Learning to Love the Skin You Are In with Lia Pinelli

Lia Pinelli  is a woman on a mission to help smart, busy professional women free up the mental real estate they’re currently wasting counting calories and carbs, and instead use that energy to create the lives they crave, unapologetically.

Having lost 30 lbs. using the same method herself, Lia has helped countless women stop emotional overeating and simplify weight loss from the inside out. Her 90 Days to Food Freedom program teaches what every other weight loss program doesn’t, which is brain-based solutions to solve the REAL problem and end self-sabotage for good.

Host of The Life You Crave Podcast, Lia’s work has been featured in Shout Out SoCal, San Diego Voyager, and numerous podcasts around the world. She was also the keynote speaker at the Strong Girls, Strong Women Conference of Silicon Valley, and is a Premier Success Coach with the eWomen Network.

Empowered Within Host:
Hi, I'm Jennifer! Empowering You to Be You! Welcome to my cozy world, our "ah-ha" place of growth, insights, healing, inspiration and empowering success!

Jennifer Pilates, Spiritual Thought Leader has been  transforming clients body, mind and spirits worldwide for over 20-years as a Pilates Expert Trainer,  Empowerment Mindset Coach, World-Renowned Intuitive -Medium Advisor, Writer and Host of the Top-Rated Podcast Host Empowered Within.  Jennifer is a  multi-passionate entrepreneur, detail-loving, stubborn-as-heck achiever, unshakeable optimistic, philanthropic, self-care activist, fur-baby momma and ocean loving intuitive-empath. 

From her coaching to training, from her advising to writing, to her top-rated Podcast: Empowered within, Jennifer has been leaving her inspirational, empowering and transfor

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Transcript

0:59

Welcome to Empowered Within a Soul Quenching transformational podcast that will set your soul on fire through candid and inspiring conversations. Leading experts, celebrities, healers, and I share our journeys of how we've overcome challenges to living an empowered life from within. I'm your host, Jennifer Pilates. Welcome to another episode of Empowered Within. Hi there and welcome to the show. Today's guest is Leah Pinelli. She is a woman on a mission to help smart, busy, professional women free up the mental real estate. They're currently wasting counting calories and carbs, and instead use that energy to create the lives they crave unapologetically. Having lost 30 pounds using the same method herself, Leah has helped countless women stop. Overeating and simplify weight loss from the inside out. Her 90 Days to Food Freedom Program teaches what every other weight loss program doesn't, which is brain-based solutions to solve the real problem and end self-sabotage for good. Host of the Life You Crave podcast. Leah's work has been featured in Shout out Southern Cal, San Diego Voyager, and numerous podcasts around the world. She was also the keynote speaker at the Strong Girls Strong Woman Conference of Silicone Valley and is a premier success coach with the E Women Network. Welcome to the show. Thank you Jennifer. I'm so excited to be here. Oh my gosh, me too. We were just chatting and having so much fun off air, so it's fun to just jump on. So tell me, will you share, how did your journey begin with emotional eating? Oh, oh, I'm like, okay, we're gonna go way back to 1987. No. But really? Yeah, so I was always overweight. I was a chubby kid and. I was aware that I was a chubby kid. I got teased. You know, most, most chubby kids know it as their classmates and their siblings are gonna let'em know. But it wasn't until I was, actually, nine years old and my mom came to me and said, so gently, I mean, like, I don't know how a mother could have done this differently. I'm pretty sure our pediatrician had suggested this, but she came to me and she. I think we're gonna need to try a diet. That was the first time that it had been suggested. And, I mean, she was so gracious and so supportive. But it was the first time that I really realized, oh, there's something so wrong with me that I have to eat differently than my siblings. I have to eat d I'm the, I am the one in the family policy. And I remember she saying, we are gonna go on a diet. So she was doing it with. But it was, it was when it, I first really became clear that like, oh no, this is real. Like I have to actually, um, restrict myself. So dieting started at the age of nine. And, you know, it was like on again off again. You know, I did, I did all the diets. You name it, I did it. And, my wake fluctuated as most dieters. Does, right. As most, most of our weight does fluctuate when we, diet a lot. So, it really wasn't until, you know, I done every day in the book. It wasn't until I had my son, when