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Guest: Rebecca Washuta

Release Date: 10/7/2024

Welcome to Trulyfit the online fitness marketplace connecting pros and clients through unique fitness business software. Steve Washuta : Welcome to Trulyfit. Welcome to the Trulyfit podcast where we interview experts in fitness and health to expand our wisdom and wealth. I’m your host, Steve Washuta. Co Founder of Trulyfit and author of Fitness Business 101.

Steve Washuta   If you’re new to this podcast, who is this podcast for? Really quickly, this is for people who are interested in trending fitness, health and nutrition related news, and this is also for people who are in the business, right? If you’re somebody who’s a registered dietitian, if you’re a personal trainer, if you’re a coach, we try to have people on the podcast that I interview that help your business model, but that also help you learn about those things that are all interconnected.  

Steve Washuta   Today, I have my sister on who is a nutritionist, and we’re going to be talking about all things trending. We talk about filtered water in your coffee, liquid gold. What is that? Why is it trending on Tiktok? Cortisol cocktails, new trainer experience, co sleeping. Tiktok teams up with who a host of great topics today and a lot more that I did not mention.  

Steve Washuta   I do want to say if you’re listening to this now, I also have these episodes up on YouTube, so if you want to watch go to at truly Fit app on YouTube, and on Thursdays, I do solo episodes where I pick out one particular topic that is either trending or that I touched on with a guest that I want to elaborate and expand on, and I talk about it off the cuff for five to 15 minutes, a little bit different than these episodes with no further ado.  

Steve Washuta   Rebecca Washuta, my sister and I are going down on trending topics for this week. Rebecca, welcome back to the truly fit Podcast. Today. We have a bunch of topics. We’re going to be talking about, everything from Tiktok to liquid gold trending to cortisol cocktails and the rest, some fitness, some nutrition. But for anyone who doesn’t know you, who hasn’t heard you on a previous podcast, just quickly give your bonafide days.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, thanks for having me. Well, first and foremost, I’m your sister. I’m also a board certified, state licensed dietitian, and I have my own private practice here in Miami Beach, so I generally specialize in weight loss, but focusing really on all aspects of health and metabolic health.  

Steve Washuta   Well, thanks for hopping on and we were a little bit delayed today because of life, life with toddlers. I took my toddler home yesterday because her whole daycare was sick. So I was like, I’m gonna avoid her getting sick. Took her home final day, put her to sleep. 1230 Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. She puked in the bed, and then basically every hour until 5am she puked.  

Steve Washuta   So I just, like, I just lay in on the floor next to her. Because the problem is, when the child’s throwing up that often, you only have so many sheets that you can change, and only so many outfits and all these things, right? It’s like, you don’t want them to throw up in the bed, so when they say they have to puke. The quicker you can get to them and bring them to the bathroom, the less like cleanup you have, the easier it is to get right back to sleep.  

Steve Washuta   So like, I’m there. It’s like a football drill, like when you’re laying on your back and the coach blows the whistle, she says, Daddy, and I’m just like, I’m I’m up in an instance, I grab her, I like, put her head on my shoulder. Like, puke up. Puke on me. Don’t puke on anything else. Get her to the bathroom. Puke and then, like, wash everything, Clorox everything back down the bed, just back and forth.  

Rebecca Washuta   Oh, my God, running on adrenaline.  

Steve Washuta   Yeah, it’s so funny because I reminds me of, like, the story you were telling when, when you were going to the airport with Aurelia that one time, I think you told part of the story on the podcast. And like, you know, you get to the airport, you’re sitting in two hours of traffic, then your flight gets canceled, then you get back, and then she pukes all over the car.  

Steve Washuta   And, like, it’s only like, the toddlers are very sitcom esque, where all things go wrong, yeah, and the timing is so bad, so like, she finally was felt better. And we were, like, getting ready to go in the morning, and I put her in the car. The doors are open in the car, I have, like, her lunch in there, all the stuff, and she’s like, Daddy, I gotta throw up. So you’ve, like, run her into the house. The doors are open, the car, the car is on, the lunch is on top of the thing. Like, just, it never, it never fails that they there’s always, like, sitcom moments every time your kid is sick, oh my gosh.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, toddlers will keep you on your toes. I don’t think there’s any sort for anyone who doesn’t have kids, right, or doesn’t have kids yet. I don’t think there’s any sort of explanation we could give that can make people feel it until they’ve lived it like it’s one of those experiences, right? Where, like, you can’t even articulate all the chaos that goes on and all the adrenaline and all the stress until you’re until you’re actually in it.  

Steve Washuta   Yeah, and that’s why I hate, I hate we’ve talked about this before. We won’t go too far down this rabbit hole. Now I want to get into the nutrition and health topics. We can come back to this. But I back to this. But I do really hate a lot of the very specific parenting advice, if you want to give generalities, if you want to talk about what you do.  

Steve Washuta   But I hate these, quote, unquote, like, even these experts who give specific advice, it’s like, what you don’t know my child and my relationship with my child, like, like, I would never give I wouldn’t be like, oh, here Becca, I’m gonna give you some relationship advice for you and your husband. Why? Because that seems rude, right? How can someone say like, oh, I’m going to give you advice for your child.  

Steven Washuta   And I think the problem is, because they group children together, it’s like, oh, adults are all different, you and Nick and me and Kayla and Bob and Cindy and Leah. We’re all different. But children are just children. See, no children are just little humans. They’re all different. Like, there’s no difference. Like, I’m not you can’t just give generalities for all these children, because they don’t respond the same for sure.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, you have to parent the child you have. It’s a unique thing. You know, what works for one kid is not going to work for another. So, yeah, anyone who’s pushing it has to be this way. Has their own agenda.  

Steve Washuta   Even the phrases, though, that’s the big part, like, I get there are some things like, Oh, your pediatrician will say, have your kids eat vegetables. Like, that’s not, that’s not a weird thing to say, right?  

Steve Washuta   That’s that’s a generality that makes sense. But to say something like this, like a behavioral issues, that’s what really like grinds my gears when someone says, like, Oh, don’t ever tell your child you’re going to leave the room without them. It’s like, what like, who like you.  

Steve Washuta   First of all, you can’t do longitudinal studies on that. Second of all, even if you could, your child’s not like my child and like, how, like, how, like, how does that work? Like, don’t tell people what to say and how to act around their their children.  

Steve Washuta   That just that seems like a boundary that goes too far, and also, you almost have no evidence for it, because the problem is like, what are you going to check 25 years from now? Like, how, how your child is acting in the real world, in order to see if that calls them some sort of like, long term anxiety. That’s my that’s my rent.  

Rebecca Washuta   It’s gone too far. I support you.  

Steve Washuta   Okay, so let’s get into some health and fitness stuff. Liquid Gold trending? What is it? Why is it trending? Should we be doing this? Is this something that’s actually old, but we just are hearing about it now, because things come back in a cyclical fashion?  

Rebecca Washuta   So liquid gold is colostrum supplements, and so colostrum is the initial substance that comes out when a woman is breastfeeding. So it comes out within the first couple days, and it’s really healthy for the baby. It has protein, it has fatty acids, antioxidants, it even has antibodies, immunoglobulins.  

Rebecca Washuta   So really, really healthy. So that’s why they tell you, even if you can’t breastfeed long term, can you just try it at first to give the baby that boost? So now, people have taken colostrum and put it into supplements. I’ve seen it in powder forms and in packets. I haven’t seen it in actual in actual pill capsules. And I will tell you I think the idea behind it, I think in theory, it makes sense, right?  

Rebecca Washuta   And I think a few years ago, I heard that, like bodybuilders were consuming breast milk. I don’t know if you, if you heard that, that was like in the news for a while. So this is similar, right? It is like, It’s nature’s perfect food definitely has a lot of benefits in theory. And I think if you are, if you have a wife that just had a baby, and you can get it in real time, awesome.  

Rebecca Washuta   However, the problem here is, is the execution, right? Again, these supplements are not FDA regulated. Someone could basically be making them in their bathtub. There’s there’s no standard for formulation or quality control for for these companies. And so if you look into it, the ones that I’ve looked into, I haven’t been impressed by, right?  

