Automatically transcribed, so expect the odd wrong name or word.
and we found a place and we got it and then it just started rolling and then it's just happening. Look I was excited cuz I I just want to help people right that's my biggest passion so it doesn't matter to me if it's in a gym or you know on a boat or whatever like awesome so yes like I said still a bit surreal like but it's coming together really well. Hey guys welcome to the Virtus Performance podcast this is week 40 before we get stuck into today's episode I'd like to thank all you guys
for listening for sending questions for all of the feedback we've had it's been it's been pretty cool to have some really nice messages about you guys getting a lot out of what we're talking about if you are enjoying it please share subscribe give us a plug please leave a review if you are if you are loving what we're putting out. Today I sat down with Jess Curl better known as better health with Jess. Jess was born in the USA she moved to Australia about six years ago she is heavily into her health fitness and basically
just general improvement she's really really cool person to chat to in terms of finding the little things we can be doing day in day out to create I guess happier healthier humans and to help as many people as we can which is as coaches it's what what we do and while we do it Jess talked about all the setbacks she's been through and how it's kind of led to even though it's been some hard times it's led to some brighter happier places and and yeah that was a really really important takeaway from the podcast. Enjoy!
My personal and business goal is to be just a little bit better every day I believe everyone especially normal people have a story to tell. The Virtus podcast exists to help us all find small ways of consistent improvement by discussing the journey and experiences of each of our guests. Jess welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. Thanks coming all the way down from Collingwood. You're welcome. It's good drive. It's not the worst drive in the world. What did you listen to on the way down? I did listen to the model health show podcast. Awesome. And it was all about dirty jeans this new book coming out by Ben Lynch.
What did you learn? I learned just a bit more in depth about like how jeans are not the be all end all so like genetics a little bit gun lifestyle pulls the trigger. I like that. That's cool. That's really cool. That's a really really really good analogy. First question for you. Yeah. What gets you out of bed in the morning? Oh my alarm. I just want to get up and basically like change as many lives as I can. One of my 2018 goals was to change 300 people's lives. I don't know why I picked it that's just kind of came to my head but yeah basically wake up every day.
I have a cold shower and then I meditate and I kind of keep that in mind. You know getting up at 4.30 is pretty early. Yeah. It's easy to be tired a little bit crabby but. We've all been there. Yeah yeah yeah. I always think of the cold showers being like the hardest part of my day like if you can handle the two minute cold shower everything else is a breeze. Yeah. So yeah then when I do a little meditation I was like all right how can I how could I make a smile on someone's face or educate them some way or just make their day better.
Awesome. Whatever something like that yeah. How long have you been doing the cold showers for? Intermittently on and off so we actually have a cold tub at our house that like plunges like through the cold water but takes a while to cool down and I'm not gonna wake up at 3 to turn it on. Where I do turn on my partner when I leave and he gets in for about five minutes it's like five degrees pretty cold. That's nippy. That's really nippy. Yeah it's sweet but I'm doing now like the last two weeks every day I was like a cool out of it but.
Awesome. It's easier in the summer. Yeah it certainly is and I've been doing for the last maybe two months and it's. Awesome. But but I'm a little bit different because I don't shower in the morning so I shower when I go to before I go to bed. Yeah. And then straight in so I'll try and sneak in like a shower during the day just to like. Yeah yeah yeah. Keep me like out of a funk if I'm a little bit tired or sleepy. Definitely. Well I definitely not a morning shower either but I was like I need to like get something like my blood pumping a little bit.
Yeah. So and it's easier we have an infrared sauna at home as well so usually you get you get the sauna and then you hop in and you're like that's not so bad. Looking for roommates I think I need to be in. Would you have a spare bedroom? You could. Awesome. Done. I mean what's having cold showers taught you about yourself and about the day and what was the main reason you actually decided to do it in the first place? Well I've done a lot of research with Rhonda Patrick not with her but like. She's awesome.
You know looking at her stuff and talking about the dopamine and the thermogenic effect and the norepinephrine and all that stuff which is awesome and just all the research around it and the resilience you get with it and just you know it sucks. Like it sucks initially people hate it but like I said from that is you know if you get in like the two minutes I put like I use my toothbrush as a timer because it's like two minutes so I get in that brush with them like oh it's so terrible like whatever. That's good coping mechanism though.
Yeah well it takes your mind off it a little bit and then yeah look it just like I said kind of just kind of gets me that extra spring in my step for the day and I just feel like everything else is downhill in a good way not downhill in a bad way. Yeah well I like that if you hit the hardest thing for the day at the start of the day then no matter what crap life throws at you you're gonna be okay. Sure. That's cool and then so you roll from your cold shower into meditation.
Yeah so I usually have calm I have to do guided I'm on a 23-day streak because I started at the beginning of the year. Awesome. So that's cool um they're about 10-15 minutes I actually use a thing called heart math it's like a measures your HRV your coherence like how how good your breathing rate is and things like that so you plug that in and I use a human charger so I'm a total nerd when it comes to biohacking gear. That's cool. Have you ever heard of the Herman Human Charger? I haven't, talking through it.
So it's the idea that it's a little machine and it's 12 minutes long and you put it in your ears and it like reflects a certain wavelength of light that would see me like sunshine so obviously at 4 35 o'clock there's no sunshine going on so it actually just like wakes everything up so it would be as if you were sitting in front of the Sun in the morning so I put that in I put on my little HRV monitor and then I do my little meditation and yeah just try and breathe through my mantras
kind of do all that stuff and then yeah and then I make my tea and turn on the cold bath my partner and then I'm out the door. Out the door straight to work? Yeah I'm only a five minute walk so yes. That's cool. It's convenient it makes it much easier to get out and go. And it makes it a little bit easier to get up a little bit earlier to do all that extra stuff. Yeah definitely like we um it's harder like when I started getting up early I was like oh it's kind of
sucks but you just build a routine and it gets easier and you push through a little bit and not being coffee has been interesting cuz I'm like I love coffee so it's a it's like I miss it every day. Shout out to our sponsors Comin' for Coffee for all that they do for us. I heard it's delicious yes but yeah so not having the coffee but having like dandelion tea which is like usually a good replacement. That sounds horrible. Well it's dark and rich and kind of bold like coffee so I basically what it is
made a huge thing in the sunshine obviously like getting all the good the easy water and stuff like that and then yeah like I just think it's more habitual for me than anything so yeah just working good habits yeah. I like that. What what do you so you've obviously talked to me about what you do for work but for everyone that's listening what's your I guess passion when it comes to work? Like my biggest passion so I just think everyone deserves to feel better and good and great you know and we get so used to
feeling like shit that it becomes a norm and people don't understand how terrible they really feel and that's not okay you know and you get these excuses where they say I'm getting older or I have kids or any like shit happens. Life happens yeah I like but you know like I see so many people come to me and have been told by the doctor like you're just aging you know you're losing your memory because of this or you're going away because of that yeah and they don't give them like any any hope or any help
at all to you know like feeling any better and it's it's very very frustrating not saying all doctors about anything but we just accept that this is how it's supposed to be when we're learning that it's not. So yeah so like my backgrounds in functional diagnostic nutrition which is this basically trying to help people through food and supplements and lifestyle management and you know looking at what we can change through their like their lifestyle habits that will help them feel better and have long-lasting changes and give them longevity and make them feel good so and
I just hate saying I'm just a personal trainer, it's such a skewed terminology I guess it's one of the hard ones because I had a couple of years there where I didn't want to be called a personal trainer and yeah now I'm kind of like to be honest it doesn't really matter they're all just titles what we the personal trainers goal is to get the best value for their client and to help them as much as possible so I guess it's it's one of those words that some people look down on some people look up to.
