World-Renowned Personal Trainer: How To Lose Fat, Build Muscle and Improve Your Mental Health | Senada Greca

Speaker 1 My friend, welcome back to another episode of the School of Greatness. I am excited.
We have Sonata Greca, who is Kim Kardashian's personal fitness and health trainer.

Speaker 1 And this is just not another episode about how to start off the new year with healthy habits. This is about how to really rewire your thinking.

Speaker 1 around your body, your health, and your mental fitness all together. You're about to listen to a very raw and inspiring conversation with Sonata Greka.
She immigrated to America as a teenager.

Speaker 1 She battled eating disorders to become one of the most influential figures in women's strength training.

Speaker 1 And she opens up about her remarkable journey of transformation, the struggles she faced as a teenager in her young 20s to where she is now with physical training, mental training, health and wellness.

Speaker 1 And as Kim Kardashian's personal trainer and the founder of the We Rise Up, she's revolutionizing how women approach fitness by championing strength over aesthetics.

Speaker 1 And this is a big challenge for a lot of men and women today.

Speaker 1 With social media and everyone filtering their photos and just posting six-pack abs or these perfect shapes of bodies, it's hard to not feel insecure.

Speaker 1 It's hard to not feel shameful about your own body when you see other people who just seem to have it all put together. And

Speaker 1 it feels like no matter how hard you try, you're never going to get the results you want in your physical aesthetics. I've been there.

Speaker 1 I've struggled with weight and my nutrition and health and wellness as a former professional athlete to then just consuming, you know, thousands and thousands of excess calories after retiring from playing sports and gaining a lot of weight to then trying to retrain, but still eating a ton of calories, to being addicted to sugar, to all these different things that I've struggled with.

Speaker 1 It's challenging.

Speaker 1 It's challenging for anyone of any type of background, especially if you're in social media at all and you see people posting stuff that just seems like, man, these people have either extreme genetics or they've just figured out the health and wellness hack and I haven't, right?

Speaker 1 It's just this kind of... comparison, shaming thing that might happen over and over.

Speaker 1 And if that's resonating with you, if that speaks to you in any way, then please let me know over on Instagram or anywhere on social media. Let me know if that speaks to you because it's a challenge.

Speaker 1 I get it. And there almost needs to be a way where you rewire your identity, you shift your identity.
And it has taken me years to learn this process.

Speaker 1 And it doesn't mean I'm perfect all the time, but it has taken me a long time to create a new identity with food, to create a new identity with training, and to do it from a place where I'm not obsessive over needing to look a certain way, but I've set standards for myself and boundaries for myself to set myself up for success.

Speaker 1 And I think you've got to figure out whatever's best for you.

Speaker 1 In today's episode, her powerful message about building muscle for longevity and mental health rather than just appearance is reshaping the conversation around fitness, specifically for women in general, who've always thought about not weight training because it's going to make them look bulky.

Speaker 1 They don't want to have big arms or big shoulders or things like that. They don't want to look, you know, too masculine.

Speaker 1 And there are so many different experts we've had on, menopause experts as well who are saying, I wish I would have done more strength training when I was younger.

Speaker 1 I wish I would have built muscle when I was younger because it helps more than just physical appearance. It helps longevity and mental health.
And that's what I think we need to be focused on.

Speaker 1 How can we have the best mental and emotional health possible in 2025 and beyond? How can we weather any storm that comes our way?

Speaker 1 How can we weather relationship challenges, career challenges, you know, family issues? How can we weather political challenges?

Speaker 1 How can we emotionally and mentally prepare ourselves for any challenge that's to come so that we feel more equipped to take on the challenges of life? That's what this is about.

Speaker 1 And in the process of doing that, of building muscle for longevity and mental health, you're going to look great naked. And that's fun too.

Speaker 1 You're going to look great with your shirt off or naked in the mirror or with your partner. It's like, hey, you're going to feel more confident.

Speaker 1 You're going to feel more secure with yourself because you don't have shame around your body as well. And I want you to feel loved this year and beyond.

Speaker 1 I want you to feel like you fully accept yourself. I want you to feel like you

Speaker 1 deserve to receive all that you want to receive this year and beyond.

Speaker 1 And I truly believe that when you just set different standards for yourself, and again, not extreme yo-yo dieting or extreme kind of weird eating disorders, but just standards and boundaries around how you eat and how you move.

Speaker 1 You're going to feel more in control and responsible for your life. So, this episode dives deep into personal growth, overcoming body issue challenges, and finding purpose through empowering others.

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Speaker 1 And again, I'm so grateful for you for being a part of this community with the School of Greatness. And let's dive into this episode right now.

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Speaker 1 Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guests.
We have the inspiring Sonatic Grega in the house. So good to see you and congrats on everything.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much. It's a pleasure being here.
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 I've seen you just kind of like take over the Instagram feed, you know, and the explore page for years of your content of just inspiring and empowering women to see what's possible for their health, their bodies, and their, they're really their strength, and to show what is possible.

Speaker 1 You've been an inspiration for so many women around the world. You reach millions of women and lots of people on a daily basis.

Speaker 1 But it wasn't always that way for you, it seems like. I've read some of your backstory.

Speaker 1 You deal with some challenges, some anxiety, some depression, some body issue challenges as well. What would you say were the main challenges you faced either earlier in your life or your teen years

Speaker 1 before you got into a healthy body image and healthy lifestyle for yourself? What were the main challenges you faced?

Speaker 2 Yeah, of course, yeah.

Speaker 2 Well, so coming into the United States

Speaker 2 as a teenager

Speaker 2 presented a lot of issues with fitting in and I think that was kind of the first,

Speaker 2 if you want to say foray into like the issues that started at that point is how does this foreigner fit in and

Speaker 2 integrate and look

Speaker 2 like

Speaker 2 the other kids and the popular kids. So I think that's...

Speaker 1 Did you speak English too or not?

Speaker 2 I was an English speaker at the time. I'd taken private courses back in Albania and

Speaker 2 in preparation of

Speaker 2 either coming to the States or it's like the main foreign language at the time in Albania.

Speaker 2 So started on that path and the opportunity presented itself for my family to come here by winning the lottery and the green cards who were like legal basically

Speaker 2 citizens instantly pretty much, which was super fortunate to be able to come here at a time of unrest in Albanian. civil wars and

Speaker 2 just a chaotic atmosphere. So it was great to escape that and be able to come legally into the United States.

Speaker 2 But that presented the issues of like, now, okay, I'm a teenager in a new country with new challenges. And on top of that, I was the only English-speaking person in my family.

Speaker 2 So now I had to carry the load. Wow.

Speaker 2 Translate everything.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I had to translate everything. I had to basically become a parent.

Speaker 1 Yeah, go get a grocery store and ask questions.

Speaker 2 Yeah, go to the doctor's office with my parents, go to whatever office, go fill out paperwork. To this day, I don't want to fill out paperwork because I was so traumatized

Speaker 2 by that at an early age.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 it had to be done. It fell on my shoulders.
And

Speaker 2 that,

Speaker 2 I believe, coupled with, again, being a teenager in a new country, trying to fit in. So that's where depression, anxiety, and even an eating disorder came to the surface.
Really?

Speaker 2 Eating disorder wanting to fit in, depression, anxiety, because there was so much of an overload of, you know, my day-to-day school things, and then family issues that I had to help with.

Speaker 2 And coupled, I found out later in life that I have a genetic predisposition to anxiety and depression. Interesting.
So that was a more recent revelation, even though I've known because

Speaker 2 my mom has dealt with it, and hearing from her, my grandfather has dealt with it. So you kind of create that

Speaker 2 link that it has existed, thus, I'm experiencing it, but then to kind of know from genetic testing that, wow, I am predisposed to all of these things, and now how do I work through them?

