323. Peloton Announces ‘All For One’ Classes Plus Our Interview With Dr. Toni Alvarado!

TCO 323 | Fitness Enthusiast

 

  • All For One classes have been announced.
  • Peloton On Tour – Atlanta adds an event.
  • Peloton announces partnership with YMCA Chicago.
  • TCO has tips for how to replace your seat post.
  • Helper Bee Chris wrote an article about Peloton’s music licensing history.
  • Peloton has announced its next earnings call.
  • Cody Rigsby to be a guest host for Slate’s Dear Prudence.
  • Cody’s D.C. book signing adds a virtual option.
  • Cody celebrated 9 years with Peloton.
  • Assal Arian celebrates 1 year with Peloton.
  • Ben Alldis announces his book launch event.
  • Christine D’Ercole shines in return to cycling championships.
  • Logan Aldridge and Christine were in a North Carolina.
  • Benny Adami and Assal Arian host a glam-up event.
  • Angelo/MetPro – What to do when your willpower collapses at night.
  • Scott Jenkins completes his second 200-mile race in just 16 days.
  • Echelon announces a Tonal-knockoff.
  • Utlrahuman Ring looks to take on Oura.
  • TCO Top Five.
  • PSNY launches instructor-read custom class intros.
  • Two new Peloton Collections added – UK Greatest Hits and Discover New Meditations.
  • What’s the difference between a program and a collection?
  • Lanebreak gets an even bigger push from Peloton.
  • Why have Adrian Williams, Logan Aldridge, Marcel Maurer & Mayla Wedekind all been in the recording studio?
  • Birthdays – Kirsten Ferguson (8/19), Jill Foley (8/20), Crystal O’Keefe (8/20), Aditi Shah (8/24)

All this plus our interview with Dr. Toni Alvarado!

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Peloton Announces ‘All For One’ Classes Plus Our Interview With Dr. Toni Alvarado!

You have a migraine.

I do have a migraine. Let me be clear. It’s not super painful. I get the aura and sometimes there’s pain afterward and sometimes there isn’t. I took my migraine medicine right away. It’s Fioricet if you’re wondering. The downside of when I get a migraine is I cannot think of words. That combined with the struggle to think of words already since my accident. I don’t know how it’s going to go, but we’re going to do our best. Tom is going to fill in when I can’t get the words. Hopefully, you can read my mind.

It’s like Mad Libs.

I’ll be like, “You know, the thing with the thing,” and you’re supposed to figure that out.

You’ll have a sentence that you forget a word. You’ll be like, “Peloton is doing whatever,” and I will say fart. That’s how you Mad Libs.

Why does that remind me of the movie we watched last night?

We saw the movie Strays last night and it was funny. It’s very raunchy. It was very low-brow but it was also very funny.

There were some funny scenes. There were also some scenes that were so horrifying.

If you’re unfamiliar, it stars the voices of Will Ferrell, Will Forte, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, and Randall Park. They’re the voices of dogs. The dog has an owner that’s abusive. He dumps the dog to get rid of it, and the dog is trying to get back home. It’s funny.

I’m sorry, it’s funny. I feel like I need to apologize because it is so low-brow.

It’s so low-brow and it’s so raunchy in spots that some people are like, “This sounds fun,” especially if you see that it’s a movie about talking animals.

For God’s sake, do not take your children.

It is not for kids. It is an R-rated movie. It is a hard R in terms of dirty jokes.

You are going to go in knowing it’s going to be raunchy. Just know that and accept it. If you can’t, it’s not for you.

It’s like you going on a date with me.

It’s exactly right. That’s probably why I thought it was so funny.

It works to my benefit. What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We got some All-For-One updates and some Peloton On Tour Updates. We also need to let you know that sadly, Dr. Jenn will not be on. I don’t know when she will return. I do not want to give any personal information because that’s her personal information. It’s a tough time right now.

She can’t be on at the moment. Hopefully, she will be back soon.

We’re giving her whatever time she needs. We have a bunch of instructor news that we’re going to chat about. We got a touch on our TCO top five. There’s some fun competitor news to chat about and of course, we’ll hit birthdays.

Who’s our interview for this episode?

Antoinette Alvarado is a reverend and the sweetest and funniest lady. I could have talked to her for hours. We talked to her longer than we normally do for an interview. Cozy up and get a chair. It’s a great interview. She’s so engaging. You are going to love it and learn a lot and so many things. I always learn so much from my interviewees. That’s going to be great.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs. Don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and of course, I fart. This is where we’re headed this week. I feel bad. I figure somewhere out there, there’s someone who this is the first time they’re tuning in. It’s like, “What? This is the show, Farty McFartyson?”

If you’re tuning in and this is your first time, you should hit the pause button. Go tune in to something else. The previous episode was great. We were on it.

I feel like this is a pretty good representation of who I am.

Without so many farts.

You can also find us on Facebook at Fartbook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and fart on the group.

Just roll down the window.

You can also find us on YouTube.com/TheClipOut. Don’t forget, we have a Patreon, Patreon.com/TheClipOut, where you can get bonus content. We’ve had so much information lately that we try to narrow it down to the best stuff, and then some of the other stuff that we didn’t have time for to get into the main episode lives over on the Patreon as a bonus episode. Also, if an episode is ready early, you get it early. They are entirely ad-free. Finally, don’t forget the newsletter at TheClipOut.com, where you can get all the links and things like that sent to you. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

The All For One class schedule has been released partially at least.

We have some classes. Here’s what we do know. Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders got a little notification. They were able to book some specific classes for AFO offer one. September 8th is going to be an Olivia class, and I believe Skrillex is going to be the featured artist for her class. Denis Morton is going to be on September 9th. There’s going to be a bike class. Olivia’s was a tread, by the way. Denis is going to be featuring Hozier. That’s the band that’s going to be featured.

There’s going to be a live row class on September 9th with Katie Wang, but also featuring music by Katy Perry. That’s going to be a 30-minute row class and there’s going to be a photo op. This is the one I wanted to focus on for a second. Could this mean this is going to be the first rowing class with people in it?

Perhaps.

People are buying the package. This might be the first one. That is so exciting. You could also get a meet and greet with Cody. We get the VIP experience. We got to talk about that. This is going to be a behind-the-scenes tour of the Peloton bike studio, priority seating for the Hip Hop 50 artist panel. That panel features Fat Joe and Money Love, and a DJ after-party with renowned DJs, DJ John Michael and Skribble.

That’s a lot for your Chase Sapphire members.

They went fast. The VIP package was still open when these dropped, but everything else was already sold out. They went super fast. Is this your only opportunity to get a class? No. I did verify with the Peloton spokesperson that they would never do that. They would never only give it to Chase Reward members. Thank you, Peloton.

That’s good. I get that you’re going to have these perks and this is the world that we live in. I guess I have a little bit more sympathy for it because I live in the world of ticketing. I do stuff like this all the time, but that’s the way the world works.

The good news is that these classes are going to be available to the general public. When? I don’t know. We’re recording on a Wednesday, the 16th. My guess is that there’s a strong possibility that these classes are going to drop on the 17th at noon Eastern. It will have already happened, if I am right, by the time you hear this episode. If I am not correct, then I don’t know. Maybe next week then. They usually would have already been posted. I think they had to wait to do this little thing with Chase for them to do that.

