Speaker 1: Good everyone. I am sitting in the podcast studio with
Speaker 1: some very very sore legs. I did the four and
Speaker 1: a half k run for the Kids yesterday, which is
Speaker 1: a phenomenal run here in Melbourne over the Boulty Bridge
Speaker 1: through the tunnel. Nearly twenty thousand people participate in absolutely
Speaker 1: you know goosebump vibe. It was fantastic and most importantly,
Speaker 1: of course, it's raising money for the Good Friday Appeal
Speaker 1: in the Royal Children's Hospital. Truly beautiful event to be
Speaker 1: a part of and something that I loved and we'll
Speaker 1: definitely be doing again. But today's guest couldn't come. Well,
Speaker 1: perhaps it's come a week too late, or perhaps it's
Speaker 1: come twelve weeks too late, because I didn't do a
Speaker 1: whole lot of training. If I'm being honest, going into
Speaker 1: yesterday's run, I probably did six longest slow runs to
Speaker 1: get a few k's in the legs before the race,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that isn't the ideal preparation, which we're
Speaker 1: going to find out today because we're going to talk
Speaker 1: to Lydier o'donald, who is one of us Alia's most
Speaker 1: well known running coaches. She's been a Nike running coach
Speaker 1: for the last thirteen years. She's got her own running
Speaker 1: app that is setting the world on fire, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to pick her brain about what I can do
Speaker 1: moving forward and as a runner or an aspiring runner. Basically,
Speaker 1: if you're looking for running tips at any level of running,
Speaker 1: make sure you stick around for that. And then I'm
Speaker 1: going to answer.
Speaker 2: This question, when we lose weight, what happens to the
Speaker 2: fat and where does it actually go?
Speaker 1: So let's get to that a little later on. I'm
Speaker 1: Sam Wood. This is the Woodlife. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1: So our guest today is a marathon runner, an ultra
Speaker 1: marathon runner, and a very very well credentialedren well known
Speaker 1: running coach, Lydia o'donald. Welcome to the wood Life. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I've got so many questions. My head is just spinning.
Speaker 1: Whether it's from people who just getting into running, or
Speaker 1: trying to do their first five k, or perhaps training
Speaker 1: for their first marathon. I don't really even know where
Speaker 1: to start. Let's start at the start. How did you
Speaker 1: get into longer distance running? How did it all start
Speaker 1: for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I started running when I was really young. I
Speaker 3: was one of those kids who just loved sport, did
Speaker 3: every sport I possibly could, and running was definitely something
Speaker 3: just that stuck with me. I think I didn't probably
Speaker 3: have the coordination skills for many other sports, so running
Speaker 3: just came quite naturally. So I started probably competing more
Speaker 3: seriously through high school. I had an incredible female coach
Speaker 3: who just kind of took me under your wing and
Speaker 3: was like, just enjoy it, has have fun doing it.
Speaker 3: Don't put pressure on yourself to be winning or running
Speaker 3: suit of times and paces. Just go out and have
Speaker 3: a good time. And so I had a really healthy
Speaker 3: relationship with running throughout my high school career. I had
Speaker 3: some really good friends that I ran with, and it
Speaker 3: was all just about being social and hanging out with them, really.
Speaker 3: And then when I was getting into my early twenties
Speaker 3: late teens, I started taking it a lot more seriously
Speaker 3: and started performing at a much higher level, and there
Speaker 3: was a lot more pressure put upon me, and so
Speaker 3: my relationship with running was quite turbulent through my early twenties.
Speaker 3: I think there were periods of time where I really
Speaker 3: loved it, and then definitely times through what I struggled
Speaker 3: a lot more I think in our sport, and we'll
Speaker 3: probably touch on the body image stuff a bit, but
Speaker 3: like thinking about and running, a lot of people believe
Speaker 3: that you have to be lean or you have to
Speaker 3: be light to be fast at running. And so a
Speaker 3: lot of that pressure came upon me where I was
Speaker 3: being told to lose a lot of weight and if
Speaker 3: I lost that much weight, I'd be able to run
Speaker 3: some mount faster. And yeah, it was pretty toxic environment
Speaker 3: for me to be in at that time. And so
Speaker 3: not only did I kind of form an unhealthy relationship
Speaker 3: with running, I also formed a pretty unhealthy relationship with myself.
