Rest Days, Cheat Days & Sick Days – Episode 21: PaleOMG Uncensored Podcast

In a world of extremes, it’s important to remember that the body needs rest, rejuvenation and replenishment. As soon as you listen to this podcast, you’ll see that I’m a huge fan of rest days, I truly HATE the word cheat and don’t believe in cheat days, and I think people who go to the gym while coughing up a nasty ass storm are disgusting human beings. Talking ways that I take care of my own body, eat the foods that I love without going to the extreme, and get better faster when I get a cold. Leave your questions below!

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Sponsors:

Today’s podcast is sponsored by Aaptiv! Aaptiv is a fitness app gives you custom workouts with the voice of an elite trainer and an amazing playlist, walking you through the class or workout or training session! They have unlimited workouts such as race training, ab workouts, spinning, strength training, and even more! To get motivated or just stay motivated this 2017, try Aaptiv out for FREE for 30 days using the promo code PALEOMG. Sign up here and try it out for 30 days now!

Links in post:

• This weeks Bachelor Recap
• FasciaBlaster for Cellulite – A reader recommended that I check this out for cellulite. I literally just bought it yesterday online so I haven’t received it yet, but I’m excited to try it and let you know what I think!
• Podcast about Alcohol

Episode 21 Transcription:
This is Juli Bauer from PaleOMG and you are listening to PaleOMG Uncensored.

1. Updates from Juli [2:53]
2. Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl [6:40]
3. The Bachelor recap[8:35]
4. Podcast topics this week and next week [18:37]
5. Rest days [233:02]
6. Maintain motivation after rest days [31:29]
7. Cheat days [33:23]
8. Sick days [40:47]
9. Injuries [47:25]

Juli Bauer: Welcome to the 21st episode of PaleOMG Uncensored. Good on ya! Did you listen to all 21 episodes? Come on, I hope you have. Because who starts in the middle? I have. I’ve done that. But don’t be that guy. You’ve got to start from the beginning. You’ve got to really get to know me!

Just, you know, our usual thing we need to do here. If you’re not sure what the E next to PaleOMG Unsecured means, that means explicit. And explicit is kind of like a rated R on a movie. So every episode will be explicit; that’s never going away. That just means there will be sexual content, strong language, and all the fun stuff that you’d like to listen to in a podcast. So let’s f*cking do it!

Ok wait. Before we do it up, I want to talk a little bit about our sponsor today. Our, meaning mine, Juli Bauer here. And I’ve talked about this awesome sponsor a couple of podcasts, so I want to talk about them just in case you’re looking for some fitness inspiration. If you need to get your workout on. So today’s sponsor is Aaptiv. Aaptiv is a fitness app that blends together a play list with the voice of a trainer, and they’re walking you through a workout. So you can do an awesome workout wherever you are. And they have all kinds of different workouts, from race training to ab workouts, to spinning, to strength training; honestly whatever you want to do. They have thousands of workouts. So if you’re trying to get motivated this year, or just stay motivated, and say you just want to workout at your house or just want to do a workout with your headphones in at the gym, a trainer will walk you through it. It’s super cool.

So you can try Aaptiv for free for 30 days right now; and everybody loves free stuff. So all you have to do is go to www.Aaptiv.com. That’s A-A-P-T-I-V. And use the promo code PaleOMG; come on, you know how to spell it. PA-L-E-O-M-G, and you’ll get your first 30 days for free to try it out. And if you missed any of that, or you skipped this because you’re a skipper; I’m a skipper too sometimes, guys. It’s ok. But you can go to www.PaleOMG.com and I’ll have all the information and links there. But try those workouts out and tell me what you think. Leave a comment in that blog post, or send me a comment on social media. I’d love to hear what you guys think, because I have thought they were awesome. Cool? Cool.

1. Updates from Juli [2:53]

So how’s everybody’s week going this week? What’s everybody up to? We’re into February, so statically everyone has quit their workouts. So hopefully we’re going to talk about some workout stuff today to keep you motivated no matter if you’re sick, or whatever the hell is going on in your life. But first, let’s just talk about what’s going on in my life. Ok; come on guys, it’s all about me here.

So tomorrow my husband and I are getting married again! That is because; we got married in Jamaica, and even though that’s legal in the US, to change your name on your driver’s license, you’ve got to get married in Colorado. So we’ve got to go to the clerk office or whatever, go get married, f*cking do the damn thing, sign the paperwork so I can actually change my name on my license. Because my name is changed on my social security card; I have a brand new name. I made up my own name. And now I just need to change it on my passport and my driver’s license. Which the passport kind of stresses me out, because that means I need to change my TSA pre-check name as well, and that’s going to be a sh*t show, I’m sure. And I just want my TSA precheck to work, because if it doesn’t, I will lose my f*cking sh*t in line in the regular people line. If you don’t have TSA pre-check, go get it. It’s the best thing you will ever purchase in your entire life 10 times over again.

So yeah, we’re getting married. And, we made it; my husband was like, I can take off work early on Friday. Let’s go get married, and then let’s go to dinner. So what we’re going to do is go to dinner at our new favorite place in town, which is Guard and Grace, it’s a steak house in town, and it’s so f*cking good. Last time, the steak is just unbelievable; my husband got a lobster tail on top of his last time, and then they have amazing side dishes like Brussels sprouts and mushrooms. They give a ton of food; of course I’m yawning already. They give you a sh*t ton of food, and then you have leftovers, so you can eat the vegetables with your breakfast the next day. It’s just magical. And I’m going to say it’s our wedding day, so hopefully they give us free desserts. Because it was my husband’s birthday last time we went, and they gave us free desserts. I think we deserve it on our second wedding day, ok? Ok. So that’s what’s going on this weekend.

