The Unfiltered Health Podcast
The Unfiltered Health Podcast delivers real, authentic conversations about health, wellness, and longevity. We break down complex health topics, sharing evidence-based insights, practical advice, and personal experiences. Our mission is to educate, inspire, and build a supportive community committed to living well and thriving together—no filters, just the truth about what it takes to achieve lasting health.
The Unfiltered Health Podcast
69 - Navigating Fitness and Wellness in the Age of Social Media: Separating Facts from Fads
Ever wondered if the fitness tips you find on Instagram and TikTok are actually helping or hurting your progress? This episode promises to shed light on the pervasive influence of social media on our daily lives, from personal fitness journeys to mental health. We’ll reveal the pros and cons of taking advice from self-proclaimed online experts and highlight the importance of critical thinking when consuming content. Join us as we navigate through the maze of information overload and discuss how to discern valuable insights from misleading advice.
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Cool. So today is called the good, the bad, the ugly of social media, and we wanted to go and deep dive into today about the pros and cons that we might see on social media. Obviously, it's definitely taken over our lives in ways that we sometimes find difficult to remove from our day to day. It feels like, for me, sometimes a third arm, um, because I'm constantly on my phone doing work, but then, when I get off my phone, it's sometimes so. It's such a strange sensation, such a strange feeling. I don't know if you feel the same way with technology. Um, I do love removing it, though, and not having it in my life, um. So, yeah, we're gonna start strong, and we had a few ideas today to go through a couple titles that people call themselves on Instagram, or even TikTok, or whatever social media platform you're using where they've got quote-unquote expert. Let's maybe go through that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like expert advice, expert opinion. I think the great thing about social media is that you have a whole platform of free resources, free information, free education so you can literally find anything on there. The bad thing is, it can literally, like the advice can be given from anyone, even if they aren't qualified in that area. You don't have to send, you know, tiktok or instagram your certificates or degrees or anything um. You don't need to have permission to post um things that you may not be um, you may not specialize in or you may not be qualified for. So you know, anyone can literally create an account, say that they're an expert on something, even though they don't have, like, a background or a degree in it, and then they can provide information.
Speaker 1:Yes, they can do such a great job that, like, you might not even know that they're not actually qualified to give you this information yeah, and I think, um, I was actually watching something the other day for business and I was just watching Gary Vay talk about something on YouTube and he was exactly saying the same thing that you just said. Nobody needs to go submit an application to voice their opinion or be a journalist and talk about a topic anymore. You don't.
Speaker 1:You have, everyone has a phone, everyone has a camera that they can use and upload whenever they want, about whatever they want, and when it comes to not being qualified and not having a certificate or a degree, but you can be like the internet is so wild because you can find everything right, and I think we really are quite lucky in this day and age because this is an information overload. We have so much information at the palm of our hands and how brilliant is that that you can go research and make your own opinion, but, at the same time, what you're reading isn't always qualified or the right information, because it always depends. It's like when you go see, like google, doctor your symptoms. You don't want to do that because it's going to come up with a whole bunch of things that you've never even considered or thought about diseases, infections, illnesses and you're just like whoa, I just had a cut and now I'm dying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now I'm dying.
Speaker 1:Now I have two weeks to live or I've got a headache and now I could be. You know, I need to go to the emergency room, right? So I definitely think it's quite interesting. And the social media part of this, where anyone can speak on anything how, how wild is it that, like, anyone can have an opinion, which is good, it is good, but it also can be ugly, because everyone can have an opinion on something yeah, and it can be extremely overwhelming, especially if, for example, you want a certain outcome, like you know, if you want to lose weight, or if you want to be pain-free or fixture injury.
Speaker 2:There is that much information out there and it is all so different that I find the general population can often be very overwhelmed in terms of like no, they have no idea what they should follow, they have no idea what is right, they have no idea what is correct, and they end up trying all these different things and wondering, sort of like, why it's not working. They see people online that you know have gone through one certain pathway. They copy them. They don't see the results. They start getting down about it and they're thinking why did they? It work for them and not for me? And so it can. Comparisons, comparison, yeah, and you can go down this dark rabbit hole of you know, I saw so and so on instagram, do this, why didn't it work for me?
Speaker 2:and it gives, I guess, the false idea that whatever you see on Instagram or TikTok is the right thing for you yeah, and it's just not the case, because everyone's life is so individualized, so complex, that any you know information or any pathway they want to follow like it needs to be one that's suited best for them. Yeah, and that is just something that Instagram and TikTok will never be able to give you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you have to be able to sift through that yourself individually, because that's pretty hard, because you've got yeah, you've got things that have worked for somebody and might not work for you, right?
