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

Food can either be the most powerful medicine or the most deadly poison. Prisoners get more outside time than kids in school. It's really sad because we're killing these kids by keeping them stuck in a chair all day long, and then we're not setting them up for success with health.

I never realized how far degraded just basic fitness was. The lack of physical fitness is just a pandemic right now.

You are born being able to do these things, but then we let these things degrade, and on top of that, they're getting fed poison.

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

Food companies have this thing called a bliss point. They want to calculate the exact amount of sugar, the exact amount of salt, and the exact amount of fat to put into food to give you the most dopamine release to make it more desirable, to make you crave it.

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

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

Ultimate human. Hey, guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brea, where we go down the road of everything, anti aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. And today's guest is a really special guest. Right. Right before the podcast, actually, she was beating up my wife in our gy. I walked in there and I was like, I want no part of this. Like the fifth round of Russian split squats. I was like, yeah, I think I'll go to the kitchen. Yeah. But, Alexia Clark, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm such a huge fan of yours. I love Sage. I had so much fun with you guys at dinner, and the workout I did with her was so fun, too.

Yeah, no, it really was. And she's a fan of yours, too, and, and we're so appreciative that you came across the country. You know, originally we were going to go have this meeting for, to try to make America healthy, and. But we're so glad that you came. And it was, it's been amazing getting to know you and, and, you know, watching your journey. You know, I, I, I went back and did a little research on you, and, you know, a lot of your content is from the early 2000s, 2000, 2001, when you were doing podcasts before you had this major life event that we. If you're comfortable about talking, I'd love to talk about it, but, you know, a lot of my Podcasts have a very similar theme. And I find that the people that are making the greatest impact, that are the most passionate, the most purpose driven, they've solved some kind of problem in their life. You know, maybe it was a drug and alcohol addiction, and they, and they really struggled with it and they overcame it. And then they become a powerful voice and a powerful force for that. And you're obviously a powerful voice and a powerful force in the, in the fitness industry. And so what, if anything, was the tipping point in your life? Or was there anything that really just lit that purpose on fire, that gave you that drive? And you said, you know, this is my niche.

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

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

Exactly. I just knew I didn't want to do that. But one, one thing that I would always find myself doing, which I probably shouldn't have been doing, was I was passionate about fitness. And every day I'd go to my job, I'd sit at my computer and just research fitness stuff. And I know, yeah, just research all day long. And I was not doing the work I should have been doing. So I thought, I have to quit this. I have to follow my passion. So I decided to become a personal trainer. And one of my very first clients, it was a, I think it was a 5am session. She came in and I could just tell something was off. I had trained her once or twice before, and we started the session and we were doing step ups and I could tell she was almost about to cry. And so I asked her, is, is everything okay? And she said, my husband left me last night. And this was hours before the session because this was like 5:00am, right, right. And so this just like blew me away. And I thought the last, like, we have to talk about this, you know, like, I let her vent. We, you know, I told her I'd be, I was there for her if she needed anything. And just over a few set more sessions because she kept coming back, I saw such a change in her. She became more confident. She was actually smiling. And I thought, man, fitness can impact so many people in so many different ways. I have to share this with as many people as I can. And that was when the passion started.

Yeah. So what time frame is this?

Like, this was probably 20, I think it was 2011.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, So a while ago.

Yeah. You know, and. And I love the fact that you talk about an area of fitness that most people don't talk about. And obviously, we know, like, working out and fitness is going to make you look better. Right, Right. But. And maybe even feel better or certainly make you feel better, but we rarely talk about the mental impact for sure. Right. I mean, we don't. And there are even out right now. I've talked about them on the podcast. I even read an entire podcast short on it, about how exercise and relatively small amounts of exercise were more prolific than SSRIs, than definitely actually antidepressants. And, you know, this is. I'm glad that we started with this story because it's. It's so emblematic of, you know, how exercise and fitness can actually change people's mental state. I wonder if you'd talk about that a little bit on your, Your, Your journey. What have you seen? And the.

I mean, I've just seen this across my entire career of clients and people that do my program telling me, like, my life has changed because of this. You know, I wasn't feeling great about school. I didn't really have any friends. And just by sticking with a workout, sticking with keeping exercise a part of their daily life, their life changed. Like, they started feeling more comfortable in the gym or feeling more comfortable meeting people. And I think that a lot of people don't realize all of the benefits that there are with fitness just by working out 10 minutes a day. It doesn't have to be go to the gym for an hour. Also, I got to do my cardio also. You know, I have to do all of these things. Like, you just have to take a tiny bit of time out of your day to see the results that fitness can do for you, not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally.

Yeah. And I think a lot of people, I. I think it's the starting point. Right. I mean, I. When I talk to people about dieting, you know, for example, I'm like, look, you don't need to be a vegan, vegetarian, keto, carnivore, paleo, you know, pescatarian, vegan, overnight. Right, Right. Like those, Those massive shifts are. Are too much for people to stick to. And I think a lot of times it's the way people view fitness. I either have to commit to 90 minutes a day of crushing myself in the gym, and I got to do so much cardio, and I have to do so much weights, so they just don't even start.

Right. Exactly. And I Think, you know, if you look back in time, we used to be a lot more, like, physically active during the day. Like whether you, you worked on a farm, we just walked more, you know, in general. And I think we have to shift our mindset about fitness where we now have the pleasure to choose what we want to do. It's not that we have to go work on a farm and lift bales of hay and do all of this physical labor. We have the ability to choose, and it's become a luxury. So you can find something that you really, truly enjoy, and that's what, what's going to keep you consistent with your workout. So whether that's pickleball, yoga, Zumba, lifting weights, going to the gym, and I know you and I probably agree on this, that resistance training is really great for you.

