Key Behaviors for Successful Body Change with Teri Murray – Ep. 205

We all know it’s fundamental to do some type of physical activity regularly. The physical health benefits are immense, but the mental ones are also a huge deal. However, it’s also fundamental to know what works best for you. You might like running, yoga, CrossFit, bodybuilding workouts, or… walking. These are all valid and enjoyable modalities and all of them are part of a healthy routine.

In this episode, Dr. Jade welcomes Teri Murray. Teri shares that fitness has always been a part of her life and she has always enjoyed running and yoga, but throughout 2020 she fell in love with walks. Teri is about to complete 1000 days of walking 5 miles every day without missing one day and she is sharing her secrets today. Learn all the benefits of including walks in your routine and also the importance of having a healthy diet to transform your body.

Check out the Next Level Human sponsors!

• Go to athleticgreens.com/nextlevel to claim your free 1-year supply of vitamin D + 5 free travel packs with your first purchase!
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Connect with Teri

Website: www.terimurray.com

Instagram: @terimurraycoaching

Connect with Dr. Jade Teta

Website: www.jadeteta.com

Instagram: @jadeteta

TRANSCRIPTION:

Next Level Human

Episode 205- Key Behaviors For Successful Body Change

Host: Dr. Jade Teta

Guest: Teri Murray

Podcast Intro: [00:14] welcome to the Next Level Human Podcast. As a human, you have a job to do. In fact, you have four jobs; to earn and manage money, to attain and maintain health and fitness, to build and sustain personal relationships, to find meaning and make a difference. None of these jobs are taught in school and that is what this podcast is designed to do. To educate us all on living our most fulfilled lives through the mastery of these four jobs. I'm your host, Dr. Jade Teta and I believe we are here living this life for three reasons and three reasons only; to learn, to teach and to love. In this podcast, I will be learning, teaching, and loving right along with you. I'm grateful to have your company; here is to our next level.

Jade 1:18 

What's going on everybody? I'm here with my good friend Teri Murray. It has been a while since her and I saw each other we met years back it was we met at CrossFit right at CrossFit. Yep, cross the sandbox, which is no longer in business, unfortunately. But a lot of lovely people that I've made close friends with. And Teri and I got to get close while I was in Los Angeles. And we're just going to include you guys in a conversation. We're gonna see if this works. So you've been you moved into the health and fitness space, I'll get me caught up on what's going on with you.

Teri  1:52 

Yeah, well, it's something I've always kind of wanted to do. But I'm, you know, had a day job, I still kind of have a day job. But I've been in medical device sales for my career. And but, you know, I've always maintained some sort of passion for health and fitness, CrossFit. I was a yoga instructor for many years. And I've just always done these goals where I set a goal for the year. And so I set a goal, maybe two years ago, three years ago, for my daily walk, and then that kind of took off. And I can talk about that in a minute. But that really brought me back to this passion. And I decided to dig in and actually get credentialed certified. Learn more about proper nutrition, not just, I was always eating pretty well. But really understanding what I needed, you know, making sure I'm getting them right omega threes, and my ratio of six to three was right and things like that. So yeah, so now I'm certified to coach people for health and wellness, as well as I've my master certification for life coaching. So just helping people get through get unstuck in life, and professional sport

Jade  3:05 

an aspect of what we do is the mindset stuff, let me let me ask you, because you alluded to, you made a pretty big, like, I've always seen you as pretty damn fit like to me, you were never out of shape or overweight. And I know the way we all look at ourselves, though we can be harsher on ourselves. And you alluded to the fact that you made a pretty big transformation recently. And so is that when did that start? And I think it'd be a good opportunity to, you know, just me hearing about sort of your process and educating some of the listeners on that. And then me and you just talking shop about, you know, what, what this takes for some of the coaches, because on this podcast on my podcast, a lot of people are health and fitness professionals. But yeah, so tell me, tell me what, tell me what went on with you. And you know, because you and I probably have not talked if, you know, since way back before COVID? I think so. It's a bit a bit yeah.

Teri  3:57 

Like in early COVID was, yeah, you kind of helped me through a transition. And that's when this started, honestly, our relationship transition, but I have always been in fitness and then I was a gymnast as a two year old and just always been an athlete. So I've always had injuries, which kind of derail me, my knees have been shot for many years used to be a runner, obsessed with you know, loved running, cannot run anymore. If I decide to go running my knees hate me for three days. So that was a hard transition. But that's how I started walking. You know, and for a long time, it was like walking. That's a that's a rest day.

Jade  4:36 

Yeah, what the hell is that gonna do?

