Aloha ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. I’m your host, drew Manning and I’m your cohost Lynn. Manny, it’s a pleasure to be here with you guys today. Today we have an awesome episode with Jasmine Schmall house. I’m not sure if I pronounced that right, but she is awesome. She’s also known as it’s jazzy things or jazzy things on social media. Uh, but today’s going to be an awesome episode for those of you who are new to the podcast. You might not know me as the fit to fat to fit guy where basically a few years ago I did a fit, fit, fit experiment where I gained and lost 75 pounds on purpose. And what I tried to do is bring the lessons I learned from that and to each and every episode. And we feel like we have a different unique approach to health and fitness because of my fit fat to fit experience and because of Lynn’s experience as well.
Well, and I just hope to inspire women. You know, I’m a mom of two business owner and definitely a foodie. So I love food. I’m not the same type of crazed exercise fanatic as you see in the industry. So I just hope to bring a good balance showing how to love yourself, become healthier and reach towards your goals even with all that we have going in our lives.
Yeah. And we feel like this unique duo is what makes us different than other health and fitness podcasts. So we hope you enjoy all of our podcasts and we hope you really enjoyed this one with jazzy things. In today’s episode, we cover certain topics such as, uh, you know, how she creates inspiration for her amazing recipes. I mean, she has so many delicious recipes. We talked about where her inspiration comes from. We also talk about how, why she left. She quit her job as, as an HR person, you know, uh, with a master’s degree to do jazzy things, you know, on social media,
she gives a lot of great tips on making healthy food tastes good. And that’s such a huge thing for me because nutrition is the most important component when trying to become healthier, to lose weight. And a lot of times it’s the part that’s looked past because people love food and they’re not really willing to give up that good food to reach their goals. Jazzy explains how to make healthy food taste better. Um, how to save money, how to meal prep. It’s still add variety things that I get asked all the time about health nutrition is in this area.
Yup. And we really think your guys are going to enjoy today’s episode. But first today’s episode, before we dive into it, today’s episode is brought to you by our sponsor quest nutrition. We’ve been friends with these guys for years as you guys know. And the most important thing that we like about quest is they make getting your, you know, healthy protein in convenient. So most of our protein does come from, you know, animal sources, you know, uh, meat, seafood, eggs, fish, those kinds of things is where most of our protein comes. But when we’re traveling on the go, we love the convenience of a quest bar and it tastes delicious. Pumpkin pie protein, their pumpkin pie flavor is one of my new favorites.
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Yeah, we hope you guys enjoy that. But for now, let’s jump into today’s episode with Jasmine. All right, Jasmine, thank you so much for joining us today on the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. It’s an honor to have you on with us.
Hey, glad to be here
now. Is it Jasmine? Jazzy jazzy things? Yasmeen uh, how do you, how do you,
my first is not Jessie things. It is Jasmine. My dad used to always call me jumpin jazzy Jasmine. So I don’t know if that’s how jazzy evolved. Um, once he started jazzy things, all my friends started to say, Oh yeah, you know, I always called you jazzy. So I now go by Jasmine, jazzy w, whatever anyone prefers to call me.
I like jumping jazzy jazz. Mel, I’m going to start calling you that.
All right, Jesse. Jasmine. Yeah. Seriously. I think you should change your, your social media handles to that. That is so cool. That is awesome. I wish I had it.
That’s okay. I mean, at least it’s like pretty much your name. People sometimes call me Oh, to fit at home. I’m like, yeah, my name’s Lynn, but okay. Okay.
Now, so to start things off a jazzy, um, I kinda wanted to, I was wondering this as I knew we were going to interview today. Let’s say you’re at a party and there’s some cool people there. You’re talking to them. Yeah. Like you’re at a party. What’s up? What’s your name? Oh, I’m jazz man. Jazzy things. You know, when someone asks you, you know, just casually, what do you do? How do you answer that?
That’s funny you asked that. It’s a very difficult question to answer. I would say it depends on the type of party I’m at. My responses range from, well, I bake. Sometimes it kind of goes down in the realm of explaining, you know, being on social media. I talk about how, I guess I could say I’m a cookbook author. Uh, gosh, it’s really hard for me to answer. It usually dives into, I create a lot of, they’ve developed into cookbooks and I have a social media presence where I’m able to share these recipes and uh, creating new recipes and creating content for my cookbooks as well as holding workshops around the nation. That’s all facilitated via social media. So maintaining my social media and continuously sharing content, that’s usually how I answer what I do.
Then people, people are probably like, and you make money doing that. Oh, okay. That’s whatever I get. If I’m like, Oh, I do fitness stuff online. And um, you know, social media is a big part of it and people always go and you make money like that. I’m like, no, I just do it for fun. Yeah.
Well you know, it’s been a big shift social media and it’s been really, really interesting even over the past couple of years seeing, I guess you could say the power of social media and how it really is a great way to connect with others that are like minded and again, share that content, share things I feel that are valuable that others hopefully find valuable too. And using that. And leveraging it as a business. It’s been a lot to learn, but it’s been really neat to be able to connect with others that way.
Yeah, it is unique. And that’s interesting cause you know, I was thinking about this myself, like when I tell when people ask, well what do you do? I answer it one of two ways. Similar to if I just try and keep it short, I’m like, Oh yeah, I work in the fitness industry, you know, or I’m a health coach or you know, whatever. Just to keep it short. But if people are like, Oh, so like what exactly do you do? I’m like, well I got fat on purpose. I gained 75 pounds and then I lost it and document it on a website and now I, that’s what I do full time now is just kind of answer people’s questions and provide content and inspire people in a weird sort of way. I mean that’s basically what I do in a nutshell is I inspire people in a weird backwards sort of way. And no, it doesn’t make any sense. But
yeah. So for those that, that don’t know who you are, Jesse, why don’t you give us like a really brief background about like your personal health and fitness journey? Like where did you come from? How did you get where you’re at?
Yeah, so it’s interesting how it all evolved because it was very organic and something I never expected. Um, I actually, I have my master’s degree in human resources. My bachelor’s is in human resources as well. So that was kind of my thing. I was the HR lady through and through and it’s something I was very passionate about. So I used to have a career in human resources working for Nestle, Nestle USA. I worked, uh, at a dryers ice cream factory.
