I always think that the existence of Peloton and what it’s become, when you decided to become a fitness instructor, this wasn’t an option. It’s like kids in the ’60s that started a band. You didn’t know that you could become The Beatles until there was The Beatles. That’s what’s happening.

I created The Beatles.

You’re The Beatles of Fitness.

I like that, The Beatles of Fitness. I’m going to put that on a shirt. It’s nothing I could have dreamt. You dream to do what you want to do. You do whatever you feel like your gift is, hopefully, get paid for it. This dream didn’t exist. I didn’t even know how to dream about this.

It’s when chefs started becoming stars. Those people didn’t become chefs thinking, “I’ll be famous.”

 

This is Iron Chef.

Those worlds merged because you know why chefs became stars? It’s Alice Cooper’s manager. Farrell was the guy that was like, “Chefs should be famous,” and made it happen.

Marianne Howard would like to know, you had your Fireside Chat at Brooklyn Museum. I wish that I lived in New York City. I was jealous. I cannot be there. “How did that come about? What was it like and what was your favorite part?”

It’s like, “Take me back.” Full transparency, I am still floating on a cloud. It was such an experience. I have a great honor. Honor seems too small of a word to use of sitting down with Common and having a conversation around mental health and wellness. He was incredibly transparent and vulnerable. In his book, he talks a lot about his experience with mental health. It’s some of the experiences and things that drove him to seek therapy. With listening to his music and seeing the work that he’s done as an activist and author, I know that he is fully present in who he is. I would’ve never imagined that he was as candid and transparent and vulnerable as he was. I feel like I left and I can speak for many people. We left feeling better humans coming out of it. Feeling much more connected with self. When I say like “I’m still on cloud nine from it.” It’s when you close your eyes and you try to remember all the things that happened because you just want to stay at it and relive it. It was, “I’m trying to remember. I’m trying to hold onto this experience because it was such an incredible experience.” It was great.

Lots of our friends posted pictures of it. John Mills and Calvin Harris posted pictures. It looked cool. that’s awesome.

Our next question, and I hope I’m saying this right, is from Priya Banerjee. I know you touched on this a little bit, but she’s curious as to what your diet is like day-to-day?

I have been the person that did no sugar or no carbs or no alcohol, no whatever else are the bad things, and it works. For me, I should say in terms of maintaining it, I love food and it requires a lot of food to get me full so much that my old boss was always like, “Are you sure you don’t have a tapeworm? Why does it take much to get full?” I’m always a person on a date where the server brings out the food and they give the man whatever and they give me the salad. I’m like, “That one is not mine.” With that being said, life is all about moderation.

In my home, everything in my refrigerator is healthy. I packed my refrigerator with greens and fruits and I do an Ezekiel bread and brown rice. If you cut me open, my cauliflower rice might pour out. I have healthy things at home. When I am out, I will try to drink water before I go out. I drink more water so that I’m not as hungry. I try to not go out starving. It depends on the occasion. If the purpose of what we’re doing is to gorge and eat as much as we can, it’s different. I try to eat good things first, if I’m going out to eat with the room that’s left, I’ll eat whatever else it was. I’ll say my thing is and I joke a lot because Kendall and I are close.

You know when you always have the friend that orders the best thing on the menu, the thing that you wanted to get, but you shouldn’t. Kendall always orders that thing that I wanted. Here’s the difference between Kendall and I. I finish my food and then my friend’s food. I tend to get healthier things because I know I eat a lot. Whereas Kendall would order pasta and then have 5 or 6 bites of it and be like, “I’m stuffed.” I might be full but I paid for it or I’m like, “I’m not full until the plate is clean and then to clean your plate as well.” It’s moderation. That’s my answer.

I have to point this out, you know that they have multiple things that are on the menu. There’s not one of each back there. You could both order it.

The same thing?

Yeah.

I lie to myself that I’m like, “I’ll get the burger lettuce wrap.” She’ll get the pasta and then I eat my burger, lettuce wrap and then I finished her leftover pasta. I come in with an expectation and I will say for someone who is like, “How do I go out and go out to eat and stick to my plan?” What did help me in the process of, when I was looking to cut back? I would look at the menu before I got to the restaurant and it helps tremendously. Once you get to the restaurant and you’re hungry, they always say don’t go shopping. Don’t go to the grocery store when you’re hungry because you’ll come out with all the things you didn’t plan to get. I used to look at the menu a lot before I got to the restaurant. That way, whatever I was going to get was set. I didn’t open it. I was going to stick to that plan and that helped a lot.

