My Nutrition Coach Samantha Burr | Kettlebell Fat Blast

Welcome into the platform podcast kettlebell fat blast edition. I'm your host Jordan Kunde-Wright founder and head coach of the Twin Cities Kettlebell Club. On these special episodes, I'm going to tell you about my own personal journey to get into the best shape of my life and shits about to get real. I'm going to take you on this journey with me and tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly and share the successes and struggles along the way. I'll talk about the frameworks and methods I'm applying to accomplish this goal and the why behind them without the BS and fluff that you see on social media every day. If you want to follow my journey, you can check out my special Instagram profile kettlebell fat blast. This episode is a bit of a crossover because I'm actually going to be interviewing my nutrition coach Samantha Burr. She is an NCI level two certified nutrition coach and someone whose story immediately resonated with me and I jumped at the chance to work with her when I decided to hire a coach to help me on my journey. I want to take a second to say that I'm incredibly grateful that you listen to this podcast and if you haven't already, please be sure to leave a rating and review of the platform podcast in your app of choice and support my work by supporting our sponsors whose links you'll find in the episode notes. And if you want to step on the platform and compete in kettlebell sport or if you're looking to use kettlebells to blast fat yourself, you can reach out to me. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube at the Twin Cities kettlebell club or email me at Twin Cities kettlebell club at gmail.com. Now let's step on to the platform with Samantha Burr. All right, welcome into the platform podcast kettlebell fat blast edition. I am incredibly excited to introduce you guys to my nutrition coach. Her name is Samantha Burr. She is the owner of Samantha Burr nutrition. She is an NCI level two nutrition coach and I reached out to her to help me on this journey that I'm going on over the course of the next nine months to hopefully get down to 231 pounds to get into the heavyweight division for my kettlebell sport. Competition here October 9th in the Twin Cities and she's going to help me on that journey. And we're going to talk about what that looks like and some of the unique challenges that come with coaching a coach and as well as getting into her frameworks and how she goes about the process. But Samantha, thank you so much for coming on. I'm really excited. Have you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. So you're probably a little bit nervous because this is your first podcast right first podcast. Yes, get my feet wet but excited and excited. We'll just we'll just put we'll just put that out there so that everybody knows like, you know, it's a little nerve wrecking sometimes being on being on the side of the microphone if you're not used to it. I still get nervous sometimes too, especially especially when I'm when I'm talking about myself like these new these new episodes that I'm doing where it's kind of about my own personal journey still make me nervous because I'm like not super comfortable talking about my own stuff. And putting it out there. I think that's fairly normal, but you know, I still get nervous too. So you're you're in you're in good company. It's it's totally okay to be a little bit nervous. But so tell us a little bit about your background like what what what do you do from, you know, as as a day job, how much of your life is nutrition coaching and like just give us a little bit about who are you as as a nutrition coach. So I'm actually just getting started with this. I'm fairly new to the coaching space, but just a little bit of, you know, back background. I grew up. I was always like an overweight kid. I was the fat girl, quote unquote, the fat friend, you know, growing up. And but I was always big into like sports. I was an athlete. I played softball. I played field hockey. I got a scholarship, you know, to play softball at junior college. But even though I was super athletic, you know, my wheat was something I still always just struggled with. And I bowed with it. And that's something you and I resonated on right away. For sure. I connect. That's a big connection point for us. But the athletic fat kid. Right. Right. It's like an odd and odd thing to be in because you're like kind of in the middle of these two worlds almost. So, you know, I finished college. I got a desk job. And then like my weight really started to climb. I turned 21. You know, you hit the bar scene and the chicken wings scene. You know what I mean? It's just, you know, all the things that come with the bar. And you had a couple too many. The burrito truck is right outside. Exactly. I don't know what you're talking about. How do you say now after five bucket drinks? You don't. So, you know, the next thing I knew like I was sitting, you know, at a day job. I'm not playing sports anymore. My weight just kind of got out of control. And I got to a point where like I just was very unhappy with myself. And I'm like, this isn't, you know, who I want to be. So I kind of got into it. I actually did weight watchers. And just got into like Zumba like silly little I shouldn't say silly because you know, whatever works work. And it did it did work for me. But that also led down some definitely like negative rabbit holes, so to speak. You know, scale obsession. Oh, okay. Okay. So maybe maybe a little disorder, a little disorder relationship with the weight on the scale and a little disorder relationship with food. 100% well with weight watchers. That's the whole story for another day. I'm not going to knock it because it helped me and it served its place in time in my life. But now like being a coach and knowing what I know, like a lot of what I learned there. I wouldn't, I wouldn't coach you that way. I'll say that. But anyway, I just kind of fell into some bad habits with that negative mindset. And then it was just, I feel like with all the diets that are out there, nobody teaches you. The right way, so to speak. There is no talk of maintenance. There is no talk of, you know, the macro nutrients and things like that. So I guess in the midst of all that I, again, I was an athlete. So I went on to Rowan University. It's where I got my bachelor's degree. I went for health and exercise science. Because I have to send my son Rowan to that. I don't know why there's another connection there. New Jersey. Actually, I'm from New Jersey originally. I live in Florida now. So I went there. I did my bachelor's. I have to ask you're from Jersey. Are you an Eagles fan? Oh, for sure. I wish I had something to grow. I wish I had something to grow here. Oh, my God. This is crazy. I did not know that. We're learning new things. We're learning new things like right on live on the podcast. Oh, my God. So you're not. Yeah. You're not for the parade. You're not my second Eagles Eagles fan friend connection. So Tim Boyer, who was on my on my podcast. Also, he's he's also an Eagles die hard. So that's no way. Oh, my God. Philly Philly for the win. Funny. Yeah. I'm a South Jersey girl. So we're Philly fans for sure. I knew there was something about you that I loved. So funny. So yeah, I graduated from there health and exercise science. My specialization is K 12 health and phys ed. So that's what I currently do. I'm an elementary school physical education teacher. So I've always kind of been in this space. I guess so to speak there. Yeah. But just in a different in a different framework before right educating educating young kids on how to move their body and be healthy and those things. And now you're like, there's not a lot of money in this for one. I mean, that's a whole other pot. That's a whole other pod. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. I have I have a lot of friends who are teachers. My cousins are teachers. And frankly, right now, what's going on with teachers is tragic to me. Like we are we are grinding our teachers to dust right now. And I feel. I mean, I feel free. Like you and I have talked about this like in our coaching conversations. Like I know that you're you're basically working seven days a week. Now some of that's obviously your nutrition stuff. Right. It's also like that's also just kind of the demands on you right now as a teacher during the pandemic to like be able to deliver classes online and like do all the all of the zoom stuff. And like I can't even imagine trying to teach phys ed via zoom that what does that look like I don't think my brain going to vapor lock just thinking about it. But like, I mean, so first of all, like I want to say thank you, even though you won't teach my kids. I know you teach some people's kids. And that's like super super appreciated because it's it's very critical right now. And I can't imagine I can't imagine how challenging that is. You know, it's it's quite a situation that everybody's navigating through and like we're all leaning on the teachers really, really hard right now. So first of all, I want to say thank you that you've that you've been doing that. How has the pandemic been been treating you like personally and how has it been professionally. We'll separate into to like personally, how's your family, how's everybody doing? Well, we're good. But I will say this whole situation has kind of been the catalyst to kind of push me more into wanting to do the coaching stuff. I mean, it's always, you know, something that I've had in the back of my head. But and I love the kids don't get me wrong. Like it's but this year, it's just I'm beat, it's just beat me down. And administration and the support and the lack of resource. And like it's all it's all the politics behind it. And nobody could have planned for this. Like who thought we'd be teaching in a pandemic. And I'll be honest, even before this, I was I don't want to say checked out, but I realized that it's the wrong audience. You know what I mean. I have all this knowledge and I've learned all this stuff through my own journey and NCI and the kids are just not in a place to take that in. And I they shouldn't be their kids. You know what I mean. But I'll start going on these tangents with them. And I'm just like they just want to play. And of course, you know, we do that. We have fun. But because of that, I realized like that served its purpose in my life. You know, and I, you know, I have my degree and on. I wouldn't take any of that back. But I just know that that's not where I meant to be right now. Yeah. Well, it's like, you know, for me, it's like the moment when I like, Hey, kids, I just made a I just made a pan seared bone in rib eye on this on the stove. Do you want that or hot dogs? And they're like hot dogs. Exactly. Exactly. Really, you should have gone with the steak, but more for me. So okay, here's your hot dog. I'll cut them up for you. No, I hear you. So, you know, I guess that was kind of like just a push. Really, I've always kind of had an interest in this. But I just didn't know like, well, what could I do with this? Like, I remember a time like googling, like, what can I do with like a health index or say science degree? That's not teaching. And then it's like this, this, this, and I'm like, and then like, I worked with actually quite a few coaches. And there's some good ones and there's some bad ones out there for again. I think that's the theme of podcast for a different day. Um, but I found a. We'll make this up. We'll make that the subtitle the first of many because we have a lot of tangents to go on. But, um, I worked with the coach throughout the course of the pandemic, really. And I just, I know it's cliche. And I know it might sound corny to people, but the experience literally changed my life. And that's when I knew like, okay, this is what I need to be doing. Like I have the information. I have the knowledge, not all of it. Yeah, of course. But I'm, you know, I've scratched the surface. I'm getting, I know enough that like, okay, I could do something with that. You're right. Right. So from working with them, I thought like, if I could do for other people, what they just did to me, like, like, that's, that's where the magic happens. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. And it's just all these things, like, you know, I, I guess I thought I knew so much going into the process. So, you know, I know about macros. I've done this. I've lifted. I know this. I know that like, I didn't know anything. You know what I mean? I learned so much in that process. And I, there's just so much more to the puzzle than, than macros and calories. Like, it's, it just goes way beyond that. And after working with them, I thought, even my coat, I told her, I'm like, I need to give her a shout out. Feel free. Yeah. So awesome. I worked with level 10 coaching. So Joelle Samantha is actually like the owner. They're just, I could go on and on. I can't say enough good things about them. But so she has level 10. Yeah. Amazing. I just amazing. And my, she has quite a few coaches with her, but my specific coach was Courtney Thomas. I believe she's just Courtney Thomas nutrition on Instagram, but she just, she just, like, she changed my life, like, just amazing. And like, you know, the coach, coach thing. I'm like, I need to, I want to do for others what she did to me. Like, you just can't. And like I said, I love my students. I love teaching. I think it's great. But there's, you keep saying to you, like, it was like, like, it was something that was, like, you weren't the willing participant. Right. Right. How resistant were you exactly that your coaching was something that happened to you? Well, I should, I've had, I've had some rough experiences. I'll say that. Okay, well, talk about that. So, I mean, we, like, we share a framework about what good coaching looks like. But like, I feel like a huge, a huge thing in the age of information. Right. Where there's so you can go Google literally the entire human catalog of knowledge. But like, being able to know the difference between good information and bad information. And then even if it's good information, how do you take that good information and apply it is a whole other thing, right. Application is the, is the real magic behind the knowledge. You know, so what should people look out for? Like, what was your bad, what was your bad experience? Like, and what, what's the, like, the, what's a bad, what's a bad coaching experience? So I definitely think, um, if the coach isn't getting like a lot of history from you. Um, it's easy for you to come to me and me say, okay, here's, here's your calories, here's what you're going to eat. But I don't know what you've been doing all this time. I don't know if you have, you know, it disordered any kind of disordered relationship with food. Exactly. You know, also like, where are you metabolically? Like, what have you been going through to put you where you are now? Um, so for example, like I had dieted hard leading, I got married last year. Congratulations. Thank you. Right before the pandemic, crazy enough, we just got married on a Friday, that Monday, like the world literally shut down. So by the grace of God, we got our wedding and, but after that, I was just like in this weird place, like, okay, like, now what? I find this coach, Instagram, and I have issues with this too. I feel like there's a lot of people on Instagram because they have their, you