It had started. They’re very important because they have a Chase Sapphire card.

It’s Sapphire Reserve. Very snooty.

Sorry. I get it mixed up with the lowlifes that have a Chase Sapphire card. These are the people who have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Those people with the Chase Sapphire general admission card can go fart themselves.

Many people were so excited about this. This is one of those cards where they have a big fee because you pay for all the perks upfront. We have some of those cards but not this card.

We use ours to get into the fancy American Airline Lounge.

Although I am taking a little look-see at it. Maybe it’s worth it, but then it’s not like I can just hop over to the studio anytime I want. For people in the tri-state area, this is a hard solid maybe. For people who live in the Midwest or further, I don’t know. That would be really close.

It’s a big expense to get there for people like us.

Exactly.

Peloton On Tour Atlanta has added an event.

The big fun is dropping and they added a stop for a club husky party at the Alpharetta showroom/store on Saturday, August 19th from 12:00 to 2:00 PM. You can bring a non-member friend and receive a special giveaway. This is cool though because there’s no ticket required for this event. I will be curious to hear how many people go. So far, everyone that I have talked to is definitely planning and going to this. This is going to be one of those line-out-the-door situations.

The storeroom will be packed as Hotlanta becomes Husklanta.

I love it. I bet there will be dancing too.

Peloton inked a partnership with the YMCA of Chicago.

Tell me about that.

They inked a deal with the YMCA of Chicago.

TCO 323 | Fitness Enthusiast

 

We already knew that there were two instructors that were going to be part of this, which is gone out of my brain. We updated it to add that Ash Pryor was going to be there on August 19th for an adult day camp. I believe that there were also going to be some other things with some other instructors. I don’t know if that’s true or if that was just a bad memory of mine. I guess this is kicking off the partnership. It does not say that. I think there was a partnership. That was the original article, and then we updated it because Ash is going to be there. There are so many instructor events that are happening right now.

This is smart. They’re sending them out to different parts of the country to do different things. That’s a great way to utilize them. Whenever a Peloton instructor is coming into one of these markets, it’s probably generating local news stories that go along with it. They’re getting lots of free press locally about a Peloton instructor who has come to town for what have you.

That’s true. I wish that we could pop over there, but I don’t think we can manage that.

Our Chase Sapphire card is already maxed out.

This is not a Chase Sapphire thing.

I know but we would have to put it on our Chase Sapphire card.

I know we got lots of trips coming up.

Use promo code TCO when you sign up, but don’t because that’s not real. Over at the newly redesigned TheClipOut.com, you should go check that out if you haven’t yet. Lots of people are getting their seat-posts. If you’re like me, you open up a package like that and you’re like, “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?” If you’ve got a seat-post and then said to yourself, “Now what?” We have a tutorial for people over at TheClipOut.com.

Lindsay did this and I absolutely love it. She puts a tutorial together in crystal speak. That means every freaking step is laid out with a picture, including the step that she got a little hung up on. She started at the beginning. She went through everything. She went through the fact that there was this little end cap she had to pull out. They didn’t include in the instructions how to remove the seat. She even talks you through that if you don’t know how. When she got to the part where she had to put the end cap back in, she got a little stuck. She explained that as well. This was a beautifully done tutorial. I am so happy that Lindsay has joined our writing team. We have yet another amazing person to add this fantastic content. Thank you, Lindsay.

Speaking of additional content on the website, people are always talking about class purges. Sometimes they won’t shut up about class purges.

It’s always like this on the OPP. Some people keep stirring the pot. There’s that.

Do you remember when you go to Blockbuster and they’d have a million copies of Days of Thunder? After that movie had been out for a year, they only had one copy of Days of Thunder. After three years, maybe they didn’t have any copies of Days of Thunder anymore. That’s what’s happening. Except you didn’t run around telling everyone, “Stop the purging of Days of Thunder.” You just moved on.

For the millionth time. I’m going to say this again but I feel like the wrong people are hearing this. It’s not that no one is listening because I know you guys do, but I feel like the wrong people are hearing this. They cannot keep all of this content forever.

In some cases, they probably legally can’t because they have music licensing still that ebb and flow.

Even if they could, they’re not going to keep it forever because they keep changing their technology. There’s new audio, new video, and new set design. There’s all of this new stuff coming in. Why would they keep super old classes? It doesn’t make any sense.

I turn on NBC and they did not have one episode of Get Smart. They purged Get Smart.

Stop the purge.

They need to stop the purge of Get Smart.

I wish people could understand how much data Peloton is already using for the classes they have. You want them to keep everything since 2016 and you’re mad about it every time they don’t. This is not new. This is exactly what they’ve always done. The only thing different is they are telling it to you. There are people telling you exactly what classes they are. That is what’s getting you riled up. Nothing else. It’s only that.

Life is ephemeral. I once won a radio contest and they said my name on the air. I have no way to listen to that. It was purged.

That’s ridiculous.

KHTR purged the cataloging at the time I won tickets to see Eddie and the Cruisers. I am outraged but if you would like a history of Peloton’s music licensing journey, it is an interesting one. There have been lots of ebbs and flows. That was a major lawsuit that everybody freaked out about when we said it’ll be a way to resolve it to figure out the financing. That’s exactly what it was.

Anyway, Helper Bee Chris wrote this article. It’s over at TheClipOut.com. You can take a stroll down memory lane so you can get yourself up to speed. That way when you’re standing around the water cooler and someone says, “What about the music?” you can answer their question.

Going from the great purge of 2019, all the way up to having the largest fees above anybody else including TikTok. It’s pretty amazing. It’s quite the journey.

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When people wonder why a Peloton subscription costs what it does, it’s because you get to listen to all the great music while you do it. If you just want to listen to The Wheels On The Bus, that’s what Echelon is for.

Peloton has announced its next earnings call.

That’s next Wednesday at 8:30 AM Eastern. Peloton, thank you for doing it on a Wednesday. It makes my life so much easier. I appreciate that.

She’ll give you a little something extra in your check this week, Peloton. Instead of $44.95, it’s going to be an even $45. That extra $5 goes straight to Barry.

That’s not true because they pull it out automatically. I don’t write a check. I haven’t written a check since 1998.

I only write a check if I’m at the grocery store and the person in line behind me irritates me.

You whip out that check out.

“I think it’s time to write a check.” I have one in my wallet just like I used to keep condoms in my wallet. In case the person in line behind me irritates me.

Did you ask the cashier a bunch of questions? “Do you need my phone number on this?” Do you do that too?

I’m so old. I remember I had my Social Security number pre-printed on my checks. Everybody made you write your Social Security number on your check so they could hunt you down and kill you if it bounced

The good old days before ID theft.

As I was saying, I keep a check in my wallet, and like condoms, I never touched it. Anyway, Peloton’s earnings call. What do you think is in store for us? Do you think this is going to be good news?

I do. I thought the last one was good news, but the stock market did not agree.

They said otherwise.

Although since then, people have been finally admitting that they are starting to turn things around. They are. It’s indisputable at this point.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a shitty story about something happening with Peloton.

