Podcast Episode: Amanda Whittaker on yoga, nutrition, and values-based career changes

Transcript

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (00:04)

We have Amanda Whitaker. Is that how you say it?

Amanda Whittaker (00:08)

That's it. Yes. Hello.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (00:11)

Awesome. It's so nice to see you. I saw your work background and your journey. And it sounds like you've really gone from an amazing legal career to wellness. Let's just dive right in. Let's dive right in with what your journey has been.

Amanda Whittaker (00:33)

Oh my gosh, where do I start? Melanie, where do I start? No. So yes, I was in a... Okay. Well, I will just start by saying growing up I was always into movement. I was a dancer. I loved movement. And then I went to college and got caught up. It shifted. I gained a lot of weight. I lost that connection. And I ended up going to law school and it was there that I found it again. law school was super stressful and that's when I found yoga.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (00:37)

The beginning.

Amanda Whittaker (01:02)

I took a six week Hatha class I had never done yoga before in my life and I was immediately brought back to my passion for dancing and movement that felt good. So that kind of got me back to my roots. I graduated law school, I started teaching yoga at the same time and a couple years in I just felt this pull, like what am I doing? Law is not for me, it is so combative and that is not who I am.

And I went to a yoga retreat one weekend and they asked us what our intention was. And I said, mine is to immerse myself in this world of yoga and wellness and fitness and feel good. And we had to write down our blockages on a piece of paper. And I wrote down my legal career and we burned them in like a pot of flames. And I went into work the next day. No joke. I went into work and I was laid off from my legal job.

⁓ so that's what drove me right to the Oka studio in tears. What am I going to do? and that's how this kind of all began. I just, I, I dove in, I went full time, ⁓ teaching, taking on clients, leading retreats around the world. I was a Lululemon ambassador. I just was all in and it's kind of still where I'm at. I did go back to work.

about 10 years ago, not as an attorney. I'm a project manager in a health care organization. ⁓ But along the way, I've always been in the fitness space. I still teach, I still coach. And what brought me to coaching actually is in some of the groups I was in, would just start asking me, what was I doing? Could I coach them? Could I help them? And that's how this was all born. So I've taken my experience in yoga and fitness and my

passion for movement and plant-based nutrition. And I've started this amazing business where I help other women find balance and strength and confidence through really sustainable, manageable plans that are not extreme.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (03:18)

Sustainable plans. That's probably what people need, right? Because if something is extreme, then it might not feel as achievable. So are your plans aimed to feel more achievable so people can get that win and see the progress?

Amanda Whittaker (03:35)

100 % I help women break free from like the all or nothing cycle. We all know it, right? Like there's times where we're all in and then we crash and it's nothing. So it's our brains have such a hard time getting out of that cycle of like it's all or nothing. And so my mission is to help women really overcome that for good. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Your plan I like to say is 80-20, right? So you're

You're staying on track, you're doing the things that we talk about, you're eating for your goal 80 % of the time. And 20 % of the time, if you want that treat, you want that snack, enjoy it. It's not falling off track. It's not a deviation. You didn't do something bad. It's part of your plan.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (04:24)

so inspired by that. I'm keen to talk more about the career side later but what you said just then is something for me because I am plant-based as well. Are you fully plant-based?

Amanda Whittaker (04:37)

I am vegetarian, but I do eat eggs and I will eat like cheese on occasion, but nothing that an animal had to suffer for, you know. No meat. No animal meat, yeah.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (04:48)

I see.

Even within that, I find that when we are trying to do our version of healthy and ethical eating, then we can end up a little bit black and white sometimes. And I went full on, basically from scratch, as in I would not eat candy. I literally never eat candy. And so I'm wondering if you've seen people just going completely extreme and then

Amanda Whittaker (05:11)

⁓

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (05:19)

Are you ever guiding people to give themselves a bit of freedom to be a bit cheeky with food occasionally?

Amanda Whittaker (05:26)

Yes, 100 % I just got chills. Yes, it's so funny because in one of my reels, it's way back on my page now, but I was eating candy and I'm like, look, I eat candy. Like it's okay. This is normal. know, I think any kind of extreme and I've seen it with diets like keto especially is one where, you know, people just, like you said, it's like, I'm just, I'm going all in.

right now today, I'm giving up everything and doing this extreme diet and it works for a little while, but they're just not sustainable long term, in my experience from what I've seen with clients. So yes, definitely be cheeky with your food and if there's something that you love, enjoy it in moderation, right? Don't cut it out completely. It's when we start telling ourselves these super strict rules that we need to cut things out completely is...

is when we can't maintain that and then we feel like a failure. We feel like we messed up. We feel like we failed and then we spiral. So yeah, it's all about balance. It's all about harmony, you know?

