Today on the podcast, I’m talking to CrossFit athlete, coach and previous HQ staff Miranda Chivers. We talk about everything from competing in CrossFit, to her breaking her neck, going through knee surgery and giving birth to her first child…all natural. She cray. Wait until you hear her birth story!

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Episode 55 Transcription!

Well hey there buttercup baby. Welcome to another episode of PaleOMG Uncensored. Before I get started with the amazing Miranda, I’ve got to tell you about something that’s super rad. This month’s sponsor. And this month’s sponsor is something I use daily. Every single day I’m using it. It’s Butcher Box. If you haven’t heard me talk about Butcher Box; come on. Get with the program. Follow me on Instagram, man! I talk about it every single day there. Because it is a product I use every single day. Instead of going to the grocery store and trying to decipher through all the different labels out there nowadays, Butcher Box takes that out of the equation.

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And right now they’re offering PaleOMG Uncensored listeners an awesome discount. You can get $10 off your first order plus two free grass-fed grass finished ribeyes. That’s all you have to do, go to ButcherBox.com/PaleOMG and figure out what box is perfect for you. Again, that’s ButcherBox.com/PaleOMG. And you’ll get $10 off your first order and two free ribeyes. This company is awesome, guys. I’m so lucky to get to work with them. And if you want to support the podcast, and support me, and keep this podcast going, check them out. I promise you’re going to be so happy with them. And now, let’s hear from Miranda.

This is Juli Bauer from PaleOMG and you are listening to PaleOMG Uncensored.

Juli Bauer: So welcome everyone to PaleOMG Uncensored. Today I have a very special guest. Her name is Miranda. What is your new last name now, Miranda?

Miranda: {laughs} That’s actually a really in-depth question for the first question.

Juli Bauer: I know! {laughing} Well what do you like to go by now.

Miranda: I actually don’t know the answer to that question. I’m just kidding. I was married, and my last name was Oldroyd. That’s still my last name on my driver’s license. I have not changed it because that’s a pain in the ass.

Juli Bauer: Totally.

Miranda: But I don’t go; I don’t know what I go by. My maiden name is Chivers.

Juli Bauer: Ok.

Miranda: Which pretty much anyone that’s known me through CrossFit has never heard that before. So it’s kind of weird right now. I’m just Miranda, like Madonna.

Juli Bauer: {laughs} Changing your name is such a pain in the ass. So having to change it again; my mom was married previously, before my dad. And then she changed her name, and then when she got married again, she’s like, I’m not doing that again. So she kept her last name {laughs} and never changed it. Because it’s such a freaking pain.

Miranda: It is. It’s like on everything, and then my website was MirandaOldroyd.com and my Instagram was Miranda Oldroyd.

Juli Bauer: Totally.

Miranda: So yeah, it’s been fun.

Juli Bauer: Well, I know, that was an in-depth question. But before we get started, I want you to tell everyone kind of who you are, so people who maybe aren’t in the CrossFit space or new to CrossFit or just have no idea. Will you explain who you are, where you came from, kind of how you came into the CrossFit community and how your life is? I know that’s such a broad question.

Miranda: {laughs}

Juli Bauer: {laughs} Just kind of your background, athletic background. Because obviously CrossFit is a huge part of your life, and has been for many years. And before you get into that, I just thought of this. Why I wanted to have you on in the first place. Before I started CrossFit, I was very hesitant. I didn’t want to start. And I remember seeing your picture on CrossFit.com, and I was like; I want to be like this chick.

Miranda: Aww.

Juli Bauer: You embodied strength, you embodied confidence, and I wanted to be like that. And you really pushed me into CrossFit, without doing anything. And then we competed together back in, I think it was 2011.

Miranda: It was 2011, because I remember meeting you. Yeah.

Juli Bauer: Yes! And I came up to you, and I was like cheesing out! I was like, “I just want to introduce myself.” I’m like interrupting your warmup.

Miranda: {laughs}

Juli Bauer: I’m like; “You’re the whole reason I started CrossFit!” So yeah. We got to compete against each other back in the day, when I first started. So that’s why I wanted to have you on in the first place. You really brought me into the CrossFit world, which is f*cking cool.

Miranda: Aww. Well now I hit you up to ask you what I should wear, so we’re even.

Juli Bauer: Yes, yes! And now we’re on a texting basis. It’s pretty cool.

Miranda: {laughs}

Juli Bauer: So kind of how did you come into CrossFit? What did you do before CrossFit?

Miranda: I was already a personal trainer before CrossFit. So kind of weird; I went to school for interior design, but then I didn’t end up using it because I was coaching spinning classes and some kickboxing classes and stuff while I was in school, and I ended up just loving that more. So then I went and got a personal trainer certificate, and that’s what I was doing when I found CrossFit.

There were no CrossFit affiliates. I’m from Salt Lake City, Utah, which actually a lot of people think I’m from California, but I’m not. I grew up my whole life living in Utah until 2011. And there were no affiliates; CrossFit affiliates back in 2007 in Salt Lake City where I lived. So I went and got certified, opened a gym. It was the first gym in Salt Lake, CrossFit 801. And then yeah. I found CrossFit just online, literally just searching new ways to train. Because I was bored training people the way that I was, and that’s how I found it. And I did it myself at first, at a Gold’s Gym there in Salt Lake. And then started doing it with my clients, and kind of went from there.

After I opened the gym, I wanted to be on the seminar staff, because that was just the coolest thing ever to do. And so I went and got my level 2 certification through CrossFit, and started coaching on the seminar staff. And did that, actually, until about a year ago.

Juli Bauer: How did you get onto the seminar staff?

Miranda: So {laughs} the process back then was much more loose than it is now.

Juli Bauer: Yes. {laughs} Yeah.

Miranda: Basically they had what was called the level 2 back then, was a performance based test. They watched you coach people, and then gave you a pass/fail based off of that only. And the fail rate was like 80% or something like that at these courses. And basically, if you passed, they would invite you to be on this seminar staff {laughs}.

Juli Bauer: Oh, gotcha.

Miranda: So that’s how that happened. I started traveling; and honestly it’s the coolest thing that I got to do that, because I’ve been all over the world coaching people. I’ve met so many; I know people on every continent because of it. It was awesome. It was really fun.

Juli Bauer: And how many years were you on the seminar staff?

Miranda: I was on the seminar staff for; let’s see 2008; 8 years.

Juli Bauer: Damn, that’s a long time. So how many years have you been doing CrossFit?

Miranda: Since fall 2007. My first CrossFit workout was I think on November 2, so it’s coming up. My 10 years is coming up, yeah.

Juli Bauer: Jeeze. How do you remember that? That’s crazy.

Miranda: Because I’m weirdly sentimental like that. I remember dates and numbers.

Juli Bauer: Yeah. When you first tried CrossFit, were you hooked right away or were you like; eh, I don’t know about this. How did you feel about it when you first started?

Miranda: Julian and I will joke all the time. I’m really bad at doing stuff casually. So I had the same experience you did. I saw the nasty girls video with Anna.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: Annie, Nicole, and Available.

Juli Bauer: Mm-hmm.

Miranda: And I wanted to be like that. I was like; oh man, they’re so badass. They look good, but also look what they can do type of thing. So I was like; I’m going to do this. But I was basically doing the most body builder type training ever at the time. And I wanted to know if CrossFit; because it seemed to me, one workout a day, there was no way I was going to look like that and be fit like that. Because I was from the body building world, right? But I wanted to know if it would work. This idea of high intensity.

So I dropped all of the bodybuilding stuff, altogether, and decided that for one month I was only going to do the workout of the day, and take the rest days. The three on, one off. I sent an email out to all my friends {laughs} and told them that I was going to try this program and I would let them know what I thought, and I was only going to do this program just to see if it would work. Because if I did other stuff on top of it, then who knows. I don’t think I ever ended up emailing people back; they knew I was in love with it. So yeah, that’s how I started.

