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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The Gag is… Podcast
Rethinking Health: Beyond Diets and Calorie Counting
This episode emphasizes the interconnectedness of muscle groups and the significance of setting realistic fitness goals while navigating nutrition. It addresses the dangers of fad diets, discusses the importance of flexible, personalized nutrition, and advocates for a grounded approach to supplements and fitness.
• The relationship between hamstrings and glutes for muscle development
• Strategies for setting and resetting fitness goals after setbacks
• The importance of individualized nutrition over generalized elimination diets
• Understanding that you cannot starve your body to lose weight
• The necessity of maintaining a healthy balance of fat and protein in diets
• Recommendations for basic supplements like protein and creatine
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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. 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, but that's what you got to do to grow them?
Speaker 2:No, they're not. Because you can't sit on the toilet for like two, three days, you got to ease it down.
Speaker 1:I know too, you got to ease it on in there and then somebody is like, hey, you've been sick for three weeks and then you go in and you go hard. You're like I'm going to give it my all. That's probably not a good idea. I would say go in at half speed and work back up. It's the best advice I can give you is go in like a new goal. So today is a new day. Let's start today and it's a brand new goal, right? And then you've been in it, had it for like a whole month, solid one month, and then you get sick and you're out a week. Okay, it's a new goal. I lost two pounds of muscle. It can happen. It can happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You're throwing up and you're super sick. Of course it can happen. And then you're like, oh, I'm not where I was. Of course it's a new day. So, yeah, enhancements, pictures, photoshop, all of it. You want somebody that's going to be real with you and and also somebody that's going to grow, because things don't always stay the same. Science doesn't stay the same. Personal training is science. Things change and all these new gimmicks get released all the time and sometimes that changes too, because you know, now there has been study on this one piece of equipment and at first it was all the rave, but now it's not really that good for certain things. Yeah, not maybe for what everybody's been using it for. So things change, things grow.
Speaker 1:I've been guilty of being in this thought process and then going, oh, that doesn't make sense anymore. And then changing and growing. And it's the same thing with your nutrition. Your age changes it, your weight changes it, your sex changes it. And us girls, like, in my opinion, I think we should just focus on being strong or do what you can do. But you also can only build bone density until menopause, so you gotta grind, you know my favorite exercise.
Speaker 2:people say that you should. You shouldn't do it because it's bad on your body, and this, this used to be exercise that you used to make me do, that I used to hate to do. I used to hate deadlifts, but now it's one of my favorite exercises and people are like you shouldn't do that, it's bad for you. I'm like, whatever I'm like, I deadlifted for 30 days.
Speaker 1:And I'm like the way my I think that's somebody in a bad form and hurt themselves.
Speaker 2:Pretty much that's like. That's what it is. And so what is your take when like and I I know you see it when they're like all right, ladies, we're going to hone in no sugar, no carbs, no soda, no, like, pretty much like we're going to do an elimination diet for 30 days, but we're going to go to the gym while we're doing that. What's your take on that?
Speaker 1:The only reason why you should do an elimination diet is if you actually think that you have an allergy to something. So if you think that you're allergic to some sort of fruit, um, sorry mom brain, um uh oh, the elimination diet oh, yeah, so like there's nothing wrong with fruit.
Speaker 1:You don't know nobody who's gotten fat from fruit. Okay, I don't even like the F word. You don't know anybody who has gained weight from fruit. So if you have a sensitivity to a fruit, let's figure that out. Eliminate the fruit, pull one in at a time. Okay, bananas didn't do it. Oh, apples didn't do it. Oh, apples didn't do it. Oh, strawberry. Oh, my stomach hurts from it. For me it does, because I've got scar tissue in my intestines from all the surgeries I've had. I've had 26 surgeries in my life.
Speaker 2:Speaking of surgeries, scar tissues in intestines nobody told me that Brussels sprout and hernia scars don't go well together.
Speaker 1:Well, I like Brussels sprouts, so I still eat them.
Speaker 2:I like Brussels sprouts too, but the last two times I thought I had childbirth.
Speaker 1:And you didn't like Brussels sprouts, so I made you try it.
Speaker 2:You did and I like them. But for some reason when I eat Brussels sprouts I don't know if they don't break down well or what, but I feel like when I eat them they go down whole and I feel like it just drags on my scar.
Speaker 1:It does.
Speaker 2:But no other fruit or vegetable does that.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:For for me it's strawberries. I mean I thought I was gonna have to go to emergency room after I ate them brussels sprouts, because I was in pain yes, and you are a little bit more dramatic than I am, or I just don't know the difference me dramatic I sent you a video that describes you and training with you.
