W/ Allison Wojtowecz

BIO 

.Allison Wojtowecz is a stand-up comic and actress based in Austin, Texas. She is also the founder of Flabs to Fitness, Inc. and head of marketing at MSW Nutrition. She has been heard on Sirius XM and opened for The Naughty Corner Tour with Jen Fulwiler. She is the cohost of the All. Is. On. Podcast and you hear her voice on the How do you Health? Podcast regularly, too!

 


"Disordered eating doesn't just go away, I realized very much that it is very tied to my emotions, it's very tied to my environment. And my social health."

"I think the whole 30 really changed that for me because the main tenant of the program is you're not allowed to weigh yourself. You're not allowed to measure anything, you're only allowed to notice like, Am I sleeping better? Or my workouts better? Do my clothes fit differently? Do I feel that I look differently?"

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Allison 0:16
Hey guys, welcome back to the show this is Allison here with MSW lounge in the beautiful Austin, Texas, you're about to hear a lot from me Actually, the guys decided that this show should be where I tell a little bit of my story. So we won't get too much into that now. But we did have a good time, it gets pretty deep. But you know, I think everyone thinks it feels deep when they're talking about their own story. So yeah, that being said, we had a great time, as always, the guys here are very caring and very open to listening to whatever anyone has to say. And they put on a great example of what we do when a client comes in and has some dark stuff that they don't necessarily want to share, but they know they need to so that being said, I think you're really gonna like this show. We've talked about some taboo things. And, yeah, please make sure to leave us a five star rating and review the podcast on iTunes. We have enough ratings to have a five star rating streak now. So thank you guys for that. Please make sure when you hit the stars at the bottom of your podcast app at five stars that you also just leave a quick little note. As far as like what you like about the show, and we'll read those off on here. You can find us at Hd YH podcast on Twitter. And we are using the hashtag hashtag Hd YH pod to take any topic ideas or questions or comments or anything you want to say related to the show. Put those on Twitter or comment on Soundcloud or anything like that, you know there's a million ways to reach us on social media. We our MSW lounge on Facebook, all that fun stuff. So get in touch with us share the podcast with your friends. That's how we grow this thing. That's how we spread the knowledge of health and continue being able to bring you guys these awesome talks myself not withstanding, there's been plenty of more interesting people on this podcast. So and we have plenty more planned to come we're really excited for the people we have lined up next. So please take the time to rate and review tweet us and please more than anything, share the podcast with friends and family get them to subscribe and rate and review as well. That way iTunes will rank us and we can reach more people. Okay, got a couple quick advertisements really quickly and then we will get on with the show. Today's show as always is brought to you by slender rella this week slender Ella glow is the focus. It is a combination of the classic liver detoxing Cinderella shot, plus a glow glow blend that basically makes you happier and allows for your hair and skin and nails to be healthier as well. So check that out for sure. We're also brought to you by flabs to fitness, bringing you 20 minute workouts you can do anywhere and personalized nutrition coaching. And last but not least, we are brought to you by paleo Valley today. paleo Valley is a small mom and pop shop food company that produces superfood bars, and grass fed beef sticks. And I recently tried their new recipe for their grass fed beef sticks and they're delicious. They're grass fed, they are naturally fermented as well so you get some good probiotic probiotic benefits in there. And they're delicious. So they fit into a keto diet, Paleo Diet gluten free, soy free, grain free, etc, etc. dairy free. Yeah, they're good for you. And since they're grass fed, the fat in them has a lot of omega threes. So pretty kick ass. Um, if you use the code flabs to fitness at paleo valley.com you will get I believe it's 20% off of your purchase through the end of this month. So that is the month of November 2017. So use the code FL ABS to fit an E ss flabs to fitness all one word at checkout at paleo valley.com and stock up on some great fermented grass fed beef sticks and superfood bars for your snacking pleasure. Okay guys, thanks for hanging in there. Without further ado, here is today's podcast. Enjoy.

Jon Mendoza 4:54
How's everyone doing today we're here in beautiful sunny Westlake hills Austin Texas, and I am joined with Alison way kovitch from flabs to fitness and we wanted to bring her on because even though she usually the moderator for our How to health podcast here, she is also a wonderful story as well. And when I say that anyone that comes on here to the podcast has their own unique path to health and wellness, and she is no exception.

Allison 5:24
It's like you guys.

Jon Mendoza 5:25
Yeah, exactly. So we wanted to finally showcase Alison, because I think she has a very unique story. But it's only unique in a sense of saying that I don't think it's emphasized enough in this in this community. So without further ado, Allison, can you tell us a little bit about your health and wellness?

