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Guest: Rebecca Washuta

Release Date: 1/21/2024

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 audience. And Rebecca, we’re going to do a different format today, just as a reminder to anyone who’s new here on Mondays, so the interview episodes, where I typically have on somebody who’s an expert in some sort of fitness or health related field or nutrition related field like my sister is.

Steve Washuta :  And we talked about one particular topic on Thursdays or the podcasts where I just go solo, they’re quick, they’re quick podcast five to 15 minutes, where I’m talking about something that I believe is trending, and interesting, or maybe a topic that I touched on with a guest that I wanted to elaborate on. But today, we’re going to introduce a new format, and it’s more of a PTI, s format. If you don’t know what that is, it was a sports show, it’s still on to this day, where there’s just topics, trending topics that are going on in the sports world for them.

Steve Washuta : But for us, it will be in the fitness and nutrition and health world. And we’re going to touch on those topics. Sometimes those topics could be us arguing over things. In this first episode, probably not. They’re more just kind of surfacy topics or things about overall health and wellness. And there’s some things that are you know, more celebrity asks. So thanks for coming on back. And why don’t we start with with with the top topic here?

Rebecca Washuta : All right, let’s do this. I’m excited. First topic, the walking backwards trend, where did it come from? And is it worthwhile? Or is it nonsense?

Steve Washuta : Yeah, I think it popped back up now because it’s January 2024. So So now people are doing things, they’re getting back into their health grind, so to speak, as we know, gyms are packed, and people are trying to get healthier in the first month of January. But this originally really was pushed I think by knees over toes guy.

Steve Washuta : And he was on Rogen. So essentially, this guy had a bunch of knee injuries. And for those who don’t know, and he figured out a program in which he can rehab his knee, and part of it was that for a long period of time, they always said even you know, even in the certifications that I’ve had, is that we don’t really want to go knees over toes when we’re doing things like squats and lunges, especially lunges, we want to kind of keep 90 degree angles, because it could be bad for your knee.

Steve Washuta : Well, now we found out it actually limits mobility and restriction. And it’s worse for your knee long term to limit that restriction. It’s worse for your ankle mobility, it’s worse for all those things. So we want to actually push knees over toes. Now if you have really bad knee issues, you have to be careful with it right, the progress you get from how far you’re pushing your knees over your toes, is going to be slower.

Steve Washuta : So walking backwards, again, to get back to the topic here allows you to do that more. So if you think about it, when you’re walking backwards, you’re putting pressure on the ball of your foot, and then you’re driving back through your heel. Okay, and if you look down while you’re doing that your knee is well in front of your toes. Now when you’re walking forward, that’s not the case because your heel striking and you’re reaching forward.

Steve Washuta : And then as your toes hit, your knee comes almost over your shoelaces, and then you’re right back to taking the next step, so to speak. So walking backwards, the range of motion is different. And then also the muscles you’re using are different. So you’re going to be using your, you’re always using all the muscles in the legs, when you walk forward or backwards. It’s just the extent the percentages of which ones are working harder.

Steve Washuta : So as you drive off the front of your foot, it’s more quad intensive. It’s more anterior intensive. So the front of your leg, your tibialis the muscle above your shin, when people say they get shin splints, and your quad are firing more when you walk backwards. When you walk forwards, it’s more of a pulling motion, which is a posterior chain. So that’s more glutes activation, that’s more hamstring activation. Again, pulling as you walk forward, you’re pulling your body forward. You’re pressing your body backwards. So pressing is going to be more of those front muscles.

Rebecca Washuta : Yeah. I mean, so this, to me sounds like one of those topics where if you can go extreme and get people’s attention, you’re going to get attention and maybe you’ll get people to start following you. Who would you recommend this for? So like it’s obviously not a high intensity cardio? Are you recommending this for people with knee injuries? To get you know?

Steve Washuta : Yeah, well, that’s a great question. So I think it’s twofold. Number one, this this is not a novel concept from a from a movement perspective, that we should always move in all directions. And that’s sort of my principle and ideology. Too many of us just move in one direction too much, too many of us who go to the weight room just move in one direction.

Rebecca Washuta : They basically do the same exercises week after week. 

Steve Washuta : Yeah. And it’s like, you know, I do bicep curls. I do shoulder presses, like you have to make sure that’s why yoga is so great and yoga, you move your body in every single direction. So we want to make sure the spine is moving and the shoulders are moving in a circular fashion in the hips. So working backwards just means you’re moving your body in a different direction.

Steve Washuta : It normally doesn’t go in challenging muscles and your joints in your ligaments to work in. So are of a different different format different ways. So that’s why it’s good. But yeah, for people with knee issues, it has shown to be very good in sort of a rehab esque thing. So it’s really, it really helps build people’s quads up what’s important to for knee for knee strength and like the stability there.

Steve Washuta : It helps kind of like lengthen and stretch the patella out a little bit too, that runs over your kneecap that’s intended that runs over your kneecap. And yeah, it’s it’s good for overall knee joint health, I would say but I would, but but it is going to be funny, you’re gonna walk into the gym now in 2024, you’re going to see people walking on the treadmill backwards. Now, how many of them are actually doing it because they know what’s going on.

Steve Washuta : And because maybe they’re trying to help their their knee health out how many of them are just doing because it’s trendy, and it looks cool. What I will say is as a as a tip, you don’t turn the treadmill on, you actually just push, you push that you push that treading that goes around with the band, that the band around, they’re off completely, because it gives enough resistance where all you have to do is push off. Like, if if you could do that for more than five minutes, you’ll be torched. Like you could probably go for two or three minutes and be torched. I’m most on most treadmills. 

Rebecca Washuta : So that’s interesting, that makes me want to try it on my treadmill. I support it, if that’s how you’re using it, I do not support people getting on the treadmill at a speed of three or above and trying to walk backwards. That just sounds like an injury waiting to happen. I also do not support walking backwards, just like out in public. It seems like a like a public health hazard.

Rebecca Washuta : And you know, as we get older, I’m sure you’ve seen this like after 30 You should not be playing contact sports, you should limit the activities that you’re doing that are going to cause injury, right because it does get harder to heal. And sometimes if you do get injured, it snowballs right you do get injured and then you’re in a cast or you need to get surgery and then you lose muscle mass.

Rebecca Washuta : And sometimes your health can sort of go downhill from there. So I would say anything that doesn’t what are the pros and cons here. And so if the if the cons are you can fall and injure yourself and the pros are you’re working certain muscles, Aren’t there other exercises you can do to work these muscles that maybe are less

Steve Washuta : you could Yeah, what I would say is just don’t do this stuff. Like on on this. Like if you’re live in New York City, you don’t just like turn around backwards on the seventh and 23rd and start like walking down the street. Yeah, it just doesn’t sound like a go to a feat like you know, I live in Texas. So like I have like sports fields like soccer fields, like within walking distance to my house.

Steve Washuta : And I think it’s good to do like agility type things where I will put on my cleats. And I will use lateral. Yes, it’s all a lateral run again, I’m not sprinting as fast as I can. Yes, a lateral run. I’ll backpedal. Right back pedaling is important, right, you got your chest over your knees, and you’re doing the same exact motion, just

Rebecca Washuta : in football and stuff, but backpedaling, I remember seeing that. Yeah, and

Steve Washuta : you’re just moving around in all directions to make sure you’re challenging different muscles when you when you sort of like skip sideways, it’s really good for your adductors what’s mine are really weak. And sometimes I just don’t want to sit in a gym and you know, sit on that, you know, the adductor abductor machine and just move in and out.