I was in my mid thirties. Then I was like, I'm so done with this. Like it doesn't work. Like either I'm restricting and miserable and on a diet and it's barely working, or I'm not restricting and I am 30 pounds overweight. I'll just take the 30 pounds overweight. Like I'm tired of this, you know? So, and, and now we had like this little human in my life, like I wanted to give my energy to him. and I had a full-time career. I worked in, uh, leadership. I was an assistant principal of a high school at the time. I just had other things I wanted to be spending my energy on, not counting points with Weight Watchers again and feeling like I was starving. So I, um, I basically gave up and, I was resolved to just be overweight. But the thing that really bothered me wasn't so much the 30 pounds, to be honest with you. I mean, I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I'm like, I'm, I'm a big girls girl, all about body diversity. You know, I think that Kirby women are sexy women. You know, I'm, I'm all about that. But for me, it didn't feel like I was at home in my own skin. But the thing that bothered me the most was my eating behaviors is I thought about food constantly. I was always hungry. I was hungrier than most people. I was hung. I, I could eat as much as my husband, who's a six foot seven ex hockey goalie. Like, this is, there's something wrong here. So that was the part that I really struggled with specifically into my late. Wow. So what would you say to help our audience understand what is the difference between emotional eating and overeating? Or do you feel they're the same? That's a great question. No, they're not the same, but they are so, so intertwined. Um, overeating is actually, I actually use kind of a broad definition of overeating with my clients because technically overeating is eating. than your body actually needs. And really in, in like practical terms, it really just means I'm eating to the point where I am a bit uncomfortable. I'm not feeling real good. That's typically overeating. Emotional eating though is eating any time that we aren't physically hungry. And so that's the part. pretty much applies to everyone. Like if you've ever eaten, if you've gone to the movie theater and ordered popcorn and your stomach wasn't growling and you ate it anyway, that's emotional eating. And a lot of times when we think about emotional eating, we think of this like really sad, overweight girl in the middle of her kitchen floor with a tub of ice cream, like crying into her ice cream, eating directly out of the gallon. And that's not actually what that is. Emotional eating a lot of the time is actually it's, it's what I used to do all the time, which was I could not get through the dishes at night after I'd come home from a really demanding career. and I had this little baby and I washing the dishes that I couldn't get through without eating chocolate peanut butter cups because that was the only way I could get through that task. Or getting through the two o'clock slump without a cup of coffee, a bag of popcorn and some chocolate covered almonds. That's emotional eating. My body didn't actually need that fuel, but I was eating it to comfort myself to self, so, but we also do it to celebrate, right? We're going to a party and we're going to eat, and, and we we're so disconnected. Our heads are so disconnected from our bodies in modern American culture that we don't check in. We don't know if we're hungry physically. And a lot of my clients don't know how to tell if they're physically hungry or not in the first place. Uh, so I do have a tool that teaches them how to do that. But, but the, but that's really the first step is learning when are you physically hungry and when are you not? Okay. So talk to me about your thoughts on how mindset affects weight loss? Like how does that component go hand in hand? Yeah, so I love that question, Jennifer. Thank you for asking it because, what I teach women is actually a, it's a three step process. The first step is we have to solve for your actual over hunger. So for those of us, I feel like we constantly need to have a snack in our bag. We're afraid of getting hungry. We're hungry. Often we have a big appetite. Uh, we can't go more than four hours without eating. We get hangry. If, if that describes you, then you are likely suffering from over hunger. That's a biochemical, issue that can be solved by making some tweaks in what you're eating and understanding some of the basics of blood sugar and insulin and all of that, right? So in my 90 day program, we teach that part so you can actually solve it for yourself pretty simply. The second piece is to actually, solve for what I call over desire, which is those strong cravings that a lot of us struggle with. That I struggled with strong cravings for