Brit is a nutritionist, former college athlete, and co-creator of Athletic Mom – the best workout program in the entire world. She also has seen Liz’s closet in person.
TRANSCRIPT
Liz Talks – Episode 10
Welcome to Liz Talks! I’m Liz, and I’m a nutritional therapy practitioner, and best-selling author. But here, I’m 0% professional and 100% mom, spouse, friend, and over-analyzer. We are going to talk food, beauty, family, fitness, mental health, friendship, marriage and everything in between in this season of Liz Talks, and I’m so glad you’re along for the ride.
Remember; this is a podcast about thoughts, feelings, and opinions, and I definitely not give individual, personal, or medical advice.
This is episode 10, topic: Britni Briney Talks Nutrition, Bikini Competitions, and Being Brilliant at the Basics.
In case you missed it, episode 9 was about The Three at Home Skin Care Devices I’m Using Now:
- Whether they’re worth it, and their pros and cons.
- Red light for the skin.
- And Botox! Which isn’t a device, but it’s definitely a frequently asked question.
Today, I’ll talk to one of my favorite people; Britni Briney!
- About working with the Briney’s.
- The basics of training and nutrition.
- Her history as an athlete and bikini competitor, and whether it can be done in a healthy way;
- And what a sustainable approach to training, nutrition, and wellness really looks like.
We also talk a little bit about my closet, where we recorded this podcast. So that will be interesting.
Now, before we begin, a quick note. I had a few people reach out to me after the podcast last week about a Botox alternative called Xeomin. Which, I was intrigued. My friend, Jennifer, who runs the Legit Bread Company and sturggles with autoimmune disease has talked publicly about using this alternative and feeling good about it. So basically, I have permission to tell you that Jen told me about it. So I’m doing more research on it, and I will report back! And if anybody out there knows anything about it, or has experience with it, please reach out and let me know.
Next up; our small but mighty podcast. And I say “our”, because I feel like it’s all of our podcasts, not my podcast. It’s mine and everybody that listens; it’s really starting to thrive because of you. So thank you all for sharing screenshots of your podcast app with your friends and family, and for spreading the word. I do want to reach people, and you all are making it happen. So please keep it up.
Onto the show.
Today, I’m talking to my friend and the Athletic Mom nutritionist, Britni Briney! She is a Pilates instructor, pre-postnatal coach, and she has a degree in nutrition. She’s worked in the clinical setting, and is just an amazing resource, and such a fun person to put my head together with. She’s married to Nick Briney, who is my trainer, if you haven’t yet put those pieces together. And I’ve been fortunate enough to work side by side with her; with both of them, on the Athletic Mom program, and specific with Brit on the nutrition portion of the program.
Brit has also opened my eyes to a lot of nuance in the wellness world. So I’m excited to talk to her about that, as well. Here we go!
Liz Wolfe: Brit; welcome to my closet! {laughs}
Britni Briney: Yes, thank you for having me! It’s such a great space in here.
Liz Wolfe: What do you think of it?
Britni Briney: There’s a lot of black. And there’s a lot of neon. A lot of bright.
Liz Wolfe: Yup. Do you remember; what did I say to you that one time we were trying to figure out what was in my closet?
Britni Briney: Yeah, you were like; I either have black or I have bright neon colors. And I was like; you don’t have anything neutral? And you were like, no.
Liz Wolfe: No.
Britni Briney: And I can vouch that that is accurate, now.
Liz Wolfe: There might be one piece of navy clothing. I’m not sure. I know I have at least one pair of navy pants. That’s a navy dress, but its’ black and navy; which is a combo I really like. And then, you know, I’m trying to work on my, like, pleather collection. Because I feel like that’s really up my alley. But I can’t exactly figure out how to wear it, yet. But I’m going to get there. One day.
Britni Briney: Yes. It’s hard to pull that off. You have to do it right.
Liz Wolfe: It is. It is. It’s funny because you and I have; like you are such a good; you have such an eye for fashion, and design. We’re about the same height.
Britni Briney: Yes.
Liz Wolfe: And I’m like; I should just wear what Britni wears. But our styles are so different. Like, you’re very cozy. Not cozy.
Britni Briney: Neutral.
Liz Wolfe: Neutral.
Britni Briney: Very neutral. And yeah, cozy. I’m wearing a flannel right now, so. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, but you look so cool.
Britni Briney: Thank you.
Liz Wolfe: I can’t pull it off. I love it. So most of what I have is just; I don’t know. I should do a closet tour at some point. I need to get rid of a lot of this stuff. Are we still doing houndstooth? Is houndstooth still ok?
Britni Briney: I don’t even know what that is.
