Weight Loss, Back Pain and Overcoming Fear of Lifting

This is session number 26 of the Performance Place Sports Care Podcast. Welcome to the Performance Place Sports Care Podcast, where you can learn about sports injury theory, rehab, diagnosis, and how to understand the doctor lingo you didn't understand at your appointment. And now, your host, Dr. Sebastian Gonzales. Hey, it's Dr. Sebastian Gonzales again from Performance Place Sports Care Podcast. Today, we have on Crystal Campero, who is actually someone who works for me. But actually, over the past few months, she's actually gone through a really, really good transformation of weight loss and increasing her activity level.

And actually, when she came to work for me, she had a back injury, too. So, we're going to go a little bit into just some weight loss tips, kind of her journey through that, as well as some of the fear avoidance she had a little bit with lifting as well, because that was kind of part of the... I mean, you get back into shape anyways. So, anyways, here's Crystal. She'll tell you a little bit about herself. And go ahead. All right. Hi. Again, yeah, I'm Crystal Campero. I am a college graduate. I graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University. I got a BA in Exercise Science. Outside of that, once I started working for Sebastian, I got a certified personal training thing. And then working on a CSCS right now, which has been a work in progress. It's getting that study time in between work and stuff. But yeah, I have an athletic background, played soccer my whole life. And then as soon as I got an injury from that, I got an ACL tear. I kind of started getting introduced to the world of rehab and all the different stuff that it has to offer. And at that point, that kind of opened up the entire just world to me. And that's how I ended up here pretty much.

So, do you still have... Do you still have knee issues now? Not very rarely. I mean, you've heard me complain on cold days every once in a while that it just feels kind of stiff. Or sometimes I just wake up and it feels a little stiffer than usual. Or if I'm squatting, I get irritated. But it's always... It's passing. It's never anything lasting. And you had it repaired? Yeah. Yeah. So, I had the patellar tendon used for the... To replace the ACL. And then I got a meniscectomy on top of that as well. So, there's a little bit less of the meniscus on that side. But everything's functioning fairly well, I think.

So, over the course of... Tell us about the weight loss thing. Because I know it was around August, I think. And so, right now it's February, in case any of you are listening to this later. So, it's been about five months or so. What have you really accomplished since then? And why did you start doing it? Well, so, I mean, it really was just a complete transformation. Like, you see that stuff on Instagram or all those success stories that they show on Beachbody infomercials and stuff like that. And it's like, if you see my before and afters, it's very similar to that. From now, when I started, I was about 179, close to 180, right around there. How tall are you again? I'm 5'5". So, I was hidden under baggy clothes for the most part. Most people don't believe me that I weighed that much. Crystal likes to wear a lot of flannel. So, a lot of times you cannot tell. Yeah, there's lots of flannel. I have about, what, five different options of those? Wait, is it flannel or plaid right now? Well, I guess if we're getting technical on the material, it'll probably be plaid. Oh, plaid material. Wait, the design is plaid. The design is plaid on like a, like a, like a softer material. I don't know, but it's not flannel per se. But yeah, so I weighed about 180 when I started and I started working for you when, and I had that back injury and I was very much not wanting to do a whole lot with it, with, with just activity. When I started, when that mental switch happened with me, it just, it just happened. Um, I had lost about 30 pounds, uh, in that time. Um, and now at this point, I'm down to 17.4% body fat where the last test that I had taken about a year ago prior to that was 27 around there.

Something like that. And that was when you were like 175? That was 175. Yeah. So, I, I even had gained weight since that last test and then, and then I dropped it pretty drastically. And what do you wear right now? Do you, what do I weigh? Yeah. Um, I, it fluctuates right now between 145 to 150. So depending on the day of the morning and stuff like that, but, um, I'm right in that zone, kind of the goal weight. I don't really want to be anything less than 145. I think it'll get a little too lean at that point, but, um, I'm, I mean, I'm happy with the weight at this point. It's just now maintenance and fixing, you know, flabby areas. So did you, did, did, uh, the people on Instagram actually inspire you or is this, I know you love talking about them all the time. So.