chocolate, for salty foods, for caffeine, for wine, for bread, for cheese, like you name it. Like I was, I was crave all of it. And my sister, she's was always a, a great example of the opposite. She didn't, she'd have some cravings, but she didn't overeat when she got. craving. She didn't, she rarely had cravings. So we were just so different in this way. So again, it's a biochemical issue that you can actually, again, solve for when you understand how your brain works, the basics of the reward center in your brain, dopamine response, serotonin. When you eat this, what happens in your brain. So when you understand those two pieces, I understand why I'm overeating, why I'm overly. and I also understand that I can make some simple tweaks to what I'm eating to actually reduce my hunger level and desire levels to a natural rate. Then I can live at my natural weight with very minimal effort. Those are the first two pieces that have to be solved for. But then everything else, Jennifer, is the mindset piece because that's where you're like, okay, I get it. I get how if I'm eating, you. If I'm eating sugary stuff or highly processed stuff, it's gonna make me hungrier. It's gonna make me crave it more, so I'll just avoid that stuff and that I won't be hungry and then I won't crave it. But then what do you do when you're an exhausted, overworked professional mom, who you know is exhausted at the end of the night, and your brain's like, yeah, I know I shouldn't eat that. but I just want it, I feel like I can't get through without it. And then our brain does all this other tricky stuff. Like, I should be able to eat it. Why not? Everybody else is eating it. And we don't wanna offend her by saying no to the fresh baked cookies. And you know, so our brains are hardwired to sabotage. But from a place of love, it's not, our brains aren't evil. It's just that our brains are like, no, no, no. The cookies would be so good right now. Let's just have one. And so the mindset piece really comes into play where it's like we have to actually learn how to work. our brains so that our brains and our bodies can get on the same page. So we actually get the result that we want, which is to live at our natural weight with minimal effort. That's super important. And so you talk a lot about brain-based solutions and how that by using them, you can solve problems and be done with self sabotage for good. Like is that really true? Yes, a hundred percent. But here's what I here, but let me. There's a little caveat, The caveat is this, you can be done with self sabotage for good. It doesn't mean you're never gonna self sabotage again. It's just that when you do it, you're totally aware that you're doing it. You're like, oh my gosh, I'm doing it right now. And you know, I'll tell you for, for a lot of my, and, but we do it with all kinds of things. Like I always use this example of I have this deadline. I had so much work to do, but yet I was so dialed in. Getting the right emoji match for my titles for my, on my project manager. I mean, it was the most unnecessary thing to be spending my time doing at that moment, but my brain was sabotaging because my brain was anxious about the work I needed to do. It felt overwhelming. It felt like too much. And our brains are hardwired to want to avoid those uncomfortable feelings. So when you understand that, then you just understand, I'm a human. This, you can have compassion for yourself. Of course, me getting the right emojis on this, you know, project management task is so important to my brain, but it's like, so all of a sudden you just, you can see it for what it is. And I think the most important piece to. is that when you can see what's happening, when you're like, oh, I understand this from a neurological standpoint, from a psychological standpoint, from an emotional standpoint, then you can garner compassion for yourself. And guess what? I know this from having been an educator for 15 years, that we only learn when we feel safe, when we feel like we, if we feel like we are under attack, if we feel like we are being critic. Our brains literally, we throw up an affective filter, we shut down and we stop learning. So if every time you self-sabotage, you're beating yourself up for it. It's just perpetuating the cycle of self-sabotage. And so what happens is, is it's not that you never self-sabotage again, but when you do, it's a you and far between, like you're not self-sabotaging at the same rate. not with the same intensity, but also more importantly is when you do, you're like, oh, let me get really curious and investigate what's going on here. And then just like a student, you actually learn from that experience and grow through it, as opposed to just getting stuck in the cycle of shame, guilt, overeat, shame, guilt, overeat. Does that