Liz Wolfe: It’s this.
Britni Briney: Oh, yeah. Yeah! That’s in. Especially in a coat.
Liz Wolfe: OK. For those listening at home, it’s a houndstooth coat.
Britni Briney: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Ok. Well, this is my first actual in person guest on this podcast; and I think any other podcast I’ve been on. So we are sitting wedged into my closet/podcast studio. It’s a lot of fun!
Britni Briney: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Luckily Brit and I are close friends, so it all works out. But I’m really excited to have Brit on the podcast, because we are like this close to launching Athletic Mom.
Britni Briney: So close.
Liz Wolfe: So close. And I think it’s important that everybody from my side of the audience in the community gets to know you, and hears a little bit about your history because I know people are curious. So, I did a little bit of an intro to you beforehand, but let’s start with some personal details.
So, how did you and Nick meet? And tell me everything about your wedding!
Britni Briney: Right? This is fun. So Nick and I both worked for a commercial gym. I guess I can say; we worked for Lifetime. I think that’s all over the country.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Britni Briney: I worked in Iowa, and he worked in Kansas. And when you become a trainer there, you have to go through kind of a certification. So he was the regional instructor for that, and I came down for the week-long class. And I fell for my instructor. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Aw!
Britni Briney: So we kind of just hit it off, and it kind of was great ever since. We went to dinner, and I moved down the Kansas City like two months later. And we’ve been married now for; oh my gosh; 2.5 years and have been together about 5. So, time flies.
Liz Wolfe: Time does fly. And you all did a destination wedding in Santorini, right?
Britni Briney: We did. We got married in Greece. We wanted to just escape and do something small in a very beautiful place. And, I mean, Greece was amazing. I know you took your honeymoon there, I think?
Liz Wolfe: Yes. We did. We did Santorini. Yeah; in Santorini we stayed at the; I would say it wrong, but the Katikies. Something like that. I don’t know what it was. But we blew the entire budget on the last two days in Santorini. Everything else, we were just walking around a couple of the different islands. Island hopping, and staying in; not hostels, but in small little places. And then blew the whole budget on Santorini. And it was so worth it!
Britni Briney: That’s the way to do it.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Britni Briney: I mean; I don’t know how to say anything there. Like you said; the pronunciation of some of these towns and cities. I’m like; I don’t, is that right?
Liz Wolfe: I have no idea.
Britni Briney: Yeah. We island hopped. So we got married in Santorini, and then we took our honeymoon for a week and a half, and just kind of went to some different islands and stayed in some different places. And it was great. It was one of the best trips of our life. And I can’t wait to go back in five or ten years for an anniversary.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, no kidding. That’s in our plans too.
Britni Briney: Definitely.
Liz Wolfe: Ok, so one of the things that has always impressed me about both of you; and you and I met probably pretty soon after I started training with Nick. So I feel like we had occasion to hang out and get to know each other a little bit, but this is the first project that we’ve all worked on together. And it has been, if I do say so myself, freaking amazing. The volume of work that we’ve gotten done, and how the different talents that we all bring to the project. I’ve just been so blown away by the entire process.
But one of the things that’s always impressed me about both of you is that; you’re younger than me. So I say this…
Britni Briney: {laughs} Not by that much.
Liz Wolfe: Not by that much. But I don’t know, I just keep getting older. But I’ve always been impressed that both of you really have kind of a laser focus. You know what you want. And you do it. And even pertaining to your wedding. Because I remember, when I got married; I was like, “Oh, I should probably do this. Because that was on Pinterest.” Or, “Everybody else is doing this, so I should do that.” And you guys were like; nope. We’re going to do Santorini. We’re going to Greece. We’re doing it this way. You weren’t like; I need all 250 of my closets friends at my wedding.
Britni Briney: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: You all really did something special. And I just feel like, since I’ve known both of you, that has carried over into everything. You have a very strong idea of what’s important, and what you want to do in life, and you’re going for it. And I’m just really grateful to be along for this part of the ride with you guys, because I really think both of you have made me better. As a business person, and in the development of this program. So thank you for that.
Britni Briney: Well thank you! I mean, you can do a lot when you put a really good team together. So I think it’s been really awesome to work with you and my husband at the same time. Like you said, we all bring different strengths to the table. And that makes a big difference.
But I think we’re all type A; or me and Nick are definitely type A. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: I’m definitely not type A; but I am an Obliger, and an Enneagram 6, so if I’m working with two type A’s, I can rise to the occasion.
Britni Briney: We’re like; get it on our to-do list, get it done, move on. We just knock stuff out. And I think that’s just how we both are. And so I think that is coming into play with this project, for sure.