I have to say Bravo to the communications team. They have taken back the narrative there. That’s amazing. Good for them.

Coming up after this, we’re going to go straight to Instructors In The News. We’re going to let you know how you can get advice not from Dr. Jenn, but from Cody.

Dear Prudence is going on vacation, and Cody Rigsby is going to be a guest columnist.

Did you read this?

No.

It’s not going to be. It happened. This is hilarious. You need to read this. What did Cody have to say? I’m going to read this to you in case you’re not reading this article. “To a husband contemplating infidelity. Think twice. Instead, dig deep into the reasons behind desires and address the issues within your relationship. (A bit of flagrant honesty comes in here since apparently, Cody has been the “cheater” many times.)”

TCO 323 | Fitness Enthusiast

 

“To a teenager caught in a dilemma with their boyfriend and bestie. Choose your bestie if you have to make a choice. Remember, boyfriends are everywhere. (Cody may have perhaps said this in a less genteel way.) To a writer healing from a recent breakup, take a step back from the past, the pictures, the memories, and even his family and friends. You can revisit them later. (Surprisingly, mature advice from Cody.) Do we call him Cody or Prudence?”

I think Cody because he was a guest columnist.

It was a play on words. That was from Helper Bee Lindsay. She covered that. Thank you for doing that. That’s original. The language was hilarious. If you haven’t gotten a chance to read that, you definitely should.

Speaking of Cody, we’re in a little Cody rock block right now. He has his book tour coming up. If you can’t make it, a virtual option has been added to the Washington DC stop, which is on September 14th.

You can sign up. Everybody is welcome. It’s super easy to do too. If you go to TheClipOut.com or you get our newsletter, the article will have all the details on how to do that.

While we’re in our Cody Rock block, he is celebrating nine years with Peloton. We wrote an article commemorating his nine-year journey. You can see highlights from his time at Peloton.

We’ve got a ton of times that he has been in the news. We cover our favorite moments when Cody made The Clip Out news.

Speaking of celebrating an anniversary with Peloton.

Assal celebrates one year with Peloton. Congrats to Assal.

Ben Alldis has a book launch and announced a big party thing.

This is going to be taking place on Saturday, September 2nd in Langley Street. This is to celebrate the release of Ben’s new book. First of all, anybody that gets a ticket, you automatically get a copy of the book and it’s signed. Second of all, you get a Q&A with Ben, but also Leanne is going to be hosting. You’re going to get to meet Ben and Leanne. You’re going to hang out with awesome Peloton people. You get to do all that in a cool location at Langley Street. Enjoy September 2nd.

We talked in the last episode about Christine D’Ercole going back to the National Bicycle Champion thing stuff. She did very well.

Christine took second place as the best all-around female rider in her age group. In the final of the 750 meter, which is three laps team sprint, Christine and her two teammates took the gold medal, then Christine grabbed silver medals in both her individual 2-kilometer and 5-kilometer races. In the women’s 35-plus points race, Christine took second overall in the group and won the silver medal in her specific age group. The most impressive was in the women’s 45-plus team 3-kilometer race, Christine and her three teammates won the gold medal and set a new American record. She and her teammates finish the race in four hours and five seconds, or four minutes and five. I don’t know. I have no idea, but real fast.

It‘s 3 kilometers.

I know. If you do a 5k, that’s 3.1. and they had an average speed of 27.5 miles. If I’m hearing that there were 3 kilometers, maybe they each did 3 kilometers. I don’t know. They were really fast. That’s so cool to set a record. Can you imagine setting a record for anything? Except maybe being the most annoying. That’s probably the only one. Congrats to Christine. That is an amazing accomplishment and of course her team.

While we’re talking about Christine, she and Logan had an appearance in North Carolina.

One of our listeners, Tyler, also known as Dad The Pedaler on the bike, went to the event. He had a great conversation with Logan. They discussed all of Tyler’s favorite strength classes, and then Christine brought in all of her medals. How cool is that? Christine also had all these neat intention cards for members, and they could fill them out to enhance their mind and body recharge journey. There were also these form checks that you could do. One of the things on it was burpees, so you could get your form checked on burpees, which I would never do in public. A lot of people would and that’s good for them. I’m just not that brave.

The Peloton staff has been going from city to city. They’ve been doing the Peloton on Tour, but they also went to Charlotte and next is Rally. They’re going to be headed over to Atlanta. They are all working so hard. Tyler said that while he was there, he got to meet so much of the staff. I heard this from the San Francisco stop too, that the staff was amazing. It’s cool that the staff is getting to get out there and meet people and they remember them from stop to stop. That’s really cool. Hopefully, you get to go to future events. There’s a lot of them happening right now. Make sure you get to one.

Benny Adami and the aforementioned Assal have a Glam Up workshop. I guess it will have happened by the time you hear this.

This is in Germany. It’s taking place on August 17th. It’s going to be a workshop. It is how they’re calling it, but you’re going to do a pre-class styling ritual that Benny and Assal do. They’re going to share all of that with you, and their techniques as they get ready for class. There are also going to be refreshments. There’s going to be an apparel collection. This one also has custom embroidery. We’re not sure exactly what’s going to be in there, but it’s very cool and neat.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Angelo from MetPro. He is going to answer a listener’s question about what to do when you got the willpower during the day, but when it hits nighttime, everything goes to shit. He’s going to have tips for you on how to power through. Stick around.

Joining us once again from MetPro is Angelo, here to help everyone out. We take all the questions. We throw them in a hat, then for no particular reason, we spin a wheel, and draw the questions. He says it depends and we’re done. How’s that for an intro?

It depends.

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I don’t know how often you get to listen to our MetPro Method episodes that we record, Angelo. A lot of times, when I’m talking to the other coaches, there’s a moment where you can tell they’re hesitating because they’re going to say the magic words. I’m like, “Are you channeling your inner Angelo right now?”

It will be like You Bet Your Life with Dr. Marx. You say the secret word for $100. The duck drops down every time, “It depends, doc.” It will have a little diaper on.

That is 90% of what I do. People call me and they say, “This guru or this expert said this is absolutely the best way of doing things.” I see what he writes and it’s, “It depends.” The problem is that you can read there are a million and one approaches to fitness, strength, performance, endurance, diet, nutrition, food, and everything out there. I promise you, it’s worth every approach you’ve ever heard of that has worked for someone. Will it work for you?

That’s essentially what we spend, and all of the coaches at MetPro, day in and day out. We look at the research. We’re experiencing it in real-time with many different clients, different demographics, different body types, and different food intake starting at different places. We are finding out and can now prove that it truly does depend.

That’s pretty cool in and of itself that we have enough data to be able to see that now.

We love geeking out on that stuff.

Speaking of all that, what is our question?

Our question comes from Dwayne Pearson. He says that during the day, he can maintain a pretty healthy diet and lower-carb meals. He usually skips breakfast. He does have a snack for lunch of nuts or a sandwich. I don’t know.

Those are two very different things. One is no carbs, and the other is lots of carbs.

Maybe it’s or, “Snack for lunch or a sandwich.”

