Ep. #452: How Meaghan Used Thinner Leaner Stronger to Lose 40 Pounds and Transform Her Life

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So again, if you appreciate my work and if you want to see more of it, please do consider supporting me so I can keep doing what I love, like producing podcasts like this. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Muscle for Life podcast. I’m your host, Mike Matthews, and this is a success story episode.

This time around, I interview Megan, who used my thinner, leaner, stronger book and workout program that is in the book to completely transform her body. and life. So before finding my work, Megan was about 160 pounds and about 30 percent body fat, maybe a little bit lower than that, 28 or so. And she wasn’t happy with where her body was at, but she just didn’t know what to do in the kitchen or gym because she had tried many things and it didn’t work so well.

And at last she was just confused and frustrated. Then however, she found my book for women thinner, leaner, stronger. And now she’s about 40 pounds lighter, a lot leaner, and a whole hell of a lot stronger too. Megan also now has a much better relationship with food and fitness in general, and she truly enjoys her life.

Her new sustainable lifestyle. And that’s the goal. Something that we can stick to for the rest of our lives. And she has that now she knows what she can do to stay fit and to stay healthy for the rest of her life. That’s really what I want for everybody. That’s what I want for you. And everybody who is in my orbit, who reads my books, or articles, or listens to my podcasts, or watches my YouTube videos.

Quick results are great, of course. They’re motivating, and you should get quick results. Especially if you are new to proper weightlifting, or if you have a lot of weight to lose. However, I want people to look further into the future. Beyond even the first year, let’s talk about where your body is going to be in 10 years, in 20 years, in 30 years.

Because if you know what you’re doing and you do the most important things mostly right most of the time, you can get into awesome shape and stay that way without ever feeling like you are missing out on anything, really. Without feeling like you are depriving yourself. Food or social experiences or other things you could be doing with your time as opposed to spending two hours a day in the gym or doing tons of cardio that you don’t want to do or doing workouts that you don’t want to do.

And so that is why I really liked Megan’s story. I thought it was an object lesson in what we are. Really going for at least what I’m trying to encourage people to really go for. And not only that now for Megan, but she is helping in my mission by paying it forward. She coaches other women now to follow her in her footsteps.

Mostly women. She said she has some male clients, but mostly female clients. And mostly busy women too, and she helps them transform their bodies and lives as well. So that’s pretty cool to just know that is one of the ripple effects of helping other people get in shape is a certain percentage of those people then decide to take what they’ve learned and what they’ve done and help others.

In this interview, Megan and I chat about her story and her transformation and some of the key lessons she has learned along the way, including the importance of consistency over perfection and why perfection is really just self defeating. We talk about overcoming gym intimidation. Which is something I often hear from women about women who are new to weightlifting, for example, and are a bit intimidated to start doing that.

Megan and I also talk about staying in shape while traveling because she travels a lot. And that’s also a great topic that I get asked about. Often and more so if you like hearing other people’s inspirational stories about getting fit and staying fit, and if you also want to pick up a few helpful tips that might help you in your journey as well, I think you’re going to this episode.

Here it is. Hey, Megan, welcome to my little podcast. 

Meagan: Thanks so much for having me, Mike. 

Mike: Yeah. I’m excited to hear your story. These are always fun for me. Like I was saying, before we got on, they’re just a nice change of pace from rambling for 40 minutes about something or interviewing a topic expert on something specific.

It’s always fun to just hear people’s stories and it’s personally satisfying for me. That’s like the real payoff is, why do all this? It’s so people like you can come tell me how I’ve helped. 

Meagan: Yeah, definitely. I’m very excited to share my experience and just the crazy success. This is really brought my life and hopefully.

To inspire other people to do the same. 

Mike: Awesome. It occurred to me, I think sometimes the details would come out just in the course of discussion, but a good place to start these probably is just a quick summary of who are you? Who is Megan? Like, how old are you? What is life set up? What’s your schedule like?

And then from there, I’d be curious to here, just a snapshot of your before and after. And then I think we should rewind to the before, and then you can tell us what that was, what was really going on at that time and then walk us to now. 

Meagan: Yeah, sure. Definitely. So I am 27 years old. I am from Canada, but I live a pretty unusual lifestyle.

So I’m an online entrepreneur now, and I have been living abroad, traveling the world for like several years. And now that I do it. Just all from my laptop. It’s made it even easier. And actually what I do now is that I am also a fitness coach. And so I do it online. My typical clientele is like career woman.

And so I just pretty much travel living wherever I want to and keep it up on my own health and fitness. That’s always a huge priority. And then just showing other people how they can do the same. It’s just like. Sharing my story and just what I do as far as travel, fitness, business, showing that on my content, my social media.

And yeah, so that’s what I do these days. 

Mike: Cool. Where are you right now? 

Meagan: Right now I am in Paris and I’ve been here about a week and I’m doing like just a little bit of a Euro tour. I’m actually very excited next weekend. I’m going to Barcelona for this international fitness summit. So it’s the first kind of conference type thing like that, that I’ve done.

And I think that. The focus is actually going to be more on the business of online fitness. So that’s pretty cool for me to see all these people who are really crushing it, come and speak about what works for them. And so hopefully I’ll get some good takeaways. 

Mike: Yeah, it sounds interesting. Paris. I haven’t been in a while, but is.

My probably, yeah, my number one favorite city that I’ve been to. 

Meagan: Oh, wow. Yeah. I really love it here. I speak French. I went to school in the French part of Canada. So it’s really fun for me to get to practice that and just to hear it. I love the language and it’s just a beautiful place. So yeah, very happy to be here.

Mike: Yeah, I’ll actually be there next summer. So my wife and I are going to renew our. Wedding vows just for fun and we’re going to do it in Paris. We’re going to do the original wedding that we wanted to do, but we didn’t get to do because my parents paid for the wedding. So we got married when I was 23.

She was I 22 or 23 and she was a year older. So because my parents paid for the wedding, it was my mom’s wedding. So my dad had, he was just like, I don’t know. I’m just. I’m just paying. So it was my mom’s wedding. It was a nice wedding, but it was in Florida. And it was the wedding that my mom wanted.

And I’m not saying that’s a complaint, but it wasn’t. What Sarah and I wanted to do was something small in Paris and who can come is who can come. We know that the most important people we would want there would come of course. And beyond that, if it means that there’s only 20 or 30 people, yeah, that’s fine.

Doesn’t need to be 200 people. So now we’re going to do it the way that we originally wanted to do. We’ll pay for it this time. I’m excited. We’re going to do that and then go to the French Riviera and then go to the Amalfi coast. 

Meagan: Oh, wow. That’s going to be absolutely beautiful and very romantic. I’m sure 

Mike: it’ll be cool.

Cause we have two kids, two and. Six turning seven. So it’s cool that my little daughter can maybe carry flowers or something and my son can be involved. It’d be fun for them probably too. 