know, matching gym shark and their beauty bands. You know, I got to find some gym sharks in my size. You know, just because you are a fitness person, so to speak, or you put, you present yourself as one does not mean you have the background or the credentials to be coaching people. And unfortunately, I think social media is a wonderful thing in a sense. It can also be extremely harmful. Um, so I found this coach. Now she does have credentials. I'll say that. Um, well, let's, but let's, let's be, let's be real about credentials when it comes to nutrition coaching and when it comes to personal training, right? Like, some personal training certifications and some nutrition certifications are literally things you can knock out in a weekend. Like, you can go, like, if you, if you're a moderately smart person, you can go study for for the exam and bang it out in a weekend. Right. If you're, and for some of them, there is no prerequisite of having a four year degree. Right. For some of them, there are, and that's why some of them are more reputable than others. And like one of the reason, like you and I are both NCI certified coaches. And one of the reasons I like that certification is it's got, it's got an exam. But then it all, like a paper exam, but then it also has, it also has a delivery component of it where you can't just go pass the exam and you're a certified coach. You actually have to go work with clients for a specified period of time and deliver results, document what you did with them, apply the learning and show them. Here's how I applied what I learned to actual clients. And then they grade your actual performance as a nutrition coach and say, OK, you are now accredited. Right. Like, that's the difference between like a bullshit certification that you can get in a weekend and an actual legit certification. And shout out to NCI. This isn't a sponsor. There were like, but it's just a shout out to them because they're they're putting legit certifications out there. But there are plenty that are that are not so just be do your research on the accreditation that your coaches might have. And I also think, you know, people who've been on a journey, like just because I lost weight doesn't make me qualified to teach people how to lose weight. And I'm noticing that a lot in this space too. Well, I did it. So now I'm going to tell everyone else how to do it. But meanwhile, the way you did it was messed up, like, you know what I mean? So I came to this coach and they had me like on 1200 calories at one point and like, I mean, my other needs 1200 calories. Right. Right. That's for a toddler. You know, so, and I'm lifting. I'm doing all this cardio. And so, of course, what happened that puts me right into like a binge restrict cycle. What's going to happen? Your body's begging your food, excuse me, begging you for food. And then at one point, I had reached out and like told her like, listen, like, I went off the rails this weekend. Like, this is really tough for me. And like the solution was, well, like, yeah, this is hard. You're going to be hungry. And this week, we're going to up your cardio. Right. Like, and yeah, of course there is some degree of discomfort with dieting for sure. But it shouldn't be to a place like that extreme ever in my opinion. You are doing more harm than good at that point. So I think the biggest thing for me in like my philosophy is like, just do no harm. Let's pull on that thread a little bit because I think that's a super important thing you just said there, right, which is, you're doing more harm than good in the long term. Expand on that a little bit. What do you mean when you say you're doing more harm than good in the long term when you're eating at a, at a severe deficit? Right. So, well, you know, with, with nutrition, there's, you know, our seasons, this, you know, an NCI is great about talking about that periodized model. So for someone like me had this coach, you know, talked to me about where I had been the last six months, year, three months even. She would have known that I had adapted to what I was doing before. So let's just throw out an arbitrary number here. Let's say I was eating 1500 calories for six months leading up to my wedding. Well, yeah, there's nowhere to go but down. So yeah, I need to eat 14, 13, 1200, but who wants to do that? That's misery. What I needed to do or what she needed to do as my coach was say, like, girl, we are not in a place to lose weight right now. You've just put your body through a deficit for months and months for your wedding. It's time to repair. It's time to get your body back to homeostasis. So what repair needs to happen when we're like, so what happens physiologically when you're at that low of a deficit for that long, like, why can't you just keep cutting calories like what's going to, like, what's the harm going to be from continuing to cut calories. Besides from that, you don't get to eat that much. No pizza. So basically what's going to happen is your metabolism is just going to continue to adapt to those lower calories. So whereas like a typical maintenance for me, again, just throwing out an arbitrary number. It might be 2000, well, 800, 1500 for so long. Now that's my new maintenance. Okay, so we slash it down to 1200. I might lose a couple pounds. But guess what now, pretty quickly, my new maintenance is going to be 1200. And there's just, there's no where to go. There's nowhere to go. So it's just, it's a lose lose exactly. It's a lose lose situation. So you've got to heal. You've got to bring that body back before you can diet you. I've heard this. I don't know if you're familiar with Laurie Christine King. I'm also a fan of her idea. She's the founder of Paragon training. I have done her, like basically through the whole pandemic, I was doing their programming. And it's, it's incredible. Brian Borgstein does her the programming for them. And when I had initially found her, she had talked a lot about you have to earn the right to diet. And I had never heard that before. And that really struck a chord with me. Like you do, you need to put in the time of healing your body, getting in maintenance, healing your hormones. You know, so many women diet down to the point where they're losing their menstrual cycle, you're not sleeping, your digestion stuff. If all of those things are not in check, you have no business dieting and like nobody, that was like a foreign concept to me. So when I heard that, I thought like, why am I just now at 33 years old and like a chronic lifetime dieter, why is this the first time that I'm hearing about this? It was just mind blowing to me. You know what I mean? Like the fact that that's uncommon to know that is a problem for everybody that's in this space. Yeah. And so like we can speak to a little a little bit about about how this applies to like what you're doing with me. So, you know, when I started, when I started with Samantha, it was, it's been like three, four weeks now, like three and a half weeks now, where we've been, where we've been working together. So, you know, since basically since the turn of the calendar year. And when we first started, I had, I had been, I had been at a fairly low calorie level, like I had probably been relatively close to like 22, 2300 calories for a decent, a decent period of time. Just due to metabolic adaptation, like she was talking about, like I, you know, to, in order for me to maintain a 260-ish, you know, body weight. I was at like 2100, 2200 calories and then took the month of December, basically off, started working my calories back up a little bit. But even right now, like Samantha in her infinite wisdom told me, you can't lose weight right now. You know, where that's not the focus we need to see first, if we can get