It's probably just us looking down on it because we know the difference yeah definitely yeah so yeah so then I'm also strength and conditioning certified so I just think the more tools you can have your toolbox the better yeah yeah and it depends on the person what tools you're gonna use Oh for sure so I get clients who just need some training or want to go like headfirst into stool testing and bloods and that's cool too or maybe just want some nutritional guidance or you know it's my job to give them the tools that they
need and want you know and the education like I think empathy and education will take you further in life than anything else so you know like sometimes you sit down with people and they just like don't get it or you know they just don't empathize with you and they don't have compassion and that that sucks and so yeah you have to have some of that definitely when you're a personal trainer yeah what tools do you use from your toolbox that most help you get the best out of your clients because obviously you you have a
wide range of people that are all come from different spots all wanting different things yeah enthusiasm so I always try to come in and be like a bit a little ray of sunshine and I try and drop like little education bombs like just sneakily right you don't like hone in and like yeah yeah but to be like I always use myself as a guinea pig if I'm gonna do something if I create a protocol or if I some nasty about something like I'm generally like pretty brutally honest like oh my god no or I'll try
on myself and they'd be like look this is what worked for me yeah I try this with clients sort of them or like it's always like you said like so by individuals what works for me might not for you yeah I think that's where we go wrong everyone tries to group people into yeah exactly we've got these you're either this this or this no there's a thousand different variables of that and that's what that's what I think that's what I've learned the more people I've coached and yeah and trained and talked to like some people
need to be smashed every day to get a little bit of an adaptation but some people need to train twice a week and need a rest like so yeah yeah you know I'm gonna get more out of sitting there and doing breathing corrections and they are chucking a barbell in their back and that's we're able to learn those things as coaches as personal trainers as strength conditioning coaches whatever whatever we call ourselves if we can understand all of those things a little bit by little bit then we're gonna yeah give what's best I think everything
is all like what works for you now might work for you in a month or yeah or you know like it's all about stresses which is incredibly frustrating yeah like just tell me what works well actually we don't really know yeah it's just you know do the best like my favorite I guess ways to look at is just to the best with what you have oh for sure right now where you're at and it's not working trust something different exactly that you just it's trial and error the whole time like food that people come in
and like keto or paleo at this or like you know I like and I was vegan for a while very preachy vegan so I've been there I was not anymore like very other direction like eating awful every day but um yeah like it's so easy to just go down and be like this is the best because you get passionate now I understand like when I was I was like my kids will be being in the life you know and then like my health was like kind of going downhill and I was like oh this isn't
the best one yeah but you're able to kind of check you eventually and I'm sure you probably that that bias that you had probably banging it against the wall for a couple of weeks yeah but you're able to actually get out of it and realize well maybe that wasn't the best for me luckily luckily yes but there's some people that the vegan diet maybe is the best option for sure 100% like it things can be done very poorly or you know you can you can have an organic gluten-free vegan chocolate caramel brownie doesn't mean it's
good for you you have some Mac is chips yeah yeah yeah exactly like more like what they say that the chicken nuggets is like 3% chicken right so that counts 97% vegan yeah yeah so you know like there's good and bad ways to do every everything especially the diet yes oh yeah have you always wanted to be in this field and be helping people like you are yeah so my degree I'm back home is actually in teaching also so I was gonna be a gym teacher partially I didn't know what I wanted to do and
soccer was paying for my school and stuff like that I mean I was you know 18 and it seemed like an easy thing to do which sounds really bad but I love people I've always loved people and I'm really passionate helping people so you know teaching and personal training they're the same thing right so and I loved it I did it for a year back home in the States but just too much structure and it's too like you know when you work with like kids you get kindergartners for 30 minutes twice a week and they're
just like that's not enough and you've got a group of 20 or 30 to deal with it's like it's exhausting yeah it's good but it's it's very rewarding but it's it's a tough issue like I was at a very low like socio economic school and that was like you know the parents I would see like you see a parent they'd be an asshole and I could be out alive like well yeah yeah yeah yeah it's back to what you're talking about with genes before like obviously lifestyle oh I'm entering your environment is so so important
yeah my partner's a teacher and she comes home some days you some of the stories and it's just like far out like I don't envy you guys some days but at the same time I guess they're doing it because I love of course yeah super rewarding but very very taxing on the heartstrings yeah we're about to time Bismarck North Dakota awesome which is like a 70,000 person town very blue-collar caucasian catholic closed-minded style right so like the morning to potential yeah you know actually kind of kind of but people are just as friendly like I
know it's like when you go for a walk and people say hi they don't do that the city benefits right people look at you like you're crazy we do that but um yeah look I like loved our girl it's very safe you didn't lock our doors or a car or anything like that but also kind of secluded I guess in terms I came to Melbourne I was like oh my gosh so much like difference in culture and you know I think that's why I love Melbourne is because it's just so different what brought you ever
so I played high-level soccer I did six years of University back home and then I yeah I came out and I played actually played with Cranburn comments yeah yeah for a few for about two seasons and then I moved to South Melbourne for a few seasons and then I did a year of victory and yeah like I really love soccer but the soccer here at the time it's just a bit like I was a bit older than lots of girls and I was just like sore all the time and they're all kind of like 18
and run around like yeah loving it and which is cool but I think I just kind of like moved past that stage in my life like I was you know I was never gonna be like national level or anything I was like kind of done chasing the dream yeah and I had an issue so I was like is it worth kind of continuing on and causing more damage there should be like yeah a new life motto that I have is like be coached by your eight-year-old self yeah so what would you yeah runs out it's
good because it's like whoa what would your eight-year-old self want to do right now so so yeah so from there then I basically took up strongman which was great and that was a whole new different thing that's an interesting transition from just to soccer from soccer to strongman it's a yeah well I couldn't run anymore so I could run and I was like really really like living I did basketball volleyball track done everything did everything my whole life right and then like couldn't play soccer when I was really missing the competition and where I was
working at the time they were big into strongman training and so I started doing Atlas and the yolk carries and farmer carries and all these cool things and I were done and I was like pretty good at them like I've got a pretty I want to brag but I'm pretty like a pretty tough so yeah no but I just really enjoyed I was like this is cool like a badass like strongman like that's it sounds awesome and it's a lot of fun to do yeah the mountain does it like amazing so I took that up
and um my mentor at the time was like let's just put you in a conscious day ago I was like okay I went and I actually got second I'm just out of I think like three or four girls or something but I had to not do one of the one of the heats because of I couldn't do that because my back time so yeah so I was like oh that's pretty good but I qualified for the Arnold's and they're like cool you can go in if you win you go to South America like or South
Africa whatever else yes look I'm definitely a win so that was meant to be in April 2016 January that year I ruptured my Achilles doing box jumps during a training session yeah like never gonna do them again but well we could do but properly yeah no I actually have done a few now you just step down okay can I teach you to land you should probably yeah I got long legs it's real awkward I'm all I'm all legs so yeah so then I had surgery and four weeks after surgery basically I went to the physio
and he told me I'm all good to walk in my boot which is awesome yeah I went home that day pretty much walked into the house I heard a large pop again and I just kind of knew what had happened I sat down and took out my food I was like fuck so I called my partner he rushed me to the ultrasound and the lady was like she's like you can't do it you can't do it in your boot like it's safe and I was like so then she did the scan I had a seven
seven seven centimeter gap between my Achilles severed Achilles I should say which is a quite a big gap if you think about it yeah it was the biggest he's seen so so then I had to go especially sir like surgeon yeah and he wore a bow tie he was real noxious and rude and he was like a first meeting he's like you'll never compete you'll never run you'll never do this and I was just like thanks thanks for the yeah so it's pretty emotionally distraught but had surgery so an FHL repair where they take the
tendon from your big toe drill a hole through your heel graft across your Achilles he said it was like seven to three parts he said they had two surgeons three hours long like holding me up like and that's huge yeah it's pretty nasty and so I was in this hospital for a week but anyways I was on bed rest about seven eight months ish where I luckily finally just like on land like I was saying to you before like I was so excited to be injured and I part I was like you need to just
like watch TV like right now like so you pretty much baby sent me for the next eight months which is lovely but um yes I finally kind of chilled out and what I realized was like where I was working and trying to teach people about balance and wellness and doing other things like yeah I hadn't you're doing the opposite well it's hard and it's so hard to see when you're in that bubble and like I just want to help people like this is my job you know and you just you get so used to kind