Speaker 1:So I think let's talk about that, because what we see on social media is such a minute portion of someone's life, right, it could just be that you're seeing their end goal and their end game and like what they've really worked towards. It can be in relation to anything, whether it's a goal about losing weight, their rehab journey, their relationship, their financial status, their whatever, their kids and how well they've trained, that whatever, right, I think, yeah, we've got to be careful to not just hone in on one person or one idea. It's like when clients come to me and they're like, oh, but why is this girl's glutes doing this and she does these exercises and I do the same exercises and why am I growing it? Like. Well, if you really want to find out, you're going to have to go, probably interview that person and talk about them, and then you'll realise how different you are.
Speaker 2:Exactly exactly. And I think like that's a confusing part for clients because you know they might actually find, you know, like a stretch or an exercise or a diet that actually works really well for them, and so they might say, hey, but I've used Instagram and TikTok before and I've had advice off you know Instagram and TikTok before and it's actually helped me, and so in many cases I think for broader goals, absolutely it can be really great as a starting point or as a guide. Broader goals absolutely it can be really great as a starting point or as a guide. But I think also, if there is something that you are struggling with and you've tried multiple different things on TikTok or on Instagram or whatever and it hasn't worked, I think quite often it means it's probably not the best thing for you, and that's when you need to go and seek out a coach, a health professional, so you can get a more individualized, personalized sort of approach absolutely.
Speaker 1:I think I like the idea that it is a good start. Definitely it's a good start. I think a lot of people have come further. What I've noticed actually in the gym environment I don't know if you've noticed this with clients as well, but in the gym environment there's a lot more females coming in who have just learned stuff off the internet and their movements are quite okay, like they're not super amazing, and there's definitely stuff that can be worked on, but I'm noticing a lot more females have got the confidence to come into the gym and actually just start and just try it.
Speaker 1:So I do think it does. It has made people feel like the information isn't harder to find, it's easy to find, like so much search engine like I look up on tiktok things for travel a lot like when I go to youtube.
Speaker 1:This is one of the pros of um the internet. When I go to google sorry, not youtube and I go to google and type in best places to travel in japan, it gives me like all these articles and I'm like I don't want to read it. So I go to tiktok, I'm like best places to travel in japan. It gives me like video content, entertainment. It's quick it's easy. I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, this is so cool, oh my gosh, right. So I think, depending on what you're looking at, it can be 100, 100.
Speaker 2:I think it's more like when you have the bigger problems or the bigger issues, ie you know, like chronic pain, weight loss, what are some other ones? Mental health, mental health those platforms can feel extremely overwhelming.
Speaker 2:You might not know where to start, and that's when you might fall under the trap of comparing yourself, um, trying all the quick fixes, bouncing from recommendation to recommendation, depending on what you find on tiktok, and then just feeling a little bit lost maybe we should give a personal story of like either of us and something that we've got into the trap. Maybe oh, I don't have one. That comes off the top of my head. Do you have anything you're thinking about? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, go for it glutes 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, like all the girls on Instagram with their amazing arses, and I'm like, why does mine still not look that good? I've been training so hard. And it's like, well, no, you really haven't been Raquel. Well, let's not lie, you haven't been. You haven't been eating enough food, you've been stressed. And it's like, well, no, you really haven't been Raquel. Well, let's not lie, you haven't been. You haven't been eating enough food. You've been stressed out. It's not your priority. You don't train four times a week anymore. Yeah, like I have to really pull myself in and go. I'm not doing my best.
Speaker 2:And I think it's important to remember that there is a lot of Photoshop. There's AI now. Yes, angles positioning of the way you position your body, yes, to look a certain way. I think the good thing now is there are a lot of Instagram accounts that they might do, like you know, a 10-second later comparison where, like, they're posing in one and they're un-posing the other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love those.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. So, like I think that gives you a really good idea of, like you know, one photo just gives you one tiny piece of the puzzle of the story and it gives you a tiny look into their life for like 10 seconds. It doesn't mean that's how they look all the time.
Speaker 1:I actually do forget that the um, there's a social media filters like those apps, photoshop, and there's other creator tools that you can use to like warp, the image and there's a girl on tiktok. I've seen it or instagram. It's coming up on my my reels for just some random reason and she's done like her photos and showed what she does to the photos.
