Episode #44: Macros & Fitness with Dr. Ruth St. Victor

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Summary

Workouts, calorie counting, and eliminating carbs are part of a laundry list that feels never-ending and just doesn’t work for losing weight. Having lost 60 pounds without exercising, I’ve never loved counting macros, but my guest this week has a different perspective after discovering that macros were the missing piece for building her fitness.

Dr. Ruth St. Victor is a board-certified OBGYN and has been one of my closest friends for the past 10 years. She’s a physician who understands the science of how our bodies work, and she’s a fitness fiend. She’s gone down every rabbit hole when it comes to making your body function at peak capacity, and she’s here to share all of it on the podcast.

Tune in this week to discover why Dr. Ruth St. Victor and I still have friendly arguments about counting macros, and how she’s gotten me to think about fitness and nutrition differently. Ruth is sharing her fitness and nutrition journey, why you need a plan specific to yourself, and all of the things about tracking macros that might surprise you.

I see time and time again how much emphasis high achievers put on making perfect plans. Yes, plans are important, but not as important as knowing how to masterfully implement the plan and create high-quality results. In my upcoming webinar, I am going to be teaching you my three simple frameworks that guarantee success in reaching your ideal weight. Join me for Quit the Strict Meal Planning and Do This Webinar Instead on Friday, February 10th, 2023 at 12pm Eastern (9am Pacific). I highly encourage coming to this event live, so grab your seat here!

If you want to take this work deeper and implement it in your life, you need to learn all about The Unstoppable Group. This is my six-month, intimate, small group coaching experience for high-achieving working moms who want to live lighter and lose weight at the same time. I take my clients through a science-backed, simple strategy that seriously blows their minds. The next group starts on April 16^th 2023 and enrollment opens in February, so click here to get on the waitlist before all the spots are taken!

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• All of the struggles that Dr. Ruth St. Victor had when she first started going to the gym.
• Why Ruth loves going to the gym with intention, not just to clock in the hours in the gym.
• Ruth’s story of deciding to invest in her fitness journey and overcoming her objections.
• Why the “right way” for you is always the way that you can stick with.
• How Ruth discovered that counting her macros works for her in building her fitness.
• Why understanding your macros isn’t about restricting your calorie intake.
• How Ruth has made tracking macros fun for me, and I don’t even need a calculator.
• Ruth’s practical tips for finding your own way on your weight-loss and fitness journey.

Listen to the Full Episode:

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Featured on the Show:

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• Ruth St Victor: LinkedIn
• Marco Polo App

Full Episode Transcript:

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• Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Hey, this is Dr. Priyanka Venugopal, and you're listening to The Unstoppable Mom Brain Podcast, Episode 44, Marcos and Fitness with Dr. Ruth St. Victor. I've never brought a bestie onto the podcast before today, so suffice it to say I am extremely thrilled to bring you today's guest. Before I introduce you to one of my real life besties, I wanted to tell you why I think that this topic is so incredibly important.

  We often think that we have to do all of the things perfectly to hit goals, especially when it comes to reaching your ideal weight. Workout, count calories, eliminate carbs, do keto. It's this laundry list that feels never ending. And not surprisingly, after a few weeks, it just doesn't stick because that way of being and living sucks.

  When you don't love it, you won't do it. When I lost the weight a bit over 60 pounds, I decided to do B minus work on a few high yield areas that would yield high yield results. I threw away the laundry list and this included working out. I focused on eating high quality ingredients. I ate food that seriously only tasted delicious, and I only ate when I was hungry.

  Of course there's nuance and a specific strategy for exactly how to do this, but honestly, these three principles are how I lost weight with so much simplicity. I didn't workout and I didn't spend any or really much time at the gym at all. At the time it just felt like too much. But here's the thing, after I lost a lot of the weight, I started to feel this readiness in my body, like this deep yearning desire to get strong.

  I heard this voice in my head saying, Priyanka, let's go. We're ready. We want to feel strong. And I decided that by the time I turned 40 this year in May of 2023, I wanted to get stronger. I wanted to have more muscle, not just have a lighter body, but actually feel stronger in my body. Now I want you to know that you don't have to workout to lose weight, but I want you to know that it's possible to fold it into your life in small and sustainable ways if you want to.

  And so when I decided to do this, I decided to reach out to one of my real life besties, Dr. Ruth St. Victor, to coach me on exactly how to get started. She is a board certified OBGYN, and seriously one of my closest, dearest and nearest best friends for the past 10 years. She's not only a physician who understands the science of how our bodies work and fitness, she's seriously a fitness fiend.

  She's gone down every rabbit hole when it comes to making your body function at its peak capacity. I'll be honest, me and her have had many friendly arguments back and forth about counting macros. I still refuse to count anything to this day when I eat, but she has convinced me to think about nutrition a little bit differently now that I have this new goal.

  And since me and her talk about fitness all the time, I thought it would be so fun to bring her in on this conversation. Now, before we get into it, I do want to make sure that you know that I am having my next live webinar happening on Friday, February 10th at 12:00 PM Eastern. Quit the Strict Meal Planning and Do This Webinar Instead.

  Listen, having the perfect meal plan is only about 20% of the equation. No one talks about the other 80% implementing and evaluating your perfect plan, and this is exactly what I'm going to be teaching you in this class. Make sure you come live, it is going to be so good. You can go grab your seat over at theunstoppablemombrain.com/webinar.

  Okay. Without any further delay, let's get into my conversation with Dr. Ruth St. Victor. If you want to reach your ideal weight and create lightness for your body, you need to have simplicity, joy, and strategic decisions infused into your life. I'm a physician turned life and weightless coach for ambitious working moms.

  I've lost over 60 pounds without counting points, calories, or crazy exercise plans. Most importantly, I feel calm and light on the scale and in my life. There's some delicious magic when you learn this work and the skills I'm going to be teaching Ready? Let's get to it.

  Welcome. Welcome my friends. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am. I think it's just such an understatement that I finally get to bring on one of my dearest, dearest best friends, like real life best friends onto the podcast today. Ruth, welcome. We have been talking about having you on for months and months, and we are finally here.