of like go go go go and so it's really hard to say no if someone someone wants and I was having that conversation this morning like Thursday mornings meant to be my sleep in right I meant to get to work a little later about 930 and I've had to two or three people asked me I think we had to ask me if they could do seven and eight this week and I said yes but I'm aware enough to go I shouldn't have said yes but I'll find that time somewhere else so yeah move those couple
of hours to another day yeah that's good yeah which I wouldn't have done six months ago yeah months ago but that like I use the analogy filling a cup it's really it's a really simple if you can't fill your cup you can't pour it out to help anyone else and it's hard like it's really hard to be especially when you're like in this industry and so passionate I'll be people you just want to go yeah take take it you know I'll give you everything I have yeah it took me took me like three four months
to finally go I don't know if I go back into this environment you know I was working 70 hours like my day off like I have one day off a week and I was like laundry and food prep you know like it's not wind down at all so it took me if that was a really hard decision because they were sponsoring me he's in the country and stuff and I was like what do I do like what's the right thing for you yeah yeah so in my like thankfully my partner's amazing he was just like
he's like we'll work it out like it'll be fine like you know like this isn't right you know like and I was like oh yeah okay things work out they're supposed to be like okay cool so yeah so then I ended up finishing up there and I was able to walk and started like rehab and hydro and stuff he was just like have you ever thought of doing this yourself and I was like no he's like you're so smart you're so smart so I was like oh yeah I could probably do this myself. You want
to help people or are you just going to shift that mind a little bit yeah well I've never been business minded or so I've never just been like oh I can run my business it sounds insane so yes and then we started a garage like out of our garage like it's like three stalls few racks clients like I had a lot of clients come back from my old gym like you know you spilled rapport and people leave and yeah just what it is which is cool and then yeah then like I was telling my partner
basically was like we should just start a real gym he's like I like what these guys doing but I don't like that you know taking the best hits from all the things yeah and he's like I think we can do it better and I was like that was basically our business plan it's just like what's everyone doing that we like yeah let's use that and let's not steal that as you use that because everyone does all the same shit but it's just a matter of putting your spin on it and your I guess personal touch
on it to make it your service definitely and then you've got well that sucks that sucks that sucks let's not do that and then you start to put together your own thoughts yeah that's really cool what's what's the process been like from I guess thinking about doing it to actually now being very close to opening um yeah it's still pretty surreal but it's been a good journey right like it went from having a conversation to finding a space to watching it develop like the space we got when we first got it I hated it I'm
very lucky that my partner is got a very good eye you know we tore back the wall there's break like we open the win like it's it's such an amazing space now yeah but I just like couldn't see I was like baby I was like this sucks this is shit like and he's like look it's all we can afford it's all it's mystery like you know whatever spotter yeah oh it's awesome and it's the only real gym on smistery so it's like there's so many benefits for it but um yes it's a watching develop and
like slowly getting equipment in and things like that like I'm just really frothing to like yeah like cuz people walk by when they're like the doors are open like we're moving stuff and they're like oh no it's a gym and like like yeah like how cool is it like people in and you know we've got a ton of like different equipment in there like so we don't have like your normal treadmills we've got like the true for runners we got like a Jacob's ladder we got rope flexes skiers like we've like one star master was
like the normal thing and we've got like the farmer carry like treadmill which is so I got never seen so I'm like this is amazing so so just like all kinds of cool things and you know we don't have mirrors like we don't want like we're kind of avoiding things like that like we just want like a the idea was to have like take 20 from a 24-hour gym the best part is 24 hours so it's gonna be 24 hours and then the best part about like CrossFit is the classes and the culture yeah not
the cold but so you know we I that was I was doing anyways it's like what's the difference between a culture and a cult I don't know I just realized it's pretty similar my my answer to that would be a cult people follow blindly whereas a culture you empower people to be a part of a community that all bring each other that's actually the first time I'm probably articulated anyone's listening can you please write it down text it to me that'd be great yeah thank you so yes I didn't take and then from like the
old place that I worked out like that's why I learned about gut health and hormones and like all kinds of what true health and wellness is and so having that service I can option as well so you can come in if you just want to be a 24-hour member go great you can do that that's you know no price you can be a group member if you want nutrition or bloods or stool testing or if you want to go above and beyond so you can yeah so just kind of tell everyone and it's like it's
like hipster cafe look so it's like polished wooden floorboards exposed break like we've got a plant diet coming into greenery with an infrared sauna like everything like our waters like reverse osmosis and structure like you know everything is thought back to a T right yeah even our front desk is like organic timber made like you know our system like your speaker systems like 20 grand bows you know like massive like everything yeah like over the top but um which is the way to go and shield you exactly right so I just wanted to make a
place that was like welcoming and safe and but like you know you can come to and you don't feel like you're being judged or you know it's welcoming like I did a lot of like market research so I went to like the the nearby snap and you know good life and stuff and it's so clinical and like uptight and it's so regimented you don't feel welcome you don't know anyone's name like you don't have those that rapport that you build correct that's really cool you've got a very similar I guess outlook to what you're silly
wants to be that's kind of what we're trying to focus on is just have a place where people want to be like really really it was like you said before you like you're going to get coffee with the guys and food like it doesn't have to be less like uptight like oh like you know for general population anyways like I think it can be well even some athletes but you know I think I saw the athletes and it's like oh how do you from a to B and that's it yeah it can be more chill
and well it needs to be more chill because then you know when I have physio uses the terms blasting caress right like you know when you need a blast and really work hard and focus in yeah knock it over and then you know when you need a caress when you need it chill out fill your cup you know that's exactly it yeah so that's what we're trying to yeah trying to trying to create awesome yeah awesome yeah so it's called the better health project the better health project awesome where that is it it's arms mystery
in Collingwood super cool waiting on council pending hopefully end of February awesome hopefully it's exciting or sooner yes so you're just kind of like knocking over all the little details of the moment you look it's worked out all right like I don't know if you had this issue when you were working with equipment companies but over promised under-delivered with a few things so luckily like with not opening we're still waiting on things to arrive yeah which like I said has been good because we're not open yet so yeah like we've got about probably like 75%
of stuff in still waiting on a little bits and pieces so it'll be nice out of the rest of that and then then actually open with a proper gym yeah it's exciting yeah I just played throughout my question what's what is it just you yes my partner yeah my partner does like he's like very handy and stuff so he'll come in and we'll like drill in the rings like that but um yeah as a trainer for now it's just me eventually we'll probably have to have front desk in yeah you know probably bring on trainers
but you have to be able to pick people so yeah yeah that's really cool do you like obviously a partner to support support you but do you find it hard just kind of lovely by yourself but being not really like to be honest long go to I take as like a trainer you mean yeah well not really like look like as lame as it sounds as you probably find this as well if you're Jim but like all my clients like majority they're like my closest friends in life like yeah and it's funny cuz I said
actually get like I guess like in trouble at my old work for that because I like all your two open to them like this is just the way that I am and it's how I communicate how I connect with people and personal training is so freaking personal that you know if you want to connect with someone you have to be able to be on a level with all of that you know I'd be open so um yeah so like I've they've been awesome like it was clients come down and help me that we paint like
you know they help us put stuff in like is there because I genuinely want to yeah they're not like all our kind of some free session you know no one's like oh my god like you know let me buy you one till he isn't that like it's not expected at all which is amazing like that's what you want yeah the book I'm reading in the moment one of the things I keep coming back to is meaningful work meaningful relationships if you have meaningful work then like you're doing the things you want to do and you
are yeah if you have meaningful relationships and you're doing it with the people you want to be doing with right yeah oh yeah I always struggle with that you don't wanna be friends with your clients or you don't want to be friends with you know your staff or the people you work with like yeah put you should be putting people in front of you you want to spend the rest your life with basically right definitely and I think I was listening to this thing other day and they're talking about how like I want that my
closest people to be the healthiest people right so if all my friends are they're really healthy like awesome so we grow to 100 together yeah yeah Dave Asbury 180 style talk to me talk to me about on that note talking about biohacking and all the things that you've been able to kind of dive into and learn over the last couple years yeah I mean I'm all about what does Ben Greenfield say better living through science right so that can be using tools cold baths fasting intermittent fasting long fasting supplementation testing all that stuff I get
really into you because I think it's not the be all end all you know like even talking about like genetic testing you know but it gives you these awesome tools to use to be like go for it and then it gives you education around it like that one empowers you to actually offer sure like be in charge of the stuff that happens to you like you know I'm big on ownership and no matter what happens to you if you get sick if you you know yeah if you get injured whatever it's your fault so so
