WarriorBabe Interview – Cheryl

SUMMARY

Cheryl had trouble gaining muscle despite being at her ideal weight, and she didn’t have anyone to help her through the process — even in Facebook groups, no one was giving her the tough love she wanted. She decided she would no longer accept that “this is what I’m supposed to look like when I’m older.” With WarriorBabe, she finally has a plan to put on the muscle and tone she wants.

TRANSCRIPT

– Hey everyone, welcome to our WarriorBabe interview with our veteran WarriorBabe Cheryl. Cheryl has been a WarriorBabe since February of this year 2020 and recently joined the us in the VIP in June. And Cheryl’s primary focus over the last four months of being a part of the VIP has been building muscle. Being in the building phase which will bring a unique twist today to our interview and I am so freaking excited about that. Because in those four months, you have gained 10 pounds. You’ve been eating 435 grams of carbs only recently and that’s 300 calories per day with all of the other macronutrients. And can I share your age?

– Yeah.

– You’re 57 years young, and you’re eating-

– Going to be 58.

– Incredible, incredible. So 50 plus babes, this will be a great listen for you and you know later in this interview I’ll let Cheryl elaborate on what she’s experienced with gaining that weight and eating that much food. So everyone Cheryl is here today to share some pointers for you babes so that you can adopt some of her strategies, her mindset, her journey into your own journey moving forward. So welcome Cheryl I’m excited to have you here.

– Thank you. I’m excited to be here.

– Yes, so let’s just kick it off with a little background on you, how old you are, your occupation, family. How long have you been in the fitness. And how has fitness and nutrition changed your life?

– Okay, well I’m 57. I work at a university in the IT department, and I have two grown children, they’re both over the Nikkiey.

– I’m 30.

– Since my 20s, I’ve always tried to be active. I had a Nordic track that I was on at every day for hours. Did a ton of cardio, not realizing cardio isn’t necessarily what I need. Three years ago I started beach body, I ate from the containers for three straight years. Lost weight but didn’t have the tone that I wanted. And there was one program I wanted to do but they kept talking about having carbs and I was like, ” No, I can’t do that, I can’t.” So I didn’t do it, and then I found, I saw Nikkiey’s the fourth starter videos, and the enthusiasm and the fact that you know you can do, you can help people. I thought okay I’m only gonna do this if I’m willing to just trust the process, and trust her now believe her later.

– Yes.

– So I went in, totally open-minded. Came in totally open-minded and here I am.

– Beautiful baby-

– I don’t feel it.

– You are so well known, throughout all of our communities from the Revolution to the VIP, so let’s start from the beginning of your WarriorBabe journey. You shared a little bit about beach body. What were you doing before you got into WarriorBabe? What struggles were you trying to solve?

– Well I was in beach body and I was doing the programs and sticking with them wasn’t the problem but the cardio, I didn’t feel the cardio was doing anything for me. I didn’t need to lose more weight. I just wanted to gain more strength and muscle. I have because of my age, I have some areas that needed trimming but I knew muscle could help me with that. And just there was nobody to talk to. They have Facebook groups for accountability and friendship, but nobody was willing to reach out and say, ” Well maybe you need to try this.” So when I saw you, well it didn’t hurt that you were from Westchester, Pennsylvania. I was dying to talk to you to find out where you went to school to see if it was the same school. Yeah I thought well this girl from my hometown can probably help me.

– Awesome babe.

– Put a hundred percent indeed faith into you.

– Yeah, yes you shared when you were a part of beach body, you were told to eat carbs but you didn’t want eat carbs which you know is kind of incredible with the position that you’re in right now. So I’m gonna let you elaborate on that. You came into the VIP, you were from the Revolution first, again so well known in the communities because you’re open with your journey which is so incredible. But now hearing that with beach body and now knowing where you are at 435 grams of carbs like elaborate on your experience, in the VIP, and what it’s been like gaining the the weight and eating as much food as you are. And how it is that improving your life?

– I think the first thing to recognize is, the way I’m eating. I’m spacing everything out evenly so I’m not eating 150 grams of carbs at lunch because that’s just… I know for a fact that’s gonna make me exhausted and wanna take a nap. So I try… I’m an accountant so I work with spreadsheets and I put everything in the spreadsheet even add all the numbers as much as I can, but I have always worked out first thing in the morning. So getting up and waking up and eating right away, doesn’t hurt my feelings because I know that food is gonna fuel me. And then I have my routine do what I need to do. Get hit, hit the workout, and eat again. By that time I’m a little stuck for awhile. Having to add the carbs every time we’ve added them, I’ve either dropped weight, than week before or I’d held steady for a couple of weeks. So you know what you’re doing.

