Well, hello ladies and gents, robertsykesketosavage.com.
Today I've got special guest, good friend and client Jen
Potero on the line and we dive into all things competition.
So she did several shows this year.
She just recently finished competing at Worlds, WNBF
Worlds, which is an incredible honor in and of itself.
She absolutely killed it. And this was the first year she
transitioned from doing bikini to also figure.
So I wanted to just pick her brain as to what that whole
journey was like. The the macros, the prep, the
posing, the actual experience, the whole kit and caboodle.
So throw it into the conversation.
I've got utmost respect for Jen. I've got no doubt that you will
take something from it. So that further delay, sit back,
relax, do the conversation with my good friend Jen.
And we are live. Jen, how are you?
I'm doing great, Robert, how are you?
I'm dandy. I'm dandy.
How many times have you been on the podcast You know?
Oh my goodness, mind blown. But I believe this is lucky #3.
Three times charm. Awesome.
We got lots to talk about today. We sure do.
It's been a busier year, a lot busier than I anticipated at the
start of 2024, that's for sure. I know, I know you you planned
when at the beginning of the year you planned on doing how
many shows you think? I planned on doing 2 and how
many? One in September and then one in
November with different federations, and that's not at
all what happened. Well, just give us a little
precursor. What actually how many shows did
you do? The end of the day, I ended up
competing in three different shows.
So a little bit more than originally anticipated.
I think I twisted your leg a little bit on that last one.
A little bit, but so glad that you did it.
It wasn't a very difficult twist and at the end of the day, so
happy that I did it. I'm happy you did it too.
So just to give the listeners some context here, definitely go
listen to the other ones that you've been on the show with.
But you just recently competed in Worlds.
WNBF Worlds in Boston absolutely killed it.
And I just want to kind of like peel the curtain back on your
entire prep. So you started prep on February
5th at a weight of 150.4 lbs and taken in about 2400 and 50
calories. 220 four, 170 calories on average more or less around
there. And we got you down as light as
scrolling down the spreadsheet here.
Looks like your lowest was like what, 117 I think 117 point No
116.4. That was the lowest clocked
weight I think, right? Sounds about right, yes?
And it's been quite a journey. You stepped on stage at Worlds
at 1:21. But yeah, I just want kind of
the curtain back on your entire prep.
So just talk to me through the motions.
What were you thinking? What were you thinking in
January, beginning of this year? What was your what was your
headspace amp as far as the motivation to compete, the
desire? Where were you at?
Well, I was very excited to compete and was coming off of a
pretty intense, like intense for me build where I really wanted
to build more muscle, hence me allowing my body to get out to
the weight that it was at and eating the calories I was eating
in a serious growth phase. And then excited because I
wanted to try a different class. I wanted to move from bikini
into figure and try something very new.
So I believe at the beginning of the calendar year, yeah, I think
that I honestly at that point, I think that I had one show in
mind and that was with the UFE, their worlds in November.
And I wanted to compete and figure.
And and then I believe you mentioned to me or asked me
about the WNBF, which I had heard of before, But up in
Canada, at least in my geography, I didn't think that
there was a show. I thought they were all out West
and I would have needed to get on a plane and travel out to
Vancouver or Alberta, to Calgary.
And I thought, no, that's a bit much for me and my family.
So probably won't be able to compete with that organization
or federation. But lo and behold, for the first
time ever in 2023, they hosted a show in my neck of the woods.
And so we decided, I think the two of us decided that I would
like to, to give that a go as well.
So the two shows, one in September and then one in
November, two different federations was the game plan
and I was humped and ready to give it a shot.
Well, the WNBF has a pretty prominent presence in Canada,
but Canada's so huge, I mean, you may have to travel for it if
you're in Canada. What what is your take on the
federation overall? That's that's the one that I've
gotten my pro status in. And I've done a lot of different
federations, as have you, but I've always felt like from an
athlete's perspective, the WNBF federation just kind of has a
higher caliber athlete and they just, they just do things in a
more professional kind of more higher tier way, if if you know
what I mean. Exactly.
