Nichole Gallaghr | Personal Trainer, Dancer, Kettlebell Enthusiast

Welcome to the platform podcast. I'm your host Jordan Kunde-Wright, founder and head coach of the Twin Cities Kettlebell Club And I'm on a mission to help others build sustainable healthy habits I know how hard that can be because I've struggled and succeeded to varying degrees throughout my life But I've lost over a hundred pounds and kept it off for over a decade now the key for me was discovering my passion for lifting weights in Kettlebell Sport on this podcast we'll talk to athletes coaches experts and everyday people about Kettlebell's fitness programming nutrition mindset making an impact and generally striving to grow and leave a legacy of positive change Please join me. Welcome into the platform podcast. My guest today is the Kettlebell Queen Fox herself Nichole Gallaghr, Nichole. Thank you so much for coming onto the platform podcast. Welcome in No, thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. So we were talking before we got on and it's a funny story about how I actually came across your profile One of my one of my athletes on my on my Kettlebell sport team who will remain nameless told me she has a massive girl crush on She thinks that she thinks that you put out awesome content and that you have you have the the rocking body that she wants to have So I gotta I gotta give you a shout out. That's how that's how I came across your profile. I love that. And yeah, I definitely you know I don't know who it is. So I want you to tell her that said thank you. I love when I have like female followers who genuinely follow my stuff because I feel like I have a majority of a male following because of the workouts that I do are kind of like intense for most women. So when I get female followers who are like really down for like everything that I'm doing I think that's so cool. Yeah, she definitely she definitely was a fan and I'm surprised that I'm surprised that it's mostly mostly male followers like do you know what your stats are or what what the split is. I mean I'm not surprised that it's more men than women, but I'm I always find I'm usually surprised to find out what the stats are because sometimes I just I guess I expect that it's usually women consuming more workout content, especially from other women but Right, and you would think so, but unfortunately, well, not unfortunately, I have definitely I want to say it's probably like a 76% male following and or 72 there. I'm looking at it and 72% of men are following me and then 28 of women. So very little bit of women are following me. Huh, that's that is interesting. What do you think that is. Honestly, without trying to like make myself sound like, you know, Hulk or whatever, I think it's because I do I do promote a lot of heavy kettlebell stuff and I do promote a lot of like heavy lifting and strength training and those sorts of things. I think I intimidate a lot of women as far as strength wise, which I don't mean to like that's definitely not my goal. If anything, it's to make women like see that it's possible to like train heavy and you know workouts five days a week and not look quote unquote manly like people think that you're going to look. For, for the record, women have a quarter typically on average about a quarter of the amount of testosterone. So unless you're taking, you know, external sources of testosterone, you're not going to look manly no matter how heavy you look you're just. Right. Just going to get strong. Exactly. And so, but trying to, you know, teach women that they don't always understand that they just think, oh, I'm going to get big. I don't want to look bulky. And I'm not going to say I wasn't there at one point either, but throughout my journey, I've learned like I've been doing this for like, I don't know eight years now and I don't look manly. So if I've been doing it for this long, then I don't think I'm going to look mainly. Not unless you try really hard to look manly, I don't think that's good. Well, so you mentioned that you know your journey, let's get into that a little bit like what is your, let's go back, what is your background growing up that's typically what I asked people when they come on is, is what was your original kind of like athletic background growing up and then. If you had an athletic background or not, but. And then how did you, how did you kind of start getting into fitness. My athletic background, I took karate for probably seven years when I was a kid. I did it from about age five to 12 or somewhere on there. And I did actually get all the way up to a brown belt and then had to, my mom took me out of it right before that right before I got my block belt. So that was most of my childhood and then I actually didn't do any sports until where I didn't do any sports throughout all my school or school years or high school or whatever. I did try out for soccer and shortly realized after I made the cuts that it would, it would take a lot of running that I didn't want to do and it would take me giving up my weekends. And when you're in high school, you don't want to do that. So I was like, well, I'm not going to do soccer. I've been at a high school for a long time and I still don't want to run at the level of the required of soccer. Right, so I was like, not going to do that, though I did make first cuts, but whatever I didn't go with that. And then I actually got into working out as like a form of like therapy or like a form of like just to take my mind off the things I was in a really toxic relationship at one point in my life. We were doing the bathroom for thing and it was one time when we broke up that he moved on with another girl and not to get too sentimental, but I was really depressed when he had moved on like immediately. So I was like, I need to find something that's going to like take up my time in my head. And it was working out and that was like my escape, like I was able to not think about, you know, being sad about my breakup and stuff like that. And then it quickly turned into like an addiction like that I just loved the adrenaline after I left there and I loved how I felt when I just loved like the short term changes that I saw. And then it was a little minor short changes that I did see when I first started. So after I saw like the process and I, you know, went through it, it was just like, I don't know, it was more of like something that I just became addicted to doing and then it just grew from there. So I was working out at like a recreational gym for probably a year and a half or two years prior to kettlebell training. I found the gym that I was going to prior to COVID. And we were doing CrossFit for probably like six months and that was back when CrossFit was really, really big. And then after about six months, I was like, I don't want to do this anymore because I don't know the mentality of a CrossFit or the mentality of someone like me or totally different in a lot of ways. And that's like a conversation for another day. But no, it's not, let's get into it. How so? What, I mean, what is your mentality? I think it's, I think it's awesome that you're aware that you have that, you have that self awareness that you realize fairly, fairly quickly, six months into it. You're like, this isn't the mentality that, that, that jives for me because it works for some people, but it's not for everybody. So what, what was the, what was the vibe that was, that was getting put out at the, at the box that you're at and what didn't, what didn't click for you. It wasn't necessarily the box. It was more of the, like, it was like a cult like all of Crossfitters. I felt where cult and I felt that I saw a