Health & Fitness Rundown
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Guest: Rebecca Washuta
Release Date: 7/1/2024
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 : Welcome to Trulyfit. All right back. Thanks for joining the Trulyfit podcast today is one of our episodes where we go down some trending topics and health and fitness and nutrition. And we give our take on those topics. Some of them will expand on and talk for five to 15 minutes, and some of them will be quick.
Steve Washuta : And we’ll just give a quick snippet. But for anybody who has not heard you on the podcast previously, just give a quick background on who you are and what you do day to day in the health and fitness industry. Yeah, absolutely.
Rebecca Washuta So for those of you who don’t know, I am Steve sister, it’s not a coincidence that we have the same last name. Clearly, we both have a passion for health and nutrition. So I’m a board certified State Licensed Dietitian. I have my own private practice here in Miami Beach, and I specialize in weight loss, metabolic issues, and then also autoimmune conditions.
Steve Washuta : All right, let’s jump right in here. First one is toddlers on vacation. Yes. Before we get into health and fitness. Well, this is this is mental health. For sure. Should you take your toddler on vacation? Is it really a vacation? I’ve heard from someone else that said, you there’s no such thing as a vacation with a toddler. You’re just watching your toddler in a different city. What are your thoughts?
Rebecca Washuta Yeah, for sure. So we just got back from a three week trip up to Long Island. It was it was lovely. But it was equally stressful. We brought the toddler and the dogs. So we just you know, we we packed it all in. I fully agree with you. And I think when you if you’re planning one of these trips, you need to set realistic expectations.
Rebecca Washuta I think that’s the best thing you can do that this isn’t going to be a romantic, beautiful getaway, not with a toddler, right? Maybe by the time your your kids are 10, it gets easier, and they’re more independent. But you know, I tried to set my realistic expectations for myself, and also for Nick for my husband to say like, yeah, we are going to just be parenting in another state.
Rebecca Washuta Even when we have help, you know, we have someone watching her, you still have all of the stressors and things to think about that you had at home. So it’s new scenery, I think that, you know, allows you to explore new things, I definitely felt less stressed. And I think that has its own implications, which I want to get into in a minute.
Rebecca Washuta But yeah, it’s it’s definitely not a vacation. And I do have friends that take multiple trips a year, right? Maybe four times a year, they go away with two kids, three kids, and I don’t know how they do it. I don’t like people, you guys have traveled pretty pretty frequently with Mackenzie.
Steve Washuta : Yeah, my daughter is not even three yet. And she’s taken nine airplane trips, that’s nine, that’s two places, and then back, right, so 18 trips on an airplane, nine different locations. And I would say the things that are not as difficult as people think is the actual travel.
Steve Washuta : As long as you have a plan in place, and you have all your bags ready to go and you kind of like mentally map out, okay, I’m gonna have to put this back on when I get out of the car and the airport and do this and do that and you get on the airplane and you’re you have the proper toys, and food and all that stuff to travel isn’t that hard.
Steve Washuta : What’s hard is that, you know, when you get to set location, there’s always like a pivot, right, your kids sick, your kid gets hurt, your kid just doesn’t want to go to the thing you paid for for whatever reason. So you have to be ready to say like, how I planned the vacation out. Just like how I plan to travel out like things are not going to go perfect.
Steve Washuta : And I have to remember that and I have to adjust because usually, you know on vacation, you think it’s like purely relaxing and to do what you want. You’re the one who paid for it, you have an itinerary, that itinerary is just not going to work out how you think and as long as you go into that understanding that scenario is not going to work out and I don’t like over parental tips, I hate them.
Steve Washuta : But I will give one here have somebody on the vacation who could watch your kid for a little bit like hopefully that’s that’s what you want. So like if you go back to your home destination or you trust a particular babysitter having at least like three hours to yourself you and your wife so you can leave the kid and or kids away I think is important on vacation because again it feels less like a vacation if you don’t actually get away
Rebecca Washuta for sure for sure I have I have two things there that I want to expand upon. One is the planning we tend to plan everything my daughter really does very well with like a schedule and structure and so I’m always thinking like alright morning what’s the activity then nap then afternoon what’s the activity but what I found on vacation is that you know sometimes you can over plan and something that that’s to your detriment right?
Rebecca Washuta Because we were in Long Island and you know the Northeast has different animals and insects and foliage and things than Miami has and she was so excited just to go outside and like look at the spiders to like pick the flowers to just run in the grass right to just have this different experience things you know, we grew up there but things as an adult that you’re like, This isn’t exciting.
Rebecca Washuta She was thrilled to just run around in the front yard and you know, see new things in touch new things and so I think, you know, sometimes letting one getting out outdoors I think is huge. It’s so important for toddlers, and for parents mental health, right, but just sort of letting them lead instead of like having an activity and having something planned.
Rebecca Washuta Like she just wanted to walk around and pick up rocks and, you know, pick flowers for the day. And that was that was actually really lovely. The other thing, I’ll say a quick tip that we tried this time around. So long story short, we rented a house in Long Island, and we just had difficulty getting back to Miami, there was a storm here, there was like insulation.
Rebecca Washuta So the last night we ended up renting or getting a hotel room in New York City, so we could easily get to the airport to get home the next day. And what we ended up doing was getting two adjoining rooms. So listen, I will stay in a in a less expensive hotel and do this rather than stay in a fancy hotel any day of the week.
Rebecca Washuta We got two adjoining rooms so that we could put her her her pack in play in that other room leave the door open, but then at least it can be dark in there. Because we’ve had this issue before of if the if the pack and play is in our room, and she sees us in the middle of the night, she will not go back to sleep even now even at two and a half Rachel, she’ll be three in the fall.
Rebecca Washuta That was such a game changer to us to like have the to have the rooms you know you have the door open. But then she at least has her own space. And you get a minute, right? Like Nick went down to the hotel bar and brought us have a glass of wine. And that was like one way to wind down, you know, at the end of our vacation, though, but I think gosh, that was that was such a game changer for us.
