Lorraine Painchoud | Co-owner & coach at Swanson Mountain Fitness

Welcome to the platform podcast where we talk to coaches, athletes, experts, and real people to learn about their approaches to training, nutrition, mindset, and much more. 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 lifestyles. Before we jump into this week's episode, I want to take a second to make an important announcement about the Twin Cities Kettlebell Open. The event will still be taking place in person here in Little Canada, Minnesota on October 23rd. But with all of the craziness going on because of the Delta variant and the restrictions and travel issues for many people in various places, we've decided to also include video submissions for participants who are unable to make the trip in person. So now no matter where you live, you'll be able to participate in this competition if you choose to register. You'll be able to submit your videos until midnight, central time on October 22nd. And you'll still be eligible for all of the same prizes as our in-person competitors who will compete on Saturday, October 23rd. Just go to our website, www.twincitieskettlebellclub.com, and choose the online video submission option when you complete your registration. You'll find all the details coming to that page shortly. Thank you very much for your ongoing support, and I really look forward to seeing you hopefully in person. But if you can't make it, please feel free to participate virtually, and may you put your best effort forward on the platform. Thank you again. Alright, with that aside, my guest this week is Lorraine Peixot, the co-owner and coach of Swanson Mountain Fitness in British Columbia, Canada. And I'm very excited to have her on. We dive into her background, how fitness activities of all kinds became her vice, and how she has changed her nutrition to support her incredibly high activity level. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. And as always, I am incredibly grateful that you listened to this podcast. The best way you could support me is to register for the Twin Cities Kettlebell Open, and maybe tell a friend or two. If you haven't already, please be sure to leave a five star review and rating for the platform podcast in your app of choice, and support my work by supporting our sponsors. This was affiliate links you'll find in the episode notes. And of course, if you want to step on the platform and complete in Kettlebell Sport, please reach out to me. I help athletes of all levels reach their goals without wasting time using my integrated online coaching approach. You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at Twin Cities Kettlebell Club, or email me at Twin Cities Kettlebell Club at gmail.com. Now, let's step on to the platform with Lorraine Peisho. Alright, welcome into this week's episode of the platform podcast. My guest this week is a long awaited one for many of my Canadian listeners. I've been told I can't even tell you how many times that I need to have this person on. Her name is Lorraine Peisho and I just asked you how to say it. And I totally butchered it still. Anyways, she is the co owner and co head coach at Swanson Mountain. Swanson mountain fitness. Excuse me. And that is up in British Columbia, Canada. So welcome in Lorraine. Thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. So first, for people that don't know, we do have to give an update because there's massive forest fires going on around you guys. And so we were talking before we started recording. I just wanted to give you a chance to, you know, say how things are going, making sure is everybody okay or are people doing okay. You guys still still safe right now with with the current state. Yeah, we're still safe right now. Both myself and Todd are currently on evacuation alert, meaning we are still safe at our homes. But that could change at any time the fire is still about 20 ish kilometers away from us. But the concern is the ember showers that are happening. So yesterday I had chunks of burnt tree things falling in my driveway about the size of my hand. So it's definitely scary out there. There's a lot of people around us that have been evacuated. But, you know, they're doing what they can to keep us safe and try and stay on top of it and get us out with enough time if necessary. So yeah, it's definitely surreal. I've never experienced anything quite like it before. It sounds, it sounds really scary, but you have, you know, thoughts, the thoughts and well wishes of everyone out there. And if there's anything people can do to help, you know, let us know. But we're thinking we're thinking about you guys is kind of becoming too regular of an occurrence right now. It's a little bit scary. Yeah. So I asked you on because, you know, everybody tells me Lorraine has just an awesome story. You have to have Lorraine on. She's got, she's got this awesome story, which I definitely want to get into. But first, how, how would you describe yourself? Like what, what do you do? What about a lifter? You're a power lifter. You do all sorts of stuff. So like, how do you describe yourself when it comes to, to what you do for fitness? Gosh, it's hard to say it. I basically, at the end of the day, like, I like to challenge myself. I like to see what I can push my body to do. And honestly, a big part of why I do what I do is so that I can show other people what they're capable of because. I don't have a fitness background. I did not grow up athletic at all. In fact, I was the exact opposite of that. And you know, we all have our things that we go through in life. And working out became one of my vices that helped me through a lot of my hard times in life. And so I love doing it and showing other people that they can be strong too. And there's more than just one way of working out. You know, be it kettlebells or powerlifting or bootcamp or yoga or obstacle course racing. I do all of those things and I love them