Speaker 1:But she posts her like unedited yeah, and then the unedited as a swipe, yeah, or something, something like that, and it was so subtle, yeah subtle, that you can't even tell and I'm like, oh my god, this is insane, yeah yeah are people that unhappy with how they look.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, it just makes me feel sad, to be honest with social media, because I feel like we don't appreciate our natural beauty. We are constantly comparing ourselves to other people we don't appreciate nor are grateful for, like our parents, who have brought us here or whoever has brought you into this world, and how lucky you are to be living in this earth and and just do the best you can. Um, yeah, I feel like we're missing the mark on beauty and natural beauty and just being yourself and owning it. Like I see so many girls getting cosmetic surgery and like changing their bodies, which is it's okay, like I, I think that that's fine to do that, but I do think that social media does play a big role in facilitating this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, need to change your appearance absolutely, absolutely because, yeah, every, you see everything on instagram or tiktok. You see all the highlights. You see lots of photos that have been filtered and for a lot of people, they don't realize that they have been filtered or they have been photoshopped. So then there's now this big expectation of looking a certain way. Either you know your face or even your body, training a certain way, eating a certain way, um, living a certain way, um, there's a lot of yeah, there's a lot of comparison now and there's a lot more access to everyone's lifestyle out there, whereas, you know, prior to social media, we didn't have that, we didn't have a platform where we could just look up all these random models, influencers, celebrities, and get like an inside scoop to their life, and so there wasn't really a thought of comparing, Whereas now it's everything.
Speaker 1:It is everything. Were you going to say something else? I was going to say, you know? One thing that I really hate is the morning routines.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, or like the get ready. Is it like the get ready with me? Do you mean those ones?
Speaker 1:I don't think it's the get ready with me, it's just like come see what I do in the morning. And it's like 6am, wake up, coffee drink, go for a run ice bath, come back hot shower, cold shower.
Speaker 2:I'm like bruh, I'm like who does that?
Speaker 1:every day Congrats for you, but that's not what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing. It's kind of like you don't need to do that just because someone on Instagram does it. It's like you've got to do what works best for you. And I think that's also part of the problem is that a lot of people look at that and they compare and they think, well, I'm not doing enough.
Speaker 2:The expectations the expectations are so high and the comparisons are high that they get themselves down and I see this a lot with like clients that are dealing with the pain, and I'm sure you would see this a lot in terms of like client results or like fat loss or absolutely. It's kind of like they're looking at other people on Instagram and always feeling like they're not doing enough.
Speaker 1:I think that also is true for us business owners. But I do want to tap into, like, the client result stuff. I think, like people will listen to this. Your expectations of yourself is the only one that is the thing that you're listening to. Everybody else around you is not expecting you to be any certain way Like your expectation is probably what is also letting you down from even starting, from trying, from doing a little bit more um, from looking at the bigger picture, zooming out to see how far you've come, your expectations of where you should be and what you should be doing and how you should look.
Speaker 1:These are where, like, the problems I think really exist in like doing what you need to do and getting getting on with it, um, or how it should look or how it should be. Like all these shoulds, woulds, coulds, they're negating, like you don't need to do any of them you. You just need to like live and what do you want to do, um, what's going to be easy for you to do and how is it actually going to be sustainable? Because I know you're very similar like you're not going to throw clients into the deep end and go. I expect you to do this.
Speaker 1:It's like look, I'd like you to do this. How can we make this fit into your lifestyle? Is this actually realistic? And if it's not, is there another way that we can skin the cat, kind of thing? So I definitely think expectations tear people's goals down and livelihoods down in their mind, like and that's where mental health comes into play it's a whole cycle of just you're trying to be better but you're not even doing anything about it, or if you are doing something, you don't feel like it's enough, because you keep seeing all this stuff pop up on socials and you feel like you should be further than what you are, and then it goes back into expectations.
Speaker 1:I agree. I challenge everyone to just get off their social media in the morning and not touch it.
Speaker 2:Because it can be so addictive it can be so.
Speaker 1:it's so easy to sit there and be like Is it addictive or is it a?
Speaker 2:habit. It's both. I question that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I think it's both. I think it does turn into a habit, which then makes it addictive For sure. I think it's so easy to just sit there and be like I'm just going to check my phone real quick and then you find yourself 10 minutes later still sitting in the same position and you're like, oh my God, what am I doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was I supposed to be looking for?
Speaker 1:Like you're looking for one thing and then you get distracted, like that's how easy it is. Don't even know it happens easy, so easy. Yeah, I'm very mindful with when I go on my phone now, especially like when I need to do admin stuff. If I'm on my phone, I really make a conscious effort to just get the information that I needed and get off, get off, because as soon as I, as soon as I go into a scroll, I'm like, oh no, stop. Like you've been distracted, like you the phone one, social media one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, every time, and I think that's I think that's so important as well, especially for, especially, if you're looking for something, um, or you know, if you are trying to find a exercise recipe program to help with. You know, whatever goal you have, I think it's important not to continue going through, like, like different types of Instagram pages or different profiles, and then you know you've been scrolling, for I don't know how to get rid of shoulder pain for the past 10 minutes, and one thing's told you to do a stretch. One thing's told you you need surgery. One thing's told you you I don't know need to do an ice bath or you know whatever. And then, all of a sudden, you're like I don't know what to do, do there's just, there's so much out there that, like, what am I supposed to do?