Maybe, so he has a snack for lunch, which is nuts or he has a sandwich. When his son has an ice cream treat during the day, he has no problem not joining. After 8:30 PM, everything changes and he’s craving food with sugar. He might sneak his son’s lunch treat which will lead to sneaking a couple more.” I’ve been there, Dwayne. “Is there a fruit that might satisfy those cravings? What can I do to manage these late-night cravings? I want to stop becoming a sugar fiend.” Dwayne, he’s going to have to eat more, isn’t he? I think I know the answer here.

He’s in a spiral that is exaggerated by the fact that he’s not eating much carbs throughout the day. There is a little bit of mystery around whether he’s having nuts or a sandwich because if so, then we need to go back to 101. I’m going to assume that he’s keeping his carbs low during the day. He’s setting his body to need those carbs at night. There are behavioral, social, and physiological reasons for that. When you go the majority of the day with low carb and you were to do that for about 72 hours or maybe four days, you would find that your cravings for carbs will actually decrease. They’re not going to stop. Chocolates are still going to taste good, but they will decrease in most cases.

When we do the research on one of the benefits of lower-carb dieting, that was one of the few consistencies that almost all participants feel. Though women did feel this a little more acutely than men in the research, almost all participants expressed that after an initial period, cravings for sugars and carbs decreased. What’s happening is, Dwayne, you’re in the cycle where every night, you’re putting logs on the fire. You’re getting through the day, and then you’re probably at your hottest cravings about 24 hours later.

My recommendation is going to be to get some carbs throughout the day. Keep it modest, and then it’ll be a little easier to choose good carbohydrates or lower carbs at night so it’s not one giant hit or one giant binge, which is so easy to fall into that pattern. Another reason is that’s when we’re like, “I’m done with my day. I worked hard. Now I have some free time. I’m too exhausted to do anything productive. This is my relaxation time. I’m not ready to go to bed yet. What do I want to do?”

Eat.

That’s it. You’re putting yourself in a little bit of peril there. One final physiological reason for this is because that extra hit of sugar at night is giving you that nice blood sugar spike which is putting you into a good coma for sleep. That is when I have to prioritize someone’s sleep over weight loss. Having a high glycemic sugar right before bed, though not healthy and not ideal, does help put you to sleep because your body had that blood sugar spike, and then it now releases all this insulin, and then you’re like, “I’m ready for a nap.” What happens in the afternoon when we had a sugary lunch?

It’s easy to fall into that pattern. What I would do is eat your biggest meal for breakfast. Eat a little bit lighter at lunch, the latest at dinner. That’s very hard to do. That is not how our society or culture is set up. At least reverse it a little bit. If you are going to get some carbs, try and have the heavier amounts at breakfast and/or lunch, and then pare down in the evening. If you have a little bit more protein, you’re going to find that it’ll satisfy you.

I do mostly plant-based during the day, and then I’ll have my animal protein in the evening. Some of my clients who are omnivores like doing it that way. As far as getting carbs from a fruit, try frozen or chilled fruits such as grapes, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, or any berries. Try chilling them. You can try a recipe with that, then something that’s more of a protein like a Greek yogurt or something you can mix it in. My wife likes to do fruit berries and cottage cheese. She finds that very satisfying. Is it a chocolate chip cookie? No, but it’s still getting some carbs at night. It’s not going to give you any problems.

Dwayne, the small snacks during the day might be hurting you a little bit. Get yourself conditioned to good breakfast carbs and slow digesting. Think of oatmeal, sweet potato, and squash. Foods like that are going to serve you well. They’re going to be satiating. It’s not going to be too high in carbs. Balanced lunch, then higher protein, good fats, lots of vegetables, and then use fruit as need be in the evening. You’re not going to succeed 100%, but if you set some ground rules and say, “During the week, I’m not going to have sugar at night. I’m going to limit that to the weekend,” you’re going to break those habits and see some significant progress.

Thank you so much for all that. If people would like this sort of information tailor-made for them in their lives, where can they find you?

You might remember Scott Jenkins. He was on the show not too long ago. He recently had a past guest update because he did one of those crazy 200-mile races.

TCO 323 | Fitness Enthusiast

 

Scott is not doing just one. That’s the thing. It’s called the Triple Crown. Two weeks ago, he did part one. This week, he did part two. It was the Big Foot 200. The best part is that he was so worried about it because it was sixteen days after the first race. He did not finish the first time he did Bigfoot 200. I am so happy to say that Scott not only finished but he finished in 35th place overall and shaved an hour and a half off of his time from the race last year.

That’s crazy. He could have shaved even more. We watched him cross the finish line, stopping and taking pictures. We’re like, “You can shave another five minutes off your time just right here.”

It was like 30 seconds. You could tell he was hurting. That is how I fell after Big Sur. I can’t imagine 200 miles.

Doing a race that’s ten times longer, and then doing it again in two weeks. Absolutely insane.

He’s got one more to go. That takes place in October. Don’t forget, he is trying to raise money. He’s doing all of this to raise money for Operation Smile in the UK. You can head over to TheClipOut.com or Scott Jenkins‘s page and make sure you’re donating money to that. It’s a wonderful organization. We want to support Scott in any way that we can.

Echelon has finally gotten around to making a Tonal knockoff.

It does look exactly like it.

Except it doesn’t mount to the wall. Apparently, it has its own little stand. I would be nervous about pulling on this. As much as I like to bag on Echelon, I’m sure they’ve done the math and the physics, and figured it all out so this thing won’t come crashing down on you.

I will not say I’m sure. I’ll say I hope.

You’re pulling a lot of weight on one of these machines. To have it free-standing like that is a little nerve-wracking.

Does it say how much weight you can do?

I don’t know that it does it at least in this article. Maybe it does on their website, but it’s pretty expensive. It’s $5,000, plus a monthly subscription. From a quick perusal of the article, it seems as if this is not designed for an individual to purchase. It’s more designed for boutique gyms to have. Maybe you buy a couple of them, then people can come in and utilize them. I don’t know. At that point, I don’t know why you wouldn’t just get a Tonal. It’s cheaper and it’s got to be better unless you love the idea of it being freestanding.

Do you know why this probably took them so long to come out with? Because Peloton didn’t do it first.

That tracks. They were waiting to see what Peloton’s strength thing is going to be, and they were going to copy that. When that didn’t come to fruition, they’re like, “I guess we’ll just do it with Tonal.”

Explain to me what’s happening in this picture. Why does it look like he has a tail? That’s a thing for the bench. I see.

It’s weird because the bench is attached to the machine. On a Tonal, the bench is separate. You move the bench around like a normal bench, where this is physically part of the machine.

This will be interesting. I’m curious to hear the response to this.

I wonder if they’ll sell one.

They will.

Utlrahuman Ring AIR is coming on strong, trying to take down Oura.

I was fascinated by this because it is the first wearable that is connecting to continuous glucose monitors. What this company is doing is they are taking all of the data from a continuous glucose monitor in two ways. One, you can wear your own continuous glucose monitor, and then where the ring, and then you will get your own individual insights that are specific to you. What they are also going to do is they’re going to take that entire database. Let’s say you have thousands of people giving information to a glucose monitor. You can use those findings if you have the ring that they are selling.

