• Oprah was spotted at the PSNY.
• Peloton launches “Yes I Can” ad campaign.
• Last-minute changes were made to the live schedule on 9/11.
• Helper Bee Nikki took one of the first live Row classes.Peloton Row is hitting Canada.
• Entertainment Beta is finally rolling out in the UK.
• Helper Bee Lindsey compiled the best of 2023’s All-For-One fashion.
• Alex Toussaint announces book tour.
• Entrepreneur Magazine talked to Emma Lovewell, Cody, and Tunde.
• Robin’s Bebe’ Fuerte won an award from NPPA.Adrian Williams is hosting a Q&A with Jadakiss.
• Jermaine Johnson was featured in Women’s Health Magazine.
• Tobias Heinze will be raising money for the Reeves Foundation at the Chicago Marathon.
• Angelo has tips for managing self-talk while dealing with auto-immune flare-ups.
• Kate Winslet mentioned her use of Peloton.
• Jim Feeney completed his perimeter journey.
• Lindsey Holt was featured in a Peloton ad campaign.
• Daniel McKenna has launched his own fitness app.
• Cody had a one-off XOXO class to promote his new book.
• TCO Top Five.
• Peloton launched low-impact cardio.
• There was a Fall apparel drop…and it featured a dress.
• Birthdays – Alex Karwoski (9/16), Anna Greenburg (9/18), Erik Jager (9/19), Robin Arzon (9/20)

All this plus our interview with Thea Gallagher!

—

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Oprah Spotted At Peloton Studios! Plus Our Interview With Thea Gallagher

Tom is having a bad day.

A very bad day. It’s work stuff. Everybody is healthy at the end of the day. It’s just been very stressful.

You have your type-A tendencies when it comes to certain things. Work is one of them. You like to do your job well, and some people are making it pretty tough for you.

It’s been a rough for the last 36 hours. I’m locked in a death battle with a band I can’t name.

DM me later.

You will regret having said that.

Why would people care about the band?

They’re like, “Who is causing trouble? I want to know.”

I will put it this way. You would never guess.

Let’s start by talking about Saint Jude.

Saint Jude is doing this cool thing in September. They are always raising money.

It’s a children’s hospital.

They’re always raising money for the kids that are fighting childhood cancer. All these families go to Saint Jude. Let me cut to the chase. By the tail end of September, they have this very cool campaign going on that you can buy this limited-edition hoodie.

If you’re on YouTube, you can see her hoodie.

It’s $55. All the proceeds will support Saint Jude by spreading awareness and urging people to donate. It’s going to help ensure families that are battling pediatric cancer and other life-threatening diseases to never receive a bill for housing, travel, and food because Saint Jude wants families to focus on cherishing every minute of time with their children. I’ve seen this happen first-hand and this is an amazing organization. Anything you guys can do, buy a hoodie. It’s super cute. We’re rolling into the colder months soon.

It’s mid-September. We’ll be there momentarily. The way you keep the air conditioning in this house, we’re wearing hoodies all summer.

I haven’t turned on the fireplace yet.

That’s always an achievement when you can keep the fireplace off.

I made it all the way through August without turning the fireplace on. I deserve a medal.

Hat tip.

Thank you.

Climate change activists are very proud of you. What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We’re going to talk about Oprah. We’re going to talk about the cool new stuff that Peloton is putting out like all the new ads. We’re enjoying those. We also have a first look at the Row Studio courtesy of Helper Bee Nikki. Also, Helper Bee Lindsey has been hard at work putting together the best of All For One fashion. It was a show. We have lots of instructor news. We have a visit from Angelo. He has tips for managing self-talk while dealing with autoimmune flare-ups. Also, side note. I talked to Dr. Jenn. She’s going to be back soon. We’re looking at a couple of weeks so patience, but it’s coming. We also have past guest updates.

Also past instructors updates.

That is all.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs. Don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, iHeart, TuneIn. Wherever you find a podcast, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review. It’s super helpful and greatly appreciated. You can find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. If you haven’t liked the page or joined the group yet, good Lord, why haven’t you?

Why are you telling them good?

It’s worthless over there. You want no part of it. It’s like the OPP on steroids. It’s like, “I did a workout today.” We’re like, “Eat a d*ck.”

No, but there are groups like that if you need them.

Like the page and join the group. You can also find us on YouTube at YouTube.com/TheClipOut, where you can watch these shows. We have a Patreon, Patreon.com/TheClipOut, where you can get these episodes ad-free. If we get them early, you get them early.  We also have bonus episodes. This week’s bonus episode is probably the longest bonus episode we’ve ever had.

I think it’s going to be.

That might be longer than the episode. It’s crazy how much stuff there is in the bonus episode. We should also remind people that there’s a free tier. We’re going to start a book club. That will be open to everyone who is on the Patreon.

Tina might be killing me right now because we said we weren’t going to officially announce that until the 16th. Whoopsie doodle, but maybe Tina won’t listen until the 16th.

Keep Tina distracted all day on the 15th, and then we’ll be good.

It’s happening. I’m super excited about it. The book club, how it’s going to work is we’re going to not only be taking books from Peloton authors because every instructor is an author now apparently. We’re going to mix it up. We are going to review or we’re going to read the books of all people who are authors within the Peloton community. We are not going to reveal our first author, although they have been chosen. It’s coming soon on the 16th. We will be posting the author. Keep on the lookout. We have already secured that the author will be joining the very first meeting that we are going to be having. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re going to get together and we’re going to discuss the books in great detail, but also with drinks, food, and most importantly, fun.

That’s open to Patreon members, but all tiers. There is a free tier so don’t feel like you have to pay to participate in a particular function. You’re welcome to come on and swing by Patreon and sign up to get the link.

Patreon.com/TheClipOut. That’s how you sign up.

We also have a newsletter and a recently redesigned website. If you go there, you can sign up for the newsletter and you will get the links and things like that, and a weekly reminder to let you know that we did one of these things we call episodes. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

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Oprah was spotted at PSNY.

We know she was recording. We don’t know. We heard she was recording.

Do you think Gayle was there? We’ve established Gayle as a Peloton user.

I don’t know. There was no word on Gayle, but Jess Sims was there and there was a tread involved. That is the gist of what we know. I also learned that a lot of people are mad at Oprah. I mean you post one thing and everybody goes for her. I am shocked.

Oprah over the years has become a divisive person for some people.

How? I’m not even saying people are wrong. I don’t know. The last update I have on Oprah was when she was doing her show, and then she would say things like, “You get a car.” I don’t know how you can be mad at a person who is giving away cars.

I mean if you didn’t get a car.

That’s fair. I wasn’t there.

There are a lot of different elements. Some of her show with 2020 hindsight isn’t always the best. Some of it is political because she was a big proponent of Obama. There’s that element and I know that there’s some people recently that were upset because she and The Rock were like, “Everybody should donate money to Maui.” They’re like, “Just a quick check. Aren’t you rich as f*ck?” There was some of that. There’s a little bit of everything. Anybody who’s been around that long and who’s that well known who has that big of a personality is going to have detractors, as well as fans. Just like what I always say. You’re not popular until people don’t like you.

I’m never going to stop being surprised. I guess I should get over it, but I keep being surprised. I don’t know what else to say.

Anyway, I guess we have an Oprah class.

I don’t know. I’m not going to put any names out there, but one of our Helper Bees suggested this. What if this has something to do with the Chicago stop coming up? I thought it was a solid theory.

It’s a fair theory. I guess you could also say there’s a version of events where people with Oprah’s level of fame. Whether you like her or not, she is next-level famous.

Nobody can deny that.

She is one of the most famous people in the world. Maybe she wanted to do an in-studio ride, and they had to shut it down for her. If she goes shopping, they will probably close stores for her.

Here’s another thing. First of all, it wasn’t a ride. Remember, this is a tread. I’m not picking on you. I was just saying. I know you’re very sensitive. What I was wondering though is if this was part of the reason that they kept canceling classes on the 11th because that’s when it happened. We thought that it was because of September 11th because obviously, the September 11th Memorial was going to happen. We all knew that, but maybe because they were going to have Kamala Harris there, and it was going to slow down traffic right in the middle of Manhattan. Maybe that’s why, but then we hear this and we’re not so sure now. Maybe it’s a little bit of both.