Meagan: Oh yeah, definitely. 

Mike: So to get back to the point here, not my my marital plans. So let’s get just like a quick kind of before you found me and my work, where you were at in terms of your body composition, And what was going on then, and then just where you’re at now, I think it’s a good idea just to give a quick snapshot of where has this journey taken you.

Meagan: My fitness journey began about four years ago. So that was just when I literally started from absolutely nothing. So at that time I was 23 years old and I had gotten to be like the heaviest that I’ve ever been. So I’ve never been like severely overweight or anything. And I think about the, sometimes when I put up my before and after photos, cause I get the people being like, Oh, but you still looked good.

before. But yeah, I was probably around 160 and I’m only 5’5 so it was definitely like a little bit heavy and none of that was muscle because I didn’t exercise at all at this time. And so yeah, just it was starting to get a little out of control. I could see that I was really starting to gain weight.

Quickly, especially because like just genetically I’m very much I really store my fat usually on my lower body and not really my upper body I’ve always had the flat stomach naturally, but at this time for the first time in my life I was actually starting to get some fat on my stomach and on my hips And I just couldn’t believe it because that had never been the case.

And my self confidence was really low and my energy levels were horrible because I just wasn’t really taking care of myself. And I just saw how it was starting to get out of control. And if I didn’t do something, it was going to get worse. So I was like, okay, I need to start exercising. And I really had zero clue what I was doing at first.

I just started to do Julian Michaels. Videos at home, but I think just because I went from doing literally nothing to just doing something It was only a couple of times a week for 30 minutes like high intensity intervals And in a couple like two or three months I had actually dropped like 30 pounds and I couldn’t believe that But as I kept doing that I was like I might be skinnier and that’s great, but I don’t really see The definition and like the toned look that I want.

So eventually I was like, okay, you know what i’m going to join an actual gym because there’s got to be a reason why People go to real gyms And I felt completely clueless in there like typical gym goer who just has no idea what they’re doing I think especially for women. It’s often really bad because women are given Really bad advice about what they should do to get fit.

So it was the typical, okay, I guess I’ll go on the treadmill. And then I guess I’ll do some ab circuits. Like I really had no idea what I was doing. And then, so I just started researching a lot. 

Mike: That’s like the female version of for guys. It’s Oh, I’ll do definitely got a bench press and I’ll do a bicep curls, and just do a bunch of those and.

Meagan: Yeah, but at least it’s weightlifting. Like at least for men, they do usually understand they should lift weights. Whereas women, unfortunately just don’t realize that starting to change, but definitely it’s still a huge problem. So I was one of them really had no idea what I was doing. And even if I did maybe sometimes I do like lunges with some like light dumbbells.

And I thought that was really good. Around this time, yeah, I’d been a couple of months and I just wasn’t really getting anywhere. And even though I would go in the gym and I would spend sometimes three hours in there, because I thought that’s what you had to do. I found like bodybuilding.

com, which was great. And then I was like, Oh, okay. These are really like the pros in this industry. And I started doing some of the workouts that I would find there, but there wasn’t really any structure to it. I was just bouncing around all over the place, like trying okay, let me try this thing.

Let me try this thing. And then. Along the way, I found Muscle For Life, and that was when everything changed. I just started looking, I think the first articles I found of yours were like, the best ab exercises, the best leg exercises, those kinds of articles. And I just started to devour it, and I was like, oh wow, this is, It’s so interesting and it’s laid out so clearly, it’s so precise exactly what you need to do.

And so many people, and I know you say this in your work as well, like you might be surprised by how little you actually have to do and like how much it might even feel like you’re not having your rest in between your sets, that it feels almost too easy or something because you think that you have to be dying to get results.

And then yeah, I saw that you had thinner, leaner, stronger, and I was just excited by your articles. I was like, oh, you know what? I’m just gonna buy this book and like just devour it So yeah got the book read it and it just all clicked and I was like, okay, this seems really straightforward I just got to do it.

So went in the gym went to the back, you know where the squat racks were The leg press, you know where all the fit people are in the gym the area that I had been previously like very intimidated by as Most people are especially women again are very afraid to go in that area, but I did it I was like, okay like Mike says you gotta do this I’m gonna do it and like I just fell in love so fast It just blew my mind how well it worked and I started to see Really amazing results, even within the first two weeks, like I could see my shoulders and arms, like starting to get that definition that I had never had before.

And I started to see even a six pack outline coming in on my stomach. And I just literally was mind blown. I was like, this is magic. I cannot believe how good this is. And so I just never looked back after that. And it just, Turned into beautiful love affair with fitness. And now here I am showing other people how to do it as well.

Mike: That’s awesome. What was it like specifically on the diet? When I experienced that for the first time, just energy balance and seeing how that works and being like, it really is this simple. What was that like for you? Cause I’m sure previously, regardless of what you had tried, I’m curious what you did try previously, but I’m sure an area of at least mystery.

Cause it was for me before I learned about it where I just didn’t know, cause I hadn’t really looked into it and it was like, I, are you supposed to quote unquote eat clean? I don’t know. You just try to eat whole foods and do cardio or what does it really take? But the idea that like, wait, I can eat whatever I want.

And I’ve never been into junk food, really, or sugar. Sure. I’ll have some here and there, but it’s never really been a thing. But for me eating whatever I want was like, Oh, I can eat protein, whatever, who cares, chicken, beef, whatever. But for carbs, Hey, I like sweet potatoes. At the time when I first learned about energy balance, I remember I really liked sweet potatoes, like roasted sweet potatoes, different rice recipes, quote unquote, healthy foods.

But even today you still have people who, low carb is more popular now than ever comes in different forms right now. It’s keto before that, the big low carb craze was probably paleo. But what was that like for you when you first saw that energy balance is. How you manage your body weight. 

Meagan: So I fortunately, unlike many women, cause I now coach a lot of women like this.

Unfortunately, I find yeah, so many women have attempted to do so many kinds of diets that often usually involve like. near starvation levels or cutting out all your carbs. And so that can then be quite problematic, both physically and mentally. When I coach them and show them like, no, actually you need to eat quite a lot of food if you want to get great results.

And not only is it going to give you the results, it’s going to actually make you feel amazing as well. So fortunately, I never suffered from that. Like I never honestly tried anything nutrition wise, other than just flexible dieting when I eventually did it. So in the beginning, I am ashamed to say this, but the first year of doing TLS, I didn’t do anything with the nutrition.

I actually just did the workouts because I came up with all the excuses as to why not. I was like, Oh at this time I had just moved to Vietnam to teach there. I was like, ah, it’s such a foreign place. I don’t really understand how to eat the way I would back home, whatever. I’m just going to do the workouts.

And the thing was that training side of things is so powerful that I did get such good results, even just with that. But then after several months of, and I was like, I was going to the gym like six days a week. I was obsessed with it, but I wasn’t doing anything. 