No doubt. Now it's directly linked to longevity.

Exactly. And everybody should be doing resistance training. But if you have never worked out before, start with your very first step of what do I like? And maybe that's running. But those things can translate and take you on a new path to doing other things too.

Yeah. And I think a lot of women that are watching this podcast, I, I hear this all the time, and they're like, I don't want to get bulky.

Yeah.

You know, and, and so they associate l weights with being very bulky and they want to lean, you know, attractive physique. And so they're like, well, I'm not going to go in and start a fitness routine if I end up just bulking up.

Right.

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

Well, I think you have to look at it as lifting weights. And just fitness in general is truly anti aging. You know, it's not going to make you bulky, but when you work out and you do exercise, it puts your body into autophagy. A lot of people think you can only get into that state when you're fasting, but you can actually do it when you're exercising. That's gonna really promote anti aging in your body. It's gonna help your DNA, it's gonna clean out your cells. It's gonna do so many different things for you that are actually going to help you live longer. And with the bulky thing, like, I promise you, it's not gonna make you.

I mean, you're not bulky.

Clearly not.

You're very fit. And, and, and think it's, it's, again, it's emblematic of some of the Misconceptions are out there, and I was wondering if you would dispel some of those because I think, you know, so many women have osteopenia.

Right.

Osteoporosis, brittle bone disease. They also associate strength training largely with men. And so they. They don't want to start a strength training routine. And, you know, very often I'll tell my clients, for example, and I'm by far from a fitness coach, but I'll tell them, you know, go by the mirror, not by the scale.

Exactly.

Right. Because you hold a lot of muscle and probably by the scale might not. For your height.

Yes.

Look so good.

For sure.

Height this way and weight here. And I think that, you know, women and men should. Should both go by the mirror and not so much by the scale. What do you. What do you.

I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that. You know, muscle holds differently on your body than what fat does. And so you have to look at, like, muscle is much more compact. So when you're starting to shape your body, like women, they want a shape, right. They want that kind of like hourglass look. Well, the way that you get that is you. You form those muscles that way. That's the natural way your body's supposed to look. So it's not like you're going to get big and bulky and thick. You're sculpting your body to look that way. And so you have to look at it that way is you're gonna. You're gonna be an artist and you're gonna sculpt your entire body yourself.

Yeah.

You know, but I also think that a lot of reason why there's all of these misconceptions, and even for beginners, too, maybe they're afraid to go to the gym. I think it's because there hasn't been a way where we can keep fitness up throughout life.

Right.

You know, a lot of people are afraid when they go to the gym. They're like, what if I don't do it right? I'm embarrassed in front of people. But you are born being able to do these things. Like, you look at a baby, they can do a perfect squat. They can hold on to a bar, like basically do a dead hang.

Yeah.

They can roll over on the ground and. But then we let these things degrade over time. You put kids in school, they're sitting for eight hours a day, Then you put them in high school, college, then you go straight into work, and you're not keeping these things up.

Yeah.

And so then you're in your 30s or 40s, wanting to take your health back and you're afraid, but you know how to do these things like they are in you. And so we like something needs to change when it comes to physical activity just throughout life. Like, I don't know if you know this, but did you know prisoners get more outside time than kids? Like, I mean, people that are maximum. Yeah. Maximum security prisoners get more time outdoors than kids in school.

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

Yeah.

That is, that is astounding. You know, when, when I was, when I was growing up and I'm dating myself a little bit here, I graduated high school in 1988. You know, PE.

Yeah.

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

It for sure, right? Definitely. Yeah.

And it wasn't like hard to pass. I mean you had to run a mile like under nine minutes. I think we had a dead hang for 30 seconds. We had to do 20 push ups, 20 sit ups. It was fairly basic.

It was. Yeah.

But every, you had to pass PE and if you couldn't do 20 push ups or sit ups or we had overhead, the, you know, whatever you call those bars that you kind of go hand over hand.

The monkey. Monkey bars? Yeah. Monkey bars.

Are they monkey bars?

Yeah. Okay, good.

I didn't want to use a non fitness term with a fit fitness expert.

Monkey bars.

So you know, we had to do the monkey bars. And now, you know, we, we were having a conversation the other night at, at dinner last night. And you know what was astounding to me? For a very short period of time, I owned a CrossFit gym. And I was telling you that we, for community outreach, we would allow these kids to come in, fourth graders to eighth graders after school and the parents could drop them off and we'd run these classes for them for free. And I never realized how far degraded.

Yeah.

Just basic fitness was. I mean, forget athletic athletes and sports. But we had these kids put through a basic physical assessment and one of them was they had dead hang for 30 seconds and the other one was they had to sit down on a one foot high box jump and just stand up.

Yeah.

And my partner in the gym and I were so blown away by how many kids could not sit onto a foot high box jump and, and stand up.

Yeah, it's sad.

They would fall over and roll to the side and put their hands down. And I said no, no, no, no, just, just stand up.

Yeah.

You know, stand up and they couldn't stay. I thought they were not like getting my instructions right. And then we would hold them up on the bar and they would hold on, they would just fall. And then I would say, no, no, hold on as long as you can. They just couldn't hold.

Right.

And, you know, aside from all of the risks to that child's future, because, you know, I, I believe a lot of chronic disease. I mean, there's evidence to support this, you know, being very early in life.

Yeah.

You know, the lack of physical fitness is just a pandemic right now.

It is, it is. And history is honestly repeating itself because During World War I, the government looked around and they saw that the citizens weren't fit really, for military. And so then they put in a physical education system. And then it happened again 50 years later with JFK, and he reformed.

