What's going on, ladies and gents, Robert Sikes keto
Savage.com and today I have special guests Crystal Renault
on the line. How are you Crystal?
I'm great. How are you?
I'm doing wonderfully. Well, give me some background.
Know, your Aikido Quest coach. And I've kind of I was stalking
you on Instagram prior to this this conversation kind of get
some background on you and looks like you've lost quite a bit of
weight and you lift hard, you lift heavy.
Which I'm happy to see other people doing, especially with a
ketogenic diet. So dive into your background.
Give me some kind of your biochem look.
Got you into the keto space and its entirety.
Well, I used to be an all-around athlete in high school.
I grew up the typical childhood of riding the bike everywhere.
You needed to go spending. My Summers swimming with friends
at the pool, I was always active and now the ice cream, the
sugary treats the pizza. Those are all very normal with
my childhood growing up, but being so active, I didn't I
didn't see any negative negative sides to that.
So I continue just thing and Lee and eating that kind of diet and
I didn't see any effects until I was a little bit more of an
adult. So when I was going through
College full-time working, three jobs, just a lot of stress, a
terrible environment, I wasn't taking care of my body
especially with nutrients and I started seeing the weight gain
as the first initial issue when I was about 19, 20 years old,
which is something is pretty young for someone to start kind
of gaining weight. 8 and the way that I was feeling.
So I didn't really pay much attention to it.
You know. I just mentally didn't see
myself the way that my body started kind of changing.
I kind of just ignored it just, you know, relying on my youth I
really didn't expect for it to go the way that it was going.
But it ended up being to the point where I just was very
unhappy with myself physically, around age, 21, 22, you know,
the drinking, the lack of Going out with friends, the poor
eating habits, I could really start physically feeling the
changes, so I decided to go back to kind of the training that I
used to go through. Whether it was like the I was in
gymnastics, I was in track and field, I played like a lot of
street basketball, so I kind of wanted to start going back to
the gym as adults. That's kind of like the image.
Like, okay, I'm gonna go to the gym and work out and get fit.
But unfortunately, without a coach through Sports, I had no
idea what to do. I was very intimidated by the
gym. I have never put myself through
a workout so I was the person using YouTube and
bodybuilding.com I was looking for videos anything to just get
me started in the right direction because I had no help
and support. So my my training started with
workout videos, you know, on my phone and just trying to piece
together what it takes to Least lose some of the weight and diet
at this point, wasn't even a thought I thought that training
was what have people been in healthy.
So, I went through a couple years of that, where I did lose
the first 10 pounds. Now, like, in high school, my
weight was about 110, by the time that I was 21, 22, I've
gotten up the highest, I saw the weight, get up there was 147,
which me on a five foot four Games.
That was more than enough to finally put my foot down and say
aye. This is an issue so I can stop
it now or I'm gonna regret it later.
If I continue this path, do I was able to knock down the first
ten pounds and I was pretty proud of that.
But you know, you can only kill yourself in the gym so much for
the party when the training. So eventually I asked for a
personal trainer to help me. So I did hire a personal trainer
to work on. For make sure I was lifting
properly, I do have a couple sports injuries, so lifting
properly is really important. With anything that I do.
So he worked with me on a lot of things, and he also mentioned
diet a few times, but that wasn't a specialty.
So, I kind of just ignored it thinking.
If I keep training, if I keep lifting heavy, if I keep running
on this treadmill, I'm going to lose all this weight.
So I kind of was just maintaining my weight at that
point. I was on the whole loaf at
higher carb, high protein diet because I thought that's what
was healthy. So, I continued to this diet for
A few more years and then are at 25.
My mother who I was visiting in Ohio is currently living in
Chicago. But I'm from Ohio.
She noticed a lot of changes. She noticed that I was exhausted
all the time. I was taking naps, every single
day, she noticed that my my had mood swings, very irritable
irritable. So she just as a mother, she
told me like I think something's wrong and that we need to go see
a doctor. So I ended up in Chicago, going
to see a specialist. You just went through a whole
lot of questions to kind of figure out how I felt and where
I was not just physically but you know, met with like hormone
imbalances and things like that. So when I'm doing some blood
work and he told me at 25 years old, my blood work was similar
to a 56 year old woman already going through menopause.
I looked physically healthy, but inside I was a disaster.
So I, yeah, I left that doctor's.
An appointment sobbing thinking at 25 years old, why am I doing
this? What's going on?
And he even told me that like my estrogen, everything was so off
that if I wanted to have kids at that point, I couldn't because
my body wasn't able to so I was as horrible, it is to get that
news. I was excited that he wanted to
be really proactive with me. I didn't want to do anything
with medication. So the first way of attacking
this was through through food and this is kind of Like, the
beginning of me learning that everything that I knew about
food was wrong. So he initially told me to get
rid of the brains start adding more leafy greens, specifically
avocados, things like that. And I remember thinking it was
crazy, like I'm Asian. What do you mean?
No rice. That is a part of my culture.
Like you're telling me not to breathe and he's like, I promise
you, it's okay. Just just get rid of it.
So I started implementing some of the changes that he asked me
to To do and being young and kind of naive in like I'm not
going to do all of it, but I'll make some of the changes.
And I did notice, my body started to change and feeling a
little healthier than apps or reduced.
My energy, levels changed a little bit.
So, I noticed that diet was starting to really affect how I
felt. So I decided to dig a Little
Deeper from there, it kind of sparked my curiosity and
Obviously years of are to a couple years of killing myself
in the gym that wasn't working. I wasn't getting the results
they wanted. So let's run with diet.
Let's see how diet affect me. So I ended up getting in touch
with a diet, dietitian prep coach, one of my girlfriends did
did any competitions with him but also recommended him for
diet. So I went to him and be we did a
quick consultation in person and even it said to me like you've
built the figure if you want to do bikini competition, you're
already almost there. We just got to get the diet down
so I was excited like okay this is like my road to being fit and
healthy is but working with this guy and looking like these women
on stage these beautiful figures their detail their physiques.
That's what I want to look like because the me I thought that
was healthy. So I started working with him
for a few months and at some point he's like I want to One a
keto diet I have never heard of this.