Mike: It’s not a bad way to start with a resistance training program.

If you’re not too concerned about. Reducing your body fat percentage. It’s actually a great way to start is that meant you probably had a good time. You were able to eat plenty of food. You had great workouts. You were seeing results and you’re like, yeah, this is great. 

Meagan: Yeah, definitely. And again, just, I’m an endomorph.

And yeah, like my fat is definitely more on my lower body, not at all my upper body. And yeah, that was the thing. Like I am able to have a six pack without really tracking my nutrition, which I know. Is definitely that’s just like I’m genetically gifted that way. So that was the thing. Like I had the six pack, I had the nice arms and shoulders and I definitely made huge gains, like on my legs and my glutes, but yeah, after like several months of doing just the strength training side of things, I realized.

That I still wasn’t really seeing the progress, especially on the legs and glutes that I wanted to see. Yeah, it was about a year into TLS that I finally was like, Okay, you know what? I’m just gonna do the macros. I’m gonna do the calories. I’m just gonna track it all. I’m gonna commit to this.

As soon as I started to do that, I just, that really did it. Blue, my mind’s like seeing how fast it works. And I say this now in my content and to my clients, I’m like, honestly, it’s literally going to feel like magic when it happens to you, but it’s not, it’s just science. It’s honestly so simple. It’s just a numbers game.

It’s just a mathematical equation that you either get right or you don’t. So yeah, it was not until about a year in that I started to do the actual flexible dieting. And then, yeah, like I just started to shred up really fast and then started to. Cycle between cutting and lean bulking and just doing the whole thing.

And then, yeah, that really changed the game and just didn’t look back after that. 

Mike: What were some of the difficulties you had to overcome or maybe some of the painful lessons you had to learn along the way? 

Meagan: Couple big takeaways that I think I’ve just learned over the years and probably the biggest thing of all and this is what I say to my clients is just that consistency is by far the most important aspect and as you say to it’s like it’s so much better to Give it like a little bit less effort, but make it sustainable for your lifestyle than it is to do what everybody does, where they have the all or nothing mindset where they’re like, I either am perfect every single day, or there’s just no point.

Mike: That’s very self defeating and that extends beyond fitness. People get into that mentality in many other areas. I would say, I see it just having interacted with so many people now over the years, mostly about fitness things, but then also just about. Sometimes it’s business things or just general life things.

I see that very often with any goal, regardless of what it is, where they start out with an idea of what perfect looks like. And then if they don’t live up to that standard, then immediately. They feel disappointed in themselves and want to give up. Using fitness as a way to overcome that, I think is very powerful just because when you see that, eh, you just have to be mostly.

Good. Most of the time, so long as you do the most important things, mostly right, most of the time, you’re good. No one can be 100 percent perfect all the time. And that includes myself. I probably am the most disciplined, conscientious person I know. And I don’t say that to brag, but I could at least back it up with data.

I could share my lifestyle for the last six years. And I think people would at least understand why I say that. And even I’m not perfect. There are times where, I have planned in my. Overly planned schedule of every single day, what I’m doing at certain times to do a certain thing, and it’s just not going to happen.

It might be working more on learning German, working more on that at 9 p. m. And I do not feel like I have very much energy at that day at 9 p. m. And it doesn’t happen. Anyways, just to share my little thoughts on that, but go ahead. 

Meagan: Yeah, no, but it’s interesting that you say that because so now I’m.

Just coming up on my first year as a business woman, which I just never foresaw happening and in fitness. So fitness business and yeah, like just to parallel it, like so much that I’ve learned over this past year being in business, like sometimes to check in with myself when I’m having the days where I’m feeling discouraged, maybe about my progress, I just can always parallel it.

To fitness. And then it always just makes it so much more understandable to me where, because I’m like, it’s literally the exact same thing and as you say, with any major life goal and yeah, like how it is with fitness, where I know that fitness is it literally is. A two step process where it’s like number one, make sure you have a scientifically guaranteed strategy because obviously if you want results, you have to make sure you know how to get them and obviously that’s a huge problem for so many people.

They just guess and hope for results as opposed to understanding what actually works. So that’s number one and then number two is literally just. Don’t give up just be consistent and yeah, not that it needs to be perfect. It just and this is what I say to my clients. I’m like, don’t focus on perfection.

Just focus on progress. Like consistency is the most important thing. And so yeah, that’s just been probably the most important thing that I learned, especially. Yeah, because in the early days, especially when I started doing calories and macros I think as most people do when they’re starting it, they get a little crazy about those numbers and they can get really stressed about it.

So 

Mike: I remember that. I remember the guy who first turned me on to just macros, flexible dieting. And I remember it was like a cheat meal, quote unquote, which was a standard. He’s just once a week, just go eat what you want. They’ll go crazy, but. Just go to a restaurant, have some good food.

Don’t worry about it. And I remember texting him, not, I wasn’t particularly worried about it. I was more just curious, but I just didn’t know. So I remember texting him, I had went and I ate three sushi rolls and some edamame and it was a sushi place and had what I would like to eat at a sushi place.

And I remember texting him like, is that fine? Was that too much? Did I overdo it? He’s you’re way overthinking this dude. And cause I actually, ironically, when I first, when he did first introduce me to it. He didn’t explain anything behind why. So I didn’t know why it worked yet. He just said, how much do you weigh?

Walk me through. What does your workout schedule look like? All right, cool. You want to, at the time I was maybe 13 percent body fat or something. And so he’s just yeah, I don’t remember what the calories were. They probably were like 2, 300 or something. He’s yep, there you go. 2, 300 calories a day.

Here, let’s break them down into forget the calories actually just here, protein, carbs and fat. I don’t care what you eat. And I was like, what? And and I didn’t really question him beyond it in the beginning because he was a bodybuilder powerlifter. He was getting prepped for a show. So at this point he was probably a couple of weeks out.

So he looked ridiculous and he claimed he was natural. I now at the time, I believe him because I didn’t know any better, but now I know better, but regardless, I was like, all right, this dude is straight jacked. Like I’ve never even seen before. And what he’s recommending is not dangerous, of course. So I’ll give it a go.

And as it was working, then that’s when I would send him texts like that. Cause I didn’t, at the time I didn’t even know what energy balance was. It was just like, why how does this work? Am I messing this up? So I totally understand. 

Meagan: Yeah, definitely. Like in the beginning, I would be like, I’m five grams below my protein target.

Oh no. What, so I think just, yeah, a huge, Take away and that’s what I say to my clients too. I’m like, trust me, like you will see this for yourself as you continue on in your fitness journey. Like it’s hard to fully understand it until it’s like actually happened to you, happened to your own body and that you will just see that it’s like the most important thing.

It just is the consistency and like more or less. Being fairly on point with your strategy. And then, yeah, of course, like if you have a stricter goal, like if you really want to lose fat and like you have only a certain amount of time, you can always turn up the heat and get more precise if that’s your goal.

