Hey guys, welcome to the very first episode of The WOODLFE. I'm Sam Wood, and the reason I was so excited about creating and launching The Wood Life really comes down to one simple thing, and that is.
To help as many people as possible.
And we really want this to be a community.
Experience, you know.
We want the questions to come from real people in real time and for them to get real answers and to cut through all the BS that's out there when there's.
Just so much of it.
So I really I felt like it was my responsibility as there's so much misinformation out there. But I also think it's just a brilliant extension to everything I've done in the fitness industry to date.
And I really felt this is going to be the exciting next chapter.
So what have I got in store for you? Well, we are going to tackle one of my pet peeves and that is fitness fads. These things that are designed purely to make money. They have no intent to help you whatsoever. And I really feel it's something we need to address because I keep getting questions just like this.
I was just wondering what you thought about hot yoga. I want to know if waist trainers actually work. I was just curious about your thoughts on paloton.
We're going to be having a look at the fads that are worth trying, because some of them definitely are worth trying, but we're also going to make sure you know which ones to steer well clear of.
But first up, we're going.
To have one of Austrai's most impressive people on the show. She's been a summer and Winter Olympian, she soon to be a mother of six people. Oh my god, she's also a doctor. It's none other than the incredible Yana Pittman and I can't wait for her to give us some tips on how to hit those very big goals and stay motivated. That's next on the Woodline. Really excited to chat to our guest now, which is none other than the incredible athlete duel olympian across Winter and Summer
Olympics Supermum Janna Pittman. Welcome to the wood Life, and thank you so much for joining us.
Oh thanks, Sam, that was a lovely intro.
I am genuinely inspired by you, and it's interesting I thought back to when I first was thinking of you and you were famous for your incredible athletics career, and you know you're a fairly polarizing figureback then, and it never seemed to wavery you. You know, you were so tough and determined, and I'm sure you had your moments behind closed doors. But of course, you know, I always used to think, God, this woman is just as tough
as nails. And I think, like so much of Australia, we all saw that and fell in love with you and had so much admiration for you in the recent series of sas where you were vulnerable and raw and incredible and also just a powerhouse. And you know I've read before that you said your father was sort of the inspiration or the driving force perhaps behind this motivating
mindset that you have. But can you share a little bit more, perhaps to our listeners that are thinking, God, I wish I had just five percent of Janna's mindset and perhaps I'd be kicking a bit more ass.
I like it, Sam.
Look, yes, I think I have to preface that by saying that my resilience and my mindset has changed and wavered over the years. I am absolutely human and I've had multiple times where I struggled to get out of bed in the morning just because I've taken on too much or I've lost faith in myself. So I think for me, yes, my father was an absolute role model for me in life. He was a gunner right from
the beginning. You know, he always worked hard. He worked Christmas Day, for example, We regularly not even have a Christmas lunch with him because the guy was a builder out on the building side and he would be actually constructing houses, and he was just so focused on success. And I think in some ways it's a positive and a negative sam because I think you grow up with the idea of what you want to achieve in your life, and then sometimes when you fall short of that, it
can be quite debilitating. So for me, the greatest I think, the most success I've had in my career has actually been after athletics, So sport was great. I think a lot of that comes back to genetics and luck, but it's the things I've pursued subsequently, you know, trying to be a doctor, having babies by myself through sperm donation at one point, and then obviously now clocking over to
six kids this year will be an extraordinary challenge. But they come about because many years ago I had to actually stop and look at my mindset and realize that it was offskew, and a lot of that negative media you're talking about and some of the things that I'd done wrong in my life, I think really humbled me to realize I needed to find some self acceptance and once I found that, I was able to grow from that.
So we often I do a lot of public speaking these days, and we talk about growth mindsets and things like that. But for me, it was actually breaking down who I was as a person and rebuilding from there, accepting that some of the things that other people don't like are actually my strengths and the reason why I'm successful.
So for those people out there who might be thinking, Wow, she's taken on the world, and you know, I can't be her because she does all these amazing things, it's it was actually realizing that I love being busy, accepting that I'm not always around with family and kids, and being comfortable with that, but also accepting that I'm going
to fail. And it's almost like once you once you get over that fact and you realize it's going to happen whether you like it or not, you then don't get as fixated on those results.