That’s fair. Giving credit to where credit is due. This tip came from Moms of Peloton. It says it on our graphic but we haven’t actually said it out loud for the people who are only listening. We don’t want the Moms of Peloton crowd to be like, “That was our story.” We hate it when people do it to us.

That was totally Moms of Peloton putting that out there. We will give her credit. She’s been on the show, Melissa Ferrara. We have interviewed her so you can go back and listen to her interview too if you haven’t heard it.

Peloton has a new ad campaign based around Tunde.

This is incredible.

It’s the “Yes I Can” campaign. My first thought was a new artist series spotlighting Sammy Davis Jr. I was like, “That’s like 45 minutes of Candyman. What are we doing?” This makes more sense and it’s probably more appealing to people.

You have to have a heart of stone to not be affected by this commercial. Tom, you were not affected by this commercial. Are you?

I have a heart of stone.

That’s what I’m saying. It’s like I show you cute puppies and kitties and you go, “U-huh.”

Those are cats and dogs.

Not even cute. You’re just like, “Yeah, that’s a cat.” That’s all you got.

In my defense, cats are evil.

Even when I show you a cute dog. You like dogs.

I like dogs but that’s somebody else’s dog.

You like our dog.

Our dog is great.

Anyway, besides people like Tom, this commercial was amazing. I love this new ad. I love the fact that it’s all about taking somebody’s lack of self-esteem and turning it into powerfulness and being empowered. Tunde is the perfect spokesperson for that. That’s amazing. She did a class earlier this year. It was an upper-body strength class. That’s what inspired this commercial. The words in it are “Yes I can, I must, and Watch me.” It shows normal everyday people working out and pushing themselves even though they’re tired and even though they have setbacks. Even though they have things in their life that aren’t perfect, they still get on the bike. They still get up and do the things. It’s a moving commercial for most of us.

Also, we have a special quote from Tunde. She says, “Words are powerful, especially the ones we say to ourselves. In this campaign, we showcase the real conversations Peloton instructors have with our members every day that help them push their self-doubt and negative self-talk aside by embracing the power of movement. I want every Peloton member and future member to know they have authority over their fitness journey by simply changing their inner narrative to ‘Yes I can.’” How amazing is that?

To explain my opening joke, Yes I Can was the name of Sammy Davis Jr.’s autobiography. It’s a very famous celebrity autobiography. That’s for people who are 100 years old.

I thought if I went along with it, you would spare me that.

I figured there were other people who aren’t 100 that were like, “What does this have to do with Sammy Davis Jr.? I was spoon-feeding it to you.

Thank you.

You’re welcome. We should address briefly that there were changes to the schedule on 9/11.

As I already said, a bunch of classes got canceled. A bunch of people got mad and yelled.

They had a great day. We don’t know for sure that it was because of Oprah but since she’s famous, we will blame her.

We might as well because everybody else will.

It still works. All For One was last week and Helper Bee Nikki. Took one of the first live row classes and got all sorts of fun pictures.

She had a great class. First of all, it was her 50th row. Second of all, she tried out all of the makeup that she used that was sweat-proof. This picture right here is post-class. It works. As I said in the article, Tom, sorry, I’m going shopping. She had a great time though. The Row studio is beautiful. It shares the strength studio. They go back and forth between the two.

I think they put those things on wheels.

Yes, it is. They also tip up some of the Rows and store them for the class picture at the end, or pictures with the instructors at the end.

Do you go out and get your picture taken in the lobby?

Not for rowing, not for strength, and not for yoga. It has always been that way. One of the things that I thought was cool is they have an instructor leaderboard. Do you see that picture behind Nikki on the front page here?

Yeah.

That is the instructor leaderboard. They can see where you are and they can see your milestones. On your screen when you’re in the Row class, and this may be in all the studios because it has been a year since I’ve been there. You can now see everybody’s milestones. I can’t help but wonder if eventually, that’s going to get pushed out to everybody, not just in the studio. Wouldn’t it?

That would be pretty spiffy.

It’d be nice to be able to filter. People have said that for years. I’d love to filter on just people who are celebrating so you can be like boom, boom, boom.

This is breaking news. I’m not even putting the breaking news sweeper in because it’s so breaking.

It’s so fresh.

While we’re speaking of rowers, we have reason to believe that Ben Alldis will be becoming a Row instructor.

Apparently, out on the schedule, all of a sudden, there was a 20-minute HIIT-Row rehearsal with Ben Alldis. It has since been removed. That is exciting. Ben is going to be a Row instructor. I love it.

You can do a scenic Row on the Thames.

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

I don’t know.

I don’t either but it sounds good.

That just came across Crystal’s cellphone while we were recording.

You’ll never know what’s going to show up there.

It’s always nice when we get breaking news that doesn’t necessitate us coming back down to the basement to record.

If you guys are going to leak stuff, could you please leak it while we’re recording? That’s going to be so helpful.

While we’re speaking of rowers, Canada is getting their rowers.

This is exciting because Canada never gets anything before anybody else and they get the rower. I’m so happy for them.

It’s not before America.

It’s before the UK and it counts.

Maybe Ben Alldis is becoming an honorary Canadian.

You’ll never know. It’s cool though. The Canadian folks that I have chatted with are super excited about this. They’re already in the Canadian showrooms. As a matter of fact, Trish Lalonde is another one of our tipsters. She was in Canada. She stopped by a showroom and there was a rower there. That was the first time she had tried the rower. It was like a double bonus.

She’s walked in and tripped over like the Ottoman in the opening credits of the Dick Van Dyke Show.

It’s exactly like that.

I was trying to find references that were more timely than Sammy Davis Jr.

It got a little bit sooner. We need to get you up on some newer TV, Tom.

Jess Sims was on the University of Alabama campus.

People were very excited about it.

Beyond the different campus every week, that’s her job.

You could see her stop by the game they set and cheer her on, and the best Peloton sign would be featured on Peloton Studios IG. That’s pretty cool. It’s fun.

All For One happened last week and Helper Bee Lindsey put together the best of All For One fashion for 2023.

It was quite the fashion lineup. First of all, we need to give a shout-out to past guest Brittany Allen. Brittany Allen finished 31 custom AFO outfits in a very short amount of time. When I tell you that Brittany Allen does this stuff, you have to realize that when she does a custom, it’s from scratch. She does the entire thing like stitching. She makes sure it’s the exact perfect fit. It’s a whole thing.

She is an artist, and so 31 of them are to be done and it happened that AFO coincided with her final week on Project Runway. She did not win but she came in second. I wanted to give a shout-out to Brittany Allen because she has come a long way since Project Runway number one. I’m proud of her and excited. The fashion she did was amazing. Ash Pryor had on a custom beautiful outfit. It was purple, green, and red.

That was obviously the first AFO that was done for rowing and it was during her very first class that she taught people in. This was interesting because these three ladies, Jess King, Anna Greenberg, and Kristin McGee, all had coordinated outfits for their different Hozier classes. They have the same colors but different outfits.

They had hosiery for their Hozier classes.

We’ll go with it. We’ll make it happen. I love it. There were a lot of good ones though.

This is a very ‘70s Evel Knievel vibe.

This is obviously Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts rocking her Chaka Khan outfit. I love it. It looks super comfy.

They look almost like pajamas.

I’m taking it.

I guess it makes sense for yoga.

That’s true.

There’s a whole bunch of pictures that she compiled. If you want to see them all yourself, you can find those over at TheClipOut.com. It will be waiting for you. Also a quick fun news for the UK people. The entertainment beta is finally rolling out over there.

They’re starting to get all kinds of different options. People are very excited about it because they have been feeling a little left out. Now they know how Canada feels.

Coming up after this, we have all sorts of updates about instructor books and book tours. It’s going to be all library talk. How exciting, so stick around.

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Alex Toussaint has announced his book tour.

He sure has and I hope you got some cash because you will be paying a pretty penny to get in the door. You’re going to need $87 I believe. To actually meet and greet, you’re going to need $187.

That’s a little bit of a different pricing model than some of the other books we’ve seen.

Cody’s was like $31. It’s a pretty big difference.

Normally on book tours, you buy the book.

It’s different, but the first one kicks off somewhere in New York. You know how we are. New York is New York.