Speaker 2 Yeah, so that was kind of the backstory coming to the country and kind of experiencing some of those issues that then kind of led me to where I am today.

Speaker 2 Wow. The desire to combat those in a natural way and not saying that

Speaker 2 I did take antidepressants like I was on medication to help with that but it never gave me the relief or the

Speaker 2 long-term relief that that I needed.

Speaker 1 You knew it wasn't the long-term solution.

Speaker 2 It wasn't the long-term solution. It's just a cover-up of the symptoms.

Speaker 2 But how, you know, I always think of with anything like if it gets taken off the market, if suddenly you don't have no access to pharmacies, or how are you innately going to deal with these issues so I'm always for start with the things that you're able to do and achieve in a natural way by yourself and if you need them I'm not against pharmaceuticals and obviously not against therapy but can you start with the basics or can you utilize them in conjunction with each other and then hopefully it'll carry you to a point where you're able to maybe back off from pharmaceuticals because there it is known that they have side effects.

Speaker 2 And what is the side effect of exercise and eating healthy? None, really. It's actually just benefits from it.

Speaker 1 How long, you know, since you moved to the country,

Speaker 1 you had this kind of emotional weight that you had to carry with the family, also fitting in in school.

Speaker 1 What state were you living in? What city?

Speaker 2 New York, upstate in New York, yeah.

Speaker 1 So you're trying to fit into a school in New York, a new culture,

Speaker 1 different type of, I guess, girls and how they communicate versus what you're used to. In Albania, you're also getting into puberty.
All these different things are happening all at the same time.

Speaker 2 Same time.

Speaker 1 When did you realize like you had signs of a eating disorder and how long did it take until you were able to break that kind of, that habit?

Speaker 2 It was, you know, when you have an eating disorder, you're blind to it, right? It's more the people that are outside of you that notice it.

Speaker 2 So it was was teachers and parents that started noticing it, that I was losing weight drastically.

Speaker 2 But when you have this body dysmorphia, you could be the thinnest that you've ever been, that you could possibly be, that, you know, you're

Speaker 2 risking serious health problems. You don't see yourself as that.
Really? When you look in the mirror, when you look in the mirror, you see, you know, I'm... fat, I'm big, I'm this, I'm that.

Speaker 2 You're just like

Speaker 2 the most negative.

Speaker 2 You're breaking yourself down. You're just don't think that because

Speaker 2 you have such advanced body dysmorphia and looking at yourself from a different lens that you don't recognize that.

Speaker 1 What do you think is the main cause of body dysmorphia for most people? Is it an emotional trauma? Is it a hyper-criticism they get from parents or peers?

Speaker 1 Is it a pressure from seeing marketing and society that like, oh, I'm not enough and so I need to become like that thing? What is the problem?

Speaker 2 I think it's a combination of all of what you mentioned. It's hypercritical parents.

Speaker 2 I love you, mom, but she, if I didn't get like the highest grade in class, if I wasn't first in class, you know, if you're not first, you're last kind of mentality, which comes with...

Speaker 2 amazing side benefits when it comes to drive and achieving and overachieving in life, but it comes with a huge weight on your shoulders to be the best.

Speaker 2 And that is not always required to be successful, to be the best, to live the best.

Speaker 2 So I think it's a combination of all those things. I think there's the societal pressures that weigh on young people that are in

Speaker 2 their formative years.

Speaker 2 And yeah, the comparison of unrealistic beauty.

Speaker 2 And for me at the time, was all of those factors as well as trying to figure out how to fit in in a new place, new country, new culture, you know, trying to control something that felt controllable

Speaker 2 in months uncontrollable, an uncontrollable situation.

Speaker 1 So is that a common theme that you've heard from other women that have had

Speaker 1 an eating disorder or body dysmorphy in the past that they felt out of control and the way to feel a sense of control is with your body or with foods?

Speaker 2 It is one of the main things that leads to that is trying to control something that feels controllable in your life. Wow.

Speaker 1 Because you can't control anything around you.

Speaker 2 Right, exactly.

Speaker 1 Interesting. So how long did it take until you started to,

Speaker 1 I guess teachers were telling you or peers or friends or family, but when did you start to say, oh yes, this is a problem I need to take care of?

Speaker 2 It took a couple of years. It took a couple of years and therapists and being prevented from being in sports because sports was something that I was really interested in.

Speaker 2 So I was stopped from participating in sports.

Speaker 1 Because you got so skinny.

Speaker 2 Because I got so skinny and unhealthy that,

Speaker 2 yeah, that was kind of one of the beginning sort of

Speaker 2 wake-up calls that, you know, I couldn't do one of the things that I absolutely loved.

Speaker 2 But again, like that voice of like,

Speaker 2 you know, you're just, you don't look the way that you're supposed to look, like persisted for a while, for a few years. And then

Speaker 2 I was utilizing, working out to, again, while understanding that hey, you have to nourish yourself. So I started to increase the caloric intake, but still not to the degree that was needed.

Speaker 2 And then trying to

Speaker 2 outweigh that

Speaker 2 working out.

Speaker 1 So you're negating the...

Speaker 1 Really? So what was the caloric intake that you would take if you could guess?

Speaker 1 The times where you were at your lowest with body dysmorphia or eating disorder?

Speaker 2 Anorexia. Anorexia.

Speaker 1 Anorexia. With anorexia.

Speaker 2 What would you think of this? It was very minimal. And I don't want to, because I don't want to influence anybody to even consider doing anything like that because it was very, very unhealthy.
But

Speaker 2 it was very minimal.

Speaker 1 Like under a thousand calories a day or way less.

Speaker 2 Like a few hundred calories a day. A few hundred calories a day.

Speaker 2 Very unhealthy. Very unhealthy.

Speaker 1 When a woman thinks, I want to eat less because I want to lose weight today.

Speaker 1 Maybe they don't have body dysmorphia or anorexia or eating disorder,

Speaker 1 but they're just thinking, I want to lose weight, and so I'm going to go into extreme calorie deficit.

Speaker 1 What is happening to a woman's body when they, for long periods of time, do a thousand calories or less or 500 calories or less a day?

Speaker 1 I'm not talking about like 24-hour fasting here and there, but just like

Speaker 1 long periods of time, what happens to a woman's body?

Speaker 2 Yeah, your body goes into a shutdown mode basically. So your hormones start to go off

Speaker 2 their regular cycle.

Speaker 2 Your body literally goes into shutdown mode because now it needs to protect what it has

Speaker 2 and not produce the unnecessary things

Speaker 2 that a normal functioning body would require. So you start

Speaker 2 losing your period. You start

Speaker 2 losing hair. So basically it's just your body shedding all what it considers to be unnecessary

Speaker 2 functions. Wow.
Yeah, even though they're super necessary, but like to the basic survival.

Speaker 1 Preserve energy.

Speaker 2 To preserve the basic, super basic needs of a human, it starts to shut down all of those, all of those other functions of the body. Yeah, I did, I did, I did, at that point, I did lose

Speaker 2 my period. Really?

Speaker 2 And then I had to

Speaker 2 work on gaining it back.

Speaker 1 How long did it take to kind of gain back your normal

Speaker 1 hormone function or it wasn't that long.

Speaker 2 It was within like a year, if I remember correctly. It was a long time ago.
Still. Wow.

Speaker 2 But yeah, no laughing matter because it is

Speaker 2 an important part of being healthy physically and mentally. 100%.

Speaker 1 Where is the

Speaker 1 where is the level of

Speaker 1 self-love? Like how much self-love did you have during during that season of life?

Speaker 1 And I don't want to speak for other women or other men who maybe are going through anorexia, but where is that typically seemed to be? Or where is that for you?

