MASTERING the Menopause Mindset ft. Stephanie Fusnik | DFIO Ep.241
Today we have another AMAZING guest—who is a very good friend of mine—Stephanie Fusnik.
I had SO much fun recording this. Stephanie is someone who I would consider to be a menopause master and I wanted to get Steph on here because so much of our client base and most of my following is women. Obviously, there is a level of relatability and understanding that I won't have surrounding menopause and female issues as it pertains to weight loss, so I wanted to get a female on the show who is an expert in this area so that you can walk away with a ton of value.
Steph and I had a great conversation around menopause, perimenopause, and the misconceptions that people have around those issues. Steph went DEEP and broke things down in a way that guys are going to get a ton of great information.
I have a feeling you all will really enjoy this episode!
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
01:13 Sponsors
04:14 About Today’s Episode
07:32 About Stephanie
11:01 Hormones
14:59 Where to start
21:46 Demographics and Calorie Intake
25:33 Timeline and the scale
38:14 Getting Started with Habits
50:35 Close
Transcript (click to open)
Ep
. 241 Stephanie Fusnik
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MASTERING the Menopause Mindset ft. Stephanie Fusnik | DFIO Ep.241
[music]
0:00:10.9 Jared Hamilton: What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of Dieting From The Inside Out. If you're new here, welcome to the show. My name is Jared Hamilton, and I'm really, really pumped that you're here. It's crazy to think we're like in the mid 200s of episodes now.
0:00:24.3 Jared Hamilton: So if this is your first episode, thank you so much for being here, but if you're also like a reoccurring guest, or listener I should say, and you've been here since day one, back when it was the Hamilton Trained podcast, and back when I was using my phone as the microphone, I really, really appreciate you. So thank you so much for being here, I really appreciate it.
0:00:43.1 Jared Hamilton: Today, I've got a really cool episode for you. I've got another amazing guest who's a good and dear friend of mine, and you guys, I've been really enjoying doing more guest shows lately. I know a lot of you guys, I polled on Instagram, if you're not following me there, be sure and do that, but I've polled you guys to ask if you... What kind of episodes you prefer, what duration do you prefer, what... Do you prefer whether it's just me doing the episode by myself, do you like it when I bring in guests? And by a landslide you guys preferred guest episodes.
0:01:08.4 Jared Hamilton: So nonetheless, that's what I'm giving you. So I really hope you appreciate this and that you get a lot of value from it, but before we get into today's episode, massive thank you from the sponsors of the show. Sponsor number one is FlexPro Meals. If you guys are not utilizing them at all, and you go through this weight loss journey and you're getting frustrated because you don't have time to make your food or you're always spending time and extra money in drive-throughs, like the whole nine yards, you really might consider using FlexPro, 'cause it's one of those things where I love having my fridge stocked full of them.
0:01:35.0 Jared Hamilton: And now, I don't use them every day by any means, but just being honest with you, just because I still like to make my own food, but for those times where you would go to a drive-through, for those times where you're just not feeling like going to the... Cooking that night, or those times you're just like, "Fuck, I don't wanna eat my chicken, rice and broccoli again," I'm telling you, it's great having them on deck.
0:01:58.2 Jared Hamilton: Because it's always good, we all know on our journeys with whatever goals you have to have, what I call "grab and go" food that's really in line for your goals. So FlexPro is no different. It works out really, really well. Having them on deck where that way you're not having to go spend an extra $10 a meal in the drive-through.
0:02:10.0 Jared Hamilton: It helps where you're not always trying to scramble, trying to figure out the macros on fucking Wendy's or whatever the case is, because at the end of the day, it just makes it really hard if you're like a mom or a dad where you're always on the go and your lifestyle is unpredictable and all that stuff, it just makes so much sense to have FlexPro in your pocket, in your fridge, just on deck for when you need it. That's what I use it for.
0:02:31.1 Jared Hamilton: And it's been a game changer, just because it keeps me in line with my goals. It's made by a chef and it tastes fucking dope. So and then it's in line from all the numbers. So definitely check them out. But I also wanna save you some money because you're listening to the show, they're giving you an extra 20% off of your total, which is pretty cool. So just use my code, "HamiltonTrained" at checkout. I'll leave the link in the description, or I think it's on the screen somewhere. But go to flexpromeals.com and then you'll be good on that front.
0:02:53.6 Jared Hamilton: But then the other big thank you to our other sponsor of the show is 1st Phorm... Actually, I think my mic is in the way on the video, is 1st Phorm. This is... I'm actually wearing their Halloween shirt because tomorrow's Halloween from the time of recording this. But nonetheless, it's one of those things where supplements are a big deal, guys. They're not everything, but they absolutely have their time and their place.
0:03:13.7 Jared Hamilton: I'm not like a big supplement beat off where it's like they're everything. I know there's coaching programs and diets that the whole program is centered around you have to take $500 a month worth in supplements, and that's just not my cup of tea. But they also have their time and their place though, whether it's something like protein powder because you need extra recovery, or you're just not getting your numbers in from real food, or whether you don't eat enough fish and you need some omegas.
0:03:36.4 Jared Hamilton: Or if you are really shitty at taking your fruit... Eating enough fruits and vegetables, so you need a multi-vitamin or a green supplement, something like that. So the thing with 1st Phorm is you know that your money is going where it matters in terms of what you're spending your money on. A lot of times, supplement companies can be really shady and just because you can get a good deal on Amazon or buy it from Walmart or whatever, a lot of these are made in some dude's basement, if we're being honest.
0:03:58.4 Jared Hamilton: So I just wanna make sure you are getting the quality that you need from the money that you're spending, so that's why I use 1st Phorm, I love it, it's great, but I also wanna save you money there as well. So if you go to the link in the description, I have a free shipping link for you and then you'll be good to go, but otherwise, let's get into today's episode.
0:04:17.1 Jared Hamilton: Now, today I'm interviewing my friend, Stephanie. Now I'm actually gonna play something for you. This is kind of funny, I think. Stephanie, I actually just shot Stephanie a message. I'm like, "Hey, I'm afraid I'm going to butcher how to pronounce your last name," because it was... It's 'cause I looked at it 'cause I thought it was Fusnik, F-U... I think it's F-U-S-N-I-K. But I'm like, "Hey, how do you pronounce your last name?" And this is what she said.
0:04:40.5 Stephanie Fusnik: Fusnik. Fus-nik. Fusnik. [chuckle]
0:04:45.8 Jared Hamilton: There you go, kind of awkward, kind of funny. I got a kick out of it. So I have interviewed in today's episode my friend Stephanie Fusnik. Sorry Steph if I pronounce your name wrong on camera again. But anyway, I interviewed her, great episode, I had so much fun recording this because the thing is, I wanted to get Steph on here because she is like, I would just call a menopause master.
0:05:07.5 Jared Hamilton: 'Cause at the end of the day, a lot of times, I mentioned this on the show I think a couple of times, but it's easy whenever... The majority of our client base and the majority of my following are actually women, but it's interesting because a lot of people... There's like always, number one, there's a level of relatability I'm not gonna have because I don't have ovaries.
0:05:26.2 Jared Hamilton: But also there's sometimes a little bit of a belief issue is because I'm a guy and I have a penis and don't have ovaries, that there's a level of understanding that I won't have around menopause or female issues as it pertains to weight loss and things like that. So I totally understand, I respect it.
0:05:43.5 Jared Hamilton: So with that being said, I wanted to get a female on who is an expert in this area, where we can talk about it and have a great conversation. That way, you can walk away with some value and like, "Oh, that's why that works that way," that kind of thing. So Steph and I had a great conversation around... All around basically menopause and middle-aged weight loss as a whole, like when you're going into the age, the ages and times of menopause, perimenopause, the misconceptions around what people are doing that's actually making things worse.