The JFK was big time.

Yeah, he was huge.

Some of his speeches are amazing.

They're amazing. And so, I mean, it's, it's the same thing you were talking about. You had to do a certain amount of push ups, you do a certain amount of pull ups, you had to be able to run a mile in a certain amount of time. And they measured body fat percentage.

Wow.

And so it's like, what happened? And it's really sad because we're, we're killing these kids slowly. Yes. Slowly killing them by keeping them stuck in a chair all day long. And then we're not setting them up for success with health at all. And on top of that, they're getting fed poison. Basically.

Like, now you're hitting all my, like, hot buttons right now. Like, don't, don't, don't get me on my soapbox.

But yeah, well, I, I mean, have you ever heard of the bliss point?

No.

Okay, so food companies have this thing called a bliss point. And the food scientists, they want to calculate the exact amount of sugar, the exact amount of salt, and the exact amount of fat to put into food to make it give you the most dopamine release, to make it more desirable, to make it, like, make you crave it.

Wow.

And it's like, it's so sad because they're treating it like a drug. I mean, it is a drug to these people because they're eating it, they're getting that dopamine hit, then they're needing another one.

Yeah.

And so it's, it's just absolutely amazing to me because we could be doing so much more about this by incentivizing companies and food companies and incentivizing consumers to make healthier food.

I could not agree with you.

Yeah, like we, the government could tell these food companies, these are the healthy ingredients you need to be using. So it could be non gmo, organic, healthy oils, things like that. If you make food this way, then that food that you make will be income tax free. And then on the flip side for the consumer, if you buy this healthy food, it's sales tax free and everybody wins, you know, because food can either be the most powerful medicine or the most deadly poison. And we have to do something about it.

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Yeah, I think that when it comes to diet, I think people aren't eating enough protein in general. You know, I think one thing that.

Shout out to Gabrielle Lyon, right. She would give you a big high five for that.

Yeah. It's true, though. People aren't eating enough protein. And I think when people are looking at the way they're making dinner or lunch is maybe they're like, okay, I'm gonna make pasta for dinner, but I need some protein. So I'm just gonna add maybe some chicken on top. You need to rethink your meals. So you need to, number one, think about your protein and then cook around your protein.

Wow. You know, I actually like that one. Think about your protein and then cook around your.

Exactly. Yeah. Because you need to be focusing on that. Like, I think you should be eating at least one gram of protein per pound you weigh. But when you're telling somebody that that. That doesn't eat healthy, that seems like a lot. So you have to give them little goals at a time. So start with, you got to eat 70 grams of protein a day. You got to eat at least 100 grams of protein a day, because they're gonna see the results from that, and they're like, oh, well, I'm eating more protein. I'm gonna eat more protein. You know, you just have to get them hooked, and you got to get them taking that small little step in the right direction.

What is a diet typical day of. In. In the life of Alexi Karcook, like, diet wise?

Yeah. So I would say I eat, you know, a lot of. Kind of, like, kind of how you eat, you know, meats, organic meats, vegetables, fruit. I stay away from processed foods.

Right.

I do protein shakes. I always. I tell people, because I think that there's this huge, like, misconception people have on protein. I don't know where this came from, but people would say, well, your body can't absorb more than 20 grams of protein.

I did that, too. Where did that go?

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

I'm not.

I don't eat anymore.

We're done.

So I tell people, do a double scoop of Protein in your protein shake. And people have never thought of that before. And they're like, well, isn't that too much? I'm like, no, like, you can, you can do two scoops of protein. So, yeah, I would say I do. You know, beef, turkey, chicken. But I mix things up too.

Yeah.

You know, because I think, I think it's the same thing with exercise. Like, if you're eating the same thing every single day, it can get boring. And then you're like, well, I want something that, like, is different. And then you're like, I'm gonna go get fast food. You know, but you have to, like, give yourself a variety.

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

Right.

Whether or not we're full or not.

Right. For sure.

And how people on highly processed diets, and it's well documented, versus whole food diets. They. They are hungry more often.

Definitely.

And, and you know, one of the interesting studies, Dr. Hyman's talked about this too, is that that was published was they took, you know, two different groups of people, but they fed them the exact same content, macros, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, sugars. But one was a whole food diet and one was highly processed. And what they realized across the board was the vast majority of people that were eating the processed food got hungry faster.

Definitely.

They had tendency to overeat.

Yeah.

And, you know, part of me has got to think that this is by design. You talk about this bliss point.

Yeah, it's definitely by design.

Yeah. I mean, like, if, I mean, so selfishly, if I was a food manufacturer, I'd want people to eat as much food as possible. So I would design it for them, maybe not feel as satiated, and therefore they would eat a lot more of my product. But it's, it's sinister in terms of how it underserves, you know, humanity. And so, you know, I wonder if you would just talk about, you know, the, the folks that are listening to this that maybe don't have an exercise routine, don't really have a diet routine, but they know they're in a place where they've got to start. Um, you know, I always tell people, look, walking is probably the most underrated exercise in the world. If you have to start anywhere, just start with walk. Um, you know, you look at the blue zones and the people that are walking throughout their life are living the longest, you know, In Sardinia, they're, they're living to 117 years old. They're walking up a 37 degree slope every day. Yeah, there's not a lot of rocket scientists.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, yeah, with the blue zones, it's like every blue zone eats differently. You know, some of them are vegan and vegetarian, some of them are carnivore, they eat a lot of meat. Some of them are pescatarians. But the one thing that they all have in common is their physical activity throughout the day and the community that they spend, you know, their time with. And so I think when somebody is a beginner and they're like, well, I don't know what to buy at the grocery store. Like, I don't know how to shop for healthy food. Stay on the outside. Yeah, the grocery store, that's the produce, the meat. All of, all of the more natural kinds of things are. And don't go in, don't go into the maze down the aisles. Yeah, don't go the maze.