Allison 5:42
Yeah, let's talk about something no one wants to talk about that's eating disorders. Um, and you know, when when someone says eating disorders, they generally think of like the classic diagnoseable classic case of bulimia anorexia or binge eating disorder. And the truth is, I think something like 80% of cases of disordered eating, aren't necessarily eating disorders. They're just disordered eating. And when I was beginning college, they still hadn't named a lot of that yet. They just called it EDNOS which meant eating disorder not otherwise specified. Which Yeah, I know bolas. laughing It's ridiculous. So is that

Jon Mendoza 6:28
a medical diagnosis? That's

Allison 6:29
they were they would use that as a diagnosis because there were so many, like, if you look at, like, What the What's the book of psychology that they use to? Oh, the DSM, the DSM? Yeah, the DSM, which like gets the diagnosis, diagnostic tool for psycho, psycho psychological issues. That's the word. And if you look at any of the dictionary definitions of what an eating disorder was, it was just those three things. And they're very specific, like, you do this if you're bulimic, but you don't do this if you're bulimic. And there were a lot of people who are showing symptoms of both anorexia and bulimia, which sounds weird, but like that happens, as well as binge eating and anorexia. And you know, it's just a very, it's a lot harder to diagnose an eating disorder than one might think. And so, over the last five years, I've watched it evolve from people calling it EDNOS to now they've created several new names for some of the more common ones that didn't fit into one of those three, including orthorexia. orthorexia, so yes orthorexia is the latest coined term. It's kind of like the fourth eating disorder that people call now and I would say I probably related closest to that one when I was in the throes of being very unhappy with myself, and all that stuff. But basically orthorexia is defined as people being very obsessed with what they're eating. Usually they only want to eat what they deem is healthy, whether that's just general clean eating or like I have to be vegan, or I can't consume any fat or I have to eat very strict paleo, whatever it is, like the person is obsessive about it to the point where they will like freak out if they don't have control over their food. And on top of that, orthorexia is usually paired with obsessive working out and sometimes they will use working out as a way to punish themselves for eating something that isn't within their strict guidelines or things along those lines. So it's, it's like someone it's like someone who looks like they're trying to be healthy. So it's a lot harder to find, because, you know, like, you know, me now I just like to eat healthy because I feel good. But when I first started trying to be healthy, which was when I went into college, I got obsessive with it. I thought, like, no, if I'm going to do this healthy eating thing, I have to do it. 100% like, I need to know everything that's going into my food and like, I was not fat at all. Like I was an athletic kid growing up, I played sports growing up, and when I quit sports to focus on theater, I still continued to work out my dad used to play football. So he used to take me for runs and he taught me how to weightlifting and all that stuff. Like he was very active. So he taught me and when I got to college, I just, I don't know, I, I had always felt that I wasn't a very good athlete. And so I guess I wanted to look like I was a good athlete, even though I wasn't like an athlete at school. And so I started being obsessive with what I ate. I had to work out every day and I like recorded everything that I ate in all of my workouts. And I totally remember it turned into like a calorie counting game. Like, if I ate over 1200 calories in a day I would flip out. If I didn't burn like I don't even know if my calorie counting thing is right by the way, but if I didn't burn like 600 or more calories in my workout, I would be so mad because that means that I would have already eaten back my calories by one Time like it was it got really bad really fast. And I no one knew that I was being obsessive with it except for me. And my parents could tell when I came home for the holidays, that I had lost weight, and I didn't need to lose weight, like I already said, and I mean, I'm like 5657 and I was at a healthy weight to begin with. And so by the time I got home, I looked very tall and very, like stretched out and like, a, my posture got really bad, I was depressed, I didn't like being at UT all of that stuff. To the whole. I should have loved UT. It's a great university, but I didn't want to go there. And so I was just kind of upset with the whole situation. And when I went home for Christmas break, my parents, understandably, were very concerned. And my mom kind of convinced me, like, when we were making Christmas cookies one day, she's like, come on, like, you love these Christmas cookies. Like these are something really like enjoy together. Like, why don't you just have one. And I remember when I had one it like, spurred something in me that I was it was that that mentality of like, you already had one, you blew it for the day, you may as well just eat as much as you can, and like start over tomorrow. And so I think like that kind of like mentality of like, okay, I should have a cheat day started my second semester of UT and

