Episode 40: Nutrition for Performance with Issy Watson

Join us as we dive into the inspiring journey of Issy Watson, a hybrid athlete and Guinness World Record holder for the most chest-to-ground burpees in one hour.  

We’ll explore Issy’s foray into a carnivore and animal based diet and the challenges of ultra-running, including training through a foot injury and completing a 50-mile race.

We discuss the importance of personalized nutrition/training strategies and  share tips about training low carb for endurance races.

Connect with Issy:

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/issywatsonn/

Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@IssyWatsonFit

Transcript

Optimal Health

Speaker 1 0:02

Welcome to the Primal Foundations podcast . I'm your host , Tony Pascola . We will dive into what I believe are the four central foundations you need for a healthy lifestyle Strength , nutrition , movement and recovery . Get ready to unlock your path to optimal health and enjoy the episode . Today's guest is Issy Watson . Issy is a hybrid athlete that follows a carnivore diet to help heal autoimmune issues as well as improve sports performance . Issy is also an endurance athlete and current female Guinness World Record holder for most chest to ground burpees in one hour , with a total of 829 reps . Issy , welcome to the Primal Foundations podcast .

Speaker 2 0:46

Thanks for having me .

Speaker 1 0:48

I told you off air , I'm all down for hard stuff , but what the heck made you even want to go for a Guinness world record , let alone a burpee world record ?

Speaker 2 1:00

Yeah , it's actually funny because I tend to forget about it for some reason because it felt like it was so long ago . And so this was about three . Just over three years ago , during COVID , the area I went to university , there was actually the male and female that had the world record actually the male and female that had the world record . So then I just kind of joked around and I was like , oh , I could probably so beat that . Like I'm so good at burpees , they're easy for me . And then once I moved during the pandemic , I moved to the other side of Canada and I was like , oh , I'm just going to apply on the Guinness world record site . Heard back three months later that I had the opportunity that I could like my application was confirmed . So then I just got to kind of honing in on the burpee specific training and then , come the day to do it , I just went all out and did it .

Speaker 1 2:07

All gas , no brakes .

Speaker 2 2:09

Yeah , pretty much Just an hour of up and down , up and down .

Speaker 1 2:14

Oh man , I know how hard it is to this process because I actually attempted once in my lifetime . Yeah , I applied , I applied . I was going for the Turkish getup , catabalva , turkish getup world record . There was a one-hour one . There's no way I would beat it . I'm too like the people that have the one-hour record they're just so much bigger than me Like it's just I couldn't lift . It's all about volume , weight , over time . And I was like I couldn't lift the . It's all about volume , weight , um , over time . And uh , I was like I saw the 24 hour record . I'm like I can do that . And I met the girl who had the one hour record and she was interested in the 24 hour record . So I was like , oh , I'm going to apply and like it's like a whole process . And then they give you all the camera angles , how you could score it , time , all that things and time all that things . And then in my training I was like , listen , I'm just going to be an absolute unit , I'm going to , I'm going to actually lift a heavier bell than I anticipated , just by the count , and then have more rest in between , so I don't have to go up and down as much but over .

Speaker 1 3:16

I had hand surgery when I was younger and over time , like I would wake up after I would like , I got up to like a six or seven hour session and then one day I woke up and I couldn't open my hands , especially my right hand . I couldn't feel my hands . I'm like no , something's wrong . And then one of the doctors at the gym I was talking about he's like yo , you're starting to have carpal tunnel . He's like he goes that's too much of a heavy weight you're holding in that hand . It's starting to cause some issues . So I had to , I had to pack it up . Uh , but no , it's a it's a grueling thing to to go through all that and the process . And there's a lot of wait time . I'm thinking like how long did it take for them to actually even give you the record ?

Speaker 2 3:54

Oh yeah , the process is actually insane , like it takes a minimum of three months just for your application to be um viewed and confirmed and then you have to actually plan the day you're going to do it .

Speaker 2 4:10

So then , after you've done it and recorded everything to the T the way they want it , then it takes at least another three months to become official . But for me the thing was was after the three months exactly , they came back and they said my evidence wasn't good enough , because I was supposed to . What I did was I uploaded my videos to YouTube , whereas you have to upload it to their actual website , and when you think about that , the processing time to upload it to a website is absolutely insane . So we eventually had to cut the video into probably 10 different segments and make sure it stopped and start properly , and then it took another three months because I had to resubmit the evidence . So come the end of that six months to become official , I just happened to wake up one day , look at my phone and there is an email that came up and was like congratulations . So this was like 530 in the morning and I'm just like finally , like you know what took so long ? I mean to speed up the process .