I love that, that. Yeah, like a mouse stuck in the maze.

Yeah. And when it comes to fitness, yeah, walking is a great place to start. But like I said before, find something that you enjoy and that was, that's going to help you stay consistent. And I think that if you hate your workout and you hate, or you hate working out, you're tired all the time or something. I think it could be two things. I think one, it's, you haven't found the right thing that you enjoy yet. Or two, it could be something is off in your body. So maybe it could be your thyroid if you're, if you have brain fog or you, you're tired all the time. It could be your hormones are off your, there's some nutrient missing. So you should definitely get your blood work done and really look into that because working out is something that you should enjoy. It makes you feel good, it makes you feel productive, it gives you energy throughout the day. I, I would even say that if you had to choose between what would give you the most energy, coffee or a workout in the morning. A thousand percent a workout in the morning, you know, definitely.

And give you energy, longer, like, like, like more sustained energy.

Yeah. So if you're buying a ten dollar cup of coffee a day, you're gonna crash, you're gonna need more caffeine, you're gonna crash, you're gonna need more and you're spending $10 a day every single day. Whether you go on a walk outside in the sunshine or it's a 10 minute body weight workout at home, that's going to give you sustained energy throughout the day. It's going to help your mental health. It's going to clear, like, give you like more cognitive function, be more creative, definitely work out well.

You know, it's funny too. You talk about coffee being $10 a day, which is probably Starbucks. Right, right around there, you know, but most gym memberships are not $300 a month.

No.

So, you know, we think about how expensive the gym membership might be and I don't want to get a gym membership, but I'm willing to drop 10 bucks a day on a, on a coffee.

Exactly.

So, you know, I, I again, I'm really fascinated by your story and when we were sitting at dinner the other night, you know, really hit me some of the struggles that you've been through, like very real struggles and yet you've gotten yourself back into incredible shape. And I think a lot of people have multiple excuses that for why they don't want to begin an exercise routine or why they actually don't want to get off a processed food diet. But talk a little bit about this life changing.

Yeah, you know. Yeah, yeah.

Issue that happened to you.

Yeah. So in 2021, it was actually like January 3rd, so I was getting ready to go in the new into the new year. I'm like, yes, it's going to be a great year. Fitness is going to be great. I had a vulvolvis, which is your intestines twisting. So was rushed into the hospital.

And how did you notice? It's like you were just, did you think you had like you had eaten something bad? You had food poisoning.

Right. So at the time, my husband and I were just dating. He was over for dinner and I started getting a stomach ache and I was like, man, I think I just ate something bad. I tried laying down on the couch. He was like, let me make you some tea. Which was really good.

Husband, shout out. Yeah.

He's like, let me make you some tea. And I was just laying there, I was like, it hurts so bad. I started just getting bloated and then I started throwing up and I was like, man, I must, I've never had food poisoning before. So I thought, yeah, I must have had food poisoning. And so I tried to just kind of relax and lay down, but it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. So he was like, I have to take you to the hospital. This was probably like 2:00am at, at this point. And on the way to the hospital I started like passing out And I was thinking, like, I. I'm gonna die. Like, it was. The pain was that intense. When we were in the car, it was getting worse and I started passing out and I was just telling him, like, you have to drive faster. We get to the hospital and at this point, I'm hanging on to the counter where we're talking to this nurse in the emergency area of the hospital, and she's asking me these questions like, what's your date of birth? What's your name?

Oh, my God.

Slowly.

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

Yeah, I was like screaming. I was drenched in sweat. I couldn't even stand up. So they take me back. They start, you know, giving me pain meds, putting me in all of these machines doing scans. And at this point I'm kind of like in and out because I'm on. They've given me so many painkillers and I still don't really know what's going on. I was. At the last minute, my husband threw me my phone. So at least I had my phone with me, so I was able to call my parents. And I said, I don't know what's wrong. My stomach really hurts. And I couldn't even really tell them what was happening. So I gave my phone to the nurse and the nurse told them her intestines twisted. We're going to have to take her into emergency surgery. And I remember the doctor waking me up and saying, hey, we're going to be taking you into surgery. And I still had no idea you were just twilight. Yeah. Just out of it.

Yeah.

So go into surgery. They removed 17 inches of my intestines.

Wow.

Yeah, a big, big portion. And the next thing I know, I'm in my hospital room. And so the hard thing was, is this was during coven, so I couldn't have any family, any friends. I was by myself in the hospital. I'd never been through anything like this before. I was alone completely.

Right.

And so day one, I was just in the worst place because everything was a question, like, am I ever going to be able to work out again? What does my future look like?

And you're in great shape at the time, right?

I mean, yeah, I could do pull ups, I could do pistol squats, I could do whatever I wanted to do, you know, So I went from up here to all the way down at the bottom overnight. And so I didn't know what this meant for my business either because it's like, I don't know if I can work out what's, what's going to happen to, you know, my community, my queen team community. And so the first day, I didn't even want to get out of bed. And the first nurse that I had was like, yeah, you're probably going to be in here for at least 10 days. You're probably not going to be able to work out for nine months. And I was just like, oh, my goodness.

This is really. 9. Of course, that's a typical, like, yeah.

Yeah, I was, it was not correct typical.

Modern medicine is like, yeah, you're gonna be, you know, it's nine months to recovery and.

Exactly.

Yeah. Having no idea what, what you've got going on up here.