and I, you know, thinking I was being very healthy with all of this right, I was very on top of research, I was very much into the the traditional research of weight loss. So like, I liked the calorie counting, I liked whatever workouts could get me the biggest bang for their buck as far as calorie burn. But I also was looking into the benefits of overeating, sometimes. And there are some, especially if you're a chronic deiter, there's this hormone and you called leptin that gets suppressed. And if you under eat for so long, your body just stops producing leptin, which lowers your metabolism. So the benefit of a cheat day, quote, unquote, I'm air quoting for the podcast listener, listeners. Um, the benefit of a cheat day is that it boosts your leptin and therefore boosts your metabolism. And if you play your cards, right, and your cheat day doesn't completely just like, gain back all of the calories that you've cut throughout the week, it boosts your metabolism gets it to be burning a little bit better, and therefore your overall like, average calorie intake is still below what you're burning, therefore, you can still lose weight, and your metabolism isn't shot. So I found these studies saying this and I was like, okay, like I can do a cheat day week like this will probably help me finally get down to whatever the heck I wanted to weigh. I don't even know. I don't even remember what I wanted to weigh anymore because weight doesn't matter to me anymore. But um, and anyway, I started doing like, one cheat day a week and I was very like specific with it still tracking what I ate it first and only eating like a couple 100 calories over what I was supposed to and it was fine. But they quickly like turned into Oh, I want this ice cream. Oh, I want. Um, I would like eat like whole bags of granola. Like it was the most random stuff. And, um, I just, I don't know, like I I stopped doing it once a week eventually. And it became it became so like, like, I wanted to do it every day. And so like these cheat days turned into like, a couple a week and then like, it wasn't like I was benching every day. But it was very much like that like reverse as much as I was like using not eating my first semester to deal with my stress and unhappiness I was using eating to deal with my stress and unhappiness the second semester and so like, all of the weight that I lost in my first semester, came back and then some and I was like my heaviest I had ever been that second semester and even less confident when I went home for the summer. I didn't want to see anyone from high school because I knew I had gained weight and so I started like that summer I started really looking at Okay, like clearly these fitness gurus know something that I don't because they seem to be able to eat a lot more than I was and they look a lot better than I do. Even when I was completely like skinny or whatever I was like they look better with their muscles and I wasn't getting muscles because I wasn't eating enough. So I started just looking at different programs I could follow and all that stuff and really just stuck with my family that summer I really didn't see anyone from high school that summer I didn't want to and and that kind of shows you again like how I guess upset I was for whatever this change was in my life that I didn't want to happen and

I found this program called If It Fits Your Macros, which is very popular in the bodybuilding world and at the time, it was intuitive to me because it still is included the calorie counting, but I was eating way more than I had ever eaten before when I was counting and I lost the extra weight. I got that down and what am i healthy weight was that I had started out but I looked more muscular and it was good. And I learned how to weight lift, like properly, I wasn't just exercising for calorie burn. I just truly liked to lift weights. So I stopped like tracking my calorie burn and started just lifting weights because I liked it. And it was great. I got back to the healthier weight by the time sophomore year started and my sophomore year, a few things I think happened to improve my health. One was I joined a sorority, I went through rush week, and I was never like super involved in my sorority. I wasn't like the popular sorority girl. And I'm not your typical like stereotype of a sorority girl. But it did give me a really good core group of friends. And a lot of my other good friends even if they weren't in that sorority, I met them because I was in my sorority. So that like gave me some social health that I was severely lacking my freshman year at UT and it made me feel more comfortable on campus that I could recognize people and all that stuff. The second thing was I read 25 books that summer because I was not hanging out with anyone. And I was working at the front desk of a gym a lot, which meant a lot of spare time. So one of those books was called it starts with food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig. And when I saw it at Barnes and Noble on one of my many trips, I was like, Oh, these people are promoting veganism, and I hunt. So I was like, I'm not going to go vegan. But I picked it up just to see what it was. And I was reading and they said something in the description about grass fed meat and I was like, they eat meat, I can do this. So I was I read this book and it was all about them like explaining the science behind nutrition and, and not the science of calories in calories out but of inflammation and nutrient density and like getting your body to burn fat rather than carbs and all of these things that I had never even thought about before, when I was just so obsessed about the aesthetic side of it. And their whole promise was like if you eat like this for 30 days, you will have a different outlook on food. And a lot of us know this program today is the whole 30 it is a strict paleo protocol. And so the day after I pledged a sorority, I pledged to 30 days of Paleo Eating, which meant no drinking, no sweets, no sugar, no caffeine after noon, as a sophomore in college, and Greek life is dry. So I did it, I finished it. And I lost any extra fat like I got, like lean, but it was muscularly. Like, I had like the beginnings of a six pack. Like it was the weirdest thing. I was like, there is no freaking way that eating good food for me made me like look this good.