Juli Bauer: So you were in bodybuilding before. So when you kind of went into the CrossFit space, were you still trying to keep a bodybuilding type physique? Were you in bodybuilding competitions, or was it just the workouts that you did?

Miranda: I did one fitness competition. Juli, I was Miss Fitness Utah in {laughs} I think it was 2001 or, no it was 2002 or 2003.

Juli Bauer: Wow.

Miranda: So. With the whole dance routine and everything.

Juli Bauer: {laughs} Oh my gosh!

Miranda: I haven’t competed, and I wasn’t interested in competing anymore in bodybuilding or fitness or figure anything after that, I just did that one time. So it had been four years since I had competed. It’s just still the way that I worked out.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: Yeah.

Juli Bauer: And what made you love CrossFit so much? What was the main thing?

Miranda: Well I had started working out when I was in high school. So I think by 2007, I’m going to let everyone know how old I am right now. So by 2007, I had been working out regularly for like 8 years. So I was bored of it. And CrossFit was fun. And it crushed me, and I thought I was really fit; because again, I had been working out for 8 years. And I was dead every single time. And you know, as you know, to this day I’m dead every single time. It just made it so much more fun.

Juli Bauer: And then when you were doing CrossFit, when was it that you were like; I want to compete and I want to get to the CrossFit games level?

Miranda: So, that’s so funny because back then there was no, “I’m training for the games!”

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: I missed the 2007 games because I started a couple of months after them. But in 2008, myself and like 30 members of my affiliate drove from Salt Lake to the CrossFit games. And some of us competed. There were like 5 of us that competed; or maybe not even that many. And everybody else just came. No, actually that was 2009 when a bunch of people came. There was only like 10 of us in 2008. And we competed and you just signed up. You didn’t qualify. There was a scaled division. You just signed up, went, and had fun. And I think I placed 20th and I had been doing CrossFit for like less than a year.

And so yeah, that was it. There was just chaos of people doing workouts everywhere. The judging was funny and nobody really cared. And it was awesome. And there was like a big barbecue. And then in 2009 you had to qualify, and that was the first time. But still people weren’t really training for it. You just still did your workout with your class, and then you went. Whatever. I really wanted to go once it was at Home Depot Center is when it seemed more serious. But I didn’t really start altering my training too much until I moved to California, in 2011.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: Yeah.

Juli Bauer: And before we talk more about the CrossFit games, can you talk about your experience with your car accident? Because you went to the CrossFit games after getting into your car accident and breaking your neck, correct?

Miranda: Mm-hmm.

Juli Bauer: So can you kind of talk about that experience? I just have seen stuff on Instagram of your recovery from that. But what happened throughout that?

Miranda: Yeah. So I had competed at regionals in 2012 which was in May. And I got 7th at regionals; I was always so close yet so far away.

Juli Bauer: Yeah {laughs}.

Miranda: {laughs} And then I got in the car accident on June 30th, so like a month after regionals. I was actually working at a seminar here in SoCal when it happened. And I had left during lunch to get coffee for all the trainers, and just never came back. {laughs} The accident happened right in front of the gym. Basically I was T-boned. I was turning left, and the car was going straight and hit my little rental Chevy Cruze and spun me around a couple of times. I ended up; I broke my neck in two places. It’s called a Hangman’s fracture which sounds; it sounds gory so I’ll share it. It basically is like when you hang yourself, the same bones that you will break that paralyze you. That’s what it’s called.

So they took me to the emergency room, obviously, and I had so much adrenaline and the nurse had recognized me. She was a crossfitter {laughs} and she was like, oh my gosh this is awesome! And I was just like, what? I kind of went into joking around, my adrenaline is high, I don’t really feel too much mode. So they ended up not x-raying my neck. Even though I told them it hurt, they were like; oh you just have whiplash. And then kind of gave me a soft collar. My hand was broken too, and they told me I needed to go get a cast on my hand, because they did x-ray my hand.

And then I left. So I had my broken neck, and I left, and went home the next day, and just thought that’s what whiplash felt like. So just, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t brush my teeth. I couldn’t sleep lying down. Nothing. It was really bad. And then the CrossFit games were two weeks after that. And I went; because I was supposed to be. I don’t know if you remember but I used to do sideline reporting, like interviewing the athletes.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: I was supposed to be doing that job, and they were like, you can’t do it. You look ridiculous, you can’t even turn your head. This is distracting {laughs}. So they replaced me in my job, and I was super bummed out by it. So much so that I was like; that’s it, I’m going to loosen up my neck {laughs} so that I can at least move well enough to interview people. I ended up getting my job back at the games and worked.

And when I got home from the games, the doctor who had casted my hand, he was concerned about my neck. Because he felt like it was weird they didn’t x-ray it. So he sent me in for an MRI after the games. And that day, the MRI technician called basically and said, you need to go to the emergency room right now. You’ve been walking around; it was 17 total days from my accident to when this happened. You’ve been walking around with a really unstable fracture in your neck. {laughs} And literally if you trip and fall, if you get even a slight rear end at a red light. So many things, if that thing moves, it’s going to paralyze you. So that was terrifying. I went to the emergency room, and then that night they fused my C2-C3 vertebrae together. So yeah, that’s the story. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: So, was recovery difficult after that? Did you have to take a certain amount of time off of working out? What was recovery like?

Miranda: Oh yeah. So, I had to wear a hard collar. One of the really cheesy ones. Actually, a bunch of people dressed up as me for Halloween that year, which was really funny.

Juli Bauer: {laughs}

Miranda: With their neck braces and all. And yeah, I had to wear that hard collar and I wasn’t allowed to drive for almost 2 months. But of course, I’ve always been; again, I can’t just do things casually and I have a really hard time sitting still. So I started, a couple of days after I got out of the hospital. I think I stayed two nights in the hospital. I asked them if I could squat; the nurses at the hospital. And they were like, absolutely not! And I was like, I don’t think you know what I mean. So I showed them a couple of air squats, and they were like; oh yeah, that’s fine.

So I started riding the bike just with no hands, because the twisting was still pretty painful. I pulled the sled a lot. I pulled the sled so much. Just putting it around my waist. I did walking lunges, air squats. I had a goal of doing 1000 air squats a week. And then once I got the cast off my hand, there were a few more things I could do. But anything that was explosive; any Olympic lifting, jumping, kipping. Any of that stuff was out for I think 2 to 3 months, at least.

Juli Bauer: Oh wow.

Miranda: Yeah.

Juli Bauer: Ok. And then, how long after your accident did you kind of join in with these friends, and then make it to the CrossFit Games?

Miranda: Ok, so the accident was 2012, and I had already started working out with my besties over in NorCal. My little family. And I was like, depressed because I missed them. So I would still go to the gym every day and basically watch them workout from the bike.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: And then I started; when they were doing stuff I could do, I would add it back in. Then in 2013 I competed at regionals again as an individual, and placed 7th, again. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: {laughs} Dammit! That damn 7!

Miranda: I know. Which actually was; I was really surprised and excited about that, that I placed the same as I did before. So that was fine. That was really cool; that was a really fun year. And Molly competed; that was the first year I met Molly, my really close friend up in NorCal. And then the next year, I wasn’t going to compete on the team. I was like, team’s lame. Whatever, you guys are lame. But I didn’t do very good in the Open {laughs}. Honestly, this is true story; you need to just be on the team with us. Let’s be realistic here. So I was like; ok. So 2014 we did the team, and we ended up placing 5th at the Games. That team was a little bit different than the 2015 team that most people know about. There were a few different members. So I had been training with them already, and that’s why we it was so easy to form the teams. Because we were already all together.

Juli Bauer: And then what happened when you were at the CrossFit games?

