Hello everybody, and welcome back to the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. We hope you guys enjoyed last week’s special episode. Where we open up this week is another special episode. You guys, um, today I’m going to be interviewing Glenn. And are you excited about that or not excited?
I mean, I guess I, you guys, when, when you’re getting interviewed and you don’t know what questions they’re going to ask, you’re a little vulnerable. Who knows?
Yes, it happened in this episode. So here’s the thing, you guys, Linda and I are going, we’re opening up to you guys. We’re opening up completely. We’re being vulnerable and it’s, it’s kind of scary, but it’s also kind of fun. Now today for the format is I came up with some questions that I wrote down and Lynn has no idea what they are, but she agreed to answer any and all questions and uh,
I said I’d only do it if I could drink some wine before the episode.
Um, that would have been great. No, she had coffee and that’s it. Um, so basically that’s the format of today’s episode. We’re going to go into a lot of personal details about Lynn. You’re going to learn a lot of surprising things about her, I think, and it’s going to be, it’s going to be very entertaining. You’re gonna want to stick around for this episode. I can’t really say what she’s going to talk about yet cause we haven’t, you know, asked. We haven’t gone through the interview. Um, so let’s jump into our show sponsors really quick and then we’ll get into the episode. Our first show sponsor is kegenix.com you guys have heard me talk about Kegenix. You’ve heard me go on the dr Oz show talking about ketosis, the ketogenic diet and what it is. If you haven’t, go check that out. Go check out my doctor Oz clip.
I, we’ll put a link to that in the show notes. Um, but basically what if I told you that you could get into ketosis within 60 minutes of taking a product? That’s exactly what key Jennings is. Now, when you’re in ketosis, you guys, which is the different metabolic state that your body’s in, uh, enters in when there’s no glucose, glucose, glucose. Sorry, I can’t say that when there’s no glucose available in your system, your body’s forced to produce ketones for energy or fuel for your body to use. And when you’re in ketosis, you guys, your body taps into its stored fat for fuel. But to get into ketosis, you either have to starve, right? You know, not eat any food, or you have to eat a ketogenic diet, which is a high fat, moderate protein, low carb approach. And that’s kind of how I eat nowadays.
Um, but it can take some time. It could take four or five, six days sometimes for people to get into a state of ketosis. And that’s what’s so cool about key genics. Um, it’s a product that you, it tastes good. There’s orange fruit punch and Berry flavored, I believe. And you just mix it in with water. Um, it’s a, these beta hydroxybutyrate, which are, you know, bio identical to the same ketones your body produces. So you flood your body with these exaggerations ketones and you can test your blood ketone levels, you know, post taking it and you’ll see that you’ll get a bump, a, a very, uh, significant bump in your blood ketone levels, which means your body’s in a state of ketosis, your body’s burning fat for fuel. And the reason I do ketosis, you guys is because it is for the cognitive benefits.
It’s not to, I’m not trying to lose weight, I’m not trying to get leaner or get more shredded. Uh, for me it’s, it’s nutrition for my brain. That’s why I eat the ketogenic diet most of the time. Right? I had pizza the other night, I’ll confess, but for the most of the time I do. And then ketogenics taking that every day, there’s a lot of neuroprotective benefits for your brain by taking this product. Um, dr Dom D’Agostino, who I had on the podcast a while ago, I think episode 31 definitely go listen to that. Talking about the benefits of taking exogenous ketones. Even if you don’t follow ketogenic diet, there’s still have benefits of taking this product. kegenix.com use the code fit to fat to fit for 15% off and for the 30 or the four week supply you guys, you definitely won’t regret it. It’s, it’s something I think everybody should experience at least one point in time experimenting with ketosis.
I even experimented with it. Whoa. If you guys want to read about that, it’s on my blog to fit at home. I know, I’m surprised cause you guys know me and carbs are like best friends. Um, I only could do it with kid genics cause I do love carbs. Okay so the other show sponsor, we have you guys as quest nutrition. Go ahead and go in the show notes if you want a link to head over to their site. We talk about this a lot but I love their bars. I love the convenience of having them around cause if I’m on the go I really don’t have very many healthy options of where to, where to stop. And the quest bars, they’re high in protein, they’re very low in net carbs. Usually between two to five net carbs total and they’re really high in fiber. They have a line that uses all natural sweeteners too. If you are not a fan of any of the artificial sweeteners. Um, like I said, I like to keep them in my purse, in my console at the office any place so that if I’m hungry and obviously a lot of times when I’m running errands, times get away from me and I get hangry. You have something to grab on the go, so check them out.
All right, you guys, are you ready Lynn to do this lens a little bit nervous?
Yes. I mean you just never know what someone’s going to ask you, especially when it’s your ex husband. So here we go.
Here we go. You guys, I feel like, have you guys seen the movie natural Libris with Jack Black? Who is Encarnacion? Who is Lynn? Marcia Manning who are, let’s get to know her on a very personal level here. Okay, so we’re going to back it up and I’m going to start with your childhood. Tell us about you and your family life. Growing up. You had four, four siblings and your mom and dad. No, I know, I know. And you know, your parents were divorced talking about your childhood, where you grew up first.
Okay. Well, I was born and raised for a good chunk of my life in Southern California. If any of you know, bill and Ted’s excellent adventure. Sandy, miss high school football rules. I grew up in San Demas. Um, my, I am the youngest of four. Um, so I have two older brothers and an older sister who actually my oldest sister lives just right down the road from me and it’s probably my best friends. So, um, I, you know, I had an interesting childhood, but in my opinion when I look back and amazing childhood, I mean all of our childhoods are different. Um, I really feel like I lucked out in that my parents, um, even though we grew up a certain way, we actually grew up in a specific religion that was, um, a little bit more strict than the norm. What I love is my parents were always really good at teaching that you’re not better than anybody, no matter where you come from, no matter what religion you are, no matter your life circumstance.
