Stop hating your body (and yourself)

We're finally going to talk about the thing we've been avoiding, how to not hate your body or yourself. In this episode, we're going to be talking about our health and Wellness journey, our relationship with our own body, working out, and how to live healthy and wealthy lives. We've gotten a ton of inbound questions about this very topic, so we decided to finally bite the bullet and make this a bonus episode for Season 3. I'm Cherie, I'm Jean, and we're

the Tiger sisters. This is season 3 of Tiger Sisters and Gina and I are interviewing incredible guests. As you may have seen its founders, investors and CEO's and the interviews are actually amazing. Go check it out. Every other week, Gina and I are doing some bonus episodes where we talk about more of our personal lives and how to weave that into our professional lives. And we'll get started right

after this break. Hey guys, quick break to let you know that we now have merch on sisters matcha.com. We have sweatshirts and T-shirts that we designed ourselves. Go check it out and please rate US five stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. These ratings are so important for the distribution and survival of Tiger Sisters podcast. Thank you for your support. Welcome back and we're going to kick it off by reading one of the questions that we received in our mailbag about this topic.

You chick says could you do do a video on body positivity, your health routine, diet and working out? It'd be so helpful to learn how to just love our own bodies and stay healthy from you too. Thanks. You check and we had a lot of. Other great questions similar to this. So the way that I think about it is that I think your relationship with your body and the way that you kind of walk through life in your body is comprised of three elements. So the first one is genetics,

which we can't control. The second one is your upbringing, which you can't really control either, but you can do things to sort of mitigate or continue good behaviors from your upbringing. And the last part that you can control is your everyday routine, whether it's your eating habits or your workout routines. So we're just going to talk a little bit more about the environment that we grew up in, how we think about our habits,

our bodies. And then towards the end of this episode, we're going to give really actionable advice about how to get your body into the healthiest and wealthiest place that it's been and things that you can really walk away and implement right after this video. Hey everyone, quick break to share something special. Sisters matcha. We've launched limited batches of ceremonial grade single estate, single cultivar matcha straight from the family farm Sheree worked on in Japan.

It's pure, authentic, and crafted with intention. Head to sistersmatcha.com to grab yours before it sells out. Make Matcha your daily ritual for lasting energy and focus. So I can start by talking a little bit about my journey and my sort of experience with food and working out growing up. So I think we were lucky in that our mom never pressured us in terms of weight or how we looked, and we were able to kind of grow up just eating healthily and conveniently.

Yeah, Yeah. Conveniently, not always as healthy as possible. I think we ate a lot of processed foods because. A lot of like microwave dinners. A ton, but I never worried about my weight growing up and I never, it was never a thought. I kind of just ate anything I wanted. I think also we were blessed with pretty healthy metabolisms and just generally we ate

healthy and reasonable notes. But then I think all that actually changed when I went to college for the first time, because then when you go to college, I was pretty much every day for lunch eating a full Panini, and then for dinner I would eat like a huge sushi roll. And then I had unlimited access to desserts, which we never ate growing. Up. Yeah. We didn't really have, like, desserts or, like, sweet treats growing up. Yeah. Except for orange juice, yeah.

I drank a lot of orange juice. That was our sweet treat. Seriously. But and fruit and fruit ate fruit. That was our dessert. Yeah. So that's just kind of like more about your upbringing that's. You know, the households that you grow up in and like the food that you're surrounded by. Yeah, so. Then once I went to college, I kind of went crazy. Oh, and I was eating these Egg Mcmuffins every day for breakfast, which were so

delicious, so, so good. But then after, you know, a couple semesters, I was like, wait, why am I like, kind of fat right now? You gained weight. Yeah, yeah. I was like, what happened? What's what's going on? And I didn't realize, I didn't even realize that my eating patterns had changed so drastically from how I had been eating growing up my entire life. So then it kind of put me in a little bit of a tailspin. And then I went very strict and

I went very kind of restrictive. And that was when I started actually for the first time ever in my life, counting calories and writing down all the foods that I ate every day and weighing myself every day. So that was really the first time that I encountered, I guess, kind of not a more restrictive relationship with food. And that was that was kind of jarring. Interesting. I guess you and I have never talked about this. Is that like a Did you have an

eating disorder? Not an eating disorder I would say, but I do. I personally think that a lot of women have disordered eating 'cause that's not normal necessarily to count every calorie. Or just to be more obsessive about it. Yeah, Yeah, that's true. We just think it's normal because diet culture is so popularized. Yeah, right. But it's it's basically the reason you do it is to sort of fit yourself into to look a certain way to adhere to a specific ideal.