No, I love it.
Daily ice cream. Yes, indeed. So,
wait, real quick, did you really get free ice cream every day? Yes, I, Oh my gosh.
We’re were actually, um, every employee was required to go through what’s called sensory, which is, uh, not only looking at the ice cream to ensure it meets certain criteria, but tasting it as well.
Oh my gosh. That is my dream job. It’s so hard. You know? Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Keep going.
You’re HR. So I worked in human resources for Nestle dryers. It was an amazing career for me. I was traveling the nation with Nestle and learning things and doing do and HR things. So while I was with Nestle, I did not work out whatsoever. I had worked out in high school playing sports, but it was kind of just the typical high school athlete. My, my nutrition was completely absent and it was just a way to be involved. So I’m at Nestle, went through college, completely lazy, partied, um, and then I actually got a, a group onto a local gym and I don’t necessarily recall exactly what prompted it other than I knew I was lazy and that I needed to do something. So I thought, okay, cool. Like a coupon. So I’m at Nestle, I go to this local gym, uh, and I actually fell in love with it.
It was functional type, group style training. And I started going every day and I was telling my parents about it and I said, yeah, you know, I’m going to this gym, I’m doing things, I’m being active. And they said, well, what about your nutrition? And I kind of call this the potato story. I told them, I said, well, you know, I’ve been eating a lot of potatoes and potatoes. And I’m like, yeah, you know, they’re healthy. And you know, one day I have potatoes with ranch, the next day at the potatoes was Caesar and I couldn’t wait to make my next potato creation. And they said, well, maybe you should learn about proper nutrition. And I was like, no, I love food way too much. But as I continued to go to this gym and just fall in love with it, I thought, okay, let me, let me explore.
So I saw on Instagram that there was this community of people who would post healthy recipes and it was a fitness community. They would post progress pictures, recipes, and I was like, I want to do that. So, uh, I said, I don’t, I’m still a Nestle at this time. And I said, well, I love food so much that I’m not going to sacrifice my love for food. So I just started to get creative and never had cooked before. Aside from college, typical college eating, I mean, top ramen, a hamburger helper. Pizza. Exactly. Uh, so I would, uh, choose my favorite foods and then find ways to make them healthy, whether it was just healthier ingredients, swaps or learning portion sizes. And I started to post these on an Instagram, which was jazzy things. And I was also sharing my progress at the time because once I switched over to eating properly and just being conscious of it, I mean, I amaze myself with the results.
So I was sharing that progress of stillness plea. And after a couple months, I had quite a big bank of recipes. And you said, briefly share my story. This isn’t very, no, I like this. So still mostly started creating recipes just with my favorite foods, learning about nutrition, learning about different ingredients. And I had a friend who had said, you know, you should put all these in a cookbook. And I’m like, huh? I’m like, I’m the HR lady. I’m not making any cookbooks. Uh, but she suggested an ebook and it’s something just so simple and so basic. And I was like, okay, why not? So I uh, I ended up finding a designer, a really great designer just through Instagram and she helped me create a, just a very simple PDF and a website. I never did. I think I’d have a website. Um, so we could [inaudible] dot com there’s my one, it had my one soul ebook and I shared it on Instagram and my Instagram had had grown a decent amount this time because I contributed to the fact that I had recipes and they’re replicable. I mean, people can recreate them, tag me, show their friends,
so are good. And you actually post good recipes. A lot of times healthy food looks boring or bland and yours are flavorful. So people are like, wow, I’d actually eat that. Yeah.
And, and, and that stems a lot too from my love of food and just how basic I always had been with cooking where I said, if I’m making this transition, it is not going to be complicated because if it’s complicated for others, it’s complicated for me and I’m not having it. Yeah, for sure. So I shared about this little ebook I had created just a simple PDF with recipes and pictures and it did very well. Um, but even more so than how I guess, well it did, it proved to me that this is what I wanted to be doing. Um, every day at Nestle, all I could think about was the next recipe I wanted to create to share just because I, I genuinely loved and love seeing people recreate them and implement into their lives. So I released my ebook, uh, realize how passionate I was for creating recipes and I quit my job. Uh, it was about, it took me about a weekend to decide and I had no idea what I was going to do. I said, all ensure I can survive, literally survive on the bare necessities for about three months. And otherwise I’m going to figure it out.
Say to you when you’re like, I’m quitting my job to produce eBooks and bake. Like where people, like did you have support where people are like, ah, I don’t think this is the safe route. I’m just interested in how people reacted.
I absolutely had support, but everyone said I was crazy. And I guess I say I had support in the sense that I think people understood that I was gonna do what I wanted to do. It’s kind of how I’ve been. If I, if I put my mind to something, then I’m achieving it. So I say I’m quitting my job and I’m quitting my job. Uh, but yeah, they thought I was absolutely crazy. I think because especially nowadays it’s really easy to attach ourselves to feelings of security and feelings of comfort. And I was very comfortable at Nestle, but that’s what the problem was for me is I was comfortable and I didn’t realize there’s this whole realm of opportunity to explore my passions. So I think in my abilities to try and express how passionate I was, others started to see kind of, well, you know, this adds meaning
to my life and I’m trying to add value to others. And that’s kind of where it originated. But, Oh yeah. I mean they, they absolutely thought I was crazy, so I kinda just went for it. Well, let’s just send traditional people think it’s crazy when you do anything that’s untraditional. Like you said, you know, it’s so easy to get a nine to five job and to have that security and I am not knocking it. I’ve done it. Um, you know, I did it from the time I was 14 years old until, you know, just like four, four years ago. So yeah. And, but, but it’s true like, you know, even now sometimes I’m like, wow, I can’t believe I left the security of, you know, benefits and a nine to five job. Like it’s scary, but there’s nothing that beats doing what you’re passionate about. Nothing’s actually exactly true.
