111. Alexia Clark: I Found My Purpose Through Fitness – Here’s How You Can Too!

Food can either be the most powerful medicine or the most deadly poison.

Prisoners get more outside time than kids in school.

It's really sad because we're killing these kids by keeping them stuck in a chair all day long and then we're not setting them up for success with health.

I never realized how far degraded just basic fitness was.

The lack of physical fitness is just a pandemic right now.

You were born being able to do these things, but then we let these things degrade.

And on top of that, they're getting fed poison.

The food that we have now is not meant to kill you quickly, it's meant to make you suffer over a long period of time.

Food companies have this thing called a bliss point.

They want to calculate the exact amount of sugar, the exact amount of salt, and the exact amount of fat to put into food to give you the most dopamine release to make it more desirable to make you crave it.

What are some big mistakes that people are making on eating a healthier diet?

When it comes to diet, I think people aren't.

aren't.

Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast.

I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecca, where we go down the road of everything, anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between.

And today's guest is a really special guest.

Right before the podcast, actually, she was beating up my wife in our gym.

I walked in there and I was like, I want no part of this.

Like the fifth round of Russian split squats.

I was like, I think I'll go to the kitchen.

But Alexia Clark, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm such a huge fan of yours.

I love Sage.

I had so much fun with you guys at dinner.

And the workout I did with her was so fun, too.

You had a great time.

No, it really was.

And she's a fan of yours, too.

And we're so appreciative that you came across the country.

You know, originally we were going go have this meeting for uh to try to make america healthy um

and uh but we're so glad that you came and it was it's been amazing getting to know you and and you know watching your journey you know i i i went back and did a little research um on you and you know a lot of your content is from the early 2000s 2000 2001 when you were doing podcasts before you had this major right life event that we if you're comfortable about talking i'd love to talk about it um but you know a lot of my podcasts have a a very similar theme and i find that um the people that are making the greatest impact that are the most passionate the most purpose driven um

they've solved some kind of problem in their life you know maybe it was a drug and alcohol addiction and they and they really struggled with it and they overcame it and then they become a powerful voice and a powerful force for that and you're obviously a powerful voice and a powerful force in the in the fitness industry and so what if anything was the tipping point point in your life?

Or was there anything that really just lit that purpose on fire that gave you that drive?

And you said, you know, this is my niche.

Right.

Yeah.

Well, when I graduated from my university, I was in marketing and I knew right away I did not want to be sitting in an office.

It's like when I lived in Chicago, I was like, I don't know where I want to live, but I don't want to live in Chicago.

Exactly, exactly.

I just knew I didn't want to do that.

But one, one thing that I would always find myself doing, which I probably shouldn't have been doing, was I was passionate about fitness.

And every day I'd go to my job, I'd sit on my computer and just research fitness stuff.

And I knew, yeah, just research all day long.

And I was not doing the work I should have been doing.

So I thought, I have to quit this.

I have to follow my passion.

So I decided to become a personal trainer.

And one of my very first clients, it was a, I think it was a 5 a.m.

session.

She came in and I could just tell something was off.

I had trained her once or twice before.

And we started the session and we were doing step ups.

And I could tell she was almost about to cry.

And so I asked her, is everything okay?

And she said, my husband left me last night.

And this was hours before the session, because this was like 5 a.m.

Right.

Right.

And so this just like blew me away.

And I thought,

like.

we have to talk about this, you know, like I let her vent.

We, you know, I told her I'd be, I was there for her if she needed anything.

And just over a few set more sessions, because she kept coming back, I saw such a change in her.

She became more confident.

She was actually smiling.

And I thought, man, fitness can impact so many people in so many different ways.

I have to share this with as many people as I can.

And that was when the passion started.

Yeah.

So what timeframe is this?

Like, this was probably

20, I think it was 2011.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So a while ago.

Yeah.

You know, and I love the fact that you talk about an area of fitness that most people don't talk about.

And obviously, we know like working out and fitness is going to make you look better, right?

But and maybe even feel better, or certainly make you feel better, but we rarely talk about the mental impact.

For sure.

Right.

I mean, we don't, and there are even studies out right now.

I've talked about them on the podcast.

I even ran an entire podcast short on it about how exercise and relatively small amounts of exercise

were more prolific than SSRIs, than

actually antidepressants.

And, you know, this is, I'm glad that we started with this story because it's, it's so emblematic of, you know, how exercise and fitness can actually change people's mental state.

And I wonder if you'd talk about that a little bit on your

journey.

What have you seen?

I mean, I've just seen this across.

my entire career of

clients and people that do my program telling me like

my life has changed because of this.

You know, I wasn't feeling great about school.

I didn't really have any friends.

And just by sticking with a workout, sticking with keeping exercise a part of their daily life, their life changed.

Like they started feeling more comfortable in the gym or feeling more comfortable meeting people.

And I think that.

A lot of people don't realize all of the benefits that there are with fitness just by working out 10 minutes a day.

It doesn't have to be go to the gym for an hour.

Also, I got to do my cardio.

Also, you know, I have to do all of these things.

Like, you just have to take a tiny bit of time out of your day to see the results that fitness can do for you, not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally.

Yeah.

And I think a lot of people, I think it's the starting point, right?

I mean, when I talk to people about dieting, you know, for example, I'm like, look, you don't need to be a vegan, vegetarian, keto, carnivore, paleo,

you know, pescatarian, vegan overnight.

Right.

Right.

Like those, those massive shifts are too much for people to stick to.

And I think a lot of times it's the way people view fitness.

I either have to commit to 90 minutes a day of crushing myself in the gym and I got to do so much cardio and I have to do so much weight.

So they just don't even start.

Right, exactly.

And I think, you know, if you look back in time, we used to be a lot more like physically active during the day.

Like

whether you

worked on a farm, we just walked more, you know, in general.

And I think we have to shift our mindset about fitness, where we now have the pleasure to choose what we want to do.

It's not that we have to go work on a farm and lift bales of hay and do all of this physical labor.