all. Yeah, that's kind of the basic of it, I would say. Awesome. And you chose a really interesting way of positioning that you said lifting became one of my vices. I have never heard someone say lifting is a vice for them before. Why did you choose? Why did you choose that word? I don't know. It just came out of my mind. I don't often think before I say things. Oh, I can understand that. My mother, my mother used to tell me on the highway from my brain to my mouth. There's not even a yield sign. It's just free, free flows out. Side, yeah. It happens. Okay, so you, you are a pretty accomplished kettlebell sportlifter at this point. What are your, what are your ranks that you've achieved so far at this point? Oh, God. I have achieved rank one in both 12 kilogram by aphalon and triathlon. And I hold CMS rank in 16 kg long cycle and snatch. Nice. And what weight class do you compete in typically? Just I don't know. I don't remember what the weight class they're called. I'm like around, I kind of bounce just over and just under the 66 kilogram mark. So I know. So when we're, so when we're talking double 16s, you're, you're basically doing half your body weight when you're doing double long cycle. Right. So just use people context that aren't super familiar with the kettlebell sport. Like it's a pretty high percentage of your body weight that you're doing a lot of reps with for 10 minutes on broken. How many reps did you hit in long cycle? My best set on long cycle is 106 on the 16s. Wow. That is, that is some pace. That's anything over 10 RPMs is pretty, pretty serious. It's weight. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, that's great. How about, and you said you do all the other stuff too. Powerlifting, Olympic lifting kettlebell, kettlebell sport. You do obstacle courses, right? Like you've got a Spartan race sign behind, behind your, your right shoulder, which people people can't see on the podcast. So, so tell me a little bit about that. How did you get into obstacle racing? Well, actually my fiance Ryan, he has been involved in Spartan race for quite a few years and before I met him. And when I met him running an obstacle course race was one of those things I'd always kind of wanted to do. And so when we started dating, I mean, gosh, I can't even remember it was maybe like a month into dating and I got an email notification saying I was signed up for both the sprint and the super race in red deer that year. So I wanted to run one race that year. And I think I ended up running two, five, six, seven races. And I did a hurricane heat in my first year running obstacle first races. So I did my, my first race. So I did two races in red deer that year. I think this was 2018. And then in Kimberly, I did the full trifecta weekend. So I ran the sprint the first day, the beast the second day, the super the third day. And then right after my race for the last day, I just got off the mountain with time to use the outhouse and then go back out on course with my son to run his first race. So yeah, that was a lot of hills. It was hills on hills on hills that weekend. Yeah, for sure. All right. So you got to, you got to forgive me like I know only a little bit about the obstacle race distances. I've, I've had it explained to me before by somebody who's very serious about it. And I don't remember what they are. So what's, what's the sprint distance? What's the super distance? Like I don't remember what the distances are. So as sprint is usually around five ish k give or take sometimes a little bit longer. I think now they've dialed back so they have more specific standard distances. Whereas before there was a bit more flexibility. Super, I believe, is around the 12k mark. So talking kilometers here. Sorry. Canate. That's all right. It's easier. He says 20 plus. And so with the beast, you also have 30 plus obstacles. And how many obstacles are in the other in the shorter races? Is it like one obstacle per kilometer, typically? Or is it more than that? Remember, it's been a couple years because you know, COVID and everything we have around races. So it can vary a little bit. I can't remember the exact mark for that. Okay, cool. So you, so you, so you clearly enjoy suffering. I mean, you like, you like, you like finishing yourself a little bit. Yeah. Where, where did that, where did that come from? I mean, let's, let's go back a little bit. You alluded to, you alluded to, you didn't grow up an athlete. So, so let's say, take us back to, take us back to Lorraine's origin story. Like, what, how did, how did you come up then? Well, I grew up in Princeton, which is in northern BC. I didn't have a lot of self confidence in myself. I got teased in elementary school. You know, I was never like the first person to be picked for sports teams and stuff. So that kind of brought my confidence level down. So it kind of was that I didn't feel like I was good at it. So nobody would want me on their team. So I would just kind of avoid those doing them, right? I'm even better because I was too shy and didn't want people to think I wasn't good at it. I tried a lot of different things like I did gymnastics for a year. I did baseball for a bit. I did brownies. I did, you know, like all of those little things, but I never, ever found something that really fit for me. And high school came around and I started smoking and, you know, I had boyfriends that were older than me that went to different schools and stuff like that. So, you know, lots of trouble at home, spent lots of time being grounded. As soon as I graduated high school, I moved out on my own. I went to hair school. And then I moved to tell Verda for a few months. And then I ended up on the island in Victoria. And I, at that point, I'm not really sure where I started getting the urge to start going to the gym here and there. But I started going to the gym and I really liked lifting weights. I have pretty, I'm lucky I have pretty good genetics. I think my, my family