lot of them like with injuries and just poor form and stuff like that that I was just like that looks like it's going to hurt. And I'm pretty sure I don't remember if it was the accident that I got into. Anyways, I had an injury, I had gotten an injury and I was like, and it was a very minor injury and I was like, if I don't change things up, I feel like this is going to lead to more injuries in the, in the future. It was just something that, I don't know, it was very spontaneous to, I guess, it wasn't for me. I don't really know how to describe it. And I had a coach at the time who I was working out with who owned the gym that I previously went to and I was talking to him about it. And I was like, I don't really want to do Crossfit anymore. And so we both came to like a mutual agreement like we didn't want to do that stuff anymore and we slowly started incorporating kettlebells. And this was like back in 2012 that we started incorporating kettlebells and we were just barely touching them but like using them as like a little bit of a strength tool for our workouts. And then probably another year was like all kettlebells at that time. So it just grew to like something like that we knew nothing about. That was like, let's try this to like, oh my god, this is great. Like I'm never going back. And that was probably, I think I started only doing kettlebells back in 2014 or 13. So yeah. So it's been six to seven years where it's been almost entirely kettlebells now. Yeah, it's been it's been a while and I think it's so cool because like I've been doing it for this long now, but the fitness industry is just now like starting to like what's the word like starting to make them more of a thing. Now I feel like so I see it's more common for me to see people working out with kettlebells now than back then at all. Like I barely saw it back then. So it's cool. That people are, you know, saying, oh, like kind of they're it's obvious that they're learning like, okay, kettlebells can do this and they're better for this reason. And I think it's just there. It makes me happy because I'm like, I see or I love kettlebells. And I think that everyone started to see why I love them so much. So back when I first was, you know, doing them. Everyone's like kettlebells, like, couldn't hear them. Right. And I'm like, they're not kettlebells. Like, God, I had that moment with my father in law. I wanted to, I had to resist the like, you know, the backhand slot. No, it's bells. Right. So yeah, it's it's been like a journey of definitely, I would say it just I don't know what made me want to do them. But it was more of it came from more of like I was depressed. And I got out of a battery ship and I needed something to take up my time. So as pity or support as that sounds that's literally I'm grateful because I feel like if that wasn't for that. Then who knows where I'd be today. I don't I don't think that sounds poor at all. I think that sounds awesome because I mean so many times myself included. Like, you know, you go through a rough patch in your in your life. And like you have a choice. Like you can, you can choose healthy outlets for your stress and for your mental health or you can choose not healthy outlets and coping mechanisms. You know, you can, you could have chosen to self medicate with alcohol or drugs. And instead, you're like, no, I'm going to do something that that consumes my time and helps me quiet my mind. And, you know, I quickly turned into, I mean, obviously kind of changed the direction of your life. So I think that's, I think that's awesome that you made, you made that choice, you know, back in the day. I mean, that's a, that's a very healthy and mature choice to make. It sounds like, you know, especially coming from a rough place. I think that's, yeah, it definitely was. And I would say it turned out it was more like I'm going to show you like you're not going to treat. You know, I know that motivator very well. Oh, you say I can't. Oh, fuck you watch me. Right. Oh, you want to leave me. Okay. Watch how great I look. I know that I know that motivator. Well, 100%. That's fantastic. So tell me a little bit about your philosophy with kettlebells, because you know, we got into it a little bit. You do lift. I mean, you're, you're strong as fuck, which is awesome. I mean, you, you lift, you lift fairly heavy. But do you have a like an articulated philosophy of how you like to approach kettlebell training or what your favorite moves are. Oh, God, I do have favorite moves. They're mostly leg movements. I'm not going to lie. But as far as like my philosophy. I would say to simplify it. Just go as heavy as you can. Like in everything, because like these girls, like, you know, they're out your training. They just like, oh, I'm going to do 10 sets or four sets of 10 and use the same way the whole way through. It's like, that's cool and all, but your body is now adapted to that first set and then the second and then the third and the fourth. So you're not really. I mean, you are. You're just maintaining it. So for me, I'm a health science major too. So I've taken very like I've taken quite a few nutrition courses, you know, anatomy, physiology, stuff like that. I kind of have a very well understanding of like timing and eating and working out and like how those all go hand in hand. Let's put a pin in that we're going to come back to that because I love I love that. But if I can distill it down what what I'm hearing is basically you're saying intensity, the intensity of the exercise is what's really going to facilitate change. No matter how much volume you you attach to it, like you can do four sets of 10 or 10 sets of 10. If you're doing easy weights, you're not going to force that application, but you're saying lift the heaviest fucking weight you can. Yeah. To provide intensity to the movement and that that's what's going to facilitate the change that you're looking for. 100% because the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn in a giving moment, like I did my my body scan and it's I was so surprised like I was like wow that's why I eat so much because I eat a lot and sometimes I surprise myself, but not to get off track. There's no there's no structure there's no structure here we can go wherever we want. So what I like to do is I like to think okay, for me going into a session or training, whatever, I think, what weight would I like to be able to do for like for reps, like where I can just pick it up and do it for reps, okay. So let's just say it's a press a kettlebell press so I'm going to say my goal right now for me is to be able to press my half body weight bell, which is a 70 pound bell. I can press the 53 right now, but I can't do it for more than probably like five reps. So what I do is I know for me I know okay I can press the 53 let me start with that since I know I can do it or even about underneath it so that I can try to work my way up to pressing the 63 instead of the 70 so this way. It's not like maxing myself out so I'm not like literally maxing myself out so like if I know I want to press the 70 I'm not going to try to do that in my first. Let's say there's three sets i'm not going to do that in my first two sets at all. Maybe not even my last set i'm probably just going to try to find a weight that feels comfortable that I can do like one in dump type of thing like I'll work to myself up to like a one in dump press. Set or whatever so I think about it and so when you when you say when you say one in dump for people for people that aren't that aren't familiar with what you're talking about what do you mean when you say one in dump. Like just if I can just take it just straight like