We have the ability to choose, and it's become a luxury.

So you can find something that you really truly enjoy.

And that's what's going to keep you consistent with your workouts.

So, whether that's pickleball, yoga, Zumba, lifting weights, going to the gym.

And

I know you and I probably agree on this, that resistance training is really great for you.

No doubt.

Now it's directly linked to longevity.

Exactly.

And everybody should be doing resistance training.

But if you have never worked out before, start with your very first step of what do I like?

And maybe that's running, but those things can translate and take you on a new path to doing other things too.

Yeah.

And I think a lot of women that are watching this podcast, I hear this all the time.

And they're like, I don't want to get bulky.

You know, and

And so they associate lifting weights with being very bulky and they want a lean, you know, attractive physique.

And so they're like, well, I'm not going to go in and start a fitness routine if I end up just bulking up.

And, and what do you say to that to the people that, you know, especially to the women that are averse to strength training, resistance training?

Well, I think you have to look at it as

lifting weights and just fitness in general is truly anti-aging.

You know, it's not going to make you bulky, but when you work out and you do exercise, it puts your body into autophagy.

A lot of people think you can only get into that state when you're fasting, but you can actually do it when you're exercising.

That's going to really promote anti-aging in your body.

It's going to help your DNA.

It's going to clean out your cells.

It's going to do so many different things for you that are actually going to help you live longer.

And

with the bulky thing, like, I promise you, it's not going to make you bulky.

You're not bulky.

Clearly not.

You're You're very fit

and very attractive.

And I think it's, it's, again, it's emblematic of some of the misconceptions that are out there.

And I was wondering if you would dispel some of those, because I think, you know, so many women have osteopenia, osteoporosis, brittle bone disease.

They also associate strength training largely with men.

And so they don't want to start a strength training routine.

And

very often I'll tell my clients, for example, and I'm by far from a fitness coach, but I'll tell them, you know, go by the mirror not by the scale exactly right because you hold a lot of muscle and probably by the scale it

it might not for your height yes look so good for sure right you can say height this way and weight here and I think that

you know

women and men should should both go by the mirror and not so much by the scale.

What do you, what do you think?

I totally agree with that.

I totally agree with that.

You know, muscle holds differently on your body than what fat does.

And so you have have to look at like muscle is much more compact.

So when you're starting to shape your body, like women, they want a shape, right?

They want that kind of like hourglass look.

Well, the way that you get that is you, you form those muscles that way.

That's the natural way your body's supposed to look.

So it's not like you're going to get big and bulky and thick.

You're sculpting your body to look that way.

And so you have to look at it that way as you're going to, you're going to be an artist and you're going to sculpt your entire body yourself.

Yeah.

You know, but I also think that a lot of reason why there's all of these misconceptions and even for beginners too, maybe they're afraid to go to the gym.

I think it's because

there hasn't been a way where we can keep fitness up throughout life.

You know, a lot of people are afraid when they go to the gym.

They're like, what if I don't do it right?

I'm embarrassed in front of people, but you are born being able to do these things.

Like you look at a baby, they can do a perfect squat, they can hold onto a bar, like basically do a dead hang.

They can roll over on the ground, but then we let these things degrade over time.

You put kids in school, they're sitting for eight hours a day, then you put them in high school, college, then you go straight into work and you're not keeping these things up.

Yeah.

And so then you're in your 30s or 40s wanting to take your health back and you're afraid, but you know how to do these things.

Like they are in you.

And so we like something needs to change when it comes to physical activity just throughout life.

Like, I don't know if you know this, but did you know prisoners get more outside time than kids?

Like maximum.

I mean, people that are in maximum, yeah, maximum security prisoners get more time outdoors than kids in school.

I mean, I won't say that I'm shocked by that, but I'm shocked by that.

And that is, that is astounding.

You know, when

I was, when I was growing up, and I'm dating myself a little bit here, I graduated high school in 1988.

You know, PE.

Yeah.

When not only was it a required class, but you actually had to pass it.

For sure.

Definitely.

Yeah.

And it wasn't like hard to pass.

I mean, you had to run a mile in like under nine minutes.

I think we had to dead hang for 30 seconds.

We had to do 20 push-ups, 20 sit-ups.

It was fairly basic.

It was, yeah.

But you had to pass PE.

And if you couldn't do 20 push-ups or sit-ups, or we had overhang the, you know,

whatever you call those bars that you kind of go hand over hand.

The monkey bars.

I call them.

Monkey bars.

Yeah, monkey bars.

Oh, the monkey bars.

Yeah.

Okay, good.

I can't even use a non-fitness germ with a fitness expert.

Monkey bars.

So, you know, we had to do the monkey bars.

And now, you know,

we were having a conversation the other night at at dinner last night and um

you know uh what was astounding to me for a very short period of time i owned a crossword gym and i was telling you that we for community outreach we would allow these kids to come in fourth graders to eighth graders after school and the parents could drop them off and we'd run these classes for them for free and i never realized how

far degraded just basic fitness was.

I mean, forget

athletes and sports,

but But we had these kids put through a basic physical assessment.

And one of them was they had to dead hang for 30 seconds.

And the other one was they had to sit down on a one foot high box jump and just stand up.

And my partner in the gym and I were so

blown away by how many kids could not sit onto a foot high box jump and stand up.

Yeah, it's sad.

They would fall over and roll to the side and put their hands down.

And I said, no, no, no, no, just stand up.

Yeah.

You know, stand up.

And they couldn't stay.

I thought they were not like getting my instructions right and then we would hold them up on the bar and they would hold on they would just fall and then I would say no no hold on as long as you can they just couldn't hold right and you know aside from all of the risks to that child's future um because you know I believe a lot of chronic disease I mean there's evidence to support this you know beings very early in life yeah um you know the lack of physical fitness is just a pandemic right now.

It is.

It is.

And history is honestly repeating itself because during World War I, the government looked around and they saw that the citizens weren't fit really for military.

And so then they put in a physical education system.

And then it happened again 50 years later with JFK.

And he reformed the physical speech.