Steve Washuta : I want to actually have my muscles, you know, firing in a in a more normal way. So yeah. But like you said, it’s got to be in a safe in a safe environment. And you also don’t want to push it don’t go from don’t have never, you know, walk backwards before and then you’re you’re jumping on the treadmill and then you’re going outside and then you’re putting on cleats and backpedaling. Like, you have to really work your way into this slowly.

Rebecca Washuta : Maybe my mind is like thinking about accidents, because right now a raelia is walking backwards. I think that’s like some type of milestone but she loves to walk backwards, and she doesn’t look where she’s going. And she’ll hit her head on things. And so I’m like, oh my goodness, but I’m totally for natural movement. I agree. I think sometimes people get stuck in the gym.

Rebecca Washuta : And the range of the range of movement isn’t is important. Getting outside is important. And you know, it’s the same thing in nutrition. You want to have a wide variety in your diet. If if someone comes to me and they’re just eating blueberries and broccoli, that’s great, but you know what’s more important getting as many plant foods in as you can, right?

Rebecca Washuta : It’s going to increase the diversity of your microbiome, it’s going to improve your immune health and overall health. So very similar with with fitness, right, we want to get as much natural movement in as possible, different range of motions. I’m gonna give it a shot. I’m gonna give the walking backwards a shot on my tread on my treadmill to be safe. I’m not gonna go out in public. 

Steve Washuta : Yeah, I do it as in like a burnout kind of way. So I will do like quad extension machine. You know, leg extensions. When you’re sitting down and you’re, you’re you’re raising your legs out front, from the knee to the ankle, so I’ll do quad extension and then I’ll go right to the treadmill, because that they’re really close in my gym

Steve Washuta : Again, with it not on, I’m leaning up against the back of the treadmill holding on Oh my god, yeah. And I’m purposely pushing down through my toes, I’m pushing that the band forward on on the treadmill. And then I’m going toe to heel, toe to heel toe to heel purposefully.

Steve Washuta : And I do that as hard and as long as I can, which is usually a minute or two after my quads are torched. So I’ll do that as kind of like a burnout set. And, you know, it’s also it gives somebody a new exercise to integrate into the workout, maybe it makes them a little bit more excited to go to the gym, as long as you’re doing it safely. Okay.

Rebecca Washuta : I support that I fully support that.

Steve Washuta : All right, next topic here, health tracking $45 billion industry is what they’re saying the health tracking industry is now this is just specifically like Fitbits, and washes and things of this nature. There’s only one problem. It doesn’t seem like the data is working, at least 1.4 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes each year

Steve Washuta : So that is a higher number, right? As you continue to get higher obesity rates, or obesity rates are soaring, life expectancy is declining for the first time I think and forever. So you know, we have all this data, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Why?

Rebecca Washuta : Well, I have a health tracker. So I have an aura ring. And I love it. So but let’s go back to the statistics that you cited. Yes, we are on a downward trend right now. 70% of the country of US adults are either overweight or obese 70% That means only 30 of us are at a normal healthy weight.

Rebecca Washuta : And obviously, that’s a problem. So we need to look and see what the root causes. I think having the data does put you in control, right understanding how many steps Am I getting? How many calories did i Burn, my aura ring also traps tracks, like my heart rate and my stress level and my sleep, which I think is really useful. But as you know this as a trainer, and I know this as a nutritionist, you can have the best information in the world,

Rebecca Washuta : I can give someone the world’s best meal plan, you can give someone the world’s best exercise routine, if they don’t do it, if they don’t take that and use it and go to the gym. It’s worthless, right? So you can have the best data you can have the best plans, it’s about putting that into action. And I think that’s where people struggle. And that’s really a part of this like environment that we’ve built around us. Right that everything is easy. We have I have Instacart priority I have Uber Eats priority, I have Amazon Prime, now I can get anything I want within an hour, right?

Rebecca Washuta : We have the we have eight bazillion shows on Netflix and Hulu and HBO Max and all of that. So our lifestyles have set us up to be more sedentary and to you know to not to not move as much and crappy food is cheaper. And it’s easier, right? I can get McDonald’s delivered for cheaper than I can go make make myself a salad. I bought I ordered groceries yesterday and I got literally eight things. They were berries, right, organic berries are expensive, a couple other organic things, I got eight things, I got it Instacart priority because I needed it, you know quickly.

Rebecca Washuta : And it was $80 it was $80 for eight items. And so we’re in this world, right where health food is expensive. And so we’ve built these environments that are making us more overweight that are making us more obese. And so I think we are on the right track with the health trackers. But I think people need more than just a device, right? You need more than just data in front of your face, you need a person like you or AI to help them and say, here’s what you do with that data.

Rebecca Washuta : Okay, you only got 5000 steps. And here’s how we can increase it, even though you have a knee injury, okay, you consume this many calories today, here’s what we can do so that you’re not starving, but you’re eating healthy. It’s like, people don’t know what to do with the data. And I think that’s that’s the real problem.

Steve Washuta : Yeah, I think to add to that to you know, reading that statement over, if you really kind of break it down and says, you know, whatever, $4.5 billion industry, then why are people less healthy? That doesn’t mean that the unhealthy people are using them. That could also mean, right, there’s no, that’s just a that’s correlation, right? That’s just an assumption.

Steve Washuta : It could just be that a lot of Healthy People are actually spending more money on these things. Right? You upgraded from a Fitbit to a halo. You know, everyone in my house, including me an aura ring rather. Yeah. So there’s, you know, every one of my house uses one and we’re relatively healthy family, right?

Steve Washuta : So it could just be that, that these things are becoming more expensive, and people are upgrading them or they’re getting new ones or they’re getting multiple, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not working. We just assume oh, we’re spending more money. That means the unhealthy people, people who aren’t using the data also must be buying them and not using them that that might not be the case.

Steve Washuta : But I do agree with you. You know, having known people who look at them, what metrics are you looking at? are you responding to the metrics accordingly and changing your game plan up to those metrics. But I do think there are starting to become also an unhealthy obsession with just those numbers, the more numbers the better, right? I’m not big on just just the scale, and looking over the things, but it’s hard not to be able, if you can look at the numbers every day, you’re going to look at the numbers every day. Yeah. Does that make sense? Right. So like, you have access to the numbers every day. So people build in the routine,

Steve Washuta : it’s like, Okay, before bed, I’m gonna look at my steps, and this number, and this number and this number. And I’m not telling you that’s wrong or right. All I’m telling you is that it’s the fact right, if you have access to it, you’re gonna build it into your plan. And it could make it a bit more disheartening. When I used to measure my clients, I would measure, let’s say, like, I would do body fat percentage with a bioelectrical impedance machine, which are not that accurate.

Steve Washuta : And then I would measure their hips, their waist, their quads, seven inches above their knee and measure their calf and measure their, you know, their flexed arm, and their relaxed arm, things of that nature. Right? Yeah, oh, brown their belly button around the top of their glutes. But some people wanted to do the measurements, like once every two weeks, and I always told them no, like, now this is like, you’re going to feel defeated. Like, we can’t do this once every two weeks, like once a month is the most I will measure you and I didn’t always say it that way,

Steve Washuta : I would just say, hey, we don’t really have the time for that, like I, you know, you’re we have to work out today, like that’s going to take too long. So, but I do feel like there needs to be some, you know, personal take control, hey, I’m only going to look at these numbers, you know, once a week or once every two weeks, because the everyday thing seems to be a little bit too much on the personal judgement of yourself. Totally, I,

Rebecca Washuta : I’m a big fan of the smart scales because they have the bioelectrical impedance, because a number on a scale doesn’t tell you much right? Your actual weight isn’t isn’t the only number or even the most important number you want to look at, it’s important to look at muscle mass and body fat percentage and body water.