Speaker 3: And yeah, probably took about five years to realize that
Speaker 3: it actually didn't matter what I looked like like it
Speaker 3: was long as I was fueling well and getting my
Speaker 3: training consistent, that's where performance was going to come. And
Speaker 3: so I battled with my body image for a while
Speaker 3: and fell down some disordered eating pathways, and once I
Speaker 3: kind of got quite unwell and quite circain, actually had
Speaker 3: some distructions my female with my female hormones. That's when
Speaker 3: I was like, Uh, this isn't right and I just
Speaker 3: want to love running for running and what it is.
Speaker 3: And once I had that kind of shift in my
Speaker 3: mindset around how I approached sport and running, I actually
Speaker 3: started performing so much better because it was more holistic,
Speaker 3: you know, I was actually tapping into how I felt.
Speaker 3: I wasn't trying to focus on just like being the
Speaker 3: best and making teams. It was like all of that
Speaker 3: comes as a byproduct of like actually just training consistently,
Speaker 3: and training consistently comes from eating well and looking after yourself.
Speaker 3: And I think touching on the mental health side of running,
Speaker 3: like it is a huge part of why I do
Speaker 3: what I do. Like I will get up and run
Speaker 3: every morning. You know, it's a non negotiable for me.
Speaker 3: It's something I do for my mental health. And like
Speaker 3: being a good runner and running fast just something I'm
Speaker 3: very privileged to have. Like I'm just lucky to be
Speaker 3: able to run those speeds and run those paces. But
Speaker 3: as long as I can just move my body in
Speaker 3: a healthy way, that that's the most important thing for me.
Speaker 3: And I've had my own mental health challenges and like
Speaker 3: using running not as the only tool, but as one
Speaker 3: of my tools to help me kind of battle through
Speaker 3: those has really helped as well. And I actually started
Speaker 3: a running community back in Auckland probably about ten years
Speaker 3: ago now called One Step, and it was all about
Speaker 3: bringing people together who were struggling with their mental health
Speaker 3: from anxiety or depression, people who may have never even
Speaker 3: thought about running and movement as a tool to help
Speaker 3: to get them together. And so we were getting people
Speaker 3: together once a week in different seties across New Zealand
Speaker 3: and Australia. And these people were really unhealthy in their mind,
Speaker 3: like they were really battling some really sad challenges and
Speaker 3: getting people together to share those lived experiences and do
Speaker 3: it through the form of movement. It was so powerful
Speaker 3: and it really showed me how amazing running can be
Speaker 3: for mental health. And yeah, like I said, it's not
Speaker 3: the only tool, and it shouldn't be your only tool
Speaker 3: to help your mental health, but it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have seen similar benefits from my own fitness community.
Speaker 1: It's just it's often when people are not taking care
Speaker 1: of themselves physically. It's not a physical thing. You know
Speaker 1: that the source of the concern is an emotional thing
Speaker 1: or a psychological thing, or a family issue or a
Speaker 1: relationship issue, and it's wonderful when you can see them
Speaker 1: come together through a fitness aspect, but then help each
Speaker 1: other on so many other levels. And from a mental
Speaker 1: health perspective, I couldn't be a bigger advocate for what
Speaker 1: you're saying. Whether it's a five k or a fifteen
Speaker 1: K or twenty five k, there's something magic about it.
Speaker 3: Perfinitely. I think I'm a massive advocate for a running
Speaker 3: first thing in the morning, and I think.
Speaker 1: It may too.
Speaker 3: A part of it is because running is hard. Even
Speaker 3: at my level, running is hard, Like a lot of
Speaker 3: the runs I go on are challenging, and you go
Speaker 3: through periods of feeling good and bad and whatnot. But
Speaker 3: you overcome a challenge as soon as you wake up,
Speaker 3: you know, as soon as you get out there door
Speaker 3: and you start sweating and moving your body and you
Speaker 3: go through those challenging periods in a run, you come
Speaker 3: back feeling so like satisfied and confident in yourself. And
Speaker 3: I think society on the day, yeah, Sidy lacks confidence.
