Speaker 1: Well, hello, thank you for pressing play, tuning in listening
Speaker 1: in to this podcast from Body and Soul called Healthy
Speaker 1: Ish with Me Felicity Harley. Oh yes, we're in the
Speaker 1: depths of winter people, and working out is hard.
Speaker 2: We get it.
Speaker 1: That's why this week we're filling your ears with lots
Speaker 1: of motivation. I'm joined today from Singapore by global cycle coach,
Speaker 1: motivator and mum Alicia Portelli.
Speaker 2: She makes it come back.
Speaker 1: She's been on the podcast before and she's here to
Speaker 1: give your motivation a big fat boost.
Speaker 2: She shares her.
Speaker 1: Top tips for keeping your exercise on track when it's
Speaker 1: so bloody cold outside. Anyway, if you do it like
Speaker 1: what you hear from Alisia listening to extra Healthy Ish,
Speaker 1: where she talks about how to get more out of
Speaker 1: your indoor cycling class, you can grab that wherever we
Speaker 1: get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 2: Have you back on the Alicia from Singapore?
Speaker 3: Yay, thank you so much for having me again.
Speaker 1: Now I have to say you have You are one
Speaker 1: of the most motivating people I've ever had on this podcast,
Speaker 1: so I think you're the perfect person to get on
Speaker 1: in the middle of winter.
Speaker 2: What how do you approach motivation?
Speaker 3: Interestingly, enough winter for you guys, and like summer all
Speaker 3: year round for me. But it's interesting because like I
Speaker 3: face the same thing every year in Sydney winter, where
Speaker 3: like I know that in summer, like you bound out
Speaker 3: of bed, you've got energy, it feels good, like the
Speaker 3: heat's on your skin. But then all of a sudden
Speaker 3: in winter it's cold and you want to hug the
Speaker 3: bed sheets a little bit more, and you know, you
Speaker 3: start to find yourself moving less and it doesn't feel
Speaker 3: as good, like it's gray outside. I think sometimes it's
Speaker 3: like making sure that you know on the daily that
Speaker 3: you've got a routine going on, and I know that
Speaker 3: it sounds really contrived and very monotonous. It's like okay, okay,
Speaker 3: But like if you have something that you're disciplined and
Speaker 3: dedicated to, like you're generally more focused in achieving it.
Speaker 3: And I also, this is going to sound really funny,
Speaker 3: but invest in really warm clothes because I personally hate
Speaker 3: the cold. So one of the things that really stumbles
Speaker 3: is like obviously getting out of bed. So if I
Speaker 3: make sure that I've got like a sleeping bag or
Speaker 3: something to get to where I want to get to,
Speaker 3: I'm more inclined to go because I'm not going to
Speaker 3: feel like it's too cold. I can't do this, like
Speaker 3: I want to stay inside keep warm. So there's some
Speaker 3: things that I've adopted to help.
Speaker 2: Do you know what.
Speaker 1: It's not silly at all because I always have a
Speaker 1: conundrum when it comes to clothing when if I go
Speaker 1: for an outdoor run, should I wear this? Should I
Speaker 1: wear the T shirt? Should I wait? Now, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be too calm in the single top. It's going to
Speaker 1: take me five minutes to walk up, like it's to
Speaker 1: warm up. It's that mental game of.
Speaker 2: What am I gonna wear to keep warm?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And also when I get warm, what can I discard?
Speaker 1: Is not too heavy to well throw if you're outside,
Speaker 1: so to speak, Well, that's it.
Speaker 3: I mean, like, I think the biggest learning I had
Speaker 3: was when I went to New York in January, and
Speaker 3: I like, I loathe the cold, like I want to
Speaker 3: live in the heat all year round, which is why
Speaker 3: I love Singapore. But I've never been in a space
Speaker 3: where it was so cold. And of course, like I
Speaker 3: must have had about five six layers on. And of
Speaker 3: course what I learned in between walking, aside from getting
Speaker 3: frostbyed on my fingers. Was that when the cold hit
Speaker 3: my legs it was like cryotherapy. And then when I
Speaker 3: got on the bike to train, I performed better. So
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, I went from hating the cold
Speaker 3: to being like, oh, this is making me perform better.
Speaker 2: So a simple change in mindset. It's just reining and
Speaker 2: then off.
