TCO 195 | Reverse Dieting

195: Peloton Launches Battle for the Word ‘Spin’ plus our interview with Amanda Teel

TCO 195 | Reverse Dieting

 

Peloton sues over usage of the word “spin.”

More SoulCycles in the White House?

Peloton expands Taiwanese manufacturing.

Dr. Jenn Mann – Managing Peloton and ADHD.

What is Tom eating now that he’s doing MetPro?

Peloton was featured on Saturday Night Live.

Psychology Today talks about how SNL might have had good tips.

Kendall Toole was interviewed on CBS Los Angeles.

Insider.com talks to Jess King about intuitive eating.

Tomsguide.com lists the best shoes for your Peloton.

Shape.com picks their favorite heart rate monitors.

Peloton Closet – Torrey talks spring trends.

Forbes details the next batch of fitness disruptors.

Facebook is working on a smartwatch.

Sterling K. Brown has a Peloton.

Denis Morton finally retold his Golden Buddha story.

There’s a new Spring drop.

Wish DJ John Michael a happy birthday on February 24.

All this plus our interview with Amanda Teel!

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here

Peloton Launches Battle for the Word ‘Spin’ plus our interview with Amanda Teel

I was just saying our sleep schedules are finally getting back because we had a sick dog. We talked about this in the other podcast, but I never heard that a dog could sprain their tail.

That’s a new one. I didn’t know that that was a thing.

She was like a little busted Tigger.

She uses her tail too much to jump around.

We make her that happy. She sprained her tail, all wagging.

Sydney, my daughter, was like, “She’s literally too happy.”

We don’t have to worry about Sydney spraining her tail anytime soon. She’s fourteen and sullen.

Sullen as they come.

We had her all hopped up, the dog, not the fourteen-year-old, although not ruling it out. We had the dog all hopped up on meds. 

Poor baby. Plus I had to take her to the vet at 1:00 in the morning. We didn’t get home until 3:30 in the morning.

She’s over here sleeping. I think she’s okay. She’s over here conked out.

She wants to be near us, so it must not be that bad.

What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We have some new lawsuit news to cover. We have to revisit the presidential Peloton news and there’s some information happening at the Shin Ji plant. Of course, we’re going to have Dr. Jenn on and it will be our very first segment with Torrey from Peloton Closet.

Introducing the new segment, what a historic time. Save this issue. It will be a collector’s item. You can sell it. It’s like a rookie card.

There was the Peloton Saturday Night Live skit we have to cover and a whole bunch of other Peloton in the news, issues and some fun celebrity sightings and news about the apparel dropping.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyiHeart, wherever you find podcasts, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you would be so kind, maybe take a little time out of your day to leave us a review so people know we’re worth checking out. Here is a review for you, a sample if you will. Don’t just plagiarize it, that’s lazy. Come up with ideas on your own. Here’s what they had to say, this is from Hilltoprunner, “Have been listening for a long time. This podcast is the place for all things Peloton. I love how the content has increased and become longer,” which we’re increasing the content. “Current news, entertaining financial information with the always lively John Mills, the quick but helpful insights with Dr. Jenn Mann, the community interviews and as always, the completely PC humor from Tom and Crystal. Little sarcasm there, but they are hilarious. I can stay informed and entertained my entire commute with a single, up-to-date podcast. Keep it up.” Leaderboard name #Pocket_Nurse.

I’ve definitely seen #Pocket_Nurse on the leaderboard.

Thank you very much. Also, don’t forget, we have a YouTube page where you can watch these episodes in their entirety at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, be sure to subscribe to that as well so you never miss a video episode and you can check us out on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group and sign up for the newsletter at theclipout.com. There’s all of that. Let’s dig in, shall we?

Joining us is John Mills. John, how is it going?

It’s going well. How is it going? No grandpa shark shirt. It was dirty. I wear it a little too much.

I thought that was a commentary on the state of our oceans.

It can be bad too. I had to go with this regular old Peloton shirt.

Traditional cycling can be over the top. Share on X

You’ve got Peloton. It’s appropriate on a Peloton podcast. I’m in Alaska.

I’m in Gatlinburg.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

I was thinking like Florida or California. It’s cold here. We’re about to get 12 inches.

More snow. Good Lord.

It’s crazy.

I love snow and I’m tired of it. I’m over it.

Me too. I’m done with that.

At least we don’t have rolling blackouts here. I don’t want to jinx us. Moving into the world of Peloton, I believe it was Andy Warhol who said, “Eventually everyone would be involved in a Peloton lawsuit for fifteen minutes.”

Somebody said that.

There is a new one, this time over the word “spinning.”

Another new one. Originally Mad Dogg, who is the person who has the rights to the word spin, they’re the ones that sued Peloton. Now, Peloton is turning around and they’re like, “Nope, you can’t use spin all the time.”

The lawsuit that Mad Dogg filed in December 2020 was to get compensation for Peloton even making bikes. They’re saying, “We came up with spinning bikes, indoor cycling bikes so why are you even making them? You need to pay us for that and stop making them.”

I’m pretty sure they didn’t invent bikes if the artwork on the wallpaper at Subway restaurants tells us anything. 

That’s what I was thinking. Next they’re going to be like, “We invented wheels.”

Maybe if the Peloton had a big, giant front wheel and you could only ride it wearing a bowler, a handlebar mustache, and one of those one-piece boy’s swimsuits with shoulder straps.

Then they might have something.

You’re on it, Tom.

You have to watch them through Nickelodeon like VueMinder.

They all look like they’re going too fast. I may have taken it too far. They were saying they were the ones that invented indoor cycling bikes and their argument was, “Peloton needs to pay us because now they’re making an indoor cycling bike and we’re the ones who came up with that,” which always threw me because, how many other companies are making indoor cycling bikes?

I think there’s an argument to be made, but they needed to have made it many years ago while we were all still wearing acid wash jeans.

Also, Peloton is the first company that actually changed up those indoor bikes. Those indoor bikes were all the same, everybody was doing exactly the same thing. Peloton was like, “Let’s do something different.”

Every once in a while, you’ll see a story about Disney suing a daycare center for painting Mickey Mouse on the wall and the reason they do that is because if they don’t protect that copyright, at some point somebody will take them to court and say, “You didn’t sue these people. Why are you suing us?” They literally sued somebody for putting Spiderman on a kid’s tombstone. I think they worked it out where they were like, “Give us a dollar.”

“We’re going to let that one go.”

That’s why they have to do that. You can’t pick and choose. The fact that they haven’t sued all these other companies for the last 20, 30 years, I don’t know why all of a sudden they can wake up one day and go, “We care about it now.”

As it relates to this thing, a week or two after that, Peloton announces, “We acquired Precor,” and Precor had a licensing agreement with Mad Dogg and they made bikes in the past for them using that term spinning on those bikes. That’s where this all comes to. Does this latest thing relate to either of those two things? Three months later, Peloton files its patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office. They’re going, “You guys need to cancel their trademark,” because it’s not like they’re really competing in this space. They’re just using this to litigate. They are all over the place suing everybody. I don’t know if there is a basis for that. I’m not an attorney but that’s basically what Peloton is saying, which makes you think it relates in some way with those other two things.

I don’t know that they’ll win, but I also don’t think it’s a crazy argument.

I agree with both of those statements. I’m not confident Peloton is going to win this one.

This is the area where companies lose their trademarks. I think linoleum fell into the public domain in quite that same way. If something becomes the generic term and part of the reason they sue a lot of people is to try and stop it from becoming generic. Like you said, they don’t really seem to be competing in this space. Also, I guess Peloton doesn’t use the word spin, they go out of their way to not. To the point when we were trying to come up with a name for this podcast, some of our initial concepts for names involve the word spin and then when we realized that spin was trademarked, we were like, “I’m not going down that road.”

Unlike some people out there.

I’m glad we didn’t, I like our names very much but we knew that that could be potentially problematic. Since Peloton didn’t say spin, it seemed a weird word to associate ourselves with.

Don’t get me wrong, Mad Dogg has a bike and they used the word spinning on it. They’re not competitive in this space. They also evolved with the connected fitness as it started to come to be, they evolved with it. Again, they’re not a major player anymore in this. The argument is they’re not competitive yet they spend a lot of time in litigation, just litigating this term. It seems like if Peloton won, it would be more of damage to Mad Dogg, but I don’t know how much it would mean. Who’s going to go back now and start naming everything? “A spin studio spinning this,” who’s going to use that?

I feel like it does more to signal like, “You’re basic.” I feel like it does more to say, “You no longer have a place to do this.” It’s not so much going back and changing things. It’s like drawing a line in the sand to make a very clear distinction. It’s saying to the world, “You’re no longer a competitor in the space.” It’s making a public declaration of that. I could be wrong, I don’t know but that’s what it feels more about to me. I don’t know why Peloton would start using that word now. Unless, with what they’re doing with Precor, they’re going down a road we can’t even imagine that would involve that somehow they’re using that in their commercial line.

I can’t help but think it’s like Mad Dogg and fights over the word spin have been the bane of everyone’s existence for years. I almost wonder if it’s just their attempt to finally drive a stake through the heart of Mad Dogg. If you took away their ownership of the word spin, they pretty much cease to exist at this point.

That’s what I was trying to say. It’s a public declaration of like, “You’re done. Get out. Stop.”