But JFK was big to

it.

They're amazing.

And so, I mean, it's the same thing you were talking about.

You had to do a certain amount of push-ups.

You had to do a certain amount of pull-ups.

You had to be able to run a mile in a certain amount of time.

And they measured body fat percentage.

Wow.

And so it's like, what happened?

And it's really sad because we're

killing these kids by slowly.

Yeah, slowly killing them by

keeping them stuck in a chair all day long.

And then we're not setting them up for success with health at all.

And on top of that, they're getting fed poison basically.

Like, now you're hitting all my five buttons right now.

Like, don't, don't, don't get me on my soapbox.

But yeah, well, I mean,

have you ever heard of the bliss point?

No.

Okay, so food companies have this thing called a bliss point.

And the food scientists, they want to calculate the exact amount of sugar, the exact amount of salt, and the exact amount of fat to put into food to make it hit, give you the most dopamine release, to make it more desirable, to make it like

make you crave it.

Wow.

And it's like, it's so sad because they're treating it like a drug.

I mean, it is a drug to these people because they're eating it.

they're getting that dopamine hit, then they're needing another one.

Yeah.

And so it's, it's just absolutely amazing to me because we could be doing so much more about this by

incentivizing companies and

food companies and incentivizing consumers to make healthier food.

I could not agree with you.

Yeah.

Like we

the government could tell these food companies,

these are the healthy ingredients you need to be using.

So it could be non-GMO, organic, organic, healthy oils, things like that.

If you make food this way, then that food that you make will be income tax-free.

And then on the flip side for the consumer, if you buy this healthy food, it's sales tax-free.

And everybody wins, you know, because food can either be the most powerful medicine or the most deadly poison.

And we have to do something about it.

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Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast.

And I feel like the sad thing is about food is, you know, If something is poisonous enough, it makes you sick right away.

So you, you, you have an aversion to it.

But

the food that we have now is not meant to kill you quickly.

It's meant to make you suffer over a long

period of time.

So we can tolerate processed foods.

We can tolerate food dyes.

We can tolerate high amounts of sugar.

It's just destroying our cellular biology.

We're just bathing it in a toxic soup.

But this doesn't, since it doesn't show up right away, since it doesn't taste like kerosene,

then we, you know, we eat this over a prolonged period of time.

And, you know, I talk a lot about whole food diets and whatnot to my audience, but I wonder what, because you travel and you're busy

and

you've got a,

you know,

you're a fitness influencer.

So obviously you have to maintain,

you know, your routine.

Talk a little bit about your diet.

What are some big mistakes that people are making?

And what are some things that people could do if they're listening to this podcast and say, okay, I'm ready to make a change?

Where do I start?

Yeah, I think that when it comes to diet, I think people aren't eating enough protein in general, you know?

I think one thing that shout out to Gabrielle Lyon.

She would give you a big high five for that.

Yeah, it's true, though.

People aren't eating enough protein.

And I think when people are looking at the way they're making dinner or lunch is maybe they're like, okay, I'm going to make pasta for dinner, but I need some protein.

So I'm just going to add maybe some chicken on top.

You need to rethink your meals.

So you need to, number one, think about your protein and then cook around your protein.

Wow.

You know?

I actually like that one.

Think about your protein and then cook around your protein.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Because you need to be focusing on that.

Like,

I think you should be eating at least one gram of protein per pound you weigh.

But when you're telling somebody that that doesn't eat healthy, that seems like a lot.

So you have to give them little goals at a time to start with.

You got to eat 70 grams of protein a day.

You got to eat at least 100 grams of protein a day because they're going to see the results from that.

And they're like, oh, well, I'm eating more protein.

I'm going to eat more protein.

You know, you just have to get them hooked and you got to get them taking that small little step in the right direction.

What is a diet, a typical day of, um,

in the life of Alexi Carcook like diet-wise?

Yeah.

Um, so I would say I eat, you know, a lot of kind of like kind of how you eat, you know, meats, organic meats,

vegetables, fruit.

I stay away from processed foods.

Right.

I do protein shakes.

I always, I tell people, because I think that there's this huge like misconception people have on protein.

I don't know where this came from, but people would say, well, your body can't absorb more than 20 grams of protein at a time.

I'm like, where did that go from?

Do you think your body's just like, oh, that's 20 grams?

I'm not, I don't eat anymore.

We're done.

Yeah.

So I tell people, do a double scoop of protein in your protein shake.

And people have never thought of that before.

And they're like, well, isn't that too much?

I'm like, no, like you can, you can do two scoops of protein.

So, yeah, I would say I do, you know, beef, turkey, chicken,

but I mix things up too, you know, because I think, I think that's the same thing with exercise.

Like if you're eating the same thing every single day, it can get boring.

And then you're like, well, I want something that like is different.

And then you're like, I'm going to go get fast food, you know, but you have to like give yourself a variety.

Yeah.

You know, I've been reading a lot of clinical studies on, you know, how processed food not only, not only harms our cellular biology, but it really messes with our satiation, right?

Whether or not we're full or not.

Right, for sure.

And how people on

highly processed diets, and it's well documented, versus whole food diets,

they are hungry more often.

Definitely, yeah.

And, you know, one of the interesting studies, Dr.

Hymans talked about this too, is

that was published, was they took

two different groups of people, people, but they fed them the exact same content, macros, proteins, fats, carbohydrates,

sugars.

But one was a whole food diet and one was highly processed.

And what they realized across the board was the vast majority of people that were eating the processed food got hungry faster.

Definitely.

They had a tendency to overeat.

Yeah.

And, you know, part of me has got to think that this is by design.

You talk about this bliss point.

Yeah, it's definitely by design.

Yeah.

I mean, like, if, I mean, so selfishly, if I was a food manufacturer, I'd want people to eat as much food as possible.

So I would design it for them to maybe not feel as satiated.

And therefore, they would eat a lot more of my product.

But it's, it's sinister in terms of how it underserves, you know, humanity.