Yeah, I actually, I got fat. I had a fat period. I gained a lot of weight in high school, actually my junior year, and then also in college my sophomore year. And it was because every day my junior year, I started eating sandwiches at. School, so the same thing. Yes, but I didn't realize it actually, and you probably didn't realize it either. Because I didn't really. We didn't. Really eat like bread.

We don't have bread at home. We had rice was our rice was our main carb that we had for dinner. We had croissant. We had croissant, but I like every day for lunch. I'm I'm not kidding. This is like really serious, like every day for lunch My junior year for about like a few months, I would just have a sandwich and it made me gain like 15 to 20 lbs and I wasn't very active at that. Point kind of sandwich like a lard. Sandwich like a peanut butter

and lard. Sandwich No, it was like, it was just a sandwich with like, salami. So 20 lbs. Yeah, 15 to 20 lbs and. Not look that way, but. I will I why I could tell the difference, especially in my face, but but like especially this happened in the winter months at school when I didn't have as much activity going on as opposed to like spring and fall. I did sports and so I gained a

lot of weight. Then I was able to lose the weight because instead of having sandwiches, I just switched to salads every day for lunch and they were filling salads with like tuna fish or vegetable sat like vegetable salad on top of the salad and that. And I just drop weight like that by eating healthier and just cutting like sandwiches out. This was high school or college. High school. This was high school and the college is a whole nother thing,

especially with drinking. All the habits around drinking, late night eating, I think that really messed with everything in my body. Not sleeping. It was just a really hard time. And I also gained a lot of weight then. But I knew from my high school days that I was just like, OK, I need to start having salads more and I need to start exercising more. So I was able to like diagnose and kind of get out of that. Yeah, I mean, if only it could be as simple as just seed

salads. Because I will say the counterpoint to that is that when I was working at Goldman, my first job out of school, literally all I ate were salads. Because what we would do is when you stay late, you order food, you have a per diem, right? So I would order from this place that was called just salad, literally called just salad. And all they made were these salads that honestly, they were pretty. They were like disgusting, but they were kind of good. Is it like chopped?

Yes, it's just like. Chopped. I love that. I love that so. They're just all chopped salads and they give you a tiny piece of bread that was this big. Yeah, like focaccia or something. So my per diem would cover 2 salads. So I would order two salads. I would have one for dinner, and then I would have one for lunch the next day because I didn't have to leave my desk and go to the cafeteria. And I could just, you know,

crank and work more. But all I ate were salads and I still gained weight because I never moved even though. I will say and poor sleep. Yes, terrible sleep. So this is this is to share a little bit of the lore of the old Goldman days. This was that I was working at 200 W, which is in Tribeca near Wall Street. And they designed that building so that you never have to leave, never have to leave. Because we had, you know, obviously we had the office, we had the cafeteria.

We also had a doctor's office. So I would go from a 9:00 AM investment committee meeting to a 10 AM pap smear and then be back at my desk in time for our 11:00 AM client meeting with Invesco. That's so invasive. So you never had to leave. And also my point is there also was a gym, so they made the gym as easy as possible.

They literally did I ever tell you this, They gave, they had Gray T-shirts so anyone could just wear you can go and you could wear the T-shirts and then they had shorts and socks for you. So all you had to bring was sneakers and then you could just wear the, the, the uniform, the workout uniform of Goldman Sachs. And then after you wear it, you throw it back in the hamper and. It's they launder. They launder it, yeah. And there were workout classes, etcetera.

But my point is, even though I was participating in all that and going to workout classes, going to the spin classes where they made you wear a heart rate monitor and you compete against people. At work, Yes. Wow. It was very, it's like, almost like a, like a parody of itself. But even though I was doing all that, I still gained weight and I was so unhealthy because if you're working 90 to 100 hours, you're just not. Moving just especially at your desk body.

And like, going to the gym for a 45 minute workout every day does not compensate for that. That's true. And when you're only sleeping, you know, four or five hours a night for years, multiple years on it. And then on the weekends, you are kind of crazed. So you're like, I need to go out. I need to socialize with people. I need to feel like I have a life. So then you just go out and party and then drink until the wee hours of the morning.