0:06:13.3 Jared Hamilton: A lot of people in the... Whether, wo matter where you're at in this fat loss game, but especially as you're getting into those times where there's a lot of people doing the wrong things that are making their journey way harder, way more difficult and keeping them from reaching their goals, because of just a misunderstanding. So Steph and I really got into it, she got into the... She broke down a lot with this kind of stuff, so I know you're gonna get a lot out of today's episode. Sorry, I'm really excited, so I'm talking really fast and getting all tongue-tied. But be sure to stick around for the whole thing.
0:06:38.6 Jared Hamilton: If you haven't already subscribed to the podcast, be sure and do. That way, you don't miss out on any future episodes. Because we've got not just the audio recording going on, right? Most of you guys listen to this on like Spotify, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, that stuff, but if you didn't know, especially with me having these guest episodes all the time, I actually have every episode on YouTube right now.
0:06:58.5 Jared Hamilton: So if you go to my YouTube, youtube.com/jaredhamilton, I actually have the interviews of these episodes. So if you would rather watch us actually go back and forth and watch the interview versus just listen to it, that's there as well, so be sure to subscribe there. And if you haven't left a review on the podcast, please do so. It'd mean a ton to me.
0:07:16.4 Jared Hamilton: But otherwise, enough of me talking, 'cause it's been almost eight minutes, but let's get Steph on the phone and on the line or whatever you wanna call it, like we did it on a video chat platform. But anyway, I love you guys. Thank you so much for being here. Sorry about my ranting. Let me get Steph on here, and I'll talk to you in just a second.
0:07:31.0 Jared Hamilton: Alright, I think we're live. What's up? How are you, Stephanie?
0:07:35.7 Stephanie Fusnik: I am fantastic. How are you?
0:07:38.1 Jared Hamilton: Oh, you know, like we're talking about right before we started recording, there's just craziness, right?
[laughter]
0:07:46.9 Jared Hamilton: So it's good. But no, I really appreciate, like I said, I really, really appreciate you doing this. I know we were talking about like we're both just busy as fuck right now, but I appreciate you taking the time to do this. I think it's gonna be cool. So for those that don't know who you are, give a little bit of a rundown. 'Cause I wanna tell you why I wanted you to come on, on top of you just being a dope fucking human.
[chuckle]
0:08:06.6 Jared Hamilton: But the thing is, one, you have a different perspective from everything with you and your business and what you do and all that stuff, but also there's a level of let's say more of the feminine side of things that a lot of people just won't take it seriously, because I have a penis and don't have ovaries.
0:08:23.1 Jared Hamilton: And so it's like, "What do you really know about menopause, Jared? What do you really know about middle-aged female fat loss?" So that's the other thing, is just all of that combined. So give everyone a little bit of an idea who you are and all that good stuff.
0:08:36.4 Stephanie Fusnik: So my journey with health and fitness, I've always really loved it. I went into school thinking I was gonna be a phys ed teacher and found out very quickly through coaching that I don't have the fucking patience for that, so that's not happening. Got into personal training right away, fell in love with it. Didn't like working with athletes, but loved working with chronic disease, so anything like cancer-based osteoporosis, cardiac rehab, all that kind of stuff. I love the more health aspect of things.
0:09:04.0 Jared Hamilton: Did my Master's, worked in the health region doing chronic disease exercise management programming, sort of a little bit everything there, but worked with a lot of clientele who were doing everything right, eating less, moving more, on appetite suppressants, 300-plus pounds and eating 1200 calories a day for like the last five years. And let's face it, if it was gonna work it would have worked a long time ago, so there's something else going on. I really loved all the metabolism stuff.
0:09:34.8 Jared Hamilton: And then at that point, I started doing more research and getting all my other nutrition coaching stuff, so started manipulating that with reverse dieting and stuff and saw huge changes to the point where people's testosterone levels are better. You would know that. And their insulin resistance was better. They were going off their diabetes medication. It was incredible.
0:09:52.7 Stephanie Fusnik: And then I started working with women, and I was like, "This is an entire different ball game." Especially as soon as you toss in perimenopause and menopause, there are so many things that are gonna influence that balance and your ability to lose weight, and the whole eat less, move more, will actually make people gain weight a lot of the times.
0:10:13.8 Stephanie Fusnik: And that's where people are like, "Man, I feel like I did absolutely nothing, and then boom, it's like my eating habits didn't change, my activity didn't change, and all of a sudden I'm gaining all this weight." But there is change, and it's your hormones, and the way your body can deal with that is a lot different compared to what you were doing prior.
0:10:29.1 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, no, I love that. 'Cause we all know the surface level of fat loss is eat less, move more, but there's so much more to it than that. That's like the toddler version. But this is why a lot of people in our community like when we on-board clients, very rarely the minority, the very little can we ever take someone straight into a deficit and start doing that stuff. Our clients will get really surprised 'cause they're like, "How are my calories doubled and now I'm losing weight? I don't understand." But I think that's a lot of the misconceptions just around diet culture.
0:11:02.3 Jared Hamilton: So talk a little bit about, for those that are a little bit intimidated to not be like, "No, I've always eaten 1200 calories, and I've always starved myself. How is me eating more gonna help my hormones and actually make me burn more fat?" 'Cause at first, it feels ass backwards. You know what I mean?
0:11:16.2 Stephanie Fusnik: Oh, 100%. Yeah, no, and let's be realistic though. If it's not working, what makes you think that doing more of that is going to make it work?
0:11:24.0 Jared Hamilton: Stop fighting for it. [chuckle]
0:11:26.2 Stephanie Fusnik: Let's be realistic, right? But let's think about it, your energy is probably shit, you're having your hot flashes, you don't handle stress well, you're very irritable. All of a sudden, you have no sex drive, you're having energy crashes and cravings. All of a sudden, it's like you're go, go, go, and then boom, all of a sudden, it's like, "Holy shit, I need to eat something now or take a nap."
0:11:48.5 Stephanie Fusnik: And those are all clear signs that you're not eating enough in general, but really what happens with perimenopause and menopause is we lose our hormonal buffer, like as estrogen and progesterone drop, our ability to combat stress decreases substantially. Especially with estrogen in particular, it has so many roles in our body, and so when that decreases, we struggle a lot.
0:12:10.9 Stephanie Fusnik: For example, estrogen is going to help promote muscle growth, so when that decreases, we have a reduced ability to put on muscle mass and maintain muscle mass. So if we're eating less, that's going to make that worse. If we're eating low carb, that's gonna make that even more worse 'cause you're gonna lose more and more muscle, slow down your metabolism, and that's gonna open up a whole other can of worms. [chuckle]
0:12:28.3 Stephanie Fusnik: You're not going to be able to access energy stores as well when estrogen drops, so working out fasted, super shitty for women in perimenopause and menopause. You are going to see an increase in inflammation naturally, and eating less and moving more is going to increase that as well. Your blood sugars are gonna go to shit because estrogen helps regulate that, so then again, if you're doing all this crazy stuff that's increasing cortisol, cortisol and your insulin resistance actually combat each other, so it's actually going to make that worse.
0:13:00.7 Stephanie Fusnik: And then estrogen also regulates our appetites and our regulation for our signals for when we're hungry and full are also super messed up, and we're also gonna have less bone density 'cause estrogen helps bring calcium absorption into the bones, so then that's an issue as well, so then we see an increased risk of osteoporosis. And there's progesterone, and progesterone, that decreases, will also cause issues like migraines and hot flashes, gallbladder issues, decreased sex drive, weight gain, weight loss issues.
0:13:29.9 Stephanie Fusnik: And what happens when we're in that high stress situation where we're eating less, moving more, cortisol goes up, our body doesn't know if we're trying to lose weight, it just thinks we're in a state of fight or flight and just trying to survive, and when your progesterone... Progesterone cannot be produced when cortisol is really high 'cause it will actually take the precursor to build progesterone and take it away and give it to cortisol.