If they were to win this. It’s a bit of a Hail Mary, but not a crazy one. If they were to win this, it’s a game set match. I don’t know what else they have to do all day.

I was thinking the same thing. I’m also thinking, is it strategic? Is it a means to say, “You probably should go drop your suit?” Mad Dogg has that suit open against Peloton. Is this a means to get them to go?

It could be because if they lose this one, then they certainly don’t have the rights to go and sue Peloton for having a spin bike. It could be strategic as well.

It would be nice and then Mad Dogg could turn around and just focus on their fine brand of liquors.

I don’t think that it’s the same Mad Dogg.

A story with that.

Are you sure you want to tell this now?

I was not a drinker. As a kid, I never drank.

You’re not supposed to drink as a kid. You wouldn’t brag about that. You’re not supposed to.

Everyone around me did. Anyways, at 21 I decided, “We’re legal. We can get something to drink. Let’s see what we can get to drink.” We go to this liquor store in California and I was looking at what’s the highest proof. I didn’t know anything about liquor and what’s the highest proof. The highest proof at this store was this liquor called Mad Dog. That’s what I got. I’m like, “That’s what I’m supposed to get.” That was wrong.

How did that turn out? 

It was horrible. I spent all night trying to mix it with everything so I could drink it.

You can’t. There’s nothing that’s going to kill that. 

It was terrible.

It’s a means to an end.

The reason it’s the highest proof is because its only function is to get you drunk. That’s the only thing it’s trying to do. 

I learned that on my 21st birthday.

This is what happens when you don’t start drinking before you turn 21.

There it is.

You’ve got to sample before. Just kidding. To any kids reading, don’t sample and do not take drinking advice from us, ever.

Never take drinking advice from the Irish.

That’s true story.

Moving along, there was a story about Jill Biden and her indoor cycle of choice.

What is happening now? She does SoulCycle too? 

I’m all confused. The story has nothing to do with SoulCycle. It so happened I saw the word SoulCycle in the article and I’m like, “What?” The story is about how on Valentine’s Day, Jill Biden does fun things. She decided to put all these hearts on the White House lawn and her and the president went out, they were drinking coffee around all these hearts, and they said things like love and courage. Then they cut to an interview with her granddaughter who goes, “She’s a really fun person. She’s the kind of person that would wake us up at 5:00 in the morning and we would do SoulCycle.” I was like, “Another person doing SoulCycle? Kamala and now, Jill is doing SoulCycle?”

There’s the liberal media sitting on these scandals until after the election. Why are we just finding this out?

It’s going to be critical and pertinent information for me.

I’m starting to think there’s another reason Joe didn’t have his Peloton in the White House. I’m starting to think this is some cover-up.

The women in his life put their collective foot down. This doesn’t have anything to do with the Secret Service.

This has nothing to do with the camera in the bike.

Not a thing. We are getting to the bottom of this scandal. We’re tackling the stories the other outlets are scared to go after.

We need a reporter on the ground.

I want a little press hat.

I nominate you, John. You’re the closest.

I need a fedora.

If I can get into that White House press room, that’s the first question I’m asking. “What about the SoulCycle thing?”

We don’t care about North Korea.

“COVID and everything but look, what about the SoulCycle?”

Bob Treemore found an interesting article that we’re not entirely sure how to interpret, not just because it was in Chinese.

I said it to John because I was like, “Say what now?” It’s confusing because it says that Qimei is returning to Taiwan to invest in building a smart factory. It talks about major fitness and all of these things and there’s a whole bunch to it. What I cannot tell is, is it truly about Peloton? I asked Bob Treemore and he says that Qimei translates to Magtonic in English. 

I’m not saying he’s wrong. I’m like, “Magtonic is not a word. How does it translate to a nonword?”

I don’t know. I was going to put you on the spot and ask him. 

John, you’re fluent in Mandarin.

I’m brushed up on it. I’ll try to recall. I was out and about and you send me the text. I opened up the link and it didn’t open up in my browser on my phone like it was an embedded browser. It didn’t translate it. I’m like, “This is not translated. I really can’t read any of this.”

I got hacked.

He’s just agreeing with me. He’s like, “Yeah, that could be.”

I basically had to copy the link and I went over to Chrome, but I got it. The reason I thought what Bob said might have some credence is I remember doing all these researches on Reckson. It would always say a different name for Reckson. I was always going, “Who’s that?”

I remember you telling me that.

I found out that the term that it translates to means Reckson. I didn’t get how those translated, but finally I was like, “Okay,” so when he says that about Magtonic, I guess that has some credence.

We’re going to assume that it’s true. The whole point to this article is that they’re investing in a smart factory. There are some major changes happening if that’s the case, if this is true. They’re going to be introducing a robotic arm and it’s going to be putting the bikes together for the first time ever.

TCO 195 | Reverse Dieting

Reverse Dieting: The downside to dieting for such a long period of time is that your body starts to adapt to that intake.

 

I thought it was like if you weren’t pedaling enough, it would smack you.

That’s a 2022 add-on and it will smack you from Taiwan.

That arm has a little hand at the end, it’s got water in it and you can drink straight from the robot hand. It’s a mold of John Foley’s hand.

It only comes with the Tread.

Down the arm is a tube that keeps putting water into it.

That seems difficult to drink.

It’s a movable arm, John. Think it through. 

I’m slow on that one.

This is going to change everything because they’ve been putting all these bikes together in America. They’re going to be able to put it together with a robot. This is going to go a lot faster. In theory, it will make the quality assurance much higher. 

Based on the time that this article was written, which was like three months or so prior to Peloton purchasing Magtonic, they talked over they’re about to build a new facility, which we know at the time, Magtonic was about to build another facility. They were talking about that it wouldn’t open for a year, which was the same thing with Magtonic. That’s why these things overlap. It makes you think, “Maybe this is the same.” I don’t know if it is, but it does make you wonder. If that was the case then I would assume those are already happening. Facilities are already up and running.

That would make sense. They’re talking about how much bigger the capacity is. It’s coming out a lot faster, they’re ahead of demand. All of those things make sense, but we have to rely on the Taiwanese news because that’s where it gets put together. That is an old article. We don’t know if it’s actually about Peloton and if it’s already in place.

The article was making a generalization. It was saying, at the time tariffs were higher if you are shipping out of China because of the trade war. It was talking about how manufacturers were moving plants to Taiwan so they could get around all these tariffs. It wasn’t just any singular manufacturer. It was like all manufacturers were going, “We’ve got to move to Taiwan.” That’s the side of it that makes you go, “I guess it could be Magtonic.” Maybe it’s just another manufacturer, I’m not sure.

We felt everybody needed to know.

There you go, now you know. We’re here to help. Are we though?

It’s entertaining if nothing else.

I guess that’s it. Where can people find you?

They can find me on Facebook at my Run, Lift and Live Group or page. They can find me on Instagram, @RunLiftAndLive or at RunLiftAndLive.com.

While we’re speaking of Bob Treemore, he also had another interesting find.

We have talked several times on the show, we think that soon Peloton will be expanding their classes into other languages. We also think that it is very likely that Spanish will be the next language that they’ll move to. Bob has been watching that and John Foley mentioned it in a meeting and he talked about upcoming additional foreign language support. Right after that, there were two new studio production jobs opened up and they both require proficiency in Spanish.

Back again is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and most importantly for our purposes, sports psychology consultant. You may know her from VH1’s Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn or VH1’s Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn, her long-running radio show, The Dr. Jenn Show. She’s written four best-selling books, including The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy.

We have another great question from The Clip Out group. This one is from Aaron Lavin and he would like to ask you about staying focused on Peloton with his ADD. He says that originally Peloton captured his attention but over the last few years, he’s done almost every class with every instructor and now, he drifts off in his head. Do you have any thoughts for him?

I do. I have a lot of thoughts. First of all, the question becomes, is it a good drift off or a bad drift off? For example, one of the things that I find personally, and as you know I’m obsessed with my Peloton, is that a lot of the time I come up with some of my best ideas and I have a real creative spout on the Peloton. My brain is getting all of that oxygen and I find that I come up with great ideas, whether it’s about my next column, a book I want to write or a post that I’m going to do, or solving a problem for a client or my family. I think that first of all, you want to give yourself the room that your brain is getting all this oxygen.

If it’s helping you come with ideas, you may want to keep a small pad by your tread or bike or nearby where you can write down some ideas that you have. That way, you can also let them go, because sometimes what happens is you get a great idea and then you’re like, “I’m afraid I’ll forget it.” It distracts you and you can’t focus on the rest of the class and then you’re screwed. I think that sometimes that can be very valuable. One of the things that we talk about a lot in sports psychology is a state of mind called flow. Flow is this concept that was created by this guy. I’ll never get his last name right, but his first name is Mihaly.

Anyway, Mihaly came up with this idea about flow. Flow is the state of mind that you get into, where you lose track of time, where what you’re doing becomes effortless, it’s like how you’re playing. If you think of the best workout you’ve ever had or when I was a rhythmic gymnast competing, I think about the best competition I ever had, you’re in flow when you do that. Even sometimes if you’re driving your car, you’ve had the experience where all of a sudden you’re like, “I don’t remember driving the last 2 miles.” That’s a form of flow. If you can get into flow while you are exercising, it tends to make time pass quickly.