So a lot of it also just goes to say is about lifestyle in general. And I think a lot of it is determined by your work, where you live and who your friends are, what sort of activities you do with them. It's. Interesting. I mean your per diem like you did spend it on salad which is like good. Literally just salad, but then also. People, I know, people don't

always spend it on salad. They like, can spend it on like, you know, Chinese food or Thai food or like Italian food, like like you chose the healthy option. What do you think about Chinese food? It's greasy. It can be greasy, you know, like especially if you eat that every single cake out. Yeah, take out Chinese food. No, no, take out Chinese food on homemade. Why are you trying to start a

fight right now? I'm just making a point that like, like when you, a lot of people just do take out food when they get a per diem and it's not the healthiest, right? Like you're getting a euro every night for dinner or something. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I was trying my best already on the the diet. Fraud, but what you could control? Yeah, but even that wasn't enough.

And I think also generally probably all of us were so internally inflamed and just so. Oh yeah, that inflammation carrying around inflammation, weight, whatever that technically means scientifically, I'm not sure, but I'm just, I just feel that that was true. Yeah, I mean, it also goes to just, it goes to show it's like food, so diet, exercise, sleep. It's like not there's not like a one, you know, like silver bullet.

It's like a combination of so many different things that create a healthy lifestyle and also in our lives we've like sometimes all of them are great, sometimes none of them are great, sometimes one of them is great. Yeah. And I think the most important thing is to be able to find some version of a routine that fits your life today that you can keep going as a routine.

And having like a lot of intentionality with it, like the three that I named, I would say like the 4th is what stress, like amount of stress in your life, the cortisol in your body, whether it's from work or family, whatever is causing you stress. Like it's sometimes up and sometimes it's down. So I think it's trying to look through each of those pillars of health and figure out which one do I want to work on right now. How can I set an intention?

Because I think it's really hard if all of them are like really shitty right now, it's hard to tackle all of them at once. So one at a time, I think. Yeah. And also I think the answer that you come up with for what is my routine for each of these areas, it doesn't have to be the same for your entire life, right? It has to be something that works for you where you are so sustainable. Yeah, I remember my when I was at Goldman, my my associate

Alexander Cochran because. Wow, name dropped right now. Who's great? Love him, but he tried to do this like fitness kick and he would go to Soul Cycle, which was all the rage obviously in 2010 and it was right across the street from Goldman. No, no coincidence there. But he was doing Soul Cycle 2A days. Oh my God. But it only lasted for a week, right? Because it's not sustainable.

I mean, those don't work like the ones where you're just like crazed about it and like, that's not a long term solution. In fact, I think it'll burn you out. That's how burnout happens. Yeah. And so for me, looking back on it now, I kind of sort of assessing my own time. Those two years at Goldman, I don't know if I could have done any better, honestly. I was kind of just trying to survive. Yeah, right. And that's totally fair.

Yeah. And so that was kind of how my body reacted to that very grueling time. And I kind of think I just did the best I could. But then when I moved to a different environment, when I started working on Zynga, then I had a little bit more control over my schedule, I guess. And that was when I started running almost every morning before work. So I would go into work, we had a gym, and I would change into

my workout clothes. I would run outside, I would do a couple miles, come back, shower and then go up, get breakfast in the cafeteria. We were. Spoiled a la tech life. Yeah, tech life, we were very spoiled. And then bring it up to my desk and eat breakfast and work. So, yeah, it's I guess also don't be so hard on yourself if you're in a, a part, if you're in a time in your life when you just feel like I could not possibly do any better. Sometimes that is true.

I need to work within your your your. Bounds Yeah, I think, I mean, I do this meditation like many times a week. It's one on Spotify and it's like the first thing it starts out is the the mantra is like, I'm doing the best I can every day. And if you truly believe that's where you're at, then like, what else do you have to give? You know what I mean? If you're doing, you're trying your best and your best, you know, sometimes it's up here, sometimes it's down here

relative to each other. But things happen like life happens, babes. Yeah. So it's fine. Yeah, and this is coming from someone who I will say I have tried different. I don't know if you want to call it a fad diet, but back in the early twenty 10s juice cleanses were very popular. Do you remember that? Yes, OK, I was alive. OK, I was sentient. But you didn't have access to them, no. Because I was in 10th grade and I didn't have money. So how did you know about?

Juice cleanses, I just, I've know they're a thing and they're also, people do them now too, like press juice. You can buy a set of stuff and do a juice cleanse. One of my old bosses, Eric, was into intermittent fasting and also juices and all that stuff too. Yeah, so my friends and I were my my coworkers who were also my friends. We would occasionally, every few months, we would commit to doing a juice cleanse. Together, is it not eating for a certain period of time and just

drinking juice? Yeah. You just drink juice for X period of days. So we would either do it. I think we usually do it for three days. We're just actually pretty freaking long. I feel like it's not good for you. It's probably not good for you. I'm not saying it's it's good for you, I'm just saying this is what we did to try to reset. Nothing in this episode is medical advice, so we. Did it.