Teri  4:38 

And, you know, I will. I will tell you that in in putting out daily walk into my life has completely changed my life in every way. Like emotionally, physically. Spiritually, just energy. I just everything. Wait. So yeah, that's been kind of of the thing that I think is amazing too is that I'm a normal, you know, I'm a 44 year old woman with a full time career I am not I travel for a living to for work so I you know, I'm one kg which is the top status on United for like 10 years straight and lifetime platinum on Marriott like I literally live on a plane. So to have to, to be able to put this into my life has been work and dedication, but it's completely paid off. But you know, I don't want people to think I'm some 25 year old which clear you can tell I'm not. But you know, fitness is my entire life I get paid to work out. That's not my life. So I think that's what's helped inspire a lot of people in my circle is seeing how I've been able to embrace this consistency. And then seeing the transformations like people can see how different I look. Because yes, I'm 510. So I'm a muscular. So when I'm up 10-15 pounds, it's evenly distributed. I'm a critic on myself, but from somebody else, you might not notice it as much you can tell it put on five to 10. But it was really 10 to 15, whatever. But I mean, people that hadn't seen me in a while, are like, whoa, because I leaned out. And that was the walk.

Jade  6:14 

So let's break this down. Because it's something I also discovered mainly not for myself, I discovered it in my in my clients first years and years ago. And like you I was just like, surely, this is useless walking. But I discovered this idea because I started to understand metabolism is mostly about stress management. And walking tends to be an amazing stress management tool, taking the stress off the system. So when most people think of this, I think they first start going okay, so is this about just walking a ton? How do I start? And so when you first started making this commitment to walking, what was it? Were you just like, I'm just gonna walk a little more Did you set like daily step goals? Like how did it begin?

Teri  6:59 

It began going through a breakup. And I went back to the east coast to family right away, per our conversation. And the town I grew up in, is very hilly, it's the town people go to run and walk. And so I just decided to go for a walk one day, in July 2020. And I felt great and went the next day. And then it started to be like, I'm gonna start walking. And then I started to just, it was clearing my mind. And I was using that time to listen to podcasts, to audiobooks, just things that were like helping me get through the breakup. And you know, in that transition of next steps, but then it quickly turned into completely different things like I was, I was getting through the breakups super quick that I was like, onto other things, and then I'd miss a day here or there. But I started to really notice how much like, calmer I was how much like my anxiety, I'm a very anxious person, I run hot. And I was I was like, brought down were like, things that would have set me off. I was like, okay, and I could see that in myself. And people could see that in me. And I started to lose a little bit of weight. So then I started to try to go a little bit more so then it was like three miles, then it was four miles, then it was five miles. Then once I had five miles, sometimes I do six or seven, but I knew five was an achievable goal, but also a stretch. For me three is easy five, actually, I have to sacrifice a little bit more time. So that's how I got to five. And also being a runner, I used to run three miles. And I realized I burned the same amount of calories walking five than I did what running three. But it was so easy on my body that I could do it every day. I didn't need to recover. And so if I if I just didn't feel like walking one day, my rest day was I walked slower. Or I didn't walk hills. I walked flat like I just adjusted the walk. But the difference was I didn't not walk. I still got outside, got the fresh air got the vitamin D got the movement. And I will tell you, it got me through many hangovers. Like if you wake up and you're hungover, go through a five mile walk. And by the end of five miles, you're like, let's go. You're ready. But yeah, so that started in July of 2020. And then I missed a day on November 28 of 2020 to go golfing about an hour away. And the next morning I went on my walk and I thought why did I skip yesterday, I didn't need to skip yesterday, I could have made it work. And in that moment, I said, I'm going to not skip. And I didn't really know how long it would be. But I just said I'm not gonna miss a day. I'm gonna make this a priority. And today was 785 days that I have not missed five miles.

Jade  9:46 

Wow. Amazing. Well, you know what's so amazing about that? So I just want to repeat a couple things that I know you know, but let's just catch the listeners. So if you're listening to Teri, first of all, this is someone who's super big as he travels a ton, right, so that in itself, then she starts to walk, she didn't necessarily be like, right away, I got to have these goals. It was kind of gradual, she got into this rhythm. And the cool thing about it was is that it's adjustable for her. So sometimes you just walk super slow or less. And if you're if you're listening, now, how many? How many things do we do that you can do 700 plus a day. So it's a doable thing. And the interesting thing I have found about walking too, is that most people are resistant to it because it feels like work. And then they realize that one of the other things that Teri said, if we're listening to her is that she's multitasking a lot of different things. So it wasn't just a walk in stress relief. It was also, you know, sort of a library she's reading, she's clearing her head, she's thinking about work. So it, I imagine if I'm listening to you, Teri, and picking up everything, it made you more efficient, not less efficient. So it was sort of like, yes, it took some time, but you were making up, you know, other time. It's like one of these things that's like it is the only thing that you can multitask with where multitask actually works to your advantage