Right, exactly. I'm like, yeah, right. Okay.

Hopefully you're already going, oh, hell no. That's not. Yeah, yeah, nine days for me.

So the next day I woke up in the hospital and I just like, was thinking to myself, like, the only thing, I have two options. I can either give up and just lay here and be in a pissed off mood about this whole thing, or I can do whatever I can to take the next step to, to becoming better. So the first that, that day I was like, I'm just, I'm gonna get up and walk. I had to have a walker, I had to have a nurse with me. And it was hard to walk, but I was able to walk just a little bit. I went back to my bed the next day.

You're just that weak.

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

Yeah.

Apart. And so I was super weak also. Just in pain. I have a huge scar down my abdomen from this. And so then the next day I thought, I'm going to walk maybe twice today. So I walk in the morning and then I'd walk in the evening the next day. I'm going to walk maybe a little bit further today. So each day I would just do one step more and I was out of the hospital in four days. The doctors were like, we've never seen anyone recover from this so quickly. And then even with working out, I was back to working out way quicker than the doctors expected. I didn't know if I was even going to be able to do like a pull up again. But within, I think like four months, I was able to do pull ups again.

Right.

And so it's all about taking those tiny little steps each day. Like if you're a beginner or if you're somebody that just had an injury and you're coming back from it, like, it's really hard to look at the end goal and be like, wow, I have so far to go.

Yeah.

Like you have to set.

It's overwhelming.

Yeah, it's super overwhelming. And you have to set those little daily goals and you have to celebrate them. One thing that I do that I think could be helpful to people is every day after my workout, whether my husband and I are working out together, whether I'm working out by myself after the workout, I always ask, what was the favorite, my favorite exercise or what was your favorite exercise that you did today? What felt the best? So you're ending your workout on a high note. You're thinking about the positive.

That's a really good idea.

Yeah. So I always talk about that. We have a whole conversation on our way home about what felt the best. What are you, what are you excited about with your workouts? And I think that that's like something that's not talked about is you have to like always be thinking about the positives.

Yeah. You know, I think when you, when you go back and look at exercise that way, I mean, most of us, I mean, I'm thinking about myself right now. I'm guilty of it. You get a workout done, you're like, oh my God. God, that brutal. You know, and you're like complaining the whole time on the way home in the car. But that's a. Guys are especially like this. We actually like things to be terrible and then we like to about it afterwards and then just go do it again. Yeah, but, but maybe, you know, by, by looking back and being like, you know what, that, that, you know, those pistol squats where that was new and unique. I felt good doing them. I was surprised I could do them. So just by changing the narrative a little bit.

Exactly.

To be something that you look upon as a very positive thing. I think a lot of people have, have issues with, you know, time in their days and, and saying, I just don't have the time to work out. I can't, I can't budget it into my day. I've, I've just made it non negotiable for my life. You know, I, I started scheduling my meetings and travel around sleep and exercise. And I don't think anything, any modality that I have, and I got tons of like crazy equipment in this unit or any particular red bed or anything has had nearly the impact that simply making sure that sleep and exercise are non negotiable in my schedule.

Yeah.

And my wife knows it. Like if dinner parties Run. Too late. I just get up and go and go to bed.

Yeah.

She's like, where's your husband? Oh, he's, I know where he is.

He's just like, yeah, I like that tactic.

Yeah.

She's gonna be like, I'm going to sleep.

I didn't do it to you guys. But like. But you left early enough. But had you gone much after 10:30, you would have seen the, what do they call it, the Irish exit in your own home. You just leave. Just leave. You got to find your way out. But you know, it's, it's, it's been, you know, I, I always thought about what I would be giving up, but the truth is that, you know, I was just able to move my schedule around. You know, I don't, I don't take, you know, I got asked the keynote up conference the other day and the keynote speech was at 8 o' clock in the morning. I said, gosh, I can't, I can't keynote at 8:00'. Clock, I cannot at 11:00am um, and, but you know, I'll, I'll be sleeping and exercising at that time. And I think, you know, once I made it non negotiable, just what it did for my mental impact, like my self confidence, your self esteem. But how do you maintain it when you're on the road, when you're traveling? You've been here for three days, so.

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

I love it.

So.

We love stories.

I had this client, his name is Bill, and he had, and a super successful company. He had everything that you could ever imagine, like planes, boats, everything, Multiple homes. And he, when he started, he was in his 70s, so when he started training with me, he would tell me, like, I really put my health on the back burner.

And so he was just getting going.

Just getting, yeah, he said, I was so focused on building this company that I just put this on the back burner. And I really want to get back into working out. And so we started off so slow. And one thing that he would always say is, don't sacrifice your health for your wealth.

Wow.

Yeah. And so I think that a lot of people, they're like, well, I'm traveling, I, I can't do this. Or I'm, I'm working on this business, I can't do this. Well, there's, you can still build the million dollar company or billion dollar company, you can still travel when you do these things. If you're building a company, you can still take your calls when you go on a walk, you can take the stairs instead of the elevator. If you're traveling, you can do a simple 5 or 10 minute workout in your room just, just to do it, just to stay consistent. Because consistency is the key. If you take one day off, it's easier to take two days off. If you take two days off, it's easier to take four days off. So you have to keep it a part of your daily routine, you know, and a lot of people are like, well, I don't even like it. We do a lot of things every day that we don't like. Like, a lot of people don't like going to work, but you go to work because you have to make money to, to support yourself. Fitness and exercising is the exact same thing. It's wealth that you can't live without. You have to be able to keep up on it and do it every single day.

Yeah, I totally agree. And so how did things end for him? Where did Bill end up?