Speaker 1 Did you have a low self-esteem and low level of self-love? And then how did you learn to believe in self, love self, to kind of course correct?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, I think there's almost like no self-love because if you, if I were to have any self-love, I wouldn't do that to myself, right?

Speaker 2 Because now you're basing your self-love and self-esteem on an image that you can't even see clearly.

Speaker 2 So if you can't see yourself or who you are

Speaker 2 and you're wanting to diminish that image,

Speaker 2 I would say that

Speaker 2 there was almost no self-love.

Speaker 2 Because you don't have a clear image of yourself. And you're focusing that love on an idealistic image that's outside of you.

Speaker 1 A perfect image, that's a very interesting thing.

Speaker 2 A perfect image that's outside of you that you can't attain.

Speaker 2 And you could attain it, but in your eyes, you know, like you're saying, let's say you've lost a certain amount of weight, but you're still not able to see that.

Speaker 2 That's why it's like that,

Speaker 2 you're never able to grasp for that image because you're not able to see yourself realistically.

Speaker 1 So you had very little self-love at that season, right?

Speaker 1 When did you start to have a lot of self-love and self-compassion and see yourself differently to treat yourself differently?

Speaker 2 I mean I wasn't I was doing all these things. I was trying to be the thinnest that I possibly could and I still wasn't happy.
So there was like a you know

Speaker 2 miscommunication there between like you're you know you're gonna be happy you're gonna be satisfied when you're this weight and that wasn't happening and I was constantly depressed and not happy.

Speaker 2 So then that came into question like where when

Speaker 2 how are we going to do this like how are you going to reach that level of happiness because obviously this is not working so then i did um a turning point for me was when i saw a physician a primary care physician that she was running marathons

Speaker 2 And she was running, and she was like, I think in her 50s and running one, I don't want to exaggerate and say every month, but it was at least every three months she was running a marathon.

Speaker 1 Consistently.

Speaker 2 Consistently.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 she got me into running, into working out for the right reasons, for that mental aspect, and started to shift nurturing my body to fuel the runs and to fuel the working out.

Speaker 2 So that was like the first shift.

Speaker 1 You're like, what, 17, 18, 19, right?

Speaker 2 I was like early 20s, yeah. Okay.
Early 20s. Yeah.
During that whole period from like 15 to 20, early 20s, it was a struggle of like a push and pull of

Speaker 2 wanting to look a certain way and dieting and over-working out, and just trying to, like, you know, I went from actually, I went from undereating, anorexia, to like dinge eating.

Speaker 2 I never did fully go into like bulimia, but like, I did struggle with those two extremes because it's a, you know, you're, you're, you can only take so much when you're constricting, constricting, constriction, and then you're going to go the opposite way.

Speaker 2 Later, at least, you need to like, yeah, yes, exactly. Wow.
Um, it was that, and it was actually a cousin to also saying that, Sonata, like, you're not like

Speaker 2 really leaning into one of the joys of life, which is eating and experiencing, you know, the food that you're eating.

Speaker 2 And your constant thinking is around what I should be eating or should not be eating so that I don't gain weight versus sitting with what you're eating and enjoyment of it.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 So that was... kind of a little bit of a light bulb moment that eating

Speaker 2 doesn't have to be like such a chore such a

Speaker 2 you know a weighing factor but more of a joy of life and enjoyment and I know nowadays that we've

Speaker 2 there's so much information out there and so much stress around like eating what to eat what to not eat fruit is suddenly

Speaker 2 controversial I'm like really

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 it just, you know, taking it back to the basics, you know, and going back to food is actually

Speaker 2 a joy of life yes it feeds our ability to function but it's also at least for me um a joy you know that's beautiful yeah when did you start to feel like oh i've i've started to got these things under control my perception of myself

Speaker 1 my my weight my food my my working out i'm not too extreme in one way i have a good sense of self self-image and i feel like i'm in a consistent healthy place what years was that?

Speaker 2 I mean in my early 20s it was when I started to make that shift.

Speaker 2 If I can remember the book that

Speaker 2 overcoming overeating because that's what I was doing at that point which is one and the same kind of you're just not restricting you know you're or you are restricting because you are thinking this food is good this is bad and now you're maybe overeating the things that you think they're good but nothing should be in excess right

Speaker 2 so that was kind of a turning point in my early 20s I was I was realizing that I could eat nourish my body and then and get the physical activity that I needed and be in a stable

Speaker 2 physical weight and and function properly right

Speaker 2 and I think it was then

Speaker 2 later on in my early 30s that I shifted from

Speaker 2 cardio and running and marathoning to more weightlifting. Interesting.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 for almost a decade, you were like cardio running, that's a lifestyle. What did your body, I mean, not that we should focus on body image, but what was your

Speaker 1 body, what did your body look like in your 20s then when you were in cardio mode running dead long distances versus

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Speaker 2 It shifted. It's interesting because I was doing cardio and that during like my 20s, and my weight would drastically drastically shift.

Speaker 2 So I would go into being super thin if I was running, if I was training for a marathon, thin, not a lot of muscle definition, to then when I was not training as hard, kind of being a little bit rounder and softer.

Speaker 2 But then when I started the strength train, I've never been so consistent in how I looked and how I feel and how I feel looked. Look.

Speaker 1 What is this?

Speaker 2 It's been years of like actually being super consistent in the physical aspect.

Speaker 1 What is the difference that you feel emotionally, spiritually, psychologically between

Speaker 1 almost a decade of cardio training mostly versus years of strength training?

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 there's a draining aspect with that much cardio.

Speaker 2 And while you can look a certain way, that maybe the society thinks that it's, you know, feminine, thin, and not a a ton of muscle definition but when I shifted into strength training I leaned into my confidence and my self-esteem like skyrocketed because I that's where you step into your power into your true strength and occupy space and utilize

Speaker 2 what you're born with.

Speaker 2 You're born to have muscle definition.

Speaker 2 Otherwise

Speaker 2 it wouldn't be there, the ability to do so. So when I fully leaned into that, it just completely shifted my self-confidence, the way I looked at myself.

Speaker 2 Went from, I'm not thin enough, you know, I don't look thin enough to like,

Speaker 2 I want to look as strong as I possibly can. I want to develop as much muscle as I possibly can.

Speaker 2 And then, you know, we're going to talk about that too, like and how that feeds into to health and longevity. Sure.

Speaker 1 I mean, there's been a huge wave of

Speaker 1 research and science, and people like

Speaker 2 Dr.

Speaker 1 Gabrielle Lyon and Dr. Murray Clare, who are talking about the importance of protein, specifically for women,

Speaker 1 protein and muscle building

Speaker 1 for health, for longevity, for

Speaker 1 also managing kind of the menopause phase of being a woman and just like being able to navigate that with more balance, I guess.

Speaker 1 And it seems like in the last year or two, that has been the primary focus of many

Speaker 1 female experts speaking to women. Like start building muscle.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 1 But I don't feel like I ever heard that before because a lot of women don't want to look bulky. They don't want to look too strong or too muscular or less feminine.

Speaker 1 So how have you learned to navigate?

Speaker 1 the psychology of you going from what society or what maybe you thought was a more feminine, skinnier look for a decade of cardio versus a more strong feminine look in these past years.

Speaker 1 How have you navigated that when maybe society says a lot of women say, well, I don't want to look bulky or strong.

Speaker 2 Sure. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I do get that comment a lot. Really? Or I have

Speaker 2 not a lot. I should not say that.

Speaker 2 Every so often there will be a comment of like, too masculine or, you know, things like that. And then, and it doesn't bother me, honestly, because it's

Speaker 2 that person's perspective of me and that's not a perspective that I have of myself. That's correct.