0:13:50.0 Stephanie Fusnik: So then not only is progesterone already decreasing 'cause of perimenopausal and menopause, the stress from not eating enough is going to decrease that further, and that's usually responsible for that very quick and aggressive sudden weight gain, where it's like, "Man, I feel like I gained like 10 pounds in a month," typically is because progesterone dropped too quickly because now you don't have that hormonal buffer to deal with that stress, so you're just putting yourself into a worse position and you're digging yourself a very deep hole that you're trying to get out of.
0:14:18.8 Jared Hamilton: No big deal, right?
0:14:20.3 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah. It's totally fine.
[laughter]
0:14:20.5 Jared Hamilton: You know, you've... The last three minutes, it's not that bad, it's fine. Just keep eating your Weight Watchers snacks and being scared to eat more than a toddler, it's fine. So like we're...
0:14:32.5 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah, and the carbs, it's crazy.
0:14:34.4 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, carbs are bad, like the... I say carbs are bad, 'cause more for me, that's just...
0:14:40.5 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah.
[laughter]
0:14:43.6 Jared Hamilton: So for you with... 'Cause again, we're talking to people like, not fitness-y people, we're talking to people who have been engulfed and let's just say diet culture for the last decade. How... Always like 'cause like the podcast is called Dieting From The Inside Out, so the head space and expectations in the inner game is like everything.
0:15:00.9 Jared Hamilton: So as far as someone that has the mindset to menopause as a whole, the mindset to going into this the right way, where does someone even start with like this? It's like, "Oh well, all I've known is that bullshit you said not to do for the last decade." [chuckle] So where does one even start with that? Where they're like, "Well, everything I know to do you just told me I can't do anymore. So like, What do I do with this now?"
0:15:24.0 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah, exactly. So the big thing is, it can be super overwhelming 'cause let's face it, you look everywhere and there's so much fucking over-information. And we are terrified of gaining even a pound, right? And I actually posted this on my socials today of someone who went through a reverse diet, they gained 4 pounds, but now they're down 13. So it's like, does the thought of gaining 4 pounds over the course of three months really negate your want to actually get to where you wanna be? So it's a bit of a reality check that way.
0:15:53.6 Stephanie Fusnik: But typically what I say first is like, what is the food that you are most terrified to eat? And usually it's bread or pasta. So one of those two always.
0:16:02.2 Jared Hamilton: Yup, easy.
0:16:02.5 Stephanie Fusnik: So I actually dare people, that's the words I use, I'm like, "I dare you to have a potato or some pasta for supper tonight. Enjoy it. See how it feels, how it tastes. Enjoy the conversation, actually sit down and be present with that food." And usually they're like, "Okay, so my energy was good. If I had it for supper, I slept like a fucking baby last night."
0:16:25.0 Stephanie Fusnik: Is like Thanksgiving supper you're like, "Oh I slept so good 'cause of the turkey." It's like no, it's 'cause of the bread and potatoes you had, that's why you're sleeping so good. So realizing that it's just a food. It's not going to... It's not this demonistic thing. So I literally dare people to eat the thing that they are so afraid of, and they're like, "Oh my God, that was actually fine." I'm like, "Yeah, it's literally just food." And then slowly incorporating it meal by meal. So especially carbs people are so terrified.
0:16:55.6 Stephanie Fusnik: Typically I start with breakfast and they're like, "So can I have toast?" I'm like, "Fuck yeah, you can have toast." They're like, "What about a bagel?" and they're like... I'm like, "Yeah." And they're like, "Oh my God," they're all excited. But they're like, "Man, I'll feel great during the day." I'm like, "Yeah, 'cause you're getting what you need," and usually gut health improves too.
0:17:12.2 Stephanie Fusnik: But usually we'll like, I'll dare them and then we'll work at adding it in one meal at a time so it's less overwhelming, because you will see some water retention, 1 gram of carbs is gonna be 4 grams of water, so just working around that. But that's the biggest thing is I dare people to eat that thing.
0:17:30.2 Jared Hamilton: We do the same thing. 'Cause a lot of people that come into coaching with us is they're not just scared the food's gonna store fat, but it's like, "No, I have to avoid," not just carbs, but like, "oh, I'm not allowed to have birthday cake at my son's birthday tonight, I'm not allowed to go on date night." And we'll make someone go get the thing, like the candy bar, and I'll make him eat it, a candy bar everyday for 30 days straight.
0:17:55.2 Jared Hamilton: Because now they're afraid of binging on it, 'cause not just carbs storing fat, but like, "I can't control myself around Oreos." And I'm like, "I want you to go to the gas station and get a two-pack of Oreos every single day," and then all of a sudden like, "Oh wow, Oreos don't suck. I actually lost a little bit of weight," and I'm like, "Wow, you don't say." [chuckle]
0:18:10.4 Stephanie Fusnik: Well and people don't realize that the psychological stress. We worry... I always talk about donuts 'cause I love donuts. But It's like the stress that you put your body under after eating that donut because you feel so bad and you feel so guilty and then you're worrying about it all the time, that's going to create a greater cortisol and inflammation response than the donut actually did, just by nutritive wise.
0:18:33.1 Stephanie Fusnik: So it's like if you can just take a step back and just genuinely enjoy it and be like, "Okay, it happened, I enjoy it. That's fricking awesome. On to the next meal. Not a big deal." And people are like, "Oh. Yeah, you don't have to feel bad." [chuckle]
0:18:46.2 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, no, totally. I still, I just don't and I... It still baffles me that we're going into 2023 and people still think carbs store fat. Like that... And just all the diet culture nonsense. I can't remember when I did it, but I was like, "When did this shit actually start?" And I tried to take it back 'cause like, when did... What year did this bullshit start? We're talking about when Arnold competed. We're talking about in the '70s or prior when...
[chuckle]
0:19:09.8 Jared Hamilton: The iPhone wasn't out even a decade ago. Right? If we think about how outdated that is. Back in the '60s and '70s is when, "Carbs are fat. Avoid sugar. You gotta work out seven days a week. You've gotta do... " It was like, don't do anything other than cardio because you'll get bulky. All of the old diet culture bullshit, we're talking about from '60s to '70s. It's like back in the day. It just blows me away. I just don't understand.
0:19:36.8 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah, no, it's wild. And people don't realize all the benefits. We utilize bedtime snacks, everyone in our program. So before bed you have a carb and protein together, whatever that looks like. So it can be like oatmeal or whatever. And they're like, usually within days they're like, "Oh my God, my hot flashes are gone. I'm sleeping so good through the night. I'm not waking up, I'm not tired in the morning."
0:20:00.2 Stephanie Fusnik: And I'm like, "Yeah, because now your blood sugars aren't dipping through the night and you're not having these cortisol spikes so you actually stay asleep." It's wild. [chuckle]
0:20:06.6 Jared Hamilton: Yeah. I'm like a 30 year old dude and if I don't eat right before bed, I wake up at 03:00 in the morning, not just a little hungry, I wake up like animalistic levels of like, I would almost put ketchup on drywall and like that sounds pretty good. It's, ridiculous. And I'm just like, it's "fuck you" hunger. It does.
0:20:27.7 Jared Hamilton: I know in my case it doesn't help 'cause I'm on test, so now my shit's even crazier, but if I don't eat like right before bed, I wake up at 03:00 in the morning with like, "Fuck you. Where... " It's like I feel like I should walk on all fours. It's so animalistic feeling. It's ridiculous.
0:20:45.6 Stephanie Fusnik: Well, I still test myself sometimes too. I'll be like, "Oh, I can have a bit of chocolate or some 5 cent candies before bed." No, man, I will wake up in the middle of the night and like toss and turn. Then I'm just like, "Oh shit. Steph." You always gotta test it out sometimes, right?
0:21:01.3 Jared Hamilton: Yeah.
0:21:02.1 Stephanie Fusnik: You're like, "Fuck it. Should I have like some oatmeal or like some cheese and crackers?" That's a good option instead of fucking candy or chocolate. I'm like, "Goddamnit."