if we can find those little things to make it less likely to happen and make this a little bit more efficient or whatever then why don't we do it but so many people just get stuck into the what happens happens on one ship is hard oh yeah it is it's hard but it's easy thing in the world when you actually get like there's so many so easy to go oh like I'm tired I did this because of that or the kids were crabby or it's really easy rabbit hole to get into but I think people
look at people who do have that extreme ownership and I go like yeah oh everything's easy or everything's perfect yeah but the people who I guess practice ownership I'm sure you do as well it's just that you're always gonna struggle any stuff and that and that struggle is never going away but you will you learn to embrace this struggle and actually enjoy it exactly it actually helps you improve yeah which is what we're all here for I think yeah and to help other people well that's like so there was all this like drama around genetic
testing because people were getting done and then you plug it into something and it's like oh my god you have the gene for cancer and you know all these things and go back to like they're not the BL end all like it's meant to be empowering it's meant to be information like okay if you want to avoid these things you need to make sure your sleep nutrition your movement your training your stress like everything's unlocked why wouldn't we want to know I agree hundreds of but I mean I I do I can't understand like people
who get anxious about it I mean I like I can wrap my head around it but I like I could you understand why but yeah wonder why they don't move that yeah correct correct so yes I can see how people get a bit crazy about it but um yeah so like I expect to buy having like right like testing is a cool thing to do so like most my clients do like bloods because they're easy to do and they're cheap and any G people usually give you them and they're they give you a wealth of
information again it's only it's like a snapshot yeah but it can like tell you what's happening what's going to happen what's been happening it's a very good insight you know and there's like stool testing like do you have parasites what's happening in your gut what's my goodbye I'm like yeah you know all kinds of different likes love either so many things you can go down with that which is sweet but then there's like free stuff you can do like cold showers yeah you know free easy stuff free yeah fasting fasting very free you know it's
incredibly free incredibly free like whether that's like I decided a five-day fast be in the year I'm gonna do another one on the fifth of them I don't want to join follow my Instagram now um but um you know fast things great even things like infrared saunas like all those like chromatic responses where you kind of make yourself uncomfortable but you get comfortable with it you know yeah yeah when we make ourselves uncomfortable we adapt and we move forward it's just such a simple one for me to find those things but yes a lot of
people don't necessarily have that mindset what are the what are the simplest and this is gonna be really long question but come back what are the simplest most usable bits of information that you've learned because I think you can really dive deep into everything and go down the rabbit get lost in the minutiae of detail but what are the really really simple ones so the simple ones are compress your eating window meaning eat you know in a eight-hour window so finish eating early have your first meal late yeah that would be every day but that
longer fasting has a ton of benefits lower your insulin loads of blood sugar also definitely uh walking daily walk funny that why oh if we move more we feel better I know I don't feel like you know everyone thinks you have to go tell people to go for a walk you know what yeah especially can I smash myself in the gym and say like no go for a walk well you know walking like there's so many benefits behind even doing it like a red food like in the morning at lunchtime get sunshine like you guys
are down by the ocean go to the beach yeah walk barefoot in the sand keep those negative ions like you know like help your circadian rhythms like there's so many benefits by walking I think it's you know it's just unreal but it's like so undermined because people go oh it's so easy or I got a little walk I put a podcast on or an audio book you go out it's my it's basically I put my phone on airplane mode it's my hour of like me tonight yeah I like don't talk to me yeah so that
that I think I think culture I was good but like it's it's hard to get people to start that yeah it's this like this podcast won't be out for a few weeks which is now for the people listening so sorry for the mind fuck a little bit but like now is a perfect time to start it when it's hot when it's warm ish most most mornings like chuck it on because you know you're not gonna want to start it in July when it's three degrees and we can't move well and like your your showers are
gonna get that cold no really do you know I mean we've got this big body water you can just start jumping into you started doing that a couple weeks ago yeah seven a.m. swims after the first couple of sessions it's what temperature is water roughly probably 10 12 degrees at the moment so it's still it's cool it's yeah if you get a brisk morning it's cold because it's windy yeah it's um it's a warm morning it's not uncomfortable but it gets easier right like it's enjoyable and it's like who doesn't love laying on the water
in the ocean for 30 seconds of the time yeah well I remember when we first had our ice bath it was like we started at 10 degrees and then like we go to like if you're warm after like oh well this is easy what does it go down to now five is the lowest it goes that's cool yeah so those three are probably like my big ones like well and put good food in your body like I think I take on if you've read deep nutrition by Kate Shanahan but she talks about like she like
four pillars right so you eat meat on the bone and bone broth fermented foods raw vegetables and awful you know so I think it doesn't have to be going down that rabbit hole of eating ratios and this and that like if you can't get that you're eating food not in a bag first then we can play the ratio yeah like yeah and I think that's a really simple thing that people like what about this for this hey is this good for me should I be eating this like we'll just put good shit in your body
yeah and it will pay you back and then when you start sorting that out on a regular basis you can go a little bit deeper oh for sure but I think like the biggest thing I see with clients and my parents and stuff is like no one likes vegetables you know or you get to stuff with like I just like carries the same stuff yeah yeah and like I'm not believe in eating trying to eat like seasonal and stuff like that right is almost one of the most important things yeah for sure what you're eating
definitely you need the healthiest food in the world if you're every meal of every day for the rest of your life you're not gonna be like training right your body's gonna get sick of it probably yeah so I think like yeah I think just like eating whole foods like cut out all the crap like cut across the shit you know it like the thing for me I think like when I start playing around like lower carb kind of stuff and like eating more I wasn't like doing ratios but like eating like my plate was like
75% veggies olive oil over top maybe like you know no lamb lamb mince and brain and kidney and all that stuff like it's really good actually but I'm hungry but you know like your relationship with food changes you don't feel like you need to eat every three hours like you you know you don't like live to eat or wait you to live you don't need to live you live to eat yeah that makes sense yeah you know I mean like you just change it like oh my god I have to eat like yeah you just
like lose that I remember I said like when I was eating like five six meals a day I think about alright what's my next meal oh my god I can't wait to have that or that or that you know so I'm a little bit more mindful about what you eat and when you actually eat it and you and like I'm one that's terrible for this so for the people that know me closely will be yelling at me right now but I try it I've been like last night KP my partner yelled at me for not
enjoying every mouthful but I've been trying to eat be a little bit more money but it's a time thing for me right I'll get you back to work correct no it is it is hard like you know like Paul Jack talks about like you should basically like like liquefy your food in your mouth before you drink it like I'm really bad that as well like really bad but you know but like in terms of like gastric juices and you're preparing your body and switching on your CNS and all that stuff you know just like it's
crazy important definitely I think it's so it's so important and exciting that we're starting to drop down a couple of layers in terms of gut health and starting to figure out what actually how important it is to be mindful of it and to understand what's going on it's my favorite topic in the whole world awesome because it's just like so it's becoming now like to the forefront like people are like you're recognizing it you know what I mean and everyone's not heard of like gluten and stuff you know which is good but I just think
it's like I think what we put in our body like it's the building blocks everything you know your tissue your skin your cartilage like your bones like if you're putting shit in your body you're gonna have shit material like it just makes sense right yeah and your body's gonna react to everything you put in it like and it's gonna rather react positively or negatively yeah exactly and I think it's kind of black and white but like being like everything you put in your mouth either like helps you or hurts you yeah but like if it's
a hurtful stuff is like the 20% and you're doing it with friends and you're out for a nice meal and you got communion you're laughing like you feel good then like but you've got to be mindful around that right like if you go if you guys sit down and have a donut with friends and go fuck I'm eating a donut I'm gonna feel so shitty that's the worst thing you get a massive cortisol spike and your body and you're just gonna be like you're not gonna enjoy the donut for first of all but then your
your body's gonna react differently so if you ain't awesome I'm with friends I'm gonna enjoy this donut and then move on with my life like I always say I'm like if you eat a stressful food in the stress out about it's a double whammy like your body's like thanks bro yeah you know yeah I hate you yeah it's simple I'm like just ask yourself before you eat something or like we do it in the gym with training like is this gonna make me better like the 1% rule yeah don't go to the gym if you're
not gonna be 1% better exactly exactly and if you're just training for the sake of training or because you've got a preconceived idea of you need to be training or you have you smashing yourself or you know you need to be lifting heavy and you know like I'm sure Jess and I definitely don't abide by that all the time like like we miss those days where we we have those days where we feel like we should rest but we train because we feel like we should train and vice versa so I think it's it's something