I've never researched it. I was kind of just a little
soldier that okay whatever you say.
I'll just do it and going into it.
I really wish and this is something I preach is that you
need to know what you're doing, or at least know why you're
doing something. Don't just do it to someone
tells you to I ended up having one of the worst transition with
the phaedo flu. And again, I didn't even know
what it was but I thought I was going to go to the hospital.
I was laying in bed. Bed in a city that I'm not from
with no friends, no one to help me.
I felt so awful and thank God. People from work were willing to
take me to the hospital but I needed to because like, I'm I'm
gonna dump this out. I don't know what's going on.
So that was definitely my horrible experience with Geeta
was going into it and not knowing why, and not having the
support of coast to properly. Helped me through that
transition, it was just like, there's your program, we're
going to move forward so I wasn't happy with that.
The experience. But once I started Ito and
becoming fully adapted, I noticed the weight started
dropping, I was suffering from acne all over my face and my
back, I've had that for years, all of that cleared up, I just
from stress levels my hair. Sometimes it followed a little
more than normal and uncie do that stopped.
I've noticed that the like symptoms like that had change.
My energy levels went up. My my gut I stopped loading.
I stopped doing Did everything was working really smoothly.
So I started noticing all these positive changes on this diet
and when we started getting closer and closer to a couple
months away from the show, he wanted to put me back on carbs
and I actually said no I said you know what, I feel so good.
My body feels so good, why would I come off of it?
So I went from having the mentality of I need to be in a
prep show. I need to compete.
I want to look like that. Be healthy through being on this
new diet finding finding all these Made it benefit and then
refusing to come off of it. Because why would I do something
to work backwards and put myself in a position of not feeling as
healthy? So I decided to just be an
example of being on a healthy diet and incorporating exercise
and living a, what I feel is to be really healthy lifestyle.
So that is, that is my goal and what I've taught them to today
is wanting to just be an example for those that, you know, maybe
they don't want Compete on stage and I don't think that's
everyone's goal. But to be able to live the keto
lifestyle, get some exercise in and and just be a human being
without what the stage is kind of brought to us because that's
where we only see fit people because as you know, obesity is
very normal. Now, that's what I thought was
healthy and it's not and I want to portray what it's like to
just Use the tools the diet and the exercise, the be able to
live a life and feel good about it.
Yeah, I can totally get behind that.
It's interesting. A lot of people, you know, they
jump into keto because I wanted to do some kind of short-term
fix lose a couple pounds for an events but then they fall in
love with it from a sustainability and lifestyle
standpoint and then it motivated his stick with it which is
that's that's that's the end goal in my opinion.
That's what you should strive for.
Absolutely. And people ask me that is one of
the questions I get the most is Is it sustainable?
And if you feel healthy and you feel, if you've seen all these
positive changes, why would you go back to the same habit that
got you to the place? You didn't want to be any
longer. So when I say it sustainable, I
mean I don't count my calories, I don't weigh myself, you know,
I don't have to measure my Foods anymore, since I have learned
what proper portions are. And as you as your hunger levels
naturally, drop on this diet, you don't even have to worry
about calories. And Portion sizes anymore, your
body, just knows what it wants. So it's very sustainable and
being able to have a diet that doesn't stress me out has just
added so much positivity to my life kind of percent plus I mean
you're eating quality Wholesome foods.
Like if you're doing key to the right way, you're eating quality
Wholesome foods which takes so much the guesswork out of it.
Like if you're trying to do you know flexible dieting or If It
Fits your Macros approach and you're trying to make Pop-Tarts
seemed like the right way to go. I mean, in the back of your mind
you know that That's not healthy whereas with keto you should be
in Wholesome foods and you know you're doing something good for
yourself. Absolutely.
And and I didn't come across a lot of that information, until I
kind of continue to dig deep into what I was going through
and, you know, how to improve pedo.
And when I'm doing cardio, I hate I hate doing cardio home, I
hate the treadmill. Well, I'll pop up, either like
on Spotify or YouTube and I'll watch whether it's doctors
information on keto. I like to sit there and listen
and I'll just continue my own education and see what I can
find. and that's why I came across the grass that
grass-finished, whether you know, it's instead of it
pasture-raised eggs, so the quality of food absolutely make
the difference and I really tried to I don't want to say
push that on my clients, but I try to educate them so that they
can make the best decisions possible.
And a lot of people ask me, how can, how can you afford that?
I can afford it. Well, I went from having three,
four, five meals a day protein, shakes snacks and never feeling
full never feeling satiated. That's a lot of money and now
I'm going to one to two meals a day.
I saving a lot of money. I'm also not going to the
doctor's anymore because I feel fantastic.
So I continue to save money. Like your own health insurance
by buying products that are way higher in nutrients and better
quality than these process bagged and boxed food.
Absolutely, I hate it. When people try and use the
price point argument, for you know, not jumping into ketogenic
diet. And because it's, if you look at
all the variables and all the, all the things that you have to
spend money on throughout the course of normal
carbohydrate-based that I would venture to say that you're
spending a lot more than you think you are.
And then like you said, you're not going to spend the money on
the doctor's visits and all the pills and prescriptions if
you're giving your body the right food and on top of that, I
mean you don't have to like a poorly formulated ketogenic diet
with subpar, you know, beef is still going to be better than
you know, an extravagant carbohydrate based diet.
So even if you are less at an advantage with the, you know,
the price point, you can still make it work and still reap the
benefits. Absolutely, I think that moving
to grass-fed grass-finished wild pot.
You do everything. That I worry about focusing on
your percentages, the fats, proteins and carbs and then as
things get rolling, start moving towards better quality foods.
You can't have pork rinds for every meal and assume that
that's healthy and I've seen that, you know, someone submits
like oh I had pork rinds and pecans for lunch.
Like that's not exactly a meal you want to snack on something
like that. That's fine.
But you still have to worry about quality of nutrient on
this diet and that's really what it's about is just eating Foods
that were meant to eat. And unfortunately the food
industry has just worried about a dollar with extending its
shelf life and adding all of these, these chemicals and the
things that we shouldn't be eating.