use all my strength to press it and then dump it shake it out. You know recollect my my thoughts a little bit do I really want to attack this again something like that just to kind of get my muscles more depressed under a heavier weight but not to where they're like fatigued out and can't even press the 40 pound. So it's really about balance and everything to it's like eating and training and everything is balanced but for me I just I don't know I pick a goal I set goals for myself. I set baby goals for myself that leads to bigger goals I don't let other people like my ex boyfriend going back to that he would always tell me like the toxic one he would always tell me like oh why are you trying to lift like. Heavy like a man and why are you trying to do all these heavy things like man and obviously you didn't understand but it's like i'm not trying to look like a man i'm trying to be stronger and being stronger is going to get me more in shape and getting more in shape is going to essentially make me love myself more so. I don't know I just think of it like I look at it as like a whole I don't think of it as like one muscle group or like my training sessions are never just upper body focus or. Lower body focus they're always full body sessions with. You can't you can do isolated movements with kettlebell but that's really not what they're designed for that's one of the things I think is so different about bells right there they're almost always total body movements like good luck and a strict leg day or a strict arm day without. involving other muscles right if you can't really do any kettlebell kettlebells are more for like compound stuff like I mean you can do single isolated stuff like you said but it's kind of hard like like if I was to think of an isolated movement it would be a press but I have to clean it up to just to press it. And then that's not just using my shoulders either so it's like. Like you said even if it's a strict press you're going to be maintaining a ton of core tension you're going to be activating. From your legs to stabilize right like right if you're if you're doing it standing at least like it's it's really hard to. To turn it into an isolation movement oh yeah everything kettlebells is core everything like everything is core. Or if you I would definitely recommend for people to like 100% work that into their regiment because there's been times where I've gone to do like front squats. And you know picked up a weight that was pretty doable for me but couldn't do it because my core gave out and I just fell to the ground. So like I think about my training like like little things like that too like okay as a whole what's my you know main focus but I always incorporate core because that's just something that is oh you're always working no matter what you're doing so I just felt like there's no sense there's no point of neglecting core any day. Yeah so when you so when you say that you that you incorporate you incorporate specific core movements as part as part of your overall design or do you really just. Focus on your tension and core and core engagement while you're doing your compound movements like do you train core specifically as well as the compound movements or do you just really focus on your core in all of your movements and that's your core training. No so I actually I when I'm training my like let's just say I go to write down a days worth of workouts I will train like my lower body section like my legs I'll trade quads hamstrings and I'll have like something in there that's a compound training I don't know like quads and abs something that is going to text both of those simultaneously. So I'm always trying to put time and attention or some type of strain for core in my like lower body and upper body sections and then I also add in a midline section just for core where just 15 minutes of just rip your core up type of thing. Nice okay yeah you're doing you're doing both I put it as I put it as a yet and either or and you're like yes yeah I do both of those things yep I do them both because I'm like I said I literally have I've been you know in a place where my core gave out for another movement that I'm trying to do and that was the moment that I realized okay my core is that the most important so what's your favorite way to what's your favorite way to train the core like what are your favorite core exercises. I really like doing oblique exercises for and in lower abs to because for whatever reason that's where I store when I do you know have my cheat days and I get bloated lower abs specifically so I try to like you know keep that in mind but also leaks because I feel like if you have you know defined obliques. That's not easy to get like oblique aren't something you can just like you don't just wake up with abs like fear genetically you know you know you know if you just got it like that then you can wake up with the six packs but you won't have obliques so yeah or at least most of the time in my opinion so I feel like obliques are really hard not hard but like that. If a person has obliques then that's when you know they have like a strong core and that's your trans that's your transverse plane activation right the rotational stuff like you know that somebody if you've got if you've got strong obliques you know that people are working in multi multi plane or type of movements. Right and I feel like the obliques are kind of a source of power when it comes to when it comes to the core like that's really the ability to move the core usually comes from the obliques. Oh yeah 100% and if you have typically if you have obliques you have a six pack that's normally how it is it's not like you have a six pack you have obliques it's like no once you get to that stage you have obliques you have like a pretty well rounded core for the most part at least in my experience and then I just feel like it helps. Like I like obliques too because I know get those love handles or had the love handles and I feel like training obliques kind of pulls that around and makes it not have love handles so. Hey build up that you build up that muscle I mean it's going to be thicker so you're going to have less you're going to fill out better there and have less less. I just love training core all around like I wouldn't say I like obliques better anything I would just say like my goal for training core is to hit every part of the core it's not just let me do you know crunches and the oblique things or whatever they're called I have such bad like that's one thing as I'm not good at naming movements at all I will literally like. Look like I can do the movement and I can do all these things and I will really like have to look up somebody doing the movement just to see what they called it. It's really not that complication be thinking about like that like it is what it is but that's one thing I struggle with is like coming up with names for certain movements. Well if you if you go to if you go to technical right you're like well this is a suit this is a supine oblique external rotation. I think so long as you can communicate with you know 90% of the people that they understand what you're doing if you go to if you go to technical mean obviously it's great to be able to go technical if you need to. I feel like for most for most people they don't they don't want to hear that anyways. Right they're like just just put it to me in English I don't care I just want my I just want my stomach to look better. Right and I joke with some of my friends I'm like I'm going to start putting out my content and and instead of like naming the movements and you know all these things I'm really just going to be like