Speaker 1 5:23

You can pay endless amounts of money , but yeah , I think to get a judge it's like $1,300 to just like just to have them there . Yeah , that's insane .

Speaker 2 5:33

Even more .

Speaker 1 5:35

I want to talk about . Well , first of all , that's pretty badass of you , so that's awesome . But I want to kind of talk about you know what initially sparked your interest into exploring a carnivore diet , and like what challenges , if any challenges , have you had ? Um , shifting from you know just whatever diet that you were before because it seems like you were always athletic , eating for performance and then switching over to carnivore , um , you know , was it a tough transition ? Was it smooth ?

Speaker 2 6:03

Yeah , so I actually switched . I mean , I heard about the carnivore diet and I was just kind of procrastinating and I'm like you know what . There's no way I'm too athletic , I can't just remove carbohydrates . That's kind of you know what you've been told and what you've learned as an athlete . But I was just , I suffer from pretty bad colitis . So for the last 10 years , just multiple foods have been upsetting my stomach . So finally I got to the point about three years ago I was just like I've had enough , I can't deal with the pain anymore , I can't deal with the stomach discomfort , inflammation .

Speaker 2 6:49

So probably January 1st 2022 , I was just okay , let's try it , let's actually go animal based . So I removed everything that was considered toxic and just mostly had some fruits , white rice and beef and started trying to add tallow , which I never had before , and immediately , like I just my stomach like cleared . I just felt almost flat and empty all the time and that was probably my system clearing everything out . And then I just continued to feel better . My energy felt better in the gym .

Speaker 2 7:34

But if I'm being honest , it probably took me close to a year to actually fully adapt and find more energy . But even then , I think because of my autoimmune , it's still the energy's kind of like in waves . And finally , last December I was just still not seeing the progress I really wanted to see Eliminated all fruits , all rice and I was just having a little bit of maple syrup , but probably keeping around 20 , 30 grams of carbs . So I was doing that pretty much since December and I feel I feel a lot better . Um , during my workouts I don't crash . I find my energy is pretty stable . I don't have that really powerful kind of in the gym but I almost rather be stable than have really highs and really low , lows .

Speaker 1 8:35

There's a little bit of a . There's a little bit of a trade off too , and I think , like a , like a Zach bitter who's who , um cycles in carbs and looks at carbs as more of a tool than than like a fuel thing , using it as tool for certain . You know training segments of you know your programming , or I mean there's a lot of people that say that went carnivore , their workouts didn't feel as good , but if they had a little bit fruit right beforehand they did have it like that pop . So , um , you know that that's a common thing . I found the opposite . Like I like to do a lot of stuff fasted . Um , is that something that you've explored ? Working out fasted ?

Speaker 2 9:17

Yeah , I do not like doing strength training fasted . I find it just does not work for me . But if I run , like I ran this morning , I didn't have anything before . I just find I can wake up and go right into it without waiting for something to digest . And if I swim in the morning or bike , it's usually just with MCT oil , which isn't considered carnivore . But that's the one thing I've always really enjoyed . It's just kind of a substitute for taking ketones . Do strength training fasted just because I find I can't give it my all .

Speaker 1 9:58

I can't kind of lose focus a little bit I mean mean , yeah , Do you do the MCT and coffee ? Or just take a little bit of MCT like a teaspoon ?

Speaker 2 10:08

Yeah , I usually just um have the MCT oil . Um , I'll probably have coffee maybe three to four times a month if I'm really , really exhausted . But even then it's only just a couple sips cause I can't tolerate a lot of caffeine . But I do notice , when I do have coffee my workouts are better .

Speaker 1 10:28

Probably in the past 20 years of my life , I don't think there's been very few days I've woken up and not had a cup of coffee or multiple . I'm addicted , but yeah , I love it .

Speaker 2 10:40

I think I honestly might start adding it a little bit more , just for performance reasons . I used to drink it , but then I just found it upset my stomach , but now I seem to tolerate a little bit better .