Rebecca Washuta   They don’t have, like, a chief scientific officer or a medical advisory board where you’re like, Oh, this is a product I can trust. So what’s on the label may not be what’s actually in the package. So I think in theory, yes, there are some promising or there’s some promising early research that talks about how it can help improve immune health and gut health, but it’s, again, it’s very early research.  

Rebecca Washuta   I’d like to see some more, but I do question the quality of the supplements out there. And I think, you know, people see influencers taking it, they’re going to buy some, some random product offline and, and it could just be powdered milk, you know. And so I, for me personally, I and I consume dairy. I’m drinking coffee. I have half and half of my coffee.  

Rebecca Washuta   Something about colostrum gives me the ick. I just, I don’t like it. It gives me the hippie GB, so regardless of how good it is, I’m not interested in taking it. I think there are other ways you can get those nutrients in. So I haven’t found a brand that impresses me enough to recommend taking it.   

Steve Washuta   The first thought that came to mind is how these, like these ancient eaters, are going to do this, like mental gymnastics, this, like cognitive Jiu Jitsu, to tell themselves, like, oh, well, maybe we don’t know, but maybe, you know, 1000s of years ago, our ancestors, when they couldn’t get food, make sure they impregnated their wives, and then they were, they were having the breast milk.  

Steve Washuta   You know, there’s always, like, a way they try to, like, put ancient culture back into some food. Yeah, it makes perfect sense. It’s if it’s a new supplement market, or relatively new supplement market, or it’s trending, what happens people take advantage of it?  

Steve Washuta   So, so now you’re going to have, yeah, maybe, maybe there’s some legitimate companies, but you can have some shysters who go in there and they have powdered milk, or some, you know, low grade whey protein, and they throw it into a thing, and they charge triple the price, and they send it out, and there’s enough.  

Steve Washuta   Fine print and no FDA regulations where they’re not going to get in trouble for this. So yeah, you’re getting this third party tested. And then also, like you said, is it worth the risk reward if the studies aren’t out yet and haven’t been done yet, what could it possibly be doing? Is it getting you that 1% better? Maybe that matters if you’re a bodybuilder, if I’m getting up on stage, if I’m Tyree kill and I want to get that extra step on people to get to get a touchdown.  

Steve Washuta   But if you’re just like, you know Sally, who’s like, a stay at home mom, or Bob who, like, works out four days a week than just doing bicep curls, and he’s an accountant, I just, I don’t see why people go above and beyond to, like, try to always bio optimize with these, like, new crazy hacks, for sure.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, and I’ve had a lot of clients reach out to me about this, and, you know, ask for my feedback. And similar to some other fad diets and fad products, it’s like, everyone’s looking for the shortcut. Everyone’s like, well, if I take the colostrum, then I’ll be skinny and fit and healthy and I can still live the same way I’m living.  

Rebecca Washuta   It’s like, no, if you want to be healthy, it’s not about taking one one magic supplement, right? If you want to be healthy, it’s about what you eat, 365 days a year, how you move every day, every hour of the day, the water you’re drinking, the stress, the sleep, it’s, you know, it’s really a full picture thing.  

Rebecca Washuta   So there’s no magic supplement. There’s really no liquid gold. Yes, there are compounds and supplements and foods that are healthier than others, but do not take this with the impression that it’s going to magically change your life, because it won’t.  

Steve Washuta   This is a random topic that I did not prep you on, but I know you’ll have a good answer for it, because I just thought of it as I was doing it this morning. Do you only use filtered water in your coffee and in your tea, and I feel like I’ve, it’s funny. I’ve talked to, I have a client who’s British, and like, the thought of, like, microwaving tea, which is like blasting me over there, right?  

Steve Washuta   But like, I do it when I’m in a rush, because I’m in a rush and I just, like, just can’t find the the tea kettle, and I’m like, whatever I have to do. But it is interesting. I make this argument with pizza, so I should make it with coffee, wherein there’s such limited ingredients, they better all be good, right? The reason why we come from a place on it’s just, it’s not an argument. It was the best pizza on the planet in New Jersey is because they, they fo, they folk.  

Steve Washuta   They really focus on all three ingredients, right? You’re always getting fresh mozzarella. You’re never getting some nonsense. They really cook. They don’t even call it sauce. They call it gravy. They make it themselves. It’s not store bought. It’s cooked slow, cooked for hours and hours and hours. And the bread is different. They really care about their bread, and it has a special water in it, right?  

Steve Washuta   Three ingredients, they all have to be good. Well, with coffee and tea, you have two ingredients, right? You have water and you have the coffee or the tea. So it’s like, why do people skimp on it? And do you think it makes a difference? Could you tell the difference, if you just, like, filled regular water up in your coffee or tea? 100%.   

Rebecca Washuta   I can tell the difference. And unfortunately, I think for most people, coffee and tea is how they primarily hydrate. Like I have clients, you know, start working with me, and they drink more coffee than they do water. So if that is your main source of water, it has to be filtered. I have a filter in.  

Rebecca Washuta   I have a fancy coffee machine, so I have a filter built in that I can change, and then I still take my filtered water and I pour it in for do a second round of filtration, I think. One, you know you can, you can taste the difference. Two, I live in Miami Beach. You can check your local water quality report. The water in Miami Beach is horrible, like we have radon in our water, like all sorts of bizarre compounds. So I’m, I’m extra safe about it.  

Rebecca Washuta   And yeah, people, 100% need, need to be thinking through that. I’ll tell you what I don’t do. And you know what I’ve thought about it. I need to change when I’m like cooking, right? So if I’m cooking pasta, I’m still using tap water. And so that’s not great either, right? Because that, though, the chemicals from that water can be absorbed into whatever you’re cooking, if you’re cooking rice, if you’re cooking pasta, if you’re, you know, steaming vegetables.  

Rebecca Washuta   So that’s something to think about, too. So if you can get some sort of water filter that goes either reverse osmosis under the counter, or if you can get something that actually goes on the faucet, it’s not just the glass of water you’re drinking, it’s every, you know, every way that you’re using water in your home.  

Steve Washuta   Yeah. There’s also recent studies that came out that found, like it was trending, because, like Joe Rogan had said it, there was like particles of plastics and like sperm and in pee and all these things. Because, you know, the plastics everywhere, yeah, well, and even more so now, because houses are built with PVC pipes, because it’s cheaper and it’s easier to fix so that so I own a house in a different state, in a different city.  

Steve Washuta   The house has been remodeled, but it was built in 1917 so the pipes there are not. PVC. So all the plumbing pipes are cast iron, which maybe has other things that it leaches, but it doesn’t leach microplastics, right? But now they’re all built with PVC, and that apparently leaches stuff. So that’s interesting, coming up with all these studies to see who knows down the road, maybe some people who have more money and are building houses will stop using the PVC because of that. I don’t know.  

Steve Washuta   But also, additionally, you know, there’s hard in there soft water, which is different. I think people get, people confuse, like the hardness and the softness of water with, like the minerality of water and the chlorine and all that stuff. It can correlate, but it’s not causal meaning, like so in Texas here, I forgot the ratings. Maybe it’s like zero through 16, or something zero through 15.  

Steve Washuta   If your water is over, like a four or five, you typically want to have like a like a soft water system in your house. Culligan comes in they have like a soft water system that softens your water. In Texas, where I am, my water is like a 10. So if I don’t get a soft water system, basically every single time you shower and use any of the fixtures like they they come up with these like spots and everything is this, like this weird, like stained like fog glaze all over it because of the hardness of the water now.  

Steve Washuta   So people just always have soft water systems here. And then when you get the soft water system, in addition to that, you can get all the filtration stuff added with it, which is usually actually very cheap for them. The soft water system could cost you 1000s of dollars. But then what they do is they throw in the filtration system for much cheaper because Culligan or some big companies already coming out to do it.  

Steve Washuta   But all you have to do is go to a pool store and you grab those little strips, and it’s like litmus paper, and you just dunk it in a cup of water out of your tap, and you look at it, and you just pair the color up with the line. And if it’s a certain color of dark purple, it tells you basically the number of your color to see, softer, hard. And when we did it in New Jersey in New York, New York City, specifically, the water actually was not very hard.  

