Fit For the New Year with Christine Hronec

Fit For The New Year

Dr. Cates: Welcome to The Spa Dr. Podcast. I’m Dr. Trevor Cates. Are you still inspired to work on those at new year’s goals? At this point, you might be feeling a little setback or discouraged that you haven’t made more progress. If this is the case for you or you just want a little bit of extra inspiration, today’s podcast is for you. My guest is Christine Hronec who is a nationally recognized food scientist and founder and CEO of Gauge Girl Training a nutrition and fitness online coaching service. Holding a bachelor’s and master’s degree in chemical and biological engineering from Drexel University. Christine got her start as a chemical engineer at fortune 100 company DuPont after six years and her role at DuPont, Christine branched out as an entrepreneur with small and midsize startup companies in the biotech and nutraceuticals industries. Her passion to assist others in living a healthy lifestyle is really present in her informative YouTube videos which have actually gotten millions of views. Christine’s science backed nutrition plans and fitness programs serve as a resource for a wide range of individuals. She has helped over 30,000 individuals, including athletes and fitness competitors, successfully reach weight loss goals and grasp a better understanding of personal health. Christine’s expertise has been featured in Forbes. Ok Magazine, Flex magazine, the Huffington Post, CBS, Fox News, Muscle and Fitness, and Extra TV. In today’s interview, Christine shares top ways to achieve your fitness goals, including tips on accountability, which is so helpful for success. So please enjoy this interview.

Dr. Cates: Christine, welcome to The Spa Dr. Podcast. It’s great to have you on.

Christine : Thank you so much for having me today.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, so you have an interesting, really interesting background, kind of you’ve had the science, the bodybuilding, and all kinds of stuff in between. So tell give everybody a little bit more about your background and how you got to be so passionate in nutrition and fitness.

Christine : Awesome. Thank you so much. So I had a whole other life before I ever started playing with social media and the internet and fitness, and I had an entire career as a scientist. I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree in chemical and biological engineering. I worked as an engineer for fortune 100 company, DuPont for six years. And then after that I decided to move into the biotech field. I wanted to move in like a smaller startup company vibe.

Christine : I wanted more autonomy in my career and I found that in the biotech field. I really enjoyed it. We did a lot of really cool product development, process development. And then from there I started doing some consulting in the nutraceutical field, had the opportunity to become an owning partner in a dietary supplement manufacturing company. I built a plant, made it FDA registered and I formulated nutrition products and supplements for other brands for years. Um, any one from, you know, top brands, like Whole Goods, GNC, bodybuilding.com. I’ve made lots of formulations for all kinds of companies. And it wasn’t until I started drinking the Koolaid and applying these things to myself that I became very passionate about nutrition. I became passionate about being able to change my body because I didn’t have success with it personally, even though I had a career in science, you know, with my own physique, I always thought that if I ran a marathon, I would have abs. And I did that, that ran several marathons actually. And I didn’t. And it wasn’t until I learned how to apply nutrition science, learn how to get in the gym to get over those fears that I was able to completely change my physique. And then I started talking about it on Instagram in like 2011 and then all these people just started asking me all these questions about it. And here we are years and years later, I’ve been able to build a very successful online business and actually multiple online businesses just from my own struggles and sharing it and putting it out there.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. Well thank you for everything you’ve done and like putting yourself out there. It’s a brave thing to do and an and providing an inspiration for people. And so that, so I want to have you on the podcast to help provide some of that inspiration to The Spa Dr. family. And this time a year could be a tough time. People have created their new year’s resolutions. Their 2020 goals. And maybe they haven’t actually achieved them and they feel like, Oh my gosh, how am I going to get back on track? Or how can I get fit? What are the things that I can can do to make sure that I am achieving my 2020 goals? So what are some of the things that you want to share with people?