But yeah just realizing that it’s really not at all about. Being this flawless human like I think that’s just such a misconception in society like people just think oh my God, and I know I used to think this, I’d look at these people, these women who were just really fit and I just want to understand oh, but it looks like they eat.

Because I’d watch the YouTube videos Oh, this is what I eat in a day, and stuff, and I’d be like, Everything they eat looks really good I don’t understand how they can have this body, How are they able to go on vacation, and just eat whatever they want and still look good, And then now I just realize, I’m like, Oh, it’s just about the consistency over time, It’s not about being perfect every single day, And, yeah I think that’s just such An important thing to realize, unfortunately, the biggest reason people will quit and not stay consistent with their fitness is just because they put too much pressure to be perfect.

And not only is it unrealistic to have that expectation, it’s also just unnecessary. You don’t need to be like flawless to get results. So why do it? 

Mike: Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of what we see on social media is fake. So you never really know how they’re actually eating or what they’re actually doing, especially in the case of people.

It gets to the point where there’s, it’s almost always women who have eating disorders who try to pretend like they’re eating pizza and hamburgers every day. No, you’re not actually, that was for a picture. That was, you’re bit into the hamburger and spit it out right after. Come on. 

Meagan: Yeah, definitely.

But yeah, it’s just been good for my own. Lifestyle because it’s like because since I do travel so much It’s been to find the balance that works for me where i’m like, okay It’s not always going to be super easy to be like totally on top of my macros and totally on top of my gym training just because it’s not always going to Be an option when i’m like in between things and so just to realize that because Most of the time i’m quite good with my nutrition and i’m just not Very consistent overall with working out, lifting.

It’s okay that I don’t do it every single day. Always. I still stay pretty much the same year round. And yeah, just to, to show people where I’m at now, I’m pretty much consistently more or less at 130 pounds, give or take, and yeah, pretty consistently like 20 percent body fat, I would say maybe a little bit less, like somewhere between 18 to 20.

do get set up somewhere and I’m able to get into a good flow with meal prep and training. And if I just feel like it, I’m like, okay, you know what, why don’t I do a little mini cut? And then I’m able to just dial it up. And then maybe like leanest I ever got was 15%. And that was about like 125 pounds at that time.

So yeah, it’s around there, but honestly, I just Stay this way very consistently. Just understanding and yeah most of the time these days, I more or less just do more of an intuitive eating style. I don’t necessarily always track everything. I only really do that if I’m like, okay, it’s time to shred up a little bit.

But yeah, it’s just been so good to really understand that it truly is a lifestyle. It’s not A diet, as they say, and yeah, and it’s just the best lifestyle you can have because and this is what I say to my clients and in my content and stuff, I’m like, a fitness lifestyle means you get to look and feel great every single day, plus you don’t have to restrict yourself.

This idea that you can’t eat anything enjoyable or you can’t go on vacation or you can’t go out. No, you get to still live your life. But you get to look and feel amazing. While you do it, 

Mike: if we’re talking about food, you get to eat more. If you’re working out regularly, you get to enjoy yourself, eat plenty of food while still looking the way that you want to look and feeling good physically.

One cause exercise physically makes you feel better. And then feeling good because of the psychological and emotional. Impact to of, again, just looking in the mirror and being like, I like what I see like that has emotional value. What are some of your travel tips? I’m sure if you’ve been traveling on, I’m curious is something I get asked about.

I don’t travel much, so I’ve shared. Some tips, but it is something that I get asked about fairly often because it’s usually related to work. It’s either work travel. People who are on the road a lot for that, or who are on the road, maybe occasionally, not the constantly on the road, but Hey, I have to be out of town one week out of every four to six weeks or whatever.

And then there’s vacations. What are some of the little tips and tricks that you like to use to stay fit while traveling around? 

Meagan: I get asked this all the time, and I’m actually going to be making a video about this quite soon, just to put it all in one place. Nutrition wise, I love to go to the markets, and I think that it’s also a great way to not only get good quality, wholesome, nutritious food for very cheap as well, by the way, it’s also a great budget.

factor because so many people think traveling is expensive, but it’s really only expensive if you do it very lavishly, which is how most people do it because they see it more as a vacation, which is fine. But yeah, like just going to the markets is great for the budget. It’s great for your nutrition and your energy.

Also, it’s a really good way to get like a cultural immersion because That’s like the heart of whatever country it is that you’re in, you get to really see and experience a lot in the marketplace. So that’s usually what I do is I just go to markets and just get, lots of, the whole foods like eggs, oats, fruits and veg, depending on like how set up I am and how fancy my kitchen is.

I maybe keep it pretty simple and maybe stick more like with Plant based just because I don’t really have to do all the prep and everything. So like chickpeas, lentils, that kind of stuff. Still trying to get the protein 

Mike: protein powder is really convenient for that too. 

Meagan: Yes, definitely. And I’ve been on and off with that as far as like how much protein powder I use, but I do also suggest that for people.

I’m like, honestly, just, There’s no easier, better meal than just protein oats. Like just cook oats in the microwave, throw some protein powder in there. Boom. Super easy, super cheap. And it’s yeah, really good macro friendly meal that you can make pretty much anywhere. And then, yeah, so that would be another one of my tips is Try to see if you can find a place that would have some kind of a kitchen set up to whatever degree that might be.

Obviously with Airbnb these days, it’s pretty easy to do that. Even if it is just okay, maybe you could just have a knife and a cutting board to cut up some vegetables, make a little salad or yeah, just literally enough to cook some oats. Like I just like to keep it simple like that as far as the fitness side of things.

Pretty much, I do try to usually get in at least one solid strength training day, which would be, like, a heavy leg day, maybe once a week, when I don’t have consistent gym access. I’ll just look up, okay, like, where are the gyms? There’s gyms everywhere. And then just go, and depending on the cost and everything, maybe I’ll go more frequently.

I usually try to still get in a few gym workouts. But then, if it’s Not an option. Then of course, I just do body weight stuff at the very least. I’m a huge fan of fabric resistance bands. I call them booty bands, which is just really good for still getting in a good glute and leg workout, even if you don’t have the weight.

So I really love traveling with that. And then like just trying to walk a lot. I drink a ton of water, like that never changes, but that’s obviously whether you’re traveling or not, that’s one of them. The best fit tips I can say as well as okay, try to swap your caloric beverages for water instead.

And that alone can make a huge difference for a lot of people. So yeah, that’s pretty much it. It’s like just sticking with the whole foods from the markets, trying to prepare simple meals as best as you can. I do bring my scale with me, like my kitchen scale, just so I can be like, So I’m still aware of the portion sizes and then I have these little cool collapsible containers that I got off of Amazon that just like it doesn’t take up space but then I have a way to have Tupperware so that I can have some like meal prep done and then yeah just trying to have some kind of kitchen access if at all possible still trying to hit the gym a little bit just to get in like the good straight training workouts which are pretty difficult to replicate but if not then yeah at least just doing like bodyweight stuff walking a lot.