And I think that's the word that I would use to best describe
like professional. I think all the athletes are
fantastic. There's great camaraderie.
I met a lot of incredible individuals, both those
organizing and coordinating these shows and the athletes
themselves. And it was just from the word,
from start to finish, just beyond professional.
And I love that they are incredibly like beyond natural.
Like you know, without a shadow of a doubt you are stepping on
stage with all natural competitors.
And they they seriously boot those that fail their tests.
Like some federations are kind of lackadaisical with the drug
testing. Like with the WBF, you have a
polygraph test that's mandated for all competitors.
And then people that win their class, they have to do an
immediate urinalysis test and they're rushed off stage before
they can talk to anybody, basically to get the urinalysis
test done. And if you fail any of those,
they don't have any qualms about making that public and booting
you from competing. No.
And actually we had that happen at one of the shows, I can't
remember which one, but one individual unfortunately was not
successful in in passing that polygraph test, so was not
allowed to step on stage the following day.
And then yes, the second they announce that winner, you see
them shuttling like they will do that urinalysis.
And so they take it very seriously.
And as a natural athlete and older female, it gives me a lot
of confidence in in where I sit, you know, in comparison to other
to athletes that are we've all, it's a level playing field, I
guess is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, totally, totally.
So what was the transition from bikini to figure like?
Because you've competed When? When was the first year you
actually stepped on stage and competed?
Oh my goodness, it was the plan. Was it 2021?
In June I was hoping to do a live show that went virtual and
then I actually stepped on a live and in person stage later
that year in November. So it was 2021.
And how old were you then? Oh my goodness, I must have
been. I was 4141.
Maybe I'm now 45. So first of all, let that be a
huge, you know, testament to you as an individual, as an athlete,
'cause there's so many people that feel like, you know, like
so many, so many male and female.
But I feel like a lot of people compete in their 20s and 30s and
then they just stop competing. They get into a new chapter in
life. They kind of like put them on
the back burner. Here you are starting your
competitive journey in your 40s now competing in Worlds, which
is like the Creme de la Creme, top of the heap at 45.
I mean, that alone should be a testament to people that are
kind of on the fence about whether or not they should do
this or if it's too late to just freaking do it.
Because here you are doing it at 45, totally natural and
absolutely kicking butt. I mean, I've told you multiple
times that when you're up on stage, you, no joke, look like
you're in your 20s. I love you so much for saying
it. I'm serious, I'm serious.
I'll put the the photos of you in the show notes here.
But like, people would not ever guess that you're 45 based off
of the way you're presenting yourself on stage.
I mean, like this is the closest thing we've come to the fountain
of youth. I've I've said that multiple
times and I stand by it. I totally agree.
And it's mind blowing that there
are so there are so many other women up there with me who are
my age and older looking fantastic.
And everybody's up there with different goals or for different
reasons. And I love that any age, any
stage. I remember when I first decided
or agreed to do a show, my brother said to me, oh, what
Jen, you think you're going to be able to compete against those
20 year olds? Ha, ha, ha.
And I said, well, I don't know, but I'm going to give it a shot.
And I am so glad that I did. And I didn't listen to him and
some of the naysayers that says, you know, you're too old to do
this because I don't think that you, you ever are.
And my ultimate goal is to live as long as I can and live as
well as I can. The mobility, flexibility,
strength and, and I, I think that we have tapped into a
little bit not just youthful in appearance, but also also,
excuse me, physically, right. Totally.
Well, I think I've pointed out to you that other competitor,
Lisa Lum, was it you? I was talking to her about her.
I think so, yeah. Yeah, she's like in her 60s.
And I think she's, I mean, she's definitely won worlds multiple
times, but I think she won in her 60s, certainly late 50s, but
like the overall female bodybuilding category.
And I mean, every time I interact with her 'cause she's a
judge too. So I interact with her as a
judge and she's just got this youthful glow about her and
she's in her 60s and she's got better abs and, you know,
striations than most guys I know in their prime.