It tends to make the workout a whole lot more fun. It makes it way more enjoyable. It makes you feel great. It’s wonderful when you can get into that. Part of how you get into that is by trying to be in the moment and trying to center yourself. I’m going off to the side and coming back, you’ll see how it’s related. I love Ross Rayburn’s meditations. The reason why I love Ross Rayburn’s meditations, if you haven’t done them, is that Ross always talks about, “Your mind may be wandering. That’s okay, that’s part of this meditation. You may be fidgeting right now in this sleep meditation. That’s part of the meditation.” I love that I can’t get enough of Ross’ meditation for that very reason because it helps you not judge yourself and become self-conscious about what you’re doing, which derails you from what you’re doing.

It’s the same thing when it comes to what this guy’s talking about, that when you’re working out and you find your mind wandering. If you don’t give yourself permission to let your mind wander, what ends up happening is then you beat yourself up for your mind wandering, which takes you out of your workout, distracts you, and makes it harder to get on track. Now, you’re branding yourself like, “I have ADD. This is terrible. I should be able to focus. This workout is going to suck,” and you go down the rabbit hole. You don’t want to do that. I think that sometimes you’ve got to give yourself permission to say, “My brain is getting a lot of oxygen. If I’m enjoying the path that my mind is wandering down, that’s okay, I’m going to keep my legs moving and I’m going to enjoy this process.”

We have to figure out what works for us. There are some days where maybe we need to let our mind wander and have some cool ideas and other days where we need to be more focused. If this is bothering him, then what I recommend is doing some meditations on a regular basis to help you be more mindful and probably doing some yoga classes to help you get centered. Also checking out the book Flow that’s all about that state of mind to help you figure out how you can get more flow in your life. I’m addicted to flow. I love flow. It’s one of life’s great joys. Understanding what it is can help you to get there better.

When you have more muscle mass, your body burns more calories overall. Share on X

That’s excellent advice.

This is what my mind did when you started talking about flow.

I could understand why your mind would wander.

All of a sudden I’m connecting all these pop culture dots in my head. Thank you very much for all that. Before we let you go, remind everybody where they can find you in between episodes.

You can find me on all social media @DrJennMann. I always post where else I am on TV, radio and my InStyle magazine column, Hump Day with Dr. Jenn. I’m also on Insta Stories. I post all of my Peloton workouts.

How has MetPro been treating you?

It’s good. I get to eat a whole bunch of carbs. I’m on the highest level of up-adjust that there is for women. Apparently, I am such a good eater. I’m so talented at eating that only 5% of women get to this part. I can eat a lot.

Congrats. I don’t think that’s really what they were saying but if there’s a way to turn it into an insult, you’ll find it.

If I don’t, somebody out there will and then they’ll send me a nasty message about it. All joking aside, what’s cool about it is that I got to have cheat meals and since my life has changed so much, apparently a cheat meal is having almond chickpea cookie dough. It was delicious.

I think the cheating part is the fact that they called it a cheat meal.

It was my choice. How’s it treating you?

Obviously, there are limited things I can eat. We’ve talked before about what a weird eater I am. They’re not happy with what I’m eating, but I am eating within their parameters so they wouldn’t recommend this to regular people who eat like normal adults. Angelo was granting me a special dispensation.

Angelo and I are just cheering that we got a tomato in you.

Accidentally. It’s tomato sauce.

It’s a purée tomato.

I like tomato sauce. It’s like pizza sauce so it’s basically like I’m drinking a pizza.

We’re happy about that.

The first day there were many eggs. They want me to eat seven eggs. I was like, “This is like some old timey boxer diet. What are you doing? Am I trying to fight Joe Lewis?”

That’s because you were eating low carb and high protein, they were trying to keep you on that and then slowly wean you off of it. The problem is that you were eating so much over the day and they were trying to front load your protein to the front of the day.

There’s all sorts of science to what they’re doing and I’m not scientifically or math-minded so I just shut up and do what they tell me. As long as it’s something I can choke down, that’s what I do. They backed off on the eggs because I was like, “I can’t eat these many eggs.” 

You started turning green. You were like, “Really, I’m full.”

For lunch its chicken on a corn tortilla. You buy all the stuff and then I slap it together.

What did you call it?

A burrito blanket. It keeps your burrito warm. For dinner, it’s normally 6 ounces of beef or turkey and they said three cups of tomatoes. This was literally like half a jar of Ragu.

It was an entire jar.

I was just like, “You can’t be serious. You can’t want me to eat all that.” He was like, “Just eat as much as you can.” I’m doing a cup and a half, but it’s a lot of food.

The cool thing is you’re never hungry. Also, the cool thing is that we have different needs and we’re in two different places.

We talked to a follower who’s been doing it for a while. He’s doing something radically different than either of us is doing. It’s very tailored to what your tastes are. They have a lot of options and I’m making fun of it, but honestly I’ve probably never eaten healthier because I’m eating chicken and a little bit of cheese and corn tortillas. Nothing is chemical. They don’t have a shake they’re trying to sell you or a pill or anything.

It’s not a fad diet. It’s real food. That’s the best part about it. I am almost two months in and I’ve lost about 8 to 10 pounds. I’m on my up-adjust, so it’s on the eight side. I’ve lost 8 inches. Where are you?

I think I’m more like five weeks in, because there was a gap where Angelo and I were playing phone tag a little bit before we got up and running. I’ve lost 7 pounds.

We’re very happy with where we’re going with this. It’s fun to see how different your food is from my food. It’s accessible. It’s all things you can easily get from the grocery store, which is a big plus for me.

Like I said, they’re not selling you food. It’s nothing weird. You can go to a grocery and buy all the stuff we’re eating. It’s regular, just chicken and stuff.

It’s more about the science than anything crazy that they’re doing.

We will keep you posted. If you want to check it out yourself, you can go to Metpro.co/tco and what do you get?

You get up to a month free. They’ll walk you through the different options and then figure out which is the best match for you. We’re happy to answer questions for people. Just reach out to us.

You’ve probably seen it but in case you haven’t, Peloton was on SNL in a manner of speaking.

There are all the instructors. It was about Peloton, “You’ve heard of Peloton but maybe their instructors don’t work for you. You might need a Pelotaunt.”

It was like Peloton but the instructors say crappy things to you.

Passive-aggressive things. It was pretty funny. I have two favorites. One is when they have the fisheye camera behind him and he’s like, “Look how big my ass looks.” My other favorite is when she’s like, “If you tell me I can, then I can’t. I won’t and I’m going to go smoke a cigarette.”

I like the one where she was like, “You’re doing great for just having had a baby. I didn’t have a baby,” and she was like, “Maybe one day.” 

It was fun.

One of the things I liked about it too though, there are many times where the joke is that this is how Peloton instructors are and they’re not at all. I liked the fact that it tacitly acknowledges that this is not what a Peloton instructor is. I think, two years ago a sketch like this, the joke would have been that this is how Peloton instructors are.

It wouldn’t have been accurate.

Not at all, but it’s reached a tipping point in culture where people know that the Peloton instructors aren’t yelling at you.

It’s great. I love that they’ve made it to Saturday Night Live officially.

I was bummed that Leslie Jones wasn’t there because she’s such a Peloton fanatic. It would have been great. She could always help write jokes because she’s a professional comedian, I don’t know if you know that or not. It would have been right in her wheelhouse because she loves it and spends so much time on it. She probably would have had a unique take on it. On the heels of that, Psychology Today had an article about how that sketch taught you how to build exercise habits.

I’m not going to go through this whole thing because it’s a long article, but the takeaway is that shockingly, that actually can help some people. They go through the science of what that is.

First off, it’s a motivation that you’ve seen in sports for a long time. It’s why I hate them and want nothing to do with them. It is a motivating factor for some people. Some people will find that very effective, if you tell me I can’t then I’ll show you, but other people will be like, “Go after yourself.”

That’s you.

That’s what I am.

It’s a well-written science-y article so it’s not fun, but I thought it was great to hear, “That is effective for some people and here’s why.”

InsideHook had an article about, “Are people falling in love with their Peloton instructors?” There are always weirdos out there that think that.

If you read the article, it talks about it’s a connection. Especially with the pandemic, people are looking for a connection and that it’s a special one because your Peloton instructors are there for you every day. They tell you nice things about yourself and they’re constantly supportive and good for you. When you put it like that, yes, they’re the perfect relationship. I always assumed that a lot of people just said that, they were being silly. I know there are people out there that get creepy.

It’s no different than people that have a crush on a singer in a band or an actress or what, it don’t make them weird. You’re on your screen all the time, that’s going to happen for some people.

To me, it’s a connection that people have. It’s not being “in love with them,” and I hope people aren’t really in love with the instructors because it makes me sad for them if they are. That’s a lonely place to be.

Hopefully it’s like they feel a connection, not that they are in love with them. That would be problematic.

Also, it might be why there are now security guards with all the instructors.

For the people that are in love with an instructor and they’re wrong.

The instructor does not love you back in that way.

They do not.

It’s a fun article though. It’s cute. I don’t think I remember to put it in here so I’m going to say it here. We had talked about the high-five and the flirts and everything. Right after we had that discussion, Peloton put out a survey to the Peloton Singles Group and they asked a bunch of questions about how they connect with people on the leaderboard. It was really funny. If you guys haven’t checked it out, check out the Peloton blog post about that because they go through and they have all of these statistics about how people interact in the singles group and on the bike and what high-fives mean. The most fascinating by far to me was that 50% of the people feel that it’s not flirting and 50% of the people feel that it is. It’s just what you want to see.