Speaker 2:Or they might try 20 different things and be like this isn't working. This is terrible. I need to go and see, you know, a doctor, or I'm never going to fix my pain because I've done everything that Instagram has told me to and it's still not working. So I think, when it comes to looking for a certain what would you call it, looking for certain information that you need help with, I think, yeah, you know, it would be useful for us to, I guess, give some tips around how to sift through the crap and what to look out for and what, what not to look out for, buckle up kind of like yeah, the red flags, just to give give people better understanding or a better idea of like how to navigate through social media when you're trying to look for information and resources.
Speaker 1:Okay, first things first. Let's start with Google, because I know that's easy, and then we'll go. Social media With Google. Govorg has always been built into me since high school, uni they're your most trusted websites. But when we talk about social media, media, how do we identify that? How do you identify whether someone is credible or not?
Speaker 2:I think, it's such a hard question it's a hard question because you you know you might see on their bio they might put up you know qualified. This isn't this. But you might not actually know if they are qualified because anyone can actually put that on their bio Do you buy Google reviews, do you go translate results?
Speaker 1:What do you do?
Speaker 2:You could definitely go Google reviews, I think, first and foremost before. Although Google reviews you could get paid, you could pay people to I don't know, get robots to do Google reviews for them, just like paid followers.
Speaker 1:You know what? You've just got to listen to someone talk. You've got to see what content they're putting out there.
Speaker 1:Listen to them you reckon, yeah, listen to them talk, listen to how, like what they say, and are they saying one thing all the time and are they very biased into one thing? And then look at who they follow too. I think that would be an important indicator of who this person is. Um, because if I look at some of the people that I look up to, they follow a lot of different people in industry, not just one particular type of person. Let's say, like, this is a good example and no hate on bodybuilders, but bodybuilding coaches quote unquote follow a lot of bro and bodybuilding people, and that is a huge red flag to me.
Speaker 1:So, if you have a look at coaches in general, do they follow a mix of people who are strength coaches, conditioning coaches, athlete performance coaches, rehabilitation, my therapist, osteos and other maybe nutrition and female coaches? Like, who's the breadth of who they follow? And, yeah, what is the lens of their focus and how extreme are they going? What are they actually talking about too? Um, I would, I would very, very, very look at, very look at. That's what I would look at, very look at.
Speaker 1:I would very look, it's Monday, it's hard.
Speaker 2:I think um, first and foremost, like before even jumping online to find something, I think the information that you take, use it as a guide, not gospel yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that's like, first and foremost, before anything else, because even if you find a page that you feel like it is highly credible, they know what they're doing, they have a good following, um, they seem like they have uh, you know, achieved good results in whatever you're you're looking for it, it may still not be right for you and I think you know example the I post, you know, is very much based on like pain and rehab and how to, I guess, look after yourself while you have pain or during pain. And although the information is quite good in terms of it's educational, it's informative, it may not work for everyone because, at the end of the day, it's going to be an individualized approach and what works for someone might not always work for someone else. So I think the biggest thing is yes, you know, if you're looking up things, use them as a guide, use it as a starting point, but don't get discouraged if that doesn't work for you, because it just may not be the right thing. It's very hard to post um information that is individualized because everyone is so different. Like we can post case studies, um, we can talk about how we helped a client, you know, get out of x, y and z pain. But just because we worked on that strategy with one client, it doesn't mean we're going to work on them for all clients, because that always respond differently.
Speaker 2:So I think that's a big one when it comes to like either weight loss, looking to grow your glutes, getting out of pain, whatever it may be, you know, look as a guide at these, you know exercises or reels or whatever, but don't take them as you know gospel and don't take them as you know gospel and don't take it as this is the only way, because they're not individualised. It's not an individualised approach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think people are pretty aware of that too. Well, depends who we're talking about here, but I do think that most people maybe that's a bit of a generalisation, but I think most people can see on social media or can take it with a grain of salt. It's just when they put it in their mind, it's the expectation and, yes, that comes back to them where they see other people and the comparison analysis, paralysis, kind of thing what other tips would you have for um, I don't know, sifting through all the crap that's on social media?
Speaker 1:I'd be very careful for anyone who does call themselves an expert in general.
Speaker 1:We said this at the start, um, and who does have not a lot of followers or too many or too many perhaps, um, but I think you can tell the ones who have a lot of followers, who have really good engagement, um, people do comment and they they post back and they respond. I think that's quite you know, and they rebut. People rebut their posts, like I do see some good fitness influencers on instagram. Cheryl Grant, I think that's her last name. She posts some really good stuff and sometimes I don't agree with all the things she might say and someone might rebut something that she posted and she'll come back and she'll give her point of view and it actually is quite well thought out and then you can see where she was coming from. So I do think that's a really healthy thing, when you've got people who do have a lot of followers, that they are able to eloquently explain why that is or why this is kind of, you know, a bit biased on this post and they understand that. But I do think people who call themselves expert and don't have a lot of following someone who's new into the industry, I'd be very like look, I know you've got to give everyone a chance, chance. But I think people who are new in the industry, who are trying to promote themselves on social media. That's fine. We all need to do something. We all need, we all trying to get somewhere.
