Your Health is Your Wealth with Diana Chaloux-LaCerte

Ready to embark on a journey to vibrant health and extraordinary living? Buckle up as we engage in a soul-stirring conversation with Diana Chaloux-LaCerte, a two-time world champion fitness athlete and successful entrepreneur, who has triumphed over depression and unhealthy eating habits to become a passionate force in the health and fitness world. With insights from her co-owned gym and Soul Fit Retreats, Diana illuminates the path to prioritizing health and wellness in your life today, debunking the myth of waiting for the 'perfect moment'.

But that's not all! We delve into the gritty realities of fitness professionals wrestling with weight gain, self-confidence, and transforming their careers. Understanding nutrition becomes key as we dismantle misconceptions about proper nourishment and its pivotal role in reaching fitness goals. Get ready to understand why building lean body mass is essential, especially for women in their 40s and beyond, and the incredible benefits of strength training. We also touch upon how sleep impacts our bodies and why there's no such thing as a 'too late' in your fitness journey.

Finally, we guide you through managing stress and staying healthy during the festive season - because who says wellness is only for the New Year? We emphasize intentional food choices, adequate sleep, and the power of a supportive community through our venture, Soul Fit Retreats. As we conclude, remember, an extraordinary life is not about external validation but about service and pursuing your unique path. Tune in, be inspired, and seize the reins of your health and happiness.

Connect with Michelle Rios:
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Website: https://michelleriosofficial.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

If you want to be a healthy person, you have to decide that first Do I want to be healthy and do I want it enough to actually make choices in my life that lead to me being a healthy person? Then don't wait till January one. We can start doing that today with little simple things. We can carry that through the holidays so that you start January one instead of okay, now I'm going to be a healthy person, you start January one, as I am a healthy person.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Hi, I'm Michelle Rios, host of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. This podcast is built on the premise that life is meant to be joyful, but far too often we settle for less. So if you've ever thought that something is missing from your life, that you were meant for more, or you simply want to experience more joy in the everyday, then this podcast is for you. Each week, I'll bring you captivating personal stories, transformative life lessons and juicy conversations on living life to the fullest, with the hope to inspire you to create a life you love on your terms, with authenticity, purpose and connection. Together, we'll explore what it means to live an extraordinary life, the things that hold us back and the steps we all can take to start living our best lives. So come along for the journey. It's never too late to get started, and the world needs your light.

Speaker 3: 1:35

Hey everyone, welcome to this week's episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. I'm your host, michelle Rios, and I am thrilled to have my new friend, diana Charleulis-Sert, who is not only an entrepreneur, a business consultant, a fitness expert, she's a five-time author and she also happens to be a two-time world champion fitness athlete. She is the co-owner of HitchFit Gyms and she also runs the Soul Fit Retreats, which we'll talk more about later in this episode. Diana, I am so thrilled to have you. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Oh, thank you Michelle, I'm so excited to be here, all right.

Speaker 3: 2:17

So first of all, you were from Vermont, but now you're living in Kansas.

Speaker 1: 2:23

I'm on the Missouri side of Kansas City. Yeah, okay, very good.

Speaker 3: 2:27

All right. So, again, a little intimidating for me to be sitting here with the two-time world champion fitness athlete on a Friday afternoon going how is my eating and fitness been this week? But I have to say you could not be more down to earth, really, truly, our conversations so far have just been very soul nurturing and I just feel like if I were to work out with anyone who was that accomplished in the fitness arena, it would be you, diana. Oh well, thank you for that. I appreciate it. But let's step back for a minute. How on earth did you get to be where you are today? I mean the fact that you are really immersed in the fitness arena. You co-own a gym. You're running these soul fit retreats. You're a very accomplished author. Again, there's world champion fitness athlete. How did that happen? Have you always been so healthy and, naturally, fitness inclined?

Speaker 1: 3:32

No, Good for me, for me and I'll tell you about that. No, you know, it's really been a beautiful journey, probably the past I would say 18 to 20 years of my life. But the reason I am where I am today and the reason that I am so passionate about all of these things that the Lord has kind of led me into over the years, is because I went through my own personal transformation, and so the reason I love seeing people transform and I love seeing them find what it's like to live in a body that is strong and healthy from the inside out, is because I've been there myself and I had a period of my life that was I was struggling with a little bit of depression. I had some really bad eating habits, I was a binge eater, and so what I would do would I would starve myself all day, I would binge eat in the night and just stuff myself and then with whatever, and I would wake up the next morning feeling horrible and feeling shame and feeling guilt and feeling all of these things.

Speaker 1: 4:35

But then I would repeat the cycle and it really felt like a trap for me, like I felt like I was in bondage to that behavior, and that was in my late twenties, but it was like kind of behavior that had just progressed and I was gaining weight and gaining weight, and gaining weight. And I had the opportunity to work for a cruise ship, for Norwegian cruise lines, for a period of time in my mid twenties, and so I gained a lot of weight there because it was like beer and all of the food that's on a cruise ship. And I stepped on the scale one day and I was running the fitness program at that time too, but still, okay, I was going to say were you working in the all the you can eat buffet or were you in the fitness?

Speaker 3: 5:13

No, I was like the fitness director.

Speaker 1: 5:15

But I was gaining weight and gaining weight and I stepped on the scale one day and it sailed up to a number that I had never seen in my life. It was 175 pounds and it probably went up higher than that before I actually started making changes. But for me that was scary because it was a really fast gain and I was like I knew I needed to do something. When I got off the ship, my little sister saw me for the first time after a year and she didn't say anything, but I saw it on her face of like whoa, what have you done to yourself? And so I kind of still had a period of excuses, but I finally reached what I call my independence day on July 5th of 2005.