But like I was still motivated by the aesthetics at that point. And let's be honest, who isn't still a little bit right? We talked about it a lot. But like that's not my main motivation anymore. And I think the whole 30 really changed that for me because the main tenant of the program is you're not allowed to weigh yourself. You're not allowed to measure anything, you're only allowed to notice like, Am I sleeping better? Or my workouts better? Do my clothes fit differently? Do I feel that I look differently and you're allowed to take a before picture on day one and an after picture on day 31 and compare the two and you can like weigh yourself before and after but not during it. So they're very focused on the mental like step away from the diet game, learn how this food interacts with you and then we'll deal with like the weight loss later. And so after seeing how great I felt like my acne cleared up, so many things like just clicked for me and my workouts are better than ever. And so I was like, I need to learn more about this. And I just like went full paleo like so into it like, it was like so fun for me to like take old recipes that I had loved and like turn them into paleo concoctions that tasted just like they're like original one. Like I have a chicken fried steak recipe. Like all that stuff. And it just it made me so excited and so happy and like, I just had so much fun. And before I knew it, I'm flabs to fitness, which had started as my Instagram before college that I would use to like look it like fits bow like posts like fitness inspiration posts, lots to fitness turn into a blog that I would post paleo recipes on. And before long after that, like I realized, oh my gosh, I hate that this is just a blog, I'm gonna turn it into a full website. And I started like learning about paleo companies that were around and not just here but like across the nation and like this whole paleo movement, like I got right on it just as it was starting to get really big. And um, and since then, like, I've reincorporated each thing that isn't paleo, quote unquote. So that's like grains, dairy legumes, including like peanuts and soy and corn. Well, he

Jon Mendoza 20:08
back up just a second. Yeah, explain what paleo is for the people who don't know what paleo is.

Allison 20:12
So as a diet, paleo focuses on all grass fed organic produce, largely vegetables, maybe a couple servings of fruit a day if you're if you have good blood sugar, grass fed and wild caught meats. gamey is preferably preferred, which I'm lucky that I hunt and I have access to that. But yeah, if you're going to like buy it at the store, or whatever you try to buy local grass fed wild caught all that stuff. The fattier, the better if it's grass fed, like cuz if it's grass fed meat, it has a lot of omega threes in it. Versus conventional. It's got the inflammatory omega sixes in it. If you're buying eggs, get them pasture raised organic, the more orange they yield, the better. Lots of healthy fats including avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, even grass fed and pastured like lard and butter and ghee and things like that. A couple servings of nuts, almonds, macadamia is all that stuff. And trying to avoid, like seed oils, so like canola oil, like just pretty much any oil you're gonna find in any restaurant besides picnic. They probably cook with a bad inflammatory oil. And then you also avoid grains, including gluten free grains, which is like corn and rice and all that stuff. You avoid legumes, which is all beans, and soy and peanuts, and dairy. And since then, I've reincorporated each of those things at some point during my diet, and I know which ones bother me and which ones don't. And paleo as a lifestyle and movement now is turning from being that strict and dogmatic with just the diet. And it's more about lifestyle. So I'm over the last few years of still, like, let's be real, like eating disorders, just don't just go away, I was never diagnosed with anything. So I say I had disordered eating was an eating disorder. But disordered eating doesn't just go away, I realized very much that it is very tied to my emotions, it's very tied to my environment. And my social health, if I'm feeling lonely, if I feel like for sure, if I'm alone, like that's way a bigger chance of something to happen, like if I'm like, get upset, like, you are much more likely to go eat an entire bag of chips with peanut butter. Like, if you're by yourself, then then like, if you're with your family or with your friends, right, because that's