  Welcome, welcome. Tell us who you are. Tell us why you are so special to me, and tell us all about you. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Thank you so much. I am just as excited to be here with you. So I'm Ruth St. Victor. I'm an OBGYN, and I practice in Texas. However, Priyanka and I met in New Jersey in our OBGYN residency. I was a year ahead of her, but somehow throughout the course of our training, I found such a common bond with you.

  We have just so many things in common. Our conversations were so easy. The way we approach patients, the way we manage patients, the way we studied. Somehow, I found that we had such a connection. We just did things so similarly, and I feel like our bond was so, I wanna say strong, that beyond residency, we've been able to maintain our relationship and things have evolved from just managing patients because now you're a life coach.

  I still practice OBGYN, but we still connect. We still connect. And right now I feel like our connection is, we talk about everything in life and then including fitness. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: So, oh, that's so good, Ruth. I still remember. So for those of you listening, I was a medical student when I first met you. I dunno if you remember cuz I came to do my sub at Newark Beth.

  That's where I did residency. Newark, Beth Israel in New Jersey. And I came as an, as a medical student. And you were an intern. And I just remember that you were such a boss. Like as an intern I remember thinking like, I wanna be like her when I grow up. Like it was one of those things that I think maybe I came into my sub, we were probably already quite far into intern year because you were already running the board.

  You knew every patient. You kind of like ran your list really well. You weren't one of the beginner interns. You were running it like a boss. And I remember thinking, I want to be like Ruth when I grow up. And then I think very naturally when I started in residency, you felt kind of like a big sister to me, like a mentor, and I really felt taken care of, like under your wing despite how challenging you and I both know residency, particularly OBGYN residency is notoriously challenging and I really felt so taken care of because you were there and I knew I could always come to you and I felt like that about a few of the senior residents and, and you were definitely at the top of my list, so I like to say that yes, I think we've had a kinship since that moment.

  And also just speaking to, we study together in the same way. You and I have made, we do our color coded nonsense, like we would have charts and planners, and I love it because I feel like you and I both fed each other's insanity, but in the best way. And I feel like we made studying fun, like because we had each other, I kind of felt like we were able to get through those really challenging moments because we had fun with it, which is I think gonna be a really great segue into the conversation I wanted to have today.

  And the reason that I really wanted to have you come on. As all of you know, I love having guests which include like experts in their field, my peers as coaches, and then even now my best friends with people who I actually am having real life conversations with that I think are interesting that I want my audience to kind of be a part of.

  Almost feel like you're also here in this conversation listening in, and one of the things that you and I have talked about, so, so, so, so much particularly this past year is fitness, exercise, fitness, getting to the gym, lifting versus cardio, macros to count or not macros to count. Like you and I have had so many conversations that I really wanted to bring you in and can you just kind of briefly give us a little bit of a background in terms of your experience, because I really do think of you as an ex, like a fitness expert, even though I know you're, you're an OBGYN obviously, but tell us about your background, how you got into fitness, like why it's been so important for you.

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: I wanna say I've always been into fitness in the sense of, like everyone else, I want to go to the gym, I want to exercise, I wanna stay fit. However, I did not know all of the details. I did not understand the importance of nutrition along with exercise. I just knew that I wanna be energetic, I wanna be fit, so I'm gonna go to the gym.

  I also want to say that I have lupus, and that was another motivating factor that I don't wanna let this chronic condition dominate me. So I wanna go to the gym and be agile and not be held back by this. So that was one thing that kind of kept me going. And over the years I've learned more and more about what to do to help myself, how to be effective, how to get results with my fitness.

  I got to one point in time where I felt like I've been doing this for a really long time and I'm not seeing too much of a difference. I'm not noticing much change in my body. What is it that I can do differently? And then that made me dig deeper. I'm doing this for, because even during residency and before residency, I was always exercising, but I looked exactly the same.

  So I'm like, what am I not doing right? And that's when I wanted to dig deeper. And make sure that I'm not just wasting my time, I'm not just going to the gym, but what can I do to make this effective to actually see the difference? And that pushed me to another level. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah, I love that because it's almost like the sense that I get, first of all, the fact that you were exercising during residency, I mean, I remember thinking like, okay, you go do that while I'm gonna do my cheese crackers and glass of wine.

  I mean, it's no surprise, right? Like kind of where my trajectory went and you know why I gained so much weight I think in residency and after. But I just think it's so interesting because you said you like, the sense I'm getting is you didn't wanna just clock hours at the gym to simply clock hours at the gym.

  You really were driven by results. And I think what the sense of getting tell me if this feels true is that you weren't seeing a difference in your results despite you clocking these hours. And so you got really curious around what you could be doing differently to start creating results. Is that kind of sum that up?

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Exactly. Yeah. It was years of going to the gym and just still looking exactly the same. So I'm like, there was something I'm not doing Right. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah. So what was it like when you started going down? I mean, I feel like we'd love to go down rabbit holes, especially you and me. So you started going down the rabbit hole of nutrition and exercise and fitness.

  Like what did you figure out that you weren't doing, that you wanted to start implementing? 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Two things. One was I really didn't have a routine. I didn't have a plan going into the gym. You know when you start going to the gym, you walk in and you're like, okay, I see what she's doing. Okay, let me do that.

  And then you see what the next person is doing. Oh, you're like, okay, let me do that too. I did not have a plan. I didn't know sets and reps. There were some days I would just join a class. There were other days, it was all treadmill. There were other days, it was just all dumbbells, but there wasn't a pattern, a routine, a program.

  There wasn't anything that I was following. So that was one thing. And then the second thing is I did not really pay attention to what I was eating or thought that it was important because I'm just like, I'll just go to the gym and burn it off. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: I don't ever remember you being overweight, like you've always been a very thin person.

  From like the minute I've met you, I've never heard you talk about your weight ever being a struggle. But what you're saying is that like that was not even your motivator to go to the gym. It wasn't about weight loss, it was about having a specific level of fitness. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Correct. Correct. Just like having endurance, having energy.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: And so the random approach wasn't working. That's what you're like, it's like you would clock the hours, like you would be going to the gym, but you didn't have a plan for what the results were that you wanted at the end. So you were clocking the hours, but it was so random that it wasn't creating specific results.

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Very random. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Okay. So then what happened? 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: The internet.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Welcome to the internet. Hello, Google. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: The internet. I began to see women who really looked fit, who really had a nice physique. And I wasn't looking for, you know, a big bulky, you know, physique. I was just like, wow, she really looks fit. She really looks trim.

