Listener Questions – Episode 17: PaleOMG Uncensored Podcast

I asked if you lovely humans had any questions and you asked, so I’m answering all of them in this podcast! Thank you guys so much for asking such fun questions and I apologize now for my super Alanis Morissette 90’s grunge personality, but I need a dirty martini and a piece of cake.

Let me know if you have any questions or if I missed yours, I’m happy to answer them in the comments section below!

[powerpress]

Episode 17 Links:

• My Skincare Routine (Acne, Lasers, Dermaplane and More!)
• Beauty Treatments I’m Loving Lately
• Mobility Wod for injury prevention, pain, and stretching
• Mike Burgener weight lifting explanations and warm-ups

Episode 17 Transcription:

1. Moderating food intake [8:00]
2. Various beauty treatments [11:38]
3. Hair washing routine [13:30]
4. Eating dairy [15:13]
5. Natural beauty tricks [16:52]6. Seeing an esthetician [18.13]
7. Type of makeup [19:42]
8. Toning up for a wedding [21:13]
9. Other career paths [23:06]
10. Injury prevention [23:45]
11. Learning lifts from home [26:36]
12. Go to Mexican food meal [27:56]
13. Sleep and snacking [28:12]
14. Meeting Crossfit goals [29:12]
15. Beginning paleo, bloat and breakouts [31:27]
16. Meal planning and outfit planning [33:45]
17. Carbs on paleo [36:19]
18. Mocktails [37:37]
19. Binging on weekends [38:24]
20. Whole30 food eliminations [40:15]
21. Favorite brands of clothing [42:27]
22. Scheduling workouts and rest days [43:49]
23. Planning workouts outside of Crossfit [44:49]
24. Relationship discussions [45:46]
25. How do you hang with drinkers while not drinking? [47:34]
26. How to find what works for you [49:17]
27. Getting ready morning routine [53:35}
28. Is there another book in the future? [55:52]
29. Birth control options [57:59]
30. Crossfit guilt [59:03]
31. PaleOMG products [1:00:20]
32. Favorite meal [1:00:52]
33. Should I eat if I’m hungry? [1:02:11]
34. Decorating house [1:02:47]
35. Destination wedding [1:03:05]
36. Barre classes [1:04:32]
37. Building a wardrobe [1:05:42]
38. People Juli follows [1:07:19]
39. Avoiding sugar [1:09:33]
40. Men’s wear [1:11:49]
41. Breast augmentation and Crossfit [1:12:44]
42. Too sore? [1:14:26]
43. Keeping leg bulking to a minimum [1:16:19]
44. How to not bulk up too much with Crossfit [1:18:14]

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

Juli Bauer: Well hey there happy people! This is Juli Bauer, the creator of www.PaleOMG.com. Just a little forewarning; this podcast has strong language; sometimes sexual content; and everything worth listening to. So if you aren’t a fan of sometimes PG-13, maybe even R rated content, I would move on. I’ve just got to give that little up front intro nowadays, since people don’t understand what explicit means. So there you go. It’s right there, put it out there for you.

So anyways, this is Juli Bauer from www.PaleOMG.com. If you don’t know what that website is; good on ya! But go to my website and hang out there. And I don’t know how you found my podcast in the first place. But that’s f*cking awesome if you did. So this is Juli Bauer. I’m here to chat with you guys about whatever the hell is going on in my brain; and there’s a lot.

This week, I’ve been in a bad f*cking mood! I cannot rid myself of this mood. And I am pretty damn good at f*cking getting rid of that type of personality flaw. Because I’m not a person who likes to just dwell on a bad mood; no thank you. But you know, I’m in a little quarrel with my husband; quarrel if you will. Long story short, I’m not going to go into the details, because I like being married, but I was supposed to go to Bali, and the trip has been postponed, and it’s slightly, partly my husband’s fault. And I love him, but I truly hate him right now. So I can’t really rid myself of that hatred; hopefully some day. I’ll move on from it.

But the Bali trip that was supposed to come next month has been postponed. Hopefully it’s just postponed, it’s not just completely gone. But; I’m really pissed off about it. So I’m trying to find more trips. Because I hate Colorado right now; I hate that my feet are always cold. I hate that someone told me that I probably have Hashimoto’s; is that what it’s called? That’s why my feet are always cold. I just hate the world. I’m like; Alanis Morissette. {singing} I hate the world today. That’s how I feel. But you know, I keep going to the gym, I keep hoping those endorphins will just pop in and change my life. They just have not yet, so we’ll see. We’ll hopefully get there.

In other, better news, kind of better news; obviously the Bachelor has started up. And if you like recaps, I do a weekly recap, usually on Tuesday or Wednesday on my blog; spoiler alerts, right there. I just love the Bachelor. It gives me life right now when I feel like I have no life inside of me. But yeah, it’s been really good. I can’t decide if I’m going to do; because I feel like I’m just repeating myself. You can read my recap there, but let’s just say Corrine is magical. Her whorish ways are my favorite. You just; you do you, girl. You do whatever whore thing you feel like doing. And she is very proud of it. And she wants her dad to know how awesome she’s being, too. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch the f*cking Bachelor. Waste your Monday nights away, because what else do you have to do on a Monday than watch the Bachelor?

Liz, who had slept with Nick before, she was really good at talking about it a lot. Poor thing; I don’t know if the producers just altered that so it looked like she was talking about it 24/7, but this poor girl. She must be embarrassed coming out of this.

Not long ago, just a month or two ago, there’s this little chat about reality TV in my life; this small chat. And if that opportunity ever did come up, I just don’t think I could do it. Because the producers have to make you look interesting, and what if you’re not interesting? And I’m personally not that f*cking interesting. Sure, I’m pretty bitchy, but I’m not that interesting other than that. Except I say the F word a lot. Which; I would be no fun on TV. I would be blacked out; well not blacked out. But they would blur out my words all the time.

This is off to a terrible start on the podcast. Real quick before; this is a question and answer podcast, one of those. Real quick, because it’s just on my f*cking mind; what is up with people talking about thigh gaps? Is that still a f*cking thing? Because on social media just the other day, it was and it’s so weird. Who gives a f*ck about anybody, people’s; any other person’s thighs except your own? It’s just so weird this person was talking about thigh gaps, and these two people were talking about how it isn’t genetics, and the other person was saying it is, and just, having this stupid f*cking conversation about a thigh gap. Who wastes their time thinking about thigh gaps? Think about it; it’s so f*cking weird. Who gives a sh*t? Nobody. Well, obviously some people. But stop talking about it. Who cares? Just work on yourself. It has nothing to do; thigh gap has nothing to do with anything in your life. I’m terrible with my words today. I just hate that people talk about thigh gap; it’s so f*cking weird and it irks me to my core! Just go eat food, go workout, go improve your life, be more positive than I am today, and do that, ok? Ok.

We’ve got to get into this. I am grumpy as f*ck, but you know what, we’re going to turn this mood all around. We’re going to turn it around guys. Mostly because I made cookies for Valentine’s Day today; what day is not turned around by chocolate chip cookies? Right? Ok.

Ok. Let’s do this guys! I asked on my Monday blog post and my weekly workouts post; that’s usually where I ask questions just to ask some questions, anything random that you wanted. I’ve done two episodes like this, just random reader questions and I think I got like 60 questions or so, so you guys are f*cking awesome! If I missed yours, I apologize but I kind of stopped looking after a while; once I’m about to record my podcast. So if you ask them past this day, I apologize. Feel free to ask them on the blog. www.PaleOMG.com. Now let’s get to questions, guys, because I’ve f*cking wasted almost 8 minutes just bullsh*t in the bush, whatever that means.

1. Moderating food intake [8:00]

Ok! We’re going to start off with Meg. “Have you ever addressed how you managed to be a moderate eater? For instance, I could never imagine having the willpower to make dinner and only eat one taco, or only eat one bite after I opened a chocolate bar. I’ve read a little bit about Abstainers versus Moderators, and I’m beginning to think that maybe I’m just wired to be a Moderator. Whole30 and following rules works for me, but I have a hard time understanding how people can control themselves around such delicious food!”