Speaker 1: Figure, what about if you know, let's take you back
Speaker 1: to your Sydney days and you have a class full
Speaker 1: of people. They're all complaining they've got up early. Everyone's
Speaker 1: complaining that's cold. How do you motivate people to get up?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I loved morning class is because I'm
Speaker 3: usually bound full of energy and I don't really take
Speaker 3: bullshit with the whole like go go like what everyone's like,
Speaker 3: Oh god, I think at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: like you've managed to get there if it's cold, like
Speaker 3: we all warm up together. I usually start just with
Speaker 3: big energy, like it really does lead from the coach,
Speaker 3: and so like, if you find yourself around people that
Speaker 3: are not as motivated or not as energetic, like you're
Speaker 3: gonna probably it probably rubs off on you. So my
Speaker 3: suggestion is find people that you know spark that motivation
Speaker 3: in your spark that energy in you, so that like
Speaker 3: it almost like it rubs off and becomes a domino effect.
Speaker 3: As a coach, like I have a choice, like I
Speaker 3: can walk in feeling sad or like taking on the cold,
Speaker 3: or I can lead from a different place. And I
Speaker 3: always choose to lead from a different place because you
Speaker 3: don't pay me, or you don't come to see me,
Speaker 3: to to pander the you know, the lack of you
Speaker 3: come to see me, because like you want to feel
Speaker 3: something big or different, So that would be my suggestion,
Speaker 3: come come and find me.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure listeners you do this as well.
Speaker 1: But I often map out my weaker head based on
Speaker 1: who's coaching the classes, because particularly at this time of year,
Speaker 1: maybe in summer, I might it might be more around
Speaker 1: where my schedule is and oh yeah, oh you know,
Speaker 1: I can fit in a lunchtime class there. But now
Speaker 1: I literally look for people who are going to bring
Speaker 1: me up.
Speaker 3: The other thing I had to add to that as
Speaker 3: well is change your routine. If getting up in the
Speaker 3: morning is hard, find a lunch class or like take
Speaker 3: your lunch break to move so there's different ways around it.
Speaker 3: Or like we tend to find that evening classes become
Speaker 3: more popular in winter and less popular in summer. So
Speaker 3: where we get up early in Australia to train when
Speaker 3: it's warm so that we can enjoy the day, but
Speaker 3: when it's less inclined to get up, like, find different
Speaker 3: times that you can move, you know, there's no excuse.
Speaker 3: And I get that it's harder sometimes to have the
Speaker 3: motivation to go at night. But at least if you
Speaker 3: develop a routine, or you find people to go with,
Speaker 3: or like you said, find the right coaches, there's always
Speaker 3: an easy solve, or you know, finding different times where
Speaker 3: the weather feels more appropriate. Or I'm one of those
Speaker 3: people that I've just got to get it done, like
Speaker 3: is once it's done, it's done, you know, then I
Speaker 3: can enjoy the day. And I think actually James Smith
Speaker 3: did a post on this a while ago that I
Speaker 3: really identify with, and essentially it was like, get the
Speaker 3: hard stuff done first, because once it's done, then you
Speaker 3: can relax and enjoy the problem that we have as
Speaker 3: humans sometimes is we keep putting off, putting off, putting off,
Speaker 3: putting off, and then nine times out of ten, the
Speaker 3: putoff continues to get put off. So like tackle the
Speaker 3: things that you waste time on procrastinating on first, because
Speaker 3: then all of a sudden you've then opened up your
Speaker 3: day to explore so much more and do things that
Speaker 3: you love. Right, I mean, I personally love exercising, but
Speaker 3: that doesn't mean that every day I'm motivated to do it,
Speaker 3: you know, like it It's like, okay, get it done.
Speaker 3: Some days I love it, some days I bound out
Speaker 3: of bed. I'm like, yes, like I love coaching, ride
Speaker 3: ride is an exercise for me. But weight training, yes,
Speaker 3: like okay, cool, I've got to get to the gym
Speaker 3: and I don't have to do it. I choose to
Speaker 3: do it because it's good for me and it helps
Speaker 3: support the other things that I love and a healthy
Speaker 3: body and a healthy mind.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and acknowledging, I mean, I think the acknowledgment
Speaker 1: that I feel like doing this, just do it, and
Speaker 1: I have this mantra, yeah, think about how you'll feel afterwards,
Speaker 1: and that kind of gets me there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well exactly, like I mean, for most of the reason,
Speaker 3: Like for most reasons, people train to feel good, to
Speaker 3: feel good mentally, to feel good emotionally, to feel good physically.