Yeah. I mean, you kind of pick up the, that inspiration from everywhere. Uh, there was a point in time that I was that person that I just hated, you know, like it was somebody that has an excuse for everything. It's like, Oh, I see this person on Instagram. It's like, I want to do that. Or the, you know, January starts and there's all these weight loss challenges going on. It's like, Oh, give me 20 bucks and I'll give you a customized program, something like that. And I was all about that stuff. I was like, this is it. This is the change that needs to happen. Um. You never bought one of those things, did you? I did once. I did. Yeah. And it was not. I don't think I've heard this story then. No. Yeah. You know, the, uh, I don't want to like call him out. He's not very famous or he's, he's pretty well known, but a lot of people hate him on Instagram. Like they hate him because they want to be like him or they hate him because like he's. I guess there was this big scandal with what he was doing. Um, he was selling his program, right? Like selling it with his name, his face and his personality. And he turns out he had some girl like behind the scenes that was creating all the, the, the nutrition plans and the workout plans and stuff, which to me, I'm kind of like, if you, once you get successful, you're not going to do it.

Well, why does it matter if it was like, if it was producing results is really right? Yeah. And that's what I thought. I was like, if it's producing results and it was given to you by this person, I don't think there's any misrepresentation, but there was a whole thing that people were like, you're, you're scamming people out of their money and give it back. I'm like, well, did those people lose weight? Then, I mean, you know, so, I mean, I paid for it and it worked a little, but I didn't have the, the mental drive there either. So it was like a temporary, Oh cool. I lost four pounds. And then I, my before and after pictures are, there's a difference, but I'm still fat, you know? So it was like, I paid for it and then it just kind of stopped at that point. And then, uh, I, I, you know, I do all these little things. I'll see an infomercial for like a beach body thing, like a, Oh, that could work or like, like those Tupperware you bought. Yeah. Yeah. The Tupperware I bought for my mom. Um, the 21 day fix on that. Um, but, uh, they work for storage.

That's, that's good. They're glass too, right? Wait, no, they're plastic. They're plastic and they're color coded. So hate it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so, uh, yeah, I didn't know. I didn't realize you tried anything else, but, um, I know that it seems like at least since August, since you said those before and after pictures recently, um, that was a really, really big change. And is there anything different you did then? I, cause I know that this is something that a lot of people struggle with. They want to make sure that they're doing, um, actually I, I've seen a lot of people, they just get paralyzed with the, they don't know what to do. So they just get paralyzed and don't do anything. Right. So is there any suggestions you have for people that you got to do? Honestly, and, and people think I'm such a douche for saying this, but it just, you just got to cut the crap. Like at some point you just realize that you have an excuse after an excuse, after an excuse, and you're looking for a convenient time to do it. You're looking for, you know, Oh, my work schedule to clear up, or, you know, it's a really crazy time or whatever it is. And, um, you just have to make that mental shift. Like it's as generic as that sounds, nothing is going to change until you say in your head with some sort of determination that something is going to change. And that's just what happened to me is I, I said, I think it all started with me. Like one, I was working here. I mean, I started working out when I started working for you again, did the rehab exercises felt more secure with my injury. At least I think that was one of the biggest steps for me, but I didn't take it that extra level. Um, but once I, you know, got the job offer to coach at orange theory at that point, I was like, well, if you're going to coach, you kind of have to look the part. Like you can't be in that field and be carrying around all this extra weight and expect people to listen to you on that, in that level. Um, so yeah, I was like, I just have to, I have to do it now. And I, I started eating incredibly well. Um, I cut calories like crazy at first. And then that was where the drastic weight loss happened. And then once I hit that weight where I was comfortable, it all started becoming eating more and just getting the right amount of volume in for workouts and stuff like that. Well, you didn't feel like when you cut the calories out, you didn't feel like you're exhausted or anything like there was no repercussions to that at all, or? No, I wouldn't say so. I think that first two weeks there's that like feeling of, you know, my God, I'm hungry. Um, but you realize, I mean, if you just stick with it within the first two weeks, I'd say to a month at most, you realize, okay, I didn't, I did not need all of that stuff that I was having before to sustain my body. Like your body can sustain itself on a lot less, not saying like, you know, go anorexic or starve yourself, but you can cut calories a lot and your body will be fine. Um, no loss of energy or anything like that as long as you snack like crazy.