Liz Wolfe: It’s been a lot of fun. So; what’s it like working with Nick Briney?
Britni Briney: You know; it’s great. It’s fun to be able to work with my husband. Because I know not a lot of people get to. Obviously, we have butted heads a couple of times here and there on ideas or how things should go. But overall, I mean it’s awesome. I love working with my husband. It’s very cool.
Liz Wolfe: It’s been really cool to work with both of you. And it’s been fun, because from my perspective, we’re friends. We’re business partners. And we’re also doing something that I think is going to be really useful in the world.
Britni Briney: Yes. We obviously put this together for a reason. We want to help other people feel as good as we do when we are doing these things.
Liz Wolfe: Yes. Somebody sent me a question the other day, and I was going to answer this in an Instagram live. And it was basically; ok, is this program why you came back to the internet? And I was like, I was trying to think. I actually had to go back and look at the timing of it, because I couldn’t remember. I think what actually coincided was not like; oh, I have this idea I have to get back on the internet for it. It was; I’m ready to get back on the internet. I had turned my energy inward for a long enough time. And then I felt like I was just ready to just start communicating again, because I do love that. That’s what I did for 10 years. And took some breaks now and then. But it is important for me to have that outlet.
And when I got really excited about communicating, I feel like the creative juices just got flowing. And we were like; hey. This could be amazing. Let’s do this. So it just all kind of came together. Like, I was ready to come back. I was ready to do something that I felt like was special. And one of the things that I’ve had a lot of success in is when I really care about something; putting it together, packaging it up for people to connect with, and for it to be useful to people. I did that with skincare. I did that with Baby Making and Beyond. And now, I’m hoping that we can really put together something special for people in this lifelong journey of being well.
Britni Briney: Absolutely. And I know you said this before, but you’re just at this stage in your life right now, and it made a lot of sense to kind of be going through this. And you’re like; you know what? This makes so much sense. I think a lot of other people are going to benefit from this. So, kind of the timing obviously did go hand in hand with you coming back to the internet. But that wasn’t the only reason. It just happened to work out that way.
Liz Wolfe: It just worked out so perfectly.
Britni Briney: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: Ok, so let’s talk a little bit more about you. So I gave your bio and your CV in the introduction. But I think that the community would appreciate that you kind of take us through your history with exercise. With sports. All of that. And I know you dabbled in show prep, figure competition, right?
Britni Briney: Mm-hmm. Bikini; same thing, but to clarify, yes.
Liz Wolfe: Bikini. Ok. You’ll have to elucidate the difference there.
Britni Briney: Definitely.
Liz Wolfe: So kind of take us through; maybe, I don’t know. Do we want to start in high school? In college? Begin wherever you want to begin.
Britni Briney: Ok, yeah. So, I mean I played sports my entire life. My mom was my volleyball coach, so I’ve been playing volleyball since I was like in diapers. {laughs} And so I played volleyball and soccer, and I played club for both. So I was doing that all year round. So sports has really just been the biggest part of my life. I started training and lifting weights in high school for those sports. And obviously I was passionate about volleyball and I wanted to go play college, so I did go play college volleyball. Which was such a great experience. But once volleyball was over, I kind of needed to find some sort of outlet.
So competition; I have a very competitive nature. And I got into lifting weights for not just sport, but for aesthetic purposes. And that’s where bikini competitions came in. Like, bodybuilding competitions. So there are a couple of different versions of it. You do bikini, which is more; I’m butchering this. But it’s pretty, and you want symmetry in the body. Figure; you’re a little bit bigger and a little bit more bulky. And so I did bikini because I’m so long, like you said. I’m about your height, which is 5’9”, 5’10”.
Liz Wolfe: OK, so I want to interject and ask a question about this. Or maybe make a comment and then ask a question. So, I have spent a lot of years speaking to people about how potentially unhealthy sometimes figure competitions and whatnot actually are. Not necessarily only from a physical standpoint. But from a mental standpoint. And you and I talked about this beforehand. This is not an awkward, weird thing for you and I to talk about, if people at home are like; eek!
But, I think it’s important that I emphasize the fact that anything you can do; anything that any human being can do in their lives that they can approach with balance; that’s fine. There are people who could go in a huge tailspin trying to get into show prep and worrying about symmetry, or how much muscle you have, or how much you don’t have because someone is going to be judging you about it. Literally judging you on stage.
I have absolutely; I think I lacked some nuance in my perspective around this in years past. Where if somebody were to tell me I’m doing a figure competition; or I’m doing bikini, or whatever it is. I would have said; oh, don’t do that. You’re going to lose your period. It’s bad for your mental health. It’s not good to be that low of body fat. Etc.