you name it what you want it but this is how you do it. Everyone has their own names at the end of the day too because I've seen movements that I do call it completely something different and the next person is doing it the same thing so I feel like the names are just irrelevant so. Yeah I mean it's I know what to do. Nomenclature right like it depends on who you're talking to like some people might call it I had that happen the other day I posted a I posted what I called what I called a trap a double kettlebell trap deadlift and a reason I called it a trap deadlift was because. When you have a trap bar like if you're doing barbell and you have a trap bar that's what it's called like a trap deadlift right so I called it that because that tells you where where your hand position is and then some. Somebody was like well that's a that's a suitcase deadlift and I was like okay fine basically basically the same thing but I usually only have one suitcase so I call suitcase deadlift when I only have one bell I called this trap deadlift because I have two bells either way I don't care you can call it double suitcase deadlift I don't care. Right get the movement right get the alignment right and work you know you know you don't care you. Yes I renamed a core movement you know F my A's because that's what one of my clients called it all the time she was you're going to make me do those F my A's things aren't you and I was like I'm going to call them that from now on. That's right. So the name is just doing it probably that's what matters. Yeah absolutely well I said I said we would we would pivot back to your nutrition approach because I love what you said before about it all being incorporated right the things don't exist in a vacuum so you have to look at your nutrition in conjunction with your training and in conjunction with you know the rest of your life so tell me a little bit about your nutrition your nutrition philosophy and some of the education that you have around nutrition and how you how you coach people around nutrition. So for me I like I said I took a couple nutrition courses in my undergrad so I have you know I never been I was never the person to count my macros and my pros and all those like I don't I never did that ever. What I did in the beginning of my workout journey or whatever I did I did a prep service meal prep service for probably like three years and I did that for a couple of different reasons one I didn't have the time to cook. I just didn't have the time I felt like time my time was worth was more important than spending money on the food so I was like okay if I can have the food made for me then I don't it's not a big deal so I valued the time over the money so I just went ahead and did that for probably three years or so. And another reason was I was like okay so it's also going to save me time but it's going to teach me in a sense what I'm supposed to be eating because they're obviously promoting that they're a fresh meal company healthy food and I can just take notes mental notes while they're sending me this stuff on what I should be eating and so that's what I did as well. I was still in school at the time so I was you know for the education on nutrition and I learned quite a bit of things like how much protein you know athletes versus like a regular person should be in taking and things like healthy fats and you know the things that are important but people don't really like when you're first starting fitness you just think chicken rice and broccoli. So but like learning things like healthy fats is important too because the more healthy fat you have the less bad fat you have so my approaches is pretty simple but I also take into consideration timing so like if I'm going to go work out like let's just say I eat past 10 o'clock one night. Some most of the time I'm not going to like I'm my stomach wakes me up like eight o'clock my stomach's like get up we gotta eat breakfast so depending on if I've eaten late the night before I will take that into consideration and if I have then I'll fast I don't even eat breakfast so this way I'm burning off what I'm in taking from the night before in my workout and now I'm like back at level or I don't know that's just what I call it. And then you know like I said balance is key for everything but just understanding that the body the carbs and the protein with the vegetables just everything compliments so like I look at food as fuel I don't look at it for like I don't know. For enjoyment for enjoyment yeah I don't think about unless it's the weekend then I'm like okay so we can. But yeah look at it is like okay what's my day going to be like am I going to be able to cook throughout my day if I'm not and probably going to eat more red meat because red meat keeps me fuller for longer and probably going to carve up a little more so that this way can burn that throughout my day and I have to cook so much or whatever. As far as like are you wanting to know like how I know what's healthy or like what or just like what I think about nutrition. Well a little bit of both I mean I think there's a lot of nuggets that you that you threw that you threw in there I mean you sprinkled you sprinkled in a lot of a lot of gold nuggets there I love honestly I love the first thing you said about the that you started with the meal service because you valued your time more than the money right. I love yeah that's something that so few people take into consideration they just look at oh gosh this is expensive oh man this is but you already spend money on food anyways and people often don't factor in how valuable is your time and if you don't enjoy cooking you don't enjoy the meal prep component of it like I love that you just you were like we're super crisp and clean on that you're like hey I value my time more than the money so it's worth the money for me I'm going to I'm going to do it. You also extracted value from it by looking at what are they sending me and what is it that I like and you know and you probably I'm assuming you probably got some meals that like you wouldn't have necessarily picked or prepared for yourself but you maybe learned like oh I like that that's really good. Oh yeah I definitely there are definitely some things that I got that I was like I would never have eaten this or thought to eat this. Some I did like some I was like I'm never going to eat that again like spaghetti squash I really hate it I think it's nasty but yeah I just I wanted to learn like I'm a more of like you learn by doing type of person not like always by somebody just teaching. So I was like if I can you know I'm learning it in school if I can apply it you know in my daily life see it for myself then I can kind of get a better understanding and. Obviously I'm not like a nutritional dietitian or whatever but I don't I just feel like I a lot like I took in the information that would be beneficial for me like as far as like the protein thing like something that really stuck with me when I was in college was. The ratio for protein for athlete versus the ratio for an individual regular person that's something that stuck out to me a lot because I was like that one what is that what is that ratio that you that you adhere to. So if you're an athlete it needs to be 1.2 somewhere around there times your body weight so like for me i'm not ashamed I weigh 140 pounds so for me I would need like. Let's say 140 times 1.2 1.2 168 168 grams at the. I was I was carrying I was carrying the two of doing you know moving the decimal point and trying. Trying to do the math and I had to I don't have my calculator with me i'm so dependent on spreadsheets it's terrible. Yeah so that