– Yeah.

– I have not… Somebody wants, somebody in the VIP, said to me one day, ” Oh think about the pasta,” but I don’t want to eat. That’s such a little amount of pasta I wanna eat foods that are gonna fuel me. So everything bagels are my world.

– You can have like five of-

– Peanut butter checks mix. You know when I get to have ice cream cakes I get to have three of them, with jelly on top.

– Yes.

– Saturday morning Saturdays is my cheat day, so on Saturday mornings, to try to make up my macros before my cheat meal, I get to have pancakes, with jelly or syrup. So I just… I know at one point right now my mindset is at some point this is all gonna go away, enjoying as much as I can.

– Yes.

– I bake a cake and on Saturday nights I get to have a piece of cake. And sometimes I get to fit… I fit it into my mouth, every night of the week.

– That’s awesome.

– It’s certainly not punishment and I’m not… It really has helped me, not get to that point where, ” Oh my gosh, I had a little bit of peanut butter and now I want the whole tub of peanut butter.”

– Your properly fueling you body.

– Yeah. Because in the past I had always, don’t eat this, don’t eat this, and then all of a sudden you get a little taste and you just the whole day you spend shoving everything in your mouth. I don’t have that since February. I haven’t felt that way.

– Because you’re eating.

– Doing something right.

– You’re even like right now, I’ve got you at 3000 calories a day, so where is the room for cravings when you can fit it in too.

– Well the past two weeks I’ve been hungry between breakfast and lunch.

– There you go here. You’re gonna use more food. Now that’s amazing. How do you feel with the feeling of like coming off of beach body or programs that don’t feed you properly, to eating all this, how does that feel like on a day-to-day basis? Like your work, your energy, everything like that?

– You know I’m all day long I’m up, I’m not tired. I go to bed early but that’s only because I wake up so dawn early in the morning. But when I wake up, I’m up. And I’m ready to go. When I worked out, I’ve been able to… My mindset has gotten to the point where I can go in with an intention and say, ” Okay I wanna lift this today. Or I wanna squat this,” and I can do it. And I see changes as I’m getting dressed that I’m like, ” Well maybe I’m just wanting to see this changes.” What I think I am.

– Yeah for sure. Let’s talk about that. Like let’s talk you’ve gained 10 pounds, I mean it’s not, when you look your photos it’s not like a messy, it’s not that, you’re getting fat which a lot of women are afraid of with gaining weight. It’s gonna get messy, you’re gaining muscle in this process. So how do you deal, with the psychological side of things with eating more, gaining weight, in order to get to this goal that you’ve got, building muscle and getting tone.

– I used to be one that got on the scale every day and depending on what the scale said, that rule how I ate for the day. I get on the scales on Saturdays only because that’s check-in day. When I first started VIP and decided I wanted to build, I told myself, when you hit 150, don’t let it back you down. Don’t let it scare you. And a couple of weeks ago I had a little panic attack but then when I looked back at my week and I hadn’t drank, I wasn’t drinking all the water I had been drinking in prior weeks, I think there were just things leading up to that, that caused me to gain a little faster than I thought I should. But then the following week I lost two pounds. So I’m still… I’m at the point now where I’m thinking, okay if you hit 160 so what? It’s a number. My clothes aren’t feeling any tighter. Except you know through the shoulders and stuff. So who cares?

– But have you always had that mentality?

– No.

– I wouldn’t be like before.

– Absolutely not, no.

– Well was it like if you were in this situation let’s say a couple of years ago and you’ve gained 10 pounds how do you think you would react to that?

– I would have tried… I would have spent a week eating nothing but soup and smoothies. Soup and yeah. Soup and a protein shake or something. Or yeah one of the beach body shakes or something.

– Hmm.

– I would have starved myself. Which would have led to me, making a chocolate chip cookie dough and eating it later.

– And finding those cravings because you weren’t-

– Exactly.

– Giving your body enough. So it was like okay well let’s just yeah. Go hand in the cookie jar, in the cookie dough all that. Yeah it’s incredible.

– But I mean, well and I’ll admit at one point too, at one time, at least one time in my life, I relied on laxatives.

– Wow.

– So yeah. I wouldn’t say I was anorexic or anything, but I got… That screwed up my insights so bad, so bad to the point where, if I had bowel movement once every two weeks, that was normal for me. And now eating what I’m supposed to be eating, and the quantity I’m eating, I’m going every day.

– Super regular. Thank you for being that open and vulnerable there. I’m sure, a lot of people don’t wanna share that kind of stuff, but that’s you’re gonna relate to a lot of people with that.

– Hmm.