Speaker 1:But I think, is that person also doing further like skill work? Are they doing further learning? Are they doing further education? Are they posting about their further education? Are they showing that they are actually interested in learning more stuff? Because I think that can be a really good key in going hey, like, maybe this person, maybe I could learn something from this person. If you are, you know that's your friend or someone in your local community who you know and you're like, yeah, I'd actually like to take on board. I haven't seen anyone talk about this before and that's that one person that you know of? Okay cool, maybe you do do that right. But if it's you follow a bunch of people and this one person that you know of, okay cool, maybe you do do that right. But if it's you follow a bunch of people and this one person's talking about this, they're expert and they're an expert and they've got this and they've got that and they don't have anything to show for it, um, yeah, I'd just be very wary yeah, I think that's a good one, lot of.
Speaker 2:there are also a lot of reels or exercises or captions that draw people in, that are very much. You know, I did this one thing, yes, the clickbait, the clickbait. You know I did this one thing and you know, my pain went away. Or I did this one thing and I lost weight. I did this one thing and it fixed my gut, or you know whatever. And I think it goes back to what I was saying earlier in terms of this one thing may not be the one thing that is right for you. Yeah, so I think also, all the time on glutes.
Speaker 1:I did this one thing and my glutes grew by this much and I'm like, oh, what is it?
Speaker 2:what is it?
Speaker 1:oh my god, they just trained like hip thrust three times a week and eight more carbs and I was like no shit and they also gained like 15 kilos. They go from like being 15 20 kilos lighter to being 15 kilos heavy and you can see the mass has just gone straight in the right places for them. Yeah, genetics, body type that's another thing that you need to be mindful of. Someone's genetics, which no one's going to know, but you can tell by looking at some people what their what's it called somatotype is. I don't know if you know much about somatotype, steph. No, okay, so in the fitness industry we have this thing called somatotypes. Not many people. Let's just say use it as gospel. It's just another thing that you have in your toolbox that maybe you might pull out right. It's very much in relation to nutrition rather than just training.
Speaker 1:I think that's something else. The train is training methods for these somatotypes. There are, but when we talk about somatotypes it's more about food. So you have endomorphic, ectomorphic mesomorphic.
Speaker 1:Ectomorphic is your tall, sometimes super slim, sometimes it could be considered lanky. They find it super difficult to put on muscle size. Typically, as a somatotype, an ectomorph is able to tolerate a lot more carbs, typically. Um. Then you have endomorph, which is on the other extreme, short, stocky round, usually finds it hard to lose weight. Um, you probably wouldn't give them a lot of carbs. And then a mesomorph is in the middle. So you could do a bit of a moderate carb, moderate protein, moderate fat nutrition profile. They can also probably train moderately and gain some muscle size and they wouldn't necessarily look like they're fat, but they wouldn't look like they're super lean.
Speaker 1:So and there's, and there are different training styles for those people anyway. Um, where was I going with this?
Speaker 2:that's something to be mindful of when people do. Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so when, when, looking at people on instagram looking at their body, looking at their frame. Um, when you look at and you can't tell people's height on instagram sometimes. So, when you see a girl with really big legs or really big glutes, again, did they gain 20 kilos? One, how long have they been training for and maybe they gained all that weight? Two, were they really short before and just were able to, like, generally short people are able to get a lot of muscle on their legs quickly. Um, or were they super tall, a little bit lanky and, like I was saying, did they gain some weight and it just went straight to the right places for them? And how much carbs are they having? Are they having 500 grams of carbs a day?
Speaker 2:Well, they're probably an ectomorph as well and they can tolerate that, so, yeah, you just made me think of when you see people post what I eat in a day and if they're, you know, I don't know quite lean and quite skinny, naturally, and they're eating so many carbs but still look like that. You get a lot of comments, like you know, but I'm eating the same thing, how come they look a certain way? How come I don't? And it's like that just might be the genetic makeup as a starting point. So it goes back to what works for some people will not work for you, and that's why instagram and the resources are a great guide, but they're not entirely gospel, because it is a very you know, whatever is right for you may not be right for you know, other people yeah, it's crazy when you think about it and you put it in terms of, like looking at the person as well.
Speaker 1:It does seem a bit um vain and maybe a little bit judgy to do that, but I would encourage people not to feel like that, that judginess, it's just going.
Speaker 1:Okay, I need to take it with a grain of salt. Have a look at this person's background. You know. If they've got a thousand posts, okay, obviously not going to scroll forever, but have they got a story like? There's a girl on instagram she's become a muscle uh sorry, gym shark athlete. She came from a background of binge eating. She lost like 20, 30, 50 kilos. She's been running. She talks about her story all the time. She talks about how hard it was for her. She's so open and transparent with how hard it was for her to overcome those challenges and she trains. She shows her activity, she shows a lot of what she eats and she also shows of her routine. But she also shows the fact of that it's not, it's not for everyone, and that yeah, what she?