So, I haven’t read much about Moderators versus Abstainers, that type of deal. But I definitely think; before I felt that exact same way, that I could not control myself around food. If I opened a chocolate bar, I would eat the whole chocolate bar, or eat all of the chips. And when I was feeling that way, it’s because I was doing sort of those 30 day; like Whole30 or saying I couldn’t have something. And so when I did have it, I wanted it 10 times more.

I follow this really cute blogger, her name is Carrots and Cake, and she had this little quote, and I think this kind of goes perfect with this; but being a little less perfect will make you a little bit more consistent. And I think that’s so true that we try to be so perfect, and then when we’re having something that we don’t find “perfect” then we just overeat it and we go f*cking ham instead of just having a little bit at a time, and being more consistent.

So when I used to hold myself back and not allow myself things, I used to overindulge every single time that I had them. And then once I cut that out; once I was like, ok, whatever I’m doing is not f*cking working, and I just began eating more of what I wanted, I didn’t feel that urge to overeat like I used to. So now, like when I make tacos, I’ll make one taco and then I’ll make a taco salad on the side because I need more food than just one little taco. But I don’t feel like I’ll need 4 tacos, because I have tacos whenever I want. Or whenever I have chocolate, I’ll have a piece or two; and I try to have really good, high quality chocolate, so it’s not like a Hershey’s candy bar that pretty much has crack in it so you never stop eating it. But I’ll have high quality so then I have a couple of bites, and I just feel satisfied.

So I think it’s important to look at maybe this Whole30 or whatever diet plan or detox that you’re on; if you feel like you can’t have certain things, and then you overindulge in them, maybe that lifestyle isn’t the best for you. And you know; I just say this from experience, being a person that was like, “I have to be on a plan so I stick with it.” But then I was overindulging and I was 30 pounds heavier then. So I think it’s worth looking at, that maybe trying to be perfect all the time, and those rules aren’t the best plan for you. That’s just my idea from what I’ve experienced myself. So I hope that kind of helps.

2. Various beauty treatments [11:38]

Samantha; “Can you talk about different beauty treatments you’ve done? I was wondering if you ever tried laser hair removal and your thoughts on it?” So I just did a blog post about this, actually, and you should totally go to www.PaleOMG.com. I talked about the lasers I’ve been using lately that has completely helped with my skin. So the Venus Viva laser, I’ve been doing that, and all the different beauty treatments I’ve tried. So Botox, derma plane, different sorts of BBL light, lasers. So I talk about all these different lasers I’ve done.

And then I just talked about lash lifting, which is really f*cking cool and I totally recommend it; I loved it. And then permanent eyeliner. So talk about all those on www.PaleOMG.com this past week, so definitely go check it out. There’s a beauty tab, so it has all those.

I started laser hair removal on my armpits with my esthetician that I see now. She was working at a different place; I started the laser hair removal, I did two treatments, and then she moved and when she moved facilities, she didn’t have her laser, and it took her a month or two to get her laser. So I need to start back up with those treatments. But from those two treatments, my hair was so much thinner. It was not coming in like it used to, and it was f*cking awesome and I loved it. And I’ve had multiple friends who have done laser hair removal, and they have loved it. Like one friend did both less entirely. My friend has done her Brazilian, and she loved it. And they have to do minor razor, just minor shaving in between. But I would highly recommend it; I think it’s f*cking awesome. I can’t wait to start it back up.

3. Hair washing routine [13:30]

Jessica; “You’ve said you only wash your hair once a week. Can you elaborate on that in your podcast? How do you have a sweaty workout and then go 6 days without washing?” Well, Samantha, that’s because I’m f*cking gross. Oh sh*t, this was Jessica. God damn it Juli! Jessica. So I’m really gross, that’s how. But you have to remember; I work from home, so I can be as disgusting as I want to be whenever I want to be. One thing I do recommend is after you workout, if you have your hair up in a ponytail, take it down right away and let it air dry, so it doesn’t become a grease ball. That’s really helped with me keeping my hair a little less greasy over time. If you keep it in a ponytail, it just kind of globs onto that grease and that oil. So put it down, let it air dry right away, if you have a blow dryer, blow dry your hair if you can.

And then I really like; I’m forgetting what it’s called. But I have this; what’s it called. I don’t know; you can find any dry shampoo that you like, and that just helps with freshness more than anything. I don’t love using dry shampoo, but I honestly probably wash my hair twice a week; not quite once a week but maybe once a week. But yeah, just let it down, air dry, and there you go. And just pretend like it’s clean. Somebody; I was getting so many compliments the other day on my hair because I finally washed it for that one time in a week. F*cking gross.

4. Eating dairy [15:13]

Ok, Dionna. “I would love for you to talk about why you choose to eat dairy, and what kinds of dairy products you choose to eat.” Oh my god, you guys. So I posted a picture last week of a burger that I made at home; and I got this, what’s it called, grass-fed cheddar, Kerry gold cheddar cheese, put that on top; and I wrote, “No, dairy is not paleo,” and this woman went on a f*cking tirade about how I shouldn’t be called PaleOMG, pretty much cursed the day I was born. She went on a f*cking tirade over cheese. What a psycho. It’s literally; she made it seem like I was bathing in a bread bowl. Like, chomping at the bit. F*cking crazy.

So I try not to do too much dairy because my skin just gets a little wonky if I do. I do heavy cream in my coffee every day, I do butter sometimes; I mostly use ghee. I do some butter in some recipes; more so around the holidays. And then I find grass-fed cheese whenever I use dairy, like on top of a burger. But the thing that I use the most is heavy cream; and then I also like this sheep’s milk yogurt, and I’ve been eating that a lot, and I share that on my Snapchat all the time. But those are my favorite. I just try not to overdo it; I just try not to overdo any of those things anyways.

5. Natural beauty tricks [16:52]

Laura, “What natural beauty tricks do you use? My favorite is coconut oil. It’s the best for removing leftover eye makeup after washing your face. Just a small amount and wipe and it’s gone! No more raccoon eyes!” So, Laura. I hate f*cking coconut oil for my skin. I tried doing that, because it really is the best for makeup. It gets all your makeup off. And my skin dried up like Benjamin Button out of the womb. My skin looked so bad. Like, I could not hydrate it enough. You could see every single wrinkle in my face, it was so dehydrated. And as soon as I stopped using it, my face cleared up in a couple of days. So I’m not all for the natural beauty stuff. I’m not into that kind of stuff. I wish I had natural beauty tricks for you. There are tons out there; but I’m more of the prescription, high maintenance, go to the esthetician once a month and peel my face off type of person. So I’m sorry Laura. There are so many bloggers out there that will have natural beauty stuff; but I ain’t one of them. I’m just natural food; other than that, I like f*cking sizzling off my face with chemical peels. Perfect.

6. Seeing an esthetician [18.13]

Nicole, “I’m really interested in beginning a skin care regimen with an esthetician. Money is always a factor, so what would you recommend as I do on a regular basis as far as treatments go.” So talk to an esthetician. I am not an esthetician; I am not a doctor, and I don’t want to get in trouble and people sue me. So, remember that.

As far; when I first started doing stuff, I loved doing chemical peels every 6 months. Chemical peels are f*cking awesome if you have a right person. I had a person who really burned my skin and it f*cking sucked, so don’t go to a sh*tty person. And this was one of the best, I don’t know, plastic surgeon departments in Colorado and this woman burnt my skin. It looked like I had goggle tan lines, for when you go snowboarding, you get these red circles around your eyes; that’s what it looked like. F*ck that woman.

So I would totally recommend chemical peels, and then it’s a few hundred bucks but you’re doing it every 6 months or so. And then I highly, highly recommend Vivant skin care products. I think they are amazing; absolutely love them. And then just using that product on a regular basis; that’s what I prefer.

7. Type of makeup [19:42]

Rachel. “I have a question about your makeup? You use powder as your foundation, right?” Correct. “Is that because it’s gentler on your skin, or because you prefer light coverage? Or because it was recommended by your esthetician? Or because you tried it one day, and was like; cool, I like this? Or none of those reasons had anything to do with it? I’m thinking of trying it because I saw it in Nordstrom.”

