Let's be honest – life is so much harder when you're not feeling your best. But guess what? It doesn't have to be that way! Today, I'm thrilled to welcome my amazing student Melissa Tegano. She completely turned her life around from suffering from the symptoms of colitis, fatigue, and anxiety to feeling vibrant and healthy in just 2.5 months. Yes, it's totally possible, my friend! In this episode, Melissa shares the incredible changes she made in her daily routine that transformed her energy, digestion, strength, and overall well-being! 

Before working with me, Melissa had a fairly healthy lifestyle, but she was still looking for ways to feel her best, navigate nutrition, and maintain effective workouts as she entered midlife. Once we teamed up, Melissa made some simple adjustments to her diet while introducing strength training to her routine, and it made all the difference! She'll tell you how she embraced these changes without feeling overwhelmed, how they improved her mental health, boosted her confidence, and helped her rediscover the joy of living a life she loves! 

Want FREE access to my brand new four-week strength training plan, Strength Without Stress? Head over to hollyperkins.com/review where you can upload a screenshot of your review and gain immediate access. This is a limited-time offer before it sells for $197, so be sure to grab it now!

Topics Covered:

• Melissa’s fitness and nutrition life before The Body Composition Project
• The frustration of living with chronic pain even if you’re “healthy”
• Why Melissa decided to work with me
• The initial actionable and tangible steps Melissa took at the start of her journey
• Diet tips to eat for energy and to fuel your workout 
• How to balance your macronutrients to help with your mental health 
• Melissa’s early-morning pre-workout routine 
• Melissa’s noticeable changes to her body composition
• What Melissa wishes she knew a year ago 

Resources Mentioned:

• Listen to the first 32 episodes of Holly Perkins Health Podcast HERE
• Check out The Body Composition Project HERE
• Check out The Nutrition Project HERE

Follow Me: 

Find me on Instagram: @hollyperkins

Learn more on my website: hollyperkins.com

Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/HollyPerkinsFitness/

Disclaimer: Content and information as part of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast is for general interest, education, and entertainment purposes only. The use of information on this podcast or materials or products linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.

If you feel so terrible that your life is impacted, you may wonder and worry how you'll survive the years ahead. Let's face it, life is way harder when you feel like crap. And it doesn't have to be that way. If you're struggling to get through the day and feel desperate for answers, and guidance, keep listening. Hello, and welcome to episode 33 of The Holly Perkins health Podcast. I'm so glad you're here. I recently got an update from one of my clients. And I was absolutely floored by how much her life has transformed in just the past two months, from really making just a few small changes. So in a moment, you'll hear from a woman who wants suffered from debilitating and challenging symptoms of colitis, fatigue, anxiety, and generally feeling terrible every single day, who has now been able to completely transform her energy, her digestion, and her body overall in just two to three months. So join me for this awesome conversation with Melissa Tegano. In this episode, you'll learn how Melissa changed her diet to eliminate the challenges that she had been facing for years from colitis. You'll also hear what happened when she started adding in carbohydrates and other foods, and how her diet changed as a result, you'll learn simple steps to create change without overwhelm the steps Melissa took to reduce anxiety and become confident and tips for fueling your body before early morning workouts. It's so important to create the body that you need to keep up with this crazy life that you love. And Melissa is a great example of how much better life is when you feel great. I hope you love this episode. I am so excited to connect with you today. Let me just say that Melissa and I have been working together now inside of my program, The Body Composition Project for about a little over two months in total. And I was noticing some really great results that she was getting. But I intentionally held off on getting an update from her so that we could do this interview live here today. So you're going to hear from Melissa just kind of where she is the results she's getting and more specifically the struggle that she's been able to overcome. And I'm super excited because I get to hear it for the first time with you. So let's jump in. Melissa, welcome. Tell us a little bit about you. Where are you? What are you doing? Tell me a little bit about your life for your family. What's important to you.

So I live in New York, I live out on Long Island, I am a partner at a consulting firm. I have two teenage daughters, a great husband. So I have a pretty busy life. And I do have a love of nutrition and working out and things like that. I'm really big into yoga, I love yoga. I love it. How

old are your girls,

my girls are 13 and 15.