Christine : I think a lot of times people feel like they need to boil the ocean. They feel like they need to do everything all at once. And if it’s not 110% perfect than they failed. You got to start somewhere. And I encourage most people to put most of your energy into your nutrition. I feel like a lot of people have it backwards. They want to balance all of their energy and put it all into the gym and I need to workout more. And the reality is you can’t compete with what you eat. I think the best thing would be to start taking a more mindful approach to nutrition. Auditing what you’re eating and making smaller, more sustainable changes because your overall result is going to be the sum of the collective changes that you make over time. It’s not going to, it’s not going to be something that you just do once and then seven days later you’re magically where you want to be.

Christine : It’s never going to happen that way. It’s an illusion. Anyone online that tells you that is full of crap, you need to start finding what things you can change. For some people that might be something as simple as starting to drink black coffee. For other people it can be, you know what? I really should stop cutting out. I gotta stop eating out as much. I gotta eliminate alcohol, start with the basics, and then build from there, and then once you’re in a place where that feels good, then take it to the next level and then add more and then add more. Because this is about living a healthy life. It’s not about, I don’t want anyone to ever have to diet again. You know, and that mentality where it’s like, well, I just got to fix it. I just got to suck it up for a couple of weeks and then it’s like that’s not going to last.

Dr. Cates: It can be a doing a program can be a good way to kind of jumpstart, but that’s not the the end. That’s just the beginning. And when you talk about drinking black coffee, you’re talking about like cutting out maybe the latte, you know that with the, you know, the mocha latte or whatever and just having black coffee or not like go drink, start drinking black coffee if you don’t drink coffee, that’s not what you’re saying. Yeah. So yeah. So making those first steps. And so how, how were you able to do that in your life? Like what were some of the things that worked well for you?

Christine : The thing for me is I’m very type A, I’m very goal oriented. And one thing that really helped me honestly was public accountability. When I put it out there and tell other people that I’m going to do something, you know, people are going to ask and they’re going to check in on you. And I think a lot of people like to keep their health goals to themselves as a secret, so that way if they fail, nobody knows and it never happened. But I think that there’s a lot of power in sharing your journey, it makes you very vulnerable. But I think that through that vulnerability it pushes you to show up more than you probably would for yourself. It’s like a, it’s an extra form of accountability actually.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. So when you talk about about sharing, what are, what are some safe ways you know, it’s like, it’s this balance of feeling safe doing it. Cause social media can be scary and it can actually be dangerous. I mean, I think, you’re, you’re putting yourself out there for sure. And I’m sure it’s not always easy. But what, what are some ways that people can share their goals? And maybe social media is a great tool for that. But what are some of the things that you suggest?

Christine : Some great ways are, you know, utilizing some live streams and engaging in Q and A’s and like sharing what you’re doing. You could do a YouTube video showcasing, Hey this is a full day of eating, this is what I eat. And obviously you want to be safe. Like you said, you want to like draw some boundaries around your private life. But I think that there’s a way you can do that that keeps you safe, that allows you to be vulnerable. But for instance, you know, there’s some people who are like, Oh, here’s a full tour of everything inside of my house. You probably don’t want to do that. But like you keep it to your kitchen, you can show people you know, you just want to, you just want to be mindful. But I think the thing that’s the most fun about that is engaging in the live streams.

Christine : You, you can do lives on YouTube, you can do lives on Instagram, you can do lives on Facebook. So it becomes a dialogue and it’s not just the cause people have certain questions but you can directly answer what they do want to know. And it’s really, people love doing that because they’re like, Oh I wonder what she’s eating or why she’s doing that. And you can ask them there and believe it or not, my community really blossomed between 2015 and 2016 I’m not sure if you remember a live streaming app called Periscope. It used to be owned by Twitter and I did a live broadcast every day for 365 days and it completely transformed my community. It was a game changer in my business. It was a game changer for me as an influencer and it allowed me to reach more people. And now I have this like fantastic online community as a result of investing that energy in these live Q and A’s daily.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. And I know there are probably some people listening saying, well that’s easy for her to say cause she’s got 90,000 followers on Instagram. But even if you only have, you know, 15 people that follow you, that’s more than you’re going to get just, you know, talking to a couple of girlfriends at a coffee shop, right. You’re actually using the online space is a great way to connect with more people than you can in an in person setting.