Teri  11:05 

right now, and it's so true. And like any goal, if you set a goal, you want to lose weight, or you want to get your MBA or you want to do something, it requires planning, discipline, consistency, sacrifice, and all of that I've had to do. So if I have a 7am flight. I'm up at 4am Like I've been, I've been in the hotel gym at 4am because I knew it was the only time in that entire day between traveling and work meetings that I would get that walk in

Jade  11:41 

for you, by the way like it so getting up before him a lot of people think oh my god, she's gonna be exhausted. But was that the kids went to

Teri  11:48 

bed earlier? Yeah, I knew I planned I said, Okay, I got to go to bed by nine, I can't have that extra glass of wine. So you plan ahead like I would book flights, looking at my schedule going well, when would I get to walk and I would literally craft my schedule or and block that time for myself. And that was the that boundary that I set for myself that that was I think the biggest game changer. The physical part is amazing, the stress relief. But setting that boundary going this is my hour takes me 75 minutes because I walk pretty fast. I do a sub 15 minute mile when I'm hauling ass, but it's, that's my hour, and you can't have it. There's 24 hours in the day, I'm allowed to have an hour. And that's the boundary that I try to help other people set whether it's walking, yoga, writing, whatever your passion is that you end up putting on the backburner to take care of everything else in your life. You should focus on at least an hour for you and what's going to help recharge your battery. So yeah, that's that kind of carving out that hour. So sometimes I would have to take a work call, you know to multitask. But if work was stressing me out. We're a shirt workout and my walk was to clear my head from work. So it could be both

Jade  13:06 

And let's get back to the show. You know we call so I call these I know you know this, but I'll share this with the listener. So one of the things that when you're doing life coaching and this is why by the way, those of you are listening that so many people are moving away from personal trainers and moving towards life coaches and moving away from their physicians and moving towards life coaches and why so many people are moving towards life coaching as a career versus going into medicine, or going into personal training are these other things and the reason why is because life coaching is kind of where the rubber meets the road and we call these habits if you can find these single things and it's not always walking but walking is a really good one. What we look for as life coaches is we go, what is one thing that this person can do? That is a keystone habit or a trickle down habit that makes all the difference in the world. So we're listening to Teri, right? She chooses this one thing. And she kind of eased her way into it. But once she started seeing the benefits, she's like, I'm gonna prioritize this one thing. And then what happened was, it trickled down to improving sleep, it trickled down to adjusting her alcohol intake, it trickled down to these other things, because she simply said, this is the thing that I'm where I'm going to stake my flag, right. And then all these other things that we're, you know, probably more priorities than she wanted them to be before she made walking V priority became, we're beneficially impacted. And so to me, when you're listening to Teri and I talk, take this rule. Now, it doesn't have to be walking necessarily. But Walking is one of these really big ones that trickles. Now sleep, by the way, is also a really big one. Because, you know, getting more sleep, you know, can trickle down to other things. But it looks like Teri started with this walk. And it began to trickle down in other ways. And so one thing I want to ask you, Teri, a lot of people go, Well, how much should I walk? You know, do I need to do it Teri style. And I remember the other thing about life coaching is that we're all different. So I know a little bit about Teri, and she is a very hard driver, like she sees like, let's get stuff done. She's very good at her job. She's very, you know, she's a little type A in that regard. And that's why she's so successful. Right? So you don't have to do it Teri style, there are ways to do it other ways, like counting your steps and just accumulating those steps, you certainly don't have to turn them into a sub 50 minute mile. I'm a very slow walker. But that's the cool thing. If you're listening to her, she's a justice, I'm sure sometimes Teri's probably going at my turtle speed. And other times she's going at her, you know, her sprint speed, but it's infinitely adjustable. So I'm wondering, what tips do you have? Because I know a lot of people are now seeing your transformation and hearing about this and going, what do I do? And so what are you recommending when they're just like I can't go for like five miles or three miles? What are you telling them?