And which is the one that helps you when you film your exercise video for the week for

me, my younger girl is my videographer. I love it. Thank you. So my older girls sitting on the couch and one of my videos.

I love it. You know, it makes me so happy to see you setting an example for your daughters. It's such a critical age for them. And I always say to my clients, kids do what you do, they don't do what you tell them to do. And the fact that you've enlisted the younger one to be your videographer. I think it's just like the coolest thing ever. So to our listeners as part of The Body Composition Project, what I do is, every week I have the members shoot a video of themself or have their daughter shoot a video of them performing a full set of what we call the exercise of the week. So each week we break down the technique on an exercise like deadlift or walking lunge or Romanian deadlift, whatever it may be Bulgarian split squat, of course, everyone's favorite. And I have each person in the group submit this video, I critique the video I send them a voice memo to give them feedback. Because a big part of strength training success is getting your technique right. And so that's what we're referring to here. And it just it's always so fun to me watching the video to see like, what family member is helping her out shoot the video or is she doing it herself. It's always so fun. So I just loved seeing that your daughters were involved. So talk to me a little bit more about your Her most immediate experience with fitness and nutrition prior to joining The Body Composition Project. Now I know you and I have been in the same sphere for a while. And as you said, you're super passionate about yoga. Me too. Beyond that, tell me like, What did your fitness and nutrition life look like? Before we started working together?

Well, before we started working together, I'm a member at a gym, I go to a yoga studio twice a week. It's been since it's COVID, that things have changed. And I think that's probably for a lot of people. And that's what I met you because I met you through a friend who I went to the gym with, and then when the gym shut down, and we were sort of like, what do we do now we were always going to classes together. And it's very social for us. What do we do now. So we started to find other resources. And that's how I found you, which I feel so lucky. But when everything opened back up, it wasn't the same as before. And so over these couple of years, it's really been haphazard for me, even though I still love it. So I was doing things at home. And I'm doing things at the gym. But it was kind of random in a way. And even though I thought it was working really hard. I don't, I don't know, if I had a real steady path, I just kind of kept going. And a lot of the things that I do for myself came from the fact that when I was in my 20s, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. And I realized I had to change my ways a little bit. You know, I wasn't really always this healthy, I was thin, but I wasn't always focused on what I ate, I would probably junk for the most part. And so I changed a lot over the years in response to that. And I found that I really do like the fitness, I love dealing with nutrition. It's just something that became really fun for me over the years, and very social. But during this COVID time, it kind of changed a lot. And I felt like as I was aging during this time. Now I'm in my late 40s Things are changing in the environment. And I'm changing and I kind of felt like a little bit lost before I started working with you again, this this go round. I

think so many people can relate to that. I mean, it really brought forward for me the fact that oh my gosh, even for me, someone who is a seasoned fitness expert and health expert, right, who's obviously committed to my strength training. I got a little lost during the COVID time, too. I mean, we all did. I think it's understandable. But I think that now that life is back to quote unquote, normal, if you will, I'm like, Oh, wow, yeah, I really was lost for a period of time. You know, I went from someone who was so passionate about exercising at the gym, my life was the gym, and all of a sudden, I had to exercise outside of the gym. I mean, that was like, such a change for me. So I so hear you on that. And I also want to just kind of acknowledge with you what I hear from a lot of other women. It sounds like in the past handful of years, let's say you've been committed to a healthy lifestyle, you've been exercising, and you enjoy it, and you're passionate about it. And yet, it kind of sounds like you've been working hard, but maybe not necessarily getting anywhere.

That's true. You know, just like looking back over these couple of years. At some point, I went back to, you know, trying to when things start opening again, right. In the beginning, I went back and I tried to cobble something together, but at the same time, I started to struggle a lot more with my digestive issues. So without even knowing it over time, I just stopped feeling well. And I think last year was kind of the year where it's like, I remember, I never felt good last year, I had so little days where I felt good. Meaning that my energy was uh, my digestive system felt good. I felt like, you know, my brain was sharp, like all of those things. I wasn't exhausted and tired. Like, those good days were like, few and far between. And I was thinking to myself, I'm on a hamster wheel. Because I'm that person. Everyone's like, well, you work out, you know, you do yoga you they see that I eat vegetables and I eat well, but for some reason, I was feeling terrible. And it's even more than just from the last year it built up over I think probably two or three years. It just takes a lot of time for these things I think for you to really notice Just when you know, your body does send you that stronger message like, hey, something's not working and you're, what you're doing isn't working, you know?