Rebecca Washuta : And, you know, on the flip side of that, what I tell my clients is if you do weigh yourself, often, you can begin to track and trend things. And I think this is especially true for women, right? We have these monthly cycles, and so I’m heaviest, right before I get my period. And so I know that right? So like, so I can understand, like if I step on the scale, and I’m, you know, at the highest end, I have like a four pound range that I that I usually like fluctuate in between, if I’m at the highest end of you know, end of that spectrum, I can say,

Rebecca Washuta : Oh, I’m probably getting my period. And it’s right or you know, like when you’re ovulating, maybe, you know you retain more water or whatever. I think if you can use the data, you can use the data to your advantage. It depends on what type of person you are. But I 100% agree that if you’re obsessing over one number, if you’re obsessing over write the circumference of your quad every every week or two, that’s that’s it’s only going to be detrimental.

Rebecca Washuta : And then, you know, at the same time, you mentioned, people being sort of like reliant on these numbers. Like I would say, Kayla and I are reliant on these numbers. I’m always like, Kayla, how many steps did you get today? Like she’s she’s really into her Fitbit too, right? So like, the number of steps I get is like, it’s like how well did your day go that’s that’s sometimes it’s, you know, a factor in how I measure it. But, you know, similar fitness and nutrition are similar in that you shouldn’t be relying on external sources to tell us how you feel right?

Rebecca Washuta : Like, you shouldn’t need a heartrate monitor to say, I worked out and I I hit this zone and I feel like I got an intense workout in today, you should be able to feel that. Similarly, I shouldn’t be the calorie counter to tell me when I’m full. Right, I should be able to tune into my body and say, I eat enough. I’m feeling full. And so I think, you know, with with all of this data we are moving away from like being mindful about our own bodies and how we feel. And so this

Steve Washuta : is not this is not like, like hippie dippie bullshit. I’m saying like, sometimes I wake up in the morning and I’m like, Oh, I feel tired. I must have not slept well. That doesn’t mean like, I don’t need to like go look at a watch and be like, Oh, my watch this. I actually slept really well. Like no, if I’m fucking tired, I’m tired. Like, I’m tired. Yeah, like, I know that I’m tired.

Steve Washuta : And I know that I’m going to either I’m going to need to, like slowly build up towards my, you know, my climax of energy for the day. And I hope that I don’t have anything to do that’s really important prior to me being a little bit more tired. But you know, I think people always associate like, oh, like feeling and out is just like too much hippie bullshit.

Steve Washuta : If I have all the numbers, I’m not like, no, it’s just, it’s just being aware of that, that you’re tired or that or that you woke up and you were sore, because you did the you walk backwards for the first time for 20 minutes on the treadmill. Whatever it is. Yeah, it’s good to just be aware and sometimes don’t worry about the numbers. Trust your your instincts.

Rebecca Washuta : Yeah, and on that same page, there’s a lot of evidence on the opposite of the placebo effect, which is the no SIBO effect. So if you know they basically have put people in rooms without clocks without windows. And so the people didn’t know how long they slept right? And they let them slip. They let them sleep. And when they told them Hey, you only got Five hours, they filled out the questionnaire and said, I don’t feel good when they told them, hey, you got eight hours, they filled out the questionnaire and said, I feel great, right?

Rebecca Washuta : So like, the same thing happens for me if I know I don’t get a good night’s sleep if we were you know out the night before or for really it was up in the middle of the night, I won’t look at my aura ring data because I don’t want to feel worse, right? I told myself, I got good sleep, you know, I’m feeling good. I use it when I’m, you know, just to kind of fine tune when I when I know that I’m on the right track.

Rebecca Washuta : But the no SIBO effect is really powerful, right. So even if it’s whether it’s sleep, or whether it’s, you know, calories burned or steps. If something’s making you feel bad, that actually can have a physical effect in your body as well as you know, changing your your mental state and your mood. So I think it depends on how you are using the data. What do you use? Fitbit?

Steve Washuta : Right now I don’t use anything, actually. So I do I do have a I do have a Fitbit, but I just I don’t really use it. No, not in the metric stage right now. I don’t even think I’ve weighed myself in in months. I my my sort of physical goal. I don’t wanna get too off topic here. But is to dunk a basketball before I’m 40. So, in order to do that, there’s two, there’s two ways in which you can jump higher, you have to create more force production on the ground, which means you have to become stronger look at

Rebecca Washuta : junior physics, right? Who would have thought you needed physics in your in your in adulthood? 

Steve Washuta : You have to you have to be lighter, right? Fat don’t fly? No,

Rebecca Washuta : I mean, LeBron James can dunk a basketball and he’s not like he’s a big guy. He said,

Steve Washuta : it’s an algorithm essentially, right? It’s like, okay, he’s so strong. That yeah, he can do that. But if, if LeBron were to lose 10 pounds, and keep his leg strength, you’d be able to jump higher. And it’s just, you know, if you were to lose 10, to lose 10 pounds and lose and lose leg strength, then maybe not right. So it’s just really, it’s really just kind of an algorithm.

Steve Washuta : Now. Also, there’s some things that are hard to measure and work. It’s like, the elasticity of your Achilles and your, your soleus. And your gastroc. And your there’s, there’s a lot that goes into it. I shouldn’t make it’s to say that it’s simple. But

Rebecca Washuta : how close are you? How, like, are you four inches off? Are you a football? 

Steve Washuta : You know, I have not, I have not, I’m not in that stage yet. I don’t want to like, I don’t want to start the measurement yet. 

Rebecca Washuta : Oh, no, I don’t know. Like how far you have to go. 

Steve Washuta : No, I know. That’s, I know, that sounds weird. But I need this first, like four weeks just to train hard. And then I’m, then I’m going to go test my suitability, I’d love

Rebecca Washuta : to, I’d love for you to film like a before and after. Like, here’s where here’s where I was in January. And here’s where I am, it’s almost too

Steve Washuta : late, because I weighed 190 At one point, and now I’m already down to 178. So I’ve lost 12 pounds. And I’m probably gonna have like,

Rebecca Washuta : I have just let me stop you right there. That is insane. Because you’ve always been able to do that. Like, since we were in high school, you were like, I’m going to lose five pounds this week. And you just go and you just lose five pounds. And like, it’s so different for women with our fluctuating hormones. It’s so much harder for men and this could be old, another podcast topic for men, it’s inherently easier to lose weight. Yeah,

Steve Washuta : but it’s body types too. So I think you know, where I have the advantages, it’s so hard for me to put on weight, you know, when you’re talking about like mesomorph Octomore. 

Rebecca Washuta : For, for you so hard to gain weight, it’s

Steve Washuta : not for me, I’m just saying, I am naturally skinny, I should probably be naturally 170 pounds. So for me to be 190 I have to put so much effort and energy and lift a particular way. And lift weights, I don’t really like lifting, we’re gonna have to go low reps, and kind of do more of the High School. The high school football player, lifting routine with that’s not what I enjoy doing.