Christine : When I first started Gauge Girl Training, I have 500 followers on Instagram, but they were all curious about what I was doing. So like, and I was able to scale my business to six figures with only 5,000 followers. Scale it to seven figures with only 20,000 followers. It’s, it’s about the engagement, it’s not the number.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, that’s a good point. That’s a good point. And then when it comes to actual types of fitness, what are your favorite things that, that are get quick results cause everybody wants quick results and there are certain things that are going to get results faster when it comes to fitness.

Christine : I think it’s important to find things that you like. But for me, what I find works is the most effective is a combination of just conventional bodybuilding, like weight training in the gym with, you know, consistent cardio. Now what type of cardio you do is up to you, but anything that’s going to elevate your heart rate over at least 130 beats per minute for your steady state. At least 150 beats per minute for your HIT or higher intensity days. But if you hitting those target heart rate thresholds. If you like kickboxing, do kickboxing. If you like Orange Theory, do Orange Theory if you like classes, if you just like running. But I feel like by giving people some goals with target heart rates and ranges, it gives people options.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, you know, you want to do what you enjoy to like you’ve got to be consistent with it. Find something that you don’t hate. A lot of people have forced them to themselves to do things that’s not going to be sustainable. Right, exactly right. And do you think what people get started they should try and work out with someone and workout with a personal trainer or do you think that it’s easy enough to just get going?

Christine : I think it’s going to depend on the individual, and how disciplined you are. You may not be in great shape, but you may be a discipline person in general. Some people would benefit from working with a trainer. Just because you don’t want to injure yourself. If you’re completely brand new to the gym, you have no clue what you’re doing. Don’t hurt yourself. You probably would want to work with somebody in person. But for the majority of people, if you have any sort of experience whatsoever, which a lot of people do, I’d say 70-80% of the people are mildly familiar with the gym.

Christine : The key where most people just mess up is the nutrition. You cannot compete with what you eat. I know I said that already, but that is what’s going to make the difference. You can work out every day, two hours a day, but if you are not in that deficit food-wise and even that you could be eating all healthy things, shopping only at Whole Foods, but it’s still not enough. It’s still not enough. You got to really be mindful of how much you’re eating.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s the quantity but also the quality, right, of the foods that you’re eating. Um, so what are some things that you think are, are key parts of nutrition that help with get helping, getting in shape and staying healthy?

Christine : Two things. I think the biggest mistake most people make when it comes to their nutrition is most people are drastically under eating protein. According to the FDA nutrition facts, labels recommend that you need only 50 grams of protein per day. It’s 10% of the total daily diet based off of a 2000 calorie diet. It’s not, it’s just not enough. It’s, that’s the bare minimum that people need for DNA resynthesis that has nothing to do with gaining like lean muscle mass. So most people are going to find that they need to eat more protein. The next thing they’re going to find is that they probably need to eat less sugar. As of 2018 the FDA just changed the nutrition requirements and there was never an RDA on sugar before. It just used to say, you know, non-recommended but now added sugar is at 10% of your total daily carb intake. So a lot of people are eating more processed carbs and it’s a lot of sugar. It’s a lot of sugar. And unfortunately there is this big epidemic with sugar in our country where people are eating way too much. They, and it’s the number one thing that you really need to transition your carbs sources to be more complex. Higher in fibers, more vegetable. Now that we have an actual guideline with sugar, it’s going to make it easier for people to make those types of choices if they’re tracking their food. And like a tracking app like my fitness pal.