Yeah, so I use Jane Iredale makeup, and this is under my beauty tab, as well. And it’s a powder; I use powder. You can use regular liquid foundation. But I use powder because my friend Hayley, she has the website with her husband Primal Palate, and she used to be a makeup artist for all kinds of people and on television and music videos; all kinds of cool stuff. So when we were taking photos for my last cookbook, she did my makeup and she introduced me to Jane Iredale. And it’s gluten free, and it has amazing coverage for just powder. I was having pretty bad acne at that point, and it covered my acne up so well, and it helped with my skin as well.

So, I use it because it looks really beautiful in photos. It just has this; I mean, it’s crazy how much it covers up acne. So I like it mostly for photos, and because it’s gluten free and it’s just been; it’s awesome. So that’s just kind of my preference with that makeup, and I totally recommend it. I have been using it for years now, and would recommend it to anyone.

8. Toning up for a wedding [21:13]

Emily; “I’m getting married on March 4th; yay! And have kicked my health and fitness into high gear for the last year and a half. Now that I’m down to the wire, I’m most concerned with my arms. Do you have any suggestions on the best way to tone your arms to their best potential in a short amount of time? Is heavy lifting, light weights, high reps? Would also love to know any suggestions you have to help curb wedding stress.”

Ok, so curbing wedding stress, I would say get married in a destination wedding. You don’t have that planned? Ok. Because I literally had zero stress. The most stressful part was when we almost missed our flight. But we made it!

As far as arms; if you’re trying to tone anything, it is all about nutrition. It starts with nutrition, it’s that stupid f*cking saying, abs are made in the kitchen. Which is 100% true. You can do all this work in the gym, but if you’re not eating healthy on a regular basis and being really consistent with your diet, then you’re not going to see any results.

So if you’ve been working out in the gym regularly; if you’re just doing multiple workouts; not multiple workouts in a day but multiple workouts in a week, and you’re working all over body, you should not have an issue if you are eating consistent and taking care of yourself when it comes to what you’re feeding yourself. So that’s what I recommend; just eating healthy and just keep whatever you’re doing in the gym. I wouldn’t say go do 47 triceps kickbacks. That’s not me; I think if you’re staying consistent in the gym and staying consistent with your diet, you’re going to see those results. So that’s my recommendation. Food is f*cking key.

9. Other career paths [23:06]

Chris; “If you weren’t a fulltime lifestyle blogger and coach, what career would you; what would your career be?” God. {laughs} I wish you guys could see what a hot mess I am. I’m as hot mess as I sound right now on this recording.

So, if I wasn’t a blogger, I would probably own a gym. Because fitness is one of my true passions, and for a while I thought I was going to be a Crossfit gym owner, so I’d probably be a gym owner and f*cking change people’s lives through fitness, because fitness is f*cking awesome. So that’s what I would probably do.

10. Injury prevention [23:45]

Jody; “I’d love to hear more about what you have to say about injury prevention. Maybe that incorporates the importance of stretching, proper form; that’s totally not even really a question. But would still value your opinion on this.”

So, I had multiple people ask me this question, so if I didn’t ask; if you had this question, and I’m not saying your name, it’s just I’m kind of lumping you into this one. Because I had multiple people ask about injury prevention and just how to deal with issues that come with working out on a regular basis.

So injury prevention starts first and foremost with your form. If you’re going to have sh*tty form, not matter if you’re picking up a 15-pound barbell or 150-pound barbell, you are going to injure yourself if you do not have proper form. So proper coaching and listening to your body. When I have; I’ll see people in the gym who just become a f*cking sh*t storm when it comes to doing a power clean, when they know how to do it. So you have to use your brain, you have to have a good coach, and you have to listen to both your brain and your coach.

Proper warm ups; so just making sure you’re getting the body warmed up before. I like to do some stretching. You’ll see multiple opinions about that. But I like to do a little bit of stretching, active stretching, before workouts. And then stretching afterwards. I always recommend getting a foam roller if you don’t have one, or using the foam roller at your gym, and rolling out your IT bands; your whole leg. You can roll out your back and up on the sides, like into your lats and near your armpit. I highly recommend that, and using a lacrosse ball. So if you’ve never tried a lacrosse ball, you can dig that into all kinds of crevices in your body and it really hurts and is really uncomfortable and is wonderful. So I use that; I’ll lie on my side and it will be kind of right by my hip bone; there’s a little soft spot that goes in your hip bone. I roll out there a lot for hip flexors and in the front. You can use it on your butt, kind of in the crease right above the butt cheek.

So if you’re like; I don’t know what the f*ck you’re talking about, Juli; well, I recommend going to www.MobilityWOD.com. That is the website from Kelly Starrett, and he shows you amazing ways. So you can be like; oh, my hips hurt. Put in hips, he’ll give you a million different hip stretches and ways to work on your hip mobility. So www.mobilitywod.com is what I totally recommend for any of your questions that have to do with injury prevention and flexibility and working on those issues.

11. Learning lifts from home [26:36]

Amber; or no, Kristen. Kristen first. Amber next. “I work out from home and would like to learn some Olympic lifts, but I’m changing careers and I don’t have the budget to join a box or hire a coach. Is there any way you might consider doing tutorials on some lifts?”

So, maybe in the future I might be doing that. I have some goals for 2017 that include some types of workouts, but I’m not the head person for Olympic lifts. There are so many people that are better at explaining them and just true connoisseur’s when it comes to Olympic lifts. I really recommend; because what I did when I first started Crossfit, I was doing it by myself out of the Rec center at my college gym. So I would watch these videos; and you can find them on the Crossfit.com main site; but you can also just YouTube Mike Burgener; I think I’m saying his name; yeah, Mike Burgener, and he has warm-ups that you do with PVC to warm ups that you do with a barbell, and it’s like a progression of how to work on those movements; whether it’s snatch or clean and jerk. So check him out; he is how I learned the movements by myself just in a regular gym.

12. Go to Mexican food meal [27:56]

Amber; “What is your go-to meal when you go to eat at a Mexican restaurant? I have a hard time making clean choices.” I just get fajitas almost every single time; whether it’s chicken fajitas, steak fajitas; shrimp fajitas. That’s what I get. Boom. Done.

13. Sleep and snacking [28:12]

Erica, “I notice when I don’t get enough sleep I have a hard time making good food choices, and often end up mindlessly snacking,” which is the problem for most Americans, Erica. “Then feeling overfull on top of fatigued. I’m sure this has to do with hormones being out of whack when not getting enough sleep, but I’m wondering if you have any suggestions for how to maintain an even keel, making good health promoting choices when sleep is harder to come by. I’m expecting a baby soon, and I’m trying to be proactive.”

So, Erica, it just comes down to planning. If you don’t have healthy choices around, and healthy options ready to go, then you’re going to make those poor choices; especially when you’re lacking in sleep or your hormones are off. So, plan ahead. Make sure you have meals ready to go; make sure you have snacks ready so you can eat something and feel satisfied without having to overindulge in sh*tty stuff. It’s all about planning; life is literally all about planning.

14. Meeting Crossfit goals [29:12]

Sarah; “I’ve been doing Crossfit for about a year and a half. I had to take a break due to low back injury this past summer, but I’m back. And I’m really into goals, and I love your advice about working on specific skill. My goal this year is to do a muscle up. I can do 2-3 strict pull-ups now. How long did it take you to do one? Did you go strict or kipping first? What progressions did you do to recommend to build up strength? Any good stretches…” Oh I already talked about that.

So, I started with kipping pull-ups, and then I could finally do strict pull-ups after I was able to do kipping pull-ups. Some coaches don’t believe in that, and I don’t f*cking care. But I did kipping pull-ups first, and strict pull-ups next. And I started; I cannot do a strict muscle up, and a lot of places recommend you have to do a strict muscle up first. I started with kipping muscle ups, and I worked into them, and that’s how I got my muscle up.