We did it to try to sort of reset our relationship, relationship with food, which actually, to be honest, does kind of work because after a while you get so used to the act of eating that you sort of forget what it's like to be hungry. So those juice cleanses made me so hungry. And then afterwards I sort of ate less because I was more remembered that I had to wait to be hungry. It's mindful eating it. Was yeah, you're being more mindful to mindful eating.

Yeah. But also we just kind of took it too much to the extreme because I remember one day, it was the last day of my juice cleanse. I had one day left, but we were flying to we were flying to Colorado to go skiing and Vail in Aspen and I didn't want to not sorry to Vail it in Beaver Creek and I didn't want to not finish my juice cleanse.

So I packed all my bottles of juice juices into my ski bag and then I got there and even though we were skiing, I was still doing the juice cleanse and looking back on that now that. Was so dumb. That's so dumb. That was dumb. Did you faint? No, I didn't faint on the mountain, but I would. Have fainted I I like I can't even I like can't skip meals yeah. Well, I would supplement my juice cleanse sometimes if I was too hungry by drinking almond milk, I allowed myself additional almond.

But this is just to give you guys some insight into. I do think that at times my relationship with food was disordered. You know, you don't really ever think about it that way because you're just so focused on the goal of being like, oh I want to get back to this weight or I want to look a certain way and feel my best that you do use really unnatural things like bring 6 glass bottles of juice cleanses to a. Ski Vale.

Yeah. Yeah, I I have never had an extreme relationship with food or my body in that way. I've like, I've had times where I like gained a lot of weight, but I've always felt like in control knowing that like my weight and my relationship with stuff fluctuates and I know that things don't change overnight. Like I think a lot of the times.

And since I've never had kind of like a bad relationship with it, like what I can imagine is that people might purge or not eat food because they think they can change something or gain control overnight. But I've always for some reason understood that I'm like, this takes weeks and months to like show progress. So like whenever I feel bad, and I do feel bad sometimes about my body, I don't always feel great about it. I'm like, OK, I need to start going to the gym more consistently.

And especially this year I've created. A challenge for myself, which I basically gamified it where I'm like, I am trying to go to the gym 30 days in a row, which is really hard. I've gotten to 10 days in a row and then I, you know, need to reset because then I missed a day. But The thing is this challenge is not to punish myself. This challenge is so that I can try and go as many days as possible. And I'm so proud that I went 10 days in a row. I've never done that before in my life.

Like even though I didn't hit the goal of 30 days, I am still like exceeding a new personal record every single time. And I think it just pushes me to continue going. I just thought of something. I actually lied. I did have a bad relationship with working out during the pandemic pandemic, the pandemic where I'm sometimes a little

hard on myself. So that there's just one story where during the pandemic I had a Peloton and I I was really upset with it myself whenever I went on the Peloton and I didn't break a personal record, but. She didn't have a lot going on those days. She really needed something to focus on. Right. And so like, because I was so focused on trying to break a personal record, every single time I got on the the. Bike that's insane. It's insane. It's like. Totally.

That's unhealthy. That's an unhealthy like relationship with it. I recognize that that I would like it would inhibit me from getting on the bike if I woke up like on the wrong side of the bed or I was just like, I don't feel 100% I'm not going to work out today because I don't even want to like try. Oh. My gosh. And.

That's so extreme. So yes, that is I can be extreme like that, which is why with this 30 day workout challenge, I'm trying to be nicer to myself and be like, I didn't make it to 30, I made it to 10. It's OK, We'll keep. The goal is to go consistently and now I feel the most consistent I've ever been. Kudos. Congratulations. Thank you. A question why can't you bake in some flexibility into your 30

days? Why can't you say 30 days, but I get to take, you know, five days off at some point in those 30 days because that would be reasonable. Because I'm not a flexible first thing. And then you could actually reach the 30 days because I feel like it's fine if you feel positive about hitting the 10 days, but I feel like 30 days in a row, it's kind of impossible unless you're literally a bodybuilder.