But meeting you, and realizing that you can bring a balanced mindset to almost anything. This figure bikini competition, going into it thinking; hey, I’m interested in this. I’m going to observe it with curiosity. I’m going to participate in it. And if it’s unhealthy for me; I’m done. And I feel like that’s the perspective that you brought to it. And it’s been really interesting to me, working with you, having brought such different perspectives to our fitness journeys. But learning, at the same time, that there’s room for both.
Britni Briney: Yeah, absolutely. So, the bikini bodybuilding world is very; you have to be very, very disciplined. And that takes a lot of impact on your life in general, because you’re dedicated to 2-3 hour training days. You have to do all your meal prep. You’re on a very strict diet. Not a lot of variety; chicken, broccoli, rice. Kind of the bro diet you’ve seen all over the internet. And, I mean, it takes a lot out of you. You have to be very into it.
And if you’ve got a lot of other things going on in your life that need attention; some things are going to go by the wayside. Because it does take a lot of your time and your energy. And you’re exhausted, because you’re doing a lot of cardio and a lot of lifting, and you’re not eating very many calories. So it can be very detrimental to your physical health, as well as your mental health.
Now, if you’re just doing a quick show prep, and you’re doing it for 12 weeks, and then you go back and you’re kind of living a very balanced lifestyle, I would say that’s not a bad route to go about it. But there are some people out there who do it for years and years and years; and that is so harmful to your hormones, your body fat. I mean, just in general. Like I said; your stress, and your life, and everything. So, yeah.
I did two shows back in 2013-2014 time, and I was like you know what; that was fun. Ok, I’m done. I don’t really want to keep doing this. I didn’t enjoy being on a diet all the time like that. I wanted to find some sort of balance, like you said. So like I said, it was fun.
After I did the bodybuilding, I kind of got into powerlifting. Because I was like; I want to lift heavy. I want to get big and strong. I want to eat Poptarts before my lifts. And that’s totally what I did for a while. And again, that was cool. because I kept diving back to wanting to find some sort of balance with what I’m doing with my fitness, and my health, and my life altogether.
Liz Wolfe: Would you say, as a college athlete and as a longtime athlete; would you say that some of the choices that adults have for competition after, for example, college. I mean; most of us stop playing sports after high school, if any of us were high school athletes. Which, I was. I was the MVP of the Olathe school district basketball tournament in like 2001. So, I mean; I get it.
Britni Briney: {laughs} Watch out.
Liz Wolfe: I get it. But after high school, and for some of us, after college, we kind of lose even the opportunity for competition.
Britni Briney: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: I know my dad played some basketball when we were kids. So I know there are opportunities. But some of that sort of falls away. So do you think that some of that, your drive to enter competitions like that. And then do powerlifting and all of that. And maybe for some of us to do things like CrossFit, marathons, things like that. Those are like the only competitive outlet that is available to us as adults. We’re not playing sports anymore. We’re not doing stuff like that.
Britni Briney: Absolutely. Yeah. It is. It’s like; you’re looking for something to involve with your time, you know.
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Britni Briney: Nick and I, when we first got together, we started playing sand volleyball. So we played sand volleyball for; I don’t know, probably 3 years. And then we started our family, so we haven’t played for a little while. But I would love to get back to doing something like that. Because it is fun to have that competitive outlet as an adult. I think everybody needs to find that, or else you’re just going to go stir crazy.
Liz Wolfe: Absolutely. And I didn’t even think about that. I didn’t devote even the smallest amount of thought to it. Until we moved out to a community that has a very active, sort of sporting life. So we have a lake, we have sand, so people do sand volleyball. There’s pickleball. There’s tennis. It’s a very active community.
It’s funny, because this was actually a community that my grandmother lived in years ago, and I thought of it as a retirement community. But pickleball became big. Tennis has become big just over the last couple of years. And it fed something in me that I didn’t know was there.
Britni Briney: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: And it’s incredible. And the cool thing about tennis, is you don’t have to join a fancy tennis club. There are a million online tutorials about tennis. There are neighborhood courts that you can go to to play, and all you need is a racquet. I had like a $30 racquet for a long time. Pickleball is fairly cheap. Sand volleyball, all you need is a net. There are ways to get involved in sports that don’t require even the expense of a gym membership.
Britni Briney: Yeah. Definitely. And Nick, outside of sand volleyball, he was doing judo/jujitsu a lot. So that was kind of his competitive outlet, too. I think everybody needs to find something, you know. And it can be your own thing, or it can be a team thing, whatever.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. And I don’t know; I think we’re doing a fairly good job with Athletic Mom. Because one of our core tenants of Athletic Mom is play, and asking people to take up a sport. I don’t care if that’s learning to dribble a soccer ball in your front yard, or if it’s joining a tennis team, whatever it is. And by the way, I didn’t start playing tennis until like 3 years ago. Never in my life had I played tennis; ever. And I just started. And pickleball is really beginner friendly.