  And I'm like, well, what did she do? And then began to, so you know how you have people post little clips, little 15 second clips of their exercise routine, but then give you a, a description of, I did so many reps and sets of this and I focused on this section on this day and that section on this day. And I'm like, so, so there's a routine.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Oh, so we can incorporate a little bit of routine. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Following something. And then I thought to myself, that's what the guys are doing. Cuz I do see them kind of focused just on the bench or just focused on their legs and I'm, I need to come up with a routine. The other thing too is I try to come up with it by myself.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: As we do, I mean that makes sense, right? It makes sense to be kind of given our first attempt or multiple attempts on our own. Right. That's like normal. We do that. Okay. So how did that go? 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: That didn't work either? 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah. Okay. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Work either like, I felt challenged, but I wanna compare it to like when we were studying for the boards.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah. Okay. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: You had a, b, c, program. You had courses that you could attend. You had books that you can buy. I mean, we were inundated with information. And I don't know if you remember when we finally just picked a program and stuck with it, like followed it all the way through. That's when we, you know, we got a grasp of the material.

  We were studying a little bit of questions here, a little bit of questions there. Let me attend this course. Let me follow that person online. Oh, what are you studying? Let me study that too. We were all over that place. Finally, I just picked a book, went all the way through it. It's just like, okay, there it is.

  I feel like that was the turning point for me when I just picked one program and stuck all the way through it. Then I began to see differences with my body. And then we can go, we can talk about the consistency of it all. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: But like, I'm just curious before we do the consistency part, like tell me about that moment where you, because you are a like, I mean, for, for anyone that knows Ruth personally, I just, and if you don't, you are a very determined, very self-motivated, very driven human.

  Just like, just by default. That's how I've always known you to be. Like, I really think of you as like a self-starter and you were like, I couldn't do this on my own. Like even someone that's determined and self-motivated and so high-achieving, you've done all of this board certificate and by the way, she's boarded in more than one field of medicine, not just as an OBGYN.

  So let me just throw that in. So like you're a high achieving working mom who's brilliant and self-motivated, but what do you think it was that felt like, okay, you tried doing it on your own but it didn't work? Like, tell me a little bit about that. Cuz that is such a barrier for me too. That's been such a barrier where we don't want to either ask for help or invest in help.

  Tell me about that piece for you and then how you decided to invest in help. And then we'll get to the consistency. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: So like we said, what I was doing wasn't working or trying to come up with my own plan. And the other thing was piece together workout. So I would see various influencers put in, you know, post their kind of like routine.

  So I would tape it all together, lemme take this routine, tape it to that routine, tape it to that routine and see what I can do. But I was just following everyone else's plan and didn't have a plan specific to myself. So that's when I was like, you know what? This is important to me. I want to get results.

  I see that a lot of time has passed by and I haven't gotten results. The other thing that I noticed, the people who had the most results, I just thought like, you know, like they're just good at it. Not true. I learned that they got professional help. Like they weren't just genetically able to do this, or they just looked strong, or they just kind of woke up like this, these professional, these experts, these, you know, physically fit women or men, they got help.

  They actually have a team on their side, and I'm like, oh.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Maybe that would work. Okay. Yeah. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Exactly.. So then I began to look into personal trainers, coaches and then find out who could help me, who, you know, reach out to them and see if it was something that was possible. I interviewed and you know, various people, and then at the moment for me to pull the trigger, I thought about it and I finally said, you know, in my mind I was thinking, I've spent a long time, a lot of years not being able to do this on my own.

  There is someone who can do this, who has gone through this and can show me and teach me and hold my hand through this. I'm gonna do this for myself. Like I can spend so much money on everything else, like, I don't know, pick my house. I don't know. I can buy very expensive furniture, you know, do a lot of things to help myself and just not even think it's a big deal.

  But I never thought about investing in myself in this way. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: What do you think was the difference for you? Because this is not just you. I felt the same way. When I first made my first decision to invest in coaching for myself, it was the first time that I had ever like spent money on just me. That's how I used to think about it.

  I'm like, Ooh, I'm just spending money on just me. Like my husband's not benefiting, the kids are not benefiting. Kind of like, it felt very, very uncomfortable. But if I was making a big purchase for a family vacation or for the house or for like, it felt like, oh, everybody gets to benefit. It felt almost like it was more valuable rather than what we're talking about is like you investing in a trainer or a fitness coach was just for you.

  How did you get to that point? What did, like, if you think about the difference.

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: I felt like the amount of information, the results that I'm going to get that I haven't gotten before was going to be forever. It was going to be a transition in my life where, once I achieve this, once I master this, it won't be just that, you know, 12 weeks of, you know, training and coaching.

  It's all the information that I'm going to gather from this, it's going to yield so much more results for years to come because I haven't gotten it up to this point. And I could go another year, I couldn't, another six months and keep fumbling through this, or I can finally get it, finally just like get the answer that I was looking for and then this will yield so much results from me later.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: And you know, it did. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: It was worth it. Oh yes, yes. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Oh yes it did. And we've talked about how I'm so inspired by what you've, what you've been creating. So I'm even curious about the idea of hand holding because I like to always tell my clients, especially when they come to first work with me, that I don't want them to think that they need me to hold their hand.

  So I kind of wanted to kind of paint like the, a full picture of what I think about hand holding as and kind of like how you kind of felt about your coach. I sometimes think we think we need somebody to hold our hand, but really, and I'm curious for you, cause we've talked about this on all of our Marcos, that actually your coach just shows you how capable you already are, and in fact, they're not actually ever dragging you to the gym.

  Your coach is not the one that's like setting your alarm for you and getting you out of bed and like counting your macros for you. Your coach is just there to show you. You are so strong and so resilient and this is so possible for you. Let's go. And I think that when that gets mirrored to you, you feel that like gust, that burst of like, oh, like hell yeah, let's go.

  So I'm just curious whether that feels true for you, because that's kind of what I like to mirror to my clients when they come to work with me, that I don't want them to think that they need me to hold their hand because that just implies that they're fragile or that they're weak when they're totally not.

  They just need a coach that mirrors to them how capable they actually are. What do you think about that?