really stuck for me because I was like wow because i'm an athlete i'm going to need to know how much protein I need to take in because I obviously work out and like I said i'm always hungry I eat so much it surprises me that i'm not like 300 pounds but you know obviously know what. That means you have a healthy metabolism. That's one of the things i'm really working with my athletes on right now and it's something from my own education that i've you know i've really started to focus on a little bit more is the biofeedback precedes you know the the physiological cues always precede the physical progress right like you always notice that you start to feel better or you get more hungry before you start seeing progress in the mirror and that's like. And notice those things and it seems to me from from the number of things that you said that you're you're very intuitive like you you're pretty in tune with what's going on with your body and you pay attention to. Like you really pay attention to what's going on and what your body doesn't doesn't like and like you just seem to have a very intuitive understanding of how to. Eat to make yourself happy how to work out to make yourself happy like you've got a number of decisions that you made just because it didn't it didn't feel right to you and you knew what was right for your body which is super cool like i'm jealous of people that are that are super intuitive like that because i'm very much. I need a program I have a plan i'm super anal like I plan everything out i'm always very jealous of people that are just like super mindful and super in tune and you know tracking macros they're like yeah no why would I do that I know that I know that steak makes me. Feel full longer than chicken so I. Right right well that's the thing though it's like it's a learning process and you have to be intuitive through the whole thing because if you're not paying attention to what you're doing. Then you're just mindlessly doing stuff and you're not getting anything from it so. For me it's just like my body intuitively wants pizza and like beer and crispy cranes but that's that's my into it you know that's why i'm like oh intuitive eating that sounds really dangerous no I definitely get those cravings and for people who do get those cravings I would say it's going to sound crazy. Given to your cravings because if your cravings are a sign of something okay you're either lacking some type of vitamin or something that your body is craving some type of vitamin or something that in the item that you're craving your body is lacking. Or your blood sugar is spiked and you need something to lower it are you not any just yeah there's a reason why you're craving what you're craving so given but don't give in. Like don't overdo it balance like it's given within reason yes given within reason and know like when you're full like don't. Given to that craving when you're like stomach is hurt you know stop the craving when your stomach's hurting like okay if you're craving a piece of some pizza go have one piece of pizza don't have four pieces of pizza you know what I mean so it's literally just about balance but going back to like learn to listening to the intuitive thing um that I feel like came from just trying so many things because when I first started I could tell you I was doing. Oh man I was doing the fat loss pills like I was trying like the the fat burners those definitely work right so I would try the fat burn thermogenics I would try the teas the waste trainers I would try like all these different types of food and just I tried so many things in the beginning that I feel like that's why I am the way I am in my body now because I know like I tried that that didn't work. This I tried this this part worked but this didn't really stick with me well and just like I think it's very important to do that because once you know your body once you know like you just know it it's it makes it so much easier to eat healthy and to actually make your your healthy eating or your your food habits a lifestyle versus a diet because when you make your your lifestyle or your food habits. A diet you don't look forward to eating I like for me I always look forward to what I'm going to eat because I know it's it's part of my like it's going to benefit me in some way or it's not going to hurt my my my figure whatever I don't know I just think about it like try everything you can and take bits and pieces and try other things that other people are doing and take bits and pieces of that if it doesn't work for you and just try everything like literally. I tell all my friends that was like how did you figure out that this works and this first time like trial and error. Really literally that's what is I took the whole apple cider vinegar pills and shots and all that I did all that I think I did it all. I love I love that because that's I mean I'm I'm very big on I'm anti dogmatic because no matter what. There is no one right way to train there is no one right way to die because we're all individual and yes there are there are underlying principles like you said you said it's all about balance probably three or four times already and I love that as a as a foundational principle because it's so true right it's all about balance right. It's about being healthy it's about having a balanced physique it's about balancing your stress and recovery it's about working antagonistic muscle groups to stay balanced physiologically it's about. All of those things and I love that but to your point like you can't listen you can't believe that just any one person has the answer for you right they might have good guiding principles but ultimately everybody's journey is going to be a little bit customized and it needs to because otherwise it's not going to you know what works perfectly for me is different than what's going to work perfectly for you because we're different. Different physiology different backgrounds right like there's so many different things so I love I love what you're articulating it's awesome awesome stuff yeah I just I want to like I wish I wish more women could could see it like that because I get like you know I have friends who comes me all the time and they're just like. You quite need help breaking out and you need to know what to eat you know and i'm just like well you need to make your food habits a lifestyle instead of a diet first of all second of all you need to train heavy as much as you don't want to hear it that's what you need to do and then third of all you need to you know kind of have some type of like. What's the word some type of extracurricular that's going to you know keep your. Blood I don't know the word i'm looking for keep you up and moving in just always I don't know always moving that's where it doesn't yeah I love it so so this is the i've got a question and i'm not sure what the answer is but it sounds like it sounds like most of your clients and the people that that you coach are women but most of your followers are men is that is that true. Yeah actually i've only had one male client so far. yeah and all my other clients have been women so I don't know I think I think online my presence online may seem like intimidating you know what I mean I really do think it seems intimidating because. I just like to lift heavy shit and that's not the mentality of most women so it is what it is but then when women meet me they're like oh my god she's great she knows exactly what she's talking about like. She's very educated you can tell like I know what i'm talking about you can tell like all these things and i'm very like i'm a different person when I coach. Then like me like it's almost like