Here is an interview with Bonnie Lefrak the owner of the Fitness Asylum. We are talking about nutrition and weight loss as we start off this new year.
(Transcript of interview is below)
hi I'm dr. pelto and welcome to
healthy living I'm here with my special
guest Bonnie Lafrak from the Fitness
Asylum Bonnie thank you for coming today
thanks Don glad to be here
so, Bonnie we're going to talk a little bit
today because we're starting a new year
the month of January and everyone is
thinking about fitness getting in shape
and probably losing weight I hope so for
your business right that's great I think
right it's every January everyone's
thinking that so every January in my
practice I see people come in and they
say you know I'm trying to get in weight
I'm trying to get in shape and trying to
lose weight and they come in with a
number of foot problems tendon problems
and other issues and I tell them and I
and no one listens to me and this is
probably a similar thing I say you know
it's 80% nutrition right and 20% working
out I would start with the nutrition
first and then with the working outs
what do you think about that uh that is
exactly where we go from I get phone
calls all the time people are afraid to
start working out because right they do
have previous injuries or they haven't
worked out in a long time and the
conversation I always come back to is
you know what that's okay things like
our body challenge or 30-day sprint or
you know all these different
transformation programs they really are
just about changing the way you're
eating and I say sadly I hate to tell
you but and people I think know this
mm-hmm their success really lies in what
they eat and what they don't eat the
work out working out is great yeah
working out could lower your blood sugar
working out can preserve lean muscle
mass working out can certainly make you
feel confident and empowered I'd rather
somebody definitely work on the food and
then we can add the workouts later or we
can add them very slowly
so, Bonnie tell me about your
personal experience with working out
with eating with Fitness how did
you get interested in this in this area
how did you open up your own business
like a fitness asylum I'll try to make
it really condensed right so I started
off in the early 90s and in a very
popular program most people will know it
as Jazzercise yeah wait so way back and
I have a great love for Jazzercise I
know people like to post those funny
memes you know like here's Judy Shepard
miss it from 1980 and they want to laugh
and make I'm like well she's still
working she's probably a
multi-millionaire billionaire she really
pioneered the group exercise in aerobic
dance and the community that comes with
it and I really liked it I thought it
was fun I met a lot of people and I got
interested in working out obviously what
happened over time because times change
I got interested in lifting weights okay
oh you know mostly was my mom sort of
saying you know you can teach Jazzercise
and teach 20 or 30 people what about
this personal training thing what about
doing one on one and that's when
personal training became popular towards
the mid 90s late 90s and so I turned my
attention to that and I started to get
into like a regular mainstream gym and I
saw great results from it and so I felt
like women really don't know the gym
they know maybe the lightweights
right you go to any type of class yeah
anywhere here's your five pound
dumbbells and that's good that's a great
starting place but I you know I wasn't
like I went to the gym and um you know
squatting 300 hello that's isn't that
the concern a lot of females my wife was
was going starting and at the fitness
Asylum and she said you know before she
even started she said you know Don I I
don't want to get huge and big
that if that happens to me I'm just
going to stop and I told her that's not
just going to happen that takes a lot of
work to go back in it and so right there
are so many stereotypes and women even
you know at least when I was going to
school we weren't really taught about
lifting if the gym was really the place
where the guys worked out it wasn't you
know for the girls the girls did
cheerleading or we ran around the track
and I really saw a great benefit and a
big change from somebody who was working
out hours and hours a week suddenly now
I'm adding in to strength training
sessions a week and I'm seeing big
differences and so when I transitioned
to be more in the gym and working more
on the weightlifting that's also when I
got interested in the nutrition okay
some of it I have to say is probably
linked to old-school bodybuilding
because you're kind of in that you know
you're reading about that and you're
starting to read about you know maybe
making a shift from carbohydrates to
proteins and all of these things and you
know it sort of fell into place my what
I really wanted to do was one I felt
like I discovered something that I had
to share okay I had to share ladies
lifting weights is awesome and it's the
way to make up a change in your body
you're not you know out running for you
know ten miles a day getting nowhere or
do you know doing something over and
over not getting results so this shift
of understanding the importance of body
building or is it weight lifting what do
you want to call that I'll call it
weight okay I don't want to scare people
okay so it's called weight lift you
found out the importance of weight
lifting for yourself first yes and you
saw the benefits clearly and you thought
well I just need to share this with
other people
that's what I mean how can you do that
was it with personal training do you do
go and stand in a street corner and tell
everyone right you can and that was
before social media right so I didn't go