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: I felt, number one, a sense of accountability. Like there was someone that I could report to and say, this is what I accomplished. And when covering, you know, things with him, his response was always like, wow, you did that.

  You were able to go through all of that. So he knew that I was a physician, he knew that I had children. He knew you know all that, you know, my life entailed and then was shocked that I could even accomplish it. And so hearing his response to my performance gave me a confidence. So I did it right. And you just like, yeah, you did exactly what I asked you to do.

  You know, just kind of like meeting with him one-on-one, just kind of like once a week kind of giving an assignment to do. And then I was left to accomplish certain tasks. And when reporting back in, it was just like, wow, you know what? You accomplished this. Let me throw a little bit more on your plate.

  And then I like at you, I almost felt like, I don't know, Shera, like I felt empowered. His encouragement empowered by, you know, what we were doing together. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah. Like look at you go. And I also wonder, it's the other sense that I get sometimes is when we are kind of doing it on our own, we wouldn't have thrown the extra onto our own plate.

  We wouldn't have pushed ourselves. Like sometimes I think when you've even told me, cuz I'm on now my own, which we're gonna talk about in a second, like my own fitness journey now for the first time. And it's like, I know that I'm not pushing myself as hard as I would, but because of you kind of coaching me and me having a coach to help me kind of work through my own fitness journey, I know that I get pushed harder.

  It's like the dial gets turned up just a little bit more than I would ever do on my own. Which is where the growth happens, right? The growth of discomfort. It's like that moment where it's like, I'm gonna challenge you. I know that this is new, but I'm gonna challenge you because you're so capable. Like Shera. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Right, right. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Which is so good. Okay. So, just kinda to pivot a little bit, I kind of wanna take the conversation a little bit to nutrition and macros, because historically on this podcast, and for any of my clients listening, I very much talk super strongly about not counting points, calories, and macros.

  That's kind of like a story that I've, I've really been supporting because of my own personal journey in losing over 60 pounds without exercise. I'm not think this is always a good thing, but I lost all this weight without exercising and without counting points, calories, and macros. And I remember the reason for this is because I felt initially when I had so much weight to lose, it felt like the idea of exercising felt like, oh, one more thing, one more thing on my to-do list that would make the whole thing feel too much.

  And so I decided I wanted to have one primary body goal at a time. My first body goal was to really lose weight by focusing on eating in a way that supported my body. And I also didn't feel the desire to work out. I think I just felt so uncomfortable and physically having my body. I just didn't feel the desire.

  And then when I got to my ideal weight, that's when I felt like, Ooh, my body, I can feel my body's like ready. She's like, I wanna get strong. I wanna become a runner. I want to start lifting weights. And that is the very first time that I kind of started talking to you like, okay Ruth, how do I get started?

  Because I was doing what you started with. Like I would do a random class, I would jump on the bike, I would maybe go for a walk. It felt kind of random. And also I have this history of not ever wanting to count a macro or point ever again in my life because I feel like I did that. So can you talk to us a little bit about your perspective with macros and counting, counting macros when it comes to exercise? Cause I feel like you and I have very different perspectives on this. . 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Yeah. So I want to emphasize so much that there's not one correct way to approach this. My belief is the right way is the way that you can stick with, so I want to mention, I knew you when you were at a higher B M I. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah, 200 pounds, my friends, 200 pounds. You can say it, Ruth. You can say it. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: I knew you then. And that's the image that I remember. So now I lived in Texas. You still, at the moment you lived in New Jersey. And so we communicated mostly by phone and then we really got into Marco Polo. So I don't know if you remember one of the first times, it was like a, a long time had passed by and then we reconnected on Marco Polo.

  And then I saw you for the first time and I said, Priyanka , what did you do? I could not believe the transformation. I couldn't, it was immediate. I do remember it was definitely on Marco Polo, and then ultimately when we met each other face to face, and we're running to each other and hugging. And I had the chance to even feel.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: I know, I remember that.

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Yeah. I mean, it was jaw dropping. It was shocking to see, you know, the difference in the transformation. And so then we got into, my immediate question was just how did you do this? And so you explained to me, you know, just a change in your nutrition. You described it not necessarily as like a diet, but just taking away some things, flour, you mentioned, and carbs, but not, you know, all carbs. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Flour, and sugar. Yeah. I think that that was one of the conversations, because you have always talked about macros, which we'll talk about in a second, but when I was like, I basically took a solid break from flour and sugar and I started eating when I was hungry and stopping when I was not. And you were like that, what?

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Right. I was like... 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: What do you mean that's, what do you mean? Because, cause I even, I'll order the potatoes and I'll order all the, it's like, it's not anti carb. It's like taking real breaks from highly processed foods and you're like, seriously, what are you talking about? Yeah. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: It is so amazing. So this emphasizes how much nutrition is so important, and it's not just exercising.

  I almost wanna say that in the literature that I've been reading, that fitness is almost 80% nutrition and 20% exercise. This is how much nutrition has such an importance in place in the fitness journey. And this is also to emphasize there's not one right way, but the way that you can stick with.

  And so, not to say exercise is not important, but if that's not something that you either feel comfortable with or you know it's a problem for you, or you feel intimidated by the gym, doesn't necessarily mean that you can't reach your goals, then find another way that works for you. Just find a way . 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Find a way. My friend's like this is such a good point. And Ruth guys, this is like these two physicians are telling you, you don't have to go to the gym. You don't have to go to the gym. If it feels intimidating or it feels like too much or like something is coming up for you, don't do the gym but find something.

  Don't just let that be the end of your road. It's like, okay, if I'm not going to the gym, then what do I want to do? Instead, which is so, so, so important. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: So I wanna add on not only find a way, but find a way and stick with it. So going back to what we were mentioning before, you wanna pick one way and follow that one way all the way through?

  Where I'd like to introduce nutrition for me is, like you said, I've never been overweight, but I wanted to have a particular physique. I wanted to look a certain way, and I'd like to borrow one of the, the, sayings that, you know, my coach would say to me is the more detail you put in, the more detail you get out at some point in time, like when you're starting your fitness journey, it may be that I just wanna lose weight, and that's a good goal.