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (06:34)

and harmony. Absolutely. And I'm guessing this would also be a bit more achievable for people who are living busy, successful lives because sometimes it's about whatever is accessible.

Amanda Whittaker (06:48)

A hundred percent, yes. And I spend a lot of times with my clients on things like that. So I don't love meal prepping. And what I mean by meal prepping is the traditional like Sunday, spend your whole day meal prepping. I don't think that that, I don't think that has to be the way. If that's the only thing that works, fine, we can work with that. But I think there are plenty of options out there, plant-based

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (07:14)

there's a hack I saw online where you can blend red lentils with some water and then pour that mix onto a pan and you've made a wrap.

Amanda Whittaker (07:23)

Yes, I've seen that too. I've seen that too. Yeah, that looks pretty cool. I just made brownies with black beans. Have you seen that recipe?

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (07:34)

I've seen videos of those but I haven't actually tried it myself, which is bad because I've been a vegan for half a decade and I haven't learned it. So you tried that to tell me about it.

Amanda Whittaker (07:39)

Yeah.

I that. So it was really good when it was fresh and hot. We all loved it. I tried these things with my daughter to see what she likes too. She's 10. So her and her friend loved it when it was hot. And then once they cooled, they didn't land the same way. So yeah, they were really good hot, but you kind of have to like serve them right away or maybe heat them up. We didn't give them another chance, like heating them up. We were like, okay.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (08:04)

Okay.

Amanda Whittaker (08:13)

No, she had one taste when it was cold and she's like,

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (08:19)

Maybe you can reheat that, but I would totally try that for maybe a birthday party.

Amanda Whittaker (08:26)

Yes, yes, that would be a great place to have it. Yeah, cook out or family dinner or something where you have family and friends over. yep. You can probably put some kind of fun topping on. We didn't add any chocolate chips or anything like that. Might have made it better too, but I tend to take one of these recipes, try it, see if it lands, and then tweak it and kind of go from there. Yeah, so that one was okay, but we'll try tweaking it in the future.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (08:56)

So you're really into food, even though the background is in lawn yoga. I'm wondering, did you dig deeply with food? Did you end up exploring food professionally or getting nerdy about it in your personal life? How did that evolve?

Amanda Whittaker (09:13)

Yeah, so, okay, so I have been a semi vegetarian since I was little. I think I was nine years old and I just stopped eating meat and my parents are like, what's wrong with you? I just didn't like it. And then I was maybe 16 or 17 and I gave up chicken. And then it wasn't until my mid twenties, I gave up seafood and everything else. And that was the sacrifice. And that's when I learned more about what they were doing in the seafood industry and all the industries.

awful and so I said this then I'm not eating this again and that kind of sacrifice that kind of diet like it's it's for such deeper reasons than you know like a diet to change my body that's more of an ethical reason so that isn't hard for me to follow at all it's just who I am right same same with you it's it's who we are right so I've always been yeah yeah it's just that's who I am part of me ⁓

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (10:06)

It is.

Amanda Whittaker (10:11)

So I've always been really into nutrition in that sense. And then especially over the past five years, just really learning more about plant-based protein options. And I consider myself an expert in protein and plant-based protein options. So I did go on and I did get my ⁓ certification to be a nutrition coach. So I'm a certified nutrition coach. And I just feel like it goes hand in hand with everything else that I do.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (10:43)

Absolutely. It ties in so much because yoga partly involves looking after yourself and everybody else. It does at least mean being kind and preventing harm. And I feel like I'm glad that you have that ethical angle. I've ever seen such a common thread where, you know, this ties in well with what you said at the start about your legal career that you called it combative and

Amanda Whittaker (11:00)

I think you think that's a good way to look at it. You see a lot people that are like, you know, you're such a good girl, you're such a good person, I think you're a good person. You saw it, I think I can

say that you're not specifically a senior, you're a senior, you're but I think you're a good person. I think you're a person. person.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (11:12)

I can see that you want to be ethical with your food and gentle in your work. And I think that it's really interesting when sometimes we try to find our professional

journey, when the start of that journey is in a space where people don't have those same values. Was that something you needed to explore to figure out what work you can do?

Amanda Whittaker (11:32)

Mmm.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (11:38)

Was there a moment when you realized I can't keep working with people who don't maybe have the same values or how did that unfold a bit more? curious.