It's quite impossible because also Gene and I travel a lot, so there are days where like I can't hit the gym or but I don't know, maybe that's an excuse. Like if I do fly or like on a day, like I could go out and like walk or run for a mile. Like that's not the end. Like, you know, I could do that. OK, so don't hurt your back well. My back pain, it's gone now and hopefully it stays gone. But it may have been because she went to the gym 10 days in a row

and played golf in sub zero. I mean sub freezing temperatures. Yeah, I am a little bit intense. So I take back that I don't have a problems because sometimes I create problems for myself. I could bake in some more flexibility, but I am not a very flexible or forgiving person to myself sometimes. And I I do go, I do go a bit more extreme. Yeah, I like. Right now I like this goal. I think I should be open for it

to change. Like it gives me something to strive for and if I'm not like that upset that I miss it then I think it's fine. I think as long as the goal still allows you to feel successful, yes, even if you don't actually reach it, then it's fine. You seem to feel positive. I do. As opposed to the Peloton goal. That was like weird and insane. Yeah. That was not good at all.

I recognize that. Yeah. I was like, I can't even didn't work out today because I don't feel good because I'm not going to reach a personal record. That was intense. That's weird. Yeah, it's weird. I will say I do think my relationship with my body has evolved and changed over time in that. Well, one, I stopped weighing myself every day, partially because my scale ran out of batteries. But that was like a year ago or

something. And I have it gone out of my way to replace it. I try not to weigh myself anymore. Yeah. And I think, I think for me, the reason why I'm OK with it is because I have a better sense of my own body now. Whereas before I was relying on this external metric, which was the scale and the metric, literally the numbers that showed up on the scale to tell me if I was doing a good job and to tell me if I felt good, right.

So the way that I would feel from day-to-day would depend on what numbers showed up on the scale. So that was a little bit it, it was me kind of trying to take control of something versus now I can sort of I have a better understanding of my own body, I think. And I can say to myself, oh, I feel good today. I feel strong. I feel, you know, lean and, and thin and I feel and look good versus sometimes I don't.

And then also, I think I'm also more aware of the fluctuations of season to season and day-to-day. So I used to try to stick very strictly to my goal weight, which doesn't really make sense from season to season. Now I'm more comfortable with a winter weight and a summer weight for the first time ever, which I'd never, ever allowed myself to have that concept of, whereas I was just always trying to be my summer weight all year long. But I think in reality, the weather has to be a winter

weight. The way that you move around, the way that how much light there is available in the day. Yeah, yeah. It's different. So you can't have the same exact goal without changing your activity or eating habits drastically in the winter as opposed to what you would naturally do in the summer. So I guess I'm saying that I've become more flexible and

forgiving. Yeah, quote UN quote of myself versus back when I had just really rigid and flexible expectations of my own body that were very numbers and metrics driven as opposed to more qualitative and intuition and intuition. Driven. Yes. Yeah, Something I love. One of your best friends does this. She buys clothes in 2 sizes. Who? She goes to Reformation. Oh, she goes to Reformation. God, I told you that so. If I tell you that, or I told

you that, she told me that. You told me that, Yeah. So if I had the expendable income to do this for all my clothes, I would, yes. But like, it's so smart. And if you have the expendable income, you should totally do

this. Is that if you find something that you love, a dress or whatever, buy it in two sizes, the size that you're now wearing and the one that's up or down from where you could be. Yes, you know, that does remind me. I have also kind of done that a little bit too, where now I'm more comfortable with buying pants that are a bigger number than what I used to be for different times in the year or different even, like different

parts of your cycle. True. Right. So I used to be so fixated on, oh, I am a 26 so I'm going to get the 26. Even when sometimes you just feel better or you look better in the the 27 or 28 or or whatever. So that was also kind of an evolution for me. I guess I didn't realize that my approach had evolved so much until upon reflection for this episode. You guys are getting the live learnings.

Yeah. But I also think part of it is that now I'm more in control of my time, and so I know that I can definitely go work out consistently without having too many external things that would. Prevent control your. Timing, yeah, or I I'm able to make it happen so and like the workouts are suited to me versus before I was trying to do really crazy hit workouts all the time, which I think are just not suited to my body. I literally can't do.

Hit, like, I don't know, kudos to people who do high intensity interval berries, right? Workouts. I used to do berries, but then. But it wasn't like I couldn't. It wasn't good for me. I would feel nauseous and I would feel very lightheaded. Yeah. And like I felt like I was going to throw up. Like, it like, hit is not good for me. Yeah. I used to do berries too, yeah. I think everyone like pushes themselves like do berries. I think it's really intense. I'm like out on berries.

I've had like phases where I've gone very consistently. Love the Berry smoothies afterwards. They are so good. The music is really loud, so I always wear earplugs. I'm like that person who's wearing earplugs at Berry's. And also there's like, I don't know, 2530 people in a room and no individual attention from the instructor. So that like you're lifting these like heavy weights and like you could really injure yourself. I feel like I don't know, you know? And it's also really dark too.