Steve Washuta : Yeah, we did that. When we went to San Antonio, we just did sort of like a weekend drive trip San Antonio is only like three hours from Austin. We drove down there and I forget the name of the hotel, but actually they’re not.
Steve Washuta : They’re pretty nice. And they all of the rooms are basically built like that. Right? There’s there’s an adjoining room. And then there’s a door that kind of closes between them or a curtain that closes between them. And you can make sure that you’re watching TV in the other room and not waking your kid up. Or you’re sitting down having a glass of wine, discussing next day’s plans and not waking your kid up.
Steve Washuta : You could even you know leave the room if it’s on the first floor. And the bars right next door the little restaurant if you wanted to if your kids old enough, and you have a baby monitor or something right. So so yeah, that’s that’s certainly a big help. Rather than just being stuck in the room. It happened to us the first time we traveled, we traveled for Easter, I believe Mackenzie was one year, one year old, we traveled. And we didn’t do that.
Steve Washuta : We got a hotel room. And she had to go to bed at 630 because she was tired. And we’re like, oh, I guess we’re stuck in this hotel room. What do you do with three hours until we actually get tired? The lights are off, you can’t talk. lights are off. We can’t talk the TV’s on like three volume. And we’re watching crappy movies for three hours until we get tired. So yeah.
Rebecca Washuta I have one more thing I want to say about toddlers. So this is this is a takeaway that I had after this most recent travel experience, I tend to be I don’t know, if you could tell I tend to have like anxiety, I tend to be a little bit more high strung, right, I’m definitely a type A person.
Rebecca Washuta I think I’m the best version of myself on vacation, right on any vacation, you just like to everyone tends to be more relaxed. And I noticed that, you know, that’s the energy I was bringing into every day there, right, my experiences and my interactions with not only with my daughter with my husband.
Rebecca Washuta Sometimes I think, you know, we put a lot of emphasis on the things that we’re saying to our kids and then like our actions, but sometimes it’s our vibes, right? I think that they can feel it. Even if I’m like, everything’s okay, everything’s okay. But I’m panicking or really, it knows everything’s not okay. Right. So like, she can just feel they can feel it.
Rebecca Washuta And so, you know, I I noticed that she was more relaxed there. And so just, you know, how can you take that energy and bring it home, because I’m someone who finds it hard to relax in my own home, right? We live in Miami, we have a lovely pool. We’re five minutes from the beach, but it’s hard to just sit and relax and unwind.
Rebecca Washuta I think toddlers can really read that energy. And that probably has a role in a lot of their behavior. So you know, focusing on me where I’m at first as a parent has been big and then you know, I think has rippling effects out from there.
Steve Washuta : Yeah, if you can control your schedule, also the last thing on this, you want to exercise right before you get your toddler at the end of the day or before you have to handle your toddler, right. So I if I can block my schedule off, and I tried to do this almost every other day, is if I pick my toddler up at four o’clock, I work out from three to 345 or 245 to four.
Steve Washuta : That relaxes you and that gets your energy in a better place so that you know when inevitably you pick them up and something’s going wrong. Are they you know, they thought they were getting a snack in the car. There was no snack. You’re just calmer and the rest of the night goes well. Yeah, it’s true. Next topic here.
Rebecca Washuta Cool. Oh, Okay, moving on. The next topic is home gym musts so I definitely have some some things that I want to contribute but I know you are the expert in all things fitness. So if someone is, you know building a home gym, what are the essentials you think they need to have?
Steve Washuta : Well, although I am the expert, you actually have a home gym and I do not given that I’m currently renting so. But and let’s just start with what you have in your home gym. I know you have a spin bike, right you have a peloton, you have over there, you have dumbbells between you know, whatever, you know, threes and 20s pretty much all the dumbbells someone would need.
Steve Washuta : You think had some sort of mirror I don’t know if you still have that like the the mirror meaning like the Lululemon, kind of like push pull cable machine, which which is great, you could hook up different bars and different handles, so that do all these exercises, and a mat. And that’s pretty much all you need. I mean, that is that is a really good all encompassing home gym.
Steve Washuta : Now, I think there’s different kinds of home gyms, there’s garage gyms, which are different than what I consider a home gym. If you’re in the garage, you can do a little bit more. You can hang things from like the rafters kind of right the in the ceiling. So then you could have like a TRX ban, which I think is all encompassing, I talk about that a lot, you can do everything with the TRX strap.
Steve Washuta : A lot of people who just like to lift in more of an Olympic CrossFit style will have some sort of squat rack so that it can bench and shoulder press, and deadlift and squat all inside of there. Which is great when you can do almost everything inside of a squat rack with the proper barbell, and all of the accompanying weights. And then you could put the flooring down as well.
Steve Washuta : But I want to get away from garage gyms I want to talk about if you’re in your home, right? You just have you have a room, there’s carpet underneath or something right? You don’t necessarily have a special floor. What What should you put in there, always dumbbells because you can do everything with dumbbells, you probably want a band or two.
Steve Washuta : And something to put that band around when I say band, I mean a band with handles, not just a circular band, you’re putting around your ankles, right like a booty band, I mean something with handles, so that you can do pulling exercises and pushing exercises, but you have to be able to wrap that band around something.
Steve Washuta : So there’s these things called like question mark hooks, and it’s exactly what you think it is, it looks like a question mark, and you can screw it into the wall. They’re pretty sturdy as long as you get it into a beam. And then you can put the bands inside of those. You always want a mat because sometimes the floor is not great to lay on.
Steve Washuta : When you’re doing ab exercises, you you want to use the mat. I think having one piece of unique equipment, like a kettlebell is great just so you can do different forms of exercise and switch things up here. And there. You know kettlebell is bottom weighted, so it’s changed as a 20 pound kettlebell is not like holding a 20 pound dumbbell because of where the weight is distributed and how you use it. So those would be the first things that come to mind for a home gym.