I put on a suit for or like a mask when I go coach and i'm just like this different person that's like. I love it so much I just love coaching in general because I know I always put myself in my clients shoes like. I've had clients like ask me questions like oh I know this is a dumb question but what is this and I'm like it's not a dumb question it's it's a good that you're asking me those things because. You know I didn't know that when I was back year seven years ago I didn't know any of that so. And you know some of us like me I had to find out the hard way like no one ever taught me this stuff aside from going to school like all this is stuff that I've just picked up along the way or trial and error whatever. But yeah I think i don't know it's I mean i it's very like i'm not going to lie it's very. grad it's like gratifying i don't know when I do get those male. Or those men who like come to me or. um they see some type of significance in what i'm doing because i'm like that's a man who's. Coming to me and admiring what I do as a woman and like i don't know it's just a very humbling. Experience especially when I when I train men because they are like wow you're the strongest woman i've ever. Worked out with and i don't go into it like trying to like prove myself i just go into it doing my thing you know what i mean just training just doing how i do. I'm doing what you do exactly and and i've actually been in situations where we'll have like prior to covid we would have like guest. People who come work out with us and most of the time like. The men who would come work out with us I would be lifting heavier than and and in the beginning. In the beginning I would like. Limp like not go as heavy as i i knew i could because i didn't want to make these men feel like they were weak. And i'm like i know that has to be some type of that noise. You know it has to be some type of like wow you know i mean i don't know it for like i don't know how it it is of the men but i know in that moment it was very i just get that awkward feeling of like okay can come making this guy feel like very uncomfortable and i'm sure i'm sure you're speaking i'm sure you're speaking to an experience that most strong like strong women have probably gone through they've probably felt that at some point and like and even if we're not taught even outside of the gym right we see the the need in society for women to act weaker than they are or to not be not put them themselves out there as smart as they are or whatever right like they don't they don't want to come across as too smart or too aggressive or too strong or they don't want to be too too much anything because they've been conditioned in our society to not be right because that's a masculating to men right you know my thought to that is be more of a fucking man man if you're so worried about it just be that it's so crazy because my coach to tell me the same thing all the time people like if any of these fucking men you know tell you that you're too strong you look too fucking mainly that's because they're scared of you or they're not man enough themselves and you need a better man you know that's a good point yeah that's that should be i think that should be your new response like i'm sorry am i making you feel weak get stronger right exactly so in the beginning like trying you know dealing with that was very like it was one of those like moments i didn't know i was gonna have to deal with that and then i had to and i was like oh crap how do i do yeah well i think i don't know i don't know how familiar you are with kettlebell sport but one of the things i love about kettlebell sport is there are some bad ass fucking women in kettlebell sport and some of them here in here in here in the u.s especially like kim fox is a is a coach out of which it taught Kansas she's the world record holder in double 24 long cycle for for females she does more with with two 53 kilo bells than i've ever done in my life and she she's a fucking badass she's awesome yeah you know and i love that and like if i when i get to the point that i can that i can out you know outlift you know cam with the the 24 is i'll be very happy i'll be proud of that accomplishment because she's a world record holder she's a world champion right you know but i i don't expect him to be less strong you know all right all right that just doesn't doesn't compute to me right like it's just so it's so weird like don't be less than because it makes other people feel bad right like be be who you are because that's just that's awesome but exactly i love it we we talked we talked a little bit i told you i was going to ask you about this so that we've got the like the cardie b uh walk video just just came out and there's a there's a huge component of what we were just talking about with with female empowerment and you know equality around that and you you put out a ton of dance content which i love so we can talk about that but i want to ask you first about about the uh what your thoughts are on on the walk video and the song and and female empowerment in general um i'm all for the female empowerment thing i think i think especially in today that more women are starting to not let men talk down to them or not let men like make all the decisions or you know just being more dominant and and i know for a hundred percent fact that a lot of men are probably really un like bothered by that because now you have these women who went from these naive you know women who were just like yes yes yes to now like no this is how i want you to go and if you don't want you to go this way then by the next one will you know what i mean so it's like a different mentality now it's like women aren't putting up with shit anymore which i love um but as far as the the walk video goes i love cardie b personally i think i think i think i just love how she speaks her mind she says everything that we all want to say but don't have the courage to say you know what i mean um well i love i love but she's she's she doesn't get enough credit for being super smart and being a really smart business woman because like she was she's been very open and honest about the fact that she was a stripper and she did very well as a stripper but she figured out how to change the economics of scale and basically playing the same hustle where she's selling she's selling the sex appeal that people want but now she changed the economics of scales from being hundreds to hundreds of thousands and millions right she's made herself a millionaire basically i mean obviously she's got a lot of musical talent and she can she can rhyme really well so i'm not i don't mean to diminish her talent but i i also love that she's just like you know she's very open up like hey i'm selling the same hustle i was when i was a stripper it's just now i figured out how to make more money doing it right exactly yeah i love that i love that she you know is very open about her past and she is all who are like take you know use that like she was a stripper obviously so in society's eyes that's like the low you know what i mean that you can be and she used her low point to bring her to her high point and now she's like topping other artists who have been in the industry way longer than her um and i just i love her personality i think her i think her personality honestly is what makes her so like is what has made her career so famous right now because she's just very um to me at least she comes off as very humble because i've watched interviews with her i have to where she um talks about her like you know experience and you know she's just very humble about it in my opinion um and she she i started