Oh, I like the darkness. I feel like I'm in the club. Yeah, I mean, I think that's what people like about it. It feels like you're at a party that you're working out, but I don't know. I'm out on berries. I've been going consistently to the gym, but my confession is that going to the gym is one of the hardest parts of my day.

It always has been. So like I love how I feel after, after the gym, after working out, but getting there like if I could like lay in bed and sleep, lay in bed and scroll like I will like I know I'm just like super drawn to that. And so like, I like to go to the gym first thing in the morning because I like to get the hardest part of my day done 1st. And that's my way to really lock in the gym time.

Otherwise, if I don't go early in the morning and it's like 5 PMI will put it off and I'll be like, I'm not going to go. I just feel lazy and I can, I know I feel like that. So I, I love going early in the morning first thing. They say do the hardest thing first in your day. Some people it might be, you know, work career stuff. For me, it's literally going to the gym and I've also like talked to people too. They're like, I love how it feels to be at the gym. I love working out.

I love that feeling at the push and the sweat. That's not me. Like I like how I feel afterwards, but it's not so much the activity itself. So I think that's like a really interesting distinction because I feel like I often give off vibes where I'm like, I'm such a workout girlie. I'm like sometimes, but like not all the time. So want to clear the air there? Yeah, I think that reminds me of I'm just the concept of being

able to find what works for you. Because when Cherie goes to the gym, oftentimes she does a workout set that she just does it on her own. She has like a self-directed workout, which nowadays I almost never do a self-directed workout. Pretty much every time I went to the gym, I'm doing the gym class. And for me, it's very, very, very, very helpful to have that appointment mechanic to have a class that I've already signed

up for and I can't miss. Otherwise I get a strike or whatever because that forces me to go to the gym. That's, that's the phase I'm in now. But you know, in previous times when I was working, I, I would go to the do my work out in the morning before work because then it was, you know, baked into the routine there. So I think it's just all about finding what works for you and what you can do that is repeatable. And it does take some experimentation.

It's not like you just would automatically find something right away and it works right away. And sometimes it's, I think, also accepting that it could be a different thing than before because I used to run 3456 miles a day, which is crazy to me now because I never run anymore. But that used to be my primary work out of choice. Yeah, I think like it's OK that working out happens in different

phases for of your life. Like I used to be really into like half marathons as well, really into running, but I think everyone also like kind of has a running phase. Some people stick with it, but it's also helpful if you guys have I, I remember there's a time where I hadn't run more than three miles before in my life, which is like so insane. Like I don't know, it's like I feel like a normal thing to be able to run 3 miles. But then I haven't done that now

in a long time. But it's interesting to sign up for 1/2 marathon or even A5KA12K, because then you have these milestones in your head and you have to, you know, gradually work up to it. So I've had a phase where I've done a couple of half marathons and I'm really proud of that. Yeah, very, very proud. It isn't good.

I've used half marathons as a forcing function to basically scare myself into working out consistently because I don't want to just, you know, done it on the day and enjoy yourself. Yeah. And it has worked multiple times until it got to the point where I kind of was like, well, I don't have half marathons, I think I can do it. And I just did it. It didn't work as a forcing mechanism anymore. And then I basically winged it the day that I survived. But I would not recommend.

It Oh my God, if you need a training plan, if you're going to do a half marathon, don't just I mean, if you don't work out right. Yeah, it is also a very fun thing to do with your friends to sign up for something for 1/2 marathon or some sort of race with your friends. So you hold each other accountable and you can each other's workout buddies or training buddies.

And then that takes me to the point where that I made earlier that a lot of times some of the components of, you know, your relationship with working out and eating and movement is about where you live and who your friends are and what your friends do. Who you surround yourself. Right. So when I was living in New York, all we did was the thing to do is go out and drink and eat. Whether it's brunch, drinks, dinner, pre turn drinks, post dinner, drinks, etcetera.

That was just what people did versus when I lived in San Francisco or even living in Lai think these are much more daytime cities and it's much more normal to do an activity with your friend and say hey, let's go for a hike together or a bike walk, a bike or a walk or something. Yeah, yeah. I love SF for that reason. It is such. An an active city and not as much drinking, which I'm also a fan of. I've been like drinking way, way less.