Steve Washuta Now, if you’re allowed, if no if price doesn’t matter. And your space is decently sized, right, somewhere between, let’s say, 200 square feet or more, I would say a really good option is just getting one cable machine. That’s all you need. If you have one cable machine in the corner of a room, you can do everything on a cable machine, so you don’t need anything else.
Rebecca Washuta Yeah, okay, I have a few contributions to me. And maybe a rebuttal. I will say if you most people don’t have one whole extra room in their house to dedicate to a home gym, right? It’s multi purpose. So maybe it’s the guestroom, maybe it’s also your office, maybe it’s who knows storage. So I think that that cable machine is kind of ugly, right? Am I thinking about this? Like it’s not it’s not cute?
Steve Washuta No. it’s not it may be is a little bit better in a garage type scenario. And you’re right. If you have a room dedicated, it’s perfect. If you do not have a room dedicated, you have to think about those things, like you said. So the dumbbells are easy to move, you can put them even into like little baskets inside of like a little shelf if you don’t have a closet.
Steve Washuta There are now small treadmills that basically fall down that you can slip underneath your couch. So those are great if you don’t want to have a bike in the middle of your room because the one part about a bike is I think bikes look great in a room I really like the look of like lounges with like a bike in the corner just like yours is but that doesn’t mean everyone does. Some people might be like, Why the hell is up?
Rebecca Washuta There not easy to move. I’m not easy to move. 300 pounds? I don’t know.
Steve Washuta Yeah. So, so that now there are herbs, rowers that completely go up so you can put them up onto the wall. Yeah, exactly. So you can get so if you’re if you’re worried about having the equipment standout.
Steve Washuta I would certainly maybe avoid the bike and then get the walking smaller treadmills that fold down that you can hide or get the erg that you can kind of put up against the wall and put into the corner I think that is a good point because not everybody has a dedicated space like you said, for sure.
Rebecca Washuta A couple things I want to expand upon. One is you talked to basically about cardio right. So do you do the treadmill do you do the rower? I think I really so I have, I have both we have a treadmill and a bike. I love my peloton, I love the bike. But sometimes I think the treadmill is more versatile. Right in that. And listen, if you have peloton or I think SoulCycle also has a bike, they also give you an app.
Rebecca Washuta You don’t always have to just use the bike right? They give you at home workouts. So you can just use the screen for do on your iPad or whatever. But if you’re looking for the equipment, I think that a treadmill is more versatile, right? Because I’m not an avid runner, but I will jog and then I can walk uphill, you can walk backwards, you can do different things.
Rebecca Washuta Even on days where I’m like, I do not want to exercise, right? I’m just like, oh, exhausted or whatever, I can walk. And so I like that right, I can walk for 30 minutes while I’m listening to a podcast or doing whatever. So that’s like the bare minimum. And I so I really like the treadmill for that right? If there’s nothing else I can do, I think it’s you can still push yourself to walk, you know. So it’s also
Steve Washuta to add to your point, there’s also a larger range of people who can use it. So if you have, let’s say, maybe a small knee injury, and it’s not even diagnosed, maybe it’s just like cartilage issues, right? You have wear and tear over time, the bike can be difficult for some people, hip issues, things of that nature, whereas almost anybody can walk.
Steve Washuta Okay, so now at the same point, if you’re really if you’re an elite athlete, you can still really challenge yourself on the treadmill, right? So there’s a wider range of people that can use the treadmill. That’s, that’s another reason why that’s sometimes superior to the bike, if we’re looking from that angle. Yeah,
Rebecca Washuta I like that. And then I will say I use the bands that you advise against, like just the bands that don’t have the handles. And I like them because I know they’re not quite as versatile as the handles, but they fold up so nicely. And you know, so they, I just have a tiny little basket, I have different strengths, right light, medium, heavy, and they’re they’re very easy to just put away.
Rebecca Washuta I also have an I don’t know what this is called. Do you know when you when you go to a gym, and they have the giant balls that you sit on to do abs? Well, they have little balls that I would say like I don’t know, it’s maybe eight or nine inches in diameter.
Steve Washuta That’s called a bender ball. So they use it a lot in Pilates. But yeah, bento boxes, no balls are great, you can put them behind your back to do ab exercises, you can use them we call abductions, when you pull your knees together, so you put them in between your knees and you squeeze that works your your adductor muscles inside of your thighs. It even makes ABS harder because you’re you’re sort of recruiting more of what we call like the global stabilizer muscles.
Steve Washuta When people think of their core, they only think of like their ad muscles. But now there’s lower back, there’s into your hip flexors, there’s all these smaller muscles. So if you can squeeze that ball, let’s say even between your feet, and then do exercises with traditional ab exercises, you’re going to recruit a lot more muscle. So yeah, Bender balls are great. And they even Yeah, really small.
Steve Washuta But if you want to make them even smaller, let’s say you want to bring it on vacation, you could deflate the vendor Hall and it’s full, it folds up to something smaller than your phone, and then you just inflate it when you get to your location.
Rebecca Washuta Yeah, I was gonna say that. I really love that. And then one more tip that we’ve done. When we were designing our nursery, we wanted like a big play mat for a rally. So there’s this company, obviously we’re you know, we’re not associated, I’m just being honest. It’s called Little nomad. And they do these play mats, and they’re easy to clean.
Rebecca Washuta This foam so your kids don’t get hurt, we actually put it in our home gym, because it’s basically like an inch thick, super easy to clean. And you can move the tiles around, right, it fits together like a puzzle piece. So you could move them around if you wanted to, like set up a corner here set up a corner there.
Rebecca Washuta They look nice, it almost looks like a nice decorative rug instead of like something you know, more rugged or industrial looking. And so you can you know, put your mat on top of that. And that way you just have a bigger space if you’re if you’re going to do you know a hit class or some type of some type of class right that you’re watching on YouTube or on an app, you have a bigger space to move around. You’re not just confined to one little mat.
Steve Washuta I will also add just sparked my mind when you said that. If you are looking for something in the garage more rugged, as you said that you’re not looking for don’t get the standard like fitness floor tiles because they just jack the prices up for those.