Yeah. So I find that crunchy and like salty, at least works well for me. Like Sprout has the, those awesome, like roasted salted peas. I think that was the biggest like life hack I've ever found my, like over the last couple of months. Yeah. Yeah. And I, with that too, I mean, some people would be like actually surprised at how I would eat on the weekends or like some of the snacks that I would choose to have. Um, cause if it will, that, that's not healthy that, you know, that's not paleo or whatever it is that they're doing at that time. And I'm just like, well, I'm extremely disciplined during the week. So Monday to Friday, I was just on it. And then on the weekends I would go out and have a burger and have a beer with my burger and I would still be losing weight. And they, people I'd hang out with would be like, what? You know, it'd be great if, if, uh, I know we don't have any sponsors yet at this point, but what if Eureka, like your favorite burger place was the sponsor on this one? They're like, Hey, we will just treat you to all you can eat burgers at Eureka for doing this podcast. Man, if that, I don't know, I think I'd go backwards if that were the same burger over and over again. Uh, so you mentioned earlier too, about, so just kind of having excuses and whatnot. And, um, I know at least that I see here, uh, we see a lot of people with injuries and whatnot. So not to say that their excuses aren't, don't have merit to them, but, uh, I've always thought that you have to psychologically beat your injury before you physically beat it. Um, and there's a concept of just avoiding things out of, out of fear of that you're going to hurt yourself. And you said that your back was one, and I guess your ACL is probably another or your knee's another. Yeah. So how did you, I know that you went through some rehab on that. Is there anything that you felt that was more helpful than anything else or is there a turning point? Yeah. Um, I mean, you always joke around with it. And when I first started working about the oatmeal, no, um, the oatmeal, yeah. Eat oatmeal if you want to be fat is what his thing is.

No, when I, when I started working for him and, um, I came in, I had that back injury. I'd been avoiding things for quite some time at that point. Cause the back injury in relation to like a lot of the other injuries I've had, maybe with the exception of the ACL, um, was the worst. It was just, it was constant. Like there was not one thing that I could do to get away from it. It was just, you know, like it just was, it sucked. Right. But the, the moment that kind of switched things in my head, I feel like was that, that, uh, box squat moment when, Oh, that, that front rack box squat day. Yeah. Well, like we were, we were in the old office and we've moved buildings since then, but like, he's like, do a box squat. And like, he's like, how much can you squat normally? And this was back when I was going off of CrossFit numbers and like, you know, all I was primarily focused on was like, how much weight can I pull? How much weight can I pull? Not necessarily form.

Um, and that's not, that's not a bash at CrossFit at all. That was just my mentality in it. Cause I got very competitive with it. It was just pulling as much weight as I could without really taking care of anything else. Um, and so, you know, with, with that, he told me to do a box squat and what a box squat does is, you know, for anybody that doesn't know, it engages your posterior chain, your backside more so than if you're doing just a normal squat, you can really get your quads more dominant in it. Um, so he had me do that and he like, I gave him, I threw out some weight that I used to be able to back squat. I think it was like 200 to something. Yeah. Something, something large. And so, you know, I was all high and mighty. I throw this number out. So he puts some weight on a bar and then he tells me to box squat it. And I was just practically seizing the entire way down. Like couldn't, couldn't handle that weight. And I was still shaking with just the 45 pound bar. And I think that was a moment. It was like, Oh, I was like, wait, I have to change the way that I think about stuff at this point. Yeah. That was a, that was a funny time with, uh, actually I had, when you told me 200, I think we put like 75 total on the bar and cause I thought it'd be like fairly easy. And, uh, in, in case all you that don't know, like for box squatting too, like it might not be the a hundred percent proper mechanics we're looking for on a squat. Cause you do have to have a little bit of forward lean and have the knees over the toes and so on. But for the most part, it lets you engage your backside a little bit more too. And it keeps your posture a little bit more upright and safe and so on. So sometimes we give it to people with back conditions just because it coaches them to get their hips back is all. Um, but yeah, like we had to shed that way out the bar real quick. And then we got, gets the 45 and like, you just see her over there, just tremor, you're tremoring. I think I walked away and came back. I'm like, really? Did you, we took, we took more weight off. Yeah, we took more weight off. I think I wasn't even through the first 10 reps or something like that. And it was, it was humbling. And it was also just like eyeopening that up until that moment, even with my educational background, even with like the extensive amount of like stuff that I had taken on, you know, just exercise physiology and everything like that. I still got myself into a mindset that was just more concerned with one arena, which is something that should come way later. You know, like how much weight can you pull? It's like, well, you shouldn't be concerned about that until you fix, you fine tune everything else, which is, that was at that moment for me, it shifted gears in particular to emphasizing on rehab. Um, I know you like in office, I don't do it a lot, but I do focus on it with like most of what I'm doing outside of here. Like if I'm lifting, if I feel my core get weak at all, or if I feel my, like any kind of just bad mechanics, I just stop.