Teri  22:11 

Well, so the, the, the minimum that I think everybody should do if they want to, especially as you're going into middle age, you we can't bounce back like we used to right, or bodies are slowing down and is 20 minutes, everybody can do something for 20 minutes a day, whether it's stretching, walking, biking, something but moving your body for 20 minutes a day, if somebody tries to tell me they don't have 20 minutes, I will sit with you on your calendar, and I will find it for you. And that's some of the coaching I've done is people always have excuses. And I used to have excuses. And that is what this this is also how this has changed my life is that I don't make excuses anymore. I know I have to get it done. I have to suck it up. I've gone out for drinks, and been like shit, I still got to walk. And I walk after a few drinks. Like, it doesn't matter. I don't say Oh, well, I'm not going to do it today. Because I know myself. I am typing. I'm all in, as you can see, or I'm like, forget it. So allowing myself to not beat myself up that I had to walk after a few drinks or I had to walk I had to split my walk up, you know, be between the day I hurt my hip. I don't know what the heck I did to it. But I was limping. I was I wouldn't miss I was like, I can't miss now I'm at like 690 days. So I walked a mile, went home stretched rest iced, chilled, walked a mile. Like I literally made sure that I counted five miles for the day. But I didn't do it in five miles. 15 minute pace, like so that was my, my compromise with myself to listen to my body. But still not make an excuse to say, Oh, I'm not going to do it today. Because if I missed one day, I knew I just missed another month. And that is what has kept my consistency and the consistency is what has changed my life. Not I walk sometimes it's rain shine for him hungover doesn't matter. I show up for myself. And I will tell you it has been 785 days and I have not been sick once. I have not gotten COVID and I live on a plane and I don't wear a mask. And I have not even had a cold. And I and I eat pretty healthy but I also drink alcohol and I have some Pinkberry here there which is lovely frozen yogurt, but I 100% believe it's my walk.

Jade  24:37 

Yeah, you know the interesting thing that I know about you because you know you and I have done this before we'll go have long lunches and sit there and we'll drink you know, and we'll and it's not like you're afraid of that. I'm not necessarily afraid of that either. But I think it's really interesting for people to hear perhaps someone who goes you know, Teri is oftentimes working oftentimes talking to people she will go out she'll drink she's not afraid of that stuff. But look at the results. She has gotten as a result of setting these boundaries, and now you're hearing some lessons, right? It's like, it doesn't have to be the walk, but you got to pick something, you really need to stick to it. In order for that to happen. It's got to be something that is a trickle down keystone habit that you will do. That is doable, and hopefully adjustable, as well. So the idea is, a lot of people will hear this and go, Oh, walking, walking, I gotta, you know, stick to a certain amount. No, you just have to pick something. Walking is a good one for a lot of people. And I do have one question about when you were in the cold, and how you made that work. But you just have to pick something, you can be consistent, that is doable. So I oftentimes say Is that doable for you? Realistically, if you look forward at three to five years, do you see yourself still doing this at this level? And you know, I think your answer is obviously yes. I don't even have to, you know, necessarily answer that for you.

Teri  25:49 

I'm scared of missing a day. I'm scared of what happens the like, I can't quit. I don't know how much longer this will go. But like, I hate to think of the day this the streak ends because I don't know how that'll affect me.

Jade  26:01 

I mean, I can give you some hints on that too, because I'm sure you can as well. But here's the way I look at that kind of stuff. What ends up happening is you have to recognize for all of us, right? When we go oh my god, I've got this thing that works well, the truth is we know how life is. So oftentimes, it may stop working, or something may happen that keeps you from doing but the lessons remain. So if you can't walk, right, you can do Tai Chi, you can do yen type Yoga, you can do some kind of movement, almost always, there's some kind of movement that you can do. One of the things I do when it's cold out, we'll see what Teri does. But when it's cold, because I'm in North Carolina, now we were I was out in Los Angeles, and you can walk pretty much all the time. But in North Carolina, what I do is now I have a three story townhome, and I will get on the phone. And I will just whenever I'm on the phone, which I'm on the phone quite a bit, I'll walk around, I'll just walk and paste through my through my house. I also use sauna unbuilt, a sauna in my house, which has some of the same mechanisms. It's a much more passive way of getting some of these benefits that walking gives you and so when you become aware of this stuff, we may be talking to Teri in you know, two years from now. And she's like, oh, yeah, so what ended up happening is now I'm doing much more Tai Chi, Yin type yoga, or just stretching or Yeah, Jade, I got a sauna, you know, and I'm doing sauna cold plunge now. And these kinds of things are things that we prioritize, and they get better. So let me ask you this. So you've lost a lot of weight. Which is funny, because I mean, like you said, though, I guess the way your physique looks, I would never have known you had that much weight to lose. But I'm curious. So to what degree now?

Teri  27:36 

And like my arms are toned.

