Are people abusing the high-five?

• John Mills joins us to discuss Echelon camouflaging their bikes.
• Dr. Jenn – The best ways to push yourself.
• Cody Rigsby comes in 3rd on Dancing With The Stars.
• DWTS fans were frustrated with Peloton fans.
• Cody talked to Kelly Clarkson about his early battles with homelessness.
• Robin Arzon tells Insider.com that she’s not trying to “bounce back.”
• Little Tikes makes a Peloton knockoff for kids and people aren’t happy.
• GQ Australia reviews the bike.
• Angelo from Metpro tells us the top 5 protein snacks for after workouts
• CMC Markets asks if Peloton stock can rebound.
• Nordictrack blocks access to Netflix.
• Peloton Apparel is having a Black Friday sale.
• The latest artist series features The Beatles.
• Happy birthday to Bradley Rose (11/22) and Jenn Sherman (12/1).

All this plus our interview with Bridget Nieves!

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Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here

Are People Abusing the High-Five? plus our interview with Bridget Nieves

Happy day after Thanksgiving if you read this the day it comes out. One last final plug, we’re going to be in Boston. If you live in the Boston area and you want to hang out with us, we will be at Fogo de Chão. We will be there on Saturday, the 27th at 6:00 PM. If you want to come to hang out there, there will be other people there as well, at least so they tell us. We would love to see you.

This is the first episode that I have been able to record working from home. It’s amazing and very exciting. I’m not over it yet. I’ll probably be talking about it for a while.

What pray tell do you have in store for people?

There’s so much high-five debacle. We’re going to talk about the stock. We also have a visit from Dr. Jenn and she answers a question about how to push yourself. We have tons of In The News for the instructors. We have a visit from Angelo about the top five protein snacks after working out, and then In The News from Peloton, not to mention more stock news and competitor news, In Case You Missed It information, Artists Collaborations, and birthdays.

They had the Foo Fighters for their Artists Collaboration. It’s not often that you could do the Foo Fighters, and then they do somebody bigger next.

They like to do this for the holidays because, in 2020, they did this for the holidays too.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts. Wherever you find a podcast, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. If you would be so kind as to leave us a review, that’s super helpful. It will only cost you a little bit of your time. It’s going to let people that come along behind you know that we’re worth checking out. Our review for this episode is from Katie Go12. It says, “Peloton is my complete life for the last four years. I had found this podcast during the COVID shutdown. More recently, I find myself finishing the week show and looking for more. Crystal and Tom are amazing hosts. I love getting all the updates and continuing to learn more about my fitness journey.” Her leaderboard name is Katie Go12. Thank you very much, Katie.

Thank you. What a nice review. Go, Katie, go.

You can also find us on Facebook if you want to keep up on things throughout the week in between episodes. Go to Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. You can sign up for our newsletter at theclipout.com where you’ll have all of the links and things like that sent directly to your inbox in a weekly digest format. Finally, if you would like to stare at us while we say these things, you can find us on YouTube at YouTube.com/TheClipOut.

I want to let everybody know that we’re recording a day early. We’re recording on Tuesday so if we missed a big story, that’s why.

If Peloton is acquired by Echelon, you’ll have to wait a week to hear about it. You’ve been warned. There’s all that, let’s let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

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Joining us is John Mills. How is it going?

How is it going? I’m happy.

I know what you mean. It’s a holiday week. There’s a little extra time off. Hopefully, a little relaxing. What are we digging into here, Tom?

Let’s start with the high-five article. This came out after we recorded. It was all about, Can The “High Five” Creeps of Peloton be Stopped? Crystal is featured in this article but it’s not a Crystal-only problem.

Lots of people have issues with this. I want to say a couple of caveats right off the top so people don’t fast forward through this because I know it ticked a lot of people off. One, this is not only harassing women. I know that men have mentioned that they get harassed too. It just happened to be the angle that the person wrote the article on, and we recognize that. Two, sending a high-five to every single person on the ride is not what this is about.

Even if you send somebody two high-fives, that’s not what this is about. This is about people out there who are sending repeated nonstop high-fives to people, then there are some people that follow that rider from ride to ride to continue giving them an inordinate number of high-fives.

High-five is a rough thing. I was on a twenty-minute ride the other day, and one individual gave me 25 high-fives during that 20 minutes.

That’s too many. John, if I see you on a ride, I am for sure going to high-five you. I might even high-five you at the beginning, mid and at the end, but I am not going to high-five you 21 times. In fact, I don’t even think I’m riding hard enough. If I have enough energy to high-five you 21 times in 20 minutes, that’s not a good ride.

I have this OCD thing where I see that little red dot where I see the high-five, and I ended up hitting it, even if I’m in a push or a climb.

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It drives us crazy. It’s right in the corner of your eye and says, “Red dot, red dot.” It drives me nuts. Here’s my issue. I have several issues with it but I think that Peloton needs to have a blocking button so that you can block people that irritate you for whatever reason. I don’t think that this should affect people that want a high-five. If you want a high-five, I want a high-five or whatever, we should be able to do that. If I’m irritating somebody, they should be able to block me and not see my high-fives because it ruins the vibe.

When you see somebody you can’t stand and you have blocked them from every social media site, and then they are in your face, high-fiving you 20 times in 20 minutes, that’s ridiculous. That’s ruining a vibe. I think that they need to come up with that. I don’t think that it matters to most people. It’s not like most of us are going to have that many people block us. You don’t even need to know about it. It’s just on their end. Why can’t they do that?

If they don’t want to go that far, there are a lot of things they could do. They could limit the number of times you can high-five a person. Maybe it caps at five. Maybe there’s a point at which it stops like on Facebook. If you send too many Facebook messages in a short period of time, it says, “Take a breath.” It won’t let you send any more for a little bit. Maybe it does that where if you sent 35 high-fives in 40 seconds, then it’s like, “Let’s take a pause.”

There are people that do that. Also, I don’t think that it should be something that Peloton cares about. I know that they want us to send high-fives because it’s engagement. I like the engagement from people but a little goes a long way. I know that you can hide it, but you can’t really hide it. That stupid red dot is right there. It drives me crazy.

I see this as just another form of a social platform now. There are over five million people that could at some time or another be on that leaderboard. That’s the mechanism for interaction now. On any other social platform, you can block people but on this one, you can’t.

People have said to me, “You could just go private.” Going private doesn’t do anything. People can still find you. Every Sunday for the last few years, I’ve ridden with Jenn Sherman in the morning or maybe longer than that. This person that bugs me ruined my Sunday morning rides to the point where I don’t ride that often on Sundays anymore. My point being is that she used to have back-to-back rides. They would follow me into the next ride. Even if I hid them, they could still see me. If I go private, then all I’m doing is hurting myself because I like to interact with the public. The huge community that we have, I like to interact with them. Now, one or two people have ruined it for me because I can’t be open and have high-fives from everybody. I don’t like that. I think that’s dumb and it’s unnecessary. What is the deal? Why won’t Peloton do it?

That throws me a little bit. It makes me feel like there’s some other business benefit. Maybe it’s about engagement. I don’t know what it is but I agree with you. It feels like there’s something else on the other side of this that they see as a benefit. You would think it would be a no-brainer to give the user the ability to have more control over that. It’s odd that they don’t. It’s funny though that I know that some people are not out here intentionally trying to harass them. They are out here and they are huge Peloton fanatics. They see this as constant love to all these people that are like them and love this platform. I know there are people and that’s how their mind sees it. For me, I’m there trying to grind out that climb and getting five high-fives in the middle of a three-minute effort. That’s a lot to try to manage too. I get that for a lot of those folks, it’s just love, then there are others that it is not.