Miranda: Which time? {laughs}

Juli Bauer: {laughing}

Miranda: In 2014, we had a couple of bad things. But it was fine; we finished and everything. And then in 2015, on Friday, Saturday morning, we were in first place by like 60 points, and we were so psyched on it, but everyone was really messed up. We did the worm deadlifts on the beach that year, and it really messed people up.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: To the point where people were considering dropping out. Like, high ranked teams. Everyone was taped from their calves all the way up to their neck. And we were warming up for the clean and jerk, and people couldn’t even bend over to pick up the bar. And I was really sore. Anyway, the workout was a one-rep clean and jerk, one person at a time. And I got one at 187, and then I went up to 197 and on the clean, I caught it fine, and then when I stood up with it. It was just a power clean. When I stood up with it, my knee completely buckled in, and I fell backwards. I had no pain at all, but I knew something was really; it felt really weird. So I was worried if I stood up I would fall. So I looked around at my team, but we were on a clock, so I just changed the weights the way that I was supposed to for the boys, and just crawled off the floor. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: And they took me back to medical, and they were like; your ACL is completely torn.

Juli Bauer: Ugh.

Miranda: And it’s like; what do you mean? It doesn’t hurt. Can I try? Let me try to squat. Because the next workout was like wallballs. It wasn’t anything heavy. And they were like, no, you don’t understand. It’s completely torn. That’s why it doesn’t hurt. If it hurt, that would mean there was some of it left. But it’s snapped in half. Like, it’s gone.

Juli Bauer: Ugh! Gross.

Miranda: And so {laughs} me; my, he was still my husband at the time, we were separated and people didn’t know about it, which was awesome.

Juli Bauer: That’s hard. That’s so hard.

Miranda: But he’s still such a close friend, so it was nice to have him there. And then Jason Khalipa, my teammate, was in there. And Castro; Dave Castro. And me and Jason were like; well, wrap it up. Whatever. We’ll deal with it after the Games. We’re winning. We’re crushing it. Let’s go.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: And Dave was like; absolutely not. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: He was like, I’m not going to let you go out there and so many eyes are on you guys, and have your hurt yourself worse and have it be all over the internet. No. That’s not; we’re not doing that. So that was really hard. We tried everything we could with the rule book, with you guys can’t tell us whether or not we can continue. We get to decide. She’s messed up, but if she wants to try to do it she should be allowed to do it. All this stuff. It was so dramatic. And finally, they made me sit in the stands, because they were like, you guys just need to calm down. We know you came to win, and you were winning, but it’s over. You guys are done. So that was honestly psychologically way worse of a time in my life than the physical ACL tear.

Juli Bauer: That was so sad. Seeing you cry, because you could see pictures of you crying. You looked so, so sad. I don’t think people understand who have not been CrossFit competitive athletes. They don’t understand how much actual time goes into prepping before a competition. And especially when you’re working as a group and timing is so critical of making sure you guys are exactly the same throughout. So you put so much time, energy, and work into this. And to be told no in that one second, that must have been so, so hard.

Miranda: Well, it was. And I haven’t really; this is the first time I’ve talked about where my life status was at at the time. I was already a mess in my personal life. So there was that, but I think honestly the worse part was our team was different in that those, to this day, are some of my best friends. I talk to Jason at least once a week. I talk to Molly and Jen every single day. I talk to Alex at least once a week. I talk to Pat probably at least once a month. Those are my best friends, and it hurt me that; I felt like it was my fault type of a thing. Even though, obviously, I couldn’t have controlled it. But that was really painful to go through, because we had all worked so hard. And we knew that we were going to in and be able to win, because we had worked so hard and we had such a good team. So that sucked.

Juli Bauer: So how do you feel about CrossFit; since you’ve been in it almost from the beginning. You’ve been there, you’ve seen how the CrossFit Games have changed. And when people ask me, they’re like; do you wish you competed anymore?

Miranda: {laughs}

Juli Bauer: And for me, I think absolutely not. Because I adore CrossFit, and it has given me so much. But I don’t love everything they’re doing in the Games anymore. Because I think it can be so detrimental to one’s body. So how do you see how CrossFit has changed? Do you see it changing over time? That it’s gotten so f*cking crazy at this point that it’s going to kind of take a step back? What do you think about CrossFit, and the Games, and how it’s come and changed over time?

Miranda: Yeah. So I think unfortunately what has happened in a lot of ways, and I know they try to battle it. Is that people see CrossFit the program and the CrossFit Games as the same thing.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: And it’s absolutely not the same thing. The CrossFit games is a sport for athletes, full time. These people; that’s all they do. They make no money. They can’t have a regular job. A lot of them are younger now, you’ll notice. And it’s not just because they’re younger in that they haven’t wrecked their bodies, but they have free time and can still live with their parents, to be honest. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: Yeah. {Laughs}

Miranda: It’s so impressive to me to see when people have kids, and a family, and a job that go, but that’s becoming more and more rare. And I don’t see people having super long careers in the CrossFit Games anymore, for those reasons. For the fact that there’s really no money in it, and it is really hard on your body. So I think it’s awesome to have that as a goal. And then if you go and do pretty well, to try to go back and win.

But I do see people that hold onto it for way too long, to be honest. And we kind of joke about that. And then I do see people that have so much going on that’s good in their life that they sacrifice, maybe. And it’s just not; it’s not going to be as fulfilling, I think, as some people think it’s going to be. You’re not going to become famous just because you go. You’re not going to become rich. If you do it, it should be solely because you love it.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: And then everyone else needs to just hit the workout of the day one time. You don’t need your percentage work for your Oly lifts. {laughs} And you don’t need all these accessory programs or all this stuff to be fit. Or to even look fit. You can look a lot like a CrossFit Games athlete without working out four times a day if you just eat correctly, and hit the workouts hard, you know.

Juli Bauer: I think that was something that was hard for me to understand. When I competed, I was like, more is always better. And then I would think; oh, my physique will look even better the more I do and the more work I put into it. And that is just so not the case. I wish more women understood, that if you just have a good workout, and you eat clean, your body will show it if you continually do that. It doesn’t have to be 4 hours in the gym. And I think that is what is so amazing about CrossFit. And you don’t have to be a Games athlete to look incredibly fit, too.

Miranda: I know. And that’s exactly; I know some people on your Instagram were asking about our street parking program. And that’s kind of where it came from. Was I was traveling a ton last year. All over the place. Not for seminars anymore, but just for fun. And for Progenics. And then Julian, his business was getting super busy, so he was ending up having to workout at home a lot, and he was so stressed out that he wasn’t training as much. And I would tell him; hey, when I used to train with Jason, because Jason owns this massive business, he would hit something really quick in the morning, super intense, and then maybe one time again later that day, just super intense. But you can be really efficient with your time. You don’t need to spend all day.

He almost didn’t even sign up for the open this year, because he was like; I haven’t been training enough. I’m not good enough, type of thing. Because he had in his brain that volume equals fitness. And then he did so awesome all through the Open, all through Regionals, and surprised himself. And that’s when we were kind of like; people have the wrong idea. You can grab a couple of sets of dumbbells and get really fit at your house. It doesn’t need to be that complicated.

Juli Bauer: So for people who don’t know, Julian is your boyfriend, right? Not your husband. But boyfriend.

Miranda: He; yeah. Boyfriend, we feel weird about that term.

Juli Bauer: Totally. {laughs}

Miranda: We feel like we’re in 8th grade.

Juli Bauer: Well how did you two meet?

Miranda: More like partner/baby daddy, I don’t know. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: Yeah, baby daddy. {laughing} How did you two meet?

Miranda: So I know Becca and Chris Clever, who he was training with. And had a couple of other friends at the gym where he was training. And I was in town for a seminar. So I went to the gym, it was on October 16th of 2015. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: {laughing} I don’t even know what the date is today. I don’t know how you remember it. {laughs}

Miranda: Neither do I; that’s gone out the window now. But I went there just to work out with them, because I was in town and I had a day before the seminar. And I met him. And actually, this is a romantic comedy story, kind of. There was a guy who was trying to commit suicide {laughs}; hold on. Just wait for the end of it.

Juli Bauer: {laughs} You’re like; wait. I swear it’s a comedy.