But I don’t know the perfect way to convince people that this actually really matters. That there’s something in most of us; and I would say probably all of us, that needs community, competition, physical activity, all wrapped into one the way sports do.
Britni Briney: Yeah, absolutely. And it’s not just for your physical health, right? It’s your mental health. Having that community of people that you can go hang out with, that you’re having fun with, and getting that competition at the same time. I think that’s important.
Liz Wolfe: Yes. I could not agree more. Ok, so we’re bringing that to Athletic Mom. We’ve talked a little bit about nutrition, but not a lot. We kind of got on a little detour talking about play. But, you are the Athletic Mom program nutritionist. And I play somewhat of a role. I’m a little out of practice. I am a nutritional therapy practitioner, but it’s been quite a while since I got that certification, and it’s been quite a while since I practiced with individuals.
You have been working in a clinic for quite some time. So, so much of what we folded into Athletic Mom had to do not only with what we know is healthy and sustainable for people, but also your clinical observations. What actually worked for people. And we’re not even talking about how many calories somebody eats. Or good carbs/bad carbs. We’re talking about baseline stuff that lays the foundation for everything else.
Britni Briney: Yep.
Liz Wolfe: So kind of the way I visualized it was; you want people to start, and the way we also do this with our training program. You want people to start with the foundational stuff that will enable them to do the next thing. Whatever that may be. Whatever is right for them down the line; perfect. So we want people to start with strength, flexibility, balance, mobility, agility. All of those baseline skills. And then if they want to go powerlift after they’re done with that portion of the program; great. If they want to go; I don’t know, what else is there?
Britni Briney: I mean, just another program.
Liz Wolfe: Just anything else.
Britni Briney: A strength program, yeah to get stronger.
Liz Wolfe: One of our follow ones. Powerlifting. Oly lifting. Whatever it is; you can do that. So I think the way we kind of broke things down nutrition-wise with your clinical perspective, I think we took things down to the basic level of how much protein are you getting. So we’re balancing neurotransmitters. We’re balancing appetite signaling. We’re making your life easier and that is the nutrient to start with. And then, hydration. Like; as simple as it could possibly be. And I’m excited about that. But I would love for you to say a few words about what you saw in clinic, working with people, as the most effective, sustainable approach for a large proportion of the population.
Britni Briney: Yeah, absolutely. So, my husband Nick says this all the time. “Be brilliant at the basics.” And I think that’s a really important quote. I don’t remember who it’s from {laughs}.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, we’ll type that. Hold on.
Britni Briney: Yeah, right?
Liz Wolfe: That is good.
Britni Briney: But yeah. In order to get super specific with something, if that’s your goal. You have to be brilliant at the basics. And so I think starting at phase 1; overhauling your nutrition, or even just a lot of the habits that you’re doing is; let’s bring it down to the simplest thing that we can and start from there.
So like you said; in the clinical setting, I see a large number of people on a daily basis. And there was a recurring theme that a lot of people were just trying to do too much. And when you try to do way too much, and change way too much about what you’re doing, you’re not going to be successful. So, picking a few key things that you know will make a big difference for you is the best place to start.
Liz Wolfe: And you really articulated that for me; you really outlined that for me when we started working together. Because I’d always thought; real food is the basics. Paleo is the basics. Some of these 30-day challenges that kind of say they’re bringing you back to the basics. But in the end, it actually does start to get really complicated. People ask a million questions. “Can I eat this? Can I drink that? Is this approved? is this not approved?” And it becomes another mountain to climb.
So we didn’t want to give people another mountain to climb. And I think that the way we structured it completely reflects everything you just said. And I think that’s a really good thing.
Britni Briney: Yeah, absolutely. We wanted to keep it simple. Because as we know, moms. Everybody has a billion things going on in your life right now. So just being able to hit these few key points on a daily basis is what’s going to make the biggest game changer for you.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. And you can build from there.
Britni Briney: Yep, absolutely.
Liz Wolfe: So the other thing about our nutrition approach that I wanted to talk about. Ok; another thing that was important to us was also to acknowledge variation between individuals. And I’ll give an example. Our hydration habits between you and me.
Britni Briney: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Brit is the queen of hydration. The undisputed ultimate fighting champion of being hydrated. How much water a day do you think you drink?
Britni Briney: I mean, probably close to a gallon if not more.