It’s all one big place but we don’t know the subtleties, nor do we care too.

I’m sure these tickets are going to sell fast no matter what the price.

That’s ultimately what’s driving it. These people see how fast things are selling out and they’re like, “Why are we selling them for $30?” It’s the same thing I do with ticketing. It’s like, “Why am I selling these tickets for $50 if I can get $80?”

It just stood out.

Entrepreneur Magazine spotlighted not one, not two, but three Peloton instructors.

How they went from struggling freelancers to rising entrepreneurs.

They talked to Emma Lovewell, Cody Rigsby, and Tunde.

We’re not going to dig into all of this because it’s long, but there’s a lot of good information about their backgrounds here. I highly recommend that you read it. It’s an interesting article. It’s a nice take that’s different than the usual things that we see about the instructors.

Tomy International, which is some sort of toy thing, had a national parenting product award given away. We’re saying all this because Robin Arzon’s toy brand, Bebé Fuerte, won an award.

It is pretty cool. It launched earlier this month and they’re already throwing out some awards for how active it’s helping kids.

I also think it’s good to shut up some of the naysayers. People who were bitching like, “They’re now selling one more thing,” and then here’s a toy that is so well-received that it won an award.

I agree. It’s interesting how different groups of people who like different instructors have such strong reactions about entirely different things. We talked about Alex’s tickets for his book sales. I’m not upset about it. I think it’s interesting how much it’s different than the other instructors.

It’s noticeably different.

Let’s contrast that with the fact that when Robin came out with the toy line, all I heard from people was how she’s such an opportunist and basically, she only had children to market them.

There are worse reasons than this to have children.

That’s true. What I find fascinating about that is now Robin is getting ready to release a new book and she’s having a book tour and there’s no pricing. I’m just saying that I don’t hear anybody remarking on that. I don’t even have an opinion other than the fact that I find it fascinating that people will find anything to pick on, but they pick and choose per person what they get upset about. I find that endlessly fascinating human nature.

I think it’s great that their toy won an award and I still don’t know what Web3 is.

Facts. Although at least we had to stop talking about it. She finally stopped marketing that. We don’t even have to talk about it anymore.

That’s the other side of the toy line. They have toys. That’s something that I can wrap my brain around.

I understand toys. That was special for you folks on YouTube.

Adrian Williams hosted a Q&A with Jadakiss.

This was super cool. This was all part of the Rock The Bells collaboration that Peloton has been doing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. I did not realize that this was turning into an interview. I knew that there was a celebration. I knew there was a special class. I didn’t know that there was going to be an interview too. I think that’s cool and it slipped past me.

Jermaine Johnson was featured in Women’s Health Magazine, which is great. Here’s a guy we haven’t seen a lot of.

I thought this was cool. He has a 15-minute no-equipment full-body Peloton workout. You can do it anywhere anytime and it’s all Peloton. You can just go into your Peloton app.

Peloton should try to incorporate that into their marketing.

That’s a good idea.

Thank you. You can have that one. That is my gift to you.

I bet they’ll put that in place before they put the sexy filter in place.

It’s been years. The newer listeners have no idea what we’re talking about but a lot of listeners remember my strong advocacy for the sexy filter, but I think nowadays it’s all about no body-shaming. They can’t do that. They would say the sexy filter is already there because we’re all sexy in our own way.

They wouldn’t say that. They’re not wrong.

If I were to ever use a Peloton, they would immediately install a sexy filter that would filter every user except me. I’m like, “That’s fair.”

“I had that coming.” Maybe someday they’ll invite you to First Timer Friday. Wouldn’t that be funny?

It’s my first time being gentle. Tobias Heinze revealed that he will be racing at the Chicago Marathon, raising money for the Reeves Foundation’s Team Reeves, but it’s interesting that so far he does not seem to be one of the official people appearing at Peloton thingamajig. That’s what it’s called.

It’s official. If there are no T-shirts, they should make one.

Peloton thingamajig Chicago.

That’s good. We’ll make it a thing, Tom. Tobias will be there. He will not be on the official lineup so far. I do think that is interesting that he’s not. I feel like I saw another instructor who was going to be there running that is not on the official list. Rad Lopez is going to be running as well and he is not on the official list either. It’s very interesting.

Maybe they’ll make surprise appearances.

You never know.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Angelo from MetPro. He has tips for not beating yourself up when you’re dealing with autoimmune flare-ups, even if you don’t have autoimmune issues. We all have those moments when we’re not feeling like we’re at our best. We say mean things to ourselves so he’s going to help you navigate that. Stick around.

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Joining us once again from MetPro is Angelo, here to answer all of your fitness and nutrition questions.

Hey, guys.

How are you doing? This question is from Christina Stevens. She listens to the MetPro Method as well. We recently did an episode over there where we talked about thyroid issues, hypothyroidism, and hyperthyroidism. What Christina is looking for is what type of self-talk would be recommended to get through autoimmune flares such as sluggishness, fatigue, and decreased stamina and strength. Exercise always makes her feel better and more normal afterward. The hardest part is getting started, then the second difficult part is to be patient with the ebbs and flows of autoimmune exacerbation.

Keep with it, Christina. The fact that you’re hanging out with quality communities here, you’re getting good information that’s empowering you. All of those are good habits. What you need to do is first and foremost, you need to be working with an autoimmune professional or a doctor. I am not that doctor or professional. What I can tell you is that whether it’s autoimmune, whether you have thyroid issues, what I get a lot is people coming to me and asking me, “Here’s what I have. I have this and this, which is unusual, this medical scenario. What should I do differently because of these things?”

Outside of the medical scenario, where you have a disease or a medical issue that requires a very specific protocol of food or exercise, assuming you don’t have any limitations there, the answer is actually surprising to people. That is you should do nothing different because the same thing that I’m going to tell the person who doesn’t have any of those thyroid issues are the same things that I’m going to tell the person that is struggling. It becomes imperative to employ lifestyle, dietary, exercise, and wellness strategies that are time-tested, honored, and proven to work for people.

While the next person in line might be able to get away with an extra sugary meal here or there without any sort of accompanying flare-up, you may not. Maybe and maybe not. Some people are more sensitive to those sorts of things. What I think people are hoping for is a superfood like if you eat avocados, that addresses this and it’ll fix your metabolism. While there may be some relevance to certain foods out there, I have not found a silver bullet so to speak with that. What I have found is your overall routine.

What can I say that would be the most helpful for your scenario? From my perspective, as a lifestyle and wellness coach, it’s going to be the exact same thing I would tell anyone who has any wellness athletic goals, and that is to have a good routine. You have to have a good routine. What have we already heard? We’ve already figured it out and we deduced that you feel better when you exercise. What are you going to do with that? You need to be exercising. I would propose that you should attempt daily exercise.

Here’s what you’re thinking because you hear autoimmune disease, you have to recover so you can’t exercise daily. That may be the case for you but it might be the case that simply reducing the intensity or duration enables you to have close to daily exercise if it’s modest enough. That may be the ticket that helps you feel better if you can exercise more frequently. Just adjust the duration and intensity to allow that frequency to be at the highest priority.

Guess what? That’s exactly what I tell any client coming on like, “Angelo, I can go do this drop-down knockout bootcamp at the gym where I have to practically get carried out in the ambulance.” I’m like, “That’s great. That is not sustainable.” You go and kill yourself at the gym and that’s awesome when you get to that level. What I’m interested in is fifteen minutes every day that you’re consistent with it because I can build on that. I can’t build on visiting you in a hospital bed once every two weeks.

You know part of your routine needs to include exercise with as much frequency as your scenario allows. Talk with your doctor about that too. The other piece is going to be nutrition. The unfortunate reality is cheap meals and unhealthy foods may impact you. Your body may be more sensitive than the average person, as we’ve mentioned. You want to plan out those cheats. You pick them. Don’t let them pick you. You know what that means? Don’t let the cheat meal happen to you. If you allow it to happen to you, it’s going to happen to you a lot more frequently.

If you’re in control and go, “I have this event. I have this life thing here. I have that life thing there,” you’re going to be able to pick half a dozen times on the calendar over the course of the month and not feel like you can’t live life. Whereas you wake up in the morning and go, “I’m going to eat something good for breakfast and then we’ll see.” I can tell you how that story ends. I’ve taken that path with a few people before and it usually doesn’t end well.