Jon Mendoza 22:45
why no one's watching. There's no

Allison 22:47
one's watching. And, and you it's, it could be a combination of anything. But for me, I feel like it's because I work a lot. And so I feel like sometimes it turns into I'm home alone, I don't have my friends or my family around. And I just get really anxious that I didn't get as much done as I wanted to do that day, or I have something coming up that I'm worried about. And like just the stress of those things, like, gets me to want to eat something. And the fact that I like know that now obviously is great. But it's particularly bad when there's a big transition in my life. So like, after I came back from studying abroad in Italy, I didn't have a single issue of like, an eating disorder over there. I was so happy but like, I came back and I realized it was my senior year at UT and I was like, What the hell am I gonna do? I had no idea what I was gonna do with my life when I graduated. And like I totally had a relapse. And I like call my mom after. I haven't done this since sophomore year, what's happening? And so it's just it's times of transition. But like, I think the biggest thing that you learn through this is to have grace with yourself. realize what your triggers are. And honestly, like there's certain foods that if you have a disordered eating pattern, like you will binge on them no matter what, and it's like you start eating them, and you won't stop like, and I had the most random ones like granola. I love granola like that, um, dried mango was the thing for me for a while and fructose is bad for me anyway, like I literally like break out if I eat too much fructose, which is a certain sugar in certain fruits. But yeah, so I just have like things that were would probably be considered health food for most people like I just will overeat them to no extent and it doesn't matter how hungry or not I am I just will over eat them. But I know that so i don't buy those things. So it's just a lot of like manipulating your environment to but um, yeah, I have, I guess. Now, I would say that like a paleo diet is much more than a diet. It's figuring out what works for your body and what doesn't It's learning to have that social health. It's learning to get that outside time flooring have the relaxation time and all that stuff and being okay with like, admitting that like you are okay with certain things. And as an actress as well, this is like always a big thing for me, I'm very bad at like, internalizing everything I like to think things through completely before I say them, or before I do them. And oftentimes, like you can't think through your emotions, you just have to let them happen. And so a big part of paleo health is like being okay with showing your emotions and like having people that you can talk to about them with and all that stuff. So it's more of an all around like movement for life. And obviously, fitness as a part of it, too. You want to work out for good movement, functional movement, being on your feet a lot during the day, even if I'm on the computer, I try to stand a lot when I'm doing it take a lap every once in a while that stuff. But yeah, so I mean, today, it's just, I, I'm a personal trainer, I'm a certified personal trainer, nutritionist I am very have my head, my feet very much in the Paleo sphere. I know a lot of the companies in the movement now, as well as the non paleo I mean, just the general health world has boomed the last few years. And so I do product reviews for them whenever I can, just to get them some more site traffic. My website has product reviews, tons of recipes, a wellness blog, all that stuff. And I do online coaching for nutrition and for workouts. And the biggest thing I see with nutrition still is like people just I haven't talked to anyone who doesn't have some sort of disordered eating habit at some point during their life. And it's not even necessarily like, it might just be like,

I don't even want to say that, like anyone who comes to me, like needing a coach for their nutrition has had some sort of like, I eat this because I'm stressed. And it's not even like I binge all the time, or whatever it was, it's not necessarily as bad as I got. But it's like, oh, yeah, well, I always want chocolate when I'm stressed. You know, like, they know that you know, or are just like, Well, yeah, of course, if you give me that jar of almond butter, I'm gonna eat the whole thing. And like, you know, if it's the latter one, I just think it's them, like knowing that they love almond butter. And they're like, yeah, I'll have a jar of almond butter once in a while. Even I'm done. Like that's not a stress reaction. But like, people who know that they have certain emotions tied to certain foods like that is like a sign that they might have something deeper. And every single person I have coached at some point like tells me Yeah, like I have to eat ice cream in the middle of the night or like, yeah, I yeah. And so it's just like, it's it's usually tied to something other than actually being hungry. Because like, you don't eat ice cream because you're hungry. Like, if you're hungry, you go and eat chicken and broccoli. So and that's usually the test I give them. I'm like, if you want to know if it's a craving or not, ask yourself, could I replace whatever this thing is that I'm about to eat with chicken and broccoli? And what I still want it? The answer is yes, you're hungry. Like go get some actual food. Yeah, the answer's no, you're craving it, try and not eat that or like have a little taste and be done with it. Like, you know. So yeah, that's that's my long and convoluted story that I don't really tell very often, right.

Jon Mendoza 28:22
we feel honored that you were able to share that because it's an eating disorder is not something that does get talked about a lot. But yet, it's not just a it's not just a female issue. No, right. I mean, I know of so many guys. And it's common amongst bodybuilders, but just anyone who's very healthy lifts, they have eating issues, fixation issues, there's something wrong, their connection with food. And I mean, you look at bodybuilders and they do Protein Protein, right? meat and potatoes. Yeah.

Allison 28:56
And that's the thing too, with like, it sucks cuz like, whatever the stigma is around it, like people do think it's more of a female problem, but it's not. And I think like, so many people think like, every person who comes to me for coaching help, always it's like, hey, look, I know you're great at this stuff. But like, I don't understand, like XYZ, like, you don't understand how bad my eating is. And I'm just kind of like trying,