Liz Wolfe: How many times do you go potty?!
Britni Briney: A lot. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: {laughing}
Britni Briney: A lot. Especially when I was pregnant. A lot.
Liz Wolfe: A lot. My hydration habits could use improvement. But I think we struck a good balance in our recommendations. Because, not only do you have to be honest about what is going to actually bring people to fuller health. And we’re not talking about you’ve got to do this so you can lose weight. You’ve got to do this so you can do XYZ. Our overall goal is keeping people healthy, capable, and confident in their abilities for the long haul.
Britni Briney: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: And there are a couple of things involved in that. A lot of other things are gray area. What we did with the hydration thing was to be not only scientific, but also realistic. So I need to improve how much I drink, of course, during the day. But I drink significantly less than that. But I’m working on it a little bit. But we do account for sort of the variation in preferences and what works for people. And we had some actually really cool scientific discussion around it. Our friend and colleague, Amanda Torres, does a lot of research. Questions for us, and she brought a lot of interesting stuff to our attention.
Britni Briney: Well, and I’ve been drinking that much water for years. Like, I think my body is accustomed to having that much. When I don’t have that much, I notice a difference. And everybody is starting from somewhere different. So I started drinking a ton years ago. I mean, my mom was a health and PE teacher in high school. So I’ve literally been told in my ear my whole life; make sure you’re drinking your water. Make sure you’re drinking your water. So I think it just became a big habit of mine to drink water all the time. So now it’s just like second nature; I just drink so much water. And I don’t even; it’s just natural.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Ok. I want to switch gears a little bit and talk about how we’re going to continue seeing more of Britni Briney; which I’m excited about. I was the fitness “model” for the first iteration of the program. Because I was kind of the one that I was like; hey can you build this program? Can you guys do this? And I’ll tell you how it feels. I’ll tell you how it goes. I did the full beta test of Athletic Mom. Felt great. You’re in the middle of it now; is that right?
Britni Briney: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: What have you noticed?
Britni Briney: Oh my gosh. I have more energy, because those workouts are helping me. I feel more mobile. I’m starting to feel strong again. It just feels good to move and get consistent with my movement. Because postpartum is a crazy world, as you know.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. You’re five months post, right?
Britni Briney: I’ve five months postpartum. So I got in a little workout groove for after that 3-month mark. I kind of really started to get into things. But then I kind of fell of for a little bit and now I’m getting back into my groove. And it feels really good.
Liz Wolfe: Building those foundations up again.
Britni Briney: Absolutely.
Liz Wolfe: So, I ended up being the fitness model for the first iteration of the program. But we have a ton of plans, including for a prenatal program; for more immediate postnatal stuff; for following Athletic Mom. There’s a ton of stuff in the pipeline that I’m really excited about. But why don’t you talk to us a little bit about what your pregnancy exercise and training routine looked like.
Britni Briney: Yeah, definitely. So I mean, really depending on your fitness levels before pregnancy, you don’t need to change a whole lot of what you’re doing. You might need to adjust specific exercises. Obviously, you can’t be lying on your belly, and after a certain point you shouldn’t because lying on your back. So those things need to be adjusted. But overall, I was working out probably four days a week consistently. And I was doing my Pilates. So getting on the reformer and doing some mat exercises, as well, outside of strength training. So connecting my pelvic floor, and being very mindful about all of that during pregnancy as well as now postpartum too, to rebuild my connection and my strength down there, too.
Liz Wolfe: Ok. So let’s talk about Pilates for a second. Because you’re not only a nutritionist, you’re also a Pilates instructor and pre-postnatal coach. But I just want to say, for the longest time, I sort of made fun of Pilates in my head. Because I was like, “Oh, Gwyneth Paltrow.” You know?
Britni Briney: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: I have no idea where I first heard of it before. But I was like; ok, you need all this equipment, and whatever it is. But, Nick started taking me through some Pilates stuff. And I was like; what am I doing? I’m doing this weird duck squat thing. I don’t know what this is. Every time, I felt amazing.
Britni Briney: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: What is it about Pilates? And we incorporate that a little bit into the Daily Fix, which is free. People can go to AthleticMom.com and get the Daily Fix. We don’t incorporate reformer Pilates, but some of the concepts of Pilates; core, pelvic floor, that type of stuff. It’s kind of a thread that’s woven throughout the program, right?
Britni Briney: Yeah, absolutely. So, a lot of the warmup or cooldown exercises use mat Pilates exercise. So, it’s a great way to engage your core properly. So, in order to get strong and do movements according to what they need to be done for proper form. Engaging your core properly is one of the biggest factors. So Pilates is learning how to engage your core, and get that strong while also moving all your other extremities. so starting off with mat, doing some exercises just on the floor, is the best way to learn how to engage your core properly. And then from there, getting on the reformer. Using some resistance and all kinds of different awesome exercises.
