Speaker 1: Okay, So I came across this video online the other
Speaker 1: day and it said something along the lines of clapping
Speaker 1: for all the girls who do whatever they want with
Speaker 1: their bodies and reach their goals however they choose. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Transformation Station podcast. I'm Christina, owner, operator, and
Speaker 1: founder of the Transformation Station, and this is where we
Speaker 1: talk about getting stronger while navigating real life. If you're
Speaker 1: trying to stay consistent through the ups and the downs
Speaker 1: and everywhere else in between, this is for you. Okay.
Speaker 1: So because of that video, I've been thinking about this
Speaker 1: so much, because I get this over and over again,
Speaker 1: especially as a gym owner. Why are we so invested
Speaker 1: in how other people choose to take care of their bodies?
Speaker 1: And this episode isn't about convincing you to go one
Speaker 1: way or the other or this route. It's not about
Speaker 1: convincing you that something different is going to be better either.
Speaker 1: This episode is simply about respecting that every person has
Speaker 1: the right to make a decision for their own body.
Speaker 1: The reason why I decided to record this podcast today
Speaker 1: is because I thought about someone that popped up in
Speaker 1: my head. One of the members a little while ago,
Speaker 1: she asked if she could talk to me privately, and
Speaker 1: she looked nervous, and I was like, ooh, like, what
Speaker 1: is this about. I hope everything is okay. And she
Speaker 1: told me she had started a GLP one medication, and
Speaker 1: then she awkwardly laughed and said, I felt like I
Speaker 1: was cheating on you, and I felt bad not telling you,
Speaker 1: and that sentence, like the it felt like I was
Speaker 1: cheating on you sentence that made me feel sad. And
Speaker 1: I asked her why she would think that. She said
Speaker 1: that she was worried that I'd be disappointed in her
Speaker 1: because my weight loss journey, I have not used any
Speaker 1: of those tools, and also because I am a gym owner.
Speaker 1: And she was worried also that I would think that
Speaker 1: she was taking the easy way out. And I right
Speaker 1: away I was like, wait, what, like that is not
Speaker 1: the case, That is not true. Why would I be
Speaker 1: upset that someone is trying to improve their health. Anyone's
Speaker 1: decisions for their journey isn't about me. Their journey is
Speaker 1: about them and who they see in the mirror, and
Speaker 1: that is all. My job is to help her feel encouraged,
Speaker 1: to help remove her body to build healthy habits, and
Speaker 1: ultimately my job and my goal is to support her
Speaker 1: in however I can. And that conversation also reminded me
Speaker 1: of something else as well, because over the years I've
Speaker 1: actually lost a couple of friendships because those friends chose
Speaker 1: weight loss surgery. And I didn't lose those friendships because
Speaker 1: I criticize them or judge them, because I never did.
Speaker 1: Everyone has their version of hard. There was one thing
Speaker 1: that I know that somebody said to me once and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, well, this is the harder way actually,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't see it as that.
Speaker 1: Otherwise you probably wouldn't have chose that route. However, I
Speaker 1: don't think that that is the easy way out. I
Speaker 1: think that everything has its own demons at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, Like everyone chooses their version of hard,
Speaker 1: She's going to go through things that are going to
Speaker 1: be very challenging for her that I will never experience.
Speaker 1: I will hear, and I will be the outsider looking in.
Speaker 1: And that's why they have those support groups as well.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, my existence is
Speaker 1: not connected to their feelings about their decision. So like
Speaker 1: when people think like, oh, Christina's like she doesn't agree
Speaker 1: with it just because I didn't do it. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that I don't agree with it for your unique body,
Speaker 1: and also that's up to you. Like I'm over here
Speaker 1: like drink water in mind, my business, my existence became
Speaker 1: connected to their feelings about their own decision. And this
Speaker 1: story actually is a really good example of this. This
Speaker 1: is going back way before the transformation station. And it
Speaker 1: was actually a client of mine who I did one
Speaker 1: on one personal training, and she was all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: she like ghosted me. She was mad, and then she
Speaker 1: sent me like all these weird messages like comparing her
Speaker 1: beriatric surgery to my breast augmentation. And if you don't
Speaker 1: know what breast augmentation is, it means that I have
Speaker 1: breast and plants that I've had over a decade. And
Speaker 1: that person basically said, well, you changed your body too.
Speaker 1: The thing is is I never actually judged their surgery.
Speaker 1: I didn't say anything negative. I wasn't trying to make
Speaker 1: them feel guilty, and I wasn't even part of that
Speaker 1: whole conversation like that. There was never any words exchanged
Speaker 1: about her having weight loss surgery. But all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I was defending myself against an opinion that I never
Speaker 1: even actually had, and that that always sticks with me
Speaker 1: because sometimes we assume people are judging us because like
Speaker 1: that's what your mentality is. Maybe someone feels ashamed or embarrassed,
Speaker 1: but I've never judged that, Like I don't. I'm not
Speaker 1: judging you. Maybe when that was first starting to come out,
Speaker 1: I had my opinions on it when I was twenty
Speaker 1: years old. I'm almost forty now. I feel like I
Speaker 1: say that in almost every podcast episode. I'm gonna stop
Speaker 1: saying that I actually thought my last birthday I turned forty,
Speaker 1: but I didn't, so I aged myself before my time.