Speaker 1 10:54

I kind of want to talk about your 50 miler . You know , as a , as an ultra athlete , preparing for a 50 miler Like what was the structure of your training and what was your nutrition strategy leading up to racing and on the race day ?

Speaker 2 11:10

yes , this ultra was very unplanned . Um , I was originally going to train for an ironman and then I got this opportunity to run a 50 mile ultra in texas overnight , which we found out two months in advance . So I really only had two months to train for this race . So right away I kind of I still maintain my Ironman stuff , but I just increased my running volume quite a bit , probably too fast , because I didn't really have a choice , and then I immediately found a coach . So then my run was pretty structured and that's when I did start adding in carbs , like you mentioned , zach Bitter , because it's already a hard accomplishment , a hard goal .

Nutrition and Endurance Racing Strategies

Speaker 2 11:58

I don't really want to make it harder on my body by , you know , just having meat and fat . I want to help my body a little bit with the training and recovery . So I would mostly just consume I'd make my own maple syrup gels , consume that during my runs and then have a little bit more carbs after . But so really during the training I still only had 50 to 75 grams of carbs . Then the week of probably more so three to four days out , that's when I tried to increase more closer to 100 .

Speaker 2 12:36

But even then I just felt like I had a hard time because I don't personally enjoy having carbohydrates . They make me a bit full , a bit more bloated , and I do strongly believe it helps me a lot during the ultra . And so , come a day of the ultra , it was overnight , so I had all day to fuel and prepare for that , and then every 45 minutes , and then every 45 minutes half an hour or so during the race . I would just have either maple syrup , maple candies , which were just maple sugar into a little candy , nothing added , or I would just . I had bags of white rice that I would munch on , so that was about it .

Speaker 1 13:27

Yeah , that's a crazy endeavor , and you know utilizing what you can . You're like , you're it's like hey , sometimes I have to drop what I really want to do in order to do the thing that I really want to do . So if you're not usually eating tons of white rice or tons of carbohydrates , you know utilizing those as tools to get the job done . Um , but is it true ? You broke your foot before or during this race ?

Speaker 2 13:55

Yeah , so about three or four weeks leading up to the race I was having very bad foot and knee pain . So I was getting an x-ray and they said nothing was conclusive . So they ordered me a bone scan which I still have not heard about since May , heard about since may , um , still have not received since may . But um , I seriously could not run . Three weeks leading up to the race I put myself in an air cast because that was the only way I was able to get around . And then finally , the week before the race I was able to get a couple runs in . It was recovering and come race day , about third of the way through the run I it was the same pain . I couldn't even step through on my foot . Then my alternating knee started bothering me . So I was the rest of the run was just shuffling . So it turned out after the fact , after I got an x-ray , it was broken . So I assume it was a stress fracture that wasn't detected on the x-ray and still dealing with the consequences , like three months later .

Speaker 1 15:12

Oh , oh , that's , that's a rough one , that's a rough one . Uh , would you do another 50 miler ?

Speaker 2 15:18

Oh for sure . Yeah , during the first part of the race that felt really good . I was saying to myself I could really see myself doing this . Then the pain creeped in and I was just frustrated because I'm like , why me Like ? Why do I have to be injured all the time ? But I'm getting it under control right now , getting a lot of treatment done , so hopefully , once the injuries heal , I can do more ultras and hopefully a hundred mile ultra would be cool that'd be awesome .

Speaker 1 15:50

That's the one , the one I don't race anymore . I did you know ironman , marathons half hour , all that stuff . And the one , the one I don't race anymore uh , I did you know ironman uh , marathons half hour , all that stuff . And the one race I actually got injured myself . I was training for a 50 miler , the north face endurance challenge , and it was a trail run in chicago .

Speaker 1 16:05

There's no trails out here , so I got trail shoes and I was going other places to do some running and the shoes didn't agree with me . Like I would do some short runs . I'm like , all right , I'm going to do 13 mile run or whatever . And I did them in these trail shoes and then I literally I got seven miles out and I had to take them off and I had to hold them in my hand and walk barefoot back home . It sucked Like I'm just like man this is , and I like I had pinched nerves up my right leg and I'm like shit . So I ended up doing I'm going down from the 50 to the half marathon . I just did with a buddy , but that's still like the one race . I'm like , ah , I might come out of retirement for um , but with the , the 50 miler . That was like a nick bear thing right . Did his company put it on ?