  Like I just wanna lose weight. And if it means running on a treadmill every day, then do that. Or doing a Zuma class every day, then do that. And then now you've reached your goal. You feel like you're at your ideal B M I. There's not a right number, but you are at your goal. So I felt like I was at my goal weight wise, but the details in my body I didn't see.

  And this is where I feel like macros matter. This is where all of the other nuances matter. How much protein are you eating, how much carbs, how much fat? Way I started with it and it sounds intimidating. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: It did to me. Cuz I remember when you were explaining to me, I'm like, wait, I need a calculator, Ruth.

  I'm not doing it. I refuse. It's like I made one rule with myself. I'm never pulling out a calculator ever again when it comes to me eating. But you've made it fun for me the way that I kind of think about protein now. So we'll get into like, if you don't wanna open up the calculator, you don't have to. We'll talk about that second. But yeah, go ahead. With your marcos. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: The way I approached it, I thought, for me it's all about strength training and gaining more muscle. I wanted to see a little bit more definition. You know, as ladies, I wanted to see a little bump on my arm. So if I'm wearing, you know, a sleeveless shirt, you know, I'm not flexing in the street, but you know, if I'm moving, listen.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Or you could flex in the street too. I mean, come on now. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: You know, I wanna see just a little bit of definition. You know, we always talk about, you know, some ladies, you might know what we're talking about when you have bat wings, loose skin. I didn't wanna have, I wanted to feel tight around my arms. I wanted to feel tight around my waist, thighs, et cetera.

  And just have a little bit of definition in order to have definition. Now we're not worrying about so much being overweight and fat, et cetera. We feel like we're at our ideal body goal, but we want to see more muscle, right? Because that's what gives us the shape as women, right? You feel, you know, curvy.

  What shows that curviness is your muscles. So in order to grow muscles, you need protein. Your muscles are made of protein, so you have to give yourself protein. So just to make it easy, no equations at all. I'm not worrying about carbs, I'm not worrying about fat. The one for the group that I'm paying attention to is I need protein.

  And the easiest way to think about it is, so if I'm 130 pounds, I need 130 grams of protein per day period. No equation. Didn't calculate that. And it, and keep in mind it's a goal. When I started to look at how I was eating day to day, I don't even think I was getting 50 grams of protein. I was eating whatever.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: So you weren't overweight. So I just wanna kind of emphasize that you weren't overweight, but you weren't really paying attention to the different categories of nutrients that you were consuming. And because of that, you noticed that your body, even though you were at the gym, clocking the hours, you didn't have the definition you wanted.

  And so to get the definition, you knew you had to grow muscle. And to grow muscle from just like a science perspective, you needed to have more protein to build the muscle. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Yeah, you gotta get building blocks. The protein that you are taking in, that you're consuming is the building blocks to have your muscle grow.

  And initially you think, if I could just do 10 reps of biceps, it's gonna grow. Oh, I didn't this week, next week I'm just gonna do 10 more. So you're out there just like doing bicep curls after bicep curls. And then what I learned through coaching, et cetera. It's just like, it's not how many, you know, curls that you do, although that is important.

  But I need to feed it as well. I need to give it the building blocks so it can respond to the tension that I'm giving it. The only thing that you're doing when you're doing all that exercise and you're not feeding it, is you're just making yourself tired. . 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Right. That's so good. Because I think that that's been me, that that has been me for a really long time where I felt like I'm not seeing much results in terms of like for fitness goals.

  And when I was talking to you about it, you're like, well, what are you eating? And I was like, Ruth, listen. I have my, my food is dialed. I love the way I'm eating. You're like, yeah, you might love the way you're eating, but like, let's just get into that for a second. And I think that's what I realized is I'm like jumping on the Peloton.

  I'm going for jogs and I'm doing like the lifting classes, but I wouldn't see a difference at all in my body. And I think that this was probably a big piece of, I never changed the way that I was eating until you and I had that conversation. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Yeah. Another thing that I wanna add on is that when we think of fitness and when we think of paying attention to what we're eating, we automatically think restriction.

  I have to restrict myself. If I really do this equation, I'll find out that you know, I'm eating too much and I need to cut back. On the contrary, when I really looked at what I was eating in relation to my goals, it turns out I was actually undereating and I was doing the opposite. We think that we have to restrict ourselves, like just eat one slice of bread, one piece of chicken, et cetera, like we think we have.

  We're dieting to the point, like we're restricting ourselves, we're taking things away from us and from my personal goals of wanting to build more muscle, I learned that I was not feeding myself enough, and I feel like that's an issue for us females because we think like we have to take things away from us, like we can't have food.

  On the contrary, if you want to build that certain physique, you actually need to eat more. I learned counting macros. It wasn't like I was being restrictive. It was just making me aware. Paying attention, nutrition and counting my macros helped me become aware of what I was eating. It wasn't creating restrictions for me. That's how I see counting macros. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: I think that this also comes through the lens of what your goal is. Right. So my goal initially was to lose 60 pounds. So I was never worried about am I eating enough because my goal was weight loss. I knew that I had been overeating, right? So with my, the result that I wanted, which was to reach my ideal weight, I knew that I had to start eating only when I was hungry and stopping when I was comfortable.

  Now that my goals have been shifting, my goals are like, okay, I wanna get stronger. I wanna build some muscle, I wanna get more fit and like actually grow muscle. Now I'm having to recalibrate the way that I eat and it's, it's been kind of a process for me because I'm so used to only eating when I'm hungry and stopping when I'm not, to really pay attention to incorporating more of the protein because it's been, it's, it's a new goal for me. It's like a brand new result that I want. It's been shifting the way that I'm incorporating food. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: You can approach this multiple ways. One is you can do, you know, just primarily weight loss, which is what you did, or you can do just strength training, but you can actually do weight loss and strength training at the same time.

  For me, my goal was gaining more muscle, so at this point, not necessarily to lose weight, and with that being my goal, I have to look at food differently. Just to agree with what you're, so since your goal was losing weight and you had to change how you eat and put that filter in place, I had to put a filter in place for me.

  My filter was, it's okay to eat , it's okay to eat., I don't have to starve myself. I can go ahead and, you know, put in those calories. And the way I look at the filter that I have now is not only, you know, it's okay, but I also need to do it to achieve the goal that I have. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: So we are really talking about like focusing on the goal. And it's interesting because it touches back to what you were saying, even at the very start when you first started working out, you would just kind of do like this and that without thinking about the end goal. It was like just clocking the hours without thinking about the end goal. Like what we're talking about, I think in this conversation that seems to be a theme is we have to focus on the result that you want and then reverse engineer how you wanna create that.