Steve Washuta   And what my wife noticed as as a side here is that her hair was so much nicer. So like, she she would get out, she was like, she was attributing it to her friend’s shampoo. And then she got home and she bought her friend’s shampoo and conditioner and did her hair here. She’s like, it’s like, she’s like, maybe I ordered the wrong shampoo. I’m like, No, it was the water.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, for sure. No, yeah. I so. On that note, I too, notice the same thing with my hair. I mean, part of it is the humidity right down here in the south, but my hair is 100% better when I’m when I’m up north. I just ordered a filter we for Aurelius bathroom, right for my daughter’s bathtub. So she used to have eczema, and we attributed that to like a a dairy issue that I think she grew out of, right once we switched from cow’s milk to goat’s milk, the the eczema stopped, but.  

Steve Washuta   You should use your colostrum supplements.  

Rebecca Washuta   There you go, right? But we’re prone to it, right? You had eczema growing up. I remember I had some eczema patches. So it’s, it’s, you know, runs in our family, so, um, you know, but in the same way we use baby shampoo, we use baby detergent, we’re, like, very specific about what they do. The water, you know, also needs to be extra purified for their for their extra sensitive skin. So I I just got that for her.  

Rebecca Washuta   And I think, I think that’s important, right? It’s not just the water you’re consuming. It’s the water you’re showering with and and as a side note to that, it’s some people think like, Oh, my my skin is fine, my hair is fine. No big deal. No. The problem is the water that’s coming in when you shower and the steam that is building up in your shower, not only is it bringing, like.  

Rebecca Washuta   Whatever cleaning products you use into the air and you’re able to inhale it, you’re going to be inhaling whatever toxins are in that water, right? The steam is going to going to make it so now it can get into your lungs. So, so super important, not just for skin health, but I think, for overall health, to to get those filters.  

Steve Washuta   Yeah, that makes sense. I don’t know if that’s going to be first on my list of all the things I have to do with the toddler. There’s a, you know, it’s like, there’s always so much you can do. There’s a funny there’s a funny guy on Instagram. He’s a former drug addict, you know, recovering drug addict, and his handles like, I D, G, A, F, I don’t give a food, foods.  

Steve Washuta   I think that’s foods. And he only makes like, one version of a video, but like, it’s basically, it’s basically the same video done with like, different foods in a different story. They’re always, like, under 25 seconds. And he’ll say, he’ll, like, open up some food that everyone’s like, bashing. He’s like, I don’t give an F about red dye. I used to snort, you know, cocaine off of bathroom floors and a gas station that had glass on it. He’s like, he’s like, just eat it.  

Steve Washuta   Stop being such a, you know what? And like, he does all videos like that. He’s like, I don’t care. He’s like, he’s a gas station donuts. I don’t care that this has, like, hydrogenated oils in it. He’s like, he’s like, I used to do, you know, methamphetamines and a back of. A van and blah, blah. But so it’s just, it’s just funny showing, like, the other side of like, health and fitness, where some people are just like, Hey, I can’t, like, leave my house because everything is scary, right,  

Rebecca Washuta   Right, right, yeah, two different perspectives. It’s nice to add keyword to it.  

Steve Washuta   Cortisol cocktails. This is what I believe it is. I’ve looked it up, orange juice, coconut water, sea salt, and maybe some other things, like cream of tartar, which seems absolutely gross, or magnesium. Do you think this actually lowers your cortisol? Is this a stupid trend? Would you drink this?  

Rebecca Washuta   I think it’s a stupid trend. So the idea behind it is it’s a non alcoholic drink that can help with stress, fatigue and overall adrenal health, right? Because a lot of people are suffering from adrenal fatigue. And so the orange juice is in there because it’s high in vitamin C. When you are stressed, you burn through a lot of vitamin C.  

Rebecca Washuta   And so that’s, you know, an important thing to note, if you’re stressed, definitely be taking more vitamin C. But I think the sugar in the orange juice is definitely not helping with stress or fatigue. And you know, similarly, the sugar and coconut water isn’t helping with that either. So So I, I don’t believe in the cortisol cocktails.  

Rebecca Washuta   I think there are things that you can add to your diet, and there are other drinks you can do to support, to support adrenal health and to reduce your stress, electrolyte water is great, right? We need we need potassium, we need magnesium, we need sodium. So beverages like element tea are great to have if you’re looking to reduce your stress, you can try chamomile tea.  

Rebecca Washuta   You can try lavender tea. Another good thing for for stress and adrenal health, and like I’m the same wine as electrolytes, is cacao powder, right? So I so every day, even when it’s 90 degrees here in the summer, I make a homemade collagen hot chocolate. So cacao powder a little bit of collagen, and the collagen is good because it has all of the amino acids you need, except for tryptophan.  

Rebecca Washuta   But we get tryptophan and other aspects of our diet, so and the amino acids are what support our gut in creating all of the neuro chemicals that we need, right? So if you’re feeling anxious or depressed or stressed, you may be eating poorly, and your body’s not not able to create the neurotransmitters it needs to feel, to feel good, so you really need to be getting those amino acids in.  

Rebecca Washuta   So I would say, forget the orange juice and coconut water and cream of tartare, because that sounds disgusting, collagen, cacao powder, a little bit of sea salt, maybe a little bit of honey, and you’ll be good to go.  

Steve Washuta   Yeah, and I’m sure you would agree with this, like, a lot of this isn’t an argument, but, like, a lot of arguments, it’s, it’s where’s the starting point? So, like, where are people on their journey here? If you’re somebody who’s, like, an alcoholic, and you’re trying, you’re trying to find a drink to just like, wean off, and you want to start somewhere, yeah, of course.  

Steve Washuta   Like, maybe you just don’t want to go to, like, Pellegrino from, you know, if you’re, if you’re somebody who is drinking screwdrivers, yeah, screwdrivers all day long. So maybe this is a great thing, but, but, yeah, I mean, ultimately, we want to, you work your way down. I think there’s, to me, there’s almost nothing better and more refreshing than, you know, we talk about, like, non alcoholic drinks a lot that are, like, delicious, but just like getting fresh fruit and squeezing it into your like water, or to your sparkling water.  

Rebecca Washuta   Like some orange into into a sparkling water, right? Or lime, you’ll get tons of vitamin C, yeah, and yeah, you won’t get the sugar.  

Steve Washuta   And you can start combining them. You can get like a, you can basically get like a, like a water jug, right? And then you chop up your fresh fruit, and you squeeze it in, and then you put the whole fruit in there, and it has a little handle on it. And, like, that’s, that’s, that’s your, that’s your drink for the day. And I think, too, there’s, there’s the, the behavioral aspect of, you know, you’re, you’re going to, you’re creating it, so you’re going to drink it, for sure.  

Steve Washuta   So like, you chop up the fruit, you make it, yeah, you’re involved in the process. Then you end up wanting to drink it. It’s like, what I do with my toddler when I want her to like eat the foods, like she cooks dinner with me. Because I’m like, I’m not sure if she’s gonna like this, so I’m gonna make her help me cook for dinner, so then she’s more interested in actually trying it afterwards.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, I like that. I will say, you know, I don’t think there’s a harm in it other than the sugar and the orange juice and the coconut water. It’s great that it doesn’t have caffeine in it. I think people are living in caffeine, and that also is really hurting our adrenal health. But there, there are better options out there.  

Steve Washuta   Let’s stick on adrenal health, because when I did a little bit of research on this five years ago, it all seemed like bunk bullshit. You don’t believe in it. Well, no, I’m not saying I don’t believe in it. I’ve this. I literally have not looked at this in five years. I looked at it because when as a personal trainer, I was having clients who were coming up to me sometimes and saying, like.  

Steve Washuta   Hey, what is too much caffeine? And that’s a weird question, because we’re all different. And I say, Well, you know, our bodies are all different. You there sort of has to be a feeling out process. There are certainly a number that is. That is listed right, whatever that number is.  

Steve Washuta   But also, what is too much caffeine? If you’re already taking a lot of caffeine, is is going to be a different number than if you’re not taking any caffeine, as most most of us know, if you stop drinking coffee for three weeks and then you have a cup, you basically feel like you’re on crack. You got to put you got to poop your pants, and you run around the house. But if you, but if you drink coffee every single morning of your life?  