Speaker 3: You can't ignore, you know, all of that, so you know,
Speaker 3: knowing that you're doing something good for yourself. Yeah, it
Speaker 3: might taste good in the moment, but you no, long term,
Speaker 3: that's not going to necessarily feel good later on energy
Speaker 3: wise versus you know something that like I still think
Speaker 3: tastes good, but like will fuel your body to be
Speaker 3: able to get you to do you know what you
Speaker 3: want to do? Yeah, and keep your insights healthy exactly.
Speaker 2: Now, how have you stayed motivated?
Speaker 1: You've had a pretty well tumultuous is that the word,
Speaker 1: or exciting past, also closing your business and moving overseas.
Speaker 2: How have you stayed motivated through this period?
Speaker 3: I guess I always come back to my goals and
Speaker 3: why I do it, and I coach my trainers in
Speaker 3: the same way. When you have a really solid why,
Speaker 3: you tend to not veer from it. So if you
Speaker 3: come back to your reason for doing it, and at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, if you can be really
Speaker 3: clear on why you do it, then you're more likely
Speaker 3: to continue it.
Speaker 2: I can't.
Speaker 3: I can't like lie and say that every day is
Speaker 3: felt like you know, a walk in the park and
Speaker 3: I've bound it out of bed and being like okay, cool,
Speaker 3: Like there's been pigs and troughs, and of course, like
Speaker 3: closing your business meant that I had to invest more
Speaker 3: time in tearing down walls, I had to invest more
Speaker 3: time in like selling bikes, and so then of course
Speaker 3: the things that I love doing or my fitness routine
Speaker 3: kind of went out the door. And I got to
Speaker 3: a point where I was a little bit out of practice,
Speaker 3: and that's really confronting, and I know that people face that,
Speaker 3: especially when there's periods of time where you know they're
Speaker 3: out of practice and they're out of shape, and so
Speaker 3: people tend to avoid having to go back, but unfortunately,
Speaker 3: sometimes you've just got to rip the band aid off.
Speaker 1: I train.
Speaker 3: I coached and trained at a place called Undercart in Sydney.
Speaker 3: Best Kim out there, just giving you guys a shout out.
Speaker 3: Great Jim, they're amazing. You probably didn't do my class
Speaker 3: so because you would remember me. But I started going
Speaker 3: back to their classes. I started getting up at six
Speaker 3: am every day and going to the seven to fifteen
Speaker 3: class and it sucked. For a week. I was awful,
Speaker 3: you know, it was confronting, Like my body hurt. I
Speaker 3: was slower than everybody else, like even picking up the
Speaker 3: weights that I used to pick up. I wasn't great
Speaker 3: at but within three weeks I was back to find form.
Speaker 3: So sometimes it's just about persevering, you know, through the
Speaker 3: hard stuff, and like that's also a life lesson and
Speaker 3: that's something I coached when we're on the bike, Like
Speaker 3: you have to face hard stuff and the more that
Speaker 3: you try and avoid it, it continues to build and
Speaker 3: grow and it's always going to be there. So you
Speaker 3: can choose to back away from the fire, you can
Speaker 3: step into the heat, like what's it going to be?
Speaker 3: That was my messaging class yesterday. It was like, you
Speaker 3: can choose to be defeated, or you can choose to
Speaker 3: be challenged, like what's it going to be defeated? Lie
Speaker 3: on the ground, don't get back up, challenged like let
Speaker 3: it cook you, but let it inspire you.
Speaker 1: I'm taking the heat in July, it was lovely having
Speaker 1: you on Healthyish.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us again.
Speaker 1: Thanks okay, people, no more excuses, none more sleeping in,
Speaker 1: throw the dinner off, get out there.
Speaker 2: I'm also saying this to myself. I need motivation. We
Speaker 2: all need motivation.
Speaker 1: Spring you the long way away. No, No, it's close,
Speaker 1: it's close. It's getting there anyway. I hope you did
Speaker 1: enjoy this chat with Alisha. If you doant listen to
Speaker 1: my last chat with her where we talked about rhythm writing,
Speaker 1: I will leave a link to that in the show notes.
Speaker 1: Jump on, tell us what you think about this episode.
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Speaker 1: edition which is out in your local Sunday paper, and
Speaker 1: until tomorrow. Go on, get out there, exercise and stay
Speaker 1: healthy ish