And they always taught me to really be compassionate and love everyone. And that really stuck with me. And a lot of people I meet will say like, you’re the least judgmental person I’ve ever met. And, and if that’s true, which I’m sure it’s an exaggeration, I attribute a lot of that shit to the way that my parents raised me about being loving and accepting of everybody and realizing we all have different paths and different lives. Um, I thought it was fun growing up in Southern California, I basically lived in my pool. My parents had this amazing tradition where they took us to the beach during at least the warmest summer months, every Friday. How cool was that? Um, I also grew up in a family. A lot of people, what they do hear me say about my family is I grew up in a family of foodies.
Um, my mom is an amazing cook, like the best, and especially Baker, she bakes amazing food. Um, and you know, she was always making like quick cinnamon rolls and breads and muffins and pie and all the food, you guys, all the food. And so I definitely did not grow up in the healthiest food type of environment. Um, not that my mom couldn’t cook that, just that she can cook a lot of other good food and my family had a lot of picky eaters. Um, so I, health and wellness and to be all on honest was not a priority in my life or I would say my family. Not, not to say that my mom and dad haven’t been athletic and, and fit at different times, but also a lot of people in our family have struggled with obesity. Um, you know, my, my sister has type two diabetes, um, and is working on improving that in her life.
But, um, yeah, so that was a little bit about, you know, then when I was about 12, we moved to Utah. Um, I went to middle school and high school here and then I moved back to California afterwards. Um, just like every family, we have our dysfunction, we had our trials and tribulations. Um, and of course there were times where like I hated my parents just like most teenagers. But all in all, I always tell people I’m so lucky to have the family that I have. Uh, we all get along now that we’re older. Um, family functions are great and fun. We reminisce a lot, have a lot of good stories to tell. Yeah.
And that’s what I think is so cool by your family. Now I know Lynn on a very personal level, I know all of her past for the most part in all of her stories and all the, the trials and tribulations that she’s talking about, she went through. But what’s so is to see you and your family. Like even though like from the outside perspective, like you didn’t have a perfect child that you had, like one of the hardest childhoods I’ve ever known anybody to have. But you’re like, you’re, you come out on top. Can you open up and talk about if you want to, some of those things or if not, if you don’t want to get personal a talking about those, those trials and tribulations to talk about some things that have helped you be where you’re at today, come out on top because you know, and I know you went through some hell
yeah. Um, you know, open up a little bit about, um, I think I’ve opened up a little bit about my depression growing, growing up. Um, so I, I suffered from extreme depression through middle school and high school to the point where it was debilitating for me. Um, you know, I didn’t go to school for, for almost a year. Um, I was homeschooled because I’d wake up with night terrors. I actually had post traumatic stress from some sexual abuse that I experienced in my youth. And I really struggled, you know, I wasn’t able to really work through that and overcome it. And, you know, my parents did the best they could with, I mean, I don’t even know how many counselors I went to as a, as a child and as a teenager. Um, so many, um, and nothing helps. You know, I was on every depression medication, don’t demand, I got to the point where my doctor said that he wanted to do electroshock therapy.
You know, talk about scary. Um, and honestly nothing helped. I had, I had supportive parents. I had, um, amazing friends, but I just, I sunk into this deep depression and this whole, uh, to the point where, you know, I tried to kill myself when I was in high school. Um, it was my, my senior year and I, you know, I didn’t, I didn’t want to be alive anymore. I didn’t, I just didn’t feel like it was worth it. I hated who I was. I was never happy. Um, I really struggled. And, um, luckily I had some amazing friends and at the time an incredible boyfriend who was very smart when we were on the phone and basically flagged down his family to get to my house so that by the time I got off the phone and left my house, which was the plan so that no one could find me.
His mom was already in the driveway. But, um, long story short, I was institutionalized for a little while. Um, and in the end, what really helped me as I went through a life training course, it was called impact trainings and it really broke me open. It opened me up to life. It opened me up to the fact that we all have trials and tribulations. Some people will hear my childhood story and be like, I feel so bad for you. And the truth is, is it made me who I am. I wouldn’t really change anything about my past because it made me a stronger person. It made me a more empathetic person. Um, and I grew so much out of that experience. Now when you’re going through the experiences and the trials, of course you don’t feel that way. It’s, it’s hard to look the bright side when you’re in the mud.
Um, but I can look back now and realize that everything that happened in my childhood and working through and coming out of of that was one of the greatest experiences. It’s crazy for me to look back and see how depressed I was and that I wanted to take my life. I also suffered from extreme anxiety, panic attacks, post traumatic stress. And I don’t, I don’t struggle with any of that anymore. Do I have hard days? Yes. Do I sometimes still have anxiety? Yes. I don’t think that ever a hundred percent goes away, but I’m such a different person and a stronger person from that, that I think that’s why I’m able to tackle other hard life experiences and have a positive outlook on life. Yeah.
I think some of the best people in this world have been through the hardest of times. You know, and, and you guys, if any of you guys know Lynn Lynn’s like one of the most loving, caring people that you’ll ever meet. And um, yeah, unfortunately she had to go through so much. Hell and I, you know, for me, from an asset perspective, I wish she didn’t have to go through that. But then in a day she’s owning her story and saying, you know, I really wouldn’t go back and change it because it’s, it’s made her who she is and she didn’t have those experiences. She might not be the person who she is today. And so I’m glad you’re here. I’m your ex husband, but you know, we wouldn’t have our kids and you know, it’d be pretty crazy. So, um, I appreciate you sharing that and I know that a lot of people will be able to relate to that cause a lot of people are depressed and, um, just know that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Um, okay, so I’m not gonna ask all serious questions here. There’s going to be some
funny ones, just, you know, good. And this one’s going to be really funny. Like this one’s going to be awkward I think. Okay. Why did you marry me? Oh my gosh. What kind of questions that, okay, you should see how she’s looking at me right now. Like, are you serious? I just think it’s funny because you had like really big muscles and I was like, wow. He looks like Ben Stiller, but on steroids. And that’s, I mean, have you seen Zu lender? Blue steel magnet? Our first, so here’s the most funny guys. Our first date was to go see Dodge ball. That was the very first day. What was it? Go see Dodge ball. And the whole time everyone that’s with us,
a group of us seeing the movie we like we’d look at the screen and then we’d look at drew, we’d look at the screen and then we’d look at drew and he looked even more like Ben Stiller than you guys because Ben Stiller was younger and Drew’s younger. Clean-shaven. I mean it was, it was eerie how similar they looked. I would always tell you though, that you were better looking than Ben Stiller. So, um, yeah. So I mean, as far as getting married, I, I didn’t plan on getting married young. Um, I actually didn’t even want a serious relationship manger. We started dating and I said, you know, I remember just being like, yeah, we can date but I don’t, I don’t want anything serious. And he said the same thing cause he was supposed to be leaving for his football scholarship. So we were both like, yeah, we’re just going to Jay but it’s not going to be serious.