Speaker 2 16:50

yeah . So that's why , if it was any other ultra , I probably would have just said , no , I'll just not go , I'll rest my foot . But I've been following this guy for the last four or five years and it meant a lot to me . So , no matter what , it wasn't a question whether I was finishing or not , it was just me telling myself just keep moving . And my run sure didn't look like a run , but I was just not stopping the whole time , no matter how painful it was . But I still ended up finishing just under 11 hours . Not the goal I wanted to get , but there was a 15-hour time cap , so I was still pretty happy with it there was a 15 hour time cap , so I was still pretty happy with it .

Speaker 1 17:40

Yeah , uh , and I think I just like clicked on one of the . When he posted on youtube or something , I think they were saying like , hey , like there's gonna be , was it horses or cattle or something like it . Like , get out the way if you're , if you're running yeah , I didn't expect that either .

Speaker 2 17:51

at the , the thing was is it was so mysterious we didn't know the location until we checked in the day of the race .

Speaker 1 17:58

That's cool .

Speaker 2 17:59

So yeah , I just figured out . It was like a 45-minute drive from where I was staying . It was on some ranch in the middle of Liberty Hill , texas . At the briefing about half an hour before the race , they said there's wild bulls , wild hogs , snakes , um , barbed wire just listing all these hazards and they just basically said if you're not comfortable running , then just don't start the race . But we have no way of controlling this and there's actually currently a wild bull on the loose . So it was . It was pretty raw . It was pretty raw race , but I had , honestly , the best experience of my entire life doing it .

Speaker 1 18:49

That sounds , sounds so cool . Just make sure everybody's like , okay , just make sure your waivers are signed Head on out , yeah , yeah , and you know , because you're saying you use different things , some carbohydrates , as tools . I think in the one piece of like the narrative that I feel like everybody is getting is like you can't do these races unless you are like a sugar burner . You have to have 100 carbs in the hour . You know , and we're going to talk about some Ironman stuff too , but , like you know what the suggestions that I was seeing , like how much food you should be eating on your bike , to me it's it seems ridiculous of how many carbohydrates that people are consuming over time .

Speaker 1 19:35

Gut issues , right , all these , the GI distress , and you know , I feel like it is getting more popular of being like a fat adapted athlete using fat as fuel , but it's definitely not the mainstream yet . And there's a lot of companies that are involved with this Gatorade shot blocks , a power jet , whatever they are nowadays . Uh , and you know I always have conversations with people about there's . I mean , they're strapped up . They got they're doing a 5k and they got like they got like 20 little like gel things in their pocket . I go if we can't get to like through a 5k without eating , there's a problem here there's a problem here .

Speaker 2 20:19

Yeah , and I'm a firm believer like you shouldn't need to fuel during a race if it's anything less than an hour , so anything over an hour that's when , yeah , go have a gel , but anything below that you don't need it .

Speaker 1 20:34

Yeah , I always go to this quote from Vidya Tortorich . He's like you can't outrun a bad diet and you can't outlift your fork and it just there's a lot of people and nobody talks about it enough . Like , if you look besides the elite , right , let's take the pros and elite out of endurance racing and people that are just like the weekend warrior advocates that want to do this kind of stuff , some of them that are passing the finish line . They did the race but they don't look healthy . Some of them actually go in these endeavors to to lose weight , to whatever . I want to complete this goal , I want to get healthier but then they actually end up gaining weight by the end because they're working out and then they're over consuming during training , the recovery of what they think they need to have or what's prescribed to them . They're eating more than their fill and then after they continue the same eating habits and then they're not racing anymore , so they gain even more weight . And I feel like that is such a trend that is happening with people and nobody wants to acknowledge it , because that goes against the grain of what we should be doing .