So it's like, you know, the this, this stereotype around age
is just so misfounded. If you take care of yourself,
like if you take care of yourself and that's the
compounding effect over time, then you can do some pretty
impressive things. Absolutely fueling your body
appropriately. Autophagy is a serious thing.
Clearing out the junk, bringing in new healthy stuff with the
right nutrition. And yeah, fountain of youth.
I agree completely. So talk to me about the the prep
itself. So kind of looking at the
spreadsheet here, we were updating your macros on a weekly
basis per my seven phase protocol and we started you out
at right around just shy of the 2500 calorie mark, 80% fat
ratio. And I'm looking at the trend
lines now. You're pretty much steadily
dropping the whole time. Not linear, but nice and steady
drop the whole time. And you didn't have, I mean, you
were pretty much training. Talk to people about your
training because your training is a little unique in that you
are training predominantly from home.
And you just got a gym built out at your place, which is awesome.
I can't wait to see the pictures of your new setup.
But you were doing all this and have done all this primarily
using, you know, pretty, pretty basic equipment from the comfort
of your home. This is very true.
I have built my gym.
My husband has well argue I've, you know, I've taken over the
basement of our home, which is why he has built for me this
wonderful gym outside of our home that we will be moving into
any day now. We, he we, he just did a test
run. We've got a wood burning stove
out there. He wanted to make sure living up
in Canada as it gets quite cold in the winter time, that I would
be warm enough out there and yeah, certainly going to be warm
enough and excited to move in. But it's, it's been a time And I
throughout this journey, I, my girlfriend has been writing or
putting together programs for me and I run them at home in my
gym. And part way through this, we
decided that maybe I should start to do my own programming.
So there was that shift. So, yeah, I've been, I, I've
done a personal training course and I'm now a certified personal
trainer and training myself with sort of basic equipment from
home. So I think part of me like it's
got good with bad, right? Like I've got no comparator.
I just know what I do and how I look.
I don't have any anybody else at the gym to, to compare myself
to. So I was a little bit nervous
going into moving from bikini to figure.
I think we talked about this like, do I have enough muscle?
Am I, you know, will I be able to compete at this level?
And evidently it it worked out and I am able to compete at a
figure level. But I just, I put my head down
and I do what I love to do, which is train and progressively
overload continuously. But I will say this prep, I've
had a different mindset than any other prep, other preps.
I feel I live in a vacuum, both with the nutrition and the
training. This time I was a little more
flexible, shall we say, with the nutrition and we can talk about
that maybe a little in more detail.
But with the training, I feel like I pushed to an extreme and
I don't know that it served me too well.
Again, I don't have any other eyes on me, so I did shift the
way that I was training at the beginning.
It was all about the heaviest, the most I, I was more sore this
prep than I ever have been. I think I stressed my body as
much as the, you know, the trend was, was in the right direction.
I think I was over training. I was over stressing my body.
And then part way through, I identified this and made a bit
of a shift. And I think that that served me
well. And I will do things different
moving forward in that there's a time and place for the to
failure and there's a time and place for almost failure.
And then there's a time and place.
I feel this is a genpaterial brain, but I feel for more
endurance and that mind muscle connection.
And you know, especially when I'm targeting, I feel my glutes,
I've learned a lot and grown a lot over this last prep as far
as learning how to activate muscles and increasing that time
under tension, yes, but with intention on specific and even,
you know, I'm training shoulders or arms, but also my back and
really focusing on that. So that's been a learning for me
and over the course of this, this prep for sure.
Yeah, it's hard. Like when you're at a caloric
surplus, it's, I mean, if you're getting an ample food, it's
pretty hard to overtrain. Like a lot of people are worried
about overtraining. But if you're eating at a
surplus and you're getting ample sleep, it's pretty hard to
actually overtrain. But when you're in a deficit, as
you are in a prep, it becomes much easier to, you know, I
mean, you're in a depleted state, so it becomes easier to,
you know, shirk on your recovery.
And it is it is possible to overtrain.