Speaker 1: 5:54

When I was like enough is enough, I'm so tired of these excuses, and I had these big dreams and goals within the fitness industry, specifically Like I loved oxygen magazine and to me that was like a strong, beautiful woman with these strong physiques and I was so drawn to that and I wanted to be that. But the behaviors that I had, I was never going to get there if I kept on that path and it finally just clicked. It was like in an instant. You have these aha moments that like it switches in an instant, and that's why I call that my independence day, of the day that the bondage was broken and literally I changed my life that day. I started being intentional with all my choices and that's what led to me competing in shows, being a world champion of the world, and then I mean that's like a really big deal.

Speaker 3: 6:45

I'm just kind of going back to this time in my own life and thinking, oh, wait a minute. She was reading oxygen magazine. I had shape magazine, which was probably not, as they weren't as intense fitness models. However, I had the shape magazines and I probably was drinking diet coke and eating not so good food while reading shape magazine, hoping that osmotic things would get better. So I feel you, sister, yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:12

I mean, how common is that? And so, yeah, it's just like it had to come to that point of I mean, they're going to get these goals and dreams that I have or I'm going to stay stuck in these patterns that are taking me to a place where I don't feel well in my body and I don't feel well mentally. I was struggling a lot with my self-esteem too, because it was like that period of time where I was desperately wanting to meet people to like me and I feel like I compromised who I was because I just wanted people to like me, because I just wasn't confident in who I was. So all of that changed about little over 18 years ago for me, and once I got a taste of what it was like. On the other side of that mindset, there's just literally been no turning back and there's been some wonderful things that I've been able to achieve, but there's so much more to come. Like I've got my sights set on just how much more impact and how many more lives can we change going forward from?

Speaker 3: 8:07

here. Okay, I want to back up for a minute though. So growing up back in Vermont in your college days, did you always know that you wanted to be in the fitness industry? Was this a goal of yours early on in life, or when did that interest in fitness as a profession come into your world?

Speaker 1: 8:28

For me it was about I was an athlete in high school, so I played sports and so that was something I really enjoyed. I was extremely, painfully, painfully shy as a kid. For me I would have a panic attack if you called me on me to speak in class, which is really weird. That now, like I like speaking on stages and stuff, but like at that point in my life I was so terrified in sports and athletics, is kind of what helped me build just an identity that I felt confident enough and then helped me overcome that.

Speaker 1: 8:59

But the fitness industry in particular hit me after college and I remember I had gotten an office job straight out of college. My degree was in business administration and I was working in an office and I was miserable. It was like 9 am to 5 pm and I would like staring at the clock. Staring at the clock and I was like if I could do one thing in my life, what would I be doing? If I could just be waking up every morning and like so excited to go and do whatever my job or my work was, and after I worked, every day I would go to the gym and there was this job and there was this gym. I was actually living in Manchester, New Hampshire, at this point in time. Right after college I lived in Manchester, New Hampshire, for a short period of time, so there's a golds gym there, and every day after work I worked kind of right outside of Boston. So it was like this long drive in this gridlock traffic and then I would get there and be like, ah, this is so nice.

Speaker 1: 9:55

So it was one day I was on an elliptical in at the golds gym in Manchester, New Hampshire and I was like, what am I going to do with my life? That like I actually like wake up and love what I do. And I was like, oh, it's here, it's at the gym. Like, wait, what do I have to do so I get to come here every day? And that was literally the day that it started for me trying to figure out.

Speaker 1: 10:20

My first steps were becoming a personal trainer and then I always have been an entrepreneur. So I was like, well, how do I have my own place and how do I build my own thing? But it started for me, Literally. I will not forget that moment that was an aha moment for me too of just this oh it's here. Like this is my world. And this is if I could come one place every day and be happy it's here. So it was a pursuit from that day on of like, how do I make it? So I just get to go to the gym and wear gym clothes every day and make a living.

Speaker 3: 10:49

I love this, I love it. Okay, so you got into the personal fitness industry. You became a trainer. When did you start to really decide? Okay, I'm going to take you to take this to a new level. I'm going to. I don't know what came first, if you were starting to do the world champion fitness athlete competitions, or if you became a gym owner first. And I know you're an author, a five time author at that. So I want to kind of get an understanding of like sort of how things came together for you.

Speaker 1: 11:24

So it started with becoming a personal trainer and that's what I did. After that moment in New Hampshire, I just started figuring out what I needed to do to work at the gym. I ended up moving to Park City, utah after that with a bunch of friends and so my first job at a gym was actually in Park City, utah, and like we'd all moved out there to go work for the Olympics and be ski bumps for the stuff, that was a whole other thing. But that was where I had my first job in a gym and again, I loved it. I really loved it so much and that was when I started reading oxygen and I read Shape Magazine too. But it was like that was the oxygen, it was like fitness light. Yeah yeah, it was like I call it fluffy. That was a little fluffy.

Speaker 3: 12:07

It was very fluffy. I will admit that it was kind of like a mix of Cosmo and a little bit of fitness.

Speaker 1: 12:13

Yeah, which is fine, because that's what some people need is like that's the. It was my baby's step to fitness. That's absolutely nothing zero wrong with that. But it was that period of time that I really was like I love this and I want to start really stepping into this. And the more that I was reading, oxygen and muscle and fitness hers was coming into play and I was like really starting to lean towards it then.

Speaker 1: 12:36

And that was the period of time that I just had pictures torn out of the magazines and I had them all over my walls of these women.

Speaker 1: 12:43

But again, I was doing the working out portion but I didn't know anything about the nutrition piece. And so when I started gaining weight and then when I went on the cruise ship and gained all of that weight, it wasn't that I wasn't exercising I've always loved and enjoyed the exercise piece it was that I didn't have any knowledge of the nutrition and how important it was and how it was impacting my body so much. So that was the piece for me. When I had the moment where I was so sick of the gaining weight and making excuses, my first thing was hiring somebody to teach me about nutrition and how I needed to eat in order to actually get my body to do what I wanted it to do. And when I went through that process and I saw my body changing and I realized I couldn't manipulate what my body looked like with how I was feeding it, it was such a freedom to me because I was confused, like you get so much information and you're told this is healthy. So the low fat?