Speaker 1 21:46

Yeah , I went to a workshop and I'm not going to say the name of the gym , but I went to a workshop and they were doing a marathon Chicago marathons coming up in october so they had a bunch of coaches in there that either are doing the marathon themselves or training clients and what they should have to eat . And we all got a bag and we walked in . It was a nice , nice gym , nice presentation . There was a nutritionist there and in our bag and I shit you not there was Pringles , gummy snacks , like these candy gel things . It just was like junk and they were putting on the screen of what we should people should be eating and like she was saying Cheerios have . She was saying making , she called them shower smoothies , where you should be as soon as you wake up , make your smoothie with like this much veggies , this much , like she sees wherever the heck she had , and down it in the shower to get you because you need to keep it like the amount of I'm like I don't even eat that much food . And it was wild and I and this is like she kept saying I'm a nutritionist , I'm a nutritionist or a dietitian or whatever and somebody raised their hand and I was just shutting up because , like I'm not , like this is their thing . I'm gonna shut up and not say a word because I'm like I did a whole iron man on carnivore . I didn't even eat this many carbohydrates . And somebody raised their hand . They're like , hey , I , because people were literally just before . We're saying hey , when I eat , I eat this way , I get bloated . And then her response was like well , how are you eating ? Are you eating standing up or sitting down ? I was like , okay , so this guy had this question . It was a good question . He goes I've been hearing a lot about people doing their runs fasted because it makes them feel better and it actually helps your performance .

Speaker 1 23:33

And she just shot him down . She's like no , she goes just mic drop . No , don't do that , that's dangerous , whatever . And I was like pissed . I was like I'm going to raise my hand here . And I was like , hey , I've done a full half Ironman with electrolytes and water . I did a full Ironman with maybe 50 carbs and I go . All of my runs , all my training , most of it was fasted and it was good .

Speaker 1 24:00

And I'm like I don't think that's fair to just tell somebody that , like , if they want to explore it for themselves , they should be able to , because if they have GI distress from eating . How you're telling them to eat . That's not good for them , so why won't let them them like , figure it out or have this self-expiration ? And the answer was well , you know , everybody's different n equals one . I go . What the hell kind of answer is this ? Uh , I texted some other carnivore coaches in space . I'm like dude , we got a lot of work to do . Like this is what they're having these people eat in a race . Is is so crazy . Um yeah , sorry I went on a rant , but no , it's okay .

Speaker 2 24:34

I just the thing that bothers me is just the type of carbohydrates . It's fine if that's what you believe is . You know carbs will make you perform , but why does it come down to Pringles ? Why does it come down to Cheerios ? If I were to consume carbs while I'm training , I can go out of my way and make maple syrup gels they have so many honey gels nowadays you can have rice cakes , like anything healthier that still is quick to digest . But yet people are resorting to foods that have seed oils and I'm not going to get into seed oils , but like just you could , you could go on tangent but wheat and things that do upset your stomach during those races .

Speaker 1 25:23

And a lot of . If you look on some of these performance bars or whatever it may be like , it's a laundry list of stuff that I can't even pronounce . It's not even food .

Speaker 2 25:34

Yeah , whereas you can easily just search up a recipe , make a protein bar , probably with dates , protein powder and coconut , you know it's . It doesn't take that much and if your goal is to be healthy but also perform , it's worth taking just a little bit of extra time to make a healthier alternative .

Speaker 1 25:59

And now kind of going into I know you're doing you're , you're prepping for an Ironman , you know for the Ironman training . How is that going and what are some things that are going well and what are some challenges right now ?

Speaker 2 26:12

Well , I'll start with . The challenges is that I'm still pretty injured . Both my knees are pretty screwed up from the ultra . I did the ultra in June and it's now mid-September , so just trying to kind of get treatment on that . My foot is not broken anymore , but it's still not where I want to be . I'm able to start running a little bit , but I just find there's a threshold right now in terms of time so I can go out for a bike ride , but max time till my knee or foot really start bothering me is about 90 minutes and my running is not going above 40 minutes .

Speaker 2 26:54

I am swimming . Swimming's been going well . I've been at it for pretty much a year now in the pool , two to three times a week . I don't have a specific coach right now . I'm just kind of training to maintain until I actually figure out what's wrong with my injuries and what race I'm picking . I have my eyes set on a race in April . It will be the full Ironman .

Individualized Nutrition and Training Approach

Speaker 2 27:19

But nutrition wise , um yeah , the last couple months it's been around 20-30 grams of carbs , strictly from molasses , just because there's good potassium content in it which a lot of people don't know it's just the certain type you get , which is blackstrap molasses .