Speaker 2:To a t you say guilty I did say guilty because you be trying to kill me. I die every Sunday I'm trying to get to your goals and I've reached my goals so many times and this year I reached my goals too.
Speaker 1:It's always new.
Speaker 2:It's a new day. I know my goal for 2025 is slim fit.
Speaker 1:I went back and I had Starbies. I've been on a Starbies journey. Bonnie and I go cut out the Starbees. Number one you'll save so much money. Number two you're going to save those calories. It's basically a milkshake.
Speaker 2:I'd rather have a vegan milkshake.
Speaker 1:So have we been on Starbees.
Speaker 2:Maybe, Right. Maybe not, guess, you won't know, huh know, huh, oh, check that checkbook uh, yeah, so. So look I'm, I keep it 1000 on the show. Y'all know me and bonnie knows I'm open, but I don't care. I probably at my peak I was probably spending about 250250 at Starbucks a month, and right now it's probably about that was a car payment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Not an expensive car payment, but it's. I make it at home now. I make it at home now, but only if I have an appointment and if I'm going somewhere then I'll get it. But we're not talking about me, okay, we're getting nice sound fitness advice.
Speaker 1:Hey, we all eat out sometimes.
Speaker 2:That's fine, but I'm in a nice sound fitness advice, right. Hey, we all eat out sometimes. That's fine, and there's nothing. I'm more conscious about my eating and we're gonna dig into that um toward the end. But what do you say to people that go, I'm gonna eat salad because I want to lose weight? I feel like this is the biggest and I'm like you're, you're gonna. That's why you only can eat salad for three days, because you're going to be hungry after that, because you're essentially starving yourself.
Speaker 2:And what I learned from you is that you cannot starve your body. And when you told me, you was like, if you want to lose weight, you need to eat more. And when I started eating more, I seen the weight. The weight just go, just go away, like, just go down. And I ain't gonna lie. I think I'm proud of myself, cause I've been able to keep my weight. It's fluctuated, more than what I've liked, but I ha. I would say I kept it to a point where it's not out of control, like I now. Don't look at me, you're to reach out if you need to, you know.
Speaker 2:I know. But you also know my garage situation. You know my gym situation right now, my home gym situation. So it's all good, but I think, like right now I'm just I have like a 12 pound fluctuation, which is a lot.
Speaker 1:For you.
Speaker 2:For me it's a lot.
Speaker 1:Everybody's bodies are different. A taller, can take a 12 pounds and it looks like maybe a 5 pound on their body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:When you're a little bit shorter. You're a little taller than me, but when you're a little bit shorter, it just hits you a little bit.
Speaker 2:I mean because every time I get to a goal you're like what's your goal? And we get to it and I'm like I still don't like the way I look. And so now I think I go more for a look than a number, because I've been at I only be you you can own, I can only can't be that person.
Speaker 1:I'll never look like this person. I'll never have the butt I want unless I buy it. I ain't doing that.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, I always say every year I'm gonna like hone in on you know what it is I need to do, and I and I do it, and then I get comfortable and then I let it go and then it just messes up. But it's crazy that I do that to me. But with LJ, like I have him, since he swims so much I have him on such like a high like proteins, carbs and like low fat and like the way I've seen like his body like develop in the last three months how he shredded the fat and gained a lot of muscle, it's like, well, if you can do that for your kid, why you can't do that for yourself?
Speaker 1:Well, he still needs a decent amount of fat for his brain.
Speaker 2:Oh, he gets that, don't you worry, he gets that.
Speaker 1:The reason why you can't eat like you're 25 anymore is because at the age of 25 is when your brain stops developing. It needs a higher amount of fat because it's developing. Your frontal cortex doesn't develop until you're 25. That's why you can't rent a car.
Speaker 2:I'm in a toxic relationship with belly fat.
Speaker 1:Well, you know who to call. Let's call a coach, I do Right now. You have nobody keeping you accountable.
Speaker 2:Not a soul.
Speaker 1:Right, and this happens. We've been through this. We've known each other a very long time. We've been through this. We've been. Well, we're going to we're, we're. And you, you know you're like okay, bring it on back, I'm ready, let's go but this time we gotta start slow.
Speaker 2:You're not finna. Just throw me in the in the lion's den, like you've been doing.
Speaker 1:You're not finna do that to me. You still go in the gym, I see you. Just because I don't see you in person doesn't mean I still don't watch you online and go somebody's at crunch today I don't even go to crunch you did I go to eos.
Speaker 2:I've been going to eos for two years okay, well, it was crunch before it was crunch before. But yeah, that's why I go now, because I still, I still do what I need to do.