Speaker 3: 13:46

era of the 1980s probably wrecked my metabolism forever and ever. That was like the worst advice ever.

Speaker 1: 13:54

Oh, it was terrible and it was the same. It was like it was all sugar. Yeah, yeah, I remember there was like these cake things and it was like that free, yeah, but cookies.

Speaker 3: 14:06

I used to eat those. What were they called Snackwells? I used to eat them. Yes, that was a health food. You can eat like a whole box. You're right, I'm so fat. The equivalent of fruit right.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Yeah, it's like they're so fat I can eat the whole thing. I get it. So that was like this light bulb for me when I figured out how to eat. And then when I saw my body changing, it was like this is so cool, I have control over this. And then I had this freedom within my body too of just like, oh, if I eat this way, not only does my body look this way, but then I get to do all of these other things too, and I'm strong and I get to wake up in the morning and I feel great. So it was really.

Speaker 1: 14:47

Once I had that piece, I started diving in and learning the nutrition component Like I devoured anything, all the courses that I could find, because I was like this is the piece I have to figure out, because I have to be able to teach people how to do this If I'm actually going to be a trainer and a coach and someone that takes them through transformation.

Speaker 1: 15:07

Because what a lot of people don't know, they go to personal trainers for weight loss usually, or for building muscle or whatever it might be, and the majority of when you become a personal trainer, you don't learn about the nutrition component really much, except for like a food pyramid. So there's not really a lot of teaching. Here's how you teach people to eat, so their body actually changes too. So even though you go to a personal trainer a lot of times for fat loss, the majority don't actually know how to tell you how to structure your eating. So your body actually changes and does what you want it to do too. So that's kind of a misconception of I'm going to go to a trainer. Some of them are going to know how to tell you those things, but a big majority are not, not all of them.

Speaker 3: 15:50

Yeah, well, and it's the same thing, I think, with the medical arena. I was talking with a group of doctors who are like we're not studying nutrition in med school, so a lot of primary care physicians and internists aren't necessarily the folks that you want to be going for weight loss either, because they're not schooled in this. They're looking for the same info. We are online, and so I think finding people who really are nutrition specialists is kind of a unique thing, because so many even the nutritionists that I've met going back many years, were schooled on what the USDA guidelines were, which I think if you've ever lived in Europe, there's a big question on whether or not those should actually be our dietary guidelines. What are your?

Speaker 1: 16:37

thoughts. Yeah, I mean, it really is such a good point. And the thing is the world of bodybuilding we'll call it or fitness competition where you really learn the ins and outs of how. So I always say there's healthy eating, there's eating healthy things, and then there's eating healthy things in a way that actually gets your body to change and do what you want it to do.

Speaker 1: 16:58

So people who know all about nutrition, they can teach you how to eat healthfully not necessarily teach you how to eat those healthy foods in a way, in a structure and in conjunction with training, to get your body to actually transform and turn it into what you would like it to turn into. So I think that's the difference. Like they have a wealth of knowledge around so many components, but then it's like how do we take that? And then, okay, but here's how we structure it, so then we actually can maintain lean body mass, build lean body mass, reduce body fat, but keep our lean body mass. So we're not just dieting and losing a whole bunch of muscle and then we're messing with our metabolisms and all of those kinds of things too.

Speaker 3: 17:41

So, okay, let's just take a step back for a minute and we think about the US population. I think what there's like 360 or 70 million of us. Now here in this country, we have an epidemic issue with obesity, despite the fact that access to information on what we should eat is readily available. Why is that? Do you think it's not for lack of information? Now, before it was, I don't think people knew what to do.

Speaker 3: 18:11

Before and I'm talking about 30 years ago. 40 years ago, it was like a little bit of folks had the knowledge and it wasn't wildly dispersed. But now we have the internet, anybody can do a Google search and find reputable sites that talk about even if you don't want to become a world fitness champion someone like me who wants to age well, feel good in her body, be able to have the energy to do the activities I enjoy doing and know that I am not on. I'm on a path that is keeping me disease free as possible. There's information out there, so why is a country, do we have such a difficulty in staying healthy and staying lean?

Speaker 1: 18:56

Oh, that's a loaded question, huh.

Speaker 1: 18:59

With that I'm going to have some nice movie. I think there's a lot of pieces to that answer, but one I will hone in on is that living a healthy lifestyle really starts with our mindsets. It really starts with what's happening up here, and if you're telling yourself that this is worth it for you, if you're telling yourself that you are worth it, I really think that that's where it starts. We live in a diet culture, not a healthy lifestyle culture, which does not help our obesity epidemic at all. In fact, it makes it worse because people keep trying to do these quick things, these quick fixes, and they keep doing more and more damage to their bodies every time that they go back and forth with that. And so I think that's one of the biggest key components is because, when we're talking about lifestyle change, change is hard and, sad to say, is majority people would rather die than change. And it's like because when you're on a path that leads to obesity, or whether you are obese, we know where that path leads. We know that when we don't take care of our bodies, when we don't exercise, when we film with junk or with whatever, we know that that leads to disease. That's not a mystery. It's proven, proven, proven, proven, proven. Live this way.