Speaker 2 27:45

Yeah , so MCT oil is big , because I find that was another thing I used during my ultra was MCT oil because it doesn't need to go down to it , doesn't take long to digest , it just kind of goes straight to your liver and used as fuel . But lately I've been kind of thinking of the idea of adding a little bit more carbs back in , just from maybe a bit more molasses , maple syrup or some white rice , just because sometimes I find my body goes into phases where it feels more tired and I just hate kind of dragging through my workouts . But a lot of times I'll experiment with adding some carbs in max 50 grams , 65 . And then if I don't feel good I'll just remove them , and I'm a big fan of just experimenting .

Speaker 2 28:41

There's no right or wrong . Every individual is different . So a lot of times people that do strict carnivore and they're very against carbohydrates , a lot of them aren't exercising , a lot of them are just still healing from a lot of issues they have . But if you are high level and very active , sometimes you need just a little bit of extra carbs and I also find those carbs stimulate my digestion so I can eat a little bit more . Otherwise , if I'm just eating fat , I'm stuffed and can't really eat enough .

Speaker 1 29:24

Yeah , that's a great point because there's a ton of people and , again , the carnivore community , all communities , it doesn't matter . There's the dogmatic of you got to do carnivore this way , you have to do the lion diet way . You got beet , red , red meat , salt water , nothing else . Oh , coffee , you lose your carnivore card , like you know , stuff like that . But it really needs to be to the individual . And , again , like you said , a lot of people go to this diet to eliminate things , to help heal . I mean , I was vegan for two years . Really , yeah , oh yeah , way opposite now .

Speaker 1 30:04

I was vegan for two years and I felt some health benefits at the beginning , mainly like losing body fat and feeling better than the standard American diet . And then I had belferitis in my eyes . I gained all the weight back , my gut was bad , my hair was falling out . I was like this is something's up and for me , some people can do vegan , some people can do vegetarian , completely fine , but for the people that like , hey , this is affecting my life , I have these issues , they go on to the elimination diet and most of them don't go back , but they , because that's the one thing that healed them .

Speaker 1 30:46

They think that's the end-all , be-all , which isn't the case . Everybody has their own individuality . Some people go carnivore and add the fruit in and they like it and they feel good or feel better . Some people , fruit doesn't agree with them , but that's a good point , because the people that are really super strict on it , yeah , that help them . But again , if you're going to be doing get up and do 50 miles , boss , that's going to need some extra things I use that , yeah , at the end of the day , for certain people it is all about getting enough calories in if they're burning so much .

Speaker 2 31:21

And the reason I started carnivore , animal based , was to heal certain issues I was having , and now that I feel some of them are healed , that's when I can start adding in foods again . I'm not adding in vegetables , I'm not adding in fruits , it's just more quickly digesting carbs that I use strategically around my workouts . So a lot of people will just go off on you , whether it's on social media . You're doing this wrong , blah , blah , blah . At the end of the day , I really could care less because it's going in my body . Everyone's different . I don't know why people get on you about how you are doing things , because if you feel good like you don't even know me . Why are you packing ?

Speaker 1 32:15

You don't know me , son .

Speaker 2 32:16

You don't know me so I mean it's just everybody's different . You got to play around with whatever works for you and how does your ?

Speaker 1 32:27

when you made this switch ? Um , I know you said some of the haters on social media , right , but what about , like family friends when you went to this style of eating ? Was there some like kind of pushback ?

Speaker 2 32:39

My family didn't do much . I've always made my own food ever since probably high school , just because I like controlling that part . And they know my family knows how long I've been suffering with these issues , especially being trapped together during the pandemic . So full support . They didn't really bat an eye at it . My mom would actually . She goes through phases of trying carnivore , phases of trying carnivore , but even for herself she says I just feel like a little bit better with maybe a little bit of fermented sourdough or sauerkraut fruit before my workouts . People around me whether it's work , they straight up think it's weird . But I know the reasoning behind it , I know the science behind it . So I just kind of bite my lip . Otherwise I know I'm going to go on a full-on rant . So yeah , like I said before , I don't really care what people think of what I eat , especially on social media . If you don't like seeing what I eat , don't follow me . Either way , it doesn't affect me Because if I feel healthy , at the end of the day that's what matters to me .