for that. And so I can get pretty decent definition, especially my upper body pretty fast. And I quite enjoyed that. And so I did that for a bit, but didn't really stick with it. And then I don't, you know, it's hard to say. I just kind of went in and out for it for a while. And then eventually it just, like I said, it became my vice. It was, it's my outlet. It's literally how I get through hard days now. Hard days, good days, all of the days. Like it's just, I can't not do it. If that makes sense at all. If 100% makes sense to me, and it's, I think it's, it's one of those things that it's very common. I think for those of us that have unquiet minds. If you find, if you find a place or a thing that allows you to, to let your mind go quiet. That usually is pretty addictive, I think in a good way, right? And you can replace bad, bad addictions with good addictions. Yeah, and especially kettlebells, because you know when you're moving that kind of way over your head. Like you can't think about anything else. Like you have to think about what you're doing. Otherwise, there's a chance you might drop it on your head. And that just doesn't feel good. No, I have, I have clipped myself with a 20 kilo bell. And I'm lucky I didn't split an eyebrow, but I thought it was about to knock myself out. Yeah. Have you done that too? Yeah, I have bumped myself in the head. Not with a 28, though, I haven't gotten those over in my head yet, but. Well, I'm a little, I'm a little larger. So I'm going to slightly different, slightly different way, class than you. So that's, that's to be, to be expected. So, Nice, very nice. So how did you actually get into kettlebell sport? Because I find that very few people get into it on purpose. It's almost always like they stumbled, they stumbled onto it. So, so how, who introduced you to kettlebell sport? Todd did. So Todd and I used to train at a different gym together. And this is Todd Schwab, right? Yeah. So he's my business partner now as well. And we used to train at the same gym together, kind of like a boot camp style gym. But he had just started getting into kettlebells at that point and had just kind of started. Had done maybe a couple competitions when we first met. And so I kind of like seen him doing it in the gym. I was like, hey, that, like, that doesn't look that hard. Like I could. I'm strong, like whatever. And eventually I tried doing kind of programming for a little bit of like one arm with. I think I think he had an extra 10 kilogram bell that he let me use. And it was awful. It was awful. It was not as easy as it looked. It was terrible. It felt awful. It made me want to cry. Is it natural? You were a. I continued to do it. I didn't take it super seriously to star. I kind of did a little bit here and there. That kettlebell challenge Facebook page. I did a few of those lifts here and there. Didn't take it super seriously. But then when Todd and I got the gym space. And you know, Todd has had a love for kettlebells for a long time. And it's super important. And you know, you really want to help grow the sport. So our first year of having our gym, we decided that we were going to host the North Okanagan kettlebell open. And so that was when I was like, okay, well, we're going to host a competition. Like, I guess I'm going to do my first comp, right? I do not recommend competing in your first competition at the same time as also organizing and running your very first one. It's a little bit stressful. But yeah, so that's when I started taking it seriously. And doing more specific programming for it and stuff. What year was this? So when did you guys, when did you guys open the gym? And when was the inaugural North? No. That would have been so this was our third year. So 2019. Okay. So I've only been lifting seriously for years. And now I low-key hate you a little bit because I've been doing this. I've been doing this for almost a decade and your way more accomplished than me in just a couple of years, cranking in it. So I have our Todd's are really great coach. And you know, his coach, Charlie has helped. And, you know, we got our east, our west coasters out here. Like, Chris is awesome. Catherine. Rachel and Sally. Like, there's some really, I mean, the whole kettlebell community is just full of amazing people. And you know, it's super easy to reach out. But I put in the work, but I also have really good people to help hold me accountable to it. Yeah, for sure. British something special up in British Columbia. Yeah. You guys have a lot of high level lifters coming. All the smoke we breathe. Apparently something, something in the water, something in the air. Hopefully it's, hopefully it's not that. But man, that's, that's pretty impressive. You guys do have really, you guys do have a really, really good crew up there. So, how is, how is the gym growth been since opening, since opening 2019? And like, as somebody who's open to gym, I know how stressful that can be. How it like, what, what precipitated that dream? And what made you decide to take the leap? So after Todd and I both kind of parted ways from the gym that we had been training at. We kind of worked out at, you know, like a basic box gym was, you know, your typical gym equipment and stuff. But, you know, when you're used to working in working out with a group of people, and you kind of have that community, right? Like you have the people that go to the gym at the same time as you. And you have people that kind of push you and challenge you and you're. You know, if so and so is beside you that day, you're probably more likely to work a little bit harder, right? So we had kind of missed having that. So Todd and myself, and then we had another friend of ours who moved to the lower mainland now. But the three of us got together and we started taking turns each week, creating workouts basically to try and push the other ones over the edge. Like try and beat each other. So every Saturday morning, we would get