The Gag is… Podcast
The GAG is" is a powerful podcast that takes you on a journey through the life of a remarkable black woman who defied the odds. Charli Shanta became a teen mom and a widow by 21. Now in her mid 30’s life has been unpredictable, she’s faced unimaginable adversity yet she's never given up. Join Charli as she shares her inspiring story, offering a message of resilience and hope even if it isn’t always perfect. Discover that even in the darkest times there are better days ahead. Laughter can always follow tears.
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Email: TheGagIsPod@gmail.com
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The Gag is… Podcast
Unmasking Fitness Myths and Embracing Reality
Bonnie Maxon Lee shares her extraordinary journey from professional wrestling to fitness excellence, emphasizing the importance of accountability and self-advocacy in health. The discussion covers the pitfalls of fad diets, the impact of fitness influencers, and practical strategies for sustainable well-being.
• Importance of having a coach for accountability
• Avoiding fad diets and focusing on sustainability
• Bonnie’s car accident and its impact on her fitness journey
• Empowering oneself through self-advocacy in recovery
• Addressing misconceptions surrounding fitness influencers
• Strategies for building a healthy and balanced lifestyle
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TheGagIsPod@gmail.com
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the gag is pod. I am your girl, charlie Shante. Thank you for joining me on another episode. I got something special for y'all today. So, like new year 2025, everybody's into fitness, right? So I figured it would only be acceptable for me to do a fitness episode to help y'all out. And I didn't get just anybody Like. I got somebody who, in my world, is world renowned. She's a wrestler, she is a nutritional trainer, will you say. I'm gonna let her explain all of that. She's a dope trainer and has been my friend for going on 10 years, has trained me, so I know her tactics and all of her stuff works. So, oh, and she also does goat and animal yoga too. I ain't never tried it, but it looked interesting. So welcome, miss Bonnie, to the show. Welcome.
Speaker 2:Hi everybody. I am Bonnie Maxon Lee of Bmax Fitness. I started training in Florida when I used to live there, and that's how I met her. I now live in Hawaii, oahu specifically, and I help people all around the world.
Speaker 1:I help people all around the world. Yeah, listen, I would say that your workouts, virtually, are worse than the ones like in the gym. No, no, lie, like true story. So I was like I didn't have any weight shed or anything at the house and she was like get a broomstick. I was like I didn't have any weights yet or anything at the house and she was like get a broomstick. I was like get a broomstick Y'all. She wore me down with that broomstick. I was like why does my back hurt? She's like you're not doing it, move your arms. I'm like, oh my God.
Speaker 1:But today we're just going to talk about some tips and tricks from, like I said, from an expert point of view, to help you guys get on your journey. Get on your way, prevent failure, prevent burnout, how to go about it the right way. As always, if you have any questions or anything like that, make sure you consult a medical professional, because we are not medical professionals, but just people. Where she is someone who specializes in what it is she do, had all kind of training, been around the world and everything like that. So the number one question that everybody always has is I want a flat stomach and I want to get snatched. How do we do that?
Speaker 2:Well, in my opinion, it's really good to have a coach Even I have hired coaches so that person will keep you accountable. If they're a good coach, they're going to keep you accountable. If you disappear, you fall off the radar. They should message you and say, hey, what's going on? Because you know it's life, things happen. So, in my opinion, the best way to get started is have a coach guide you, and I would suggest stay away from crazy, crazy, crazy fad diets, because if you can't maintain and you're like I can't do this for a year, two years, three years, it is definitely not the diet for you.
Speaker 2:So a lot of times, people try all these things and then they fail and then they just quit. So in order to prevent that, you need somebody that makes you accountable. You need to have consistency and you're going to slip and you have to accept that and pick yourself up and move forward, and that is how I keep my clients going all the time, month by month, year by year. I've been with people for a decade plus, so I don't take a lot of people anymore, but I want quality people. I want people that are serious, that are goal oriented, and then I will accept them into my journey to help them along their journey.
Speaker 1:So, if you don't mind, would you mind telling your backstory from your accident and how you actually start with wrestling and then roll it into how about your accident and then how you ended up getting more into training? I do mind.
Speaker 2:No, I'm an open book. I think experiences really, really, really help, because there's a lot of people that look at me and go, oh, she's never had an injury. Yes, so I've been a pro wrestler for 24 years now. I've had a cracked skull right here, a little divot up and down here, a little divot up and down here. I've had broken fingers, broken toes, broken foot, broken arm. Do you remember that? I think you remember me with a broken arm, or was that just before I started training you?
Speaker 1:Just before I met you, after you had just had hip surgery.
Speaker 2:Oh, I already broke my arm, yeah. So I've had a broken arm from pro wrestling, broken noses like straight on, so it's not like crooked but it's kind of see it. Broken teeth. Yeah, I've had a lot of injuries from pro wrestling, lots of concussions. I didn't say it's healthy, but I've had them so I can really understand.