They go as far as finding our home address.

That is a different thing.

It shows that it’s targeted. It’s not about love like you said. For me and this particular person, it’s not about love. It’s a form of harassment. Whenever I told Peloton that, they were like, “You’re the problem,” instead of actually doing anything about it. Now this person has my address. Having my address is not Peloton’s fault. I’m not saying that. My point is that it’s not just about sending high-fives. It’s a much bigger issue. I’m a nobody in the world. What about actual celebrities on this platform? Peloton acts like it’s no big deal but at some point, there is going to be a celebrity that has an issue with this. They are going to get found out. They are going to not want to be found out. They are going to have these creeps doing this to them. It’s going to become a problem. Why don’t you think ahead? Why does it have to turn into this big issue before you do something, Peloton?

Do you know what’s so funny about this? I was on one of my Saturday evening Clubhouses a few weeks ago. We were talking about this topic and we brought up a ride. Someone was like, “I didn’t see Erica on that ride.” I was like, “She was on it. She was under her ghost account,” then I was like, “I guess I shouldn’t have said that.” They are like, “I have a ghost account too.” The next person was like, “Me too.” I didn’t know everybody did that.

A lot of us have been around a while. There was a time when you didn’t want to separate out your workout. You would never do that. You wanted all your credit. Over time, we’ve come to a place where sometimes, you don’t want all those high-fives or you don’t want to be noticed so Erica has created this ghost account. On those days, she’s under that. She might be on the ride but no one knows. I thought that was a unique thing but it’s not. I ended up learning that all these people on my Clubhouse are going like, “I do that too.” For that reason alone, Peloton should consider some more controls for the users.

That’s interesting. They are not incentivized to do that because now it looks like more people are on the platform than there are actually on the platform.

That is a good point. I know Crystal always gets mystified because, with Tonal, I wasn’t even logging in under my actual name for a year and a half. I don’t care. I’m actually doing it. I don’t need the machine to tell me I did it. I can tell it by how much pain I’m in.

I get why people would though. That makes sense but I don’t want to have to do that.

In the early days, that would have been like, “I’m not doing that. I want the credit.” Now, “I don’t care if it’s under multiple accounts.”

We should close out by saying that we’re not anti high-five. We just think that there should be a mechanism in place where you have a little bit more control over how many are flooding in. Ultimately, we think the high-five does more good than harm. Let’s not forget that the high-five was announced on our show. We were on stage with John Foley when he announced it. I will also point out that my immediate suggestion was to create a middle finger.

If we had that middle finger button, that could solve all of this. You don’t need to put in any of these things in place, blocking people, or limiting how many high-five. Give us control of the middle finger. If somebody sends you a high-five you don’t like, flip them off. Problem solved.

I’m okay with that. There is one person I would love to flip on. I’m totally good with that solution. Give me something other than I have to ignore it and pretend that the red dot is not there.

Moving along, John, you had an interesting article about camouflage bikes.

 

Is this innovation or ignorance?

This is innovation. Here’s why this is innovation. It’s because nobody wants to be seen on an Echelon.

Now they can be camouflaged. When I posted this, I was like, “What’s up with this? Echelon has camouflage bikes now. They did a collaboration.” People were like, “What? Are they trying to hide from the latest Peloton lawsuit?” The whole post was hilarious.

It is hilarious. I don’t think that you’re a hunter, John. I’m just going to go out on a limb. Neither am I. I don’t know if that shocks anyone, but I come from a family of hunters. I thought it was interesting the timing of this because it came out the same week as deer season. That is not an accident. That is absolutely on purpose. How interesting that their key target audience is very different from Peloton’s key target audience.

I don’t think they know what their target audience is. They’re like, “Let’s try this now.” Honestly, I wouldn’t think that the Venn diagram of hunters and spin bike users has much overlap.

If it’s based on research, then I want to see it.

I want to see it too because anyone in my family is not doing that. They would laugh at a person doing that.

I was thinking when they did this, and I actually throw it in the group, is could this be aligning to Echelon thinking that Peloton is going after all of these current states of equity and inclusion? They’re going, “We’re going to go a different direction towards those hunters and people that are more on the conservative side.”

That’s a dog whistle.

That’s what someone else meant by it. I went, “I had never thought that. Maybe that’s what it is.” The more I thought about it, they were just like, “Let’s throw this up and watch what came on it.”

“Let’s see what sticks.” Be careful of what you ask for. That is all I can say. Be careful of the kind of people that you attract to your brand. You’ve got to be careful about that.

I think they were just spitballing. They were sitting in a meeting one day and nobody was saying anything, and one person was like, “Camo.”

The guy who owns Mossy Oak is probably buddies with the Echelon guy and they made up a thing. Nobody else was asked or consulted.

That’s a very common thing to slap camo and stuff. It’s low-hanging fruit. There was an episode of Mad Men where they made fun of the slug line, “The cure for the common, insert something here,” because it’s hacked and overused. It’s like, “The cure for the common breakfast cereal. The cure for the common car.” To me, slapping camo on something is the cure for the common breakfast cereal. It’s easy and you’ll get some people that are into it for sure, but it’s not a stroke of genius at this point. If they were stand-up comic, it would be like, “Let me tell you about the difference between New York and LA.”

I’ve seen a lot of interesting plays. That’s one. I also saw SoulCycle’s online ad where they had a live saxophonist in the class while people arrive. They’re riding there. It was like a whole Kenny G vibe. He’s walking through the bikes doing his sax thing. I’m like, “They’re trying.”

At least they are throwing out some things that are different from what Peloton does. I will give them that. It’s not my thing but at least it’s different. It’s not a complete copycat so points for that.

That one was original. I don’t know how good it is.

SoulCycle, it hits your Kenny G-spot. The cure for the common G-spot. There’s nothing common about them. Each one is unique and special.

This is too much. That’s a good one.

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On that note, we should wrap things up. Until next time, John, where can people find you?

They can find me and they can find this post about Kenny G and SoulCycle in my Facebook group and my Facebook page, Run, Lift and Live. They can find me on Instagram @RunLiftAndLive, or they can find me on TikTok or they can find me at RunLiftAndLive.com.

Thank you so much.

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Joining us once again is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and sports psychology consultant. You may know her from VH1’s Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn, her VH1’s Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn, and her long-running radio show, The Dr. Jenn Show. She’s written four bestselling books, including The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy. It’s Dr. Jenn. She’s still on her bike.

I identify with this next question. This one comes from Pria and she says she wants to know how to push herself. She struggles to run a 5K. I read more into this question like she’s saying, “I do the workouts.” I know she does. I see all her workouts, but how do you mentally go like, “I will go hard,” and you really grow and push to that next level. It’s hard to know where that line is.

Obviously, you check with your doctor. Make sure that there’s something physical to hold you back. I got to get that disclaimer. A lot of the Peloton instructors talk about changing your relationship with discomfort. I think that there’s a lot of truth to that because discomfort is what turns us into better and stronger athletes. At the same time, you also want to make sure that you’re not pushing yourself so hard that you’re doing damage. One of the things to look at is to do an evaluation of your workout and look at, “Am I giving myself days that are a little easier and a little harder? Am I setting myself for workouts?” If you’re going to push yourself differently on a 20-minute treadmill run, then you’re going to put yourself on a 60-minute treadmill run, and pacing yourself and figuring out where you can push them. Also, what push means to you.