together. And we would try and make each other throw up basically. I just bring back that sense of community. Yes, friends do, of course. So we started doing that. And then we started getting like this group of people that just started coming out and we called ourselves. The Armstrong fitness elite. So if you ever see the hashtag AFE, that's what that is. And yeah, and then we would like, we would literally be outside Saturday morning, rain, snow, shine, plus 30 degree Celsius, minus Celsius. And we would be like, I'd have my little guy, he was like, I don't know, three at the time in like all of his snow gear in the middle of winter, like all bundled. And we did not miss a single Saturday, and we were always like, he wouldn't be cool if we like had heat or a bathroom to use. And this space just like came up for lease and Todd was like, what do you think? And I was like, do you have enough overhead? So he put his arm up and I was like, well, basically, why the fuck not, right? Like we were both in the position to try and the worst that could happen is it didn't go anywhere. So we took a risk and we opened the space up. My fiance is a genius when it comes to organizing and designing things. And he helped us to make the space more than what we could have ever imagined it to be. And then Todd's wife too, you know, Todd or Marlene and Ryan kind of helped keep Todd and I a little bit more grounded because we're like, let's lift all the things. And Marlene's like, okay, you guys need like insurance and stuff like, okay, you can't just like have fun all the time. So yeah, worked out really good. We had a really good team to start. Everybody that had been coming with working out with us on Saturday was a huge support with us to help get everything going. And you know, we kind of started off slow. We didn't really do a lot of advertising or anything and we just kind of been building. And then when we got locked down in 2020, that was, you know, a big scare for everybody, right? Like you really don't know where your business is going to go at that point. And so when we got the notice to close down, Todd and I took the remainder that week, I think it was like a Wednesday or Thursday and figured out what we're going to do. By the next week, we were ready. We ran live Zoom classes every day. I reached out to all our members and you know, if you need to put on hold or whatever, we can do that for you. And we managed to pretty much retain all of our members through our entire shutdown. We ran classes every single day, business as usual. Um, and then when it came back to hosting our second at this point, North open, organ, kettlebell open, we weren't sure if we should cancel it, postpone it or run it. And at that point, I believe it's Trisha out of Vancouver. She was what have been the first comp out this way that year and she ended up doing video submissions. We made the decision that if we were going to do it, we wanted to make it as much like an in-house competition as we could. So I was like, we're going to do this like, let's do it. So I'm like, flightless, like, like all of it as much as we can because everybody was missing that, right? So I was like, oh, let's just do it. And so we did it. And it was a real, it was such a good turnout. I think we had, um, I can't remember how many I think we had about 50 lefters. We had lifters from seven different time zones and creating a time of flightless for taking into consideration that many time zones is next level. But yeah, it was a really great turnout. And I think it helped kind of bring back that excitement of competitive lifting again, right? So it kind of started a trend. And so that's the one cool thing about all of this is, you know, with our sport, it's helped give people more options to lift in places that maybe they wouldn't have been able to lift before, right? So I think that's really cool that we get to be a part of that. Yeah, absolutely. You guys were, you guys were, I mean, I don't know if you were the first, but you probably were, if you weren't the first online competition, you got, you have to be, you have to be in the, in the top three or something because there was not a lot of people that had already started running zoom classes. Like I pivoted to zoom classes right away, but I didn't run any competitions or anything. I was just, I was just running, I was just running classes. But that's fantastic. Yeah, yeah. So we were pretty stoked about that. And then right after that competition, we were able to open our doors back up. And we actually have expanded our gym in the middle of a, so we know we went from having one level to two levels. And so yeah, we're still cruising, still growing, still lifting. Nice fantastic. I'm hoping the Olympic lifting with the bumper plates happens on the first floor so that you're not, not banging them on the second floor. That's the nice. That's, that's fantastic. And so you just had the, you had the third one was this year, right? Yes. And how is, how is that that turnout? Because you got to be able to be in person for that one for at least people who are in Canada. Yeah, we had an in house on the one day. And then we did the live through zoom again the following day. And we had our, I can't remember how many lifters we had now off the top of my head, but it was our biggest turnout yet. And we were super lucky because Dennis, the Dennis actually asked us to host the Canadian Nationals this year, which was a huge honor. And I remember when he first sent Todd and I the message asking us if we would like to do that. I would like read it out to my members. And I would like look at my heart rate, my heart rate would go like so hot. It was so excited. And you just sent such an ace message. So that was a really awesome honor to be able to do that this year too. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the platform podcast. We interrupt this interview to share some exciting updates about the Twin Cities kettlebell open happening October 23rd here at the athlete lab in little Canada, in the heart of the Twin Cities. And now also available to compete in online by a video submission 27 degrees apparel has finished designing our event t shirts and has given us a discount code tckb10 for 10% off all of his apparel. And those shirts will be customizable by pre order up until a couple of weeks before the competition so you can check out the website for details on that. We also have two belts from Denis Vasilev at bellevator as well as six pairs of ursa spare foot athletic training shoes, which are my personal favorite for snatch as well as deadlift and gpp. And our friend Nikolai Pushlove from the Seattle kettlebell club is providing his new made in the USA pro kettlebells for competitors to try out and use on the platform if they choose as well as support from expiring nutrition and others. And if you have any other ideas or connections to interest sponsors, please reach out to me and don't forget to register for the event on our website, twinsys kettlebell club dot com. Now let's get back to the interview. It's fantastic. Can you guys had some really cool prizes to like the kettlebells that were customized. You had Woolvers and kettlebells customized with the the swans and mountain logo on them, which are really cool. I saw Dr. kettlebell Eric Stange got one of those and he posted it in the group chat and I was like, fuck, that's cool. He won the 24s and Andrea won a pair of 16s. They both threw down some pretty epic left for so yeah. Yeah, they were definitely earned not given those are those are those are very, very cool. So are all your bells there? Are they all Woolvers Center? Do you have a smattering of brands? Of kings, Woolverson and bells of steel. We're actually the first North American distributor now for Woolverson bells. So we're selling through the gym and we're looking at getting more of a stock of their equipment and their super nice bells. So nice. So are you, are you a Woolverson, a kings or any bells any day, any platform anywhere I don't care. I mean, what's your what's your preference? Honestly, I'd like to be like, yeah, whatever, I'll list anything, but I'm a bit of a Woolverson's job now. It's totally fine. I get it. I like I try and foster the attitude of like any any bells on any platform any day, like that's my attitude. But I mean, given my choice, like, you know, give it, give it your choice. Everybody's got a preference, right. I'm happy about it. Very nice. I don't think I don't think I've ever ever actually laid hands personally on a Woolverson bell. I hear that they're really nice, but I've never I've never actually gotten to lift one. How do they compare to the to the kings? The windows just shaped a little bit differently. So like the kings and even the bells of steel, they're a little bit more square and these are a little bit rounded. So for me, I find I can especially talking for like long cycle and snatch. I can get way faster insertion. So my snatch has improved tremendously with it. So nice. Fantastic. So let's we've got to we've got to talk about the hot buns thing. You've got you've got to explain. You've got to explain where the hot buns things thing comes from. Well, basically, it's my my last name is French. It's pay show and it translates to hot buns. Yeah. And it's and it says it says pain on your on your on your lifting belt right on the on the back of your lifting belt. A custom belt lava champions made it for me. It says the pain on the back of it and joke is partially because people complain that I bring them pain, but I think they're being dramatic. And also, it's the first part of my name. So basically, it says the bread on the back of my the bread. I am the bread. That's fantastic. I love that. I have to I also wanted to ask you about your tattoos because you have some really, really awesome tattoos, right? Your back your back pieces is fantastic. And you've gotten some you've gotten some pub for that recently. Tell us a little tell us a little bit about that about my tattoos. Yeah. Well, I don't I like tattoos. Is there is there any is there any any any particular story behind it or or how you I mean, how did what did you get your first tattoo. That's always an interesting story. First tattoo I got on my 18th birthday. And it's one of the little tiny little symbols on my shoulder. Basically, if you weren't up close to it, it would look like I had a bug on my back. But then from there, I pretty much have gotten a tattoo almost every year since I was 18 and certainly all of them have their own meaning and the thing I like about tattoos is they're like, even if the image itself doesn't necessarily mean something to personally like say you do like a pick and stick, right? If you go into tattoo shop and you pick something up the wall and you put it on, I don't really have I have one tattoo like that. All of my other tattoos have had a lot more thought process put into them, but you know, they're like when I look at my tattoos, they're like a timeline of my life, so I can look back at a specific one and remember, you know, where I was at my life at that point and see how far I've come, right? That's really cool about tattoos. They're beautiful. It's a good way to display artwork on your body too, right? Like there's so many talented artists out there. And so it's an honor to be able to have that artwork just there. And I just, I love them. I'm with you. I love them too. I only have four currently, but I want, I want many, I want many more, right? And they're all, they're all symbolic of something are important to, you know, all of them. I don't have any pick and stick ones yet, but, you know, they're, they're all, they're all important kind of in their own way, which is, which is one of the things that one of the things that I love about them as well, in addition to the, in addition to the beauty part of it, but like, I think you really said it