[laughter]
0:21:12.1 Jared Hamilton: Well, and like so much of this, I just know a lot of people are listening to this right now that's, they're like, "Wait a second, this bitch is literally saying eat carbs right before bed, workout less, but then also have carbs for breakfast? Like, how am I gonna... And eat more?"
0:21:26.5 Jared Hamilton: But like, but at the end of the day it's like that old saying, "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek." Where it's, I just don't understand why so many people are so like married to this old way, that's only proven to make you suffer.
0:21:38.3 Stephanie Fusnik: Oh yeah. Well, you feel like garbage. Like absolute garbage. It's wild. [chuckle]
0:21:46.9 Jared Hamilton: I'm curious, just pure curiosity, 'cause with the whole concept of the under-eating, 1200 calories, like I see 250-pound women thinking that they cannot eat over 1000 calories a day. In the actual grand scheme of this, I know there are certain people where like yes, 1200 calories may be appropriate, but they're probably like 4 foot 9, 110 pound little Polly Pockets.
0:22:08.1 Jared Hamilton: But out of the demographics of people, how many people should actually be eating that little of like 1000 calories? 1100, 1200 calories. What kind of people and how many? 'Cause you're also way smarter than most people, you have way more credentials than this stuff. So for you, how many people should actually be doing that and what kind of people are?
0:22:32.3 Stephanie Fusnik: Oh God, I have been working in this field for a very long time, I have yet to meet a person who needs to be eating that little. I'm thinking like a toddler would be a decent amount if they're quite little still, but I mean they're growing. And then very, very petite people that literally do nothing, super sedentary, but even still they need to make sure they're having their carbohydrates.
0:23:00.5 Stephanie Fusnik: But I mean like I'm talking like tiny, tiny. I'm 5'5, I'm 145 pounds. For me to maintain my weight, I eat 2400 calories a day, and I only workout twice a week. I mean, yes, I've been through some stress and stuff, so I've been eating a bit more to make sure to mitigate that response.
0:23:18.7 Stephanie Fusnik: But when I tell people that, they're like, "There's no fucking way." I'm like, "I post my shit on Instagram every day. You will see what a monster I am." And it's necessary because otherwise one, I'm a bitch, I'm super irritable. I don't sleep good. My staff doesn't love me. It's very necessary. [chuckle]
0:23:37.2 Jared Hamilton: Totally. I think people are so convinced that 1200 calories is it, but 1200, like 1203 is like, "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna store fat," Where it's like that's such the minority of people who need to eat that little. I've been coaching people for a decade, and I went through a phase where I coached some of competitors, but even over the last decade, I've probably put maybe three people at 1200 calories, and it was like arguably it may have been inappropriate, but we're talking about 4 foot 9, 105 pound females that were on a stage, like we're talking about the smallest teeny, teeny, tiny people, not your average Mrs Jones.
0:24:19.4 Stephanie Fusnik: One of our coaches is like 120 pounds when she went on the stage just recently, and she's like 5'6. It's hilarious, I'm the shortest of all my staff. And she was like, she didn't even get that low, which is crazy, and people are like, "Oh damn, she's really tiny, and like what?" And it's like, yeah, you guys are seriously under-eating.
0:24:43.4 Stephanie Fusnik: And it's not gonna be a quick process 'cause your cortisol levels are gonna be so messed up, we need to make sure that we're balancing all that stuff so that your hormones don't go crazy, and it's going to take time. And if you're not eating enough carbs, your thyroid's gonna go to shit too and it's no wonder that like women going through perimenopause and menopause, eating low calorie and low carbs, somehow end up with hypothyroidism like literally 80% times more than men. Like that's freaking crazy. There's a reason for that.
0:25:10.3 Jared Hamilton: How much time... I know it's different for every person, but like especially with most good coaching programs, it's like we don't just take people right into fat loss, we've gotta do either some like restorative work or some like reverse work, or basically the fixing this bullshit foundation work.
0:25:24.3 Jared Hamilton: But how much time are like... A lot of people will go through ours and they're like two weeks in, they're like, "Alright, I'm ready." And I'm like, "Oh no sweetheart. It's been 14 days. You are not ready." So from your perspective, what kind of, is there a rough timeline that you've, every person's different obviously, but is there like a rough timeline that people can go, "Oh, are you fucking kidding me, it takes that long?" You know what I mean?
0:25:43.5 Stephanie Fusnik: The quickest turnaround I think we've ever had is seven weeks for a reverse. But that's because like...
0:25:51.1 Jared Hamilton: That's fast.
0:25:52.4 Stephanie Fusnik: And that's quick, and that's because they already did part of the reverse on their own before being like, "Okay, I'm eating more, but I still think I'm fucking up." We're like, "Sure, we'll help you." But that's because they've already put in like quite a long time. Typically, honestly, it's at least three months.
0:26:06.3 Jared Hamilton: Totally.
0:26:06.4 Stephanie Fusnik: At least. Because we like to see people go for at least four weeks where they're hitting their calorie goal consistently, getting their veggies consistently, their water, their protein, their sleep is good, digestion is good, hormones are good. They're not having those menopausal symptoms anymore.
0:26:19.9 Stephanie Fusnik: And being consistent for those four weeks because like in a fat loss phase, it sucks. It's not a good time. Everyone's super excited to get there and they get there and they're like, "Wow, this is actually awful." We're like, "Yeah, because now you're eating less and your metabolism is good. You're gonna be fucking hungry all of the time." [chuckle]
0:26:37.3 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, totally. I think a lot of people, they just, they go south 'cause they're so impatient. It's like impatience just breeds bad decisions. You know what I mean? How do you normally handle that? Do you just explain like, "Yo, this is gonna take longer than you want and you're gonna get over it."? Or is there a different kind of avenue you go to get people like, "Oh shit, I guess I should slow down and quit being such a fucking psychopath around weight loss."?
0:27:03.7 Stephanie Fusnik: We have a stress assessment that we do with everyone that helps us figure out how long they should actually be in the reverse for, share that with them. We also have a checklist, so it's like, "Until all of these fucking boxes are checked, you don't get to go into a fat loss space. So if you wanna get here, get your shit together." I'm a very blunt person, so that's how I am. My other coaches are very like, "Oh, it's okay. Like, we'll try and take some time."
0:27:26.0 Stephanie Fusnik: I'm like, "No, here's your checklist, did you check all these things?" And they're like, "No." I'm like, "So are you ready?" And they're like, "Well no." And I'm like, "Okay, well there's your answer." I'm a very like to the point person.
0:27:36.6 Jared Hamilton: I love it. I love it. My brain operates best like that, I can't get that until I have this list of five and I've checked this list of five, four weeks in a row like, "Wow, my adherent sucks ass, so I guess I probably shouldn't." It's crazy to me though, so many people, I see people and coaches do this where adherence sucks, so they're like, "I bet I should just add more things."
0:27:56.7 Jared Hamilton: And it's like that doesn't work, you know what I mean? Like how many times do you see someone like in your DMs or whatever, they suck at eating their 1200 calories, so they're like, "I better add cardio." It's like, or we should scale back a little bit, you know.
0:28:09.8 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah. Well I get lots of people who are like, "Hey, I started reverse dieting, I followed your advice." So I help people like figure out where they should like aim for. Right? And they're like, "Okay, so once they get there, what do I do?" I'm like, "No, I'm not even gonna answer that fucking question. You need to just focus on the step that lies ahead for this week, which this week is just fucking breakfast."