Steve Washuta : So for me, my body wants to be I’m getting back to more of whatever you call it, like your relative weight, your normal weight, like my like so. So that’s why it’s easy, right? The last few pounds will be harder. And again, I don’t really care what the weight is. I just know that as I get lighter, and I get my legs stronger, I’m going to have a better chance of being able to dunk the basketball. 

Rebecca Washuta : So yeah, that’s cool. All right. We’ll keep you posted on your journey.

Steve Washuta : I will keep you posted. That will be we will, you know highlight that topic to come back to that in another podcast soon down the road here. Next year is hydrogen water. Someone asked me about it recently. I did a little research on it. I actually have a whole podcast on a different sort of hydrogen water called lightwater deuterium depleted water, which I’ll talk about afterwards. But what is your thoughts about this? hydrogen water? Have you seen it recently as an overkill? This is just marketing nonsense.

Rebecca Washuta : I have you know, I think off the cuff it sounds like nonsense. I will say that it is not there. There haven’t been a lot of studies but there have been a few studies with you know, smaller populations. And they’ve shown that hydrogen water can improve athletic abilities. It reduces muscle fatigue, it can increase energy. They’ve even used it in populations that were getting radiation therapy after a cancer treatment.

Rebecca Washuta : And it you know, improve the side effects of radiation So I think there are a lot of benefits there, it basically just acts as an antioxidant, right. And we could all benefit from more antioxidants. What I will say is where the snake oil salesman stuff comes in is the people who are selling the hydrogen water. So they basically have tabs that you can throw in, or I’ve seen actual water bottles that you press and it like, you know, creates the hydrogen water, I don’t know, if I trust those,

Rebecca Washuta : I would have to do more research into the best type and where to get it right if it’s not being produced in a lab, and like, where you can measure the pH and make sure that you’re getting what you think you’re getting. But I think we’re gonna see a lot more on this coming up. And, you know, there from what I’ve read, and again, there’s not a ton of research out yet, but from what I’ve read, there really aren’t any downsides. There’s not there, there aren’t any risks to trying it.

Steve Washuta : The deuterium depleted water. So deuterium is like an isotope of hydrogen. And if you take that deuterium out, it makes the water lighter. And they’ve looked at water from like, the fresh springs and like Idaho and all these places. And typically, they’re like, when you weigh the isotopes out, they’re always lighter, they have less deuterium in them than regular water.

Steve Washuta : This is what I’ve been told, I have no idea this can be, I can be I can be this is gonna be total bullshit, right? But this is what I’ve been told. And then so then people are making this deuterium depleted water too, which is a form of hydrogen water, it’s more it’s way more expensive than hydrogen water, the Tyrian water, I think it cost like, I don’t know, like $150 for like a case of 12. Right. But anyway, this light water apparently has a bunch of benefits, and it’s going to be all the rage, but they just don’t have the technology yet to do it easily.

Steve Washuta : It has to have to do with these like giant vats that take up like huge factories. And because the production costs so much to make, that means you know that the item has to then be very expensive. So I don’t know, I do. It’s sort of like on the back burner for me to do more research. I don’t necessarily think I need it in my life. I’m not going to go order it and use it. But it will be interesting to see if coming down the pipe that pun intended here, that the water will be cleaner and healthier. And that there will be other waters that we can get and how, you know not to be conspiratorial here, but like you’re talking about a billion dollar industry with like, Aquafina and and I’m drinking a bottle of water right now.

Steve Washuta : So these these people want this to come to light, like is that going to change? Could they take advantage of this and sell more expensive water? I don’t know, I think I think their target market is every person, right? Doesn’t matter how much money you have, whether you’re the whether you’re super poor, or whether you you know, have more money and you want to spend it on Fiji, like there’s bottled the bottled water industry is already doing a really good job. And I think this could hinder it. So I wonder if they’re also going to kind of push against research. And so that’s

Rebecca Washuta : what I what I will say is, you know, everyone is sort of looking for a like a sexy quick fix, like what’s the easiest way I can biohack right? And here’s an example of that. Just the rights of everyone on on ozempic Right, everyone wants a quick fix, what’s the quickest way I can get to my goal? But really, the simple things are what help right eating a healthy diet moving your body drinking water.

Rebecca Washuta : I worked at noon for years and then now I have my own private practice. So between the two I’ve literally worked with hundreds of clients, I would say a very small fraction of them are drinking enough normal water. So it’s like let’s start with getting adequately hydrated with just normal water right? Like I know that hydrogen water concepts unsexy, but like can we get the baseline can we get the foundation before we start jumping to all of these others it gets

Steve Washuta :  people though convincing themselves that they would drink more water if this this new cool thing so I do agree with you. Yeah, that’s the problem. And I think when these sexy things come out, people are under the impression like that’s why they that’s why we’re going to talk about peloton next so people will go buy peloton even though they’ve had a, let’s say, a rowing machine in the garage.

Steve Washuta : And that they sold after a year and never used although they had some sort of treadmill in their basement that they sold after two years and the news was like oh, is this novel? The peloton Oh I’ll drink the hydrogen water it’s like no you won’t like you haven’t done it in the past. So you have to you have to come up with some other format not just like trying to get the new the new sexy thing totally Yeah. On to the next year.

Rebecca Washuta : Okay, next topic. Okay, peloton and tic tac team are have teamed up to create a new fitness hub. What do you think clearly you’ve just you’ve said what you think you don’t think it’s it’s worth I

Steve Washuta : think it’s let me know I mean, I think peloton itself is smart from a branding standpoint to like get in and try to be hip and cool and get like a younger generation. I don’t know the numbers and metrics of the demographics are more people now in that age range working out maybe can they afford a peloton which are like three grand? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean they can’t maybe get the peloton app where you can do like exercises and do different things.

Rebecca Washuta : Everything in it. Yeah. Yeah,

Steve Washuta : I mean, it’s, it seems almost like a mistake not to try to grasp at the younger generation, regardless of your marketing. It doesn’t really matter what you do right? You have to go after that whatever 18 to 25 demographic because not only will they grow with you if you get them right so if you get them to like peloton stuff, they’ll be they can be buying peloton stuff the next 30 years, but they’re just

Steve Washuta : That’s how things get trendy and viral right not a lot of 73 year old men have trending viral videos. It’s but 18 year old people do so I do think that smart board I will say is I think it’s a gimmick because peloton got into a little bit of trouble, so to speak in the I don’t want to call it the political world. But basically they came out in a podcast you know Theo von is? So he’s my favorite comedian. And, and he runs a podcast.

Steve Washuta :  And on his podcast, he had Dana White on who you know who that is. Dana White is the like the the founder and owner of the UFC, president of the UFC. And basically, they got into a conversation about like advertising and how much of like a pain sometimes advertisers are or whatever, you know, and then Theo had mentioned something to the extent of like yeah, you know, I had an advertiser who like back who bailed because I did an episode with Robert Kennedy Jr,

Steve Washuta : Who was a Democratic presidential candidate and it wasn’t like our it was because he said some outlandish things in the past about like stuff that’s in our water that’s causing it and vaccines and stuff so he’s he said some cultural things virtual things in the past so they peloton basically said like, hey, like we’re not gonna be your sponsor anymore.

Steve Washuta : And he came out and said that Dana White was like screw peloton they shouldn’t tell you who you can interview and who you cannot like Screw them. And he took out all the peloton bikes and all the UFC gyms and like peloton, gosh, yeah, it was he was a little bit over the top but anyway, so I think it this was sort of like a Bud Light moment or like a target moment when like something bad happens in the media.