you to what we think a good baseline level of calories is so that we're, you know, homeostatic, right that we're staying stable. So right now we've got me on like 2650, 2600, depending on the, depending on the day and adjusting for my kettlebell craziness, but, you know, she's, she's had me pretty solidly at 20, between 2500 and 2600 calories, mostly protein with fat and carbs, you know, adjusted based on activity level. And so far, at that level, I've actually, I've lost some weight down, down a few pounds and, but also have not gained anything and have increased my calories, you know, roughly 30%. So we're still, we're still working. She hasn't seen my, she hasn't seen my food log for the weekend with the competition that happened this, this past weekend. We'll just, we'll just say that it was more, it was more than 2600 calories consumed over the, over the past couple of days, but, you know, she also, you know, gave me, you know, I told her I had, I had pizza in beer last night and I feel no shame. And she said, nor, nor should you. So, you know, that's, but that in application, that, that's kind of what we're talking about, right, because she, she took the time to understand that I had been in deficit for a while. And it, I can't go straight back to deficit again for, because for a guy, my size, with my activity level, I should probably be closer to like a 3000 calorie maintenance level. And I'm, so I'm actually under what a person of my size should probably be from a BMR perspective, but because I've been in deficit for so long, I've got some work to do. To, to repair some of that metabolic adaptation. So to restore homeostatic level to get my hormones back up. And, you know, all of those things, those are, those are some of the things that we're talking about when we talk about the, the science, the science behind this. So, but part of the reason somebody like me needs somebody like her is because I am stubborn. So, that's kind of my segue to why should coaches have their own coaches, because you've, I mean, you've already talked about you've had coaches, like why, why do you hire coaches as, as a coach? Right. And it's funny you say that, because I had actually just reached out to my previous coach not long ago, and like, I'm ready, like, I'm ready to work with you again. And I think a big part of that is, like, it's hard to look at ourselves and our journey like objectively. I know it's for me, like, if I step on the scale, even though I know there's a million reasons that scale might have gone up. Maybe I trained really hard yesterday, maybe I had a so high sodium me, I ate later, even though I know all these things, it's so hard sometimes to separate that knowledge from the emotion. And that can really mess with your head. So, like, where you might do that and think, oh, I need to, I need to change this, I need to change that. A coach is going to be like, you need to pump your brakes, you need to chill. You know what I mean? And just the accountability and sometimes somebody just looking through you through at you, excuse me, through that different lens. You know, I can remember a couple of times where I had, you know, an event or this or that. And I know what to do. I know how to approach that event. Maybe I'm not going to track it all. Maybe I'm going to just enjoy it. Maybe I am going to track. Maybe I'm going to, you know, there's a million ways to approach it. But when you have that person in your corner saying like, all right, here's how you're going to navigate this. And if you fall, like, I'm going to be here to pick you up. And if you say on track, like, that's great. I'm going to be there cheering you on. It's just, I just think everybody should have a coach. I, there's something about having that other person that's not looking at. And I also think we're so, we are so critical of ourselves. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like sometimes. 100% Whereas like I sometimes the things I say to myself, I have to be like, whoa, like you would never talk to a client like that. You would never talk to your friend like that. Why are you talking to yourself like that? You know what I mean? So where it's easy to just kind of like go down that rabbit hole with yourself. When you have the coach like that's not going to happen. They're not going to let you do a good coach isn't. They're not going to let you do that. You know what I mean? And we all have those moments where we just get in our own head or we don't trust the process. And I think when you kind of let a little bit of that go into the hands of someone else, it's easier to take a step back and say, you know, I'm going to trust this process and this person because they know what they're doing. And maybe I'm being emotional or maybe I'm, you know, looking through things in this lens that I shouldn't be. I know my coach has got my back. And honestly, sometimes like I like week the weeks that I would have my check in with my coach, like I would be excited. Like, oh, I can't wait to hear what they say. Should I do this? Should I do this or sometimes I would think, hmm, like what would I do in that situation and kind of compare it to what she said any learned so much like you could be the smartest person, but you know what, you don't know everything. And we all think differently, like where as I might do x, y, and z in this situation, my coach might say, well, no, I would do this. And it's her way right or wrong is my way right or wrong. No, but there might be something that's better. You know, and it's just I love that. Yeah, so yeah, you nailed a couple of a couple of things there. Like there's a ton to unpack because it's there's so many things that resonated with me. I have to give a shout out to my, my teammate and my friend Audrey. She's been helping me with with some of my internal dialogue as well. Because you know, she's a, she's an addiction counselor and she's been on the podcast as well. And she, she gave me a call, she gave me a call today because she knows I was beating myself up a little bit about my about my long cycle performance on Sunday. She gave me a 12 step saying that I had never heard before. She said, she said, don't stay, don't stay in, don't stay in your head too long because it's a dark and scary neighborhood and you might get jumped. Apparently that's apparently that's apparently that's something that the 12 step give you to say a lot. And I was like, that's actually perfect because I had been in my head too long and I was beating, I was beating myself up about about not finishing and about not finishing the full 10 minutes on my on my long cycle set on Sunday. Audrey shout out, I appreciate that. I appreciate the check in today to check in on me and get me out of my own head. But, you know, and but you also mentioned like the accountability piece is so huge and I can honestly say sense you and I have started. I have not missed a single day of tracking. I have like like I've tracked my food every single day. I have now I'm tracking my steps. I'm tracking my water and I'm tracking like. I'm a data nerd. I love tracking things, but I because I'm also checking in on my clients and they're tracking all these things like like at a certain point you kind of just get fatigued on trying to coach yourself and you don't without that accountability like some of those things would slip and I wouldn't I wouldn't track I wouldn't hold myself as accountable as as I as I should. And so knowing that I have you coming to check my log every Sunday by 10 am. I know that I need I need to have my I need to have my stuff in there, which means I need to have tracked I need to think about what I'm eating when I'm putting in my body and and even just that piece, even though I'm very mindful of what