Steve Washuta   Yeah, no big deal. It’s no big deal because you’re used to that amount of caffeine. But, you know, I start to look up adrenal fatigue, and there wasn’t a ton of really good, I would say, like, science based things on it, but, but people who I trusted, who had knowledge, who were giving their take on it, a lot of them just said, Hey, like, this isn’t adrenal fatigue. This is just like you getting used to caffeine. Basically, you’re just, you’re, you’re, oh, you’re overdoing caffeine. Yeah.  

Rebecca Washuta   I think there are two different things. I think you can be, you can be, you can have both. Because I think you can have have adrenal fatigue and not consume any caffeine. I think you could just be stressed, right? So what caffeine is doing is it is actually raising your stress hormones. That’s why you feel like I’m ready to go in the morning, right? It’s raising your blood sugar a little bit. And a little bit of that is great, right?  

Rebecca Washuta   Gets you going. But too much of that, I think, can be really harmful. So if you are drinking two cups of coffee and you feel nothing, I think it’s time to take a break, right? But you know that, being said, you’re correct in that our genes actually dictate how we metabolize caffeine. So I metabolize caffeine really well. I’m not really impacted by it. Other people, you know, can have one cup and and be off the wall.  

Rebecca Washuta   So it has to be personalized. I think there is. There are a lot of people that will say adrenal fatigue isn’t a thing, and it doesn’t exist because it’s not necessarily in medical textbooks. But there are a lot of things that aren’t in medical textbooks, right, like the idea of leaky gut, the idea that, like, your intestinal wall could be compromised.  

Rebecca Washuta   That’s, you know, not in, not in a textbook. And it’s a thing, you know, if you talk to a lot of a lot of experts about it, so you know, more so than just paying attention to your caffeine intake, it’s what are your stress levels, right? Cuz, again, you could have no caffeine and just be super, super stressed. I see this with a lot of women after they give birth, right? And this, like, fourth try trimester, where you’re up with the baby, sort of, like what you said in the beginning, right?  

Rebecca Washuta   You’re you feel like you’re a football practice because Mackenzie’s crying, you jump up. And so when, when your adrenaline is constantly going, your adrenal glands can get fatigued, because maybe they don’t have all the raw materials that they need, like I said, like the vitamin C, maybe you’re not getting the nutrients they you need, especially in you know, when you’re dealing with kids, you put them first.  

Rebecca Washuta   You’re not always eating and moving and doing all the things that you should be doing for yourself. So I think, yeah, monitoring your caffeine intake is important, but also it’s like, what? What are your overall stress levels. Yeah, let’s pay attention to that. I  

Steve Washuta   think the answer to fixing it is not taking some colostrum supplement or some adrenal fatigue 2.0 just get some fucking sleep, right? Like, find help, go to sleep and reset, drink less caffeine, even though, like, you have to sacrifice the short term for the long term.  

Steve Washuta   Like, it’s really, I’m saying this out loud because, like, I’m telling myself this because I do it too sometimes where I’m like, I wake up in the morning and I’m so well rested and I feel great, and I’m like, I do not need coffee this morning. Like, take a fucking day off. You don’t need the coffee this morning, and.  

Rebecca Washuta   It’s gonna try what I have done. I have decaf coffee because I like the I like the taste of it. I like feeling a warm mug in my hand. So on days like that, or something is on, like, my second cup decaf, I think we need to normalize decaf, because people kind of like poo, poo. It like, oh, it’s for old people. It’s for pregnant women. No, it’s not. It definitely has a lot of the same benefits as as normal coffee, and most people don’t need the extra caffeine.  

Steve Washuta   Yeah,that’s a that’s, that’s really smart, and it’s, it’s such an easy thing to do that you said, like, people always think it’s just like, for like, I remember, like, my grandmother using it or something, like, I would never drink Dick calf. What’s the, what’s the purpose of that? But I think also setting the routine, not around the coffee, but around the the whatever you do is it makes it less coffee esque.  

Steve Washuta   So that’s what I do now. I’m like, I set my alarm for a certain time. I try, you never know what the toddler, but I try to to get up before my toddler, like, at least, you know, you do the same thing, like, at least, like, 30 minutes beforehand. And then I have, like, a routine in which I do, and it’s not based around the coffee like, the routine is, like, I go into the room, I, you know, whatever I do. I check my emails, then I check whatever else I want to check.  

Steve Washuta   I do a little bit of leisure stuff, and I could just as easily do all those things with a cup of water in my hand. But it’s not just that, like I’m running to the coffee pot because I think that I need it. But it is, it is something to keep in mind for people like, hey, if, if you feel like you have this adrenal fatigue, whether it exists. Or a dozen, or you’re just tired, sometimes using caffeinated supplements for this, for when you’re not tired, you’re gonna, you’re gonna face the repercussions down the road after.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve heard, I’ve heard another expert talk about that, like, caffeine isn’t magic energy, right? Caffeine is utilizing your stores of energy. So it’s like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, right? Like, eventually it’s going to catch up with you. Yeah, um.  

Steve Washuta   You’re blocking the fact that you’re tired. Your body knows you’re tired. You’re blocking those receptors. So what happens is, eventually you’re going to get more tired. Yeah, it makes sense to use it when you need it. But I think, I think we all, including yours truly, certainly overdoes it.  

Steve Washuta   Because, I think the other reason is, imagine, this is a weird conversation, but imagine there was no other way to get caffeine except just it tasting just like ass, like, absolutely brutal, right? It’s like the only way you can get caffeine is, if you were to, I don’t know, shoot a needle in your arm, or, like, you know the fact that caffeine is so.  

Rebecca Washuta   Easily accessible and delicious Starbucks on every corner. Yeah, delicious nothing.  

Steve Washuta   Forget about the coffee. Like a Celsius. It’s like, it’s like, my favorite drink, it’s like, it’s absolutely delicious to me. So, like, you have so many delicious options to get the caffeine that your your mind is also you have that cognitive dissonance convincing yourself, like, about, like, Oh, this is not that like, people like, Oh, these drinks are not that bad for you.  

Steve Washuta   Oh, it’s a little bit of caffeine. I need the caffeine and it tastes delicious. It’s not that expensive. Like, everything is like, going towards like, buy this drink. Buy this drink. Uh, nothing is telling you not to, including the fact that it tastes delicious.  

Rebecca Washuta   Right? Yeah, I think again, it has to be personalized, right? What’s what’s right for you, the textbook will tell you no more than 400 milligrams a day. For some people, 400 milligrams like may feel like it’ll kill them, yeah? For people who haven’t had that before.  

Steve Washuta   I’d be bashing my head against the screen right now, fortunately, so.  

Rebecca Washuta   You know, you have to, you have to do what’s right for you, and at different times of your life, like you said, right? Like, I think you can. You can maybe, like, when I was studying for my board exam, I lived on caffeine, right? That was just like the time of my life, and I could do it. But it shouldn’t be like a long term thing where you’re consuming that much. You have to, you know, sort of pay attention and listen to your body.  

Steve Washuta   You started working out with a trainer recently. What’s been your experiences? Positive, negative? What is your the first thoughts that come to mind? Anything that just is top of mind?  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, it’s been really good. So this is my second experience with a trainer outside of you. First experience, not good. So there’s like polar opposite experiences. I love this trainer so much. If anyone is in South Florida and needs a recommendation, please, you know, reach out to me. So what we he worked with a friend of mine, and she told me, you know how happy she was, so referred him to me.  

Rebecca Washuta   And the first thing we did when we got on the phone, the very first thing he asked for, Hey, what are your injuries? What are your previous injuries, and what are your goals? I was like, thank you. Like, this is about me, because in the past, I had a trainer be like, You look like you could put on more muscle. And it’s like, no, you don’t get to tell me what what my goals are, right? Like, I should be telling you.  

Rebecca Washuta   So did that. And then when we met again, he was like, walk me through your injuries again. Because initially I was like, No, I don’t have any injuries. And then when you asked me a second time, I was like, actually, I do have a shoulder thing. And then I was able to talk him through that.  