I can totally relate to that because when I did fit to fat to fit, a lot of people don’t know this, but I was working full time in the medical field and I was a part time personal trainer. Um, but I knew that I was passionate about health and fitness and you know, when fit to fat to fit took off, which I was not expecting it to kind of similar to you. I’m like, Oh, I’m just going to try this idea out and see how it goes. And you know, maybe the local news will pick me up or something like that. Like I’ll be on the local news. And then before you know it, like I’m on like Jay Leno and like all these thousands of people are like covering me on the, uh, you know, following me and have me on these TV shows. And I’m like, wow, like this, this is crazy.
And so I kinda sat down with Lynn and we decided, you know, let’s, let’s bite the bullet and, and take this risk of quitting our jobs. Lynn had a full time job as well, working nine to five, and we decided to quit and do fit to fat to fit full time. And yeah, a lot of people looked at it as like, man, you’re crazy. Like, you know, like why would you leave that security? But I think ultimately looking back on your life, you’re never gonna regret doing something that you’re passionate about, especially if you’d give it your all and you really try. Um, so what year was this that you decided to leave the corporate world and start jazzy things? Full time?
So that’s actually been, it’s been two years now.
Um, and I, from the moment I quit until now, I literally just tell myself I’m not allowing myself to fail. And you know, fail is used loosely because I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve, I’ve definitely spent a lot of time learning and trying to Mander my way through owning a business and leaving my job. But I essentially said I will never allow my creativity to dissipate or stop finding ways to contribute value and essentially help inspire others.
Yeah, that’s awesome. And, uh, you know, most businesses fail in the first year and here you are two years plus and amazing to see how social media can be a viable business. You know, for a lot of people these days where most people think, well, how do you make money on social media? It can be done. Look at jazzy things.
Yeah. And you know what, like how I found you too was because of your recipes. You know, people often share your recipes there. So and I was drawn to it because I am such a foodie and I sometimes in this industry, when I see like the same meal prep chicken and broccoli, I just throw up a little bit in my mouth, not because I don’t eat chicken and broccoli, just because I feel like eating healthy can be unique and flavorful and you can try different things and we don’t have to fit into this box. And it’s funny, one of the questions I was going to ask is if you’ve always just been so talented in the kitchen, which you answered saying you really weren’t that big into cooking. So how did you, how do you come up with these recipes?
So it really depends. I sometimes I say, you know, I love my taste buds, do the talking. Uh, I will shout from the rooftops that I believe if someone has a favorite food, they can find a way to recreate it. Even if it’s just, like I said, swapping a couple ingredients or focusing on portion sizes, I feel it is possible to create any favorite food into a healthier version. So, uh, potentially, uh, seeing an ingredient in the grocery store is some way that I’m inspired or I want pizza, then I’m going to think, okay, let’s have pizza tonight. Let’s find a way to make the crust healthier or, uh, use different kinds of cheeses, less toppings, whatever it may be. So I love my taste buds. Do the talking. I also like to get inspired by a particular ingredient, even if I’m just in a grocery store and I see, um, a lemon, I think, okay, what can I make with a lemon?
Um, and then kind of let it evolve from there. Uh, what else I also do is I, I’m a, I’m a sale shopper, so if I see something on sale in the grocery store, I’ll let that prompt me because it kind of helps me step out of my comfort zone and not grab the same ingredients all the time. So that’s actually one tip I give to people is a lot of times people say, well, veggies, you know, I don’t like to eat veggies. I say, go look at what veggies are on sale. I’m here, I go to Ralph. So go to your local grocery store, see what veggies are on sale, Google recipes because they are there and there you go. Now you can give it a new hit, a new veggie.
Well and it’s so smart too cause like one of the top questions we always get is how can you make eating healthy more affordable? Cause everyone has this, you know, perception that eating healthy is just too expensive. But a great way is like what you said, go into the store, see what’s on sale, what fruits and vegetables are on sale and tailor your food around that if you’re really on a tight [inaudible].
Yes, absolutely. And one of my biggest tips, um, across the board for everything, whether it’s creativity, whether it’s making things affordable, is to keep it simple. So it doesn’t have to be complicated to eat healthy, nor does it have to be complicated to get creative. You can use very minimal ingredients. And that’s what I try to reflect with my recipes and my cookbooks are, they’re just basic, simple ingredients. But it’s different ways to combine different flavors. Um, it’s different things to create. You know, you are eating oats in the morning, well you can turn your oats into pancakes with the same ingredients. So just different variations. You keep it simple and it can absolutely be affordable.
Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s very good tip to keeping it simple. Uh, is a very good tip that I tell people about. Um, so I’m just like scrolling through your Instagram right now because I love your social media. For example. Uh, you know, just for the listeners out there, here’s just a few of the recipes that pop up on her Instagram feed that are just like, they look so good and it just blows me away that you come up with these things. Pecan pie bars, coconut, vanilla cupcakes, blueberry protein bread, um, peanut butter, protein cookies, triple chocolate, a fudge protein brownies like these, they look so good and they sound so exotic and amazing. But for the listeners out there, you make these recipes simple. You don’t have to go to whole foods and find some weird ingredient. Is that right?
Yes, exactly. Again, that’s the one thing I really, really strive to do is just simple, basic ingredients. It’s just combining flavors others may not think of.
Yeah, I know. I and I, man, it just, they look so good. So for those of you out there that are listening, go follow jazzy things on Instagram and be inspired. Yeah. We’ll put all of her handles and everything. Exactly. Um, so I want to talk to you about meal prep jazzy. Like honestly everyone knows that meal prep is probably the most important thing, um, to maintain a healthy lifestyle. And we even talked with, uh, about this with Bruce pitcher from extreme weight loss. One of the things that he’s done to maintain his 200 pound weight loss, uh, for over two years now since being on the show. Is his meal prep being essential for you that, uh, for people working full time that have kids, for example, um, how do you teach them or I’m S I’m assuming people ask you this question, how do you, um, how do you teach them to meal prep and then how to have variety with meal prepping and what’s like your top tips for adding variety? So it’s not just chicken and broccoli. Like Lynn was saying, what are some of your tips for helping people add variety to their meals?