Yeah, I love that. I love that.
I think I think that's something that will relate to so many of our listeners. I'd love you to share perhaps your thoughts on goal setting. You know, I don't want people to listen to you, and I love that you said that before. I don't want her to be listening to you and say, well, I'm not necessarily trying to do all of these things at Yana is doing so known and this relates to me.
I want if they're trying to run a five k or they're trying.
To lose five kilos, or they've tried and failed before, but they're wanting to get back on the horse, and you know, must up.
That courage and must trap that motivation.
What are your hips from either a goal setting or motivation perspective that you think can help people the most.
Well, I reckon we should debate this one a little bit, because I'm sure you've got lots of great ideas around this. And it's funny because if I put the athlete hat on so for many years and so many of the young athletes out there, or anyone, as you say, with a five kilo goal or whatever it is that they're trying to pursue. In life often gets so fixated. I think you mentioned that a little bit before too with
the blinkers on when I was a younger athlete. But you get so strongly fixated on a goal that therefore, when things go astray, you have the tendency to fall off the wagon and maybe you know, eat that mass bar rather than sticking to the goal of little bits incremental you know, changes make the difference. So I makes it completely different from the average person when it comes
to goal setting. I am someone who believes in having five or six goals all at once, and I figure, if one of them fails, I'll just lean on the next one. So it's that whole one door closes, the next one open. So that's actually how I've got through all the failures in my life, failed marriages, miscarriages, lost the Olympics, all that kind of stuff, because I always had a concurrent love running alongside my main goal. And so I would simply and maybe this is a skill
I don't know, I would just simply skip focus. So I change from focus on sport to focus on medicine, or if medicine is not going too well, and I'm being yelled at by the bosses at work focus on the children and a goal we have there. So I think it's it does make a busy life, but I think just throwing yourself into multiple eggs, you know, having multiple eggs in one basket, which a lot of people who say goal setting is not a good thing. They say you have to be focused and committed to that
one goal. Well I tell them, well, I don't agree with you. So what do you think? Are you a single, sole focused goal setter or a let's have multiple balls in the wagon and protect yourself a little bit.
I'm okay with having one or two horses in the race, but I'm probably I like things to stay simple. From a process perspective, I think people complicate things, not necessarily with having too many goals, but having too many processes for them to focus on at once, and therefore getting a little bit overwhelmed or lost along the way.
That I'm a big believer with that.
Yeah, that makes sense, but.
I'm going to be frank with you, I've never heard that theory before.
That's quite that's a revelation.
No, it is, And I'm giving myself sixty seconds to digest it and actually get my head around it, because what a fascinating outlook. And a lot of people I agree with you would argue if you're spreading yourself too thin and you've got too many balls in the air at once, that's going to be it's going to be detrimental to any of them potentially landing. But someone like you, who's obviously.
That's just something we've been told.
Yeah it is, yeah, yeah, yeah, I.
Don't think it's just me, snam I reckon.
It's something we've been grown up and told that don't take on too much. Now I'm not saying take on killer goals five or six of them at one time, but I just feel like I need my emotional energy to shift in different areas. So I can sit down for four or five hours and study, but then I need to shift to my fitness goal, and then I need to shift to my parental goal, because if I didn't have areas, it's almost like you're rebooting your system every time you change to the next to the next goal.
But the biggest time is when it's protective, when something fails. So it's funny because my vivid memory of the twenty fourteen qualifications for the Winter Olympic Games, and I'd put my total ass on the line by announcing to the public, you know that I wanted to be the first you know, female summer Winter Olympian double. And it came down to this one race. I had to push off the top of this ice hill and if I didn't push, well, that was it. I could go home with tail between
my legs. And I remember getting so nervous standing at the top, going I can't do this, I can't do this.
What if I fail? What if I bugger it?