– Yeah wow. That’s incredible. Yeah now you’re eating enough so your just super irregular on a daily basis ’cause you’re filling your body with exactly what it needs. Yeah I tried the Opti-Greens and the Opti-Reds for a month. Didn’t care for the flavor, And I find I really don’t need them.

– Yeah.

– Stay away from peppers.

– Yes, yes we learned that.

– Pepper is by the devil.

– Yeah but you know it’s incredible that week that that happened, would you have known to kinda take a step back rather than, ” Oh my God I gained two pounds,” so you took a step back and you’re like, ” Wait a second. Water was off. I incorporated peppers.” Like would you know to take that step back, to think about it. Or would you before I’ve just been like,” Oh my God, I gained two pounds.” Like how-

– I would have panicked. Only because now I’m tracking my water. There are just things that I know to look at now, that I’m paying attention. Just a matter of focus.

– Hmm. That’s great. What would be something, what advice would you give somebody, ’cause I know with what you’re sharing here, it can really help somebody know, like what would you give them, in terms of advice to someone who’s just getting started on their fitness journey?

– Stop comparing yourself to everybody else’s picture. Because you don’t know what they’ve been through. You don’t know how long they’ve been at it. I mean even now, I’ve noticed you put up a picture of Emily Spears and Emily Nelson one day, before and after, and somebody jumped on it negatively and tons of us said, ” Well stop it. That’s not what we’re here for.”

– I love our community because-

– You know we got each other’s backs-

– Yo it’s unreal. It’s unreal.

– And I admit there… When I started this I would look at pictures and say, ” Oh I wanna look like that.” But I have no idea what their journey was before they got here. And what it’s been since they got here. You know fine they’re 20 years old, I’m 57. Big difference.

– Exactly that is why-

– I mean number one you just have to stop comparing yourself to everybody else. Because for me, it’s all about the picture in my head. I wanna look like, I know what I have to do to get there, and it’ll come in time.

– And it’s your journey. It’s your own journey? What do you think the impact of working with WarriorBabe has been?

– WarriorBabe has been great for helping me focus but also for my self-confidence. I’ve always been one to talk, my talk down about myself, well even in the beginning, when I was just in Revolution, I would post videos of parts of my workout, partly to hold myself accountable, but I knew it would help someone else too. Because I don’t go to a gym. I do everything here at home, but there are certain things I can do, instead of what’s being… I was still doing the build workouts, I just didn’t have a Smith machine to do it on. I figured something out. I used Google a lot, as far as, what can I do instead of this? So yeah it’s just helped me be more innovative, and focus on myself, and have the confidence in myself.

– And you mentioned you’ve done everything from home. What’s the-

– I mean and that was prior to COVID.

– Yeah, yeah. Yeah so women listening, you can, Cheryl has been doing it from home. She did innovation with coming up with ideas on what to say about for exercises. In the Revolution we do have that at home workouts, but some of ‘not everybody has that exact piece of equipment or that we have. So it’s great you… What I’m saying is that you can get to your goals, even by working out at home. So you mentioned the four pieces of training. Where did you first hear about WarriorBabe. and what like what peaked your interest the most about it?

– I think Instagram like an ad in Instagram. Your arms and your shoulders are what got my interest. I was like yes, I want that thickness. And so I just clicked on the, it was in fourth, over the course of four days one video a day, and so each day I just watched the video, and then it was, I think 14 days free so I was like okay, I can do this. Oh and there was a special, was lifetime special. But at that time too, before I pushed the pull the trigger I said, ” You’ve gotta trust the process.” You got to give this 12 to 18 months, before you just say it’s not working. And I don’t think… I don’t see myself looking back and leaving in any time.

– That’s incredible that is-

– It have me gained so much weight and then I’m gonna need you to lose.

– Yeah, I’m so happy that you said that though because there’s so many women that look at programs online they see these ads and they’re like, ” Oh you know if some of the program but they’re expecting something to happen in 30 days.

– 21 days.

– Yeah 21 days, or there’s just been the conditioned over the years with the marketing on the internet. And what you just said it’s like I need to just before I pull the trigger, you telling yourself 12 months, 18 months, to be realistic with yourself. Do you think that’s been a game like a huge mindset game changer for you?

– Absolutely, absolutely.

– Yeah.

– Again I didn’t need at the… I didn’t feel I needed to lose weight. I just wanted to sculpt a little bit more. Build more, and I didn’t know how to do that. I can’t say that’s why the 10 pounds I’ve gained hasn’t bothered me because in the past it would have. But yes it just the light bulb went off in my mind, my mindset and it’s just been a game changer.