Steve Washuta :  And like you feel like it’s going to be politicized and you feel it’s going to put everywhere like you just want to like have something else to attach your name to that’s trending and I think it was sort of like, Oh, hey, if we do these big things on Tik Tok, like, like this will go away. So I think that’s really why they did it. And great. I mean, it’s good. It’s good marketing as somebody who worked in PR and marketing, right, yeah, you have to get your you have to get your your brand like re affiliated with something that isn’t the negative thing it was already associated with? Sure.

Rebecca Washuta : Well, from a consumers perspective, the fact that they’re targeting a younger audience is great, because the number one predictor of weight maintenance throughout your life is not your diet, it’s actually having a regular exercise routine. And so that’s why it’s so important to start young, right? Like if you’ve, if you didn’t play sports growing up and you didn’t exercise in high school and didn’t exercise in college, you’re a lot less likely to get into the habit as an adult.

Rebecca Washuta : So if we can target a younger audience and make it fun, and put it on tick tock and make it sexy, I think that’s great. I mean, the obesity statistics we talked about earlier, that’s not just adults, like right now they’re actually considering they have clinical trials to use ozempic in kids as young as six which is horrible. So like obesity is starting younger and younger and like this younger population who’ve grown up with tons of fast food and you know, processed food and this sedentary environment are struggling so if we can make exercise fun, I think that’s a huge benefit.

Steve Washuta : Well said on to the next year.

Rebecca Washuta : Okay, next topic here. Sorry, let me pull it up. Next topic. Oh, Megan. The stallion has partnered with Planet Fitness. What do you think about that? Is that a is that a good partnership?

Steve Washuta : I’m gonna be completely honest here. I have no idea who Megan the stallion is no idea. I see that she spells her name with two ears see Oh? Is

Rebecca Washuta : that how it’s pronounced? I’m not cool either Megan the stallion okay Meghan

Steve Washuta : the stallion I think it is not the stallion the like the the very old English Shakespearean the Yeah, I don’t know anything. I think she’s almost positive. She’s a rapper.

Rebecca Washuta : She’s a rapper. I’ve seen her commercials. I mean it from from my perspective, Planet Fitness is dead, right? Like I don’t know if it’s trending in middle America but where I live in a very international city in Miami. Planet Fitness doesn’t exist. It’s high end. It’s Equinox, its anatomy. So I don’t know who’s going to Planet Fitness. So I think they could use

Steve Washuta : no one but they pay for it. memberships. That’s how they think they make their money. Oh, hey, I’m going to open up in the middle of Vidalia, Georgia in Norman, Oklahoma. And I’m going to get 2000 people to join at $10 a month, which is $20,000 a month coming in. But none of these people end up going. Yeah. But they don’t mind it because it’s $10 a month.

Steve Washuta : So it’s sort of like quality, quantity over quality thing, but it’s not it’s not looking good for them. When you look at their numbers. I’ve talked about this before, like, yeah, they trade on like the NASDAQ. Right? They’re like a huge, like built, you know, multibillion dollar corporation, but they’re in a lot of debt. They rent out these huge buildings, right? Like, think about the square footage of these buildings that you have to have and the equipment.

Steve Washuta : Yeah, they have all this equipment. You can’t resell the equipment because this Planet Fitness branded, it’s all their colors. This has Planet Fitness on it. So like Steve’s gym can’t use it. When you open up a new planet fitness, they make you buy new equipment. So if you want to franchise you can’t go my oldest son. Yeah, so they make a lot of their money just off the initial equipment sales. But basically, they’re just like a lot of companies, unfortunately, are just kicking the can down the road. They’re in a ton of debt, they’re not going to do well.

Steve Washuta : I don’t know who else Megan the stallion is going to bring. But I think that the important part here one of the parts that we passed over here, so it’s a merch Collection. These are people who only have $10 a month to spend going to the gym. You think they’re gonna walk into the gym and buy like a Megan the stallion Planet Fitness t shirt for $20

Steve Washuta : They don’t even spend $20 a month on their gym membership. These people don’t have money. So I don’t that’s what I kind of don’t get it’s like you’re you’re asking people to spend money they don’t have so that’s that’s where I think they they missed the boat on this to have any sort of merch collection. People are not buying Planet Fitness T shirts and wearing them around. I’ve never seen now.

Rebecca Washuta : No. I would agree with that. I like the idea that they’re trying to make it fresh, right? They’re trying to take something old and make it fresh and make it cool. I’m sure Megan the stallion fans, diehard fans will go out and buy that merch. But yeah, I don’t know if that’s a great if that’s a great business model.

Steve Washuta : Well, we will see time will tell next year. I don’t know if you’ve heard of monk mode but involves people giving an avoiding things up that they wouldn’t otherwise have done but like full sail. So no alcohol, no drugs, no phone use. No dating apps have to meditate. crazy diets, no more video games turning off TV. It’s basically just going from, you know, what we would call moderation to monk mode, which is doing nothing unless you’ve seen this tick tock trend. But obviously this can’t go well.

Rebecca Washuta : So I I’m very interested in this and I have some thoughts but when you what you have seen is it for a day? Is it for a couple hours? Is it like Aaron Rodgers? Were you going to hold for like a month? Like, you know, the groundhog? Like what’s what’s

Steve Washuta : I think everyone is using it, specifically because they want to be showy. So they’ll do it’s never the same. So some people are like, Hey, I am you know, I’m somebody who used to drink on the weekends. And now I’m not drinking at all. And I am also like doing no TV and other people are saying like, Hey, I used to use a lot of dating apps and go on dates. But now I’m not going to date anyone for a year or two years, whatever. It’s just It depends on the person.

Steve Washuta : I don’t think I think my vote is more of a generality. It’s just saying, Hey, I used to do these things. I’m not going to go moderation. I’m going to go full sail, like stop doing all of this stuff altogether. But some of it is weird. Like some of its like young kids just saying like, Hey, I’m not going to watch TV and I’m going to sit in my room and sort of Aaron Rodgers esque. Just, you know, be with themselves, which is different with him. He like took ayahuasca and mushrooms and was trying to I think like, you know, gain sort of a higher, you know, understanding of of the world, not just like, run away from things.

Rebecca Washuta : Yeah. Well, I think I have a lot of thoughts on this. First, I will say we are constantly distracted by our phones, I don’t think is an overstatement to say we are addicted to our phones and addicted to social media. So making an intentional decision to step away from that I think is great. I also think a lot of times we are numbing like people sometimes can numb with food or alcohol, right? That’s like can cause obesity can construct the problems.

Rebecca Washuta : We’re also numbing with things like TV, right? Like once once in a blue moon to like binge watch NetFlix is okay if you’re binge watching Netflix nightly, weekly, like that’s not normal to sit for more than an hour and watch TV. It’s not good, it’s not healthy for you and I think a lot of that is like avoiding anxious thoughts or things that we should be dealing with. So I like the idea of meditating I like the idea of removing distractions and you know, journaling and getting back to basics.

Rebecca Washuta : But what I will say is there is a another silent epidemic in this country of loneliness. And so one of this previous Surgeon General’s came out with a book a couple of years ago go and it’s called together And he basically went all around the country and interviewed all these people. And this was just, he did his research before and after COVID. And obviously, after COVID, it got much worse. But loneliness is really, you know, the root cause that’s kind of driving a lot of other ailments, it’s driving some of our mental health crises, it’s driving, you know, depression and depression can lead to.