And so, um, you know, I wonder if you would just talk about, um, you know, the folks that are listening to this that maybe don't have an exercise routine, don't really have a diet routine, but they know they're in a place where they've got to start.

Um, you know, I always tell tell people look walking is probably the most underrated exercise in the world if you have to start anywhere just start with a walk definitely um you know you look at the blue zones and the people that are walking throughout their life are living the longest you know in sardinia they're they're living to 117 119 years old they're walking up a 37 degree slope every day yeah there's not a lot of rocket scientists yeah yeah yeah definitely i mean yeah with the blue zones it's like every blue zone eats differently you know some of them are vegan and vegetarian some of them are carnivore they eat a lot of meat some of them are pescatarians But the one thing that they all have in common is their physical activity throughout the day and the community that they spend, you know, their time with.

And so I think when somebody is a beginner and they're like, well, I don't know what to buy at the grocery store.

Like, I don't know how to shop for healthy food.

Stay on the outside

of the grocery store.

That's where the produce, the meat, all of all of the more natural kinds of things are.

And don't go in, don't go into the maze.

Don't go down the aisles.

Don't go into the air.

The maze.

I love that.

Like a mouse stuck in the maze.

Yeah.

And when it comes to fitness, yeah, walking is a great place to start.

But like I said before, find something that you enjoy.

And that was, that's going to help you stay consistent.

And I think that if you hate your workout and you hate, or you hate working out, you're tired all the time or something, I think it could be two things.

I think one, it's you haven't found the right.

thing that you enjoy yet.

Or two, it could be something is off in your body.

So maybe it could be your thyroid, if you have brain fog or you're tired all the time, it could be your hormones are off, there's some nutrient missing.

So you should definitely get your blood work done and really look into that because working out is something that you should enjoy.

It makes you feel good.

It makes you feel productive.

It gives you energy throughout the day.

I would even say that if you had to choose between what would give you the most energy, coffee or a workout in the morning?

A thousand percent a workout in the morning.

So sure.

You know, definitely.

And give you energy longer, like

more sustained energy.

Yeah.

So if you're buying a $10 cup of coffee a day, you're going to crash.

You're going to need more caffeine.

You're going to crash.

You're going to need more.

And you're spending $10 a day every single day where a workout.

whether you go on a walk outside in the sunshine or it's a 10 minute body weight workout at home, that's going to give you sustained energy throughout the day.

It's going to help your mental health.

It's going to clear, like give you like more cognitive function, be more creative definitely work out well you know it's funny too you talk about coffee being ten dollars a day which is probably starbucks right around there um you know but most gym memberships are not three hundred dollars a month no so um you know we think about how expensive the gym membership might be and i don't want to get a gym membership but i'm willing to drop 10 bucks a day on a on a coffee exactly um so you know i i again i'm really fascinated by your story and when we were sitting at dinner the other night um

you know it really hit me some of the struggles that you've been through like very real

struggles, and yet you've gotten yourself back into incredible shape.

And I think a lot of people have multiple excuses for why they don't want to begin an exercise routine or why they actually don't want to get off a processed food diet.

But talk a little bit about this life-changing

issue that happened to you.

Yeah.

So in 2021, it was actually like January 3.

So I was getting ready to go into the new year.

I'm like, yes, it's going to be a great year.

Fitness is going to be great.

I had a vulvulvis, which is your intestines twisting.

So I was rushed into the hospital.

And how did you notice this?

Like you were just, did you think you had like, you'd eaten something bad?

You had food poisoning?

Right.

So at the time, my husband and I were just dating.

He was over for dinner and I started getting a stomachache.

And I was like, man, I think I just ate something bad.

I tried laying down on the couch.

He was like, let me make you some tea, which was really sweet.

Shout out.

He's like, let me make you some tea.

And I was just laying there.

I was like, it hurts so bad.

I started just getting bloated.

And then I started throwing up.

And I was like, man, I must, I've never had food poisoning before.

So I thought, I must have had food poisoning.

And so I tried to just kind of relax and lay down, but it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.

So he was like, I have to take you to the hospital.

This was probably like 2 a.m.

at this point.

And on the way to the hospital, I started like passing out.

And I was thinking like, I, I'm going to die.

Like, it was the pain was that intense when we were in the car It was getting worse and I started passing out and I was just telling them like you have to drive faster we get to the hospital and at this point I'm hanging on to the counter where we're talking to this nurse in the emergency area at the hospital and she's asking me these questions like what's your date of birth?

What's your name?

Like

slowly.

And I'm like, you're like, I'm literally dying here.

I was like screaming.

I was drenched in sweat.

I couldn't even stand up.

So they take me back.

They start, you know, giving me pain meds, putting me in all of these machines, doing scans.

And at this point, I'm kind of like in and out because I'm on, they've given me so many painkillers.

And I still don't really know what's going on.

I was at the last minute, my husband threw me my phone.

So at least I had my phone with me.

So I was able to call my parents and I said, I don't know what's wrong.

My stomach really hurts.

And I couldn't even really tell them what was happening.

So I gave my phone to the nurse and the nurse told them her intestines twisted.

We're going to have to take her into emergency surgery.

And I remember the doctor waking me up and saying, hey, we're going to be taking you into surgery.

And I still had no idea.

You were just Twilight.

Yeah, just out of it.

Yeah.

So go into surgery.

They removed 17 inches of my intestines.

Wow.

Yeah, a big, big portion.

And the next thing I know, I'm in my hospital room.

And so the hard thing was, is this was during COVID.

So I couldn't have any family, any friends.

I was by myself in the hospital.

I'd never been through anything like this before.

I was alone completely.

And so day one, I was just in the worst place because everything was a question.

Like, am I ever going to be able to work out again?

What does my future look like?

And you were in great shape at the time, right?

Oh, yeah, I could do.

pull-ups, I could do pistol squats, I could do whatever I wanted to do, you know?

So I went from up here to all the way down at the bottom.

Overnight.

And so I didn't know what this meant for my business either because it's like, I don't know if I can work out what's what's going to happen to, you know, my community, my queen team community.