that we both struggle with I'm sure you struggle with it and yeah you know we're here as coaches and trainers and health professionals and personal trainers because we want to help everyone around us even if we can't help ourselves sometimes well and we're like ex-athletes I think that makes a difference I guess so used to being like have to do this is this is this yeah and I think is like decided a photo shoot like a few months ago now but I prep like I've never done photo shoot never done anything physique but I was
like after my injury and I was like folk normal person like I was hating the gym I wasn't training for anything I like this sucks I get why people hate the gym and so I like I was like I need a goal and like I was pretty I did a Texas game and I was like 33% body fat I had a huge breakdown because I was a blob right I was sitting for eight months doing nothing yeah and I was just like I was like oh yeah cry if it's one of your clients right you
wouldn't expect anything different oh they're hanging out for eight months like improving your ruptured Achilles then that's okay yeah look but it's hard it's hard to grow like I was like oh my god like yeah so I sound I'd like hired a physique coach and I like to this training and obviously like you do some extreme things at the end right like what I knew and I understand like okay I'm like really long calories but if you want extreme stuff to happen you've got to do extreme stuff exactly what I think another thing people don't
really understand like what if you're aware of that and you're okay with it and you make the the action or to make the choice to do it then it's okay yeah probably a lot of people find themselves in that position of not really understanding why they're doing it and not saying the extremes are going to be extreme becomes a norm true true but like even afterwards like I was finding it was pretty much a pretty big head fuck like in terms of like being like alright I know this has this many calories I need to
get on the bike for this yeah so even though you were aware of it and really educated in the space you still struggle with it after well yeah for like probably like a good like two months cuz like I was like and I never I hate the scales I could never weigh myself up for this coach I had to weigh every week so I kind of like got into it but like my life she was on a Friday I weighed 57 kilos which was like less than I ever would have been playing soccer like tiny
yeah and then by the end of the weekend like Sunday night I was back like I normally around 68 like whatever yeah and I was like back up to 68 and I was like I put on 11 kilos you know like it was so like I never cared about I was like oh fuck like I was like I'm an elephant you know like I just and of course I was water depleted food depleted like taking like flushing things out like you know like buddy's like thank God your minds like what the fuck yeah yeah like
it was really hard yeah but um yeah what helped you get out of that mindset back into the you know I want to look after myself mindset to be honest it took it took a few weeks of me just going I don't like training so I'm gonna try like kind of being like the intuitive I mean like I won't eat this like I was pretty like easily got back into food I went pretty crazy like that was like hadn't had anything like naughty right for a while so I went like pretty ham on that and
then like but I just didn't try to train for two or three weeks and then I actually ended up going home like out of the blue so I went home and I just like walked my friends on the desert so we walked every day like my dad I played pickleball and golf and and I was like I was like you know I'll get back to it that was like probably the best thing for me cuz like even though they eat terribly I was like look I'm trying to do something movement every day and then like
when I get back I'll just get back into it like you know that's like things happen shit happens you can't like I was like it took me a while to really be like just don't stressed all good like but then when you not stressing then you're starting to look after yourself again you know that response and then you can allow yourself and I think there's nothing wrong with taking three weeks off training there's nothing wrong with eating shitty for two weeks like if it's going to get you back to a mindset and a position where
you're looking after yourself yeah but it just takes time right and yeah and I'm sure like you're probably enlisting the help of the people around you whether it be on the people follow Instagram or yeah the things you read to actually help you get back there oh definitely yeah yeah it's good awesome if you could I guess nail down your life health fitness philosophy in like two three sentences what would it be I'll give it to you in like one sentence hit me well it's not my whole philosophy my philosophy around food eat like you
give it down about yourself it's like one of my favorite I think I'm pretty sure so from someone but I just think it's like it's such a form of self-respect and um yeah I think if food becomes such a like a crutch and I get it's so emotional like people are so emotionally tied to food like I see on people it's like talking about religion sometimes people like what do you mean like I shouldn't have this I'm like look like like yeah this is where you want to be like I shouldn't have a lot of
people it is it's very difficult and you know like people get attached and it's because like you know there's sensors attached with like smell and memory and it reminds them of XYZ and you're taking that away it's a comfort thing so you know it's hard it's hard it's very hard for people it's hard for myself it's hard for everyone yeah yeah exactly but like it was hard let's like at least to help with people around us and and actually talk to people about it because so many people won't talk about it yeah and I think
that's the that's the most frustrating thing because we know we all struggle with food we know we all struggle with training we know we all struggle with motivation and discipline like everyone is aware of I guess the stuff they struggle with but they don't ask for help well I think that's why it's good like like you have your gym and like what we're trying to like community-wise like to share those stories yeah like I think they can get almost like you almost feel like ashamed of feeling the way you feel or like if you have
something bad like you know I remember like that last guy I went after I went for a show I was like order Uber Eats and like eat it by myself and like hide the bag before I go home you know what I mean because I was like I'm a piece of shit like what am I doing but um you know everyone's been there like it's not just you it's not just me it's like we've all had shit weeks we've all had bad things we've all done you know like done things that maybe aren't conducive to
our goals or what we want to be or achieve and that's like that's everyone that's okay because then if you you know like if you fall down one day and fuck up that's okay the next day just make sure you do the right thing yeah it doesn't matter next day like if we get into that that vicious cycle of fucking out feeling shit about fucking out then we fucking up again it's just repeat repeat repeat like I've found myself I found I started writing like just a couple little like posts either in our Virtus group
or on our Facebook yeah just like I'll write something that I'm struggling with and yes everyone's like like I get messages and stuffs like thank you for writing that or you know like this one really hit home and stuff and I'm just like if and this goes for I guess all the coaches out there and all the people that do work with other people if you talk about the shit you're struggling with most of the people around you will buy into it well understand it because they're struggling with the same stuff I was literally just
like I was like it's so much better like when people are struggling and you can like share that experience like look I get that I was there I did that like I totally feel your pain or whatever you know like again going back to like being on the same level as people like nothing connects you more than that you know that passion so but don't just bitch about it because it's an issue like yeah identify what are the things that help help me improve it so like for example like my big struggle at the moment
and like I think we've always all got a struggle so we could like yeah we call it like a block what's your block at the moment yeah my blocks my sleep right like like I'm I'm you know I'm in a massive like exciting crazy cool part of the year I guess or like yeah where we're at as a business where like it's all about growth it's all about where we want to be yeah and you know so from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day we're all pumping and thinking and thinking about where we want
to be so you get home and then you've got to do all the other stuff that you talk yeah yeah and it's like shit what can I do to start allowing myself to to relax a little bit more during the day so that I could actually get to sleep or not so I want to get sleep at night yeah like because I get on the night yeah get me one it's on the list it's always for an expert us when we get bigger we got room for it yeah but um yeah and I like I've
got to figure out what are the things that will remind me when I get home that I need to go to sleep and I'm not gonna just sit there and read or watch TV or yeah and like that's something I'll struggle struggling with so obviously the majority of like a big chunk of my clientele or the vertus family the people around us and I'm sure your clients as well that's why they're gonna be struggling so why don't we talk about it well sleeps tough on her as well because it's like you get the FOMO the
fear of missing out and people want to do you think which is like I'm I go to bed like I'm in bed phone airplane about like 730 at the moment I don't know you that it's true but like you know yeah yeah but it's something like even like Eric I've been airplane on my phone now for probably like six months like I just do it from 730 and like all my clients know or if they messaged me they'll find out the next day like obviously obviously not on but um that's been like a huge thing
for me because you just like you have to you look you're just constantly thinking and like all that what this person the situation in your business and this is gonna come exactly what are they sort of this and then when you're ladies I'll switch off and not think about that stuff like yeah what's good like what's always good yeah well that's it reading's been my one for that oh and I turned off all notifications on my phone so like and actually yesterday I was listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast black and white so I changed
my phone to change my phone to grayscale for all those guys are listening and can't actually see it so you can you can change the the actual like no so there's no color on your phone so like obviously we look at our phone and we see the bright blue Facebook or the I can't remember what color Instagram is like now like orange and purple or something and we see that and like your brain just goes oh pretty stuff so I so you go yeah you so for those are listening just jump on Google and Google