That’s good advice. I like the don’t open the menu after you already decided.

You glossed over it, but I thought it was good advice about when you said that you fill up on good stuff and then you top off on junk instead of the other way around.

What do you do with the breadbasket? That’s the real question. Are you a bread junkie? I’m a bread junkie.

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The breadbasket doesn’t do it for me. When they walk around with that dessert tray, that is the kryptonite. The bread thing is fine. I take it or leave it.

That’s my problem. They both do me in.

On the way home, she’s like, “Let’s stop for ice cream.”

You’re speaking my language.

I already tanked the day.

What’s your favorite ice cream?

We have a frozen custard chain here called Andy’s. They have a couple of concretes that I love, one of which is called triple chocolate. It has chocolate ice cream and hot fudge and brownie chunks in it. It is amazing.

If you come for homecoming, you and I, the three of us, we are going out for ice cream.

We will be there.

You’re my favorite instructor ever. The other ones are always like “Tom, you need to exercise,” and you’re like, “F that, let’s go get ice cream.”

Yes, you need exercise but as I said, homecoming is a special thing. Let’s go and have some ice cream. I promise you I will kick our butts in a 45-minute class and then we’ll go.

That’s a fair exchange. Tom, you will exercise to have the ice cream.

I’ll be taking her other advice. I’ll be looking at the menu for the ice cream place so I can make my decision before I get there.

The next is from Lena Bruce Tanguay, she would like to know what hobbies you participate in during your spare time?

I have no spare time but if I did, I am a future author. I say that with confidence because one day I will write a book. I’m putting that out there. With that being said, I love reading and I was always embarrassed to say this, but I love reading self-help books. They should be called self-empowerment books. Help is such a negative connotation, but I love self-help books. I like to do that. It feels like it puts me in a better space. I love dancing, particularly salsa dancing. I am known for holding it down on the dance floor at our company parties. I like to enjoy some wine with my girlfriends. How about that?

That’s a good one. It makes sense that you would like self-help books. I’m wondering about my love of True Crime. It’s like, “What do I have going on in there?” What are some of your favorite self-help books that you’ve liked the most?

 

Brené Brown, Daring Greatly.

I’ve never read one of her books, but I see her quotes.

You haven’t lived.

I have seen some of her quotes and they are good. 

That is the top of my list, Brené Brown, Daring Greatly. She also has a book on shame, which is phenomenal. Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth is fantastic. I read Common’s book, Let Love Have The Last Word, which is not necessarily a self-help book. It’s more of a memoir on love. He’s deep that it comes across a little self-help if you feel better after if that makes sense? Those are some good ones on top of my list.

Gina Mitchell has a two-part question, “How did you first become aware of Peloton? When and how did you end up at Peloton?”

I feel like at this point you’d have to be living literally under a rock to not know what Peloton is, whether you’ve done it, tried it or not because it’s everywhere. I don’t know. This is a guess. I’m sure I saw a commercial. I remember when I first heard about the idea of there was this bike and then you worked out at home. I didn’t understand the idea that it was live. I thought you were like, you see Billy Blanks has a Tae Bo video. You take the same Tae Bo 1 of 5 tapes every day. I thought that rinse, watch and repeat, take the same class.

As the company grew, I began to understand it more for what it was. I was here in New York on a business trip and still not necessarily completely understanding what Peloton was. I took Robin’s class. I didn’t know what I was in for. I heard that woman, I left there. Take the class aspect out of it, which was an incredible class. I was consumed with how unapologetically herself she was. Most from the class are like, “It was a great workout.” My biggest takeaway was like, “This girl is who she is. She is exactly who she wants to be and doesn’t say sorry for it.” She caught my eye. I left there researching this company, what is it? I found out about her incredible story and got inspired from there.

Did that naturally bring you to Peloton to work there?

No. It was not even. Fast forward, I’ve started working out, started realizing that I love working out. I started saying, “I have an interest in teaching and giving back.” At this point, even when I started in the world of cycling and teaching cycling, this was too big of something to dream for like, “Somebody says I want to be a singer.” It looks like your friend is saying, “I want to be Beyoncé.” It’s like, “Let’s start with some singing lessons and then we’ll go from there.” That’s what Peloton was for me. It was something that doesn’t happen to people. I can’t even think of how many of us there are with the expansion of the UK. There are 31 instructors in total. Who dreams for that? That’s my answer. Did I see myself doing this? No. Did people see themselves landing on the moon either? No. Did Obama know he was going to be president? No.