Speaker 3: We all lack confidence, but more particularly women, like they
Speaker 3: really do lack confidence from the world that we've grown
Speaker 3: up in. You know, So seeing women get out there
Speaker 3: in the morning, go for a run, gain confidence through that,
Speaker 3: and then take that confidence to the workplace, in other
Speaker 3: areas of their lives, Like, there is so much beauty
Speaker 3: in that, and that's why I really encourage. If it's
Speaker 3: not running for people, that's completely fine. I totally get
Speaker 3: not everyone is going to love it. Yeah, but whatever
Speaker 3: form of movement that is for you, like just doing
Speaker 3: that first thing in the morning, you get that sense
Speaker 3: of reward immediately and you get their confidence, which is
Speaker 3: something that we all lack.
Speaker 1: So so just just on that, whether you think there
Speaker 1: is or not, or whether you can admit it or not,
Speaker 1: there's a runner in all of us. So don't you
Speaker 1: know if you can run five hundred meters, there's a
Speaker 1: runner in you. Trust me, and you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying a marathon runner necessarily, and I'm not saying, you know,
Speaker 1: a two forty marathon runner in any of us perhaps,
Speaker 1: but there is a runner in all of us. And
Speaker 1: it's a great Whether you want to wake it up
Speaker 1: or not, there's a great thing to wake it up.
Speaker 1: How how do you encourage people to get into running?
Speaker 1: And typically what distance do you start with? Because five
Speaker 1: kilometers to some people it's nothing, five columns to some
Speaker 1: others is a long long way. And I totally have
Speaker 1: empathy and respect that what is your advice?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny because so many people can't even say
Speaker 3: the word like that they are a runner or you know,
Speaker 3: we you refer to anybody that has any person has
Speaker 3: a body as an athlete, and so we call everyone athletes.
Speaker 3: And it's funny you see people tints up when you
Speaker 3: call them an athlete or even a runner.
Speaker 1: Uncomfortable.
Speaker 3: I know, I'm not a runner. I'm like, oh, but
Speaker 3: you run. They're like, yeah, I only run link two
Speaker 3: or three times a week, and I'm like, you're definitely
Speaker 3: a runner. Even run in your life. You're a runner.
Speaker 3: So just even getting people's like to be confident enough
Speaker 3: to accept that they are a runner is hard enough.
Speaker 3: But I think when we take it back and get
Speaker 3: people into running and really encourage them to go from
Speaker 3: say couch to five k. The five k distance is
Speaker 3: funny because I think it's one of those distances people
Speaker 3: throw out and they're like, oh, if I can run
Speaker 3: five k, then I'm a runner. And that's what people
Speaker 3: immediately think that they have to be striving for to
Speaker 3: be considered a runner. And then even like put their
Speaker 3: running shoes on and go out the door.
Speaker 1: That I don't know. And then when my dog made
Speaker 1: me run for time and my first cave was probably
Speaker 1: my slowest plant.
Speaker 3: Thank God for your dog.
Speaker 1: It was a great change running for time as many.
Speaker 3: So that's what I do really with people who want
Speaker 3: to get into running. I just strip back all expectations,
Speaker 3: strip back all the pressure, just say I don't care
Speaker 3: how fast or how far are you run. The best
Speaker 3: thing you can do if you want to build running
Speaker 3: into your life sustainably is give yourself the time and
Speaker 3: be patient with your body. Running is a really high
Speaker 3: impact sport and most of our bodies, if you haven't
Speaker 3: run before, our bodies are just not conditioned to it.
Speaker 3: So what a lot of people do is they throw
Speaker 3: themselves in the deep end. They say I'm going to
Speaker 3: run a five or ten or a half marathon because
Speaker 3: that's what the running world tells me I have to do,
Speaker 3: and then they give themselves eight weeks to do it,
Speaker 3: and then within eight weeks their bodies crumbled. They've had
Speaker 3: a really negative experience with running. They have a lot
Speaker 3: of negative connotations that come along with the word running,
Speaker 3: and they just never want to be part of that
Speaker 3: community ever again. And so what we try to do
Speaker 3: is just like pull it all back and be like
Speaker 3: take your time. If you can be building running into
Speaker 3: your life really slowly and be patient, then you will
Speaker 3: have a really sustainable relationship with running.
Speaker 1: So what is your advice to people if they are
Speaker 1: standing into running and they want to increase their distances
Speaker 1: regarding how many sessions a week would you sort of
Speaker 1: as a general rule do you think is best?