Yeah, and I, that’s a great topic because I think a lot of people start to feel overwhelmed with meal prep. And especially with social media, it’s out there a lot, especially with meal prep companies, meal prep, meal prep, meal prep. And I think people just don’t really know where to start. So the number one tip of course is keep it simple. But what I like to share and what works really well for me, even if someone is busy, even if they have kids, even if they think they don’t have time, you know, it also takes time to go out to eat. It also take time to wait, pass a line. So putting those excuses and making time and making it a priority, what I like to do is actually prepare my foods, not, not bland, but very, very simple. Um, for example, cooking chicken just with garlic powder or steak, just with some pepper, creating my meats to be very neutral.
Um, along with my other foods, like potatoes with a little bit of salt. Um, I create my staples and then I have them on hand in my refrigerator. And then when I want to assemble mirror meals or I’m ready to eat, that’s when I can add the flavor because everything is already prepped. It’s easy to go, it’s not too much flavor yet and you can create it to however you want it. So two ways to do that. One, I do have six cookbooks that I’ve done all of our people and creating those meals flavorful. The second thing though is adding seasonings. I think people greatly underestimate spices and seasonings. Um, because you can create so many different combinations. For example, you have your plain chicken, as I just talked about, and you have some noodles that you prepared. You can make an Italian dish simply by adding some oregano or some time and garlic powder and now you have Italian flavors.
Um, so spices and seasonings stock those cupboards up because it makes a huge difference. And even on veggies, you know, people have in their head a meal prep, plain chicken, plain broccoli, throw in some spices and even a certain things like, uh, now sauces. I think a lot of people fear you don’t need ranch dressing like I had on my potatoes, but there’s a lot of simple things you can do to add sauces to salads, like vinegars, make yogurts for some dressing ideas. Again with those spices and seasonings, adding your Italian or your Asian type flavors so that, those are my main tips. Keep it simple in the sense of I prep the minimums, what am I going to need throughout the next five days? And I’m throwing in a plug but only because, uh, I’ve compiled my meal prep or my travel tips into a healthy travel guide, which do just that.
They outline what like the simplest and most efficient way I prep my meals. That’s in my healthy travel guide and that’s exactly what it says is a, prepare them with simple seasonings and then grab them as you need them. And then throughout the week for your meal prep, they can be flavorful. Absolutely. Top 10 most used seasonings that you use that you say are top five, top five, top five garlic powder, black pepper especially you’ll see on like food network and everything you see. They say, uh, especially red meat. Don’t ever do it. Just put on some salt and pepper. Okay. So anyway, garlic powder, black pepper. I love cumin. Human is a very distinct spice. That’s what you smell like at a Mexican restaurant. If you’re smelling like their Taka, a very prominent spice in taco seasoning. I like cumin. I also really like Rosemary, some dried Rosemary. Uh, I love spices. What would be my fifth one? There’s probably 20. I mean, onion powder is very basic, but I don’t want to single out that one. Um, I really like a Terragon. Terragon is a good one too.
I don’t know if I’ve ever used Terragon. I was going to say I’m going out shopping
and I actually, the first time I used it was fresh. Oh my gosh. Fresh Terragon. Oh, so the spices I talked about, I, I do use them dried. So then you can have them on hand and there’s no excuse of it’s going to go bad. But, uh, if you also throw in the fresh herbs of those as well.
[inaudible] yeah, I love that tip too because that’s one of the things that I learned early on because like jazzy, like I love food and a big thing for me when people are like, you know, you should focus on eating healthier and I didn’t eat very healthy growing up or even in my early twenties was because I love food so much and I’m like, I can’t eat boring food. I just can’t do it. And I used to put sauces on everything to spice things up and then I learned about spices, you know, and I learned that, you know, instead of having sauces, which not all sauces obviously are bad, but a lot of sauces are so chocked full of a ton of different other things that you don’t need a plus sugar or a lot of sauces have a lot of sugar in them. Um, you know, seasonings are like a great way to add a lot of variety. And a lot of flavor and help you stick to eating healthier, you know, avoiding that extra sugar and stuff in sauces. So I love that.
Absolutely. And I do have to say I can batch for you guys. I know that both of you can cook. I have,
we can cook. I mostly like to bake, but that is good. Is jazzy. I mean using Terragon on everything. I’m just going to share all Jazziz recipes. I’ll be like cook this instead. So what are the other things that I really love about you that I wanted to talk about is you know, kind of like what you talked about when you want to do something, people just know in your personality you have a goal, you want to do something, you just do it. But that’s not everyone’s mentality. Like most people really stuck struggle with being positive and motivated. And I feel like following your social media, like I love following your Snapchat, you are always so positive and motivating. You know, what, what do, what are some of the tips that you give to your followers or friends or what not in staying motivated to reach their health and fitness?
Yeah, so first of all, I want to say it’s, it’s taken practice. Um, I think I, especially through grad school, it was a very, very stressful time for me and I have been, I’ve been positive throughout my, my whole life and always seeking to find the positivity in every day. But like I said, taken practice. And I think what has really helped me in the bigger picture is what I do daily. So I think a lot of people again kind of become overwhelmed or bogged down or feeling motivated when they think about a really big picture or a really big goal. So for me, really fine tuning and focusing on what I can do each day or even each moment has been really beneficial. Uh, one thing that’s very, very important to me that is just so simple. I actually made a post about it today, but it’s my morning routine where I make it a priority to eat breakfast outside every single day.
Now saying that what keeps me motivated and positive, I genuinely feel that it does. That simple thing that I do every single morning allows me to just kind of focus, uh, be outside, watch the sunrise, eat my favorite breakfast, and just not be bogged down with the worries and the stresses of the day. Thinking about my, my one year goal or whatever it may be. I don’t do that in that moment. So really kind of centering myself and starting my day out with breakfast outside has really done wonders for my positivity and motivation. I think I’ve been doing that. I’ve been doing that for over a year. Um, so it’s a little routines like that that I’ll do throughout my day that I think have made a really big difference and whatever the routine may be for someone.