And so the first day I didn't even want to get out of bed.

And the first nurse that I had was like, yeah, you're probably going to be in here for at least 10 days.

You're probably not going to be able to work out for nine months.

And I was just like, oh, my goodness, this is really nine.

Of course, that's typical.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I was, it was not correct.

Typical modern medicine is like, yeah, you're going to be, you you know, it's nine months to recovery.

And

yeah, having no idea what, what you've got going on up here.

Right, exactly.

I'm like, yeah, right.

Okay.

Nine months.

Hopefully you're already going, oh, hell no.

That's not

nine days for me.

So the next day, I woke up in the hospital and I just like was thinking to myself, like, the only thing, I have two options.

I can either give up.

and just lay here and be in a pissed off mood about this whole thing or i can do whatever i can to take the next step to to becoming better So the first that that day I was like, I'm just, I'm going to get up and walk.

I had to have a walker.

I had to have a nurse with me.

And it was hard to walk, but I was able to walk just a little bit.

I went back to my bed.

The next day, I was like, you just that weak?

I was, I mean, yeah, because I, they couldn't give me any food because my intestines had been cut, you know, apart.

And so I was super weak, um, also just in pain.

I have a huge scar down my abdomen from this.

And so then the next day, I thought, I'm going to walk maybe twice today.

So I'd walk in the morning and then I'd walk in the evening.

The next day, I'm going to walk maybe a little bit further today.

So each day I would just do one step more.

And I was out of the hospital in four days.

The doctors were like,

we've never seen anyone recover from this so quickly.

And then even with working out, I was back to working out way quicker than the doctors expected.

I didn't know if I was even going to be able to do like a pull-up again.

But within, I think, like four months, I was able to do pull-ups again.

Right.

And so it's all about taking those tiny little steps each day.

Like if you're a beginner or if you're somebody that just had an injury and you're coming back from it, like it's really hard to look at the end goal and be like, wow, I have so far to go.

Yeah.

Like you have to set overwhelming.

Yeah, it's super overwhelming.

And you have to set those little daily goals and you have to celebrate them.

One thing that I do that I think could be helpful to people is every day after my workout,

whether my husband and I are working out together or whether I'm working out by myself,

after the workout, I always ask, what was the favorite, my favorite exercise or what was your favorite exercise that you did today?

What felt the best?

So you're ending your workout on a high note.

You're thinking about the positives.

That's a really good idea.

Yeah.

So I always talk about that.

We have a whole conversation on our way home about what felt the best.

What are you excited about with your workouts?

And I think that that's like something that's not talked about is you have to like always be thinking about the positives.

Yeah.

You know, I think when you, when you go back and look at exercise that way, I mean, most of us, I mean, I'm thinking about myself right now.

I'm guilty of it.

You get a workout done.

You're like, oh my God, that's brutal.

And, you know, and you're like complaining the whole time on the way home in the car.

But that's a guys are especially like this.

We actually like things to be terrible and then we like to bitch about it afterwards and then just go do it again.

Yeah.

But, but maybe, you know, by looking back and being like, you know what?

That, that, you know, those pistol squats were, that was new and unique.

I felt good doing them.

I'm surprised I could do them.

So just by changing the narrative a little bit

to be something that you look upon as a very positive thing.

I think a lot of people have issues with

time in their days and saying, I just don't have the time to work out.

I can't budget it into my day.

I've just made it non-negotiable for my life.

You know, I started scheduling my meetings and travel around sleep and exercise.

And I don't think anything,

any modality that I have, and I got tons of like crazy equipment in this unit or any particular red bed or anything

has had nearly the impact that simply making sure that sleep and exercise are non-negotiable in my schedule.

Yeah.

And my wife knows it.

Like if dinner parties run too late, I just get up and go and go to bed.

Yeah.

She's like, where's your husband?

He's, I know where he is.

He's like, yeah.

I like that tactic.

She was going to be like, I'm going to sleep.

I didn't do it to you guys, but like, well, you left early enough.

But had you gone much after 10:30, you would have seen the, what do they call it?

The Irish exit.

You don't take it in your own home.

You just leave.

You just leave.

You got to find your way out.

But, you know, it's, it's, it's been, you know, I, I always thought about what I would be giving up.

But the truth is that, you know, I was just able to move my schedule around.

And so I don't, I don't take, you know, I got asked to keynote a conference the other day and the keynote speech was at eight o'clock in the morning.

I said, gosh, I can't.

I can't keynote at eight o'clock.

I can keynote at 11 a.m.

And, but, you know, I'll be sleeping and exercising at that time.

And I think, you know, once I made it non-negotiable, just what it did for my mental impact, like my self-confidence, your self-esteem.

But how do you maintain it when you're on the road, when you're traveling?

You've been here for three days.

So.

Yeah, I think, so I have a story for this too.

Oh, I love it.

So we love stories.

I had this client, his name is Bill, and he had.

a super successful company.

He had everything that you could ever imagine, like planes, boats, everything, multiple homes.

And he, when he started, he was in his 70s.

So when he started training with me, he would tell me, like, I really put my health on the back burner.

And so he was just getting going.

Just getting going.

Yeah.

He said, I was so focused on building this company that I just put this on the back burner.

And I really want to get back into working out.

And so we started off slow.

And

One thing that he would always say is, don't sacrifice your health for your wealth.

Wow.

Yeah.

And so I think that a lot of people, they're like, well, I'm traveling, I can't do this, or I'm working on this business, I can't do this.

Well, there's, you can still build the million dollar company or billion dollar company.

You can still travel when you do these things.

If you're building a company, you can still take your calls when you go on a walk.

You can take the stairs instead of the elevator.

If you're traveling, you can do a simple five or 10 minute workout in your room just to do it, just to stay consistent because consistency is the key.

If you take one day off, it's easier to take two days off.

If you take two days off, it's easier to take four days off.

So you have to keep it a part of your daily routine, you know, and a lot of people are like, well, I don't even like it.

We do a lot of things every day that we don't like.