Miranda: {Laughs} In LA, he was threatening to jump off the 405 or something like that. So they shut down the 405. And anyone that lives in Southern California knows; well, you might as well stay home for the rest of the day. You can’t even drive down the street. And that’s what happened when I was at the gym.

So I asked him as I was leaving; hey, is there anywhere around here I can walk to go eat until this traffic dies? And he was like, you know what, I’ll take you. Let’s just go together. So yeah, we went and ate, and that was it. And the day after the seminar, I was down here looking for somewhere to live, because I was planning on moving down here, and so we went and got pizza the day after the seminar I feel like. And then we just talked; it kind of went from there. And I moved down here. And he was in LA and I was all the way in Newport, which is like an hour and a half distance between. So yeah. That’s how we met, was just at the gym.

Juli Bauer: Oh, that’s awesome. And then you guys started, what you were just talking about, Street Parking together. Which is kind of your online programing for people; fitness programming. If you can kind of explaining to everyone.

Miranda: Yeah. Both of us had been posting these super simple; whether it was me in a hotel or him in his garage. He came on some of the trips with me and we would post these random hotel gym workouts. And we noticed that; he could post a, “I’m doing 225-pound snatches and muscle up video.” And then the next day he could post a “I’m doing pushups and air squats in the hotel gym video.” And the pushups and air squats one would get way more views, way more comments, way more people tagging each other like, “We should do this!”

And we were like, man. There’s really something to this. There are so many programs out there for competitors, it’s ridiculous. But there’s not really anything for people who are traveling a lot and have lives like ours. So, we’re like, we should just create something super simple. And our goal was to get 100 members {laughs} by the end of January. And now we have like 1700 members.

Juli Bauer: Wow.

Miranda: It’s crazy. It’s become like a fulltime job for both of us.

Juli Bauer: When did you start that?

Miranda: Well the first workout was posted on January 1st.

Juli Bauer: Ok. Wow. So coming up on a year.

Miranda: Yeah.

Juli Bauer: That’s crazy. So people can just sign up.

Miranda: There’s a really cool community on Facebook, where people are like; I didn’t want to wake up today. But I know that all of you guys woke up today, so I woke up and did the workout! It’s so awesome. It’s like having an affiliate, even though you’re by yourself.

Juli Bauer: That’s awesome. So people can do these workouts anywhere? Do they need a certain amount of equipment if they want to do it in their garage or whatever?

Miranda: Yeah, we set it up so that it varies for what equipment you have. So we have program A; basically if you have a couple of sets of dumbbells and a jump rope, you’re going to be able to do all the workouts. And there’s a workout for that group every day. Program B is the same workout, basically, but the version with the barbell if you want to do it with the barbell, or if you have a barbell. And two or three times a week, we’ll have a program C version of the workout where, if you have a rower or a bike, or if you want to try doing stuff on the rings. Or just a GHD maybe. You have a more full garage gym, there will be a version of that at least a couple of times a week where you can throw that extra equipment in there.

Juli Bauer: Ok, sweet. That’s awesome. Well, congratulations on starting this new business that you didn’t really see even happening.

Miranda: {laughs} I know. Thank you.

Juli Bauer: And you don’t own CrossFit 801 anymore, correct?

Miranda: No. When we moved, we sold it to one of our trainers. It still exists. It’s still in Utah. But I’m not organized enough to own a gym from a different state.

Juli Bauer: Yeah, seriously. I don’t know how people would do that. Ok, I wanted to make sure I left a big chunk of time for this, because this is a huge new chapter in your life. You gave birth to a little baby boy how long ago now?

Miranda: 8 weeks tomorrow.

Juli Bauer: 8 weeks. So how are you feeling at 8 weeks so far?

Miranda: Well, when we were supposed to have this call, I was like; Juli, can I work out really quick? And I was dying. And I feel like {laughs} of all the injuries I’ve had. Because I know people are super impressed with the neck and the knee; and people have babies every single day and go back to CrossFit, but this is definitely the most out of shape I’ve been. I’m sleep deprived and everything. It’s so much joy, and I love him so much, and I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. But it’s definitely hard, for sure.

Juli Bauer: I heard it’s very hard. {laughs} I am very much on the fence about ever having children, and everyone’s like, it is the biggest blessing, it’s the greatest thing you will ever experience, but f*ck it is awful sometimes. {laughs} And it sounds so incredibly hard. So I do want to hear; I just had two friends just this week give birth, so I’ve heard two different stories. Can you kind of tell your, just were you sick very much? Did you workout when you were pregnant? And then kind of your birth story, and we can kind of talk about postpartum.

Miranda: Yeah. So I found out I was pregnant. I was pretty newly pregnant. I want to say I was only like 6 weeks, because I was always really regular and stuff like that. So I knew pretty early. And the only major symptom I had at first; I never got sick, so that’s nice. The only symptom I had was I was so tired. Like, to the point where I had to call Julian when I was driving home from work because I thought I was going to crash and die tired. 2 o’clock in the afternoon came around, and I could not keep my eyes open. It was really hard. And that was the major, major symptom that I had at first.

Then after that, I had really bad heartburn. I never had a hard time sleeping. I worked out pretty much through the whole thing. Even when I was tired, I think I still worked out at least 4 days a week. And I know, I’ve seen a lot of people ask comments, like how is that possible. I’m so tired; I was tired too. It’s just the only thing that made me feel somewhat normal. And it actually made me have more energy when I would workout. So there were a couple of times, honestly. Oh, and I was obviously super emotional and hormonal. I remember one time I was crying in my room for who knows why. And Julian was just like, come ride the bike. And I was literally sitting on the bike, crying for 10 minutes, and that was my workout for that day.

Juli Bauer: Yeah. I feel like when you care so much about your workouts, but then once you have this huge life change. Whether it’s illness, or having a baby, or healing from a knee. Just moving in general; even if you’re walking or sitting on the bike. Just continually moving is so important to get through those challenging; just different changes in life.

Miranda: Oh yeah, it would help me so much mentally, emotionally, and then obviously I think that’s the reason I slept ok. I didn’t have too much pain and stuff like that, like in my joints. Towards the end I got kind of swollen, but it was really towards the end that my feet got swollen, stuff like that, and I really think it was because I was moving.

I know people on your Instagram asked, too, about food, like cravings and stuff. I never really had any. {laughs} Like a couple of times, I was like; I feel like a cookie. But I do that now, so I don’t think that was…

Juli Bauer: Yeah, nothing crazy different.

Miranda: Yeah. I ate almost exactly the same as what I was eating before. Because I wasn’t working out as much with as much intensity. So I was like, well there’s my extra calories. I’ll just keep eating what I’m eating. And still now, that’s pretty much what I’m eating.

Juli Bauer: The same.

Miranda: Yeah.

Juli Bauer: What kind of changes did you have to do to your normal CrossFit workouts. Your normal Street Parking workouts you were doing in your garage?

Miranda: I didn’t take too much out until February. So I found out I was pregnant in November, and I kept everything pretty normal. But it was hard to breathe. I could tell I was more tired. I read that you have like 30% more blood in your body when you’re pregnant, and I could tell my heart was working extra hard during that time even though I hadn’t really gained too much weight or anything. After the Open, I started taking stuff out. The Open was the last time I did toes to bar, bar muscle ups, muscle ups, all that kind of stuff.

And I never really felt great lifting heavy. I felt like my joints felt weird when I would lift heavy. And I know a lot of people do lift heavy when they’re pregnant, but it didn’t feel right to me. And then the belly didn’t really get in the way until I was like maybe 7 months pregnant.

I mean, I just kind of took it day by day. I box jumped until one day I did a box jump it felt weird, and then I never box jumped again. I could do double unders, even towards the end, but why? I don’t need to be doing that. I don’t need to be bouncing around with a baby in there.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: I hate running, so as soon as I was pregnant, I was like; “you know what, I don’t think running is safe.”