Yeah. Yeah. And that’s actually what I was going to ask you about is what is your daily routine? And first of all, I love that, but you’re 27, right? 26, 25. Okay. 27. Um, you’re the only like 20 year old. I know that goes to bed at eight 30.
Yeah, I was going to say, it gets up early, early on like wow. It’s like she’s in her thirties, like us, but she’s not, she’s not
kids. You know, it’s, it’s so funny because, you know, here we are, we have two kids, but we’re tired by eight 30 and we’re just exhausted. And, but you know, most, not single people, uh, cause you’re not single, you have a boyfriend. But, uh, most people your age are out partying, you know, and you know, they’re staying up til midnight or whatever. You’re like the only person I know that does that. Um, which is awesome and I totally respect it and I love seeing your Snapchats, for example, that you are outside eating breakfast every single day. What are some other daily routines that you implement that help you, uh, you know, stay motivated or just just help you in general? Um, because I lie, I think a lot of these daily routine things are just therapeutic, right? Whether you eat outside or not, it’s not like you’re going to gain five pounds cause you didn’t, you know, eat outside today or something like that or you’re not going to work out for a week cause you lost that.
I feel like, cause I follow jazzy on Snapchat, I can almost tell you my daily routine. I should, that I should like try it and be like, okay. So and then jazzy can just correct me. Like, no, that’s not, I know it’s like I can talk about her cat and her breakfast and her walking to the gym and her reading her books. But no, no, no. Can you tell us walk,
what is my day? Okay. So I’ll kind of go through my day and then my routines kind of evolved from that. Uh, and it does depend on what I’m doing. I do travel frequently, however, I’m taking a little bit of travel time off the end of this year. So my days are of course very different if I’m traveling for workshops. So we’ll talk about a current day and if I’m home and what I’m doing. So I wake up very early. Uh, I wouldn’t say it’s because of my cat, my hairless cat. He does wake me up. Um, saying let your passion wake you up and be the driver for your day. Absolutely true. I mean, I am up around 5:00 AM every day because I am genuinely super excited for the day. I can’t wait to go. I did not wake up that early when I was in the corporate world.
So anyway, so I wake up very early. I actually wake up slowly, uh, I kind of read the news, get on social media, hang out with [inaudible], I’m a cat and then I make my very favorite breakfast and it, whatever it may be, it has peanut butter, that’s for sure. And I eat out. So there’s my first routine. Also, the favorite breakfast part is an additional routine. And I in workshops have shared that with people implement your favorite breakfast. It makes a huge difference and it sounds petty, but you know, if you’re on the go, you’re rushing for work, you hurry. And grab a yogurt and a fruit. What if you take a few extra minutes and create your favorite breakfast, whatever it may be. Um, I’m driven by food though, but I really feel like, uh, implementing our favorites, if you can implement your favorite things, just a little pieces, even if it’s your favorite gum, go get your favorite gum because you’re going to be happy when you chew it throughout the day.
I love that, man. I love that. So true. Literally though, I mean, you know how Austin is, have your favorite gum. So I need my practice outside and I spend a little bit of time out aside again, just kind of getting energized for the day, kind of recharging, watching the sunrise, and then I go inside and I’m ready to conquer the day. I spend a lot of time on my computer responding to emails. Um, if I have any upcoming workshops, placing orders, uh, also brainstorming what recipes I’m going to create, and then I plan out some recipes and things I’m going to be doing in the kitchen. Go to the grocery store if I need to. I frequent the grocery store, but I like it. It’s kinda therapeutic for me to be there and get inspired by new ideas. Um, and then early afternoon, late morning is when I’m in the kitchen and I’m in the kitchen creating a way, whatever my taste buds spoke to me for that day.
Um, again, just creating content, posting to Instagram the recipes and uh, trying to get input from Instagram, you know, seeing what they might want. What season is it like baking the pumpkin. Uh, so I’m in the kitchen and then another part of my routine that’s important to me is my gym time and I go to the gym in the afternoon. Again, that’s part of my, my me time and aside from work and recipes and being in the kitchen and hosting workshops, doing on emails, that is my time where I can focus on personal goals aside from business goals and um, being on social media. So any particular reason you work out in the afternoon versus the morning? Yeah, that’s just what works for me. I feel like I have a little more energy. I have a little bit more meals in me. Um, you know, some people do really well in the morning, Sunday noon, I’m not too tired, you know, since I go to bed at like eight o’clock, I’m not too tired by the evening, um, in the morning I’m very, very productive.
So I like to utilize that time and be able to, uh, hone in more on my recipes. So I’ve just found that it works well and I’m energized and kind of, it’s also a good time for me to kind of step away from social media as well. Since I’ve been on it for the first half of the day, now I can say, okay, you know, kind of detach and now focus on you and then you’re back to it. No, thanks for answering that. And then as far as your night routine, yes, it would be very, very productive in the mornings and throughout the day because my nighttime is kind of my unwind time. It’s, um, uh, loading some personal time, you know, with my boyfriend hanging out with my cat, watching a little bit of TV or kind of talking through my day that day, uh, what did I accomplish today? What can I do better tomorrow, whatever it may be, just kind of winding down because by that time it’s almost
bedtime. Uh, make some dinner, get ready for bed and then start all over. And a lot of times you read, I love saying that by the way, cause I actually, you’ve read several, like a lot of times when you’re showing the book you’re reading, I’m like, Hey, I’ve read that book or Hey, that’s on my list. So I love that. I love that you enjoy reading as much as I do.
So to Drew’s question about what the actual routines, I’m really glad you mentioned that land. I noticed that you liked to read as well, but reading is very important to me for a lot of reasons. Even if it’s amongst my very busy day, I’ll take 10, 15 minutes, stop what you’re doing, sit down, read a book now go again. Um, and not only am I enjoying what I’m reading, but again, it just takes time. It allows me to take time to kind of sit down and refocus, which is so important for me in so many ways. Uh, sitting outside, reading my book, going to the gym. And I think people undervalue those things. Um, and that’s one thing I learned stepping away from the stresses of my life are we can separate ourselves from things that cause major stress. A lot of times it’s even just habits. We have a habit of doing things that stress us out. So if you allow yourself even five minutes in the morning, five minutes to read a couple pages in a book. For me that has been so beneficial in setting my day up for success and just feeling motivated and ready for my day.