Speaker 1: 20:25

You may be one of the exceptions to the rule. You may be able to get away with something here and there, but the majority of those people it's going to be diabetes, it's going to be different types of cancers, it's going to be heart issues. It's going to be all of these things our bodies shutting down because they weren't taking care of. So, like you said, it's not that we don't have lots of information about just eat whole food. Let's start simple with that and move your body on a regular basis. I think that change is really hard and these things can be addicting the behaviors can be addicting, the foods can be addicting. A lot of people have a lot of inner trauma and inner pain that they've never dealt with, and food is a comfort and it is a way of soothing those things and it's a way of doling pain that has not been dealt with. That's a major, major issue. So, and again just ties back up into what's happening up here.

Speaker 3: 21:17

The mindset, yeah, for everyone listening when we think about. I mean, you honed in on a really important point that I think is unique for the US not to say that other countries don't have obesity issues, because I'm quite aware that actually Latin America is increasingly a problem, but we have a very quick fix culture. We want everything to happen yesterday and when you go to Europe, for example, you can go hang out in Italy and eat pasta all week long and lose weight. The way they make their food, the way they live their life. So, from a lifestyle standpoint, I think also rarely do you find people living so far away from their nuclear families, right, like there isn't this mass dispersion that we have, like in the US, where kids go off to college and you have to go find a place to go work.

Speaker 3: 22:11

It's rarely where you grew up and we don't have those family units. We have to end up recreating things wherever we go and I know that that has to have an impact on loneliness and whether or not we sit down to eat, because who wants to eat alone? Right, if you don't have family ties. But you look at Europe, and it's not that they don't indulge here and there, but like portion size or smaller to begin with. The way they grow their food is different to begin with and so the whole lifestyle is slower right off the bat. And we can argue all day long about the pros and cons of the US versus Europe for other reasons, but, like from a health perspective, I think hands down, they have us beaten a lot of ways, naturally right, like just the way it is like growing up in that kind of culture.

Speaker 1: 23:02

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's so many good points that you just hit on there, and I think those are also factors for us too. But I think of would we even do that in the US, like, would we slow down? Do we live in a culture that would be like, oh, let's be more mindful of how we're creating these foods? Or do we live in a culture where it's like, hey, let's cram whatever we hand into this food to make it the most addicting that we can for people, so that they want to buy it and consume mass quantities of it? So that's our reality, that's what we live in.

Speaker 1: 23:37

I don't say that to take personal choice out of it, because we always, 100% still have personal choice. But we live in a quick fix, fast culture. Let's make stuff like food companies will do research to figure out exactly how much salt and sugar and fat needs to go into stuff to make it as highly palatable and addicting as possible, so that you don't just eat a little bit, so that you eat a lot and then you buy it and you eat more and more and more and more. So again, we have personal responsibility. We are completely responsible for every choice of everything that we put into our bodies, but the reality is that is the culture that we live in.

Speaker 3: 24:14

That's the backdrop that we're operating in. Yeah, it's a tough one, okay. So let's talk about when people meet you for the first time, diana, and they become acquainted with your work as a personal trainer, who you are as a gym owner. I want to hear all about that. How do you take someone like me? I'm pretty average, like, from a health standpoint. I'm pretty healthy, but average. I'm probably not going to be bodybuilding, but I do want to build more muscle. I know that that's critically important. As I age, I have learned that over the last few years, probably more so than maybe in my early 40s when I was like, oh, is it that important? Yes, it is. So let's talk a little bit about the mindset around why we need muscle, because I think that's something that a lot of people dismissed not too long ago. As is it really that important? Like, can I just be slim? Isn't that good enough? And the answer is no, it's not. So tell me a little bit about what we know now about the importance of muscle.

Speaker 1: 25:23

Yeah, and I'm so glad you brought this up and I would say it's important for everybody, but I want to say, especially for women, especially in our 40s, our 50s, our 60s and beyond, it is critical. It is critical to be maintaining as much lean body mass as you can in order to make literally just make life as productive, as efficient, as easy, I guess, to make it as easy as we can on ourselves so that we can be as productive and efficient as we possibly can be. I'm so fired up about just trying to get women especially, to understand how important it is to have lean body mass. Longevity studies I mean it is like one of the pieces of evidence of longevity and morbidity is how much lean body mass that you have. So it's literally one of those things that if you can focus on building, maintaining lean body mass as you age, you're literally going to live longer and you're literally going to live a more healthful life. And so, women, we start declining with our muscle mass even in our 30s, and then it can happen really quickly once we're I think it's age 44, it starts happening at a faster and faster rate.

Speaker 1: 26:36

But what people don't know is that does not have to happen. That's not a guaranteed like. It doesn't matter what your lifestyle is, this is going to happen to you. We know now that if strength training is a regular part of what you're doing as far as part of your exercise regimen, and if you're consuming enough protein because we need protein in order to build and maintain lean body mass so if you're consuming enough protein and you are strength training on a regular basis, you can prevent so much of those lean body mass losses and you can even build lean body mass and even in their 50s, their 60s and even their 70s, building lean body mass at this point in their life. So, and also bone strength and bone density and preventing osteoporosis and again, so that your bones don't break, so that you can get up and down stairs more easily, so you can play with grandkids, so that you can just be more efficient. And everything you want to do if you want to travel, if you want to go for a hike.

Speaker 3: 27:37

You had me, if you want to travel, because I want to be able to walk on my own as I age. I don't want to have to have assistance if I can prevent it. Right, we want to be independent for as long as possible. I'm curious. You said something and I want to stop here for a minute. What if you haven't really been paying attention to lean body mass and now you're like, oh, I need to get on the program here, I need to start doing something. Is it ever too late to start?

Speaker 1: 28:06

Literally never too late. That's the beautiful thing about our bodies is. I always encourage people start as early as you can, because you're going to make it a whole lot easier. If you start strength training in your 20s and your 30s. You're going to make your 40s, 50s and 60s way easier if that's already a part of your life. But if you're 63, 64 or 65 and you're like I've never lifted a weight in my life, great, get started. Start now, because it will have a positive impact, regardless of what age that you're starting at. Our bodies are just. It's so beautiful how our bodies were designed and how God just made us to be able to adapt and respond to things and your body will respond.