Speaker 1:I just don't do it at the level that what's an EOS? It's next to Target. You don't live in the mainland without saying you don't live in the mainland.
Speaker 2:It's next to Target. It's right down the street from where Gold's used to be. It's on Gronto Lake.
Speaker 1:I have no clue what you're saying to me. You know we're blooming. I'm really good at nutrition, really good at nutrition. I'm really good at workouts.
Speaker 2:I am the most directionally challenged person you'll ever meet in your life. You know this. I'm just gonna tell you offline where is it? It's um, it's off of bloomingdale, where the target was. Don't worry about it, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll wrap offline and figure it out. Um, but yeah, I just want, uh, crash diets.
Speaker 1:Let's not do crash diets this year no, because they don't work and you can't maintain them. If you're doing a diet that you can't maintain, you can be like I can do this for 10 years. If you can't do it for a long time, don't do it. Why would you do that to yourself? Listen, I'm over here making my own bread. This is my sourdough starter. I eat lots of carbs. I lift heavy or heavy-ish. I was sick for three weeks. So new goals. Also, there's nothing wrong with carbohydrates, there's nothing wrong with fats, and you just have to learn how to navigate them and eat what you currently do within reason. So it together. Sodas, get it together. Have a diet soda instead. You did get me off the diet soda.
Speaker 2:You did get me off the soda and the energy drinks.
Speaker 1:I will say that and there's also tons of evidence to show that aspartame isn't as bad as everybody thinks it is. Now, if that's all you're drinking, of course you're going to be dehydrated and your kidneys are going to hurt and your liver's not going to be happy. Drink water, man, drink water. But you can also still have other things. Can I drink juice? Yeah, but you know what? The best way to do it is juice yourself. Get one of those orange juice juicers and juice it yourself.
Speaker 1:I was going to set up a few things and I forgot. Give me a second. Here's one of them. So you know, you want to cut some fats. Say you're overeating fat. I did have a point. Oh yeah, I was talking about being 25 and consuming more fat when I was talking about all day. Your brain stops developing at 25. So that's why you can't eat as much as you get older. You can't eat the same as you did as a kid because you can't have as much fat. It slowly decreases the older we get because we don't eat as much for our brain. Yes, baby, I mean it's still good to have fat. It's good for your skin, it's good for your hair, it's good for your nails, it's for you know your brain still, your body, your hormones, but the over consumption needs to stop. But a way to decrease the fats? Because I mean, if I could just like eat all the avocados. Avocados have 21 grams of fat. Oh, I don't know, avocado.
Speaker 1:Bless you. I could just like eat all the guacamole, but now when I look at a bowl of guacamole, I'm just like ah.
Speaker 2:Wow, I didn't know that. I didn't know avocados, because you told me it was a healthy fat?
Speaker 1:It's basically avocados for a bowl of guacamole, right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So that's 63 grams of fat.
Speaker 2:Oh Well, you put it in the perspective.
Speaker 1:I would love to be that way. I used to eat avocado that way and. But I mean, I'm not on amazon and nor do I have an amazon code to give you, but I get this off of amazon. You just give it a little squirt, squirt in your pan. Now your oil consumption is significantly lower. What is that? You just put oil in it. Yeah, this is cooking, and it lasts so much longer because you're not over consuming it. So in one teaspoon of oil is 12 to 14 grams of fat on top of your food.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Right, so you could actually have a little bit more butter than oil. Good job, okay, go play it.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting little device.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you just give a little squirt, squirt and if you do need a pour, it has an option. The only time I use the pour is for making my dog's food, because they need fat too. They can't be fat free. It'll make them sick too. So this is probably canola oil, because I don't like using olive oil on uh pancakes or anything oh, yeah, yeah, yeah right.
Speaker 1:And if you really can't control yourself with this, get pam who cares. You know you're trying to have better health. Well, a little bit of pam is it, but yes, if you want to cut fats, that's well, a little bit of Pam is in, but yes, if you want to cut fat, that's a little free advice. Get one of those little spray bottles from Amazon that will significantly help cut the fat. Don't eliminate fat, don't eliminate anything. Your body needs everything. Your body needs fruits, it needs vegetables. It can have protein. Whatever that protein is, I don't care, I don't judge it needs. You know, if you're eating pizza and wings and stuff like that, you're high in that fat, which is a lot of belly fat. There's a lot of heart issues, but also like dairy causes a significant amount of belly fat.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I got, I finally am getting that under control. I have finally found a dairy-free um cream cheese that I like, because I was just eating just regular cream cheese, which we know has a lot of fat. But now I have a dairy-free one from philadelphia is strawberry flavor, oh my gosh, it is so good. And then, like I what I use it on and um like my, my bagels and stuff like that and it's just yummy, yummy, yummy. But I did notice that when I picked back up with the dairy, like the weight was just like boom.