But um, I loved how nice drew, if we’re going to be honest, I could care less about the muscles. Actually anyone that knew me knew I did not like jocks. I just cannot relate to them. I, I’m an I the stereotype, I was just like, Oh my gosh, all they’re going to do is talk about working out in sports and it’s going to be awful. And so I was a little bit hesitant to date him. His traps. Those are those muscles on the top right by the neck at the time, cause he’s playing football, consumed his entire body. He had no neck. So I was worried. My mom saw him and she was like, that guy, you’re going out that with that guy with no neck. And I was just like, yeah, that’s the one. But he opened up the door, he pulled out the chair.
He was very polite and kind. And actually the key to his success for all you younger men that are trying to date and wondering how to catch a lady is he did not play games. So he dropped me off and instead of doing like, Hey, I’ll call you, and it was calling cause we didn’t text at that time. This was in the dinosaur generation. You guys, um, he didn’t, he didn’t play that game of I’m gonna wait like four days and pretend like I don’t like you. He literally that night said, can I take you to breakfast in the morning? I had such a great time. And then at breakfast he was like, can I take you out this evening? I had such a great time. So really the key was that he was such a kind person and he was persistent and I did actually break up with him at one point and he just was persistent. And so I, yeah, I fell, I fell in love and I took the plunge. The crazy marriage plunge.
Yup. Yup. She did try to call off the wedding to remember that. But you were on birth control. So what did make it a little bit crazy, you admit to that?
I did. I did. I was like yeah, but I was always reluctant to get married cause you know, it could end in divorce. And um, not to say that I’m right about everything, but I mean we are divorced.
Well no, the reason you were hesitant, I can joke about that now because we are friends and we co-parent well. And the truth is
I wouldn’t change any of it. I would do the whole thing all over again and we have to have the most amazing kind of
beautiful girls in the world. So yeah. And you come from a family of a lot of divorce people that make your whole family. Couples divorce. My family, I mean my siblings that are married are still married, but there had been a lot of divorce as far as aunts and uncles and stuff. And I think one of the things we’ve learned over the years is that you have to be willing to risk. Like you could go through your whole life thinking, well I never want to get married cause I’m never, I don’t want to go through a divorce and it’s a crap shoot. You never know. Well if you go through your whole life, never risking anything, it’s hard to be fulfilled. I think you know, unless you learn how to risk sometimes your own happiness and your love and your trust, you know, you learn how to do that and even though it didn’t work out, you know, you, you know you risked a lot and you don’t have any regrets.
Yeah. And honestly most of the time now when there’s something like that in my life, that’s a little bit of a risk. I’m not talking about like fear cause I’m talking about fear here and I’m not talking about like, Ooh, should I put my hand in boiling water? Fear like we, we know things that are really dangerous. But then there are things like marriage that seem and are a little bit dangerous too. But you guys get what I’m saying. That fear holds us back. But the truth is, is all the greatest things that have come from my life have come from stepping out of fear. And the truth is, is even when they didn’t turn out, because some of the greatest trials in my life have been some of the have. That’s when I’ve experienced the greatest growth and that a lot of times during those risks, things have ended up beautiful. And that’s also where I’ve seen the most most growth. So a lot of times when I’m afraid of something like a life decision, I actually think to myself now challenge, accepted, you know, it means there’s going to be some good growth there.
Okay. Next question. Um, and we talked about our divorce from both our perspectives a little bit on the last episode and we’ll put a link to that in the show notes. You guys, if you didn’t hear last week’s episode, you definitely need to, you need to understand we’re divorced. So you’re like, wait, what did I miss? Yeah, we’ve actually been divorced for a long time. Um, how did you get through the divorce and how did your quote unquote support group help you with that transition?
Hmm, that’s a really good question. So, um, I think that the biggest thing for me that helped me through the divorce, cause if you listen to last week’s episode and if you didn’t, you should. Um, cause I talk a little bit about this, but we were extremely private about our, um, struggles about our counseling for years and even during our divorce, not even our family was aware. Um, and so that makes it really difficult, especially as far as needing support. So one of the biggest things that helped me get through my divorce was actually self love, self love and self care. And for myself, because some of the years during counseling and tried to work on our marriage, I really neglected myself. Um, I really didn’t take good care of my body. I, um, I kind of felt like a lot of the things I was like, well, if only I was prettier or if only I was skinnier or if only, you know, I would do, I did a lot of things to my body that weren’t very healthy in order to try to change me.
And that made me more miserable. And then when I just remember, I can’t remember the exact date of course, but I just remember one day looking in the mirror and I w I literally thought to myself, I don’t know who you are. And it made me sad and it broke me down. And at that point, my focus, instead of being skinny or being pretty, was just loving who I am, which encompasses so much more than our looks. You guys. Um, I just think as women, I Bernay Brown talks about a little bit about this. The number one shame trigger for women is our look. So a lot of times we, we filter back to that when it’s, it’s not ever going to make us happy. Um, instead I focused on self-love. Um, I started keeping a gratitude journal. I started writing down things I did love about myself.