Speaker 1: 28:46

Our oldest client that comes into the gym is in his 90s and it's amazing and he's fantastic. He, just because it's just part, he wants to stay as active as possible. He also understands how the strength training impacts his brain and his mental capacity and his mental health. So there literally is no, oh, you're too old, oh, it's too late for you. I've never met a single person in all my years doing this that I was like ah, you're right, yeah, you can, there's nothing you're going to be able to do, like there's always going to be something that you can do and even if there's limitations, even if there's I've had knee replacements, I've had surgeries, I've had this, I've had that there is literally something that you can do. There is a way of working around everything and it may be you may not be doing as intense of workouts as someone else or all of the things someone else can do, but there's things that you can do regardless. So I just say just get started.

Speaker 3: 29:41

Okay, so you heard it here Never too late and never too old to get started with a building, a lean muscle and body mass for longevity, for, I think, just increased overall performance, energy in your life, clearer thinking, feeling good in your skin, all the things right. But I did one of these tests, diana, you're going to laugh. You know the ones where they tell you to get down on the floor and, not using your hands, you need to get yourself back up. That was tough and that was like ooh, wake up call, wake up call. And I'm pretty flexible. But it didn't matter that. I was really flexible.

Speaker 3: 30:19

I have a really stronger lower body, but I didn't have the strength to do it completely. I had to assist myself and push myself off the floor and I was watching these much older ladies 30 and 40 years older than me do it with ease because they have been doing this for a long time and they just took better care of themselves sooner. So I am highly motivated because I am very competitive. I didn't even know that was a thing. Try to get yourself up off the floor without using your hands or grabbing onto something to push yourself up, and if you can do that without having to get on your knees, you can get yourself up from a seated position. That's a good sign of overall strength. It is not easy, actually, if you're not in shape.

Speaker 1: 31:08

It's not easy, but I love that you actually tried to do it, because now you know, and now is something that can work on. I would say if you just worked on it, within a couple of weeks, if you were consistent with working on it, you'll be able to do it. Because again, it's just like our bodies will adapt. They're like, oh, we're doing something new. Okay, oh, you're going to do this repeatedly. Okay, I'll build some strength there so that you can do that. That's how our bodies respond. So I work on it. And then I want to know in like a month from now.

Speaker 3: 31:36

All right, we're going to check in, okay. So let's talk very specifically about the holidays. We're in the holiday season, we're gearing up. We're going to be in the new year. Everybody kind of sees this as we hit the restart in January, but this is a great time to just be mindful and to not set yourself up to feeling really worse when you get to January. What are things that you're telling your clients? What are things you're doing yourself to keep it simple but also navigate these holidays so that we don't feel awful, because so often I can think about all the parties people are going to and the iPhone and all the temptations around every corner, as we're bringing in lots of candies and chocolates and cakes and pastries and alcohol at all the parties and all the things, and it's all very festive and it's all very fun and so for it's wreaking havoc on our physical health and our mental health as a result. So talk about what are some just simple things that we should be aware of and that we can be doing to navigate all of this.

Speaker 1: 32:45

Well, I would say it is a super busy time, but when we're talking about I think it's start thinking of this as a lifestyle now and I really just would encourage people don't think I'll just do whatever through the holidays and then January one I'm going to start a diet, like please, let's just get away from that thought process and let's start now thinking about what a lifestyle looks like, because holidays are part of our lifestyle. So we're never going to have a time in our lives where there's not going to be a holiday that's coming up. So let's just get in the mindset now of like we make healthy choices throughout these things, regardless of what's going on. So if you have less time for exercise, no problem. Then get 10 or 15 minutes in. If you still move your body, it's going to help you. There's a lot of stress that comes with the holiday. So one of the best things that we can do to manage the stress of the holidays is move our bodies and get that out of our physical bodies. So make that a priority. It's going to make the rest of your holidays more enjoyable. And the other thing if you have a little more time for exercise and just can get, if you're able to do something more intense. That's also going to help just with your appetite If you're going into party situations.

Speaker 1: 33:54

I always tell my clients too when you're going into a situation where there's going to be a lot of food and there's going to be a lot of treats and your health is a priority for you and you have health goals or fitness goals that you want to work towards, eat in advance, like eat something healthy before you go. Don't go into those situations like okay, there's going to be all of this stuff, so I'm just going to not eat all day and then I'm going to be so starving and then there's going to be all of this food and I'm going to be so hungry that I'm just going to eat whatever is there. Be intentional before you go into those situations, so that you're not hungry, because we can go into social situations and we can enjoy the time and we can have laughter and we can enjoy the holidays for what they truly are, without filling ourselves with so much junk that we wake up the next morning and we feel terrible. So I just say just like, let's start thinking of it.

Speaker 1: 34:42

If you want to be a healthy person, you have to decide that first, do I want to be healthy and do I want it enough to actually make choices in my life that lead to me being a healthy person? Then don't wait till January 1, we can start doing that today with little simple things. We can carry that through the holidays so that you start January 1 instead of okay, now I'm going to be a healthy person. You start January 1 as I am a healthy person and now I have more goals. The other thing I just would say is, statistically, people make all of these goals in January. It's only 9% of people that actually fulfill a goal that they make it the new year. So if you're going to say, okay, january 1, I'm going to do the diet and I'm going to be healthy, there's 91% chance that you're probably not.

Speaker 3: 35:29

Wow, that's a really startling statistic on what I'm making change in resolutions and why they resolutions don't really work that way. You need to make permanent change. Okay, so let's talk about sleep. I'm very curious. Sleep has always been a joke, like I need my beauty rest. I'm a big believer in getting at least seven to eight hours of sleep. If I can get more, that would be great, but I have not figured out how to get more yet. Talk about the importance of sleep and what happens when we push ourselves and we don't get enough sleep. Because they don't think people truly recognize the impact of sleep deprivation on their internal body chemistry and what's going on underneath the hood, so to speak.