And that's I think what is really hurting us, so kind of
avoiding that as you continue to develop your ability of like
maintaining Beto going in that direction is one of the greatest
things. That's what I credit.
The right, my lean physique was the fact that I don't eat any of
those things. Zai by organic, I buy grass-fed
and at only two meals a day and one of those meals is eggs, it's
pretty cute. When it when it comes down to
it, I think I'm saving way more money.
Then again, the five meals in the protein shape, Yeah,
absolutely. And a lot of people don't take
into consideration the absorption of the food you're
eating. I mean if you're eating
substandard foods and minimal quantity of that food is
actually getting absorbed and used by the body.
It's going to be a larger quantity of food.
But if you're getting the higher end, you know, truly quality and
Foods. You're going to absorb a lot
more of it. So your body's going to, it's
going to be stretched a lot farther for what it's been able
to do inside you internally. So it's from a price standpoint,
it really, it really makes a lot more sense to do it, right?
You know. Absolutely.
You can you can buy supplements but if everything's not prepared
correctly, like it is in nature they're not going to absorb some
of those nutrients so you're kind of just throwing your money
away. I'm getting all of my nutrients
as intended from nature. The way that I should be getting
it and my body is never felt better and I don't need a doctor
to tell me what to do to feel good because it's like Diet is a
tool. It's not the only answer but I
feel like I found what has worked for me.
And the fact that I feel so good, that's a doctor's opinion
is not going to change. If maybe you should have carbs
things like that. For example, my dad.
I just went home and found out that he was a type 2 diabetic
and they had them on insulin high blood pressure, but I
decided to put them on a keto keto diet and within a few weeks
his blood pressure. I'm sorry his blood sugar's
fasted, get it, he had ever surgery, that's I went home.
Home or at 2:30 which the doctors have said about and I
was upset about and by the three weeks later when I left his
blood sugar's were back down in the 80s and I was so proud of
him and then he went to the doctors and of course the doctor
was like I want you to put cards back in your diet.
I'm like, oh my God. So well, it's unfortunate.
I know you know if he has a piece of poster something every
once in a while that's fine. They're very old school.
They're, you know, they're not going to go to the Internet and
look for all the information like some, you know, I'm capable
of doing. They barely know how to even
turn on the computer. So I try to give them as much
information as possible, so, if he has a piece of toast, I'm
fine with it, but I'm just happy that even with him being so
uneducated about Quito and willing to trust me a little bit
and see those changes. Is it you can see how it impacts
somebody just to take them not completely down the keto diet
because he is having a little bit of carbs but just to remove
all those refined and processed foods, huge changes.
Yeah, it really is night and day.
I mean, I commend you for, you know, trying to get your dad to
educate on heat and what it is. It's hard, you know, we talking
to like, your parents, your grandparents.
I've had to struggle with this. I can't tell you how many times
like my parents and my dad specifically, and my
grandparents like, Talking to an older School generation about
what you do is and how to research it and why it's
important. It's like it just is very hard
to get through to him so I commend you for for making some
progress there. Yeah.
I would have to say that with my parents when I come home and
visit, I will kind of raid their cabinets and throw out all the
junk and then just replace it then we can see this is much
better to use. So this way it's like me
encouraging it I'm not going to really explain it.
There's like okay we'll use it. Yeah that's great.
But when it comes to just being feet, No, I personally don't
know anyone that's droopy do. So I'm kind of like the Oddball
out all the time. I order last at the restaurant
so I don't really make a scene where Everyone's Watching Me
modify my order. So it's a little bit of a hassle
but it's completely worth it because my health is a priority.
Absolutely. When you were 25 and you're
getting that blood work back, do you?
I know you said you weren't paying much mine too.
What's your nutrition was looking like?
Then you're focusing mostly on the training.
Do you remember if you You know, really under eating like trying
to just avoid eating in excess at all and just training very
hard. Like so you think your blood
work being poor? May have been a result of
malnourishment. So I mean, I've never had a
problem with undereating, I'm an ear which is why you do work so
well, for me is because I do overeat Thursdays.
I hit 4,000 calories. I'm like, dude, that was kind of
a lot, I probably should cut back and then on a low end for
me. I'm heading around 1400
calories, and that's it. I track.
So overeating has always been my issue but again, it's just over
eating foods that were really processed.
Like the pancakes pancakes were always a big thing on leg day
for me. I ate my pancakes before leg day
and then I went and framed lots of rice, lots of carbs and low
quality proteins. That pretty much just been
provide anything for me, so it was just a complete imbalance of
nutrition and it completely Through my hormones out of
whack. So for my doctor to step in and
give me the complete opposite of what I was eating was a bit of a
shock, but again, he was, at least willing to work with me on
diet because I did not want to be put on medicine for thyroid
or anything else. And for him to want to work with
me than against me was an absolute blessing.
It is cool that both your coach and your doctor both advocated,
the lower carb approach. I mean that's, that's seems to
not be Be so common out there. These days, I would have to say
that he did. He did ask for me to eat yams.
He's never included. Processed food.
He always wanted me to go. Is more like a Paleo style.
I guess he wanted me to eat yams for estrogen.
So when he started telling me how Foods affect my hormones and
what kind of hormones, that's where I got intrigued.
So that ain't encouraged me to kind of go and do my own little
research and start figuring out how diet does affect the body.
But I just again just being young, I was like, you know,
maybe I can kind of get away with some of these things and
then I'll listen to him on some other things but
trial-and-error, you've got to be able to not be afraid of
diet. Not be afraid of food and that
took me a long time to realize is that it's okay to kind of
experiment and see how your body responds.
And after years, again, even with Vito, I'm still
experimenting. What am I sensitive to?
How do I feel? He'll keep the variables really
low with my food so just at least having a doctor.
And again, dietitian put me in that direction was just
something that I had. Never I never experienced that,
it would come to where I am today with being able to work
with people and preach. What I love and have to do as my
passion, it's completely changed my world.
Yeah. And plus, I mean when you when
you find interest in it, you're more lucky to want to dive into
the research and the science and manipulations that you can.