Drinking water kind of the typical things. It’s really honestly not that hard. I think that people just overcomplicate it They’re very like afraid to get out of the routine that they have going on and i’ve experienced that as well like I used to be very afraid to go on vacation because I would be like But i’ve been so good with my calories like now it’s all gonna go to waste and it won’t it doesn’t work that way Like one week off is not gonna make a huge difference But yeah, I just found that whether I am more stationary or I am traveling around like It’s more or less the same thing.

It’s just like good nutrition choices overall, being mindful of getting in like your workouts. And that’s really all it is. 

Mike: I agree. And something else to consider is that unless someone’s doing what you’re doing, where you are going from one place to another, let’s say for most people, let’s say if it’s vacation, it’s what, it’s a couple of weeks.

And it does not take much to, even if you were actually to do nothing for a couple weeks, you would come back. Depending on what you do with your diet. But if you kept your diet under control you could come back looking exactly the same just by following simple tips you’ve shared. I’ve also shared some stuff that I like to do, like if I’m gonna be eating out, if I’m gonna be in situations where I know my calories is gonna be a bit higher, I might skip breakfast.

Simple intermittent fasting type of thing where, okay, I’m not going to start eating until lunch. And I’ll probably just eat protein, save up a bunch of calories, so to speak, for, let’s say it’s going to be a big dinner. But even if you don’t do any exercise for a couple of weeks, you’re going to come back a little bit weaker in a sense of.

If you come back and put the same weight on the bar for your big exercises, you’re probably going to have lost a couple reps, but that’s not because you lost muscle. You’d have to actually work just to research on detraining. Generally speaking, actual muscle loss doesn’t start occurring until maybe three or four weeks of absolutely no training.

And of course, that’s when it starts. It’s not like it ramps up hour by hour once it starts, but what you will usually lose is it’s mainly. Just technique. It’ll feel a little bit awkward. If you haven’t squatted heavy weights in two weeks, let’s say, and you try to go right back to your previous heavy weights.

Some people find that they’re just right back into it. But for most people, if they could squat whatever it is for, let’s say six and they get back to it and it’s now three or four and it’s pretty hard. But my point is you’re not going to lose anything really. You’re not going to lose any muscle in a couple of weeks.

And if you just do a couple workouts per week, you’re going to maintain the muscle anyway, but you will certainly maintain muscle. Just a couple workouts per week. If we’re talking about, let’s say it’s just an upper lower. And if you stick with your normal style of training, those workouts, you’ll maintain all of your strength too.

Again, if you’re gonna be gone for two weeks, that’s only four workouts and you can do other stuff too. I agree. Body weight stuff is good. Band stuff can work. Walking is always a good idea. It also, it gives you more room to eat food, which if you’re in a new place is usually fun, especially if it’s another country where there’s like a different cuisine and you want to try different things.

If you’re gone for a longer time, then. That two workouts per week applies really indefinitely. Like you can maintain a great physique with just two workouts per week. So long as you’re keeping an eye on your calories and your macros, if you’re looking at, I’m saying, you know this, but I’m speaking to just anybody listening who let’s say it’s okay for a three month period.

Because of circumstances, I’m only going to be able to work out twice a week. Even one workout a week, if you were in the gym for maybe hour and a half, so you get enough volume, a whole body workout that would almost certainly, I’m thinking there are a couple of studies. One, I have written about this and Two of them used to workouts a week.

One of them may have even been in one workout a week, but I do think that just one workout a week, I’ll bet you would be enough to maintain a high level of fitness if you’re already there. So for anybody who has some long extended period of time, it doesn’t even have to be a trip. It can just be life is about to get in the way.

So long as you just. Let’s say you’re going to go from working out five days a week to two or one, okay. You are going to have to bring down your weekly calories a little bit, obviously, unless you can somehow offset the energy expenditure that you’re going to lose through walking or other creative activities that you can engage in.

But even if that’s not the case, all right, so your energy balance, you have to keep that in mind. Your weekly calories are going to come down a little bit, but just one or two strength workouts per week would be plenty. Two would be plenty when why I think one would also probably work and three would be definitely more than enough.

Three workouts a week is enough to make progress up to a certain point. There is a point where you become advanced enough where it just takes so much volume per major muscle group to progress that you can’t do it in just three workouts. It would be in the gym for two hours a day on those workouts. And you’d have to be doing so much volume per major muscle group in those workouts that unfortunately, you had a point of diminishing returns in an individual workout, 15 sets, 15 hard sets, for example, and one workout is not as effective as 15 sets, hard sets split between two workouts.

So anyway, it’s just interjecting for anybody who would find that useful is. It doesn’t take much to maintain where you’re at. It does not take much. Yes, it takes a lot more to get to the next level. But once you’re there, it is not hard to put on the cruise control. 

Meagan: Yeah, that’s exactly right. And that is just the message that I’m always putting in my content, telling my clients.

It’s especially really trying to show that women, because unfortunately still there’s just so much of the stigma around, about this mic, obviously, I know you write about it. Just, women thinking like I want it, the word toned is just a painful one because it’s just very miseducating because all toned is decreasing body fat and increasing lean muscle.

That’s literally it. And yeah, just how women just don’t understand that muscle is a good thing to have. And so this is just what I. I’m always talking about, I’m like, trust me, having muscle in your body is going to not only give you the female goddess physique that you want, but it’s also what’s going to allow you to stay fit very easily the fitter you get, the easier it gets to stay that way, and that’s what Why when you lean out, when you build that muscle and you’ve really got a rock and body happening, it doesn’t just disappear overnight.

You can maintain it pretty easily at that point. So even if you are going on vacation or just even if life is hectic and you can’t be like totally dedicated to your meal plans and whatever, like it’s not going to make a huge difference. And that’s just brings us back to the point that it’s really just about the consistency.

As you said too, it’s to get to that initial body composition is really where the hard work is, but then it just becomes second nature. And you just understand what you need to eat. Like you can intuitively understand how much you start to love the gym. I love when that happens. Like all my clients they go from being as I was, which was very afraid and very intimidated in the gym and no, not confident at all to walking in there.

And going right over to the squat rack and just being like, yeah, I love it in here, whether you’re traveling, whether you’re living at home doesn’t really vary too much, just it’s just about building that sustainable fitness lifestyle and figuring out how to make it work for you in a way that is balanced and enjoyable so that you don’t feel deprived.

You don’t feel guilty and like that you really do. As I say, it’s like you get to have your cake and eat it too. You get to be fit. But you still get to eat cake. 

Mike: If you like cake, you can eat cake. I prefer cupcakes, but Hey, what advice do you have to women who are getting ready to start resistance training, or maybe who have just started and are intimidated by the gym?