Amanda Whittaker (11:49)

Yeah, think so. Yes, there is a part of that. I think where I was laid off, the choice was taken away from me out of my hands. I could have gone back into law, but I think that's when I had that. I know, you know, coming to Jesus moment where I was like, this is not what I want to do. Like this just freed me up to do what I really want to do. And the door, you know, I'm a huge believer in manifestation like you.

Thank you, put your intention out there and you hopefully see it come true for you. And I think everything that I was thinking in the space that I was in in that time was just curving this path for me, right? Just leading me right down this path. So there really wasn't even a moment where I was like, I'm going back to that. I just knew that I wasn't. And I will say, it's, yeah, it's...

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (12:42)

Yeah.

Amanda Whittaker (12:45)

The people that I used to work with were great. It wasn't really like a personality thing. It was more just an alignment. Like I was just out of alignment with the nature of the profession that I was in. And looking back, if I had to go to law school all over again, which I probably wouldn't do, but if I had to, I would probably go down the mediation route, you know, so I could help bring two sides together, at least to some conclusion. you know, looking back is 2020, but.

the path I went down, I kind of landed in real estate and closings, which weren't super combative, but foreclosures were, zoning and litigation. was just not aligned with me.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (13:28)

That wasn't so that's the area you were working in. you still in corporate in some way now?

Amanda Whittaker (13:35)

only corporate in the sense that like our leadership is corporate, but I work for Mass General Brigham, which is a healthcare organization. I'm a project manager and I am kind of the mediator, I would say, between like Epic, software and our users who are at the hospitals. So yes, that's my, day, what I'm doing. It's still in healthcare. So the mission is still very, you know, health conscious and

helping patients and doctors and all of that good stuff. So, still aligned.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (14:09)

And mediating, that's pretty much the version that you wanted to lean towards. That's awesome.

Amanda Whittaker (14:16)

Yes, yes, that's, you know, that's, feel like that's my niche. That's around like, okay, let's take this and let's take this and let's figure out how to find balance here, how to find harmony.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (14:30)

You sound so happy and I can tell you'd be so good at that. And I think that when you do stay in those mainstream spaces, it's easier to then apply the mindful lifestyles to people who are still living a mainstream, hectic life. Do you think so?

Amanda Whittaker (14:50)

100%. I get it. I get what it's like to be a busy attorney. I get what it's like to, you know, to just be in corporate America. I get it. I get the struggle. I get the juggle. I get how it is to, you know, have to cart the kids around and balance your day job or be an entrepreneur and have to manage the demands of that. I feel like I relate to all of the women that I work with in some way. Our paths have

been similar, you know? So yeah, I get it. I get when people say they're busy and they don't have time and I just try to help them pick out, carve out pockets of time for them because it's so important to take care of ourselves and if we're not doing that, we're not going to have anything to give to those areas of our life that we love and need, you know?

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (15:44)

Absolutely. need to fill the cup enough to have it overflowing. And you mentioned kids again. I'm so curious. What do you say to the parents out there who want their kids to live a more healthy lifestyle, especially in this era of screens and, and junk food that they shouldn't be eating all of those things they need to get outdoors. What do you suggest?

for the young ones.

Amanda Whittaker (16:14)

my gosh,

⁓ yeah, I mean, I have so many responses to that, but it's funny, because when you started, I thought you were gonna go towards ⁓ what would you say to kids who don't wanna eat meat when they're little? Because one of my friends has that, her daughter doesn't wanna eat meat, and they're like, is this okay? And I'm like, yes, it's fine. So I've helped them figure out how to do it for a child. My daughter's 10, she doesn't eat meat.

to your point, I think, yeah, we don't have soda in the house. Like we just, we don't have those things in our environment. And I try very hard to teach my kids why. Like it's fuel. Like you need to think of food.

as fuel, you need to think of your body as your tool, your vessel that you have for life. So watching TV for too long or watching a screen is going to damage your eyes. And eating all the sugar is going to damage your teeth and your belly won't feel good after. So I really try to focus on the impacts of what they're doing in terms of how it affects their health and their body and how things are actually functioning, not so much looking.

which I think can cause issues down the road. ⁓ But yeah, I think in this day and age, it's tough. Some kids just want to sit and look at screens all day. And you really have to create boundaries around that, get them outside, get them out for the walk. We do a lot of walking, and then my kids will ride their bikes around. Or we'll find a trail, or we'll go up and walk in Newburyport on the water. I just try so hard to keep it.

so they want to do things like that and it doesn't feel forced. But it's tough. Kids are kids. They want their ⁓ screens.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (18:07)

They do. You mentioned eating for the body to function instead of looking a particular way. That will speak to the grownups for sure. Have you seen people struggling with that and needing to see their own value and beauty as they're trying to get on track?