Speaker 2:So I've been a pro wrestler for 24 years and while I was pro wrestling people would give me all this terrible advice about fitness and not knowing I just would try everything and it would. It would kind of fail. So I had so many people giving me bad advice. They would tell me, eat more, kid, work out harder, but they didn't tell me what to eat, they didn't tell me how to work out. So I murdered myself on cardio and I would lose weight so fast. And then I would look at a cookie and I would gain five pounds. That's not realistic. Okay, now I can eat a cookie, I can eat two cookies, I can eat three cookies and not gain a pound because I'm doing things correctly. Before I would murder myself on cardio and I would gain it all back. And I didn't know and I had to really dive into fitness myself, make a million errors because I'm just that person that has to learn by experience. I can't go into the amount of errors and things that pro wrestling has caused me, so I'm definitely that person that has to make errors in order to learn. And I dove deep into fitness. I dove deep into workouts. I tried everything. I really learned what works for me. And then I had somebody approach me about helping them with nutrition and I told them I'm busy, I'm on TV, I don't have time if you're going to mess around, I don't have time for that. I don't take everybody anymore Because when I first started training, I helped this guy lose 200 pounds in a year.
Speaker 2:He listened to everything I said pounds in a year. He listened to everything I said and then I thought let's do this with everybody and I was pumped. And then I had 10 clients and then 20 clients and then 50 clients and not every client is the same. So I learned that I had to really let people in that worked with me, that I was the best trainer for and then that they were the best client for me and then, if I wasn't the best fit, I knew how to sort them off to other people. But fast forward, I helped that one person lose 200 pounds. I helped a bunch of other people. I learned that I had to create boundaries with clients that worked for me and didn't work for you know, I didn't work for them and give them off to people that would be a better trainer for them. And during this time I met you, but did I meet you before my car accident or after After?
Speaker 1:Really, I felt like I knew you After and that's what actually drew me to you because they were like she is tough, there is, like she, she'll get it done. Like, if you're serious. Because I initially came in looking for a trainer because I wanted to compete. And you were like, ok, I got this and we were doing good. And then like, but when you met me, I had just moved to Florida and I was still in shambles, trying to put my life back together. I cannot tell you how many times I backslid and you was like, that's okay, that's okay, like we're going to get it together. Because, like, I can tell you, but I can't do it for you. And you was like you're going to have to learn on your own and it took some years. But I was like, okay, I get it now.
Speaker 1:And then it was the time that I started getting it. You moved, but I was able to keep up with it until I ended up having a few surgeries and then it kind of it kind of fell off and I like I man man, I life happens, though it's not.
Speaker 2:It's not about you know what you can do for this small period of time. It's about what you can do for your life, because you're not literally building in body for now. You're building a body so when you have grandchildren, you can get up and down on the floor, so you're not using a walker. When you're older, so you're not in a wheelchair, because my body should be, I should be in it.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I got in this car accident on December 2014, on Valentine's Day, yep, and I was driving to work for one client before my vacation. This is obviously not her fault, but somebody had ran a stop sign out of an apartment complex that I used to live at His side or hit me from the side, so they T-boned me and then I spun and went into the ditch and hit a tree. So I hit a tree head on the seatbelt, caused me lacerations in my intestines, I hit my face, but I was awake the whole time. So I think it's from. You know, training with pro wrestling. You know my brain is just used to being hit. I didn't say it was good.
Speaker 2:So I go to the hospital. They're like what happened? I was like this happened ABCXYZ, you know crazy. And then they want this is funny, but not funny, but funny because you know me. But they were trying to cut my Lululemon pants off me and they were trying to cut my lululemon pants off me and they were trying to cut my sweater off of me and I was like no, I was like this doesn't need to be cut it. Snaps took that off and I was like I'm about to rip my pants off. You better leave me alone. They're like all right, we're gonna leave you alone.
Speaker 2:So I go in. I'm in the hospital. For three days they already did one surgery to clean up the blood in the intestines, so they already went in there and cleaned me up and then a couple of days later I was in more pain. So I knew something was wrong and I was like I have to vouch for myself. So I called the doctor and I said listen, I'm in more pain today than I was the day I got in the car accident. And he goes ma'am, you're just here for drugs at this point. I'm a personal trainer at a gym and I'm a pro wrestler. I don't do drugs, but if I wanted to, I have accessibility to the people somewhere within the circuit. I could find it and make it logically happen.
Speaker 2:But that's just not me. I like to wake up, go in the morning. That's just not my style. I like to get up out of bed and go, go, go, go, go for the day until I'm done and then go to sleep. That is me. I don't have any judgment on anybody else, I don't care.
Speaker 2:But I told that doctor to get out of my room. I kicked that doctor out, I got myself a new doctor and he goes. Well, I'm going to cut you wide open. I said well, you got to do what you got to do. So I went back into surgery. They cut me from just under my breastbone all the way down down down to my groin. Mom left me wide open. Mom at the helm. At the helm oh yeah, that's mic Mouse I was sepsis and if I would have left the hospital I would have died and I vouched for myself.
Speaker 2:I cut myself alive. But that was just the beginning of it. I knew like they gave me basic exercises. They said walk around a lot, and that's literally all they left me to do.