I also have a baby shower. I’m going to act like I’m excited, because I’m very happy for my friend who is having a baby, and I know everybody is like, “God, Juli hates children.” And I do, but I get very happy for my friends who are having children who want children in their lives, that’s really awesome. And she’s pregnant with twins right now, guys. Twins. Talk about a sh*t show on your body. Can you imagine housing two children inside of you? How did the Kate plus 8 chick hold 6 children inside of her? Or the Octomom? Remember her? Didn’t she do a porno?

Anyways. We’re having a baby shower for her. I should probably invest in at least 2 million diapers for her, and that will last her probably a year. So I need to go get on that this weekend. Go buy just 40 pounds of diapers or something. But that’s what I have going on this weekend; so really good food and a baby shower with lots of poop talk. We are going to an awesome restaurant, though, that’s going to be wonderful.

2. Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl [6:40]

Next; can we talk about, and I know, just because this is the topic of conversation right now is Lady Gaga. Can you believe; can you believe that people were calling her fat or saying she had a gut. Can you believe that? That sh*t is f*cking crazy. The whole time Lady Gaga was performing I was sweating extremely bad because I was so excited for her performance, and she was so f*cking good and every single second of it was so amazing, and she’s the best; and the whole time I kept thinking how amazing she looked, and how hard she must have worked in the gym to get in shape for the Super Bowl. That’s the whole time what I thought about. And these people are saying that she’s fat! It’s the most bullsh*t thing ever.

But you know what she’s doing? She’s just f*cking rolling in money. So these people are calling her fat, and she’s like, “Oh cool, keep talking about me because I’m rolling in that money that you are bringing in from just talking about me. Bye Felicia. Go f*ck yourself.”

This just reminded me of what; who is it, J. K. Rowling, I think that’s it; right, the Harry Potter? If you haven’t seen her tweets, they’re hilarious. I think she might have put down Trump, or something, so people who support Trump freaked out at her and said they were going to burn her books. And these are tweets that she’s sending back to people and they’re sending to her, and she’s just talking about she still has those people’s money, so by all means use her lighter. It’s f*cking hilarious; you need to go read her tweets. Just Google J.K. Rowling tweets, and it will come up right away. It’s f*cking hilarious. She’s a badass. Lady Gaga, you’re a badass. Keep being girl bosses, and doing the damn thing! That’s all I have to say about that.

3. The Bachelor recap[8:35]

Speaking of girl bosses, but not really. Can we first talk about, first meaning 24th thing to talk about, the Bachelor this past week. Thank god the producers kept throwing in some wrenches because the Bachelor finally came back up. We were having week after week of boring ass sh*t, because Nick is so boring. And, this week was f*cking wonderful. If you don’t read my blog, I highly recommend, because you should read my blog. But also because I do recaps every week, usually every Tuesday. This week it was on a Wednesday, and it was a Valentine’s Day post, so it was pretty much perfect for it. But you should read there because I do full recaps there. And then if you don’t watch the Bachelor, you should get your life together.

Ok, so let’s talk about what happened. So Taylor comes back, and she’s like; “Nick, Corrine’s a liar.” And he’s like, “Dude I am not attracted to you, go away.” So she’s out. She’s out; bye. Then the rose ceremony happens, and the girls sh*t their pants because there’s no cocktail hour. It’s like every single scene of a rose ceremony has been in the freezing cold, and they’re shivering, so why would you be upset that it’s cutting to the chase. It’s like; hey, you’re going straight to the rose ceremony, you don’t have to freeze to death tonight, you don’t have to wear a f*cking gown for 8-plus hours. You can do it for one and then we can leave. They should be actually thanking them. Whatever.

So the rose ceremony; main thing, he got rid of 3 ladies, including shark girl, who was the Jersey accent, hilarious big-boobed girl. I really liked her, I’m sad she’s gone. She was kind of like the same funny level as Caitlyn, old Bachelorette. So it’s sad she’s gone, because she was great entertainment. Danielle L, she’s kind of Asian-ish, I think, and she owns the nail salon empire type thing, and she literally only wears plunging dresses. Plunging gowns; plunging shirts. She only wants to show the skin between her boobs. And it’s so weird because that’s super fun sometimes, but she has this banging body everywhere else; why are you wearing only outfits that show the skin between your boobs? I always feel like my boobs look way too wide when I do a shirt like that. I’m like; “god, can I look any more like I have implants in.” And I feel that same way with so many women; whatever, she still rocked them. She looked great.

Ok, so he gets rid of the 3 females, and then they go to St. Thomas, and he goes on a date right away with Christina; who is by far the new front runner. Everybody is obsessed with her because she’s this little cute Russian girl. You know those dolls; they’re not dolls, but they’re like wooden dolls that stack and you keep twisting them, and it’s like a new doll inside of a new doll inside of a new doll. For some reason, that’s what she reminds me of. She’s this tiny little baby doll. And she’s so small. But she comes out with this crazy story about how she was an orphan in Russia, and then she was in an orphanage, and she made all these friends there, and a family picked her up from the US, and she was like, “Should I even go, this is my whole life, my whole family here.” And she’s like crying, and Nick’s crying, and I’m crying, and my dog is crying, and we’re just all crying together. She is by far the front runner; everybody wants her to win now; who cares about anybody else. Boo.