well, like it's like a, it's kind of like a, like a road sign in from your life, you know, that you get to put on your body, which is cool. Out of all of the tattoos I have and I have like my ribs tattooed my sternum, my foot, the most painful tattoo that I have is on my finger. Really. One line on the side of my middle finger was the worst line out of the hours of work that I have to have done. That's really interesting. I mean, that makes sense because there's a ton of nerves in your hands, obviously, a lot of sensory feedback comes from the hands, but I would, I mean, the sternum's really sensitive to, I mean, like, you do sternal rubs on people that are unconscious to bring them back to consciousness. So I had to imagine that one hurt pretty good. That was the spicy tattoo for sure. That was actually my most, it was, it was spicy. So how many, how many would you say you have now? Like, do you, do you just ballpark it with people now at this point where you're like, I have, I don't know. For as you have into it, right? Like, because my whole back is like, there's multiple sessions on my back for different ones, right? So gosh, I'm probably like close to a hundred hours worth of tattoos. Maybe I don't know, no, that can't be right. I don't know. I have tattoos, maybe a percentage of my body, not quite 50%, maybe, maybe 50%, I have a lot of ink. That's awesome. What was that? But I still have room for more. Oh, yeah, absolutely, right. There's always room for one more. Then there's always cover up still. I think I actually probably, my next one is actually probably going to be a cover up or a rework of one that just needs to be refreshed. I haven't decided. That's, that's fantastic. So I want to ask you a question about nutrition because with the amount of output that you're putting out, like, like, you went and did the crazy, the crazy Spartan race back to back to back to back. How are you getting in a fuel? Like, how do you fuel for all of the work that you do? If I'm listening, I'm eating literally my biggest concern about this interview was making sure I had time to eat or talking to you so that I wouldn't need to eat while I was talking to you. I completely understand having done back to back to back sessions before where you're just like, you're like, yeah, I can inhale a burrito in four seconds flat because I have to. I have to be able to eat that fast so I can eat and continue training. So do you have a, do you have a regimen that you stick to or is it really just like anything, anything that I can, anything that I can, I can get in quickly. I'm, I'm okay with or do you have a, do you have a strategy for, for how you do nutrition? Well, I recently actually started paying more attention to my macros and not like that's more just to make sure that I was getting enough right like I think when you're at such a high level of training, it can actually be really easy to be under. What's the word I'm looking for basically to not get enough right under fuel this what I would call under yeah plus you need it for recovery to right like you need it for output and recovery and so. I was feeling really sluggish and so I started paying more attention to where I was actually at and tracking what I was eating and that honestly for me has been a pretty big game changer because I actually up to my calories a whole lot from and I wasn't I wasn't getting enough. I wasn't getting enough fuel and so by making sure that i'm feeling properly i'm recovering faster i'm still gaining strength words before when I didn't really know you know you kind of bounce up through your weight range right so you have like a higher end of your range and a lower end of your range and when I was at my higher end of my range I wasn't always feeling super comfortable about myself but when I was at my lower end of my range. I was finding I was losing strength right and especially for in power lifting and stuff right and then you don't want to lose strength but you also want to feel comfortable right so. By dialing it in and up in my protein more and my carbs to like all of that I find i'm maintaining a way better range and i'm recovering and i'm getting i'm still gaining strength so I almost pulled 300 pounds off the ground last week. Oh you're going to get there i'm sure. I pulled it multiple times from different heights just not fully from the ground yet so but yeah so making sure our bodies are getting the nutrients eight is is so important. Yeah do you work do you work with your do you work with your athletes on that or your clients on that with their with their nutrition do you coach them up a little bit do they ask you now. If they ask me about it I definitely will help to guide them i'm not a dietician or anything so there's kind of a fine line there I am currently taking a course on nutrition so that I can better help and I think it's important that we. You know anybody as a fitness coach helps to educate our members and our clients and remove some of the stigma behind carbs yes. And like those things are so essential to us and they're so important but there's people are scared to even say those words right but we need them to function so. And this is my experience has been that in particular women are scared of carbs i mean. Men are too don't get me wrong but I find I find it to be more problematic with women that just calories in general like women women have been conditioned to think that they need to eat like 1400 calories or 1200 calories. That's how I was to be foreign and yeah i was like oh my god like when I first started tracking and like i'm eating like this is way more than what i've been told I should be eating right. But no i eat close to 3000 calories a day to maintain right with with the amount of activity level that you need to support and you have a very lean muscular physique right like that requires protein that requires the activity level requires carbohydrates like you need that you need that fuel so