  So focusing with the goal in mind, getting really specific and detailed on what that is. Don't be afraid. I think you were saying before we started recording, don't be afraid of getting into the details because I know that I have historically done this, and I call this monkey emoji, where you kinda like cover your, you know, your eyes, your ears.

  Like pretend like if we didn't get into the details or we made kind of like the way that I think about them is like Lucy goosey plans. So we don't make real plans, but we make Lucy goosey plans. It's because we are afraid of getting into the details. And that's one of the things that you have been talking to me about is like, don't be afraid to get into the details.

  Can you tell us a little bit more about that piece? 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: For every meal in the day. This is another easy way to approach it. I'm just thinking I need to include protein in every meal. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: So that's been my approach I think like, cuz again, I've, I've told you like I really don't want to do the counting of the calories so I don't look at like 30 grams of protein or, or whatnot.

  But one of the things that I have been, no, there's two things I've noticed. One is ever since I've started working out more, I feel like my body's craving more protein. Like I notice my desire to like make the eggs or like have the lentils or make the beans like it's so much higher than it was before.

  And it's specifically because I think my body is asking for more protein. So that's one thing I think is just important to start paying attention to. When you start working out, you might feel the desire to eat more protein. And then the second thing I'm doing is what you just said. I'm just being a little bit more cognizant that every time I do eat, I'm focusing on not just the vegetables anymore, but like, okay, and what's my protein today?

  Just asking myself that question without being like, okay, did I get to 130 grams of protein today? I'm like, I'm just gonna make sure that I really focus on protein and just that I think has made such a huge difference. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Right, right. That's what I, once you do that for me, counting calories and macros, I did it in the beginning of my fitness journey and I did it so much that at this point in time I'm not always pulling out a calculator and piece of paper.

  And I think that's what is also intimidating, you know, for us women, cuz we're thinking, am I always gonna have to do this every time I go out, everywhere I go, no, you won't. You will begin to know, you know how much protein is in milk, how much protein, cup of yogurt, how much protein is in eggs, and then once you've gotten that in your head, it'll become so much easier later.

  You know, in your everyday activities, it'll be so much more easier, but you just have to do the work in the beginning. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yes. And that's true of everything. Like you have to be willing to invest in the work. Like you have to do it. It's like you care if you care about this result. You have to invest the attention and the effort now to reap the reward of reaching the goal.

  Right. I think that that's such a big one. And one of the things I wanted to kind of just touch on, just to pivot a little bit, is that feeling of intimidation. I remember you were sharing with me, this was, I think, was this after you had your first or second, I'm trying to remember where you were like, okay, I wanna get back to the gym.

  I've had a baby. I'm in my forties, and I remember we had so many conversations on, even though you didn't have weight to lose, I felt like we were kind of having coaching conversations on how you felt about yourself, getting back to the shape that you were in before. One of my intentions with this podcast is for women to know what's possible for them, even if it's been impossible for you yesterday, and it was impossible for you last month and last year.

  A podcast is all about possibility, sparking possibility, grabbing it, and then running with it. So tell us about that piece for you where you felt intimidated, but you also felt a spark of possibility. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Right. It's so easy to fall into a position of telling yourself all of these things like, I'm too old, or I've had kids and nobody ever recovers from this, right?

  Nobody ever, you know, gets rid of their little baby pouch . You reach a certain age and you're like, oh, I'm getting older. My metabolism. We like to use that. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Oh, I like how we're putting this in quotes. There's two OBGYNs that have probably had so many patient visits around like, can you check my hormones if my metabolism has slowed down?

  And yes, there is a role which we're gonna be doing another podcast episode on metabolism. That's gonna be, we're gonna have a conversation on that. We're gonna do that separately, cuz that's a whole separate hour of talking. But like, it's true, when you get older, your metabolism will change.

  And so then what? It's gonna happen. And so then what? Yeah, go ahead. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: There's no such a thing as I, you reach a certain age and you're done. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: No, my friends, that is just not true. Take that out of your brain because I think that is such a limiting belief. It's like self-fulfilling prophecies, right? When you start thinking it's not possible for me, or I'm too old, or I've had too many kids, I promise that will become your reality.

  And what you're talking about is saying, even if my metabolism has slowed, even if I have kids, even if I'm in my forties, that might be true and I'm not going to let that be the end. I'm gonna go figure it out. And that became your self-fulfilling prophecy. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Absolutely. I remember telling you the first time that I went to the gym after having, you know, babies, my last daughter, the StairMaster is something that I love, just...

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: I remember that. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: ...Warmed up and, you know, get me going. That is my favorite form of cardio and I can stay on there for 20 minutes. Easy. Love it. That first return to the gym, I could not do two minutes without feeling like I was going to cough up my lung. It was hard. It was so hard, but I thought to myself, you know what?

  I have the capacity and potential to do this. I may not be able to do it today and I'm okay with not being able to do this today. I'm totally okay with it cause I know it's within me. I know I have the potential, I just have to work towards it. I was content with that answer. Like, today is going to be two minutes, but I know next week is going to be five minutes.

  And that's another thought process I feel like that we need to have when going into fitness. When you see the person next to you  is able to get on there for like 30 minutes and they're not even breathing hard, you wanna step away and feel like I'm a failure. Not true. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: But should we make, we make other people's successes mean something about our capacity?

  And I think that this is kinda a phrase that I think is, is really pertinent. Like we just have to learn how to be inspired by other people, but then mind our own business. And I actually still remember that very first StairMaster. I still remember that Marco you sent me after. So Ruth, for those of you that you know weren't not part of this, Marco, she sent me a, like a very long Marco telling me about her two minutes.

  And you were feeling discouraged. I do remember you were like, I cannot believe, I was like, you know, I, I know that I can do more than this. I cannot believe I could only do two minutes. And you said the coughing one lung felt like you were gonna cough a lung up. And you did feel discouraged, but you allowed yourself to feel discouraged.