on Facebook and tell people my big
discovery I would tell people that I
would see in the gym I would tell you
know I was teaching Jazzercise classes I
had friends I worked in a large gym and
I was able to start doing personal
training and start helping women you
know oh no we're not going to go to cardio
yeah we're not going to go so I'm not going to
watch you stand on a treadmill like I
don't have to do that let's go do this
and teach people how to squat and then
you know how to slowly start to add more
weight and work on their form and their
confidence level and you just start to
see results you grow it so that's really
it started a long time ago it it had a
lot of different I hid a lot of
different things along the way I was
interested in bodybuilding I know the
average woman not that interested in
bodybuilding but the good news is even
that industry has become more mainstream
and so people are more interested in
bikini right that sounds a little bit
more user friendly but the bottom line
what happened was with strength training
or weight lifting you can get people
great results in not a lot of time
and I'd been training people for years
kettlebells in the gym just basic
bodybuilding type moves even I mean I've
taught spinning I've done kind of at all
I've done it all what I really wanted to
do for people was make a quick not easy
but quick workout where they didn't have
to do a lot of thinking right we kind of
talked about that where someone could
come in there's an instructor we're
going to guide you through a boot camp kind
of thing and boot camp is a widely used
term I realize it's you moving station
to station generally doing full-body or
you know multi-joint
type of exercises we're not looking to
turn people into body builders we're
looking for people to get the cardio the
strength and even some stability or
mobility sort of built into that workout
and I want people especially women but
all people we have a lot of men clients
male clients too I want people to like
the workout I want people have fun I
want people to be like oh I thought I
hated working out but I love it and you
know the best part is when I walk in
everybody knows who I am and if they
didn't see me for a week it's a
community that's kind of what it is and
it really draws people and people feel
comfortable and they feel happy to be
there and you shut the door behind them
and you know maybe it's snowing out or
maybe with a lot of traffic that day or
you don't like your boss or whatever
you're here now in this workout and it's
all for you and you don't have to think
about anything except just you know
breathe through it have fun and how
accomplished you feel afterwards so it's
been a long journey to get to the
fitness Asylum for me I had I had
another business I worked in many
many different gym settings I didn't sit
down like with a pad of paper or a
whiteboard and say oh I'm going to create
this business it happened very
organically I just needed a place to
train my clients that if you said this
was the place then I would have said
okay move that camera then we'll start
working out right here I didn't care
what it was or what it looked like I
just knew I need a place for Pete you
know for people to come and they have
and now we're going onto our eighth year
wonderful so you've been eight
year with a fitness asylum yeah how many
locations do you have we have three now
so the biggest one the newest one is in
Hudson it is yeah and so that's sort of
a newer territory for us we have clients
in Hudson and around there but you know
now I know Hudson's kind of cool and
upcoming has a nice growing it is it's
growing it's a really nice place and so
let's talk about the what's the
traditional is this what we're
talking about right now at the fitness
asylum is this the traditional way of
weight loss or is this kind of a new way
or is why do you think it's a better way
than what what's everyone doing all I
can say is it let's say my experience
I started to go to the gym and I we
used to do the treadmill I like to swim
I never really had a weight problem I
liked it for the stress relief but I
never really saw many results I used to
go let's say every day for an hour after
work but I never really saw the results
my wife started to going to the fitness
Asylum and she said you should try this
and what I liked the most about it is is
I showed up and someone told me what to
do yeah an hour and I went there and I
started feeling better I started to I
felt like I was looking better and I
your confidence goes up and it's just a
nice feeling and I thought to myself one
day I was thinking you know this is
something I feel like I could do the
rest of my life and that's all I really
wanted to do because I have two young
kids and I'm busy with other things I
don't have time for other things I'm
like that's that hour three days a week
is enough yeah maybe later on you could
do other things but then once I started
doing it what I found is we wanted to
work with the nutrition aspect of it
yeah and that's where it changed I
couldn't just do that and keep eating
the same way because I didn't feel good
I didn't it was like you're trying to
power something and there's no the right
nutrients and I think is that how it
goes is it usually the workouts and then
that then you change how you eat what
happen to me and for me too and it's
interesting because then I have the
phone call with people and I do try to
get them started the nutrition first
because they're not ready for the
workout so I have people coming it from
a both way ways your question is really
interesting so and I just it's funny I
have this conversation a lot I have it
with clients I have it with friends I