Juli Bauer: {laughs}

Miranda: Like, this is dangerous. {laughs} I don’t think I should ever run again for that matter.

Juli Bauer: {laughs} I think I saw a comment on there that a woman is like; obviously CrossFit was out of the equation or something along those lines. I think it’s strange to me that people still see that as a thing that people can’t workout or can’t physically do things. Because I’ve seen some women who were really great with CrossFit and then once they got pregnant they had to slow it down a lot to keep their heart rate down. While others were able to just push through completely. So when you say; ok, a box jump didn’t feel good anymore. Or double unders didn’t feel great anymore; you just took it out. So I think women need to understand that every person is completely different.

Miranda: Yeah.

Juli Bauer: And you can still continually workout, especially if you’ve been working out beforehand. You just have to listen to your body, because it’s continually changing every day.

Miranda: Yeah. Luckily, I know so many women like you do who have done CrossFit before, had a baby. So there’s people to ask. And the only consistent advice that I got was; “You shouldn’t have to lie down after your workout.” If you’re out of breath, dying, you can’t talk, that’s probably not good for your fetus.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: So I would always make sure that I could talk. And then when the workout was over, I needed to be physically capable to walk like a 400 meter immediately the second I was done. And that’s what I did the whole time.

I mean, that’s a thing when I would post videos. I think there were people that didn’t know me before I was pregnant, had somehow found me through the pregnant hashtags I was using or something, and they would be like, I can’t believe you’re doing that! But if you had seen what I was doing before, it actually was extremely scaled. So I think sometimes people don’t understand. Yeah.

Juli Bauer: Totally. Yeah. So, my girlfriend. I was at her house yesterday, and she was telling me a little bit about her birth story.

Miranda: Oh boy.

Juli Bauer: She was like; Juli, there’s a reason nobody talks about childbirth. It is not a great experience whatsoever.

Miranda: {laughing}

Juli Bauer: She was like, when you walk in the door, get the epidural. Don’t be a hero, get the epidural. And I’ve heard that from multiple people. So will you just tell your birth story? Did you have an at home birth?

Miranda: I had a birth at a midwifery.

Juli Bauer: Ok.

Miranda: It’s basically like having it at a hotel where drugs are not an option because they do not have them. And you can do the bathtub and comfy bed and all that stuff. But you don’t have to clean up after it, so that’s why I didn’t want to have it at my house. We have like four dogs, and it just would not have been relaxing.

Juli Bauer: No!

Miranda: Not that it’s relaxing, but.

Juli Bauer: No. Because you know what? It’s like, why does nobody talk about how you have to give birth to the placenta after you give birth to your child?

Miranda: {laughing}

Juli Bauer: Why does nobody talk about that? It’s like, hey, no I have to give birth twice. This is so f*cked up. So wait, tell me your birth story. Let’s hear this birth story at the midwife place.

Miranda: Ok, I’m going to try to be as honest with you as possible.

Juli Bauer: I love it. I love the honesty.

Miranda: Ok. How many people listen to this?

Juli Bauer: Oh I have absolutely no idea.

Miranda: Whatever, ok.

Juli Bauer: In my mind, like 5. {laughs}

Miranda: Ok. It’s just me and you.

Juli Bauer: Just me and you here.

Miranda: So first of all, let’s go to my due date was July 28th. And I’m an achiever, and I control my fate, and he did not come out on July 28th, and I was so upset. He was 3 days late. But even yesterday or two days ago I told somebody that he was 9 days late, because that’s how my brain remembers those three days. Like, I was so upset. And actually going back to the workout thing, they told me not to workout, because they thought he was small. So they didn’t want me to workout anymore for like the last week of my pregnancy. And by the day he was supposed to come out, Julian was like; screw that. Go out to the gym, do what makes you feel normal. Workout. So the day that I actually went into labor, I worked out that night, the night before. And I think that’s what helped, just get me to freaking relax.

So then at 2 a.m. I woke up and I had pretty strong pains in my stomach. But I’ve never had a baby before, so I dealt with it for a couple of hours. And then I woke Julian up and I was like, I don’t know if these are labor pains or if it’s just uncomfortable. He was like, let’s go for a walk. So we took the dogs for a walk, and they were getting worse and stuff like that. So he was like, I think we should call the midwife.

So I had a doula. This is all very southern California, by the way. Whatever, you’re in Colorado. Same thing.

Juli Bauer: Yeah. {laughs}

Miranda: I had a doula, so we called our doula, and she came over. And they were definitely contractions by the time she got there. So it was freaking painful. Like your friend said; I wasn’t like humming through it. I’m not like a yogi/Zen person. It was really bad.

So she was there for a while, because you’re not supposed to go to the hospital or to the midwifery until your contractions are like 2 minutes apart, basically. Because they don’t want you there for two days. When it’s almost time to start pushing, that’s when they want you to come.

So she stayed there and timed it. It was really bad, really painful. My mom was here. Julian’s mom lives with us, so she was here. And Julian and the doula. And there’s nothing anyone can do to help you, really.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: Everyone feels so helpless. But they helped me get my stuff ready, and they were timing everything. And then when we were driving to the midwifery, finally, it was like 11 a.m. so I had been in pain for like 9 hours at that point. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: And is it just like really bad cramps?

Miranda: Yeah, but really bad.

Juli Bauer: Like pressure?

Miranda: Yeah. And I remember people telling me because I’m so fit my birth was going to be super easy. I wasn’t out of breath. It just hurt {laughs}. Being fit doesn’t make someone punching you in the face hurt any less {laughs}.

Juli Bauer: Yeah, exactly.

Miranda: You know, so that went out the window. So we drove at like 11. Julian, of course; all my best friends were at the CrossFit Games competing. Because Molly and Jen, they have a team again this year. So he’s like face timing them. I’m sobbing in the car, in so much pain in the back seat. I look up and I see my friends on face time. They’re like; good job!

Juli Bauer: Oh my god! Oh my god!

Miranda: And I’m like, hi, oh my gosh. Anyway. We get there, and they check for how dilated you are. Basically you have to be dilated to a 10 before you can push. And I was only at like a 4, ok. So they were like; you’re at a 4. I was like; what the heck. I’ve already been having contractions for like 9 hours.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: So whatever. And then they came back in, I want to say like 2 or 3 hours later, and they were like ok, let’s check you again. And I had been, again, having painful contractions the whole time in between that at the midwifery. They checked me again, I was still at a 4.

Juli Bauer: And, like how far apart are your contractions at this point?

Miranda: Like one every minute and a half or something like that.

Juli Bauer: Oh my god! This sounds just like my friend.

Miranda: And they last for a while minute.

Juli Bauer: That’s so f*cked up.

Miranda: I know. And Julian was such a champion. Literally, he held me up every single time, my full body weight was on him. I got in the bath for a lot of it. He was feeding me sticks of honey, and making me eat trail mix and stuff. He did not leave; I think he only left the room once to pee and eat something, but he was gone for like 5 minutes. So he was just like; oh my gosh, how much longer is this going to take?

Juli Bauer: Seriously.

Miranda: Exhausted, you know, and I’m just screaming and crying and whatever. So when they came back and told me I was still only a 4 after 12 hours almost of being in that much pain, in my head, I was like, I can’t do this. You’ve got to take me to the hospital.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: I can’t do this. And Julian {laughs} I remember one time they left us alone in the room, and he was like; you are not going to let these midwife ladies think that you can’t do this. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: So I was like, ok. Honestly, they offered me laughing gas. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: Oh, that’s cool.

Miranda: Yeah. That’s the pain medication; it helps you to relax, basically. Because they told me my problem was every time I was having a contraction, I was tightening my whole body. Because that’s what I’m conditioned to do.

Juli Bauer: Uh, duh. Who wouldn’t do that?