All of a sudden, after many years now of Peloton, I’ve decided that I’m ready to start doing some heels. Before they were hurting my back, but now I’m a lot stronger and I did all of those muscles. I’m doing heels on my 20-minute ride, my 45-minute ride, and my long runs. It’s knowing what your body needs and finding smaller ways to push, and also watching yourself talk when you are on the bike, on the tread, or whatever it is doing or you’re lifting. When you find yourself saying, “I’m going to give up,” or “I can’t do this,” stop and say, “This is making me strong.” Change that mantra in your head, “This is making me stronger. This is making me a better athlete. This is helping me increase my endurance. This is how you become stronger.” Those are the kinds of mantras that you want to be saying in your head.

At the same time, you also want to respect your body. You want to make sure that you’re not pushing so hard that you injure yourself, but finding that balance. Sometimes that means working with a trainer or someone who is familiar with Peloton, and maybe having them hang with you while you do a workout even virtually so that they can say, “What’s your heart rate right now?” You can push yourself faster or harder, and get to know your body in a bigger sense.

Also ask yourself, what is it that prevents you from pushing yourself? Are you scared? Are you someone who has been injured or maybe had a childhood illness where you got the impression that you are more fragile than you are? Is it emotional? Are you afraid of seeing what you’re capable of? Is there a part of you that’s holding back because maybe that is scary for you in some way? It’s worth exploring not just the physical aspect of it, but the emotional aspect. What holds you back? What is the message you have about yourself that makes you not push yourself?

That’s powerful.

I’m trying to think of why I don’t push myself.

You do push yourself.

I’ve explored for many years what it was that held you back. It’s the family messages that you had where people were pushing you to do physical activities that you didn’t want to do, so you rebel by not doing anything. That holds you back. That kept you from pushing yourself to even do light exercise. Now you’ve broken through that and you found your way.

Now I’m like, “I did it during a year when you weren’t allowed to see your family.” It’s my sister at this point, in terms of blood relatives, who I grew up with because my parents had passed. She was never like that to me but that’s odd.

She’s going to have a rude awakening when she sees you.

She has not seen me in person for over a year.

She’s going to be like, “Where’s Tom?”

Thank you so much for all of that. Before we let you go, remind everybody where they can find you in the interim.

 

You can find me on all social media @DrJennMann. I post all of my Peloton workouts on my Insta Stories. If you want Peloton bonding, that’s where you can find the most info on Peloton for me.

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I am glad that Dancing With The Stars is over. I’m sorry that Cody didn’t win, but I am super excited for him that he made it to the final episode. He got all the PR he could possibly get out of it. Good for him.

Also all the money. I’ve read that you get like $200,000 to $350,000 if you make it to the final episodes. That was worth doing from a financial perspective. I know that’s probably not the only reason he did it, but it’s certainly not a bad thing.

I think Cody is doing fine so I’m not trying to cast dispersions on his income. Of the three, I’m thinking he’s probably the lesser paid. JoJo Siwa has been touring, records and merchandise out the Wazoo since she was seven. The other guy was in the NBA, which is tons of money. Good on him.

I was so happy that if Cody had to lose, he lost an Iman because that’s historic all by itself. He’s the first NBA player to make it to the finals, and then he won the whole thing. If Cody had to lose, I would rather Iman win than JoJo. I say that not that I have anything against JoJo. She’s not my thing but I don’t dislike her.

I do think she was probably the best dancer.

I also think that she does that for a living and that’s the show’s fault. That’s not JoJo’s fault. I wish they were more consistent. I would have enjoyed the show so much more if it was consistent. Everyone is going to have the same level of where they come from, from a dancing perspective. Whatever that level is, if everybody is on the same page, I don’t care. That’s not what they do. Saying that it’s a popularity contest, and people getting so mad about it, it is a popularity contest because they want people at home to vote. They wrapped that in with the judges’ scores. They are the ones asking for it to be a popularity contest.

I don’t care for the show. None of my criticism has anything to do with the people. At any rate, it was a historic win because he was the first NBA player. I do think that it’s cool that JoJo was the first person to dance with a same-sex partner. I think that’s cool and unique, but everybody that made it to the finals all had a piece of uniqueness. I have to say that when Cody did his very last dance, which was the Freestyle, that was the best that he has danced all season.

I would agree. I don’t know if because it was the last one, he felt like he could not be concerned. It was less pressure because it’s done at that point. From what I little bit know about Cody because I’ve never taken a ride, it seemed like that was the first time from a dancing standpoint where he was him.

He was all him and that’s what I loved about it. It was pure Cody energy. I feel like if they had been able to show that the entire season, he probably would have won. He was amazing.

I would agree with that wholeheartedly.

Overall, it was excellent for Peloton. It was excellent for Cody. If people didn’t know, there were tons of instructors in the audience. Matty and Ally Love were there. Who else was there?

They use some of them on TV. They recorded videos.

Jenn Sherman and Robin, and then Peloton did a video. All of the instructors sent him good luck and that’s amazing. It was a great video. It was great to see that he had so much support and so much love. Everybody in the community came together. There were so many people voting. It was wonderful but I’m glad it’s done too. I’m ready to move on.

That show was just not for me. I love American Idol back in the day. I don’t watch it now but they had 6, 7 seasons in a row and I had watched every episode. This show was very loud. There was so much screaming. All the judges screamed their answers. It’s like, “Stop yelling at me.”

That Bruno is the worst. Every time he’s got to stand up. Julianne Hough was substituting for her brother, Derek Hough. She and Bruno were trying to one-up each other with their flamboyancy. I was like, “Can we stop now?” It was a lot.

I guess it doesn’t matter now but there was some heat throughout the week because people who did not want Cody to win thought that him having the Peloton muscle behind him was unfair but they’ve all got muscle. Iman had the NBA and JoJo had her huge fan base.

Not only that, but she also plugged herself on the Music Awards. Is that okay? It is okay but my point is one is not okay and one is. That doesn’t make sense. It was fine for her to plug herself. It’s no different than us all posting and being like, “Don’t forget to vote for Cody.”

You use what platforms are afforded to you, and you’re dumb if you don’t. At the end of the day, it’s a dumb reality show. They are all still rich and famous. They are going to be okay.

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That’s another issue that we both have with the show. The Voice or American Idol was all people that were no ones.

This was a real break for them, especially once it became obvious that the show could create stars. The Dancing With The Stars, these people are coming in with notoriety and fan bases, and they are successful already. It’s just one more thing that they are going to do, and then they’ll move on to the next thing. They’ll be on Couples Therapy.

The stakes aren’t the same because when some kid from Idaho gets cut from American Idol, his dreams have been dashed. When somebody gets cut from Dancing With The Stars, they just go back to their soap opera or what have you. It’s not the same. I think this is our last Cody story for the week. Not ever, so calm down. Cody did an interview with Men’sHealth, which was interesting.

This came from his interview with Kelly Clarkson.

They repurposed it. He was on Kelly Clarkson talking about how growing up homeless gave him a strong work ethic.