Like a lot of people don't like going to work, but you go to work because you have to make money to be able to support yourself.

Fitness and exercising is the exact same thing.

It's wealth that

you can't live without.

You have to be able to keep up on it and do it every single day.

Yeah, I totally agree.

And so how did things end for him?

Where did Bill end up?

Well, one day he came in and he was so excited.

And I was like, what are you so excited about?

He's like, today I was able to put my pants on standing on one leg.

And I was like, that is so amazing.

Like those.

Think about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Truly anti-aging, like focusing on these things is so great because, you know, balance is linked to longevity.

and so just being able to do that is huge.

So, yeah, he's still, he's still exercising.

Yeah, falling is actually the greatest risk of, you know, uh, mortality in older, on older age.

And a lot of it has to do with grip strength.

You know, you're just going down a regular set of steps and you don't have the grip strength to just keep yourself from falling and you end up tumbling down the steps.

And, and I think that frailty is a real risk to longevity.

In fact, so many people,

you know, their grandmother falls and breaks their hip, but the truth is there, it's not really how that occurs.

Usually, what happens is their hip breaks and then they fall.

So the fracture actually caused the fall.

The fall didn't cause the fracture.

And, you know, Peter Attia talks about this in his book, Outlive.

And he talks about, I think he calls it the

centenarian decathlon, which is like, what are the 10 things you want to do when you're 100 years old?

Exactly.

And

you've got to start planning for those now.

And I actually really like that mentality.

I tell a lot of my clients to, I call it snacking on exercise,

which means like, okay, if you don't have 90 minutes in the beginning of the morning,

snack on exercise throughout the day.

You can just go for a 15-minute walk after

lunch.

Or if you can get 15 minutes is better than, is better than no minutes.

But you talked a little bit about the queen team.

Yeah.

The queen team.

So

tell me about the queen team and the community that you're building, because you're right.

You know, when you look at Blue Zone Research, people that are living a really long time,

they call it a sense of purpose or community.

And they want to identify with, and I think it's super important for people to identify with communities that are consistent with where they want to go.

So talk a little bit about the queen team.

Yeah, the queen team is honestly the most amazing group of women.

ever.

Like, so what's what's so great is we all do the same workout every single day.

So we're in it together.

Okay.

So whether you're working out in the US or in Australia or somewhere in Europe, we're all working out together the the same day.

But what I love about the queen team community is everyone is so encouraging to each other.

Like you see them giving each like high fives to each other whenever they talk about who loved or what was your favorite exercise in today's workout.

Everybody chimes in.

And it's so amazing to see.

just the friendships that are built.

I had a meetup in 2019 and people flew in from all around the world

and

they already had a friendship, but seeing them see each other for the first time was

because they've been queen team, like, yeah, community, but just remotely.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And so it was just, it's just so great to be able to have such a strong community of women that are truly supporting each other and cheering each other on.

That's so great.

Yeah.

I think, I think the support system, I forget what the statistics are.

You might know it, but when you have a workout partner, the chance of you actually not working out goes.

down dramatically, you know, when you just have, you're only holding yourself accountable.

Exactly.

You know, when I used to do triathlons,

you know, years ago, I was competing in triathlons and I had a swim partner, a run partner, and I had a bike partner.

And if you, if you didn't show up, man, they just

rode you.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

So, you know, you didn't want to be belittled and berated.

So you, you actually showed up.

But sometimes, you know, you're showing up for other people.

I think the community is so important.

And is that how you plan to take fitness and make your impact on the world is by creating and expanding this community?

yeah definitely you know i from that moment that i

encountered that experience with that woman i just knew i had to do whatever i could to share fitness with as many people as possible so i just really try to share the message of fitness will change your life like you have to make it a priority it's a non-negotiable but

It will be fun.

Like, I think sometimes when you use the words, it's a non-negotiable, it's a priority.

You have to be disciplined.

Those can be scary words to people.

But you can actually truly enjoy what you do.

And that's kind of how I have

how my program works.

I release new workouts every day because I found that when people are having fun and they're engaged in them, they're going to see the greatest results, whether you're working out for 15 minutes or whether you're working out for an hour.

If you can have fun and show up every single day, that's when you're going to see results, like mentally, emotionally, and physically.

And are you running these creen team communities?

Like, are you working out live with them and it's a certain time and they log in?

Or how

does it work?

Sometimes I'll do live workouts with them, but I have an app and the workouts get released in the app every single day.

Okay.

Yeah.

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Now, let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast.

We'll put that app in the show notes at the end of the show, too, guys.

I'll tell you how to get in touch with her, follow her, what have you.

But so we'll make sure that we put it in there.

And do you find that so people engage with this app and they get into this community?

Do you find there's a specific profile?

Do you find it's more like moms?

Do you find it's young women, older women?

Like,

or do you see across the board?

Yeah, across the boards.

There's a lot of moms, but there's a lot of younger women too, and older women.

And it's just really great to see because, you know, when you're a mom, I'm not a mom yet.

I'm a dog mom.

Yeah, I know.

I noticed that you'd love the dog we had here the other day.

Oh, my gosh.

I'm sorry.

I forgot what it was like a Korean

Pomeranian or something?

Korean Pomeranian?

Yeah.

Korean papa chow or something.

Yeah, Korean Pomeranian.

It was the cutest dog ever.

Oh, when I got home, I was like stalking its Instagram page.

I was like, oh my God, he has his own Instagram page.

Yuki.

Yuki, yeah.

Oh, my gosh, I was obsessed.

But, um,

but when you're a mom and then all of your focus goes into raising your kids, especially when you have a newborn, like you're kind of stuck inside, your social life kind of goes away.

But this is a way that you can still socialize when you work out and you have friends from all over the world.