Then, the group date. Pretty much this whole podcast is just going to be Bachelor .but whatever, this episode was so f*cking good. Ok, so the group date was the best date every because everybody was sweaty, their hair was all frizzy, the makeup starts to run, and they’re all getting wasted while playing volleyball in bikinis. Playing volleyball in bikinis is only for the Olympics. It’s not for anyone else; it’s not. And you can say whatever you want, but I’m right. I mean, nobody looks good running in a bikini unless you’re in the Olympics and that’s all you’ve been doing since you were birthed out of the womb. But whatever, you know. Nick makes them play volleyball, and they’re all so over volleyball and hate each other. Then they all split off and they’re all crying separately, and crying to Nick, and Nick doesn’t know what to do. And it’s like this film of all of them separate, on the beach, by themselves. I’m like; you’re trying to tell me that out of everyone, everyone split off and they’re all sitting by themselves. Drunk bitches do not sit by themselves. They find other drunk bitches to cry with; that is just pure fact. Ok, so that’s a lie. You lied to us, producers. You never lie to us, but you lied to us this time.

So by the end of the night, they’re wasted and who knows. Maybe they slept it off a little bit. But Nick’s trying to bring it back up, and Jasmine, she was like a basketball player; {laughs} that’s not true. A basketball dancer for a basketball team or something like that. Nobody cares; I don’t know why she’s still on there. And she starts to lose it. This poor girl. I really want to know. I need to find her on Instagram or something, find a story about her. Was this all true? Because she loses it. Goes off the total deep end that Nick finally meets up with her and she’s like about to cry, and she’s trying to act funny and cool, and all she starts saying is how she wants to choke him. She’s like, “I want to choke you. You know the chokey? Do you want me to choke you? Have no girls ever choked you? I can choke you later.” That’s all she kept saying. This poor, poor girl. Oh my gosh, it was devastating for her.

And then I loved Raven. She was like, “If Jasmine was a vegetable, she would be a turnip. Because she is turned all the way up.” Where did you pull that out of your ass Raven? I don’t know. But I love you. Obviously Jasmine, after she was like, “Hey I’m going to choke you,” Nick was like, “Hey I’m out. I’m too boring for that kind of stuff.”

So she peaced out, so of course he’s gotten rid of four people at this point. And then they pull out another two in one date. Have they ever had two two-in-one dates? Well they did this time. They pull the two in one date card; Danielle L, the one with the plunging neckline, and then Whitney. Nobody knows who Whitney is, she literally just came out of the woodwork, and she’s like, “Hi I’m Whitney!” We’re like, “Where have you been this entire season?” I honestly think she might have thought she was going to a casting call to be a model, like a Victoria’s Secret model, and she accidentally walked in the Bachelor, and they’re like, “Yeah, f*ck yeah we want you, you’re hot.” She’s like, “Oh, ok, whatever.”

But for real, she should be a model. I don’t know why she’s on the show. I don’t think she cared about being on the show. But whatever. Nick is like, I want to be with the girl with the plunging neckline, I want to see between the boobs, and Whitney gets stuck on an island, and they do the signature move of flying away in a helicopter.

So Danielle L gets super weird and awkward, because she’s uncomfortable and just starts laughing randomly. And these “Ha! Ha! Ha!” that was her laugh, every 4 seconds. S she’s professing her love; she says she’s falling in love with him. And how does Nick reciprocate? He says goodbye. He’s just a f*cking savage.

So ok, we’re wrapping it up guys, because it’s been like 45 minutes. So, Nick ends the episode off by storming into the women’s hotel room. They’re all non-make-uped; just like, “What the f*ck, Nick? You just come on in here.” And he just starts crying, and he’s like, “I don’t know what I’m doing here. I don’t know what I’m doing.” It’s like, Nick. You have 10 women sitting in there who would bang you on the spot, and you’re like, “I don’t even know what I’m doing here. I sent Danielle home and I don’t know what I’m doing.” Oh, cool, what a smack to the face to all these women who quit their jobs to come on TV and embarrass themselves. F*cking Nick.

So that’s what happened if you guys needed the recap. If you didn’t; well, there you go. Wasn’t that a good time? The Bachelor is the best. It’s just the best.

Oh, and another thing that happened this week. I decided to cut back on coaching. I coach usually 5 classes a week, and I’ve decided to coach two a week. I was going to quit complete at my Crossfit job; not that I don’t love it. I love coaching, but I was like; well, maybe it’s just time for a different chapter. And he was like, how about you just coach two days a week, just Wednesday nights. And that’s what I’m going to do. So that’s that. That’s what’s been going on in my life. Bachelor, Crossfit, getting married, stuffing my face while we talk about diapers and poop. That’s what’s happening.