make sense? It makes complete sense. And what I love about this is, Based on what the way you're describing it is your brain-based solutions programs that you work with women on. This is a ripple effect throughout your life. This isn't solely about emotional eating and overeating. This is really about taming your life and really connecting body mind a hundred percent. I'm so glad that you picked up on that because the truth is, I always say it's not really about the food. It's not really about the weight. It. Food is the symptom, meaning we go to food cuz we're avoiding some kind of yucky feeling. And I've had clients who have gotten divorced during our program. They weren't planning on getting divorced when they started, but I mean, not in the 12 weeks. What decided that? Because what? What comes up? What happens is, like me with a, with the chocolate peanut butter cups every night. I was so exhausted and not just physically exhausted, but I was stressed and I was overwhelmed and this wasn't the life that I expected. I had this two year old that I loved and adored. I had, you know, taken a, a leadership position because of the pay, and I wasn't expecting my life to look like this, so wasn't what I wanted, but yet I had. Tens of thousands of dollars on my fancy Stanford education that I couldn't just throw away now, so I felt very much trapped. But here's what happens when you stop eating the chocolate peanut butter cups. When you stop eating the popcorn, you're left with the feeling. And what I learned once I stopped eating those chocolate peanut butter cups was I'm actually deeply dissatisfied with where I've ended. but I feel like I shouldn't be because I have a baby. I have a husband and I have this amazing career that other people want, but I don't love this life. And so then what ends up happening is, is you have to get honest with yourself about, okay, well you can either be miserable and keep going. You can be miserable and eat the chocolate peanut butter cups, or you can change something. And for me, that's when I decided to slowly but surely change my career into the one that I do now, which is a dream career for me. But that's what happens with a lot of women, is they stop eating and they. I really don't want to be married to this person. you know, I'm eating because I'm unhappily married, I'm eating because I'm unhappy in some way. And then they're left with the choice. And that's usually when women do stay oned work with me longer than the 12 weeks because they're like, oh no, I've got work to do and, and I want support and community. I'm the, you know, kind of girl. Girls, girl community to really, um, get me where I'm trying to go, which is so important to have that safe space, to have someone who gets it and who understands you. Right. It seems very far and far and few between these days, so it sounds like an incredible program. Yeah. Thank you. I think it's, yeah, it sounds very incredible. I feel like every, I don't know anyone that doesn't need it, including myself, like, I mean, we all need it. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. So tell me what is the. To what you feel is a sustainable lifestyle change when it comes to weight loss. Cuz I can hear someone going, like if she says peanut butter cups one more time, like, I'm going to CVS and I'm getting those freaking peanut butter eggs that are out for Easter right now. Like, I could just hear someone saying that and like, my God, why am I listening to this now before Easter candy? And you know, and then like, but that's a whole nother rabbit hole of why is every holiday surrounded. Candy. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. That's a big discussion, Yes, totally. Oh, we can have a whole nother episode on that. Yes, totally. So, honestly, the secret, and I, I'm pretty forward about it. On my own podcast, I talk about it all the time. But the secret is that if you, it has to feel good. And that's where we've gotten it wrong all this time, is that, you know, diets don't feel good. They feel restrictive. We feel deprived. And again, this goes back to understanding your brain and, and some like pretty basic neuroscience. If you're doing anything perpetually that doesn't feel good, if it doesn't have a big enough payoff, you're not gonna continue doing it. And so, you know, you might argue, well, I go to work and I hate my job, but you love the paycheck enough. But usually when it comes to eating three times a day, if it doesn't feel good, you are going to self sabotage. Our brains are hardwired to seek pleasure and. the first step that I take my clients through is really figuring out, well, first of all, you have to understand what is real pleasure versus false pleasure because a lot of us think, oh, well, real pleasure is chocolate covered almonds? I