Speaker 1: But I'm just using that just to show you, like,
Speaker 1: there's there's a difference, and people's ideas and mindsets can
Speaker 1: change based on knowledge and based on experiences that they've
Speaker 1: also had. Because what we're doing in twenty twenty six
Speaker 1: is not the same thing that we were doing in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six anyways. So after coaching for so many years,
Speaker 1: that's a big sigh. I've coached people that have lost
Speaker 1: ten pounds. I've coached people and trained people that have
Speaker 1: lost two hundred pounds. There's people that have done personal
Speaker 1: training and group fitness with me who have had bariatric surgery.
Speaker 1: There's people that are taking GLP one medications. There's also
Speaker 1: people that I work with who have lost weight without either.
Speaker 1: And also as well, I've worked with people who don't
Speaker 1: want to lose weight at all. People simply want to
Speaker 1: get stronger, they want to reduce their pain, improve their
Speaker 1: blood pressure, they want to keep up with their kids
Speaker 1: if they have kids. None of those goals are more
Speaker 1: worthy than another. Every person's definition of success and what
Speaker 1: their well being is going to be different. I also
Speaker 1: think that we've attached a lot of morality to weight loss. Somehow,
Speaker 1: We've created this idea that if you struggled more, you
Speaker 1: deserve more credit. This also goes with nutrition. We were
Speaker 1: talking about this actually in our nutrition workshop and a
Speaker 1: couple of us said like, oh, yeah, we eat hummus
Speaker 1: out of a container. And then someone mentioned and they
Speaker 1: actually mentioned this in a kind way, and they said, oh,
Speaker 1: it's really easy to make actually, which I resonate with
Speaker 1: that as well, because I can make it and I
Speaker 1: can also buy it out of convenience. But I also
Speaker 1: brought up, like, there is no grade when I'm when
Speaker 1: I'm talking to someone about nutrition. If you need something
Speaker 1: that's convenient that's going to work for you. Then you
Speaker 1: can buy hummus out of a container that's already pre made.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna shit all over that because that's going
Speaker 1: to be better than the big Mac that you're going
Speaker 1: through the drive through with. And there's no morality to
Speaker 1: do with well, you only drink water, and you drink
Speaker 1: water in the occasional diet coke. Like that's not what
Speaker 1: I'm about. And that's don't show thro shade on people
Speaker 1: for what they put personally into their bodies in their context.
Speaker 1: So we don't think that way about almost anything else, right,
Speaker 1: Like we don't think about that, like, oh, you put
Speaker 1: the premium gas in your car, you put the diesel,
Speaker 1: you put the whatever gas you just putt in regular
Speaker 1: gas in my car. Like we don't judge based on
Speaker 1: those things. We don't say, oh, you wear polyester versus
Speaker 1: you wear cotton. We are more holier than now, Like
Speaker 1: we don't talk about that about but I actually I
Speaker 1: think there might be a religion maybe that does that,
Speaker 1: but like without even knowing that, Like we don't do
Speaker 1: that about anything else, Like people wear glasses, they get braces,
Speaker 1: some people need knee replacements. Hip replacements, people go to therapy,
Speaker 1: some people take medication for blood pressure, anxiety, diabetes ADHD,
Speaker 1: and we generally don't tell people that they should have
Speaker 1: done things naturally. Yet weight loss seems to be different
Speaker 1: in that context, All of a sudden, between nutrition and
Speaker 1: fitness and weight loss, everyone becomes a guru and everyone
Speaker 1: suddenly has an opinion about whether someone needs this or
Speaker 1: needs that, or whether they even earned what they've worked for.
Speaker 1: And this is where I ultimately stand. Okay, if your
Speaker 1: goal is to lose weight, I support you. If your
Speaker 1: goal is to gain muscle, I don't know if that
Speaker 1: would actually record properly, so I'll say that like a
Speaker 1: normal human being. If your goal is to gain muscle,
Speaker 1: I also support you. If your goal is to feel
Speaker 1: comfortable walking into a gym, I also support you. If
Speaker 1: your goal is to stay the exact same weight and
Speaker 1: improve your health, I also support you. Every option has
Speaker 1: its benefits risks, It has its trade offs. Every option
Speaker 1: has its own version of hard and those conversations. Again,
Speaker 1: that is for you and the mirror, and maybe you
Speaker 1: have a fantastic dot, so it's also in between you
Speaker 1: and your medical office. It is not for approval for
Speaker 1: your coworkers, or your family members, or the comment section
Speaker 1: on Instagram or Facebook or whatever people are using anymore.
Speaker 1: Because you are unique and you pick what works for
Speaker 1: you at the transformation station. I have never been someone
Speaker 1: who coaches just one type of person. I coach humans.
Speaker 1: I deal with humans. I love humans of pets too.
Speaker 1: Humans with different bodies. That's who I coach. Humans that
Speaker 1: have different histories, different genetics, different ethnicities, different health conditions,
Speaker 1: different limitations, different goals. If someone walks through my doors
Speaker 1: wanting to improve their life, I don't need them to
Speaker 1: do it the way that I would. I just want
Speaker 1: them to feel supported while they do that. I always
Speaker 1: say that we're under the umbrella of kindness, and kindness
Speaker 1: means recognizing that someone else's body isn't ours to manage.
Speaker 1: If someone's looking to become their own healthier version of themselves,
Speaker 1: the happiest version, or maybe they just want to simply
Speaker 1: live the life that they want to live, I'm going
Speaker 1: to clap for them anyway. All right, everyone, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening. If this resonated with you, feel
Speaker 1: free to like, comment, share, subscribe, and they'll see you tomorrow.