It probably took me about 6 months of crossfitting to get my first muscle up, and I was trying it every single day and practicing it every single day. I would practice the kipping swing, and then I would practice on the rings, and then I would practice bringing; f*ck that yawn. Bringing my hips to the rings; so a big kip, and then try to get myself almost parallel to the floor; or parallel to the ceiling, getting that high. I’d also practice kipping; or, yeah, both kipping bar muscle ups, and that helped with the progression as well. Because you have to get pretty high to be able to turn over on there.

So it was just practice, and I kept working on it. There were no big time progressions I did, just those, and doing it every single day. I see a lot of people at the gym who are like; “I want to get a muscle up.” But they’ll practice them every 3 weeks, and be pissed off when they didn’t get them. And I think like anything, it’s all about consistency. So you have to practice on a regular basis, and yeah, keep working on it.

15. Beginning paleo, bloat and breakouts [31:27]

Jennifer, “I’ve been eating paleo for about 3 weeks now, which I recognize is not a great deal of time. My skin blew up in terms of acne and big patches of dryness at the same time, which is super fun. I’ve been extremely bloated and haven’t felt very good in general. I’m a marathoner and working on being fat adapted, but every time I scale back in carbs my gut seems to get pissed. Do you think there are people out there whose bodies just like a high-carb diet; and maybe even people whose bodies like the dreaded grains, or do I just need to tweak my ratios?”

Everybody’s body is totally different, Jennifer. So if you’re having bloating feeling, and your skin is getting all crazy, I’m wondering if you are eating a lot of nuts, because that can cause a lot of these issues, and I speak from experience. When I went paleo, all I ate was nuts, because I was trying to become more fat adapted. And all I ate was nuts, and nut butter, and coconut, and coconut butter, and my skin was the absolute worse it had ever been. And I also had a lot of dryness; and bloating. Bloating was out of control, and I still, if I eat nuts, I still have that issue. So, I stay away from nuts in general, try not to eat too much coconut. Definitely don’t use coconut on my face, either, and that has worked for me.

I think the bodies have to change over, for sure, if you’ve been eating grains your entire life. But adding maybe more carbs in, and if you’re a marathoner those carbs are important, so having starchier carbohydrates, like sweet potato or regular potatoes; or maybe even having rice in your diet as well. If you’re going long amounts of times, you need those carbs, and maybe fat adapted isn’t the perfect way for you. So I’d say listen to your body, and mess with the ratios as well. I think it’s always important to mess with carb and fat ratios, especially as you kind of transition in. so that’s what I recommend. But the bloating kind of sounds like it may be a nut issue; that’s just what I’m guessing from that comment.

16. Meal planning and outfit planning [33:45]

Erin, “I’d love to hear more about you go about meal planning. Do you have a standard grocery list, or do you wing it when you’re there? Do you meticulously plan every meal? What things do you keep on hand?” So, literally, when I go to the store I have absolutely no plan, except maybe I decided what recipes I’m going to make that week and I grab those, so I already planned out those recipes. But those are just for the blog. When it just comes to regular meals at home, I do not plan whatsoever. I go to the store, I see what looks good, I see what’s on sale when it comes to meat a lot of the time, and I buy that. I do not care about meal planning, but that’s because I work from home, so I don’t have to plan ahead that much because I’m able to cook dinner at 5 p.m., unlike people who are usually getting home at 7-7:30. So I don’t personally plan myself. And I just like to keep stuff around for lunches that is easy; like smoked salmon. Because I don’t feel like usually cooking at lunch time. So that’s what I do; that’s what works for me. But I just don’t plan that much when it comes to meal planning.

And she also asks, “Same goes for fashion. Do you plan for how you want to build your wardrobe, or do you just scroll through Nordstrom website until you find something you like and then build from there?” I love Nordstrom. Nordstrom is literally my favorite store to shop at; I’m obsessed with it. And that is because when a box didn’t show; or I think it got stolen off my doorstep, I called them, and they sent out a new box with those items right away. There was no issue, they didn’t question it, and their customer service is f*cking amazing. So I shop there all the time because you can return things; it’s free return shipping.

So literally, I like to go through; since my job at this point is to find new clothes to share with others, I like to look in the new arrivals, and I do not build outfits, I just buy random stuff; whether that’s tops or jeans or whatever need more in my wardrobe or what I haven’t shared on the blog lately, and I just kind of purchase from there. But it’s just kind of winging it, just like going to the grocery store. That’s kind of how I do my shopping online, too.

17. Carbs on paleo [36:19]

Let’s see; Jamie. “I have a question in regards to carbs. I started this intense kickboxing 5 days a week, and since I’ve been paleo and pretty strict for the past year, I’ve been good at cutting carbs. I always have worked out before, whether it’s lifting or yoga, but never this intense. My body is craving carbs like crazy! I notice that just being paleo and low-carb, I’m constantly hungry. I notice my workouts have been really sh*tty, too, because I feel like I have no energy. I eat lots of vegetables too, but my body is craving something starchy like potatoes. I just hate feeling like I’m failing at paleo.”

Ok, girl. Eat a f*cking potato! If your body is saying, “I want carbs,” then feed it f*cking carbs! It’s telling you that for a reason. You’re super tired, because you need carbs! So this is what I did to myself for so long when I was competing in Crossfit. I was like; “ugh, I’m failing if I have starchy carbohydrates, I should just be able to last on just vegetables alone.” And I wasn’t. My body was so much happier when I started adding in rice and potatoes. So if your body is craving that; f*cking do it, girl! Don’t feel bad. That’s f*cking stupid. We should not feel bad about feeding our body things it needs to eat. Ok? Eat it girl.

18. Mocktails [37:37]

Steph; “I’m trying a sober January since my inner alcohol demon got the better of me in December,” which is many people in this world based on the gym population at my gym right now. “So what are some,” That was my comment, not Jamie, or Steph’s. Gah. “What are some of your favorite Mocktails?”

Mocktails. My favorite Mocktail is soda water with lime. I’m not a person that I just want to make a fun cocktail with no alcohol in it; I don’t see the point in that, and then it’s like you’re drinking sugar water or whatever. So mine is soda water with lime, and then people think you’re drinking a vodka soda, and they’re like, “Oh, ok I won’t annoy this b*tch.” And that’s it. That’s what I do.

19. Binging on weekends [38:24]

Kim, “I’ve been eating paleo constantly for several years. My biggest weakness is always the weekend. I’m great at eating healthy during the week, but then the weekend hits and I want to ease up a bit. It always seems to happen with my diets. Are weekends a struggle for you in the same way, and how do you celebrate and relax without food? Any tips how I can fight the sudden urge to eat junk food as soon as Friday rolls around?”

So, I think this goes back to that first comment, and that little quote that I shared with you from Carrots and Cake, “being a little less perfect will make you a little bit more consistent.” So I say that in regards to your week. So being a little less perfect during the week will probably help with your weekend. So if you feel like you need to just go all out on the weekends, well maybe you should introduce some of those foods that you like more often during the week. And I’m not saying junk, nasty food, like fake food. I’m just saying; say that you’re a person who likes chocolate and you never eat chocolate during the week. And then you have like 4 chocolate bars on the weekend; well maybe you should be having some of that chocolate during the week and adding that in a little bit so you don’t feel like you’re missing out on things and you want to overdo it as soon as the weekend comes. And that’s what I recommend. Your body wants something, and is craving something, and feels like it’s lacking in something, so then you overdo it.

So try not just holding yourself to this crazy high standard in the week, so then the weekend should come along and it should just feel like another day of the week. It shouldn’t feel like the day to just overindulge until you feel like sh*t. that’s what I say. That’s my 2 cents.

20. Whole30 food eliminations [40:15]

Christy, “I was wondering if you have ever done a Whole30, and what are your thoughts on programs like that?” She says, “I struggle with now eliminating foods that I know work well with my digestion. I go to Crossfit 5 days a week and feel lightheaded during workouts if I don’t have enough carbs in my diet. I’ve added rice and gluten free steel oats back in my diet; should I just suck it up and eat more potatoes? Variety is the spice of life.”