don't say peanut butter cups. Again, but, but real pleasure for me is, here's what I used to do, popcorn. Big, huge bowl of popcorn and a bottle of wine and replays of sex in the city. Best way to spend a Friday night, right? Love it. Yes, love it. High five. Nice. So fun. But can wait. But wait, can we add chocolate chips into that popcorn? Oh yes. We absolutely. The organic chocolate chips into the organic popcorn. Jennifer, you are speaking my language, Absolutely. Yes. So, so I might say to myself, but that's real pleasure for me. That feels so good for me. I have a whole podcast on this, but briefly, I'll just share it here so that people can understand the, this difference between real pleasure and false pleasure is real pleasure, has a net positive impact. False pleasure has a net. Negative impact. So what I mean by that is I would eat that entire bowl of popcorn. My mouth would be so raw from all the salt I would feel bloated. I wouldn't sleep as well. I would drink way too much wine, and I would feel kind crappy the next day. Not to mention I would definitely gain weight from from that. So that's a real, so I got this really nice, fun time for a couple of. but the impact of that was a net negative for me. It was hours, days, months of, now my pants are a little tighter. I don't feel so good. I gotta drink all this water. That's net negative. Net positive is something like, you know, uh, it, it can be a lot of different things, but I'll, I'll, a net positive effect might be, okay, I'm gonna use that same example. I'm gonna sit down, I'm gonna watch my sex ethnicity reruns, but instead I'm gonna. A meal that I really love to eat. And so for me, that might look like I'm a big salad person, always have been. So I'm gonna make a big salad. I'm putting all the good stuff, feted she, I'm making Greek salad. I love Greek salad. I'm putting all the good stuff, tons of really good, high quality olive oil and all the delicious stuff. Olives, I'm gonna eat that. I'm gonna have a nice piece of, you know, whatever it is I'm gonna eat With that, I'm gonna have a beautiful dinner and I'm gonna have a pop bowl of popcorn, but I'm gonna eat the healthy dinner first, so I don't eat all that popcorn. I'm gonna have a small ball of popcorn and I'm gonna have a beautiful, lots of really good red wine, by the way, with my dinner or white wine or whatever it is, and I'm gonna watch Sex in the City till midnight. To me, that would be such a. Positive because the next day I'm gonna feel, um, I'm gonna make sure I drink plenty of water too, right? So I'm like, I'm gonna feel great tomorrow and I get to feel great right now. That's net positive. And so what we do is we have to really, the secret, getting back to the, what is the secret is it has to feel good, but it has to be real pleasure, not false pleasure. And so, so much of our journey and our work together is figuring out what is real pleasure. To me because what's real pleasure to you, Jennifer, might not, not, might not be real pleasure to be. A lot of times people think of a Manny Petty. I'm like, to me that's not real pleasure. I get them, but I don't enjoy getting them. It's not real pleasure. It's another to-do on my to-do list versus walking. My dog is such real pleasure. I love going on walks with my dog, but other people maybe not so much. Right? So it's really customizing it for. I love that. And what I love is that, cause I was gonna ask that next is you don't have to restrict everything. It's do you have to come to that point and that body mind connection where you realize why you're doing certain behavior patterns, why you're overeating or emotional eating, and then work on that. It doesn't mean you can't ever have another peanut butter cup again. Oh no. But it means that you're cognizant of it. Like I'm super cognizant when I do have a sweet treat, like, like you're gonna hear all sorts of noises coming outta me because I'm really enjoying that moment, right? And like, oh, this is so good. I don't do this all the time. This is amazing. But I'm not gonna have 20 of whatever that is. I'm gonna have that one and really appreciate that moment and savor that situational. Yes, absolutely. Uh, and, and you know, the, the, I would say the hardest part for most of my clients when they come to me is, we actually don't, we are not cognizant of when we are actually physically hungry versus emotionally hungry. So if you don't know when you're physically hungry, there's no way that you can know if you're emotionally eating right, because if you never know, am I actually physically angry or am I not? This, I actually teach, I have a little mini course, it's. just a three videos, 30 minutes, but three videos broken up into like 10 minutes each. That teaches you how to reset so that you can figure out, am I physically