4. Podcast topics this week and next week [18:37]

But, the whole point of this podcast today is to talk about something a lovely reader brought up. So often, I’ve been like, what am I going to talk about on the podcast? Just because often these podcasts are just by myself. So it’s hard to know what I want to talk about. But, next week I’m super pumped because I have a close friend, her name is Vanessa from Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind. She is coming on my podcast, and we’re going to talk about Moderators versus Abstainers. I think that’s how you say it. Because she is an Abstainer, and I am a Moderator, and so we thought it was the perfect topic. Because someone has asked me to do that topic before. But she sent me an article and we’re going to talk about it; we’re totally different people with how we eat and I guess how we moderate our food and choices; whatever. So we’re going to talk about that next week, I’m going to have her on. So I’m super pumped to have her. It’s going to be fun. And I have this cute little puppy next to me. Too bad Jackson can’t talk because I would interview him every week. He’s just so damn cute.

Ok, but a reader asked me; she was like, “Would you talk about cheat days and rest days.” And I always get questions about people being sick, so I thought I might as well talk about sick days as well. So we’re going to talk about rest days, cheat days, and sick days. And I asked some people to ask some questions on Instagram; and I’m not going to pull your names from that, but I did look at all those questions, and pulled them into this outline that I kind of produced. So if you do have any questions at the end of this podcast, feel free to come to my blog to www.PaleOMG.com and ask your question there; and I’m happy to answer it. I don’t get back to emails very quickly. I’m much more of a comment on my blog kind of person. So feel free to leave a comment there.

Oh, wait, one more thing before we get started. Before we talk about rest days. I talked about this last week; I think it was last week on the podcast, how I bought this thing called a fascia blaster. And if you go; I think her name is Ashley; I forget. Ashley something. But look up fascia blaster, and I’ll link it on my blog. But she talks about how cellulite is not a fat issue, it’s a connective tissue issue, so she has this kind of instrument that you rub along your skin. So almost thing of a quad roller, how you have those rollers that you can roll on your quad, it’s kind of that but it gets beneath the fascia tissue more and smoothes out the fascia. So then you’re able to not only recover quicker, because you can get deeper to roll out the muscles, and it just breaks up some of that tissue. But it also is supposed to help with cellulite.

So I thought I’d try it; I’ve always had cellulite on my legs and the back of my thighs. So I thought I’d give it a go and see how it works; yeah, I’m going to try it out. So I just did it today for the first time, and bruising happens. I’m a person who bruises really easily, but bruising happens really quickly, so I could see the bruising happening. And I was going really, really light. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go look up fascia blaster. But I tried it out, and even almost instantly; and the skin gets kind of red and inflamed a little bit, so it’s almost like, not swollen but it kind of feels like that. But almost instantly it kind of helps with the cellulite, and that’s just after one time around. It’s pretty crazy. So I’m going to start using that every day and see how it does and see how my body changes, and yeah. I’m excited to try it. I’m always down to try anything, especially if it’s going to help with cellulite. But it’s definitely some work; it’s not like, f*cking put lotion on and you’re like, “oh, my cellulite is gone.” Like that f*cking bullsh*t out there. No. it’s like, put on oil, and then you rub your legs. And I did each leg for 10 minutes, because I was doing the front and the back. So it’s like 20 minutes of doing that after my workout; it felt like a workout, and I was starving afterwards. {sigh} Yep, that’s what’s happening in my life

5. Rest days [233:02]

Ok. So, this kind of is a great little segue into the first topic, which is rest days. So I used to be a person who believed that I didn’t need rest days, and I was very stupid for that. Because just like how your body needs sleep, your body needs those rest days. And I was just stupid. I was like, “I don’t need it. If I don’t feel like I need it, I’m not going to take it.” And I always felt guilt if I didn’t work out or like I wouldn’t reach my goals long-term if I took rest days.

So when I did have rest days, I would run three miles, or I’d bike, or I would do something still pretty wearing on the body and not really take a true rest day.

So when you’re working out; you’re breaking down tissue, and it needs to rebuild. If you never let it rebuild, you’re going to have a ton of inflammation, and you’re really never going to get to see the full results of all your exercise. So don’t forget that rest is incredibly important, and you need some sort of rest every week. And that’s going to be very different per person, so I can’t give you just an outline of like, “Oh, here’s you, here’s how many rest days you should take. Here’s what your life should look like.” It doesn’t work that way. You have to find what works for you and what makes you feel your best. That’s listening to your body; and I say that all the time, and I know that’s annoying to some people, but that’s just f*cking facts. If you don’t listen to your body, it’s always telling you something. So if you don’t listen, then you’re never going to see true results.

So when I started taking rest days. I used to work out 7 days a week, sometimes 6 but it was mostly 7, and even when it was a rest day, I was doing something. I was either in the gym or running outside. I was always doing something. So it was when I stopped competing and said I needed to take some time off Crossfit, and I was still going to Crossfit, but I was like, what I’ve been doing for 3-4 years at this point, I’ve been working my ass off and I don’t like what I see in the mirror. And for me, I’m working out to be physically able when I’m an adult. {laughs} I guess I am an adult, but when I’m old, you know, I want to be physically able to do whatever I want to do for a long time. But, I also am very vain. I want to feel my best inside my skin. That’s just pure facts. If I don’t feel my best, then I don’t feel like I put my best out into the world.