Speaker 3: I think for someone who is just getting started, it
Speaker 3: depends on their life and how much they want to
Speaker 3: commit to the training too, because there's no point me
Speaker 3: sitting here and being like, go and run five times
Speaker 3: a week when they've got lots of children or they've
Speaker 3: got a really busy work life and they just can't
Speaker 3: fit it in. So ideally like starting with two to
Speaker 3: three runs a week, I think that's really like achievable
Speaker 3: for a lot of people. And when you're starting off,
Speaker 3: you know, ten to twenty minute runs, breaking them into
Speaker 3: walk runs is really good, Like, I think giving that variety.
Speaker 3: So I wouldn't just say to someone I'll just run
Speaker 3: ten to twenty minutes three times a week, because that's
Speaker 3: so boring and that's like not how to build like
Speaker 3: a fun relationship with running, so we want to give variety.
Speaker 3: So usually in those three sessions, one of those sessions
Speaker 3: might be like a walk run, depending on how they
Speaker 3: feel and they can play with the numbers. It might
Speaker 3: be lamp post a lamp post. It might be one
Speaker 3: minute on one minute walking, whatever feels right for them.
Speaker 3: And then I usually get all my athletes, no matter
Speaker 3: what level they're at, to do strideouts, which are essentially
Speaker 3: like a sprint, but not one hundred percent, so around
Speaker 3: that seventy five to eighty percent of full effort just
Speaker 3: to get their legs used to turning over a bit
Speaker 3: quicker than just a jog. So usually it might be
Speaker 3: like a ten or twenty minute run walk, and then
Speaker 3: maybe five ten second stride outs, which shouldn't be like
Speaker 3: killing you, like you shouldn't be getting to the end
Speaker 3: of the even having to fall on the floor. You
Speaker 3: will feel tired, but you should be able to kind
Speaker 3: of give it a few minutes and then go again.
Speaker 3: And then the second session might be a speed workout,
Speaker 3: so we might break that down initially like four hundred
Speaker 3: meter repeats, which sounds like it should be a fast workout,
Speaker 3: but for a beginner four hundred meters are still a
Speaker 3: long way, so just keeping that at like a steady,
Speaker 3: steady pace, or it might be based off time, so
Speaker 3: it might be going do a two minute effort and
Speaker 3: then give yourself to two to three minutes to recover.
Speaker 1: When we say regarding going to track, yeah.
Speaker 3: Running tracks can be quite intimidating for a lot of people.
Speaker 3: So even just getting on an over a forty fields
Speaker 3: like a good way to kind of not feel like
Speaker 3: you're a full athlete or a full runner, trigging yourself
Speaker 3: into the coming one. So yeah, speed sessions are good
Speaker 3: fluctuating that heart rate, so getting the heart rate quite
Speaker 3: high and then giving yourself that time to recover. The
Speaker 3: fittery you get over time, the less recovery will give
Speaker 3: you your heart rate will just recover a lot quicker, and
Speaker 3: then the third session is kind of that like long run.
Speaker 3: So for a beginner, we might be getting you to
Speaker 3: go out for thirty minutes or even forty minutes, but
Speaker 3: half of that time you're walking, and it's just getting
Speaker 3: used to time on feet. So at my feet thirty
Speaker 3: or forty minutes run walking, and the first week you
Speaker 3: might be doing fifty percent of it running fifty percent
Speaker 3: of it walking. The second week you might go up
Speaker 3: to sixty percent running forty percent walking. Within about six
Speaker 3: weeks is my aim to get people consistently running for
Speaker 3: about thirty to forty maybe forty five minutes, which for
Speaker 3: some people is five k some people might be a
Speaker 3: little bit longer. And so six weeks is a really
Speaker 3: good amount of time to give yourself to time to
Speaker 3: get used to being in a structured program, getting used
Speaker 3: to putting your shoes on and going out the door,
Speaker 3: getting used to the impact of running. And then after
Speaker 3: six weeks is when you kind of look at it more.