Steve Washuta What you can do is you can get like they’re like horse mats. Basically, they’re mass use for like animals and like horse barns and they’re a third of the price but they do the same thing.
Steve Washuta They’re just like some sort of hard rubber plastic that you can put down for like an inch and drop things on it and you can get creative you can go to Home Depot and Lowe’s and all these places and get flooring. Instead of trying to order like fitness mats, specifically, which are just the same thing as some of these other mats, but they just jacked the price up, because you’re typing in home, gym and fitness.
Steve Washuta I just want to clarify, there’s nothing wrong with those bands that you talked about, especially for leg related exercises, they’re smaller, there’s a lot of great things to do with the circular bands. But the fact that the band connects, right, it’s a, it’s a full circle doesn’t allow you to do some of the exercises that you would otherwise do, right. So let’s, let’s take a high row.
Steve Washuta So like a high row, or a high pole, when I’m pulling that band up towards my face, and I’m working on my upper back muscles, my rhomboids some of my muscles on my shoulders and my upper back muscles. You can’t do that with a band.
Steve Washuta That’s circular, necessarily, right? So you need to be wrapping around something and then pull it towards your face. So it just, it’s good to have both really, it’s a why they’re so cheap. Why not have every version of a band you possibly can. Yeah,
Rebecca Washuta I love that. I’ll say one last thing. This is probably more directed at your female listeners. I have a lot of friends who have these home gyms, right, who got the bike who got the thing, who got the, you know, whatever type of equipment, and they never use it. So I think you have to like your space, you have to enjoy going in there.
Rebecca Washuta If you get all this equipment and you feel like the garage is dark and dingy and dirty. And you don’t want to use it. What’s the point. So you have to make sure I would rather you have like way less, you know, just get dumbbells and right like have way less and walk into the space and feel good in it. Rather than piling a bunch of things in having things be disorganized and chaotic. And then never actually you know, using the room.
Steve Washuta Be introspective when when it comes to building it. Maybe it’s just not for you. So you know, like we made a really nice backyard in my house and Oklahoma City. I I put expensive turf down and we did all this stuff to the backyard. I think we just the backyard twice in like three years, because we’re just not people who want to just we’re not people want to go sit down outside, we do stuff you want to go every time.
Steve Washuta Like we go on walks like every single day. We love walking, but we don’t love sitting outside just for no reason. So it’s like be introspective. Are you going to use this? Are you someone who’s gonna use this? Like, that’s why I don’t have a home gym. Because my wife and I like going to the physical gym. We like the environment there.
Steve Washuta So it’s like, Why build a home gym? I know I’m not going to use it. So it’s not it’s not for everyone. What I Eat in a Day videos, are they corny? Are they useless? Are they useful? I know this is sort of in your realm. I see them too much. I can only imagine in your feed doing what you do for a living how much that you see them. What what is it about these videos that that stands out? Should we not do them?
Rebecca Washuta Yeah, I’m I’m annoyed by them. I listen, I think they can be useful in maybe inspiring people, right to say like, oh, maybe I’ll put pumpkin seeds in my salad tomorrow. That’s a neat approach. Maybe I can have lemon water in the morning.
Rebecca Washuta However, you know, you and I have have beat the dead horse on this one. Nutrition and Physical fitness needs to be personalized, right? What’s right for me is not going to be what’s right for you. When I eat is based on my lifestyle and my preferences and my goals and my medical history.
Rebecca Washuta And, you know, people, people see this and take it sort of as you know, like the Bible and like well, I have to have this because this is this is what she eats. And this is why she looks that way. If you see someone on the internet, there’s a zillion reasons why they look the way they look right? It’s not just because one day she had eggs for breakfast.
Rebecca Washuta So I think you need to take it with a grain of salt. Yes, if you’re looking for inspiration, maybe there’s some good ideas or ideas there. But in general, I think they’re they’re pretty useless.
Steve Washuta I think they’re disingenuous. Also, I don’t ever see people showing videos of what they eat, like on a bad day. Four, you know, we all have I mean, I hesitate to even use that term bad day. But it’s always like the perfect ratio of meals, right? It’s like, oh, I woke up in the morning and I had like three eggs and a half a grapefruit and then I had a snack that was you know, perfectly healthy vegetable snack.
Steve Washuta And then you know, for lunch I had like, do you really have this every single day? Like what what about the bad days and also just, I’m sick of seeing into into people’s like, fake like, internet lots like this is like such a fake internet life thing. And that’s that’s what sort of, I don’t know, grinds my gears. I don’t I don’t like these videos. I’ve never done one people have asked me before actually like, hey, like what what exactly do you eat in a day? They haven’t asked me to make a video.
Steve Washuta They just asked me what I eat in a day. I’m like, I don’t know. It’s always different. And also, it’s like what I eat in a day. Because I’ve been eating a particular way and working out for you know, however many years like my body is going to respond to things differently than yours. because this is not helpful, like who is this helping? It’s not helping anybody. Well, it’s just it’s, it’s to me it’s disingenuous and showy. It’s not actually trying to help people.
Rebecca Washuta For sure I get the same question. Clients are always like, Well, what do you eat? And similar to you, right? I’ve been the same weight and same body fat percentage for 13 years, right outside of pregnancy, so I can afford to eat differently sometimes, right? Like, if I have pizza, doesn’t mean you should have pizza.
Rebecca Washuta And then on the flip side of that, I also do things that may be too extreme for people, right? So so during the week, I typically don’t eat breakfast, I typically don’t eat till 1230 year one, and intermittent fasting isn’t right for everyone. And I don’t even just mean it may not be effective for everyone.
Rebecca Washuta I mean, that it can actually be dangerous for people so right depending on your medical history, for instance, if you have a history of gallstones, intermittent fasting is is dangerous, you shouldn’t do it. And so you know all that to say it really has to be personalized. Work with a professional and figure out what’s right for you. Don’t just follow some some influencer on the internet.