Don’t go on vacation with the O’Keeffe.

We plan our vacation. I know that September, for a week, is going to be the food equivalent of the days of wine and roses.

The O’Keeffe vacation, otherwise known as job security. You’re going to do it. You do it right once though. I had somebody ask me, “I’m going to be going on a vacation to Italy. What do I eat on a vacation in Italy?” I’m like, “How do you how often you go on vacation in Italy?” If they said once every quarter, my answer would have been different. “It’s once in a lifetime,” then I said, “You eat it all. Go on that vacation.” I never going to promote an extreme not living life. What I’m going to promote is dial Tuesdays.

Angelo, I absolve you.

In other words, when you are not doing something special, that’s when I want you to extend yourself and push to Tuesday afternoon. Nothing is going on in your normal workday. Your normal routine. Don’t dive into the candy dish of M&Ms. Stick to a good routine. You do that, and when you do have special occasions, it’s not going to be that detrimental because it’s going to be an occasion and not a lifestyle. Christine, I hope somewhere in there, there’s some relevant advice for you. The answer is all the same things that are going to help anyone reach their health and fitness goals. It just becomes more critical and more imperative that you make it a priority in your life because you have this scenario.

Thank you so much for all that. If people would like this sort of fitness and nutrition information tailored to their own personal journeys, where can they find you?

Thank you.

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Kate Winslet has a new movie coming out. I guess she probably hasn’t been making the rounds because they’re not allowed to do that. Maybe this particular interview predates that. I guess she appears in the movie topless. She refers to it as the softest version of her body. We’re saying all this because, in this article, she reveals that she is a Peloton user. She talked about how she stopped using Peloton for a while. I guess she wanted to be bigger for the role so she took exercise out of her regime for a bit.

She was glad to get it back.

Anyway, we have a new Peloton celebrity sighting and it is Kate Winslet.

Very cool. Welcome. Like she’s listening.

—

You might remember Jim Feeney from a few weeks back. He was working on completing a perimeter bike ride of the entire United States, or contiguous United States because he would drown the other way, and he did it.

Not only did he do it but he also raised $361,092. That’s fantastic. Huge congratulations to Jim Feeney and his whole support team. That was a lot of time and a lot of effort. We are happy that we were able to support you in a very small way as well. Such an amazing accomplishment

Past guest Lindsey Holt was featured in one of Peloton’s ad campaigns.

She was on the show. I think it’s been three years. She had gotten to meet Jess King and she was so excited and had started to help her confidence. Now, look at her being in a Peloton ad.

Well done.

Well done indeed. Very cool.

—

A new fitness app has entered the ring and this time it’s launched by none other than former Peloton instructor Daniel McKenna. It is out there. It’s like $100 a year, a month, or something like that. If that’s your jam, he is out there waiting for you and will gladly take your money.

I can’t believe it’s been a year. What a year it’s been.

—

Cody Rigsby did a special XOXO one-off class for people.

He wanted to celebrate the launch of his book. He did a special episode of his class. That was a lot of fun for people. It was a big celebration on that night. There were a ton of people at the party celebrating. I feel like it was all over the place. Every instructor I saw was in a different location celebrating with him. Tons of pictures everywhere. It’s interesting that Oprah showed up on this day. This is another thing that could have gotten classes canceled because they had people visiting and the studio got too crowded. I’m just saying.

It’s not like one thing but the merging of so many things that they were like, “Just shut it down.”

They didn’t shut it down. Only some classes. That was the confusing part. Anyway, congrats to Cody.

The TCO top five every week. We put out the eagle call for people to tell us their favorite classes and they responded. Here’s what we got.

We got some fun ones. I mean we always do. This Barbie full-body stretch from Adrian Williams on 8/3, people absolutely loved it. This one came in several times. Greg Cochran said that this was the best class this week in his opinion, “The stretches calming reflective and the music is spectacular.” We have the favorite tread bootcamp. Cassie Giebler knows that the space between the end of one class and the beginning of the next gives her the perfect chance to quit before she’s done.

She is trying to complete all 60-minute bike and tread bootcamps. Her favorite was from April 29th, 2023. All For One, you loved the Salt-N-Pepa. There was a 10-minute dance cardio with Jess King, a 15-minute ride with Ally Love, and a 15-minute walk with Jess Sims. All three got huge shoutouts. We move this to the top 7 this week because these are tied a little bit. I will do it.

It was great and people absolutely loved it. Listener and past Superset guest David Stimber loved the ride specifically, “The Salt-N-Pepa ride is a gem. Take it as a 15-minute warm-up. She’s infectious and clearly knew all the words.” We have the run-walk. That was the Katy Perry with Andy Speer. I took this one. It was amazing. The playlist was perfection. That was my quote and I am dead serious. I was outside. I was singing along at the top of my lungs because nobody was around. I was having a great time. It was perfect.

Did you just quote yourself?

I did. It was a great class.

Our unstackable.

Cody Rigsby, of all people, got an unstackable. Michael Daven swears. This was an unstackable. These are his words. “I have to put Cody, of all people, on the unstackable list. He’s supposed to be talking about Britney Spears and the relative merits of all the various boy bands, but during the back half of this class, he had his climb the ladder from 45 to over 80 before giving us a break, 80 is supposed to be the time period not the top end.” Cody can be sneaky hard about when he wants to be.” There you go.

—

We now have low-impact cardio.

We had low-impact cardio classes, but it now officially has a name. Low-impact cardio is officially a new class type added to the list. This is very exciting for people who hate burpees. This would be you, Tom. This is the kind of cardio that you might actually enjoy because you’re not you’re not jumping.

Enjoy is a strong word.

You’re getting your heart rate up and you’re not jumping.

Hate less.

There you go. If you want to hate a class less, take a low-impact cardio class.

I saw it in the notes. You refer to it as LIIT, low-impact interval training. I am looking forward to some LIIT and Hills.

At least they won’t be hidden.

They’ll be able to see them because they will be well-lit, or you’ll be drunk and you will be well-lit.

While we’re at it. I just wanted to add that another class type officially made the class list. Matty’s Walk and Talk has officially become a thing. He’s been trying this for a while so this is big news. Walk and Talk is officially on the schedule. We’re very excited.

We had a fall apparel drop and it featured a dress.

I love how you summarize things, Tom. What’s more interesting about this is that Peloton did a fall drop, and they did a collaboration with Spiritual Gangster. The interesting thing is Spiritual Gangster put the exact same dress and it doesn’t have a Peloton logo on it, but that dress over in the Peloton boutique does. It has Spiritual Gangster and the Peloton logo. We found that fascinating over at The Clip Out when we were watching these things. Also, people rave about these workout dresses that the Spiritual Gangster has. Another side note to the side note, Kendall is hinting that because she’s their ambassador now, a whole bunch of new stuff is coming with Spiritual Gangster. Keep an eye out for that if Spiritual Gangster is your thing.

—

We have four birthdays. That’s a lot of birthdays.

I guess we are going from having a lot of Leo instructors to having a lot of Virgo instructors.

Is that how it goes?

I’m pretty sure.

There should be a Libra here soon because I’m a Libra.

When does it flip?

The 22nd or 23rd.

We’re not there yet.

On September 16th, we have Alex Karwoski.

He’s one of our row instructors. He’s the one that has the brother over at Hydrow who also teaches row.

It’s going to make Thanksgiving very awkward.

He’s not allowed to talk about it publicly.

I bet you in Thanksgiving, he’s like, “How many people are in your little Hydrow class over there? Do you want to see how many people were in mine? That’s still a thing? Hydrow, I remember that. That’s cute. That’s adorable. Mom is very proud.”

They are pretty competitive from what I understand. That’s Alex talking in class about things that they would do. That’s fun. Happy birthday.

Happy birthday to Anna Greenberg on September 18th.

Right behind Alex. Happy birthday, Anna.

Erik Jäger on September 19th, and then finally, last but not least Robin Arzon on September 20th.

Happy birthday to everybody.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to our interview of the week. It’s Thea Gallagher from Sirius XM Radio. You definitely want to stick around for that.

—

Joining us is Thea Gallagher. How is it going?

It’s going great. I’m so happy to be here.

Should it be Dr. Thea Gallagher?