Jade  27:40 

right? Yeah. Yeah, I imagine you'd look fantastic. I imagine that you look great. I haven't been able to see you in person in a while. But so what to what? Because a lot of people might say, Well, okay, Teri, so the walking, that was the main thing. And then what don't just walk with your diet? Yeah. Like, you know, let's tell them

Teri  27:57 

don't just walk. So the walking is the thing I will not miss. That's my my deal breaker. And yeah, as I evolve, I there I do think, okay, maybe I'll get to 1000 days, and then I'll shift my goal. But my goal will probably still I have to keep the 75 Minute commitment, because that's what it takes. So they're hard. And I want everyone to know, there are days I hate my walk. Okay, like, I don't want anyone to think I just love it every day. There are days where it is a chore. And I looking hate it. But I still do it because I know it is good for me. And I've seen what it's done for me. And then a couple of days later, it's beautiful out and I go back to it and I'm happy. But to your question about the cold. That's part of the planning. So I had to plan ahead. We've had insane rain here in Southern California. So there were days where I'd be watching the weather going. It's going to rain all day, where am I going to go? So I start reaching out to friends? And I'm like, Do you have a treadmill does your building have a treadmill who's got a treadmill and I literally drove I drove to a friend's house in West Hollywood. I live in Santa Monica. I drove to his house to walk on his treadmill. And that's my he's like, Damn, you're committed. I'm like, I can't quit now. But then another the next day, the rain said it wasn't coming. So I went out on my walk. Well, it lied and I got completely soaked. And I was like, You know what? I'll dry off. As soon as I get home.

Jade  29:23 

least you're in Southern California. It's not gonna be that freezing.

Teri  29:27 

Right and in Jersey, so I have I'm bicoastal now so I have a house in Jersey. My sister lives two blocks away has a treadmill. I joined a gym that a friend of mine hooked me up. They charged me 30 bucks a month. And I literally started to just I went there just to walk and then I started lifting weights there. But I don't go there to lift weights, I go there to walk and then I'll add something on. But if I walk it outside for that day, I usually don't go to the gym and lift weights.

Jade  29:52 

By the way, if you don't if you don't mind, let me just throw this in Teri. So just in case you guys didn't. So Teri is 44. And so by the way, I mean, what's interesting about this is most people, most women wants to hit about 35 Most men too, by the way, but they're that age range of like 40, especially 45 to 55. Most women are hitting perimenopause, and it becomes far more difficult to make any progress. And I will say this, if I had to choose one thing that makes the difference for because I work mostly my whole career has been with women in that age range. That's my whole career, funnily enough, and it has been stress reduction, primarily walking. And so I just wanted to point that out because I think a lot of people to see you they're gonna think you're younger than you are. You did mention that but I do want to point that out because most people are going in the other direction and wondering, why doesn't this work for me? And this is one of the things that I think we can say without hesitation is really big here but I want to know what you did with your diet because I think a lot of people would go okay, she'll she still drink she still enjoys herself. She's still like so. So what have you what have you gotten there? Has it just been sort of moderating what you're eating, have you done, you know, shifting the types of foods you're eating anything like that.

Teri  34:36 

And again, we're going on like three years here of me making these changes, but if I can remember back The walk started me losing some weight and feeling better. And I'm not gonna lie, it's like it's like winding up your watch or whatever the ones that, that wind themselves from movement. The more I move, the more energy I had to move and people would be like, here's that energy, I get up hungover because I drank wine the night before. So I'm not like dying hungover, but like I had wine. I wake up at 6am I walk five miles, I go play 18 rounds of golf, and I go drink again with the friends after we've golf. And then I do it again the next day. And everyone's like, how do you do that? Movement kept me moving. Like just like constantly moving. It was like refilling my energy and recharging me. But um, the more I started to do that, the more I, I wanted to eat healthy, and like I just, I slowly shifted to eating a very healthy diet, and we were in COVID, we were in lockdown. So a lot of people went the wrong direction during COVID, I actually completely revamp my life, and I'm a better person from COVID. So I take that as a win.

Jade  35:45 

You and I talk about this, by the way, when you went through, I remember when you were going through the breakup that we talked about the idea that these are great, these are great times, you know, to completely revamp things I can't remember we talked about that or not. Yeah, probably these big life shifts sometimes are the are the best times to rediscover ourselves and go, I'm gonna do something different. Cuz now I have more energy, you know, when you're when, when you're in a relationship. They're wonderful. But they also do take some of your energy away. I mean, usually it's, it's good, but

Teri  36:14 

it's hard to evolve yourself when you're in a partnership, because they're kind of they might not be evolving. So they're stuck. And you want to go here and they're like, whoo, and they're like, pulling you so when you're finally free. You can which way do I want to go and you can move maneuver faster.