Da all that, you know, that little mental chatter that can happen in anybody's life. And then I had that split moment where I said, but it doesn't matter because you're in second year of medical school, so you'll go home and become a doctor. And I thought, oh yeah, sweet, and all the nerves just flew out of the way because I realized it's not my only goal. It's a huge, important thing that I want to achieve, but it's not
the end of the world. So yeah, you know, I think that mentality has really helped when you're trying to achieve things that other people say might be impossible.
The perspective from which I love it is often working with people who who are focused on a body goal. They tend to get so fixated on that that they think that their body defines them and they think that you know their weight on the scales or how they feel about themselves, you know, and they forget that they're this beautiful person with a beautiful soul and their intelligent and a wonderful mother and a great friend and all
these other things, you know. I see it with mums a lot, where their whole you know, self worth in their own eyes is.
You know, fixed by the mirror or the weight scale.
Exactly exactly, and they are so hard on themselves and often neglect to give themselves any credit at all or definitely nowhere near as much as they should in all these other beautiful areas of their life. And so I think I love how diverse they are too. I think, you know, if you're having similar goals or huge goals in similar areas, it could be quite difficult to achieve them all. But if you're spreading yourself out and you're looking at all these other areas, I think that could
be a really healthy thing. And it's and I go back to the athletes. It's interesting when you talk to athletes to have other things going in in their life, they tend to be able to cope with challenges better.
They tend to be able to switch off better. You know, whether they're studying, or whether they're got a business on the side, or whatever it might be, they tend to find that's a really good escape for them, where you know, the bubble of sport and social media and all of the stuff that comes with being an elite athlete these days.
Can be pretty overwhelming and all consuming. So I absolutely love that.
So what about that's goal setting And that's really sort of thrown me, But I love that it's thrown me because perspective and I've never heard before, and I'm here to learn as we go along. What about from a motivation mindset perspective? Because it strikes me and even talking to you today for the first time, there's a softness to you that perhaps I didn't necessarily know, which I love, but you seem to be this person who you know I can't isn't in your vocabulary? Where does that come from?
And if there are people out there who that's not just in their vocabulary, it's probably the most.
Often term that they use.
How do they get that out of their system?
And what's your advice to them.
I've got a few things yet. Firstly, for the first time I reckon in my life. Recently, I've been sitting there going, I don't know how I'm going to cope.
So that's nice, And.
It was vivid the other day I was lying on the bed. I'm not coping with this twin pregnancy as well as I hope. So my superhuman motherhood powers are debilitating at times, and I'm in eight tired fatigue with saw legs and a saw tummy and thinking how on earth am I going to cope with twins and an eighteen month old and my kids and my career and realizing that something's got to give. So I am a big believer that you can have it all. You just can't have it all the time at the same time.
So it's prioritizing what things are most important. So where are you going to throw your motivation? And certainly I do agree with you. The word I can't is something I've worked very strongly since I was a young person to not have as part of my vocabulary.
And it's funny you say that because.
My children say I can't, And the first thing I said to them is, sweety, let's change that I can do this, but I need mummies help, or I can do this. And we'd have that conversation two or three times a day. So it's something I've had ingrained in me as a young person for a very long time, and I do it with my children now. So I guess for your listeners, it is something you can encourage
in your children to change that mindset. Before the age of seven, they say, is when you can really put those inroads to sort of form those neural patterns in the brain. But one how I actually learned about it, because it wasn't something my mum and dad taught me, was when I was in my early twenties, I was working with this fantastic coach that talked about how your brain is like a filing cabinet and whatever you saw at the front of it is the thing you draw out first.
You know, whatever at the front drawer is the thing you find first.
So when you have those conversations I can't or i'm fat today, or I'm not able to cope with this. If you keep reiterating that to yourself. It's going to be the file that you take out every time you're faced with any challenge. So I guess we retrain that.
So I wore a little elastic band for about a year, and every time I said I can't or you know, I'm going to fail at this, I would actually snap that elastic band on my wrist and it would have like a little bit I know it's ridiculous conditioning, but it would short circuit that process in my brain and I would try then to automatically replace it with something positive.
I will do this.