It can be. It doesn’t need to be. I like to be an approachable doctor if that’s a thing. I like people to know it, but then you can call me by my first name. Just so you know I’m not just talking about something I don’t know about. I do have a lot of schools that I went to, but I don’t need that credit every second.

You deserve all that credit.

It’s a lot of work to get one of those things.

A lot of tears.

Also, built student loans.

Few thousands of hundreds of thousands.

I was going to comment on your name, which I always feel like you must have had a rough childhood. I feel like there were lots of watermelon jokes in your childhood.

Maybe that’s part of why I consider myself to be a funny person who doesn’t take myself too seriously. Maybe it comes from the Gallagher lore comedy and not taking yourself too seriously. It’s not the worst person to be compared to, and then there was shameless. I feel like I have a good lineage of Gallaghers behind me. That’s about it.

That’s a good point. Based on our pre-show convo, I would say that your comedy game is strong.

Now you set me up. I’m just going to dud for the rest of the episode.

I always like to start with how people originally found Peloton because there are so many ways you can come to Peloton, especially since the pandemic. How did that come for you?

I wonder if this is the story you hear a lot, but it was COVID. We were talking about that, Tom. You were at Costco and I was in my house alone with an eighteen-month-old. I had been to a part of a gym and always have loved spinning. It was part of my weekly routine. Peloton always sounded interesting. I had a rhythm of going to the gym and everything. I was doing 8-mile walks with my daughter and trying to talk to patients on those walks and trying to do anything to keep me sane, and then I needed something. It probably was one of those things that a lot of people are like, “You are not spending money on anything else. It’s time to get that Peloton.”

I was one of the lucky ones that mine came pretty early. I ordered it maybe sometime in April and it came by May. In some ways, it saved my life. I needed it at a time when it was important to me. Also interestingly, Hillary, with whom we were work colleagues but never were that close. I knew she was a big Peloton person so I started reaching out to her.

She and I became close through the Peloton. We would take classes together and it felt like you had finally had some social interaction. It was important to me at that time to have that. I remember I would put my daughter to bed and I would plan a class with my friends or go on. It was super important to me at that time. I bet a lot of people got a Peloton during the pandemic, but I’m so glad I did.

They did. There are a lot of people, but that’s the thing about Peloton. If you go through the people who have been around since the beginning, we call them the OG, there are all these little stratospheres of different people who have joined over time. Some of them were like me where it’s like, “This sounds amazing,” sight unseen. There were no stores in the middle of the country at that time.

There aren’t again.

That’s true. I forgot about that for a second. We didn’t even know how to pronounce Peloton when we first started this show because we had never heard the word.

We never heard it said out loud. We saw it written on a screen. Apparently, that means something to bikers.

You kept practicing in front of the mirror.

That’s a whole other story.

Don’t listen to the first few episodes.

It’s rough. That was a long time ago. You had been going to the gym before that. Were you a person who sports had been a part of your life forever? Was this a new thing for you? How did fitness, in general, come into your life?

I’m always an active kid. I played soccer and then I trained to be a professional ballerina for most of my young life from 9 until I was 18. It was hardcore. We are talking twenty-something hours a week. It’s athletic but it’s also performance, but very physically taxing. I thought I was going to do that for my career, and then I started doing it in a more professional work-type sense. I said, “This was great for me as a teen and it served a lot of purposes but I don’t know if I see this.” It’s a grueling career that doesn’t last very long. You have to move to a lot of places with not a lot of money.

I have a quick question about ballerinas or ballet in general. Speaking as someone who knows nothing about ballet. I saw Black Swan and that’s it.

You learned a lot in that movie. Not the murder parts. Don’t look any deeper.

I feel like there’s the upper echelon of ballet that makes money and then there’s nothing else. Is there any other way to make money in ballet?

Can you be a mid-tier?

I have to tell you something. Upper echelons are not making much money either. That’s the thing. I was pretty upper in the world of ballet. It’s the American Repertory Ballet Theater. They are in New Jersey. They perform at New Jersey PAC, the Trenton War Memorial, and McCarter Theatre. We are talking big theaters, but I don’t know if that has changed. I have been out of the game for so long, but I doubt it. I think all arts. Not that I would say lost or dying art, but you have to have a large attention span to go to the ballet. I know I have New York City ballet season tickets and they call me every week to make sure I’m renewing. That’s the New York City Ballet. They are still hurting for money.

It’s probably the older people who are renewing, but you are probably very much on the younger end of a season ticket holder would be my guess.

They need a lot of donors. Most artists can relate to the fact that the arts, in general, are hard unless you find some way to mass-produce them. I have a friend who’s an artist and she figured out that making wallpaper textiles that she could mass produce was a way to make money, but a lot of the arts is difficult. You can do it mid-tier but you probably have to teach a lot and work side jobs. I knew people who were professionals who were also teaching classes and doing a lot of other things. It’s still a pretty both physically taxed and financially sacrificial area.

What you are saying is it’s kind of an MLM. You have to bring in other people to keep making money.

You have to find a fancy donor. You have to keep bringing people in to build that pyramid scheme.

A philosophy degree or something like that.

I imagine in this climate or in the world now. There are probably people who figured out a way to become influencers on top of that, or who probably post interesting videos of themselves doing cool things. I think it’s cool. Hopefully, there will always be an interest there. I was used to physically grueling activity and then when that left my life, I was like, “How do you fill that void?” I think of a lot of people who have probably trained professionally to do something or have played Division 1 sports or trained and focused on a sport. When you can’t carry into adulthood that well, it can be hard to find something that physically meets what you want.

I have tried to run in my life. I’m not a runner. I don’t like it. I find it boring. I don’t know. I can’t get into it. What I do like with something like Peloton especially is you have music. You have something that keeps your brain a little active and activated. Something like that is a nice combination for me. I always like spinning too in particular because it’s non-weight-bearing. You never feel bad after it. It’s hard to get injured.

You never feel bad after spinning, and it’s really hard to get injured. Click To Tweet

That’s one thing as a ballerina. You are always trying not to get injured because you want to keep being able to do that. That’s still a fear I have now. I don’t think I could see myself in a CrossFit gym or something like that because I would be afraid I would get injured. I like that balance with Peloton where you get a blend of both worlds, and then there’s this whole other side that you guys know about like learning about their personal lives that brings a level of intrigue to everything. The personalities that come across are also fun.

They are. As a little example of that, I took a little stack of walking classes. I did three walking classes back-to-back with Jess Sims, Marcel Dinkins, and Matty Maggiacomo. They were all a little twenty minutes. They are so fun and they are all different. It’s crazy how they all work together and get along, or at least that’s what they show us. You have these different personalities and they are all big personalities. It’s pretty amazing that there’s so much out there.

It was a couple of years ago that they had a New York Times article that was talking about the celebrity of the Peloton instructors. You feel like there’s this closeness because you have these intimate moments with them. Especially, during COVID when no one was in there, I felt like I was in their bedrooms.

I remember being in Alex’s apartment in New York. I was like, “This is an intimate part that they were letting us into their lives.” I don’t know if this is too much of a stretch, but as a therapist, I always say you have to give it a few sessions. I feel like that sometimes with Peloton instructors, the first one, this is not what I was expecting and this is not like the last person I liked. You have to almost let yourself be open-minded and see what you like. Maybe let them grow on you too and their personalities. It’s weird that once you get to know them and their style, you feel like, “What am I in the mood for today?” That makes it fun.

That is so true. Instructors who teach different modalities, I have also found that I like more one modality than the other. I like all of the instructors, but I have my favorites. Taking a biking class with Robin, I don’t enjoy as much as a run with Robin. I find that fascinating because they are the same person. Why is it a different aspect of their personality? Isn’t that weird?

It brings out a different side of them. Maybe they like running more than they like cycling. Maybe they got burned out on it and they are ready for something new and exciting, and bring in different energy. You can feel that also through the app or whatever you are using.

You decided not to go into ballet. How did you make the jump from ballet to clinical psychologist? That’s a leap.

It’s a wild story too because I dropped out of high school to dance. I expect to go back and get all these degrees. I always say from GED to PsyD. I guess I got to get this GED and figure out what I’m going to do. It was a cool leap because what happened was that I never expected to go the academic route. My parents always had high expectations for us in school and everything. I had been taking some community college classes on the side for my last year of high school. When I decided not to go forward with it as a full career, I was like, “I need to figure out what I want to do.” It made the learning process so fun for me because I had no expectations for myself.