I started staying positive statements about myself and about my body and my looks. Even though in the beginning I didn’t really believe them. I had a hard time taking a compliment. Um, and I focused on me. I, so I focused on me everything. Every day I focused on a little something that would improve my life or make me happy and focused on really embracing who I am. All of me, the good, the bad, the ugly. And realizing all of that is Lynn. You know, I can’t try to pretend or separate my snarky inappropriate humor, for example. Um, in order to just focus on my love and compassion that all of it is make, makes me who I am. And it was through that process, which took months. You guys, you know, self love and self care doesn’t happen overnight. It was trying to change and make habits and being consistent for almost a year that I realized I love who I am.
I love who I am regardless of anyone else, regardless of if my friends love who I am or my family loves who I am or my followers, love who I am. I love me. And as long as I’m living my truth and being the best person that I can be for me, um, I’m, I’m happy. I’m truly happy. So that was a big deal. Um, as far as the support, I mean, to be honest, um, my, one of my best friends, Marie, she was the biggest support for me. Um, going through the divorce and post-divorce, she came out to Hawaii several times and be listening to this. I probably not, probably not, which is ironic. Uh, actually I’ll tell her, I’ll be like, dude, I gave you a little shout out. Um, everyone actually that, that, that follows me probably knows Marie. Most of my pictures are family pictures.
Um, Marie took those and when I travel I mostly actually traveled with Marie. Um, she has is one of the most beautiful, amazing women that you’d ever meet and has been a huge support since she went through divorce herself. We created a page, which we can link in the show notes called that single mom life. It’s at that single mom life on both face, Facebook and Instagram. And we just started kind of opening up and documenting our feelings as you transition through divorce, opening up about heartache and loneliness and regret and the feeling of rejection and what it’s like to be a single mom. Um, and so that for me has been kind of a life force, something to focus on, to take away from, from some of the pain that comes with divorce.
Yeah, I think. And I think that’s, that’s cool. And this one, the reason I asked about that as the support group, I, I feel like that’s one of the most important things you can have in life. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, whether you’re going through a divorce, no matter what you’re going through, you need to some type of support system. And I think that’s essential and it’s definitely helped you out. And it’s helped so many people out, you know, in different areas of life. So I think it’s cool. You talked about and then kind of going back to what you were saying earlier about self love and self care. I, you know, if there’s one thing I wish we would’ve learned like as a married couple was, you know, understanding that our happiness does not depend on the other person or the way that, cause my, for me, you know, not getting into myself in this episode because it’s about you, but like my happiness dependent so much on your happiness. Like if you were happy then I was happy. But if you weren’t happy then I wasn’t happy. And like I feel like our, our happiness depending on how the other person treated us and like we were so dependent on them like, and so we blamed them for not making us happy. You know what I’m saying? Like I wish I would have learned that me personally, uh, earlier in life. But anyways. Okay. Okay. Um, next question. Okay. Do you have a boyfriend and if so, did you use Tinder to find him?
Oh gosh. She’s like, Oh I am giving, I am giving him dagger eyes right now you guys, because this is so personal, being very vulnerable here and opening up. This is way too personal. Like this is too awkward for me. I can’t even listen to this. This couple that’s divorced is on a podcast right now opening up about things that are really uncomfortable. Talk about specifics. I
okay. Okay. Then I, I do have a boyfriend right now. I mean by the time this airs, who knows? Um, yeah, I uh, I’m dating somebody right now. I would definitely consider him my boyfriend just cause I’m a very loyal person. I can’t date more than one person at a time. I, people were telling me after I got a divorce you need to do to bunch of people and just date a lot at the same time. Like girl, go on like three dates a week. And I’m like, yeah, that’s what I’m going to do. And then I can’t do that. You guys, I can only focus on one person at a time. I’m a very, like, I’m a very connected person. I can’t give myself to one person and other people, so I’m only dating him. Um, I’m not gonna mention who he is because he is a very private person and he would hate the attention cause he’s not like that.
And so I don’t want people looking at him up or trying to find him. Um, he’s just a very kind, compassionate, loving person and I’m really grateful that he’s a part of my life for as long as he is a part of my life. And no, I did not meet him in person. Actually a quick funny story about how I met him. Um, I was at an event, a charity event and it happened to be outside a brewery and um, this was in Hawaii and I was at the brewery with a girlfriend of mine and we walked by this adult Jenga. If you don’t know what adult Jenga is, imagine Jenga, which are those little blocks that you stack up and then you pull one aside. But imagine doing that with like two by fours, like big, big blocks. Okay. Adult blocks on a stand and imagine drinking and trying to pull out a board.
And that is adult Jenga. And um, we were watching, watching it for a while. Me and a girlfriend of mine and a new team was going to play and the guy needed two more teammates. And so we joined in and we were just friends for, for many months before we dated. I’m a very cautious person, so that’s kind of my love story. Didn’t use Tinder. I didn’t use Tinder. I have never, I mean, aside from when I use Murray’s Tinder for fun, which if she’s listening to this, she’s going to be laughing cause I would open it up on her phone sometimes when she wasn’t even around and I would just keep swiping right. Cause I thought it was hilarious. I’m sorry Marie. But yeah, no
changing subjects. Thank heavens. Yes. I’m happy to change the subject. Just kidding. What would you tell your 20 year old self? Have you had a conversation with her right now where we got married? You got married at 21 almost
21 almost 22. Pat is such a good question. Um, this is a hard question for me only because I wouldn’t want to change the trajectory. I’m one of those, it sounds woo woo, but I’m one of those people, I feel like everything happens for a reason and I can look back and talk a little bit this about the beginning of the episode. I can look back at my trials and realize everything happened for a reason and it was beautiful. Maybe not at the time, but it is now for me to see all the growth and change and um, self-discovery that came through hardships. So I really wouldn’t want to say anything to change the trajectory of my life though. I would, you know, just like to say to any other 20 year olds here, um, or anyone listening that a couple things would be realize your worth, you know, realize your self worth and that you are amazing, beautiful, smart, kind, talented just as you are.