have it with colleagues you know when it
comes to nutrition it's kind of
like ask 10 experts or ask 10 people
nevermind experts, ask any ten people
and get ten answers what I think what I
like to look at is the commonalities
right so whether you're low carb very
low carb paleo whole thirty Kido clean
eating even to some extent I'm sure
Weight Watchers Nutrisystem Jenny Craig
like let's picks pick whatever it is the
thing there are very
common across the board one is let it
let us remove reduce or eliminate sugar
sugar flour right pretty much your carbs
and when I say sugar I right I should be
more specific it includes flour too so I
just think you know anything whether
it's cookies or chips are all kind of in
the same boat but right if you can
eliminate those things your and I don't
care people are probably listening to
this right now and their thing oh no I
can't eliminate sugar
I can't eliminate flour you go just
thinking about oh go through a
withdrawal you do so you know what's so
interesting that you say that because
it's it is interest, so it is and you've
been helping people with this for a long
and it's called you call a challenge
right that's what you take them on as a
how many days 30 days well 12 12 weeks
12 weeks and I like 12 weeks why the
challenge why not say the rest of your
life why I like that idea of the
challenge it's so many great question so
for example, if I said Don would you sign
up for the rest of your life
no way I'll go today it's overwhelming
and it's so interesting a lot of people
right we still remember the you know our
excitement and our first saw the Biggest
Loser right those kinds of shows they
still exist
so people have that sort of met like oh
like there's a contest and there's you
know competition and teams and all of
that so it appeals to people in that way
make it a game yep so it's a game and it
has a start and a start and an end okay
so here's the cool thing once people do
get started they start over twelve weeks
because it's a long enough period
of time with and we're giving them
information education they're seeing the
results but they start to realize oh hey
I'm enjoying it a I'm seeing changes I
see the benefits if I want to keep my
results I'm probably going to keep doing
this yeah and really we're not getting
brand-new people every 12 weeks we get
like 50% new and 50% stay because they
you know they do understand lifestyle is
not just 12 weeks of no sugar no flour
what or whatever changes you made yeah
maintenance isn't a special island you
arrived on and you get to stay there and
then go back to doing all you you know
all the things you wanted so another
thing besides the sugar and the flour
the common element amongst any plan that
you pick would be consistency and that
is that takes practice I tell people all
the time I said you know what you're not
going to undo 40 years of I fill in the
blank for years of crap 40 years of bad
habit or just different habits or
different you know different ways of
being and change it all in twelve weeks
right you're it's a process and when
people see the results and they meet
other people and they don't feel so
isolated and alone and confused because
we're bombarded with information I think
I think one of the keys you just
addressed which I know you're gonna talk
about is the community yeah you can't do
it alone Bonnie you you you how many
times I remember when I was a little kid
mm-hmm
we were we had to run the mile mm-hmm
and and so I decided I think it was two
days before I was gonna start practicing
running the mile so I was in my basement
running around the mouth you know doing
that thing and and then as I was a
younger kid I was thinking well I'm I
was a little hefty on a husky side and I
was so I'm gonna start a diet and just
you know stop eating Twinkies or
something like that so we all have these
I don't know it's almost like you're
taking over with a desire to change but
it's really hard to do it alone because
you fall back into your habits so easily
and one of the habits is working out but
an even more difficult habit is how
eat that's always what gets people so
we'd all like to think we can outwork
our diet yeah right you can I can I
workout two hours a day or three hours a
day so I can eat whatever I want I have
clients like that and again it is sort
of you know a process of realizing ok
some have a metabolic state that there's
a skinny they can eat whatever they want
yeah we don't like those people no I'm
not I you know because you have kids and
you'll start to see and I've seen it in
my children where I really do I'm
interested I'm like well you know to
some extent there is a Jeanette there's
a genetic component let's face it we do
all have a skinny friend yep I have like
a skinny child who eats more than
anybody and it's amazing I'm like this
is unbelievable check out how small this
person is and they consume everything so
that's real and there are things that
happen to people you know who knows over
the course of somebody's life you know
the different ways things you know slow
down maybe you know people they're
skinny until they were 35 or 40 or 50
and then you know because it hit a point
where something changes aging of course
you know you're sort of the the best
hormonal profile you'll get is probably
at age 25 when you know everything is
going in your favor
after 25 pianos did things start to
change and if you're not working out
you're not strength training you're not
really paying attention you're going to
start to see a slow decline yeah and and
if you keep eating like you were 25 when
you're 40 or 50 people that's when
people start to go wow I've had a weight
creep and it could be very slow and
insidious but it happens and I tell
people all the time I'm like look fat