Yeah. And I think, you know, daily routines are important for a lot of people too. You know, that’s how you start creating healthy habits. It’s not all or nothing all at once. You know, going from an unhealthy lifestyle to a healthy lifestyle, it’s implementing small daily routines. Even something as small as like, okay, I’m going to make my bed today. You know, and just do that consistently for 30 days straight and see how that changes your life. It might not be life changing, but it might just start pulling you in the right direction. Or Hey, I’m going to eat my breakfast outside for the next 30 days, you know, and see how that changes me for the better. Um, those kinds of things I think are essential and I’ve kind of, over the past few years, ever since I’ve been in the fitness industry, I try and always like upgrade my daily routines.
Like, okay, I’m going to start trying this, you know, or try that to like a daily meditation I’ve, I’ve, uh, started doing as well and I really, really enjoy that. Even though I used to think it was really weird. I’m like, what’s that gonna do for me? I’m just gonna like sit there and try not to think for 10 minutes. Like, that’s weird. But there’s so many benefits to it. I, I can’t, like when I don’t do it, I definitely notice a difference. And so I just think it’s important for people to, to try out new things, try and find what works for you and start, implement implementing them on a daily basis and be consistent. Cause I think that’s the key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is just consistency and being persistent in these types of small changes. So thank you for outlining that. So we know what you do and I think someone out there is going to start implementing some of these, um, on a daily basis and see how, how it impacts their lives. Um, yeah. So the other thing I w I kinda wanted to ask you is about your exercise routines. Like what do you do for exercise these days and what have you done in the past? Cause we, you’ve done fitness competitions in the past, but am I right in assuming that you’re kind of stepping away from that based on your social media posts?
I am for now. So it’s kinda goes back to the crazy Jasmine setting goals and just going for it.
So, so what do you do now for exercise or what do you, what are you into? As far as exercise goes right now. So
now I’m actually pursuing powerlifting. Uh, my boyfriend was a huge inspiration to me to pursue this and do a competition after I watched him at his. So it’d been on my mind before. But just seeing the energy of everything and seeing everyone have goals just to get really strong and learn new things. That was awesome. So that’s what I’m currently pursuing. Um, I had mentioned when I very first started working out, when I was still at Nestle, I started with functional group style training. I think that was really helpful because I was in an environment that was very positive and encouraging where others were as well. So I almost had a sense of accountability for me to go to these group classes. And it was from that that I had found or learned about bodybuilding competitions on social media. And I had said, well, working out, let me try it.
So I’ve done four bodybuilding competitions. I went into them just, I mean a lot of them say this is for me, but it genuinely was, I didn’t have big aspirations of turning into professional or anything. It was something for me to commit to and dedicate to. And that’s exactly what it was. It was four times in my life where I was extremely committed and dedicated and I was onstage in that suit and high heels and that was a huge accomplishment for me. Um, so I, I placed top five in my past few competitions, which was cool and fun. Um, and then I discovered power lifting and realize there’s another way I can achieve goals and learn new things. So that’s what my training is now, is structured around powerlifting. So that’s the afternoons. And then a couple of times a week I’m actually going to another gym where I do functional type training still. And that’s just a personal goal. I want to remain functional and, um, keep my endurance at, at a good place to,
I think that’s awesome. And it’s actually really inspiring because you know a lot of women are like, Oh, does that mean she’s going to get big and bulky now from from power lifting. I think a lot of women are afraid of that thinking, Oh man, she’s going to be one of those, you know, big women looking bodybuilders, you know from power lifting. But that’s not the case. Like to be strong is, is a good thing for women and it doesn’t mean you’re going to get big and bulky, right? It doesn’t mean you’re going to turn into a dude.
No. Unless you take specific supplements like testosterone or steroids, like designed to help you put on that type of mass. It’s very difficult for women to put on large amounts of mass women that do do it naturally. It takes so much time. Dedication, calories, like they are heavily working at trying to put on math.
Even for guys, even for guys, we totally would look for guys, it’s hard enough as it is to put on mass for girls it’s like even harder. So it shouldn’t be one of your worries when you start, you know, lifting heavy things. But it’s cool to lift something heavy, you know, as as a person, as a human being and say, I did that, you know, I just dead lifted 500 pounds. That’s awesome. You know? Uh, so you know, respect to you jazzy. That’s, that’s awesome. And keep us posted. Yeah, keep us posted on it and I think it’s always good to switch up your exercise routine and go for a new goal. Like for me, I just discovered that I suck at swimming.
I am not Michael Phillips. My six year old daughter laughs at me,
me as correcting my form and my own,
she really is better. My six year old daughter is like laughing at me like, man, you are horrible. Clarify. No, let’s clarify. It’s not that I was laughing at you because you are a poor swimmer. No, I was laughing at you
because you insinuated that in order to be able to do proper strokes that people are our professional swimmers. And I laughed because I’m not a professional swimmer. But yes, I do know how to do proper strokes in a pool, but he’s learning.
So drew, you’re swimming now?
Yes, that’s what I’m saying is like I’m trying, I’m, I’m starting to go every day and even though I suck and I’ve been posting about it on social media, it’s something I want to get good at so that, Hey, if I, you know, am in the middle of the ocean, I’m not going to drown. You know? And it’s just cool for me to be able to say, look, I can swim X amount of meters without drowning.
He’s secretly training for a triathlon.
I’m secretly training. Well not, it’s not a secret anymore.
[inaudible]
no, but yeah, so that’s the thing is like find something that you suck at and just try to be consistent at it and see how you improve. And if you still suck at it after a year, then you know, say you gave it a try. Like for me, I tell people, and this is kind of humbling, it took me a year and a half to learn how to, how to do double unders consistently, you know, double Enders on the jump rope where you’re doing two repetitions with one jump. And here I am, this athlete, this fitness professional if you will. I’m doing my quotation marks, which you can’t see here on the podcast. And it takes me a year and a half to learn how to do double unders. Like just, you know, keep trying, you know, and um, try new things and set new goals cause you get burnt out sometimes doing the same thing over and over again. Right. You know, doing bodybuilding competitions is cool, but sometimes you get burnt out doing those things and so you’re, you know, an inspiration to a lot of people. Jazzy, I think it’s cool that you show people what your goals are and, and how you’re attaining them so people can be like, okay, maybe that’s something I want to try. And that’s what I’m trying to do with the swimming.