I like to ask other women this question because I’ve shared. My own thoughts and I’ve shared what women have told me, but I haven’t experienced it myself in the same way. I always like to ask women that question just because it’s so common. Like I hear from women every week who and I’ve actually in the new 3rd edition of Transcribed thin or stronger addressed it more than previously, but I still hear from women every week who maybe they don’t let it stop them, but it’s uncomfortable.

And they’re just curious Hey, how should I, if you have any advice, I’m all ears, 

Meagan: yeah, definitely. So I totally understand that. How intimidating it can be. And for somebody who’s really new to the gym and especially maybe if you’re quite unfit to begin with, I think it’s, it can be a bit unrealistic to think that they’re going to go from being probably just somebody who went on the treadmill to all of a sudden like deadlifting with a barbell.

That’s a bit of a dramatic change. Jump. So even though I’m always very adamant, like I learned from you, Mike, I’m like barbell is where it’s at. That is where, it’s going to be a game changer. So I am always adamant about you got to get on the barbell as soon as you can, but to segue into that, both for your own level of confidence and comfort in the gym.

And then also just the fact that you might not have the strength. To actually work with the barbell quite yet. So in that case, I’m like, honestly, just do dumbbells, just go in the gym, practice it all with the dumbbells. That’s much less intimidating. You can get comfortable with the range of motion.

You can get comfortable with the weight. 

Mike: The change I made to a Finland or stronger in the third edition, it’s specifically for pressing. I found that Most women are fine with a barbell for a squat. Like most women starting the program start with that. They just start with because, it’s 45 pounds, the equivalence of 20, 25 pounds in each hand or the equivalent of that.

And that seems to be fine for most women, but the bench press, for example, or the overhead or military press for many women, the bar was too much. And so it makes more sense to start with dumbbells. Of course there. Yeah. But it also, you can do the same thing with lower body too. If the barbell is too heavy or just as it’s too awkward to start out with.

Yeah. That’s a good tip. 

Meagan: Yeah, definitely. And yeah, for sure. Definitely with the upper body, of course, a lot of the time the barbell is going to be too heavy, but it is always exciting to see. Cause my clients will say that to me, I’m like, don’t worry. Soon you’re going to be adding weight onto that barbell because, yeah, the newbie gains is very real and the strength goes up so fast and they’re always astounded.

They’re like, I couldn’t even lift the barbell! Now I have weight on both sides and it’s only been, like, a couple of weeks and they can already see such an improvement. But yeah, that would just Be my advice because I think for women, the horrible advice that is often given, they go to the gym, they immediately go to the treadmill or the elliptical or just like the machines, like the abductor machine or something like that.

And yeah, I’m like, honestly, just as you say to skip the machines. Go to the free weights and yeah, if the barbell is too difficult or too intimidating in the beginning, just get comfortable just by using dumbbells. Like you can still get in a very good full body workout just with dumbbells, especially if you’re brand new to strength training, like it’ll still be resistance on your body.

And then when you’re more comfortable with the range of motion, then like more confident with being in there, like that’s when you can start to upgrade to the barbell. 

Mike: Anything just related to the psychology of it, because you have in, depending on the gym, you might have a bunch of fit people and the idea that, Oh, they’re going to judge me.

Sometimes there are weird guys. That tends to become things, especially I hear that seems to be in the beginning. Many women are intimidated for the reasons that you talked about more just These are mechanical reasons. And then the psychological intimidation is usually related to judgment.

And then once they get into it though, and then they’re like, Oh, okay, cool. And then it’s weird guys coming around, trying to give them tips, trying to mansplain what trendy people say. No, just trying to tell them, Hey, you’re doing that wrong. Or just, what are your thoughts on those things? 

Meagan: This is just what I say.

I’m like, look, there’s two types of people in the gym. There’s the people in there who know how to use the gym effectively. And those people are so absorbed in their workouts and they’re so into their own fitness that they just don’t really care or really even notice anything else that’s going on around them.

And then the second group of people are the people like yourself in this moment where you feel very unconfident and you’re not really sure how to use the gym properly. You are all in the same boat. So I just say, I’m like, yeah, like I totally. Get the intimidation and I think I just try to use my own story as well and like every fit person was once, somebody who was intimidated in the gym and it was like I was that way as well.

Like I used to just make a beeline for the treadmill and avert eye contact. ’cause I was so nervous being in there and like now, I go in and a lot of the time I’m the only woman in there with all these. Grunting guys, but I just feel very confident there 

Mike: in Vietnam or something. 

Meagan: Wherever it is that I am, it is difficult.

Definitely. Like the getting past the gym intimidation is it’s a challenge for every single person, but it’s just, as is so many things in life, it’s just like, when you actually face the fear, you realize that, oh, okay, it’s really not that bad. And yeah I think just. Educating yourself, having the knowledge to back you up just goes such a long way and that’s what changed the game for me with TLS was like, I went from being so unsure about what I should be doing to get results, whereas I’m like, when you actually know this will work, I just need to do it, it really changes your attitude in the gym and then yeah, so my advice is always just Push past the initial discomfort because trust me in a couple of weeks You’re going to be like very excited to be going to the gym because you’re going to see Already that it’s working that you’re getting results And as soon as you see that you’re getting results that you just want to keep going every day because you’re like hooked You’re like, oh my god, this works.

I want more results now 

Mike: than other people’s Yeah, it almost always happens is how this story goes is once sometimes I hear from guys with similar stories, but it’s more often from women. And then once they get into the groove and they start seeing results, then it’s funny. Sometimes people who they thought maybe were not very friendly or judgmental, or they had concerns in the beginning about what these people might think the more fit people in the gym, but they just stick with it and, just.

Kind of screw up their courage a little bit and say, all right, I’m just going to do it regardless of how I feel. And like you said, having a real plan definitely helps where then they go I believe in this and this makes sense. And a lot of people have had success with this, so I’m just going to do it.

And then a month later, the fit people are coming over to compliment them just to say, Hey, You’re working hard and good job because anybody who spent enough time in gyms knows that most people don’t know what they’re doing and many people don’t work very hard in the gym. So when somebody seems to know what they’re doing and they come in and they’re efficient in their workouts and not just hanging out to talk and they’re putting in work, they stand out.

So then that’s always a very positive payoff that many people experience. 

Meagan: Definitely. Yeah. So it’s just that initial fear. Like you really just. Face it and yeah, like just have a plan. Obviously following something like TLS is great , and it just know it’s gonna work. It’s like just do it. You’ll feel good and you will start to see the results.

Other people will start to see the results really fast. And this is also what I say to people. I’m like, you’re gonna feel the results from day one, your nutrition and fitness, like you’re gonna just. Feel like how energized you are and like the endorphin high, and then I’m like, it’s not gonna be very long before you start to see those results as well.