And that it sounds cheesy, but the truth is, is there’s no one like you, there’s no one in the world that is you. And I don’t care if you’re 20 or 60, if you don’t realize that the world would not be as great as it is without you in it, you’re missing out because you are meant to be here. The people whose lives you’re in, you’re meant to touch. You are creating so much goodness in the world. Even if you don’t realize that. And I wish I would have always realized that about myself. I wish I would’ve known my qualities and my goodness and realize that I mattered cause we’re so hard on ourselves, hard on ourselves that we um, you know, we beat ourselves up too much of the time and uh, I’m glad I’m in a place now that I’ll never do that again.
You know, I’ve finally grown to the point where I work on self love every day. I love who I am. I’m never going to let myself get to that point. It was. But I’d say especially for younger people, that’s something we struggle with. Realize your self worth and also realize, look, going along with that, that everyone is doing the best they can. And we talked about that the last episode. But the truth is that one statement has changed my life because hardship is going to happen. People are going to say or do things that might hurt or offend. Um, and instead of reacting or making that about you or telling yourself stories that you don’t matter or that you’re not good enough or you know that you hate your life because X, Y, and Z happened. If you just approach every circumstance, every encounter with that person is doing the best they can and have compassion and love towards them, your whole life will be better.
You know, even when I get bad service at a restaurant, I always leave a good tip because I think to myself, that person’s doing the best they can. And for all I know, even though they were snarky and rude to me and they forgot to bring out the right food or whatever happened, I always think, you know, they could be having the worst day ever. Maybe they got terrible news. Maybe their spouse yelled at them. Maybe they were told today that they’re not good enough. Maybe their boss yelled at them, you don’t know what someone’s going through. So be kind, always, and remember everyone’s doing the best they can.
Awesome. That was a great answer. Um, a lot of good gems in there. Um, that I think I would agree with and tell my 20 year old self, um, with a little slap in the face too. Um, okay. For, uh, the next question is how did you get into fitness? Cause you had mentioned that you grew up not healthy, not caring about health and fitness, even when we were dating and Mary, you’re kind of into it, but like obviously not into it. Here’s a funny story. I remember her at her friend’s house in Huntington beach, California, and I was trying to get her to come to the gym with me and she’s like, I don’t want to go. I’m like, well, you know what, why not like what are your goals? And she like looked at me like, are you serious? Like you asked me what my goals are and I was into health and fitness and it was part of my life. And for her, it just wasn’t right, but, and not the same that she didn’t exercise or, you know, eat healthy every once in a while. But obviously you weren’t into it as much. Let’s just say that. Let’s be honest. How did you get into Hilden fitness and, um, yeah, let’s start there.
Okay. Well, let’s be honest. Anyone that knows me still knows I’m not that into the industry. Yeah,
I know that you’re not that into your Snapchats.
See my Snapchats, which is mostly deliciousness. Um, so interesting story, or at least it might be interesting for a few of you guys. Um, because my family still, I think last week even my sister all laughed and she’s like, it still makes me giggle that you’re a trainer. And then she laughed out loud and looked at me and then I laughed because you have to be able to laugh at yourself, you guys, I laughed and I’m like, I know. Right? So, um, I did grow up as a foodie. I still am a foodie. Um, so yeah, I, I never was really into exercise and eating healthier and even when we were first married, you know, drew smart, smart approach, he was like, you know, I really think I should take this off your plate and do the grocery shopping and cooking. And I was like, huh.
And of course it was because I was cooking fatty and high calorie and high carb foods. So he started cooking and doing the grocery shopping. I of course was naive enough to be like, Oh it’s because he cares about me so much when really he just was like, Oh geez, I’m going to get fat if I just let her take control of this. Um, and I in a way I think resented a little bit how into health and fitness he was cause I was such a foodie but I allowed him to do his own thing and I would just eat ice cream in front of him. Um, and it really wasn’t until his fit to fat to fit journey that something changed. And I know that sounds crazy cause you can live with someone. We had been married about five years at that time and had been dating a year before that.
So I known him for like six years. And it’s ironic that it would take him doing his fit to fat to fit your knee to even inspire me. But I had never really seen him on the other scope. I’d never seen him not exercise. I’d never seen him eat unhealthy. And watching him do that and watching how dramatically, it not only changed his body, which for me it’s, it’s really very little about the body. So that wasn’t even the huge part of it. But to see how it affected him emotionally and mentally was a huge wake up call for me. And it got me thinking is how I’m eating and me avoiding the self care of my health and body, affecting me emotionally, mentally. And especially since I had suffered so much with depression and anxiety. It really got the wheels turning and me thinking of, could I better?
Could I improve my life from putting by putting a little bit more focused on my health. So I actually ate health, the probably the healthiest I’d ever had in our entire marriage during his journey. So as he’s gaining all the weight and being unhealthy, I’m actually finally eating healthy and taking care of my body and exercising. And not because I hated my body, but because I wanted to love my body and I wanted to improve my health. And then fast forward, um, once his journey gained exposure and specifically he went on good morning America and I think the next day we had like 2000 emails, which we of course shut off the function of being able to find him so easily at that point. But we really, I wanted to help him out and we didn’t, we didn’t have a team of people answering emails or responding to people.
We really responded to everyone individually. And so I would try to help him out with his emails and most of them were from women and most of them were from women like me, mothers, you know, women that were unloading themselves basically and opening up and saying how much they hate themselves. They hate their body. They don’t love who they are, they don’t love how they look, they don’t feel like they’re a good mom or a good spouse. And it brought me to tears. It really broke the open reading all of these women and them suffering. And I knew what that feeling felt like, not feeling pretty enough or thin enough or good enough. And it, I felt unqualified to be answering these emails. I’m like, I don’t know what to respond back. Not because I couldn’t understand as a woman, but because as a trainer, like I don’t have the experience to respond.