Where did you grew up and do you have any siblings? Are they also into fitness?

One of them specifically, he’s funny. My brothers were star athletes growing up. I was always Tony and Towson’s little sister. My brothers were a bit older than me. When you have a sibling that’s in sports and then the next generation comes in, when they left high school, I came in. All the coaches were super excited. They’re like, “Another Oyeneyin.” I was like, “Nope. I’m in a choir. I don’t have an explanation to save my life.” I was such a disappointment to all the coaches in that aspect. I have three brothers. One of them passed away at a young age. He was nineteen. My two brothers are living. One of them he lost over 100 and something pounds trying to do the Peloton.

He found his way back into fitness. He was a football athlete in high school. The other brother, he does what he does. He does what he wants to do. When you’re taking weight out of it, taking weight loss outside of it. When you want to be active, you have to choose to do it. Nobody can tell you. He keeps saying, “I’m almost ready.” I’m like, “Take my class and support. Take my class one time.” When he does finally take my class, I’ll be sure to give you guys an update and let you know. Aside from that, no, they’re not in fitness aside my oldest brother and what he does daily.

Does your brother who lost the weight with Peloton, does he take your classes or somebody else’s?

You better believe it. I have access to his app. I do see the app. When I was on vacation, he took other people’s classes and I don’t know why it brings me much joy. It makes me happy. I’m like, “Who did you take and why do you take that specific class?” He did not take my classes at first because he thought it was too hard. I explained to him I’m like, “I’m not going to come through the bike.” The cadence and resistance numbers I call are a guide. I say that in every class he’s going to take. What’s funny to hear that and get that feedback because I’m like, “You are my brother.” My phone alerts me when he takes a ride, “Anthony takes a ride.” It gives me much joy.

I feel connected. He lives in Texas. I’m here in New York. To know that we’re still a daily basis is exciting. My niece and nephews think that I am the equivalent of Rihanna, Miley Cyrus or they think that I’m cool. Sometimes they turn the bike on and this is not a joke, to listen to me talk. They’re not watching the screen, but they’ll have Auntie Tunde on in the background. I don’t know why it makes me happy, but I see it so cool. I have friends text me all the time and they say, “My boss or my so-and-so took your class.” I’m like, “They were there?” They’re like, “No. They live in Michigan.” I’m like, “Yes, that’s right. People are at home. I forget.”

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Diane Garrison would like to know, “Who or what inspires you?”

My mother is no longer with us, but every single thing that I do every day I do in her honor. Everything I do, I do for that woman, my mom.

Brian Albright would like to know where you picked up your love of music and especially all the different types of music you’re into?

I feel like the Peloton world is still trying to figure me out a bit musically. I have such an eclectic taste for music. I was born in Texas. It is a lot of southern Hip Hop. You’ve got the country aspect of it, which I played my first country song. I played Dixie Chicks. I play a lot of country. I listened to the country hanging out at a bar or something. In my classes, I don’t tend to play in many country. There’s from Southern to Eastern to West. There’s a difference within the Pop world, the Hip Hop world-class. I was exposed to classic rock a lot in Texas. You’ve got the West coast, which exposed me to more EDM sounds and things like that. The East Coast is the East Coast. It’s all-encompassing.

I like sound, I like drums. I like music that emotes feelings and emotions. Whether that is pop or rock or EDM or Hip Hop, take the label away, I’m more concerned about the way that it makes me feel. When I’m programming my classes, it’s probably coming from stems from my experience as a makeup artist being detailed. Having such an eye for the small fine print that when I create my classes. Rather than looking for a genre, unless it’s a specific, this is a ‘90s pop. Truly with whether it is musically drugged or not. I look for songs that will push you through whatever it is or I look for music that will build you to get through whatever specific push it is that we’re doing.

Sometimes even if it’s a recovery, I’ll choose a recovery track that has adrenaline to it to amp you up for the thing that’s about to come. Perhaps I know there’s a specific story that I want to tell with my low-impact rise. I tend to get self-help books. My low impact rides that side of Tunde comes out a little bit more. The side of Tunde that wants to write and to encourage people through words. That lends itself to a little bit more storytelling because it’s not as intense. In those rides, I’ll specifically program music that requires you to feel. I take the genre out of it and I look for a feeling.