And yeah, I don't know, it's nice to be surrounded by people who are also active because when I, I felt like when I was in New York, even if I wanted to be active, it's like people like, oh, you want to go for a hike? Shouldn't we just go get brunch? Like there's less people who are interested in doing set

activity. Yeah, so I guess wherever you live, one thing you can try to control for is finding more people who do want to do these activities with you as a form of hanging out like a pickleball league or. Like, you know, they have these like if you're, you know, out of school or whatever, like there are these like groups that you can join, especially like new grad leagues and stuff like that. I did join a dodgeball league.

That was a mistake. I will not be doing that again in San Francisco. I thought you hated dodge. I hated that I I do hate dodge. It's a very. Traumatic dodgeball story I. I do hate dodgeball, I joined for the social element and didn't really enjoy the the sport but it was good to like see people and hang out with them. So anyways, there are like leagues. That you can join back to to to

3rd grade. I I did, I did not enjoy the sport itself, but I would be down to join like a pickleball league now, like an actual like recurring thing. I'm going on a pickleball date tonight. Crossover with our dating episode. So. I just had to bring it. Up. I just had to bring it up. Just had to bring it up. I'm like only a little bit excited about it. Does the date include anything aside from pickleball? I'm not sure.

I mean, I'm assuming there's going to be a. Dinner after, Yeah. Like a casual dinner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe we'll get something to eat afterwards, but I'm excited. I think it's really fun to do active dates with people. Yeah. I agree, especially because we like to. I love pickleball and it's kind of fun like having a pickleball partner because then you can see if you have pickleball chemistry like how you guys, what have you guys. I get what you mean. I get what you.

Mean I play pickleball a lot with my ex too. Yeah, pickleball and tennis. At Stanford. And so it's like really it. Must be nice. That was like she lived on a resort and was a retiree. Well, it was fun. Because like once you have a pickleball partner, you guys can like there's like banter, you guys like talk to one another, there's communication. And usually the people that I play with are much better than

me and I'm like good. But like I people I play with just much better than me. So they can kind of like coach me And I'm like, really, I like improving and being challenged in that way. Same, same. And so that's why I think this pickleball date. I hope this person is good. If not. Off with his head. I'm just kidding. That's that's a joke. Back to the bench, warmer position. But yes, yeah, I like, I like to play tennis. That's a thing. I can't. We can cut that.

OK, so the last topic I want to talk about is about diet. And it's something that Gina and I are doing and something you can do too if you find it interesting. So I watched a documentary on a Delta flight. It's like a master class on gut health. Gut health is all the rage right now. Basically this documentary is just like what you eat is so important for everything in your body, for all the functions. It helps control your sleep, it help it controls your attention.

All this stuff is controlled by your gut. That's like, you know, the newest, hottest thesis that people are working on. And so the thinking is that your gut microbiome, it has a bunch of good bacteria and it needs to feed on a really diverse set of foods. And so people should target 40 different fruits and vegetables, legumes and nuts. Like all these different Whole Foods should be in your body so that your gut microbiome can respond to it and have different things feed it.

This is Cherie's new platform. She's like been talking about this a lot. This is not sponsored. I don't know who would sponsor her. Big fruit, big, big veggie. Send me strawberries. This is. An avocado. This is this is giving Michelle Obama so her her campaign was about moving was. It no, I thought it was about like she did the garden like Oh yeah, yeah, it was about it was about both anti obesity, no. Yes, yes, OK. Wasn't that Melania's as well? No Melania's was be best.

No anti bull. It was anti bullying, anti Internet bullying. I shouldn't even say that with a straight face. Hello best Hello. Hello. Be best though. I like my suitcase. I like my suitcase. I like my suitcase so good. So anyways, 40 fruits and veggies. It's really hard to do, but again, I like to set stretch goals I guess and see if I can reach them. Yeah, as long as you're not upset when you don't reach them. Because that's the difference

between me and Sheree's mindset. As you guys know, I make that annual list of goals for myself, but it is called 36 things to do on 36 but I actually make it a list of 70 items so that if I hit 36 then I reach 100% So that's what I need our. Ratios are a little different. It's relative, you know. That's what I need to feel successful. No, I'm just glad. Well, since The thing is like, I'm just glad. I'm just trying my best, you know what I mean? Like I'm just like, yeah.

So sometimes, like, I've hit 40, we've hit 40 because I do a lot of the cooking in our house. We hit 40 for a couple of weeks, but then sometimes then it was like, oh, damn, this week is really hard. I didn't go grocery shopping. Yeah, we're like at 30. I don't know, like it's fine, but like I'm just trying my best and it's actually just so good to be just more intentional about what we're eating in terms of Whole Foods. Otherwise I feel like I love

processed foods. Y'all, big processed foods. You did such a good job with like wiring how our brain works and what we. Crave. We ate a lot of Hot Pockets. Oh. My God. I say. Like the hot pockets? Jalapeno poppers? Jalapeno poppers. Wait, Hot Pockets, which was they had a really good flavor of like pepperoni pizza? Yes. And also there's like a morning Hot Pocket. You like open it up and put it in the sleeve and then put it in the microwave.