Yeah. 

Mike: If you know what you’re doing, it’s within the first month, you should know Hey, this works really that quickly. 

Meagan: Yep. With my clients, I’m like. I just tell them like these calories is macros in the training plan. I’m like, trust me. I always say give me two weeks. Cause I usually feel by like about even two weeks.

And if you’re really committed to your strategy, like you will already be starting to see things happening and you’ll definitely be feeling it. 

Mike: I’d say that’s probably even more so for women. And the reason I say that is women tend to generally wear tighter clothes than men. And so I’ve heard from many women and that’s one of the first things they notice like, Oh, my.

My jeans are feeling a little bit looser. Whereas with guys, it’s more just like looking in the mirror and did my biceps get bigger? 

Meagan: Yeah. And also again, just because pretty much for most women, they will have gone from never ever strength training or like following. If anything, they were like starving themselves.

So actually eating a proper amount of food and then, yeah, actually some strength training, like that is just such a game changer for them because they’ve never done it. And then, so the results come very quickly. 

Mike: So what’s next for you personally in your fitness, in your business? 

Meagan: Fitness wise, it’s just about continuing to just have the lifestyle and then yeah, sometimes I dial it up. Sometimes I’m more chilling. I’ve gone back and forth about whether or not I would ever want to compete and it’s not this thing that I must do or that I’m dying to do, but I do think that somewhere in the near future, I think I just want To sign up for a competition.

Cause I just think it would be really cool to just have the experience and just have that challenge of like, how fit can you get like that push. So something that I think I would like to try. 

Mike: I would just say, make sure that you get a good coach for that. So you don’t, you’re not going to cause permanent damage unless you really mess it up.

But if you mess it up, let’s say you get the wrong coach. Who’s trying to tell you to do two hours of cardio a day. And you probably wouldn’t do that because you know better, but this has been shown. I’m thinking of case studies that are out there where you can put yourself into a situation where it can take upward of a year plus to undo the negative side effects of overdoing it to the extreme.

I’m talking about. Things that matter, I’m talking about hormones and energy levels, and, you can come out of a competition looking quote unquote great, at least by those standards. I think in some cases for guys and for women, I don’t think it looks great. It looks. Impressive, but it can go too far.

And then now you feel like absolute shit for the next several months. And then six months in, you’re now not feeling like shit, but you’re not feeling how you feel now. And so just watch out on who coaches you. 

Meagan: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And it’s possible that I might not end up doing I am still just happy to have a fit lifestyle and to just do it just because I love it.

And it makes me feel great. And That’s just another thing that I will say that is really amazing about your fitness journey. And I love when I get this feedback from my clients because it’s like, most people will start fitness because of the aesthetics. Like they are, it’s almost solely that reason a lot of the time where they’re like, I just want to have a great body and nothing wrong with that at all.

And I think that it’s particularly important to say that in the culture that we have now, which is whatever, just the body acceptance movement. I feel like, Sometimes it’s like you get shamed to want to look good, and it’s no, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel confident about your appearance, and it’s not that you shouldn’t feel confident just because you’re not ripped, but it’s just hey it’s just about knowing that you accomplished this thing.

And that you were, you actually are in control of the way that you look and feel. And like you took charge of that and were able to get these great results. 

Mike: There is something to be said for standards for beauty. And we can look to the beginning of art now for some ideas of what beautiful is. And I think that where.

Society has gone wrong is think there has been too much of a push toward just super skinny. That’s the only thing that looks good is basically malnourished. You have to look like you have an eating disorder or borderline eating disorder to look good. And that is unhealthy. And I think that doesn’t even align with.

What most people would consider aesthetic or beautiful. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong though, with saying that bodies look beautiful when they look a certain way and they do not look beautiful when they look a certain way, not all body types, all. Places where you could be with your body are beautiful.

It’s just, it’s strange that would even be considered controversial to say for, according to some people. 

Meagan: Yeah, definitely. But whether, and this is true for my fitness journey, like I started it really just because I was like, Oh I just want to I want to feel good about the way I look.

I want to be happy with my reflection in the mirror. And I wasn’t at that time. But what’s just so amazing is, as you go along in your fitness journey, yeah, you start to get the great results, and yeah, you start to look so good, but it’s you realize that’s just a byproduct of the fact that you feel amazing, and that you’re just taking care of yourself, because it’s like, There’s a reason why it looks good to be fit is because it means you’re healthy and strong.

And those are just attractive things. Like naturally people are going to be attracted to that, but it’s yeah, it’s it’s just a reflection of the real success that you’ve had, which is just, yeah. The fact that like mentally you have gained so much confidence and so much like control. And I think just to realize that, cause for most people, Having a great body for them.

They just literally have put it into the realm of what’s impossible. There’s oh, there’s no way I could ever do that. It’s just never gonna happen. And then it does happen and it’s huh, like I genuinely believe that this was an impossible feat and yet I have accomplished it. So then it just gives you that same attitude towards everything in life where you’re like I thought It’s impossible to do this, but maybe it’s not so much.

And that’s been my experience this past year. Now being an entrepreneur, like I never thought that would be my life. And so it’s just changed so dramatically. And yeah, it’s just very similar as well to be like, Oh, that’s something that I would have thought was impossible a year ago and boom, here I am and just everything that fitness has taught me, I’ve been really able to translate that into this new area of personal development and everything. 

Mike: And you brought up a good point there that having good fitness, good health and fitness habits naturally leads to a beautiful body. It actually does. If you look at it, just an aesthetic body that would again, be in line with. What we’ve always admired physically going back to classical times, going back to antiquity.

And so practically speaking, what that means is most people and most guys, for example, are going to probably gain around 30 pounds of muscle, maybe 40, and maybe a bit more if they really want to work at it. But most guys who know what they’re doing and get into working out are probably going to gain about 30 pounds of muscle, maybe 35.

And most of them are going to like the athletic, not super bodybuilder shredded, just the athletic look of 10, 11, 12 percent body fat. You’re now a Greek statue. For women, the number is probably about half that. Most women are probably going to gain 15 to 20 pounds of muscle. And their body fat is probably gonna be around where like you, where you’re at now is probably is pretty ideal for most women, 18 to 20%.

You look athletic, you look lean, you don’t have any health issues. You’re not starving yourself and not getting your periods and blah, blah, blah. And you are now Aphrodite. You now you’re now by. Any at least artistic standards, you have the ideal type of physique, really anyone could do those things. And anyone could do those things just doing everything we’ve talked about here.

You don’t have to dedicate a disproportionate amount of your life to it. Period. You just don’t 

Meagan: again. Yeah, that just Ties back to what I was saying, just about the fit lifestyle, and yeah, and just what I say to people over and over, it’s it’s really not about, yeah, and I just hate the way it is in the media, where it’s fitness is so often shown as this thing where, that it’s about torturing yourself, and making yourself miserable, and Feeling guilty, feeling ashamed.