Steve Washuta It is really easy content. I think that’s why people do it. It’s so easy, right? People like to watch it. That’s undeniable. These videos get a ton of views. And it’s so easy.
Steve Washuta It’s like I had to take my phone out for 30 seconds while I’m actually eating whatever it is I’m eating and maybe it’s a little again, put on too little, shall we I wouldn’t eat that. Normally, I wouldn’t played it that same exact way. But it’s just easy content. I think people are reaching for easy content. And it’s it’s unfortunate, but that’s just the way the world
Rebecca Washuta it’s true. All right, next topic. update us on your your fitness journey. Are you are you able to dunk yet? Where how’s that coming along?
Steve Washuta I this big update here, I’ve changed. I’ve now changed my goal. I’ve changed my goal. Didn’t nothing to do. You know, it had nothing to do with the fact that like, I don’t think I could have not done it or I wasn’t like on pace to do it.
Steve Washuta My job. I have a year basically, at this point almost a year to get this done. It was that I don’t really have anyone to play basketball with at this time, like where I live and what I do. So I can’t really get to the court, like the times of my life. And that’s a big part of like getting to this goal is like being able to go to the basketball court. Right? Like I need x backyard.
Steve Washuta Yeah, that’s Yeah. So like, there’s outdoor basketball courts, which are just not as great, especially in Texas, where it’s 120 degrees in the summer, right?
Rebecca Washuta Just this summer, right? I imagine it’s like, it’s like Miami, right? It’s basically May through September, it’s just forever.
Steve Washuta Last year, six months of the year, it hit over 100 At some point, six different months or so you’re just talking to extreme heat. The indoor basketball court that I had access to was just not that great. And I had to go there at weird times.
Steve Washuta I have a kid with another kid on the way so it’s just it’s really difficult because the goal was not simply just like me doing something outside like I had to have access to the basketball court. So it just didn’t make sense for me. And then also, at this point in my life, I really just don’t enjoy playing basketball like I used to. It’s just not as enjoyable for me.
Steve Washuta So what I enjoy doing is sprinting. So I changed the goal to trying to run a force 640 So where people aren’t really aware of like the times of a 40 Jerry Rice who was the greatest wide receiver of all time when he was at the Combine he ran a four 640 is very fast okay now.
Rebecca Washuta You’re trying tobe as fast as the greatest wide receivers all time all time.
Steve Washuta Yeah, but this so people who knows how to practice know, people who know sports and no football know that this is I’m putting this on a little bit because it’s a it was a different era of football and he wasn’t a speed wide receiver or that’s not why he was so great.
Steve Washuta He was quick. He was agile. He ran rake routes. He had great hands. He was smart. He had every single thing you could need but he wasn’t like the fastest guy the fastest guys run a four two now like, that’s impossible, right? I can train from now until the day I die.
Steve Washuta I could have a professional person I can put you could put me through every drug that’s ever existed. I would never be able to run it for two. There’s just my my my physical body does not have those beings. But a four six is really not that fast. My friends in high school ran for sixes I didn’t. I ran probably like high four sevens in high school. I’ve
Rebecca Washuta never run it. So this is going to be a brand new like Yeah.
Steve Washuta Yeah, it would be it would be a PR for me for sure. So that’s what I enjoy doing. So I’m I’m still doing a lot of the same exercises as far as like explosive exercises that you would do in basketball, sort of jump training and working on my ankle mobility and flexibility and kind of working through kind of like knees over toes type exercises to wake up some muscles that have been dormant.
Steve Washuta I’m sprinting a lot. I’m just barefoot sprinting because that’s what I enjoy. And I’ll do a full workout and then like a leg workout and then I’ll go to the local like soccer fields and I’ll just like barefoot sprint, so I haven’t actually timed myself yet. I know you’re We’re always like, Steve, like, how are you doing any of these things, but not actually having like, a bottom line metric?
Steve Washuta Yeah. And data. And part of the reason is because I’m in like, I’m enjoying it. And I just don’t want to look, I just don’t want to look at the numbers yet. Yeah, like a very, but very soon I will run my first 40. That’s actually time, so I know how far I have to get before I get there.
Rebecca Washuta Awesome! Well, I’m excited for you keep me keep me updated.
Steve Washuta Favorite freezer meals or food? I think we should stick to meals here if that’s okay, because you know, food is like, Well, what do we mean by food? I’m gonna say like, I put blueberries in the freezer, like, let’s just stick to like, something that’s over 200 calories, or close to 200 calories, not just one, not just like chicken in the freezer.
Rebecca Washuta Are you looking for like meals, you prepare and can freezed eat later or just anything you can buy at the grocery store that’s in the freezer, grocery
Steve Washuta store, let’s go with something that you would buy at the grocery store that’s in the freezer, that people people would be surprised. That’s a value that’s frozen because I know frozen things have, you know, sort of sometimes a negative connotation? Do you have anything that you buy some sort of small frozen meal, it could be even for your daughter? Yeah.
Rebecca Washuta Well, let me start by saying this, I think you’re right there is this idea that frozen food isn’t as healthy. And that’s not true. So frozen food is usually picked when it’s right. And it is flash frozen, so you know very, very quickly.
Rebecca Washuta That’s actually going to lock in the nutrients compared to strawberries that are picked in California and then have to be driven across the country to the East Coast, and then sit in the grocery store on the shelf. They can lose all of those nutrients. So a lot of the times the frozen vegetables and fruit actually are more nutrient dense.
Rebecca Washuta The other thing is they’re cheaper. So particularly with berries, berries are so expensive. I don’t know if they’re expensive in Texas, a little thing of blackberries is like $7 here, you know. So I’ve been buying all of my berries frozen.
Rebecca Washuta And that’s good for smoothies, if you want to put them in the microwave, and like put them over you know Greek yogurt or something for a snack. Delicious. My daughter likes to eat them frozen. It’s like a treat. So I just cut cut them up. So organic frozen berries, cheaper. Game Changer.