It makes perfect sense. Not to compare myself to Cody, but I had some things that happened to me when I was a kid, and it pushed me to work hard. Cody took that much further than I did with his amazing career but I get why it does. I totally understand how that can push you in a way that having everything handed to you doesn’t. I have a lot of respect for him being able to do that, take something hard and be like, “I never want to live like that.” To be clear, he speaks very highly of his mom. This was not a situation where he was an unhappy kid. They just didn’t have money and there were reasons behind that. If you want to hear the whole story, Tom sends out the newsletter weekly, and he’s been doing that like clockwork. You can get that article there.

We will be in Boston so that will be the real test, but that’s the goal. Something that people might not know about Peloton is that there are instructors who aren’t Cody. We’re going to talk about a few of them now.

Robin had a few articles herself. She’s doing okay. This is a great article. I love the message here. It’s from Insider and it’s Robin. They put right at the top, “Peloton star Robin Arzon says she isn’t trying to bounce back to her prepregnancy body. That would be like going backward.” What a great message. That’s where our Peloton instructors are different from other fitness people. They say things that are unique and genuine to them. I think that’s amazing. She’s all about moving forward, building her strength, and she looks better than ever. I don’t know that I could say that but it’s wonderful to be able to think of it like, “What’s next?” Not trying to get back to where I was. That’s such a good message.

Especially because that’s a losing proposition. You’re going to age, male or female, and at some point, you’re not going to be able to get “back to where you were” because you’re 50 not 20, or you’re 70, not 50. That’s probably a pretty good mindset to break out of.

What a great message from Robin.

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FightCamp has introduced a bunch of new instructors.

It’s exciting because you might have already been working out on the platform, but now you get to work out with new people. That’s always fun to broaden that. No matter how much you love the instructors, it’s great to add a new one in. This is a good time to join FightCamp because they are still growing. If you’re ready to start fighting for your fitness goals, the holidays are right around the corner. This is a great time to make 2022 your best year yet.

They have thousands of classes with new workouts added each week. You’ll always find something new. You can use filters to explore different workout styles, lengths, trainers, difficulty levels, and so much more. You’ll never get bored.

Another thing I love about it is they have so many quick workouts. You can get a fantastic workout in as little as twenty minutes because it is full body. Most of the time, they are HIIT workouts so it is intense and fast.

The whole family can get involved. FightCamp is one of the only home workouts that are safe for kids to do because there are no heavy weights or spinning wheels. It’s an amazing way for them to get their energy out, learn something new, and share an experience with the whole family.

Now is the best time to get your FightCamp. Take advantage of their holiday deal.. If you purchase in December, you’ll get an additional pair of gloves for free.

 

Go to JoinFightCamp.com/clip to get an additional pair of gloves for free during December.

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Let’s welcome back to the show, Angelo for MetPro, here to answer your nutrition questions. How is it going?

It’s great to see you again.

It’s great to see you too. I am very curious to hear how you answer this one. Emily Ginder would like to know the top five snacks for protein post-workout. However, there’s a caveat. Preferably none processed.

We did a top five in reverse. I’m going to do a little bit of extrapolation here, Emily. I’m going to say that part of the battle here is not just, what are the five best proteins? If you’re talking about absolute consumption, you get into the bodybuilding metrics that people in competition use, and per ratios of calorie to protein intake, and then how fast your body will uptake and utilize that protein. There are all kinds of arguments for engineered whey protein powders. For some people that want a slower release, we’ll do blended protein powders. If you’re going to go to Whole Foods, you can go to liquid egg whites. You have all these sorts of things. With all that said, I’m going to assume that wasn’t your question. I’m going to assume what you’re looking for is, in measure, practicality.

For practical purposes, what you’re looking for is what makes a good snack. This is what I drill into my clients every day. A good snack has to be quick, portable and not messy. Those are the virtues and the qualities we’re looking for, otherwise, it doesn’t happen. By those metrics, I do like protein powders. Personally, I use a vegan protein powder. I am not vegan but I think it’s a phenomenal blend. I’m not looking for instant uptake. I want something that I’m going to be able to digest over a little time. I use a vegan or sometimes a vegetarian protein powder, although I’m not opposed to whey, I like those as well. If you are hitting the gym and you’re wanting some immediate protein, the quick, portable, and easy on the go is protein powders.

I will get this caveat. For years, the anabolic window, an hour after your workout, has been largely disproven and its efficacy. Eating protein never is a bad thing. Before any of my clients add a post-workout protein, my first question is, are you already eating consistently a minimum of four meals a day, if not five? Here’s how that breaks down. At least breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner, if not breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. Having those in place on a daily basis as part of your routine is going to be more meaningful in your workout recovery, in reaching your goals, whether it’s athletic, muscular development or fat loss than any post-workout recovery or protein will. Make sure those are in place first, because then you’ll always have a post-workout meal or protein coming around the horn, no matter what time of day you’re exercising.

Assuming you have a good routine already in place, then as we said something like approaching powder works, you can do turkey, chicken, fish. The fish in this instance would be probably a white fish, basically a low-fat fish for quicker utilization. Messes are the issue there. I have a lot of clients that are good with carrying a can opener and having the little cans of tuna, having the little cans of chicken that are ready to go. If you’re one of my clients, you already have a bunch of chicken breasts cooked in the fridge or whatever protein. It could be a vegetarian protein source or whatever you have in bulk. It’s a matter of throwing it in a little container to go before you left. There’s chicken, turkey, fish.

In the B category, I’m going to say is not as good but still very good. It’s going to be super convenient. Things like low-fat string cheese. That’s going to be the right mozzarella sticks. Here’s the one that you haven’t heard before, veggie patties. You got to find the high-protein, low-carb version. Some of them are high in carbs. By the way, maybe you want carbs post-workout because you didn’t mention that. That’s why I’m giving the caveat that you’ll want to find one that’s higher in protein, a little bit lower in carbs. Back in the day, I used to get my garden burgers and my bulk of burgers. I would put them in the toaster. I would grab a napkin. I would catch them out of the toaster, and I would walk out of the house. It’s that easy.

If you need the carbs, eat the napkin.

Don’t eat the napkin. Reserve that for very dire circumstances. Those are our five options. We’ve got whey protein, vegan protein, turkey, fish, string cheese, veggie patties.

If people want advice like this but not the napkin advice, where can they find you?

Go to MetPro.co/tco.

Thank you.

—

Little Tikes made a Peloton-like bike for kids, and child development experts are losing their sh*t.

I don’t even understand this. In case you missed it, this bike has been out for a while.

We’ve been seeing versions of this for years.

This one specifically came out in 2020, but there had been another version out. It wasn’t Little Tikes. It was somebody else, but it’s a stationary bike. They’re saying that this is bad because kids can’t go out and explore. What the hell? Who is letting a four-year-old go out and explore their neighborhood?

People who don't have a Peloton don't realize these kinds of conversations that happen on the bike. They think you're just getting on a bike and pedaling. It's so much more than that. Share on X

Little Tikes is for tykes who are of the little variety.

It literally says it’s children ages 3 to 7.

It’s not designed for a twelve-year-old.

In my mind, in this day and age, it is completely inappropriate, at least where we live, to let a three-year-old or a four-year-old run around the neighborhood at will. I would never do that. I can’t believe that that is what the experts are saying. It’s not a good idea. They need to roam their neighborhood on foot or on the bike the way we did.

It’s like, “They need to take candy from strangers. It’s the only way they’ll ever learn to tell the good ones from the bad ones.”

This is the craziest thing. I’ve never seen anything like this.