Speaker 2 And how I made that shift was

Speaker 2 organically because I know what feeling that that gave to me. Like I know how I feel when I lift, when I feel stronger versus when I try to diet myself to my skinniest version.

Speaker 2 I didn't love myself at that time. I did not feel strong.
I felt weak. I felt frail versus now.
I feel strong. I feel confident.
I feel

Speaker 2 I don't want to say invincible.

Speaker 2 But there's points, yeah, when you know it's like that when you do lift and when you're pushing yourself, that you do feel invincible.

Speaker 1 So unstoppable.

Speaker 2 Unstoppable. I can take on everything.
Exactly. Exactly.

Speaker 1 You didn't feel that all the time when you were in the cardio world?

Speaker 2 No, not really. I mean, you do get some endorphins from running.
You do feel some of those good, good feeling

Speaker 2 endorphins when you run. The runner's high is real.
Sure, yeah, not in the same fashion, I would say, not in the same fashion.

Speaker 1 It's not strength, it's not strength, yeah, it's it's endurance, exactly, right? And you can run long distances, and there is strength in endurance.

Speaker 2 Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1 There is confidence in that, and overcoming hard things, but it's not as strong as muscle.

Speaker 2 And at the end of the day, yes, you can get those similar sentiments from a lot of modalities, from

Speaker 2 cardio, from running, or from strength training, or from Pilates, or yoga, whatever, you know, that does it for you. But

Speaker 2 for me,

Speaker 2 I think of

Speaker 2 longevity. It's come to that point where I'm like quality life, quality longevity, being able to live unassisted

Speaker 2 when

Speaker 2 you're later years in the

Speaker 2 70s, 80s, 90s, hopefully. Yeah.
And beyond.

Speaker 1 The commercial that I remember seeing a lot in the, I guess, 90s on TV was, I've fallen and I can't get up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you see all these like old grandparents, grandma, grandma, pa on TV who are like, I've fallen and I can't get up because they literally fell over and they can't push themselves off the ground.

Speaker 1 They don't have the muscle strength to just stand up.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it's so funny. You don't think about it as a kid.
You're like, oh, yeah, I can get up.

Speaker 1 But when you're older, if you don't build muscle in your youth, it's going to be so much harder to build it when you're older.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 1 Do you know this? Do you know any of the research out there about how much harder it is to build muscle after 40, 50, 60 years old versus before?

Speaker 2 I think it's different for men than women, and in some situations, to the higher end, it's almost what men are almost twice as

Speaker 2 able as women to build muscle. So I think for women, it's even more important to try to build that muscle when you can.

Speaker 2 I think it's so funny because I wrote the

Speaker 2 I think in the

Speaker 1 I'm like I'm not gonna remember all the what's the stat what's the same

Speaker 2 for if you're going to like your forties it's basically two

Speaker 2 point two to point seven pounds of muscle per month and then double and and then two point four to eight point four per year. So like on the high, on the low end is two pounds per year to

Speaker 2 eight pounds per year if you're going after it like true intense

Speaker 2 maximal strength training.

Speaker 1 You should try to be gaining two pounds of muscle per year.

Speaker 2 That's your ability to

Speaker 2 like if you went all in

Speaker 1 all in you could only gain about two pounds a year.

Speaker 2 Yeah, in their 40s.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 And how easy it drops, you know, in their 50 in the 50s is like 1.2 to 6 pounds of muscle per year.

Speaker 1 That's if you're training like three to five days a week, hard, heavy, like.

Speaker 2 I mean, you know, maybe genetically sometimes some people can be a little bit more,

Speaker 2 but on average, that's, yeah.

Speaker 1 And how easy is it to lose muscle? Like, if you...

Speaker 1 get sick for a couple weeks or don't train for a month, like how easy is it for a woman in their 40s and 50s to lose muscle?

Speaker 2 It starts within like two weeks. You start to lose muscle

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 you can start losing muscle in your 30s you start to lose muscle at about

Speaker 2 three to

Speaker 2 some studies say five some studies say eight on the higher end percent of muscle mass per decade and could start it in your thirties yeah so you're fighting that natural if you're sedentary for your life you're just gonna lose muscle you're gonna lose muscle so that's why it's so important to start early on to build as much as you can so then you can kind of offset the muscle that you will inevitably eventually lose yeah when you're 80 70 it's gonna you're gonna lose it exactly yeah wow that's interesting have you tracked how much muscle you've gained in the last 10 years

Speaker 2 I'm not huge on like numbers on like all right let's draw I don't want to get in my own head this is

Speaker 2 there are some people that benefit from that but there are some people like me who have suffered through some of these eating disorders that stay away from I stay away from weighing myself it doesn't have that effect on me anymore sometimes if I want to hop on it just to be like hey I knew that was going on cool

Speaker 2 and it doesn't have that effect on me but yeah I try to stay away as long as in my heart I know what that I'm doing everything that I can to strengthen train as hard as I can to eat the right way get in the right amount of protein carbs and fats etc

Speaker 2 If I know that I'm doing that, I don't need any measurements to tell me how I'm doing.

Speaker 1 I guess it's interesting if we think about it, like, I don't know, we didn't have scales back in the day. There was no scale a couple hundred years ago, I guess, to like weigh yourself.

Speaker 1 It wasn't a priority, but now everyone's got a scale and they check it every day, a lot of people. What is the,

Speaker 1 I guess the negative for a woman who wants to weigh themselves and see a number every single day.

Speaker 1 What is the downside to weighing yourself for women versus the pro of having that number that they see every day?

Speaker 2 It's going to dictate how you feel on that particular day. And do you really want your mood

Speaker 2 and your day to be dictated by a number on a scale? That's what I always say. Why do you want your day to be dictated by that? You know, progress.
Like, we lie to ourselves.

Speaker 2 We're good at lying to ourselves, but we know when we're progressing, when we're regressing, when we're

Speaker 2 stagnant, right?

Speaker 2 So I don't want my day to be dictated by a number.

Speaker 2 Now, granted, there is, if you are able to remove that aspect and somehow not allow that number to dictate your day and simply utilize that as a way to track progress, but not every day because you're not going,

Speaker 2 your body fluctuates within a day, from day to day, but if you're measuring yourself, maybe in like, at the most like weekly increments.

Speaker 1 But even then, if you're like you, if your number, if the number number doesn't hit your expectation

Speaker 1 one week of hard work and you're like

Speaker 1 I didn't see the results you might feel defeated and then start binge eating.

Speaker 2 Exactly.

Speaker 1 And feeling like ah what's the point of this point? I worked so hard.

Speaker 2 Because progress takes time. Yeah.
It takes a long time to put muscle on. Easier when you're a beginner, right?

Speaker 2 Because your body is going to respond right away because it's something new and then a little bit harder if you're more advanced

Speaker 2 lifter or person that works out. But progress takes time, whether it is gaining muscle or losing weight.
And that's the thing.

Speaker 2 I think that that's why most people quit because they don't see the progress in the short term and it takes three to six months months to see true results.

Speaker 2 And people mostly drop a new program within the first like eight weeks. I think there's like statistics like

Speaker 2 50 to 65 percent of people will quit in the first three to six months of starting like a workout program with a and then if it's like New Year's is like 80% of the people will quit.

Speaker 1 I have this that says a study show that 88% of people who set New Year's resolution

Speaker 1 they fail within the first two weeks.

Speaker 1 I'm curious, what do you think is the biggest barrier to maintaining goals then so that people don't fail so quickly when they start?

Speaker 2 I think the first thing it is like those unrealistic expectations.

Speaker 2 Set realistic goals. For me, if you are just starting out, if this is something completely new, is set that goal of just showing up.