Steve Washuta By favorite freezer, little meals are saffron road. They’re all these Yeah, that’s a good pretty healthy Indian meals right are sort of the Indian sort of adjacent, and they have everything from like biryani to chicken tikka masala to all of these things. They’re all in the range of like 180 to 280 calories.
Steve Washuta So they’re not like they’re not super dense, but they’re delicious. And if anyone’s ever tried to make like, a legit Indian meal, you’d be spending like, if there’s like memes of this online, you spend four times the amount of money it is to like make it because the ingredients are weird. It’s like I don’t have like fish sauce.
Rebecca Washuta And like, like three different stores. Yeah.
Steve Washuta I don’t have like butter simmer sauce and all these things. So because of that it’s so much easier just to buy them. They’re absolutely delicious. Four minutes and they cook easy. It’s pretty clean ingredients, right it’s typically just some form of rice and some form of meat with a light sauce of some sort.
Steve Washuta The sodium of course in any of these freezer meals is a little bit high. But if you’re not someone who’s necessarily worried about it, the saffron route is great. And I will say something else that you alluded to Dr. Rhonda Patrick had said something to the extent of you know, broccoli sprouts which I used to eat a lot of and I just don’t anymore because it’s hard to find them fresh at the store used to put them in my smoothies.
Steve Washuta They did test on them like the frozen ones compared to the other ones and the frozen ones actually had more of whatever like key nutrients were in it and maybe part of the reason why is because of what you said is that they’re on the shelf for too long. They start to lose those whereas the frozen ones don’t because they’re flush frozen so quickly.
Rebecca Washuta Yeah for sure. Okay, my other go to I don’t know if you have this in Texas Do you have Trader Joe’s not felt like an East Coast thing Trader Joe’s is the is heaven. It’s amazing. It’s such an amazing place. It’s inexpensive.
Steve Washuta There was a prank sorry I got to interrupt real quick tell me in a second but there was a prank recently High School prank they printed out a giant sign and they put it like in the center of their town like a giant billboard that said soon you know Joe’s coming soon with a QR code and the QR code like went to like you know some like stupid song like a Rick Ross song or something.
Rebecca Washuta Oh my gosh, yeah. Listen, everyone loves Trader Joe’s if you have one nearby definitely check it out but they sell these cauliflower gnocchi. And I think there’s a lot of like propaganda with nutrition marketing is sometimes it’ll say cauliflower but cauliflower is the last ingredient.
Rebecca Washuta These are very clean cauliflower said number one ingredient. They’re ready in minutes. You can either boil them, you can saute them I toss stuff in the air fryer. And then you know, make them with a pesto, make them with your favorite sauce, throw in a protein or or some other veggies, they are excellent, you wouldn’t know that they that they weren’t real gnocchi.
Steve Washuta Until the next topic.
Rebecca Washuta Ancient is not always optimal. So I’ll kick this off. There’s this idea that getting back to doing things, the way our ancestors did, is going to create optimal health. And while some of their practices were ideal, we have to remember that one, they were only living to 30 or 40 years old.
Rebecca Washuta And that to some of the things they were doing were out of necessity, and not necessarily related to health, right. Like, they didn’t have umbrellas. So they weren’t going out in the rain. Does that mean that umbrellas are bad for us?
Rebecca Washuta So I think we need to we take it with a with a grain of salt, right? Because there’s this whole idea of this ancestral diet, or this Paleolithic diet, and I think they’re, I don’t want to knock them completely again, I think Nutrition has to be personalized.
Rebecca Washuta They’re good for certain people with certain conditions during certain times depending on their goals. But you know, universally, I don’t think we can just assume that everything that our ancestors did, was healthier than than what we’re doing today.
Steve Washuta Well said, it comes from this odd place, and why I find it really sort of just it just blows my mind. It’s it’s always these hippies, who you know, who don’t believe in any sort of like religious aspect, right? But for some odd reason, they think the human body is perfect.
Steve Washuta And what needs to be explained to them because most of them have no background in science is from like an evolutionary standpoint. We are so flawed. Our minds, right? We are the most impressive creature by far right on the planet. Fourth, our minds, our bodies are so weak.
Steve Washuta Okay, we have terrible we have terrible vision. Compared to other animals, we have terrible hearing terrible sense of smell. Our spines aren’t built properly, like total for bipedalism. Our feet have all the way too quickly. Right? And so they don’t work the way they should.
Steve Washuta We are not an impressive specimen by any means. Right? You can take 30 of us, and then put us in a room with like a bear. And we’re all dead and in 20 seconds, right? So we’re like, we are not impressive. So when we talk about like, we have to be optimal and do these things.
Steve Washuta It’s like no, we have to add to help us to help our bodies survive, we have to add technology, because we are so weak. And if you come from that premise to say like our bodies are actually not built very well. And we need to help them out so that we can survive. A lot of animals go off on their own two years into their lives.
Steve Washuta My kid has to live with me until they’re 18. Or else they’re gonna die, right? So like longer. Yeah, it goes longer. Sometimes kids are 30 years old, still living in their mom’s basement. We are not an impressive physical specimen, and that needs to get through people’s heads.
Steve Washuta So like when people say like, oh, we have to, like walk around barefoot all the time. It’s like, no, that’s not it’s that that’s that is bad advice. And the hippies have to stop giving this advice that our bodies are perfect. Yeah,
Rebecca Washuta I think you know, people go to extreme. So yes, I agree that our modern diets and our modern lifestyles of sitting in front of a screen for eight hours a day. I think that’s killing us, right. I think we do need to eat whole real foods, we do need to be moving throughout the day.
Rebecca Washuta But on the other hand, you know, for instance, like the Paleo Diet forbids eating beans and legumes. And then if you look at Blue Zones, right, these areas of the world where people are living well past their hundreds and have been for, you know, centuries.
Rebecca Washuta Beans are a staple in all of these diets, right, soy beans provide a lot of healthy protein and a lot of healthy fiber. If you have a certain type of gastro like gastro conditions, beans may not be a good option. If you have an autoimmune condition.