I really love it. It’s been a game changer just for my stability, mobility; all those fine small little muscles that you don’t know you have until you get on the reformer and you’re like; oh my gosh. I’ve never used this before. Why am I so sore here?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah!
Britni Briney: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: I’ve loved it. So that’s been a really fun thing to sort of use as a thread throughout the programs that we’ve designed, and are continuing to design. All of which are great for just foundational, functional fitness. All of that, but in particular for the challenges that you and I observe ourselves, and our friends, facing as moms as people that are taking care of their families who want to be mobile, flexible, balanced, agile, stable, all of that. Injury free. Maintain muscle. All of that good stuff for the long haul.
So that’s what it is about. It’s not about an extreme approach to anything. We want people to be able to do the workouts with minimum time, minimal space, minimal equipment. We want them to be able to do the nutrition component with minimal stress. And hopefully take on a sport, or start playing more and bringing more of that into their lives and sort of feed that part of them.
Britni Briney: Yeah, absolutely. You nailed it on the head. My son right now is only napping like 30 minutes, so I’ve got to get my workout in really quick!
Liz Wolfe: Yeah!
Britni Briney: Most of the time I get all of it in. Sometimes I have to do those cool down stretches in the living room or something while he’s playing. But yeah, you can bust them out really quick for moms on the go, and busy moms.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, that’s the whole deal. And one of the things that I think; we’ll have to find more ways to stress this. I don’t think either one of us is a born sales person, so that’s been a really interesting challenge. It’s been fun figuring out how to present this to people, so they understand how it fits into their life and why it makes sense for them.
But, one of the things that I really enjoy about it is not just the minimal time, minimal equipment, and the fact that you can kind of be flexible about it. But also the fact that this is not just like a program that makes you tired every time you workout. It’s like; oh, I’ve got to get my sweat session in. Yeah, it’s that. But it’s more than that.
I had a couple of questions come in that were like; how is this different from my Peloton workouts? How is this different from whatever workout program, or whatever subscription that they have? And the most direct answer I have to that is this is a very intentionally crafted program to progress you from point A to point Z in a very intentional way. It’s not just like; do your workout, make you tired, work your cardiovascular fitness. Which is great. I have nothing bad to say about any other program, really, at all. Other than to assume that most of them are built more to just get your heart pumping. And not necessarily to progress you; not just in strength or work capacity, but also balance, agility, mobility, flexibility, all of it.
Britni Briney: Well, and just daily movement. You know? I’m not bashing on anything either. But let’s say you do have a Peloton; you’re working in a linear state the entire time. We were very intentional with this program about incorporating lateral movements. And just all the other planes. Because, as a mom, you’re reaching for your kid in a crazy direction and you’re bending weird ways. We wanted to incorporate that for a reason.
Liz Wolfe: Yes. And like you said; I’m not that much older than you, but my peer group. We are starting to get injured. And it is not sexy. {laughs}
Britni Briney: It’s not fun.
Liz Wolfe: We’re starting to twist knees, and throw out backs, and have slipped discs, and stuff like that. And being healthy for the long haul; like you said. Being brilliant at the basics. It takes all of those components, which we’ve wrapped together very intentionally in this program, that we think will bring people to a really good place by the conclusion of the 8 weeks.
Britni Briney: Yep.
Liz Wolfe: So we’re really excited to bring it to folks.
Britni Briney: Yes; I can’t wait for people to start using the goods.
Liz Wolfe: Ok. What did I miss? Oh, this is one of the things that we were going to maybe throw out there. And I don’t know if this is a joke or if we’re serious about it. I feel like we’re serious about it. The idea of Athletic Dad. What do you think about this?
Britni Briney: I love it. Hey; if the moms are working out, why are the dads not working out?
Liz Wolfe: I know! I think it’s a great idea! And I think maybe it would be; it’s not so much that the concepts have to be any different. But the communication maybe could be a little bit different. I know my husband likes to work out. But he wants to do it his way.
Britni Briney: Yes.
Liz Wolfe: And he looks at things in a certain way. So I’m wondering if maybe we could get some input from people to what it would take to get their husbands on board with something at the same time. Because I think it’s really powerful when the whole family sort of hops on board something together.
Britni Briney: Yeah; a family affair. Make it a family affair. Or partner workouts. Hey. That could be another thing, too.
Liz Wolfe: That could e really fun.
Britni Briney: That could be fun.