And you know, like it's fine. I'm not, I'm no longer an overachiever in that regard. So like I take it slow and I go lighter than I need to until I know that I'm comfortable with it. And it's, it's, I've seen more results with that than I've ever seen with anything else before. Yeah. Well, I know that the, uh, like, so there's actually, there's another girl that works with us at the office too, that she, I mean, she's very, very quick with, uh, with weights and whatnot. And she probably left more than either. She has to be able to lift more than either of us. Oh yeah. Yeah. She'd like annihilate us in anything. I think. Yeah. So she, she does a bunch of like, uh, CrossFit workouts and so on. And she, she put one up for us to do yesterday. And, uh, uh, as I was going through it, I was just taking my tie and lollygagging. And, um, I, I thought I'd beat her, but apparently I did not. Um, but Crystal's supposed to do it today. Um, and I was like, Crystal, you think you're going to beat her time? She's like, Nope, not even going to try.

I won't even try and strive for that. The end is like 20 strict pull-ups and, you know, I just won't, that'll take me 30 minutes on its own. So, um, uh, just so everyone knows too, because I know that we, we've, we're diverting a little bit away from weight loss into back conditions and excuses and all this other stuff. Um, but for the most part, I know that, um, we had to talk the other day about cardio versus weight training and eating and so on. And I was, I asked you if you wanted to do a run, a 5k and you, you said, I said, I would rather do anything else. So when it comes to some, when it comes to like all the other weight loss and the exercise you're doing, you're, are you talking about mainly cardio? Are you talking about lifting? You're talking about high intensity training, what would be your go-to and what would be maybe the first thing you'd cut out? If I'm not, I know the first thing you cut out, you don't want, you don't want to run at all. Yeah. Well, I mean, not, I mean, since working at orange theory, I've, I've come to appreciate running a little bit more. Um, I can do it for longer periods of time, but the thing is I do it in intervals. Um, so you have your different paces, you go back and forth between them and I feel much more comfortable doing things like that. But what I would get rid of straight out of the gates without question is steady state cardio. Um, I don't think that it's net like necessarily negative in any kind of way, like that people won't see benefits out of it, but your body's going to plateau a lot faster, I feel like. And also it's just so much easier to mentally disengage yourself from that. And I'm just not that kind of person. Steady state cardio. I just feel like I'm suffocating the entire time. If you tell me run for 30 minutes, I'll say no, just like, I just won't do it, you know, but if you said run for 30 minutes and I'm going to tell you, okay, you're going to, you're going to go faster in this minute versus go slower in this minute, then I'm much more inclined to do it. Like at the end of an orange theory workout, I'll have run three miles. Whereas if you told me go run three miles, I just won't do it. Like, so it's, it's much easier to do it when you have these different smaller goals set up in between that interval style of training. Um, so yeah, running, I appreciate now more, but I just don't do steady state. It just, I'd read, I'd read.

Yeah. It does get kind of boring. I think like I, I've, I realized at least over probably the past five years or so, like I started doing longer distance and then now I just do not care much at all. And I still see a lot of people, they, they, they kind of value your, they kind of judge you on your distance. Like, Hey, how far did you run? Did you do a marathon? Did you do an ultra and so on? It's like, no, like I sprinted in the park, you know, or on a treadmill or whatever. And it's, it's hard in its own right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny when people ask me that stuff, like, cause you, I mean, you know how people are like, whether it's a meathead dude or, you know, like a really lean girl that like can run ultra marathon. They'll ask me, especially if they see the progress that I've made, like if they haven't seen me in a long time and they see me now, they go, well, Oh, what are you back squatting? Or Oh, like, well, you know, how fast is this or anything? And I go, I, I have no idea. I was like, I just, I really don't know those numbers. And they go, are you serious? And I was like, yeah, like I'm not too concerned with that. Like I'm just concerned with getting the work done at the best possible, like level that I can do it.

If I'm preoccupied with the weights and like going faster than it just turns back to, I feel like step one where I started everything, um, which was, you know, not good for me. It just kept resulting in injury. So, yeah. Well, yeah, I think it's a big thing. If you, you gotta be able to keep, keep, keep form or keep responsible for him and go as, I mean, you only do as many reps as weight as you can with good form. Um, and so you're able to now with your, do you ever know, did, do we ever come to terms with like actually what your back injury was? You, you, you gave me the tough love approach of it. So like, you knew that I was like, just kind of like, you know, fishing and moaning about it, but like, I wasn't doing anything about it. So your response to me was, well, I don't know, it could probably be a disc injury, I think. And then you were just like, it probably is, but the rehab is the same. So, yeah. I actually don't remember what it was anymore. Cause that was a long, I was, it was in the other office. It was over a year ago. Yeah. I think. Yeah. Um, well, so anyways, so the things that the movements that you still do then, which a lot of people would shy away from with the back injury would be, so you do, you do deadlifting. Yep. You kettlebell swing back squat. Yep.