following kari v back when she used to like just do like the videos that she would record herself like just talking shit about something about something that she wanted to talk about that was popular in the media and no one could talk about it because it was too our rated but she would talk about it and then that's how she like blew up and started getting clout uh and so i don't know this whole like uh walk video i think it's very i think it's very uh i'm not going to lie i think i think it's very comes off this very like ratchet and very like it's it's all about like who what are you trying like for her that's a great image for her to like you know pursue or whatever um for me i know i told you earlier i actually did a video to the walk um song a dance video and looking at it and you know looking back at it i'm like it's fun and everything but i don't know how i feel about like posting it or even like promoting that type of energy although i am for the whole women empowerment thing i don't know i think there's there needs to be a line between like being a business person and then having being like uh i don't know what they would call like a ratchet or like somebody who just doesn't care um i just made me feel old because i was like i don't know what she means just ratchet i know a lot of people who listen to this probably well but i don't know i just feel like it's really like dirty and like the lyrics and um i don't i mean it's intentionally provocative obviously and i think it's over the top intentionally uh oh yeah it's it's definitely a little much um but that's such a well-trodden path in rap though like that's been around for so and even outside of rap but i mean that's that's been such a thing for so long to make provocative songs and like oh yeah but it's just been more common in men so now that women are doing it of course we're gonna get more shit for it because that's not what women do you know what i mean quote-unquote that's not what we do but it's like that it's like that double standard that men have it's like men are allowed to do it but women are in if women do it we're horse or we're you know heartbreakers if we leave a man and you know it's just like this double standard is that it's so calm yeah it's just a double standard but i'm all for like that type of vibe and that type of energy like i think there's a time and place for everything i think like the way i think about it for me is like i like to say i have multiple personalities like i can be the coach and being a coach setting and you know be professional and you would never know that i do dance you know what i mean or i can be that friend who's you know at dance class and just talking shit or hanging out and you know whatever and they would never know that i could be in a professional setting where i have a mask on and i'm talking to clients about you know training and all these things so i think that there's a time and place for all of those things i just think not obviously combining them with professional settings obviously but no i'm off i love cardibee i've loved her since she came on uh what was it world of hip-hop hip-hop i don't know some show she was on on MTV um i started watching her like way before she went on there and started rapping so i'm definitely a cardibee fan but she's definitely a little raunchy oh yeah and i think you i mean you nailed you nailed it with like you know you can support it and still and still decide it's not right for your brand or how you want to present yourself or whether whether it aligns with with how you want to be presented exactly with how i want people to look at me i think about that a lot because i'm trying to be this you know professional and the fitness industry and further it obviously and i don't want somebody to see this um image of me or whatever and think that i am that person you know what i mean because it's not i'm just able to put those fake those masks on in that time and have fun and enjoy myself with you know different types of people and whatnot um but you know a lot of the principle from psychology called the the thousand use and it's basically saying that we're all multifaceted people and there's there's there's a thousand different use that we identify with that any given and the you that we identify with that at a particular time is maybe our master status for that moment but we can all rotate between being different different facets of our personality and putting that as the primary the primary you that you focus on at any given time right so it's like what's the main um mask that i want to have for most of my you know day i guess um so i do um i mean like i said i'm all for like the women empowerment so i think the dance and like even dancing those raunchy dance i think it's important for women to do those things and step out of their comfort zones because you um you you start to like and i'm speaking off of personal experience for me i started to gain more confidence and it wasn't because like oh i can go be raunchy at dance or whatever but it's like self expression like i can express myself if i'm feeling like that in that moment or i can express myself and you know relate to what i'm listening to or what i'm dancing through and just it's a self expression for me like i don't think of it as like oh that makes you who you are like but there's a lot of people who do so that's why i'm hesitant at posting certain videos because i'm like i don't want people to get the wrong impression of me um so like i said i did do a video to the walk video and i probably won't post it because of that but maybe we'll see i don't know so now i'm like i'm like maybe you should put because fuck those people like if you like it you know like and i know we talked about this before we started recording that you actually said you sometimes lose followers when you when you post uh dance content which actually surprised me a lot because i would have thought if anything that you gain followers when you when you post your your dance content because i mean your dance content is awesome you get it's usually it's usually really well done you've got like a professional person that shoots it it's usually you and a couple other people and you're doing like cool moves and like i find i find it entertaining when i see it and i usually stop my scroll when i see you posted a new a new dance video or something you know so i guess i i don't understand why that would be the case but um i don't know talk a little bit about your about your dance the dance stuff that you you've gotten into and where that came from well it can't honestly i've been wanting to dance for so long like i wanted to dance back when i was in that toxic relationship um and i had a lot of like back and forth in my head of doing it because he wasn't really for it um so i had wanted yeah i had wanted to do it for a while and then you know got out of that relationship and a lot of it was that and also that i was like you know when you do something and you're doing it for the first time you're vulnerable so you want to be good at it but because you're vulnerable you aren't really good at it so for me it was like okay i really want to do it i know i could be good at if i practiced but i was afraid to show that i didn't know what i was doing in the beginning and so i would go to like bosses with friends to like make me feel you know like i had more support there or whatever um and then shortly after i became comfortable with um you know just getting in front of people and dancing in front of people and having all eyes on you like for some reason all the enough i do not like all attention on me when i know i'm in a room and everyone's