So, I’ve talked about this. Do you guys listen to these podcasts in order? Like from 1 to 17? Because you should. You should little pandas. Because, I talked about this before. I have done a Whole30, and I’ve done 21-Day Sugar Detox, and I think they’re awesome for an elimination diet type thing, so finding out what works for you and what doesn’t. But I don’t like just taking out all these things, and saying I can’t have something because I want it 10 times more. And then I go off the handle.

Literally, I see a comment every single day; whether it’s a dessert post or something else, and people are like, “Oh my god, I can’t wait till my Whole30 is done so I can eat that!” It’s like, that’s so sh*tty you have to feel that way, because then it’s like; well I posted some cookies and you’re like, “Day 31 of my Whole30 I’m going to have 20 of those cookies!” So what was the point in even doing that “diet” in the first place? I just think it’s f*cking stupid when people do that.

So, I think you need to listen to your body more than anything, and if you feel like you need more carbs in your diet then eat more carbs! That’s totally fine. Everybody’s body is different. So do what works for you, and if you’re doing your second Whole30, like you said here, you probably know what aren’t foods you need in your diet, and what foods you do. So, eat the food. Eat the carbs, enjoy your life. Variety is the spice of life.

21. Favorite brands of clothing [42:27]

Cassy, “I love your sense of style and notice that a lot of your clothes come from Nordstrom. Aside from Nordstrom, do you have favorite brands or stores that you like to shop at regularly? And what’s your favorite place for workout gear?” So I love Express; I shop at Express all the time because they’re clothes fit so well. They’re jeans are super stretchy for more muscular legs. I love Express; I really like Nasty Gal, I think they just have really cool clothes. I like ASOS, {laughs} I don’t know how you say it. But I think they’re in the UK, so you’re clothes kind of take forever to get, and they usually have all their sizes sold out, but I really like some of their clothes. Sometimes I shop at H&M.

And then for workout gear, I always love LuLuLemon; I don’t really like Athleta; my frame doesn’t really fit into Athleta as well, but I know a ton of people who like Athleta. Victoria’s Secret for workout clothes; Zella, which is available at Nordstrom. I love them, I shop them all the time. Gap has great workout clothes; so there are some of my favorites that I shop with regularly.

22. Scheduling workouts and rest days [43:49]

Let’s see; Alyssa. “Do you have any suggestions for how to schedule your workouts and rest days?” Personally, for what I’ve tested; I’ve tested all kinds of things, but what works best for me is, and just my sanity, as well. I like to do 3 days on. So normally, sometimes it changes, but normally I do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, rest Thursday, workout Friday Saturday, and then rest Sunday. And that schedule works for me. 5 days works for me, and by Wednesday I really feel like I need a rest day, and Sunday I just hate going to the gym. So that kind of works for my schedule. But figure out what works for you. When you’re feeling overly sore when you need to take a rest day, and when your body needs a workout again. But I think make sure you have at least one day off in the middle of the week, two days I think is even better. Just personal opinion from experience.

23. Planning workouts outside of Crossfit [44:49]

Janelle, “When you’re taking some time off, scheduled Crossfit programming, how do you determine your program for your weekly exercises? Meaning, do you do upper body and lower body split days, or just say f*ck it and do whatever you feel like in that given day?” F*ck yeah. I literally do not plan anything whenever I’m working out by myself. I just try to do different moves that I never do in Crossfit. There are a lot of moves in the more boot camp style workouts that you never do in Crossfit, so I like to try those. And I’ve been introducing more workouts onto my Instagram, so I like to try out those moves myself. So I do not think about upper body, I don’t think about lower body. I do think about butt a lot, because I want a better butt, so I like doing different kinds of butt exercises. But I never really think; I just try to incorporate kind of all over body moves whatever workout I’m programming for myself.

24. Relationship discussions [45:46]

Lindsey, “My question for you is what topics do you feel were most important to discuss with your husband as your relationship progressed past the honeymoon phase? I know this is maybe a little bit personal.” No way, Lindsey. “But I absolutely love your honest and blunt response to basically any topic, and would be super interested to hear your opinion on those types of relationship discussions.”

Well, I discussed with him a lot how f*cking pissed I am about Bali, that’s for sure. So we’ve been having lots of those fun conversations. I’m sure he’s thrilled. But I think we talk a lot about long-term goals. We don’t talk much about children, because that’s still so up in the air, since I hate them so much. But we talk about long term goals. I talk about how I want to travel a lot this year, and we talk about kind of goals that we have with our own businesses, and careers.

I mean, when you’re married and you’re just going through the daily, day to day life, those conversations are kind of what happened in the day. It’s just like what you talk about with your best friend, if you lived with your best friend. And I’m not calling my husband my best friend; I have a best friend for a reason, and it’s not my husband. But it would be like when I lived with my best friend, Laura, it’d be the same conversations that we had day to day of what we did that day, and upsets, and good things; just that normal stuff. But my main topic this year is traveling, because he works a f*ck ton and I work all the time, and we’re not working our ass off to make money to not travel. So, I’m trying to get him to get in the travel bug. So that’s my main pressure that I put on him nowadays.

25. How do you hang with drinkers while not drinking? [47:34]

Michelle, “I know you aren’t a big drinker, but it seems your husband still enjoys going out and drinking, which is my similar situation. How do you handle going out and not getting irritated or bored when others are drinking?” I think; so I’m about 50/50. Sometimes I’ll be in the mood to go out, and I just say I’ll be the DD, because then if I’m in control of being the DD then I can control when we leave. And I just don’t stay out super late. I’m not good at being the sober person until 3 in the morning; no thank you. I’ll last maybe till midnight or 12:30, and be like, ok let’s wrap this up.

And then other times, I just don’t go. But I’m big time home body, and I hate other human beings, so I like being home by myself. So I think it’s; you know, you have to be in the right mood. Get yourself a soda water with lime so you feel like you’re just drinking with other people and people aren’t on your ass about it. And then just make sure you’re just in the right mind to be around annoying drink people. But sometimes I go, sometimes I don’t. And that’s kind of how we find balance in our relationship with that. But he really does; like the other night, he had crazy work last week, it was like 90 hours at his work, almost 90 hours, it was f*cking crazy. He was so tired; he came home the other day and was like; “Hey, you want to have a drink with me.” I was like, no but I’ll have ice cream while you have your drink. And that’s my way of drinking with him. Is having more of my vice when he has his. Because who wants to drink alone? Hopefully not my husband, that’s for sure.

26. How to find what works for you [49:17]

Ok, Montana. Montana, you have such a big question, girlfriend. Ok, “You’ve made a lot of changes since you started Crossfit to your lifestyle. When you talk about this in your podcast, you talked about how this works for you. How did you come to find out what works for you? What are some of the feelings that indicate something is good for you immediately; in a few days, a few weeks, and other ways? What are the good and bad signs we are looking for?”

Well, ok. Montana, this is a confusing question right now. I mean, at the end of the day, you have to learn to listen to your body. And it could always be different. It could be a couple of days; like when I cut out eggs from my diet, and my skin cleared up in days. There’s your sign. It could be other things; when I was competing in Crossfit, and I’m like, I’m not seeing the results that I want; looking back, I had to look back over the last few years. And my body changing from not competing in Crossfit took years as well.

So I think you just have to listen to your body. How are you sleeping? How are your relationships doing? How do you feel when you get up in the morning? How do you feel in your workouts? How do you feel in your day to day? You have to look at all these different things, and if things aren’t going right in your world, you have to understand why and you kind of have to start breaking down those things.

Everyone is different, and all the signs are different. You just really have to learn to listen to your body. And I don’t know your own personal maybe struggle that you’re going through so I can’t exactly relate it; but it’s all about listening. And I know people hate that answer but it really is.

So her other question, “On your podcast, you talk about relationships that aren’t supportive of you and your healthy lifestyle journey. How did you get your close friends and family to be supportive of you during your transition period? For example, people ask me why I’m doing this, and my response is to find out the most efficient, best version of me, which will turn into be the best daughter, wife, friend, worker for them. But the response is something like, you don’t think you’re going too far extreme, or I think it is all in your head, you’ve been fine your whole life, you’re wonderful the way you are. They’re not trying to be unsupportive purposefully, but it is really hard to get them to bridge the gap.”