Does that mean the men think they’re flirting and the women think they’re not?

It was definitely a mixture of both based on the quotes that they had included in there. It was a neat little blog post. I liked it. It was a good follow-up to an earlier article too.

Kendall was on CBS LA.

There was a whole interview about her entire backstory. If you haven’t gotten to see Kendall’s backstory, you don’t know Kendall’s backstory, you need to check this out. There wasn’t anything that stood out to me that was a-ha but she did talk a little bit about the struggles she’s had with a little bit of body image and things like that but it’s always great to get the background of the instructor. I love seeing that they’re highlighted in this way.

It always fascinates me when an instructor talks about body image issues. It’s just like the grass is always greener. Insider.com had an article about Jess King and her counting carbs or lack thereof.

What this article is about is intuitive eating. It’s what Dr. Jenn Mann has talked about many times. Whenever you read the headline, it sounds like she doesn’t need to, like she’s above that, but it’s about eating what she’s feeling and that she makes sure to have a healthy relationship with food. If you are curious about the details of what her and her girlfriend eat, there are details in here. Overall, she’s saying she has a very healthy relationship with food, which is great.

Tom’s Guide had an article about the best shoes for your Peloton. To take this seriously, you should know that Tom’s Guide is not affiliated with me so they actually know what they’re talking about.

There was nothing that stood out to me. I’ve had my bike for a couple of years and until 2021, I’ve never seen anybody have an article about the best shoes for your Peloton and I’ve seen two. It’s funny. The word Peloton gets the clicks. It’s funny to me, they also included that the Peloton cycling shoes are the best for your bike because many people say that’s not true, they don’t like the Peloton Cycling Shoes. I like the Peloton Cycling Shoes. I also have the old-school white ones. A lot of people have the black ones and they don’t like them as much, but I don’t like the little closures on the black ones. The white ones, I’ve had for four years and still kicking them.

You didn’t get new ones when you got the Bike+? You just kept the old ones?

They didn’t give me any. I would’ve had to buy them separately and my shoes are fine. It’s like, “Do I need to spend another $120?” It’s not like I’m wearing them around and so I’m wearing them out. You don’t walk in them like my tennis shoes.

I was like, “Who are you? What have you done with my wife?”

First of all, they’ve become a collector thing because people who ride the bike now are like, “I want the white ones.” When I had the white ones, back then all I wanted was the black ones. I think that’s funny, they’re a collector item. Seriously, you don’t wear out your bike shoes. It’s not like you’re putting pressure on them in the same way as if you were walking. Everything I’ve read says you don’t need to replace them that often.

I’m not complaining about you not buying clothes and stuff.

Now I’m going to buy a new pair.

What was I thinking?

I don’t know, but you ruined it.

The heart rate monitor you have is amazing and you don’t need a new one. 

Have you noticed that Shape Magazine lately has been throwing out Peloton this, Peloton that?

I think I commented on it on the other episode. I was like, “Yet another Peloton article from Shape.”

TCO 195 | Reverse Dieting

Reverse Dieting: The nutrition world is an unregulated field. Just because somebody says they’re a nutrition coach doesn’t mean anything, and the same goes with nutritionists.

 

They have been on a real role. I don’t know if Peloton and Shape teamed up for some PR campaign for 2021 or what, but they keep adding things. We’ve got the best heart rate monitors per Shape Magazine. There are many good heart rate monitors out there. You probably already know these. I don’t know why they need two Wahoos and two Polars, by the way. A lot of people go with the Scosche. I didn’t like that. It irritated me, it kept dying. I loved my Garmin. I miss my Garmin. There are lots of good ones though. If you need to know, we’re going to send it out in the newsletter so you’ll have the article, but I don’t think you need to spend a ton of money on a heart rate monitor.

Joining us is Torrey from Peloton Closet

Welcome back. We have another fun question for you, this is totally outside of my purview. What are the upcoming trends that people can watch for this spring? What’s the hot stuff? When they see it, they can buy it. They can just know. “Torrey, are they in? Are they doing the right thing or should they pass?”

To spread a little bit of background, athleisure and activewear is the fastest-growing category in fashion. It is predicted to be a sector worth nearly 550 billion by 2024. There is money to be made. There are many new players in the game and all of the brands are trying to follow the larger fashion trends of more in the ready-to-wear sector, get eyes on their product, and to blow up and have the hot new thing that everyone wants to buy. I’ve looked at what’s coming out, both in regular fashion, but also in athletic fashion and come up with about five different trends that we’ll be seeing on our Peloton instructors and in the activewear sector coming up this spring. Let’s dive in.

First of all, color. None of this is rocket science. We all know springtime is those pastels, those really pretty light colors that help us feel like, “The cold weather is gone. I’m getting ready to spend time outside again and be in nature.” Those pretty blush, blue, lavender and pale green. We’re seeing a lot of that. There’s a super trendy brand right now, they mostly sell on Instagram. A lot of influencers are wearing it and it’s called SET Active.

Olivia posted in one of their very pretty light blue set. They sell sets, it’s like a sports bra and leggings or a top and leggings. It’s a set. Olivia, who is like a fashion trendsetter for Peloton, posted in one of these outfits. We’re going to see a lot more of these matching sets in pretty pastel colors SET Active sells. If you even look at what they call their colors, one’s called Baby, one’s called Blush and one’s called Oat Milk. Those pretty light colors, I think we’ll be seeing a lot of. Another one, again a no-brainer, florals for spring.

Are these going to be the big florals? Are these going to be the small florals? Are we talking like an old lady dress?

Grandma couch. 

What I’ve been seeing are these pretty delicate, floral prints. A brand called Beach Riot, which I’ve seen Leanne wear a lot of and other instructors, did a collaboration with a ready-to-wear brand called LoveShackFancy. It’s these really pretty pastel florals, delicate floral prints. We will be seeing a lot of that. I saw Olivia wearing a sports bra that everyone went nuts for that was like little delicate roses printed on it. It’s that delicate floral, not the grandma couch, Tom, sorry. Big and bold is more of a winter look and spring is a softer, delicate look. We’ll see some of that coming out.

I’ve heard some of the problems with the LoveShack sports bras is they only come in one size, B52.

I knew it was coming.

It’s very fancy of you, Tom.

You made her speechless. She’s like, “What do I do with that?”

Moving on from that, I’m going to let that one go. Another big trend that we’re going to see again is things that have been in regular fashion but are obvious for athletic fashion as well, are the cutouts and the asymmetry. Throughout the winter, I’ve been seeing a lot more of the one-shoulder bras on Peloton instructors. I’ve seen Kendall, Jess Sims, Rebecca Kennedy and the one-shoulder bras are getting to be more and more popular. Now I see more and more options. When I first started looking for a one-shoulder bra, there wasn’t that much out there and more and more brands are coming out with a one-shoulder bra or an asymmetric look where maybe there’s a thicker shoulder strap on one side and a thinner one on the other.

I have a question. As a boy not being pervy but for real, does that work?

To me, I’ve tried wearing one before and I felt very exposed and I also felt like things weren’t going to stay where they needed to be.

I hear you. That’s a great question and it’s a question a lot of my followers have been asking as well. I’ll speak from my experience. I would not run a marathon in a one-shoulder bra, that’s for sure. I did have a follower who sent me a pic and she had her beautiful one-shoulder bra on and said, “I just finished an 8-mile run.” I was like, “That’s working.” It depends on A) the fit of the bra and B) your anatomy. There are some ladies that’s not going to work for. What’s nice is that I see more and more brands, All Access and Alo are coming out with a one-shoulder look, where they’ll have a much more supportive strap on one side and then a thinner strap on the other side. You do have some symmetry and you’re supported on both sides, but one is thicker, decorative, maybe there’s a cutout. One is maybe a thinner strap, but also in the back, it’s where all the engineering goes and they are engineered to have more support from the back and going to the front. I would say for bike, lifting, a barre class, stretching, yoga, hard yes. For running, you do you. I do not necessarily advocate.

You may not want to head right outside to the pavement. You might want to do a trial run inside and see how that works before you head outside. What else do you see in?

This one surprised me because I don’t have the confidence in my personal life to rock this look, but I’ve been seeing many followers who were excited about the Peloton instructors wearing the one piece, jumpsuits and onesies. Ally Love wore one in green and white made by a brand that’s from Canada called Twenty Montreal. I got so many DMs, people were like, “Where do I get this? How do I get this?” I see more and more brands. Free People Movement has a bunch of onesies, Koral has a new onesie, Ultracor has one. Every brand has a onesie and people seem super psyched to wear them. We could be seeing more of that.

I cannot even imagine, I would feel uncomfortable in it.

It sounds like an old-timey swimming suit.

What was that movie that we watched, or maybe it was a TV show, where the guy got up and he would go swimming every morning and his whole family made fun of him because it was old school?

It was Mrs. Maisel.

That’s what it reminds me of. You have to have a certain body to pull that off, in my mind, that’s my issue. More power to the women that can and feel comfortable and confident. I am all for it, but I could not do that. 

It surprised me but I love that you don’t necessarily have to have Ally Love’s figure to rock this look. You do you. The beauty of working out on your Peloton is that you’re dressing for you. No one has to see how you look in that onesie. Rock it. It’s fabulous. I salute everyone who wears one.