I looked at the community college roster. I was like, “I want to take everything that looks interesting,” Buddhism, stress management, yoga, history of the world, and things that I wanted to take. Along the way, I realized, “These Psychology courses are interesting to me. People are interesting to me. I could make a career out of this or a life out of this.”

Good thing I didn’t know what was coming because it was your Bachelor’s, two Master’s degrees, a Doctorate, and a Post-Doctorate. There are so many things along the way, but I do feel grateful that I have put all the work in and got to a place where I have a career I love and that has interestingly compared to ballet. I have friends who retired at 32 or 33 from ballet. It’s so taxing physically on your body. That’s the typical range.

I have a career that I didn’t even get to start in a lot of ways until I was 30. Now, I see this as something I will always want to do in some capacity. It’s quite the opposite, but the longevity of a career where I get to hear about people’s lives and learn how to help them and help them reach their goals. It’s a fulfilling career in so many ways.

Getting to hear about people’s lives and help them reach their goals is a really fulfilling career. Click To Tweet

Your parents were probably very relieved about a career where you could make a living past the age of 28.

You got to figure out something. It ended up working out well. I always talk about the fact that I developed a love for learning. I hope we see that with schools and everything. It’s so much about rigor, school, getting the grades, and getting to the programs. I have worked at the University of Pennsylvania and NYU with kids who hate school but they are good at it. They have had to do it. I always say, “If you can get back to finding what interests you and what you are excited about that’s something you can make a career out of, that’s the best combination.”

I find this fascinating. We have a data set of two points that I’m drawing this from. We have someone on the show every week who’s also a psychologist and her background is similar. She was doing rhythmic gymnastics for the USA Olympics. I find it fascinating that you both have these backgrounds in sports that are very physically demanding and then pivoted to Psychology. I don’t know if that means something deeper. As I said, “Data set of two.”

Now we need to do a research study. We got to get into this like, what is the connection between movement. I wonder if it’s also the connection with that level of rigor that you are used to like, “I put so much intensity into this. I need to be intense with something else.” It’s nice to be intense with people because there’s so much to learn and it’s always exciting. When I’m meeting a new patient or doing something in this field. I’m excited to hear and learn about people. Maybe we are intense people so we figure out a way to bring that intensity.

You directed the intensity to the same thing is what I find.

You could have done so many different things and ended up in the same field.

We got to explore this. It’s fascinating.

You’d be like, “I’m going to be the world’s best barber.”

You could be intense in anything. Why do we choose this? There’s a link here. It’s very fascinating.

What is it like to be a clinical psychologist on a day-to-day basis? What does that look like? What’s a day in the life?

The cool thing is that as a clinical psychologist, you can do a lot of different things. My best friend and I went to the same school. She’s the CEO of a counseling center. She doesn’t see any patients but she makes a lot of the decisions and big-picture things. I have friends who work in Forensic Psychology who may do evaluations in prisons.

There are many different things you can do with it. There are also a lot of admin roles that tend to come when you are a clinical psychologist. If you are a social worker therapist, a lot of times, you are doing the therapy work at the doctorate level somehow because you are in this level of extended schooling where you get put into a lot of admin roles too like clinical director, vice chair, and different kinds of things.

For me, I’m always doing some therapy. That’s always a part of my life. At least 50% is seeing patients, talking to them, and helping them. My specialty is exposure-based treatment, which is helping people face their fears by doing things like facing phobias. Even with OCD, whether it’s eating food off of a bench or something like that. That’s a crazy level, but having people face fears or flying phobias and those kinds of things. That’s a lot of what I do on the therapy side. I have found myself in a few different types of admin roles. I have realized the ones where I get mired in are the details and a lot of the minutiae. It is not my favorite thing.

What I like is big-picture stuff. I do a lot in the media. I’m doing a lot of work to try to break the stigma around mental health. These are big tasks that I like to take on. I’m doing a lot now in the wellness space. I’m trying to bring wellness into the workplace, and helping people to realize that they need to take care of their mental health just like their physical health.

People need to realize that they need to take care of their mental health just like their physical health. Click To Tweet

That’s the broad scope of my podcast, radio, and media. I’m trying to bring up the idea that we should all be talking about mental health as normally as we talk about our physical health. The other part is I am helping people on a day-to-day basis manage the different things in their lives that they are trying to figure out.

I have a question about seeing patients. I’m not going to pry about an individual, but it will be about an individual. What was it like the first time you closed the door and sat down with a patient? That seems to be intimidating even if you have been studying it all this time. The first time you are sitting down you have someone’s brain in your hands.

You will never forget that moment. It’s like when you get your license and you are like, “Should I be doing this?” You have to act cool and act like you know what you are doing and listen hard. You’re sweating and trying to figure it out. You need to dive into those skills that you remember learning like active listening, trying to repeat back, and taking it one step at a time.

I always say to people that if you have a therapist who’s in training or someone new, you might get better care than someone who’s been doing it a long time because you are sweating bullets. You are working your hardest. You are talking to your supervisor and you are googling things. You want to make sure that you are doing the right things.

Sometimes you even get a little bit of extra TLC, but it is funny to me. I remember there was a time when I felt nervous and anxious. It takes years even to feel comfortable. Now I feel like there’s nothing somebody can throw at me. If it’s out of my scope of practice, I would know how to refer them, but also so many problems in life. I feel like I have seen such a variety of problems since I have been doing this since 2009. Seeing so many different challenges that people have had in their lives, it’s nice to now have this level of comfort, but I will never forget that time.

I will tell a funny story. It’s my first year as an intern for my Master’s degree. It was on the third floor of this hot building. I remember one day, I had seen so many patients back to back and I wasn’t feeling great. I was talking to this patient and I was like, “I’m going to pass out.” I never passed out in my life but I knew it was going to happen.

I said to her, “I’m sorry. I think I’m going to pass out,” and then I stood up, which you are not supposed to do but I stood up and fell into the door like a rake with my head in the door. My patient had to pry me off the door, lay me on the floor, and bring in the person who was working the front desk to come bring me back to life.

I left that internship as a legend. They were like, “You can’t bomb any more than that. If you pass out on your patient, you have embarrassed yourself enough. You can go on in any situation.” Some ridiculous things have happened to me in therapy sessions over the years that made me realize that it’s just a person. It’s just a process and we are doing the best we can. I have had sessions where I’m like, “I’m sick. I’m going to have to cut this short,” or whatever. You are both two people in the room. There are fun aspects.

It was the first time a patient charged the doctor a copay.

I remember I saw her at a restaurant a few years later. She waved at me like she knew me. I waited until no one was around. I went over and I was like, “I want you to know that’s still the most ridiculous thing that’s ever happened to me.” She goes, “Me too.” She had to find another therapist and be like, “I’m traumatized because my therapist passed out on me in the session.”

She’s like, “What did you tell her?”

I’m curious about how you got into the media side of things. You said you have two podcasts and that you have a show on SiriusXM. How did all of that come to be? You are trying to spread that message, but how did you make that happen?

The neat thing about life is that you try to make things happen or you don’t. It’s weird how things just start to fall into place. I never had this idea that I wanted to be in media. I want to do thought leadership. Maybe you guys are starting to see a thread that I was a performer. Maybe part of that is sticking with me. I was at Penn and the person in PR was like, “We need someone to do this news hit.” I said, “I’ve never done that before.” I was nervous. I went and did it. I had a good time and I enjoyed it. I was nervous but it went well. I realized that I am good at thinking on my feet and I like to bring these topics in.

I got another call and it was about, “Can you talk about mental health and road rage?” I was like, “Can I talk about mental health and road rage?” My one friend was like, “Yeah. Everything comes back to mental health. If you can figure out a way to tie that back, someone is angry and then you feel out of control and then you act in a way you don’t like and how do you feel afterward? You could make this all something that you could help filter through this lens of mental health.” Once I figured that out, it all came from there.