loss is a hormonal event so weight loss
fat loss fat loss I like to say fat loss
because I don't want to be too obsessed
with the scale I think that's I think
that people get thrown off by the scale
and thrown off in a lot of ways you get
you know we've all maybe played the
scale game where if I got on the scale
and I liked what it said I can eat
whatever I want I have some wiggle room
hooray I can do this or that so I try to
to warn people I'm like you know what
the scale kind of fluctuates it's don't
get too wrapped up in it but let's let's
think about fat loss and
la shows up in different ways how your
clothes fit right how you feel you know
you go to bootcamp class enough to
notice like oh wow I can really go a
little bit faster I can get that extra
pull up or that extra push up I can go a
little bit heavier on the weight so you
know just maybe eventually get on the
scale and go the scale didn't change at
all but I'm wearing pants there you know
two sizes smaller so you know it's the
community thing is really big and you
know what's really cool when you go to
class people I mean honor on the regular
basis and you've seen it people start
clapping for other people they do like
oh my god you just did something you
never did before in your life like
everybody's clapping people are happy
for you they they want your success and
they feed off of it and people feel good
there I think that's a good transition
to maybe share some of these success
stories that you like with some of your
clients and something that you're proud
of about other people yeah that's the
best part about the fitness asylum is I
I I I live like I just love all of the
the success stories you won't find
really on our Facebook page like
pictures of me working out like hey look
at me who cares about me it's my clients
but I have a couple different pictures
to show but I have thousands and
thousands and thousands of photos and
what's really cool
I have cumulative photos so if they've
done multiple 12-week challenges and
correct we can sometimes we have we'll
put together four photos where you can
kind of see sometimes here's that where
they started two years ago and here's
where they're now amazing it
I mean I have goosebumps talking about
it so for example I have Amanda brown
who in her weight loss which is about 85
to 87 pounds right now
Wow she looks like you know she lost ten
years fifteen years easily just a
completely different person and you know
what goes with that of course you can
imagine your physician so you can
already be like Bonnie I'm sure if she
got her blood work and we compared that
you know yes that's the kind people do
they'll go to their doctors and not only
so I have the photos yeah what I really
like is when they get their physical
and they the triglycerides are down the
cholesterol ratio was so much better and
their blood sugar is you know their a1c
is great and all of these health markers
we're like well I mean I don't want to
say we're saving lives like we are you
know it is and and the person feels
really good about themselves so I have
all of these you know cumulative photos
and you know the ones I'm gonna show you
of course are the most dramatic ones
Alice Moriarty ninety pounds
Paul Bell cool Fame hundred pounds these
are about two years for each person it
took two years to lose that a moment now
if someone that's watching this and they
say well that that seems impossible
without surgery or it seems impossible
how do these people do it so what's
what's the what's this there's no see I
know it is interesting because I always
go to my clients and I'm like why them
and not the others
interesting right so it's consistency
it's also you know none of these people
and I say this all the time at the we do
I like a kick off our 12-week challenges
I'm like look look around you right now
the people sitting next to you were just
like you they're not smarter than you
better than you they don't have more
willpower than you they don't a better
genetics than you all the same so what's
the difference right is just being
consistent not trying to be perfect
because I don't you know what I mean
like you don't really go two years
without having pizza or cake or what
else enough you just you can't make that
a habit no I think you know it's
interesting like Paul who's lost 100
pounds he loves to go on cruises okay
and he loves to really live it up and
he's got the Facebook photos to show it
like I'm watching I'm like wow Paul so
he'd go and but you know when it's
planned I'm going on vacation when I do
whatever I want I'm not gonna be and I'm
not gonna care if I'm you know eating
nachos on vacation when I come back yeah
I'm gonna go back to eating you know my
grilled chicken and my broccoli and all
my stuff and you know he and it's not
that he just doesn't wake ation once a
year we've got easily two vacations and
we got you know a Bolivian living your
life so that's the beauty of the
cumulative it's not you know two years
of like living
you know some draconian lifestyle and
then in terms of working are these
people doing at five six days a week are
they doing it three four yeah some lasts
for more I see it's not the amount of
working out no it's not
I do understand like once you start
working out and it's fun and you like it
you do kind of want to do more and I get
it it's like anything else you're like
well if a little bits good a lot of bits
way better and I always tell people you
know what the body does a lot of great
things in recovery right we don't want
to be pushing ourselves too much and
feeling you know like get we're gonna
get injured or anything like that three
days a week is good for days or you know
you can alternate but I mean one of the