staring at me or like all attention is supposed to be on me i'm like i freeze i don't know why so it's not uncommon that's a lot that's a lot of people i think it's much more rare to be like me and and love having the spotlight like i'm weird like that like i grew up on stage though like i've i've been a singer i've been a singer in music you know did musical theater all throughout my life so like i always love being on stage but you know i i think that's rare i don't think that's i don't think that's weird at all like i think that's totally common for for people to not like the spotlight i think that that's why public speaking is the number one fear over death right because nobody nobody wants all eyes on them because then everybody sees any mistake you make right and that's that's right i think if right right well so for me it was just getting over that fear like i felt like once i got over that fear once i took it as like okay we're all here for our own journey you know no one's judging anyone actually we can learn from each other things of that nature so um that's when i started getting more comfortable and it's just like anything just repetition just keep doing it just practice like i couldn't look back in videos today and look back at the first video that i didn't i'll probably like be embarrassed to the fullest because i'm like wow what what was i doing but you know two years from now i can look back at the walk video that i just didn't like what the hell was i doing you know so that's how you look back at all of my old kettlebell training videos like i've been i've been filled in my kettlebell sports sets since god you know 2010 and i go back and look at my old form and i'm like oh my god that's ridiculous oh my god it's like right i see so many things but that need to be fixed but you know that's like you said that's that's how you get better and that's you know that's part of that that's part of the journey and i think when you embrace the journey rather than focusing on the destination you realize that there really isn't a destination there's just the journey yeah and actually i i have to practice what i preached because there there was a couple of times where i had left classes or auditions or whatever and i had left in tears because it was so what's where it was so like i couldn't wrap my head around not being able to get these moves when i could get these moves and i'm like what can i get them because i'm so hard on myself i'm sure everyone is but i'm so hard on myself and i'm just like you know i would go to these dance classes and there would be like seven year olds in the class and they would just be out there killing it and i'd be like what the heck is wrong with me so i'm here right and then and then i started realizing that i can i was starting to compare myself and i was starting to like get mad and and not enjoy the journey like i enjoyed the journey of kettlebells so i had to like be honest with myself and that was like a moment of like okay Nichole you didn't just wake up in a day or even a year you didn't even wait because i've only been dancing for like a year now and you didn't even wake up in a year i didn't i wouldn't i wouldn't i would never have known that honestly had you not told me that i would have thought that you've been dancing i would have thought you've been dancing at least five years no no i definitely haven't it's only been like a year maybe a year and a half at the most but as far as like no i've only been doing this for a little over a year so i had to like you know be honest with myself and like take and just like talk to myself in a sense i guess you can say anything like Nichole you weren't good at kettlebells you didn't know how to do all this kettlebell stuff in a year what makes you think you're gonna know how to do all these dance moves that you want to do in a year too so i had to like compare it and kind of like give myself that reality check because i just it was so hard on myself like i'm like here i am i have all this muscle why can't i keep myself up and why can't i balance you know what i mean i would like ask myself things like that like i'm so used to like working on balance why can't i balance here and and it's just a different mindset it's just a different you have to be more light on your toes you have to be more loose and you know working out you don't you that's definitely not the case there so it was just like a a learning experience i'm so learning now but it's it's just something that i have to remind myself to enjoy the journey and not to be so hard on myself because like crying and getting upset that's not going to help at all you know what i mean um and if anything it's going to make me refrain from wanting to do it if i start getting in that mindset because there was one point where i was like you know what fuck this i'm not dancing like i can't do it like and then that was the moment of truth like no don't don't quit don't just you know what i mean and all these thoughts are going through my head so um for me it was very satisfying when i got over the the and i still get nervous but i feel like for the most part i've gotten over the stage fright and people looking at me and judging me and i've just geared it more towards like using it as like to bring out myself confidence and it really has it has brought a lot of my confidence out and just i feel like i feel more comfortable in expressing myself and i don't know i'm grateful because i was so scared to do it for so long so i would just say to anyone who has ever been in a similar situation to just go for it like you're never gonna you know you're never going to know if it's right or wrong for you if you don't just go for it that's awesome i love that so we've got we've got a few we've got a few like awesome awesome nuggets right it's like lift heavy shit listen to your body it's all about balance uh don't don't be don't be scared to be strong uh and and try and try and try new things and go for it right like enjoy the journey right those are you got like some awesome awesome nuggets uh you know throughout this thank you thank you so much for for taking the time to talk with me i really i've really enjoyed the conversation how do people follow you how do they get at you how do they hire you as a coach if they if they need a coach dudes it's totally okay to hire a coach is stronger than you it's fine and it's okay to hire a woman coach because you know i know how that is too um oh heaven program so we said it in the beginning kettlebell queen underscore fox um i go by fox as a nickname that my coach gave me a long long time ago um and that was because he said i looked like Megan Fox and i was fast like a fox so that's where that came from if anyone was wondering uh nice i like it and uh yeah so i also have can reach me out my email which is also on my instagram i don't use twitter um or tiktok or any of those i'm pretty much mostly just on facebook um or instagram all right so find around the gram yeah thank you so much thank you so much i really appreciate the time no no thank you Jordan i'm so awesome having you on yes i'm glad we finally got to do this all right thank you so much Jordan thanks Nichole have a great day and have a great day thanks for listening to this episode of the platform podcast i'm Jordan kundi right if you have a question please email me at twin cities kettlebell club at gmail.com follow us on instagram and facebook at twin cities kettlebell club on twitter at tckb club online at twin cities kettlebell club.com and please help us grow our reach and give us a review on apple podcast spotify stitcher or wherever you get your podcast until next time