You know, make and change with whatever the variable may be,
but as far as nutrition specifically is concerned, I
mean, there's nothing cooler than to be able to look at your
body as I can experiment. And then able to tweak these
subtle things and notice a pretty significant change and
then get excited about the next change.
I mean, that to me is, is is fun and enjoyable.
So when you, when you kind of put the power back into your own
hands, as far as what you're consuming, and you're being able
to quantify the benefits that you come.
They come from it. I mean, that's That's what life
is all about figuring out. What works, what doesn't work
and then adjusting accordingly, really?
And I think we've built a fear of, am I doing this wrong?
It's okay. If you try and you fail, failure
is a part of success and if you're at a starting point,
obviously some of the decisions that you're making are failing
you, and it's time to make those changes and you're not going to
know what's working for you until you tie and even, even to
this day, I think I've gotten my diet down, but there are times
and I go a little stricter. And start removing certain
things and then if I eat something I noticed that my
baby, my gut doesn't feel as good or I am a little bloated.
I'm a little tired. Okay, my body doesn't respond
really well to that. I'll keep that in mind, moving
forward and, and we shouldn't be fearful of full of food.
I mean, we need it. It's something we need to
survive. It's just figuring out the foods
that we need to eat. And I think on the keto diet,
like I said, being a Binger, I have a binging habit, being able
to eat until I'm satisfied and And having those suppress hunger
levels, have really allowed me to listen to my body.
Rather than always feeling hungry because I wasn't getting
the nutrients and then feeling like I'm snacking constantly.
So it's just given me a peace of mind and having that peace of
mind and then pushed me into, okay, what can I do with food?
How can I experiment with it and it's really given me that
freedom I think Vito if I had to sum it up in one word is
freedom. I completely agree.
I mean, I was kind of on the opposite of the spectrum.
Would I would under eat? Why would over each?
I would binge then I would like under eat trying to recoup from
that and I never really had a good idea of what true satiety
was and I was always just getting these skewed, the skewed
feedback from anybody because I was eating just some poor
nutrition and went even nutrition-related just no crap.
And then when I switched over to kedo, I was able to really
quantify what my body was telling me.
And then I kind of just more in tune with what actually needed
and I wasn't getting those false.
Has anymore. So I had an idea of what enough
was or what to little was then I can adjust accordingly but
you're absolutely right Quito from a sustainability standpoint
and from a just instinctive standpoint you're able to read
correctly that the feedback you're getting from your body
and then make those adjustments and it just becomes much more
sustainable enjoyable. You don't have to take the take
the guesswork out of eating basically and I'm not I don't
get me wrong carbs to an extent. Are the enemy but I don't think
you need to remove them forever. I live with a bodybuilder who
eats carbs and I see that it does work and he only eats
carb-free and post-workout. Everything else is very low in
carbs. So he's learned.
What's worked for his body with including those carbohydrates
and he feels fine with it and I think that if that works for you
that's fantastic but it's he's not eating the bags and boxes
food other than maybe, right? That's This carbohydrate and
then I do see him on Sundays, like he does the binge eating of
all the junk food. And I remember when I was going
through the whole body builder mentality, like Sunday's are my
cheat day, I'm gonna eat all this junk food and just not
ruin, all my hard work, but it worked against me, wasn't
working for me. So I don't think that you have
to remove carbs for the rest of your life.
But once you can at least get to your goals and start balancing
out your hormones and healthy blood sugar levels and all that
stuff. Then you're more than welcome to
enjoy the pretzel. Or if you want to have the
donut, go ahead. I do that occasionally to and I
don't beat myself up over it. You get right back on the Kyoto
train and you keep pushing forward.
You don't have to Guilt Trip yourself over it and just in
that you keep seeing results because when you eat healthy and
it specifically me for keto 98% of the time, you know, that one
little tiny carbohydrate meal, doesn't completely throw me off
and It makes me feel okay. They used to build myself so bad
doing those things. So again it's just my attitude
towards food is completely changed with her feet has
allowed me to physically and mentally feel yeah, you
definitely want to be a slave to food like when you start, you
know, playing these mind games and guilt tripping over things
just becomes a really negative feedback loop that spirals out
of control. And then, then food is winning
and you're kind of like at a loss as to how to recover.
But for me, I mean, in others, like yourself having a ketogenic
Is your foundation. Makes it much much easier to
stay within reasonable nutrition for sure, with you being a coach
and interacting with all the clients that you do.
What would you say? I mean, I know we're all
individuals and we have bio individuality but what are some
of the main pillars that you see people making mistakes on it
relates to Quito, and what is your advice to kind of mitigate
against that when it comes to my clients with be do?
I do a very similar. Our style of approach for
bodybuilding. Why have them do all the meal
prepping and after a couple weeks I know they're they
transitioned they're feeling really good.
I have them take over a day of their own meal so they can start
making those choices and getting comfortable and they have to
submit their meals to me. So if they're eating nothing but
pepperonis and pork rinds all day, then we can make those
Corrections. So I think that one of the
biggest things for me is there quality of foods voices, that's
number. One.
And then some anything that's really minor would be something
like not getting enough electrolytes and things like
that. But everything's so controlled
in the beginning because I want them to have the smoothest
transition possible. And I think that's the biggest
part that a lot of clients here. That's those, are the questions
that I get the most is, I don't want to get sick, I don't want
to feel awful and I keep hearing about this keto flu, but you
combat that with it really well planned and formulated diet
where, you know, you're getting these high nutrient density.
Then and and your moderate activity, to kind of get you
through emptying your gas tank and into fat burning mode.
The quality of food is definitely something.
I think people have to work on the most just because sometimes
convenient, especially if they have a busy lifestyle, it is not
the best food choices, and it's learning that taking that extra
couple minutes to go get a healthier version of food.
It's got to be more beneficial than just picking up a pepperoni
lights or something like that. Lily, absolutely.
It's becoming easier and easier to, with all the companies
coming into the marketplace and putting in there, just slapping
the word keto on the labeling. So it's half the time.
It's not even really a truly ketogenic food particles, just
the easy, grab and go, you know, oftentimes card base product
with key to on the label and it's it's enforced because
people are not digging deeper into nutrition.
They're just grabbing what they see at the onset.