Speaker 3: I would say serious running program, which might be like
Speaker 3: an eight week training program to build up to say
Speaker 3: tink or a Tink race, or whatever whatever your goal
Speaker 3: might be. But for those longer distances like halves and
Speaker 3: full marathons, I would say you want to be running
Speaker 3: for at least a year before you start building into
Speaker 3: those longer distances. I know people definitely put them on
Speaker 3: the bucket list. I just want to run a marathon
Speaker 3: just to run the marathon, and that's totally fine if
Speaker 3: that's what people want to do, I just don't encourage it.
Speaker 3: As a coach. Because my goal at the end of
Speaker 3: the day is to make people love running and enjoy
Speaker 3: it and want to do it forever, not just take
Speaker 3: it off the bucket list and then never do it again.
Speaker 1: I love that the slow run can be walking and jogging,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to be running that PB pace
Speaker 1: every weekend. In fact, that'll put a fair bit of
Speaker 1: toll on your body and you probably won't enjoy your
Speaker 1: running as much. And I've experienced that myself. That long
Speaker 1: slow run where I'm almost oblivious to how far I've
Speaker 1: gone on what pace I was running at, but I
Speaker 1: know how long I was gone for because I kind
Speaker 1: of looked at my watch, whether I wasn't even timing
Speaker 1: it or heart rating it or anything, is the most enjoyable,
Speaker 1: and I sort of crave those sessions. I'd really look
Speaker 1: forward to that long side run now.
Speaker 3: It's so good it is, and a lot of runners
Speaker 3: kind of get caught up and trying to run as
Speaker 3: fast as they possibly can all the time without the
Speaker 3: I guess experience and knowledge of periodization, which is so
Speaker 3: important in any sport, in any physical activity that you do,
Speaker 3: you need to periodise you're training, not just across I
Speaker 3: guess a training block, but even within a week, you
Speaker 3: definitely have to look at days where you're taking it easy,
Speaker 3: resting recovery so that you can make the most out
Speaker 3: of your hard session. So if I was going out
Speaker 3: and running race pace for my long runs on the weekends,
Speaker 3: when it actually came to my quality speed session where
Speaker 3: I actually wanted to make a lot of speed gains,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be able to execute that session as well
Speaker 3: as I could if I had, you know, if I
Speaker 3: hadn't gone and smashed myself in my long run, If
Speaker 3: that makes sense. So period days and your training throughout
Speaker 3: the week, making sure that there is purpose behind every
Speaker 3: session you're doing. There is purpose behind the long run,
Speaker 3: building endurance and aerobic fitness. Purpose behind your speed session.
Speaker 3: It's your anaerobic fitness and getting your heart rate really high.
Speaker 3: There's purpose behind your easy runs. So although I run
Speaker 3: every day, there's days where I go really slow. You know,
Speaker 3: I'm pulling the pace right back. It's nowhere near my pace,
Speaker 3: my race pace. I wouldn't even hit my race pace
Speaker 3: in long runs ever. Really, maybe a few weeks out
Speaker 3: for a marathon, I'll test the marathon pace and some
Speaker 3: of the long run sessions, but barely ever. But knowing
Speaker 3: this purpose behind it all, you know. And that's why
Speaker 3: I think having a goal and a training program to
Speaker 3: work towards that goal is so beneficial, because without that
Speaker 3: knowledge and that structure, you do just think you have
Speaker 3: to go out there and run as fast as you
Speaker 3: possibly can every day to get better. And it's not sustainable.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot more science to it than people realize.
Speaker 1: Is that periodization of volume, when to ramp it up,
Speaker 1: when to back it off. Actually scheduled recovery runs or
Speaker 1: recovery sessions. What do you do for recovery?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it really depends on what training block
Speaker 3: them in. If I am in a marathon training block,
Speaker 3: I'm super focused and serious and I'll do all the
Speaker 3: little one percent is to improve recovery and improve performance.
Speaker 3: So I'm pretty ain't all about my sleep. I will
Speaker 3: sleep a lot, Like I'm pretty much going to be
Speaker 3: at nine o'clock every night. I wake up pretty early,
Speaker 3: but at least eight to nine hours sleep every night.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. If you've done that long run in the morning,
Speaker 1: now it comes to eight o'clock and be like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm totally white.