  And then you also told yourself, and tomorrow we're gonna do three minutes. And you did not let that make you ever quit. Like you felt discouragement, but you didn't let the discouragement, this is that moment, I promise you, this is true of weight loss. This is true of fitness. It's true of any big goal.

  You're going to have moments that feel really hard where you can only do the two minutes on the StairMaster. That's me. Like I'm right now, I'm like, maybe, maybe I could do three or four minutes on a StairMaster. I know what I can do on a bike. I know how much I can run. It's really, really small. And there are some moments that I'm like, Ugh, that's all I can do.

  Oh, like, I wish I could do more. And I let myself feel that feeling of discouragement and I will never, ever let that be the end of the sentence. Like, that's it. Let me just quit. It's like, and tomorrow we're gonna add a minute and tomorrow and like, and the next day and the next day. And like, here you are now doing 20 minutes. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Nine months ago. I couldn't do that. But I knew that eventually ultimately, you know, I would get to that point. And it's all about sticking with it. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: You have to hold the belief, hold the belief that your capacity to grow is there. And do not let that waiver. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Do whatever you can do or need to do to get yourself in the zone so you can stay on track.

  For me, it was I'm gonna put earphones on. That's my kind of, you know, way to get all of the distraction out of the way. Number one, leave the house. Leave the house because that is my distraction. I have two little human beings that I cannot help myself but wanna grab and, you know, squeeze, they just stop you in your tracks and whatever it is that you were doing, you'll just drop it.

  Right? So for me, it's being in the house. So I'm just like, I have to step away and my preferred form of exercise or place is to be in the gym. So that's one thing I like to get away from the house. And then when I'm in the gym, in order for me to stay focused on myself and not the, the fitness girl next to me, put on my headphones and I feel like I am my own world and in my own bubble, and I am the strongest person in the room.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah, you are. Look at you. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: I think to myself, I am the only person in the room. That's my little piece of advice. For those of you who go to the gym, just feel like you're just not that strong. I put on my earphones, I hear nothing. I see no one. I am not embarrassed. No fumbling and dropping the dumbbell and being the one person that is on the treadmill for two minutes and everybody else keeps going and I'm like, today, that is my best 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: And I'm the strongest. I just love that you said that because I remember even before we were talking, you were like, you were willing to make a fool of yourself at the gym. That's kind of in, in your words. And I think that there are certain things that feel intimidating, like going to the gym or putting yourself into a group experience where you feel embarrassed or like, I don't wanna make a fool out of myself, or I might make a mistake, but like, can we just make everybody comfortable that's listening, that we are all going to make fools of ourself and we're all going to make mistakes.

  We're gonna drop the dumbbells. We're gonna do a minute on the StairMaster, we're going to fumble. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Right, right. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: So then what? 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Everybody else is really not thinking about you the way you're thinking. You're thinking everyone is looking at you and paying attention and Wow, she only did 30 seconds. They're not, and you know what? Even if they were... 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah. Even if they are, so what? 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Like, so what? It's just like my end goal. I'm staring at it, I'm thinking about it. I'm dreaming of it so much more than all the other thoughts. That's what keeps me going. That's what I want so badly. I want it so bad that I don't see the person to the left and to the right of me.

  My husband also thought, why are you getting a coach? Like it was initially a secret. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Oh, let's, yeah, let's talk about this. Yeah, I remember this. Oh my gosh. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: That thought. It's easy. You can just do it by yourself. Like what do you need to do that for? 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Well, he's also super into fitness and so he's a very fit person on his own. So I think he was like, oh, like, I mean, I do it it by myself. Yeah. Yeah. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: He's like a do it yourself. And when, even when people see him, they think he's a trainer, , but he is that fit. And one of was that was able to achieve that level of fitness all on his own. So when he sees me, he is just like, well, just keep doing what you're doing.

  But I personally, for myself, I didn't like my results. I didn't like where I was. He didn't understand how badly I wanted it. So easy for you to say that. That's, I would tell. So easy for you. I need a little bit more help. So it was a secret. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: So started out as a secret, you decided to invest in a coach and so, tell us about the, yeah. So tell us a little bit about that. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: So when he finally found out is when I was making the change, my body was different and my face looked different. My arm, the weight was going down and it's just, what are you doing? 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: What'd you say? Where you're like, oh, this is on my own. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: And I was just, you know, it was just like I said, the dreaded thing.

  I was like, I got a coach, , sorry I didn't tell you this ahead of time, but I really needed the help and I would've never gotten to this point, or, you know, gotten this results without someone helping me and holding my hand going through the journey with me and not just like, oh, you can do it. Just go ahead and do it.

  No, I needed more than that. He didn't understand that I needed more than just like a little pep talk and pat on my back. Cause that's how he did it. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah. I, and coaching is not that. I think that that's kind of the other thing. Like maybe he, maybe also, I wonder whether he had the impression that like a coach is like somebody that gives you pep talks and pat's you on the back.

  And you and I both know coaching is definitely not pep talks and pat's on the back, so Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So he started getting all the results and he was like, what's happening? You told him. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Right? And it was just, you know what happened too? He started listening in.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Can you ask him so for my protein I'm taking this time. What, what does he think about that? 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's so funny. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: He started, you know, something that he was interested in and it was just like, almost like, it's okay. Like, yeah, go ahead. I have the kids for the hour. You just go ahead and do your coaching. Okay. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: So your coaching benefited him? 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Oh, yeah. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Can I tell you how many of my clients tell me like the coaching that they get on weight loss affects their marriages, it affects them as moms, it affects 'em at work. Like they just start leveling up all these other areas and like everybody gets to reap the benefit of it, which is just great.

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: We were just things together. We were both, you know, counting our calories together, same meals, and he's just like, oh, you look like you didn't let me give you a piece of my chicken. You look like you didn't have enough protein. And did you, you know, do this and that? Did you get your workout in it every day?

  Now he tells me, do you wanna work out first? I'll go second. Like, he sees how important it's for me, how, you know, the consistency of going to the gym and he wants to make sure I hit my milestones. And before that it was just like, well just, just keep doing what you're doing. You're fine. You, you'll just get it.

  And now it's just, do you need me to go to the market and run and go get something for you? Did you get your protein? Do you need a milkshake? Did I blend it for you? 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Yeah. Right. And you know what, and Ruth, you tell me if this feels true for you, but it's almost like you taking your goals seriously at this level, you taking the results seriously.