Miranda: Yeah, so my whole body would tighten and he wasn’t able to move and get lower and all this stuff. So they were like, if you have the gas, it’s not necessarily going to hurt less, but you’re going to be able to relax. So I was like, I don’t know. I wanted to do this 100% natural only. I feel like I’m cheating if I do that. And Julian was like; babe, don’t be a hero. You’ve got to have the gas. You need to relax right now. So we did that.

And then she came in, and this is going to be graphic sounding, but she manually opened me up from a 4 to a 7.

Juli Bauer: Ohhh! No! No.

Miranda: I threw up everywhere.

Juli Bauer: Shut up.

Miranda: While she was doing it.

Juli Bauer: This is f*cking crazy.

Miranda: I was projectile vomiting on Julian. {laughing}

Juli Bauer: Oh my god! {laughing} Oh my god.

Miranda: My mom and his mom were watching; my mom was probably like, what the heck.

Juli Bauer: Oh my god. See, this is why people never talk about childbirth. That’s f*cking crazy.

Miranda: Yeah. And then from there, I ended up sitting on the toilet for like an hour and a half, because that was the only place I could relax {laughs}. And I got from a 7 to a 10 in the next hour or hour and a half. And then finally I was like; my body is pushing him out. I can’t stop it. And they were like, ok get in the tub. I only pushed for like 45 minutes. And while that was super painful, I felt like…

Juli Bauer: Only 45 minutes! {laughing}

Miranda: Yeah. I was in control of it at that point, though. I knew I could assist this now. I could actually physically do something to help get him out of me.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: So literally every time there was a contraction, I was treating it like I was pulling my one-rep max deadlift, and just…

Juli Bauer: Yeah, you know how it should feel.

Miranda: I was like, I don’t care if I tear. I don’t care what happens. He needs to come; get him out of me. So 45 minutes I pushed. He came out. And then he didn’t breathe for 2 minutes after that.

Juli Bauer: Oh f*ck.

Miranda: So I don’t really remember it being 2 minutes long, because I was so out of it, but Julian is like scarred for life from this 2 minutes of him not breathing.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: So they pulled him out, and he was just kind of limp. And I was in the bathtub, and I was still connected to him. So they were like, stand up, Miranda, you need to stand up. So I had to stand up right away {laughs}.

Juli Bauer: Oh my god.

Miranda: And they had to pump him a few times, and clean out his mouth and stuff like that and he was fine. Everybody else said that it was terrifying, but I don’t really remember it that much.

Juli Bauer: Yeah. And then, so then they cut the cord. And you have to give birth to the placenta, right?

Miranda: Yeah, but that doesn’t hurt that bad because it kind of comes out a little easier.

Juli Bauer: Yeah, because it’s not a head.

Miranda: Yeah, it’s more like; this is f*cking annoying. Can I be done now? Seriously. But it doesn’t really hurt.

Juli Bauer: Yeah. That’s exactly what my friend said. She was like, it’s just annoying. And she was like; and they took my baby, because he was the same. He was unresponsive. And they just had to clean his nose and everything, and she was like, “Give me my f*cking baby back!” Like freaking out.

Miranda: Yeah. So that was the nice thing, they never took him from me. He was attached to me, and then they cut the cord. But I was lying right there when they did it. They put him on my chest right away. And here’s the craziest, actually. Let’s get to when I came home. Because the midwifery is different than the hospital, and you should just know this if you’re going to go this route. They made sure that he could latch onto my boob and breastfeed before I left. I had to get like two stitches, so they did that. And I felt totally fine. And then as we were getting ready to leave, I started to not feel fine. I was not fine.

We left; I came home like 4 hours after he was born.

Juli Bauer: Oh wow.

Miranda: {laughs} And that night, I’m not joking, I told Julian that this is how the pioneers died, from childbirth.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: And I was like, he’s going to be a single father. I’m dying. I was so depleted. The adrenaline was gone. I was in so much pain. I had a massive bruise, like hematoma from where I had given birth. I couldn’t sit. {laughs} I was like, this is how death happened on the plains. {laughing}

Juli Bauer: F*ck yeah! Yeah. How did anybody survive? How did we make it this far? I don’t understand.

Miranda: I don’t know. I don’t know. And it makes you question how tough you really are. Because you see these little tiny women with their babies, and you’re like; how was I such a pussy about it? She had a kid. It was fine. I don’t know. But it was traumatic for me and Julian both.

Juli Bauer: Yeah! Oh my god, especially if you’re projectile vomiting {laughing}. That is crazy. It’s crazy just how everyone’s story is so; you can read all the books in the world but none of it matters because everyone’s story is so different in their birth story.

Miranda: Yeah.

Juli Bauer: It’s so crazy.

Miranda: Oh, also I should mention that Julian did get in the bathtub with me and he did kind of help catch him, because he was really excited about that and that was really cool that he did that.

Juli Bauer: Jeeze. That’s crazy! Wow. Ok, so that’s bananas. So let’s now talk about postpartum. So obviously you’re breastfeeding.

Miranda: Yeah.

Juli Bauer: Ok. And that has gone smoothly?

Miranda: Yeah, it’s been pretty smooth. It’s hard because there will be days where he wants to eat every single hour, so you don’t sleep and you can’t work or do anything or whatever. But he doesn’t have a hard time eating, which I know a lot of people struggle with, so I’m lucky that way.

Juli Bauer: Yeah. So have you had trouble sleeping as you’ve been into this postpartum stage and having to wake up every hour or so? Have you guys kind of switched off, bottle fed or anything like that?

Miranda: I haven’t ever bottle fed him at night. If I’m home, and I’m not working out, I try to feed him. Pretty much the only time we bottle feed him is if we are with him, out of the house, so I don’t have to worry about the whole bringing the breastfeeding cover and all that stuff. We’ll just feed him with a bottle. Or if I’m working out, and he wakes up, then he’ll get bottle fed. But pretty much other than that I feed him. At night, I sleep at 2 hours at a time. That’s just how it is now.

Juli Bauer: Yeah. And how long did you take off until you started working out again? And kind of what; and this is based on some of the questions I’ve gotten. What kind of workouts have you been doing? How have you been working on the pelvic floor? I always hear about the pelvic floor with women. But I don’t really know what that means. {laughs}

Miranda: Yeah. They’re like the inside muscles, Juli. It’s why people pee for the rest of their life after they have a baby, when they do double unders and stuff. Because they get weaker.

Juli Bauer: Did you ever pee in double unders before having a baby?

Miranda: Yeah, I did.

Juli Bauer: You did? So many women at the gym. I’ve never had that before, but so many women at the gym have that.

Miranda: Yeah, I’ve peed before. So you can look up pelvic floor; Birth Fit has good stuff on there. The girl that I work with, her Instagram is like @Brianna Battles. She’s who worked with Lindsey Valenzuela, which is why I reached out to her. Because Lindsey had such a crazy come back. And basically it’s just tightening the inside muscles back up so that everything goes back to normal. There’s so much trauma. It’s just rehab for a different set of muscles. I started doing that stuff like 2 weeks after.

And then walking was huge. Just to get out of my house and feel like I was burning some calories. I was walking for like an hour a day, just pushing my little stroller, my little guy in the stroller to feel like I was moving, and getting my blood flowing and sweating a little bit. And then I just started adding things in slow. I still had the big huge bruise, hematoma, until like a week ago. I couldn’t even ride the bike.

Juli Bauer: Oh my god.

Miranda: But I started doing some slow air squats or wall balls and stuff like that. And then I have taken the same approach that I took when I was pregnant. If I try something and it feels weird, then I won’t do it yet. I’m adding weight back in slowly. And some stuff I know I could do. I’ve done some pullups, but also it feels weird in my abs when I do them. It still feels like it stretches them a little bit. So I’m just waiting, you know.

Juli Bauer: Ok. And you’ve felt good coming back pretty much?

Miranda: I mean, I feel really, really out of shape.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: But {laughs} yeah, I don’t have any pain. I actually got checked by a pelvic floor PT. They have those.

Juli Bauer: Oh cool.