And it's hard when you're in a prep because like your mind
state is such that you want to leave no stone left unturned.
You want to give it your all. And you know, like a competitive
mindset goes into it, which is good, but you have to be
sensible because like my first prep same way like I would just
go ape shit in the gym and I liked it, but I feel like it
definitely became more catabolic than anabolic and kind of did me
a disservice. I lost a bunch of muscle tissue.
I lost a bunch of strength. And like with this last prep, my
whole goal was just to preserve the strength that I had built,
not really build more, but then be very calculated, really
listen to my body, lean into what I was feeling, and then
just just become much more in tune with things.
And that takes experience. And now that you've done several
shows, you can kind of tap into that much more than you can in
the very beginning. But the only way you can really
know what that level is for you is to go through multiple preps.
Completely, completely agree with all of what you just said
and learned so much. I evolved so much because I'm a
very process oriented person. I like to, I like consistency
and I like to know that I'm pushing harder, doing things
differently, challenging to make myself better always.
But with the experience and yeah, being able to listen to
your body and identify different signals and triggers, I'm
getting better and better at that all of the time.
And yeah, excited to well work with you and continue this
journey through a building phase because I think that I can take
these learnings and apply them a little bit differently and make
this year and a half to two year build even more effective than
the prior. And I thought, I, I thought the
last build was, was quite successful.
So. Totally, totally.
We'll talk about the nutrition. You mentioned that you were kind
of a little bit more forgiving, I guess, for the nutrition.
What, what? What does that mean exactly?
I mean, I wanted to do this in a more quote UN quote normal
fashion. I am a mother of two children
and a wife to a wonderful husband, and I can't always live
in a bubble and control everything.
So I wanted to loosen up a little bit and live things a
little bit or do things a little more normally.
Now, having said that, I do have a very intense goal.
I had a intense goal, so I stuck to the plan.
But we're in previous preps. You know, if I had a few extra
carbs left at the end of the day, that was OK.
That was good actually, the more carbs.
Left in my daily nutrition like I could have been eating more
carbs but I chose not to The basically my carbs came from
bricks and eggs. So this prep in order to try and
be a little bit more normal and participate in more family
functions and not and by participate you know, I mean
have a few extra vegetables. So I did eat, you know, a few
more Pickles, a little bit more celery I was letting loose.
And I know a lot of people would laugh at me saying that, but
it's the truth. Because when you have a goal
like this and your eyes said at the end of that tunnel, you want
to keep things as controlled as possible.
But I was trying to be a little more flexible, shall we say.
Well, if your idea is of letting loose is to have a little bit
more celery or Pickles, that's still pretty, pretty tight knit.
So let that be listen to the listeners, you know, like if
you're in a prep, you know, you can be flexible, but flexible
within reason. And a few extra stalks of celery
or a few more Spears of pickle. Probably not going to be the end
of the world at. The end of the world.
I will tell you it did slow the process.
It does. Everything you put in your
digestive system makes a difference.
But at the end of the day, and again, this is part of the
mental shift here too, and being more accepting and more normal
and stoic about all of this, it certainly helped.
Certainly helped. Totally.
All right, So I'm looking at your spreadsheet now and your
last show prior to Worlds was Saturday, October 26th at the
Calgary show and you stepped on stage at 119.1.
At that point your daily calories were around 13601390
with the refeed of 1880 and then talking about the placing at
that show. Oh, at that show.
Well, that was the show that qualified me for Worlds, so I
believe I came home with a second place medal in figure, a
third place medal in figure and a third in bikini as well.
And that was about a month away from Worlds.
And at that point, that was the the last show you were thinking
of doing. And I jumped on a call with you
like that next day or so. I think that's when I was elk
hunting. Yeah, that's exactly what
happened. I was elk hunting in Colorado
that week and had like a low period.
So I called you and, you know, I got a recap of the show, what
your experience was with it. And then I was just sitting
there at the table and the Airbnb and I'm like, all right,
Jen, let's let's level with each other here.