0:28:30.5 Stephanie Fusnik: I don't want you to even think about, "Okay, once I'm there, how much do I decrease by?" 'Cause that doesn't even matter. You're worrying about a problem that hasn't even arisen yet. Just focus on like one week at a time. And honestly it's harder to rein people in than to like push them forward, like to pull them back a bit, it's so hard. [chuckle]
0:28:50.8 Jared Hamilton: I had a, and this happened several times 'cause like most people we work with, we gotta instantly start with a reverse or a maintenance phase or some semblance of that. I've seen people, more people than I would be proud to say, I don't understand it, where they're so ready to go into stage two, they don't like... So ours, we don't do stage two, the fat loss stuff until it's ready. But because of like if you reverse diet the right way, you'll get leaner and lose weight. Or at least like you may stabilize your weight, but pant sizes drop, whatever.
0:29:21.9 Jared Hamilton: I had a lady, she was like, "Oh my gosh, I've gotta go into, I think I'm ready going to fat loss phase. I think I'm ready. Can we go into stage two yet?" She was down like 3 or 4 pounds and like a pants size. And I'm like, "You realize you're kind of here already, but you're still doing stage one stuff?"
0:29:38.7 Jared Hamilton: Because this, the reverse was successful, because stress management was successful, because metabolic things were successful, because we got your binge eating stopped, you lost weight, but you're so blinded by what's next that you're already achieving the outcomes you wanted. You ever see that happen?
0:29:50.8 Stephanie Fusnik: I literally just had this conversation with someone yesterday. [chuckle] They were like, "Aw man, like I just wanna see the scale move. Like I had to go buy new pants. It was kind of annoying 'cause I had to get smaller size, but the scale won't move." And I'm like, "Can you just... You're eating more, you're losing fat, maintaining muscle mass or putting on muscle mass. You're getting leaner but you're upset 'cause the number won't change. Are you fricking kidding me?"
0:30:16.4 Stephanie Fusnik: And then I had another girl go, "Oh, I'm getting really frustrated that I'm not seeing more improvement." And I'm like, Have you looked at your photos? And she's like, "Ah, I don't know. Just sometimes it's just, I'm not going as fast as I want." And like, "Okay, yes, the scale has gone up 3 pounds, but like look at your photos. You've lost at minimum 6 inches around your waist. Are you actually complaining right now? And you're eating more? You don't even have to deprive yourself of food. Like that's, how... [chuckle]
0:30:45.1 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, no, I, so I actually had a lady one time. She was, and she was not just frustrated, she was angry with me because she was eating like maybe 900 calories a day when we started, or sub a thousand. She was under a thousand a day. And she, and I made her very well aware that before we do anything for fat loss, it's gonna take a long time and we're gonna have to reverse and do the whole nine.
0:31:11.6 Jared Hamilton: And she's like, "Oh my gosh, Jared, I feel like a whale. I'm busting out my clothes. This isn't working. Your program sucks." And she's like this, "It's not just been the scale, but I literally feel like my clothes are going to explode. I'm a whale." I pulled up... So I'm like, let's talk. I pulled up her side by sides and she took her before and after pictures, like her progress pictures in jean shorts.
0:31:38.3 Jared Hamilton: Jean shorts don't stretch. Jeans, we all know jean shorts are not forgiving. In picture number one, she went, she had 'em like, like what you'd call a muffin top. Like her belly fats hung a little bit over the edge. The second one, flat as fuck. And I'm like, "So where is the, the whale you're talking about coming from? Like how do you, and you're eating 900 calories in this picture, 1600 calories in this picture. And like we're still going up and I'm just curious."
0:32:03.5 Jared Hamilton: She goes, "Oh. Alright. I guess you're right." Why is it our minds go straight to like this, not just wrong information, but building a narrative around like this hell that we think we're going through when it's not even logical or data driven?
0:32:17.4 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah. Well and I do that too. I catch myself and I'll post about it and like on social media and stuff, like I was literally telling this story 'cause I've been struggling with my weight since losing my mom and just a lot of stress and stuff like that. My weight has stayed the same, but body composition, like I used to have six pack abs, those don't exist anymore.
0:32:35.9 Stephanie Fusnik: And I was like, "Man, I'm starting to look good. Like I am. I look, I look fine as fuck." And then I hop on the scale and I was like, "Motherfucker, I'm up 2 pounds," and instantly upset. And I'm like, logically I just looked at myself in the mirror, told myself I looked like a hot piece of ass and now all of a sudden I'm not because of a number on a scale? We all do it, like all of the time. Yeah, it's wild.
0:32:58.0 Jared Hamilton: Totally.
0:32:58.3 Stephanie Fusnik: Our brain is so fucked up.
[laughter]
0:33:00.0 Jared Hamilton: Yeah. Well, and that's, but I think the power is recognizing that drifting. People like you and I, coaches, we're not like super humans. We're still just humans. But the difference is catching it, right? So I'm in the middle of a whole bunch of shit with my own stuff. I knew my hormones were all sorts of fucked, then I found out I had 300 level test as a 30-yea-old active male, and it should be like 1000.
0:33:23.4 Jared Hamilton: So I got... And I was treating some of the other things like sleep issues and all this other stuff, and it was staying, they were staying fucked. So that's when I decided to get on... Go to a doctor, get on treatment. So now last... I have blood work coming up, but last time my test, my test is probably around I think like around 800 or 900 right now. So I'm like, we're feeling fucking fire.
0:33:41.3 Jared Hamilton: But my scale hasn't moved. Yeah, I had an initial 15-pound-drop. I went from 235 down to 220, 223. But for the past, I don't know, probably like two months, my scale has stayed like pretty well the exact same. But the whole time I'm wearing... I'm filling out extra large shirts.
0:34:01.3 Jared Hamilton: My pants sizes are getting smaller. Things are just, I'm seeing like every time I work out, I'm like, "That's a new vein, that's a new striation." So I have the data in front of me that like, "Hey, I'm in a good spot. I'm building muscle. I'm PR'ing. I'm building muscle. Clothes are fitting better. So I don't care about the scale," but it's easy at first to go, "Why the fuck is that not dropping?" But then we look at the data, you know what I mean?
0:34:25.7 Jared Hamilton: What's really funny is, I had this moment with this one outfit I have. So last year, my little sister got married and then I just had a wedding I was at the other day and I wore the exact same outfit. This certain dress shirt, these certain dress pants. A year ago, the dress shirt fit just fine. The pants were a little snug, little snug, but it's, but doable. I was at a wedding two months ago or a month ago. The pants fit great, but I almost ripped the shirt scratching my shoulder.
[laughter]
0:34:55.5 Jared Hamilton: I put this shirt on, like, "This looks like a little a child's shirt," because like it's now filled out with more muscle and things like that. But I was like, "This is just fucking weird." It just flip-flopped. But I think people have a tendency to forget those things that are happening. You know what I mean?
0:35:10.5 Stephanie Fusnik: Totally, totally. And like pay attention to how you feel. It's huge. Because like if you don't have the energy because you're under-eating so much and you're losing muscle mass, how do you expect to put yourself in a better position? If you feel like crap and like yeah, all those things are happening, do you really think eating less is going to help you at all? Probably not. It's just taking a step back and thinking about all those things, yeah.
0:35:37.1 Jared Hamilton: I think a lot of people under-utilize the idea of wind stacking. What we're talking about is like, "Well, how do you feel? Well, how was our shirt fitting?" "Hey, oh, I do look like a bad bitch now, even though the scale says that." I think a lot of people under... Just glance over that as a whole. Is there anything you have, you guys do with your clients, where really highlighting those things?
0:35:58.0 Stephanie Fusnik: Oh yeah, 'cause you're always gonna have... You'll be like, "I'm frustrated. This week was shitty." And then my go-to is like, "Shut your mouth." [chuckle] "And tell me five things that have improved since doing this?" And then they're like, "Oh, okay." I'm like, "So do you think these are all markers of improvement?" They're like, "Yeah, but the skin."
0:36:14.6 Stephanie Fusnik: "No, no. Do you think that your health is improving? That your metabolism is approving?" They're like, "Well yeah." I'm like, "Okay, so we are making progress. You had a bad week. It's okay. It happens. I've done it. We've all done it. We've all been there." So it's just taking a logistical view of it. And we do a ton of stuff with creating your ideal self. At the beginning when people start with us, we're like, "Realistically?"