Front squat. Yep. Um, cleans. Yep. Do you do jerks at all? Sometimes, very rarely. Um, recently no, just because I've been, I have this, this shoulder thing that's been kind of taking me off, but I mean, like I don't go overhead as much, but, um, yeah. Okay. So all these movements are, are definitely ones that I always see people shy away from. Yeah. Um, is there, do you have suggestions on them? Like what was your experience with, I mean, is there one that you had a bigger issues with to kind of get back or, um, pain wise, I think all of them gave me the same amount of issue and it was, it all stemmed from my fear of it. Like when I went into lifting and starting pulling more weight than I wanted to, like just taking that next step into a higher weight level, like with the rehab, um, I was very cautious. I feel like overly cautious and I wasn't holding my body the way that I was supposed to be. Um, so it would kind of irritate it. You would just get used to it and like it would, it would pass and then you would just go back into it. Um, so I was cycling the lifts a lot with like rehab stuff, but as far as one giving me more problems than the other, I would say maybe the cleans. And that's just because there's a lot going on there. Um, it's not just one thing I can focus on, but deadlifts and back squats and front squats. Those are the thing I do most often.

I feel like every single time I lift, I'm doing one of those three things and, um, I don't see any problems with it. I always feel like they're like, like strength looks like that or slower ones. Um, and for all you who don't know what cleans are, um, it's a really, it's a quicker lift of getting the bar off the ground and into the air and on your body. Um, and it's the ones that almost like, it looks like people are just jumping, uh, and back squats, front squats, deadlifts. I mean, they're really slower motions. You could take them as slow as you want to really. Um, so you can pay attention to all the, uh, all your cues you're looking for and your position and so on. And if you have an injury, it's a little bit safer on that. Yeah. Yeah. And cleans are just so hard to learn in the first place. Like there's so many things that you have to do just right to get the whole lift. Just perfect. Oh yeah. We should, we should hit on that. So form, form on this stuff.

But cause I know, I know that people, um, are definitely afraid of some of these exercises with, if they had a back injury or if they're trying to lose weight or whatever. And that's why a lot of people default to running. How long would you say it would take, how long did it take you to learn to properly squat? Properly squat? Um, from when I started lifting to properly squat, squat, I would say it, it took me, I'm not kidding, probably like a year to two years to get all those cues down. Cause you learn it from just friends, right? Like that's how I was learning it at first, just squat. And then I never knew anything about knees over the toes or anything like that. And then you start doing exercise programs and those generic videos tell you, Oh, keep your core tight or like send your butt back or do something like that. So then you pick up on those. And it wasn't until I started working in this office specifically that I feel like I know the squat, like the back of my hand. Like, it's just like, I, I know every single cue that I could give a person to try and fix whatever's going wrong with it. Um, that like, I'm very, very, very comfortable with the squat now up until like working here and really, really absorbing all of that stuff. I felt like my squat form and my cues at least suffered a little bit. So, yeah.

Well, I think it's, uh, an earlier we were talking about before we started the podcast about, uh, Crystal actually trains, uh, some younger baseball kids. What are they? 12? Uh, I think it's like 13 to 15. So they're, they're, you're talking about some of the form on them and like how they, they know it, like they'll jump back into it really quickly when you give them the right cue. But then, uh, one kid, he, he seems to lose all control very quickly. Um, but I, I suggested that may, I'm like, why don't you just have him teach it, have him teach other kids. Um, because I think that's what it comes down to like when, cause we're working with people here and like, they don't know what they're doing. So we have to really verbalize how to get the result we're getting. So sometimes teaching will actually do it.