Jon Mendoza 29:21
like,

Allison 29:22
you don't understand how bad I was probably. I said, I'm nutrition certified. And I am but I'm in a I'm in an advanced class right now. It's a year long program, I have to do a lesson a day. I have a case study every other week that I need to write an essay on or take a test on. And it's all about dealing with the behavior change involved with nutrition. And I, they gave us a statistic the other day and I think they kind of made it up but I think they're probably right or they're very close is like 98% of fitness and health professionals have had some sort of issue with body image or eating disorders. In before they became what they are today, and I think it sucks that there's this stigma around health coaches that we're perfect. And we have it all together and like, we're looking down on you because you won't eat your kale and things like that, like, no, we're just further along on the journey. And we see that and we see ourselves in the people who are just starting because we used to be there. And we just want to reach our hand back and say, yo, let me pull you up here. Like, we want to make it easier for other people than it was for us. Because we didn't necessarily like have the humility to ask someone for help. Or if we did, we see how much that person helped us. And we want to do the same for someone else. So it's all about like, it's all about just caring for one another and helping each other. Because if you reach out to a health coach, and they shame you for what you're doing, fire them right away and find a new one, because you're probably not going to find another one who will shame you like, you probably found the one in a million person who's going to be a jerk about whatever issues you're having. Like, if you are hiring a true health coach who actually cares about helping you and not just making money, there will have been through some of this shit, and understand where you're coming from. Even if it's not an epic weight loss story, like mine wasn't an epic weight loss story. It could be a different battle entirely, like eating disorders. So there's gonna be a health coach out there that can relate to whatever the thing is you're dealing with. And even if they their story doesn't relate exactly to yours, they still know that it's a journey, and they're willing to help you they can put themselves in your shoes, because they know how hard it is to ask for help.

Jon Mendoza 31:35
Yeah, I agree that most people probably do have body image issues. Um, I would be very hard pressed to talk to anyone who goes to the gym, that's probably under the age of 40 that doesn't have some kind of body image. I mean, how many people post selfies of them at the gym in the locker room outdoors lifting here's my games or whatever. I mean, you can even talk to and I've been victim of this too. Like he talked to someone like what was last time you worked out? Oh, it's been like two days I can already feel myself getting smaller right with

Allison 32:08
me. Okay, I've been sick. Speaking of food sensitivities. If I eat gluten, my seasonal allergies come back and I accidentally had some gluten Thursday night. Like been sick since then. Yeah. And I sound like a crazy person saying that, but it's literally, if I drink alcohol, which I had a glass of red wine. And I eat gluten on accident. I had some Peruvian food that I don't know what was in it. My seasonal allergies come back. Since going paleo. I haven't had seasonal allergies unless I accidentally get that stuff. But I digress. I've been sick and mostly in bed for the last like four days. It's Wednesday now and it started Friday. And I haven't worked out since Friday. And I feel so lazy. And it's crazy. My body's like my body's trying to fight something else off. I shouldn't be feeling bad for not working out when I clearly need the rest.

Jon Mendoza 32:59
Yeah, but that's it. That's a different thing. As opposed to someone who isn't sick that says I've worked out for days, they're probably driving themselves up a wall because they're like, I'm not getting bigger. I'm getting smaller. I'm missing out on all this blah, blah, blah. And so, like the body image thing, I think, I mean, I say I have a body image issue. me because why wouldn't you if you look at I mean, Halloween was yesterday, and you look at the costumes, like the Superman costume. Like I had a superman shirt on yesterday. And it was like, you can see the six pack on the shirt. And then like you see the kids that are wearing it. Like it's not the Superman with the cape that we weren't as kids. I mean, they have like the puffy, like muscles, costumes that they wear. It's like armor and they wear them. And I'm thinking like, there's a little five year old kid walking around with biceps on biceps and pecs out here. And I'm thinking that's who he thinks a strong man is. Yeah. And that's and I have to almost tell my sons that is not going to be the case. Like I don't care about you having a six pack or a pack but it's weird because I do I feel like I care about it right? Because the thing is, it's not like me growing up looking at the ultimate body and women are always the ones that say this and I'm glad you bring this up. Women will say I feel ashamed because you see the models on TV and in the papers and articles and and just advertisements you see them have this certain type of physique. It's almost unattainable for certain people, guys almost the same way. And I and you know, it's funny, this isn't all trainers trick. So if you look at the infomercials, right? And they say the before and afters right? It's usually a person that you know probably has a pretty big dramatic weight loss like 3060 pounds, but then you see like this guy who does like a shred 30 Day Challenge. And then he went from like, having like, I don't know, 7% body fat to like 5% body fat or something like that. And I'm thinking like, Did he just stick his stomach out a little bit more because like his chest was fine, as Arms. If it was just like the belly, it

Allison 35:01
doesn't look that much different. Yeah,

Jon Mendoza 35:02
it doesn't look that much belly something like they're probably just like bunch of crap before they ate a bunch of crap and then they just detox and then they got skinny. But like, even then you look at it and you judge and you say, wow, I could improve on those levels, I could improve over there. And then you start thinking like, Alright, you see all these other guys posting just like the females are posting same? Damn, how is he getting those apps? I don't even know I have those muscles over there. Right?