I’m going to use bananas as an example because bananas are a big topic of conversation at MetPro. Even though they’re fruit and they’re “healthy,” they still have a high degree of sugar and they still cause a blood sugar spike, especially if you are on the low end of intake with your carbohydrates. If you are wearing a continuous glucose monitor, it is going to show a spike when you eat a banana. Not everybody because some people are more sensitive based on food.

The thing is their database is going to say, “Here are thousands of people and how they responded to eating a banana.” When you wear this ring, you’re going to know how you are going to respond based on statistical information. That’s huge because that can help you decide. I know it’s obvious that if you eat a hamburger, that’s not good because it has a lot of fat. A lot of people don’t think about the foods that they’re eating that have a high amount of natural sugar in them. It can still make your body have a glucose spike, especially if you have eaten very much. This can help people eat smarter to fuel their bodies all day long.

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This has a lot of potential. I’ve been waiting to hear how people are going to use all these continuous glucose monitors. As fascinating as they are, there’s not a lot you can do with them rather than, “It makes my blood sugar spike.” If you use that data to say, “Now I’m more tired. Now I’m exhausted. Here’s how I’m recovering with that ring,” now we’re on to something very interesting. I don’t think we’re quite all the way to a point where it’s like, “Whoa,” but I’m intrigued.

Watch this space.

We put out a call every week for the TCO top five to see what your favorite classes were. You answer the call and then we recap.

This is so much fun. I absolutely love these. We start with a 10-minute body-weight strength. Alexandra Siros said she may have already shouted this one out. It’s a body-weight class from October 31st of 2020. She has taken it so many times, and she had put it on again because she’s set some long-term goals again for aging, like balance. That’s what this class focuses on. She loves it. That is awesome.

We have from Cindy Stewart, I break for tacos. She submitted her favorite Peloton run. This is a 30-minute East London scenic run with Jermaine Johnson. She says, “I don’t do these often but I’ve been to London twice this year and I’m going back at the end of the month. I love the tour of East London and hearing JJ’s long history of living in the area.” That sounds like a lot of fun. I might need to hit that soon.

We then have the favorite Peloton total body strength. This one came in from Theresa, it was a 45-minute ’90s full-body strength with Rebecca Kennedy. She says that it was a descending pyramid of reps with various exercises starting at 100 reps total in the warm-up. There were 10 different movements, finishing with 10 reps and a bonus burner. She bookmarked it to take it monthly. It’s so much fun. She did it after a 45-minute run, then followed it with a 10-minute core and a 10-minute stretch. Long workout day but very empowering. Good for her.

We’ve got our favorite upper body strength. This was from Pat Darling. She was at the TCO meetup at the Brit in San Jose. You might remember meeting Pat. She says that the 20-minute upper-body strength with Logan from 8/8/23 was awesome. She said she was in no mood to do strength and she’s so glad she chose this class because the playlist totally got her into it. Between Logan’s energy and the rock and hip-hop playlist, she got energized. She didn’t have any classes she couldn’t get through. That’s amazing.

This is our brand new addition, the unstackable. We have asked all of the TCO community to tell us, “What was your unstackable?” A class that was so hard, you couldn’t possibly stack it with anything else because it would kill you or it would be really hard. Tabitha Perrault, Tabby’s Pickles, that’s her leaderboard name. She submitted for us 05/27/23, a 30-minute Tabata ride with Benny Adami. Listen to this.

I’m listening.

“This class was so much fun. I had been sleeping on Benny Adami until now. It was Benny’s birthday and you are celebrating with him by doing 50 Tabatas. You will sing three words max of every song in this diva-filled playlist because you will not have enough breath for your entire life. In the words of Benny, you will survive this. It will just be super painful. Pro-tip, the warm-up is only four minutes so you better come prepared.” That’s got to go on the list. I am so excited about that.

If you have an unsackable, keep an eye out for next week when we post the call for TCO top five. Let us know what you think is unstackable.

#unstackable. It’s a thing.

We’re making it a thing like fetch.

It’s going to succeed.

PSNY launched an instructor-read custom class intro to get their own little hype tape plan before they enter the room.

Before it was a PA or production assistant. They would come in and they would be like, “Everybody, stay on your bike. Put your phone away. Here’s what’s going to happen. When the instructors come out, don’t touch them. Don’t get off your bike,” and stuff like that. Now, instead, it is the instructor you’re about to take a class with, and they tell you those rules. They also get you super hyped up, and then when they walk into the room, there’s music playing. It’s their intro music and then there are lights flashing. It’s like a meet and greet at Disney World.

Also, a concert getting ready to start.

This is now being piloted in the bike classes. Since we posted this as far back as a full week ago or maybe two weeks ago, I’ve heard a person was in PSNY and did take a class with Cody. He did have a personal one, and that was not listed in our article. Other instructors have been doing these. We will see. We think that maybe everyone should start taping them and submitting them. We have this little lineup, so we compare them all.

It will be fun. If you want to hear what they sound like, go to TheClipOut.com and find this article or sign up for the email. The article has exclusive audio of what it sounds like.

You can hear Hannah Corbin.

Two new Peloton collections have been added, UK Greatest Hits and Discover New Meditation.

The UK Greatest Hits is not musically based. Although it might be for some, the idea is that it is the best classes that have been posted from the UK, 41 all-time favorite classes from the UK. There are all kinds of different instructors covering all kinds of different things, walks, runs, strength, bootcamps, and all of it. That’s fun, and then they also drop this new meditation collection. Calm your mind, body, and soul. It’s an idea of here are the ones that will help you have a comprehensive look at all of the different meditations that exist from 5 to 30 minutes. Anybody needed to take a mental break. I love both of these options. It’s good that they’re doing these collections because it helps you. I don’t know what to take. There you go.

They also do programs. What’s the difference between a program and a collection? I’m glad you asked. We have an article about it.

TCO 323 | Fitness Enthusiast

 

Helper Bee Nikki put this one together. Programs versus collection. In a very tiny nutshell, a program is something that is put together in a systematic way that says, “You need to take this many classes this week, and that many classes next week,” and they’re locked. You can’t get to the next one until you take the first one.

It’s like video games.

You only have a certain amount of time to finish it. If it says it’s four weeks, at the end of four weeks and you didn’t take those classes, you’re done with the program anyway. You got to start over if you want to start over. A collection, on the other hand, is a list of classes that for whatever reason, there are so many good reasons, Peloton has brought them together because they all have something in common like the Peloton outdoor. It’s a huge group of outdoor classes you can go to. Hip Hop, 50, all the Hip Hop 50 classes.

What is interesting about this is that the density strength program that Andy Speer put out this year is a program in the sense that its like, “Here’s a set amount of classes,” but he released it as a collection because he didn’t want to lock it down for people. He wanted people to be able to take one-offs as they take other classes. He didn’t want it to be like it was a one-and-done. He wanted it to be something that they could pick and choose as they were doing other workouts. That is why they’re like that. If you check out the article, there are tons of details that explain all of it. It was a well-written article.

Lanebreak continues to get love from Peloton as it is now featured in the collection screen stuff.