Well, one day he came in and he was so excited and I was like, what are you so excited about? He's like, today I was able to put my pants on standing on one leg. And I was like, that is so amazing.

Like you think about that?

Yeah, yeah. Truly anti aging, like focusing on these things is so great because, you know, balance is linked to longevity and so just being able to do that is huge. So, yeah, he's still, he's still exercising.

Yeah. Falling is actually the greatest risk of, you know, mortality in older, on older ages. And a lot of it has to do with grip strength. You know, you're just going down a regular set of steps and you don't to have, have the grip strength to just keep yourself from falling and you end up tumbling down the steps. And, and I think that frailty is a real risk to longevity. In fact, so many people, they, you know, the grandmother falls and breaks their hip, but the truth is that it's not really how that occurs. Usually what happens is their hip breaks and then they fall. So the fracture actually caused the fall. The fall didn't cause the fracture. And you know, Peter Attia talks about this in his book Outlive, and he talks about, I think he calls it the, the centenarian decathlon, which is like, what do you, what are the 10 things you want to do when you're 100 years old?

Exactly. Yeah.

And, and, and you've got to start planning for those now. And I, I actually really like that mentality. I tell a lot of my clients to I call it snacking on exercise. And which means like, okay, if you don't have 90 minutes in the beginning of the morning, snack on exercise throughout the day.

Yeah.

You can just go for 15 minute walk after your.

Exactly.

After. After lunch.

Yeah.

Or if you can get 15 minutes is better than, is better than no minutes. But you talked a little bit about the Queen team.

Yeah, the Queen team.

So. So tell me about the Queen team and, and the community that you're building. Because you're right. You know, when you look at blue zone research.

Yeah.

People that are living a really long time.

Yeah.

They call it a sense of purpose or community.

Yeah.

And they, they want to identify with. And I think it's super important for people to identify with communities that are consistent with where they want to go. So talk a little bit about the Queen team.

Yeah. The clean team is honestly the most amazing group of women ever. Like, so what's, what's so great is we all do the same workout every single day, so we're in it together. Okay. So whether you're working out in the US or in Australia or somewhere in Europe, we're all working out together the same day. But what I love about the Queen team community is everyone is so encouraging to each other. Like, you see them giving each like high fives to each other. Whenever they talk about who. Who loved or. What was your favorite exercise in today's workout? Everybody chimes in and it's so amazing to see just the friendships that are built. I had a meetup in 2019 and people flew in from all around the world and they already had a friendship, but seeing them see each other for.

The first time because they've been Queen team, like. Yeah, community, but just remotely.

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

That's so great.

Yeah.

I think, I think the support system. I forget what the statistics are. You might know, but when you have a workout partner, the chance of you actually not working out goes down dramatically. You know, when you just have. You're only holding yourself accountable.

Exactly.

You know, when I used to, to, to do triathlons, you know, years ago, as competing in triathlons, and I had a swim partner, a run partner, and I had a bike partner. And if you, if you didn't show up, man, they just, they rode you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, you didn't want to be belittled and berated. So you you actually showed up, but sometimes, you know, you're showing up for other people. I think the community is so important.

It really is.

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

Yeah, definitely. You know, I, from that moment that I encountered that experience with that woman, I just knew I had to do whatever I could to share fitness with as many people as possible. So I just really try to share the message of fitness will change your life. Like, you have to make it a priority. It's a non negotiable, but it will be fun. Like I think sometimes when you use the words it's a non negotiable, it's a priority. You have to be disciplined. Those can be scary words to people.

Yeah.

But you can actually truly enjoy what you do. And that's kind of how I have, how my program works. I release new workouts every day because I found that when people are having fun and they're engaged in them, they're going to see the greatest results. Whether you're working out for 15 minutes or whether you're working out for an hour. If you can have fun and show up every single day, that's when you're going to see results like mentally, emotionally and physically.

And are you running these clean team communities? Like are you working out live with them and it's a certain time and they log in or how does it work?

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

Okay.

Yeah.

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Yeah, across the board, there's a lot of moms, but there's a lot of younger women, too, and older women. And it's just really great to see because, you know, when you're a mom. I'm not a mom yet. I'm a dog mom. But.

I know. I said, I noticed that you love the dog we had here the other night.

Oh, my gosh, I forgot.

It was like a Korean Pomeranian or something. Korean Pomeranian?

Yeah.

Korean Papa Chow or something. Yeah, Korean Pomeranian. It was. It was the cutest dog.

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

His own Instagram page. Yuki.

Yuki. Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. I was obsessed. But. But when you're a mom and then your focus goes into raising your kids, especially when you have a newborn, like, you're kind of stuck inside, your social life kind of goes away. But this is a way that you can still socialize. When you work out and you have friends from all over the world, even if you travel to another place, you have a friend there that you can go hang out with and get a workout in.

Yeah. And. And. And we talked a little bit about, you know, traveling. So how do you maintain your consistency on the road? And you're always looking for a gym. Do you have a hotel workout routine? Do you have, like, minimum? I'm going to do some air Scots, you know, some planks.

Yeah.

What, What. So what are you doing to stay fit on?

I always take resistance bands with me because they're very easy to pack.

Okay.

And I have travel workouts that I do with my resistance bands because that's really easy to do in your room or you can take them to your hotel gym, you can take them to a park, which, that's my favorite.

Right.

And I think a lot of people underestimate resistance bands. But when I'm traveling, I start my day with my workout. So first thing I do is I wake up, get my workout in, and then I try to, like, go out, go throughout my day, whether I'm traveling for pleasure or for business or whatever. So the first thing I start with is my workout, and then the rest of my day is planned around there.