But yap world's qualification in the books world's is just a, you
know, a month away, which is a long time in the grand scheme of
things. When you are thinking that you
just stepped off the stage for the last time of your season.
You want to eat some food, you want to fill out, you want to
just return to some degree of normalcy.
And I'm like, all right, Jen, stepping on the world stage is
no joke. It's an honor to be there
regardless of the placing. I think you should just grit
your teeth for another month and do it.
And you, you were all going home about it.
I was, I was and there were a few reasons for that.
The first one is you pointed out to me, I've been reverse
dieting. I, I believe we started my
reverse diet back in September, right?
So I would have been eating the same way.
I'm continuing to eat the same way.
I'm going to continue to train the same way.
The only addition would was that I would need to practice my
posing on a daily moving forward for the next month.
And posing is probably my least favorite part of the whole
process. It's a very important piece of
this puzzle, but it's not something that I love to do.
But that was a challenge to me because when I stepped on the
Calgary stage in October, I it's a different experience.
There's an intimidation factor. There are so many competitors,
there's adrenaline and yeah, excitement.
And I don't, I didn't feel I did a very I, I didn't feel
confident about how I showed up on stage and how I presented
myself. It progressively improved over
the course of that day, which is why I love doing multiple
categories and multiple classes because the more stage time you
get, the better, at least for me, the better I become.
So I thought I will continue to do this.
I don't want to go out with that being my last show because I
didn't feel I did a great job. So I wanted to compete again to
give myself more stage opportunity, more posing
practice before I shut the season down.
Yeah, I'm glad you did. But you mentioned something I
want to definitely flesh out in greater detail.
So we reverse thated you into that show.
And you're right, we started to reverse that officially on
September 30th. So at that point, we've been
dieting down since February, which is a pretty good while.
And we were at, let's see, here at the end of your cut, we were
tiptoeing right around 1200 calories.
But with the refeed, it was putting your weekly average
right around 1300 or so, which is pretty much as low as I like
taking any of my female competitors.
And at that point your weight was right around 1:20 at the
beginning of the reverse that. So from that low caloric intake
from the the depth of that cut, we started reversed adding you
into the next two shows, the Calgary show and Worlds.
So all that while your calories were actually going up and you
were likely filling out more, but yet your weight wasn't
increasing. I mean we started bumping up the
calories and your weight actually dropped again from the
1:20 at the depth of the cut to 118 one 17116, all while your
calories were in fact increasing.
So pretty cool to reverse diet into the show as opposed to just
be depleted stepping on stage. Absolutely, absolutely.
And it was sort of mind blowing to me and a key learning moving
forward. And I think I'm still in that
state of fueling that metabolism with higher calories and
continuing to lose weight. I'm I'm not losing weight now.
I am gaining, maintaining, gaining weight right now.
I think a lot of it is water weight because I have started to
incorporate a lot more vegetables into my life.
But coming out of September into November years, I was still at
very much in that place of a caloric deficit.
As much as calories were increasing, I was still
continuing to progressively overload my training.
And with the refeeds and the metabolism shifts, I was, I, I
know I burned a lot more fat off of my body and came out leaner
stepping on the world stage. I did have a bit of a sodium,
like a, an electrolyte issue on the Day of worlds.
So I do feel I was a little bit inflamed and holding a little
excess water that day, unfortunately.
But yeah, All in all, I would do that again, hands down.
I don't think I would ever do a single show.
I think that I would always do multiple shows for this reason
because if I rewind to I think it was 2022 show, the same thing
happened. I was very strategic or we were
very strategic with my reverse diet and I couldn't figure out
I'm getting leaner and leaner and why am I not doing another
show? Why am I not stepping on another
stage? So if I do, when I do another
season, because I know that I will, I'll, I'll certainly
incorporate multiple shows again.
Yeah, I feel like, you know, if you're doing, first of all, it
just makes sense to do more than one show anyways, because if
you're competing, you're putting all this work into the prep.
And then to just step on stage one time, you're kind of doing
yourself a disservice because you don't want to compete too
frequently. So when you do get the most bang
for the buck you can, that's, you know, within reason.