I remember someone once told me and she’s like, “I don’t want to offend you, but a lot of the doctors that we use for these things are too smart to do this. They just go over everyone’s head. You are good at taking complex material and making it so people can understand it.” I took that and it just flowed from there. I say yes to everything because I feel like I can find a way to bring everything back to mental health. Many things do work their way back into our mind-body connection. There is so much going on and so much happening there. I love doing that.

Radio has been fun too because like you guys are doing right now, interviewing is something that you do as a psychologist. You are asking people questions all the time. “Tell me about your life.” You are curious about people and where they came from and what’s going on with them. To be able to interview people about whatever they are studying or whatever they wrote a book about or whatever they are doing in their life is another nice extension of the work. That’s where I’m at.

What are the two podcasts about specifically?

The one podcast Mind In View that we started as a pandemic fever dream. We started that. I was like, “I’m bored. Do you want to start podcasting?” She’s an amazing dynamic person. She was a patient at the clinic where I worked, but she wasn’t my patient. She had been a patient before I got there, and then she was running our OCD support group.

She has a compelling story about how her OCD was so bad and no one understood. She had fears that she was going to kill people. She got this treatment and she was changed and her life was changed. She’s a very dynamic person. We had become colleagues and friends. I said, “It’d be cool to do a podcast with the patient’s perspective and the therapist’s perspective.”

We then rotate and I will talk about things that I’m struggling with in my life. She gives me advice or talks it through with me. It’s like we pick topics again that we can both relate to mental health, me through this clinical lens and her through a life lens. It’s interesting how we end up sometimes switching roles or having different things that we struggle with. It makes it fun.

The other one I have is through NYU. It’s a super nerdy podcast about people doing incredible research in psychiatry. I interviewed this researcher who did an amazing study about psilocybin and alcohol use disorder. I’m sweating because I’m like, “I have to learn a lot in this to understand all the work that you have done.” That one is a little bit more heavy and our other one is light and fun but I like doing it. It’s fun to learn. It’s fun to challenge your brain. It’s fun to have fun like we are doing too.

It's fun to challenge your brain. Click To Tweet

What’s the Sirius XM show?

If you go to Sirius XM DR radio, it’s a whole channel. There’s the psychiatry show, which is part of a new station we have called Mental Health Radio. There’s daily programming. It’s Sirius XM 110. I have a show every week and we have all different guests. We are talking about all different things and people can call in and ask questions.

On my one show, we have a series where it’s open phones. I’m like, “I’m a clinical psychologist. Give me a call. Ask me anything. I will either answer it or if I don’t know, I will direct you to the right person who will know.” That’s another fun thing. People call and they are so vulnerable about their life, what they are going through, and what they are struggling with. We get to answer their questions. We usually have a guest where we will focus on a certain topic. It’s a lot of fun. I love that aspect of things. It grounds it by the fact that I can still see patients. I work with them and I love patient care. I’m always going to have that as part of my life too. It keeps it real.

That sounds like a lot. I feel like you have 80 hours of work you listed.

I can fit that in. My friends and partner are like, “Do you have any sense of time?” I’m like, “No. I have raging ADD. I have no sense of time.” I’m like, “I can fit that in. I got that.” I’m flying by the seat of my pants like, “Do I have time to pee today?” That’s how I like it. It keeps it fresh and exciting, and I have 18-month-old twins and a 4-year-old. I have been overachieving for too long, but I’m one of those mad scientist overachievers. You wouldn’t look at me and be like, “That woman has it together.” You’d be like, “She’s a little nuts, but cool.” I keep it real in my own life. I’m again flying by the seat of my pants all the time.

Everybody thinks everybody else has it together. I have this conversation with Crystal all the time. I was like, “If all they know is the show and your Instagram, they think that you have got it buttoned up.” I don’t mean that as an insult, but it’s a battle to get all the things done. That’s not a character flaw and everybody has that same battle and if anybody tells you differently, they are full of crap.

I lean in. I’m like, “Let’s all contemplate about the fact that none of us have it together.” That has been freeing too. I don’t know if that’s something that’s happened to you guys, but in my 30s, I started to realize, “I do not care about keeping up with certain kinds of appearances.” You know yourself and your strengths. You know what you like and what you don’t like. You know what you are good at.

Sometimes I’m like, “I don’t even know how I got here, but somehow I got here. Don’t look at my work. I just figured out the answer.” Own your limitations. I am not an Instagram mom. My kids are getting pizza for their birthdays. I’m not going to be making handmade cupcakes. That’s not who I am. Once you know who you are, you can lean into what your strengths are and you’ll like yourself ultimately. You have to like yourself, your gifts, and what you are good at.

None of us have it together. Lean into what your strengths are and really like yourself. Click To Tweet

That’s true, especially for moms. We need to hear it as often as possible.

We were talking about this on my podcast too. I was on vacation with my kids. You do post the fun pictures or the fun things you are doing. It is so nice to post behind the scenes sometimes, but then I don’t want to feel performative. If my kid was sick and we had to take my one daughter to the ER and we were on vacation, I wanted to be like, “Vacation isn’t perfect.”

I also was like, “Do I need to post that she’s in the ER to be like, ‘Life is real?’” You struggle with that too because you don’t want to use your kid’s sickness as something you are performing about. You are like, “Instagram is for fun, but do I have to be so real? Do people want that?” Finding that balance can be tough too.

A major pet peeve of mine is people who post pictures of themselves crying because I’m like, “You stop long enough to take that picture.”

In the middle of your teary meltdown, you took a selfie.

There’s another way you could have shared this. You don’t need this.

How real can that emotion be when you stop? You thought about the camera. You picked it up. I don’t understand.

Crystal, I knew about your whole injury journey. I was texting my friend and I was like, “Do you know Crystal from The Clip Out? She got in this horrible accident.” I was happy you let us in on that. It’s a balance. You are the performative one. I learned something about it. I was like, “I’m on the journey. Let’s see how this happens.”

I will say that was not a selfie. I took that photo.

There’s no crying video. They are in my privates.

I’m an ugly crier.

When I walked into the ER, the first thing I started doing was, “I’m taking pictures. You are going to want to put this on a Gram at some point.” You are too public to not tell people what happened. It would be weird if you didn’t.

I don’t know how I could have gone through that process without telling people what happened.

The support you get is so nice too. People are nice.

They are. I had so many flowers that people sent me that I felt like I had died. It was like a funeral home in here. It was crazy and so sweet. I don’t mean that as a complaint at all. Every day people were checking it out. It was nice. You think nobody pays attention to the stuff you do. All of a sudden, you get all this love and it’s like, “People do know I exist. That’s so nice.”

I wasn’t doing it for that but that’s so nice. Social media is such a fascinating place but sometimes you see the worst in people and then sometimes you see the best in people. You are like, “This is a conundrum here.”

Social media is such a fascinating place. Sometimes you see the worst in people and then sometimes you see the best in people. Click To Tweet

That is so true.

You see the best when they have decided collectively that you deserve it. When they were like, “You deserve this outpouring.”

The mob mentality on social media is real. It’s scary how people can collect on themselves. It’s fascinating to notice how people have started this, and I will tie this back to Peloton. I don’t know if you ever go to the Facebook page that Peloton has. It’s their group.

I don’t do Facebook, but I do know it exists.

It is the worst thing ever.

That’s why I don’t it.

I don’t blame you. It used to be that if somebody said something negative about instructors, they would get dragged. They would get slammed. Now, the instructors are big enough celebrities that they are starting to be this interesting weird turning point. I posted something about an instructor who’s very popular. It was a news article about something she had done. People went crazy about, “This is too much. She shouldn’t be doing this. She’s trying to get money out of it.” I was surprised that it was out and everybody ganged up. There was not one positive comment. I thought, “How weird is that?”

Judgment about strangers and it can get so volatile. It’s like a stranger that you think you know or you have all these strong opinions. Trolling on the internet is a whole psychological fascination but a sad one. I can’t imagine being over there thinking of nasty things to say about people, but so many people are doing it. That is the scary part.

I always tell Crystal, “You are not popular until people don’t like you.”

I know. I don’t have the strength for that. I can’t get that popular. I do not have the bandwidth or the fortitude for criticism. I’m like a little berry. I don’t even read my teaching reviews. I’m too sensitive. I will read the one bad one and then I will be in a spiral.

That’s all you can hear. I used to do that. Now I have turned off comments. I will turn off the alert that tells me that there are comments and walk away. I only go back when I’m in a good place.