Speaker 1:Because a lot of people I think just over 80% of people actually have a dairy allergy Because they're drinking milk from a cow. Now, to be honest, if you want to drink dairy, you should be drinking human dairy. Yeah, because we're humans. We come from human. That's true. It seems weird. Seems weird, right to think about it. But why? Why is it normal to drink off? Would you drink off of those? No, you wouldn't. So why are you drinking their milk? That's just my personal opinion, and when people that I know or my clients have cut out dairy, it has significantly impacted their stomach in the best way possible. Now even goat's milk is lighter, but still I tell people to think about sucking on their teats. Is that normal? Right on their teats.
Speaker 2:Is that normal Right?
Speaker 1:But people that usually are sensitive can usually do goat snuff. But you wouldn't just like. Maybe some people would, but I personally would never, I would never suck off the nipple of a cow or a goat Like does that seem normal in any sort of way? I breastfed my kid. His immune system is amazing. He'll get a cold and then, like the next day, he's fine. It's great for other humans and there are people out there selling it.
Speaker 2:Yes, there are.
Speaker 1:I personally don't want to drink human milk, though, so I make my own oat milk, I make my own almond milk and sometimes I buy the store stuff because I can't put in the calcium, I can't put in the other things that it needs. So sometimes I buy it because it has more calcium, and almond milk has more calcium than a cow's milk.
Speaker 2:So our last thing, so I can, because my nephew need to go outside. What advice and suggestions and precautions do you have for people who say, oh, I want a protein powder or I want to take this fat burner Like. What advice and cautions do you have when it comes to supplements?
Speaker 1:I suggest getting what protein that you like best and what you can stick to. I've tried so many and I am not a fan of a lot out there. But I'm also vegan now and I shopped around and for me most of the vegan proteins taste like literally grass, like I'm eating grass and it's pulling up dirt and eating it with it, and I'm not for that. But I eventually found one that does not taste like grass. It tastes like chocolate and I love it. I use the vanilla for baking, um, so I suggest it's actually one of the better processed foods. So if you get protein powder but the protein powder is probably the best processed food that you can eat, because all food goes through a process If you don't grow it, you don't make it yourself- Right.
Speaker 1:It's processed. But protein powder is not as bad for me. I would stay away from way, just from personal experiences, because ways beef ways also have dairy in it. So, um, like I said with my clients, I've had better results turning them on to a vegan protein powder. But, like I said, get what you like, as long as you can stick to it. Uh, what was the other thing you were asking about?
Speaker 2:Like other supplements and being careful with them. Like you know, like you can go on social media and they have all of the supplements like take this, like take that, whatever.
Speaker 1:No, the only supplements you actually need to invest in is creatine and protein. That's it. If you want a pre-workout, that's a choice. That's extra money. I don't do pre-workout. I don't even drink coffee, so for me it's different. For you, you might need a pre-workout, or think you need a pre-workout. I enjoy going to the gym. I don't need to put something in my body to make me go. Some people might, and that's fine. That's a choice. Most bodybuilders I know are not drinking tons of pre-workouts. They just go. They're just dedicated. They just go. They wake up. They drink black coffee, they go. I don't drink black coffee. I don't like the way it tastes. You like coffee?
Speaker 1:I don't like coffee. I've had coffee a few times, only to keep myself awake when I'm no. I've had it a few times. Clients don't like me when I'm on coffee because the workouts get a thousand times harder.
Speaker 2:I feel like I train with you all the time on coffee.
Speaker 1:Creatine is really good for you know that muscle soreness that you get. Well, it also helps recovery. It also helps tendons and ligaments and joints, so it's something that you actually should take. It's also great for brain for your brain and it might. There's more study on it and there's better positive results. Violene is a great person to follow for studies. I'm sure eventually it'll be great for people with memory loss and other sorts of things. Enough, enough, please, enough, please.
Speaker 2:My favorite little small personal trainer.
Speaker 1:Yep, definitely. Protein and creatine are the only thing that I take and I am 43 years old. I've had 26 surgeries. I've been a pro wrestler for 24 years. I've been a personal trainer for almost two decades, nutritionist for almost two decades, yoga instructor for almost two decades, goat yoga instructor since 2020.