Speaker 2:But as a personal trainer I knew I had to move more to get healthier. So I knew that I wasn't going to get better just walking around my house doing bare, bare, bare, bare minimum. So I made them bring me back to work and allow me to work part time until and I sat on a ball the whole time and the first day I almost passed out. And I sat on a ball the whole time and the first day I almost passed out, but I worked like two hours, three hours, then four hours and they eventually worked up to a full day and I take a hundred percent credit for myself and my own journey because I brought myself back to work, I made myself walk, I made myself eventually go back to the gym and lift what I can within.
Speaker 2:Obviously, doctors you know I listened to the doctors oh, you can lift five pounds. Oh, you can lift 10 pounds. Oh, now you can lift 20 pounds. So I took my life back into my own hands after fighting for three months back to work at 90 pounds, slowly, built up my stamina slowly, built my weight back up slowly, was able to fit into my yoga clothes, my workout clothes, because I could basically hoop in them. And I just didn't feel healthy, I didn't feel strong. And some people are like, oh, I'd love to be 100 pounds. No, you wouldn't, especially as an adult. You shouldn't be 90 pounds, you shouldn't be 100 pounds. If I would have gotten a car accident at that time, I would add a heart attack and died.
Speaker 2:Like underweight is not good, and people that are in fitness and they're like the tiniest and they're taking all these pictures. They do not stay like that. They do not have promise you. A week later they look different, so can you.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people get caught up on social media and the quote unquote fitness models. Can you kind of give some insight into that? Because a lot of people see them and they're like, oh my God, I want to look like that. But then they don't realize that a lot of those girls have had their bodies done oh well, that's, that's some of it for sure.
Speaker 2:Um, a lot of people are influencers and a lot of people are professionals. So you need to know the difference between a real professional and that's somebody that's going to speak science and help you and coach you. Somebody's just taking your money and not communicating with you and just telling you to check in with them every Sunday. You send this, you send that and then that's it. And then you're going to email back saying this is what you need to do For me. That is not my style. That's just taking people's money. So be very careful who you're signing up with. This is very important to hear. Be very careful who you're signing up with. This is very important to hear. Be very careful who you sign up with. But the people that you see.
Speaker 2:I look like a normal person pretty much all the time, but I am 134, 5'6, and I'm solid and I don't shred down unless I have a reason, because it's unhealthy. If there's absolutely no reason, you should not shred down that much. If you're doing a competition, well, that's what you're doing, that's the job, that's the business. But you can still do it really healthy. You don't have to go. Oh, I'm going to go three months without carbs, what? Your brain is already not going to function a week out from competition and your body is going to be so light for yourself that you're going to kind of feel pain like aches and pains. None of that is actually pleasant. And when they're that lean, they are taking minimum three photo shoots in different outfits. So they're capturing that look and they're saving it up for internet usage, which is fine. It's business and you also want to. You work this hard. You want to take the photos for sure. Just because you do one show doesn't make you a personal trainer, doesn't make you nutritionist, doesn't give you any any right to help people because one person helped coach you down because that may have not been the right coaching. My first competition I wasn't coached nutrition-wise the way I should have been, so it was not for my body, it was for my coach's body. The way that person dieted me down was for them, not me. So there's different ways of doing different things and you need to figure out your job as a coach, to figure out the difference between A, b, c and X, y, z, and I have taken people to do competitions, but I do not suggest I'm staying that light, because it's not healthy.
Speaker 2:And those people also edit, edit, edit, edit their photos. I sometimes use a filter. If I wake up in the morning I'm doing a video and I'm just like, whoa, let me put a little filter over this. I'm just not that person. If I do photo shoots and I see a picture and I don't like it, I just don't use it. I don't edit anything. Sometimes photographers will over edit me and I'm just like, oh, hate it, because I like the way I look. I love my body with scars and all.
Speaker 2:And she said I have hips. Yes, I have brand new hips. I had them done at the same time I was walking five days later. I don't never, ever, give myself an excuse. I was also born with rheumatoid arthritis. I know what it's like to be in pain. I excuse I was also born with rheumatoid arthritis. I know what it's like to be in pain. I live it every single day of my whole entire life.
Speaker 2:But these people diet down for the competitions. Do the competitions take a gazillion photos? I've done it too, but I never say this is what I currently look like. I said this is what I look like when I did that show. Say this is what I currently look like. I said this is what I look like when I did that show, but also it's not the best that I've looked, because I've dived myself down afterwards for other things or just been more stress-free and my body just gives in more. These people use Photoshop so incredibly bad and, like you said, yes, they do enhance their bodies. I will tell you a secret that I have noticed If somebody has glutes but no hamstrings, that might not be real. I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 2:If they got a big old shelf but no hamstrings, I didn't even think about that. If they got a big old shelf but no hamstrings, I didn't even think about that. Your hamstrings will help develop your glutes. You do want to hit hamstrings. Yes, it does hurt, it does suck. Hamstrings are not fun the next day or when you hit your glutes really are. That's what you got to do to grow them?
Speaker 1:No, they're not. Because you can't sit on the toilet for like two, three days, you got to ease it down. I know too. You got to ease it on in there.