A little fun fact. Jess King, the very first instructor, Home Rider Invasion we went to was a few years ago and she was wearing one all the way back then. It was solid gold and she intimidated the hell out of me. I was like, “I cannot go talk to her. That’s too much.”

All the instructors she was like, “Let’s get our picture taken with the instructor.” On this one, she was like, “You take the picture. You’re not getting your picture taken with this instructor.”

I was like, “You’re staying far away from her, Tom.” He has no idea. It’s funny. It was really intimidating to me. Again, that is clearly my issue, not anybody else’s issue. I am well aware of that.

The final trend that I’m seeing that I hope isn’t really a trend, but it is something that we see more and more of, is sustainable fabrics and sustainable manufacturing. Especially spring, we think about the Earth, Earth Day, and conservation. Obviously, fashion is not great for the environment. There are a lot of issues, but the manufacturing process, packaging, all of it, is not well-known for being super Earth-friendly. We see a lot more brands with a commitment to sustainable fabric, sustainable manufacturing, trying to reduce waste and using recycled packaging. Girlfriend Collective is a brand that I’ve seen on a number of instructors and they use recycled plastic bottles in their items. PE Nation is a brand out of Australia, very chic and high-end. I’ve seen Kendall wearing it and they released a spring fashion line that’s a capsule collection called Conscious Nation.

It’s committed to using sustainable materials and processes. Even Athleta, which is a brand that’s part of the Gap family, they say that 76% of their materials are made with sustainable fibers. It’s hopefully something that’s going to not just be a trend but that we’ll be seeing a lot more of. Brands understand this is important to consumers and especially the type of consumers that are buying these higher-end items are thinking about the impact that they make. My followers, they don’t like to help the fast fashion brands. They don’t want that. They want a brand that is a little bit more conscientious and you want to be helping the Earth, not harming the Earth. As you’re getting healthy, let’s keep our planet healthy too.

As the public has become more concerned about stuff like that, it’s easier for manufacturers to make those choices because they know it’s a selling point, in a way where previously it had just been a cause that might’ve been the right thing to do. If nobody cared about, it just made them less competitive. Now it’s a natural selling point. That helps a lot.

I love that you included that one. I’ve watched TV shows where they’ve talked about that. In fashion, in general, I have never heard anybody specifically talking about it in the world of workout clothes. I’m really glad to hear that that is starting to happen. That is the best spring trend you brought up, in my opinion. They’re all fascinating, but that’s my favorite.

Save the best for last. Thank you very much for joining us. Until next time, where can people find you?

You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at PelotonCloset and I post daily fashion updates. I also have a website, Peloton Closet. I also ride my bike and take classes as PelotonCloset, but you won’t find me unless you are really bad because I’m at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Forbes.com had an article about how Apple Fitness is just the beginning of people trying to take a piece of the Peloton pie.

Here’s the thing, when I went through and read this, my assumption was this was really about Peloton too, but it’s not. What it is, it’s saying that Apple Fitness and all of these companies coming after are disrupting everything else out there. It doesn’t address Peloton specifically. It’s saying, “Everything that’s happening right now, we’re going to have a whole new wave of it.” What you see right there is a picture of a woman doing yoga. There is a sensor or a group of sensors that are placed on her and it is allowing her to work with this new app that as she does yoga, it gives direct feedback to the company and they can tell her how to correct and perfect her yoga moves. What this article is saying, there are all these new feedback devices that are coming out to market and it’s going to completely change everything again. What we see today, it’s all going to be different. It’s not directed at Peloton. I find it fascinating.

It’s also more damage to traditional gyms because you don’t need a personal trainer to watch you and you’re also not left to the vagaries of their interpretation of what you’re doing, or if they’re even watching you sometimes. It’s all done mechanically.

They’re still working with a personal trainer on that app. I think so, it’s like the feedback and then I don’t know. I didn’t check into that piece of it. I assumed there was still somebody interacting at some point.

Be open-minded with different physical fitness classes and different instructors. Share on X

VirtuRide Cycling was written up in DigitalJournal.com. Is this what it sounds like, you wear VR and ride an indoor bike?

What it’s really about is that they’re saying that the whole reason they put this in is they’re trying to take on Peloton single-handedly. They think that because they can ride indoors, they’re amazing. What this is, is that they have found a way very similar to what you do with your venue about having the recycled air at family arena. They have figured out a way to have complete recycled air in the room. That is great because that allows people to still be able to cycle in a room together and because they’re able to do that, supposedly they haven’t had any COVID cases. I’m a little skeptical of that because they’re in Florida, which is one of the highest COVID rates in the country. There are a lot of people that are not taking COVID seriously in Florida.

There are a lot of people everywhere that are not taking COVID seriously so I shouldn’t pick on Florida. I find that hard to believe because their rates are so high, but they say they haven’t had a COVID case. I know with your facility, having that open air going through there makes a huge difference but they’re going to be able to survive and thrive and they’re going to take on Peloton with their classes. That’s what I thought. I think they just want a Peloton in the title.

This last story isn’t technically about competitors, but I wasn’t sure where else to file it so it goes here. Facebook is working on their own smartwatch.

You might remember a while back, they had their own phone or maybe you don’t because it didn’t go well. A lot of people think that’s what is going to happen with this watch. To be clear, that’s what a lot of people think, but regardless, they’re coming out with their own watch. They say that it’ll be out in 2022 and they made a point to say, “It’s going to connect with a whole bunch of hardware, including Peloton.” You’re not going to need your phone, you’re not going to need anything else. Your watch is going to connect directly to your Peloton and it’s going to be able to track everything right on it. The other interesting thing about this is that it’s all connected through Facebook. A lot of people don’t necessarily like Facebook’s information-gathering processes.

Facebook has had a lot of PR nightmares over the last few years.

That’s a big question mark about this too, because it all goes through Facebook. In theory, it’d be easy to share your workout, but what are they getting from you when you share it? That’s the big question. I don’t know what’s going to end up happening and it’s still quite a ways away, but I thought it was fascinating that they made a point to mention that it was going to work with fitness hardware, but specifically Peloton.

Sterling K. Brown was spotted on a Peloton. We saw him on a Peloton on the show This Is Us. This is our first spotting of him as an actual person, not a character on the show. 

I thought we did know this. Somebody even reached out and told me. I can’t remember who messaged me, but I was wrong and I owe you an apology.

I’m not 100% sure that we have seen him on it. I think the last time we talked about Sterling K was on a Peloton. It was because his character Randall on This Is Us was using a Peloton. We talked about like, “I wonder if that got written in because he has a Peloton.” He posted on Instagram and we should also point out because we’re from St. Louis and we like to bag on St. Louis because it’s fun. It’s what we do. Sterling K. Brown is also from St. Louis. It’s not all downtrodden here. We’ve got Sterling K. Brown, Jon Hamm and Jenna Fischer.

There are a few people, but I love Sterling K. Brown.

I like Kemper but he is wonderful.

He’s amazing.

If you haven’t seen the movie Waves, you should. It’s a gut punch, but it is a good movie.

I apologize whoever I said I already knew that. Apparently, I didn’t already know that.

You would get that crossed.

Yes, because This Is Us.

Denis Morton brought back the Golden Buddha story.

This story has quite a history in the Peloton community because I think it’s been a few years that he did for a Pride Ride where he told the Golden Buddha story. I don’t want to ruin it for anybody who hasn’t heard it, but hearing it the first time, it gave me chills. I don’t go back and ride rides that often, but this one I went back and rode a couple of times. It was that good but it was victim to one of the purges that we had. People have asked for Denis to redo the Buddha story many times and he finally did. I got a chance to take it. He talks about it in the middle of Fix You, it’s like a great song background. I thought he did a really good job retelling it. I know as somebody who repeats things week after week. Sometimes that can be hard.

You have a moment and it can be hard to recapture that moment.

I was pretty critical of that because I could feel he was critical of that. I think that was his hesitation of doing it again. It was such a moment, it’s just hard to redo. He did, I think it worked. It was great. Also, this was all to kick off his newest Reset group of classes. This is a series he’s done before where it’s time on the bike is usually 30 minutes and then 30 minutes of yoga right after that, paired up. The music from the bike is a whole theme and then it flows into the yoga class. You warm up on the bike, you get relaxed, your body all warm, and then you do the yoga, and relax and take your mind to a good place. I did not do the yoga portion of it because I didn’t have time that day, but I felt the class was a little more low impact than what Denis’ usually are, which is perfect for pairing it up with yoga. It was a great pairing for that. For anybody who hasn’t had a chance to take that, you don’t want to miss that. Check it out.

By the time people are reading this, there will be a new spring drop.

I am excited about this because it’s going to be a pretty large drop, from what I understand. It’s going to hit online and it’s going to be in stores. For people who haven’t hit stores in a while, this might be a good opportunity for you to do that. Everyone asks, “What time?” It doesn’t matter because it will have already happened by the time this gets published. I’m very excited about the spring drop. It’s been a while since I’ve spent some cash. Maybe I can get some new shoes while I’m there, Tom.

Coming up on the 24th of February, it will be DJ John Michael’s birthday. The lately engaged DJ John Michael.

I hope they do something special for his birthday. I feel like when you get engaged, it’s always this special moment and then everything after that, the whole year is full of special things.