Rebecca Washuta Sometimes the lectins and beans can can impact that. However, for the majority of the population, things are great beans are one of the healthiest foods in the world. So you know this going back to what we said before, it has to be personalized, right? The Paleo diet can be very effective.
Rebecca Washuta They even have a version of it called AIP, the autoimmune protocol. And it’s a version of paleo that has been shown to be really, really effective and people and lowering inflammation for people with autoimmune conditions, but it’s not for everybody, you know, so I think people just have to take take a step back and we don’t need to give up all of our modern conveniences. We just have to be mindful about how we’re eating and how we’re moving.
Steve Washuta That’s a good way to put it. We still need the modern convenient conveniences married to maybe a little bit more of a primal lifestyle and what that means is yes, of course we should be walking more not sitting down all day.
Steve Washuta Yes, of course we should be eating more foods that from the earth, but but to what extent to what level and I think that’s that’s part of the problem, right? We can’t I can’t sleep out in the woods barefoot every night. I just it just doesn’t. It doesn’t work, right. It’s not it’s not Not something that I’m going to practically be able to do. Having a kid.
Rebecca Washuta Even if it were practical, is that healthier than sleeping inside? I don’t think so. Right. Yeah.
Steve Washuta Yeah. I mean, the argument could be well, you know, like, the ventilation systems are not as good in homes as they would be just like breathing the natural air outside. Okay, I get it, but like, also, I can die. Because some Scorpion can bite me. Okay, whereas I’m not gonna die in my house. Because it’s, it’s, I read them with scorpions.
Steve Washuta So I think that’s the to me, it’s when like, we’ve talked about people just getting to the extremes with this ancient stuff, right? We have to like, go back to living in caves. It’s like, No, we have to, we have to marry the modern conveniences. But make sure that we don’t go too far, where we’re sitting in front of our computers for 18 hours a day eating like completely processed foods would just go back to some sort of healthy medium.
Rebecca Washuta Yeah, agreed. Well said. Okay, today, yeah, Joe Biden’s shoes. So I actually don’t know much about this. I know they are called Hocus and they’re supposed to promote balance. I don’t know if you saw the debate last night.
Rebecca Washuta I refrained from watching it. But I did see some clips on social media. Looks like we’re all in trouble. Looks like neither candidate is really cut out to do this. But I mean, they sound great. I think that these shoes sound great. Do you think they work?
Steve Washuta Well, not not that we want to get political here. But man, that debate was a disaster. Last night I watched I watched the whole thing. My wife could not watch it. She had to walk out of the other room. And you just Yeah. How we have 300 Get here? How do we have 15 million people in this country. And these are the two we’re left with.
Steve Washuta Yeah, job. This are the hook as my clients. You know, I trained a lot of senior clients. And they all wore Hocus because they were recommended by their physicians. And it’s like walking on a cloud their phone and thicker, thicker foam than most of the other shoes. So for people who have, let’s say arthritic issues, it helps them it’s a little bit lighter, right, you’re not you don’t have you don’t feel the pounding.
Steve Washuta Some runners wear them, I don’t think they’re great to run in, I don’t, I think there comes a point in running where you want to feel some of those smaller muscles in your feet. And if you feel like you’re running completely on a marshmallow, and your feet are almost too relaxed, then those muscles aren’t firing and they go dormant. But
Rebecca Washuta it’s not the opposite of running barefoot.
Steve Washuta It is the opposite of running barefoot and those people who run barefoot, hate Hocus. So these are two totally different ends of the spectrum, right? So you have like, you have, you have the people who are a little bit more towards the minimalist, so primal.
Rebecca Washuta I bring this up because you said you run barefoot, that’s part of your training.
Steve Washuta So I sprint barefoot on grass, I didn’t is that different? I wouldn’t go I wouldn’t jog barefoot. Okay, I get it. So sprint. So jogging is a little bit different, just because of like how your foot touches the ground compared to sprinting. And then like also the, also the duration.
Steve Washuta So like, when I’m sprinting, like I’m sprinting for six, seven seconds, I’m doing that 10 point at times, like, if you’re going if you’re going on a five minute jog, I think that’s a little bit different. Now, I have minimalist sneakers, but I use them in my training, I don’t use them to run for some people they do.
Steve Washuta If you’re going to do that, like anything else, don’t go to zero 60 start, start out late with them, don’t jump straight into plyometrics do regular workouts and I’m gonna walk in them, let your calf muscles and your feet get used to them. Or else you’re going to have turf toe, you’re gonna have Achilles problems, you’re gonna have calf problems, gastroc problems, soleus problems.
Steve Washuta So, you know, don’t go zero to 60. But yeah, the hook is, I’m not picking on them, because I think there’s too much padding and a little bit promote balance at some point. They don’t allow you to kind of like Porter balances proprioception.
Steve Washuta And proprioception is just your body being able to send signals to the muscles that are firing those muscles sending signals back to your shoes from your brain, or the afferent and efferent neurons that are firing, so that you have that balance so that you know what muscles are working and they fire better.
Steve Washuta They’re more efficient. And if you can’t feel those muscles, because they’re too padded, there’s too much between you and them around well, then those muscles don’t fire so you actually lose proprioception. So I don’t mind the focus of a certain age. If you have, let’s say severe joint problems, knee and hip issues, and you want to limit that while you’re going on walks. But I wouldn’t necessarily tell people, it’s going to help your balance.
Rebecca Washuta Ah, interesting. Okay. Good to know.
Steve Washuta Last one, we’ll do this one quick. Is there something that you wish was invented in the health and fitness industry? Anything that you’re like, why isn’t this invented yet? This is what I would. This is what I would have invented if I could have been out.
Rebecca Washuta Yeah, so I saw this thing online recently. And it was this woman who has a service dog and the service dog can smell gluten. So I have celiac disease. I’ve had it you know, I was diagnosed as a baby. It’s different than just a gluten intolerance.
Rebecca Washuta Right. It’s an autoimmune condition when your body is exposed to gluten and so she anyway going back to this woman so she shows she has very severe celiacs by the way It where she, you know, almost dies every time she she encounters gluten and so she basically brings the dog with her and he smells the dish.