Yes. And you and I share that. It's incredibly discouraging, and frustrating and confusing when you are doing all the things, whether it's exercise, yoga and eating, right. And yet you still feel like crap all the time. That is my story. That is my life story. And for someone listening, you know, there's different shades of this, it's particularly worrisome to me, if you're someone like Melissa, who was exercising and eating vegetables, right, like eating well, doing the things that we're supposed to do, and yet still you don't feel well. That's a problem. And something I often say to the women in my community is that we women tend to have such an ability for pain and suffering, we had a suffer. And sometimes it takes us getting to an extreme point of struggle or suffering for when we're actually ready to take action on it, which I so wish I could change that, because that breaks my heart to think that we wait until it's so bad to do something about it. Yes,

I mean, you just keep going. And you just say, You know what, I'm gonna be fine. This is just a bad day, or I'm doing all the right things I can, I'll be all right. I'll figure it out. And you just kind of keep pushing. And then you turn around and me last year was okay, Melissa, I can think of examples of days where just go, I couldn't wait to be done with work, because I felt so awful sitting here. And then of course, I go home. And then what is that worth? To my family, they're the ones who don't get anything from you. Because you just, you know, sadly, you go home and you feel terrible. And you're just like, either in a bad mood, or you have no energy to participate in, like, you know, family activities, you got engaged, you're like, I've got to go to bed, I'm done. You know, that's awful, or being away on a trip and feeling awful and missing out on activities during the trip. Because your stomach is so bad that you just have to go lay down. Once it starts impacting you like that, and it's sad, you read it sad, it has to get there, you just sort of wake up and say, Oh, my gosh, look at me, like, I it's taking away from my life, you know, and I went to the doctors at that point, I said, Well, I've got to get checked out. So I had all my checks. I found a new GI, you know, to look at my whole system. And everything really kind of wound up being okay with the colitis and all of the things that I have. And so no one was really able to tell me what I should do to feel better. It's a strange thing. It

is because you're like, I know something is wrong. And yet these doctors and experts say, you know, you look good. You look normal. You're You're the picture of health. And that adds to it as well.

Right. And then you get the well, you know, your age kind of thing is, you know, okay, well, you're Peri menopausal. Oh yeah, and I think that that's a big part of, you know, why things have changed so much. For me, it's just, you know, things change over your life, you know, with time, so just kind of is what it is. But I sort of I got really discouraged last year, because I worried that nothing was going to work for me. And I was always going to feel I was going to have to be one of those people who muscled through and really didn't feel well. And I think that's really sad. There were definitely days where I was really sad. I would go home and I would just be like, Oh my God, why do I feel so terrible? What am I doing wrong? There was some tough days.

So what ultimately motivated you to change it? What was the moment or the thought that you were like, I've got to fix this.

I just thought this can't be true that this is the rest of my life. And I'm going to be turning 50 in January. And I thought I am not accepting. I've heard enough messages out there. That there you should be able to get over this stuff. It's just finding the right resources. You know, and I decided that I'm going to be there for my girls. I want the energy to be there with my girls. And you know, they have a lot left. We've got high school graduations College, hopefully college graduations, marriages, anything you can think of it, I want to be there, I want to have energy and I want to feel good doing it all. And it's really for them and you know, even myself wants to live feeling terrible. And it just so happened that I know you took a break from social media and all like things to get married and have all that fun that you've had and then you just kind of appear it at that point where I was like, I need someone, I need something to guide me through this because I feel like, I can't just accept that I'm going to turn 50. And I'm going to feel awful. And you were there. So, in the fall, I started watching you, and then you came out with the program now seems like you know what? This is, this is it. I'm going to do this. And I'm going to let somebody help me. Because that's always a big deal, too. You think you know yourself, you think you know better when that person appears? Take action? And that's kind of what I did.

That's amazing. That's so amazing. I did not know that part of the story. I have the chills. Yes.