I was thinking, “If you just got engaged, how do you follow that up? You just got your ring, but here’s an Amazon gift certificate.”

I have a feeling they have it covered.

Remember, he just get engaged so if you’re getting him something for his birthday, don’t make it a date. Although the instructors are not falling in love with you, that goes for the DJs too.

Hands off, DJ John Michael is taken. Speaking of taken, so are you and our anniversary is on the 21st.

I’m well aware. I was there when it happened.

I was making sure you knew.

I don’t forget things like that. You know that.

I was just letting everybody know.

It’s always difficult because our anniversary is close to Valentine’s Day. Some years, we’ll just roll it in and do it one thing and other years we’re like, “Let’s do two.” This year, we’re doing two. Should we say what we got each other for Valentine’s Day?

Sure.

You go first.

Tom got me an amazing set of knives. I know that doesn’t sound very romantic, but with all the food prep I’ve been doing and we had a crappy set of knives. We’ve had them forever.

I bought a badass huge set of knives that she could use.

TCO 195 | Reverse Dieting

Reverse Dieting: Once CrossFit people give the Peloton a chance, they will most probably like it.

 

Like a foodie-approved set of knives. They were amazing.

I was nervous because I know it’s not a Valentine’s day gift. It’s not the most romantic thing. I was like, “If she doesn’t like these gifts of knives, the problem is, I just gave her knives. She’s now armed.”

Luckily I loved them, so it’s okay. They’re beautiful.

For me, this is different. She got me a Zoom conversation with Micky Dolenz from The Monkees. I get to sit down and talk to Micky for 10 or 15 minutes about whatever Monkees questions are rattling around my noggin. I’ve got to start writing them all out so I can pound through the questions during my allotted time. I’m looking forward to that. I think we get a copy of it so maybe we’ll post it on Facebook or something.

That’ll be fun. I’m looking forward to that. I’m watching you get to have that conversation because I know you’ve met him a couple of times, but you’ve never gotten to talk to him.

No, because it’s like I’m running a meet-and-greet. It’s a cattle call. You get your picture and you move on. That was pretty much what we did.

You’ve got ten uninterrupted minutes.

Check back on the next episode to find out what we got each other for our anniversary.

Joining us is Amanda Teel but we’re supposed to call her Manders.

Welcome. I am curious, when exactly did you get your Peloton?

It got delivered in the middle of December 2020, which I was lucky. I didn’t discover it. I first tried it myself in November and I had ordered it on vacation. I literally rolled the bike on vacation. I’m not going to lie. I was a bit of a crack talker. I was like, “Whatever. This is going to be so lame.” I’d seen people do it. Some of my clients do it but I’ve never tried it myself. We’re on vacation and the resort that we’re staying at had the Peloton. I’m like, “I’m going to try it for fun.” I’m doing it. It was a Cody Rigsby class. That was the first class I ever took. I didn’t know. I’m like, “This is not going to be good.” I’m doing it and then I start shutting up as the workout continues. I’m like, “I like this. This is fun.” It was only a 30-minute class. I told my husband afterwards, “I actually liked that.”

The next morning, I woke up early to go down to the resort gym to do it and then on the third day of vacation, I bought a bike. I was like, “I’m hooked now.” It wasn’t supposed to be delivered until February 2021. I called a few weeks in. It was maybe the end of November 2020. I was like, “I just wanted to see, because some people had said, if you call and somebody moves their delivery date and there’s an opening, you can get it.” She was like, “It’s your lucky day. I have one on December 15th.” I was so pumped. I was excited.

It’s funny we’re talking about how you were smack talking it because I was saying to someone, “The only thing worse than someone who won’t shut up about their Peloton is someone who won’t shut up about how much they don’t like Peloton.” They’re the flip side to the same coin. Kudos to you though for being like, “You got me.”

I love that you tried it. You were very skeptical and you tried it anyway.

Honestly though, doing CrossFit for so long, I’m never in a place to not try something. I’ve always been with CrossFit. Whatever it may be, it’s like, “We’ll do it.” I didn’t know what to expect. From my experience in the past, at least from what I understood, cycling traditionally can be over the top. The instructors can be a lot. That’s what I’m used to for my current way of training. I was like, “This is going to be so lame.” I was so impressed at the difficulty of what you could choose. At that point, I didn’t even know anything about bootcamps, running. I just had done cycling. It was a whole eye-opener for me and I loved it. From the second I got on it, I was like, “This is so fun.”

Here’s the upside, though, about how this times out for you. Yes, you were someone who didn’t like it and you came around, but you did it pre-pandemic. You can still crap on all the people who did it during the pandemic.

No. It was December 2020. She just got the bike.

I just got it, so I’m still new.

I need to back up and be more surprised when you tell me you were able to get one on December 15th. In my head, this was like December of 2019 leading into 2020.

You’ve heard about all the delivery delays. I’m sure. It’s a whole thing.

I didn’t realize how serious it was until everyone was like, “I can’t believe you got your bike so fast.” It was only maybe 3.5 weeks. I didn’t even say anything special. I was like, “I wanted to see it.” I know it’s probably a no. I was not expecting anything. I asked because someone told me to ask.

You are into CrossFit. Have you always been into weights and functional fitness or is that new to you? I know it’s not that new because you’ve been doing this awhile.

That has been my primary source of training for years. I started CrossFit and then I got into Olympic weightlifting through CrossFit. I spent three years competing in Olympic weightlifting only and then I’ve done a mix of both, so CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting. It honestly worked out because the Peloton was a great change of pace for me, especially with being home so much. I have a gym set up downstairs in my basement, which I’m fortunate to have. I do have a platform and a squat rack and everything but it wasn’t the same as being in a traditional CrossFit gym. I was lacking that motivation. It worked out so perfectly because it shifted my training in a way that I never expected. I never thought that I would be cycling, but I’m still able to integrate it with my CrossFit and weightlifting. It’s taken a little bit of trial and error to figure out how not to do too much because the volume can add up quickly. It’s been fun to do a mix of everything, honestly.

What kind of rides do you add in? Do you focus on HIIT? Are you focusing on more of the steady state? How are you integrating it?

For people who are reading that are not familiar with Olympic weightlifting, Olympic weightlifting is two movements. That’s the snatch and the clean and jerk. Typically snatch is more back and shoulders primarily and then clean and jerk would be utilizing more of your posterior chain, your hamstrings, your low back, your quads, and then there are some shoulders when you jerk, from shoulder to overhead. On days that I clean and jerk, I try to do a 30-minute HIIT ride. I’ve been loving to do Alex Toussaint’s Hills and HIIT. That’s my favorite to complement with the clean and jerks. For snatch days, I will do a bike bootcamp that’s an upper body focus. I try to correlate it with what my compound movement is and then do accessory movements that supplement to that, try to keep it on the same page.

I am also curious about your thoughts on reverse dieting because I saw you mentioned it on your Instagram. It really got my attention. I know what it is but I would like to hear you explain it.

I’ve been doing this my whole life. It’s the opposite way. This seems my speed.

Reverse dieting is a concept that confuses a lot of people, and rightfully so. It’s exactly what you said. It’s the opposite of a diet. I’m a nutritionist and a lot of times when I get clients, I will get people who have been chronically dieting, under eating and maybe even doing these types of Peloton workouts with bootcamps, things that are what we would consider glycolytic sports. You need a lot of carbohydrates to fuel your workouts and all that stuff. The downside to dieting for such a long period of time is that your body starts to adapt to that intake. I touched on this a little bit in the post. It’s called Metabolic Adaptation. It means that in order to keep your body alive and functioning, your body starts to learn how to live/survive on that lower amount of calories. This is why you’ll see people say that they struggled to lose the last 10 pounds or they’ll plateau after a long time of dieting. That’s normal.

What I like to do with new people that I get who have never not dieted is implement a reverse diet. There are a lot of great benefits that come from this. One being the obvious that you get to eat more food but it’s done in a controlled manner. Reverse dieting is the exact same thing as dieting except increasing. Every few weeks, depending on the person’s individual adherence and stuff that they find works for them, they increase protein carbs and fats by a little bit every few weeks or so. It’s not a ginormous jump from a deficit to a huge surplus. It’s a slow and controlled increase over time. The same thing happens when you go to a diet and your body is adapting, your body then does the same thing with reversing. We’re trying to get your body to adapt to a higher amount of calories. It can be beneficial for people who have never spent time eating more than 1,200 calories.

Doesn’t it in theory start to increase your metabolism and help you build muscle as well?

When you have more muscle mass, your body burns more calories overall, which is awesome. This is why you tend to see people who are lean and they share their intake. You’re like, “How do they eat so much?” Their body has so much muscle mass, their body by default is doing nothing, so their basal metabolic rate is going to be much higher than somebody at the same weight but more body fat. Another great goal to reverse diet is to spend time building muscle. This is a long process. Getting your body to have more muscle mass so in the long run, you don’t have to diet on such low calories. If you can get your maintenance level up to 2,200 calories, that means that you don’t have to eat 1,200 calories to diet because you can successfully diet on a higher amount of food solely because your body burns more calories overall.

We all know that person in our lives who can eat anything and they don’t gain weight. It’s generally the people you want to punch in the face. It tends to go hand in hand. It gives you a very punchable face. It’s science. I’m curious when you talk about how this works. Do you think that there are people that naturally have a metabolism that runs higher or are there people who have accidentally stumbled into this and they don’t even know it?