I feel like they had to go out of their way to find people that took this position just so they could write the article. The person they get is Roberta Golinkoff, a University of Delaware professor who studies child development. Here’s her quote, “It feels so bogus to me.” This is from a professor, and she doesn’t even teach at the University of California, which I was then allowed for. That is part of the cultural heritage. I don’t want to judge. Is that your quote to CNN? “It feels bogus.”

There’s also Lenore Skenazy, “Kids want to be part of the real world. A stationary bike doesn’t prepare them for anything but moving their legs in a circular motion.” I beg to differ. We probably ought to ban those little kitchens that they have and the little tiny lawnmowers that blow bubbles. All that needs to go.

Also, “Kids want to be part of the real world.” It’s like spoken by someone who doesn’t have a kid. They want to stare at the screen. I’m not saying we should let them.

They want to be like their parents. That’s what parents are doing. That’s why people are using these bikes because they can sit next to you while you’re on the bike, and they are doing their thing. They feel grown-up like mom and dad. That’s a great thing. I totally disagree with this article. What’s bogus is this article.

GQ Australia has a review.

They talk that it’s an amazing product, but will it take off in Australia?

I think it already has. That’s their best market outside of America.

It’s the fastest-growing. They said that compared to the other countries that they’ve grown in, it’s ahead of that curve in Australia. I don’t know if it’s technically the fastest-growing, but if you compare it side by side, then it is for the same timeframes. I guess we will see what happens. If there’s anybody else that we’ve interviewed in Australia and we have some Australian audience, I would love to hear your thoughts on it. If you want to reach out to us, I’d like to talk to people who actually use the products, not just an article. If anybody is interested in speaking about that, please reach out to me at ClipOutCrystal@gmail.com. It’s half of an email address.

—

CMC Markets asks the question, can Peloton’s share price really bounce back? It’s not about whether it can bounce back. It’s about whether it can be as fit as it needs to be in the current day. You can never get back to where you were, so don’t go backwards.

That’s good that you feel that way because we’re down to $42. I don’t know what this article says because I didn’t read it that well but yes, they can. It will just take some time.

Now, they are in a moment of they are no longer the new shiny thing. Whenever you’re popular, there’s a backlash. They are in their backlash moment. If they ride it out, they will be fine. There are also many people that are schadenfreude. I don’t want to say schadenfreude for us, but I’ll make fun of anything. We’ve made some jokes, but there are people out there that enjoy the fact that Peloton is not having a great moment.

For sure. There are serial haters out there. They’ve been around forever and Peloton didn’t grow the way they wanted to. They are constantly posting bitchy stuff about Peloton and it’s disgusting. I hate it. If you don’t like it, just leave like don’t be here.

—

NordicTrack has created a kerfluffle of sorts. I guess their machines are now atheists. They’ve shut down God mode.

If you don’t know what that is, God mode allows you to watch things like Netflix on your treadmill. Peloton has long been on record of not allowing this. Yes, there are hacks to get around it. I know that.

 

Void your warranty, but you get to watch Netflix.

That’s not the attack that NordicTrack took. They’ve always allowed it. In fact, they even had how-to manuals right on their website. They had explained how to access it. All of a sudden, they’re stopped. It’s no longer allowed. They have blocked access to it. That’s interesting because there are people that chose NordicTrack specifically because they could watch things like Netflix on the treadmill.

I always thought that it was smart that Peloton does not allow people to access things like Netflix. I also think it’s smart that NordicTrack did because it’s a differentiator. Especially on treadmills, there are a lot of people that are used to going to the gym, watching the news or whatever is on the screen. All those gyms have TVs showing you the different shows to watch. That’s a very common way to interact with your treadmill. I feel like that’s appropriate and something that a lot of people want. It’s smart that Peloton doesn’t because their attack is, “We’re ultimately selling you this content. Our content is good. What’s going to keep you coming back is your engagement and relationship with your favorite instructor or instructors.” I think NordicTrack is trying to follow that model. I don’t think that they’ve figured out that maybe their content needs to be better before they do that.

If their content is amazing, it’s not going to matter because people chose it specifically for that reason. There are people that get irritated with that about Peloton. I’ve never understood it because if you’re going to spend all that money on a treadmill, why would you not want to pay for the amazing content that we have? Also, just to be fair, I don’t think that way in general, because it bores me to watch TV. I don’t push myself in the same way. Whenever I have somebody saying, “Now push,” I am going to go much harder than watching a TV show.

You might have households where one partner wants to watch Netflix and one partner wants that guidance and instruction. You could have that. There are a lot of people that clearly want it and that’s the differentiator. I think it’s a mistake for them to do it.

It’s a mistake for them to turn it off. That’s for sure. We’ll see what happens.

—

The holiday seasons are officially upon us and there is a Black Friday apparel sale for people.

The apparel is up to 50% off. There are some good deals. In some cases, it’s more than 50% off because that puffer coat was $300, and it’s now down to $70. That’s crazy. If you were one of the people lucky enough to pay attention to the fact that your referral code was ending on the 18th, you’ve got to stack your referral code on top of the 50% sale. It is notable because it’s not something they have ever done before. It is also the biggest sale they have had in a very long time, I think maybe ever, except for the warehouse sales. That’s different.

—

Peloton has announced yet another artists collaboration. This time, it’s with The Beatles.

Keep in mind that this is the second Beatles collaboration. They are returning to Peloton for a brand new artist series featuring all the iconic tracks from the long-awaited docuseries, The Beatles: Get Back.

I cannot wait for this. It hits Disney+ on Thanksgiving Day. It looks amazing. For people that don’t know, they made a film called Get Back as they were recording the album, Get Back. They all went into the studio and they were trying to get away from a lot of the bells and whistles and stuff they were doing, which are the guys with their instruments playing. It’s the demise of the band. There’s all this footage and they made a movie that the Beatles weren’t super happy with.

Peter Jackson, the guy who directed Lord of the Rings, Kong Reboot, and other things like that, he’s gone through all this footage. It ends up being a 9 or 10 hours documentary of their recording sessions. This is the one that ends with the famous rooftop concert which was the last time they played live together. It’s all been remastered for HD. The trailers and stuff that I’ve seen look like it was filmed today. It’s crazy.

It’s also interesting because yet again, we have artists and Disney in Peloton. It’s another collaboration with Disney and an artist. I love the cover. I love how they show the two different versions of Peloton. I’m sure that’s on the two different versions of the Beatles. I’m sure that’s on the docuseries.

That’s an album cover. They have two greatest hits that they put out that were double albums. One was red and one was blue. The red one was them in that apartment or hotel, looking over the balcony like that. It appears to be 1965-ish. The other one is 1969-ish. Those two different greatest hits covered different eras. They use this iconic photo of them in the same place, in the same poses, but four years apart. If you’re a Beatles fan, you are very familiar with those photos.

It’s in time for the docuseries because all the classes start on November 27th, enjoy.

—

We have to wish a happy belated birthday to Bradley Rose who celebrated his birthday on November 22nd.

Happy birthday. We will have you on the calendar 2022, Mr. Rose.

Happy birthday to Jenn Sherman. Her birthday is December 1st.

 

Happy birthday, dear Jenn.

Don’t forget to wish her a happy birthday.

—

Joining us is Bridget Nieves. Bridget, how is it going?

Hi, guys.

I’m happy to have you here. I always like to ask people as their first question how they originally found Peloton and decided this was the exercise equipment they needed?