your phone and like whatever one it is and Google grayscale and you can change it to grayscale it's been like two days and I would reckon my social media use would have dropped by 20% already that's so I like it's just a little thing but yes I'm not checking my phone as much at night you know I'm not checking my phone much during the day because well I can't send you pretty pictures so yeah I want to go on Facebook and I don't actually have a Facebook feed on my laptop because I've got another program
that gets rid of that yeah like I can't look at pretty Facebook pictures anymore which is stopping me from you know spending yeah but it's just those little things that we can order yes also yeah yeah we can use it for good I think yeah yeah maybe maybe but it's such an easy rabbit hole to go down and like get lost in like when I was the last week before my photo shoots I was like like a mole in the couch I'm gonna get lost in like peanut butter porn you know like down Instagram like
but I keep all my Sam I keep all my notifications off because I just or else you just think like it's just always going off and it's always a reminder don't mean don't you know it's a heat yeah but um that's good idea that grace go oh I'll keep you guys places yeah I think I think I'll keep it on for a little while yeah you mentioned come like mentors before you mentioned my name but who have been your big mentors and what have the been there what have been the big things you've learned from
them so my biggest mentor like going to like learning about health and wellness was Dave O'Brien from fulfillment so I was at film for up to two years and he was like like just like changed my whole view around health and wellness and like really fueled my passion for it because like his backstory like he had an issue with his health and that's how he got into it and like yeah you know I just like fed off that and so you you know invested hates time with me during the week like learning about bloods and
everything across the board and trained me like really taught me how to like properly like train people and you know like put me in a different courses like that so amazing um and then when I left there I basically like I do so much I'm such a nerd like I love at Greenfield and Stevenson and date well I don't love Dave Asprey but he's pretty smart so his stuff like all these people like I'm constantly listening to audio books podcasts like I have I've like an addiction to buying books like I have so many books
and I was like I get through that but I think I have piles around our house right yeah I've just books on everything you're speaking to me on a spiritual level oh man it's on like my best idea I think I've got like seven or eight so and most of them to be honest like this is gonna be bad like it's not bad but I I don't like listen or read anything that's not like gonna help me in what I do well that's not bad well cuz like you people like oh you know you should
read what do you do right you help people yeah I don't read any like I mean I love Harry Potter I don't write I don't read any like I'm exactly like all my books are all I guess personal development or development of some sort or business development or you know the autobiography of someone that I look up to sure definitely so I don't think you necessarily have to go go your you know imagination books and things like that like I always feel a bit I'm just like yeah I just want to cram all the bits
in my brain yeah I like stories that have a like a deeper meaning to them yeah for sure like hearing how someone came up from yeah to where they are to where they went or whatever I'd like understanding their story and why they do what they do like that's awesome like usually it's a pretty cool one you're the youngest I haven't yet but it's on my list yeah so like for me that's like it's simplest like it's just a story but it's all about getting from where you are now to where you want to be
yeah and you know I think it's you don't have to have a big giant book with all of these different life hacks in it yes follow a basic story and do the things you love doing and you get this yeah it for me it's such a simple simple message cool just to well if you want something to keep at it otherwise like if you stop then you won't get it yeah it's that simple yeah it almost is like yeah definitely like we make mistake simplicity for you sometimes like we want something to be simple and
easy but yeah all the simple stuffs usually really hard because it's just repetition we are in life today full stop you know I mean definitely what was have been some of the courses that you've done that you feel is that you've got the most benefit from so the first course I did in Melbourne after like I had to do myself three and four because I don't accept my American certifications yeah the wonders of an Australian surgery yeah amazing that's not but I did the first question it was FMA awesome um with John Sharp and Mark
Buckley and it just like every it just made so much sense have you done it yeah yeah I've done one two three like numerous times like I was like a volunteer and something but that for was like just learning about it you know like why people break down and where and how does it I was like oh my god like so simple it was so simple what a way to simplify it's just it's amazing it's a really really good like and for all the all the coaches out there they're listening I haven't done it for
my it's I would recommend it it's it's outstanding it just makes it so easy to understand and like yeah for me I guess I just made everything click and I was like this is awesome yeah so that was like talking on one two three of those I think they're changing it now but I've done those numerous times and I love like I love Buckley he's real smart he's such a cool dude I wish he was in Australia but um so that was a big one I've done I've done some polygon courses so I did like
PCP yeah and I did by signature as well which is good like um I do a lot of caliper testing now that I think that it's super like I got a lot of validity but it's a good measurement you know cuz I say all this you know the same way every time and you can exactly see the changes for sure and people go oh this you know your calf is your sleep and this and look I have seen some correlations with some things and something like obviously if you're not eating well your love handles are
gonna go up yeah but um yeah like that those are really good I've done like a few different like short courses here and there but most of it has been like I did like a blood chemistry course that was life-changing and my FCM course that I did yeah and just that was like basically it's like stress is the king right which is like you know I think we all got a bucket and you know people just recognize the stress being all like an emotional thing but like are you eating stressful foods are you angry at
traffic or angry kids are you in a stressful job like you know there's so many other and we don't differentiate between the different types your body doesn't your body's like oh like it's almost saying and to be asked the one the first book I ever read that like also kind of clicked was why zebras don't get ulcers have you read that no it's like the most easy simplifying it's by Robert Tepowski I think that's how he says last night um and it just like how stress like like just messes up your body causes chronic disease
all these issues like cascade effects right so you know like and it's so simple cuz like I think it like pillars of health like you talk about food and movement and stress management and sleep and toxic whatever but if you get like if you can kind of like hit like those it like a pretty like 75% level yeah like everything your body's gonna like sort itself out yeah right yeah we've got a pretty amazing machine that we're dealing with so yeah it's we know we're doing right we were like I want to write a book
and someone's gonna see those I'm sure cuz I keep saying this but I want to write a book that says like it's like title like hell from the inside out it's all the same shit because you know I come people come to me and they have diagnosis of XYZ or autoimmune conditions or cancers or and it's like it's literally the majority of time it's the same thing is like what are you putting your body like how are you sleeping how you manage stress like how are you managing your toxic blood do you shitty products like
right right cuz it really is like I did the day it's all the same stuff like pretty much like generally you know so yeah yeah I can't control but if you're doing kind of the majority of the big things right like then your body's gonna be like okay well we can handle a bit more stress in life and kid stress yeah if you want to go hard at work for a month like like yeah but you've got to be filling your bucket or filling your cup correct as you go because it only lasts and you
get away with it for a while and like when you know in your 20s and 30s you can get away with it yes but that's little payback later on well I don't think to be honest like my injury like I was pretty stressed at work I was training really hard like my body you're gonna get a disease or an injury my body was like take a seat something always right yeah and then even the second one like cuz I like that first month I was like yes reading and then like it took my my actual
mentor and boss to say to me hey have you like like one down have you taken a nap have you met it I was like nah it's been reading he's like you just chill the fuck out yeah okay so then that's when I started chilling out and I was like oh yeah everyone who knows me will tell me that I need to do that at the moment yeah we'll get in there I'm learning just don't injure yourself work it is no let's yeah and I'm like being in the position we're in you understand that things
don't happen by accident like no yes some impact injuries may happen by accident but if you're if you're looking after yourself then you know things like you know achilles ruptures and and hamstring injuries and soft tissue stuff doesn't really happen not even is that like it blows my mind when people go oh like I've got cancer I don't know I've got this it is so scientific your body has been breaking down for the last 30 years now this is how it's proliferating right so like people say oh I'm genetically disposed to having thyroid issues because
my mom has it and I have it and my aunt has it like that's just means it's your weak link right so if you treat your brother like shit like that's where you're gonna break down where I might break down and my Achilles is obviously like which I found out I have genetically small Achilles so that's where I broke down yeah you know like but it's you down to your body for whatever reason that is very like it's not a death sentence right it's not a this is well this is the way it has to
be like if you're predisposed to something it doesn't mean you've got it it just means that if you don't do the right things and look after yourself the right way then you might end up with it exactly what am I but like science right like the bank I have a my dad had prostate cancer six years ago he's fine now but I like sat down with him recently when I was home and I was like my god I'm like cuz he needs to be a pool maker and work in like plants I'm like well you