So when I first started, luckily I was around a lot of Crossfit people, so they were all supportive of that. My parents; they are supportive in a way, because they understand it, but I don’t think they’re fully supportive because they kind of don’t understand it in the same way, because maybe they don’t eat the way I do. So I just kept doing what I was doing and what I liked, because I liked it, and I felt the best, and they stopped asking questions over time. And you know, like my farther removed family; not removed, but they don’t live here in Colorado. They still don’t understand it, but they just don’t really talk about it. They don’t care, because if they want to understand they’ll ask questions, but they don’t care so they don’t ask questions.

So, I think the more you stick with it, the less questions you’ll have from those important people in your life, and if they continue to give you sh*t about it and continue not to support you then they aren’t worth having in your life. But those people are just; they’re just saying those things because they think, “Oh, well there’s nothing; what are you doing there’s nothing wrong with you in the first place?” So just stick with it and then those questions will kind of fall off over time. So I hope that helps! I hope that helps Montana. That was intense.

27. Getting ready morning routine [53:35]

Rebecca, “I really loved your podcast message last week and doing your best at the gym because you owe it to yourself, making yourself accountable. Using that thinking in life outside of the gym too. Also setting achievable goals. What are some of your fitness goals for the year? I’m also interested to know how you manage to look so ready all the time?” Oh my god, if you could only see me right now, Rebecca. “I go to the gym in the mornings and have a speedy getting ready routine down to a fine art, but it’s still a very much ‘this will do’ approach rather than anything involving curling irons and false lashes. Do you probably get made up every day, or is it mostly for photo shoots? How long does it take for you to get ready for the day?”

Ok. Rebecca. You; I should literally just put a picture on Snapchat of what a hot mess I am. I’ve got greased out hair, I’ve got mascara under my eyes that I didn’t properly remove. No. I do not look ready every day. So my normal routine is like; I’ll shower in the morning, I don’t wash my hair. And every day is totally different. But I’ll do, just so I can cleanse my face and get my face all cleaned up, and then my normal makeup for the day is I’ll just use concealer under my eyes. I do a little bit of bronzer around my cheekbones and forehead and neck. And then I’ll fill in my eyebrows and do a little bit of mascara. And that’s my normal routine. And I’d probably say that takes, I don’t know, 15 minutes if that. That’s super quick.

Whenever I’m posting fashion photos, most of the time I try to do full makeup and full hair for the photos. And that will take me an hour, most of the time, to do false lashes and full eye makeup, that sort of thing, it takes like an hour. But I don’t do that every day. I do that for whenever I’m taking fashion photos. So I do not get made up every day. I don’t give a f*ck when I go to the gym. But I do like to feel like I have my life together, that’s why I like to put on kind of minor mascara, that sort of thing. Ok.

28. Is there another book in the future? [55:52]

Julienne. That’s so pretty. “Just curious if you see yourself doing another cookbook and/or lifestyle book?” So the cookbook; and I get this question a lot, mostly in the gym with the people that I’m friends with, and I do not see myself doing a cookbook any time soon. And every publisher is a little bit different, but how my publisher does; I don’t know if I’m supposed to talk about this. Whatever. I didn’t get an upfront check or anything like that, so this book was made just purely off my own money, and then I get paid royalties every 6 months. So you make this book that takes you, say, a year, a little less than that. You’re working on it almost every single day, it takes everything out of you. You aren’t able to keep up; for me, I wasn’t able to keep up with my website, so my website traffic falls, and so I’m not making much money off my website. And this is literally a crap shoot. You don’t know if your book is going to do well you don’t know how people are going to take it. You get lots of bad reviews, and people talking sh*t about you. Then you don’t know what kind of check your going to get. So that’s what’s really scary; you’re just kind of throwing all your cards up and hoping that they land in a good place.

So that’s really hard for me. I like to do things on a regular basis that I see me making money off of, and keeping up with other things. I love doing my blog on a regular basis, and I feel inspired every week doing that. And with a book, with a contract, with a deadline, I don’t feel as inspired and I think sometimes my work lacks a little bit. So I have no intention of doing a cookbook anytime soon. But I do have an intention of doing a big project this year that’s not cookbook related. So stay tuned for that!

29. Birth control options [57:59]

Hannah, “I love listening to your podcast. I’m wondering if you could share your thoughts on birth control options. I loved your episode on no kids.” F*ck yeah, Hannah. “I’m not pulling the goalie any time soon,” good, don’t. “But I think the pill is majorly f*cking with my hormones.” For sure. “Are there any methods that you recommend that don’t take over your body?” I know, birth control is the worst.

I would talk to your doctor for sure, because I’m not a doctor. But I’ve heard a lot of people like copper IUDs, and it’s just like a copper; I don’t know. You know those IUDs that they stick up in your cervix? F*cking is not supposed to be comfortable, that’s for sure. But, that’s not hormonal. I guess the sperm just don’t like copper and they die, or they swim the other way, I don’t know. So that’s what I would recommend, but talk to your doctor first and foremost about nonhormonal methods. I don’t know if that’s helpful, but there you go, Hannah.

30. Crossfit guilt [59:03]

Stephanie, “I’m not sure if this happens with other crossfitters, but myself and others at my box get this Crossfit guilt. It’s like we feel so guilty when we don’t go to class, even if we need a rest or there’s a legit reason. As a Crossfit coach, is that something you see or hear about, or have you experienced this? I think this could tie into your workout modalities, as well, not just Crossfit. I think a lot of us experience guilt.”

So I think that guilt definitely happens, especially when you’re into a new workout routine or you’re a little bit addicted to working out. So I think laying out a schedule so you say; ok, for me, I work out 3 days on, one day off, two days on, one day off. So then when I have those rest days, those are my built in rest days already, and I don’t feel guilty about it. So knowing that your body needs a rest and you deserve that rest, that’s super important.

So build in those rest days first, and so it’s not like; you’re like, “oh I’m not going to work out today.” And then you’re like, “F*ck I feel guilty.” Because you already said, “I’m not working out on Wednesday.” Done, and done. Move on with my day. That’s what I say.

31. PaleOMG products [1:00:20]

Shannon, “I was wondering if you ever thought about coming out with a paleo product? I see many paleo bloggers who come out with a spice or bread or anything, and I was wondering if you ever considered that or plan on doing that in the future?”

So not like a food product, that doesn’t interest me. I don’t really care about that as much .I love that so many people are doing that but that’s not my interest. But I do plan on coming out with more of a brand product this year. So stay tuned for that!

32. Favorite meal [1:00:52]

Jessica. “What’s your all time favorite paleo meal? What’s your husband’s favorite thing that you make him? And when ordering Thai food, what’s your go-to dish?”

So my favorite paleo meal to eat; I know this sucks. Well, ok, I’ll say one of my favorite recipes, paleo that makes it doesn’t taste like paleo at all is my crispy orange beef on my website. And my husband’s favorite dish; I asked him that the other day, because I was like; I wonder if he even knows. And I honestly don’t know. He literally does not give a sh*t about food. It drives me crazy. I took him to this crazy steak restaurant and we had this amazing beef tar-tar, and he’s like. “Eh, it’s whatever.” I’m like, “What?!! I don’t want to be married to you anymore. Get out; get out of here!” So I cannot say that part. He likes any food that’s given to him, because he doesn’t give a sh*t about food.

And then when I’m having Thai food, I’m a curry person. I like either curry soups or just regular curry, panang curry is one of my favorites. So I just like anything curry related. Anything.

33. Should I eat if I’m hungry? [1:02:11]

Let’s see. Amanda. “I have been transitioning into paleo over a few weeks. One of the hardest things for me is finding meals that are filling enough. Should I eat more?” Yes! If you’re not full, f*cking eat more, for sure. “Should I include more protein, more carbs?” I’d say include a little bit of everything. But when I wasn’t feeling full enough adding fat to my diet was very helpful, because a lot of times we’re carb adapted and we want to change to fat adapted a little bit more. So adding a little bit more fat. But if you’re still hungry, still eat something for sure, and just make a bigger meal in general.