Speaker 1: 36:17

Oh, it's such a good one, and I love sleep. Sleeping is my favorite.

Speaker 3: 36:24

We could be good friends. Diana Love sleeping, I love naps.

Speaker 1: 36:30

It's so important for our health and it is. It's one of those things. Like you know, people always think diet and exercise. Diet and exercise obviously big components, but sleep is a huge, huge component For one. It's like it's when our body recovers. It's when our body recovers and restores, like sleep is restorative for us.

Speaker 1: 36:50

So if we're not getting enough sleep, it means that our bodies aren't able to recover. It's going to impact our brain function and then, from a hormonal level, like it impacts our hormones. So when you're sleep deprived, a lot of times you're going to feel hungrier. It's going to actually increase the hormones that cause you to feel hungrier. So people that get less sleep, a lot of times they'll gain weight quickly and one of the reasons that that happens is because there's an increase in hunger, so they tend to be eating more than their body actually needs. But it's because those hormone levels have increased and it's also stressful on our bodies to not get the sleep that we need. So people that are not sleeping enough, the cortisol levels can rise in their bodies, which is a fat storage hormone, and so then that makes fat gain easier if they're consuming more calories than their body can expend in the day Just more readily will store it as fat too.

Speaker 1: 37:44

So from just a restoration and mental health perspective, it's really important to be getting enough sleep. But from a weight loss perspective and from a recovery standpoint, it's critical to be sure that you're getting enough sleep. We've seen clients over the years that have been trying to lose weight, trying to lose weight and they're stalled out in their weight loss and they're doing things right as far as they're eating, they're exercising and it's like okay, tell me about sleep. And one person comes to mind that Micah was working with that was only sleeping maybe three to four hours and was like you know, I'm doing all this extra, I'm doing all this stuff. Micah was like okay, that's great, I want you to sleep, I want you to cut back on your exercising, keep your eating healthy, and I just want you to focus on sleeping within a week or two.

Speaker 3: 38:30

Got right through that plateau. Yeah, yeah, Amazing, yeah, it's really truly amazing when we are not sleeping. And look, you know, I just remember well, not even that long ago I was going to say back in college and grad school, not sleeping because you were pulling all-nighters. But even in my professional life, when there's a deadline or there's a proposal due, we tend to push and caffeine fuel our way through. Oh, I just have like one week of this crazy push, but then it throws you off for such a long time after the fact.

Speaker 1: 39:05

Yeah, and I think when we're younger we can get like it feels like we can get away with that. Like when I think back to those years I feel like I slept way less, but now I'm like man, how much better would I have performed in everything that I was doing if I actually got sleep and had a clearer mind? And that's the other thing is just like the mental clarity and I noticed it because I'm so in tune with my physical health and like my mental clarity and I go. When we have these times, like when we run retreats, those four or five days, I get less sleep because we are go, go, go, go go. We are facilitating all of these people. By the end of that time, I know in my brain I'm like come on, come on, give me the things. I know that they're there. And it's like I can tell that it's just taking my brain like longer to figure things out and longer to tackle these things. And then I get a good night's sleep and I'm like, oh, there it is, yeah.

Speaker 3: 40:00

Brain fog goes away. It's amazing, right? Yeah, tell me a little bit about what you guys were up to, because I'm very curious. You just mentioned the retreats. Talk to us about Soul Fit retreats just in general, because you hold these a couple times a year. Once a year, how often are you running these and what is the Soul Fit retreat concept?

Speaker 1: 40:23

Oh yeah, so we're so excited about Soul Fit, so our original business, hitch Fit, we've had that for 15 years and we have online personal training too. So we've got online personal training that we've been working with people globally for years. The gym, like you mentioned, and then that has kind of in the last year to year and a half, the Lord kind of led us into this retreat business and there's kind of a whole story behind that. But I'll just start with like where we're at now with Soul Fit and their faith and fitness based retreats, and our whole goal is just I really want people to come in their faith and fitness, because I believe that those are I call them our wrecking ball tools for breakthrough. Like we all have stuff in our lives that we're trying to push past, whether it's in our faith and our fitness and our relationships and our business, and I believe that if we want to have breakthrough and bust through these walls or these barriers, we have to have the right tools, and I think the most powerful tools, the wrecking ball tools, is strong faith and strength in our fitness, and I mean fitness of our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual fitness. So that's why it's faith and fitness and everything that we do within Soul Fit will be faith and fitness based, because those are our most powerful tools that we can use. And so we do the retreats and right now we're just doing two retreats a year because it's just, we're newer. We brought 90 people with us to Mexico in March and it was just an absolutely beautiful time and we work out and we do those type of things. But the goal really is I want people to have a community and an environment where they feel seen and where they feel connected. Because I feel like in the world right now, what we need more than anything is just to see each other and to connect with each other and to not be like, hey, look at my perfect life, nothing's wrong. But to be like here's my stuff and it's like, okay, I see you. Like let's work on that and let's work on whatever it is, let's get in there and let's do the deeper work, let's work on the healing or the breakthrough or whatever it is, so that we can all be just more empowered and living our best and strongest life in every way. So that's kind of the concept is like let's get these people together and, through the tools of faith and fitness. Let's break them down and then let's build them back up so that we are all just collectively stronger. And so, yeah, that's kind of the foundation of it. So we do Mexico.