Rebecca Washuta   So I really appreciate the extra follow up to say, Yeah, I do have, like, you know, an issue here. It was great. I was very specific, because I want, I want to be able to work out without him, right? I want to be able to work out with him and and without him. So I said, like, I am not into, I like to build bustle. I’m not into a lot of these, like, masculine movements. I don’t want to deadlift, I don’t want to bench press, I don’t want to do squats with the bar.  

Rebecca Washuta   And the thing I was, like, I’m just, I’m more feminine. I’m happy to use dumbbells, but like, I don’t want to be doing this stuff. And he was like, no problem. Like, we can make it work. You know? I said, like, I said, like, I only want to use dumbbells. He’s like, great, we can do it. So I appreciate that type of flexibility, because similar to nutrition, it has to be personalized, right? If he was like, nope, the best way to build glutes is doing squats this way, and that’s how we have to do it.  

Rebecca Washuta   Well, then I’m never going to do it right in the same way. If someone comes to me and says, Hey, I like, want to lose weight, but I’m vegan, you know? Okay, well, we can’t do the keto diet, right where that that would work, so let’s, let’s work with you. And you know what, what like according to your preferences and your lifestyle. So it was great.  

Rebecca Washuta   And what’s unique about him, and this is something I think we could get into in a later podcast, is he uses a suit. So it’s basically like a vest, something that goes around my biceps, short something that goes around my calves, and it sends electromagnetic frequencies to different muscles as I’m working out. So it’s neat, because you feel, you know, the extra stimulation. And then.  

Rebecca Washuta   What else is cool, because you know certain movements, you have to engage certain muscles, right? So, like, but that’s hard to do, right? I’ve talked to you about that where I’m like, I’m doing a squat, but I feel it in my quads, not my hamstrings, and you’re like, we have to engage your hamstrings. And I’m like, Well, how? Like, what does that mean?  

Rebecca Washuta   But so here he can be like, engage your hamstrings, and he turns it on, I’m like, Oh, now I understand what that means. So I think it’s really helping to activate certain muscles. And what’s cool about it is the workouts only 30 minutes because of the suit, it’s supposed to sort of expedite the results. So I I’m really happy. I thought, I thought it was really good.  

Steve Washuta   Yeah, that’s an EMF suit. I believe it’s called. I did a whole podcast on a company and a trainer who uses it in the class, and this was right at the start of my podcast journey. So probably, I don’t know, two or three years ago, I did this podcast on it, and I did some research on it, and it seemed legitimate. It makes sense.  

Steve Washuta   The technology is not new, necessarily. It’s just better. It’s optimized, and they’re using it in a much different way they do they do it in classes too, like sort of small group classes of like, four or five people. Obviously that makes sense, because the suits are also expensive, so it might be hard for someone to dish out getting, you know, 60 of these suits.  

Steve Washuta   This was, again, two or three years ago. Maybe it’s cheaper to make these suits. I haven’t really looked into it more, but the science makes sense, the science makes sense, the technology makes sense. So I’ll continue to look into it. But just going back to what you initially said, I talk about this all the time on this podcast. I talk about this for other trainers, I have whole diatribes about this, where it’s very natural for us when something traumatic happens, and I hate using that word.  

Steve Washuta   So something difficult happens in your life, we put it in the back of our heads, and that’s injuries included, too. And so I’ve worked out with clients before. I have their health history form, right? So very detailed health history. Form, I sit down with them.  

Steve Washuta   We talk. I know I know so much about them. I know their grandchild’s name, and a year in, they mentioned about a heart attack that they had six years ago, and it’s like, that wasn’t on your health history form, yeah, what? Yeah, oh, wasn’t. I had artifacts. I didn’t tell you. It’s like, so people forget these things, and you have to, like, you really, really have to dig on a regular basis.  

Steve Washuta   If you see something anatomically you think is off with that person. You’re their trainer, right? Ask them about it, because they might have just actually forgotten about said thing. They might have not gotten diagnosed with something they should have gotten diagnosed with, right? You, it’s your job to dig into these things.  

Steve Washuta   Me myself. I’ve had people recently ask me in conversations at dinner, you ever been in any serious injuries? And I said, no, nothing serious, top of mind. Yeah, well, because to me, they’re not serious. I’ve had a doubling renal hernia surgery. I’ve had two surgeries on my on my hand, I fractured my sternum in a car accident. Those are all pretty serious injuries, but, but it’s not top of mind, and maybe I don’t consider them serious compared to somebody else I work with clients, even small things, who had broke their ankle in tennis 40 years ago, right?  

Steve Washuta   So now they’re they’re 60 years old. They did this in their 20s, but it was very serious, and they’ve been compensating since then. And I can tell the difference in their leg structure, right? Because their calf size was, was very different, and that was the reason why, right? The old school cast, they put you in, they put you in for too long.  

Steve Washuta   They didn’t know what they were doing back then, and the calf muscle, like, just never recovered, basically, right? So we have to dig into this. And then also, yeah, you should never tell somebody what they should do as their goal. That would be so odd.  

Rebecca Washuta   Like, and I think he looked at me and felt like, I’m I’m skinny, right? So he’s like, Well, clearly you want to do this, but like, No, you don’t know what I want.     It’s because they don’t know any better. Meaning, like they only have one skill set. So you know when you’re you know, as I say, when you’re hammer everything’s a nail. So if the only thing he knows how to do is is, is put people in a caloric surplus and and lift in six and eight rep ranges and and build muscle, then he doesn’t. He just doesn’t.  

Steve Washuta   He doesn’t have the creativity to do anything else. So he was sort of imparting that on you because he was hoping that’s what you wanted. Maybe wanted. Maybe, or maybe it’s just because he’s an idiot, but either way, yeah, you always have to work with the client’s goals. Ask them what they want, and then the body is the tool. Everything else is just a toy that you play with, right? The body’s the tool. You should be able to use anything in order to use it.  

Steve Washuta   And I have a whole big part of my book about that. It’s called duration object, tempo, stability. Dots is the acronym, and those are the things you change up. You could always change up the duration of the exercise. The object you’re using, whatever object that is the tempo in my world, we call it eccentric, concentric, isometric.  

Steve Washuta   That’s just the hold, the down, or the up, the positive, the negative movement, right? And then the stability, meaning, like, maybe you’re doing dumbbell dumbbell curls here, but now your trainer says, lift a knee in the air while you do them. Well, now you have to engage your core, because now your stability is off, right? So you can change any of those things and get creative with your exercises, and never feel like I don’t know what to do.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah. And that’s another thing he did, and something that you. Always talked about is, I’m going to, I’m not going to have the right word for it, but, like, multi muscle group movements, right? Where you’re, like, not just doing the squat, but I’m, yeah, I’m doing arms as I’m squatting. And one, I think it made it more interesting.  

Rebecca Washuta   And two, I think it shortens the workout, right? Like, I don’t have to, because, listen, I don’t have 90 minutes a day, right? I have a toddler. We got a house, at a job and a thing. So if we can condense this workout, and I can do multiple muscle groups at once, I think it makes it more fun and interesting and different. And then also is like, you know, expediting things, because you’re not just focusing on one thing at a time.    

Rebecca Washuta  Yeah, you’re burning more calories, you’re working harder. It’s great, but, you know, the that’s the new generation. I can’t even keep up with it. I don’t even really know what Gen Z. They’re back to more bodybuilding style, Arnold Schwarzenegger, where that’s that’s frowned upon because with the ultimately, vanity wise, just pure vanity wise, a little bit strength.  

Steve Washuta   But certainly vanity, more vanity than strength, is you want to focus on one muscle because you want to wear that muscle out, and if you have other muscles helping that muscle too much, then you’re not wearing that muscle out. Does that make sense? So, so they’re doing isol. They’re isolating muscles. They’re lifting more like bodybuilders.  

Steve Washuta   They don’t want to do that because their goals are different than yours, right? Their goals are to show their ass and their arms on Instagram there. It’s not for like, long term health and wellness and to like, feel good and to be healthy. So it’s To each their own. But compound movements have sort of, like, almost been phased out, at least in the newer generations, because their goal isn’t, is typically, they’re they’re eating caloric surpluses, trying to put on muscle for vanity.  

Steve Washuta   They’re not, they’re not focused on long term health and wellness. Yeah, nobody listens. Lessons have to be learned. Speaking about this perfect transition into the social media world, you know, I have a prediction that 10 years from now, everyone’s going to be doing what Usher and pink are doing and deleting their social media. They’re doing it for different I mean, listen.  