Like last season I did five shows and five shows was a lot
like, I don't know if I would recommend doing 5 shows every
time, but certainly more than one.
And if you've got a significant gap between shows of, you know,
a couple months, then dieting down into a show and then
reverse dieting up into a show makes the most sense in my book.
But like, even now, you know, several weeks post worlds.
I mean, your weight's still right around 1:20.
So like, you have not gained much weight at all.
And your calories now are just shy of 1800s.
So we've increased calories quite a quite a bit and your
weight's still holding pretty stable.
Yeah, it's been great. And it's it's challenging like
reverse dieting can be. It's harder for me to reverse
diet A without the goal, and B as your metabolism starts
revving up and you want to start consuming more calories, but
you've got no good reason not to.
So when you've got the show to help, especially at that
beginning phases of the reverse diet, like it was a beautiful,
beautiful thing for so many reasons.
Yeah, I totally agree. And there's a lot of different
ways people address reverse dieting.
A lot of coaches, like I had Eric Helms on the podcast, I got
a ton of respect for him, but he typically does, He calls it a
recovery diet. And he'll basically bring
people's calories up much more drastically in the beginning.
And I'd totally see the benefit there from a psychological
standpoint. But for me personally, I like to
kind of keep that same structure and discipline in place even as
I'm reversing. Like I'll still do posing and
all of that stuff long after my shows are over.
Because I feel like having that degree of just adherence post
show gives me so much time to reflect and just dial things in
for what I want to do the next time I do step on stage.
That's a good point, and I wish I could say that I've been
practicing posting full transparency.
I haven't, but I probably should you.
You're motivating me here, but I do agree.
Yeah, it's, I mean, I feel like you, you just get so much
insight from it when you kind of adhere to the same protocols and
principles that led to your success in the 1st place as
opposed to just totally going off the rails.
And it's hard. I mean, it's hard when you are
increasing calories and your ravenous and your metabolisms
ramping up and you especially when you're doing it through the
holidays because I mean, you got Thanksgiving, Christmas, you got
these social family gatherings and everybody's eating
everything in excess. So it's hard to kind of tap the
brakes on that to some extent. But I feel like the discipline
that you gain from it just totally and completely applies
and kind of builds into your own internal reservoir of what
you're capable of so that the next time you do step on stage,
you know what you're working with.
Completely, completely. And working on that mindset to
like keeping that mental control and focus and yeah, all very
important. Well, talk to me about long term
strategy here. I know you and I have talked
coaching client relationship wise, but just for the
listeners, what's your plan going forward?
Well, I do think that this, you know, 45 year old Mama still
would love to build a little bit more muscle.
So I'm going to continue with my training.
I mean, I want to build the muscle for aesthetic, you know,
purposes for my own mental, I guess, Peace of Mind, just end
the challenge. But it's it is it's more about
the challenge and the fact that I just love.
That's my happy time in the morning.
Is is doing my training. So certainly going to continue
to push there and grow to make things even better if possible,
and hoping to to go through this at least one more time.
I'd love to compete again in, I don't know, I haven't looked at
the shows or the calendar or, or I like the September time frame
perhaps in, in Arkansas in a couple years.
If, if that show, if somebody's going to put host that show in
2026. And I'd like to, yeah, of
course, continue to work with you because I learned so much
from you in more ways than you know.
Like the macros are one thing and the accountability is
another thing. But your support and your
knowledge, your experiences, all of it, Like, I get so much value
out of all of it. And I can't thank you enough for
all of your support and help through this.
And I'm so thankful that you're willing to continue working with
me until we hit another WNBF stage in a couple years.
Well, you are always a pleasure to work with.
I mean, I can say you much more so a friend than a client for
sure. So it's no, no questions asked
there. I'm I've always get you back
from a coaching standpoint. And I would be honored to have
you step on my stage when we host the show because we're
doing it next year, 2025, but we'll also hosted 2026.
Lord will and everything going properly.
So yeah, it's, it should be an annual thing.