When you came back to social media, and I saw that you were I couldn't wait for you to release your next program. Because I'm like, I am gonna be the first one at the door. Because this is this is it for me, I'm gonna feel better. And even in the start of it, of course, I think I even said to you at some point, like, I'm afraid. My fear was it wasn't going to work for me. And you said, No, it's going to work for you. Don't be afraid. And you know, I think that was sort of, it's a big deal to just try to put your fear aside and say, you know, what, I'm, I'm gonna let these people help me, I'm going to let her help me. And you know, maybe it's, maybe there is a way and I don't have to be afraid that it's not going to work for me, and I'm going to just feel this way forever. Yeah,

and I can't wait in the moment, we're gonna get to how it has worked for you. Because we want to hear that reveal in terms of, you know, what, what benefits you're experiencing? Now, we'll get to that in a moment. And something I say that I said to Melissa at the start of The Body Composition Project, which I say it's the start of all my coaching programs. It's gonna sound bossy, but it's not. I always say, if you'll just do what I tell you to do, you're going to get incredible results. And the challenge is when a person isn't able to hear me and then apply it in their life, which is why it's a live coaching program. It's a very hands on active coaching program for that reason. And every single time someone just does quietly on their own, they do what I tell them to do. I get these raving messages about how it's changed their life. Because again, I realize it could sound bossy or egotistical. But you know, been doing it for 30 years is a reason why I teach the principles I teach. It's like after 30 years, I've been like, Oh, those are the things that work the best, the fastest, the easiest. So tell us a little bit about some of the actionable real, tangible steps that you took when we started working together. What did you do? What were some of the things that you changed to begin that journey to overcome that struggle?

Well, I think the first thing I did was focus on nutrition, because I was working out and I thought, Well, I think maybe because I have so many digestive issues, I thought maybe the food would be the best place to start. And the thing that I did in the beginning was, you know, I had gone through a renovation at my house, I was just getting my kitchen back. It was almost too perfect timing. But I was just trying in the beginning to figure out what was I eating? Because our goal set out for us was to eat the three macros, 50% carbohydrates, 25%, protein, 25% fat, and I'm like, Well, how am I eating because I think I'm eating great, but I still don't feel well. And I found when I started just writing it down, just just tracking it a little bit that I was really not eating enough calories, probably or enough carbohydrates. I think the way I was eating was like vegetables and meat. Were just oatmeal by itself. So everything was kind of like, unbalanced. And by the time I looked at my whole day, sometimes I felt like it was too high and fat. And there was hardly any of the carbohydrate balance, which was supposed to be most of the nutrition. So that was surprising. And I think just looking at it, just like realistically, like what I was actually doing first was a good first step. And then how do I shift towards the principles that I was learning in your program. And so I just kept tweaking, then I, you know, went to tweaking my whole day to sort of end up in that 5025 25 And that started to help me feel better. The energy was coming back and my stomach was feeling a lot better. And the more I focused on that, the better I became the more adept I became. I wasn't perfect every day. And I think it's important for people to know that you don't have to be perfect every day. You just have to keep trying. Now I'm in a place where I'm really good at it because I've been doing it for two and a half months, and it feels really good. I feel good every day. It's almost like I can't even believe it. That's huge.

Melissa, I didn't know that. Like I said, I was catching glimpses of the fact that you were doing really well. But I didn't know exactly what it was looking like for you. That's a big deal for someone who had been suffering for so long and feeling terrible for so long. So tell me about that. Tell us about, like, how do you feel better? What does it look like? And what are your days like now?

I feel so light. I used to feel so heavy and just like a slug. And now I feel light and energetic. I mean, yesterday, I worked all day. And then I had a choir concert to go to for my oldest daughter. And, you know, I felt great. Like, it's a long day, and I really enjoyed that choir concert. But well, you know, I didn't sit there and feel awful. Like, I would have probably felt last year, I didn't get done with work and feel drained and feel awful, and then have to go and not enjoy my family time. So that's just an example. I'd like even this morning, I got up and I, I worked out i i then took a quick walk around before I sat down at work. And I couldn't believe how great I felt today. And I just thought, you know, last year, I spent the whole year not feeling this way and, and thinking that I was doing myself favors by eating less or just not eating any carbohydrates. And I really was not helping myself at that point. Yeah,