Was broccoli cheddar was it? No, no, there was one. That I had ham and cheese that I had that I was thinking about. Yeah, but we, but we grew up our our mom was a single mom, so. A lot of microwavable foods. I also had a lot of TV dinners, which I actually loved. Like it was interesting because it was like meatloaf. It was like meatloaf and red sauce with green beans and mashed potatoes because we don't have that in our house. Yeah, we only ate Asian.

We only ate Chinese food, Chinese food growing up, homemade Chinese food. So like, whenever I could have like American food, I was just like, meatloaf. And we didn't know that it was bad, but it didn't taste that bad, honestly, because they put so much, you know, they manufacture it so that it tastes good. Wait, I thought it tasted really It was like meatloaf and gravy and mashed potatoes. Yeah, yeah.

But they, they like, they put all the chemicals and preserved stuff in it to make sure it tastes good. That's the whole point of it. Yes, exactly. So I guess. But we turned out fine. For now, doesn't We don't know how many microplastics we have in us still. So many microplastics. But I guess the point is, is that like Gina and I are just like, we're very human about it, you know, like we're very fallible. Like we have, we try our best to have our routines work out, eat healthy.

We put these systems into place to try and have like guardrails because if we don't like, I know I'm not going to be eating the healthiest. That's a good way of that's a good way of describing IT systems and guardrails. And frameworks of like how to think through things because if I didn't have 40 fruits and veggies, I'd be la di da like I wouldn't be as mindful about it. And so I, I think it's honestly less about punishing ourselves for not doing it, but just being

more intentional and thoughtful. Mine's all about. Punishing. I'm just kidding. No, mine is about, I think it's about feeling good in your body and just feeling strong and healthy and happy day-to-day. Mine is about forgiving myself and loving myself. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and also just to say not to be totally obtuse, right? The reason, at least for me, partially the reason why I do it is because I'm vain. Like no, not going to try to obfuscate that. At all? Yeah, I want to look good.

I think I look better at a certain weight. I also feel better too. Yeah, I feel. Better Yeah, when I feel like I'm muscular and lean and. When I can climb stairs without losing breath, I actually love feeling healthy. The new mantra that I've developed over the last few years is strong, not skinny. I actually have it written right over there. Do you see it on that? Oh yes, I do. It says Cherie is strong campaign, right? Yeah, Cherie is strong and the word skinny is cut is crossed

out. It's not for me. It's no longer about being skinny. It's about being strong and feeling strong. Yeah, Yeah. I think that's, that's all I had on the topic for now. But I guess we just wanted to share with you guys. We're not experts in health and nutrition and and fitness or anything. Like that, I'm no scientist. Yeah.

This is just our lived experience and more than a few people asked and we want to be helpful and kind of share with you our struggles to get to where we got today and how we figured out what works for us, which again has changed over time. So I think, yeah, back to the idea of a lot of it is about experimentation and finding something that works for your routine and your lifestyle, knowing that that can change over.

Time, absolutely, and. Whatever situation you're in today, it could you could always change it for the better. My take away here is that as long as you're trying your best for the situation that you're in, that's all you can do. And also you're the captain of your own ship. I don't expect changes. I don't expect changes to happen overnight and it's about consistency over time. Going to gym, the consistently over time, you know, eating

healthy over time. I don't expect even if I feel like shit today, I know that if I do one thing today, it's not going to change by tomorrow. It's a delayed timeline and so it's just being consistent and building habits that you can stick with. Yeah. And that you need to have a strong foothold in each of the pillars of diet or, you know, nutrition, exercise and sleep. Because as we learned from my Just Salad experiment of two years of only eating just salad, literally diet alone will not

help you get there. Will not, you know, allow you to fully get there. Yeah, I mean, we didn't even really touch on sleep, but I think asleep and or like controlling stress. That could be a future episode if you guys are interested in that. Eternal struggle. Jean Jean's. Biggest enemy is herself when it comes to sleep. That's true as in the last few years, yes. Well, thank you guys so much for tuning in to this episode of The Tiger Sisters. Please remember to like,

comment, and subscribe. And if you found this episode helpful, we'd so appreciate it if you could share it with a friend. Thanks. See you. Bye.