I actually found Peloton through two of my close friends. Two of my best friends both have Pelotons. They were like, “You have to get this bike.” It was a little out of my price range at first. It was always on the back burner. It’s right in my ear the whole time. They kept talking about these instructors and I was like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I felt like I was out of the loop a little bit. If they were ranting about it, I trust them. It had to be something magical.

When did you end up getting the bike?

I ordered it on June 6, 2020. It did take two months for my bike to come once I did order it. I did order it in June and it came in August.

It was a specific day. Tell us about the day.

Ordering the Peloton was the precipitating factor in me starting my weight loss journey. I made this purchase to buy this bike and the financial investment of getting the Peloton was what committed me to make my lifestyle changes going forward. That date sticks in my head a lot because it was a big turning point for me in my life. It will always be special to me because since purchasing that bike, I’ve lost 103 pounds.

You’re worried about the price of that bike, what about the price of all those clothes?

That’s something no one tells you to get ready, to buy lots of clothes in lots of sizes because it’s a process.

It doesn’t happen overnight but you lost the weight pretty quickly, 100 pounds in eleven months. Is that just because you started using the Peloton or is that because you changed other things?

I made a lot of small changes that added up to big changes over time. When I made the purchase to buy the Peloton, I simultaneously downloaded this app called the Lose It! app. I have an Apple Watch and an iPhone. I was googling what apps were great for both of those devices and this one came up. I went on a wham and downloaded it. You put in your height, weight, gender and it tells you, “Eat this many calories.” I went with that. I was like, “I’m going to eat these many calories.” I forgot what number it sent me out at. I feel like it was probably around 1,800 when I first started. From June to August, I counted calories and I was mindful about what I was eating.

In the beginning, I think I was a lot more restrictive than I would ever be now because you’re dieting. I don’t know what I was doing. I was like, “I can’t eat this. I can’t eat that. I’m just going to stay within my calories and try to be as healthy as I can.” In those first two months, I lost about 30 pounds before the bike even arrived. That was just being mindful of my calories and watching what I was eating. It was understanding how many calories something is and how much you should be eating put things in perspective for me.

You learn very quickly what foods you can eat more of that don’t burn all your calories. You’re making small changes without even realizing it like, “I’m going to eat four cups of green beans because that’s only 100 calories, where four cups of rice are 1,000 and I’m going to lose all my calories.” Having the app, being mindful and logging everything shifted things for me.

Shift is a perfect word because when you say things like 100 calories for four cups of green beans, you also have to like the green beans. It makes you make choices. The words you’re using are so powerful because it is. Every day is a choice. It’s not a diet. It’s making the choice that I’m going to eat in this different way. I’m going to make these other choices that I haven’t been making. Were you able to stick with those changes and you never looked back or did you have moments where you were like, “This is not working. I need to change this over here?” How did that go?

Every day I’m making changes. I’m shifting and finding new things that work for me. The motivating factor for me going on this journey was in 2020. That was a scary time. We’re in the middle of the pandemic. I was morbidly obese. When you’re turning on the news, all you’re seeing is, “Risk factors for COVID-19, obesity.” I was terrified. I have two small children. At that time, my kids were 3 and 1. All I kept thinking was, “If I don’t lose this weight and I get COVID, I’m going to die and my kids are not going to have their mother.” That was frightening. It was probably the biggest wake-up call I’ve ever had in my life.

That on the back of my head has been the biggest motivating factor for me in all of this. Making changes for what I’m eating is minuscule compared to the sacrifice that I need to do to be here for my kids. If I have to find two green vegetables that I like and eat those vegetables, I’m going to do that because my kids need me. To go back to your question, I’m constantly adjusting and making choices that work for me because it’s not a diet. This is my life. I’m making sustainable changes to the way I look at food, to the foods I’m eating that are going to be lifelong changes. I’m not going to tell myself, “I can’t have this. I’m not going to have this.” I’m going to find a way to still have those things, stay within my calories and still make smarter choices.

 

I relate but in the inverse, when you were like, “If I don’t make these changes, my kids aren’t going to have their mother.” I’m like, “If I don’t make these changes, my kids are going to have their mother.” What’s the hardest thing to walk away from for you? Maybe a more positive way to phrase it is, what’s the thing that you choose on the days you decide to splurge?

Splurging isn’t a thing for me anymore because I’m incorporating all the foods that I love every day. I have a cookie, probably 5 out of 7 nights a week. I have a pint of ice cream before I go to bed. A splurge to me in the past is when I would restrict myself and say, “You can’t eat these things.” I remember I tried to go vegan. I give so many props to people who are vegan because there are a lot of things you cannot eat.

For me, it didn’t work. I tried it for three days, then I went and had six donuts at Dunkin’ Donuts because I was losing my mind. That would be a splurge. Whereas now, I’d say a splurge would be my birthday and I’m just going to eat meat on that day. I’m still mindful of absolutely everything I’m eating. I’m logging it. I’m not saying, “I’m not going to have that. I’m not going to think about it.” Everything is getting logged and it’s accountable for, but the way I think about food is different now that those words are not the same anymore.

That bodes well long-term. It didn’t mean to be a test but you passed it. It wasn’t going to be like, “No wrong answer. Cake means you’re a failure.”

Before you made these changes, were you working out at all? What did life look like before?

No. I have two children. My day is just consistently mommy. We were in the middle of the pandemic, so I was pretty much indoors for all of that time taking care of my kids. The most exercise would be we would go on a walk around the block maybe. That was far and few between because I was always tired. I would do maybe a quarter of a mile and be like, “Mommy has to come back because I’m winded.” After my children, my exercises levels dramatically decreased. Whereas growing up, I was always someone who loved to exercise. I was a basketball player in high school. I did kickboxing. I love to exercise. I thrive on competition but becoming a mom and I worked two jobs, I fell to the sideline. My health took the back burner.

You have two jobs and two kids, how are you finding time to exercise and to eat healthily? It’s not the easiest thing to do.

It’s planning. I am somebody who’s by nature is a very organized and structured person. I feel like that’s intuitively who I am. That’s not everybody but it worked to my benefit in this situation because I’m like, “If I’m going to do this, I’m going to find time to exercise and I have to know what I’m eating and when I’m eating it.” Having knowledge of calories is great but if you’re constantly going over it because you’re just grabbing whatever and not having a plan, you’re not helping yourself. Having the Lose It! app was really great for me because it allows you to plan in advance. I would sit down at night. My kids are in bed by 8:00 or 8:30.

8:00 to 9:00 is my time. I’m planning my meals for the next day. I’m on my Peloton. I’m taking care of whatever I need to take care of. In the beginning, that looked like me planning three days out because I needed to have that safety blanket of knowing that I’m not going to go over my calories these next three days because I have everything planned. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and my snack are organized. It’s all things I like to eat. I know I’m going to look forward to eating those things. 8:00 to 9:00 is my time to get on that bike and take care of my mental health, my work on me on that bike. Designating that time to plan for my food and exercise was instrumental for me, and then going to watch whatever I want on Netflix after.

That’s great to know because there are many people out there, especially when you have kids, that it’s hard to find the “you time.” I feel like you nailed it. Planning is important. It is for me as well. You have best intentions but then if you don’t have a plan and you have a bad day, it will all go to shit in two seconds.