34. Decorating house [1:02:47]

Faye. “Did you do all the decorating, designing of your house when you bought it, or was it super cute already?” So we bought like a fix and flip, it was just flipped. But I did all the decorating inside. The decorating that you’ve seen on the website has been mine.

35. Destination wedding [1:03:05]

Kristen, “I have a question about your wedding. Did you always plan on having a destination wedding, or did you plan it short notice? How many people did you have there?” Honestly I never saw myself getting married, so I never really pictured a wedding except when I was a young kid, and you see things on TV, and you’re like, “Oh yeah, I’ll get married. I’ll get married when I’m 23, right out of college.” Whatever, that bullsh*t. so I just didn’t see myself getting married once I was older. So once I did meet my now husband, he had been on a couple of destination weddings, and then I went to a destination wedding with him in Mexico, and it was like, why would I do a wedding any other way.

And I get it; a lot of people do regular weddings because they want their family to be there. But none of our family is in Colorado; so if we would have been doing Colorado, people would have still had to travel to Colorado. So we decided literally the night we got engaged, we’re like; we’re doing a destination wedding, right? It wasn’t even a question. And we didn’t invite that many people. We probably invited 80 people, and we had less than 30 people there. Which was perfect, because again, I hate people. So it was perfect, it was no drama, it was the best f*cking wedding ever. No drama. It’s so nice. It was the best.

1.04.32

Shaylene. “I know you used to take barre classes; not sure if you still do, but I love it and I was wondering if you had suggestions about getting the most out of it without plateauing if that makes sense. I’m not a type of person who lifts weights, to be honest, so that’s why I like barre, but I do wish to build a little more muscle other than toning, which barre has done amazing things for.”

So I think with any workout; when I found barre classes, what I found to make sure I wasn’t kind of plateauing in the short amount of time that I did barre classes was finding the right instructor. There were a couple of instructors that I wasn’t impressed with and that didn’t really push me to those limits; so I think finding an instructor who is going to really challenge you and make you try new things and do different stuff other than the normal barre routine is really important, and will make sure, f*ck, that you don’t plateau. So find the right gym and the right instructor so you’re constantly challenged, and not just doing the same thing over and over.

37. Building a wardrobe [1:05:42]

Erin, “Have you always been good with fashion? How do you create your different outfits? I feel a bit silly asking, but like I said, I really am fashion challenged!” Girl. So, I, you know, I think saying ‘good with fashion’ is really in the eye of the beholder. So maybe some people like the way I dress and some people don’t, and that’s going to be any fashion out there. So I think fashion, first and foremost, comes with confidence. If you don’t feel confident in how you feel inside and outside, then you won’t feel good in whatever outfit you’re wearing.

I think I went through stages because of the confidence I had or lack of confidence I had, and that had to do with my lifestyle as well. So I just create outfits based on stuff that I see. I‘ll go to Nordstrom, I’ll go to New Arrivals, and I’ll just shop different things that I like. I like going on Pinterest and looking for outfit inspiration. I more so look for posing inspiration, because posing in photos is f*cking hard, and I do the same sh*t every time. But you can look at how somebody put an outfit together, and maybe you have those pieces. Like a striped top and a jacket, and a pair of heels, and you’re like; “Oh, I can kind of make something off of that.” So that’s how I’ve done that. I just keep trying new stuff, and see if I like it. Sometimes it’s a hit, and sometimes I don’t like it.

38. People Juli follows [1:07:19]

Chris, “I know you’ve mentioned a few people that you follow personally for recipe and fitness inspiration; like Fed and Fit, Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind; who are what are some of the feeds that are must-haves for you?”

I don’t actually go to any persons blog in particular, because I think it’s very easy to copy people’s recipes and you think you made them up yourself if you see someone else’s recipes. So I don’t go to people’s blogs for inspiration. But I do like following people on Instagram. So I follow Fed and Fit. Oh my god, I just said clit! Oh my god. I can’t f*cking even right now! I’ve been listening to too much of My Dad Wrote a Porno. {laughs}

Ok, so Fed and Fit, oh my god that’s so great. Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind for food; just like pretty food photos. I love them. I love Nom Nom Paleo, Michelle Tam, she’s f*cking awesome for recipes. She does a lot of Instant Pot recipes if you like those. And then I love; let’s see, I’m just pulling up my Instagram. And you can go to my Instagram and see who I follow so you can actually see those. There’s this girl called Kaisafit; this girl called suzie_kb; Katiecrewe; all three of those are fitness girls that I’ve liked following recently because they have some great moves. I love following Chris Pratt on Instagram because he’s the f*cking best, and hilarious. Ambitiouskitchen; she has beautiful photos.

So those are kind of the main people that I follow, but you can go to my Instagram and see who I follow. And a lot of Frenchies. So those are obviously must. If you don’t follow a Frenchie profile, what are you doing with your life? What are you even doing? Ok. Oh my god, I don’t know if you can hear this on my recording, but my stomach is growling so loud.

39. Avoiding sugar [1:09:33]

Ok; Nicky. “Ok, sugar. I know you try to avoid it, and I’m trying to, too. But I feel like everything has sugar; like bananas. They’re a fruit; but oh my god they’re full of sugar! And sweet potatoes, they contain sugar. How do you handle sugar that’s in whole paleo foods? I would love to try to cut back on sugar, but when I eat certain fruits and vegetables, I feel like I ruin my whole goal.”

So I’ve talked about this before; I try not to eat much fruit because I think it’s a waste in sugar. I’d rather eat sugar in the form of desserts; but I don’t worry about it in the form of, like refueling my body. So potatoes or sweet potatoes. You know; you’ll find sugar in all kinds of things. But if I’m refueling my body for a workout, it’s not a worry. I just try not to overdo it in the form of sugar that I don’t need; like chocolate, or whatever else. But I just try not to worry about it too much. If I’m working out on a regular basis, my body needs fuel, and I’m going to fuel it.

She also has another question, “Have you ever done a 21-Day Sugar Detox and Whole30?” and I kind of talked about that before. “What were your results for the 21-Day Sugar Detox? How can you tell if sugar is something you should try to avoid? And what did you learn from the Whole30?”

So, I mean I think sugar is something you should try to avoid in general. Sugar is not good for you. You can bullsh*t around the bush; {laughs} I keep saying that. It means nothing. Bullsh*t around the bush. Whatever. You can; I think avoiding sugar in general is a good goal while still fueling the body. What I learned from a 21-Day Sugar Detox and a Whole30 is I’m not good when it comes to saying I can’t have something. So those types of diets are not good for me. So that’s what I found out, and just eating more consistently and not worrying about perfection is what works more for me. So, that’s kind of what I’ve learned.

40. Men’s wear [1:11:49]

Melissa; “Curious if you have any favorite men’s brands for everyday wear and Crossfit wear?” Melissa, absolutely not. Because my husband, whenever I try to buy him clothes, he hates everything I choose. And he has really great style and works at a company that sells clothes as well, so he just gets all his clothes at work. So I never have to buy him stuff. So I do not have any recommendations for that. I’m sorry, Melissa. I apologize.

And this; is this two names? Laura Kate. Is this two people, or is that your name, Laura Kate? Oh my god. People, stop emailing me to say how Chavon is said. Ok, she emailed me. You don’t need to email me and let me know that you can’t believe nobody taught me how to say Chavon, ok? F*ck. She emailed me. Bitches.

41. Breast augmentation and Crossfit [1:12:44]

Ok, Laura Kate. “You had a breast augmentation a long time ago, and you spoke about the uncomfortable feeling when you began working out again. I have had mine done, and I recently got into Crossfit again. I can feel the weakness still in my chest, and sometimes I feel like they want to burst out of my chest and land on the gym floor. I’m working with a trainer to help strengthen the muscles again, but I’m wondering if you have any advice that you have gone through this yourself.”

I didn’t really have issues with this when I competed in Crossfit, because my muscles had gotten so strong, and I didn’t concentrate on building those muscles, I was just working out so many times a day so they kind of built up. They just built up strength pretty quickly. I still feel that; I feel like they’re going to burst out of my chest. I don’t do ring dips anymore. I try not to do too many pushups because they start to feel weird. I don’t like to do muscle ups because they hurt.