It’s not called a collection in the same way. I know this is a featured collection, but it’s different. Featured collections are when you turn on your bike screen, there’s this nice little row across the top that says, “Featured Collections.” Now Lanebreak is one of them, but Lanebreak is not listed as a separate collection under collections. I know that’s confusing, but I didn’t decide these things. Anyway, it’s right in front of you. That’s cool because it’s much fewer taps to get to the Lanebreak.

Lots of people are discovering it that aren’t aware of it before because they didn’t go digging around. They’re like, “What’s this thing?” It’s like the homepage of Netflix. I wonder where they got that idea from.

Speaking of the bike screen, we don’t have an article about this so I didn’t post this as a separate item and it’s very short. I didn’t put any posts up at all yet. All of the images on the bike screen for years have had three rows. When you’re like, “What bike class should I take? Here are three rows or columns if you will.” Now they changed the fitting. They change the size of each little thing. Now there are four across. They are very minor changes.

It’s much more information that can get in front of you.

It’s not on the tread yet that we have seen. Only on the bike.

We’ve seen lots of instructors posting Instagram photos of themselves in a recording studio, Adrian, Logan, Marcel, and now Mila.

Becs did one too.

People have been theorizing what this could be all about. I had a theory today. It’s that it’s them recording their new intro.

That could be. It would make sense because none of these people are bike instructors. That makes sense. They’re all tread, and then we know that they’re focusing on the bikes first. What you’re saying makes a lot of sense. The bike instructors have already done it. It also could be for AFO. I don’t know.

That could be while they’re in there, have them do multiple things.

There is that if you want to be all logical.

I also think Marcel is using the same microphone we do.

That’s interesting. I assumed this is where they do all their outdoor content, regardless of whatever they’re recording. That’s in the Peloton UK studio.

It looks like the same.

It does, but then why wouldn’t Peloton New York have one?

There are lots of mics that are high quality. That could be that for whatever reason, that recording studio opted for that mic.

We would just think that Germany and the US would use the same company. That’s all.

It could be whoever put together that studio, this is the mic they like to use and that’s what they want with it.

Finally, we’ve got four birthdays. First coming up on August, 19th is Kirsten Ferguson, then on August 20th, Jill Foley, wife of former CEO, John Foley, who ran the boutique for a long time. Also, on August 20th, the most important Peloton birthday is Clip Out Crystal. Finally, on August 24th, it’s Aditi Shah. If you see any of those people, especially Crystal, be sure and wish them a happy birthday.

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Thank you and happy birthday to Kirsten Ferguson, Aditi Shah, and of course, Jill Foley. I always get a kick out of it if we have a birthday on the same day. I always send her a little picture, our little selfie.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to our guest, Antoinette Alvarado. Stick around.

Joining us is Dr. Toni Alvarado. Toni with an I, as she wants me to stress and I’m more than happy to do. How’s it going?

It’s going well. I have been anticipating and excited about having this conversation with you all.

I’m excited too. I like to hear all about the history of how a person came across Peloton. There are all these different ways that it’s come into people’s consciousness. I’m curious to hear your backstory.

I came into Peloton officially in 2021. I had been hearing about it. I have a lot of friends and they were buying the bike during the pandemic. One of my coaching clients had a bike and we talked about it. Hers had become a hanger for her clothes.

I remember when I thought that at the beginning. I was like, “If we get this, is it going to become a clothes hanger?”

It took me a minute to buy into the idea of doing the Peloton. I was already working out. I workout religiously. I have a home gym and my trainer comes here to work with me. I was going to the gym in all fairness. I was going to my trainer at a gym, but then COVID came and shut the gym down. I had already had things at home, so I said to my trainer, “What would it take for you to come to my home?”

I then wanted to add more equipment to my home. I said, “I think I want to get a Peloton bike,” and I love it. More so than the bike, I love the whole system. I was introduced to it through friends of mine who had purchased the bike and had been talking about it. I decided, “Let me try it. Let me add it to the equipment I already have in my gym,” and I have been in love with it ever since.

When you say the whole system, what does that mean to you? Does that mean the other equipment? Does that mean the community or instructors? Tell me more about that.

With the bike, you get the app and then you can log on. When I first got the bike, I didn’t realize that they had other exercises and programs on-demand or live, or whichever. I started riding with Tunde and that’s who I love to ride with. That’s my favorite trainer for riding. I started riding with her and then I said, “Let me venture out and look at other programs like the strength, the arms, the core, and the stretching.”

I fell in love with Peloton Outdoor because, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I run and walk. Now, I have been doing outdoor workouts with power walking, interval running, and things of that nature. I love the diversity of exercises and programs that are on there. I love the diversity of the trainers. I think it’s a wonderful system and community to be a part of. I love the exercise programs and the trainers.

What other equipment do you have in your own home?

Like in your gym?

I have the total gym with the leg press machine, bench press, and all of that. I have a punching bag and a treadmill. I had another stationary bike but I got rid of it and bought the Peloton. It had to go, but I kept the tread because my husband likes the tread. I will do the treadmill but it’s not my favorite thing to do.

I don’t want to try to talk you into buying something that you feel like you are never going to use, but you might feel the same way about the treadmill after you tried it a few times. The trainers pull you in the same way they do those outdoor classes. They are amazing.

I believe that. I do plan to buy another piece. The next one that I want to buy is the rowing machine.

You should have kept that old bike and used it as a clothes hanger.

I wouldn’t have room for it. For my next piece for Christmas 2023, I’m going to buy myself the Row machine.

Did you see the price went down?

No. I need to go see it.

She’s like, “Maybe I will get it for Thanksgiving.”

I will get it as a late birthday gift. I just turn 60 on May 16th.

TCO 323 | Fitness Enthusiast

 

Happy birthday. The Row dropped. It’s $2,995. It dropped $200 or $300. I also saw that Tunde is going to be doing a HIIT cardio. Did you see that as well?

No. I love HIIT cardio. I love Tunde. Let me be honest. All the time when I ride, I ride with Tunde. I have done strength programs with her, particularly arms with Tunde so I’m proud of my arms. She’s been helping me with my arms. I love Adrian. I love working out with Adrian. I love stretching with Adrian. I love Emma. I love her core exercises. I like Chelsea for meditation.

Have you ever tried Adrian’s five-minute run warmup? I use that every time I run. I love it.

I love his 5 minutes. He has a 15-minute one, and I’m hooked on his 20-minute morning mobility.

I haven’t done that.

That morning mobility is the truth. I have seen a major difference in my flexibility since I have been doing morning mobility with him. It’s just 20 minutes, and I will do it before I workout. My trainer comes to me three days a week. He comes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but I do Peloton before he comes, and then I workout with him for about an hour.

That’s a lot of working out. How do you integrate all those workouts? What does your schedule look like? That’s a pretty full fitness schedule.

Before my trainer comes, he will text me. He’s like, “I’m on my way. You better be done with your bike when I get there.”

That’s encroaching on his territory.

He’s like, “This is my time.”

Get it done with your bike. He will tell me, “I’m getting ready to leave,” because he lives across town. “I’m on my way to you. Make sure you do your bike before I come.” If he comes in and I’m still on the bike, I just like to hear him cuss, “You are still on that thing.” I will ride for 15 or 20 minutes with him before he comes. Sometimes 30 minutes if I can get down to my gym before in enough time. What I have been doing is a 20-minute ride and a 10 or 15-minute stretch with Peloton before he comes. If I don’t get it all done before he comes, then I will do it when he leaves.