Melissa Monroe would like you to tell us about your experience on Deal or No Deal?

It’s such a long story. In a nutshell, I was working at a makeup counter in 2007 or 2008. I know the showed didn’t air until 2009. It was a long audition process. It was very long waiting for your turn to go on the show. I never auditioned for the show. They found me. I was at a makeup counter. I tend to have a lot of energy naturally. That’s how I’ve always been. I was energetic that day, maybe particularly energetic. There was a girl I was helping find a concealer and she said, “You have a lot of energy.” I told her about how I loved my job much and I started working for the company I was working for at the time. She’s super excited. I just moved to LA and my mother told me to be careful because people were going to promise me things to try to get things out of me. I was 21 at the time. She was being a protective and cautious mother as she should have been.

Long story short, these people tell me that it’s two people. They say that, “We are from Deal or No Deal. We would love for it to have you come in and shoot tape and potentially be on the show.” At first, I and my girlfriends at the counter were thinking that they want me to be one of the suitcase models and then they’re like, “No, we would like for you to come and try to win a lot of money.” We, of course, all flipped out. I wrote down my number because I’m thinking about what my mother said. My mother said, “Don’t trust these people.” I write down a fake number. These people are still at the counter and they’re still talking to us. My gut says, “You can trust these people.” I said, “Can I see that again? I want to make sure my handwriting was legible.” I scratched up a fake number and then write my real number. I went to the show. I won a car and a lot of money. It was the second car that I’d won in my life. I won a Ford on show. It was a Ford Flex. A couple of years before that, I’d won in high school a Ford Focus.

How did you win the car in high school? 

I’m sure they do it everywhere, but in Texas, they did this thing, I can’t remember what it’s called. They bring all the kids together so that people don’t go off and do drugs and drink on Graduation Day.

We called it Lock-In.

Between four schools, they’ll do a raffle and one person from the ISD, from that school district, wins a car every year. They did a lottery. I won to represent my school. There were four of us there from all the other schools in the district. It was a gambling game. You have to pull a number. The number that you pulled would designate which order you would go in to pull a key. Whoever’s key opens and turns the car on, would win. I was the last person to pull the number, but I happened to pull number one. I go in, I turned the key, the car starts and you can imagine winning a car. It was the most wow experience and it happens again. When I won the car on Deal or No Deal, Howie was like, “Have you ever bought a car in your life?” It was crazy.

Monica Lane would like to know your favorite brand of makeup that holds up during rides.

Number one, it’s difficult to say a favorite. To choose a paper brand, it depends on when if I’m writing or going out and whatnot. To me, it’s more about each individual’s lifestyle, the type of skin they have and the way they want their skin to look. I have an active lifestyle. I have oily skin and I want my makeup to look natural, but I want it to wear all day. I typically tend to choose products that are oil-free, long-wearing waterproof. On the bike, I tend to go with things that are more matte finish in terms of the foundation because before I get through my intro, I was sweating bullets. I’m up there talking and I start sweating. It’s a little bit the nerves or what part of it is, but I tend to sweat a lot.

Sean Tenling wants to know if you’ve met Al Roker since apparently, he talks about you quite a bit on the show?

 

Uncle Al, no. I wish he was my Uncle. We’ve never met. He’s incredible. I know that he had hip surgery or hip replacement surgery. He’s back in the saddle, pun intended. He’s been taking a lot of my low impact rides, which has been incredible. He rode with us live. It was cool. He posted about it afterwards and then talked about it on the show. I can speak on behalf of Peloton by saying and like, “Which is great to have him as part of the Peloton community.” How cool to be able to say like, “We all rode with Al Roker.”

“Who mentored you in your life that helped you develop such confidence and pride in yourself?” That is from Christine Hannah.

I would say my mother and then my best friends. Confidence to me is not something that you have and then you just have. It’s in and out and comes in waves. I would say there are days that I’m confident and days I’m less confident, but to get even more granular than that, there are moments that I’m confident and that I will fall out of the confidence. I pick up the phone and I call one of my best friends who my best friends are like family and they have to talk me back into it. I’m like, “You’re right. Yes.” I called my best friend before I went into that interview with Common. I FaceTimed her and she picks up the phone.