So I would love to have you compete there as well.
That would be amazing, and Scott and I have already started
talking plans to come and help support you with your first show
in September. It lines up nicely with our
anniversary, so I think we may pull the trailer down through
the States, maybe hit Nashville and then head over to Arkansas,
help out with the show. We've already got it in the
plan, so I hope you're OK with a few extra hands to help.
Hey, I need all the hands I can get so I am definitely OK.
I might I might sign you up for some guest posing or something,
so watch out. Look out now that.
'D be awesome. That'd be awesome.
What, what, what if your what if your kids thought about this
whole process, seeing you go through the transformation,
seeing you go through the journey and just all the
discipline you've applied. Oh, it's been great.
It's been the best bonding for my daughter and I.
She is my backstage coach. She has travelled with me to
every show. So supportive, so wonderful,
incredibly helpful and has learned a lot.
She and I have started to do some boot camps together.
So it's been a great experience and I, I hope I'm not speaking
out of term, but I think she would very much agree with all
of the statements that I'm making.
And for my son as well. I was a little bit worried.
I thought he might be embarrassed and all my mom doing
this thing on a stage, but no, he's incredibly supportive as
well. And he was actually upset when I
told him it's probably your dad coming with me to Arkansas, not
you, bud. You might have to stay home this
time. But he's actually tonight we're
going to a gym to work out. So he's 13 and he's starting to
get excited about training and he he's competing with me Mom,
how many push ups? I can almost do 20 push ups now.
And so it's a fun, it's a fun thing for the whole family,
really. I say fun, but there are times,
you know, they, they're very patient with me as I go through
these preps. But I think on a whole, it's
been a great learning experience for the whole family.
Yeah, no, that's awesome. Having people in your inner
circle that are in your corner makes all the difference in the
world because you, I mean, they sacrifice a lot and that never
really gets talked about when you're in a prep, like they
sacrifice a lot. So for them to be on board,
supportive, they're with you every step of the way, pushing
you through it, I mean that, that speaks volumes.
It sure does. We've got quite a great Patero
family support system going, so it's been great on many levels
for sure. I love it and appreciate it.
Let me ask you this, Jen, So you you're doing all this in natural
federations and I've had multiple people on the podcast
that are hormone experts, especially in the female
demographic realm, talking about the popularity and benefits
behind HRT, things of that nature.
You're doing all this obviously with the ketogenic approach as
you mentioned earlier, you're 45 years old now.
Is, is there much prevalence of, of the HRT clinics popping up in
Canada like there are here in the States?
And is there a lot of interest around that?
And have you given it any thought?
Have you stayed natural for any particular reason?
Like just talk to me about your your thoughts behind it all.
Yes, there is. There is quite a bit of of that
going on up here in Canada as well.
And I, I am hopeful that I don't need to go that route.
And that's a large part of the reason that I, not necessarily
the reason I started the ketogenic diet, but most
certainly one of the reasons I've continued to follow the
ketogenic diet and am in a strong proponent of high levels
of fats for my female friends in particular.
And, and so far, like my mom went through menopause at 40.
So I know genetics aren't everything.
And, and it, it wasn't a necessary, it wasn't 100%
certain that I would obviously, but like I have no effects of it
at all. And I'm hoping cross fingers
that I can maintain it this way. Yeah, yeah.
It's interesting because that just seems to be coming like it
seems to be the norm now, like in all the the podcast guests
I've brought on and just kind of getting the general consensus
like that seems to be where everything is going.
But like for me, I obviously complete the natural shows as
well. So I'm not looking towards HRT
at this point in my life at 33 as even an option.
I don't feel there's a need for it for me personally.
And while there may be a lot of protective, you know, mechanisms
behind HRT for both male and females as they get older, like
so much of that can be mitigated drastically by just having the
right lifestyle factors in place.
And I feel like when you're weight training, that's
obviously going to do wonders for building and preserving lean
tissue and bone density. If you're eating a ketogenic
diet, you're obviously getting in plenty of quality fats that
are also going to help with hormone function.