Yeah. Well, and I think you probably have noticed it. Like, since I started working for you in the beginning, I think the first time you ever told me to go out in the weight room with somebody, my eyes were probably wide, like just like a deer in the headlights. Like what? You know, I didn't know the program. I didn't know what was wrong with them and this and that. And I was just uncomfortable with it. But now you could give me somebody that I hadn't met before and say, this is their issue. This is what we're doing. And I can just go right into it pretty comfortably. Like, and even if I don't know what their issues is specifically, it doesn't change what you're doing with the exercise. The exercise is still the same. So, um, you know, there's been a lot of progress with that. Teaching it definitely makes it more comfortable. Um, the more you just kind of ram that stuff into your head, it's just there. Yeah. It's like getting on stage and just talking a bunch. I know. You know, you know what the audience responds to. Yeah, exactly. Uh, so back onto, I guess the, uh, main topic. So weight loss, back pain, fear avoidance with lifting. We hit on back pain and fear avoidance a couple of times. Um, are there, are there any types of, uh, life hacks that you think that would be a good suggestion for people who are attempting weight loss, something they can do today? I know you make a bunch of odd meals for yourself and you do a lot of meal prepping. I'm sure there's a lot of tips you can give people. Yeah. Um, with me in particular, what, what really helped was, um, meal prepping. Uh, I can't even begin to explain how helpful that is, especially with the busy schedule. Um, you just kind of have to sacrifice a few hours out of one of your free days and just do it. Um, cause if you don't, then it's so much easier to just go out and buy. And I've been, even in the office here, if we didn't have our lunches, we'd be going to flame broiler in earlier days, we were going to the habit, you know, like, yes, yes. You walk out the door and you can just smell the habit cooking. And if it's not them, it's in and out. Yeah. I don't know if I, I don't know if I smell flame broiler ever, but sometimes you do, but I mean, I feel like cause seven, I actually are right now in the middle of a weight loss competition. Oh yes. Yeah. I forgot about that. Yeah. No, we're at, it's not like weight loss per se, but we're, we got body dunked. That was our last, uh, hydrostatic test. And now we're seeing who can get the most progress as far as percentage loss, fat percentage loss. Um, so we've been kind of strict on ourselves recently. And so I feel like every single time we walk outside, it's just, we smell the habit. It's the first thing we smell.

This whole thing's terrible. I come to realize that this is the only time that I've ever like bunkered down for about, it's six weeks. So it's percent of percent body fat. So, and minus essential. So I think Crystal actually has less body fat she can possibly lose than me. Um, but she's also been kind of like, it's almost like she, she had the habits forming up to the competition to where she just, it wasn't anything really different. She just added a couple of things here and there. Yeah. Me on the other hand, uh, not to say I wasn't doing anything or eating fairly well, but I like to go out to business dinners and have a couple beers and stuff here and there. And I'm pretty sure Crystal's going to win. Um, because I was thinking the other day that when I had a, it was a nice IPA, there's an IPA called, uh, Port Mongo. I just love having this business meeting once every couple of weeks, but a Port Mongo was like, I want to say 300 calories for like a, like a drink. Yeah. And then I caught myself calorie counting and I was really like, I don't want to be in that mindset. So the six week challenge I think is put in perspective to me that I don't ever want to be calorie counting. Yeah. Um, I mean, well, I mean, along the lines of tips with that, I don't have calorie count. I really don't. I, um, and I don't recommend it to too many people unless it's like you're, you're a bariatric patient that really needs to kind of hunker down. Um, I wouldn't really say that calorie counting has a huge benefit. I, I, you know, kind of, but not really. It's all about what you're putting in. Um, as far as macros, in my opinion, I don't count my macros, but I think that the way that I think about food really comes down to that. Um, you know, hitting your proteins, hitting your fats and hitting your carbs. Uh, so. Well, I got a question then. Cause I know that, um, I've heard it a couple of times and I actually haven't looked it up in detail, but it feel like over the last year or so, like people keep saying, Oh, I have someone doing my macros or they keep talking about their macros. Yeah. Can you explain the concept of macros is it's not new?

No, not at all. I mean, if you take any nutrition class, like they'll introduce you to that. So that's when the, when this became a big thing, when somebody said, Oh, I started counting my macros at first I was like, what is that? I don't understand what that is at all. And then they told me, Oh, it's just, you basically have a pie chart, right? That like says this is protein, this is fat and this is, this is carbs. Um, and it should even out at the end of the day. Like it should be at a certain point at the end of the day or to my knowledge, that's what counting macros is. It's just making sure that it fits your macros. Um, which I think is very beneficial to even like elite athletes, like CrossFitters and stuff like that do it. Um, but it, it just, it, it all comes down to just those three main food groups and how your body digests it. Um, and you know, just making sure that you pair them in the right way so that your body's not like spiking or, you know, falling out at any point. So till my understanding, I could be wrong. Haters come at me.