She knew exactly why I was calling. I don’t even have to say hello. She knew what was about to happen and she knew I was calling for a pep talk. When you have those friends who build you up and say everything that you needed to hear. It’s important to surround yourself with people like that. Whether I was 3 or 34, I’ve always been blessed with good people around me. I always say a true best friend is somebody that says, “We.” It’s like, “When do we interview? We got the job.” When your win they take as their win, and their win is your win, your losses are their loss and vice versa.

To me, those are the type of people to have around you because those are the people that are always going to root for you to win but also be the first people to put you in check and tell you when you’re wrong. Tell you how to make it right. To put that little boost of confidence in you when they find you slipping. The answer to the question is having good people around me, my best friends. Knowing it’s not always that way. I would hate to put out that image or that expectation that I’m always confident. I am a confident person, but it comes and then it pops out and then I have to pick it back up again.

‎Todd Kovalsky‎ would you like to know what is the biggest challenge you overcame as a kid and/or adult?

I struggled with my weight a lot when I was younger. I didn’t have a lot of people that looked like me growing up. I went to a predominantly white school. I was the darkest person at my school. I hadn’t seen people that look like me. I will never forget, I was watching TV one day. I had this confidence of why do I look different from everyone? The funny side of that is, why I’m confident? It’s where I feel like my beauty stems from. I am beautiful because my skin is dark versus when I was younger I didn’t think I was beautiful because my skin was dark. I watched Naomi Campbell in an interview and it was my first time seeing her on TV. She was in 20/20 with Diane Sawyer or something. I don’t know. It’s the ’90s.

I see her come on TV and I looked at my mom who my mother had light skin. My father was dark. That’s why I would say I landed somewhere in the middle, but still much closer to my dad’s side. I saw Naomi Campbell come on the screen and I looked at my mom and I said, “She’s beautiful.” My mom said, “She is beautiful.” I said, “Do you think if she’s beautiful, that I could be beautiful too?” I remember that moment because I remember seeing the look in my mom’s eyes. It was the first time she realized like, “This is a complex for this girl.” She made it a point if somebody complimented me and said I was beautiful.

She’s ingrained in, “They think you’re beautiful because your skin is dark. When they’re complimenting your skin, your skin shines because you are dark.” It was a big thing that I went through. When I see young people struggling with similar things, whether it’s red hair or having freckles, being pale or also being dark, I wish I could get inside of their heads and say, “This is why you are you. This is what makes you unique.” When you’re younger, all you want to do is fit in. The things that separate you are the things that you try to hide from. As you become older, those are the things that you embrace because they do make you who you are.

I can’t imagine as beautiful as you are that you ever questioned that because you are gorgeous.

I knew I was beautiful at home and then I left home and then I didn’t know. I didn’t see anybody be it and hear it. It was one of those things where I was like, “You’re saying that because you have to say that because you’re my parent.”

Kids are always dismissive of what their parents think.

That’s the job. I get it. On the heels of that, Sally Hilger would like to know what life lesson has taken you the longest to learn?

To be patient with me, to be forgiving with myself. I’ve always held myself at such a high expectation in whatever it is that I was doing, whether it was like competing in a choir, a music contest or whatever. I’ve always had high expectations for what I wanted to do. Being patient with myself, being forgiving with myself, like I would be patient with a friend. I would forgive a friend who has taken me time to settle into it. I feel like I’m finally getting to a place where I’m more comfortable in that, more lenient in that. Even in the job that I do when you’re in front of thousands of humans at any given point of time. It’s easy to walk away from a situation or a scenario and be critical of yourself. There’s no such thing as perfect. Nothing’s ever going to be perfect. The only thing that I can do is put my best foot forward and if I mess up or make a mistake in life or work or things, the only thing I can do is the next time that same opportunity presents itself is to do better. To not beat me up for what was.

We’re almost at the end of our hour. We don’t want to go over and take up too much of your time. We’ll end with one last question. This is from Brittany Jewel and she asked, what’s your best training advice?

My best training advice is to do something that you love to do. You can do anything for X amount of time or X amount of days, but if it’s something if training is something that you want to do consistently and you’re doing it for the long haul, you have to enjoy doing it. If you’re setting this expectation of, “I want to get stronger or I want to lose weight.” Once that happens, once you hit the goal, then there’s nothing that commits you to then continuing to do it. If it’s something that you love doing, then you show up for it because you have the love and the passion for that something and that sport. Maybe it’s the fact that you get to do it with a group of people and you love that bonding from doing it with a group of friends.