Um, and then it just kind of hit me. I was just like, I want to be able to help women, you know, I love women so much. I love their tenderness, their vulnerability, their compassion. And I wanted to be able to specifically help women because even though men are also tender and compassionate and loving, and men of course, to struggle with their weight, I just feel society looks at us different. You know, you look at an overweight man and a lot of times men will be like your Husky or you’re aligned backer or uh, you know, it’s not as shameful for a man to be overweight as a woman. Um, at least that’s what studies and statistics and surveys all show. And I felt the same way. I felt like there are plenty of men I knew in my life that struggled with their weight, that didn’t seem to struggle the same way women did.
So I decided to go to the national Academy of sports medicine, get certified as a woman’s fitness specialist. And then from there it’s been a little bit of a transition. I kind of felt that, um, I had to come into my own cause the truth is I’m still not an exercise fanatic. I still eat donuts. And a lot of me was worried that as people got to know me more that they would think I’m a fraud trainer. You know, how can you be a trainer and be in the fitness industry and not exercise an hour a day and eat a donut and promote that. And I had to realize, you know, I am who I am. I believe more in an overall balance of health. I believe in living life, living life. And if that means not exercising for a week because you’re, you know, doing some hikes or something else that’s physical and if it means eating a donut because you want to, or maybe you had a bad day and you deserve it, you know, I, I personally feel like it’s a balance and you should focus more on loving yourself and loving your body and creating healthy habits along with balancing out, enjoying life.
And that’s, that’s what I promote.
Yeah. Wow. That’s a great, and that’s why I like, I knew that story, but I wanted you to share it cause I don’t think a lot of people know that about you. Um, but I think it’s what sets you apart in the industry. Right? Which is flooded with female inspiration. Misspelled Joni donuts. Your healthier choice says your accents are on fleek today. Good job. That was a little Brian. Regan, take luck. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Now, most people ask like, you know, in the fitness industry, what’s your favorite like cheat meal? What’s your favorite? You know, we all know what that is. What’s your favorite like healthy food, healthy for the actually enjoy eating. Like you know, that’s a really, that’s a really hard question. So now I feel like the trainers on the reverse reverse,
I’m like, what’s your favorite treatment? And they’re like, Oh geez, I don’t eat that enough to know. Let me think of something. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. Um, so okay. Honestly, one of my go to favorite, I’ll say to one of my to go to, they’re very similar, favorite healthy, um, meals and then also share some of my favorite healthy snacks is I love. So I’m not a huge vegetable person. We all know this about me, but I do like vegetables made one specific, well there’s a couple of ways, but this is the way I eat the most office. One specific way I can actually throw a ton like a panful if you’ve been on my Snapchat, you’ve seen this happen a couple of times. Only a couple. Cause you know I don’t snap vegetables. Um, I’ll do a whole pan of a mixed variety of vegetables.
And to be honest, you guys, I just buy the frozen ones from Costco so that they don’t go bad. And if you research it as far as nutrient density, they are just as nutritious as fresh vegetables. So I’ll buy the frozen mixed Mel medley of vegetables from Costco. I’ll throw a ton, I mean at least for probably like five hand of my handfuls full in a, um, on the cooktop and a skillet. Also, I’ll tie it in a little bit of a grass fed butter and then I’ll put it in a bowl and then I do two eggs over easy. And then I throw that on top with some guac and I don’t know what it is, but it’s the yolk, the hot yolk mixed in with the vegetables with the guac. It is delicious. You guys maybe even throw a little bit of goat cheese on there, you know what I’m saying?
So that is one of my favorite and I consume so many. I consume more than a day’s worth of vegetables in that one meal. Um, another favorite meal of mine, even though it’s simple, is I love scrambled eggs with like bell peppers, mushrooms and other vegetables along with like chopped up chicken sausage and then always add some avocado on top of that, which is what I have for breakfast. A lot of days that, or I have granola, but, um, that’s probably my, my favorite healthy recipes and it gets a lot of vegetables in my diet and at the beginning of the day. So it gives me a lot of good sustained carbohydrates and energy.
Awesome. That’s good. Um, and uh, that’s uh, yeah, we didn’t even talk about donuts, so. Alright. Okay. Uh, here we go. Where do you see yourself here? You’re 32, right? You’ll be 33 August 27th birthday. And where do you see yourself at 40.
Whew. That is deep. You guys 40 years old, huh? I live so much in the moment now. It’s funny, I actually don’t map out my life. Like I used to my twenties. What we’re going to do is we’re going to have a baby around this year and then we’re going to build a house and then we’re going to buy this. Um, I don’t do that anymore. Um, so I would, I would just have to say, because again, I really don’t map out my life that way anymore. Um, I know that just based on my personality, I’m going to be doing something I love. I assume it’s still going to be in health and wellness and helping women to embrace themselves, um, to love themselves. Um, I actually kind of foresee myself in the near future working a lot more on that single mom life and maybe building retreats for women.
Um, I don’t know. So I have a little bit of goals and thoughts and aspirations for that cause I really have just such a tender spot for helping women love their life, whether they’re divorced or married or single or not just loving life and loving themselves. So I know I’ll be working on that when I’m 40 still. Um, I’ll be probably traveling a lot. Drew and I talked a little bit about this. We’re, we’re avid explorers and adventurers. I love to travel. Um, this summer I’m from June 20th to July 15th, I’ll have my kids in Costa Rica, um, for them to experience just a different way of life and culture. And I plan every summer for the month that I have him since June I divorce, we each have a month three this summer I plan on spending a month with my kids somewhere new every, every summer.
Just letting them experience things and as they get older I want to pick destinations where maybe we’re helping, you know, build some buildings in a village or maybe we’re helping an orphanage. Something where they’re actually really seeing the world and learning about other people and cultures and learning, uh, you know, really learning what life’s about. Like the important things in life. Not sitting at home on their iPad all day. And don’t get me wrong, my kids do that sometimes too, but just experiencing more of life. You let them play with that pen. Yeah. And I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll still be in Utah or, I mean obviously drew and I, wherever we go we go together because we have joint custody. So maybe we’ll be here, maybe we’ll be in Hawaii. Maybe we’ll be in another country for all I know. Okay.