you know, you giggle at the carbohydrate comment in the reason she's giggling is because now she realizes how ineffective that notion was to eat less and eat fewer carbs. Okay. But listen, Melissa, to acknowledge you here, there bazillions of women doing exactly that, because we are bombarded with media headlines that make carbohydrates the bad guy, it makes protein, the good guy and seem like this miracle food. And notice, Melissa hasn't mentioned anything about weight loss, which I'm so happy. But inevitably, we're also been brainwashed to think that we're supposed to be trying to lose weight all the time. So cut back on your calories. And you know, you giggle Melissa, but like you were doing what you thought you should be doing. You were self guiding based on what you're hearing from the media. And I'm here to tell you, that is what most people are doing because carbohydrates and protein are so misunderstood. And, you know, I'm so thrilled to hear this is where you are now. And already. We're only two and a half months, coming up on three months into a program and it's changed you this much is super powerful.

Amazing. I'm adding things in that, you know, people love to eat bread, right, rice. I mean, I'm eating more of those things. And I look better, I feel better. You know, before I was gaining weight, and I hated it, I was like what is happening to me? You know, I'm getting bigger around the middle, like everybody else in their 40s, I guess. But honestly, I couldn't even figure out why that was happening. And I thought I work out and I eat right. And I just not only do I feel terrible, I didn't really like the way I looked either. But the first order of business for me was to feel better. Because when you don't feel well, I think that probably should be your focus. So I said, Okay, I'm just going to focus on that. And hopefully, if I get over that, you know, maybe then things will start to change. And I can worry about weight or worry about, you know, building muscle or whatever it is, you know,

yep. No, it's true. It's like if you feel terrible, and you don't have energy, you're never going to become more muscle and less fat. Yeah,

not effective to work out with no energy even further. I tried. You know, you talk about what's out there in the media. I you know, all this intermittent fasting and the way people use it. I thought, well, I'm going to do that. And I'm not going to eat in the morning. I'm not going to do a fasted workout. It was really terrible. And you know that?

Yeah, of course. Okay, so let's talk a little bit more a couple of the actionable things you changed. And so because I know there's a listener going okay, but exactly. How did she start eating more carbohydrates? Or how did you change your diet in reality, so that you were ending the day at 5025 25 Rather than super high in fat and too low of carbohydrate? So what are the actual diet changes that you've been making?

Well, for one thing, I planned my meals a little bit better. I always like to cook on the weekends. But now when I put my lunch together my dinner together, I plan it a little bit ahead because that was the only way I could figure out how to get the carbohydrate balance up and I found choosing You know, just starting with choosing, like adding rice or adding quinoa, things that I like, that kind of boosted up the carbohydrates a little bit that really helped. And just planning to add something like that to each meal helped me a lot, definitely looking at, you know what I was eating even before my workouts to that helped a lot in the morning, I work out early. So it's hard to find something good to eat before you work out. And I think before I was just eating a banana, but I found that adding in something that was more balanced, that had the combination of carbohydrates and protein really helped. And by the time I got to the gym or like started working out at home, I would feel so much better. And that that kind of helps catapult you in the right direction.

Yeah, cuz if you're fueling right, you get a better workout. And so you get better results.

Yeah, so it was really a focus on kind of tracking what I ate, and then focus on planning, and adding in extra foods that I had previously cut out to get to the balance, you know, and then I think after that, I got even more refined, and I finally got a food scale. And I started even weighing some of my food. And I found it's very eye opening what a portion looks like, and the proportion between the protein and the carbohydrates, like what it looks like. But I also, you know, once I kind of got past what I needed to add to my diet, rather than take away, then I started refining it a little bit. But he didn't go crazy right away. And I think that's probably a good point here is that you have to start somewhere. So you shouldn't overwhelm yourself, I think if I overwhelmed myself and started weighing on my food, and I probably would have blown up or something. Yeah,

and I think also, just behaviorally, it's hard for people to go from one extreme to another. I'm a huge advocate of making small changes and taking steps each day. So like, you know, what Melissa did is she first started simply by tracking what she was already eating, just to see where she was, as you heard her say, and I always teach that like before we radically change anything, we need to see where you are most of the time. You're closer to where you need to be than you realize. And so why would I come in and radically change what you're eating, when I don't even know where you are? Because your way of being and eating and living might be kind of close. And so you know, what I'm hearing is that's exactly what you did. You established where you were. And then you just started making little adjustments to get to where I wanted you to be. And here we are.