Even if you travel to another place, you have a friend there that you can go hang out with and get a workout in yeah and and and we talked a little bit about you know traveling so how do you maintain your consistency on the road are you always looking for a gym do you have a hotel workout routine do you have like minimum i'm gonna do some air scots and you know some planks yeah what what so what are you doing to stay fit on that i always take resistance bands with me because they're very easy to pack okay um and i have travel workouts that i do with my resistance bands because that's really easy to do in your room or you can take them to your hotel hotel gym you can take them to a park which that's my favorite right um and i think a lot of people underestimate resistance bands but when i'm traveling

i start my day with my workout so first thing i do is i wake up get my workout in and then i try to like go out go throughout my day whether i'm traveling for pleasure or for business or whatever so the first thing i start with is my workout and then the rest of my day is planned around there i think it's so i think it's so smart to do that because you look at the endophren rush you get you're getting oxygen to your brain you're circulating, and you get the hard things out of the way early, which I heard you talk about at dinner the other night.

Um, you know, I have this little saying that if your morning is hard, your day will be easy.

Yeah, um, I

never feel like I do anything as hard as getting in a cold plunge or running a hard workout.

Um, and we might even put you in the cold punch before you leave.

Your brothers have already agreed, so I, yeah, well, I said, Well, you were working out, I'm gonna, I'm gonna shame them into it right now

on live podcasts,

And I was like, do you guys want to run a

do a cold punch?

They're like, oh, oh, after, after the workout.

And in my mind, I was like, I know what you're doing.

You think I'm just going to forget about this?

You're going to slide out of my unit.

What no.

I'll shut the elevators off, bro.

Yeah, but we can,

and I like having those things in my life because, you know, I like having them around because I gravitate towards those things.

Like, you know, one of the things I try to do is just not have bad choices around.

Yeah.

Because even though I'm empowered to know what those bad choices lead to, you know, food wise and drink-wise and everything else, I, I still, you know, we're all weak.

And I think very often we don't just set ourselves up for success.

Exactly.

So what are some of the ways that people could set themselves up for success,

you know, to keep consistent with the fitness routine and maybe just start and embark on eating a healthier diet?

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, like I've said, find something that you enjoy, even if you just want to start off with walking.

But if you enjoy dancing, join a dance class.

If you enjoy yoga, go to yoga because those things will

take you maybe into another little

area,

their communities.

Yeah.

Like I was always, you know, into lifting.

And then a couple years ago, I got into jiu-jitsu because, you know, I just saw that on your, you're a badass, too.

I think I saw that on your

Instagram.

I was like, this girl does everything.

Yeah, but it's really fun because, you know, what I saw when I started jiu-jitsu too is I was able, I still have so much to learn in jiu-jitsu, but I was able to advance quickly because I was already into fitness.

And so I was fast.

I was able to learn things quickly.

I was strong.

Like I've been able to choke out grown men that are twice as big as me.

Hey, that may come in handy one day.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So when you're, when somebody's starting out, you should definitely find something that's fun and that you enjoy.

If you don't enjoy it, you have to tell yourself, how can I enjoy this?

So maybe you want to, if you like listening to podcasts, put a podcast on, go for a walk.

You know, and honestly, you'll learn so much more from that podcast because you're out and you're getting oxygen.

So true.

You're getting your blood flowing.

Like you're going to pick up so much more from that.

So you have to take that small little step.

You don't have to go 200% day one.

You got to start off slow.

When it comes to eating healthy, like I said, shop on the outskirts of the grocery store.

Right.

Focus on your protein.

Make your meal around your protein.

I love that idea.

Instead of pasta and then adding chicken, chicken, and then adding your sides to that.

But protein has to be a priority.

Right.

You know, and, and, and eating whole foods, you know, just, just satiating yourself so that you, so you don't overeat.

And I mean, often on the road, it's not the easiest thing.

You know, restaurants, you don't know if it's cooked in seed oils or what have you.

I've always tried to avoid, avoid those things.

You know, I was, I was preparing for our podcast and I didn't listen to your podcast while I was, your other podcast while I was walking, but I did listen to it in the gym today.

I put it on over the, over the speaker.

So to prep for today, I was listening to it in the gym.

And I'm super appreciative that you ran my wife through this workout.

I think she's probably going to join your community.

Yeah.

Because

she's a major, you know, she's a workout buff.

She did great.

She did awesome.

Yeah, she did.

All right, Sage is going to be really happy to hear that.

I was going to throw some clips up here of Alexia beating up my wife this morning

when I walked into the gym.

Are there any other go-tos for you aside from exercise that you do?

Because I really did enjoy the fact that even in the early

2020, 2021, when I was looking at some of your

previous interviews, you really talked about the mental aspect of fitness.

And I think so few people really realize the benefits that you get to your mood, to your emotional state, to your ability to problem solve, how you can focus and concentrate, your short-term recall.

Like all of these like unintended benefits, if you want to say that,

to fitness and exercise.

And like, have you seen that in your community?

Like, what kind of transformations do you see as people are transforming their physique?

Yeah, I mean, I definitely see like the physical transformations, you know, obviously, but the mental and emotional transformations, like I had someone tell me that the body positivity movement almost killed them because

they were were told by the media and whoever else, like, you don't have to work out, eat whatever you want.

And she gained a bunch of weight.

And then she started feeling bad about herself because she didn't like the way she looked or how she felt.

She felt sick and gross.

She joined my program and she started losing the weight.

And she's like, I just feel amazing.

Like, I feel so much more positive about my day, about my life.

I feel more creative.

I feel like I can like recall things faster.

And so I see that across the board from people who just they see the difference in even just like the small things, like being more alert when they spend time with their family, you know, like just more present, more

present, exactly.

Yeah.

I mean, there must be nothing worse than being a mother or father and having a young child and not really being able to engage with them in like physical activity.

Kids want to run around, they want to have fun, crawl around the floor.

I mean, that's like, or as a grandparent.

Yeah.

I mean, my, my, my daughter's 26, my son's 23.

They're in a race to see who's going to make me a granddad first, but I want to be able to like flop around the floor with my kids and, you know, my grandkids and like, you know, get in a swimming pool with them and take them for bike rides and all that kind of stuff.

I think that's like the greatest joy in life is our ability to be mobile without pain.