I'm very mindful of my nutrition. But knowing that I have somebody that is checking in on me helps, especially for somebody like me and what I mean by that is my history of like hiding things, binge and shame, you know, binge and purge is very much a shame cycle. So you like hide your benches and you know those types of things so I can very much relate to that. So it's it's helpful to have a coach that you trust and you're just like, hey, here's my here's my calories. Here's my food log. I'm like, yeah, I had four beers on Sunday. Like, you know, you're not hiding any of those things. So there's accountability in that because those four beers didn't become 10 beers for a whole other thing. I guess for another day. Yeah, I guess for another time. But those that accountability piece is huge. And then also the you mentioned the like the varying perspectives right it's not that it's not that you know more than me, although you probably do. I will can see that. But it's but it's that your perspective is different than mine. You can look at my own behavior with an objective lens, whereas I look at it and I notice everything that I fucked up and I'm like you suck you suck you suck you suck. And you're like, dude, you're kicking ass at all of these other things. What are you doing? Quit beating the crap out of yourself. You know, so that's huge. But you have the objective. You have the objective lens and also where I'm like, I'm ignoring that I'm not doing this thing. You're like, hey, you probably need to get more steps in. You're kind of sitting behind a desk all day because that's the nature of your job. You should probably get walking more also a conversation we've had. She just gently told me like, hey, you need to get more daily activity, like get away from your desk, plan a walk. You know, and she did it very lovingly and just like, hey, you should schedule a time to get away from your desk and go for a walk and get. You know, hey, target 3000, 4000 steps a day, which when I was doing 1000 steps a day, like that's a huge improvement, you know, like little things like that, make a huge different and it just comes from having that outsider's perspective, having different ideas about how to approach things. I think that's so huge and it comes from a place of you got to this earlier where it's like you realize at a certain point in your journey, like you start out thinking you know a lot and then you realize you don't know hardly. Or you're like, what you do know you're like, oh, my God, there are people that know so much more than me. And it kind of humbles you in that. I think that's the, I think that's the difference is like you get to a place of humility where it's like, I can learn from everybody. Like every like there are so many people that have that have a perspective that's valid and you can learn little pieces from most people, but especially people that are on the same path as me and have other perspective, like that's so so valuable from you know for having a coach that can give you those pieces of information can help sharpen your tools. You, you show each other different approaches that work right like it becomes a sharing of ideas like that's one of the things I love and it makes you a better coach it makes you a better client. I relate better to my clients as a coach because I'm going through the same process they're going through right like you know I'm like, yeah, I understand why it might be either you might you might be excited to check in or you might be nervous about your checking because you're like, oh God, what's what's say I'm going to say when she sees my food log is she going to be angry with you. Are you going to be angry with me? I don't want her to be angry with me. You've never been angry with me. Thank you. And I love it. You're very positive, which is great. You can't vlog me a little bit if you need to, but I you've been very positive with me, which I, which I very much appreciate because I'm plenty capable of beating myself up so it's nice to have it's nice to have that positive reinforcement and you've been really good. I'm going to say like one thing that I really appreciate is like you've been forcing me to do what you call the woo woo stuff right. You're like in your, you're always telling me like it might seem a little woo woo, but you need to do a little bit more positive affirmation and really start thinking about the narratives that you tell yourself as been really useful for me I still am not do I won't say I've been sucking at it I've been working on it. I'm learning I've been working on that, but that's that's something that you've been really that you've been really really really big advocate for is how is how I'll frame it right. You've been a really big advocate. Where does that come from? Where does that like emphasis on personal narrative come from. Well, I think it's like what do they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result. I did that. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting the definition of insanity right. So you know how long have you beat yourself up how long have you said I suck at this or I'm no good at this or I felt the wagon like I did that for years. Exactly. And I you know I just again as woo woo or is corny's it may sound like I believe we are what we say we are. And if you say like I'm I can't lose week I can't get in that week class I can't whatever it is like okay no you can't. You know what I mean you have to tell yourself yeah I'm going to get in that week class like yes I am the person who is going to lose the way I am the person who I am this I am this I am this I am this. And it's it's hard especially if you come from a background like you and I where we've beat ourselves up or you are you kind of in this negative fixed mindset like to shift that like it is not overnight but. It is just huge and I think part of that is like this there's no like end date that was something that was huge for me like there's no end here like what am I okay so what I fell off the wagon and I ate pizza and had beer or whatever it was. So okay tomorrow's a new day like I don't need to hit this goal by now granted you're in a little bit of a unique situation with competing and things like that but. That's just that's just a target right like the end date for me is whatever they put on the back end of my tombstone that's the end date of this journey right I'm going to be trying to get better be healthier kinder just just be an improved human I want to be the best version of myself the day I die. Right like that's that's what I'm striving for I shouldn't we all and that's the thing that said the more that you just enjoy the process and enjoy the journey and treat yourself kind it's going to make it a hell of a lot easier because you know what it's it's fun it's it's a but it's it's hard there's times where it is hard but you have to find the joy in the heart like. It just it all falls into place when you realize like hey like this i'm doing this because I love myself because I deserve to because this is self love this is self care it's not a punishment so when I fall off the wagon like hey i'm still a shit I got this instead of i'm a failure I fucked up you know like that's not getting us anywhere I can curse right. Yes, if you I just put on an episode yesterday where I think I think I broke my own personal okay for swear words in an hour because it was yeah it just just happened. I honestly I love what you just I love it so much I might put it on a t-shirt honestly we said find joy in the hard right I love that so much because like you have the you get the from the military guys you you get the embrace the suck you know which is kind of a similar sentiment but it's it's actually saying like now