Something says keto must be Quito and they're not really
putting any attention to focus on.
On the quality of the ingredients themselves.
Absolutely. And the big companies are
getting really smart with their marketing strategies on what to
put on the labels. Like you said, but want taking
the time to actually turn over and look at that ingredient list
and that's going to tell you what did and there's there's all
these drunk sugars and oils that I would never want and doom and
I understand that we want quick, grab and goes and sometimes we
do need that. But what's really great about
the keto diet? Did you conclude When fasting.
So you know what I can't make it the breakfast but you want to
hold off a couple extra hours until I get a real meal in and,
you know, you're not going to sit there be and be starving to
death because your body has an unlimited growth or thick and
full from which is your body fat reserves.
So, I've found that I don't need to run and grab that protein
shakes that I used to do all the time or you know, these these
facts that aren't healthy and I can easily keep the pecans
walnuts Macadamia and things like that in my in my bookbag or
purse or ever I'm pairing and completely prevent from going
off and getting something that isn't as high nutrient dense.
So it's there's there's little tricks that you can do to
prevent you from kind of going off the path and be able to
continue. Staying with quality food.
Yeah, hundred percent and that's why I very little sympathy for
people that Veer off Quito when they're in like a work event or
they're traveling or something like that and a readily
available. Keto food is not right in front
of them and they opted for whatever.
Is being offered to the general public.
I mean, there's always time to wait and get something that's
more suited towards your goals. I mean, there's no reason you
can't add a couple more hours to your fasting time and function,
probably even better than if you had eaten a meal in between
because the longer you're fasting, the more these for me,
the more mentally clear. I feel anyway.
So there's always always reason to make sure you get the quality
foods and if you don't have them, you can always wait a
little bit longer. Even it like social events are
probably the hardest, especially with having to go out and
Whether it's like the weddings and birthdays and those things
usually get me and that's kind of where I'm like, okay it's all
about just minimizing the damage minimize the damage and you know
again just get right back to it as soon as you leave that event
but I'm the person that's like picking all the meat off the
tacos it and I don't know what sauce was used and I don't know
where the figures are coming from but I guarantee like if you
minimize the damage, you can just get right back on the keto
training. Keep moving.
Board. And it's a lot better than
tossing it up in the air, and throwing it out the window.
And then having to kind of pick yourself out a ketosis and start
all over again. So, even when it comes to not
having much of a voice, you can still make dumb choices to
minimize the damage and prevent yourself being completely.
Absolutely. So with that said, like when
you're, you know, have your own kitchen and you've got access to
everything you need. What is a optimal day of eating?
Look like for you live. How do you say?
Structure your nutrition throughout the course of a day.
So, everything in our home, I do all the shopping.
The only thing that process, I think the marshmallows that I
might put on Joey's baked potatoes.
Every once in a blue moon, when I make those, but everything is
very to my diet or to his, I don't allow drunk food in the
home, otherwise I know him and I will eat it.
So, that's my number one defense.
Just not bring it in the home, but at this point, I usually eat
two meals a day. My first meal is always Exile.
Do One to two tablespoons of grass-fed butter with anywhere
from four to six eggs and that Neil Perry's me throughout the,
throughout the afternoon, into the evening.
We're all finished off, my second meal, sometimes it'll be
steak and eggs. Sometimes it could be like, a
really big salad. I will listen to kind of what
I'm in the mood. For I, I don't really plan
anything just because I know everything is Ito food.
So, I kind of just pick what I'm in the mood for And as long as
I'm safe, dated, which I always am.
Usually it's two meals a day. Sometimes the most difficult
part for me is that my partner is not veto this ee, the four
five sometimes six meals a day. So watching someone else eat is
very difficult for me. So even if I'm not hungry
sometimes if he's going to Five Guys up like you know what go
ahead and grab me a Patty with cheese and bacon, lettuce wrap
and then and it is tactically Emil.
Yes. Nothing.
But I'd rather have something that's in front of me.
That's so friendly than not. So I usually have two meals.
Occasionally, we'll have a third.
If someone else is eating in front of me, and I've got to
have Somethin to ya. Think two meals, a day is pretty
much my no. I'm too.
I think when you're he do having that first meal a little bit
later in the day and then, you know, dinner meal, it seems just
work really, really well as far as the eggs are concerned.
Why, why are you so adamant about, they just from the
nutritional profile, you Just really like eggs, a couple of
reasons. I want to love eggs and when I
was about seven months ago or so, I did an egg fast challenge
now to make it more of a challenge.
Usually, from what I understand, you do an egg basket, like three
to five days, but really kind of helped break through plateaus
because there's no carb. Basically, it's just high fat,
great weight. Quality nutrients.
I end up doing it for 14 days, just to make it a challenge,
which I don't exactly recommend it, but I decided to do it.
And even as lean as I am, I managed to drop 9 pounds and I
felt amazing, which is crazy. I'm like, I'm only eating eggs.
You're allowed to have some low carb condiments.
And I think the cheese but the fact that I felt such high
energy levels. I was amazed with how my body
felt of that level of fat, with no vegetables.
So that almost turned me on to that this egg, but like
carnivore style eating. So, again, this is where
experimenting trial and error and seeing how you feel.
I think comes into play, but being Doing that experiment I'm
like wow my body feels so amazing with the protein, the
type of food and I just enjoyed it again.
I loved eggs. So since then I've just always
Incorporated eggs as my first meal because it's just Rock,
Bottom carb, rock-bottom insulin levels and it keeps me still
full throughout the day. I've just kind of Incorporated
that into my routine, that's always my first nail.
Yeah, they are really feeling like when I'm doing a contest
prep, will do a bunch of scrambled eggs because you get a
lot more volume. It seems and it kind of
Psychologically works better with the mind and it makes it
easy to go through a Prep High regs are.
So what it is is a couple hundred calories for anyone that
wants to cut the calories. It's like you can only eat so
many eggs in your pool where I can scarf down a lot of food.
So so that kind of like gives me the volume and gives me gives me
the food that I want each me satiated and then I'm not really
overeating. And there's even times where if
I get hungry at night, I'll say, okay, do I want eggs?