Miranda: And she said that everything actually feels really well rehabbed from what I’ve been doing. I’ve been pretty diligent at working on that stuff for at least 15 minutes a day. And I know people were asking about the ab separation too. Mine was super minimal. I’ve seen or heard of stories of people where it’s like; they measure it by finger widths, how many fingers you can fit in between the middle part of your abs. And mine’s only like a 1. But people have like 4 fingers’ worth that they can fit in between there.

Juli Bauer: Wow.

Miranda: Yeah. So mine was super minimal. The only reason I got it checked was just to make sure. You just have to be careful for a little bit. Because it’s still so stretched out. People are like, what do you mean it stretches? And I’m like…

Juli Bauer: What do you mean? Yeah.

Miranda: Of course it stretches. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: Yeah, duh! {laughs}

Miranda: It has to, for the baby. It has to go somewhere.

Juli Bauer: So obviously you are a person who cares about not only the workouts you do but how you physically feel. How you look on the outside. You want to stay physically fit and your body is important. So how has it been, not only going through the stages of pregnancy, but afterwards and dealing with your body looking completely different than what you visually want to see in the mirror. Or what you have seen for so many years. How has it been going through that mentally?

Miranda: Honestly, I think it’s really hard, and every woman goes through it no matter what. I mean, as cheesy and dumb as it sounds, I feel like on some level, it’s like I’m known for my abs. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: Yeah, yeah. For sure.

Miranda: And that’s not that exciting to be known for. And you think that you don’t care, but you end up, you know, caring. I’ve actually; a couple of funny stories. I’ve lost a solid 3000 Instagram followers since I’ve had my baby.

Juli Bauer: Aww!

Miranda: Actually, since becoming pregnant. I had a huge drop. And then when I started posting pictures of my baby, and of me working out in a sports bra afterwards {laughs} I’ve lost like another 1500.

Juli Bauer: Ugh! You can’t look at those numbers! Don’t look at them!

Miranda: I know. I laugh about it, but at the same time, of course you’re like; aw man. That sucks. But that’s silly. And then the other day I was so tired. Half the time I don’t change out of my underwear or PJs until like 1 o’clock in the afternoon, and I’m holding little baby Knox, and I walk past the full-length mirror in our bedroom, and I just catch a glimpse of my body and my tired face and my hair and everything, and I was like, oh no. I put him down, I turned the mirror around. I was like, I can’t keep walking past this every day. So yeah. It’s really tough.

And then of course, there are the days; Julian tries to be super supportive, and I’m like; you have no idea! You got to compete at regionals, and you still look awesome! This and that. You don’t’ know how hard it is, type of a thing. So of course I try to stay positive. And I’ve been committed to posting real pictures of myself, just because I know there are so many people that can benefit from that. But it’s not because I’m not affected by it.

Juli Bauer: Yeah. Yeah. I feel like a lot of women don’t talk about that because; you just created a baby! And not every woman gets to do that, too. So, there’s this part of you that doesn’t want to complain about anything. But that’s something, I think that’s very hard for women is seeing their body change. But do you feel excited about kind of what the future has to bring, and what your body is going to be able to do in the future?

Miranda: Well it kind of brings it back to fun again. Because I’m like you; I have no interest in competing. Honestly.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: I’ll do; if a friend of mine is like, hey let’s go do this Saturday comp, I’ll be like, sure let’s go. Or me and Julian did a team comp together last year that was like; we decided the night before to do it type of thing. Fine.

But it gives me a new goal, now. And it’s fun. Well, every time I’ve been injured and now, you get to have your post-surgery PR, and now I get to PR everything again. And I get to do; like I’m so excited for when I get to try to do muscle ups again. And I’m so excited for when I get to add things back in. So it kind of makes it more fun again, to be honest.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: So yeah.

Juli Bauer: That’s awesome. Well, I want to ask a couple of questions before you go, because I know I’ve held you for an hour and I’m sure that your child needs to feed again.

Miranda: {laughs}

Juli Bauer: So, I want to ask you. This is totally not even on the birth realm of things, because we kind of talked a lot about that. But, I know so many people say that you look; and I hope I’m saying your name right. Dana Lynn Bailey; like Dana.

Miranda: {laughs} Yeah.

Juli Bauer: So everybody says you look like her; and she’s in the bodybuilding community, correct?

Miranda: Yes.

Juli Bauer: So, how did you guys end up coming together, and what was it like meeting this person that everyone says is your doppelganger?

Miranda: So it’s so funny. Because she has a way bigger following than I do. She’s like, insane in the body building community. But I used to get tagged all the time, being like; she’s like the CrossFit version of DLB, blah, blah, blah. And I guess she had gotten tagged a couple of times saying the same thing, like, “Oh my gosh, you remind me of Miranda from CrossFit.” She wanted to learn how to do CrossFit. So she; actually her husband reached out to me on Instagram and asked if I would come teach her how to do it.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: And I was like, this is so awesome! I’ve been told so many times that we look alike. And then we started texted, me and her, about me coming out there where she lived in Pennsylvania to teach her how to do some of the CrossFit movements and to hang out with her. And literally, she’s the raddest person. I stayed at her house that weekend. And I’ve seen her a couple of other times here in LA. And yeah, we became friends. I still talk to her all the time. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: And do you know if she’s doing any sort of CrossFit workouts, or did she just stick with her bodybuilding stuff? Because she competes still, in bodybuilding, right?

Miranda: No, she doesn’t compete anymore. She’s over it. She’s like, I just like to workout. And that’s why she got such a huge following, because she trains different than most bodybuilders do. When I worked out with her, it was bodybuilding movements, but it was like a CrossFit type of workout. They don’t rest. Most bodybuilders, you think of them doing a set and then sipping their water for a couple of minutes. It was pretty high intensity body building. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: Yeah!

Miranda: And she’s super strong. She does a lot of power lifting stuff now. She’s super into power lifting. But every once in a while, I know she still does some CrossFit type movements. But she really has gotten into loving power lifting.

Juli Bauer: Oh, that’s cool. I need to follow her more. I kind of looked at her when you were with her, and I was looking back and forth at her photos. But I haven’t followed her in a long time.

Miranda: Yeah, her and her husband are super cool.

Juli Bauer: Aww, that’s awesome. So another person asked about macros. Did you do macros for a while, or did you do any sort of counting while you were competing or nowadays?

Miranda: I was doing macros, not so much while I was competing. I was just trying to eat all of the food while I was competing. Because we were working out so much. But then after, when I got pregnant, I was doing macros. Just because at that point I wasn’t trying to compete, I just wanted to do them to learn about it, to be honest, and just to try to look good, whatever. So yeah, I was doing macros then. And I kind of do them now, but in reality, I just eat the same thing every single day.

Juli Bauer: What kind of diet do you follow? Do you follow a paleo or Zone or do you try to stay away from certain kinds of food? What kind of food do you like to eat?

Miranda: Well, Juli, I am extremely lucky, because Julian’s company is a meal prep company.

Juli Bauer: Oh, that’s awesome.

Miranda: So before I got pregnant, I was eating some of his food and then some I was still making my own breakfast. I’m not 100% paleo, because I was still working out a lot, and I was pretty lean. And whenever I ate 100% paleo, I didn’t have energy. I had no energy. But I was making your recipes, like once a week at least.

Juli Bauer: I know that was so fun!

Miranda: So it’s just clean. It’s mostly paleo, with the addition of rice and oatmeal sometimes and stuff like that.

Juli Bauer: Ok. So do you try to stay gluten free?

Miranda: I like bread like every other day. Gluten has never bothered me. Dairy bothers me a lot. I can’t do dairy at all. So I’ve tested; in my 10 years of CrossFit I’ve played around with Zone, and paleo, and all that stuff. And just kind of figured out what works best for me. Bread doesn’t bother me too much. Dairy bothers me a lot. If I eat 100% paleo, I feel like I don’t have as much energy. But I eat pretty clean. Yeah. But now, I’m so lucky because literally I eat four of his meals every single day. {laughs}

Juli Bauer: That is awesome. I’m very jealous of that.