Speaker 3: Totally, and I think during a marathon block, I will
Speaker 3: make sure that I have time to nap throughout the
Speaker 3: day as well, so sleeper is like long sleeps. I
Speaker 3: think training for rais is one of the best things,
Speaker 3: because you do you have to be super selfish and
Speaker 3: you make all these decisions that are really right for
Speaker 3: you in the moment. Fuel nutrition, like really making sure
Speaker 3: you're eating enough. I think a lot of people are
Speaker 3: underfueling and not consuming enough calories for how much they're burning.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people when they start running,
Speaker 3: they just think that they should be eating what they've
Speaker 3: always eaten, not realizing the energy output has increased so
Speaker 3: much that they actually need to eat so much more
Speaker 3: to make sure that their body is imbalanced. So I
Speaker 3: eat a lot of food. I eat a lot of
Speaker 3: carp hydrates. I've definitely had my own challenges and battles
Speaker 3: with different diets and trying different things, and I think
Speaker 3: it took me to about twenty eight to realize like
Speaker 3: what actually worked for my body and what I needed
Speaker 3: to consume to make sure I could execute training well
Speaker 3: and perform well. And I'm stoked that I now know
Speaker 3: that I just wish I probably knew earlier. I do
Speaker 3: a lot of strength work, which it might sound weird
Speaker 3: that it is recovery, but I make sure that you know,
Speaker 3: everything I do outside of running is going to compliment
Speaker 3: my running. So when I go to the gym, it
Speaker 3: isn't about getting my heart rate up and smashing myself
Speaker 3: in the gym. So I do pretty heavy lifting, and
Speaker 3: it's all really specific to running. So like deadlifting, squatting, lunching,
Speaker 3: leg press, lots of glute stuff. There's a lot of
Speaker 3: things that happen outside of running that will help with
Speaker 3: the running. But it is just making sure you're like
Speaker 3: looking after yourself essentially at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: like you've got to be so tuned into how you
Speaker 3: feel and really taken to account all your other stresses
Speaker 3: that are going on in the research.
Speaker 1: So I was doing for today's chat, I heard you say,
Speaker 1: because I was interested in what you did for people's technique,
Speaker 1: what you did for people's form. You know, how did
Speaker 1: you you know, is it keeping your head more, still,
Speaker 1: lifting your knees up, getting the body tilt right? And
Speaker 1: I heard you say you typically let people just be,
Speaker 1: you know, you let people run the way their body
Speaker 1: naturally moves and you only make adjustments if they're getting
Speaker 1: pain or discomfort.
Speaker 3: I'm all about moving as naturally as possible. You're born
Speaker 3: that way and that's the way that it feels around.
Speaker 1: For it sting through Central Park with your hands and
Speaker 1: rats to go with it, my head always.
Speaker 3: Goes, well, you look at some of the fastest runners
Speaker 3: in the world. You would look at and think they
Speaker 3: have terrible techniques, but they move so well for the body,
Speaker 3: you know, and it works for them, So why would
Speaker 3: you go and change that?
Speaker 1: I feel like we could talk running all day. Tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about the business that you've got going.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So we started Fimmi in twenty twenty. It's a
Speaker 3: running coaching company for women. It's really was built off
Speaker 3: the back of myself and may co founder and best
Speaker 3: friendistas lived experiences as female athletes. There's a huge lack
Speaker 3: of understanding and education around female physiology. So only six
Speaker 3: percent of sports science studies are actually done on women,
Speaker 3: meaning that they do all the studies on men and
Speaker 3: crazy that is, take what they learn about men and
Speaker 3: apply it to women. So you know, there's a huge
Speaker 3: lack of education around female menstrul cycles, female hormones, how
Speaker 3: they actually affect our you know, how we feel abou
Speaker 3: also our performance, And so myself and ister went through
Speaker 3: these journeys learning a lot more about our own bodies
Speaker 3: and actually learning that our minstral cycles are incredibly powerful.
Speaker 3: Female bodies are amazing and if we actually know what's
Speaker 3: going on internally, what we do externally can be enhanced.