0:36:39.0 Jared Hamilton: Sure.
0:36:40.6 Stephanie Fusnik: "Who do you wanna be? Who do you wanna be when you grow up? How do they talk? How do they look? How do they dress? What are their relationships like? What are the activities they do? Do they enjoy date night? Do they go to this? Do they go to that?" And then as we're going through, we're like, "Hey, are we closer or further away from getting to that person? "Getting closer." We're like, "Okay. Well then perfect. We're getting closer to that."
0:37:03.9 Stephanie Fusnik: And that's also how we stop people from like reducing their carbs when they're nervous. 'Cause like, we'll self-sabotage. We'd be like, "I don't think this is right."
0:37:08.0 Jared Hamilton: Yup. I love that.
0:37:09.3 Stephanie Fusnik: And like, "Do you think eating salads every day now is gonna get you closer to not eating salads every day now if that's something you hate?" And they're like, "Well, probably not." I'm like, "Okay. So realistically, we need to change that so you're eating the way you eat, because I don't know about you, but I'm not gonna eat a salad every day. I'm not. How I am. So I'm not gonna start doing that now thinking it's gonna get me closer to not eating that later."
0:37:34.4 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, totally. I agree that 100%. I love the idea of thinking in terms of your higher potential or that your future self is like, "What decision does that person make?" That's such a big deal. We do a lot of stuff like that with identity work with like, "Well, what is your identity? Who are you?"
0:37:47.8 Jared Hamilton: But if you don't know who you are, how can you expect not only to create an action plan, but how do you expect for someone else to fulfill you as from like, like help you at all, if you don't even know who you are? You know what I mean? It gets... It goes back to the Dieting From The Inside Out stuff, where it's like there's a quote by James Allen in his book, As a Man Thinketh, this is, "You cannot go within and then live without." It just, it doesn't work like that.
0:38:12.9 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
0:38:15.0 Jared Hamilton: So for you, with people who get really overwhelmed, just 'cause that's the majority of the people that we talk to that are like, they've been engulfed in this for, since they were nine when mom put them on Weight Watchers and said, "Don't. You're not supposed to eat very much." Where...
0:38:28.5 Jared Hamilton: What's your mindset into that person's skinny started with habits? Whether they're in coaching, whether they're just in your DMs, but if someone's like, "Fuck, I'm just lost and confused," how do you... Where does one start with all this in your opinion?
0:38:45.0 Stephanie Fusnik: So honestly, I'll give them a couple options and tell them to pick one. "Pick one thing and just crush it out this week." I don't give a shit about anything else, whether it's you're just going for a five-minute walk after your meals every day this week, or whether it's just like having a solid breakfast that's half carb, half protein. Awesome. Or your bedtime snack. I get them to focus on literally one thing.
0:39:06.9 Jared Hamilton: One thing. I like that.
0:39:07.9 Stephanie Fusnik: And then usually like, "What about this? What about this?" I'm like, "I don't give about that. We need to just focus on one single thing. Crush it, do it well. Once you feel confident with that, then we add the next thing." Because if you're trying to do everything at once, it's so easy to fall into that "all or nothing" mindset, go back into your old ways and be like, "Fuck it. I already messed up once. I may as well screw the whole rest of the day." No, it's just one. One thing. One thing, and that's it. [chuckle]
0:39:33.3 Jared Hamilton: Do you ever find people are like, "Wait, it has to be more than that. It has to be more complicated?" That's the one that we see a lot, where we'll give them one or two habits, that's it, and they're wanting to change like 17, and it's like, "Well, wait, it can't be this easy. There has to be more to it." What are your thoughts with that?
[chuckle]
0:39:50.5 Stephanie Fusnik: It is. It doesn't mean it's easy. It's simple, but it's not easy.
0:39:55.9 Jared Hamilton: Totally.
0:39:56.9 Stephanie Fusnik: Because for us we're always looking for the quick fixes, the secret sauce or the secret supplement or whatever it is, "'Cause there's gotta be more." When really, there isn't. But we have to unlearn everything, and unlearning a habit takes more practice than creating a new one. So you have to break the old habit, add the new one. That takes fucking time.
0:40:20.8 Stephanie Fusnik: And nutritional literacy takes time. There is so much to learn about fiber and protein and how those things are gonna affect your hormones, and cortisol and stress and how to eat in times of stress versus times that you're not, and pre and post workout meals, depending on what you're going through.
0:40:35.9 Stephanie Fusnik: There is so much to learn, so just throwing that at someone is not helpful. So it's like just try and focus on one thing at a time, and then you know if those things are working. Because if we're trying a bunch of shit at the same time, we don't know what's working. Maybe there's one thing that's negatively affecting something else.
0:40:54.2 Stephanie Fusnik: Like if you're trying to, I don't know, increase your protein, but you're adding all these things that you never have and then you start having gut health issues, A, you probably increased your protein too quickly, but B, maybe you have an intolerance to dairy or soy or pea protein or eggs or... There's so many things.
0:41:11.1 Stephanie Fusnik: So going slow really helps us establish, A, good habits, you're consistent, and B, figure out what actually fucking works for you. 'Cause yes there's a general outline that typically you wanna follow, but every person is gonna be different because we all have a different history, and it's naive to think that what works well for me is gonna work well for someone else.
0:41:28.9 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, no, I hear your thought so much. I think it's interesting where it all goes back to, the only reason someone's trying to change 17 things is they're impatient. But ironically, if we objectively look at the demographic of people who struggle the most, they're trying to make progress the fastest.
0:41:45.2 Jared Hamilton: And if we look at the people who get overnight progress that are effortless fat loss, they're the people who don't give a fuck at how long it takes. Would you say, like if you were to audit your client base and look at the ones who thrive the most and the ones who struggle getting there, it's like those motherfuckers are impatient, these ones didn't care, and they are ironically got it like that?
0:42:05.6 Stephanie Fusnik: Yes, and you still need the support, 'cause people are gonna struggle all of that journey, right? But the people who are okay with it taking longer are the people who are gonna be more successful and they see it as a long-term thing. It's funny 'cause people will post things of them doing stuff that we've preached or whatever and they're like, "Man, now my family does this all together." I'm like, "Yes, that's huge."
0:42:29.1 Stephanie Fusnik: That's not only improving your relationships and your health, but everything encompassing, and you know you're going to be consistent with it. And those things take time. The people who do best, I find are like six months plus with us. People who only commit to three months typically won't, because they are expecting to get to where they wanna be in that three months, and realistically, that's not going to fucking happen, because years of yoyo dieting, adding some hormonal changes and life stressors.
0:42:55.8 Stephanie Fusnik: So let's face it, during perimenopause and menopause, hormones change, you become an empty nester. Sometimes you're in menopause because of surgery, trauma, whatever it is, then you start taking care of your parents, change of identity because jobs are changing and things like that. There is so much shit that happens in that timeline. It's crazy to think that it isn't going to take time to adjust and heal and establish what the new normal is, because it's not the same. It's not the same.
0:43:30.4 Jared Hamilton: No, I agree. I agree so much with that. I've always said that I almost wish fat loss progress works similar to a home build, as in, you know how if you have a really big home build project, the contractor doesn't get paid 'til the job is done, right? Like you do that $50,000 job or you build the house, then once it's complete, then the home owner goes, "Okay, here's the check."
0:43:52.3 Jared Hamilton: But I almost wish that fat loss progress instead of like it was incremental throughout the journey, it was like once you hit a year where you've been consistent, you've been good, everything's been sustainable for a year, then you get the results like a light switch. I think everyone would chill the fuck out. You know what I mean? I feel like it would end all the problems.