I think it's so, I think it's so smart to do that, because you look at the endocrine rush you get. You're getting oxygen to your brain, you're circulating, and you get the hard things out of the way early, which I heard you talk about at dinner the other night. You know, I have this little saying that if your morning is hard, your day will be easy. Yeah, I, I, I never feel like I do anything as hard as getting in a cold plunge or running a hard workout. And we might even put you in the cold punch before you leave. Your brothers have already agreed. So I said, well, when you were working out, I'm gonna, I'm gonna shame them into it right now on, on, on live podcast. But. And I was like, do you guys want to run a, you know, do a cold punch? Oh, oh. After, after the workout. And in my mind, I was like, I know what you're doing.

Yeah.

You think I'm just gonna forget about this? You're gonna slide out of my unit. But no, I'll shut the elevators off, bro. Yeah, but we can. And, and I like having those things in my life because, you know, I like having them around because I gravitate towards those things. Like, you know, one of the things I try to do is just not have bad choices around.

Yeah.

Because even though I'm empowered to know what those bad choices lead to, you know, food wise and drink wise and everything else, I, I still, you know, we're all weak. And I think very often we don't just set ourselves up for success.

Exactly.

So what are some of the ways that people could set themselves up for success? You know, to, to keep consistent with the fitness routine and maybe just start and embark on eating a healthier diet.

Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, like I've said, find something that you enjoy, even if you just want to start off with walking. But if you enjoy dancing, join a dance class. If you enjoy yoga, go to yoga, because those things will take you maybe into another little yeah.

And their community.

Their communities. Yeah. Like, I was always, you know, into lifting, and then a couple years ago, I got into Jiu Jitsu because, you know, I just.

I think I saw that on your. On, You're a badass, too.

Like, thanks.

I. I think I saw that on your. In your Instagram. I was like, girl does everything.

Yeah. But it's really fun because, you know, what I saw when I started Jiu Jitsu, too, is I was able. I still have so much to learn in Jiu Jitsu, but I was able to advance quickly because I was already into fitness, and so I was. I was fast. I was able to learn things quickly. I was strong. Like, I've been able to choke out grown men that are twice as big as me.

Hey, that may come in handy one day. You never know.

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

Yeah.

If you don't enjoy it, you have to tell yourself, how can I enjoy this? So maybe you want to. If you like listening to podcasts, put a podcast on, go for a walk. You know, and honestly, you'll learn so much more from that podcast, because you're out and you're getting oxygen.

So true.

You're getting your blood flowing. Like, you're going to pick up so much more from that.

Yeah.

So you have to take that small little step. You don't have to go 200%, day one. You got to start off slow when it comes to eating healthy. Like I said, shop on the outskirts of the grocery store.

Right.

Focus on your protein. Make your meal around your protein.

I love that idea.

Instead of pasta and then adding chicken. Chicken. And then adding your sides to that. But protein has to be a priority.

Right. You know, and. And. And eating whole foods, you know, just. Just satiating yourself so that you. So you don't overeat. And I mean, often on the road, it's not the easiest thing. You know, restaurants, you don't know if it's cooked in seed oils or what have you. I've always try to avoid. Avoid those things. You know, I was. I was preparing for our podcast, and I didn't listen to your podcast while I was. Your other podcast while I was walking. But I did listen to it in the gym today. I put it on over the. Over the speaker. So to prep for today, I was listening to it in the. In the gym. And I'm super appreciative that you ran my wife through this workout. I think she's probably going to join your community.

Yeah.

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

She did great. She did awesome. Yeah, she did all right.

Sage is going to be really happy. I was going to throw some clips up here of, of Alexia beating up my wife this morning when I walked into the gym. Are there any other go to's for you aside from exercise that you do? Because I, I really did enjoy the fact that even in the early, you know, 20. 20, 2021, when I was looking at some of your, your previous interviews, you really talked about the mental aspect of, of fitness. And I think so few people really realize the benefits that you get to your mood, to your emotional state, to your ability to problem solve, how you can focus and concentrate, your short term recall. Like all of these like unintended benefits, if you want to say that to fitness and exercise. And like, have you seen that in your community? Like what kind of transformations do you see as people are transforming their physique?

Yeah, I mean, I definitely see like the, the physical transformations, you know, obviously, but the mental and emotional transformations. Like I had someone tell me that the body positivity movement almost killed them because they were told by the media and whoever else, like, you don't have to work out, eat whatever you want. And she gained a bunch of weight and then she started feeling bad about herself because she didn't like the way she looked or how she felt. She felt sick and gross. She joined my program and she started losing the weight and she's like, I just feel amazing. Like I feel so much more positive about my day, about my life. I feel more creative. I feel like I can like recall things faster. And so I see that across the board from people who just, they see the difference in even just like the small things, like being more alert when they spend time with their family, you.

Know, like just more present.

More present, Exactly. Yeah.

There must be nothing worse than being a mother or father and having a young child and not really being able to engage with them in like physical activity. Kids want to run around, they want to have fun, crawl around the floor. I mean that's like. Or as a grandparent. Yeah, I mean my, my, my daughter's 26, my son's 23, during a race to see who's gonna make me a granddad first. But I wouldn't be able to like flop around the floor with my kids and you know, my grandkids and like, you know, get in a swimming pool with them and Take them for a bike rides and all that kind of stuff. I think that's like the. The greatest joy in life is our ability to be mobile without pain.

Yeah.

So for people that have some kind of injury or they have a low back pain, which. Which is, you know, pretty impressive what you did with my wife this morning, because, you know, she has an L5 S1 Fusion, and she grew up very athletic. She was a marathoner. She was, I consider an absolute expert skier. She grew up in Snowmass, so she learned to ski at a really young age. So she just rips down the mountain. And I think this L5S1 fusion, the spinal fusion she had from a car accident, I think it really affected her mentally because marathons are kind of a permanent thing of her past.