something that's really important to me is helping to change people's mindset on that and not worrying so much about. You know the number on this scale and also not just the macro nutrients but also the importance of the micro nutrients so when people say think carbs especially they're automatically like bread and pasta but that's not just carbs right like you need your vegetables and all of that stuff too so. That's my goal is to make people love carbs my life will. I don't think that's a hard sell I think people generally love carbs I think the getting them not to be afraid of carbs is really the harder part. I find that really hilarious when somebody's like yeah i'm totally on a low carb diet i'm like i'm like super low carb i'm basically keto as they're like as they're like shoveling broccoli in their mouth or something and i'm like i'm like. Bro you know those are those are carbs I know you don't think of them as cars but those are carbs that you're eating right now which is totally fine like obviously broccoli is great which is I always find that hilarious when they're like yeah i'm eating super low carb as they're just you know shoveling broccoli in their mouth like yeah sure sure you are sure you are that's fantastic i love and i love that you're that you're open about like how many calories you eat and like because I. I cannot tell you how many how many times i've told especially women like we need to double your intake and they're like what i'm like i'm like you're starving yourself like you're not going to lose any body weight and tell or anybody fat and tell you actually start eating enough because your body will not allow you to drop. If you're if you're not feeling enough well and that's why I try to be open about stuff like that so that you know people are aware right like you eat the food eat it yeah you don't have and i've always i've always found it interesting that there's this like well i have to i have to earn my carbs like you're not a you're not a dog earning treats right like you get carbs because you're human and you need them to function like your brain functions on mostly carbohydrates. It's right like i don't that whole thing always always kind of bug i mean i understand it's the the concept of like you know you don't want to have too many carbs and carbs around exercises always going to be better for your blood sent you know insulin sensitivity etc i know those things. It's what the diet industry has done right like i was created these unrealistic expectations of people and then when people feel like they can't meet those unrealistic expectations they feel bad about themselves right. And that's just it most of these things that have come out from the diet industry it's created all these unrealistic things and it that's it's just that's just not realistic. Because if you're not happy with if you're not happy with yourself you'll keep coming back that's the thing right. And that's why there's the yo-yo is right they try and they live in those unrealistic expectations and then the second they have what they think is a failed day then it's back off again right but it's yeah it doesn't have to be like that people. So what are you so what do you focus on because you've clearly gone through some of that that darkness i've been that i've been in that place you know to where i was doing some of those things but. You clearly kind of come through that now and so what do you focus on how do you how do you like mentally refocus um like as far as like nutrition and stuff goes just just expectation like getting rid of the unrealistic expectations so what what have you replaced that with like how do you how do you measure like what makes you happy with with how you is it your performance in the gym is it how you look is it like what do you what do you what do you gauge well i think all those things play a role right like how you look how you feel how you. How you form those are all obviously super important things to any athlete on any level right like those are kind of the things that we live for so all of those things play a role um and i just you know it's it's really not difficult it's not hard it's just you know you eat smart right and don't have to eat. eat only healthy foods all the time right you can still have treats just make sure that your body still has all those other important things like your micronutrients so that you have you know a healthy guts that can handle when you have a piece of pizza right like um so yeah just eat smart it's not easy there's actually a book called eat smarter that I recently read by Sean Stevenson and no i'm not. to say this but it's a really great book it's a really easy read and it just it just makes sense and it doesn't go all about you know you can only eat between these times or you can only eat fat or you can only eat carbs or protein might kill you or you know like you. free things right literally somebody could be like if you just drink apple cider for eight days you will lose 50 pounds and people will do it no please don't do that please don't do that as I like to say you'll also you'll also lose 20 pounds if you amputate a leg that doesn't make it a good plan. true good point so you guys have been really instrumental in growing the sport in Canada, but when I say you guys I mean the club Swanson you know Swanson Mountain you Todd right what what do you see is kind of the next steps that need to happen to take the sport to the next level. gosh i'm not even sure it would be really cool to have at an Olympic sport for sure right that's the end goal make it happen. but how do we get there what do you what do you think what do you think are the issues that we have in the sport right now like like first how do we just get more popular because like how do we get more how do we get more people in it because we made some headway in the past in the past year or two but i'm curious what you think the the next steps are to take it to the next