If I didn’t plan what I’m having for lunch tomorrow and then my stomach’s grumbling, somebody comes in the office with fast food. If I didn’t have my planned lunch ready to go, you’re going to make an unhealthy choice. Not because you don’t have good intentions, it’s because it’s convenient. I don’t want to make choices out of convenience. I want to make smart choices that I’m planning for myself to set myself up to be successful.

People say you don’t have time to plan and it does take time to plan, but I think you get better at it over time. The planning time decreases which you have more time to do your other things.

One of my friends says this quote all the time, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” That sticks with me at my core because you have to plan the plan. You have to say, “I’m going to plan this time to plan.” You have to take two steps ahead of yourself to get yourself ready. If you don’t do that, you’re not going to be successful because you’re not setting yourself up. You’re not putting yourself in that right mind frame. It’s that mind switch where it’s like, “I am doing this. I’m going to do this for me and my kids. This is what it’s going to take in the beginning,” and I’m sticking to it.

That first time you plan it all out though is a little overwhelming. It’s a lot. When I started doing it, I had to plan a lot less because I eat the same stuff over and over again. You see it all spread out.

With calorie counting, you have to weigh and measure everything. You can’t just use a measuring scoop. I’m like, “No. You get that scale-out.” In the beginning, it can be daunting because for every single item you’re planning for, you’re weighing and measuring. I would do bulk meals. I would go to Skinnytaste and make something off of her recipe, and then have that for four days. I’ll have the total calories for the whole meal and then weigh out each portion so they are even. That’s how I would do it. It can be so overwhelming when you’re like, “I don’t even know where to begin.” Taking other recipes and breaking them down for yourself can help a lot too.

Do you ever have days where you’re just like, “I don’t want to plan? I’m tired. Stop?” What do you do?

Yes. I’ll buy it. There are some local small businesses in the area that do meal prep. I have in the freezer on nights like that, meals ready to go. That’s my backup plan or my plan B. I’ll just pull out a meal that I have. Hummus Fit is a meal prep service that I like in the area. I’ll have a hummus meal in my freezer. I’ll pull out one of my hummus meals and I’m good to go. If I don’t want to plan for tomorrow, a lot of these meal prep services they’ll do oats which I love. They have oats and muffins. It’s a quick, easy grab-and-go. It takes the thought out of it too. That’s my backup plan, emergency dinners and they have the nutrition information. It tells me how many calories and everything ready to go. I don’t have to think about it.

My planning heart is so happy. You speak to my planning heart. You were featured in an article. Tell us about that. How did that come to be?

I used the Lose It! app. They have a public relations rep who reached out to me through social media. They said, “We have this journalist. We pitched them your story and they would love to do a written piece on you.” I was like, “People care about what I have to say?” It was crazy. I was like, “Absolutely. I would love to.” I had a Zoom interview with her. The article took off. I was trending on Apple News. I was number four in Apple News in the country. It was mind-blowing. People are texting me screenshots. There are top news stories.

It’s like, “Mom’s Three-Step Plan to Weight Loss.” I feel like that article has opened a lot of doors for me. I have some things that are in the works that I can’t talk about yet, but a lot of exciting things are happening from that interview. It’s great. I’m happy that that article has helped a lot of people. A lot of women and men have reached out to me and said, “What you’re doing is what I want to do. You’re not restricting yourself. You’re still eating the food you love and maintaining your weight loss. How do I do this?” I’m glad that it’s showing people that you can still lose weight and eat the food you love. We have these relationships with food. They bring us joy and you don’t have to give up that joy to have a thinner body or a healthier body.

You have to change the amount of it that you eat.

On my Instagram page, they see the fun stuff. I’m eating veggies all day, every day. I’m eating my roasted pepper. You’re going to see the picture of the cookie because that’s more fun. You see that I’m still enjoying things that I love. I’m not eating a cookie for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have the 300 calories that I allot every single day to some sort of sweet treat because that’s what I need to keep me dedicated to this.

 

Pictures of lima beans, statistically speaking, don’t get much engagement on the ground.

Lima beans don’t do well in the limelight. You did the article. What was the process like? You did the Zoom. Was it like two days later, the article was there? Was it a week later? Did you have an advanced warning it was coming? Can you tell us all the details?

It all transpired quickly. The Lose It! person on Instagram messaged me. Within 24 hours, I had an appointment to write with the journalist. On a Wednesday, they sent me a message like, “We would like to do this.” On Thursday at 3:30, I was Zooming with her. Wednesday night, the PR called me and are like, “We’re happy to prep you, go over questions and help you guide you through this.” I’m nervous. I’ve never done anything like this. I’m like, “Okay.” They walked me through what the interview would go like, which was calming. The Lose It! rep sat on the conversation with me as well as a little crutch. That happened on a Thursday.

It was a week and nothing had happened yet. I’m like, “What is going on?” The journalist had told me that she would send me a rough draft of the article before it went live to make sure I was comfortable with everything that she was writing because it is such a personal story, which I greatly appreciated because I’m being extremely vulnerable. I am a very private person, which you would not know if you follow me on my Instagram because you see all my most vulnerable feelings about my weight loss and my weight loss journey.

Exposing myself and putting your most insecure feelings about yourself out there, I’m grateful that she allowed me to make sure I was comfortable with that. A week went by and then I revised the article she sent out. I made sure it was good to go. That was on a Saturday, then Monday night, all of a sudden, I started getting a lot of followers on Instagram. I’m like, “What is going on?” I’m like looking at my numbers and every time I open my app, there are 25 or 100 new friends. I tell my husband, “What is going on right now?” I got an email from Lose It! like, “Your story is live.” I’m like, “It makes sense.”

My social media is going crazy. There’s no warning that it was posted. It was like, “Here it is.” It was great. From start to finish, the experience is wonderful. The journalist was great to work with. Lose It! was great in facilitating everything. I felt fortunate and humbled to have someone want to share my story. It was awesome.

It’s nice that you get to be such an inspiration to people. I’m sure that’s very heartwarming as well.

Being overweight is hard and you feel isolated a lot. There are so many emotions tied in with weight. You feel however you feel about yourself. For me, I always felt like maybe I was the one who wasn’t picked first. People excluded me from things. It’s all in my head because that was my emotions with myself. Being chosen was huge like somebody wanted me and it was everything.

What’s next on your journey? You mentioned maintenance earlier. Is that where you are? Are you going to be here forever?

I don’t know. I always had a number in my head. I think everybody does when they start their weight loss journey. I always had 150 in my head and I’m 161 now. I feel good. My clothes fit. When I look in the mirror, I see myself now. I’ve been maintaining because I enjoy food. If I can maintain and need a little more food, be happy and healthy, I’m good.

There are things in my head that I want to do. Summer Shredding does this weight loss division. It’s a bodybuilding transformation group. I’ve had my eye on that. I’m like, “What if I did that next? What if that was my next step?” If I tried to get myself as strong as I could and show women, “You can change everything and put it all out there.” That’s something I’m thinking about right now. I don’t know if I’m going to do it but that’s on my back burner. I definitely want to help people going forward. I’m going to maybe start coaching.

There are so many exciting things.