Right.

Too much impact. But she was able to go through a pretty intense workout today. So those people that are facing injuries or they have joint pain or they have low back pain, you know, what are. What are some tips and tricks for them to get back into physical exercise.

Yeah. And today when I was talking to Sage about her back and stuff, I could tell that she misses, you know, running marathons and she misses yoga and stuff. And I was telling her, like, I know that it sucks that you can't do those things anymore because you loved them, but you can still find other things that you love and enjoy. And we can work around this back injury and you can become stronger and we'll make it, you know. Well, you'll be happy finding other things that you really enjoy. It's a new. It's a new path, you know. But for anybody that is struggling with an injury. Is that what your question was? Struggling with an injury? Like, you have to just take it step by step with things. Like, if you're going back to the gym, don't go do the heaviest weight that you've ever done before. You have to start with just even body weight.

Yeah.

And really focus on the muscles that are. That are working in that exercise.

You can make yourself cry with body weight exercises.

1,000%.

I mean, really?

Yeah, definitely. I think I have before.

Well, you like it. You're not. You're not the person to ask, but, you know, but yeah, I mean, I've. I've had trainers just put me through, like, pranks and supermans and bananas. And I'm like, this is not a superman or banana. This is torture.

Yeah, right?

I mean, just with body weight, I'm like, man, you could do this entire routine on your hotel floor.

You can. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Body weight exercises are incredible. Sometimes I would, I'll go to the gym and I won't touch a weight. I'll just do body weight.

Really?

Yeah. Because it's amazing. Like you're, they just do so much and you have to be using so many muscles to be able to do body weight exercises. And it really helps you connect with yourself, you know, being able to do body weight exercises. But if you are struggling with an injury and you're like, okay, I want to do this exercise, I'm going to start with body weight. And it feels pretty good with body weight, but then you maybe add a little bit of weight and it hurts. You got to go back to the body weight.

Right.

And really focus on that. Get your body comfortable with that. Make sure you're form, form over everything. You have to have good form.

I'm so happy to hear you say that.

Yeah. Like form is the most important thing.

Most people are, are more concerned about how men especially. Right. We're super guilty of this. I want to have an 80 pound dumbbell in my hands, not a 55 pound dumbbell in my hands in case somebody walks by and just happens to look at how much weight I have in my hand, you know? But yeah. Who's a perfect stranger who I'm never going to talk to, you know, like, I know, don't know why we do that, but we do.

Yeah.

So form over.

Yeah, form is the most important thing. Form overweight all the time. But if you can never really get to that point to where you can add weight to that exercise, don't do that exercise. There's a million other ways you can work the muscle in the same way and keep yourself safe. The last thing you want to do is push yourself to do something that already hurts and then put yourself a few steps back.

Yeah.

Like you have to just be smart about it and take precautions with the things that you're doing. If it hurts either, check your form and focus on that. Make sure you're doing that correctly. And if you are and it still isn't the right thing, work it in a different way.

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

Yeah.

They call it Russian squats when you.

Put your Bulgarian split squats.

Bulgarian, Bulgarian. I knew it was some foreign country. They are devil squats, dude. I, I've, I haven't done those since I took like a few jiu jitsu classes like forever ago. So in, in a utopian world, what's next? What's the future hold for Alexia Clark. Where are you taking.

Changing as many people's lives as I can. You know, that was the goal I set on, set out on in 2011, and I'm sticking with that. Like, I believe, you know, this is my passion, and I followed it from having a great marketing job and left everything to go personal training. And I really feel that, that God and the universe led me in the path that I'm supposed to be on.

I, I would agree with that, you know, because the whole reason why you're here is because on super short notice, we told you that we might have an opportunity to go have a meeting to, you know, with other influencers in space to go affect public policy to change, you know, the, the way that our food supply is handled. And I am deeply appreciative that you, you did that because it shows that you have very altruistic and I mean, you have a very authentic motive, you know, because it wasn't any thing here for you other than for you to give your time and your platform to really help get a message out. And so I'm deeply appreciative of that. And I think it's important for the audience to hear that you didn't just come so you could be on the podcast. She actually came to help us deliver a message and, and really be a part of a campaign to, to try to get the corruption out of our food supply and message to people about the importance of, Of. Of. Of whole foods. So I, I wind down every podcast by asking my guests the same question, and there's no right or wrong answer to this question.

Are you sure?

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

To me, to be an ultimate human, I believe it means to live the ultimate life. And to live the ultimate life, you need to have the ultimate experiences. And when you look at that, that's being able to play with your kids, being able to pick up your grandchildren, being able to live a full life without being sick and being in bed and having to go to the doctor all the time. And so that to me, is being an ultimate human. Because, you know, we all, we have. We know what we have to do. We have to eat healthy, cut out the processed foods. We have to exercise and keep that consistent.

Put yourself.

Everybody can. Everybody can be an ultimate human.

That's amazing. Not everybody, because I trademarked the name trademark infringement and I will come after you. I'm just kidding. Alexia, how do people find you? How do women join your community and find more about your community?

So you can find me on Instagram, Alexia underscore Clark. You can sign up for my program at www.alexia-clark.com. i'm also on YouTube and TikTok and yeah, with the. Well, now, the ultimate Human Super.

And I will put all of this in the show notes for you guys. And we will definitely have Alexia Clark Black, because she and I are on a mission to change public policy and food supply in America. So I'm sure this is not our last meeting, but until next time, guys, that's just science.