And if I don't want eggs and I'm really not that at hungry stuff
like kind of use it to balance myself out.
What about, what about train? Let's, let's dive into training
because just in, you look on your Instagram part of this
call. I could tell it you're an
advocate for lifting hard and lifting heavy.
And I'm a huge believer in that as well.
You don't see a whole lot of females that take that approach
and I think that is absolutely the direction.
People ought to look more so than what they do.
Because that's where so many of the gains come from both from a
compositional standpoint. Is from a ability standpoint,
really? I think that women should live
and they can lift heavy and a lot of people get worried like,
oh, you're going to get bulky, you don't accidentally get
bulky. You intentionally have to sit
there and lists and lists and know what you're doing to get to
the level of these Elite athlete.
This isn't just something you fall into.
So I've been Lifting for about two years more for weight loss,
and then the last three years to build And that's because as a
female, you know, we're supposed to have this curvy feminine
physique and as an athlete I don't have that I have a very
boxy square frame and I was never really confident in how I
was built. So, with bodybuilding, I find
this beauty in being able to State myself.
So, by building out my laps and my shoulders and building out my
quads and the glutes. I was able to kind of give
myself a little bit, more of an hourglass shape frame.
So the fact that I have power over changing my physique,
there's certain things I can't roll, I enjoy that and being
able to see a little bit more of those curves.
I'm way more confident than when I was just like lean.
Stick figure tone. So I've been able to lift heavy
with proper form and get the changes that I want and that I
think are beautiful for my own body.
And I think that training the way that I've trained hard and
heavy has been able to not only continue to feed my results for
its weight loss. But physically, I feel better
stronger healthier than I was when I was in high school
competing or, you know, in my early 20s in the beginning, you
mentioned that you were pretty insecure in the gym that you
didn't know what you were doing, from a training standpoint.
How did that transition happen from from that to feeling
confident, and lifting hard and heavy like you do know?
So even as as The coats, I'm Ali, the student.
It, you can always learn. So, when it came to me in the
beginning, being very intimidated, it's just, I had no
Direction when you have no Direction, you're not going to
stick to something. So that's why I started
following. People like Michelle Lewin, for
example, she started putting out great content of.
This is how I train on Mondays, on Tuesdays on Wednesday.
So there are these people that you can follow to get motivation
and great Insight. So that's where I started with.
Where can I get good information content.
So I started following their routine, and one of my big
things is having a workout buddy, because I sometimes was
really terrible at holding myself accountable.
But having somebody to come with me and push me and, you know,
comedy, stop making excuses on. Didn't want to go.
That kept me going in the beginning, it's not every day,
you're going to be motivated, but you got to keep going
anyway. So having a workout buddy to
kind of go through that reduce some of my fears of walking into
the gym and being that person that didn't know what they were
doing. I wouldn't even walk through a
water fountain if I didn't Where it was.
I don't want to be that person that looked like I was lost.
I was so intimidated by everything so I started
developing Confidence from watching and learning from other
people. I would see them at the gym that
person looks like they know what they're doing.
I'm going to wash a little bit I'm gonna look at their form.
I'm going to see what exercises are doing but I really want
learned from my environment and anything that I didn't know.
I would Google it. I would you two-bit whatever I
could to find that information. So as I became more comfortable,
My friends that did work out would start asking me to start
work out with them and then I started learning from them.
And most of the people that I work out with were males, most
of my male friends, all went to the gym and that's how I started
getting into lifting heavy was because I didn't want to be the
girl that was like, no. Take the weights off.
I want to go lighter. There were like Crystal.
Just do it. You can do it.
And all of a sudden I'm pushing is the same exact weight as they
are and it was a confidence boost.
Like oh my gosh, why am I pushing this much weight?
I know. Never would have done that
without somebody motivating. Me being behind me and tell me
just to get it over with and get it done.
So that's where I started lifting heavy was because I had
people telling me that I could do something.
So absolutely having the right people in your environment to
motivate and push you I think is completely crucial to your
success and and moving forward and that's for anything.
It's not just the gym. That's for everything.
In life is to have the right people around.
You totally agree. A lot of people, I mean, like,
with anything. Like you said, if they don't
100% know the right, Way to go about it.
They just put up a wall almost and look the other way.
But if if you want to, you know, shape your physique to look a
certain way. At some point, you're going to
have to just bust down that wall and and train.
And the only way to do that correctly as just a, you know,
own up on those insecurities and jump into it and learn as you
go. I mean, when I first started
lifting that didn't have a blast doing either but learning it and
in recognizing your faults and had improve upon them that that
becomes part of the journey, that that makes it fun in the
first place. I mean, you can get it Excited
about learning a new exercise or a new technique, or adjusting
the way, you grip the barbell, and seeing the difference that
makes and how your muscles develop.
I mean, all that is just as it is with your nutrition kind of
like going through and figuring out what works and what doesn't
work. That's what makes this whole
process enjoyable and sustainable and educational for
for many many years to come happily.
And as you continue to develop your knowledge and your skills
and you continue advancing, it's amazing.
Kind of like the world that does open up and the people that you
can Everett with and I mean, I'm very very blessed to have Joey
school as well. Everyone knows my story as well
as my boyfriend because he's so knowledgeable.
I love picking his brain and him and I occasionally do train
together on certain days where, at least I can kind of hold the
similar waste to him. He has a few injuries.
That's the only reason why I can push the same weight is because
he has to go a little lighter but being able to learn from him
and even some of these other people that are competitors, I
I've been able to train with one to learn from them but also
because I'm able to contribute from from going out and learning
on my own. So to continue advancing that
knowledge. I no longer look at the gym as
intimidating. It's like it's a playground.
I can take a single machine and figure out for different
exercises to hit different angles and hand grips, and to be
able to play around with that, it's exciting because then you
start noticing different results.
Start noticing feeling store and different ways because you
haven't done something like that.
It's very exciting, one to see results and then to not be
intimidated anymore, that's probably one of the better
accomplishments that something where you know, you walk in and
you're confident. That's, that's a really positive
thing. Yeah, yeah, that's huge.
How do you structure your split? Are you doing, like a like a
stereotypical bodybuilding split or do you have it broken up
differently? So I don't look at Monday's.