Speaker 1 34:01

Absolutely With your , with your training that you're doing now . Um , you know you said getting back into the running , biking . You have , you know , a time limit until you're all healed up and the swims are good . What about your strength training ? You know how many days a week are you implementing that and what kind of lifts are you doing ? I mean , there's like everybody is a little bit different , like they have different splits or whatever . So what's kind of your methodology right now ?

Speaker 2 34:26

Yeah . So I mean , when I first got into the gym and fitness I probably 10 years ago , eight years ago it was I just loved bodybuilding . It's therapeutic to me . I like seeing the progress . For me it honestly wasn't about looks , I just it was a good stress relief , good time away from school work , just time to myself to be in my own head . So I've always enjoyed bodybuilding and I've done that for the last eight years on top of my endurance training or a sport I was doing .

Speaker 2 35:00

So I usually lift every day , maybe not two times a day , so probably five days a week . I do more of a quad focus day , more of a hamstring focus day , more of a quad focus day , more of a hamstring focus day , and then typical kind of bodybuilding split . I just kind of go in auto regulate , see how I'm feeling . That day I'll hit shoulders , triceps , biceps , back , like I said . I usually do it on the same days , but if I have to deter off of that because of a swim I have planned and my upper body is a little bit fatigued , I just go off by feel .

Speaker 2 35:40

Some people in the bodybuilding space might not agree with that , but I'm not competing for a show , I'm just doing it to improve my running , my biking , my swimming , my mental health . And again , it's my body . You know , I know how to listen to it . I just yeah , I don't like when people tell you what to do . So it is my life . I like being in control of my life , so typically five times a day . If it's a leg workout , I will do that in the morning . But if it's a leg workout , I will do that in the morning . But if it's upper body , I like doing that at night , when I'm more fueled and I have my endurance done .

Speaker 1 36:21

So , yeah , five times a week , right , yeah , Uh , it's . I think it's this smart

Balancing Strength Training and Endurance Racing

Speaker 1 36:28

thing to do . There's a lot of people that get out what they're doing races they get away from the strength training too much and I always say , like , like , strength is like the cup , and if you want to put , you know , the stronger you are , the bigger the cup's going to be . You can fit more endurance , flexibility , resistance , um , you know , resilience into that cup . If you're stronger , Um , but yeah , I see you on the Instagram hanging and banging and you know heavy deadlifts and stuff . So it's , it's awesome that you're . You're still doing some strength training while while training for an Ironman .

Speaker 2 36:59

Yeah , and I've never slowed down , like there wasn't a time where I , you know , took a month off because I was training for this race . It was almost like oh , a race came up , I'm going to sign up and just add a little bit on top and reduce a little bit of weightlifting . Even when I was training for the ultra , I did weightlifting up until maybe four or five days out , probably four , but at the same time I was injured . So it's all I could do to maintain my fitness . So I mean , I do listen to my body . If something's hurting , I'm not going to push through . Um , people might say that's why you get so injured . If I'm injured , I'm not going to work , I'm not going to exercise that certain part of my body and I'm going to fuel to recover properly . But some people are more prone to injuries than others , unfortunately .

Speaker 1 37:53

And it's a hybrid piece that hybrid athletes like hey , I can go clip 10 , 15 on a run and still go have a good lifting session the next day and be the best of both worlds . And for some of the listeners , you have a youtube channel that's out . Um , what kind of content are you planning on creating for like subscribers and you know what ? Do you hope that people you know , if they tune in , gain from it ?

Speaker 2 38:20

yeah , it's been a long time coming . Probably for the last four years I've wanted to start , but I've just been making excuses , I don't know how , I don't know how to edit , and then finally I'm just bought a vlogging camera and let's do this thing . So I've just kind of documenting more of the real side of myself , because people don't people that don't know you don't really know certain sides of you , so I am pretty outgoing . Once you get to know me , I try to be funny . I don't know if it works , but I like documenting my days of training , my days of eating . As somebody who eats different than most people , I just did a recent video of what I used to eat for breakfast when I was younger , so I enjoyed doing that . One brought back a lot of memories , but right now it's more just daily things , and then probably in the future , I'll then probably in the future I'll kind of jazz it up a bit and make more strategic videos .