And if you're kind of undulating between periods in a caloric
deficit and periods in a caloric surplus, your body's metabolic
needs are kind of getting answered for there.
So I feel like if if there is a reason to jump on an HRT
regimen, you can certainly push that down the road by setting
yourself up with success via these lifestyle choices.
I completely agree and yes, I I don't know with 100 nothing 100%
but that it won't be necessary. I'm hopeful that it will be a
far more manageable when I hit that phase and stage A.
I'd like to push it out as far away as I can and I think that I
am living the lifestyle that I am.
But when it does happen, because it's pretty inevitable that it
will, that any side effects of that will be greatly reduced
because of my lifestyle and that it won't be necessary or I won't
feel a need to even consider that.
Ave. for some it might be necessary.
But to your point, I do think that you can control a lot of it
with lifestyle. Yeah, 100 percent, 100%.
Well, Jen, where do people go to learn more about you, dive into
your world, follow along? You are also a coach, so
definitely shout that out and let anybody's interested in
working with you know how to do so.
I am a coach and I do love being a deeper state keto coach.
Currently working with some fantastic females who I feel I
get to know on a very intimate level.
I care an awful lot about the people that I work with and I
love to get involved in their worlds and help them in any way
that I can, through nutrition, through the personal training,
like all of it. And so certainly through the
Deeper State Keto website. If you are interested in some
accountability and some help with your, your ketogenic
lifestyle, I would be more than happy to help support in any way
that I can. And then I am on social media,
but I must say I am not very active as of late.
I Jen Patero wait, yes, Jen patero keto fit mom on Instagram
and Facebook, Jen Dixon Patero and I don't know maybe I need
some I don't know. I just haven't been sharing very
much there recently, but hopefully someday soon I will.
Well, I need to see some updated build out shots of that gym
you're building. So you ought to do you had to
leverage that process for reason to post more on social because
you could post your workouts and everything in your new gym setup
because I love gym setup. So let that be motivation to
start posting more. There we go this, there we go.
Now I've got a reason. I will start to share some of
those photos and it might help me leverage.
And after like a New Year's, some New Year's new gym
equipment sales for Jen Patero with Scotty might help me.
What's totally going off on tangent now, but what?
What are you equipping your gym with as far as new pieces?
Well, I don't even have a squat rack.
You got to fix that up for sure. So I would like a proper cage.
I bought a Smith machine. It's so old it's wonderful, but
I think I paid $300.00 for it on marketplace through Facebook or
whatever. But so I feel like I'd like to
upgrade that and get myself a proper squat rack as well.
Nice. Yeah, definitely get you a squat
rack. That's going to open up a lot of
opportunities for you. But again, I mean, you have
built your physique with pretty basic equipment and body weight
stuff and you've shaved 20 years off your life in doing something
and it looks shaved 20 years off in a good way.
Like you look 20 years younger, not your lifestyle lifespan 20
years shorter. So whatever you're doing with
the equipment you get is obviously working.
Well, thank you so much for saying it.
And yes, when the world shut down now over many years ago, I
had a pair of 8 LB dumbbells and a pair of 12 LB dumbbells and at
that time you could not buy new equipment.
So I have done it very minimalistically here and had a
lot of fun in the process. I.
Love it. I love it.
Well, Jen, always a pleasure chatting with you.
I've got utmost respect for you as a client, athlete, person.
I am grateful to know you and call you a friend.
If there's ever anything I could do to help in any way, please
don't hesitate to reach out and let me know.
Well, likewise, Robert, you've been wonderful and changed my
life in so many ways. So thank you, thank you, thank
you. And I absolutely will have you
busy during the weekend of the show.
I'm grateful to have you down here for that.
I think it's going to be an awesome experience.
So stoked to hear that you're coming down to Arkansas.
Beautiful. Sign me up.
We'll pack the trailer and be on our way.
Can't wait. Awesome, Jim.
Until then, keep killing it and keep in touch.
Will do. Thanks, Robert.
Take care, bye bye. Bye.