Amanda Whittaker (18:29)

⁓ So much of what I talk about with my clients is body image and confidence and where that comes from and where we should look to find that, not necessarily in the mirror. ⁓ But I think when you are feeling right, when you are taking care of yourself, you do feel better, know, regardless of the weight. I hate the term weight loss. I don't use it a lot.

I think we need to think of it as like fueling our body so that it functions at its best. I am very open about my own struggle. Like I went through a period of time where I over restricted. I lost too much weight. I lost my period for two years. I lost my hair. Like I was in that point of what does the scale say? What does the scale say? You know, it's not going down or it went up two pounds and I have to punish my body.

I was in that place too and so I get it and that's a really tough place to be and it's a tough place to pull yourself out of. And I think you have to retrain yourself to look at different indicators of value for yourself. how do I really feel? What really makes me feel good? It's not being at that weight because I was cranky and tired and miserable.

It's more than that. It's more than what the scale says. It's more than how your clothes fit. It's like, how can I walk through this world? You know, how can I fuel myself in a way where I feel energized and I feel happy and I feel strong and I can lift these weights and I can do this yoga flow. ⁓ So we try to reframe it.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (20:16)

Energy. That got my attention so much energy. It's crucial, especially when there's so much happening or even I had moments where I was trying to do something active and I just feel totally flat and can't do anything. And if you have any words of wisdom for people out there, I mean, okay, I'll share my struggle that I had because maybe you can have advice and other people might have done the same thing.

Amanda Whittaker (20:17)

Yeah, it's a big one.

Yeah.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (20:45)

getting so busy that we just don't eat, forget or procrastinate, just not really eating for a while because things are getting busy and that's not going to help. Do you see people doing that?

Amanda Whittaker (20:51)

you

Uh-huh, all the time. It's one of the biggest things that we have to change immediately. The first thing that we usually have to change is breakfast. Did you eat breakfast today? Because it's the first thing to go. And then it's 11, 12 o'clock, you're starving, and then that's when you reach for the chips. So you reach for whatever is the easiest, right? Because you've reached that point where you're past the point of hunger, you just need something. And yes.

We, you know, a lot of times we blame perimenopause or getting older and that's why we're tired. But usually it has so much more to do with what we're eating. And usually we're not eating enough or we're not eating enough of the right food that's actually going to satiate us and give us that energy that we need to take the long walk or like I said, to lift the weights or to do the yoga flow. Yeah, it's one of the first things that we work on is how and when.

are you fueling your body? Because if you want more energy, it's usually the first place we have to look. There's other places too, but this is usually the first one.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (22:04)

Perimenopause, did you see some women assuming that they were just exhausted because they're getting older, but it was actually about what they were eating?

Amanda Whittaker (22:15)

I think there's so much out there right now about perimenopause and it's a buzzword and ⁓ a lot. We're using it as a reason when it's usually not the source of the problem. It comes with symptoms for sure, but there's so many ways that we can make ourselves feel better just with natural methods. It's just accepting that and trying that and putting the energy towards that, eating better.

getting sunlight in the morning, taking the walk in the morning, using your cortisol in the morning because it does spike. It's supposed to spike when you wake up. That's what wakes us up. So using it in a way that sets us up so that we feel good and we feel better going into the rest of the day.

Yeah.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (23:03)

So I don't know if maybe some of these lifestyle hiccups, lifestyle problems might be amplifying the problems that we get at a particular age, but it sounds like we can be doing something to at least improve the situation.

Amanda Whittaker (23:19)

⁓

100%. 100%. Yes. And I'm not saying it'll make all of, you know, there are symptoms and I'm not saying that this will make them all go away, but it will go a long way towards helping, ⁓ especially your energy levels and that, you know, the lightness that you want to feel, you know, you don't want to feel the heaviness, the sinking, the lows. You want to, you want to...

feel excited for your day, excited to hang out with your kids. You want to feel like you have the energy to go do things with them. And you can definitely improve things with nutrition and fitness for sure.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (24:02)

You can, it will not make things worse. It will definitely improve things. I totally agree. And even getting rest, right? That has to be part of the equation. Think so?

Amanda Whittaker (24:06)

I'm

Yah.