but it still puts you kind of in a negative mindset where it's like where it's like this sucks and yeah you can embrace the suck and there's but like no find joy in the hard I love that because like that's one of the things I love about kettlebell sport and the reason I keep coming back to it even though I keep failing at it over and over again is is that I find joy in the failure because it means I'm getting better and I love how hard it is I genuinely love how hard it is which is a super weird thing to say but like. I love the process of it I love that I love that even on a weekend when I I had my best total output I've ever had and I should be very proud about that I am proud of that like I acknowledged that like I've had my best total output that I've ever put out on in competition at least I still failed on my last set and I mentally I let myself off the hook and I can take that lesson and be like okay next time next next time I do a triathlon I know going into the long cycle that I'm going to have an elevated heart rate I know that because of the load that I've that I've taken in over the previous two events that it's it's just going to be harder and maybe I can't finish the full 10 minutes but I'm going to push myself until I physically fail I'm not going to let my mind be the weak link next time that's never going to happen again. But would you know that had you not done this this past time so like there's the lesson you know that and that's the lesson right and that's the and that's the thing and the thing that I can beat myself up about the reason I do it is because like that's what I coach my athletes is like hey it's okay to fail if you gave everything you have like I have you know that's what I had those same conversations with my own athletes who are also upset with themselves that they didn't finish the time because they're like I couldn't I couldn't finish I didn't finish I didn't control my pace whatever it was like hey you gave everything you could give. What else can you ask for your body right your body just couldn't go anymore but you pushed yourself to your physical capability I have nothing but pride in your performance as a coach because you gave everything and then I didn't do that myself I was just going to say now look in the mirror and say that to your. And that's where I'm like that's where I'm like but I didn't do that but now I'm like but that just circles right back around to exactly what you they need you you know what I mean they. And that's why I need them that's why I need you and I need and that's why I need Courtney you know what I mean I need I need those people telling me like hey you but you did this right you know so so that I don't fixate on all of those negative things because I can obsess over those to the point where it's where it's counterproductive but it's like. It is it is funny how easy it is to like be a good coach and still be hard on yourself and like I would not coach myself the way that the way like I would I would I would not I would not say the things to myself that I say if I was my own coach and it wasn't me right like I would treat myself. Thank you. I know the same thing. That's such a hard that's such a hard thing to come to the realization of and like that's where I that's why I think it's taking me you know so long to get to this point where I'm like. You know because I've had kettlebell coaches before I've worked with a lot of great kettlebell coaches because it was super easy from becoming into this game to be like there are so many people that are better at this that this than me and i'm still in that place don't get me wrong. But with with like nutrition and weight loss and everything is like it's so personal but it's like it's hard to admit like hey I can't do this on my own right. It's totally fine for me to be like hey I need a coach if I want to get to master sport like I need somebody that's been master sport before to get to that point. And yet we look at weight loss and these things like in it as if it's a different thing is like oh no I don't need help there because I got I can figure this out like this is my dry I don't know I don't want you know because it feels so personal it's such a weird I don't know why that is but it's such a weird dichotomy that like we don't want to. We don't want to have a coach in that area but right when it's a skill that's like an external what we view as an external skill it's like oh no yeah definitely. I definitely need a coach if I want to like learn to throw the javelin or you know like of course I'm a higher coach like I don't just know how to do that is like. But I know how to eat because I've been eating my whole life right so yeah you've been doing it wrong otherwise you. But again that's the thing there's so much more to it than that like I think when people think nutrition coach like oh. That's it's what I eat like oh no no no no no it's so much more than that you know what I mean as it should be and that's another that you had mentioned in the beginning what to look for it like. If that's all that your coach is asking you like my advice might be run you know what I mean like to be frank like it's so much. I don't have the knees for running so much anymore but I will I will turn and walk away. I don't care what you do. Yeah it's a lot and I learned that too like and talking about like coaches needing coach like there were things that I didn't even think about. Like this week oh my weight was up or this happened or this happened and things that I wouldn't even thought about in my coach is like what about this and I'm like oh you're right like it's just having that second set of eyes or that you know somebody who's looking at all these other things that you don't think about. It's just I just think it's necessary I do I think like coaches need everybody whether you're coach or not and even it doesn't have to be nutrition anything everybody should have somebody in their corner. Yeah yeah yeah and just so we're clear y'all like we're not saying that you if you don't have if you don't have enough money to pay your bills we're not saying you should find the money to go higher a coach like we're just saying that you need support you need community you need somebody that you can lean on you need a mentor right like there. There are plenty of resources like I'm not saying you have to go invent money to invest in a coach but you know if you have the money you absolutely should invest in a coach because it's something that is something that I think is super super valuable and it is an investment and you get the return on that investment because I think it's I think it's totally worth it. And a privilege I will say that too I'm with you I'm not saying like I know not everybody has the means like but if it is a privilege and I'm very thankful that I'm in a position to be able to have a coach and I know that not everybody is so definitely glad that you you know pointed that out. And so you just took mic milleners neuro typing yeah so speaking of coaching right one things that coaches always do is try and can like good coaches try and continue to sharpen their skills and continue to improve the tools in their toolbox and Samantha and I have have a lot of the same friends on social media. And one of them is Mike Miller who is a very high level nutrition coach in our in our circle and he just he just came up with his well I shouldn't say just came up with what he's he's doing his his own nutrition certification which is neuro type coaching so tell me a little bit about that I saw you I saw you were like you were really excited about the things that you that you learned this weekend so tell me a little bit about that are you going to be are you going to be like. Like voodoo