Absolutely, yeah. And I've had a few things happen along the way. I think I mentioned a while back, I had to travel and next week I have to travel to and that was always difficult for me because I don't have control over the food, I get some time. And now that I have this good basis of you know, how does my meal how's my meal supposed to look. But last time I traveled two weeks ago, it was way better. For me, I was able to make good choices and didn't have to come home and feel annihilated by food,

food and travel, which can really knock a person off track. Yes,

it's definitely baby steps. If I hadn't started with just being realistic, and looking at where I was, and then tweaking it and learning where I needed to get. Now I almost feel like at least I can better handle these challenges that come away, because your life isn't gonna be perfect same every day, you can prepare everything every day. So kind of have to be able to be a little flexible. And I think it's important. Once you set up that baseline that you it's great because you can be flexible. And you know, you get more enjoyment out of life that way. That's where I am. You know, I feel like things are definitely more enjoyable.

Yeah, that's huge. It really is tell us a little bit more like, you know, one of my taglines is I help women create the body that they need to keep up with the life that they love. And I feel like you are so illuminating exactly that. You know, the story about going to your daughter's choir recital and not feeling miserable and actually being able to enjoy it to me is exactly what this is about. What are some other things that you're noticing in your life that have changed because you changed? You

know, I feel a little bit more even confident. I noticed that I feel a lot better about myself. I have even reduced my anxiety quite a bit because I was I think when you're not feeling well, your anxiety just kind of kicks in. And I've had issues with that in the past so I feel a lot better able to handle my days. And you know all of the tough things that come by way. So it's just even that is better. I think my mental well being is a lot better too.

And that's huge. You know, it's an interesting cycle, you know, because you said anxiety is something that you've struggled with in the past. And when you don't feel well, that certainly fuels it without a doubt been there, done that with you. And in addition to that, if your three macronutrients protein, fat, and carbohydrates are not where they need to be, there is a biological response, if you're 45, and up doesn't even matter where you are in your hormonal lifecycle. If those three macronutrients aren't balanced, there is a biological result. And two of the common things that come from that are anxiety and depression symptoms. And so some of it, right, sure, some of it has mental, emotional, spiritual, psychological, its life, the not feeling well fuels, the anxiety. And the biology itself of not eating properly, or exercising properly, can cause anxiety, irrespective of what your life looks like on the outside. And that that's my story. You know, my struggle with depression and anxiety, extreme anxiety at times, had nothing to do with there being any problems in my life, my life was great. Mine was almost entirely biology driven. And that's a complex topic for another episode. But you know, the fact that you're where you are in those, that those symptoms and also just feeling better is going in the right direction is life altering. It's huge. I

think we may have talked about this, that I was still struggling to get my workouts in, because I was getting up. And I almost felt paralyzed. And we worked a little on that. And you said, You know what, try to eat something right away, you know, something balanced right away when you feel like that. And it works, because now my diet in total is a little bit more balanced. That sort of stopped happening. And even if it does, I do get up and say, You know what, I think I just need to eat a little something and eat to be balanced. And then I'll be fine. And it does work. And getting getting to your workouts is so important in reducing your anxiety overall. So you get out of this loop of I'm stuck. And I can't get up. Yes. Hey,