Speaker 2 Show up every day.

Speaker 2 Create that consistency. Consistency is the primary

Speaker 2 goal that

Speaker 2 maybe somebody should aim for in my in my eyes. Aim for that consistency every day, day in and day out, to then bring you to, to carry you to that point where you have created

Speaker 2 a new habit. And it takes time to create habit.
I mean, there was a misconception of like taking 21 days. Actually, it's much longer than that.

Speaker 2 I mean, 21 days is a good starting point because it's a little bit more than the two weeks.

Speaker 2 But if you're really wanting to solidify

Speaker 2 a habit, especially when it comes to working out, it's like a little bit over two months. Some people say 66 days.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I love what you're saying about this because if everyone could focus on making the goal

Speaker 1 making the process the goal as opposed to the results the goal they would live a better life exactly process is the goal yeah process is the goal so hard though I mean I've been in that I've probably been on it I don't know two year almost two years ago

Speaker 2 I

Speaker 1 you know COVID hit I was training a lot before then then COVID and breakup emotional stress kind of all that stuff like just life happened where I gained a lot of weight for myself, right?

Speaker 1 And I was like 255 at my heaviest, but just didn't feel good, right? I'm 6'4, so I'm a big guy. It doesn't like look like obese, but it just didn't feel good, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then two years ago, I really got consistent in the training. And I'm down to 225-ish.

Speaker 1 So I've dropped a lot of weight, but I'm still not where I want to be, but it's like, but I'm training so hard.

Speaker 1 And even me knowing as an athlete that it just takes time

Speaker 1 but kind of like letting go of the expectation or the goal of like this is where I want it to be yeah I can still have that vision of my mind but a lot of it is the the acknowledgement of showing up and just say did I do the right thing today exactly did I do the right things for my health for my mind for my future self today exactly and the results will eventually come if I keep showing up for me.

Speaker 1 Absolutely.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 it seems take a while

Speaker 1 to get the results you want.

Speaker 1 And so I love what you're talking about. Make the process the goal, not the result.

Speaker 2 And are you comparing yourself to this image that you had or you were at some point?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was like 22 and I'm like an elite athlete. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Can you be the best version of yourself that you could possibly be now? Yeah. It is hard.
It is hard because we unfortunately have

Speaker 2 my body has changed from a year ago, from two years ago.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 2 It happens.

Speaker 2 But am I in my power? Can I honestly say to myself that I'm doing everything that I can with regards to working out, strength training, with regards to nutrition, with regards to sleep, recovery?

Speaker 2 You know, all of the components that

Speaker 2 will bring you to that optimal self at this point in time.

Speaker 2 So that's where I'm at.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, you're focused on that.

Speaker 2 That's where I'm at, yeah.

Speaker 1 That's interesting.

Speaker 1 There seems to be like,

Speaker 1 I don't know what, I don't know if this is the right terminology, but there seems to be trends with

Speaker 1 women's body sizes and types and structures since I was like, you know, I grew up in the 80s and 90s. It was all about being super skinny.
Then it was about, you know, curvy and voluptuous.

Speaker 1 Then it's like, it seems like it's going back to skinny. Like, it seems like there's these trends in the culture.

Speaker 1 Why do you think that, first off, is that accurate that there are trends for women in their way that their body is supposed to look? If so, why does that change for women over the years?

Speaker 2 There is definitely trending. There's been, like you said, you know, I agree with you that there's been, you know, the trend of being skinny and then curvaceous.

Speaker 2 And I don't know that it's necessarily being thin again. I hope not.

Speaker 1 It's being like thick and strong.

Speaker 2 I think there's a movement, there's a true movement

Speaker 2 with being

Speaker 1 like strong.

Speaker 2 Being strong.

Speaker 2 And I love and appreciate all the doctors that are coming forward and sharing their data on how strength and having as much muscle as possible is healthy for a woman.

Speaker 2 not just quality of life now, but in their later years.

Speaker 2 I think

Speaker 2 yeah, I think a lot of these studies and these doctors that are coming forward with women-specific,

Speaker 2 because I think a lot of the studies have been done on men, but with women-specific studies that show that importance. So I'm hoping that that's the new trend.
Yeah. And that's here to stay.

Speaker 1 Well, it's interesting because, you know, as you mentioned, when you moved to America, And there was,

Speaker 1 you saw pressure from other teen girls in your school. You saw media, marketing, you know, whatever it might be, campaigns of like celebrities that you see look a certain way.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But you're also a trainer for Kim Kardashian right now and you have been for a while. And I'm assured, I'm assuming you're around a lot of top celebrities as well in that world.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 How do you navigate knowing that you're working with a very influential woman

Speaker 1 that women look up to, women want to look like, women want to emulate, maybe they feel comparison to or a lack of comparison that they can't live up to the way she might look or something like that, or just other celebrities in general.

Speaker 1 How do you navigate, I guess, your work with someone like that while also understanding that there's a 15-year-old out there who was once like you

Speaker 1 that maybe sees her and wants to be like her, and then does that help her inspire her to eat healthier and train?

Speaker 1 Or is it like, let me go, you know extreme food deprivation like I don't know how to how do you navigate just that in your mind

Speaker 2 honestly that was one of the main reasons why I accepted to work with Kim is because she does have this influence and she decided that she wanted to step into her strength and build muscle and and maintain that muscle because also she realized that muscle is important for her health and longevity, not just aesthetically speaking.

Speaker 2 And for me, that was an opportunity to help her, but also help other women that she is influencing. Obviously, her reach is way bigger than mine is.

Speaker 2 So that was one of my biggest driving factors for working with her and other celebrities that I have is to send a message of strength to the women out there that strength is beautiful, strength is health and quality longevity.

Speaker 2 So that's to me that was,

Speaker 2 yeah, I see that as a positive,

Speaker 2 having a positive effect on women.

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Speaker 1 Because you see Kim leaning into strength training more. Absolutely.
That's what you're working with right now.

Speaker 2 Absolutely. She loves it.
I mean, that's not...

Speaker 1 Did she always do that before?

Speaker 2 No, she didn't. It was more on cardio and Pilates

Speaker 2 and things like that, which, again, everything has a place and a space and a time. But

Speaker 2 in my opinion, humble opinion, and I think research backs it up, strength training is queen. Right.

Speaker 1 What is

Speaker 1 the list?

Speaker 1 I mean, we don't have to speak about her that much, but what have you noticed in, I guess, over a year of strength training with Kim Kardashian about maybe just confidence levels or things like that?

Speaker 1 Has anything changed? Because she's been a pretty confident person already. She's got massive businesses.
She's got a lot of success.

Speaker 1 Has she shared that, anything you're allowed to share or you notice something like that?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 2 with all the confidence that she already has, she feels definitely more confident and she can't wait to train with me. Really?

Speaker 2 I mean yeah, it's amazing, you know, if she per chance happens to not be training for a few days because of her very demanding schedule, you know, she's like, I can't wait to train.

Speaker 2 So that to me is like music to my ears to hear that somebody has

Speaker 2 has made that leap and has leaned into strength training. And I've seen her

Speaker 2 and I, you know, to me, again, it's not as much about aesthetics, but about, you know, form, like, you know, walking around and doing things with great form. Yeah, injury prevention.

Speaker 2 Injury prevention and all of that. So it's beautiful.

Speaker 1 I mean, we're here in LA, and it seems to be kind of like a hub of extremes here.

Speaker 1 And specifically with like weight loss drugs or these Azempic type drugs and things like that.

Speaker 1 And it seems to be it's... popular in LA.
You know, I don't know. I don't know people who are on them or not on them.
I don't like know these things.