voodoo shrieking my head now I honestly I think i'm going to send you it was amazing I like I would have never. Like I just would have never thought about the things that he had talked about in terms of and it's just make some I mean when you think about it's like well how it's so obvious like we're all unique we're all different and it's basically you know training and nutrition based on your personality type and we all have one. And it's funny when we say neurotype it's essentially your your custom personality type right fits in yeah you know say in a psychological profile yes I don't want to say too much because I know you know he worked really hard on that and on it. Yeah just just the high level i'm sure he'd be fine with you saying that's what neurotype right so that there's maybe i'll get him on the podcast and he yeah he'll blow your mind so smart just so smart. But yeah it's it's interesting because it's funny as you're going through the training and he's telling you about the different types and things like you're like that person up this person well that's me like. And then I took the test myself and it like I was telling my husband i'm like you this is you're not going to believe this like you have to do this like this is me everything it says it's me and like it's so it's just. It's such a I can't wait to put it into practice with clients because I think like I just think the success will be just over the top because you are getting so unique to the individual you know some people thrive off of high intensity you know low carb or this or that and where other people like you you are going to put me like in a bad way. You know what I mean where that where that was going to work for this person is not going to work for this person and knowing that now like template suck and that's that's coming from someone who used to send templates to people like I had like i'm a math person i'm a you know i'm a spreadsheet guy I love like I love those things right and I I used to send people like templates because that there's a you know it's like well it's just math it's just you know if this if this then this and here's a flow chart and like you know when your weight isn't changing then you you know. And then you know and you can do that enough time for your experiment you if you experiment to iterate enough with the variables yeah you'll eventually land on what is the right. What is the right approach for your neurotype for your personality type but it might take you a long time to get there because how many tests and iterations will it take and how many times will you fail how frustrated will you get will you stay on the path long enough to actually get there and it's kind of like. It's like the difference between using a GPS and kind of using a like I have a general idea of the direction i want to take a right here and then take a left here and it all eventually get there. Right and a challenge how long will it take you to get there it's a bad approach. Want to challenge some things that I thought like and I have I was asking a couple questions well like hmm like in that situation I would have done xy and z and he's like well yeah you're right but not for this person like they. So it's just it's so I just thought it was like my honestly even now like I can't even process it all because it was a lot of information to take in. But it will just if you somebody who's like over delivered on. Yeah seriously and like honestly I probably would have paid double now like that i've done it for like so if you have a chance or anybody has a chance to take that like I highly recommend it he was just. It was just amazing and just. It's just something that anybody that's taking the course be like it wasn't worth it like it was amazing so it was so it's on the list yeah I think you'll really and especially like you say you're like you get out and things like that like I want I wanted to be I wanted to be a forensic psychologist that's what I went. Wow for like that's what I like profiling is what I wanted to do for a career well then you will eat this up that's yeah I need to I need to look into it for sure yeah i'm really excited to to like use it with clients and see because. Like now knowing like I wish like my coach is new my type like can I share this like if this is what I am help me you know what I mean it's it's just I think it's a big missing piece of the puzzle and I think it's going to be like. Like a game changer for if you can help tell me why I am the way I am and use that to help me get over the finish line I am going to be i'm going to send you the. The test it I think it'll be good for you and I you know what I mean moving forward so definitely yeah so let's so let's you know we've only got a little bit of time left I want to be I know you're super busy I want to be respectful of your time so we only got a little bit of time left let's. Let's let's tell the people you know this is this will be revelation to me to like what's the plan coach where we go and I just finished my comp now I don't have another comp until October so now we're we can move away from the performance end of the the triangle of awareness now it's now it's all about it's all about aesthetics and. It's game time yeah it's it's the real game time it's time it's time to go so tell me what's the plan coach what are we doing we're going to grind while we need to get let's get over this week well you've been kind of crazy not crazy but. Life is. Life is. That was perfect that was perfect because that's that that's totally true basically sense yeah eight nineteen eighty three yeah that's that's about that's about how long I've been crazy so yeah. We've had super bowl we've had Valentine's Day we've had your this weekend with your training so I'm really excited to get you in a place of like. Normally yeah I'm doing one I'm doing a one hour continuous lift tomorrow by the way I don't think I told you you did not tell me that's not quite normal stimuli I don't normally train that way but that's for charity but. Aside from that where you know we will be back to but i'm doing it with a lightweight i'm going like i'm going like half of my competition weight so it's going to be like way way under what I normally do i'm going to do that should be up then to your. Yeah i'm i'm going to try i'm going to try and do it like intelligently be be like normal about it so but i'm i'm excited for i'm excited for normal week to. Yes that's my. I just I want I want it wait no i'm not going to say that i don't want to we are going to get you to your goal i mean we're going to. Honestly i'm and I said this in your check in this week if it's not broke don't fix it if we're riding things out and you're losing and we're killing it then let's just keep rolling i want you fed i want you i don't want you miserable i want you. I want to buy a feedback good i want you sleeping i want you hydrated. If all those things are moving in the right direction and let's just keep rolling if things start getting bumpy will then we'll have to change the plan so you're saying no more releasing podcasts at three a.m. You know what it's funny what was that an email or something i was going to eat my back like why the hell aren't you sleeping right now. Like I said I have what is called an unquiet mind i'm working on my nighttime routines I am trying to apply the things that i that I know that I should be doing i do struggle sometimes with the sleep component as I like. And especially especially now when I have these bit like I have such clarity around so many things that I want to do and the like the things that I want to do and plus I have my day job and I have my kids and we have. And we have all this stuff and like you can tell just by the way straight us