Is this? These days is that I absolutely
listen to my body, but it's the point now where I feel like I've
died Got my physique, and from lifting heavy, I've been able to
build the muscle. I want them actually in the
stage of not just maintenance, but I kind of want to tone it
down a little bit. And just worried about
lightweights flow control. Time under tension, all about
the squeeze. I don't need to go as having
anymore. The only time I go heavy is legs
because it's your largest muscle group.
I want to I want to trigger all those fat burning hormones.
And I like a really good sweat, but when it comes to working
out, I like to do legs one day. I'm now currently starting to
split them up from the quads one day and then hamstring connect
those you do like quads and then I'll do back and then I'll hit
the hamstrings and the next day I'll probably hit like some
shoulders and arms, I rarely workout fast or do ab work, just
ABS, you're going to do during all your compound movement.
You need to have like, a good strong ABS to really complete, a
lot of the movements that I am doing especially with some of
the ways. So, I don't really worry about
chest and abs, but everything else.
I kind of just go back and forth.
And with being able to focus on the squeeze.
And the time under tension, I've noticed like, my recovery is
definitely a lot better, and I've noticed that the targeting
those muscles in that way. I get a much better workout than
trying to throw up a whole bunch of weight.
And then I start incorporating all the other muscles that I'm
not specifically Target. So I've really gone from in the
beginning overtraining pushing heavy weights to really Whoa.
It's bold lighter-weight movement to just focus on the
muscle group that I'm working on totally agree.
You know, like somebody could look at nutrition and if you
take keto, for instance to the the nth degree in, you're
looking at the, you know, EPA and DHA, sand all the different,
you know, in a grid like detail, orientations of where your food
is coming from, it's kind of like the equivalent to a
training perspective, really getting into with the muscle,
mind muscle connection and how all that ties in.
That's like the next level. Oil.
And that is when it gets really interesting because you can
truly see how each little variation of a movement really
Taps into it, you know, triggering a certain muscle
fiber differently than before and that's that's cool.
I mean, when you're when you're that in tune with your body just
as you are, when you're that into with your nutrition and
mean it's just power at your fingertips and you can truly
change how you look. Feel and perform.
And that's just that's the Pinnacle.
Absolutely. I there's for example, something
simple. Like the bicep curl.
Hi sir. I used to be using the 20s
thinking. I was all cool.
Lifted, I'll have you next to people and now I'm using fives,
maybe eight or tens and it's all about the squeeze and I'm
getting dressed as good of a workout.
If not I feel better than when I was recruiting all these other
muscles that did it need to be recruited during a bicep
exercise. So it's really changed my
perspective and just for taking things to do it better.
It's Joey has a saying and I love it.
It's not how much you live but how well you live.
Really changed my perspective on my training in the gym, is to
make sure that I'm lifting properly and lifting a weight
that I'm able to control, that is made a complete difference in
How I Live. Absolutely.
What, what's on the horizon as far as I could?
Are you doing any competitions or any kind of events or
anything that you're training for specifically?
It just life in general. So when I first started in to
Quito in Taquito, I wanted to do my first rap show and I was
traveling back and forth. This is when Joey And I just
started talking was, I think four months before my show,
those flying back and forth. And I didn't moving out to
California when the show was originally going to be in
Chicago. So it just, it didn't plan out
the way that I originally thought it was going to be in my
head, just things happen, but it was a discussion that I had with
Joey, that I was fixing my hormones through diet and him,
and I had the discussion that if you were, I wanted to really
just go into a deficit and put my body into that position.
It's very Got four, female hormones and if I'm trying to
fix that, I do working against myself and the fact that my body
was already making all of the changes that I wanted to see and
then move into that direction. I decided not to take a beat and
I've never competed and people ask me that all the time because
I do have striations. You can see definition.
I don't carry a lot of body fat so a lot of people think I do
compete. But again I just I try to decide
an example of this is what you can look like if you get your
diet. Down.
You do exercise that works for you and reduce stress get good,
sleep. Have a lot of healthy habits,
your body will respond in a very positive way, but when it comes
to all the training and eating now, it's really, I'm at a
maintenance point. I don't feel the need to build.
I've actually reduced almost my training and some of my cardio
because my body is just so in tune with itself right now, I
mean, I'm 30 years old and I'm turning 31.
I never would imagine. In that I could feel this good
this healthy the strong but it's just because a diet and training
and like I said, the sleep and other habits that have allowed
me to be in this position. Yes, that's a good healthy
relationship right there. Like when you, when you look
good, feel good, perform good and your training and your
nutrition are dialed in. I mean, life is better.
That should always be viewed as like, the, the Apex, like the
Pinnacle. That's what you're training for,
and living for the competition's, the events, all
that, I'm, that's great. Al I love it.
It gives you kind of a short term goal to strive for him and
work at, but I think as long as you're living life and making
that the priority, then then your rock's all out there.
And I think that's where some people make the sacrifice is
because now my career is Ito. It is my passion is my coaching.
It's working with people. The gym is my job, so I do get
to put a little more time and effort, that is my priority
where there's people review of families, you have kids, you're
a nurse or doctor, it it whatever.
You are, you have all these other priorities and I get that.
And those are important, those are jobs that you abscess put up
with do. But don't forget to take care of
yourself visit, you're eating the right nutrients and getting
some exercise in and the right slaves, you're going to be able
to put way more energy and effort with less stress into all
those priorities without taking your body down in the long run
completely agree. So with you kind of focusing
more on maintaining right now. What are what are you excited
about in the future? I want?
What are you? Get it for you, go into any of
these kids and at conferences, I know your keto career.
So to speak is really kind of gaining traction right now
what's on the horizon for you. So I know that my presence on
social media has grown largely because of who I am.
Oh I'm in a relationship with e is a really big influence that I
love that I get to kind of kind of go with him to these places
and meet all these amazing people and be in the environment
that it gets to be and it's very motivating to go to these events
and I've got to say as much as social media is integrated into
his life. It's not so much mine.