Speaker 1: 42:57

We also do an adventure retreat. We did one in Asheville, north Carolina, in September of this past year smaller group, more intimate, unbelievable time and just so much fun. But it was the connection that was the most beautiful thing. And people coming in and I say it's like they're taking off their masks and just saying, showing who they are, and then they just love on each other, we get to love on them, we get to pour into them and then they walk away changed. I just want to have impact and see people walk away from these things changed.

Speaker 1: 43:30

So we've got the retreats and then we have our first conference coming up in January of 2024 and it's in Tampa January 26th or 28th, and I'm calling it lean in, level up, and the whole concept behind the conference was let's do what we're doing in retreats, but let's be able to bring a bigger group of people in together and let's talk about this stuff that holds us back in our fitness relationships, our businesses and even finances.

Speaker 1: 43:59

So we're kind of encompassing all those things. I've got like an insane lineup of speakers on all these topics and it's like let's not run away from this stuff. We want to be part of that 9% of people that actually ends the year with like, oh yeah, I actually did the things this year that I was hoping that I could do. So we put it intentionally at that point in January, which is the time of year when people are like, oh, new Year resolutions, what was that? I'm not even thinking about that anymore three weeks in. So it's like let's lean in, let's dig into those faith and fitness tools, let's learn how to use them and let's break through with a wrecking ball these things that have held us back, so that we can level up. So that's what's going on.

Speaker 3: 44:43

Let me ask you a little bit. So I'm assuming non-denominational faith-based like everyone's welcomed. All different faiths come together. Tell me more.

Speaker 1: 44:54

Yeah, I mean, anybody is welcome to come to our events, and so we have people of just all different walks of life and all different faith. I'm a believer in Jesus and I am a believer and follower of Him. So Micah, my husband and I we always lean boldly with that. We'll never be shy about our belief system and I believe I want to love on people. That's how we approach. So it's not a Christian conference. We don't call them Christian retreats. Like, anybody is welcome to come in. I'll be open with where I am and where my heart is, but I'm here to pour some love on whoever wants to come and help them work through whatever they need to work through.

Speaker 3: 45:33

I love it. Back to us a little bit about the format of the conference. Is it similar to the retreat style? I mean, obviously you're probably talking about a much bigger group of people coming in for conferences.

Speaker 1: 45:44

Yeah. So the retreats is like we go to the resort and we're all there together and there's activities and workouts and that type of thing. The conference will be what you think of, with a conference setting of stage with just different speakers and we'll have breakout sessions. I'm honestly really trying to structure this in a way where we have so much engagement from the people that are there too.

Speaker 1: 46:07

I don't want it to be this situation where people come in and it's just oh, I sat and I listened to speakers, because our biggest thing is like I want people to feel seen and I want them to feel connected. So it's going to be different, because I actually had this epiphany the other day. I was like we've literally never done anything the way that everybody else does it, so why on earth would I do the conference the same way as anybody else? So it's going to be an event where we create space for the people that are there and we want to see them and we want to interact with them and we want to engage them and we want people to walk away feeling empowered and literally feeling like okay, these are things I can apply right now that are going to change my life and I feel seen and I feel like I now have a community of people around me that I'm like are going to support me, are going to hold me accountable, to like actually do these things.

Speaker 3: 47:02

I love that building of community, particularly in a time in the world where we know that loneliness is an epidemic. Having an opportunity to come together with like-minded people who are focused on their health and breaking through with faith, to be able to find each other and connect and leave these sorts of events and still be able to be in contact with these people, I think is really important. So bravo to you and Micah for bringing this to the world and bringing it forward. We'll make sure that we have not only information on where you can find Diana, but obviously her retreats, her conference, her website, a link to everything.

Speaker 3: 47:45

But, diana, tell me a little bit about what your goals are for 2024. I'm very curious, like what's on your horizon? You obviously live a lifestyle that, in and out, every day, is a reflection of your beliefs and your core values, which I think you're just the embodiment of. Going to just kind of hang out with you more. That's just going to happen, but do you have any specific new goals that you're trying to do? Obviously, this conference is probably a big one for you guys in terms of bringing people together. Tell us a little bit about what's on your plate for 2024.

Speaker 1: 48:19

Well, one thing I have learned this past year is that I have the goals and dreams and I'm like Lord, here's my goals and dreams, and then he's like, no, you're going over here. So this is one thing I really learned in 2023. So my vision and my heart is set on impact. Like impact and intentionality is like kind of my thing. That's in my spirit for 2024 is an intimacy. I'm going to say those three, and what I mean by intimacy is I believe my greatest impact on the world is going to come from me being able to have the most level of intimacy with the Lord. So the more and the closer that I can be with him and keep my heart and my mind focused on him, that is when I'm going to be able to have the greatest impact. So, stepping into this conference, I want there to be impact that changes people, and I shared with you a little bit when we had talked before that.

Speaker 1: 49:17

My husband Micah. He's using this stage to share his personal story for the first time, and it's something that he, the Lord, called him to do six or seven years ago, and it's a very scary thing for him to be sharing about. The first 18 years of his life were filled with a lot of abuse and a lot of trauma, and it's something that he has done the work. The people look at him now and they just they're like, oh, he's had an easy life, he's this. But it's going to be very eyeopening for a lot of people to hear, actually, the things that he had to go through.

Speaker 1: 49:53

And so for us, we see him sharing that, as the Lord is going to open some new pathways of people that we can help in ways that we really truly haven't been able to in the past. So I have my vision of what I want 2024 to be and I'm just going to say it's impact. It's making the retreats, the conferences, everything we're doing at Hitchford the most intentional and impacting as it can be. But I'm also leaving the space for the Lord to say this is you think you're going here, but I'm taking you over here and I'm willing to do those pivots because I know that his plan is going to be better and more beautiful and more impacting than anything that I can come up with in my mind.