So I’ve been working out for 4 years, and I wasn’t seeing the results I wanted to. I wasn’t comfortable in my skin, I wasn’t comfortable with my body, so I knew that whatever I was doing was not working. So I started to take rest days. And at first, I think I went down to one rest day a week. And then I would feel really fatigued when I would get to day 4; I felt like sh*t. so I was like, ok, I’m going to go 3 days on, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; take a rest day, and then I would work out Friday and Saturday. And I hate working out on Sundays; I usually hate working out on Sundays, so I would take Sundays off. So I was taking two days off a week, working out 5 days doing 3 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on, 1 day off. And I felt my absolutely best. Whenever I’d go back to the gym, I felt awesome and ready to take on that workout.

So that’s how I knew these rest days were working. Because not only was I feeling my best, but I was waking up after a rest day, and I swear to you I could physically see how my body had changed. My legs were becoming more toned, leaner, more muscular, more shapely. My arms were getting leaner from actually taking these rest days. So now I almost get excited about rest days, because I know that’s when I’m going to see the most beneficial outcome, or see the most results, is from taking that rest day from actually working hard for two to three days in a row, working my ass off, I know I’m going to see the most results after I take that rest day. So now I really get excited about rest days.

For me, rest days are not active rest days. Sure, I always take my dog for a walk, whether it’s a workout day or a rest day. And I just think that’s my parenting obligation, is to walk my dog and get him exercise. I don’t think of it as exercise for myself. That walk may be 1 mile, it may be 3 miles just depending on the day. It may be walking, it may be running, it may be sprinting. But I don’t see that as exercise or activity, I just see it as a parenting obligation. I don’t think most people think when they chase their child around the house, or trying to catch their kid or make sure he’s not falling down the stairs; I don’t think they think that as activity, but you’re still moving. And that’s what I do with my dog. Still moving, parenting obligation, that’s what you should do with your dog. If you don’t walk your dog, stop being a bad dog parent; walk him. They need it, they love it. Well, maybe don’t love it, but you should.

So, for me, rest days are total rest. I don’t go to the gym. I may stretch some. I’m really bad at stretching, but I’ve got like a foam roller and lacrosse ball and I’ll just stretch a little bit and just take care of myself; that’s it, I’m resting. If you feel like you need to do something, you should f*cking stretch, you should get a massage, you should go to the chiropractor. Do something with your body that’s beneficial, but it’s still letting it rest and take a break.

A lot of people ask if I change my diet when I have a rest day, and I absolutely do not. Nothing changes. I honestly probably eat more, just because I have more time, and I’m not suppressing my appetite by doing a workout. And usually I’ll do a workout, so I don’t eat much before a workout, like an hour before a workout, and then I workout and I’m not very hungry for 30 minutes or an hour afterwards. So that’s 3 hours I’m not eating. And if I’m not working out, I’ll usually be eating within that 3 hours, for sure. So I don’t do less carbs, I don’t do more protein; I eat just the same as I would on any other days. I’ll probably eat a little bit more because I have more time and my stomach is not being suppressed with activity. But I don’t think about it, I don’t obsess about it because that leads to obsessive, poor behaviors on my part and I’m not ready to take that on. So I don’t’ do anything different when it comes to food.

I think a lot of people feel guilt when they take rest days, and this is something that you should not feel. I don’t think most people feel guilty when they go to sleep because they’re not working; because you need sleep so you can be a better worker the next day. So you can accomplish your goals the next day. Rest days are exactly that. You are resting so you can accomplish your goals once you get back to the gym that next day. So if you’re feeling guilty, or if someone is making you feel guilty because you weren’t at the gym, you need to be true to yourself, and you know that you are taking a rest day for a reason.

So going back to what I said before; I schedule in my rest days. So I know, this week, since I have the baby shower coming up and my workout schedule has been a little bit different, I’m actually going to be working out 4 days in a row instead of 3 just because I have stuff going on. But, I’m scheduling baby shower day on Sunday; that’s a complete rest day, and then I’ll get back to the gym on Monday. But schedule your rest days in so you know you’re taking that time off, and you know why, so when somebody gives you sh*t about something, you know why you took that time off and it doesn’t matter what anybody thinks. So don’t feel that guilt. There’s no guilt in rest. Rest is important; you need it. You shouldn’t feel guilty about it at all.

6. Maintain motivation after rest days [31:29]

I also had a couple of people ask about how to make sure you don’t turn a rest day into rest days; multiple days, and kind of lose motivation. And I think that all goes back to, first of all your goals. If you set goals for yourself, how are you going to accomplish them? For me, I want to be fitter than yesterday, so that accomplishment is me getting back in the gym after my rest day. And you also need to remember that if you’re not feeling motivated to go back to the gym or go back to your workout, maybe you should find a different workout. Because for me, I’m always excited to go to my gym and to see the people there and to try the workout that’s up. I recently started added in Orange Theory workouts because I was just getting a little bit; not bored, but just kind of wanted to do something different, so I added in something else. So don’t let yourself get bored. You have to find the motivation, but find something that gets you inspired and gets you excited, because then you’ll feel so rested that you’ll be excited to go back to the gym the next day, since you weren’t there for a day.

So that’s how I turn; I don’t let one day go into multiple days. It’s just because I love what workouts I do and I love the people that I’m around, and I love just having a workout that I’m like, “F*ck yeah! I just did that workout, I conquered it, and I didn’t think I could physically do it, and I did.” And that’s the best part of working out. So that’s what I recommend. That’s how to stay motivated, is to find something or someone that motivates you, and will continue to do that. So that’s that, when it comes to go old rest days. I hope that’s helpful.