Um, here’s some other interesting questions. Uh, most embarrassing moment cause you don’t get embarrassed easily, but do you have a most embarrassing moment? Okay. That is funny. Okay. Yes they do. So it’s funny what you said too because fun fact about me, I really don’t get embarrassed. I just, I don’t know what it is. Like drew knows this about me. I probably have embarrassed him many a times cause I don’t get embarrassed that I, I’m just who I am. I life is life. People are people like things that would embarrass most people like talking about farting or poop or pregnancy or vagina. Like I probably tomb, I’m TMI, I’m always TMI, too much info. I say what I think my girlfriends either love it or hate it. Um, and so I really don’t get embarrassed easily, which might be a flaw for some people. Cause I probably will do crazy things.
But one moment that is my most embarrassing moment that I still, every time I think of embarrassing moments, this comes up. I don’t know if you know the story. I think you do. Can I poop my pants? Maybe. Maybe you don’t know the story. Okay. So I was working in Southern California and I was a rep for this appliance company and I did outside sales. So I was in the back office with other outside sales reps, but we weren’t always there. And luckily at this moment, no one else is in there. It’s just me. And let me preface this with, at that time in my life I was dumb and I was taking this diet pill called, Oh, what’s that called? Hydroxycut. Yes. Okay, I’m glad you remember the name of that. So I was like, Oh, I know I can eat really crummy and take this diet pill and it will help.
Well, let me just tell you guys, don’t take dumb diet pills. They’re not good for you. They’re not good for your body. They’re going to mess up your digestion. And this is what happened to me. I took hydroxy cut and then what do I have for lunch? Anyone that knows me knows I love food. I have a huge greasy, delicious burger with fries and a milkshake. Okay, so just imagining that in your mind. And it was delicious and I was overly full and I’m sitting, working. Luckily I’m the only one back there and I’m like, I can’t believe I’m telling this story. I’m just realizing it. Sono national practice. Oh geez. Oh gosh. What’s even worse as you guys? I’m 19 I’m not a child here. Okay. I’m a 19 year old woman. So I am sitting back there, I’m working, working, working, and I’m like, Oh I have to fart.
You know that happens. You gotta fart. And luckily no one is in the backroom with me cause like everyone’s out on outside sales calls, right? I mean I just need a fire. So I go to fart and instantly, you know, you don’t trust a fart, you guys. Instantly I realized, Oh my gosh, I just crapped by pants. That was not a fart I charted and you guys, I’m wearing, I’m not exaggerating, I couldn’t even make this up if I wanted to. I’m wearing the most beautiful white silky pants that I bought from express white pants that are silk. I can’t even make this up. I get up and I look, I’m like, I am covered in crap. I literally covered in crap and I’m panicking because in this moment I’m thinking, okay, if I go out the front, everyone will see me. Like everyone will see me.
If I go to the bathroom where I know the bathrooms at and the way to get there from where I’m at, everyone will see me. What do I do? I’m in a full out panic. I’m covered in crap. Everyone’s going to see I, it’s not even like I have a jacket. I can tow around my waist, pretend like nothing happened and this moment I am mortified. I am mortified. At 19 year old woman covered in crap. So I do what any intelligent 19 year old woman covered in crap. Well do I realize I can army crawl out the back towards the warehouse where we keep all the appliances and if I army crawl and stay low enough, I may go undetected and once I get to the warehouse, if I shimmy low behind all this stuff, I may not even attract any of the warehouse men.
And at that point, let’s be honest, the warehouse guys, that would be less mortifying than like my sales associates because I don’t see them as often. They get up there really early and I’m never back there. So I do that. I army crawl to the back, get there undetected. I actually shimmy, I of course brought my keys, I shimmy through the warehouse undetected. You guys, I get to my car, I laid down a plastic bag as to knock it crap all over my car and I drive home. I throw out, cause I’m not going to be washing this crap. Literally, I throw out the pads, I rinse myself off. I put on new pants, I get to work, go back to work and it’s funny. The receptionist looks at me, she’s like, um, didn’t you already take a lunch? And I’m like, yeah. I had to run a quick Erin and she’s like, and were you wearing white pants? Why’d you change? I’m like, I say I was supposed to look at her. I was like, I spilled all down the front of it. Can you believe that? And she’s like, Oh, that’s too bad. I’m like, yeah, I forgot to check out. I’ll change my timecard. I go to the back with this huge relief thinking no one will ever have to know this except for now. Thousands of people will now know it.
That is my most embarrassing moment. I would be embarrassed too. I don’t get embarrassed easily either, so that’s not true. He gets embarrassed easily. He’s been embarrassed by me many a times. Okay. Rapid fire questions here to finish up. Okay? Okay. What makes you mad? Oh, here we go. What’s one thing I do that makes you mad? Geez, that’s open up. Uh, I can take a Braylee. You can take a punch.
I don’t think we should be answering this on national. Okay. One thing that you do that makes me mad. You post constant pictures of yourself without your shirt on and you Snapchat
without your shirt on. When you could be wearing a shirt. Summertime, it’s hot. It’s, you know, I don’t like wearing the shirt. Yeah. Okay. Me neither. I go shirtless all the time. It makes you mad. Like it just annoys me. It’s different man noise. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Maybe, well that makes me mad
is when I see other people treating other people on kind. Lyrica. I can’t stand that. If I see somebody being unkind to somebody or name calling somebody, I just can’t.
I can’t. Someone made fun of me for having my shirt off in the video. That would make you mad. That’s an exception. No, I’m just kidding. No, but like, well, we were dating, you know what I mean? When we were dating, if somebody did something that I didn’t like towards you or made fun of you, I like bear claws came out. I was like, don’t you dare. I know I liked that. Yeah. What makes you laugh? Oh my gosh. Okay. So I love to laugh. You guys. Laughter is my favorite. Yeah. She was just watching Zoolander two this morning just like dying, laughing like that. Wasn’t that funny. But I guess I love to laugh. I laugh at everything you guys I laugh at really like where, where did the skunk go to college? Drew the skunk. Yeah. Where did the skunk go to college? Um, I dunno.