Yeah, do. Sleep is one of those things, though it's tricky. I don't get much sleep right now either. I wake up a lot during the night and I still have energy. I feel like I still do enough during the day to have energy. But sleep is a tricky thing. You want to try to get that seven to eight hours of sleep. But if we are in this stage, we are waking up a lot in the middle of the night and that's normal.

What I think hurts us is when we can't fall back to sleep. If we wake up and we go to the bathroom and we go back into bed and we fall asleep pretty quickly, it's fine. It's not really an interruption. It's when we can't fall back to sleep. And I listened to a really great podcast. It's called The Huberman Lab, and it's a researcher out of Stanford. He's amazing. He has all these incredible guests come on, very, very, very like, you know, they nerd out into all these super scientific things. ⁓

But they talked about sleep one time and they had a sleep specialist on and she said, the worst thing that you can do when you don't get sleep one night is to try and compensate the next day. She said, just go to bed at your normal time the next day and try to keep your sleep cycle as consistent as you can. Don't panic about it. Just go to sleep at the normal time.

And I loved that because I do think I hear a lot, know, well, I have to catch up. I didn't get sleep last night and I have to go to bed super early or like take extra naps today. I'm like, no, you don't just do your normal, do your normal thing as best as you can. You might need to lower the intensity of your workouts if you, if you miss some sleep, but just do your normal thing. Do your normal plan as best you can.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (25:48)

Thank

Keep your routine.

Amanda Whittaker (26:00)

Keep your routine. Yes, keep your routine.

Consistency is so important. Whatever you're doing, just do it consistently, 80 % of the time.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (26:05)

Awesome.

People are saying that about work as well as lifestyle at the moment. Consistency.

Amanda Whittaker (26:22)

Like,

yes, yes, yeah, it's huge. It's huge. It's probably the key because things take a while. Like, you're not going to see things happen overnight. Like, you don't make a change on Monday and you see the effect of it by the weekend. It really, takes a while for your body to adjust, for everything to regulate. And I think sometimes we get frustrated because we're not seeing the changes as quickly as we want to see them. And so we change something and we're just

we're stopping that consistency, right? Like there's, our body never has a chance to see if it's actually working because we don't stay consistent for long enough. So that's a big thing. Another.

Amanda Whittaker (27:12)

is small shifts. Like I think, you we talked about this a little bit at the beginning, but one of the biggest issues I see is these programs that want you to change everything overnight, you know, do the hard workouts, do this diet, like change everything. And I think that that is a huge hurdle for a lot of women too. We think we can do it, but when we overhaul everything at one time, it's really hard to stay consistent with everything.

So I focus on small shifts, small shifts. We start with one or two things. We see how it goes and we add on, but it's slow, it's gentle, it feels natural, it doesn't feel like work. And I always say it's simple. It doesn't mean it's easy. Every shift is going to come with challenges. Some are harder than others and it doesn't mean they're wrong. It's just, you know.

If that meets our goals and that's something that we want for ourselves, we have to work through that hard phase and acclimate and it becomes routine and habit and then we add on something else.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (28:18)

Absolutely. hope the audience can learn that from you as a starting point to sort out one thing and then learn the next and then the next because we all know deep down we had years of school and we didn't have to learn everything all in one day and it's the same for the rest of life. Think so?

Amanda Whittaker (28:23)

Yeah. ⁓

Yeah.

Yes, a hundred percent. Our brains weren't the same. I was thinking the same thing. It's like in school, you have one lesson, you work on some multiplication tables and you do them over and over and you get them and then you move on and you layer. I think as adults, just want like, we want this immediate, immediate, everything is changing, immediate response, results, right? And it's just not the case with.

with your wellness, with your health and your fitness. It takes time. It takes time to undo old habits that are no longer serving you. It takes time to create new routines. But then you look back and you're like, this is just part of my life now. This is just who I am and what I do. And I don't have to think about it because it's just part of me.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (29:27)

For sure. That's a great feeling when you adopt a lifestyle for long enough and then it is your new normal.

Amanda Whittaker (29:35)

Yes, yes, and every, you know, that can be true for everybody if they want it, you know, you have to want it, you have to want to make these changes. It has to come from inside. And when it does, you know, it's a beautiful thing watching people embrace this lifestyle and make it their own. And their healthy lifestyle might not look exactly like mine or yours, but you find what works for you and it just becomes part of you.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (30:04)

Definitely. We all have different lives. That's for sure. I wanted to go over to the movement side for a moment and the mindfulness because there are so many things to cover because you do so much and it's awesome. I mean, with yoga, it has the spiritual side and there's also movement. You said you had a few forms of movement and I'm wondering what can you tell people who are getting started and know nothing?