7. Cheat days [33:23]

So now let’s talk about cheat days. Someone mentioned this, and I thought it was the perfect thing to talk about, because let’s get one thing straight. I don’t call anything that I ever eat a cheat meal, or me being lenient with myself. I don’t think of the word when I consume food as something that’s related to cheating. I think most of us, when we think about cheating, we think about a spouse cheating on another person. Do you think about that in a positive light? I hope to god not.

So when I think about cheaters, or my friends who have been cheated on, I think about those people as awful f*cking people. So why would I consider what I consume in that awful, negative light. I wouldn’t. Whatever food I choose to eat is a choice, it’s not a cheat. Ok? I don’t think of it as that at all. And I see, whenever I post a meal from Chipotle, I see this all the time. People, of course, get up in arms about rice and how my name shouldn’t be PaleOMG and I should change it to gluten free or some f*cking bullsh*t like that. Then I’ll have people stick up for me, which is awesome, and they’ll be like; “She can enjoy cheat meals,” or “Let her eat whatever cheat meal she decides to eat,” or something like that, and I’m like. This is not a cheat meal! This is a meal I chose to eat because I’m fueling my body. And when I have a gluten free donut this past weekend, I didn’t think of that as a cheat meal, it was a choice meal. I don’t have cheat meals, I don’t have cheat days. I have rice, I have gluten free donuts. And I don’t think of any of those as cheat anything. Period.

When I first started paleo and Crossfit, I had cheat meals, and cheat weekends, and me and my ex-boyfriend back then would f*cking go hard on whatever we could get our face into. So that was like Chips Ahoy cookies, and pizza, and we were like; oh I can’t wait for our cheat meal. And it was like I was fueling my body with the right food all week long, and then I was damaging it with terrible food, and calling it a cheat meal and getting excited. It’s like; are you excited to cheat on your husband? {laughs} God I hope not. So why; I don’t know. I just f*cking hate the word cheat. I don’t think it should be used when you’re talking about food. And so I don’t use that at all. You choose to eat something, and for me, removing the word cheat out of my diet has helped me be way more aware of what my body needed, both physically and mentally.

So, do I physically need a gluten free donut? No, I don’t physically need that. But mentally, I want that, and I really need that, and that keeps me from feeling deprived. So I was like; I can’t wait to go do an Orange Theory workout and then fuel back up afterwards with an amazing donut. So pumped for that, did not see it in a negative light, did not feel guilty about it in any aspect. And cheating is related to guilt, and I don’t put any guilt around what food I decide to eat.

So that is what works for me, is not having cheat meals, but eating the food that I know is fueling my body. I don’t; I’ve said this before, very, very, very rarely do I eat gluten. I don’t think it’s needed in our diet, and when you’ll find me eating gluten is at a friend’s wedding, having the wedding cake, and that’s about it. Usually if I’m somewhere and they have cake, I’ll eat the frosting off of it. {laughs} Because I want some sort of treat, but I don’t want to damage my body, and I think gluten really damages the body. So I don’t do cheat meals. I do meals that make me feel good and fuel my body, and keep me mentally stable, and that’s what I do.

A lot of people ask about alcohol all the time, and if you’re a person who is wondering about alcohol, you should listen to my podcast about alcohol. I think alcohol is f*cking stupid. I think it’s just as stupid as gluten. But that doesn’t mean I don’t consume it sometimes; I would just much rather eat my calories instead of drink them. So I try to leave alcohol for special occasions, like if I just know the place has a really good cocktail, or we’re at a wedding, or we’re out on vacation. But I’m not; my husband on Sundays, when he’s watching football, hanging out with friends, he likes to drink and have a few drinks; maybe it turns into 5 drinks on a Sunday. And to me, I’m like; I don’t want to do that at all unless you’re making me a strawberry basil jalapeño martini, that I had at the hotel Valley Ho in Arizona, then I don’t want a f*cking crummy cocktail on a Sunday. So that’s what I think about alcohol.

But I think what I’m trying to say from the cheat stuff is I think you need to remember that our bodies; we weren’t made to eat something sh*tty and then workout to work off that sh*tty food that we just ate. We were made to take care of our bodies, to fuel them and to fuel what we’re; I’m trying to say this right. So, I’m trying to put good purpose into the world by taking care of myself, which is going to make me a better person, and make me happier, and make me take better care of people. And I’m fueling my body. {sigh} This is not what I want to say. I want to take this back, because it’s going on what I want to say, but it’s just not coming out right. {laughs}

For the longest time, I used to say, “I workout, so I can eat whatever I want.” But at the end of the day, you cannot out run, out lift, out-anything a sh*tty diet. So for the longest time, I thought, “Ok, I can eat something sh*tty, I’m just going to work it off later.” And it was really changing my viewpoint on that, that I was eating the right things so I could fuel myself for a better workout. So I had to re-visualize what I wanted out of life. It wasn’t to workout so I could eat sh*tty food; it was to workout so I can eat food that fuels me for my next workout, my next whatever I have going on.

So that’s what’s really important, I think, just viewing how you take care of yourself in a different light. Don’t say cheat ever again, unless you’re talking about someone who cheated on another person; then you can say that. But f*ck that word. It’s the worst! I f*cking hate that word. It’s the pits.