I know someone is wondering, since you get up and you were having, you know, have struggling with some of those feelings and showing up for an early workout. Tell us like one or two of your favorite go to things that you're eating early in the morning. This better balanced, without

a doubt and full of balls, the rest of us have good, Holly has these energy, multiple recipes for these little energy balls. And they are I make them every week. If I don't have them. Now, it's like a tray would be tragic. Because they are they are balanced. They use a little bit of you know, the collagen powder and the oatmeal and whatever else we flavor it with. And it does, they're perfect because they're not heavy. I know many of you may be out there that workout at like 530 in the morning, you don't want to eat something heavy. Something like that is it's a wonderful thing to eat because it gave me a lot of energy. But it also is very balanced. So it's those are my favorite things. If I don't have those, I may mix a little collagen with like little bit of almond milk and then have half a banana that will do a good job. I think the important thing for me is that I have to can't really eat like a full protein before I work out like an egg or, or meat or anything. So these protein powders are collagen like they really helped me. And so I think that that's pretty much yeah, that's been my approach. Yeah, that's

huge. And that is true. You know, if if you're someone who's getting up early and going right into a workout, a lot of times you're not going to want or desire or need like real food food. And so getting smart around fuel instead of breakfast is an important differentiation to make there and so Exactly, yeah, and those little love balls. I'll tell our listeners about them in a moment are awesome. How many do you eat to

just to perfect I even bought myself a little scooper that makes them exactly the tip, whatever it is the tables inside

of my program, the nutrition project, which is my 12 week guided experience through my approach to nutrition I created I think I've got 60 or 70 recipes in the program that are already pre balanced for you. So there are recipes where you can literally just print the recipe He go shopping, cook it and it's already balanced out to my suggested macronutrient distribution, which is 5025 25. So one of my favorite recipes and one of my first recipes was what I call the TNP dot nutrition project TMP love balls, actually, I think they're called spicy love balls. And it's a secret recipe. But what I will say the spicy part comes from cayenne pepper, which you can leave out if you don't want them to be spicy. But it's basically one of the key ingredients is raw oats. And partially why it's such an incredible fuel is raw oats are what we call a resistant starch. So there are certain carbohydrates, that when you eat them, under certain situations, they become a resistant starch or resistant starch is a carbohydrate that digests differently, so that there isn't the blood glucose response that you would get, say from just a banana. And it also serves as a prebiotic, which is all of the good bacteria that your digestive your digestive system needs. So it's putting in fibers that build the flora in your intestine to create that good garden bacteria, gut flora that we need. And so these little love balls are about 90 calories each they've got protein, they've got a little bit of fat, they've got really great carbohydrates, and fiber and collagen and all this awesome stuff in them. And I love them, because we dole them out, like one is 92 is, you know, 180. So generally, for people who are working out in the morning, I recommend two or three, but they're also super delicious with a cup of coffee, and they digest fast. So it's like the perfect thing to do for those early morning workouts. And I'm so glad that that has been working for you. Because it's easy, you prep them ahead of time. But then also the alternative, as you said, you know, just getting a little bit of protein in some kind of a liquid paired with a carbohydrate, so that you can get somewhere around 60% carbs to 40% protein is also suitable. Fat is less desirable, when you're going into a workout. Fat slows down digestion. And so when we're doing something pre workout, you really don't want 30% of those calories coming from fat, you want it a little bit less. And so, Melissa, that little shake banana combo is also perfect, because there's very little fat in it just a little bit in that almond milk. But it's like perfect. So I'm so happy. So tell me in terms of like one last thing I want to hear an update on because I don't know, if you were to close your eyes, and at any given moment doesn't have to be right now. But just kind of experience how you are in your body beyond feeling better. Having the improvement in energy and mood. What are you experiencing in your body? Do you feel you're getting leaner? Do you feel that your body composition is improving? Are your clothes feeling looser? Or is that not an issue for you? Where are you in terms of body composition changes?

Oh, without a doubt, there's so much improvement. And still I'm not focused on the scale. Everything is starting has started fitting better. I feel leaner. And actually, in the past couple of weeks, I've been getting these compliments that I look leaner. What am I doing someone in randomly in my yoga class came up to me and said, you know, you just look so much leaner and are you working hard at it and you know, whatever you're doing, you look great. And even someone at the gym the other day, my my trainer at the gym said the same thing. She said, Wow, you are looking amazing. Your whole midsection looks better. That's been my big problem spot for the past couple of years. And I see it too because you know we are doing the progress robot photos, which I hate. But I do love them kind of now I'm starting to like them because now I'm seeing that things are changing. And I even more so than I I feel better. I even look better. It's it's definitely now becoming where I would want things to be, you know, I want to build my full I want to leaner, I want to lose the extra fat things that everybody wants, you know?