photos I know would be of interest to
you just you know as a physician and you
have seen people who have issues with
their feet or diabetic sores and things
like not I've had and this isn't the
first time I've had somebody in 12 weeks
win the entire challenge without working
out it's helped it's happened twice
really no workouts actually mark whose
photo I have he worked out once and he
had some sores that did not like it so
he couldn't work out and he lost about
40 pounds and looked like it looks like
a totally different person
Wow a couple years ago was a woman and
she had a knee issue couldn't even walk
I couldn't even like go for a walk in
the neighborhood she was doing nothing
all she did was make changes basic the
no sugar the no flour eating more
regularly eating more vegetables eating
more quality protein nothing crazy
I'm not here you know with a special bag
special shake mix or special supplements
or any other secrets correct other than
sort of the real food aspect and that's
all I'm not saying it's easy because if
you're you know we're all in a hurry
we all are running out the door grabbing
whatever I you know grab food off my
kids plates things I would never eat but
when you're tired and hungry and in a
hurry
it's you know you changed that you made
you change that and so the the people
who've been successful a lot of them
most of them aren't yeah they're not
work or outer people they're just people
who wanted and needed to make a change
and I think a lot of times it's having
the commitment when you commit to
something and you have the community
100% and it's interesting the
friendships right so people are you know
people are rooting for you and they are
following your transformation yeah
that's very very interesting I know in
in our personal personal life what's
always helped us the most with two young
children the two things that helped us
having our groceries delivered yes and
we do something called once a month
meals are you familiar with that I have
not heard about once a month meals it
it's it's a little website you pay maybe
five dollars a month and you print out
food plans at one week or one month and
it has a master prep list a master
shopping list and a master cooking list
in and it puts everything together so
food prep for us is the most important
thing so we can choose the recipes and I
tell you when you get home and you have
food ready we look at each other we just
smile we say we have food when we look
at each other we don't have food
we're like what are we gonna bring and
about what do we and it just causes
added stress so food prep I think is the
most important thing for having with
kids oh it is there's you're hungry you
walk into your house open the fridge and
there's raw chicken yeah like you can
actually take a half hour to cook it is
and so food you know I've asked people
I've straight-out said what what are the
things that make you feel successful
right having food that's more than the
number one Ahmir it's having a clean
house and having food prep that having
food prep was the number one answer
number two was scheduling and going to
boot camps again so I asked obviously
people who were more in my program I
didn't ask 10 strangers you know at the
grocery store what they thought was
success but because right and then we
just really talked about not making you
know not making elaborate meals it's
really once the food is prepped then it
is just the art of plating it usually
it's the protein that's prepped
you may you may prep the protein you add
it to a salad or if I have to confess it
is a little bit boring it's a little bit
boring because you're eating it's
usually salad and protein and then you
can maybe on the weekends we spice it up
a week it's it's just living right so
exactly and so that's the there's a
quote out there P I've been quoted by my
clients and what do they call I won't
use the whole cook if there was a word
okay but it was pretty much every time
you eat is not going to be a fiesta yeah
right it's fuel yep and I've made the
joke before I'm like you know you're not
driving in your car going oh let's go to
Shell gasoline and your car says oh no
I'm so sick of shell could we please go
to a different gas no it just once it's
gas and that's and that's a shift and
you know why let's face it it's a great
shift to make but it's also kind of like
oh I kind of think a week look for you
know you if you use something different
yeah I want to sit home and just eat a
pizza and now if I'm not doing that
anymore what am i doing to unwind what
am i doing to connect with my friends or
my family I'm like well it's called
talking to your family you know and I
get it because that's how we do connect
with food that's go out for drinks let's
go out for you know pizza or jojo's or
whatever and so what if we don't do that
I mean we could still go out yeah how
does that change things so it's very
interesting but again it is a little
boring but it's it's easy yeah it's
simple and you are getting you know
you're not getting overly hungry because
you have the food you're not making bad
choices because when you're hungry then
right can't make good choices can sobani
that our time is kind of finishing up a
little bit went by so fast I think we
covered most of the thing I wanted to is
there anything else that you wanted to
share and if not just how can people
kind of learn more about the fitness
asylum and kind of try it out please go
to our website of course where does it
fitness
- asylum calm okay we'll put it on the
screen perfect and my contact
information there is - so if you want to
talk in depth ok me a call
well thank you so much money it was a
wonderful time chatting with you same
here and I hope we have you back
time absolutely