8. Sick days [40:47]

Ok, last but not least; sick days. And I feel like I got the most questions about this when I posted this on Instagram. I got a ton of questions, and it’s like, kind of at the right time because just the other day we had to kick a couple of people out of our gym because they’re just hacking up f*cking sh*t as they’re doing their workout. Just like coughing and; like, you’re gross. Get the f*ck out of the gym, stop spreading your disease, go home, go to bed, get away from us. That’s gross. And I would say the same thing to myself. I’m sick, I should not be here, peace out.

So, if you’re sick, and you’re at the full frontal of your sickness, get the f*ck out of the gym. Don’t go around people; go to bed. Sleep, and consuming lots of water and the right food is so important to getting better quicker. So get out of the gym, give yourself a couple of days. Say it’s just a simple cold, and you just need to kind of get over the hump, and then you’re just clearing out your system, get over the hump first before going into the gym. Do not spread your sickness to other people; you’re gross! I f*cking hate that. It’s so gross. Eww.

So make sure you’re getting sleep, drinking a sh*t-ton of water. Drink so much water that you don’t want to drink water anymore. And then I always recommend, if you can make soup and make your own bone broth, that is so important to make your own bone broth. There are tons of bone broths out there nowadays, and you can find a lot even in the freezer section. There are even Pacific Foods, there’s Kettle and Fire, there’s Epic. There are all kinds of different brands out there; so just look for them if you don’t have time to make yours and you’re too sick that you don’t want to; there are a lot of bone broths available at grocery stores now. You just kind of have to look or ask. But make your own soup. Drink bone broth.

And I always recommend; if you stay away from gluten in the first place, don’t add it back into your diet when you’re sick. I think that’s a total 180 of what you should be doing. If you’re trying to fuel yourself, and then you’re creating inflammation from things that you don’t’ normally eat, like gluten, which creates inflammation, then you’re just kind of putting your body into turmoil when it should be recovering.

So that being said, maybe you’re craving stuff that you don’t normally crave. So last time I was sick; and I think I just had a stomach flu because it was like 36 hours. But I was craving yogurt and granola; so I got some gluten free granola, I got sheep’s milk yogurt that I know does well with my stomach, and then I had that and I tried to drink some bone broth and just could not stomach it, because I had vomited f*cking 6 pounds of salmon and vegetables the night before. So I just couldn’t really do the salty or, you know, savory foods quite yet. So I listened to what my body and what it was craving, and I knew once I got over that hump of not being able to consume the savory foods that I would get lots of veggies back into my diet.

So if you’re a person who stays away from gluten, and you’re body is craving bread; find a gluten-free bread. There are so many gluten free options out at this point that you don’t need to put more inflammation into your body just because your body is craving a certain something. So I always recommend that.

But with the sickness thing and working out, I think you need to first let your body heal, it’s going through a lot of pain, a lot of inflammation, and it’s trying to recover. So you putting more strain on it by creating more inflammation in the body; it’s not going to help you recover quite as quickly. So getting past that hump; you know, getting over that you’re actually feeling more alive and able to do something; it might not be time to go back to your Crossfit gym, but walking the dog or getting a light jog in, something like that, getting back to it.

And know that; say you get f*cking mono. Or, I got bronchitis; oh man, that’s just too much adult conversation. Not sexual stuff. But I did something stupid and got bronchitis, and I was so sick for so long, and I had a cough for so long. And you know, a lot of times I think if you’re in the paleo or clean eating, you’re like “I can heal this on my own, I don’t need; I can just take whatever” like f*cking, oh my gosh what’s it called? What’s that called? The; ugh, I forget what herb it is, but it’s pretty much like you’re drinking a pizza. It tastes like Italian spices. And I was like, “oh, I can just take this and I’ll get over my bronchitis.” Ok, no. I needed f*cking hardcore drugs to get over having; like, getting a Z-Pak and destroying everything in my system, because the bronchitis went on forever, and I was just stuck to my house because I couldn’t function.

So when you’re getting sick like that, and you’re sick for a while, you’re going to have a setback in the gym; just know that, that’s just life. That’s just like having a baby inside of you. You know; you recover from birth, and you get back in the gym, and you’re not where you were before, but you get through it and you work back out again. That’s the same thing with a sickness. You’ve created all this inflammation, you’re getting better, and it’s going to be hard to come back to the gym. But you’re still going to be able to, you’re just going to have to start at a different level.

But, take care of your body first and foremost. If you’re working out on a regular basis; taking 3, eve 4 days; maybe even 5 days off isn’t going to f*ck up everything that you’ve done for yourself. Once in a while I’ll take up to 5 days off, and I’m not losing everything that I’ve built up over the past 7-plus years of working out. I just say, it’s time for my body to recover; sickness is the same thing. So listen to your body; don’t spread your f*cking diseases to other people, because you want people to be as miserable as you. No, don’t do that honey bunny. Stay away from the gym, let yourself recover, and then start going in. maybe you need to “sweat it out” once you’re back to 75%, I’d say, and just moving, that’s fine. But don’t bring your illness in to other people, around other people. That’s just really f*cked up.

9. Injuries [47:25]

And I just wanted to kind of cover this lightly; because I this question a lot about injury, and I had a bunch of questions when it came to injuries and what to do when you have an injury. But that is such a broad spectrum. It’s like; you could have someone who tore their ACL versus someone who has a knot in their back and it’s causing issues. There are so many “injuries” out there, so it’s really hard to say what to do.