So we'll give you an email at the end. Uh, yeah. Cause I honestly don't know. Like I, like you can tell by my six week progress on after being the dunk and whatnot, like I've never really had to lose a significant amount of weight. I don't eat terrible at all. I usually a lot of eat a lot of vegetables and meats and healthy fats and all that kind of stuff. But for the most part, I never had to make a big change. So when people started throwing this idea of macros out, it's, I'm like, is this a new thing? Or are we just talking about macronutrients? Like, I don't understand what is so breakthrough about this whole concept. So I think what was breakthrough about it is they just like, they, they stopped saying that there was like some kind of magic fix to it and they kind of just brought it back to what it's always been. And they just put the focus on that. And then all of a sudden it's pretty groundbreaking, you know, it's like extremely, yeah. Um, yeah, I don't, I don't do any specific diet fad. Um, I just kind of was very aware I did meal replacements.

I know that helped me like crazy. Um, it took me to about two weeks. It took me a 14 day period to really cycle that and get used to the fact that one of my meals or two of my meals throughout the day were going to be just a shake. But I was looking so forward to those shakes every day. And so by the time I had it, like I was just so satisfied at the end. Um, and then you have crunchy snacks. I mean, for a big weight drop, what I did was one massive breakfast, a crunchy snack, a shake, a crunchy snack, a protein shake after a workout, and then a crunchy snack. And then that was my day. Um, yeah. So no greasy snack, huh? Nothing. Yeah. Mostly nuts, maybe some avocado and stuff like that. But did, um, when you were, Oh, I know I was going to ask. So I remember that when you first started this, I would come back. Uh, so crystal works throughout the day here. Um, and sometimes I'll leave for lunch or something like that and I'll come back and all of a sudden she's lifting throughout the day, like we're at lunchtime. So I feel like I saw that a lot.

And so I know we talked, been talking a lot about nutrition and whatnot, but, um, I feel like the amount of work you put in can't be discounted. How many days a week, or maybe you can quantify it as how many hours a week were you actually putting in physical work? Days a week to start, it was four to five. It's increased to five to six. Um, now that I feel stronger, but, um, I thought you were going to say, cause you want the $50 in that bet. Yeah. Yeah. I want the bet too. And those bottom four abs, that's what I'm looking for. But, um, to start, it was four to five hour wise, um, on a daily basis. So I, I feel very lucky in the fact, like the sense that my three jobs are fitness based jobs. So I can literally stay an hour or two hours later after whatever I'm doing, working for you or working for orange theory or training the boys and I can get a workout in, I could even work out while doing it, you know? So it's like, of course you got to show form. Exactly. So it's like, um, I think on an hourly, like every single time I would work out. So four to five days a week, it would be one to two hours. So I'd probably be working out like in eight to 10 hours of that math workout. I think, uh, yeah, I think so. So I think the, I think what we're gathering is that it was a lot of work and it, it didn't come with just diet, but, um, it seems like I've always been at the thought that if you want to make a change for better or worse, you would be doing something to change, to change you that direction a majority of days of the week. Yes. So you should be lifting or doing some type of exercise about four at least. Yeah. I would say four is a magic number for sure. Um, if you do anything less than that, like if you're working out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and you're asking yourself, are you not dropping weight? I think the answer is right there. Um, you know, not to discredit the work that you are doing, but it's going to take a little bit more if you want to see some kind of drastic change or some kind of drastic result. Cause I was, I was working out before, like before I started dropping weight, I was lifting in here every once in a while. And I just was adding weight to the weight that I had because I was building, like I was making my muscles bigger, but like I was also not cutting fat. So it was just kind of making me wider, bulky or whatever. And then as soon as the nutrition kind of came into play with the additional workouts, then it just kind of all started falling into place. And, and by the way, too, in case, cause no one's able to see you right now. So you said bulkier, you're actually leaner, thinner than you were before. Yes. And your, how do women's sizes go?