hungry versus emotionally hungry? And then from there you can do the work right From there, it's like, oh, you know, I have a lot of clients who have said, said, I can't believe how often I'm actually not hungry. Like how, how infrequently I'm, how often I'm eating for emotional reasons now that I've figured that out for. and, and I've had other clients, I've had, I had one client in particular, she lost 20 pounds just by figuring that out because she was like, holy cow. I put food in my mouth constantly, not realizing, but then when you realize it, then everything changes. And, and for me it was like, well, I realized it, but I was like, but I still wouldn't stop myself from the eating. And that was the part that I needed the mindset work to do. Right. And so that brings me to another question actually. I feel like someone's gonna have this, so they're like, Leo, I'm well aware that I'm about to sit down and emotionally eat. I'm acknowledging it and I'm still gonna do it. Absolutely. Do I get points for that Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. I love that you, you know, I just was leaving a message with one of my clients today, about that because I actually have an entire process that I take my clients through because that a hundred percent happens. And for my clients, these are very, High achieving successful women. And, and I, I always say that. I'm like, but I do have one male client now. So now I say, I serve the girls and the gays, But, um, but, but for my saying, women, including this one client. But, the truth is that a lot of times what we do is once we realize what we're doing, we're like, I'm, I know what I'm doing, but I'm gonna do it anyway. We will then beat ourselves up even. because now we're like, I, I'm watching myself do it and I'm still, you know, engaging in this behavior. So that's where we really have to put the kibosh on that because this, the negative self-talk actually perpetuates the negative behavior. And so instead I have a, a process that I take my clients through that helps'em to reflect. To me, those experiences are gold because you're gonna learn so much about yourself in that moment that you can then apply later that's going to get you exactly where you're trying to go. So, for example, I have this client who she has been working really hard on her relationship with sugar. She's a big ti. She's a professional. She owns her own company. She's highly successful. and she goes to sugar when it's stressful and it's often stressful, and she wants to break that habit. She's been working hard to break that pattern. Well, she had something happen yesterday, totally unexpected at work. Blew up. She was like, oh my gosh, this is insane. It was like a soap opera kind of thing happening, and she was so stressed about it and she was like, and she said she in an acid. She said, I sent a gay in and I, I ate the ice cream. And I told her a couple of things. I can't go well in depth here, but, but the first thing I said to her, the number one most important thing right now is that you don't say that you gave in. You didn't give in. You are a grown woman. I might have used a cus word in there, but you are a grown woman who made a decision to eat ice cream after a really stressful day. And guess what? There's no shame in that, right? Like we have to own it because when you own it, when you're like, yeah, I'm deciding a house of ice cream, because today was insane, then it completely disempowers the ice cream. It's no longer that the ice cream. Took me over. It's that I decided to have some ice cream after a really stressful event. Big freaking whoop, you know, like, big deal. But in order to not make that become habitual, that's when I take them through this three-step process that comes after that, where they actually, I, they answer these three specific questions to help them think about, first of all to garner compassion for themselves, but then to really. On how might they might do it differently, and then how they will do it differently in the future. But what that does is it activates all of these different parts of our brain to actually increase our chances of having that not happen again. Or at least not happen for six months. And then it's like, okay, so you're eating ice cream because of stress a few times a year. Like, that's not going to have you, you will not be carrying extra weight because of that. So, right. We can live with that. Okay. So now, so this takes me to something else. So what if I, if, if we're having a session and I'm like, okay. but I'm not giving up my Al Altos, Liam. I like'em. I'm not giving them. what do you do with that when someone comes to you and is like, no, but I, it soothes me. I like it. If that's what I'm doing, like that's not that bad. Right. So what do you do when someone