probably got this whole 80 terribly but I was like from working on plants and fumes and you know back with 30 years ago like they didn't use like proper yeah like you know as your private body being like okay enough toxins not enough reading it out you know like there's a slow process you just don't get cancer overnight you just don't get tumors overnight like takes a while it's accidentally got cancer like yeah I got it don't think it happens that way yeah yeah all right I got a bunch of questions for you okay and
I want you to be as succinct or as long as you as you want a what as be as quick with your hands okay first one have you had a defining moment Wow have I had a defining moment yes so when I I think as I told you I was married when I came to Australia to an Australian yeah I knew it was probably not right for about a year but I really wanted to say but did not to do because I've never friends really yet and it was very scary it sucked I was probably
like I was like 23 so when I decided to end things I basically had to move up pack myself and left and like didn't know where I was going and it's heavy yeah it was pretty I mean I'm pretty like I had a like I worked at a cafe and this lady was like oh my daughter's away don't use my car for six months and I was like you know anything and then I was yeah and then I got this job at this wellness gym like just like out of the blue like all these things
are in one place but like I basically lived in like a studio shack by myself like eating rice packets for you know like it was like so scary yeah struggle but like so that leaving like driving away and then like dealing with that for a few months and then getting my feet and that was a whole kind of whole educational lesson like us which I'm so grateful for like you know I think I'm pretty resilient but yeah that was definitely like it was scary and I think part of it was like I never believed in
divorce and just like I don't know I was like oh people can work it out like it's great and then I was in the situation and I just like really weird two separate people you know I didn't want to everything I love is great except for that and I was like well yeah it's not right everything runs at court or runs its course eventually and if if it's not right it's not right but you've got to be yeah I've been an honest and I wish a year right like I was like oh I was like
kind of like when I talk my parents about like August and they were really supportive they're like income homie this and I was like I'll just like kind of wait out and try talking about it try and go and do counselors tried marriage canceling all that stuff and it just like didn't work and so then when I left you know like he was begging me not say I was like like yeah it's scary you had to make the right decision and you're both for we in a better place oh so much I'm so grateful like
you know that he might probably wouldn't have stayed here in Australia or like been here for the year and stuff so yeah yeah like yeah that was very funny for me it's good you know any good fun facts fun facts um fun fact you know that cactuses are endangered species cacti genuinely in all of them I think like maybe just in the States so like in Arizona my parents live in Arizona was because parents live in Arizona and you can't just like go up to the desert and likes like grab a cactus and really can't
no they they're dangerous so they take them all like animals but if something falls off you can like so it's like a pineapple you know the roots are in the top and so then you put it in the pot and grow so yeah so um and they only grow an inch a year so that's how you know how old it is I don't know why that's cool yeah this week on cactus backs yeah that's good what advice would you give 15 year old version of yourself oh um I would tell myself well like I love
the quote in 10 years from now will it really matter cuz I was thinking like I think like like this is very generalized and I might get some shit for this but like as females like we're so emotionally retarded until about agreed until about 28 but you know just like not knowing what we want and like like you know I just remember like really like judging myself or like thinking people were judging me or I just was like so I was at a boyfriend like I needed that like reassurance like I just did myself love
kind of stuff you know I'm sure everyone kind of hates themselves and now a lot of girls go through like now with like social media and like all that shit that we say it's tough but I like I really wish like I would have like just done myself like just admit you know like it not yeah really from a mindset thing like it's that's you just needing to remind yourself but you have the emotional maturity now to be able to do that yeah I think well now I'm 30 now I'm old no but um you
know I just think like we just like we don't really know ourselves and like just be like it's okay like it's not the end of the world like you just make big deals out of situations that like don't really matter right like and one thing I've also learned like with like my partner's very like low emotional like chill like I always tell me can I trudge through shit cuz like he'd be like the world could be collapsing he's just like laser focused like doesn't even break his sweat he's stressed but like he's really good at
just like head down eyes for it right and I just like I've taken so much from him because he's just like really good that were like originally I said that really cry I was injured like and he just be like well like what can we do about it like you'll be right like it'll be okay like yeah things will be right things gonna work out but that sounds familiar yeah oh yeah like it's gonna be okay and like does this really matter like that's a big thing that's what I'm like okay like someone I used
to get really upset well it's still kind of annoys me but like timeliness like I hate being like I would rather not go to something cuz it stresses me out yeah but like now people like show up later whatever it like it used to really piss me off but I'm just like like this really matter like is it worth like getting upset like ruining my cortisol levels you know exactly so there's so many different ways we can react to it like we can get shitty and go oh they obviously don't care about us but they
might have had something else going on that we don't know about it but from their point of view they've got to be like you know rather than I hate this like I'm sorry I might it's like thanks dude go the thanks for waiting for me because actually you know you're actually showing people that you care about the time yeah definitely on the girls being crazy crazy one of the one of the girls at the gym I think I've spoken about on the podcast couple times but one of the girls who works for Virtus has been
banging on about this audiobook for maybe six months it's called it's called understanding women I think it's Alison Armstrong okay possibly finally listen to it and it is exceptional it just it talks about the difference between men and women basically yeah girls aren't just a slightly more feminine version of us that's different species right and we deal with everything in such different ways and it's I probably need to listen to it again because I'm yeah being an audiobook I tend to zone out sometimes it's something that yeah I would recommend everyone listen to because girls
and guys yo your your world rock listen to the the guy who wrote the men are from Mars one from Venus yeah he's got a second book here I was called but it's like all about relationships and like to the point of hormonally being like if you want girlfriend to be happy for the next month on day three after her period you need to be really nice like like from a science level like her pheromones are doing this so if you act this way she'll be better like it's really like whoa like but it's true
like it's important just as important for I think girls to understand that as guys because like if you're reacting a certain way and like like I'm sure it's going to be the same thing with guys if you're reacting a certain way and you understand why are you doing that then yeah like you're gonna be okay with it but if you don't understand why and you just think oh shit I'm a man it's like a good stuff yeah that's when you're really really gonna struggle well I think that's like so I've been doing a lot of
likes listening to a lot of self development books and like you are a badass by the judges and chairs like changed my whole life you know like the stories we tell ourselves in our heads and it's really like brought in light so like why why I personally may do some of the things that I do and why I react to things and like even in like relationships like I you know I remember doing the girl thing where my partner would say something and I would take it with a completely wrong way and then he would
call me out on I think that I didn't say this I said this and you took this when I was like it took me not very long like a few times like two times three times ready to just be like oh yeah like you know and it I needed someone to tell me that I think most people like either don't say anything or just like fight back and get emotional I think it's easy to do that but yeah definitely I would definitely suggest doing some reflection in the patterns that you're kind of used to yeah
I think that ability to kind of look down on the conversation you're having or the reaction that you have rather than just being in it being able to look down on it and go right did I make the right decision did I do the right thing if not yeah learn from it like it's just and why does this person feel the way you know why are we fighting like why do they think it's like this or usually it's just a breakdown in communication it's not that you want different things or that things aren't gonna be
okay like it's just a breakdown in your ability to communicate because we all communicate slightly differently good answer money wasn't an issue and you knew you couldn't fail what would you do with your life um I would to be honest I would probably like go somewhere I want to lose I don't know where but live somewhere I want to build a big like bio hacking house in the middle of nowhere no Wi-Fi like like a salt room a sauna like a cold like all the cool things right and then just like you know I have
like maybe the beach on one side like desert on the other and like mountains and I just wanted to be like full primal that's what I was you maybe travel first a little bit like around and then I just like invest something like that's our goal anyways is to do something like that but you know just have this like sweet place like that's what I love doing right I love you know I still want to like maybe help I still want to help probably somewhere like maybe I'd like write a new book or something but
you know like they're probably nowhere so yeah yeah I like that answer I would go there yeah I want to go yeah well I think it is like oh my parents ever come over I get them real healthy because like we don't have healthy food they have to get out yeah definitely right if you could be remembered in one sentence what would it be in one sentence yeah just really gave a shit about me that's all the sense to be yeah what is success to you success is you know being able to do what you
love every day living optimally and surviving on that like money wise you know cuz I think money kind of gets a weird like oh my god but you need money to survive so that's that's what success is to me but I don't know that what are you most proud of and I was proud of probably it's probably my whole time staying in Australia so from like leaving my husband to changing visas to almost like the other country to this new gym sponsoring me to leaving them to again I was thinking about country to my partner