Speaker 1 But I see extreme weight shifts in certain women after a few months, and I'm like, maybe that's drug-free, maybe that's Ozempic. I have no idea.

Speaker 1 What's your thoughts on the pros and cons of something like an Ozempic or these weight loss drugs specifically for women?

Speaker 2 First starting point for me is always: have you tried

Speaker 2 doing it naturally, right?

Speaker 2 So are you able to? Because some people are just not able to get to that point, right?

Speaker 2 So for me, it's like starting with the attainable things that you can naturally, like nutrition and working out.

Speaker 2 And if that hasn't worked and you are, as a matter of fact, somebody that is a candidate for that drug, then

Speaker 2 there's more and more research that shows that that can be helpful in a lot of aspects, not just losing weight, but health-wise.

Speaker 2 So as with any other

Speaker 2 therapies, pharmaceutical therapies, I'm not necessarily opposed to them, but there's a place and time for them.

Speaker 2 So for me, it's like, have you tried the foundation, which again, we know is eating right and working out, getting enough sleep? Exactly. Meditating, for me, meditating is huge.

Speaker 2 Did I mention everything? Yeah, so like if you are, if you're focusing on having those, that foundation and you still are struggling, then maybe it's time to talk to a professional to see if that is

Speaker 2 something that

Speaker 2 would be of benefit. I know that, again, there has been studies out there with

Speaker 2 drastic weight loss. I'm not on board with that.
So if it's happening,

Speaker 2 even with a Zempic, if you're utilizing it and you're experiencing drastic weight loss, that is not healthy because you're losing not just fat, but you're losing lots of muscle in that process.

Speaker 2 Really? But if it's done to

Speaker 2 the kind of micro dosing, again, is what studies show is that you're able to maintain muscleness while slowly losing weight.

Speaker 1 That's interesting. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, yeah.

Speaker 1 It just seems like a lot of people just have lost weight really quickly is what it seems like. Again, I don't know who's using it or who's not using it.

Speaker 1 It's hard for me to tell, but it seems like that's what's been happening.

Speaker 1 And that scares me, right?

Speaker 2 That is super scary. That is scary, the drastic weight loss.

Speaker 2 No matter what way it's done, if it's a drastic weight loss, and if it's done because you're restricting your food intake and you're working out like crazy, or whether you're doing something like GLP-1, like a Zempig, then

Speaker 2 that's not good. Yeah, that is not good.

Speaker 1 This is an interesting question I have for you, Sanada. I'm curious

Speaker 1 when

Speaker 1 you know that also like women,

Speaker 1 I don't want to say all women, but there's a tendency that women may compare themselves to other women.

Speaker 1 And you have content out there that may seem unattainable for a lot of women, right?

Speaker 1 I don't know if that's what you're hearing or maybe someone said that, but I can only imagine some woman is scrolling who's not healthy or not fit or maybe like not confident in themselves.

Speaker 1 and they see some of your videos and they're like, this woman is a superwoman.

Speaker 1 Like some women may be that really inspired by that and say awesome that's an example that i can lean into and i can follow her programming and i can maybe one day be like that in my own way whereas other women might say

Speaker 1 gosh david she's like too good looking or she's too fit or she's too shredded like how she even i could never do that how do you navigate the

Speaker 1 uncertainty that women might have to feel like they'll never be as strong or fit or lean as you, or be able to do the workouts the way you do them so effortlessly based on what it may look like for them,

Speaker 1 versus I'm here to empower and inspire women, not

Speaker 1 show them that they're not enough.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 How do you navigate that personally?

Speaker 2 It's

Speaker 2 to me, like that, my intention is to never have anybody compare me to them and have them feel bad about themselves.

Speaker 2 Like that, that would absolutely that is not my intention like my goal and my desire is to empower women to to step into their strength to feel the strongest that they possibly can to embrace their their musculature their strong bodies to embrace that so

Speaker 2 For me,

Speaker 2 that's been my desire to kind of embody this strong person with muscle so that women feel empowered

Speaker 2 to aim to build muscle and to look in the best way a version of themselves not me obviously I

Speaker 2 I have a different genetic or genetic makeup you know than somebody else like we were genetically and bio

Speaker 2 but we're biodiverse we're genetically diverse so

Speaker 2 it might be unrealistic for some women to to aim to look exactly like me, but nobody should want to aim to look exactly like somebody else so i always and i say this you know in my posts is i aim to be the strongest version of yourself the best version of yourself and not utilize me as a as a comparison but rather as hopefully an inspiration of a woman that was struggling throughout her entire life and now has embraced her her strength and and my abilities.

Speaker 2 And it took years, you know, it took years. So

Speaker 2 I didn't suddenly wake up, lifted a couple of weights, and I'm here. I never, I didn't always have great form.
You know, that's one of the things that people always praise, like great form.

Speaker 2 How are you able to do that?

Speaker 2 I didn't wake up doing that. It was just years of practice, years of kind of perfecting my craft to be able to do that.

Speaker 1 With this much awareness and attention about who you are now from the last, I guess, eight years I think you've been on social media that you said, like, and just the following and the views you get and the attention you get.

Speaker 2 2019, actually.

Speaker 1 2019. Okay, so now six years ago.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's been

Speaker 1 no one knew who you were. In the last six years, a lot of people know who you are.
And you're working with one of the biggest celebrities in the world.

Speaker 1 What has that been like for you, psychologically or emotionally, to deal with now everyone's critiquing you, whether it be positive or negative,

Speaker 1 and you're working with big celebrities? How has that been for you as as a human?

Speaker 2 I think the biggest

Speaker 2 threshold that scared me the most was hitting 100,000 followers. It was like, whoa, there's a hundred thousand people that are looking at what I do.

Speaker 2 And then for some reason, it kind of normalized after that. It doesn't really.

Speaker 1 Every million, it's like, okay, it's another million. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 No, not that I take it for granted by any means. I'm so grateful for the platform, for my audience.
I never take it for granted, but it doesn't have that, you know, fear

Speaker 2 correlated with it. You know, it's

Speaker 2 not

Speaker 2 because I know what I'm doing, I know what I'm saying, I feel to a certain degree. So, it doesn't, when I was just first starting out, obviously, you're still kind of building your confidence and

Speaker 2 navigating that. So,

Speaker 2 but to kind of go back to, I think, what you were asking, like, how has that affected me personally?

Speaker 2 In the beginning, you do deal with a lot of

Speaker 2 this person said that, so now, you know, am I really that or

Speaker 2 and then you just learned at least I have learned to to see that as not a reflection of who I am I know who I am I know the message that I'm trying to portray and I know

Speaker 2 you know that I'm there for service you know that's what makes a purposeful life is being of service to others and that's I don't get emotional but that's what fulfills me is like being of service and providing as much service as I can to as many people as I can, especially women, because I'm a woman and

Speaker 2 I'm in a household of women. I have two younger sisters.
So

Speaker 2 that always has been kind of keeping in mind what my goal is and who I am and not being affected by people that will try to speak negatively in the process.

Speaker 1 When did you start to think about your life of being in service to help others?

Speaker 2 When did I start to?

Speaker 1 was that? Was that like something earlier in your life, or was that in the last six years? Like, I want to start really adding value and trying to serve people, whether it's five people or five men.

Speaker 2 I think that's always been, I think it came within the territory of

Speaker 2 experiencing depression. I think that's, you know, I think

Speaker 2 that sense of purpose is linked to

Speaker 2 depression somehow. So

Speaker 2 I was struggling with that for a while. You know, I know.

Speaker 1 How old were you or what?

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 I went to business school.

Speaker 2 I got a master's in business and I did all of this accomplishment, graduated summa cum laude with the highest honors in three years and then in one year for my business degree. So

Speaker 2 I was accumulating all of these accolades and

Speaker 2 it just wasn't adding up.