Rebecca Washuta   Usher’s doing it for a different reason, so let’s not even get in and out right now.     They’re doing it for a different reason. But you, you see these people and it starts, it started on like Facebook, right? So I had Facebook when it first came out in college, and the stupid shit that I’ve written on there, who God only knows, I haven’t even  

Rebecca Washuta   Checked, right? Like, what did it, what was I writing? I didn’t even know.     We’re not, we’re not important enough people where it matters. We own our own businesses. We’re not, you know, we’re not running for political office or something. But, like, at some point, I’m sure, right? Like, you know, took 12 shots tonight, peed in the corner of the room. Like, you know, there’s, there’s been, like, weird, you know, on the bar, yeah, like, 20 year old stuff that you’ve done that you maybe shouldn’t have tell people that you did, right? So, and.  

Rebecca Washuta   That, okay, just for everyone’s reference, this is also before adults and grownups were on Facebook. So when we had Facebook, it was just your friends, like your grandma, your aunt, like nobody else was on there. So it did seem like a safe space to see something dumb like.     That. And you are you already, so you’re just so stupid where you don’t you couldn’t foresee what was coming. Who could, right? Couldn’t foresee that, how it was gonna work. And now you started to see it pan out. Like, there’d be baseball players who get signed to a team, and the kids, like, we’re younger than us, right? So, like, born in, like, I don’t know, 1998 or something, right?  

Steve Washuta   And he’s like, 18 years old, and they look back at his, like, Twitter when he was like, 13, and he said something ridiculous, and it’s like, and then he’s getting like, lambasted, like, the whole city’s like, better take that back. You read about that weird, you know, like, Asian joke or something. It’s like, the kid was 13, right?  

Steve Washuta   And like he did, like he’s just those people used to make those jokes in private, not not saying that’s okay, but it used to be done in private, and now they broadcast it to the world. And what I think so people are starting to learn a little bit of that, but what I don’t think people are learning now is being half naked and naked all over the internet. And I’ve talked about this before, but it’s like, you see these people. I get it. You’re proud of your body, but you’re you’re not. You’re 1819, or 20 years old, if you exist.  

Rebecca Washuta   Thing is this girls or no? Men too. Men too.     I think, I think girls need to be more mindful. And I’ll explain why. Has nothing to do with being sexist. I’ll explain why, either way. So if I’m a dad, right? I don’t necessarily want pictures of me all over the internet, like, as, like, a sexual object I have a daughter, right? Weird, right? So, and then vice versa, like I’m the reason I think it’s worse is because boys are shitty when they’re teenagers.  

Steve Washuta   Girls are difficult to deal with, but boys are shitty. So I imagine sitting at the lunch table with my friends, right? And if I’m able to pull up Instagram and see one of my friends moms who’s hot, right? We always just talk about, like, hot moms, but, but now I can see pictures of her in a bikini all over the all over the thing that kid is going to get fucking tortured at that table, right?  

Steve Washuta   He’s going to be paying. Don your son is going to be tortured for that. Now, it’s different. If there’s a picture here and there, people go to the beach, they wear bathing suits, right? Like, you can’t stop it. But there’s a difference between you there being a picture of you and how you project yourself, right? If you project yourself simply as a sexual object, that’s what I mean.  

Steve Washuta   So men, it’s different if like, like, you know you’re you’re like, you’re like, lifting weights outside, or a woman you’re lifting weights outside, yeah, that’s a different that’s a different thing than, like, laying on the couch and like, you’re like, long, like your lingerie stuff, whatever, or like, the fitnessy stuff that borders, like you’re not lifting weights, right?  

Steve Washuta   Like you’re not showing me that you’re doing a lifting weights. It’s after you’ve lifted weights. Now you’re showing me yourself naked in the bathroom. Like that’s nothing to do with, like, the art of lifting weights. That’s just the vanity you get from it.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, for sure, yeah. I think you know, hindsight is always 2020, um, what’s interesting is, when I was in college, I was in a sorority, and we had gotten in trouble with, like, the National sorority for throwing a party. I went to school in New Orleans, right? So we got in trouble a lot, but so the national people came down and said, Okay, you can’t have any pictures on Facebook of anyone holding a drink, holding a cup, holding anything, right?  

Rebecca Washuta   So we delete all our pictures. And I remember being so upset at the time, right? I’m 18. I’m like, I gotta delete all these photos. Like, why? These are my memories. And thank God, thank God, we delete. How many dumb photos did you take in college? And so like, thank God. You know, I don’t have any of those. And I wonder, if you know, people are going to be thinking the same things like I, I think, listen, take the photos, have them in your phone, send them to your partner, send them to your friends, whatever.  

Rebecca Washuta   But do you do? You need to post them to the entire world? Because, like, your employer can see that, and so, you know, it’s different for you and I, because we’ve been out of, like, the public sector, right? We own our own companies, but like, I can’t imagine my, like, your boss, or, like, even your coworkers, right? Like, seeing you in this way, it just, yeah,.     I remember that third personality I’ve talked about this before on the podcast.

Rebecca Washuta There used to be the Rebecca, who her friends and her family knows, right? You act maybe a little bit different around you know myself and your you know our other sister, Abby, and your best friend, Stacy, and you have that Rebecca the other the Rebecca you present with your clients. You would hope that they’re not a huge variance, but maybe it’s a little bit different. Maybe bit different.  

Steve Washuta   Maybe you’re a little bit, little bit more buttoned up, because that’s what you do, right? Used to be to to use, but now there’s a third iteration of that, and it’s the online version, and it’s sometimes people pick out something that they wish they could have been, right? So like, I see these people, I have these friends who like, aren’t or not funny, but they like, want to be funny, so they they like, try to be the funny person on Facebook or something, right?  

Steve Washuta   And you see these people who were was hoping that they were like, the athlete or the this, the person who was in really good shape, and they started to get in really good shape, and they want to be that person. So they’re like, projecting this other version of themselves via online, through the images and through the photos. But they compartmentalize that.  

Steve Washuta   They don’t see that in the other areas of their life, but, but guess what other people do? Like, just when you shut, like, you shut the computer down, and you think, I’m back to version A or B of Steve, if C is the online version, but it’s like, no, that that version still exists. And everybody, yeah. And everybody interconnected with you, including your children, are going to be associated with that. So, like, You got to be careful, sure.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah. And I, you know, I, I am a big fan of body positivity. I think there’s a lot of especially for women, right? There’s a lot of shame that goes around. Like, do you have a bikini body? So like, feel good in your body. You feel good in the way you look take the picture, but just be Yeah.     Do you feel good? If you need others to tell you you feel good. My argument is no, because the people who feel the best don’t need to show you.  

Rebecca Washuta   Need external validation. I get it, but if I can compare it to this, like, if I make this really, I really love baking, right and photographing it. So if I make these really beautiful cupcakes, I love it. They’re beautiful. I take a picture and I want to put them on the internet. I know they’re beautiful, but I still, like, it still feels good to have other people tell me, like, wow, Rebecca, those are beautiful, healthy cupcakes.  

Rebecca Washuta   So I get it, but I think, like you said, you have to be, if you’re you can be proud of it, but you have to be aware that, even if your profile is private, how many people are seeing that? And then, yeah, you know, it’s like, we do have all these different versions of ourselves, which is normal, right? I speak differently with my aunt than I do with my best friend, but it’s like, now everyone’s seeing this one version of yourself.  

Rebecca Washuta   So who do you want to portray online? And, yeah, keep, keep in mind that, like, down there. How are you going to feel about this in 10 years, 20 years? Because once they’re out there, right? I don’t know how many apps you have on your phone. Every app’s like, can we have access to your photos? I’m like, Yeah, sure, whatever, right?  

Rebecca Washuta   Like, yes, yes, yes, yes. How many things have we Yes, that we don’t even know about, and even if you delete your Instagram, your photos are out there, right? I mean, I don’t know how the internet works exactly, but like, they’re there, the pictures of you are there. So, um. Yeah, important to be mindful of, especially young kids, right? Who you who don’t really understand all the repercussions.    