Rebecca Washuta : You know, eating disorders and alcoholism and, and all these other things. So, you know, I think we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater in that if we’re removing social media great, but we shouldn’t be removing, at least for long periods of time, normal social interactions, right, like seeing friends see people having relationships. And, you know, there was a study that came out of Harvard, a couple years back, and it was looking at life expectancy, and some of the most important habits, you know, like, what’s what’s most closely associated with life expectancy.

Rebecca Washuta : And it’s not exercise, it’s not diet, it’s the quality of your relationships. So if you are lonely, you’re not going to take care of yourself in the same way, you’re not going to have joy, and that that impacts your, your physical health. So I think we lost a lot of that, and COVID. And you know, you and I are older, but I don’t even think we know how that affected the younger generation right now, you know, all of that time alone. And I think that’s something we do need to focus on. So like meditation, staying away from alcohol, you know, having quiet time, great in small amounts, but we have to really prioritize our social lives and our friendships and our relationships.

Steve Washuta : I think that’s a great point. Obviously, I didn’t read the book. I’m not sure what they said. But I would say that I don’t think COVID was the cause of this. This was starting before COVID, just because of what the technology we have at our hands, and how interactions are now different. When we were kids. I would you know, walk down to my friend’s house and knock on the door and say, Hey, Mrs. Smith, you know, can Johnny come out to play? And I would talk to the parents and I would have to call landlines,

Rebecca Washuta : and every weekend, you were gone. So short answer.

Steve Washuta : Like there was a lot more now. It’s just like, you know, 12 year olds are texting other 12 year olds, so they get to not only they’re not talking as much, but they get to bypass talking to adults. So I think that’s, that’s part of the problem is not just COVID and school shutdowns and things like that. But also, you know, that’s why things like CrossFit, work, not because the workouts are great, because you the camaraderie of with 12 or 15 other people the biggest the biggest growing sport in the country, it’s not even close is jujitsu.

Steve Washuta : And the reason why is because of the camaraderie, you can’t practice jiu jitsu on your own. You have to roll with another person. So there’s just a lot of camaraderie within, you know, within, you know, when you go to a class and you roll, so, roll is the term for doing jujitsu. So I think that’s, that is the biggest problem you You hit the nail on the head here, it’s not it’s not doing this monk mode, like avoiding particular things. It’s almost an excuse to spend more time alone. And that’s not good, right? We can’t We can’t have these kids using more excuses. And I’m saying kids specifically right? It’s not like 38 year olds myself are going into monk mode this is a but if you do

Rebecca Washuta : it I think you have you have the decision making skills to know that it’s right for you and do it and I think that’s okay. But yeah, exactly.

Steve Washuta : For kids that that six months you decided to go to monk mode like that could have meant a lot to you know, and that you’re going to is going to be some regression there from that six months you decided to do the smoko Now, ultimately, it also falls on the parents because these are like I said our kids so the parents should be involved in this process and and know what their their their kids are doing. Yeah,

Rebecca Washuta : I wonder if there’s a way to incorporate it you know, in smaller doses more frequently so I remember growing up I had a friend in school and every day from four to five his mom would say it’s Amish hour. And this is a little extreme but she would turn off the lights you’d say we’re not going to use electricity we’re not going to use the you know the TV whatever like play cards play a game sit talk to her and I’ll go play outside and you know that’s not the kids house for you wanted to go to after school because it wasn’t fun from four to five o’clock.

Rebecca Washuta : But like as an adult I kind of like that right? Can you incorporate one hour a day where you’re not distracted by your phone you’re not sitting watching TV, you’re outside you’re like, you know, just more in touch with with yourself and with nature and you’re not just constantly being distracted. You can like actually tune into your thoughts. I like that idea.

Steve Washuta : Most Sundays I don’t touch my phone. I leave it I would love if my wife also joined in on this but the difference is that she she works all week. And she there’s no doubt in my mind that I end up spending more time on my phone that her it’s just that she does it in, in in like large quantities. Yeah, well I just like I’m looking like every 10 minutes where she might just spend 30 minutes on her phone.

Steve Washuta : But it’s because again I have the opportunity to during the week she doesn’t At work, she can’t look at her phone. So she spends more time on the weekends. But anyway, I don’t look at my phone typically on Sundays or I try not to, maybe in the morning, and then again at night, but from, let’s say, nine to five. I try not to, because that’s the day I spend with my family. That’s the day time with with McKenzie, my two and a half year old and my wife Kayla, so I, I try not to do that. And that’s to me, that’s, that’s not monk mode. That’s just you on that you

Rebecca Washuta : but I would say you’re in the minority, I would say probably this is an estimate, but less than 5% of people are doing that, right. We’re so addicted to our phones. And I think we’ve convinced ourselves that like, we all have the ability to multitask and I can be on my phone and I can be with my daughter and I can be with my spouse and I can and you can’t the thing is you can’t I don’t believe in multitasking.

Rebecca Washuta : It’s not a thing. You’re just going to be doing things badly. multiple things badly. So I think putting your phone down and intentionally focusing on whatever it is time with Taylor turned with McKenzie, time to yourself is is huge. And we’ve I think we’ve incorporated I was driving today I saw someone like full on on their phone, just driving like we people are like, you know,

Steve Washuta : see all time. Let’s see it all the time. That’s the reason you know, that’s fine. Lea, our cousin, she asked me Hey, Steve, I want to do like an Ironman. Will you do it with me? And I said No, never. She said why? I said well, because you have to road bike train.

Steve Washuta : You can’t just do an Ironman by like training on your peloton, like you’re eventually going to have to get on the road because you really need to understand your bike, sir. It’s different. It’s different. And so you have to understand your bike. And I’m like, I will train on the road. Like I’ve heard too many horror stories now more so than ever, because no one’s paying attention on the road.

Steve Washuta : So like now I have to trust all these other drivers who are on their phones all the time. And they swerve over that one inch and now I am seriously injured if not dead. So like I’m like, No, I won’t do it now. Not with today’s drivers. No,

Rebecca Washuta : I think like you said taking being intentional, like you do on Sundays and taking that that intentional break kind of helps put everything else in perspective and then you’re more likely to put your phone down. I’ve been using the Do Not Disturb mode on my phone. And I have that every night from like 7pm to like 9am and it’s great I don’t see my text messages. I don’t get anything I don’t check my emails. I don’t I don’t you know get any calls. And it’s great to have that time to just not even look at your phone.

Steve Washuta : I will say though and you could disagree I’m I’m not like picking it something you said specifically but you know you did when we did talk about the TV I think dependent upon your job and your life. The TV can be a I don’t want to call it a healthy escape but but kind of escape that’s needed. So like yeah, are there better escapes is sitting with a book better is meditating better?

Steve Washuta : Sure. But like if you’re a nurse who works in an ER Ward and you work 14 hour shifts, and like you’re watching people die and you’re like, Hey, I just need to turn on like the British baking show. So that I can like they’re like online, like that’s fine like that. That makes total sense. But I do think this is just sort of my mentality and personality.

Steve Washuta : Like you kind of have to earn it like, like if you were if you were doing nothing all day long, like you were like out of the out of like a Sunday and like you’re you’re out walking around and you’re out like at the pizza place and you’re at a bar and you come home and you’re like watch for hours. Netflix is like now you kind of didn’t do anything all day like you don’t you don’t need this right now. You don’t need this. Like you don’t need an unwinding. You didn’t wind up.