It’s a lot. I feel like I’m in a whirlwind a lot of the time because I have two small kids. I have these two jobs and then now, Making Friends With Food. When people noticed that I lost weight, the first thing everybody said to me is, “What are you eating?” When I would say, “Whatever I want.” No one would believe me. I started Making Friends With Food to show people, “I am eating the foods I want. You can eat the foods you want.” Food is not the enemy. Food is not good or bad. It has nutritional value. It’s not inherently good or bad, but some are more nutritional and some aren’t nutritional. That was the whole precipitating factor for starting Making Friends With Food. It’s just become so much more than that. I’ve made friends because of food now. I have a group of women online who I talk to now. I’ve made friends in person. I cannot believe it’s reality sometimes. It’s been a great experience.

When you say all that, what I also understand in between the words is it has changed your life in ways that you never expected.

It’s changed me in ways that I never expected so much. I never imagined I’d be the person people would be going to for advice on what to eat. I struggled with my weight my whole life. I remember being called plump at eight years old. It’s not like I’ve done it and I’ve kept it off. I feel like prior to this, I probably lost and gained the same 20 pounds over again, but the way that I made the changes this time, they’re sustainable. It’s something that I’ve been able to maintain and shift my life with.

What is your leaderboard name if people would like to find you there?

My leaderboard name is Restin_SpinFace. I have always been told I have RBF. You would never know because I think I’ve been smiling this entire time. That was a pre-weight loss journey. Maybe it was that girl. Maybe it’s time to revisit a new name. I don’t know but I like it.

It’s fun and memorable so I can get why you would like it.

Do you have a preferred instructor that helped you through all this?

I owe so much of my journey to Tunde. I’m sure Crystal can relate because when you ride on that bike, you feel like they’re your friends and they’re talking to you. In the moment where she’s like, “Get back up.” I’m like, “I had just sat down. Is she watching me?” She has this ability to speak to your soul. She is getting through to me when I am on that bike. She pushes me in ways that I never thought possible. I know she had her own weight loss journey. I feel like she’s such a relatable person for me. She’s powerful, beautiful and smart. I admire her. I’m on that bike and 99% of the time it’s with Tunde’s class. If it’s not Tunde and I need something fun and flirty, it’s Cody.

 

Tunde likes ice cream. You can’t go wrong.

Her makeup is always flawless. She is amazing. Her arms are my goals. I want my arms to look like Tunde’s arms. I am just working at those Tunde arms. I am doing 45-minute intervals in arms mostly every night because I am trying to get Tunde arms. You feel it after her class. She works you like unbelievable.

I remember one time I took one of her classes and it was ten-minute arms. She was like, “Don’t tell me you can’t do work in ten minutes. Don’t tell me you can’t get something done in ten minutes.” I was beaten the next day.

Even when she’s like, “You can do anything for fifteen seconds.” That stuck with me because you can. It’s all in your mind. She said something else too. It was reframing your mental headspace. I’m always constantly reframing my mental headspace. People who don’t have a Peloton don’t realize these kinds of conversations that happen on the bike. They think you’re just getting on a bike and pedaling. It’s so much more than that.

That’s why they think that any bike will do or any instructors will do. It’s like, “No. These are gems that these people are saying to us because they speak to you.” It’s crazy because you don’t even know what you want to hear until you hear it. Somehow you’ll pick a ride and it’s exactly what you need.

When I tell people I’ve cried on this bike, they’re like, “What?” Robin did her birth announcement on this bike and I celebrated her telling her mom she was having a baby. The things you experienced on this bike, you would never know unless you have Peloton. It’s still amazing. Kendall’s mental health ride challenged me in ways I never even thought imaginable.

The way that they script their classes and the words they’re saying correlate with the level of resistance they’re using. Everything is so well thought and it’s exactly what you need when you didn’t even know you needed it. I have my Peloton Wall of Fame here. All the instructor cards, I made that with a saw. I cut that. I have a quote from Kristin McGee up top and it says, “Everything you could have possibly ever wanted, have or ever need is right inside of you.” I see that every time I ride.

You have a wonderful Peloton space that you have created and that’s cool. That’s wonderful. It’s very inspirational.

Do you have any advice for people who are just entering the world of Peloton?

The seat gets better. I remember when I bought my Peloton, my two friends who own the bike, I’m like, “No one told me I would not be able to sit after riding this bike.” It is some kind of pain that you never knew imaginable. Somehow they both said, “You will get used to it. You do. I promise.”

If you do it long enough, your seat gets better and I mean that in both senses of the word.

The seat gets better and just listen to the instructors. You don’t have to do exactly what they’re saying with the numbers. If they’re telling you to do the numbers you need, listen to them. If Tunde’s telling you that you can drop weight and you need to, do it. You’re challenging yourself, “No one’s here. No one’s watching me.” Your accountability is yourself. You do what you have to do for yourself. There’s nobody watching. You will build up to those two weights in one arm. You’ll get there. In the beginning, if you can’t do it, it’s okay. Just clip-in. Even if it’s five minutes, just get on the bike. I’ve never regretted clipping in. I’ve regretted not clipping in. Once you get on that bike, you feel so much better after you get off of it. You’ll never regret clipping in.

I was worried for a second that you’re going to say, “I’ve never regretted clipping in, but I’ve regretted clipping out.” That was going to be a failure.

That would’ve been a terrible play of words right there.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. Before we let you go, remind everybody where they can find you in all the places. I’m assuming you would like to be found because you talked about it.

You can find me at @MakingFriendsWithFood on Instagram I also started a website. It’s MakingFriendsWithFood.net.

We’re excited to see what you’ve got up your sleeve for the future too. Keep us in the loop. You can come back and tell everybody and give a little update.

I’d love to.

Thank you.

—

I guess that brings this episode to a close. Until next time, 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 the Tread @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter at @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Don’t forget our newsletter at theclipout.com. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

Important Links:

• Bridget Nieves
• @MakingFriendsWithFood – Instagram
• Lose It!
• Hummus Fit
• Mom’s Three-Step Plan to Weight Loss
• Summer Shredding
• Apple Podcasts – The Clip Out
• Spotify – The Clip Out
• Google Podcasts – The Clip Out
• Facebook.com/TheClipOut
• YouTube.com/TheClipOut
• Can The “High Five” Creeps of Peloton be Stopped? – article
• Facebook – Run Lift and Live
• Run, Lift and Live – Facebook group
• @RunLiftAndLive – Instagram
• @RunLiftAnd Live – TikTok
• RunLiftAndLive.com
• Dr. Jenn Mann
• The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy
• @DrJennMann – Instagram
• Men’sHealth – article
• Insider – article
• FightCamp
• JoinFightCamp.com/clip
• Angelo Poli
• MetPro.co/tco
• CNN – article
• GQ Australia – article
• ClipOutCrystal@gmail.com
• CMC Markets – article
• Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe
• Instagram – Clip Out Crystal
• Twitter – Clip Out Crystal
• @RogerQBert – Twitter
• Facebook.com/tomokeefe

About Bridget Nieves

I lost 103.5lbs in 11 months largely due to taking a leap and buying a peloton and monitoring my calorie intake. I am a working mom (2 jobs) of two wonderful kids, who balances all of my many roles (wife, mom, educator, SLP, and all things in between) and finds time to prioritize myself aka exercise on my bike.

I’ve created an Instagram that posts all of my meals and recipes that’s I’ve used to help me along my journey in the hopes that I’ll provide some information that can also help someone else who’s on a similar journey. I’m just an everyday mom who’s life has been changed by Peloton and I think that’s something that is relatable. I’d love to be a guest on the show and help show women that they can do it! They can change their lives. As someone who was over weight their entire life I never thought it was possible, and here I am.