Miranda: Yeah. They have a paleo menu that’s paleo, and then they have a macro menu. And usually I eat off the macro menu, so it’s super clean with some rice or potatoes and stuff like that in there.

Juli Bauer: And what is that company called?

Miranda: That company is Fierro’s Kitchen. And it just delivers only in SoCal.

Juli Bauer: Ok. Well anybody who’s in SoCal can definitely look that up. That’s awesome. So we kind of covered pretty much everybody’s questions in all the chats we just had. And I wanted to ask this one question, because I remember seeing this. And I kind of tried to find it on your Instagram, but I think it was super far back. Because you posted this kind of before and after photo, and I think it was before CrossFit. You were heavier than you were in this picture with your, of course, a million abs. And then you talked about how something was different because your boobs were much bigger. So I’m guessing you had implants before?

Miranda: So the history of my boobs.

Juli Bauer: Yes! {laughs} Because I have implants, so I just wanted to kind of talk about that. Because I have to kind of change things in CrossFit because of my implants, so I didn’t know if it had to do anything with that, why you had them taken out. So let’s hear this boob story.

Miranda: So I got a student loan when I was 20 {laughs}.

Juli Bauer: {laughing}

Miranda: And spent that money on massive implants. It was around the same time that I was super into competing and wanted to compete in body building. And I had no boobs. And you actually lose points for that, to be honest. Because you don’t go in at the waist as much, and blah, blah, blah. Whatever. So it was a muscle that I could not work, and I went way over the top. They were way too big for my body. And I only had them for like 3 years, and then I got them removed because I hated them and they were painful.

Juli Bauer: Oh my god! How big were they?

Miranda: They were like; I don’t remember. They were at least Ds.

Juli Bauer: Ok.

Miranda: Yeah. They were as big, if not bigger, than my boobs are now with the breastfeeding.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: So then I removed them, but then May of last year I got little ones put back in; because again, I had no boobs. So my boobs have had a long history of surgeries.

Juli Bauer: So how long ago did you get smaller ones in?

Miranda: May; around regionals 2016.

Juli Bauer: OK. And do you have any issues with working out?

Miranda: Not really. And I don’t have any issues with breastfeeding, either. Because I know that’s something that can come up. But I haven’t; they’re really small. I literally told them put them smallest possible ones you can put in there.

Juli Bauer: Yeah.

Miranda: Yeah.

Juli Bauer: Well that’s awesome. I’ve talked with another friend who got implants and then she just felt like they weren’t part of her body, so she had them removed. So it’s always interesting to see different people’s experiences with implants. And especially with working out, or breastfeeding. Because you never know what you’re going to get with breastfeeding and implants.

Miranda: Yeah. I got them removed because they were super painful, even to sleep, because I just got; they were way too big.

Juli Bauer: That’s crazy.

Miranda: Yeah.

Juli Bauer: Damn. Well I just had to end on boob story. Who doesn’t like to end on a boob story?

Miranda: We’ve gone through a lot.

Juli Bauer: Seriously! We’ve gone through a lot.

Miranda: You started by asking me what my last name is, and me not knowing the answer to that question.

Juli Bauer: I know! Well last week I talked about colonics, which is like getting a professional enema on the podcast. So, we talk about things coming out of all crevices on this podcast.

Miranda: {laughs}

Juli Bauer: So thank you for being part of that.

Miranda: Oh, good.

Juli Bauer: I really appreciate that. {laughs} Thank you for telling your story. I know people are going to love this; especially someone who is in the fitness community and has worked out throughout their pregnancy and afterwards. And then people can find you; can you tell everybody where they can find you on social media or your website or whatever else? Or Street Parking. Everything.

Miranda: Yeah. So best way is just on Instagram. My Instagram is now Fearless Miranda. And Street Parking is Street_Parking. So that’s it. That’s the best way. And you can find whatever else you’re looking for by going there.

Juli Bauer: Awesome. Well thank you so much for being on, and chatting with us, and telling us all the gory details, so women really know what they’re in for, you know. Don’t sugar coat it.

Miranda: They still don’t know. That’s the thing.

Juli Bauer: That’s true.

Miranda: You can’t explain. Yeah.

Juli Bauer: That’s very true. Well thank you so much, Miranda. You can hold on the line. Thank you everyone for listening. Don’t forget to rate, review, subscribe, and I’ll talk to you next week. Bye-bye for now.

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18 Comments

  1. Sheva says:

    This was great! Thanks for having Miranda on. I don’t have an kids yet, but sometimes feel like people outside of the fitness community shit on you if you talk about how pregnancy will affect your fitness and your physique. They sort of have the attitude that you are being vain and selfish. I obviously don’t think taking care of your body and health is vain so it’s super frustrating when people come at you with that. I loved listening to that very real conversation you had with Miranda! It seems like no one wants to talk about any of that and all your “suppose” to say is how much you love your baby etc etc. Of course I’m not trying to discount that, but it’s not all rainbows and sunshine!

    1. juli says:

      seriouslyyyyyy! and it drives me insane when people act like it’s all great all the time, because it’s not. i wish more people could have a bit more real talk about how pregnancy and childbirth affects both the body and the brain. it’s hard for many women and i feel like so many feel like they can’t talk about it.

  2. Jenn says:

    She is seriously the best! Been a long time follower of both of you and this was a great interview. Loved hearing the story after watching her go through so much!!

    1. juli says:

      thanks for listening, jenn!

  3. Samantha says:

    What a great conversation. Grateful for her realistic approach to fitness, motherhood, food… all of it!

    1. juli says:

      glad you liked it, samantha!

  4. Elena says:

    Juli, This podcast is the first one to which I have ever listened. I am a big fan of both you and Miranda and hearing about everything from competing at the most elite level in Crossfit to giving birth. Lately, I have been going to Crossfit 6 days a week since we moved closer to the gym instead of 5 days and running with my husband on one day which has always been a special part of our relationship. What you and Miranda were talking about at one point in the conversation reassured me that I will not lose my physique or level of fitness by only going to Crossfit 5 or even 4 days a week. I should make sure to run with my husband so we don’t lose that part of our relationship which is even more important. -Elena

    1. juli says:

      you definitely won’t lose your fitness level! keep kicking ass, elena!

  5. Karly says:

    Really really enjoyed this podcast! Maybe some of my favorite episodes!

    1. juli says:

      awesome!! glad to hear it!

  6. Kate says:

    Loved this podcast, thank you both. I also worked out throughout pregnancy (was in the gym hours before going into labour) and had a natural birth, so can relate to so much of what Miranda said. It was hard to continue training throughout pregnancy, especially during the first trimester when I was super tired, but it does make you feel “normal” and give you more energy when the workout is over. But it is hard and I remember coming home from the gym one day during the first trimester and bursting into tears because I didn’t enjoy feeling like that. Thanks for being so honest and open with your story.

    1. juli says:

      glad you liked the interview, kate!

  7. Laura says:

    Hi Juli!
    I loved this episode with Miranda. I’ve been loving your podcSt so far. I do like the mix up of episodes between your happenings and travel and the interviews! Keep up the hard work.

    1. juli says:

      awesome!! glad you’re liking the mix of both!

  8. Cassy says:

    MANUALLY STRETCHED?!?!
    holy shit.
    loved the episode!! 🙂

  9. R says:

    Great episode! Do you have a link for the meal program Miranda mentioned in the podcast?

    1. juli says:

      i’m sorry, i don’t have the link! but i’m sure if you reach out to her on instagram, she would have that info!!

  10. Amanda says:

    I so appreciated the candor and honesty of this! I actually work as a pelvic floor physical therapist here in Denver and find the lack of dialogue about pregnant/postpartum bodies SO frustrating. It really is traumatic to a woman’s body to go through a “normal” pregnancy and delivery. If you ever want to connect about giving advice to your pregnant or postpartum followers, I’d love to chat!