It’s awesome. And I love that. I love, I have to reiterate, I love where you said if you suck at something then do it. And there’s a lot of power in that and I want to encourage that as well. If you feel like you’re going to RET or kind of hit a plateau, try something new. Um, I actually made it a new year’s resolution. Uh, I think it was last year where every week of the month of January I was going to try something new. Fitness-related so I did boxing. I did, you know, like that bar, what does that, even boxing I went, I didn’t know how to do it. I felt like I looked like a fool. But who cares? You just go and you try it and I guarantee there will be something that it’d be like, you know what, this is kind of cool. I’m going to go again like Drew’s doing with swimming. So definitely try something new for sure. Yeah.
And don’t, and don’t worry about it if you suck, like, yeah, you look stupid, but everybody looks stupid their first time trying something out. Like, you know,
you know, I’ve been to enough classes in my lifetime to let you know I used to be super nervous about it too. Especially cause I’m, I was like, Oh, I’m not very coordinated. I looked dumb. Nobody’s really looking at you. Everyone’s focusing on their, when people are zooming a scene, they’re looking at themselves being like, wow, my moves are really special right now. No, no one, no one is taking the time to look at you. So yeah, try new things. Don’t worry about what other people think, just get in your zone. And yeah, there’s a lot of confidence that can be built by trying something that you don’t think you’re good at or that maybe you aren’t good at and improving from there.
And just real quick but sucking at something. It should be a motivator or a driver like power lifting for example. I’m not power lifting because I’m really, really strong right now I’m power lifting because I’m not very strong and that means every single ounce of effort I’m putting in a gym is a step towards improvement. So if you do something you suck at, then just know that every time you do it you’re improving in some way because you suck really bad
if you can only get better. Okay. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna wrap up with my favorite part of the show, which we like to call the lightning round. And we have some good ones for this is where for those that don’t know the lightning round, but since where we asked jazzy random questions that really don’t necessarily have any rhyme or reason, just stuff that we want to know. She is completely unprepared. She doesn’t know what they’re going to be. She has to answer them as quickly as possible. Just the first thing that comes to her mind. Oh, all right. Jazzy. Are you ready? Okay. Okay. Yes. Weirdest combination that you’ve put with peanut butter, chicken,
chicken, peanut, peanut butter. Is that how you ate it or that evolved? Actually, because for competition prep, when we get closer to show day, you start eliminating, you know, some of the extras. And so you end up with [inaudible] chicken, rice and peanut butter for example. And what better way than the chicken. Right? Then if you think about, if you think about it, think about a peanut sauce, like an Asian peanut sauce that’s delicious on chickens. That’s true. That’s too far. Okay.
Most embarrassing moment that you can think of. Oh man.
Uh, when I was in Australia, I quickly learned, now I don’t know if this is true, so this is just what I heard, but I quickly learned that the word Fanny pack actually means Tampa. I can’t say that’s the most embarrassing thing, but that’s the first thing that popped into my head. I don’t know why. So the tampon, Joe, people get embarrassed by tampon ducts. I don’t really get embarrassed by things, so that’s kinda hard for me to answer. But if you’re going around like, Hey, uh, you have a Fanny pack or you see my fans are like, all right, maybe someone was just, I know someone’s going to have to comment on the show and let us know. There’ll be like, now they’ll be like, they discouraged with her Australia and listen to those letters. Now this girl is going to believe that Fanny pack, I don’t think get embarrassed cause I like to laugh at myself and there’s not much you can do to me where I’m not going to be like, okay cool. Good one. But man, now I’m going to think of something after this show but okay. Anyway, next question. Okay. Worst food experiment combat like at one of your seminars or teaching moments or
do you like how you like to pick something? You’re like I’m going to make up a recipe for this and you’re like this sounds good. And then you try it. You’re like this was the worst thing ever. Oh okay.
In a cooking class and this was a private dinner parties. There are about six people. I had it all organized where everyone’s in groups and we’re creating this awesome dinner and I’m teaching them how healthy can be simple and delicious. Our main dish was a positive. So we go to make the pasta and I don’t know if I had, I can’t even say I had a wrong temperature of water cause you just boil it. I must have got maybe expired pasta. I don’t know. We’ve got pasta in there and it turned into a, you know, if you mix flour and water it turns to glue. That’s what happened with Austin. So I’m at this dinner party with a main dish of pasta and it’s glue. We have a PO blue and that was the whole point I was there.
You’re like eating healthy or a bit where you’re like this is totally how it’s supposed to be. Sometimes things don’t. Luckily
she actually had just some random POS in the cupboard. We went with that. We still got to make the sauce. But uh, trying to showcase this awesome pasta dish that turns into a big glob of [inaudible].
If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would that food be?
Okay, so I’ve answered this before and my answer is going to be pancakes cause I, I kind of cheat with the answer cause I’m like, well you could have savory pancake, you could have sweet pancakes. But I feel as if I can never get tired of pancakes. Feed me pancakes anytime. I’ll eat it
now. Do you prefer protein pancakes or your typical like Bisquick white flour type of pancakes or what’s your favorite pancake?
You know, I’m actually a fan of protein pancake because I feel when you add the protein there are so many different varieties of flavors of protein that it changes the flavor of the pancake. So instead of just Bisquick traditional, you can have chocolate protein pancakes or cookies and cream protein pancakes. So I like putting protein in my pancakes. I like that they do have our protein pancake recipe in my cookbook.
Yeah, I know you got plenty of them. Right? More than just one. All right. If you could be any dude, who would you be and why?
I’d be the rock. Yeah, bad ass. Right. Even just following them on social media and what I’m gathered from his personality, I mean he just seems like a straight up down or bad ass.