Rebecca Washuta And because there’s, you know, potential for cross contamination and a lot of restaurants and stuff, the dog is able to smell it, even stuff that she bought at the grocery store that says gluten free. Listen, you know, labels aren’t always 100% accurate, so he can smell it. And you can tell whether there’s gluten in it.
Rebecca Washuta So I would love there to be like a device to do that. So I take an enzyme before I go out to eat because of the cross contamination issue, the enzyme can break down the amino acids, so it shouldn’t harm my body in you know, like it normally would. But it would be so great to be able to do that. Because basically for for legal reasons.
Rebecca Washuta Now, all restaurants say this is gluten free, but chance of cross contamination, blah, blah, so you’re never fully safe, you know? So I would love a device, right? That you could just like, be boop, put in front of your meal. And it could tell you whether there’s gluten in it.
Steve Washuta Yeah, that’s not such a great idea of my, in my mind, I was thinking of something that’s almost like, if you’ve ever used a meat thermometer before, where you know, when you’re grilling, sometimes, you know, you want your burger to be like, let’s say 160 degrees.
Steve Washuta So you know, it’s not you know, it’s going to harm you. So you stick the meat thermometer in and then reads the temperature. I almost feel like that would be somewhat easy to do where there’s some there’s some mechanism.
Rebecca Washuta Things on the plate like maybe I pictured it like a skin or you know where you’re scanning the beach for jewels. Have you seen this people?
Steve Washuta Yeah, but I guess then I feel like it would need to touch it. But maybe not.
Rebecca Washuta I don’t know. That’s it. I don’t think that technology is there. But dogs can do it. I wish we could bottle that up. How about Yeah, there? Is there something out there that you wish was invented?
Steve Washuta We can get to the moon, we can replace the human heart. I’m sure someone could invent that. Right? I just it’s maybe people don’t think it’s as useful as it needs to be. But as people start to become healthier if they can make it multipurpose, right. So it’s not just for gluten.
Rebecca Washuta Maybe theory, right? Maybe tell you if they can tell you what, to me all of these other issues, right? Yeah, all these other allergens.
Steve Washuta They canjust tell you everything like 100% Sure, like what allergy is in it, I think that would be an amazing thing. And then they can even sell it from insurance perspective, like medically, right? Because, because like my daughter was a peanut allergy, I can get that approved by insurance to make sure that I can use that so that she doesn’t have some sort of, you know, asthma breakdown and attack.
Steve Washuta Mine would be and they’re starting to do this. Now. They’ve done it before with like, like flu related vaccines, but like find a way to administer medicine into my body without having to stab me with a giant knife or needles.
Rebecca Washuta It’s so funny because you’re big, buff guy, and you just can’t handle needles.
Steve Washuta It’s so antiquated. It’s so barbaric. It’s such a it’s such an old technology that we’ve been using for so long. It’s if you haven’t figured another way out now, I guess I know the science, right? So people will like will have to get into your bloodstream. Yeah, I know the science.
Steve Washuta Okay. What I’m telling you is, there’s other ways to do it, they’ve already figured out a few other ways to do it. But typically how it works in the medical world, suppose from a financial perspective, if there is no major, you know, dollar amount that that can be made, if there’s no reason to pivot, if if there has to be a total retraining to have people to administer something in a new way, then why do it right?
Steve Washuta So like, what problem are you solving? The problem that I’m solving is I’m not the only one. There are a lot of people who see things like vaccines as as scary, right? And then then convince themselves that they don’t want to take them because they’re scared of the whole process.
Steve Washuta Whereas in pills aren’t scary, right? Inhaling something isn’t scary. So I just feel like it could also be important down the road, God forbid, there’s something that has the the death rate of Ebola, but is you know, has the the spread profile of Coronavirus. We can be in trouble, right? So you have to make sure that your people are things are as easy to administer as possible.
Steve Washuta If you’re gonna have medications out there. Don’t jab me with a knife inside of my arm. And then also what I’d say is to the nurses and the doctors out there who’s this isn’t their specialty. But doing it in the adult is such a bad place to do it.
Steve Washuta Okay, so, you have three of three muscles, three shoulder muscles here you have a lot of shoulder muscles inside like but on the on the outside, right you have. The muscles are like an onion, right? So like there’s muscles on the inside, but you have your anterior delt, your medial delt and your rear delt, they stick it somewhere between your medial and your rear delt, which, especially in women’s pups is like almost non existent. Okay, so and it’s going
Rebecca Washuta I could find it on my arm and I am pretty toned.
Steve Washuta So you’re jabbing it into this like small muscle like through the what they want to do is what you want to do is try to get it more into fat. So what you want to do is actually do it in the upper outside quadrant of your glute.
Steve Washuta So if if they can turn you over and give you needles in the upper outside quadrant of your glutes, right if you were to if you were to draw your butt cheek if you were to make a cross through your butt cheek and that four quadrants, right it would be in the upper one cool To the outside of your body, right?
Steve Washuta Yeah, that’s that’s that’s where you have less pain nerves, right? It’s you have want more fat there like that’s where you want to do intramuscular injections not in your shoulder so I think that’s another thing doctors and nurses can start to do.
Rebecca Washuta Well that’s good to know. Yeah, I think people I have friends that have gone through fertility treatments and I think that’s where they had to make the injections their upper glutes, so we’re doing it why not? Why not pivot to do that for for vaccines? If not, I like the idea of the intranasal.
Steve Washuta Well, I think that is it for our topics that I back. Thanks for joining the trulyfit podcast. And just to remind listeners, if you’re listening to this right now, this will also be on YouTube. So go to trulyfitapp on YouTube, subscribe, and you can watch the podcast as well.
Rebecca Washuta Awesome. Thanks for having me.
Steve Washuta: Thanks for joining us on the Trulyfit podcast. Please subscribe, rate, and review on your listening platform. Feel free to email us as we’d love to hear from you.
Thanks again!
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