quarter saw hello so we're going to try to. In my brain when I lay down is like right hey you can't lay down you can't. It's a lot yeah so that's why I want to take a very like gentle approach i don't want to get like we don't and again we talked about this that yes you are training for something specific but. We got to play the long game that's my goal with you to play the long game. Because I don't want. I want this to be an enjoyable process and I've been i've been pretty i've been pretty clear like you know one of the things i've said is i like part of the clarity and commitment pieces like you have to have clarity on what the goal is. And you have to be committed to it but you also have to clarity on what you're willing to sacrifice and what you're not willing to sacrifice in the number one thing i am not willing to sacrifice is my long term well being. Because the end game on this like i said is is the day they put me in the ground right you know burn my body and spread the ashes somewhere right but you know that's that's the end game on this if i if i'm not. If i'm not exactly at my goal october you know everybody's going to know why because i'll have been documenting this journey you know throughout the process and it might you know but if it if it means like. We had to make a choice because it was either going to a unhealthy pattern right and hit the goal or. Right long term long term longevity into account and i hit the goal later right we're going to get to the goal it's going to happen. Exactly it is and yes and i'm glad i'm glad you say that actually though because how you say like you're not willing to sacrifice your health. And neither am i you know what i mean so if you get to that point where i feel like you are like no we're not doing this and that's something that i think is important to me like. And that's a big that's a big piece of growth for me personally i can tell you because you probably know from. At least at this point you can tell enough about my neuro type that i am an aggressive person who has sacrificed my body for the purpose of achievement. Right many many times in my life it's why i'm a collection of old football injuries i played with. Yeah bones i played with all sorts of pains and aches and problems you know i'm suffering those consequences now and i'm trying to think i'm trying to be smarter about it now so. It backfires so like i'm not willing to risk your you know health and mental well being to to get that October goal if we do great if we don't we're going to get it it might just so and i think that's something that like i. It's hard to say that i guess in a way but like. With clients like i might not be the coach for you if you come to me and say like i need to lose 20 pounds by my wedding in two months. Sorry i might not be for you because i'm not willing to sacrifice your health to put you in a crash diet and get your wedding dress there's a million girls on instagram and facebook will be happy to do that for you that's not that's not me. That's such a hard that's such a hard thing to like because like because you said like. As somebody who just got married and and wanted to look like you want to look your best on your way that was a big catalyst for me like starting my weight loss journey was i was like i'm not going to be i'm not going to look like i look right now when i get married like i. I wanted to lose a bunch of weight before i got married and i was moderately successful at that lost like 60 of 60 of my hundred pounds that i lost was before letting you know but like. It is super hard like as somebody that's gone through that to have somebody that comes to you and especially but it's like when they come to you so close to the. I need to i need to drop two sizes or you know you got the guy that's like i need to drop 50 pounds and you're like oh we got two months right can't do that. And like i can but i'm not going to like i just i'm not going to do that but i'm not willing to. Yeah and i'm not and if that means i should either that's the hard that's the hard thing is to tell them like you shouldn't be either you shouldn't be willing to do this. Yes, what your wedding is one day of what is hopefully a decades and decades long relationship like it's one day and you know you're hopefully your significant other would. I don't want you I don't want you to sacrifice your long term health to look a you know right you know look a certain way on the wedding that's that's a that's a very hard it's a very hard sell. But that's a conversation i had to have myself like when i got like getting into this like i'm not. I'm not willing to. Like i don't care what you're going to pay me or what what the scenario or situation is i will never. Like i said in the beginning i'll never do harm that's that if and if you then maybe i'm just not the coach for you and that's okay that's fine but i'm not you know i know. What people might need and i'm happy to give you what you need even if it's not what you want and if that's not with for you than that that's fine. Yeah and there and like you said in there there are coaches i mean there are coaches that are willing to do that and there are things that the people undertake that they they do so willingly knowing that it's not healthy like. Bodybuilders know that they're sacrificing long term health for the suit of their aesthetic goals right like a lot of them know that going into it they know that being a high level professional level bodybuilder. Probably means they're sacrificing some longevity on their life and they're okay with that and if they're okay with that's fine and if there's a coach that that wants to coach them for that that's fine that's not on ethical that is to consent to consenting adults making that choice and that's totally fine and that's why you're like that's why you're not working with with you know. Exactly i'm talking about your everyday woman you know what i mean chronic diet of please it's good last 10 pounds like. Alright well let's do some work first then we get that you know what i mean like. Those are hard conversations it is i have to have those conversations as well and it's and it's but it is also great it is great it's a great moment when you have built enough trust with a client when you can tell him hey i know this is what you want. But here's what i'm telling you is what you need and this i need you to be okay with this and they're like okay coach i trust you right i was the same way i had to do a reverse i'm thinking what no way i can't do this no no no but i trusted and i trusted the process of my coach and first we're going to put you on a caloric surplus. Like five months come again. What did you say you might gain some weight. Yeah run yeah it's a tough sell but you know the the back end hopefully is worth it. It is that's the thing so well Samantha thank you so much for coming on i really appreciate it and hopefully you're okay with coming back again later as we go through the process i'd love to have you back and we can just we can give the people some updates. Yeah on on how on how i'm doing and how this journey is going together and you know you can tell people about how crazy i still am. We can we can we can we can this life is crazy so yeah it'll be it'll be fun so thank you so much i really appreciate you coming on we'll we'll talk soon and i'll i look forward to our check in on. Cool awesome all right see coach awesome bye. Thanks for listening to this episode of the platform podcast i'm Jordan kundi right. If you have a question please email me at twincities kettlebell club at gmail.com. Follow us on instagram and facebook at twincities kettlebell club on twitter at tckb club online at twincities 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.