So, there are two injuries that I’ve had. I injured my shoulder when I was competing in Crossfit, and I just had to take time off that shoulder. Whatever hurt it I did not do, and I modified everything. I still worked out completely, because I was able to, I just had to modify things for a long time. It wasn’t a serious injury, and it’s pretty much healed itself. I only have issues if I’m going a little bit too hard, and then I’ll take a step back. I’m not trying to f*cking go to the Crossfit games or anything like that, I’m just trying to workout. So if I need to take time off from it, I will. If I need to modify it, I will.

The other injury I had was; I tore, I hyper extended my elbow and tore something in my elbow, and it will never, ever be the same. So if I go; if it’s high repetitions, overhead squats, I usually have to stay pretty light because my elbow starts to really hurt, because it’s just hyper extending, overextending, and it’s really painful. So I just don’t go very heavy, and I never probably will ever again in overhead squats, especially high repetitions. I stay nice and light and just dial in my form and just try to work on that.

But injuries are so special to that one person, so I can’t tell you, oh, what you should do about injury. I think there’s a ton of different things that you should do; whether that’s modifying a workout, whether that’s seeing a specialist, whether that’s laying off of it altogether. You should talk to your coach, you should talk to a professional in that business, talk to a chiropractor. My husband was getting migraines and is seeing an awesome guy here in town, and it’s really helped him with that. So I think it’s talking to other people and finding out what’s working for them and figure out what’s going to work for you.

But I can’t really speak on injuries because that is just a vast, huge, open question. Everybody has different injuries when you’re working out; say your knee just hurts. And you know, my knee was hurting, I changed some things. So you have to remember what’s going to be best for you, and talk to your coach about that. Because it’s just too big of a spectrum; it’s too vast of a conversation. We just ain’t got time, because I’m f*cking talking about the Bachelor up on this podcast, you know. We just ain’t got time for all of it.

So yeah, that’s what I think about rest days, cheat days, and sick days. At the end of the day, you need to take care of yourself, and you need to learn to listen to your body and what it needs and what food it’s craving and what food it needs and how much sleep your getting and how much rest your getting, and what is best for you. Because at the end of the day, nobody can really tell you what’s best for you other than you. You just have to listen, and it’s hard to always know what to listen to. But know that if you’re feeling crazy fatigued; why are you feeling that way? Are you not getting enough sleep? Are you not eating enough? Are you working out too much?

Coming from a person who; this is me. A person who trained trying to get to the Crossfit games, who overtrained, whose body was so inflamed I had 30 extra pounds on me, and that was simply from working out too much and from stressing the body too much. I wasn’t trying to be 30 pounds heavier, I was just trying to be more fit, and I was really leading my body down a bad path. So don’t forget that your body needs rest, it needs recovery, it needs time to heal. And whether that’s when you’re sick or if you just mentally need to heal by having a gluten-free donut or a piece of cake; take care of your body and what it needs, and it will thank you in the end. I can promise you that. The more you listen to it, the more it will thank you.

So I hope that was helpful today, guys. Thank you so much for leaving all your questions. Again, if you have any specific questions, head to www.PaleOMG.com. That’s P-A-L-E-O-M-G. Come head over this week on this blog, I had Valentine’s Day recipes, so if you want to stay in and just make some delicious food; I did seared scallops on top of this cauliflower puree with these marinated cherry tomatoes and a chipotle sauce, and it was so delicious. Inspired from a meal I ordered at a restaurant once, but they had a lobster cream sauce that was f*cking to die. Then I made these cookies that had like fudge hearts in the middle of them, and they’re just so adorable and adorably cute, and I think everybody should make them because they’re delicious. So I have those two recipes on the blog.

And I’m doing a giveaway, which will end soon, so hopefully you’re listening to the podcast this week, because I’m doing a giveaway with Larabar to win this awesome prize pack of Larabar; which Larabars are seriously some of my favorite bars. You see me Instagram or Snapchat them all the time. They’re my favorite. So head to sign up for that giveaway; because giveaways are the f*cking best, right. Right? There have been almost a thousand comments. I get an email every time someone leaves a comment on my blog, so I’ve literally gotten a thousand buzzes to my phone in three days. I should have turned that off, but it just makes me feel good when someone leaves a comment; so I like getting a buzz! So go buzz me.

So thanks for listening this week, guys. You’re the best. Stay tuned next week with my podcast; we’ll have a guest, Vanessa from Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind; and that’s going to be so much fun, because she is seriously my spirit animal. I went on book tour with her, and she’s f*cking awesome. So I can’t wait to have her on, and I’m planning a couple more of people I like, which you know, are few and far between, so stay tuned for those. And some fun stuff coming up. I’m pumped about it guys.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Don’t forget about the sponsor, Aaptiv. You can find out about their workouts, their workout app on my blog. And don’t forget to rate, review; only review if you’re leaving a nice review; you know, spread kindness in this world. Rate, review, and subscribe to my podcast on iTunes, or Stitcher, or wherever you listen. I don’t know if I’m signed up anywhere else, but you know, you figure it out along the way. So keep doing you. Keep being a badass. Keep striving to be f*cking Lady Gaga. Ok? Ok? Ok. Love you guys. See you next week.