My job, my goal is to one focus on my clients but I try to
remove social media as much as I can because I really like being
present I like doing what I can in real time instead of
reporting it through a phone and thinking that's what my memory
is going to be. So when it comes to like the
conferences and things like that I haven't played around with
them yet but with Everything that I'm doing that's kind of
the direction that we're going and because as everything
continues to grow and move in that direction, I I'm kind of
getting inspired and my passions christenings bro, where it's
like, okay do you want to start reaching out if you want to
start expanding? But my number one goal is always
going to be my family life to take care of myself, my family,
Joey, my dogs and just always work on being a really good
person and as things are growing and continuing to change.
I'm I'm changing in those directions.
And kind of figuring out everyday.
It's it's so weird. How social media has grown to be
so powerful. I'm learning to kind of manage
my life and what I thought my life should be to switching over
to what the possibilities. I really respect that.
I feel like social media is a great tool, it's a great
resource that you could leverage to, you know, send a positive
message to more people and have a broader scope and positively
influence more people, but not at the expense of Of being
present in living your own life to the fullest and those around
you and your inner circle, I think if it ever comes to the
expensive that some things need to change.
So I completely agree and respect that for sure.
Because I think if more people viewed social media through that
lens, like you just described the, the want to be a better
place. Absolutely.
I think social media is a pool. It's a restore, but we've
allowed people, a lot of people have allowed their phones to be
their life, and I know that, Social media is meant to keep us
connected, but I think it's really disconnected us from
having real relationships. And I want to make sure that my
home life, my family life, my friendships.
Those are more important and being able to use social media
to connect with people such as you.
That's how I connected with Jason Witt Rock, and starting to
expand that Network. That's what I want to use it for
and then obviously to be a positive influence for anyone
that might be looking for motivation or questions.
I want to be a resource. Source for them where they can
learn something or if they need to reach out.
Ask, that's what I want to be. I don't want to be someone that
you just look at and put on a pedestal.
That's not me. I don't want to be that.
I want to be someone that you can reach out to.
You can talk to if I don't know the answer, I'll find it for you
or point you in the direction of where you can love it.
I love it. That's that's 1% the right.
I'll look in my opinion without a doubt will Crystal working
people speak of social media, where can people go to find you
on social? I'm on Instagram.
He do with Crystal and I just started a YouTube channel.
I actually started about a year ago but I was never, I've never
been comfortable in front of a camera.
So after the last year of kind of, putting myself out there and
trying to get over my own fears and wanting to be more
personable, I just started relaunching and I'm starting new
videos for for YouTube. For Stover know, my last name is
re n Tau. So I want to do a little bit
more behind the scenes of not so filtered.
Instagram is very Filter be kind of put like our best life out
there and that's not always the case with YouTube.
I really want to start doing more behind the scenes of into
my relationship, my daily life. What I do with training so this
is going to be a whole new platform that I'm going to start
taking off in a way more personable and organic feedback.
Very cool. Yeah, YouTube is easy to stuff.
I mean, it's not easy to put yourself on camera and just be
honest and genuine sincere in front of a camera.
And It on social media and YouTube and that's not easy, but
the but once you kind of bust through that Plateau just like
anything, like we're talking about before with, you know,
feeling confident in the gym before, you know everything.
I mean, you put yourself out there on YouTube.
I mean the the positive feedback you get it.
It's motivating itself so that keep you, it keeps you wanting
to just put out another video. So definitely tip my hat to you
on therefore for striving to go that direction.
That's it's a very worthwhile direction of take things.
Yeah. It's also very difficult because
the other person in this household has Very big
successful shoes to fill so, you know, him on camera, he's on it.
Like I said, very delicate so well and I love listening.
So when I'm doing something I'm like awesome, the closet hiding
for you hear me. So I can do my own things and
then I don't feel judged, right? So it's great to learn from one
of the best in the business. He's definitely very inspiring
and so encouraging and it's something that I really
appreciated having a partner that wants me to be successful
with things that I'm Passionate about.
So we've really become a really good team and I appreciate
someone that's motivating me and pushing me to do what I love.
Yeah, that's, that's huge. I mean, you got to have that in
order for a relationship to work moments, I feel very fortunate
to have, you know, my wife. Chris her name's Crystal as well
by my side because we've just been there to support each
other. I think when you find that
especially for in a similar industry, I mean it just the the
sky's the limit you can just you can do anything.
Absolutely. And again that's where social
the media should be used and being able to reach out to those
people and show them possibilities.
Educate have great content and to have a partner that is doing
that with you. It makes life so much smoother
because it's a whole different ballgame when you start putting
things out there in public or in the public eye.
So it's it really changes the game to have that person.
Definitely, definitely will keep doing what you're doing, Chris,
let me know. You get the right Outlook.
You get the right support system.
So anything that I could do, Help with an Aikido Space, by
all means. Let me know and best of luck
going forward. I'll I'll link out to your
social platforms there. So people can find your easy,
but like I said, keep doing what you're doing.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate this was the
first time that we've spoken. So I've really I've appreciated
being on your podcast and getting to talk to you and I
hope to get to know you more in the future as well.
Absolutely, you're in. Are you in Texas as well?
No. Currently in we just moved into
La side of Hollywood. Yeah.
So I lived in Chicago for two years originally from Cleveland.
I'm a I'm an Ohio girl moved to Chicago for two years.
And then I moved out here to California to be with my guy.
So we're currently out in La. Very cool, very cool.
With a keto space is definitely growing out Nelly.
So that should be a pretty good home base for you for sure.
Absolutely, we get in, we get to travel around to different gyms.
We never go to the same gym, few days in a row.
We just depends on the equipment, things like that, but
I love being able to get to meet people and some people do come
up. Asking people questions and I do
notice that the interest people wanting to know more is out
there, the hopefully being out there being with the answer
their questions and inspires people gives them more
confidence. At least try something.
If something's not working, be willing to try something new on
a percent, and you'll be finding that out with the YouTube for
sure. You going to be doing all kinds
of new things. Absolutely, awesome.
Oh, Crystal has been a pleasure look forward to speaking with
you, again, in the future, like, say anything I can do, just let
me know. Talking to you having a good
day. Thank you so much for having me
on. Absolutely take care.