Rebecca Washuta I’ll also say, going back to what you just said before, I’m not so sure about that, and time will tell, meaning the small things which we don’t believe are big problems now, like, Hey, I baked a cake, and I just want to show everybody or Hey, like I I got a I got a promotion. So I’m going to go on LinkedIn and tell everyone I just got the certification.  

Steve Washuta   The problem is the secondary effect from that could change the motivational factors behind what you want to do. So what I mean by that is, it seems innocent enough, but what happens is, for some people, not for everybody, some people have better control of this, but for some people, the internal reward is, instead of I enjoy baking, I’m just using this as of whatever right, or I’m proud of myself for getting the certification that actually the most rewarding part is other people telling me that I did a good job.  

Steve Washuta   So now my my MO, like, my internal motivation to do things is less based off of my enjoyment of the thing, and more based off of the other thing and like, so I’m just, I’m just making up a scenario here. What happens if you know you’re in the kitchen, not you specifically, but I’m just somebody, you’re in the kitchen, you’re having a great time, right? Uh, your daughter’s, your daughter’s like, enjoying it.  

Steve Washuta   Maybe she’s like, she’s playing a little bit. She’s eating some of the stuff you’re making, right? You’re just having, like, a great day. It’s sunny out. Whatever you bake this cake, it comes out just how you want to. You do whatever. You take a picture of it, and you get two likes. And maybe someone goes, What the fuck is that ugly thing? And then, you know, and then there’s another scenario where the total opposite of that happens, right? So it’s like, your daughter’s throwing stuff all over the all over the house.  

Steve Washuta   The cake didn’t go how you wanted to. It tastes pictures, great, yeah, it tastes like crap. It didn’t come out or you wanted to. You spend too much money to make it, you’re never going to eat it, right? Like you, the doorbell is ringing, but you took a picture of it, you got 100 likes, and it’s like, so, so the motivation in the intrinsic part, like, bakes away from that.  

Steve Washuta   And that’s what, honestly just the reason I’m saying this because every day I’m this close to just deleting everything, yeah, like, every day I’m this close to just saying I need to make sure that I like and never get to there. And when I feel like I am getting to there, when is it time to say, like, can I just pull the plug? And some people go, Oh, I’ll do that by just pulling the plug for an hour a day a week. But for me, it’s like this. I enjoy this.  

Steve Washuta   I don’t care. I don’t care if one person watches or or 3 million people like what you do. Yeah, I enjoy this. But the kind of the banter back and forth, like the commenting and stuff like I I could do, I can, I can completely get rid of all of that side of the internet and social media and feel like maybe I’d be even happier.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, well, this actually goes full circle to what you were talking about in the beginning with parenting, right? Because one of the big things they say now, which I’m I’m guilty of, is you’re not supposed to say I’m so proud of you, right? So Mackenzie comes in, she draws this really beautiful picture, and you say, I’m so proud of you. It’s so beautiful.  

Rebecca Washuta   Because now, right, we’re teaching them at a young age to, like, rely on this external validation. So instead, it should be switched to say, like, wow. Do you think it’s pretty what’s your favorite part? Well, my argument should be both, but, yeah, yeah, you should be so proud of you. But it’s, it’s, it’s interesting, because, you know, I bring that up because it starts at a young age, right? At a very young age, we are seeking our parents approval.  

Rebecca Washuta   We’re seeking our teachers approval. Like you are sort of looking around you to say, like, Am I doing this right? But yeah, I think that has escalated in a way that is really hurting people’s mental health. So, yeah, I, you know, I struggle with it too. I will go, like, a week with I’m like, I’m not even going to get on social media. But then, you know, it is a big part of my business, right?  

Rebecca Washuta   So it’s, it’s challenging with the one, the one thing I’ve, I’ve read and tried to do, which has helped is, this is, for all you know, business owners, content creators, is create before you consume. So like, you go, don’t go scrolling, right? Get on, make a reel, post it, and then, if you want to give yourself 10 minutes to scroll. But if you, if you initially are consuming all of this stuff, it’s going to impact your creativity. It may impact your confidence, right?  

Rebecca Washuta   Well, this person is doing it this way, and this person got 100 likes. This person got 10,000 and whatever, don’t do you. So you have to just, you know, create first. I try to do that. Just use it to create and not even look at the comments, not even, you know, and that that hurts, because engagement is, is really, you know, what wants to see. So, no, it’s, it’s a double edged sword.    

Rebecca Washuta Yeah. I mean, I think that’s, you know, it’s well said. And I think there’s, as long as you can find a way to, like, just make it positive, you know? I just, I just, I think that’s really the important part. There’s so much of this. Like, what do they call it? The rage, rage bait. You know what that is? Yeah, yeah. So, like, it’s a new thing where people do it and, like, these kids are great at it.  

Steve Washuta   So like, a kid will have his shirt off and he’s like, he’s like, he’s like, You take pre workout. He’s like, everyone knows the best thing is bait. Baking soda, and he like, snorts a line of baking soda off the car, and he’s like, look how jacked I am. And he like, runs away. And he’s not jacked, and he doesn’t really, probably do this, no, maybe wasn’t even baking soda, but all the videos are like that, and he gets a million comments because everyone’s like, you’re an idiot.  

Steve Washuta   You’re an idiot. But that helps the social media, right? Yeah. And he trends, and he goes, farce, like, there’s just, like, this an army rage bait, like, contrarian. I mean rage bait like, they’re literally thinking of videos like, how do I get people to, like, go crazy? What could I What could I do to get stirred up? I will say, going back to the one, the one parenting comment. I am a contrarian, but I do, I do hate that we try to, like, reverse engineer parenting that’s been going on for, like, hundreds of years, successfully.  

Steve Washuta   Like, we’ve got, like, we have a pretty nice world. We’ve we’ve gone to the moon, although people debate that. We certainly have spaceships. We’ve gone into space. We have, we can replace the human heart in a few hours and keep people functioning. We have very nice people all over the planet. We have great things, like, parents did pretty good job for for many of yours, right?  

Steve Washuta   So like, these, these people are so sensitive about like, saying, like, Oh, don’t tell your kid that you know you’re proud of them. It’s like, No, you could do both. You could also say, like, Hey, I’m proud of you in this. But also, there’s a reason why kids should want your love and attention, because they they are going to function better in the world by understanding there’s other people, and I need to make sure that my actions, because I know that they do, my actions, are in line with other people’s actions, who are functioning adults.  

Steve Washuta   It’s not all about me. Who care. Like, I don’t want my kid to just think, like every second they do, it’s like, Oh, that. Dad disapproves, but I liked it. Dad disapproves that I threw cran on the wall, but I liked it. So like, there’s this other whole side where I feel like this, these, these parenting behavioral people, yeah, they’re they’re not balanced.  

Steve Washuta   And that leads to, maybe the last thing we’ll talk about here is I made a comment on, like, a post about sleeping with children. It was sort of like, you know, a little bit tongue in cheek, but I said, if you stay.  

Rebecca Washuta   Sleeping with your own children, oh, yeah, really clear here.     You’re a parent, and you allow your child to sleep in your bed, or at least on a consistent basis, not just like, hey, my kids having sleeping, nightmares, co sleeping. And I would never, I’m gonna caveat here. I would never tell a parent what to do with their child, because we just had this whole conversation before.  

Steve Washuta   All children are different, just like all humans are different, all your clients are different. You’re gonna give them different nutritional packages. I’m gonna give my clients different training packages. We’re gonna treat our packages. We’re going to treat our children different, right? But I said, If you sleep with your if you co sleep, chances are that child will be an only child. And the reason I said that was twofold. Number one, when do you and your partner have relations?  

Steve Washuta   And then two, it’s probably going to hurt your marriage and your relationship with your partner, because of the fact that, like, that’s a great time for most people who have real jobs and who work to talk at the end of the day and to, like, go over their plans, what they’re going to do with their kids and all these other things. Like, it’s time for the adults to get together.  

Steve Washuta   And then three maybe, maybe the most important part is there are studies on this, and these kids who sleep with their parents past a certain age have a way higher level of anxiety. It’s just that these are the studies. I’m not telling you. You can put, you can poke holes in any studies, but that’s what the study said. What do you think about CO parent? Hopefully, thing.  