Allison 35:27
Um, there is a meme that's been going around about lifters for a few years now. And it's like a picture of a guy. He's a YouTuber, but basically, it's a screenshot of one of his videos. And it's him saying the day you started lifting was the day you were forever small. Yeah, the day became forever small. And yeah, that's true. You see guys begin weightlifting. And they're super excited to like, get some muscles and stuff and like, Oh, yeah, I just want to like, have some like more cut arms. And as soon as they get to that they don't think they

Jon Mendoza 35:56
look. Yeah, they're like I got a little bit more work, I just want to

Allison 35:59
gain a little bit more weight. And it's funny because the geysers want to gain weight because they're gaining muscle and women always want to lose weight. But like, I don't know, if they've done this to the reverse on women, I'm sure they have but I for sure seen this study asking men and women what their ideal female body type was. And women, um, like women put this like they like chose a very skinny one basically, like just above anorexic skinny, as like, that's what I want to look like. And on average, the men chose like three or four levels higher than that, like basically the average woman like like a healthy looking woman. And it was great to see the comparison because like, all of these women were like, well, men want this like it's supermodel skinny, it's just just above anorexia. And then like, all the men are like, No, we actually kind of want this thing.

Jon Mendoza 36:46
I don't know any guys that find that attracts the very skinny like, just then I mean, no offense to anyone, if that's just naturally how you are and just how you some people have that, but to try to work towards getting that way. Yeah, it's, it's not what guys want. I mean, it's, it's, it's weird, because then you hear about, like, you know, the plastic surgeons that are down the road who are doing these Brazilian Butt Lifts, and they're taking fat and put it in other places, you know, and you have plumped lips and all that it's just it's so odd. Because we have someone who literally says, I want to look a certain way here, because this makes me feel pretty, right. And they do everything they can to do that. And then there's a person sitting right next to him judging him saying, whatever that person is doing is not looking good on them. Yeah, they need to stop that. And it's crazy, because we're so judgmental about it. And the one day that when everyone can feel comfortable in their own skin is the day that we'll learn that we can appreciate the food that we're eating, and it's not, you know, going to make us sick, it's not going to make us feel, you know, bigger or whatever. But it's going to be something that's just part of our lifestyle. Lifting weights is going to say I, I lift because it makes me feel good, right? I cook because I like cookie not because I want to cook a whole cookie shade of cookies, or brownies or whatever.

Allison 38:07
And I think and I think the transparency of the health industry is starting to happen. Um, this whole like revolution of social media and everything has like allowed us to create these picture perfect lives, especially on Instagram, where

Jon Mendoza 38:21
everyone's having a good day

Allison 38:22
where you pick the best picture from that day and you post it and so it just it's a highlight reel. Yeah, um, but I think more and more people are realizing that that's not what we need or want anymore. So I think what I've been trying to do for my own social health, as well as just like letting other people know hey, like, I'm not perfect, like, please stop thinking that I'm perfect like cuz when people say that to me, I'm I'm floored every single time I'm just like, you don't realize the crazy that's going up in here. You realize I think Shakespeare a lot, right?

Jon Mendoza 38:53
Like I'm not like Shakespeare's crysta to

Allison 38:57
Shakespeare was very twisted. And that's a whole nother story. That's like my passion other than health like, but yeah, but like. So like, Lately, I've been trying to tell people like, hey, just by the way, like, I'm breaking the heck out again, like my acne is so bad right now. And like, luckily I have makeup to help with it. But like, john knows this that like I gave up birth control nine months ago now 10 months ago now I gave it up in January. So 10 months ago, and 11 today and I my hormones has still been screwed up. And like since giving it up like my acne was fine for the first few months and it's slowly been creeping back in and like if it's on your cheeks, it's a sign that it's hormonal issues and that's all where I've been breaking out. And so I've been trying to be open with that with like any of my like friends or like followers on social media because like I'm just trying to figure this out like I always attribute like my food and lifestyle and things like that to my hormonal balance and it's been completely off since giving up birth control. So like that's it latest thing, I'm just trying to, like, be transparent about it like, like, I might talk about how I'm eating well, and sleeping well and working out, like help your skin and your health and everything. And they do. But something is off right now, whatever. I don't know if birth control can throw you off. And I'm sure it can, but I don't know what it takes to realign that. So I'm on my own journey right now of trying to fix that, because, like, my cycle hasn't come back since then. And that's not healthy. So like, clearly, something's up. So it's, it's always a process for even people who call themselves health or wellness professionals. And like, I think the more we become honest with that, and the more we just admit that to one another, it's going to become less taboo to be imperfect. And we'll help each other reach a long standing health over the long term. And I think that's the ultimate goal, at least for me, like, I just I want people to know that like, this didn't happen like me, knowing all of this stuff didn't happen overnight. So like, Don't feel like you have to know things overnight. either change happens one thing at a time. And it usually takes two to four weeks to form a habit. So like, just think about it like that, you know, the time is gonna pass either way. So it's worth it to start now. But don't think you have to do it all at once. Because it's you're setting yourself up for failure.