0:44:12.1 Stephanie Fusnik: Yup. No, it's just an expectation of like, "I lost weight easier before, so I should be able to do it now," and it's like, "Okay Susie, but you also gained it all back, so realistically do you really wanna do that? Probably fucking not." [chuckle]
0:44:25.6 Jared Hamilton: No, absolutely. Or I think people forget, like I've always been a fan of thinking on both sides of everything. I always say if we're gonna compare, we have to compare with context. If you're comparing to Karen at work who lost 30 pounds in 30 days, Karen also throws up after her meals, she eats 800 calories a day and hasn't been on a date night in a decade. Do we really wanna compare with Karen?
0:44:46.1 Jared Hamilton: But my thing is this, so comparing on both sides, if you could get progress that fast, you would regress within hours. If you could lose 10 pounds of fat overnight, in like three hours, you would gain back 50. So we truly don't want that fast fat loss. It's why fat loss is slow, progress is slow, but it's why you can go on vacation for a week and you come back looking the exact same. So it works on both sides of this equation, but people don't think like that.
0:45:16.1 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah, the way... It's the exact same, momentum can go forward and backwards, right? So it's the exact same thing. So people taking that same approach and just going slowly, so then you can catch things if it starts to regress the wrong way, right? It's... Yeah. And just, yeah, it's just a lot. [chuckle]
0:45:37.4 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. So as far as people getting their shit together, it's funny, I think people would listen, especially, I don't know how I'm gonna title this, but it's gonna be something around probably menopause and everyone's gonna go, "Oh shit. There's a secret, there's a hack." And then they're gonna listen.
0:45:52.8 Jared Hamilton: They're gonna be like, "This bitch literally said, Eat more, move less, eat all the shit I've been scared of and be okay with progress being slower." But that's the game, right? Do the boring work. The concept of like simple is scalable and fancy fails. But I think no one just wants that answer, but that's the truth. There's not like a menopause hack list, so to speak. Or at least not the one they're looking for. [chuckle]
0:46:15.5 Stephanie Fusnik: No. Like honestly, people are like, "What do I do?" I'm like, "One, you chill the out 'cause cortisol levels are super high. So like you being go, go, go all the time rushing around, working out like crazy. Not a good idea. Two, you need to eat your fucking food. Three, you gotta eat your carbs and your protein and like carbs, you got to eat more than 100 grams I'm telling you that right now." People are like, "What?" Yes, eat more. And then exercise appropriately.
0:46:42.4 Stephanie Fusnik: If you're already in a high stress state, do you think doing high intensity exercise is really gonna benefit you? No, it's also going to break down muscle mass and because estrogen is low, you're already gonna be not able to recover properly and get that muscle mass to build again. So taking, focusing on being stronger and taking your longer rest periods is like super important.
0:47:00.8 Stephanie Fusnik: And when I say "rest periods", I mean sit your ass down on a fucking bench for two to three minutes and don't pace and skip and stuff like that. And people are like, "This is the longest two to three minutes of my life." I'm like, "That is a clear sign that you don't know how to chill the fuck out and it needs to happen." [chuckle]
0:47:16.9 Jared Hamilton: Yup. "Well you mean my 30 seconds between sets I shouldn't go do sprints on the treadmill?"
0:47:22.8 Stephanie Fusnik: No, absolutely not.
[laughter]
0:47:27.1 Jared Hamilton: It's nuts. I love it. I love it. This has been so good, Steph. I really, really appreciate this. And I'm hoping that... 'Cause this is the stuff that I preach, but what do I know 'cause I have a penis and I don't have ovaries.
[chuckle]
0:47:38.3 Jared Hamilton: But I really, really appreciate this. Where can people find you when they're like, "Okay, this bitch might be my cup of tea," more like a cup of coffee, "but like where can I find her and all her stuff?"
0:47:48.3 Stephanie Fusnik: Yes. So my socials are my first and last names, so on Facebook. I have my Instagram and TikTok are @vitalityoet.stephanie. And then my Facebook group is Metabolism and Menopause by Vitality-Secrets for Fat Loss. And yeah, it's a really great place to be. We share all our favorite carb foods, how to chill the fuck out, exercise things. We share a lot of pictures of carbs, like a lot, and we also do how to structure stuff. And then people sending pictures of donuts all the time. It's a great place to be. [chuckle]
0:48:24.5 Jared Hamilton: I love it so much. I'll be sure to put those links in in the description so that people can just click on it. Did you know back in 2019, I did a thing called the Daily Donut where... 'Cause Donuts are my favorite food.
0:48:37.2 Stephanie Fusnik: Oh my God, totally same.
0:48:38.1 Jared Hamilton: I was in a fat loss phase, but I got so sick of people thinking donuts are bad so I ate between one and three donuts every single day for six months and lost 30 pounds, and everyone's like, "There's no way this is true."
0:48:48.3 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah, no, I fucking love donuts.
0:48:51.4 Jared Hamilton: So what's your favorite donut?
0:48:53.9 Stephanie Fusnik: Oh my God. See that's so hard. So recently I had a donut that was like a chai tea pumpkin one. That was incredible.
0:49:03.2 Jared Hamilton: Oh, bougie as fuck.
0:49:04.8 Stephanie Fusnik: Oh it was so good. But then there's a place... Oh it was so good. And so basic, like I'm such a basic bitch it's not even funny.
[chuckle]
0:49:08.3 Stephanie Fusnik: But I also when I was in Vancouver, I went to 49th Parallel, which is a cafe and they have donuts there, and it was a vegan chocolate donut with pistachio cream on top. Oh my God.
[chuckle]
0:49:20.6 Stephanie Fusnik: I could have eaten like 17 of those.
0:49:23.2 Jared Hamilton: That face you just made.
0:49:25.0 Stephanie Fusnik: Oh my God, it was so good. [chuckle]
0:49:26.4 Jared Hamilton: Oh I love it.
0:49:27.5 Stephanie Fusnik: Pure bliss.
0:49:28.3 Jared Hamilton: I love it. See I've always... My favorite donut, like as a whole, I always say the cream-filled Long John is the boobies of donuts. It's just beautiful.
[laughter]
0:49:39.0 Jared Hamilton: That's, it's like that's my classification. It's the boobies of donuts. It's a cream-filled Long John.
0:49:43.2 Stephanie Fusnik: I don't like stuff with like the cream inside. I don't. I like more like chocolaty coffee flavored stuff. That's how I am. [chuckle]
0:49:52.3 Jared Hamilton: Sure. Fair. Fair enough. Well, fair enough. Cool. I love it.
0:49:55.7 Stephanie Fusnik: Although I would eat Dunkaroos donut, which was really good 'cause that was like memories of childhood.
0:50:00.9 Jared Hamilton: Really?
0:50:01.0 Stephanie Fusnik: Yeah. I recently found out you can buy Dunkaroos in the States. Canada doesn't have those.
0:50:01.4 Jared Hamilton: Wow.
0:50:05.2 Stephanie Fusnik: I found it in the airport and I was pretty fucking pumped.
0:50:07.3 Jared Hamilton: You're just like, "Bet."
[laughter]
0:50:09.5 Stephanie Fusnik: I bought it. I had my like my nuts and my jerky that I bought and water and Dunkaroos and the girl looked at me, I'm like, "I just really need this."
[laughter]
0:50:21.9 Jared Hamilton: I love it. "I'm a coach, I know what I'm doing. Fuck off Karen." Whatever. I love it. I love it. Fuck yeah. Well thank you again Steph, I appreciate you and yeah, this was good.
0:50:34.6 Stephanie Fusnik: Perfect. Awesome. Thank you for having me.
0:50:36.9 Jared Hamilton: And we're back. Thank you guys again for listening and sticking around for the whole thing. I know these guest episodes are a little bit longer, but I really appreciate your time and attention and just all the engagement and love you've been giving the show and my guests and everything like that. So it means a ton. I hope you got a lot out of this episode with Steph. If you did, be sure and reach out to her. Tell her...