Speaker 1:has done is taken her, I think it was like three to five years to lose all this weight and also to start actually being grateful for her body and appreciate her body.
Speaker 1:So it is a big journey, but you cannot look at one person and take them as gospel a and b, you need to keep going with your own story because, just because, like your story matters, everyone else can post their stories. Maybe you're not a poster, maybe you don't really care about that stuff, fine, but don't just sit on the fence and like judge everyone else or expect yourself to be better if you're not going to do anything about it either yeah absolutely, and I think you know yeah if you are working through a particular issue or you have a certain goal, you know, don't let other people's results get you down and put you off, and like don't let them.
Speaker 1:Don't feel pressured that you have to look a certain way or you have to be at a certain stage because other people are doing it faster than what you are I do find that it's like, um, it's not really a community thing and ladies that lift, I wouldn't say like there's a lot of like that judgmental, like, oh, just because she's doing amazing, that, I'm jealous.
Speaker 1:I think there's a lot of that. I think it's like a really in our community. It's very like, amazing, like one of my clients just gave birth and everyone in the group, like I posted a picture and supporting her and shout out to Sharul like she's done an amazing job and her birth journey Actually, this is a good example to her. Her pregnancy journey. She joined with me in January, started training, she gave birth like two weeks ago, a week ago, something like that, and she only gained. I hope she's okay with me sharing this, but she only gained about seven kilos, eight kilos and that's that's. That's quite, quite good.
Speaker 1:Um, and she's bounced back back into her own routine. She's keen to go to the gym. She's got a really good lifestyle at home her husband's super supportive. She's in a very good space to be able to do this stuff. Good work-life balance. She's got a good routine. She works in mental health, so she has her own. Like she wants to train because it makes her feel better as well, because she does deal with a lot of patients all the time too. Anyway, long story short, like when I posted her on my story, I have other clients who are pregnant or want to be pregnant and they're inspired to be like her.
Speaker 1:So our community is very much like, oh my god, I hope I'm like that that's amazing, like good on her. But I'm sure there's a lot of people who look at that and go that's not realistic and why. You know I can't do that no way.
Speaker 1:So I do think, yeah, take, take everyone's journey with a grain of salt be proud of people yeah it's and use it as inspiration for yourself to fill your own cup and go I can do that too. If she can do that, I can do that too. I think that's a better way of living than looking at everyone else and being like, oh, just just this judgy energy, like, yeah, I hate that.
Speaker 2:I hate that a lot and I feel, I feel like you know if they've had a good experience, but you may not necessarily have had a good experience. You know, don't, don't be discouraged, because everyone does have, or everyone will have, different experiences. No two people are the same, just like when clients come in. No two injuries are the same, and it is something that I remind clients quite often.
Speaker 2:You know, it is a common thing for clients to come in and say you know, I have, you know, back pain, for example, and I saw on Instagram that this exercise helped and I've been trying to do it, but it hasn't helped me. Or, you know, I saw that this person has exactly the same symptoms that I have, but you know they've progressed a lot quicker than I have. And you know it just goes back to everyone is different, everyone's lifestyle is different, everyone's stress level is different, everyone operates different, their mindsets are different, and so it is important to remember that your pathway, whatever you want to achieve, it will be different and it will look different as well yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So really respecting this, the fact that just yeah, you've said it a million times just because it worked for them, doesn't mean it worked for you.
Speaker 2:But really respect your own timeline and I think that's a takeaway for you know, if you are looking at um education or advice on social media, take it as a guide absolutely, because there's some great information out there, but don't necessarily take everything as gospel, because there's also a lot of crap information out there as well.
Speaker 1:Tell us something that you see on instagram that you don't like. We wanted to add that personal element. We got it. We got to ask these questions. There's too. There's too many, damn. Okay, give us one. What don't I like? Um?
Speaker 2:don't filter.
Speaker 1:It don't filter do you have one off the top of your head? Mine was the morning routines, yours are, yours was the morning routines yeah, yeah, that's mine that's mine.
Speaker 2:Um, I really have to think about this because, gee, there's there's quite a few things that I dislike.
Speaker 1:Um, take your time I go.
Speaker 2:I think something I don't like and I did speak about it a little bit is more the. You know, if you're not doing this exercise to fix your pain, you're missing out. Or here's how I fixed my back pain by doing this every day.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, you did say this about the click baby. Yeah, I did say this about the click baby. Yeah, I did say this about the click baby.