Speaker 1 39:35

but yeah , yeah , I mean it's , it's hard , like always . The first step I remember when I like I started mine , my , actually my tag was carnivore athlete . Like that was my . I even had carnivore athletecom at one point . Uh , yeah , and uh , it's going with that .

Speaker 1 39:48

And then I then I started feeling like I don't really want to be dogmatic of just this is my like carnivores , the end all be all .

Speaker 1 39:56

And then so I'm like , oh , let me ditch that and that's kind of what I want to like more primal , um aspect , but it's , it's a , it's a little bit of a leap . And then , like , not that , I like I have no idea what'm doing , I'm just posting crap that I think people are going to like and whatever , like you said , hey , like , if you don't like it , like don't subscribe , don't watch , but uh , but no , it's , it's all good stuff . And I think when people see your content , I think because you're doing like the day to day stuff , I think they're resonating with you , you know , and they're they're following you more because , like , oh , this person's like a real person versus you know any somebody that's famous . Like you see something doctored up , okay , okay , whatever , but uh no , I think people are very joining it . And again I came across your page . I was like , oh , she's , she's , she's , badass , I got , I got to talk to this person .

Speaker 2 40:44

Yeah , and I mean , and I try to put out content that I like to see as well . So and same with social media . I'll follow people that I the content I like to see . So I just try to be myself . I don't want to be like anybody else , I don't want to copy everybody with YouTube and doing day in the life spot . With YouTube and doing day in the life spot . It's something I've wanted to start for so long and I just felt it's almost it's a project for me to do . Sometimes I just I do get bored sometimes when I'm not training , not working . So it's just something to work on for me and it's something I want to see and look back on when I'm a bit older and maybe laugh at myself , just kind of have fun with it .

Speaker 1 41:36

Yeah , absolutely . And what's coming up ? I know the Ironman you said April .

Speaker 2 41:44

Hopefully , yeah .

Speaker 1 41:46

What location ?

Speaker 2 41:47

It would be the one in Texas , oh cool . It is one of the pro championship races , so it might be a little bit busy . But me , I'm just going in to have fun . But at the same time I know in the back of my mind I want to qualify for age group worlds in Kona . So yeah , I'm going to throw that out there .

Speaker 1 42:13

Hell yeah .

Speaker 2 42:15

But yeah , it's just me . I always go in to do something for fun as an experience , but secondary , I'm always no , I'm getting top of my age group , I'm going to blah , blah , blah , blah , blah . So that's what happened with my first triathlon in August . I just went in with having fun , but I knew there was an age group award . So I was like I'm still going to push hard , no matter what third or second in my age group .

Speaker 2 42:44

So awesome , awesome , awesome and anything else coming up besides that um , there's a couple local races I might just sign up for fun . Um might get disappointed just because of previous times I've had and injuries that I have now . But just gonna keep chipping away on the training , hopefully find an actual coach or training plan for the Ironman , and between now and then , who knows what I'll do . The burpees have kind of been on my mind again , so who knows if I'll attempt that . I don't know why , but I get these weird thoughts in my head sometimes and tend to listen to them . But if anybody has recommendations of what I should do , just let me know .

Speaker 1 43:32

Yeah for sure . Well , you know we're going to be rooting for you every step of the way , following your journey and you know I , you know I wish you the best and , um , I'm looking forward to seeing you know , if you're , if you're , able , to , go in April , I'd love to . You know , follow you and , uh , you know , get your bib and we'll make sure that we're tracking you .

Speaker 2 43:51

Yeah , for sure , appreciate it .

Speaker 1 43:53

Cool . And then what's ? Uh , where can people follow you , your Instagram and your YouTube ?

Speaker 2 43:59

Yeah , so my Instagram is at Izzy Watson , with two N's Um , and then youtube is izzy watson , fit um , and I think that's about all I have . I do have some tiktok , but it's just random everyday things . So I believe that's the same as my instagram account and that's about it . But if anybody ever wants to message me , I'm always open to answering DMs or comments .

Speaker 1 44:32

Cool , awesome . I'll put all that in the show notes . And again , thanks for coming on , appreciate the time , and thanks for everybody listening to the Primal Foundations podcast . Thank you all for joining us . If you enjoyed this episode , don't forget to subscribe , like and share . See you all next time on the Primal Foundations podcast .