Speaker 3: So we started FIMI to educate other women about their
Speaker 3: periods and the minstrual cycles and how you can actually
Speaker 3: adapt your training to your cycle. FIMI was really built
Speaker 3: to educate female runners on how their bodies work internally,
Speaker 3: and then we adapt all of the training for them
Speaker 3: around their cycle. And we've been working with hundreds of
Speaker 3: athletes over the last couple of years, and now we're
Speaker 3: moving into the tech space, just trying to build technology
Speaker 3: for women to learn more about their bodies and be
Speaker 3: given the appropriate training that's been built for them and
Speaker 3: not for men. And I think for us, we just
Speaker 3: really want to make women feel confident in themselves. And
Speaker 3: I think there is this huge piece of like learning
Speaker 3: about your body and becoming educated about what's going on.
Speaker 3: There's a huge empowerment piece that comes along with that
Speaker 3: and if we can allow women to feel empowered in
Speaker 3: their bodies through movement and education, that's kind of the
Speaker 3: end goal.
Speaker 1: Here's the power of running, Here's the power of the
Speaker 1: female body. And thanks so much for joining us on
Speaker 1: the Woodlife Lydia. Thank you any money. As I said
Speaker 1: at the top of the show, a lot of that
Speaker 1: information probably would have helped me about twelve weeks ago.
Speaker 1: But I really do have the bug with my running
Speaker 1: after the weekend, and I'm going to me to take
Speaker 1: that advice on three runs a week one of them
Speaker 1: sort of a bit faster with some stride throughs, one
Speaker 1: of them some speed or interval work at the running
Speaker 1: track or even at a footy oval, and then the
Speaker 1: last one on the weekend, a long slow one. I'm
Speaker 1: going to make sure I get my recavalry right. Get those.
Speaker 1: I think it's one of them. It's like anything with training,
Speaker 1: you know, are you following a program? If you're not
Speaker 1: following a program, you definitely won't be maximizing your results.
Speaker 1: I have that conversation with people on a daily and
Speaker 1: weekly basis when it comes to their gym programs or
Speaker 1: their at home training programs. Why would running be any different.
Speaker 1: I'm going to put that into practice. I hope you
Speaker 1: got something out of that interview. And as I said
Speaker 1: at the top of the show, I'm now going to
Speaker 1: get a little bit of assistance answering a question that,
Speaker 1: to be honest, is probably a bit above my pay grade.
Speaker 1: So we're brought in an absolute expert. But that's up next.
Speaker 1: So I was asked a question on the podcast the
Speaker 1: other day, and the question was.
Speaker 2: When we lose weight, what happens to the fat and
Speaker 2: where does it actually go?
Speaker 1: And you know, you got to admit when you're out
Speaker 1: of your pay grade, I don't know how to I
Speaker 1: think I sort of know, but I'm not one hundred
Speaker 1: percent confident that if I give that answer, I know
Speaker 1: exactly what I'm talking about. So I thought we should
Speaker 1: ask an expert and find out exactly where the fat
Speaker 1: loss goes. So that's exactly what we've done, and we've
Speaker 1: got scientists, author, public speaker, Rubin Meerman, Reuben, welcome to
Speaker 1: the Woodlife.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Where does the weight I use the iniverted commas, the
Speaker 1: weight or we want to lose fat? Where does it go?
Speaker 4: Yes, the killograms as opposed to the killer jewels or
Speaker 4: the calories.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, exactly, we're burnt off the calories. But where
Speaker 1: do the kilograms go? Yeah, no, great distinction.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And they're both equally fascinating and very poorly understood
Speaker 4: by even the people who research the stuff. So just
Speaker 4: so that you know, you don't feel like this is
Speaker 4: something you should have known and it's all your fault
Speaker 4: that you didn't. But the stuff that you are losing,
Speaker 4: the stuff that you want to lose out of your
Speaker 4: fat cells is literally that's exactly the same chemical composition
Speaker 4: as olive oil. And it's yellowish because of when you
Speaker 4: eat any food that's the natural fats that you eat
Speaker 4: have yellow substances in them, which are precursors to vitamin A.