A hundred percent both. There are a lot of genetic factors that play a role in this as well. My husband and his entire family is this way even before. He owns a gym and they’re all fit. He and his parents in their 50s are muscular, super fit, and lean but they don’t necessarily do anything other than working out. They don’t have to try super hard to stay lean. Their family is genetically blessed in that regard. That’s totally a thing. On the other side, there are genetically people who struggle with their metabolism in that way and also things like thyroid issues, hormone issues. There’s not a black and white when it comes to nutrition, especially stuff like this. It’s totally genetics.

For those people who have accidentally stumbled into, I don’t want to say harming your metabolism. It is in an extent. You can fix it for lack of a better term. It’s not like once you’ve dieted for so many years, you’re stuck and you can no longer change. You can absolutely do that. There are people who don’t know that they’re doing that and it’s the people who have been chronic yo-yo dieters or for people who have gone on severe caloric deficit and then struggle when the diet is over. They go so far the other way and then they gain the weight right back. That’s something that can happen too.

I learned about this in 2020 and I was so fascinated by the concept that dieting and exercise can lower your metabolism because it’s the opposite of what I’ve been told my entire life. They always say, “It’s simple math, less calorie.” You have to do more than what you’re putting into your body. That’s how you lose weight.

It’s funny because all diet means the food you’re consuming. That’s what the word diet means but in our heads, we’ve turned it into a verb and it means restriction.

The whole thing is fascinating. You said you’re a nutritionist. I thought I read you were a nutrition coach. I am specifying that because I wanted to ask you, are you a registered dietician? I wanted to clarify that.

The terms that are important when it comes to nutrition is nutritionist, nutrition coach is one in the same. Typically, nutritionists will have some certifications. I’m Precision Nutrition Certified and then I’m also in school for Nutritional Therapy Practitioner with the NTP Program, which finishes in August 2021. In August, I’ll be a Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. Nutrition coach is the same thing but not registered dietician. There was a time and place where I thought that’s what I wanted to do. After I did a lot of research about what they deal with, clientele-wise, and what their days are like, unfortunately what a lot of them still practice didn’t align with my goals and my morals, to be honest. I switched away from that and that’s what led me into NTP School.

Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. It’s essentially a more holistic approach to nutrition but it complements with coaching nutrition in general because you learn a lot more in depth than a precision nutrition, which is the main nutrition certification out there. You go so much more in depth. It’s a full year course. It’s a pretty extensive program. You learn a lot about the body and many things that are not covered in regular nutrition coaching. You can do calories and macros all day long but if you’re dealing with a client who suffers from thyroid dysfunction or anything that a typical nutrition coach wouldn’t know how to deal with, NTPs can help. We can’t diagnose, we can’t prescribe, or anything that a registered dietician or an MD would do.

Thank you for explaining it so well for our readers because a lot of people are not doing their own research. Whenever I first started like, “I would like to look into a nutritionist,” I thought all of it was the same like a nutrition coach and a registered dietician. I quickly was inundated with all of the different lingos and all the different certifications. Thank you for explaining that to everybody.

Unfortunately, the nutrition world is an unregulated field. Just because somebody says they’re a nutrition coach doesn’t mean anything, same with nutritionists, there is no degree essentially for nutritionist. When I was in college, I was nutritional science but the degree is still bachelor science. There’s no specialty in something like that, at least not where I live. The only real route that you can go with that is a registered dietician and every state is different. I have seen a lot of dieticians practicing that old school 1,200 calorie mentality with people in a clinical setting. I have gotten clients who have come from a registered dietician. I’m like, “How is that still a thing?”

They’re not taking into consideration the things that an NTP would, which is how I got into it because I reached out to one when I was having some GI issues. I was like, “I love her.” It wasn’t like, “Here’s a prescription.” Anytime I went to a regular gastro doctor, they always wanted to put me on antacids and come to find out I wasn’t making enough acid, so every time they put me on anti-acids, it was doing the complete opposite. That’s what led me into NTP world because my friend, who was in school at the time, offered to help me as her student’s client. I had great understanding of the GI system, what my body was lacking, what I needed, but all naturally. It wasn’t like, “Here’s your anti-acid. See you in three months.”

We’ve had registered dieticians on the show. One of them works with one of the coaches, Matt Wilpers. Her name is Claire Shorenstein. Her Instagram is @EatForEndurance. She is much about feeling what you want to eat and talking about, “Eat healthy but don’t deprive yourself.” I like that. To your point, I have come across nutrition coaches. You can have good ones and you can have not good ones. I think that’s great. I’m interested in the NTP. That’s fascinating.

By getting your body to have more muscle mass in the long run, you don't have to diet on such low calories. Share on X

It’s an up and coming thing. It’s definitely a newer thing that’s picked up over the last few years. Many people are not looking at the holistic side of things as voodoo. There have been some holistic approaches in the past where they’ll rub people the wrong way with like, “You need to do your meditation before you eat. That’s going to help you with your GI.” People got this weird connotation about holistic doctors. This is a different way to look at it.

Going back to CrossFit and Peloton, I have heard anecdotally that people who are in CrossFit in general tend to be skeptical of Peloton. How are you finding that? Is that true for you?

Yes. It’s funny because I have converted many people, at least when they saw me admit to being skeptical and then loving it. They’re like, “She loves CrossFit but she loves Peloton too.” It’s a different stimulus. What I also like about it too, especially I’ve found in the Jess Sims bootcamps, we still do dumbbell snatches, dumbbell cleans and presses. When I experienced that, I was like, “That’s super cool.” I’m pretty sure, if I remember correctly, Jess used to do CrossFit as well I think, right?

I don’t know if it was Jess. I know some of the instructors did. I don’t remember offhand if she’s one of them.

I thought maybe it was her but either way, I was like, “I love that there’s still some CrossFit style.” She does AMRAPs and EMOMs. I was like, “This is right on my alley. I got this.”

It sounds like you’re doing a lot of the bike content. You’re doing a lot of the bootcamps. Are you doing the bike bootcamps or do you have your own treadmill and you throw in some tread bootcamps? How does that work?

This is the thing. I hate running. I will not run for lengths. I won’t do it. Even in CrossFit, if there’s a workout that has long running, I’m like, “I’m not doing this.” The facts that these tread bootcamps can get me to run consistently is incredible. That’s what got it for me. I was talking to my husband about this and he made a great point. Once CrossFit people give the Peloton a chance, they like it. I haven’t seen anybody who hasn’t liked it yet that comes from across that background. What he was saying was he thinks that we like it so much because it’s focused. There is no time to do anything else. When you’re on the tread or the bike bootcamps, whatever it may be, you’re not messing around on your phone, even the opportunity to walk around. You are there. You’re working. You’re also being encouraged by a coach who’s doing it as well, similarly to CrossFit where you’re seeing the people around you do the workout and motivate you. He was like, “I think it’s a great motivator and help for people who thrive on that structure.” It’s very structured, which I personally love.

It’s funny you say that because we were talking about this on an episode about some of the Peloton competitors. One of the angles they’re working is like, “You can watch Netflix on ours. We’ll let you do that or you can get to Hulu on ours.” I was like, “I don’t think Peloton will ever do that. I don’t think Peloton sees that as competition. They don’t want you to leave their ecosystem to watch Netflix. It would cost them users in the long run because if people are going to go from, ‘I’m going to watch Stranger Things while I ride my Peloton,’ to ‘I’m going to watch Stranger Things.’” I think that if somebody wants that, they’d rather go buy the Echelon or the NordicTrack and never come into the world because if they start letting people do that, they’ll lose them. It’s the content that keeps people, not the bike.

I didn’t even know that other bikes offer that. That’s interesting.

I do agree that’s what keeps people engaged and what makes it effective in a way that other tools aren’t.

You hit on structure, which I had never put into. I’d never explained it in that way. I’ve always been like, “It’s because I’m so engaged.” You totally hit the nail on the head. It’s the structure. I’m new to exercising and being focused on exercise. Since I’ve had my Peloton, it’s completely changed my life. That was something I didn’t know how to do. I didn’t know how to have the discipline to do the classes. Having somebody tell me that was completely important to me.

For me, for example, I’m type A and I like to know what I’m doing. When I’m taking a bootcamp, I’ll open it and I’m like, “Seven minutes of running.” I analyze the class and I’m like, “I know what I’m doing. I know exactly how long it is.” One thing I do love about Jess’s class is in the beginning, she’ll tell you we have an AMRAP, we have an EMOM. She prepares you for what’s to come. For me, I enjoy that. It still gives you the sense. This is something that I think too, because with CrossFit, a lot of gyms will post their workouts the night before, but if you’re not looking at that, it seems every day is a new workout for most people when they go into their CrossFit gym. The first time they look at the board is the first time they see the workout they’re about to do. It’s similar in the Peloton sense because even though it’s like, “I know I’m doing seven minutes of running and seven minutes of floor,” you won’t know until you’re about to do it, which gives you that element of surprise in a sense that keeps you engaged to what’s coming next, what are we doing.

I hear you talking about Jess a lot. Is she your favorite instructor?

I would say her and Robin are a pretty close tie. I have favorites for each occasion, I’d say. It’s different things for different people.

Tell us your favorite things.