You have to be like, “I can handle anything right now.”

That’s how I deal with my ex-wife.

You got to get in the zone. Game face. Let’s go.

Going back to Peloton, you mentioned that you feel Peloton and mental health are a great match. I’m curious as to what you mean by that specifically.

Peloton and mental health are a great match. Click To Tweet

We know now in the data that 150 minutes of exercise a week mitigates depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. We need that. My new soapbox is that we need to stop calling working out self-care. It is like self-management. Working out is a part of our lives like eating. I’m having self-care with breakfast.

No. Eating is a part of our lives that we need to be happy and healthy. We also need to work out. What I have been talking to is there are so many different ways that you can figure out what works for you and what you like. You said so many different modalities. Even different lengths of time, which the old school way was you go. You do your 45-minute or an hour class. That doesn’t work with a lot of people’s lives.

We also know with motivation, having smaller chunks can be better. I can commit more to a 20-minute class than I can to a 45-minute class, but you are still getting something in. We also know HIIT workouts are great for help with ADHA. There are so many things with working out. The idea is that you can figure out what works for you and how you like that.

Also, there’s a lot of social anxiety around the gym being looked at. People negatively evaluate you. I don’t think you should always avoid those situations, but having the chance to dip your toe in on something where you don’t need to maybe be seen and observed and being able to fit it into your life where you can with therapy. Pre-pandemic, I had all of my sessions in person. Now everything I do is virtual and more people can get access to therapy care because they can fit it into their lives at different times that work for them.

That’s also the benefit of Peloton if you are like, “When can I fit this in?” When my kids go down for a nap or when they go to bed, or if I have a break in my schedule, or if I have a cancellation. When can you fit these things in? It’s making greater access for people. Also, I always ask my patients, “Do you have the Peloton app?” The mindfulness exercises and some of the mental health stuff. I’m like, “It’s great,” like body scans and breathing stuff. There’s a lot of stuff out there for you.

I also tell people to pool around and see what they like. Try something. See how you feel and give it a try without that judgment maybe of being in the gym where you don’t have a lot of other places you could explore. It’s like, “I want to go take ten minutes of something and see if I like it or try something.” You can’t do that at a gym as much. That’s a good positive.

Also, the community around it. My friends and I will all talk about different things. We were at dinner once and my friend was like, “Did you hear this news about this person?” We are talking about Peloton instructors as we know them. It does create a sense of community. I said to my friend, “I want to get my cardio back up. Can we commit to doing four Pelotons a week?” She’s like, “Okay, cool.”

You are able to still workout with someone without being with them. We also know from the research that working out with a buddy makes you more likely to do it, commit to it, and have more sustainability with it. The fact that you can workout with someone and not physically be with them but still get those benefits is an incredible thing too.

It’s such a game-changer in terms of how people exercise that it’s leading to so many new things that I don’t think we have fully wrapped our heads around yet. What is your leaderboard name?

My leaderboard name is the NotoriousDrG. You need to get it on there. To talk about my Peloton journey, even with the pandemic, I feel like I was so in and it was life-changing. When I went to work from home and my kids were here, I was like, “I do need to do something out of my house.” I feel like I need to get that.

Now I’m at this place too where I’m like, “I need that combination because I can’t fit the workouts out of my house all the time,” but I do like that social interaction. I do think with my friends that we are going to get on a better schedule with each other. Scheduling classes and making it happen together to keep that community aspect of it.

For a while, I’m doing everything in my house and I need to get out. Finding that balance for me has been important. I don’t know if people have found that with the pandemic. I feel like everything was in my house. Now I need to do something that’s out of my house. I need to come back to finding that balance.

Crystal works from home 100% and she struggles with that all the time. She’s like, “I don’t know the last time I left the house.”

Sometimes I will go outside for a walk and I’m like, “It’s been days since I walked outside. That can’t be good.”

We did find a little bit of that other balance too like leaving the house and putting on normal clothes once in a while. We are figuring it out. We went through this global trauma. Now we are figuring out what works for us. How do I keep this going? It’s such a great asset and I love that about Peloton too, that you can come back to it.

Leave the house. Put on normal clothes once in a while. Click To Tweet

When you are traveling, you can say, “Let me find somebody who has it at their house.” I have been on family vacations where I’m like, “I’m so glad we are at your sister’s who has the Peloton. I can get a workout in.” I do love that aspect of flexibility, and that you can have a different relationship with it at different times in your life. It seems like it’s continuing to evolve too. I haven’t done one of the walks outside like you were talking about, but I want to do that and wrap my mind around something new and different. It seems like they keep getting so many dynamic people and exciting stuff is happening. That’s cool too.

There have been a ton of new content types added. They keep sprinkling them in all the time.

It has reached a tipping point where Peloton has become almost ubiquitous. It used to be unusual to find another person who was familiar with Peloton. Now, you almost expect if you have five friends, three of them probably are using Peloton in some capacity, or when you go to somebody’s house they have got one you could hop on if you wanted to.

My friends and I joke that it’s the new middle-aged women’s cocktail party talking point. It’s like, “Who’s your favorite on Peloton?” I remember when I moved to the town. During the pandemic, things started to open up again. When you meet people, it is a nice talking point, “Do you want to meet up for a class?” It started those conversations. It’s funny that there was a time when it wasn’t part of the conversation and now these are household names.

When I used to wear Peloton gear out in the wild, I would wait for somebody to bring it up. I was desperate for anybody I knew to bring it up and then random people would come up to me and ask me about Peloton and it was fun. It was my favorite thing ever, but now it’s not a big deal anymore. Everyone has it.

I remember the first time I bought Peloton gear and I had to dip into my 401(k) because I was like, “This is so expensive, but I needed to have it.” Now, I’m on Marshalls.com, and I bought all this Peloton swag for $15. I was like, “I’m buying it,” because I was so pumped. That’s a word for anybody looking for Peloton gear. You can find a lot of it on Marshalls.

I remember the first time when you would wait in line and then it would be sold out in two seconds. My friend is like, “You have to get on the second. Get in the line. Buy the things.” It’s $500 and now times have changed with regard to that. It’s so funny. That sweatshirt I got, I will never throw that out. I’m like, “This is worth gold. This is so much money.”

Thank you so much for joining us. Before we let you go, let everybody know where they can find you on social media and remind them about your podcasts and things like that.

If you go on @TheaGallagherPsyD on Instagram, you can see in my Linktree all of the different things I’m doing. Hang out with us on the Sirius XM Psychiatry Show. You can also find Mind In View and Insights On Psychiatry, my podcast. You can always also reach out to me in my direct messages. I have helped a lot of people who are like, “I need a therapist. Can you help me figure out the process?”

I love helping people be like, “Here’s where you go. Here’s what you do. What’s your insurance? Let me figure out. Let me call some people. Let me figure out some things.” I might not be able to keep up with the demand forever, but any questions or things that people have. Also, in a lot of the media stuff I do, I try to talk about some of these topics that I have been asked a lot of questions about like, “How do you know if this is the right therapist?”

Various topics or even like, “How do you deal with mass shootings? How do you talk to your kids about things?” A lot of the articles that you will find in my link are hopefully somewhat helpful for different things that you are dealing with in your life. Come follow me, hang out, and I’m nonstop talking so you can find something I’m talking about somewhere at all times.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. It’s so wonderful to meet both of you and I’m looking forward to hearing this.

Thank you.

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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 all of the social media platforms 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 Patreon. There are even free levels. We’d love to see you there. You can take part in a book club and other things. Not everything is behind a paywall over there so swing on by. Until next time, keep pedaling, and running, and rowing.

 

Important Links

• Thea Gallagher
• Mind In View
• Marshalls.com
• @TheaGallagherPsyD – Instagram
• Insights On Psychiatry
• Apple Podcasts – The Clip Out
• Spotify – The Clip Out
• Google – The Clip Out
• iHeart – The Clip Out
• TuneIn – The Clip Out
• Patreon.com/TheClipOut
• Facebook.com/TheClipOut
• YouTube.com/TheClipOut
• Melissa Ferrara – past episode
• Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe
• Instagram – Clip Out Crystal
• Twitter – Clip Out Crystal
• @RogerQBert – Twitter
• Facebook.com/tomokeefe

 

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