0:50:55.7 Jared Hamilton: Reach out to her and be like, "Yo, what's up? I listened to you on Jared's show Dieting From the Inside Out and it helped me this, this and this way." That kind of thing. Be sure and check out the links below. Steph has, and I both have a lot of resources down there in the show notes. All the resources like she talked about to reach out to her and get involved with her.
0:51:11.0 Jared Hamilton: But I also have some resources below as well. I have like my free... My free community that's gonna be like your home base with getting help with this kind of stuff totally for free. I have my free course down there, if you're brand new to this weight loss game and you're not sure you know where to go, where to get started, how to... What to believe and what not to believe. I have a free course called the Fat Loss Checklist down there for you as well.
0:51:29.0 Jared Hamilton: There are all the links to all my other socials like my TikTok, my Instagram, my YouTube, the whole nine yards. But then I also have a really, really cool special coaching offer for you, because I have a special place in my heart for everyone who listens to the podcast, I actually have a really cool coaching opportunity for you, whereas if you apply to coaching and get, assuming you get accepted, I'm basically giving you around $4000 worth of extras for free.
0:51:51.2 Jared Hamilton: This is stuff people pay a lot of money for, but because you're coming from the podcast, if you were to get signed up with coaching and lock arms with us to help you with your journey, I'm basically really making it worth your while and showing my appreciation and giving you about $4000 worth of free stuff.
0:52:05.6 Jared Hamilton: So if you're interested in that, would like to see what that free stuff is, but to be honest, really need help with it. The reason this thing is, the reason I'm not just like getting into what all the free stuff is is because I don't want you just signing up for or really getting involved in coaching just because of the free stuff. It's just an incentive.
0:52:18.3 Jared Hamilton: The reason someone would get involved in coaching is because you don't wanna go on this journey alone, is because you're struggling with this on your own. It's because you probably had years of struggle and you're tired of learning from your own failures and you wanna learn from someone else's failures and to really streamline the process.
0:52:32.8 Jared Hamilton: 'Cause if we're being honest, I always say when it comes to coaching, this is why I'm the biggest consumer of coaching. You can either save time or money, right? Yeah, you can save a little bit of money but then most people will struggle for the next several years or decades or even to their grave. We work with a lot of people who have been struggling for 50, 60 years, right? And I just hate to see you go through that.
0:52:54.3 Jared Hamilton: Or you can invest a little bit of money and and streamline this entire thing where you're getting your life back, you're getting your time back, you're getting your happiness back. But the problem is psychology teaches us that our minds crave what's most familiar. So this is why we almost stay in our suck unconsciously. This is why most people take their struggles and live the same really fucked up year over and over and over again until they're what I call part of the "dieting for decades club".
0:53:16.5 Jared Hamilton: So if you're wanting to end that, 'cause I'm not one to try to force that. I only wanna work with people who want the help. If you want to end that and you want help, I have the opportunity on the table right now and incentivizing it where you're basically, if you sign up for coaching and assume you get accepted, 'cause we only work with people we know we can help, you're getting about 4K worth of free stuff, which is pretty cool.
0:53:35.9 Jared Hamilton: You can apply for coaching because we have to make sure things are a good fit then explain to you how everything works, then talk about options from there, you can do that at the link below in the description. There's a big fat link right there you can click on. Get on a call with my team and we'll go from there. Otherwise, I appreciate the fuck out of you. Thank you so much for tuning in. I will see you next week on our next episode. I'll talk to you next time.
[music]
Episode Synopsis:
About Stephanie:
Stephanie went to school thinking she would be a Phys. Ed. teacher, but quickly learned that it wasn’t for her. She got into personal training and loved it—especially working with clients who had issues with chronic diseases.
She then got her master’s degree and began working in chronic disease exercise management programming. She was consistently working with clients who were doing “everything right,” eating less and moving more, but not losing weight, which pushed her to get into metabolism research, nutrition coaching, reverse dieting, etc.
As time went on, she also discovered when working with women how much of a challenge menopause and perimenopause presented for her clients because of the hormone changes.
Hormones:
Stephanie explains that when going through menopause and perimenopause, a woman's ability to combat stress is substantially decreased.
Estrogen, in particular, has many roles in a woman's body, like promoting muscle growth, which makes it more difficult to gain muscle mass as Estrogen decreases. Estrogen also has an effect on the ability to access stored energy, making working out in a fasted state more difficult for women going through menopause and perimenopause. Additionally, things like reduced calories and carb-cutting exacerbate issues associated with low estrogen levels.
Inflammation also naturally increases during menopause and perimenopause—and will be increased by eating less and moving more. Blood sugar level, calcium absorption, and hunger cues are also all affected by the changes in estrogen levels.
As progesterone levels decrease, you can experience migraines, hot flashes, low sex drive, and weight gain/loss issues. Eating less and moving more will then cause cortisol levels to increase, causing progesterone levels to further decrease—because progesterone cannot be produced by the body when cortisol is high—because the body will take the precursor for progesterone and give it away to cortisol.
Progesterone dropping is often the cause of aggressive weight gain for women in menopause and perimenopause.
Where to start:
Stephanie typically asks her clients what food they are most afraid to eat—which is very often bread or pasta—and then dares them to eat that food with dinner and enjoy it.
She does this to help them realize that it’s just food, and often her clients will note that they slept well, or had good energy after eating X food. She then works on incorporating those foods, again, typically carbs, meal by meal, starting with breakfast. Just note that there will be some water retention to work around when incorporating carbs.
Jared has a similar approach with his clients, sometimes asking them to eat a food item they fear every day for a certain period of time. Then, as that client drops or maintains their weight while enjoying this food item they struggled with they realize that it’s not so bad.
Stephanie also points out that the worry you have surrounding eating a certain food causes more of a cortisol response than simply eating, enjoying that food, and moving on does.
Stephanie also utilizes bedtime snacks in her program. She suggests having a carb and a protein together—which improves sleep and reduces hot flashes—because her clients are no longer having cortisol spikes during the night.
Demographics and Calorie Intake:
Stephanie has been working in health and fitness for a long time and has yet to meet someone who legitimately needs to eat 1000 to 1200 calories a day. For reference, Stephanie works out twice a week, eats 2400 calories a day, and is 5’ 5”.
The process of getting cortisol levels under control and achieving balance takes time but is very beneficial for women going through menopause and perimenopause.
Timeline:
The fastest reverse diet timeline Stephanie has personally seen with clients is 7 weeks, but those situations involved people who were already in a reverse diet-type process. A typical timeline is around 3 months.
Stephanie has an evaluation with her clients, creates a timeline, and provides them with a checklist of things that need to be achieved before they move from a reverse diet to fat loss.
Jared, very typically, has to start people with a reverse-type phase but often deals with people who, despite dropping weight, are eager to jump to fat loss.
Jared has clients who struggle during the reverse diet phase because they are eating more and are losing inches, but not weight. When these clients see scale hasn’t moved they are unable to enjoy their progress.
Stephanie points out that this is something we all do. She has looked in the mirror and thought she looked great, then hopped on the scale only to be disappointed that her weight is up.
As a coach she knows that you can’t get caught up in the number on the scale, you have to focus on how you look, feel, etc.
When Stephanie has clients who are frustrated or feel like they had a bad week, she asks them for 5 things that have improved since starting their program. This helps them realize that they are making progress, it's just a bad week, and that they are moving closer to their goal.
Habits:
Stephanie will typically ask people to focus on a single thing. Focus on one thing and then after you crush that habit, you can add the next one.
There is a lot to learn—and unlearn—when you’re trying to make habit changes and going slow is beneficial to avoid overwhelm.
Both Jared and Stephanie also notice that clients who want to rush to their goal are typically not as successful as those who are willing to allow themselves time to adjust and change.
It comes down to doing boring work. You need to eat, eat your carbs and protein, and exercise appropriately.
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