– And this just spiked in my head but you’re 57 going on 58. A lot of people believe from what people have been told, that after menopause and it’s so hard to gain some muscle, and your metabolism just slows down. I mean like you’re, eating 3000 calories. You’re gaining muscle. Like how would you speak to the woman who, has no idea it’s even possible?

– Well I’ll tell you when I turned, when I started going through menopause, I gained quite a bit of weight. And I thought okay this is… I kept telling myself, this is what I’m supposed to look like when I’m older. This is just it. And then one day I was like, ” No it’s not,” I can’t. I’m not happy. I’m not comfortable in my own skin. But there are tons of articles out there telling women my age, muscle is better for you, I mean I don’t take calcium pills. I don’t need to. I don’t even take a multivitamin. I have, it’s almost time for my colonoscopy, and the doctor called me the other day and said you don’t need to come in for a consult we’ll just send you paperwork ’cause you’re still healthy you’re not on it. So yeah.

– That’s amazing.

– Yeah.

– You’re barely on anything. You’re eating so much food to fuel your body probably. Cheryl you’re gonna live to your like 120 years old.

– That’s the plan.

– Let go, that’s awesome. That’s incredible. I love that. So for us describe being a WarriorBabe. Describe working with us. Describe what area, do you feel like you get the most value and why do you think that is?

– Me being a WarriorBabe means, I can do anything I set my mind to. Any damn thing I want. What has helped me? I’m sure there are women out there and I had a friend actually that joined for a month to see what it was about. She never posted I think. She never liked anything on the page. If you’re not gonna, talk to these women and get to know them, they can’t help you. They can’t support you. You don’t actually tag Emily Nelson-

– You.

– Angela Sanchez I mean I know these women, they’re like my sisters. And Jill Grant don’t know her from squat, but I feel like she’s one of my best friends. And thousands of miles away.

– Yeah, yeah.

– And Brandy is still in the other direction.

– The opposite end of the war the US.

– We’re messaging each other. Maurine messaged me the other day a picture of her 60 grams of brown rice and she said, ” I really wish I was you right now.”

– That is so incredible. You know of all the interviews I’ve done, it’s you guys had mentioned community. It’s the bringing-

– Yeah it’s just that that’s the biggest thing. But I mean the… Being able to reach out to you, even before I joined VIP. The Wednesday huddles or the Wednesday Q&As. I had purchased the macro accelerator course, went through it two or three times really listening to it to understand what… Because I knew I wanted to build more and I felt I needed to adjust my macros. So I listened to it and then asked questions on the Q&A. And that helped.

– You know that’s so true. You are saying that you know, to get results, it’s not just purchasing the program. It’s utilizing the tools, the resources, like being able to post and share and open up to the community of other women who are on the same journey as you are. Attending the Q&As so that you can absorb and get your questions answered. Like there is so many women that do join and then they disappear. And then they’re onto the next thing. But if you just like you’re saying actively participate in what’s available.

– Well and I would spend days sitting at my computer, doing pulling reports and stuff, listening to old rally calls. Because I can do two things at once. Or if I have to get on the elliptical I may as well listen to something entertaining. So I old rally calls.

– Yeah. See guys like you are Cheryl, you have occupation, you have a family, you have a life, but because this means something to you, you have a goal that you want to accomplish.

– Well and it also means somebody enjoyed them more, and they’re gonna enjoy me more.

– Amen.

– So that was full circle.

– Amen. You’ve got to put in the work. You’ve got to make the time. You’ve got to find a time. Everybody has got… You got the same 24 hours in the day that somebody else does, why can’t they do it? Because they’re not taking it seriously. You take it seriously.

– Well and I’ll tell you when I went through menopause, one thing I thought I learned about it going through was, I couldn’t eat a whole lot of carbs because it gave me the night sweats. But it was the carbs I was eating, that was giving me the nights sweats. I’m eating 435 carbs a day. Usually at least 75 of them for dinner, and I’m sleeping like a baby.

– That’s incredible. That’s incredible. Do you care to share what carbs you were eating before? What’s the difference now?

– I think probably a lot of sweet potatoes, I don’t think it was what I was eating, but when I was eating them. So I tried to eat them during the morning time, instead of with dinner or after lunch, just because it would slow me down or it was just too heavy. Like now, this week for dinner, I’m a creature of habit. I meal prep on Sundays, and whatever I plan for dinner it’s for the whole week except for Saturday. And this week I’m eating, cakes, egg roll and ball. I love that recipe.

– And you pulled that from Revolution.

– In fact I’m also planning on having it next week too because I love it so much

– That’s incredible. That’s awesome. There’s so many ideas you have on your list.