Amanda Whittaker (30:12)

Yeah.

you

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (30:32)

about creating a routine in that space.

Amanda Whittaker (30:36)

Ah, you know, I think first and foremost, you have to trust your body and what you're drawn to. There are so many different forms of movement. Even within yoga, there are so many different forms of yoga, and some work for some people and different forms work for others. Some forms are much more gentle. We have chair yoga. We have standing postures where there is no flow.

And some people love that and that's what they need. Some people like more movement, more flow. Some people are drawn to just more functional, weight lifting type of toning, light weight. Some people like it. So it's all great. It's all great. You can build muscle with light weights. You can build muscle through yoga. You can build muscle through, you know, heavy weights. It's what do you enjoy doing? ⁓

And I think that's really important for us all to just step back from all the trends that are out there and all the advice and all the influencers and just what do you enjoy doing? What do you like? What kind of movement do you like? And use that as the basis for your routine, right? So if you tried yoga 10 years ago, give it another try because things might have changed. But if you tried it, you know, last week and you're like, I don't like this, then

We're not going to do a yoga flow for you. We're going to do something else. We're going to just do strength training or maybe some Pilates or a blend of Pilates and bar. But there's something for everybody. There's a way for everybody to move their body in a way that feels good for them, whether it's preference or physical restriction. have clients that have issues and injuries. So there's some things they can't do and we work around that too. But yeah, what can you do when you enjoy doing? ⁓

If they're new to yoga, there's a lot of programming, a lot of beginner programs out there. They can come to me and I'd be happy to help. But yes, don't worry too much, especially with yoga. Sometimes people fear going to a class because they say, I'm not flexible or I don't know what I'm doing. And that's okay. You're going to take that first class. You're not going to know what you're doing. And that's okay. You will.

You will, like you said, you will learn over time. think the difference with yoga in school is if you do go into a class with yoga, they're gonna give you the end lesson and you're just gonna do what you can. And over time, you'll pick up the moves and you'll better understand how your body is supposed to move. It'll come over time.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (33:22)

And the other difference is there's no pass or fail. You need to look after yourself and not do things so incorrectly that you could get injured. But to some extent, you know, do you see people aiming for perfectionism when really it's just about moving around and, you know, looking after yourself?

Amanda Whittaker (33:43)

Yes, 100%, yes, yes, yes, I've seen it. Yes. And yeah, yeah, especially a while ago. You right now I teach on a much more like personal level, so I will customize yoga flows for someone. And I feel like that's less about perfection. But in some of the bigger studios that I used to teach at, you absolutely saw that. It's like, settle down. It's okay. You know, this is...

This is just movement, it doesn't have to be perfect. If your foot is turned slightly the wrong way, it's okay. You're not gonna hurt yourself unless you're doing something really unaligned, in which case I will let you know. But it's okay, just move and breathe. To me, yoga at its core is so much more about moving your body in a way that's connected with your breath, right? So.

expanding all of the movements in yoga where we do, where we open or expand. It's an inhale, right? Because you're sucking that air in, you're inhaling, you're expanding. And then when you're contracting, you're exhaling. it's moving with your breath and it takes your brain to a different place. It's just you go right into this really cool internal connection place when you're focusing on moving your body in tune with your breath. It's really cool.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (35:09)

the question I'm totally keen to ask at this point because you mentioned the breath and I come from a public speaking background where it just like things like singing, the breath is important because that's how you get sound out and I would be so grateful to be so grateful if you could explain to people how they can breathe properly. We think we all know how to breathe but

Amanda Whittaker (35:12)

I don't know.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (35:35)

Seriously, people breathe from their chest instead of their tummy, but I want a Yogi's perspective. Tell us how we should breathe better.

Amanda Whittaker (35:42)

Yeah.

Well, there's so many different ways to breathe. I mean, there's one way to breathe, but there's so many different styles of breath. But you are right. If I had to say one thing, it's you need to make your breath bigger. You need to suck it all the way down. You need to let your belly expand when you take that breath in. There's no sense hugging that belly in. ⁓ A ⁓ really great breath that everybody can work with is a three-part breath.

You breathe in, you breathe to here. You pull it a little deeper. You pull all the way down into your belly and then you press it out. And you kind of see that visual in your mind so that when you're pulling that breath in, it's like expanding this big balloon, right? In your chest, your sides, your back, the whole thing. And hold that breath for a second and then push it back out. But breath work is...