Speaker 2 It wasn't fulfilling to me because it wasn't, you know, it didn't feel like it was coming from a sense of like, of purpose or of service, rather, to the greater good. And

Speaker 2 now where I am at, knowing what strength training and nurturing myself in all aspects,

Speaker 2 nutrition, like we were talking sleep, meditation, and recovery, like knowing what that has done for me, for my mental health.

Speaker 2 That's been kind of my driving factor to bring that to the world.

Speaker 2 And yeah.

Speaker 1 Wow. How long did you feel like you were experiencing depression for or your mental health was struggling?

Speaker 2 It started when I was in my teens, you know, like I said, with

Speaker 2 dealing with the eating disorders and then realizing that there was like a sense there was depression that was going hand in hand with that and anxiety. And,

Speaker 2 you know, as I say, those monsters in the closet never go away. You just develop better tools to to to to

Speaker 2 manage them. So for me, working out is one of my main tools in my tool belt that, you know, I'm feeling a certain way.
I know I'm going to go get a workout and it's going to shift my day.

Speaker 2 So there are those moments where I absolutely don't feel like working out, but I know what

Speaker 2 I will achieve on the other side of that.

Speaker 2 So that's, I think, one of my main motivating factors along with wanting to be independent in my later years, wanting to have a quality of life and longevity that I can rely on.

Speaker 2 I think the other one is

Speaker 2 I don't want to feel depressed. I don't want to feel anxious.
I don't want to deal with those things that I know I am predisposed to deal with.

Speaker 2 You can't override those. That's just like the hand that you're dealt.
But it's like what tools in your tool belt do you utilize to best deal. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 wow what do you feel like is your biggest insecurity or fear now

Speaker 2 i'm i i guess i'm always

Speaker 2 i always think am i giving my best self to my audience to the people that i influence that is always my

Speaker 2 the thing that if there is one thing that keeps me up at night it's it's that it's am i providing the best value that i possibly can out there to the world?

Speaker 2 So that's the one thing that I always strive to do better. That's why I launched the WeRise app.
So I had an app prior to that, and I relaunched and rebranded last January.

Speaker 2 So we're coming up on a year, and I'm always striving to make it better, whether it's like with the latest research and

Speaker 2 what it will be,

Speaker 2 it will be

Speaker 2 light years ahead of what it is now because we're really aiming for it to be a female

Speaker 2 empowerment and development platform, not just a fitness app. Wow.
And yeah, that's what we strive every day to perfect.

Speaker 1 How do you navigate

Speaker 1 not falling back into an obsessive, perfectionist, critical state versus progress, consistency, and a healthy balance?

Speaker 1 When you have that type of like older personality, it's like, how do you make sure you don't go into that in extremes with work, you know, body, you know, perfection in a different way?

Speaker 2 Yeah, you're just more conscious of that self-talk. You're just more conscious of those patterns.
I think that's with everything.

Speaker 2 You just become conscious of the way that you talk to yourself, conscious of negative

Speaker 2 past patterns, and then you, of course, correct. And

Speaker 2 it is good enough.

Speaker 2 It is good. Because as we we were talking about earlier you know great and perfection can be the enemy of good

Speaker 2 so I'm always conscious of that to not aim for perfection but to aim for value and and and good

Speaker 2 yeah

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Speaker 1 Have you ever done like therapy, also, emotional therapy, instead of you know, workout therapy?

Speaker 2 I have, I have,

Speaker 2 I have.

Speaker 1 Um, what's been the biggest takeaway from that for you, or biggest lessons?

Speaker 2 I'll be honest, therapy for me has been can it work for you

Speaker 2 not as much as working.

Speaker 2 Sure. But it works for a lot of people.

Speaker 2 It's been a long time, honestly,

Speaker 2 since I've been in therapy and I definitely promote it. Like, yes, do therapy.
It's definitely great.

Speaker 2 Like I said, all of these are just tools that we accumulate and then we use and whatever works best for you. For me, it's been more self-therapy.

Speaker 2 I read a lot of, I've read a ton of self-help books. I've read, you know,

Speaker 2 books that you'd read at a in a collegiate level you know

Speaker 2 and that's how I self-educate and that's how I self-help and self-actualize and analyze

Speaker 2 maybe it's a good time to say I've also done plant medicine

Speaker 2 and that has been huge help for me and and kind of being my own therapist because that's the best way that I can describe plant medicine is being your own therapist seeing yourself from the outside and looking at your patterns and looking at everything from a different perspective, kind of removed from that ego self.

Speaker 1 Do you have a relationship with God or a spiritual practice?

Speaker 2 I have a relationship with God, yeah, yeah. I don't know that if it's in the context of

Speaker 2 the

Speaker 2 religion in a sense, or maybe it is inclusive of all of that. I just believe in

Speaker 2 the Creator

Speaker 2 being the Creator for all of us, one loving Creator that

Speaker 2 is good and wants what's best for us and that is not

Speaker 2 judging,

Speaker 2 but that is loving.

Speaker 1 What do you think God wants for you moving forward?

Speaker 2 To continue doing this work and to really

Speaker 2 actualize that I am

Speaker 2 of

Speaker 2 help and service to others. You know, because I do at times struggle with that.
Like I was saying before, am I doing my best? Am I really being of service to

Speaker 2 humanity, to others? So I think...

Speaker 2 really leaning into that that yes, you know, if I actually help just one person, that that is a life fulfilled if I've changed course corrected somebody's path even by a small percentage then that is an accomplishment that's beautiful yeah

Speaker 1 where do you think you'd be do you think you'd be as happy and healthy if you didn't have a relationship with God or a spiritual practice

Speaker 2 I think it's good to have somewhat of a relationship with whatever you believe kind of that high higher power to be.

Speaker 2 I think

Speaker 2 it's something to lean on. I think it's something to lean on.
And

Speaker 2 for people, it's different. For everybody, it's different what that could be or look like and what image you have in your mind, but whatever gives you that comfort that you're here for a reason.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Did you have a spiritual relationship or when you were

Speaker 1 in your teens and early 20s and struggling with

Speaker 1 the depression and things?

Speaker 2 My grandma raised me to be religious and say prayers every night. And

Speaker 2 I think I lost that a little bit.

Speaker 2 And now I'm back at

Speaker 2 saying my prayers every night.

Speaker 1 You feel more peace now?

Speaker 2 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's beautiful. That's beautiful.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Your parents are still around?

Speaker 2 Yeah, they are. They are.
My parents, I have

Speaker 2 my two younger sisters. they're all in New York.
They're all in New York. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, they're still around.

Speaker 1 What's the biggest lesson both your mom and your dad taught you?

Speaker 2 My dad

Speaker 2 taught me to be strong and to persevere and to,

Speaker 2 yeah, he never complained.

Speaker 2 He never complained. He went from being a doctor back in Albania to being a janitor when he came to the United States, even though we're legally here and everything.
But that's what he had to do. Wow.

Speaker 2 You know English, but he knew to

Speaker 2 put his ego aside and just do what needed to be done to support

Speaker 2 his family. And

Speaker 2 from my mom is to like that, that compassionate spirit. And also,

Speaker 2 even though it led to some things that weren't so positive in my life, like that, that striving to be the best also led to where I am today, I believe. So yeah, I thank her for that.

Speaker 1 Wow, that's beautiful. What's the biggest lesson Kim's taught you?

Speaker 2 She's a hard worker sometimes. I thought I was a hard worker.

Speaker 2 So yeah,

Speaker 2 she inspires me in that way

Speaker 2 to be a hard worker.