level yeah I think just um continuing to share with people you know it's kind of like we said before you know it's kind of a tricky sport to get. started in right and then to have somebody you want to come back like it's it's not everybody it's not everybody's cup of tea right but it's i don't I don't know i'm not very good at selling the sport sometimes sometimes I've tried kettlebell sport is a toxic relationship you can't but. right i think we'll put that on a bumper sticker. right but yeah I think sharing it and just continuing to grow in yeah I don't I don't know I don't know a lot of the politics behind it and stuff I like I've only been seriously involved in kettlebell sport for like I said three years so I don't know all of the history that backs it and stuff but anything that I can do to help grow the sport I'm game for whatever it is. that's awesome yeah i'm i'm trying i'm trying to figure out like what's the right way to explain to people like because I feel like part of the barrier of entry is for for a lot of new people it looks super intimidating and I don't want to lie to them and be like no it's not that hard because it's fucking hard. but the hardest one makes it great so i'm like trying to figure out like how do you how do you sell that to a new person that's interested without scaring them off like like what how do you thread that needle. like nothing is out of all the things that I do and have done there isn't anything that is as hard as a 10 minute set there isn't anything and when you get to that ugly part where you're at like minute seven and it's just awfully delightful and there's just nothing else that compares to that and then when you can complete a 10 minute set there's nothing in the world that compares to the world. that feeling of accomplishment when you've completed right so and the type of training and stuff so when I go and run an obstacle course race or do something like that like it helps me work through all those other things to right because it it makes you. stronger not just physically but mentally to right so it's like everything all in one like you don't need to work for work out for an hour I can give you a 10 minute yeah if you want to if you want to meet all of your demons that live in your head just do a 10 minute long cycle set and we'll all pop up at some point especially after a minute five. maybe we should sell it to the diet industry. yeah I think that's I think that's a really good plan they'll figure out how to how to make it appealing that's right that's a that's a good idea. you just wait 10 minutes at a time yeah exactly right it's just 10 minutes of suffering is all you know that's the fine print you're just really you're just really. suffer yeah all right so I'm going to I'm going to ask you one more and then I'm going to I'm going to let you go so you have a chance to actually eat something again before you go back for more back to back sessions. it's my my favorite my favorite question and you know listeners of the podcast already know what it is it's if you were if you were given advice to a brand new lifter. or you can or you can say if you were if you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice is you're starting kettlebell sport what would that what would that one piece of advice be when you're for for somebody who's just getting started. whole for new lifter or for giving advice to myself well if I was going to give advice to myself I would. remind myself that one bad training session or one bad lift doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things and a brick laid is a brick laid so even when you show up and you have a shitty session and you don't. meet your reps or you don't make your time those days used to really get to me and there are days that I probably cried about it because I felt like I failed right but those are the sessions that I think make you stronger as a lifter. that you can learn from and you know not every session will be like that so now when I have those sessions i'm actually like yeah okay that's out of my system. now I can work towards the next one right and it's just you know it's just another another brick on the wall just lay that next brick just check it off I love that that's that's a new one I have not I haven't heard anybody say that that answer I love that. every every session every session is a is a brick laid whether it was your best session or your worst session i love that yeah that is fantastic how you build a wall one brick at a time. all you can do love it well Lorraine thank you so much for your time i really appreciate you coming on and how can people how can people get a hold of you how can they follow you on social media how can they. get a hold of you at the gym if they want to if they want to become a member they're in the BC area or if you guys are offering online classes you know how do people get at you. yeah so you can find our gym on facebook and instagram at swanson mountains fitness and then my personal instagram instagram page is Lorraine underscored dawn 82 i think. which i'll put in the show notes yeah and you can also find my handle on the swanson page as well and tauts as well to there i'm Lorraine page show. well Lorraine thank you so much i really appreciate your time will let you will let you get back to to cranking and i look forward to seeing on the platform soon awesome thanks for having me yeah of course. thanks for listening to this episode of the platform podcast i'm Jordan going to be right will be back with a new episode for you next week please don't forget to register for the twin cities catapult open on our website twin cities catapult club dot com and if you have a question or a suggestion please email me. at twin cities catapult club at gmail dot com and don't forget to follow us on social media at twin cities catapult club and if you want to step under the platform and competing catapult sport please reach out to me until next time.