Jade  36:30 

where it's not a tug of war, but you're both kind of moving in the same direction for sure. They have those are the best types.

Teri  36:35 

So yeah, so I'm, I don't even know where we just weren't but you know, I definitely see used it as an opportunity to make positive changes. And then I recently left my job in September. So I'm in the same thing. That's why I'm pivoting I'm going to pivot in my professional life as well. So I try to always find the silver lining and a situation that might suck in the moment, I can always know that I'm going to be so much better and stronger from it. So that kind of gets me through it. But my diet turned into pretty consistent. I have coffee with half and half every morning. So the half and half gives me fat, but essentially, for the most part, I'm fasting in the morning, but not intentionally. I just I want coffee. I did make a shift I got a Keurig so I was drinking way too much caffeine. So now my first cup is caffeinated. And then any cups I have after that or decaf, and that has very much helped my sleep. But um, I'll I haven't even eaten yet. I've been up since six and it's 915 and I walked five miles. So when I'm done with this, my breakfast is usually two scrambled eggs, two pieces of whole wheat toast with peanut butter. And sometimes that's too much food for me. So I just have one piece of toast. Lunch might be tuna might be a salad. It might if I ate my breakfast around 11 or 12. It might not be anything. And then dinner is chicken and veggies. So I'm no big fan of super boring chicken breast. So I decided boneless or discovered boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I lightly like using the brush, put a little bit of olive oil on both sides. So it's not like doused in olive oil but a little bit and then I season the shit out of it with McCormick chicken seasoning. It's game changing. Like cover it both sides. Air fry it. It's literally like fried chicken because the outside gets crispy with the seasoning.

Jade  38:37 

I love airfryer.

Teri  38:39 

Oh my gosh, I think I'm responsible for like 10% of airfryer sales since 2020. But literally, the inside chick the chickens super moist because it's dark meat. And it's a little bit fattier. But there's a lot more actual vitamin and mineral that you get from the dark meat that you don't get in the chicken breast. So yeah, the chicken breast has lower calories. But I'm not getting I'm getting nutrients from the dark meat that I wasn't getting in the white meat. And I enjoy it. It's actually delicious. I don't feel like I'm suffering through healthy diet.

Jade  39:11 

Yeah, and that's actually one of the things about that too that people need to understand is that if you're listening to what Teri's saying it's funny it's basically like she's doing things with her diet and with her lifestyle that she can keep doing like people go oh well the chicken is less calories but I go What difference does that make if it makes you eat more calories later? See what I mean? So she's doing something she likes that is doable. It's a little it's pretty seems pretty simple. And it's something that she's like, No this I can do and like to do and that's okay.

Teri  39:39 

And you can eat it every day. And you feel like you're you don't I don't feel like I'm sacrificing like you said and then I'm going to binge later or the next night have a steak. So I mean when I I do gain weight, I fluctuate five pounds. I I never don't fit in my clothes. I have been able to fit in my clothes for two years. That to me is huge. Because I have fluctuated 15 to 20 pounds in my life. But, you know, if I'm gaining a little bit weight, it's because I was eating out too much. I wasn't eating my healthy diet. I never stopped walking. But also, you know, my daily routine, I do 10 minutes of core, I literally set a timer and I don't stop doing Corp for 10 minutes, and I do 50 Pushups. And those are usually my minimum. And then if I have more time, I'll lift weights. I'll ride peloton, I'll do other stuff. So now we're looking at a two hour workout in a day between the walk and all of that. I don't always have time for that. But um, but yeah, so the the, the pushups in the core have helped the physique. But the diet even with doing all of that, when I'm eating out too much, and I'm not eating my at home regimen. I that's when I start to go up, by the way, but I also

Jade  40:54 

do you notice with menses that you shift? Are you still menstruating? I assume you are, but perhaps not. I don't know if you want to share but