comes to you and is like, I, I hear what you're saying, but I'm not giving it up. Yes. Okay. And it's so funny because I, I, again, I just left a message for another client yesterday who is not giving up her Starbucks morning habit, and she's not just getting black coffee, I'll tell you that. You know, she's getting the fancy Starbucks drink. And so, um, and we're actually coming on at, we only have two sessions left together. And so I, you know, I laid down the gauntlet, so to speak, but what I, what I said to her, here's the thing is I actually don't care. I don't care at all what you put into your body. I don't care if you lose weight or not. I don't care about any of that. What I care about is that you like the choices that you're making, you like your reasons for making those choices. You don't have to give up your Al Altos, you don't have to give up your coffee. But are you getting the result that you want? Are you getting the result that you came here for? I, you hired me for a reason. And so if you like your result, and I do have, honestly Jennifer, I have had clients who, I had one client, you can read about her on my website. She's public about, uh, working with me. Her name was Lisa. Is Lisa. She's so not Wes. Lisa is Lisa. you know, when she came to me, she had about a hundred pounds that she wanted to lose. And, but, but when as she got closer and closer to her goal weight, she was like, you know, I don't know if I really wanna weigh that little, like, I like my curves, my husband likes my curve. And so what we ended up doing was deciding. that she didn't have a goal weight anymore. She just had a decision weight that once she got to the certain weight, she would decide if she wanted to keep going or not. And guess what she decided? She's like, I like it. I'm gonna stay right, like right here. And she lost over, what did she lose with me? 70, over 70 pounds, while we worked together. But the point is that it was about do I like the result that I'm getting? And if the answer is no, there's usually more than one way to get to the result that we're trying to get to. So if you're like, I just love my. we might be able to find another way, but if your OIDs are actually the thing that's sabotaging the result you want, then it's just a matter of, okay, well it, are you good with that? This is why I call it your happy weight and not really your goal weight, cuz your happy weight is actually what you weigh when you love how you're eating. You love your eating habits, like you, like your reasons for eating. So it's all feels like you're not spending a lot of time or energy thinking about it. that whatever you weigh, that is your happy weight. Now, for some people they're hap that that natural weight might not be their happy weight. They're like, Ooh, but I wanted to lose 15 more pounds. And then it's like, well, are you willing to give up the Al Altos? And if the answer's no, then it's like, then, then we're gonna work on your mindset to love the body that you're in right now. That's great. And I love that you came to that point of, again, bringing it back to the mind, the body connection, the spiritual connection of loving the vessel that you're in, loving where you're. You're in that body for a reason. This is a beautiful temple and it should be treated as such and we think we have to hate it in order to change it. I often use this analogy that, you know, I'm from San Francisco, I love San Francisco, but just because I'm from San Francisco and love San Francisco doesn't mean that I wouldn't also maybe like to live in Hawaii. So I can move, I can decide I'm going to move my life, I'm gonna move to Hawaii, and I don't have to hate San Francisco in order to leave San Francisco. Right. I can love them both. And so a lot of times people have a lot of trouble wrapping their brain around this, but you. you will get better results if you love the skin that you're currently in. Because we treat ourselves better and treating ourselves better does not mean eating the entire plate of brownies. Treating ourselves better actually often means. what feels like real pleasure and let me engage with that. I adore this. Absolutely. Oh my gosh, this is amazing. Leah, I love everything that you're saying. This is so, thank you. Heartfelt and just so important for everything that's going on in the world and just how women are, and just to know, like just connecting back to self and loving yourself is the first step. Absolutely. Absolut. Ah. All right. Well, Leah, we are getting to this time in the show where I asked this one question. Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay. What is one thing that no one knows about you? Like no one. I'm such an open book. I know people always say that though, so, okay, so almost no one, there's gotta be something that like, oh yeah, I don't really share that. I know. Something that, well, no one listening would know about me. I'm thinking like, oh, my husband really does know pretty much everything about me. But something that nobody might know about me is, so I was a high school teacher and I used to share this a lot about how I, uh, basically flunked outta high school, et cetera, et cetera, but then still was able to make right away, um, through, through Ivy League schools and college. That's something that not a lot of people know, but I do talk about it. I think probably the thing I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you two quick, quick and easy ones. One is that I still have two baby teeth. How cool are you? Oh, Oh my gosh. I don't, I don't, I didn't, nobody, uh, I don't have adult teeth underneath them, so I still have two baby teeth. And the second thing that none of my audience really knows about me is that I was breastfed until I was four years old. Well, look at how healthy you are. Look at the antioxidants that you're full of. How are your allergies? Your allergies must be almost non-existent. That's true, that's true. No, but I did have allergies, but I love sharing that one because people are always like, wait, what? And the only time that I've, um, I've, I've definitely gotten pushback on it, is, um, because it's very common to breastfeed children until the age of four in. Places in the world, but not here. So 11 people are like, wait a minute, where's your family from? You know, like San Francisco i's breasted for a long time and there's nothing, right? Like, what's wrong with that? I mean, there's a lot to be said about our country, but again, another podcast, that's great. Oh my gosh. So Leah, will you share with us where can our community get in touch with you and continue the conversation if they'd like? Oh, I would love that. You can definitely find me@leahpinelli.com. My name is spelled l i a, e i n e l l i.com. And, from there you can sign up for one of our super fun monthly challenges that, we do. We just did one breaking up at staying friends with sugar, which is a really fun one. You can also, find me of course on Facebook, Instagram, but I usually hang out on LinkedIn if you're looking for. Very cool. And as always, Leah's contact information will be over in the show notes@jenniferpilates.com as we close out the show today. Leah, do you have one piece of inspiration that you'd like to leave with us today? Absolutely. I think the one piece of inspiration that I would love to leave with your audience today is, and, and I know this is gonna sound cheesy and cliche, We often like to say that we put ourselves first, but often as women, we have been so socially rewarded not to put ourselves first, that we don't, and we kind of put everybody else before us and then we feel some guilt and shame when we try to squeeze in something for us. And so I wanna just offer to you that I, I wholeheartedly believe that when we actually put ourselves first, and what I mean by that, going for the walk that you sa you know, say that you're gonna take at your lunch break or, you know, taking the 10 minutes to make a quick, healthy lunch instead of grabbing, you know, hitting up the Ving machine again, whatever it is, it doesn't have to take a lot of time, but actually prioritizing just one thing. I had one client who was like, I actually put moisturizer on my face for the first time in years. I'm like, yes. Right. It's like just one thing. but I want you to do it and remember that the better you feel, the better people feel around you. And so it's actually the most generous act is to take care of yourself so that you can show up in the energy of generosity and love and wellbeing as opposed to showing up as overworked, overstretched, you. Martyr as I think a lot of us tend to do. So I encourage you just to take care of yourself today. Absolutely. Because we are what we attract. That's right. And that's super important in what you just shared. Yes. That's so true. We are what we attract. Absolutely. Yes. Ah, Leah, thank you so much for coming on today. This has been a wealth of information. Thank you for sharing your heartfelt story and sharing your beautiful energies with us. Jennifer, thank you so much. This was so, so fun. I really, really am honored to be on your show. Thank you. Well, as we say everyone, until next time, may you live an empowered life from within. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Empowered Within with Jennifer Pilates. Your feedback is important. It helps me to connect with you and gives me insight into who you are and what you're enjoying about the show. For today's show, notes and discount codes from today's. Head over to jennifer pilates.com. Until next time, may you live an empowered life from within.