  You talking like just how you were going to show up to this process so seriously also enabled him to take it seriously with you, as opposed to what we've done in the past. Like when we don't take ourselves seriously. Like why would our partner take it seriously? 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Right. And I felt like he got to the point where he felt like I'm leaving him behind. Right. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Cause he's like, I have to catch up, huh? Right. Oh my gosh. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: He's the one that's like, you know, fitness is so easy for him and it's just like, whoa. You're going to the gym say, no, wait, I'm going to, because how serious I am about it. And I think also happy, you know, with the results I'm getting. And so he becomes an accountability partner for me too.

  You didn't go to the gym yet, or you missed, you should go, you know, he's, you know, supportive or, because I've taken it seriously. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: That's just so important. And I mean, we're, so we're kind of, we're getting to the top of the hour, so just to kind of like, and we're gonna be having Ruth back on, on the podcast to keep talking about fitness and metabolism and, and all of this, because this is kind of, my next leg I think is this piece, right?

  So I've lost all the weight, but now I really want to get stronger and I have personal fitness goals for myself this year. And I think that this is a conversation you and I are gonna keep having, but I'm just like, if you could just kind of impart a couple of like, takeaways for anybody that's listening and, and one I think is really that, and you said this right before we started recording.

  You've been in practice for many years now, over 10 years, and you still have to look things up. And I think the example was like, don't think that you ever need to stop looking things up. Like it's going to be a process. What do you wanna leave for? Anybody else listening right now? 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: I feel like my fitness journey is a lifelong process.

  It is not something that I reached a particular goal and I'm done. It is a lifestyle for me. It is something that I'm getting better and better at it every day. Working out as long as I've been working out now, I still don't have it all. I still don't have it all. I feel like I have to learn, read. It almost becomes like a physician.

  We have to do our certifications once a year. Look and read. Study and stay on top of things. That's how I see fitness. It's not something that I used to just go to the gym and just kind of wing it, right? 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: Don't wing it. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: I don't just wing it. I want to perfect this area of my life, so that means that I'm listening to podcasts, I'm reading books, I'm listening to audibles.

  This is something that, this is an area in my life that I wanna perfect day to day, month to month, year to year, and I'm reading up on the latest and the greatest so I can get better at this skill, this act of my life. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: And like even the way you're describing it, this even reminds me of when we, you and I studied for boards.

  Like this also reminds me a little bit of that because it's like, the way that we are talking about this is it's not burdensome. . It's not a homework assignment or another to do on your long never ending task list. You want to do this because you deeply love it, and you've created a process that you love doing, and it's like something you care about, so you want to do it.

  I think that that is sometimes such a big difference between like, oh, this is gonna be a lifelong process. All of a sudden somebody's like, oh my gosh, that's too much. It's too like it's only because you've hated your process as opposed to what we were talking about is like when you love your process, you want to be doing it. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Right. When you're getting results from it also makes it exciting.

  I'm at the point where because I see results, I wanna keep going initially doing it day to day and not getting any results. So that can be a little frustrating, a little disappointing, but now that you're doing something and you know how to do it and you're getting results from it, it makes you keep doing it over and over again because, you know, you know, if I follow my routine now, if I follow this equation, I'm bound to get results.

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: That's right. Which is such a good feeling to know, right? Like if I just followed the steps, if I just stuck with it, if I was committed to it, even if I can only do two minutes to start, if I just stuck with it, the results are inevitable. And I think that like that's, I really feel like you've done that for me.

  I'm like, oh, if Ruth can do it, maybe I can do it. And like, you know, I keep gonna, I'm gonna keep sending you all the Marcos with all of my questions. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: Hey, I want women to know that like you're, you're not, you're not too old, you are not, you know, done. Just because you have children, you could get rid of what we call, you know, the little kangaroo pouch.

  I call it a kangaroo pouch . 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: You can do anything. Yeah. 

  Dr. Ruth St. Victor: You can do it as long as you stick with it. Have fun with it. There may be some days that you know, you don't feel like it, and there may be some days for me, you know, you have a bag of Doritos or cheese puffs and that doesn't pop right, that you've messed up everything.

  You know, you could have, you know, a day where you just relax and you, you know, you don't wanna exercise, but that doesn't mean you've lost it all. You've messed everything up. You just get up. And then don't punish yourself, right? Instead of 20 minutes tomorrow, I'm doing 40 minutes on the StairMaster. Don't punish yourself.

  You know, enjoy that burger. Have a good time with your family. Go out. You know, if it's your husband's birthday, have that piece of cake. 

  Dr. Priyanka Venugopal: But then just get back to it. Don't quit. Don't let it go. Yeah. That's so good. Ruth, I'm so glad that we had this conversation today and you know, we're gonna be probably having many, many more because I think that you and I, I think, I think just like fitness and discussing fitness for me, especially through the lens of like, I can't understand the science of it, but what I'm now doing is not like with my physician hat on now I'm thinking of this is just like a human who wants to get stronger personally.

  So I think it's been really nice to bring everybody along for the ride and I just loved having you, so thank you so, so much for being here in the conversation and we're gonna do it again soon. Bye. The Unstoppable Group is is my signature six month coaching experience for high achieving working moms who want to live lighter, feel better, feel more powerful, and lose weight at the same time.

  I teach my clients a specific step-by-step process that is based in science and also takes mindset into account where you learn the skills you didn't know you needed to permanently change your life and the scale. We do this in our strategy workshops, our live weekly coaching calls, and in the 24/7 written coaching cafe, this group has high achieving working women from every industry with one common goal to live lighter and lose weight at the same time.

  It is the best company to put yourself in and feel the support of. The next group is starting on April 16th, and enrollment will be opening in mid-February. You can get all of the details by visiting theunstoppablemombrain.com/group and sign up to get on the wait. This group is intentionally kept small and intimate, so make sure you're on this list so you're the first to know when enrollment opens.

  Your 2023 goals are just waiting for you and they are done. And on the other side of this decision, I cannot wait to meet you inside. Thanks for listening to Weight Loss for Unstoppable Moms. It's been an honor spending this time with you and your brilliant brain. If you want more information or resources from the show, visit theunstoppablemombrain.com.