Rebecca Washuta   I don’t, I said we don’t, right, right? Now I can’t say that. I never will, because for a long time we were Nick was always my husband was like, we can’t let the dog sleep in the bed. The dogs will never sleep in the bed. Now both dogs sleep in the bed with us, right? So it’s like your views can change, but I agree with you that you know you can’t.  

Rebecca Washuta   You can’t overlook how it’s impacting your marriage, right? So for some people, maybe they have date nights scheduled every Tuesday, Thursday, and they can do this, and they have their own time. And that time at night isn’t a secret for them, although, you know, I think for most people like you said, I think that is the case. Um, what I can see myself doing later on, is going into her room.  

Rebecca Washuta   So in her room we have a crib and a bed, and like, you know, sleeping in her bed if, if necessary, but not every night again, you know, like when she has a bad dream. But you know, it’s also kind of what we’re used to, because growing up, we didn’t sleep in our parents bed, right? So, like, our parents had a double bed their whole lives.  

Rebecca Washuta   I don’t know how they functioned in that so there was just no room for us, right? So, so we didn’t do that. It’s not what we’re used to. I do feel like the sleeping on their own fosters independence, which is like, ultimately, what we’re trying to do, right? We’re trying to create independent, confident kids so To each their own, but, but, bu.     Just on board with you. We don’t to go back to the sort of the thesis of this though, right? Which, which we started with the very beginning, and we’re all talking together, is that everyone’s very different, right? So if your parenting style, though, right is to, is, is, is to let all of your kids sleep in your bed, right? If it’s always co sleeping.  

Steve Washuta   Right? Or if it’s always not co sleeping, then then you’re probably doing it wrong, meaning, right? So, like, it should be based off of the child, but when the parents make a decision in advance, a lot of times it’s based off of them. So the parents who co sleep sometimes go, oh, it’s better for my child.  

Steve Washuta   My child has less nightmares have less that’s like, is it better for your child, or you’re doing this because it’s better for you because you because it’s hard on you that the child wakes up sometimes with nightmares, that it’s hard on you to get up in the middle of the night to do this, that you like to sleep next to your child, right? Ask these questions, but, but you can, you could easily throw that argument back at me and saying, Oh, is it better for you that your child’s not sleeping with you because you’ve answered that question.  

Rebecca Washuta   You’re saying it is. You’re saying, Listen, I have to prioritize my marriage, because married, married parents are actually better for a child’s well being, right, than divorced parents. So that makes sense. I think you have to, you have to, again, parent the child that you have, and look at your family and your relationship.     We don’t have that question. Have people schedules too.

Rebecca Washuta  So like, you know, I wake up every day at 530 and like, I this, I have shit to do. I’m like, my wife has to travel a half hour to work, and she has stuff to do. She has a very important job. And, you know, maybe some people have a little bit more flexibility where they’re sleeping till 9am and, like, it’s okay that they don’t sleep that well at night, and the kid wakes up in the bed and starts kicking you and doing whatever because they’re sleeping longer, right? Like, I don’t know everyone’s life.  

Steve Washuta   I would never tell someone what to do. I would never say this is absolutely wrong. It was sort of tongue in cheek again, why I said it. But for me, I would think that a lot of people say they’re doing it for their child, but they’re really doing need.  

Rebecca Washuta   To be introspective that, yeah, who is it really for? Yeah, I agree.     I think we’ve wrapped up everything here. Oh no. Last thing, I didn’t look into this at all. I don’t know if you did. So maybe we can push this to next time, if you want. But Tiktok teamed up with who for medical fact checking. This is scary to me.  

Rebecca Washuta   Well, you know, I I have two, two separate feelings about this. One is that as a as a scientist, I consider myself a scientist, right? It’s crazy that we live in a world where there can’t be facts anymore, right? It’s like everyone is refuting everything. So I like the idea that we can have facts. We can have facts that like this is true, this is evidence based.  

Rebecca Washuta   However, yeah, if it’s coming from China, that’s a little bit scary, right, with their government propaganda. So it’s like, what? What are they going to allow? So like, in, you know, half of me thinks freedom of speech, let’s have all the crazy theories out there, but then the other half is like, No, we really do need something that’s like, responsible and evidence based. So, I mean, let’s see how it unfolds, right?    

Rebecca Washuta  Yeah. I mean, the problem is a lot of things that seem fringe at some point end up not being so. So if you control in the in the front part, right? And in the beginning of of statements in general, right? This is why we have, in America, we have freedom of speech. You know, even the British in the UK, there is, they don’t have a First Amendment like we do. So the if you control on the front end for people not to say these things.  

Steve Washuta   A lot of times, you know, things get that get labeled as, now, like misinformation and disinformation and like are actually true, but they never, they never get to make it through the journey of being analyzed properly, because they’re cut out right away. And that’s the really the problem is, is what, what gets what gets framed as that, who has control over it? And I agree with you, yeah, you would like people not just to be able to say outlandish thing.  

Rebecca Washuta   Let’s go back when you said, Who the World Health Organization? Yeah. Just, just to clarify.     Yeah, the World Health Organization, which unfortunately has a lot of ties to China, it’s, it’s a little bit corrupt. They, you know, during, you know, the the C word pandemic, and other things there was, there was a bunch of shady stuff going on. So they do not have a great reputation, and rightfully so, like anything else, they’re people, and people can be corrupted, and people can do the wrong things, right? So that’s all these.  

Steve Washuta   These three letter organizations are just a bunch of people. So, and we all, we all make mistakes, and we’re all prone to corruption. So the you know, but, but controlling this on tick tock specifically, let’s forget about, like, the first, first, first amendment stuff and free speech, which doesn’t really matter for tick tock, because it’s Chinese based. But my worry is that China, without getting too political here right, has has reasons to say what is considered misinformation and disinformation as a sort of geopolitical.  

Rebecca Washuta   You know, they’ve done that. They have a history of doing that strike to us.     So that’s really what’s concerning. If we were to implement something like that, that’s maybe a little bit different, you know, we would look at this with a different eye, but the fact that it’s tick tock and who World Health Organization teaming up to say, What’s misinformation, which has been the. Weird term that people have been throwing around, right? People saying, Oh, this is misinformation.  

Steve Washuta   This is disinformation, and describing exactly what they are. And a lot of times you see like misinformation, disinformation where there’s just, like, one small thing that’s often said statement, and it could be considered like misinformation, right? So like, as opposed to disinformation.  

Steve Washuta   So I might say, like we found out that, you know, 300,000 people did not die in 1926 from the bubonic plague, right? It might have been 296,000 right? So it’s like but the way they refute it and still strike it as misinformation well, because I was off by 4000 people. So, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s also the context behind what’s going on and the corrections I just, I feel like it gets a little bit 1984 dystopian and scary.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, yeah, it does. And now it’s like, so where do you go?  

Rebecca Washuta   Like, where can you truly feel like.  

Rebecca Washuta   That informationis being controlled.     You come here, there you go. This is, this is your source. Well, quick, quickly. Last thing here, update on my fitness goals. No, no real update. I said I was trying to run under a four, 640, I’m not quite there yet.  

Steve Washuta   I’ve made I’ve made strides, and I’m not completely under the four six yet, and I’ve started to run more like actually run, as opposed to sprint, because I’m enjoying it. It’s therapeutic in my head, but it’s also helping me improve my my sprinting time, right? It’s not hurting it necessarily, but no big updates when I hit that four, six number  

Rebecca Washuta   I will let people know where  to celebrate.  

Steve Washuta   Well Beck, thank you for joining the truly fit podcast. As usual. I’m sure we’ll do another one of these in the next few weeks and quickly let everyone know where they can find you.  

Rebecca Washuta   Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me on Instagram, happy healthy nutritionist, or my website, happy healthy nutritionist.com and  

Steve Washuta   remember, this is on YouTube, not my solos that are done on Thursdays are not always on YouTube, but there should be a solo every Thursday, which are five to 15 minutes of me talking about a trending topic.  

Steve Washuta   This has been the Trulyfit podcast. Becca, thanks for joining in. Thank you so much for listening in. And remember you can subscribe the truly Fit app on YouTube to watch the Monday interviews. See you guys soon.

https://www.happyhealthynutritionist.com/

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