Liz Wolfe: The sky is the limit. Listen; that’s the other good thing about us versus other programs out there. You’ve got a direct line to me, and to Brit, and to Nick. Tell us what you need. That’s exactly how this program came about; was I was telling Brit and Nick what I needed. And I had the ability to make that request. And we all got together and brought it to life. So we would love input on what you need. What you want to see next. All of that. Sound good?
Britni Briney: Sounds great.
Liz Wolfe: Alright. Thanks for coming on the show with me, friend.
Britni Briney: Yes, thanks for letting me hang out in your closet today.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs} Anytime. You want to go through some of my clothes with me here, see what I need.
Britni Briney: Yeah; if you want to get rid of anything.
Liz Wolfe: {laughing} Ok. If anybody needs some black clothing, reach out. Alright; thanks friend.
Let’s do a quick weekly overshare. This one has a happy ending, so that’s good. But it’s one of those things that gives me heart palpitations just to think about how it could have gone, so here it is.
The other day, I was doing a workout. A training session with my trainer, Nick Briney. And I was doing some kind of something. A split pop squat; squat lunges. Pop squat; I don’t know what they’re called. Pop squat; pop lunges. {laughs} Pop lunges. So basically do you a little hop, drop into a lunge, hop back up, and then drop into a lunge on the other side.
So I was doing 20 of those in a row, right? Just going and going. And he was filming me. So we film each move so I can share them on Instagram so people can see kind of what my regular mom training workouts look like. And he was filming. So I mean, I admit it. I try and go a little faster when I’m on camera. Not just because I’m trying to show any kind of prowess with this particular move. But actually because it just, for some reason, when you’re watching it in a video, it just needs to feel a little more snappy. Otherwise it’s not interesting.
So, at some point, I kind of; I was just getting so tired. I was like 13 out of 20, and I was about to pass out. So I remember making kind of, “Ugh!” like, I’m about to collapse type of noise. And Nick just started cracking up. And I was like; why was that funny? Was this; what’s funny? What’s funny? And he’s cracking up. So I start cracking up. I’m laughing, losing all confidence in myself. I was like; is there something on me? Did I sneeze pee? What just happened? He’s laughing so hard. And I could not figure out why. But, because I’m awkward; the most awkward of all. Of course I start laughing, too. because I’m awkward, I’m nervous, and I don’t know what else to do.
So, what had happened was; and we went back to the video tape. There was some kind of noise that happened. From my feet, or from something that sounded like an involuntary rectal emission. It sounded like a fart, people. Some kind of noise came out of my feet or some place close to me that was a fart. And he had heard it, thought I had farted for the first time during a workout in four years together. And was just cracking up, because I don’t know why. Because farts are funny? They are funny. They’re hilarious. My kids think they’re funny. I still think they’re funny. And I’m not ashamed of it. I totally would have owned up to it. But in the moment, I didn’t. I hadn’t actually farted.
So, it didn’t even cross my mind that that’s what he was laughing about. So basically, in that moment, I had accidentally admitted, by not not admitting. Wait; I had accidentally admitted to farting by not admitting to farting by cracking up. It all was; all fingers were pointing to I had just farted, and we were all laughing about it.
So basically; I think what happened was my food dragged a little bit on the ground. And then I went, “Ugh” at the same time because I was tired, and I was about to lose my composure. And it all sounded like this massive emission. And it sounded even loud in the iPhone video. And all I can think about is; my god. If I had never finally asked him; wait, what are we laughing about? I would have left, and he would have thought that I emitted this giant woosh of air, and was too embarrassed about it to acknowledge it. Which is not me.
If I had farted, I would have 100% owned up to it. So this idea that I would have looked like a person that couldn’t own up to her own emissions in that moment still gives me heart palpitations. Because that’s not who I am. If I fart, I will own it. And I will own it big time.
So, he’s laughing. I’m laughing. I have no idea what’s going on. Finally, we figure it out, and I just can’t stop thinking about the fact that I could have left that workout looking like a complete emission-ist coverup artist. And I still get nervous when I think about it.
So listen. I have no problem with tooting during a workout. None at all. Sometimes, that’s where the pressure goes. But in that moment, I didn’t. But it kind of would have been funnier if I had.
Alright, that’s it for this week. You can find me at www.RealFoodLiz.com or on Instagram. And you can find Britni at the @AthleticMomProgram Instagram page. I hope you enjoyed episode 10. I’ll keep it short and sweet here at the end. Please share this podcast with three people this week; and if you break the chain, you will have bad luck for the rest of your life forever. So that’s fun! Just kidding. Please do, keep listening and sharing. I appreciate you. I’ll see you next week.