now and I'm gonna be like it's a long story made for a podcast but it's it's pretty depth and it's it was very ups and downs stressful of my I want to be here I'm doing what I love like how do I stay here and continue doing I love and so through that whole job I'm pretty proud of how we can't how I came out of it and how like we is my partner but um I have kind of like persevered it would have been easy to go home and move in with mom and dad
yeah and given up and I mean I can do it we can do what we love kind of anywhere yeah yeah and then now you're able to look back on it and say that well that all that struggle made you who you are effectively correct definitely so yeah so I found some shit which is good yeah it's only you know made me a little bit tougher yeah good like that sit on like the back half of that question what are you most ashamed of oh I was shamed of it's a real I'm actually listening to
all these books on shame at the moment so like Brené Brown yeah yeah so like I just finished braving the wilderness and powerful really so I watch listen to any of books yet watch all the TED talks and a bunch of videos oh the powerful ability I was doing like three days like I put on I was training like I couldn't stop listening so I was just like oh yeah I think I was ashamed so okay yeah I got a good story so when I was in college the reason I stopped drinking like I only
drink like maybe once a year now but a reason I stopped drinking is at university I was just like in a very very dark place like yeah like had ruined things like boyfriend like just I wasn't going to school I was just like in a very bad mental state and living at my grandparents and just like being a bum and one night we went out had some drinks my so my ex-husband slash boyfriend at the time got real got pretty wasted I started throwing some swings at him which is very out of character for me
but didn't like the cops came took me home they didn't arrest me anything which is good but I went in and I actually like found some pills on table and like took what I was like this shit right like yeah lowest point in my life so I took a bunch of pills I think it was like I prefer something like too crazy but like a whole bottle worth and luckily my boyfriend's home came home and found me and called the ambulance and took me crazy yeah it's in the hospital and I woke up with my
dad like next to my bed and my parents like my parents actually met in AA so like we never had like I was around the house like they're always like cool like you want to do it like tell us like we'll get them for you like all something so it's open but like I was an athlete so I never drank capes until I really went to college yes you don't cry I woke up and like my dad's been he's like I love you so much you know it was the first thing out of his mouth
and I was like I was like I'm you know and I was like hating myself and I'm stomach pumped and it was like it's pretty tough and coming back from that like obviously like like I got help I saw people like I went to AA meetings I didn't think I had a problem drinking but I was like you know I just wanted to I don't know be right other people who understood and yeah like it definitely brought my dad I really like really really close but that was probably like the lowest one of us like
what am I doing it shows a lot about your character I think the way you responded to it though like having that like going to the meetings and putting yourself in positions but like with people who understand like yeah you didn't suffer alone after afterwards we should a lot of people could have oh definitely yeah and I'm like I'm super lucky like my dad could have been so angry at me or this night he was like just like he's like always so much is like what like what can I like what did I do what
can I do to help like you know and yeah so that was um looks I'm really close my parents thought was like really tough and I was like pretty like stayed pretty like kind of like embarrassed and ashamed for like a while because like it was a small town so people have found out I was like but yeah I don't know I don't know what point I got through it but I just kind of kept going to like speak to people and yes that's the process right like yeah I'm not gonna be better overnight like
it's gonna take time and you're gonna have days when you're not yeah well I was like look like you know that's when I was like alright I don't ever want to lose control and you know like and so now like I said I only drink maybe like once or twice you gotta drink my birthday like you know I just and it's like partially cuz I held down it's expensive here in Australia feel good when I do it and but yeah that was like a real real turning point so I don't think I drink like four
years cuz it's like oh I don't trust myself I don't know what happened I'm not an aggressive person like so do you learn from it yes yes if you can invite three people to dinner who would they be and why dead or alive dead or alive um probably invite oh this is such a tough question um I would probably invite like Channing Tatum just for the looks pretty so my vanity trees I think that's the first time he's been in that side oh well he's pretty good looking to be fair um probably turn him and
then um maybe like who is really I I'd write um I was gonna say Ted Bundy but that's not that I want Obama I probably Obama I'm sure that's all the first time he's been he seems cool to hang out with I'd be like I'm very interesting conversation yeah like he'd just be probably so proper it'd be awesome and then Tony Dungy so I don't know he's a he's a ex football coach so he talks like I've been reading a lot about habits and building habits and stuff and I've read some really cool stories if
you want to read all the biographies um anyways he he just like talks about like here's the philosophy around coaching and like life was like you know if you do the small things right every day they become excellent right you don't have to do excellent things all the time or whatever if that makes sense so in his philosophy football was like let's just make the small things work awesomely and then you don't have to throw him out hail Mary's been to the game you've already got it yeah yeah so um he's got a really cool
story about how like I mean soon I'm sure like coaches here like you can get fired in the middle of night and then not the job and you know it's like pretty stressful but he went through a few different jobs because like he talked about how it changed and guys would do really really good until like maybe a stressful situation came and then they would revert revert back to their old ways until he got to like the I think it was like the Browns or Pittsburgh Steelers so they hadn't won like 50 years or something
and then they went back-to-back NFL yeah Super Bowls and so yeah his story's really cool and like I just think like he'd be cool versus it down and just like talk about that with and just be like man like what did you when you got right yeah like how did you feel so I think we'd all three well four it would be along well you know yeah yeah that'd be cool next one's a Tim Ferriss question oh good what's the book that you either have given the most as a gift or that you wish that
everyone would read so for like the nerdy people like they're really like sciency people I always always give people deep nutrition so when I talked about yeah and like it just goes into it's really interesting actually goes into like how jeans express themselves and so like you know if your grandparents ate really well then your mom bought better jeans and yellow jeans like and but it's like a whole family tree effect right so I think terrible and they continue terrible like you're just gonna get worse once worse yeah and it just talks about how to
like basically eat to thrive as a human and how to have the best billy box which I just love but she's very sciency very nerdy but she does like she's like that um she's like the LA Lakers nutritionist so she talks about like she's been interviewed if you podcast talks about like Kobe Bryant or his ankle like feeding him bone broth and how he heals much faster than other guys and then the other one that I was gonna say is kind of like but it's called the walls protocol it's a little bit less science II
but it's about this doctor so it's like a doctor like normal medical doctor who got MS yeah she died I was and then like over a span of basically like seven years she went down the whole medical room because I was like what she was taught and she just like went from being having her practice to not being able to get a bed like fully bedridden and then was like not fuck this right started doing like just like any papers that had like herbal supplements or other things alternative and basically implemented that in her life
and like completely healed herself it's crazy you know and like people like MS is like forever well and like not saying it's gonna heal you for sure but like her protocols that are now being tested with like different I mean conditions and Crohn's and IBS and all these other things really interesting yeah it's so on your book your story so it goes basically it's like there's her story which you're like fuck that's amazing especially cuz she comes from that medical background yeah and then heals herself I mean I think she's a bit of both but
like with the change of diet and something she talks a lot about food is the biggest thing at the end of the day that shocks about so like there's like three different levels you can do like kind of like the basic which is like kind of paleo esque with a little bit of grains and there's like you know no grains and there's like a ketogenic kind of style like diet but you know for the importance that it just makes it so simple and like it's always better when you hear someone who has felt it or
been there or you know like been like I understand how you feel so yeah those are two books so though that wall throw is good because it's kind of like a how-to like a step-by-step like school yeah yeah good books last question for you what's your favorite quote um what's my favorite quote well I do like the quote eat like you give it to him by yourself that's one of my favorite ones but uh this is such a good question someone asked me for a podcast and I like I like went away and I was
like oh my god I could have said so many things yeah and I didn't um probably the my favorite quotes probably like the genetics of the gun lifestyle pull the trigger like with clients anyways just because it makes so much sense when he actually didn't think about it like oh yeah just look after yourself damn it yeah yeah yeah yeah so look that's my short answer thank you very much for coming on how can people find you so I'm on Instagram and social media better health with Jess awesome I've got a website it's like better
health with jess.weebly.com cool I think or if you got my Instagram you can find it there I'm pretty active on my Instagram nothing wrong with that nothing wrong with that yeah I've got like a weekly newsletter you can sign up for I post kind of like lots of nerdy things recipes exercises yeah you can come down to Collingwood check out the better health project when we open yeah love your work thank you thanks for having me super star [Music]