Yeah, you know, I have the saying that when it gets to the point that other people start commenting on your progress, that's when you know there's a real change. And in my experience by looking at 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of progress photos over the years. When it gets to the point that someone comments on your appearance, which by the way, no one should be commenting on anyone else's appearance, but that's a whole other topic. But when it gets to that point that someone's like, Wow, you look different, you look better. It's usually an eight to 10 pound difference, whether that translates onto The scale or not. And so you know, something is happening, because otherwise people just wouldn't say anything. That's right.

And I think the Nutrition has fueled the workouts and I added more strength training, we keep the cardio at the programmed rate that you have. But the strength training, I was definitely not doing three strength training workouts a week before we started. And now that I am and I made that a primary focus, combined with the energy I have from the food, now I'm starting to see the changes in my body. So not only do it feel better, but you're right, everything's fitting better. I feel like I look better. I'm gonna look good. By the end of the six month program, I'm going to be really happy about it.

Oh, my gosh, absolutely. If we're a third of the way through, yeah.

And I was telling you in the beginning that I was afraid it wasn't gonna work for me. And

here we are. Not even three months in yet. I guess we're almost halfway. But that's huge. And again, it's like, if you do what I tell you to do, you're gonna get great results, I promise.

Yeah. And I mean, hopefully, you know, says a lot that if you focus and you try and let somebody, you know, help you when you need help, you don't have to be afraid that it's not going to work for you. You don't have to be told that you're in Penny, perimenopause. So that's what you're going to look like, you're going to have a big fat belly and all that kind of stuff. Or you're going to feel low energy, you don't have to accept that you could do better, you could try harder. It's closer than thing.

Yes. Or even like, you might not need to try harder, you might just need to try differently, right? That's right. I

was working hard. But I was doing things, not the way that my body needed does. Everybody's a little different. I'm moving in a direction that makes me feel like, I'm going to feel fine. And I'm not going to feel terrible anymore. That's

huge. And on top of it, I am an advocate for being happy with the way that you look, you know, there's this idea out in the world that to want to look good means you're vain. And I don't agree, we all want to look good. We all want to feel good about how we look, whatever that looks like for you. I'm not putting a stamp on what it looks like. But you listening, every single woman should like the way she looks, whatever definition you have of that whatever your criteria are. Like, it's important to feel good about how we look. And I think that that is a really beautiful sign of self respect. Yeah, I agree. That boosts how you feel about yourself and life and going to choir concerts, right? It's huge. I'm so happy for you, Melissa. And I'm so thrilled to get this update. Because I didn't even know that it was this good. I'm excited to see your next round of progress photos. That's the first thing. So Melissa, before we wrap up here, let me ask you this, if you could give your earlier version of yourself some advice. What do you now wish you had known a year ago,

I wish I had known that I wasn't as far off. And as far gone as I thought I was and that I shouldn't be afraid to do things a little bit differently. You know, you think you're in such a bad place that you're you're just never it's never going to happen for you. And that's just not true. And that's what I would tell myself last year. It's not true. You don't have to feel like this. You just have to do things a little differently. And it won't take so much time you'll be fine.

I love it. It's really true. It's it's like you're not as far away as you think you are. So thank you for that. I think that's really just a really beautiful insight. Oh, Melissa, I'm so glad we did this. Thank you so much for being here. I love it. There's so many women that you're going to inspire that are going to be able to take something away from this. So thank you, thank you.

Well, thank you because without you, I wouldn't even be here I would still be that same person that was afraid that you know, I was going to spend the rest of my life kind of feeling terrible. And I'm just so grateful that the universe put you in front of me four years ago and then back in front of me now so that I could really improve my life. Well

as they say, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. So congratulations. I'm so proud of you. I'm so happy for you.

Thank you.

I hope you enjoyed this episode. And don't forget if you feel like you need some guidance around your strength workouts and you want to feel great immediately. You can get access to my four week strength without stress program for completely for free. Just be sure to rate and review this episode wherever you're listening right now. Grab a screenshot and then come over to Holly perkins.com forward slash review and you can upload it you will get immediate access for free for life. And please stay tuned for another brand new episode on Tuesday of next week. Stay A strong my friend