So there are some things I just don’t really do. I try to avoid more so than I did before. But I don’t do anything specific to strengthen the muscles at all; I just try to avoid crazy ass sh*t so they don’t pop out of my chest. I don’t want to be a science experiment and have to be part of plastic surgeon contracts that they’re like, “If you do too many muscle ups your implants may push out into your belly button and then you may have a hernia.” I don’t want that. So I just try not to strain them too much. But just continuing to work out, you’re going to build up strength anyways. So just be careful with them.

42. Too sore? [1:14:26]

Chrissy, “How sore is too sore? My quads are so sore, it’s leaning towards painful and not just soreness. Any good remedies, more stretching, should I invest in a foam roller?” So yes. Stretching, invest in a foam roller, it’s awesome. Drink tons of water. A lot of times when you start Crossfit, you get that way too sore feeling, and some of that is normal. But I think rest days are very important, and you don’t want to f*ck up your body, and your body needs time to heal when they’re that sore. So I can’t say, but if it’s towards painful, it’s time to take a rest day. Or just get some active moving in; so walking, light jogging, getting on the bike, getting on the rower, just to get some of that lactic acid out, flush it out of the body as well. But definitely invest in a foam roller. It’s the best. And it’s like super c heap compared to, I don’t know, surgery.

This is also Chrissy, “How do you justify sugar counts in Larabars/bites or RX bars? I’m a huge fan of RX bars and recently bought the Larabar bites, but the sugar count makes me question the value, even if it’s all natural.” I just don’t worry about that kind of stuff, really. It’s not something that’s in my head. I’m a person who, if I just need a light snack, I can have half a Larabar or half an RX bar and put it away and so I’m not having to worry about the excess sugar because I’m just trying to get something in my stomach until that next meal. But it’s just not something I worry about that much. I just try not to overindulge and eat those every single day of my life, and that’s what I try to do with natural sugars.

43. Keeping bulking to a minimum [1:16:19]

Ok, just a couple more; two more questions. Steph. “I was wondering what types of steps you take to keep your legs long, lean, and strong. I have nothing wrong with other women having larger, muscular legs, but I don’t like that look on myself. My body tends to bulk up.” So, you know, that’s a hard question. Because I don’t see my legs as long, lean, and strong, because I’ve been much, much stronger in the past and I don’t see myself as strong anymore because in comparison to what I used to be or in comparison to other women, I don’t see myself as very strong.

So for me, I just like; pffft. Sorry, this is a hard question, I guess. I didn’t like how my legs looked when I competed in Crossfit, because I was working out three times a day, usually. So working out 5 times a week, not multiple times a day, and then once my legs started to get a little bit bigger from Crossfit, I’ll usually cut back and start doing some more boot camp style classes, and then I’ll go back to Crossfit, because I like the muscle that I get from Crossfit that I don’t always get from boot camp style classes.

So I like to just change it up on a regular basis. Everybody is like, squat to get a bigger booty, and my squat just gives me bigger legs. So I like to do different things; like one-legged deadlifts and lunges and Bulgarian split squats. Honestly, I just like trying all different kinds of things. But there’s no one thing that makes my legs different. It’s doing multiple different things and trying to keep my diet consistent more than anything.

44. How to not bulk up too much with Crossfit [1:18:14]

And last one. I think I wrote this name down wrong, because I wrote Have. Maybe it’s Haven? I don’t know. Apologies to this person who asked this. “I just started the foundations class at my Crossfit gym, and while it’s something I’ve thought about for a long time, I just have to go ahead and do it and give it a solid try for a few months. I do have some qualms; the female Crossfit body, per se. I admire and I’m in awe the female games athletes, and their strength and physiques, and yet I feel uncomfortable with the idea of my body changing quite that way. Heck, I would not mind a bigger booty, and maybe some stronger quads, but I get nervous about the idea of really big quads, or really thick waist; 6-pack or no. I feel like the things I want to do; Crossfit, are not in line with how I want my body composition to stay/be. But the workouts don’t inspire me.” What. Oh. She’s like, ok, sorry I f*cked this up. “Tone it up girls, but their workouts don’t inspire me right now. I know you’ve struggled with this, and somehow you have found your way to a body that you love and not bulky, but still incredibly shredded. Beautiful. Would you caution any women against Crossfit? Could you summarize what you’ve learned, and a few tips and rules for Crossfit newbies to achieve lean but feminine bodies?”

Ok. We need to talk about this right away. So you are comparing yourself to a Crossfit games athlete. You two are not the same. You’re starting your foundations; you’ve never done Crossfit before. These women who often are Crossfit gains athletes have been athletes for years, and Crossfit multiple times a day, and have been crossfitting for years. And their goal is to compete in the Crossfit games. To be a Crossfit games athlete, you have to be bigger to be stronger. That’s just how it is. And you cannot compare yourself to a Crossfit games athlete, because you will not be working out two to three times a day. If you are doing that, then that’s what more you can expect ,because you’re constantly stressing the muscle and adding weight.

People need to stop comparing and thinking Crossfit is Crossfit games, because they are two completely different things. I have 70-year-olds at my gym who; they don’t think about the Crossfit games. They’re thinking about being able to walk around on a daily basis. So get that out of your mind; stop that.

Next, I mean everybody’s body is completely different. You have to maybe keep in mind; I always am so scared to answer this type of question because I don’t want to offend anybody. When I competed in Crossfit, I did not like my physique anymore, so I stopped competing in Crossfit and I stopped lifting as heavy and my body has changed over the past 3-4 years. So I don’t lift near as heavy as I used to, and that’s what’s helped me change my body, is not lifting like I used to; eating healthy and consistently; and trying different things, like some boot camp style classes. That’s what I do, or I’ve been doing my own workouts.

But you don’t need to worry about that. And I don’t know what I can say without pissing people the f*ck off. But just know that your body is not a Crossfit games athlete body, because you’re not working the exact same. So you have to just get that out of your mind. You’re not doing those same things as Crossfit games athletes. You’re simply doing a power clean; which they do a power clean, but you’re probably doing a power clean, maybe at 55 to start, and they’re doing a power clean at 185. So get that out of your mind. Try Crossfit, give it a good go, and see how your body changes and what works for you and I have plenty of girls at my gym who push it heavy in their weights; they do not look anything like Crossfit games athletes; and I have also girls who say, I don’t want to go that heavy because I don’t like how my body feels, and I respect that as well. So you have to find what works for you. So give Crossfit a try, give it a go, see what happens. And yeah, hope that helps.

Hope that answers everybody’s questions this week. Thank you guys so much for sitting here for an hour and 22 minutes. You’re a good sport, you’re a good soul. Let me know if you want me to do little recaps of the Bachelor. Maybe I should just add in mini-episodes while the Bachelor goes on, like the women behind My Favorite Murder. They do mini episodes. Maybe I should do something like that. That would be fun.

Also, next week my plan, if I can figure out how the f*ck I record a podcast with another human being on it when they’re not in the room with me, I plan on having Cassy from Fed and Fit on the podcast, because I just want to try having somebody else on. Don’t worry, if you hate other people like I do; don’t worry I won’t have people on on a regular basis. But I think it would be awesome to have her on because I’ve worked with Cassy on many projects, and plan to work on many more with her, so it would be cool to have her on. And we’re opposite personalities. She’s a good human being, and I’m not. So it would be fun to have a good person on this podcast. You know, just to lighten the load; make it feel a little more springy and wholesome in here.

So that’s that. That’s all I got for you guys today. Feel free to come check out the blog; www.PaleOMG.com. Rate, review, subscribe. Only leave positive reviews. Only put positive things into the world. Only pass it forward. That’s what this world is all about, guys. Being kind so in your next life, if there is a next life, you’re not; let’s see, what would suck to be? You’re not a spider that everyone hates and kills. Ok? That’s all I got for you guys today. I hope I bring more positivity to you next week. We can only hope. Good day to you; I hope you have a wonderful life. Keep doing awesome things. Thank you guys for asking questions. You’re the best. Love you. Ok bye!