Speaker 4: But the fat itself is perfectly transparent. It gets turned
Speaker 4: into invisible carbon dioxide. Gas happens inside your cells, and
Speaker 4: that carbon dioxide enters into your bloodstream and then you
Speaker 4: end up breathing it out of your lungs and that's
Speaker 4: where eighty four percent of the weight that you lose
Speaker 4: goes out of your lungs and the last sixteen percent
Speaker 4: all of that turns into water, and those are your
Speaker 4: two final products. So it's amazing. If you lose ten
Speaker 4: kilograms out of your fat cells, eight point four of
Speaker 4: those kilograms come out of your life lungs as CO
Speaker 4: two and one point six of the kilos that we're
Speaker 4: in your fat cells will turn into water, and you
Speaker 4: recycle that water for a little while until you lose
Speaker 4: it the usual way. But here's some bigger numbers are
Speaker 4: to make all of this happen. Actually, to turn ten
Speaker 4: kilos of human fat into carbon dioxide and water, you
Speaker 4: need to inhale twenty eight kilograms of oxygen. There's a
Speaker 4: lot of breathing, a lot of breathe. You can't just
Speaker 4: sit in your chair at home and hyperventilate your way
Speaker 4: to losing weight, which is the first question I always
Speaker 4: get asked. And when people first hear this, it doesn't
Speaker 4: It still doesn't really makes a little bit of sense.
Speaker 4: But because carbon dioxide is invisible, you never notice that
Speaker 4: you're always breathing out carbon dioxide. So it's not only
Speaker 4: when you're losing weight that you're breathing out carbon dioxide.
Speaker 4: It's one hundred percent of the time. You could call
Speaker 4: it one of your vite signs that you know if
Speaker 4: you're not breathing out carbon dioxide. That's a medical emergency
Speaker 4: because you're always breathing it out, it's not just when
Speaker 4: you're losing weight. So the first thing about hyperventilating that
Speaker 4: then makes sense is if you sit still and just
Speaker 4: breathe more than you need to, you're going to pump
Speaker 4: out more of the carbon dioxide that your body's making
Speaker 4: then you can replenish it with. So if you're sitting
Speaker 4: still in a chair, you need to breathe at a
Speaker 4: certain rate. If you start breathing more than that, you're
Speaker 4: getting rid of more CO two than you're producing, and
Speaker 4: your body's CO two stores go below what they should be.
Speaker 4: You actually need a certain amount of CO two in
Speaker 4: your blood to keep the pH the acid base chemistry correct,
Speaker 4: and by hyperventilating, you breathe off more carbon dioxide then
Speaker 4: you need to, and you'll end up feeling faint and
Speaker 4: your blood becomes slightly more alkaline when you do that,
Speaker 4: as opposed to slightly more acid. So so just hyperventilating
Speaker 4: isn't going to help you. It's just going to make
Speaker 4: you ultimately faint. And so here's another auxiliary question. If
Speaker 4: you are not losing weight over time, if your weight
Speaker 4: is stable but you're still breathing out carbon dioxide all
Speaker 4: the time, then where does that carbon dioxide even come from?
Speaker 4: What why do we breathe it out? And the answer
Speaker 4: for that is really simple, and the clue is the
Speaker 4: word carbohydrates, which literally just means carbon dioxide gas which
Speaker 4: plants have taken in and stuck hydrogen atoms too, and
Speaker 4: we call that photosynthesis. So plants take carbon dioxide, attach
Speaker 4: hydrogen atoms from water and that now you've got a
Speaker 4: carbohydrate and it has some sunlight energy stored in it.
Speaker 4: We eat that, we get the sunlight energy back out
Speaker 4: to do what we want to do, which is move
Speaker 4: and think and grow. But the atoms that we ate,
Speaker 4: they now turn back into carbon dioxide and water, and
Speaker 4: it's just a beautiful cycle. So it just all revolves
Speaker 4: around carbon doxide and water.
Speaker 1: Okay, before we wrap up, Rubert, I've got one last
Speaker 1: question for you. Do you have one simple tip for
Speaker 1: people who came here to find out how to lose weight?
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you want to lose weight, eat less carbon
Speaker 4: atoms than your exhale and you'll lose weight for sure.
Speaker 1: There you go, A simple clean just wanted one little
Speaker 1: gold nugget that our WOODLFE listeners could hang on. So
Speaker 1: thanks so much mate for coming on the woodlife, Thank
Speaker 1: you for having me. So there we go. It's been
Speaker 1: a fun one. I'll see you all next week. Of course.
Speaker 1: If you've got any questions or any topics that you'd
Speaker 1: like just to cover, you can send me a little
Speaker 1: voice note. There's a link in the show notes. Have
Speaker 1: a great week everybody. I'll see you next week.