That’s so funny. I, I love him, like are there are very few people that are like prominent like that as actors or even in the fitness world that I follow and really enjoy it in the rock is one of them. Great answer. I agree. Answer man. Okay. Your favorite book or books that you’ve read recently? Oh
man. I read a lot of books. I might have to, I, I might have to single it down to just in drawn rhe because I really, there’s something valuable about any book, even what people would call a crappy book. So I love, I actually love to different types of books. I love, I’m not even answering this question, but I love books that I guess you could say talk about realities that people typically avoid. Um, like substance abuse books or mental health type books. I really enjoy reading those
because I ran on fire. I have red brain on fire. I’m not good. I know that’s a good one. So I love reading stuff about that because it’s
very prominent and I think we, it’s easy to avoid or not address. So I really enjoy reading books like that. And then I really like mystery books. The Lincoln lawyer series. Um, I like mini books.
Oh man. I like those books too. Good answer. Okay. Give us, give us your best accent. What’s your most popular accent? She does her accent and they’re funny.
It’s hard for me to do an accent on the spot because maybe be Rose in two different accents.
Now. Was that a German or Austrian accent? I couldn’t tell which, which kind of accident was that.
I don’t even know. I don’t know when to stop them. They just happened.
You guys, her Snapchat is like the funniest snap. We are definitely putting her Snapchat and the notes.
Oh, sometimes I get an ACCE and I just go with it and I can’t stop sometimes. Oh,
you do a good job. And that’s, that’s the funny thing is your snaps are probably the most entertaining snaps that I follow. You know, I don’t follow that many people, but like your snaps are super entertaining. We’ll actually, I’ll watch the whole 10 seconds of a snap.
[inaudible]
okay, so this is something I ask everybody on the show.
Would you ever do fit to fat to fit?
Oh, that’s a good question. You know what, I probably I would answer yes. Oh wow. Well, I mostly, because if I commit to something, I’m doing it, but, well, and drew, I’m sure you, I mean this is everything you learned, but what I’ve learned and how I’ve learned the most is by allowing my body and my mind to be vulnerable and picking something that I want to try and just going with it and seeing how my body responds. It hasn’t been obviously as drastic or prominent or a structured as fit to fat to fit. But what I’ve done in the past is, okay, I want to try this structure according to these goals. You just have to do it and the body’s going to change and it’s going to morph, but you learn a lot. So if it were to do fit to fat, to fit, you know, to kind of get the value that you received and all the learnings that you had along the way. I answered yes, very quickly. I know there’s a lot more to it and I know that you again, learned a lot about yourself and a lot about life through that. So I’m not undermining the experience by any means. Um, but I, I do see a lot of value in putting ourselves in real applicable situations. So that’s awesome. Just very quickly. But I, I do want to kind of preface that again with yes, because I see the value in what you went through.
Cool. No, you’re one of the very, very, very few people that’s been on this podcast to say, yes, I would do it because most people are scared to death of it and to be overweight would freak them out and they lose their identity. But at the end of the day, I did, you know, when I did mine, I did kind of lose my identity, but I needed to in a way, because I was so obsessed with this body and I, you know, associated I M this six pack, I am this, this low body fat percentage body. That’s me. And when that was gone, I’m like, who am I? And so something I needed to go through. It’s not something everybody needs to go through, but I do think it can have a lot of benefit. Um, so I’ll put your name down on the [inaudible]
[inaudible] mostly in grants and things. Uh, if, I don’t know, I think there’s a lot of value in, again, not just reading things, not just listening to or practicing what you see on Instagram, but truly living, breathing in, again, just kind of transforming that identity, which is just absolutely incredible. Uh, it’s not to be undermined, that’s for sure.
Well, just a wait until January and there’s going to be a big surprise for everybody in January. I can’t say what it is, but it’s going to be, it’s going to be worth it. I’ll talk to you about it after we’re done here. Off the record, I can’t talk about it yet, but um,
so tell everybody where they can find you jazzy. Tell them about where they can find your eBooks or she’ll, so a handles your website. Yeah, so my social media, again is jazzy things, just J a,Z , Z, Y things. T, H I N G. S a. My website is also jazzy things.com and that’s where all of my cookbooks are housed. I have six healthy cookbooks, including a crockpot cookbook, even a kid approved cookbook. And I have a Twitter but I’m not very active on it. My Twitter and my Snapchat, which I do use are the same. It’s uh, it’s jazzing things and uh, my Facebook jazzy things, my last name is long but jazzy things slash Jasmine small house. You’ll find it just from jazzy things. My cat, I have a hairless cat. He has an Instagram. It’s Kingston things my kids freaking love. Like, Oh dude, it actually would probably be the rocker Kingston cause he’s just, he’s a bad ass. I love it. I love it.
That is so cool. Well jazzy, thank you so much for coming on the Fitz Fitz fit podcast. It’s been so awesome to have you on and for sure we will have to have you back on.
Awesome. Thanks guys. This was fun. We got to talk about food. Yeah.
Okay, we’ll see you next time. Jazzy.
All right you guys. We hope you really, really enjoyed today’s podcast. If you did, please leave us your comments or leave us a review on iTunes and let us know if you like today’s episode and what you liked about it and also let us know what you’d like to see on the podcast in the future. You know, guests you’d like us to have on or topics you want us to cover. Um, any suggestions we love reading your feedback, um, to learn more about us or to, you know, stay in the know, uh, check us out on social media for me. All my handles are at fit two fat to fit with a number two. Uh, same thing for my website, fit to fat to fit.com and I have a weekly newsletter that goes out every week. Um, so you can follow me there.
I feel like I’m starving after that episode. I love talking to jazzy about all the good foods. Um, so hopefully you’re hungry too. Um, you can find me at two. The number two fit at home on all social media outlets. My website is number two fit@home.com. You can sign up for my newsletter on there as well.
All right guys, thank you so much for joining us and you can be sure that we will be back here next week with another amazing podcast. So thank you guys so much for your support. We really do appreciate you guys cause none of this would be possible without you listening. So thank you guys once again and we’ll see you back.
So you guys [inaudible].