I may do the ride before he comes, then workout with him, and then when he leaves, I will do the stretch. I generally workout, and then that’s Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but I workout six days a week. I do three days with my trainer. That’s strength training, and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I workout on my own. Usually, Tuesday and Thursday are when I will run or walk, and I will use Peloton when I run and walk. Saturday is up for grass, whatever I feel like doing.

Have you always been an avid fitness enthusiast or is that something that developed later in life?

It developed later in life in the sense that I was 37 years old when I started getting into working out or fitness. I talk about it in my book. I wrote a book called Harmonize Your Life: A Journey Toward Self-Care. I talk about my journey because I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease at 37, which is a hyperthyroid condition.

There was a whole lot of other stuff going on. I had gained a lot of weight. I’m a pastor. That’s my principal work. I had small children at the time. My kids are young adults now, but they were much smaller at that time. Three children under the age of 3. They were all fifteen months apart. I was not in a good place physically. That year when I turned 37, my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said a trip, and that started my journey. I have been on this journey and I have increased and become more of an enthusiast over the years, but I started the journey at age 37, and I’m 60.

It was the year my daughter was born. That’s almost 24 years because she’ll be 24 this year. I have had a few trainers over the years. I have joined a few boot camps, but now it’s a part of my lifestyle. It’s who I am. When you reached out, you said you saw my posts on Twitter. What I did a few years ago was I started posting my workout. When I get done working out, I post what I did every morning. People started saying, “You are inspiring and motivating me.” One of my hashtags is #FitnessMotivation, #SelfCareHarmonyWomen, and all that stuff. I’m a pastor and I feel like it’s part of my ministry to help people understand the importance of being healthy and taking care of themselves.

You look at that as the whole body, mind, spirit, and wellness.

You said you workout six days a week and you are a pastor. I’m thinking I know which day you are not working out.

I don’t workout on Sundays. Although, during the pandemic, I joined the Double Dutch group. A jump rope.

That’s a group thing? I have so many questions.

You need at least two people to turn the rope. You need the one jumping. That’s three right there. That’s a group.

I know but I didn’t know they had organized groups.

I joined the 40+ Double Dutch Club. It’s women over 40 who jump rope. I joined that group and I’m still technically a member, but when I started with them, it was in the pandemic. At that time, we weren’t allowing people in the sanctuary so our schedule was much lighter. Since we have opened back up and allowed parishioners to come into the sanctuary, it’s harder now for me.

I’m trying to find a group that I can do in the week. I don’t know how I will work it in. I’m still trying to figure that out. I may drop down the group because they jump every Sunday afternoon. I have found that since we have been back full in our church, it’s harder for me to get there on Sundays because once I get done with church, I need to rest.

TCO 323 | Fitness Enthusiast

 

Maybe you have time for a Single Dutch.

I love Double Dutch because I jumped as a girl. I’m from Chicago originally. I live in Atlanta, Georgia, but I’m from Chicago and that’s what I grew up doing, jumping Double Dutch. I love the idea, I love the group, and I love the women. At this juncture right now, it’s hard to fit it into my lifestyle.

I would think as you get older, it would be hard on your knees.

The impact, but you don’t have any issues with that.

It can be if you are doing it every day, but once a week, I can’t see it. It’s not just the jumping aspect of it. Turning work as well. Jumping and turning, and then the fellowship and the comradery of the other women, and the idea is that all of us are over 40, and so it’s that affinity group.

I never got good at that. I used to watch in awe when people would do that. It has to do with the fact that I have never been good at things like dancing, rhythm, or anything that required sports. None of that was ever my thing. Every time I would try, do you remember how those jump ropes would slap your leg like you get the welt?

You got to know how to get in and get out.

I clearly did not.

It could be fun. Jumping is good too. It’s good cardio.

What’s it like being a pastor? What does that job entail on a day-to-day basis? We all know you do your services on Sunday, but what’s the rest of the week like?

I’m sure they are not paying you to work one day a week.

They are not. I do go into my office and we have a staff. My role is Chief Operations Officer because churches are like a business. Things have to be taken care of.

Some are a little too much like a business.

Facilities, grounds, and those types of things. Programming throughout the week, bible studies, and pastoral care where people go to the hospital. You can’t plan them when people pass away, so funerals, visitations, weddings, counseling, and other types of things. People come to pastors for spiritual guidance and counsel wisdom, those types of things, and then not to mention the study and preparation for sermons, Bible studies, and stuff like that.

I’m sure that’s not a quick process. You are not up there just like, “What do I want to talk about?”

Our church is getting ready for a 31-day prayer thing that we are doing every morning from 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM. Guess who is leading that?

That’s you.

Me and my husband.

Is that going to mess with your workout schedule?

No, because it’s from 6:00 to 7:00, and then I can workout after that.

You are in a position where being a pastor is your full-time job. Sometimes people do both.

I’m full-time at my church, but I also do other things outside of my church. I speak at conferences and those types of things. I also have my coaching practice as I have clients that I see.

Is that coaching like being a pastor or is that life coaching?

Life coaching. I have a self-care network and I run a program called the Intentional Self-Care Program, and the women that are in that program, I coach them as a group and I coach them one-on-one.

TCO 323 | Fitness Enthusiast

 

Is there a certain angle that you are trying to help people get to? Sometimes if you are having a group, it’s like, “We are all trying to start a business or something.”

This particular group is around self-care, health, and wellness. This group is for women who are wanting to be consistent in integrating a holistic lifestyle of rest, exercise, nutrition, and whatever relational stuff that they have going on. Learning how to make sure that they are putting themselves first in terms of family, work, and all the things that we do as women.

There are mothers, wives, and professional women. I have women who run the gamut. They are professional women, but a lot of times what we find is that people are more focused on their work. They are more focused on family, even taking care of children, husbands, and significant others. Maybe taking care of a parent. One of the women in my group is a caregiver. She has a sister who had a stroke, but she struggles with caring for herself.

It’s hard to balance.

I coach them along those lines and help them to develop a strategy for self-care, health, and wellness. I will look at them individually what their lives look like and how I integrate what I need into the matrix of my whole life.

You are a project manager of self-care. I love it.

I call myself a self-care strategist.

Did that grow out of being a pastor or the other way around?

That grew out of being a pastor. It grew out of my own life, and what I have had to do.

Did you struggle with that too?

Yes. Being a full-time pastor, a lot of times, pastors are more focused on what the church needs, parishioners, and the light, and then they let their own health go. That’s like any other profession that’s highly stressed because pastors are in the top ten most stressed professions.

Everybody is bringing their stress to you. In a lot of ways, it’s like being a psychologist.

A lot laid is on your shoulders.

We are up there with police officers and college presidents. Think about it. You have to constantly raise funds for the ministry to sustain itself and to be able to be a voice to the community, open up your doors to the community, serve the community, and serve the congregation. All of that is a lot and we have been pastoring for 31 years, my husband and I. It can be a very stressful job, and then the care of that, and caring for yourself and your own family needs. We have needs too just like our parishioners. A lot of times, pastors have very poor health because they do not take care of themselves. Most people who are in the people business or helping professions help other people, but they are poor at helping themselves. Even with the doctors.