Speaker 2 beautifully balances that with having a family and having four children so and spending quality time with them so having that balance like that's that's inspirational that's cool that's cool uh you've got an app called the we rise app how many women are in this community right now in this in this app oh my gosh and you know who's bring the healthy thousands thousands of women yeah thousands of women tens of thousands of women are all over the world all over the world that are

Speaker 2 achieving their best strongest selves and I'm so excited for it.

Speaker 1 What do they get in the app?

Speaker 1 What are these women working on?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 what they're working on, what they get.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what's it?

Speaker 2 So, whatever experience level that you're in, so if you're a beginner, intermediate, advanced, if you're working out from home or the gym, there is a program that is for them.

Speaker 2 And whether they want something to get started, like a 20-minute follow-along, that I'm with them every step of the way and kind of guide them through,

Speaker 2 they got that on there. So, I think for every kind of

Speaker 2 walk of life, there is something in the app and there is a meal planning and recipes and macro tracking.

Speaker 2 Right now we currently have an expert nutritionist and an expert habits.

Speaker 2 She actually is one of like the four PhDs in the world that

Speaker 2 works with habits to just help people establish good habits, get rid of. habits that don't serve them anymore and then on the nutrition side, you know, speaking about like, what are macros? Sure.

Speaker 2 And then how do we ensure that we, you know, intake enough protein and all that? And that's just the beginning. We have huge plans.

Speaker 1 That's great. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Where can they go to sign up for that?

Speaker 2 Wearize.xyz.

Speaker 1 Okay, awesome. I'm sure it's in your bio.

Speaker 2 It's on my bio. It's on my bio.
Yeah. I'm not wearing the clothing, but I also have a clothing line calls on tow on.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 Making women slightly a little bit more motivated by wearing some cute workout colours. There you go.
Yeah. To work out.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
That's great.

Speaker 1 What can we do to be of best service to you moving forward with this community or people watching or listening right now?

Speaker 2 Spread the word. Spread the word of

Speaker 2 strength. Spread the word that aesthetics

Speaker 2 will come as long as you put in the work to

Speaker 2 aim for health and longevity. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And what's the best place place to find you on social media? What's your Instagram for people to follow?

Speaker 2 Sonata da Greca. Sonata daggre.
Nadada Greka.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 See, you know, see, see how much I love self-promoting?

Speaker 2 You know, in this whole conversation, this is probably like

Speaker 2 the most kind of slightly uncomfortable I've felt because I don't like self-promoting. But yeah,

Speaker 2 without self-promoting, I guess what is of service, then you don't get people to take advantage of that. That's true.

Speaker 1 Yeah. That's true.
Where do you think think you'd be if you didn't start putting content online six years ago? If I didn't. If you did not.

Speaker 2 I don't want to think about the previous jobs that I've done because it was

Speaker 2 not fun. But

Speaker 2 I would do something. I would be in this space.
I would be in this space somehow because I'm so passionate about it. So if I didn't have a presence,

Speaker 2 such a large presence in social media, I would probably do it in

Speaker 2 a small fashion,

Speaker 2 even if it was, you know, outside of the nine to five, which I was doing actually before.

Speaker 2 I was teaching yoga classes and I was training on the side while having my nine to five.

Speaker 2 And then, you know, I love that aspect so much.

Speaker 2 which is what led me to kind of start doing this and putting myself out there, putting my workouts out there. And one thing thing led to another.
And here we are today.

Speaker 1 So you were doing it on the side. You had a full-time job.

Speaker 2 I had a full-time job, but then I was teaching yoga classes.

Speaker 1 You were teaching strength training.

Speaker 2 And a little bit of strength training as well. Yeah.

Speaker 2 It has advanced from that point, the starting point, to where it is now. But I was doing that on the side and obviously doing my workouts.
And then I decided, let's just put it out there.

Speaker 2 Like whatever I'm doing every day. And you could see probably things have shifted from earlier until now, but just put it out there every day.
Wow.

Speaker 2 Get up in the morning, do my workout, film it as I'm doing the workout, and to see where it leads.

Speaker 1 When did you start to notice that, like, oh, this is starting to take off? Like, the content I'm posting daily, like, oh, it's actually getting out there and it's resonating with women.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, pretty pretty fast it started to happen. I mean, it didn't shift from like, I think I had like 2,000 followers in 2019 when I started, if I remember, one or 2,000 when I first started.

Speaker 2 And it started to happen gradually and then exponentially

Speaker 2 after that, I think that first period of like getting to

Speaker 2 a few thousand was probably like the hardest because it's like working out, you know, it's consistency and you don't see a ton of results.

Speaker 2 But then you stay with it because you don't, you know, you just can't tell the future.

Speaker 2 You can't predict it from just that short period of time so like with anything else consistency consistency consistency yeah

Speaker 1 uh so now we've got a couple final questions for you but this is powerful thanks for sharing and being so open today i appreciate it of course um this is a question i ask everyone towards the end it's called the three truths so it's a hypothetical scenario and question imagine you get to live as long as you want to live and you get to accomplish every dream you have.

Speaker 1 But for whatever reason, you have to take all of your content with you when you die. So we don't have access to the videos you posted, this interview, it's all gone.

Speaker 1 Anything you create from this moment moving forward, it's gone. Your app, it's gone for whatever reason.
Hypothetical.

Speaker 1 But on the last day of your life, you get to leave behind three lessons to the world. And this is all we would have to remember your content by.
Call it three truths. What would those be for you?

Speaker 2 I think the biggest thing for me is to

Speaker 2 do everything from a place of love. So whatever you're trying to achieve, achieve it and aim for it from a place of love.

Speaker 2 Aim to be the fullest version of yourself and not that of somebody else, but the fullest version of yourself.

Speaker 2 And the third

Speaker 2 would be to treat everybody in

Speaker 2 a way that I don't know if necessarily you want to be treated yourself, but in a way that I believe in a higher self.

Speaker 2 In the higher, the higher self would want you to treat, or God, if you will, will want you to treat

Speaker 2 the fellow man and woman

Speaker 2 with just compassion and love and understanding.

Speaker 2 Stepping aside from judgments and what you have been taught to to perceive. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's beautiful. Create from love, aim to be the fullest version of you and treat others with your kind of your highest self

Speaker 2 in mind. That's great.

Speaker 1 That's beautiful.

Speaker 1 I want to acknowledge you Sonata for your transformation and your ability to be consistent.

Speaker 1 And it sounds like It's very challenging leaving one country, coming to this place, and just having to deal with all the pressures of society, of school, of parents, and you needing to be the parent as a teenager.

Speaker 1 That's a lot of weight emotionally and physically.

Speaker 1 So I want to acknowledge you for overcoming that challenge and overcoming the depression and the sadness and the anxiety and the stress that you faced and for

Speaker 1 starting to tap into the healthiest version of you and being consistent with that version of you. Letting go of your old comparison ways and stepping into how can I just be my happiest, fullest self.

Speaker 1 So I acknowledge you for putting yourself out there also. You know, six years ago, deciding to say, Hey, I'm going to put my content out there and start to serve people the best way I can.

Speaker 1 And if it helps one person or millions of people, I'm just going to do it consistently. So, I acknowledge you for all of it.
And

Speaker 1 I appreciate you for opening up so honestly during this conversation.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much. I appreciate you saying that.
Yeah, of course. Appreciate you having me here today.
It was a very enjoyable conversation. Thank you.

Speaker 1 That's beautiful.

Speaker 1 One final question, Sonato. What's your definition of of greatness?

Speaker 2 I think it's embodying, again, the true, fullest version of yourself while being of service to others to the fullest capacity that you are able to.

Speaker 1 It's beautiful. Sonata, thank you so much for being here.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Thank you for having me. Of course.

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