You could do it for many different reasons, but you’ve got to find something you like to do. I promise you I’m not plugging Peloton, but that’s what I love much about what we offer at Peloton is that there are many different modalities. Whether you like cycling, running, strength training, Bootcamp and yoga. Everyone can come and everyone’s invited to the party. If you don’t like cycling, you don’t force yourself to fall in love with it. Find something that you love to do, try running. If you love to do it, you will continue to come back for the love of it. That love of it will keep you doing it, hopefully forever.

I’ve never felt that way at exercise before Peloton and I’ve been doing for three years. I love it.

We’ve all done that. We’ve all been in that class or something. You had a friend that said it worked for them and then you’re doing it. You dread driving there. There’s this point where you find something that you love to do and you’re mad. You’re pissed that you didn’t get to do it. You’re trying to leave work early, you’re calling in sick. You chat your girlfriends that you’re going to be late for dinner because you want to do that thing. Find that thing and then hold onto it.

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule to join us. We appreciate it. 

It’s been wonderful. Thank you. 

Thank you, Tom and Crystal. Thank you both so much. It was my honor and pleasure, honestly, to sit here with you and have this conversation. I’m happy that you wanted to sit down and chat.

You’ll have to come back when your book is out to promote it.

We’ll have to get ice cream before then but yes, we’ll sit down and we’ll do a book chat hopefully here soon.

I’ve got to figure it out. Write a book about ice cream.

It would be two pages. It would be a picture of me surrounded by ice cream.

That’s a great cover of a book. It’s all I’m saying. 

That’s a dream, honestly.

We are going to take you up on the ice cream date at Homecoming, just so you know. Thank you again for doing this.

Thank you. It’s nice to meet you.

—

That brings this episode to a close. What do you have in store for people next episode?

We have a very special guest, Panos Papadiamantis. He works for a company called PNOĒ. For those of you who are interested in heart rate training in particular, you are going to want to tune in. Or for any of you who are interested in VO2 Max test, you need to tune in. This is an amazing technology. I don’t usually like bringing in people who have nothing to do with Peloton. This is probably the only exception that I would make. This person does not ride a Peloton. However, you’re going to want to listen because what he does can change the way you calculate your exercise and your caloric intake to get the results you want. If training is your goal, if increasing output is your goal along with reducing the fat that you have, reducing your weight in a healthy manner, this is something you’re going to want to hear. It’s very cool. Taking the entire VO2 Max capability, that test, and completely minimizing it to the point that a home user can do it is very exciting stuff. I’m pumped to tell you all about it.

That’s what people have to look forward to. Until then, where can they find you?

People can find me at Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe. They can also find me on Instagram, Twitter on the Bike and of course the Tread, @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter, @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/TomOKeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/theclipout. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. Be sure and subscribe wherever you get your podcast so you’ll never miss an episode. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

Important Links:

• The Clip Out on Apple Podcasts
• Flywheel
• CBC article
• People Magazine article
• Barry’s
• USA today article
• Tunde Oyeneyin
• Daring Greatly
• A New Earth
• Let Love Have The Last Word
• Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe
• Crystal O’Keefe on Twitter
• @ClipOutCrystal on Instagram
• @RogerQBert on Twitter
• Facebook.com/TomOKeefe
• Facebook.com/theclipout
• https://www.Bicycling.com/news/a30983709/barrys-launches-barrys-ride/ https://www.USAToday.com/story/money/business/2020/02/18/how-robin-arzon-transformed-lawyer-peloton-instructor/4760395002/
• https://m.YouTube.com/watch?v=lcET1C5-Fug&feature=youtu.be
• https://People.com/sports/real-peloton-users-on-bike-tread/ https://www.CBC.ca/news/canada/toronto/echelon-workout-bike-peleton-injury-cut-1.5464103

About Tunde Oyeneyin

Tunde’s mission is to inspire and motivate other people to believe in the impossible. After years of struggling with her weight and self-confidence, Tunde fell in love with fitness and the doors it opened for her. Through a career as a celebrity makeup artist and brand educator, she discovered that she had a knack for teaching others to feel empowered and strong.

Tunde brings unparalleled positive energy to the Bike, fueled by personal experiences, perseverance and powerful playlists. There’s no doubt you’ll leave her classes feeling on top of the world.

• Here’s How »

• theclipout.com
• The Clip Out Facebook
• The Clip Out Twitter
• The Clip Out Instagram