Uh, for what? Like pants? Yeah. Um, it's hard to say. Uh, track pants really don't equate the same. They're unisex. Well, I mean, you got your small mediums and larges and like sweats and like shorts and stuff. And then I think for women's, it goes like two, four, six, eight, 10, all that stuff. I was always on the higher scale. I was always up there at like 12s or 14s or something for personal preference. One, I, I mean, I just, I like wearing baggier clothes. That was my thing. I think that was my comfort, like that blanket that I hid behind, like my weight and everything. It's like a snuggie you can walk out of the house with. Yeah. And like, no one sees your, all your features at the same time. So it's like, I always used to wear bigger clothes, but now I've, I have the opposite of that problem, but like I, none of my clothes fit anymore. I've dropped at least two sizes on like everything that I wear. Um, not my shoes. I think like my, my pants, none of my old pants fit me. Um, that's why I started selling a bunch of stuff on an app to try and make money off of that. But, um, none of my pants fit me. I had to get new workout clothes, new workout shirts, or just go deep, deep into my closet to find the stuff that used to fit me in like high school.

You could have like, just cut, like, what's the style now? Like you cut like this armpit sleeve and you just time together. I have no idea what that is. Yeah. With your t-shirts, like you're supposed to cut the sleeve. Remember that there's, there's that one patient that comes in that does that. Oh, it's like that really like you tie knots all the way down. Yeah. Yeah. It's very crafty. Yeah. It's not my jam. I don't think, but yeah. Um, so, okay. So we'll just close it up here since we're around 35 minutes or so. Uh, Crystal, is there anything you want to add or do you have any programs that you're going to consider doing maybe to help people lose weight? How can they get in with you? Um, well, I mean, yeah. So, I mean, as far as my story goes and my transformation and how I saw my progress, um, you know, everyone's different, but I have, I feel like the things that I did and the, the mindset that I kind of took on, um, will be helpful to a lot of people could be helpful to a lot of people. So I'm happy to share that story. And, um, you know, I think right now I'm working on potentially making this a program and everything. So that, you know, works out for somebody, if you want to hear more about that and absolutely reach out to me. Um, I have my email address, which is training by crystal at gmail.com. Um, ask any questions you want about what was successful for me, what was helpful for me? You know, do I agree with this? Do I disagree with that? And again, I'm not, I'm no kind of guru in the field, but I know what works for me and I know what I've seen work for other people. So I'm happy to share that knowledge.

I think just making it like something really easy to follow it would be nice for people. Um, and I know that like, so I asked crystal if she wanted to share anything of, you know, of business wise or like how to reach her and so on. And like, I don't think you really cared at first, but, but I told like some of the patients that come in, like we have, we do have some people that are, they have a little bit of weight issues and so on and knees are affected with weight, sore backs and so on. So, you know, and they, and they've seen crystal over the course of time and they're like, Hey, look, your face looks thinner. You know, it's like, so I think you'd resonate well with them to, and so I've guided them over to you just to, you know, get them to lose some weight and so on. Cause it's going to help them in the long run. Yeah. So, and it is really hard to get crystal to do anything on social media. Uh, I try. It's just, the world is advancing at a much more rapid pace than my head wants to go. So, well, then flannel insinuates that she likes to be off the grid and like be in the woods and cut, cut wood with an ax and stuff. Yeah. I do like shoes too much to be a minimalist though. That's right. So that should be a whole different thing.

Why are you breaking up right now? There's a, there's a documentary called the minimalist, by the way, we should go over it in a completely different podcast, but it is amazing. Um, but we've concluded the point that it's really hard to be a fitness person and have multiple types of clothes and shoes and so on. If you want to be a minimalist. So yeah, the minimalist documentary, amazing. It just doesn't go hand in hand. Okay. So we'll close it all up there again. That is crystal Campero. Again, I'm Sebastian Gonzales with performance play sports care. If you guys have questions for me to answer on air, or you have another person that you want me to interview who you think will be helpful to, um, basically getting really good information to everybody out there for free, then, um, have them contact me and the email or sorry, the, uh, the website is P2, the number sports care.com. So let me rephrase that. So P the letter to the number sports is plural care.com. And there's a contact form on there. Just have them reach out to me on there.

And, uh, I'd love to have them on. Um, by the way, if you do have, uh, more questions or you want to read some kind of on your own, on your own on the side, there's a ton of content on that site. Um, I, I think I mentioned it almost every podcast that I've probably got over 10 plus pages of word documents, um, on each basically region of the body. So if you have a runner with a hip condition, there's already 10, 10 plus pages on there with probably what you have. Um, and we run through the top five to 10 diagnosis. So I want to make that a really good source for everybody to follow. So you don't start digging around the internet and not really find anything, get frustrated and lay there and don't do anything. So, uh, but crystal, thanks for coming.

Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yep. I'll talk to you guys soon.