– And I having, well three quarter cup of Jasmine rice. And I’m having two double chocolate zucchini muffins with it.

– There it is. There it is. That’s awesome.

– And my homemade apple sauce.

– Oh my gosh that’s incredible.

– How many milligrams of apple sauce.

– Amazing how many carbs is that?

– It comes to close to 80 for the night.

– That’s awesome. Well you got the carbs to spare for sure. We all wanna play your carb count right now.

– Well and I’ve tried to help, I know Jody’s going up in carbs, so I’m trying to help her, but you know, you don’t, rice is not the only carb. Pasta is not the only carb. Apple sauce is a great source of carbs and it doesn’t fill you up. It doesn’t weigh you down. Nectarines, pineapple, but even the Smucker’s sugar-free jelly.

– Hmm. Yeah you got five grams right there.

– Yeah.

– You put them on both.

– I get six tablespoons at a time.

– Holy, that’s amazing. That’s amazing.

– Or three rice cakes.

– That’s amazing. That’s incredible. So how likely are you to recommend WarriorBabe?

– That’s all I talked about during the day. Unfortunately my office mates are like, yeah I don’t really care see. Every time someone comes in my office, I’m eating something. And I said, ” I’ve got to keep on schedule.”

– That’s amazing. That’s awesome. Anybody who is listening right now this is gonna be a hot interview. Why do you feel like… Why should somebody listening, take action right now?

– Because in most cases if they’re listening, they’re not happy with who they are. And if they wanna be happy with who they are, just do it. It’s that simple.

– That’s incredible.

– Great job.

– I know, great job. For real like seriously that’s incredible. And it’s so true like people come to these interviews, they look for advice from you guys who have been in it, and they get so inspired by hearing you and hearing your journey, that they almost can. They do, they connect to your story. And then… Yeah for sure.

– I don’t have time for making up stories and lying so I mean you asked me a question, you better… I hope you really want the truth.

– Yeah that’s what gets people to change. It gets people to shift. It gets people to just be real and honest. You’re incredible Cheryl. You’re incredible. You’re like across all of the communities I mean like I said you’re so well known. You’re there to support people. You reach out to people. You make sure they’re up at 5:00 am in the morning, getting their workouts done. I mean it’s so freaking incredible. I mean you and then our community, like it’s just… It’s amazing. It’s so amazing. So let’s go down this interview and let’s do your favorite snacks slash macro combination.

– You know when I watched the interview you did with Jill, I got the idea. It’s an everything bagel, toasted with a wedge of laughing cow cheese, and deli sliced artistry chicken. And it is die for.

– Wow.

– Yeah.

– Sounds delicious. I’m like I’m imagining it right now. All right and what’s your favorite muscle group to train, to work out

– Chest and arms.

– That’s different one to the table, very good. And why is that? Why do you like chest and arms?

– Because I feel like I pushed the most there I think. I love the soreness the next day, 30 second later. I love feeling that I really worked.

– Yeah. I can’t tell, you’re experiencing it. You’re gaining that muscle there. I mean your clothes are getting tighter up in that area so that’s a huge win. Yeah you-

– I have chesticles.

– Yes that’s what- I love it. That’s amazing Cheryl, your whole entire journey from the start. I remember watching you in the Revolution, sharing your photos through your workouts and just the inspiration. I mean that you were bringing into that community and then you were getting, your name was being dropped in our team meetings. We were like, ” Oh my God that’s Cheryl.” You have been such an incredible inspiration to the group’s support. And then your journey. You’re letting women know that this face, it doesn’t need to be scary. And gaining weight isn’t a bad thing because you have a goal, that you wanna gain muscle And in order to do that, you’ve got to put on a little bit of weight and majority of that should be muscle, not fat.

– I’m also showing them that being this age it shouldn’t be scary.

– Exactly, that it is possible at 57, you’re gonna be 58 soon. It is possible to eat 435 grams carbs. It is possible, to have 30,000 calories a day. It is possible to put on muscle, and that’s what’s so incredible about you and your journey. So thank you for sharing that today.

– Thank you.

– For those of you who are listening and who are inspired by Cheryl’s journey, and you want to learn more about the programs that WarriorBabe offers and how to get started. You can go to the warriorbabe.com and become a part of… It’s been a ongoing thing of our community in every single one of these interviews that it’s just our community is hands down. Don’t take it from me take it from Cheryl, take it from the other women who have shared it in the interviews. You can become a part of the thousands of women who are getting tone and becoming stronger and more confident versions of themselves so join now. Cheryl thank you so much for this interview.

– Thank you.

– It will be an inspiration to all.

– Good.

– All right thank you everybody and see you, bye-bye.

– Bye.