Rebecca Washuta : Sure I think it is it is a healthy way to unwind. And the same thing that anything can be misused, right? A glass of wine is fine. Too much alcohol isn’t good. You know, an ice cream, cup of ice cream great a pint of ice cream or a gallon maybe not as good. So I would say no more than two hours. Like you should not be sitting down like you can watch a movie, but you should not be sitting down for more than two hours. You shouldn’t so I know people who watch Netflix all day, let’s say would you do today I binge watched a whole a whole season on Saturday. Like that’s not good. That’s crazy.

Steve Washuta : All right, on to the next topic here. Is it safe to drink chia seeds? I know people have been just adding chia seeds to their water. I will add to this. I am extremely nervous about any seeds personally. So you can talk about this. Tell me why I had a client who got diverticulitis and the doctor told him it was because he was eating way too many like sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. And that one got caught somewhere in his whatever his you know, practice

Rebecca Washuta : is not chewing them. Is he just eating them whole.

Steve Washuta : I mean I think some that some of these seeds are so small you don’t chew them like I if you’ve ever eaten like a sunflower seed, like really small or pumpkin seeds like some of them. Sometimes they’re like small enough where you can just swallow them whole. I don’t know. I again, this could be total nonsense. Maybe that’s not the reason he got it. Maybe people eat seeds every day, never get diverticulitis but I’m scared shitless of getting it so I don’t eat a lot of seeds.

Rebecca Washuta : So from a medical nutrition standpoint, you’re not supposed to eat nuts and seeds. Once you have diverticulitis. I question whether that’s actually the cause. seeds have a lot of healthy fats they have a lot of healthy fibers. chia seeds specifically don’t have a taste, you know. So I think that’s good. You can add them to a lot of things.

Rebecca Washuta : I will say this I’ve had experience with this choke on them, just this past very recently. So the thing is chia seeds swell up to 10 times their size with with water, right? That’s where you can make chia seed pudding. Have you seen that? It’s just like chia seed, chia seeds and almond milk or type of milk and it swells up, it gets gelatinous. But so that type of fiber is great because it actually can help clean out your intestines.

Rebecca Washuta : It’s good, it’s soft, it’s no longer like sharp, you know, like a sharp seed that you’d think of it’s more gelatinous. But because they can swell up, you need to be careful, you need to let chia seeds soak before you eat them. You shouldn’t just necessarily be sprinkling chia seeds on top of yogurt or oatmeal, or just like quickly into your water and drinking it, you need to let them swell. And then you can drink the water because the problem is if you eat the chia seeds, and then drink water, or if you you know, pour the chia seeds in water and drink them very quickly.

Rebecca Washuta : They’re swelling up in size as you swallow them and they can get stuck. So I read an article that someone actually had to get, they took a tablespoon of chia seeds, they then they drink the glass of water, the chia seeds, you know, swelled up, and then they got lodged in their throat, they actually had to go to the emergency room and get them removed.

Rebecca Washuta : So let the chia seed swell up, because then you’ll see that the water is different, and then you drink it slowly and then you’re fine. But you know, if you if you’re drinking them before they swell, right, and they’re swelling up on the way down, you’re going to eat too much. And you’re not going to be able to really gauge the size of that. I can see it in your eyes. You’re terrified, and you’re never gonna have GSEs ever again.

Steve Washuta : I mean, I don’t really eat your seeds in the first place. I guess I do. And I like by smoothies from places right, but like I don’t, I don’t like have chia seeds in my house. So but yeah, I am. Not that I don’t I do have some protein bars that have seeds in them. I don’t go out of my way to eat seeds, because I’m afraid of that. He’s one of those things where even if I know that that’s not the case. It seems like this. I guess it’s like weird negative like feedback loop where I’m like, Am I more likely to get it now? Because I’m so concerned about

Rebecca Washuta : getting a you have a negative connotation that you can’t you can get out of there. I will say if if the idea of chia seeds scares you, and I don’t. Oh, so I didn’t tell you my anecdote. So this happened to me very recently. I was like treating earlier a couple of weekends ago, I was feeding earlier and like at the same time that I’m trying to feed her lunch and I’m trying to shovel food in my mouth.

Rebecca Washuta : As parents, we don’t sit down for proper meals anymore, like basically ever. So feeding her and I sprinkled some chia seeds on yogurt. And I thought that I let them sit long enough to expand but I didn’t. And I started to swallow them. And granted backstory is I was feeling anxious that day, or really has just started napping at school and she’s not really napping and she comes home cranky and it’s been like a stressful a couple of weeks. Anyway, so I was already feeling anxious.

Rebecca Washuta : And when I’m anxious knew your your throat your muscles are already sort of tighten. They’re sort of tense. So I had a lot of trouble swallowing and I was like, Oh my gosh, and it was past my windpipe. So I wasn’t choking but like I could feel my esophagus had to expand to get it down. And it was really painful. Like to the point where like I called Nick into the room to say like, is this gonna work? Do we need to go to the, you know, to go get medical care, I was fine.

Rebecca Washuta : It happened. But speaking from personal experience, it can happen you need to let the chia seeds soak for at least five minutes. So they you know, get to their maximum size and then you can eat them. But if you are worried about chia seeds, what I would recommend in lieu of that is flax seeds, and you can get ground flax seeds, that’s still going to have similar fiber, similar healthy fat content. And then it’s like a, you know, it’s like a powder and then you don’t have to worry about it.

Steve Washuta : Okay, we’re done with our topics. I have three articles. I want to quickly go over the first one I’m just going to read we don’t really have to talk about it much. I just thought it was a funny article when I was looking up trending, fitness and nutrition stuff.

Steve Washuta : Okay. And this article, it says, a big lake Minnesota woman. That’s the town in Minnesota pleaded guilty to a roll of a $250 million fraud scheme that exploited the federal funded child nutrition program during COVID 19 pandemic. So this lady claimed that she was helping feed children and during COVID 19 and started some sort of nonprofit companies. And it got to $150 million. And this is some of the stuff that she was buying. She bought more than half a million dollar home. She bought a $335,000 townhouse. She bought a $80,000 Jeep Wrangler.

Steve Washuta : She bought a 2021 Porsche. She bought a $65,000 GM pickup and so on and so forth. She bought six cars, including altogether she bought 14 properties. That’s what the courts said with this $250 million. So I thought that was a just a funny, interesting and wild article that had to do somewhat with a Health and Fitness being that she claimed it was for feeding children. I wonder how these children got fed and what the hell happened? Oh

Rebecca Washuta : my gosh, can you believe that’s where our tax money is going.

Steve Washuta : It’s It’s unbelievable the things that people can do well at least she got caught and hopefully that the tourists other people. Next year there’s a new ozempic craze, and apparently has to do with calves. It’s called calf tox. While cosmetic Botox is approved by the FDA to treat fine lines and wrinkles, such as frown lines and crowns feet, as well as some medical treatments.

Steve Washuta : It’s also used in untraditional ways. And this is a way that people are doing it. They’re they’re doing some Botox for their calves to slim their calves down and make them look more sleek. So apparently 2.5 million views on the Tiktok platform for calf talks. And I have to say it seems pretty crazy. I’ve I’ve never seen it or heard of it.

Steve Washuta : I’m not that surprised there. There used to be calf implants that people would get. Yeah, were literally just like you did get a breast implant, you would do that. But to do a calf tuck seems a little ridiculous, because as far as I note with the Botox, you have to continually do it over and over and over. It never ends, right?