I will try to do this the sort of the reverse of my current feeling, and to be honest, Sam, over time it just became natural, so you know that though process is always still there. And don't get me wrong on SAS Australia, there were multiple times where I'm like, oh my god, I can't do that, but then it wasn't an option.
I just did.
So it's almost it's a reprogramming and a retraining to make you believe that nothing that's important will come easily, but that you're just sabotaging yourself if you don't give it a shot.
I love that nothing that's important will come easily. And I always say to my twenty eight brigade on my fitness program, whether you say you can or you.
Can't, you are right, that's correct.
And I think manifesting the positive rather than manifesting the negative become just paramount to people's mindset and attitude and success. What would your most succinct powerful note to leave our listeners be.
I don't know if I have an answer to that is that's impossible. No, I think there's a lot of mechanisms on how to do it. But I think the number one thing we need to strive for in life is self acceptance. So trying to find what your strengths and weaknesses are outside of what other people think your strengthens weaknesses are will go a long long way to your goal setting and your ability to achieve what you really really want and love in life.
What a beautiful spot to finish on. I love that.
Yeah, I could honestly chat to you, probably for the next two hours, but I feel like I'd be taking such a valuable amount of time off the busiest woman in Australia that I probably shouldn't do that, but I just wanted to sincerely, thank you so so much. I love that you are adopting these things not only to your own life, but your children's. I have a two
year old and a four year old. I also have a pregnant wife who I'm continually okay, okay, but she's feeling pretty crappy at the moment, and I'm always saying it's okay, you know, don't feel like you need to conquer the world. Now, is not the time for you to be trying to conquer the world to a human. And she's, you know, just obviously with a public profile, she always feels like she needs to be strong and glamorous and you know, all that kind of stuff, you know, and it's like.
Don't worry about that crap. The more real and raw you are that I.
Think, the more I'll resonate with you.
Exactly exactly, So thank you so so much. It was, Yeah, I think just those powerful tips on mindset, motivation, goal setting absolutely incredible. I knew I would be inspired, but you've thrown me a real curve ball and given me something really.
Powerful to think about.
How is that tip about the elastic band and flicking it every time that you think to yourself, I can't I'd actually love to know what you think about that. Do you think it's too extremely do you think it's a really good thing that you could try to get that out of your vocabulary forever. Make sure if you've got your thoughts, to send them through in the link in the show notes. Now it's time for hate it or rate it. Now. I think we would all agree
that it's never been a busier market. And I use the term market because it's often a marketing spin of pills and potions and books and formulas and whatever it might be to help people lose weight. Now you look at that, and then on the other hand, you look at Western society and we've never been fatter. So little segment called hate or rate where we uncover the good ones and the bad ones. We're going to be brutally honest.
Keep in mind, this is just my opinion, but it makes my blood well sometimes when I see these things that are promoted as good for you and they're clearly not. And I often think there are some that sneak under the radar that are actually a little hidden gems that more people should know about.
I'm back and I keep seeing hit workouts promoted everywhere.
Are they actually worth trying.
You probably have to be living under a rock if you haven't heard the term HIT workouts by now, but HIT hub it stands for high intensity in training. It's the likes of F forty five, it's the likes of Body Fit, it's the likes of many others along that mold, where we do short bouts of high intensity exercise followed by a little bit of recovery, and then we go again, and we go again, and we go again. This is a great way to train if you want bang for your buck and you want to burn fat fast. It
is a big part of my twenty eight program. We do HIT workouts, but you do them at home. That's how it all works. The reason they are great is you are working your cardio system, you are working your muscular system, and it's a relatively quick workout for a relatively big result. So you do have to be a little bit careful. I think the one caveat I've got with HIT training is it can often be high impact, so intensity should be you are working hard relative to
your fitness level. Impact can obviously be lots of jumping landing, lots of jumping land, lots of jumping land, so be careful if you're trying it out, because some of these workout places that focus on hit training exercises tend to be very repetitive and very high impact, and that's not for everybody. But if they have lower impact but still high intensity options, then that is a really good hit
option for you and it's a great way to train. Hello, I'm really from Central Vick and I was just wondering what you thought.
About hot yoga.
Hot yoga.