I mean, breath work is healing. Breath work is everything. Breath work can solve so many of our problems, especially anxiety. Like if we're feeling super stressed out, anxious, if we can't sleep at night, one of the number one tools that I use is breath work. So it's not just in yoga, it's every day, all day. Your breath is the place that you can tap into. Nobody even has to know, but you have this hidden tool inside of you that you can tap into and use to calm down in really tough moments.

And it's like a reset. like in a moment, you can totally reset yourself just by using your breath.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (37:13)

Absolutely. That's a tool everybody can use because there will be a high pressure moment. There'll be a time when someone is feeling a bit nervous or overwhelmed, whatever it might be. Taking that one little moment is a first step, right?

Amanda Whittaker (37:30)

100%. Yes, 100%. Yep. One of my favorite breaths I'll share. This is a really good one too. This immediately calms your parasympathetic nervous system. You probably know it, but you inhale and you count to four and then you exhale and you count to eight. So it's that two to one breathing and you'll feel it. You do that three times and you're like, oh, okay, I'm good. I feel good. I feel calm and regulated.

That's a really good one that everyone should have in their back pocket.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (38:02)

It'll slow you down.

Amanda Whittaker (38:04)

Mm-hmm. Immediately. Just immediately calming. Calms you right down. Regulates your nervous system in 60 seconds or less.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (38:16)

You're teaching us so much.

Okay, what would you tell people who are completely new to fixing up their lifestyle? Let's go to the extreme. Do you ever deal with someone? Do you ever work with someone who has been at the total extreme working 100 hours in the week and eating only things they shouldn't eat? I'm just going for it. Sitting.

Amanda Whittaker (38:30)

Okay.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (38:43)

at the TV whenever they are not in the office. I've seen it very occasionally and it terrifies me, but have you seen someone like that and where do you begin?

Amanda Whittaker (38:53)

100%. One of my clients, it was a he, actually not a woman, but he was a CEO. He built his own company from the ground up. for a decade plus, he just sat at his computer and worked. Like he did nothing but that, just worked. So we started, you have to start gentle. You have to meet your body where it's at. If you haven't moved, if you're working all the time, if you're super stressed, your body is gonna be like this.

It's gentle movement. starts with walking. I would say get out, take a five minute walk after every meal. Every time you eat, schedule five minutes in, go out and walk. Just start moving. ⁓ Gentle stretches, know, back stretches, chest stretches, hip stretches. You can even do it from a chair, like I mentioned earlier, chair yoga. ⁓ Just start very gently moving your body, incorporating it in slowly in a way that feels good. Change.

one meal a day or like, you know, you have to set these smart goals. So one meal a day, you're going to get 30 grams of protein. One meal. Start there. You know, start somewhere. Commit to making one change for yourself. Whatever that looks, you know, whatever their struggle is, keep some stuff in that they like, but make one change and have them do that for a week or two and then reassess, you know, make those walk 10 minute walks.

make the stretching, add some resistance work. But again, we see all these messages on social media that are like, do all of it, do all of it at 100 % all the time. And it just wouldn't work that way. For someone who is just coming back from being very extreme in not doing anything, you have to start slow, have to be mindful about it.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (40:45)

Absolutely. Protein has been a common theme. I take for granted everybody else's understanding of protein and iron, things like that, because I've been vegan for so long, but you could help me in explaining to everybody else how they can get those essentials, including the protein and other things from plants and how

It can give them fibre and the beans are so accessible. How easy is it to get a of beans? What can you tell people who are new to that?

Amanda Whittaker (41:20)

gosh,

Yeah, I mean, it's so easy. think it's hard to give it all in such a short period of time. So you want to be mindful about how you're doing it. But you want to make sure that you have your complete proteins. So if you're having a lot of beans or legumes, any kind of legumes, you want to pair it with rice, right? Because then you have all of your amino acids, your essential amino acids together. ⁓

products like soy, anything soy based. if you're having your tofu or your tempeh, those are complete proteins, is great. Those are great proteins. Another protein that I love is seitan, which is one that a lot of people haven't heard about. But it's not gluten free, which most plant-based proteins are. This one isn't. But as long as you don't have celiacs, if you just have more of a sensitivity, it might be OK. So I would even say, like, try it.

if you don't have a true allergy. I love seitan. It has almost like a bread consistency, super low calorie, low carb. All of these proteins that I'm talking about, you can put in an air fryer, which is how I make most of my meals for like eight minutes or less and toss them with your salad, your, know, whatever your base is, whether it's a rice or a bean or whatever, ⁓ toss it in and then play with.