Like it’s usually seen in this very negative light. And so that’s why people have such messed up ideas about it. And then when you actually do a proper fitness journey, like TLS would be, you realize it’s not a negative thing at all. It’s incredibly positive. And it’s yeah. And that’s what I now say to people.

I’m like, if. Whatever method you are using to get results is making you feel those really negative emotions. You’re doing something wrong, and you need to take a step back. Not only just because you shouldn’t be feeling that, but also it’s is it gonna be sustainable for you to feel negative emotions all the time?

It’s probably not, and it shouldn’t be, either. And yeah, it’s just That was such a realization for me in my fitness journey was just like, yeah, it’s not about being ashamed or torturing yourself. It’s the opposite. It’s literally about taking care of yourself and feeling proud of your accomplishments and like just feeling really good and strong and healthy.

Just realizing that it should be making your life better. It shouldn’t be making it worse. 

Mike: Agreed. Where can people find you if they want to work with you? 

Meagan: So I would say. It would be just my Instagram, so that’s Megan Jenise Fitness, M E A G H A N J A N I S E, and then fitness, so Megan Jenise Fitness.

And yeah, I’m always more than happy to answer anybody’s questions, or just any ideas people would have for content that they want to see or anything like that. It’s always great to get feedback, especially just from any women who are interested to learn more about building a great female body, and especially how to maintain it as a consistent lifestyle.

Even if you have a pretty sporadic schedule and lifestyle like myself, like I’m always traveling around, and trust me, you can still maintain a great body and be healthy and strong, even when Your life isn’t like perfect. So always happy to help just educate or inspire anybody. 

Mike: Awesome. And yeah, you said you work with a lot of busy women, right?

A lot of women who and I know how that is because I worked with, virtually obviously, but just gone back and forth of the years, many women who have full time jobs and they have kids, they’re also helping take care of, the husbands are chipping in, but so it can get pretty hectic. 

Meagan: Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, and that’s just part of again what’s really important about figuring out how to make it a sustainable lifestyle that works for you as an individual and that just comes with time and trial and error like figuring out what you do and don’t like both fitness wise and nutrition wise and figuring out how to balance it all but yeah I think just such a good thing about The realization that it just doesn’t need to take that much time and like such a breakthrough that I had when I started TLS was like, Oh cause I used to go to the gym for three hours.

I thought you had to, and then it’s now, I go even maybe only for 45 minutes, a couple of times a week, and that’s more than enough. So it really is something that I think. Even when you have a crazy schedule, like there’s always a way to fit it in. It’s just about caring enough, like prioritizing it enough.

And another thing I say to people too, I’m like, people always say that they don’t have time to work on their fitness, but it’s really the opposite of what you should be saying. Like you should be saying like, I don’t have time to not do it because. By not giving yourself the small amount of time it takes to be healthy and fit, you’re taking away so much time, both quantity and quality wise, from the life that you could be living.

Mike: Yeah, and I don’t like that. I don’t have time for anything. I don’t want to make the time for, I don’t want to give time. I even myself don’t, Say, I don’t have time to do things. And I’m a very busy person. And there are things that whether it’s work related opportunities, other things I could pursue, or even just personal things, I don’t say, Oh, I don’t have time to do that.

It’s, I don’t want to make the time for that. Cause that’s the truth. And I try to make the best decision. There’s an opportunity cost every minute of every day. There’s an opportunity cost and fitness. It’s. I’ve gone through this exercise with a number of people who were saying initially they don’t have time and they’re so busy and, okay, keep a journal basically for a week.

Do it for five days, five or seven days, and each day write what you’re doing each time you start doing something. When you start, when you stop, and then let’s look at it at the end of the week. And there is almost always time in there that could be diverted from unproductive. Unnecessary things and put into something productive and necessary like fitness almost always.

And it usually comes down to the obvious stuff for most people. It’s just stop watching TV up. There you go. Done. Now you have time. Good. Or, socialize less. Do you need to be going out to meet with friends five days a week? Could you do it two days a week? Could you do it? Maybe even three days a week and stuff like that.

Meagan: Yeah, definitely. It’s worth it. It’s it seems, yeah, maybe the beginning, they think it’s going to take so much time. It’s just not worth it, but it definitely is. And it really does not need to take that much time is the other great thing. And the payoff is just so huge for you don’t want to necessarily say it’s a small amount of effort.

It does take effort, obviously, especially in the beginning, but. It is worth it. 

Mike: Yeah. It becomes self sustaining fairly quickly just cause it’s such a positive feedback loop. Once you see the return on that effort, it’s one of probably the highest return activities that you can put effort into.

If we’re talking about immediate, visible, tangible payoff. 

Meagan: Huh. Yeah, definitely. And, I love the Schwarzenegger quote, and I think you have it in your books, but it’s just you can have results or you can have excuses, not both. And it’s just so real. It’s it’s just sad, too, because it’s you can make whatever excuse you want, but at the end of the day, the only one who’s missing out is you.

And it’s yeah, would you rather do? Do you want the excuse, which means you’re not fit. You’re not confident. You’re not happy. Or do you want the result? Which is the opposite. 

Mike: I agree. All right. This has been great, Megan. I really appreciate you taking the time and keep on keeping on. You’re doing great.

Meagan: Thank you so much for having me. It’s been such a pleasure to get to speak with you and thanks so much for. Changing my life forever and helping me to now help other women and men. I also do help some men, but mainly women helping others to spread the good word of fitness as well. 

Mike: It’s cool to think just in the ripple effects.

Cause now, I was able to help you and you’re helping people and you, how many of those people now are going to go on and do something similar to what you’re doing now, where they’re going to pay it forward. Maybe not professionally like you are, but. Everybody has a sphere of influence and it’s very obvious when somebody starts getting in a better shape.

And the number one question, of course, that people who are getting into shape get consistently is what are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? And so it’s cool to just to think about the potential ripple effects that you can have just by helping what might seem even, let’s say you work with a thousand people in a year, but you might actually have impacted a hundred thousand people.

Meagan: Yep. Definitely. It’s good for your. Personal life but it also has such a dramatic effect on everybody who comes into contact with you. Just even just the positive energy that you radiate because you’re healthy and confident. 

Mike: I like it. I agree. All right. Thanks again. This was great. 

Meagan: Thank you so much, Mike.

Mike: Hey, Mike here. And if you like what I’m doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please do consider supporting my sports nutrition company, Legion athletics, which produces 100 percent natural evidence based health and fitness supplements, including protein powders and protein bars, pre workout and post workout supplements, fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more.

More. Head over to www. legionathletics, that’s l e g i o n athletics. com now to check it out. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code MFL at checkout and you will save 10 percent on your entire order and it’ll ship free if you are anywhere in the United States. And if you’re not, it’ll ship free if your order is over.

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