Now, that's a good question because hot yoga, I think polarizes a lot of people. Some people think it's completely unnecessary. Other people it's their thing, it's a cult and they couldn't live without it. I think it's one of those really interesting ones. I personally really like it because I like to sweat, and it makes yoga, which is a wonderful workout all on its own, I think that little bit more challenging and that little bit more exciting, and
that little bit more I think different. You know, it sort of separates a little bit from normal yoga, which I also like.
Like.
The one thing you have to be aware of is it's bloody heart. It's amazing. I have done one marathon in my life.
I reckon.
I've sweated more in a hot yoga glass than I did in the entire marathon. I cannot believe how much you sweat. One, I think it's because I'm not very good at yoga.
Two the room was.
Really warm, and three I don't think I was ready for it. I kind of went in with these expectations that it was not going to be that hot and it was not going to be that hard, and it was way hotter and way harder. So if it's something you've been thinking about trying, I really think there's some benefits there. I think it's a wonderful way to you tend to be a bit more limber in a warm room, and that's really good for yoga because it's a great
mobility exercise. But don't underestimate how good yoga is as a cardio and strength workout as well. If you're really doing a bit more of a flow based yoga rather than a yinn based static yogurt, it can be really.
Really good for you.
Putting in a hot room absolutely takes to another level and I rate it.
Hi.
I'm Cassie from Melbourne and I want to know if wasste Trainers actually works waist trainers, waste of money trainers, that's what they are, total garbage.
Don't like them at all.
I can understand how, perhaps psychological, they might make you feel better because they sort of pull everything in. I put waiste trainers one level up from these muscular pulse things that you put these straps on your stomach and then you sit on the couch eating Doritos and you're meant to get a six pack. And they're not that bad because I'm sure they can help you tighten your deep core muscles by making you a little bit more aware of just holding yourself with better posture. But it's
not a way to get a smaller waist. We get a smaller waist by eating less and moving more. It's a way it's always been, it's a way it'll always be. So I'm sorry. I hate waist trainers.
OHI, it's Oli from the Surf Coast. I was just curious about your thoughts on Paloton and whether it's worthwhile or not.
Great question from Oli. Feel like Olie and I should go surfing tomorrow. Ollie, the peloton is a really interesting one because it's huge in America and it's just making its way here to Australia pros and cons. Pros you get a brilliant workout from brilliant trainers. Cons you do need equipment, so they starting to introduce dumbbells and hit tight workouts. But they originated from the bike. Now it's a great exercise bike. It's a gym caliber exercise bike
that you have in your house. But that comes at a cost. You know, it's four or five thousand dollars to start Peloton. They put you on a payment plan so you don't have to fork out four grand, five grand straight up. You might be on a three year plan, which is their way. You know, it's marketing genius. Beyonce is a shareholder in Peloton and jay Z and they bring out tracks just for the music videos of Peloton.
It is soul Cycle, which is kind of the best indoor cycle class or renowned, is the best brought into your home. And obviously with COVID, at home fitness has exploded and Peloton are absolutely the forefront of that. And they probably do at home exercise bikes and marketing about home xos box in particular better than anybody. So I
can absolutely see why Peloton is such a phenomenon. What it doesn't have is I believe and again this is all my opinion, is much personality because you're staring at a screen with a very theatrical trainer that I isn't my type of trainer. I prefer trainer that I really feel is getting to know me on an emotional level and connecting with me for real, rather than someone who is addressing me as if they're standing in the middle
of the MCG doing an aerobics workout. That that's just my personal opinion, and when I see Peloton, that's sort of where I think it sits in the market, but from a good product perspective tick marketing geniuses tick. I think it's better in America because there's a bit of a Peloton community and tend to connect with each other. As it's really new to Australia and therefore you're probably going to be the only Peloton kid on the block for a while. So my advice would be hold off
for now because it's a really big investment. If you find you don't like it, you've done your dough, wait till there's a bigger Peloton community in Australia and then perhaps jump on board. Thanks so much to everybody for submitting their questions. Remember the link is in the show notes. If you want to send through your question, follow the wood Life for free on the iHeartRadio app, and I'll see you soon.