Vinegars, play with different vinegars, play with some olive oils, play with different flavors in different ways. I use a lot of tahini, I love tahini. ⁓ Miso, miso is a great one. Take a little scoop of miso, mix it with apple cider vinegar, whip it up, and it's like a beautiful dressing. ⁓ Another thing I will say is with veggie burgers, I love veggie burgers, but you have to be careful because a lot of them are really overly processed. But then you can go down this route of, you know,

you could look at almost every food and find some issue with it, right? So if it's a veggie burger or something deep fried and full of fat and, you know, fake stuff, then go for the veggie burger. But just be mindful, you know, like Beyond Burger isn't one I would eat every single day because it's very processed. But there are some really good ones out there. Like, I don't know if you have it over there, but Abbott's brand.

is incredible, it's very minimally processed. It's a great option for a veggie burger and they're really high protein. So there are some good ones out there, you just have to read the ingredients.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (43:50)

Absolutely. We have Beyond Burger over here and Impossible. I must admit, I don't go for those very often, but there are plenty of YouTube videos guiding people to make their own veg burgers. And it can feel quite real with some of those ingredients and it will probably have a lot less oil or less saturated fats than a real burger. Do you think so?

Amanda Whittaker (43:59)

Please.

⁓

100%. Yes, yes. Anyone that's had any heart issues, any cardiac issues should really look at some of the plant-based options because they're so much leaner, they're so much better ⁓ for your overall health, especially if you've had any heart stuff going on. So yeah, yes, for sure. Yeah.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (44:37)

Absolutely and burgers are so fun because especially if the main burger part is done when life is busy you just put it in some bread it's not difficult.

Amanda Whittaker (44:48)

Totally, totally. Something really fun that I actually learned from someone else recently, he got big sweet potatoes and sliced them. So he made these big circles with sweet potatoes and roasted them and then made the bun with the sweet potatoes. So you take your sweet potatoes, put your veggie burger on top of those, dress it with whatever you like, and they were delicious. There's so many ways to have fun.

with food, with vegetables and all, and they're so pretty, right? Like orange sweet potatoes, throw on a tomato, you've got your red in there, some spinach, it's like the whole rainbow, yeah. It's so fun, I love it.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (45:26)

Yes,

eating the rainbow.

Amanda Whittaker (45:29)

Yeah.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (45:34)

I think that we really have five or 10 minutes left and I just want to go to the old words of wisdom at this point in a conversation and ask which main things, maybe three things do you wish that everybody should know? And if you want people to learn from you, what are a few things they're going to learn from you the most?

Amanda Whittaker (46:00)

Some balanced meals, get your protein in, get your 30 grams of protein spread out throughout the day. So balanced meals, stop cutting out entire food groups unless you have an allergy. That's number one. Number two, walk. I think it doesn't get enough. It doesn't get the credit it deserves. Walking is so amazing. And anyone who is trying to lose weight, you know, the first thing I...

When I have conversations with people around like, are you doing? And it's the first thing they say is workouts. Well, I'm not working out or I did, I'm working out, blah, I'm like, but what about all the other time of the day? Because that's what really makes a difference. The time that you're moving outside of that one half hour workout is going to make more of a difference than the workout itself, honestly. So walk. And if I had a rule of thumb, it would be after every meal, if you can, five to 10 minute walk after every meal.

helps your digestion, it helps you step away from the table, it helps stop you from overeating. You get out, you walk, you get your steps in, great, that's two. Three is with your movement, it's all important. Strength training, zone two cardio is what I love, it doesn't have to be a HIIT class, know, exercising your heart is important.

and mobility because all of us are aging. you know, I look at some of the older people in my life and I'm like, I want to be able to move when I'm 75, when I'm 80 and mobility goes a long way in that. you know, whether it's yoga or stretching, just make sure that you're opening your body, you're moving your joints, you're staying flexible, you're staying mobile, along with building and maintaining your muscle mass.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (47:56)

Absolutely. Great wisdom, great advice. Amanda, thank you so much for teaching everybody.

Amanda Whittaker (48:05)

You're so welcome. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, this stage to do it. Thank you.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (48:12)

It's awesome. It has been great talking to you.

Amanda Whittaker (48:16)

It's been great talking with you too. I really appreciate you having me here.

Melanie Suzanne Wilson (48:21)

Awesome. Thanks for your time. Bye.

Amanda Whittaker (48:24)

Bye.