Yeah.

Um, so for people that have some kind of injury or they have a low back pain, which, which is, you know, pretty impressive what you did with my wife this morning because, you know, she has an L5S1 fusion

and she grew up very athletic.

She was a marathoner.

She was,

I consider an absolute expert skier.

She grew up in snowmass.

So she learned to ski at a really young age.

So she just rips down the mountain.

And I think this L5S1 fusion, the spinal fusion she had from a car accident, I think it really affected her mentally because

marathons are kind of a permanent thing of her past, right?

Too much impact.

But she was able to go through a pretty intense workout today.

So there's people that are facing

injuries or they have joint pain or they have low back pain.

You know, what are, what are some tips and tricks for them to get back into physical exercise?

Yeah.

And today when I was talking to Sage about her back and stuff, I could tell that she misses, you know, running marathons and she misses yoga and stuff.

And I was telling her, like, I know that it sucks that you can't do those things anymore because you loved them, but you can still find other things that you love and enjoy.

And we can work around this back injury and you can become stronger and we'll make it, you know, we'll, you'll be happy finding other things that you really enjoy.

It's a new, it's a new path, you know?

But for anybody that is struggling with an injury, is that what your question was?

Struggling with an injury, like you have to just take it step by step with things.

Like

if you're going back to the gym, don't go do the heaviest weight that you've ever done before.

You have to start with just even body weight and really focus on the muscles that are, that are working in that exercise you can make yourself cry with body weight exercises 1000 i mean really yeah definitely i think i have before

well you like it you're not you're not the person to ask but you know but yeah i mean i've i've had trainers just put me through like pranks and supermans and bananas and i'm like this is not a superman or banana this is torture yeah right yeah but i mean just with body weight i'm like man you could do this entire routine on your hotel floor you can yeah yeah body weight exercises are incredible sometimes i would i'll go to to the gym and I won't touch a weight.

I'll just do bodyweight exercise.

Yeah, because it's amazing.

Like you're, they just do so much and you have to be using so many muscles to be able to do bodyweight exercises.

And it really helps you connect with yourself, you know, being able to do bodyweight exercises.

But if you are struggling with an injury and you're like, okay, I want to do this exercise.

I'm going to start with body weight and it feels pretty good with body weight.

But then you maybe add a little bit of weight and it hurts.

You got to go back to the body weight and really focus on that.

Get your body comfortable with that.

Make sure you're form

over everything.

You have to have good form.

I'm so happy to hear you say that.

Yeah, like

form is the most important thing.

Most people are

more concerned about how men especially, right?

We're super guilty of this.

I want to have an 80-pound dumbbell in my hands, not a 55-pound dumbbell in my hands.

In case somebody walks by and just happens to look at how much weight I have in my hand, you know,

who's a perfect stranger, who I'm never going to talk to.

You know, like, I don't know why we do that but we do yeah um so form over yeah form is the most important thing form over weight all the time um

but if you can never really get to that point to where you can add weight to that exercise don't do that exercise there's a million other ways you can work the muscle in the same way and keep yourself safe the last thing you want to do is push yourself to do something that already hurts and then put yourself a few steps back yeah like you have to just just be smart about it and take precautions with the things that you're doing.

If it hurts,

either check your form and focus on that, make sure you're doing that correctly.

And if you are and it still isn't the right thing, work it in a different way.

Yeah.

I mean, a lot of what you were doing today with Sage was like not even weighted.

You know, did they call it Russian squats when you put your Bulgarian split squats?

Bulgarian, Bulgarian.

I knew it was some foreign country.

Bulgarian spits.

They are devil squats, dude.

I haven't done those since I took like a few jiu-jitsu classes like forever ago um so in in a utopian world um what's next what's the future hold for alexia clark where are you taking changing as many people's lives as i can you know that was the goal i set on set out on in 2011 and i'm sticking with that like I believe, you know, this is my passion and I followed it from having a great marketing job and left everything to go personal training.

And I really feel that God and the universe led me in the path that I'm supposed to be on.

I would agree with that, you know, because the whole reason why you're here is because on super short notice, we told you that we might have an opportunity to go have a meeting to, you know, with other

influencers in the space to go affect public policy to change, you know, the way that our food supply is handled.

And I.

am deeply appreciative that you you did that because it shows that you have very altruistic and i mean you you have a very authentic motive you know because there wasn't anything here for you other than for you to give your time and your platform to really help get a message out.

And so I'm deeply appreciative of that.

And I think it's important for the audience to hear that.

You didn't just come so you could be on the podcast.

She actually came to help us deliver a message and really be a part of a campaign to try to get the corruption out of our food supply and message to people about the importance of

whole foods.

So I

wind down every podcast by asking my guests the same question.

And there's no right or wrong answer to this question.

Are you sure?

Yeah.

I've had some really good answers to it, and I've had some really crazy ones, but what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

To me, to be an ultimate human, I believe it means to live the ultimate life.

And to live the ultimate life, you need to have the ultimate experiences.

And when you look at that, that's being able to play with your kids, being able to pick up your grandchildren, being able to live a full life without being sick and being in a bed and having to go to the doctor all the time.

And so that to me is being an ultimate human because, you know, we are, we have, we know what we have to do.

We have to eat healthy, cut out the processed foods.

We have to exercise and keep that consistent.

Put yourself in.

Everybody can, everybody can be an ultimate human.

That's amazing.

Not everybody, because I trademark the name, but

it's a trademark infringement.

And I will come after you.

I'm just kidding.

Alexia, how do people find you?

How do women join your community and find

more about your community?

So you can find me on Instagram, Alexia underscore Clark.

You can sign up for my program at www.alxia-clark.com.

I'm also on YouTube and TikTok and

yeah, with the CDC.

And the Ultimate Human.

Yeah, and Ultimate Human.

Super.

And I will put all of this in the show notes for you guys.

And we will definitely have Alexia Clark Black because she and I are on a mission to change public policy and food supply in America.

So I'm sure this is not our last meeting.

But until next time, guys, that's just science.