Jon Mendoza 41:19
Yeah, the case. Yeah. And we mentioned that here in MSW lounge, we say, Hey, this is a marathon, right? This is not a sprint. So we haven't figured this out by no means are we the experts, we're just saying, here's our story. Here's what's worked for us, here's what other people have said. But we're also saying we're we're going on this together, like our path is here. So like, Alison brings something very unique in that sense of saying that she is opening up about this taboo to not only affects women, but affects men like myself too, because we have these standards that we have to hold to. And at the same time, we want to make sure they're realistic goals. And whether it is trying to lose weight and feel better about yourself sleeping better, or whether it's being comfortable in your own skin, whatever it's going to take, there's going to be days where it's going to be ups and downs, right? It's not Instagram photos all the time,

Allison 42:07
I just say to like thinking that losing weight is gonna make you happier is not gonna work, like happiness. as cliche as it is, happiness is a choice, and you might feel better and be healthier once you lose the weight. But you're still going to find something else on yourself to judge. Like, just because you lost the 50 pounds doesn't mean you're going to look at yourself, I look great, this is awesome. I'm done now, like you're gonna find something else. That's just what

Jon Mendoza 42:32
happened, that depression still there.

Allison 42:34
Sucks to say that, but that's how we are to ourselves. So like, instead of saying like, once I lose this weight, I'm going to be happy once I lose this weight, things are going to be great. Like, say no, I am working towards this goal. And it makes me happy that I'm on this way to that goal. And be happy like with yourself once you do reach that goal, but be okay to know that that goal is going to change, you're going to lose the weight and then you're going to say well now I think I look too skinny I want muscles I want to gain more weight again, like and it's that's what people do wherever evolving but like don't don't think that a health goal is going to be your happiness destination. Because it's not like it's it's just not you need to you need to look at your body and respect it as something that you live in you are doing these things because you want it to be the best place you can live in and you want to fuel it well because it feels good. And it'll help you live longer and see your grandkids or whatever. And you want to put it under pressure like weightlifting and yoga and running because that helps it stay up stay here longer to just you need to look at it as as a as a caretaking facility rather than I have to beat this thing up because it's it sucks and I don't like it like as soon as you start respecting it, it will start responding much better than you ever thought it would. And you'll be happier with it in the long term whatever your sizes

Jon Mendoza 43:51
so I well said well, I will end on that. That's That's great. Allison is flat to fitness. And how can they find you?

Allison 44:00
Um flabs to fitness comm FL ABS to fitness comm I'm on all the social medias at flats to fitness. And I'm at MSW Lounge at least three times a week doing brain management here. That's

Jon Mendoza 44:14
right. So if you if you do want to talk to her and maybe get a little more inspiration, maybe it's you know, a little more focused to what you're dealing with. Come up here come the MSW lounge, you'll see Allison here, she'll be smiling. She'll make you drink. And, you know, you'll you'll start learning about how what you can do but we're all in this together. And that's the biggest story here. Her story is our story. So keep that in mind. But I wanted to thank Allison for sharing that. Come see us Westlake hills at MSW labs y'all take care

"I think it sucks that there's this stigma around health coaches that we're perfect. And we have it all together we're looking down on you because you won't eat your kale and things like that, like, no, we're just further along on the journey."

I always contribute my food, lifestyle, and things like that to my hormonal balance."

You can find the How do you Health? Podcast on Twitter @HDYHPodcast, and use #HDYHPod to submit speaker ideas, health questions, or topics you want discussed!

You can find health stuff from Allison on www.flabstofitness.com and comedy info on www.alliwo.com

SPONSORS:
MSW Lounge
Slenderella® Bliss
Flabs to Fitness, Inc.

CREDITS:
Hosts - Jonathan Mendoza, MSW Lounge
Guest - Allison Wojtowecz
Podcast production - Allison Wojtowecz (Flabs to Fitness, Inc. - www.flabstofitness.com), Andy Havranek
Guest coordinator - Baldo Garza
Intro song - Benjamin Banger