P U
sorry. I have to. Okay, so I love to laugh.
One of the things that really helped me actually transition as we’re going through to divorce, which was a really hard time in my life, is every morning after I did my positive affirmations of before I got out of bed, I follow really funny, funny, funny Instagram accounts and I would lay in bed for at least 15 minutes scrolling through them laughing hysterically. I love comedies. I love going to comedy clubs. I love YouTube being found funny comedy skits or even just looking up jokes. You guys, we all need to laugh more. If you’re having a hard day, I promise if you spend 15 minutes looking up jokes or watching like a comedy skit, you will improve the rest of your day. Awesome. Um,
what makes you sad?
Hmm.
I think what makes me sad is not living in the present moment. And I know that’s kind of vague, but sometimes if like I dwell on the past and we talked about this in our last episode, don’t bring up the past. When I dwell on the past, I’m sad. But if I live in the moment, I’m not, you know, when I focus on what is and being grateful and having gratitude for what is, which is the only thing we can change in our lives, and the only thing we can control is the now. So it’s kind of silly that we worry so much about the future and the past. Right? But it’s natural. And what makes me sad is, is sometimes thinking about the past. Gotcha. What makes you happy? Cry. Oh my gosh. Love, love, love and compassion and service makes me happy. Try you guys.
Oh my gosh, if I’m watching a YouTube about somebody that does this amazing thing in the world, like they, like for example, I found this Instagram account and this guy travels around and he finds homeless people and he just does this one service. He’s a hairdresser. He cuts their hair and then he, he talks about their life and their story and he tries to help them if he can. And then he posts their picture and he posts their story. I always happy cry. I’m like, he’s doing so much good in the world and is changing lives. And anytime I watch like a anything sweet about love, like somebody loving their kids or loving their spouse or loving their partner, whoever it is, if it has to do with love and compassion and service or one of the three, I happy cry. And you guys, I happy cry a lot. I’m like a little bit of a baby.
That’s fair enough. Um, last question. What’s your guilty pleasure, whether it’s a TV show, a food, uh, uh ha, a habit. Hobby. What’s one, your guilty pleasures that,
okay, well let’s clarify that because of who I am, I don’t find guilt in any of these. I just called them pleasures, but I think the world would call them guilty pleasures. So we’ll go there. Um, of course it’s dessert. Um, like donuts. I at least once a week go consume a donut, um, along with maybe another delicious dessert of my choosing. Um, I love game of Thrones and true blood. I love them. So much. Game of Thrones is still on true blood. It’s not of course, but um, yeah, I could binge watch like almost any show or movie. And what’s funny about that is I didn’t even own a TV in Hawaii so that I would get out more. But the truth is I love, I love the movies and I love shows. Um, so those are probably my main guilty pleasures. Lynn, thank you for coming on the podcast. Now, the future podcasts, people are like, she’s crazy, but wonderful.
Any last words of, you know, that you want to say about life’s inspiration? Like, what’s your, what’s your mantra that you live by or anything that you want to say to wrap wrap this podcast episode?
Hmm, that’s a good one. Um, I wish that I had some really good words of wisdom for everybody, but the truth is I probably don’t eat a donut. Be kind. Love who you are and honestly, you guys, the only reason I, the only reason I do this podcast is because I just hope in some way as you guys listen to these podcast episodes, that you just gained something out of it to improve your life and love who you are. My goal is never to help you guys lose weight. Losing weight as drew and I have talked about will always be a bright product of living a healthy lifestyle. And so I hope that when you guys listen to us that you guys just find some sort of joy, love, laughter and inspiration. Honestly, anytime you guys have emailed or sent me a message or commented, just saying that I make you laugh and smile, that is the greatest compliment you could ever give me. And I appreciate you guys. I appreciate that you’ve listened to the podcast. I appreciate you follow our accounts and that you comment and you share it with your friends. Like it means so much to me. Really does.
Awesome. Great way to finish the podcast episode. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this. Um, you know, me interviewing Lynn and getting to know her on a more personal level. I’m sure you learned some stories that you didn’t know about her before and, uh, we’re always open to your guys’ feedback. If you guys have ideas for the show or people you guys want us to interview, please let us know. Reach out to us on social media. All my social media handles are at fit to fat to fit. That’s fit number two, fat number two, fit Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat. I answer all of them. So reach out to me. My website is fit to fat to fit.com. You can sign up for my newsletter as well to stay in the know of upcoming events and, um, you know, things going on, um, in our lives and, um, you know, obviously health and fitness tips and we’re always creating new things.
Uh, for you guys to help you embrace a healthier lifestyle change. That’s what it’s all about, is, is for, for us to help you along that journey, right. Um, to help, uh, provide you with, um, you know, things that have helped us, things that have helped other people. We hope you guys, um, enjoy and find value out of this podcast. Please leave us a review on iTunes. Please subscribe on iTunes as well. So you are notified when a new episode comes up, but pretty much every Wednesday is when the new episode is released. Um, we appreciate you guys. Don’t forget to check out our show sponsors key genex.com and quest nutrition as well.
Yeah, and if you guys want to find me after listening to all of my life, you can find me at to fit at home again. That’s the number two fit@home.com. All of my handles are the number two fit at home for Facebook and Instagram. Um, yeah, hopefully you guys enjoyed hearing a little bit about my life and don’t worry cause next episode we will be interviewing drew and now I
get it. I get to ask whatever questions they want and I liked going first so that I could know what torture is, questions to, to reciprocate. What do me a favor you guys and do not listen to that episode. Just skip it and take a week off and we’ll see you back into the next episode now. Good job. Good job. Reverse psychology. All right, you guys, see you next week.