Teri  40:59 

I have an IUD. And so I'm not supposed to be but I still do, like, so

Jade  41:04 

do you notice the shift with that, because I know a lot of women will be you know, that would discourage them. And I always say, look, I mean, that's kind of normal for some women with menses, it will fluctuate a little bit, and you have to kind of ride that otherwise, you know, there's going to be fluctuations, and you need to be, you know, sort of aware of that, and you seem to be aware of that. The other thing, I think that's important than just anything, you know, one thing I'll say and tell me if you have anything to add to this, but I think is important as those of you who listen, which I just think this is such a good, amazing transformation story is that it's what we tend to do, right is we go oh my god, look what Teri did. And then we go, I'm gonna do everything Teri, did Teri, tell me what you did? And I think the point, the actual point that I would want to point out to people is like, No, it's not what necessarily Teri did this is her formula, what Teri did is find her formula, you need to find your formula. Now that might include walking, it may not it may include an air fryer, it may not. Now one of the amazing things about this is that is you could do exactly what Teri does, which is would be a great start, like Teri could say, Hey, do XYZ do it like this is what I did. And then a good life coach, like Teri or myself, is going to probably tell you now that's just the beginning, we're going to see if it works for you, we're going to have to adjust and what she's going to be looking for. And what I'm going to be looking for is exactly what we've heard Teri's sort of say over and over again, you can tell she likes this lifestyle, she is enjoying this lifestyle. This lifestyle works for nothing about this lifestyle that Teri has created, she didn't find it, she created it for herself. And nothing about this lifestyle is wrong for her, it feels good. So you need to create your own. So sometimes you can copycat what I do or what Teri does, but eventually you're going to take pieces of that, that work for you, and keep them you're going to take pieces of that that don't work for you and let them go. And then you should already know some things that already worked for you. So this journey of life coaching and working with a life coach from my perspective is often really about helping you create the lifestyle. So Teri has created this lifestyle, by the way, it's an evolving lifestyle. So we might talk to Teri in two years from now. And like we talked about, she might be doing sauna a lot and not necessarily walking as much. But now that she understands how to create this and has done this for herself. And by the way, what's really cool, Teri, as you know, you probably already know this from working with clients, you get better and better at creating it for yourself as you get better and better helping other people create it for themselves because you start understanding the process. And I think that's a very powerful sort of way to look at this. So I don't know any other parting sort of wisdom or any other things you want to get into to wrap up. I just think this is such a really powerful sort of exploration and I also want people to know how to get in touch with you because I don't know if you're taking clients and all that kind of stuff. Okay, cool. So anyway, give us I think are really important.

Teri  43:54 

I will say a lot of people that have known me for a while they would see a picture with posted me in a bathing suit and be like, What are you doing? I need to know and so oh my God, you look great. Right, so I will let to finish the diet. With my chicken. It's usually two pieces of chicken thighs. Sometimes only one depends on how hungry I am. That's the other thing is I don't eat like when I'm not hungry anymore. I stop and then that's leftovers. But I also asparagus and broccoli are kind of like Staples, and I do olive oil and salt. And sometimes I I'll do grape tomatoes for baby portabella mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus, all of it on a baking sheet and bake it or chop it up olive oil, salt, throw it in the airfryer for the last four minutes of the chicken and then it's all done together. I mean, I had to play around with it to see how long it took and I have an airfryer to those homes. So each one cooks differently. So you have to you play around and I figured out what worked for me. But when you find something you like and It's like that's for me, I found what I liked. And I made that my consistency. So it's not what should I eat today, I already know what I'm eating my grocery going to the grocery stores, easy snacks, I have blueberries in my fridge, I have produce because it's not a process to me, right? I love produce. So that's always in my fridge for a quick snack. There's always hard boiled eggs, I have the little dash hard boiler. So if I need something on the fly, I take a hardboiled egg with me. So planning ahead and having healthier whole snacks. Like the goal for me is I eat real food, I don't eat packaged food as much as I can. And if if you need to, if it's less than 10% of your diet, you're usually going to be okay. It's people that are eating out a lot eating packaged food, a lot frozen food, processed food, all those preservatives that they put in, you know, when someone else makes the food for you. It's not going to be as good as if you just bought the ingredients. So that's my big rule of thumb. And I think that has been the, you know, the biggest catalyst in my weight.

Jade  46:00 

Let me ask you one more thing that I know people are gonna be super interested about with you and I and you know, I think you know, my ex-wife, Jill, who I'm super close with, did you ever meet her? She was at CrossFit for a little bit. I think I've met her but I don't know her. But so one of the things that's interesting about you and her both is both of you don't shy away from alcohol. And I know a lot of people are gonna go, Well, how are you doing that? And, and I know for Jill, it's the one vise she really likes she does it relatively moderately, but she's it's been in her life, you know, for pretty much ever and she continues to now she's What 41 I believe she continues to be in incredible shape. Same thing has that that she created her lifestyle that works for her. But any anything that you want to say about that? Because I mean, I imagine people go oh my gosh, she drinks alcohol. And the truth is, I know a lot of people who are super fit super healthy, who enjoy alcohol. And it's and it seems to me like you have these quote, is it really a vise if it doesn't cause you to eat worse foods later, and you're getting results? And do you use that to take the edge off at times? Is it just the only something you do now socially? Or do you still kind of because I know Jill, she enjoys wine, she's gonna have it. It's like some people enjoy chocolate. And it works for her. So I'm just curious if you want to have any tips for people about that, because I think coaches like you are really powerful because they're living real lifestyles. They're not like no, you can never drink. No, you can never have chocolate. No, you can. It's like it's everything you do allows for these things, but does it in a way that works for you. So I'm just wondering, any hints about that for people?