Speaker 2:And I think the reason why I dislike it so much is because people that are dealing with chronic pain, say, for example, and have a really hard time seeing big changes because their progress is very, very slow. Something like that can be extremely harmful to them mentally because you know they might think why isn't this working for me? How come this person's pain sticks with you know one exercise and mine wasn't? I think it can be very dangerous mentally for someone and it just goes back to the comparison, the expectations. I think if you are someone that is stuck with the goal you're currently experiencing or trying to get to whether it is just exercising or being consistent with exercise, or losing weight or getting stronger or getting through chronic pain I think social media can be very dangerous because of the expectations, the comparisons, and I think you really have to be careful how much you look at social media. When you are trying to achieve a goal and you feel stagnant because you can get very much, you can feel very much like you know that imposter syndrome where it's like they're doing better but I'm not, or, um, you know, they look so healthy but I don't. Or they're so confident but I'm not. Um, and it can be quite.
Speaker 2:It can be quite harmful mentally, I think, which is, you know, I think social media is great at showcasing, um, you know, promoting healthy lifestyles, promoting looking after yourself, um, but also it can be unhealthy, in that the clickbait that people use to try and draw people in is often like fear tactics, or is often, you know, here's this magic, you know, the magic pill, and the magic pill might be like one exercise or one way of eating or, I don't know, drinking one thing a day, like. I saw this weird thing the other day, um, which was the perfect example of clickbait. Actually, my cousin sent it to me and it was on. It was on promoting eating sea moss.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you've, I don't know if you've seen this like a trend in it yeah I've seen it, it's this thing, and it was funny because she sent it to me and she's like, oh, what do you think of this? And I was like, what is that? Like I've never seen it before and I was looking into it and you know it was a CMOS supplement or a drink and they're promoting, like you know, it's like a magic pill Better mood, better this, better that. And it's like I was like, oh, not another one of these. Do you know what I mean? Like, was she asking for your advice on this? Yeah, she's like, you know what? Do you think? This looks really good? And she's just someone that you know wants to get back into training, wants to eat healthy again, um, wants to lose a bit of weight, and you know, you see something like this.
Speaker 2:it's like, oh, my god, if I take this every day I've got you the algorithm got to her yeah, everyone's gonna be mindful.
Speaker 1:Their friends are listening to you too. So, yeah, that's, that's true. Like it's not a conspiracy theory. This is true, it's true it's so true, it's. It's been brought out, I'm pretty sure, by phone companies that our phones listen to us in order to, uh, what is it post?
Speaker 2:put up, advertise what we are thinking about.
Speaker 1:Or what we are talking about, yeah, and that's why, when you see stuff on your facebook come up and it's like this was what you were, you did, you were you looking for this? It's like, yes, I was talking about this.
Speaker 2:I was talking about this yesterday exactly. There's been so many occasions where I've spoken about something.
Speaker 1:In the next day, an ad for it pops up on my feed all the time you can turn off the app features like to do that, and you can turn on your phone, I think, like a toggle, the feature to stop. At the end of the day, like I think I don't have anything to hide, so it is what it is. That's how I take it, like I I have got such a different view of life these days. It's just like it is what it is. I have nothing to hide. Keep my obviously information safe and keep your your things that you need to do like do it properly register and have your information confidential. Do your truth factor authenticator, put your you know security functions on. But, at the end of the day, like I have nothing to hide, so what are you going to find me talking about fitness and looking up food stuff, like I don't know, looking at a lot of ways to grow your glutes, yeah, yeah like the thing is, my glutes are good, it's just that I want them to be bigger.
Speaker 1:I appreciate how far they've come. I want them to be bigger but because I've lost so much weight over the last couple years and I had been so stressed and also just was doing other things, wasn't prioritizing my training like they've just they've stayed the same, nothing better, nothing. You know worse. I can't complain, but they don't feel like I like in the last two years. I feel like I get it could have grown so much better, could have done this, could have done that, like ah, shut up, don't worry about it I get it on with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get it and it's again. It's like so you're sitting there and you're talking about glutes and you know what, in the next hour or so, I'm probably going to get a reel that's like how to grow your glutes using this one exercise? Yeah, because my phone's next to me and that's what we've been talking about for the past hour, or?
Speaker 1:the algorithm will show just a bunch of people talking about I'm going to quit Instagram yeah, I've seen a couple of those recently because Instagram is apparently more of a business platform and being used to advertise businesses versus TikTok is the entertainment platform.
Speaker 1:You don't really know who's going to come up on your feed and it's just a bunch of random people and it's a bit more organic, maybe you can reach a lot more people quicker, and people don't necessarily care about who you are, they're just happy to listen to you and what you have to share. So yeah, our phones will pop up, something for sure I think so definitely how to grow glutes faster sea, moss sea moss.