It’s also a lot of stress because I would think by the nature of it, you probably have a lot of pressure in terms of you know things that are very private about a lot of people.

You have to keep that stuff. Confidentiality and all of that. If you don’t have anywhere to take that and put that, I believe very strongly in therapy. I have a therapist and I believe in therapy. I believe in having a place to talk things out and work things out emotionally and mentally. Since the pandemic, we have seen a rise in mental health cases and people who are stressed.

I hear a lot of anxiety too.

The trauma that we experience in the world, but particularly as a nation, the trauma we experience behind that is a lot to deal with. Out of my own, what I have learned to implement for myself now, I went back a few years ago after being trained in the Bible, theology, preaching, and all the things that you do as a professional clergywoman, and then I went back and got certified.

I was already, a few years ago, certified as a life coach and a coach trainer. In 2020, I went and enrolled in the American Fitness Professionals Association. They have a health and wellness coaching program. I got certified as a health and wellness coach in 2020. I finished it in 2021, but I started in 2020. I have added that component to what I do.

Did that make your personal trainer nervous that you were going to replace him?

No, because I don’t want to be a personal trainer.

You don’t need him anymore. You are like, “I know the things.”

I need him because every coach needs a coach. Every trainer needs a trainer. I need him. I’m not trying to get rid of him. Maybe after I retire from pastor, maybe I will become a fitness trainer, but I’m not interested in that. I want to help people because it starts here. It starts with the way we think. It starts with us valuing ourselves and seeing ourselves as sacred. If you don’t value self-care, it doesn’t matter if you have a trainer or not.

How many people go to gyms, sign up for the gym, and never go? How many people buy a Peloton and never use it? How many people buy treadmills and never use them? My thing is I work with people on getting to the root of, “Why don’t you value yourself enough to take care of yourself? Why is everything else more important to you than you?” At the end of the day, I don’t care how much money you make, your health is your wealth. It doesn’t matter whether you have a 6 to 7-figure salary, a big house, or a car. If you are sick and broke down, you won’t even be able to enjoy it.

TCO 323 | Fitness Enthusiast

 

For some people, all they do is work. That’s only one aspect of life. We don’t live to work. We work to live, but people have that backward. They live to work, but what good is it to work and work then never live? One of my mantras is to live until you die. What does living look like for you? Why are you waiting until you retire to go on that cruise? Why are you waiting to enjoy your family and enjoy life? Life is to be lived now. If the pandemic didn’t teach us anything else, it should have taught us the finiteness of life, how fragile life is, and all you have is now.

We believe strongly in that. We like to take our vacations. We like to do it with the kids before they go to college.

My children, my oldest is 26, my middle son is 25, and my daughter is 24. We have two sons and a daughter. They are on their 3rd or 4th passport. I’m getting ready to go to Greece with some girlfriends. Even if you can’t afford to do that, there are things in your city. I told the women that I coach to do a staycation. Another reason that I love Peloton is because I travel a lot. I have worked out on my Peloton in South Africa. I love it. I just log in wherever I am all over the world, on the cruise ship, beach, or wherever. That’s another reason I love it.

During the pandemic when we couldn’t travel and we couldn’t get on airplanes, I started going to parks in Georgia. I have been living here for 37 years and never went there. I found waterfalls and hiking trails. Because I’m traveling, I’m flying over these places, and these things like gyms are right in my backyard.

You are flying to probably look at somebody else’s waterfall.

I have waterfalls in my backyard. Just a 30 or 40-minute drive. I fell in love with nature during that time. I started a garden during that time. My mother passed away in 2021, not due to COVID. She had cancer. It’s part of my grief therapy. I planted a garden in her memory. Being outdoors and living life holistically, and that’s what I feel I’m called to help women do because so many of us do not live. We just exist. I’m sure the brothers may have that problem too. Women are so different because we are the engineers of our homes. We make it happen. Multitasking is a misnomer because you can only do one thing at a time, but we do a lot.

We have to be more efficient with our time. When I get an extra hour a day, instead of enjoying that hour of the day, I’m like, “What else can I fit in here? What else do I need to shove in this hour?”

That’s how we are wired. Our bodies are hardwired to do.

We do and do. We have to get all the things done.

I was talking to a spiritual director. One of the things I was sharing with her was I’m looking forward to retirement. She said, “What are you looking forward to the most?” I didn’t even realize it until I heard myself say it. I said to her, “I want a time in my life where I can just be and not do.” I didn’t even realize until I heard myself say it and she had me repeat it. She said, “Say what you just said again. I want you to hear yourself say this.”

That was the first time I had let that out my mouth. I realized that our lives are filled with doing. If we can get moved from doing to being and let our doing flow out of that, just go with the flow in a sense. There are things that have to be done. I’m not saying throw caution to the wind and be irresponsible. That’s not what I mean. Sometimes we are not living life to its fullest. We are just existing. We are getting up and go make the donuts. We let life pass us by, and then we live with regrets because all we did was work and work.

I agree wholeheartedly. Before we let you go, let everybody know your leaderboard name and where they can find you and all your things because you have written a book and people might want to snag that.

My leaderboard name is @DrToniGA. Go there. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Peloton at that handle.

You didn’t get a chance to mention your podcast.

My podcast is Harmonize Your Life: Conversations on Self-Care for Women of Color. I tend to be more focused on women of color because I have found that in our community, many of us are not taking care of ourselves. It’s dedicated to that but it’s not just for women of color, but it is dedicated to women of color. I’m on YouTube, you can find me on YouTube @DrToniGA.

Your podcast, is it all in all the podcast places? If they search, they are going to find you.

I’m on Spotify. My host is Anchor but they broadcast to Spotify and Google.

They are pushing you out to all the spots.

I’m on YouTube. I love for people to go to my YouTube channel as well because we film it and then people can see my guests and things of that nature. Can you all come on my podcast and talk about Peloton?

Sure but I don’t know how to break this to you. I am not a woman of color.

It’s okay.

We would be honored.

We would love to go on there and talk about it.

Believe it or not, everybody on my podcast says, “It’s not women of color.”

TCO 323 | Fitness Enthusiast

 

I was that upset. I will be the first to tell you as a White guy who podcasts, there’s enough of us. Our voices are being heard. It’s okay for there to be other places. I’m not offended by it. We would love to do it.

We can talk about Peloton. I would love to have you all come on. I reached out trying to get one of the trainers from Peloton to come on.

That’s a tough ask.

Sometimes they pop up in some interesting spots. It’s not always just the giant places. You never know.

One of these days, I’m hoping I can get to one of the studios and workout live with Tunde.

I hope that for you because you will have a blast.

We got to talk to her right when she first started and she was a lot of fun.

We still have an outstanding ice cream date we have never gotten to take because the stupid pandemic happened.

We talked to her three weeks before COVID kicked in. Dr. Toni, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. This has been a lot of fun.

Let me give you my website. The website is DrToniAlvarado.com.

Thank you again, Dr. Toni. We appreciate it.

Hopefully, we will be talking to you soon on your show.

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, Threads, and the Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

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

 

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