Speaker 2:We didn't even get to the goat yoga. We'll talk about goat yoga. I'll have to bring her back for another episode, get some fitness questions and have her answer some of the fitness questions and talk about, um, the goat yoga, because some people don't like to work out by themselves, so they choose group fitness, um. So, yeah, we'll.
Speaker 1:We'll run that back on um, the only group fitness that I love to teach is yoga and goat yoga. That that's it.
Speaker 2:That goat yoga look wild though.
Speaker 1:It is you probably like ah.
Speaker 2:You trying to sound dramatic, or something?
Speaker 1:A little bit, but I put a plate on your back while you've done a plank, so You've put plates a lot of places when I've done a lot of things. Yeah, so I'm pretty sure that you'd be able to handle it. Do you like farming? That's a no, she doesn't like farm animals. People in class are always like they have hooves.
Speaker 1:I'm like they're goats. They're farm animals. Of course they have boobs. People are special sometimes, but fitness really isn't as hard as people think it is. They just need dedication, commitment. It's not about motivation. It's about getting ass in the gym or going for a walk 8,000 steps a day. Going to the gym is good for your bone health, helps prevent osteoporosis and osteopenia. Osteopenia is the first stage of osteoporosis.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:My first bone scan I had osteopenia and then after that started lifting heavier weights.
Speaker 2:And it was gone.
Speaker 1:It didn't come up for my next scan, apparently it's not supposed to be able to go away, but it didn't come up for my next scan. So I love my bench. I love next scan. So I love my bench, I love my deadlift, I love my squats and I love all the accessories that I do with it.
Speaker 2:You love those bands.
Speaker 1:Accessories, yeah, accessories.
Speaker 2:Torture devices. Torture devices accessories. I mean you know same difference. I mean you know know.
Speaker 1:So my suggestion is get a coach. You can find online coaches. You can contact me if you're really serious. If you want to do online training, um b max fitness is what you can. Follow me b as in boy Max Fitness.
Speaker 2:And I'll tag her all of her information. Bmax Fitness with the goats.
Speaker 1:I love my goats.
Speaker 2:Better meet my goats. Yeah, I can't wait to meet. Listen, as long as they don't bite.
Speaker 1:We don't bite. They're very sweet. They're mini goats, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:As long as you yes a small one.
Speaker 1:I have one that's six months and still like.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's perfect for me no.
Speaker 1:No, that's, give me a moment.
Speaker 2:moment, let me try, let me work it out I mean I, training with her guys is like the best, like I miss it. I'm definitely gonna have to get back on it um next year, but um, I always do it. You can't make this up story. So this week's you can't make this up story is um from your nephew. So he decided to go bike riding the other day and, um, I was like I'll walk and so I said we'll walk to the new neighborhood and one way there was two miles. So I was like, okay, this is a good walk today. He ended up turning around and coming home and leaving me there, so I had to walk back another two miles, so I ended up walking four miles and it was like 11,000 steps and it took me an hour and 21 minutes fantastic and I was like, when I got back, I was like oh my god.
Speaker 2:I'm proud of him listen, I was like, okay, so I mean, but it was good because it wasn't too hot outside, it wasn't too cold outside, it was very calming little small hill and it was.
Speaker 1:You know what walking is fantastic for, besides your heart bowel flattening out that stomach, ball movements flattening out that stomach. We'll just say just like looks wise, flattening out that stomach. We'll just say looks-wise, flattening out that stomach.
Speaker 2:It helps your booty too.
Speaker 1:Movement helps your booty. When you sit on it all the time, it's going to look like a flat pancake, like a SpongeBob SquarePants.
Speaker 2:Mine don't look like that no more Now. When I started with you it was a little flat, but now we didn't round that thing out.
Speaker 1:I gave you a Beyonce booty. J we done rounded that thing out, I gave you a Beyonce booty. J-lo booty.
Speaker 2:J-Lo, definitely, definitely, a J-Lo booty. All right, guys. So that is the end of the show, and so y'all know I do a song lyric of the week. So our song lyric of the week for this week is going to be Kanye West workout plan. As always, please make sure you're following me on the socials. I will leave her socials on there as well, so you can follow her. You can follow me at thegaggispot, at instagramcom. Why am I giving Instagram like it's a whole website? Follow me on Instagram at thegaggispot. You're more than welcome to follow my personal pages websmartfit. Underscore. Oaky Is yours just bmaxfitness. Hers is just bmaxfitness, but I'll link it. I'll link it so that you can follow it and make sure that when you are listening to the episodes, that you are hitting the link in the corner so that you can get the episodes when they are released at 5 am on Friday's morning. As always. I am Charlee Chante. This is the Gag. Is Pod. Bye, guys.