Speaker 2:Oh my god on that note, if any, if anyone's had any um good results with cmos, I'd like to um, oh yeah, I'd like to hear all about it, because it's just something that I'm wacky and weird yeah, I haven't. I haven't heard that one yet. It's, it was definitely a new one. Um, I can't say. I looked into it further, I clicked on the page and I was like, nah, this looks too gimmicky for me, let's just do the basics what was it in relation to just energy?
Speaker 2:no, it was just in relation to everything like weight loss, energy, mood good skin it's. It was. You know, they were very much selling it as a magic pill.
Speaker 1:Um, okay, red flag, red flag, like it's cool to try something new. I definitely don't think that you shouldn't just try anything because you think everything's red flag, but I do think at the same time yeah, definitely take it with a grain of salt. Training, drinking your water, have your protein, eat some carbs, get good sleep. That's going to be the probably the biggest like the basics, the basics get the basics right.
Speaker 2:It's going to tick the boxes, you don't have to buy some magic pill to make you feel better, exactly, and if you're not doing the basics, do not even look to buy any of that stuff yeah, save your money.
Speaker 1:How many people have probably wasted their money on clickbait stuff like if you, if anyone listening has a story on getting reeled in by something getting sucked in like ebooks, a program, a quick yeah, quick fix kind of thing, a supplement? I'd be really keen to hear what that was, so feel free to message us in the female health show. We'll share some of these on the story, unless you want to be anonymous? I'll also um take it off on the on the name yeah, I'd be interested and I think you know it's.
Speaker 2:On the name yeah, I'd be interested and I think you know it's these things do cost money and it's so it is free to literally just focus on drinking water all the exercising you know all the basics focusing on your sleep. They're all free, you don't have to pay. You don't have to pay a thing to get better at them, you just have to to do them. Yes, so I think start there first. Take Instagram or social media or anything as a guide.
Speaker 1:Not possible. Yeah, I reckon next week we do a recap on the basics. Yeah, like the basics what you should be focusing on recommendations.
Speaker 2:Let's do that. How to achieve each basic? You know different strategies for each one, I think would be great how to achieve the basics. Okay, you've gone english again. How?
Speaker 1:to achieve? How to achieve the basics?
Speaker 2:you've gone british again how to achieve what did you? Because?
Speaker 1:achieve what did you because you said it last week.
Speaker 2:What did you say last week?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know, I have a habit of just changing into like accents I love it, like I enjoy it, and it just happens. It just is what it is.
Speaker 2:Oh, we were going to do one on spill the tea, oh that's right. Spill the tea, oh that's right spill the tea.
Speaker 1:What's the tea for the week? This week, Steph.
Speaker 2:I don't have anything. It's Monday, it's just started.
Speaker 1:Oh, what was the tea for last week?
Speaker 2:Come on, what was my spill the tea for last week?
Speaker 1:I don't have anything that comes off the top of my head? What kind of tea are we spilling, actually?
Speaker 2:anything, anything where you felt the need to spill the tea what does it actually mean?
Speaker 1:is it's not gossipy, is it?
Speaker 2:well, yeah, usually if you say spill the tea, it is tell me the gossip absolutely. But the gossip could be to your interpretation. It could be something you didn't like this week that you heard. It could be a random fact I've got one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've got a random fact. I'm not a gosper, so that's not even going to fly with me, but we'll spill the tea on some fun facts.
Speaker 1:Some fun facts, fun fact One of my clients messaged. Well, one of our clients, our ladies at Lyft, she trained with Kiara. She messaged me saying her period was super light this month. She was a bit worried. Is there something I need to be concerned about? Because it was so light, it only lasted like one or two days I think it was a day, she said, and I messaged her back and she has been losing weight and this is pretty typical for females when they lose weight and it's a bit quicker. It's been about eight weeks and she's lost five kilos.
Speaker 1:But perhaps the hormones in the body, yeah it's really good, but sometimes what happens is when you lose weight, the body interprets that as sometimes stress.
Speaker 1:And then you lose the period, it goes into a bit of a survival mode. She still had a bleed, so I recommended to her not to worry, um, but give it another couple months, at least three months. In total, 90 days is a general cycle of the uterine uterus. Um, each egg sorry, each egg in the in the uterus. So, um, give it three months and then see what happens from there. Um, and then if you need to talk to you know a doctor and look at it, you can, but I definitely wouldn't be concerned.
Speaker 1:It's just typical that once you lose weight, the body just changes and it needs some time to catch up and also to prioritize iron. So what happens is and she has a vegan background, so this is another thing if you're not prioritizing iron, women will notice a super light period or they'll notice just some irregularities with their period. So, yeah, definitely, definitely, prioritize your steaks or get an iron supplement and make sure you have a vitamin c with that as well. That's the tea. That's the tea, yeah tune in next week for some more tea.
Speaker 1:Tune in next week for some more tea. Tune in next week for some more tea with Steph and Raquel.
Speaker 2:That's the end of the show guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it. We're going to wrap up. Hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you next week. Done.