Jess, I would say is my favorite for bootcamp regardless of bike or Tread. I love her little mantras that she always says. She’s always like, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” The way she says it is not corny in my opinion because that’s one thing that I was like, “Please don’t be corny.” It’s good. It helps when you’re in the moment. I swear, it helps motivate me to keep going and not stop. I like her for that.

Did you see her IG Live about her mantra wall?

No.

She did a whole thing about her mantra wall. She has it saved. You’ve got to check it out.

I saw her go live and I didn’t join it because I was in the middle of schoolwork but I’m totally going to now that you said that. I love her. I love her vibe. She’s so cute. I love her for workouts. Anytime I’m not sure what to do, I find myself resorting back to her class. For live DJ rides, I like Robin. I’ve done her lower body bike bootcamp, which I like. She’s a little bit less intense in terms of personality-wise. She’s more of the chill, which I love, but she’s still motivational and so sweet. I feel like her and I would be friends. Get this, she follows me on Instagram. She commented on my Peloton post and I was like, “I’ve made it.” She’s so adorable. I love her.

I also love Ally. I want to squeeze her and put her in my pocket. She’s so cute. For a good, fun, and laughable ride, it’s Cody. If you’re in a bad mood, you have to take his class. It’s one of those things where if you’re not feeling like working out that day, you can take an easier ride but it will change your mood for sure. I like Alex Toussaint’s HIIT and Hills. His HIIT, either Tread or bike, are great. For Tread, I like Adrian Williams, and for strength stuff too. Those are my favorite people.

I love how you’re in people’s moods and how they match up with their favorite instructors. I’m curious if you’ve tried classes with Matty. Matty and Cody are super good friends.

I didn’t know that. I’ve done a core class with him before.

I have to suggest you try some of the running classes with him because they’re a lot of fun. He knew Cody before he was on Peloton. They were good friends in real life. Would you say you’re working out a couple of times a week with Peloton? How is that working?

I write down in my exercise little planner thing. I like to see it laid out. I’m a visual learner with stuff like that. I have an app on my phone, obviously the Peloton app, but I have one for my Olympic weightlifting on what I’m doing for that day. I like to see it laid out so I can see like, “I’ve already done a bike bootcamp. I’ve already done a Tread.” I don’t do too many of the same things in a row. I don’t want to burn out and I don’t want to do too much volume. I like to see, “Monday, I did clean and jerks and then I did a 30-minute cycle and abs. Tuesday, I did shoulders and a tread workout. On Wednesday, I did 45-minute Hill and HIIT ride. Thursday, I took off. Friday, I snatched and did bootcamp and Saturday only I did bike bootcamp.” I try to alternate it so that I don’t do bike every single day and ended up not wanting to do it. It’s so fun. I’m such a Peloton Kool-Aid drinker. My husband makes fun of me. I’ll be wearing the Peloton shirt and I gave one to his mom. His mom goes to the gym wearing the Peloton shirt. He’s like, “You are not wearing the Peloton shirt.”

There are many people you’re converting. You’ve got a lots of referral codes for the boutique.

I was shocked. I could not believe. I was sharing it because I liked it, not because I was going to go sell out the apparel store.

Have you been able to get Peloton gear? Sometimes it can be hard to get and since you’re new to the system, sometimes people get upset when they first shop there.

I didn’t get too upset. I did buy some slippers that I like. It’s so random but I love it. I’ve learned that I like their Beyond Yoga brand. I wish they would make more of it because it’s so comfortable.

I’ve started buying straight from Beyond Yoga and I’ve started supplementing.

I honestly might do that because I was so impressed with their quality.

TCO 195 | Reverse Dieting

Reverse Dieting: Don’t hesitate to take a class that you might not think you would like because it may turn out to be something you will enjoy in the long run.

 

They’re jammies that you can wear all day but also are great workout clothes. It’s crazy how comfortable they are.

With Lulu too but I haven’t seen anything so far from Lulu that’s been available.

You have to hit that the morning it goes live.

I didn’t realize how big this community was. It’s so cool.

A lot of people compare it to CrossFit to the degree of passion that people have for it.

That’s why many CrossFit people enjoy it once they’re given the chance like the leaderboard. There are a lot of similarities, I would say.

What’s your leaderboard name if you don’t mind sharing?

I messed it up though because I didn’t know that the leaderboard name was supposed to be like a mantra. I put a #SimplyMander. I didn’t know. I’m like, “No one’s going to use that because I’m only #SimplyMander.” I don’t know what else to make it.

Hashtags can be anything. It’s your leaderboard name. It would be for you is what I’m saying. Your leaderboard name is yours. That is good a thing.

My actual name though is SimplyCycles. Isn’t it so cute?

It is. You have a leaderboard name, SimplyCycles and you also have a hashtag that people can follow, #SimplyManders.

I didn’t know what the right one to do was because I was noob when I started it. I see a lot of them that are like #WeGetToCrew. I thought that was cool. I was like, “I like that one. What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to change it to that?” I don’t know.

Let me give you a little bit of backstory since you’re new to the Peloton community. Way back in the day when we all first started with Peloton, people would change their locations because that was the only way we could communicate with each other on the bike. We started communicating by changing the location. We would talk to the instructor that way. We would talk to each other. If it was your 100th ride, we would all be like, “Happy 100, Mander.” That’s what we would do for a location. It’s been a little over a year, Peloton added hashtags so that you could do that without changing your location and a group of you can then ride together. You can filter on that and now you can see it instead of randomly putting that on the leaderboard. There were many people on the leaderboard now as opposed to when we first started. That’s the history behind that.

It’s funny you say that because my best friend has a Peloton and she was like, “You’re going to be on the top of the leaderboard because you do CrossFits. You’re going to be so good.” I sent her a picture. I was literally almost dead last on the leaderboard. I was like, “How is there 3,000 people taking this live right now? Just so you know, I’m on the bare bottom.” She started laughing. She was like, “There are 3,000 people.” I’m like, “Yes, 3,000.”

Isn’t that crazy? I hear stories from the real OGs who started back in 2014, 2015. There were classes where it was ten people in class. Whenever I started, it was nothing for it to be 30 people, 40 people, 100 people. The first time I was in a class with 3,000 people, we were all cheering. We set a record.

It’s casual like 3,000, 4,000 people. I’m like, “This is insane.”

I don’t know if you’re on Facebook, but You Get To Crew comes from Jess Sims. They have a whole fan club for her. The You Get To Crew on Facebook, so it’s a whole group. That’s why they ride with that hashtag because they’re all riding together.

That is cool. I’m totally going to join them.

Robin has one too. All the instructors have one.

Do you have any advice for people that are getting a Peloton?

I would say to be open-minded with different classes and different instructors. Don’t hesitate to take a class that you might not think you would like because it may turn out to be something you will enjoy and to give yourself enough time to get into a groove with it. It’s still a new thing. If people who are new to exercising in general, it can definitely be overwhelming. It would be good to plan out your classes ahead of time and give yourself enough time to find what works for you instead of being random about it. If you decide, “I’m going to go to the gym,” you might not be in it but if you plan, “I’m going to go to the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday this week and I’m going to do this,” it’s much easier for you to get into a good routine like that.

Thank you so much for joining us. Before we let you go, remind everybody where they can find you on the interwebs.

It’s @SimplyMander for both Instagram and YouTube. Those are the two platforms that I’m primarily on the most.

This has been great. Thank you so much for doing this. It’s a lot of fun.

No problem. It’s so fun. I didn’t even know a Peloton show existed. I got it now.

Cross it off the bucket list you didn’t know you had.

I love your Instagram posts, how you’ve been posting all your things about Peloton. It’s so fun.

I made a highlight on my Instagram if you want to check it out. Every single time I take a class and it’s cool because I have the swipe up link. I will link the class itself and I’ll explain what we did, how the music was, and I’ll give a rundown of the class for people that might want to take it. I think that’s pretty cool.

Thank you for doing that for all the people. When they come across it, they’re like, “I don’t know what to expect from that class,” and now you give them the details.

Thank you so much for inviting me. I appreciate it.

This is a lot of fun so thank you for doing it.

Thank you very much.

You guys have a good one.

You too.

 —

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

Another special guest, we are going to talk to Glenn Lundy, who has the largest morning show on Clubhouse. He also sometimes hosts the show while riding the Peloton. That’ll be a fun interview.

Until then, where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe. They can find me on Instagram, Twitter, 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, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Don’t forget our YouTube channel, YouTube.com/TheClipOut, where you can watch these shows in their entirety, if you feel like you want to look at us while we’re saying stuff. That’s it for this one. Thanks for reading and until next time. Keep pedaling and running.

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About Amanda Teel

TCO 195 | Reverse DietingAmanda started her journey into fitness and health at Florida Atlantic University studying Exercise Science and Health Promotion. In 2014, she began her Crossfit journey and immediately knew that she had found her passion. Along with training, Amanda had a desire to educate people on the importance of proper nutrition to support an active lifestyle. She began tracking macros and flexible dieting in 2015.

Since then she has competed in 10+ Crossfit competitions, 7 USAW Weightlifting meets and has successfully coached over 1200 nutrition clients utilizing flexible dieting.

She currently works as a Nutrition coach for Black Iron Nutrition, holding a Precision Nutrition L1 Certification while enrolled in school at Purdue University in Davenport, Iowa. Pursuing her degree now in Nutritional Science. She hopes to continue her education thereafter and become an RD.

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