Rebecca Washuta : Sure. It’s like every three to four months. Well tell me from your perspective how that works. So Botox is is basically freezing the muscle, so or does it look like they’re just freezing it in a contracted state, so the muscles perpetually contracted? So what it looks like from those photos, set what you’re thinking?

Steve Washuta : I think that’s exactly what I think. I think that’s what they’re doing. Yeah, I mean,

Rebecca Washuta : it’s great to have your calf muscle.

Steve Washuta : It No, that’s not good. That can’t be good. So like, you know, when your muscle is lengthened or shortened for any amount of time and can’t move in the normal way, you know, that’s not good. Not maybe it’s not working on the muscles just working at the skin level. And it’s making the skin look for lack of a better term, like, harder and thinner and therefore it makes your counseling

Rebecca Washuta : text has to Botox has to be injected into the muscle and it just freezes the muscle paralyzes it.

Steve Washuta : Yeah, I mean, that’s that’s obviously can’t be good, right. So like you’re talking about your in your, in your, in your gastroc right there where they were, where they were pointing to that thick, that kind of circular part of your calf like that. Every step you take their muscles lengthening and shortening. So you don’t want to mess with that, especially if you’re a woman in high heels, where that’s always what we call when you’re on plantar flexion for that long, that’s people.

Rebecca Washuta : The other the other thing that comes to mind is, you know, when you’re getting Botox like in your forehead, it’s super tiny little vials, it’s a super tiny amount because Botox is a toxin, right? It’s a toxin. And if you read the warning label, like it’s very, very rare, but can cause death, right? Like it’s not great.

Rebecca Washuta : So I imagine that for your calf muscle, which is a much larger muscle, you have to use a lot more Botox, and if you’re using it a lot more Botox and you are gonna have to use it every three or four months when it wears out. Like that’s terrible for you.

Steve Washuta : Also, no one’s really looking at your calves. It’s not that

Rebecca Washuta : big of a deal. And then they also do in that article I saw it talks about the trap there’s like this idea that if you I guess injected into your trapezius muscle it can it’s called like Barbie something or other I don’t know where you might trapezius is Is this something in this area? It’s trapezius. No,

Steve Washuta : you’re trapped is the that’s connected to your neck running down to your clavicle? Yeah, here.

Rebecca Washuta : So I think it I think the idea is that makes this you can like freeze this in a way where it makes your clavicle stick out more I just naturally have clavicles that stick out.

Steve Washuta : But those guys guys want big traps. It’s a it’s a look that guys like, right? Because it may it makes you look stronger because your neck ends up being bigger. So a lot of guys want

Rebecca Washuta : to see this. Yeah, so I guess it freezes them forward. But still that’s uncomfortable. And then as you know when something that affects one muscle is going to affect another muscle right? So if your traps are frozen in this position, it’s going to affect your lats and your well

Steve Washuta : and your cervical column and your neck is meant to you know, move left and right. So the fact that you can’t do that is going to you know, it’s certainly going to give you some long term problems in your neck so people are crazy. They don’t understand as my usual saying there’s there are no solutions. There are only trade offs. What are you willing to trade off? Okay, and lastly here for this article, we’re going to run down some of the trending tic tock things that Yahoo has I’m going to share my screen with you in a second here. Frame.

Steve Washuta : The first one is girl dinner. I don’t really know the system other than we read it. And trip and takeout writer Angela pagan briefly went long on girl dinner the massive tick tock trend and involves assembling a series of weed bites, little crackers, little grapes, little cheese, little pickles, and the list goes on labeling it girl dinner as in dinner for girls. I guess this is not really a bad trend, right?

Rebecca Washuta : I mean, I think it’s really See the I think the idea behind it is and I’ve laughed with this with my friends like if Nick goes out with his friends for the night or if he has a late meeting, I’m not cooking myself a proper meal like I’m not sitting down with chicken and rice and broccoli, right? I’m just kind of snacking, I’m eating less and it doesn’t have to be. It looks similar to like a rebellious plate more so than like a grown up dinner. And so it’s like, yeah, you don’t have to cook you just make a cute little charcuterie board. So I like that I’m I’m pro girl dinner

Steve Washuta : every Sunday along with me not trying to not be on my phone. Anyway. We do a family charcuterie board so me and my daughter. There’s only two and a half and my wife we eat a charcuterie board together so cute. So that’s our that’s our that’s our lunch. Water talk. You need it to live Yeah, unfortunately drugs are tick tock errs aren’t satisfied with the standard stuff enough. Hashtag water talk, enter hashtag water talk rather the viral phenomenon that involves doctoring your water with artificial sweeteners, sheriff’s and powders to make plain water taste better. What do you think about that?

Rebecca Washuta : I mean, on the one side, people do need to drink more water. On the flip side, artificial sweeteners are terrible for your gut. And you know syrups are loaded with artificial flavors and even natural flavors. So no, just drink water, squeeze some lemon in it, put some berries in it. You can make it fancy, right? Like when you go to a spa they have maybe basil or mint, you can make it fancy without having to add artificial things to your water

Steve Washuta : to Shea snack hacking. Oh, sorry, we were about to open a bag of microwave popcorn. Make sure you do it the right way. The tic tock way that is this year tick talkers have popped off on snacks hacks explaining the correct usage for everything from can openers to Ritz crackers. And yes, these videos are annoying. I guess there’s nothing wrong with snack hacking. I think it’s just people trying to get views right showing you how they do things, how they open things, what they mix things with what they use, it doesn’t seem to cause any issues.

Rebecca Washuta : I like the idea if it’s a hack, but I think a lot of these aren’t actual hacks like are they actually saving you time or improving your your life in any way? I don’t know.

Steve Washuta : I don’t think so. This is a menu hacking. Even worse than snack hacking the menu hacking sneakily creating custom off menu items or chain restaurants menu Hacking has been a thing for a while but restaurants fought back this year Chipotle disabled taco orders on its mobile app to discourage hacked orders.

Steve Washuta : I also heard concerning like this menu hacking stuff. In Chipotle, maybe this is a little bit off topic, but there’s like a person who if you order catering from Chipotle, like you order their catering package. Yeah. It’s way cheaper than just like making like getting lunch. 

Rebecca Washuta : So you told me about this. Someone just orders it for like a week? No.

Steve Washuta : So he ordered it for for like two weeks, basically, I think it was like, you know, 80 bucks. And he was able to make 10 lunches out of that. So it’s like, you know,

Rebecca Washuta : make sense, right? It’s like a volume based discount, I guess. But that being said, from a food safety perspective, if you buy Chipotle today, you shouldn’t be eating it two weeks later, unless you put it in the freezer, you put it in the freezer, okay, but in the fridge after four days, it should should go in the trash

Steve Washuta : to shag. Well, Becky, thank you so much for joining in on this new format of the Trulyfit podcast, I think we’re going to introduce actually one more format, which will just be looking at one study and just breaking one study down, right so it’ll be something a little bit in depth. We’ll read through part of the study or at least the conclusion of the study and then just give kind of a an overview of what that study is.

Steve Washuta : And you’ll give your thoughts on that. I’ll give my thoughts on it. Maybe I’ll bring bring on either a third person to talk about it afterwards. We’ll we’ll just try to break down one particular thing that’s interesting, but I do like this format a lot listeners if you like this format as well make sure to write into me at social Trulia dot app or DM me on Instagram. This has been episode of choice for podcast Rebecca, thank you for joining.

Rebecca Washuta : Thanks

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.

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