Speaker 3: 50:36

I mean beautifully stated. I will say we have a lot in common in the sense that I went from living a life for a very long time where it was what can I get out of this experience? What can I get out of that experience? What can I get out of that? Because I was working really hard and putting out a lot of efforts here, looking for what you can get back from it and, through my own transformations and low points and sort of doing the inner work and doing the journey, my own spirituality brought me to a place where what leads me is how may I serve? So that's the question I ask every day how may I serve? Because it looks like what I think A lot of times it does not.

Speaker 3: 51:16

Little did I know I'd walk away from a very lucrative career and start a podcast. But here I am and you go where you're told to go, and not everyone understands that. When I say, yeah, I felt very called to do that, and like by who? Well, for me it's God, the universe. You just know you've got that deep feeling. It doesn't go away. It keeps recurring and recurring and recurring of like where you need to be and where you need to go, and often it's counterculture. That's the thing I always remind myself. But that doesn't feel very good. But it's an alignment, just go with it.

Speaker 1: 51:52

Yeah, and you're reaping your greatest levels of fulfillment. When you are obedient, you know what I mean. It's just like so much more than what the world can give you. When you're just like, okay, this is what I'm called to do, I'm saying yes, it's this deeper level of fulfillment in peace than people can even understand.

Speaker 3: 52:12

Yeah, I think increasingly it'll be interesting to see how things evolve. But this idea of your life, your impact, is about understanding your purpose and your gifts, because everybody has them, and it's about giving them back. It's giving them away. It's not about what we can get, it's about what we can give back and give away. And this idea of service and a life of service I don't want to say it's new.

Speaker 3: 52:38

A lot of people have been doing this for a long time, but I think it's becoming more mainstream. You know, as we talk to more people, I have an opportunity to talk with younger people and it's built into curriculums. Now, you know, we have children in our high school. It's like they have their service activities and this is part of what they do and giving back is built into their. Well, I can't do that activity because I have this giving back and, as a Gen Xer, I can tell you that was not part of our curriculum and it was not our way of thinking.

Speaker 3: 53:09

We were thinking how do we get out of those things? And it wasn't until I realized oh wait, that is the moment of most peace and fulfillment when you are giving to others, when you are giving back, when you are asking how I may serve, how may I serve and allowing yourself to be led. It is an amazing. I just like the amount of peace that comes over you, and I think a lot of people spend an enormous amount of time chasing things that they think are going to bring peace, whether it's the dollar or title or status and often it's fleeting, even if they get it and it never really truly is enough. Right, it doesn't might feel good for a little bit, but then you want more, and you want more and you want more.

Speaker 3: 54:01

And so I've had this conversation with other people that are like but you're doing really well, and I said we are, but also we are not worried about it either. I think the less we've focused on it, the better things have gone. To be honest, and isn't that always the way, like when you stop chasing and you just start attracting it back to you? So I just want to say thank you first of all for coming on, sharing so much of yourself and your story and your plans and all the amazing work that you and Micah are doing. I want to give you the last word. What do you want people to know? What do you want to leave people?

Speaker 1: 54:40

with today. Well, first I want to say thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to share and thank you for everything that you're doing and just stepping into your purposes. It's beautiful to see. And I would just say, if I could just give one encouragement, I would say let's take a look at the paths that we're going. We're about to step into this new year and let's all just take a look at the path that we're on and look at where it leads you.

Speaker 1: 55:09

And I just want you to ask yourself, like, is this path leading me to where I want to be? Is it leading me to my most extraordinary life? And if it is great, then pursue that path relentlessly and stay on it and do your absolute best on that path. But if you look at that path and you're like this path is not leading me where I want to be, it's not leading me to that extraordinary life that I want for myself, then what I can say is just like, let's get on a different path, find a new path. There are resources for you. I'm happy to be a resource for that if you need help with those type of things, especially in a fitness role. But like, let's just take a look at our paths and, as we step into a new year, let's step into it on the right path that gets us where we want to be Well said All right, I'll be remiss if I don't ask you this, so let's end on this question.

Speaker 3: 56:02

And that is what does it mean to you, diana, to live your extraordinary life? I love this question.

Speaker 1: 56:09

For me to live my extraordinary life means that I live with intentionality in everything I do. I make my choices intentional so that my body, my mind and my spirit are the strongest they can be. So I'm my strongest physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. So I'm the best equipped to fulfill the plans and purposes that God has for me while I'm on this earth.

Speaker 3: 56:37

Wow, You've really stated my friend, I'm in awe of you, you are quite the woman and I am glad to call you my friend. Where can people find you?

Speaker 1: 56:48

Well, best place would be. Our main website is hitchfitcom, so that's the main site for pretty much everything that we do within Hitch Fit. You'll find links to Soul Fit there as well. Social media I'm easy to find. It's at Diana Shalu, I know it's her name, but even if you look up Hitch Fit, you'll pretty much find me. If you look up Hitch Fit, yeah, and the conference that we were talking about, lean In Level Up, it's leaninlevelupcom for anybody that's interested in coming and being with us in person in that immersive environment there.

Speaker 3: 57:21

So and we will make sure, in the show notes, all the links to Diana's socials Hitch Fit, soul Fit, retreats and Lean In Level Up will be in there for you to explore further. And, like Diana said, she's very active on social media. So come find her and hang out with us on IG. She's tremendously fun to spend time with. So with that, diana, thank you so much again for coming on. I wish you all the best during this holiday season and I cannot wait to see what happens for you in 2024.

Speaker 1: 57:53

Thank you so much. I appreciate you, and let's crush 2024.

Speaker 3: 57:58

Absolutely All right. Until then, live your extraordinary life.

Speaker 2: 58:06

Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to rate and review. If you have recommendations for future topics, please reach out to me at MichelleRiosOfficialcom. Lastly, please consider supporting this podcast by sharing it. Together, we can reach, inspire and positively impact more people. Thank you.