Teri  47:38 

Yeah. And I'm gonna be full, fully honest, I get two places where I'm like, Well, I'm drinking too much. And I see it and I feel it. So I'm doing dry January, which I don't love. But I feel amazing. Like, I cannot believe how clear and great I feel. And how leaned out my stomach is because I was drinking way too much through the holidays. And I noticed that in my in my stomach. So whenever I'm trying to like tone my abs, I cut alcohol. I mean, you can't it's really hard. You can maybe have a glass of wine, but you can't drink freely. If you're trying to really pop out the ABS maintaining is different than achieving, right when you're trying to lose weight, you have to be in a deficit to maintain you can be at level. So there are times where I have to pull back on alcohol for if I have physical goals, but for the most part, it's it is finding that balance. I don't crave sugar. I don't like sugar. I'm a salt person. I get sugar from alcohol. So therefore, at dinner if somebody wants dessert, I have to have dessert, I get another glass of wine. Like I don't want the dessert. And I will tell you I'm drinking or I'm eating gelato at night because I'm not drinking and I never have a lot

Jade  48:57 

That's worse.

Teri  48:59 

Yes, I'm hating it. But it's like filling that craving or that sugar, the sugar calories I'm not getting from the line. But I also know that in the summer like a lot of birthday parties and barbecues. And for me when I eat too much sugar and processed food and like nitrates, and just all of that, the next day I will wake up like with swollen joints, like it literally physically affects my body and I see it and that also keeps me from eating that way because I know just like when you drink too much alcohol you feel like crap the next day, when you eat crap. A lot of us we haven't realized how much it physically affects our bodies until you clean it up when you're eating clean. And you have a glass of wine, not a margarita. do love a good Margarita. Don't get me wrong, but I can't drink a margarita every day. I can have a Sauvignon Blanc, maybe a Cabernet but like those are cleaner alcohols then mixed drinks that have juices and fruits and all that sugar. So even just choosing what you're drinking it is a big thing

Jade  50:02 

yeah, so there's a creation process that happens around that as well. And that's what I kind of wanted people to see that you that's something you choose to have you work around it you notice when you're doing too much, you, you've created certain, you know, sort of things around that. And it sounds like for you, you know that if you don't have that it acts like it acts kind of as a buffer food for you, you might end up eating worse, and more. And so I think that's important to know. So anyway, my family's here and we're gonna I'm in Costa Rica told Teri so being Teri jumped on real quick to do this, and we're getting ready to run to the beach. But before we hang up, and we have that view, and I have to have a separate conversation because we wanted to talk about some life coaching stuff. So maybe we'll do another one of these and share it with everybody but tell everybody where they can find you because I know your have some openings for clients. So if someone wanted to work with you, and you know, follow you on social and all that to where can they meet you and hang out with

Teri  50:54 

you? Yeah, I'm Teri marie.com is my website. So it's TERI MURRAY. And then my Insta is at Terri Murray coaching, which is TERI MURRAY And I'm writing this in the chat.

Jade  51:17 

So it is terimurray.com. And at Teri Murray coaching in case because I was getting a little bit of feedback there. But this we use Riverside FM, by the way, so hopefully, Teri, you're recording and we got you but that's great.

Teri  51:32 

Yeah, I put it in the chat for me.

Jade  51:34 

Cool. All right. So I'm gonna I'm gonna run but I love you, my friend is so good to see you. And I'll text you when you when we get back from the beach. And then we can set up a different call to talk to talk shop and maybe we'll do it live for people as well. But you're amazing. Good to see you. Love you too, my friend. You've been listening to the next level human podcast with Dr. Jade Teta. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe and consider leaving a review. You make the biggest difference when you pass on your lessons and inspire others. That's why reviews like this are so powerful. Your words may be the only ones that resonate for someone else. Please remember the information in this podcast is for educational purposes only. Always consult your personal Physician or Therapist before making any lifestyle changes. Finally, thank you for where you are in the world. And the difference you make