Dr. Cates: Right. And there are so many places that sugar is hidden, ways that the blood sugar can actually increase, even if it’s not just sugar but also fructose and you know, honey, maple syrup, all of those things, eating a ton of fruit, all of that can, can also cause blood sugar to rise. So yeah, I think certainly sugar is one of the big trigger foods for skin problems, a lot of health issues. And so thank you for pointing that out. A lot of people are looking for ways to get started in getting in shape and getting healthier, but other people are also, maybe they’re already there, but they’re looking to up level, they’re looking to get leaner, fitter, more muscle tone, and you certainly have gotten there. So there’s a difference in that, right? From getting going and then getting from this sort of, okay, now I’m here and I want to really have that muscle tone and take it to the next level. What do you recommend for people to get there?

Christine : The biggest thing with taking it to the next level is changing your lifestyle commitment. When I want to get a six pack, when I want to get like a photo shoot ready bikini lean body, you’re really going to have to draw some lines around your lifestyle. The biggest thing for me when I’m going hardcore on that path is completely eliminating alcohol. Like my dedication to the gym doesn’t become, what’s my mood today? I got four workouts in this week. It becomes, it’s not optional. I got to go six days a week. I got to make sure I get my lifting in my cardio in. If I look at it almost like a second job, it has to, the level of dedication has to be so almost automatic robotic, like must get done. So changing your commitment completely, eliminating alcohol. And the reason I’m so big on this is, you know, I think that you can live a healthy lifestyle, have a healthy body, you know have a glass of nice glass of wine or something on the weekend.

Christine : But if you’re really trying to target fat loss, alcohol pauses your body’s ability to metabolize fat for at least 48 to 72 hours. And it’s just something that completely needs to go if you’re trying to get as lean as you possibly can in a time sensitive manner. And then the next thing I do when I am trying to get very, very lean is 100% on the macros. Like I assign my macros, I put follow a meal plan and I leave zero guesswork. It has to, it deviates a little from what am I hungry for today to a, that’s what I prepped. That’s what I’m eating.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. And, and when you say macros can explain people what you mean by that?

Christine : Sure, macros are what make up the, what make up the caloric content of foods. So a lot of people are used to this idea of counting calories. However, when you count macros, it’s breaking it down one step further. All food is made up of either protein, carbs, or fat. So instead of me just having a calorie goal for the day saying, okay, I’m going to eat 1500 calories a day. Instead I’ll be like, okay, I’m going to eat 140 grams of protein. I’m going to have 50 grams of fat. I’m going to have, I don’t know, 120 grams of carbs today, and I track my food based off of hitting those numbers because tracking your macros allows you to make those body composition changes because what a lot of people can do is they’ll lose weight, but they still almost have a skinny fat vibe where yes, you weigh less on the scale but you don’t look the way you want to look and in order to do that is to make the mental shift from weight loss to that of fat loss and losing true body fat.

Christine : Keeping the muscle is actually quite hard. If someone just wanted to lose weight, I mean we can purge water, you can lose muscle and yes, we can make the number on the scale less. But to lose true body fat, you need to be a little bit more strategic with your food. And being on a high protein diet. This is when I first realized this when I started competing in 2011, 2012 having high protein, it gives your body a positive nitrogen balance. And protein is the only macronutrient that contains nitrogen. And when you have the positive nitrogen balance, it allows your body to utilize fat as a fuel source. And that’s why it’s a very common approach to bodybuilders to utilize higher fat, lower carb, higher fat, lower higher protein, lower fat approaches. Mixing my words there.

Dr. Cates: That’s all right. So, you know I love what you said. It’s like it becomes this other job. I mean, this isn’t for everybody, right? This isn’t, not everybody has the desire or the time and the commitment, to do this. But I think it’s good for people to know that it doesn’t just sort of happen to you, that you schedule this in your day and you do not give in, this is what you’re eating, this is when you’re working out, this is what you’re doing. And it’s like a job. I think that’s really interesting.

Christine : Yeah, no that, that’s what it takes. It’s definitely what it takes.

Dr. Cates: But I mean, going back to what most people are looking for, what most people are looking for is just to get their, themselves on a place of more of a healthy place of more optimal health and not necessarily getting ready for a bikini competition. But so any other nutrition tips in general for people that you want to share?

Christine : Sure. So it’s funny, when I started Gauge Girl Training, I used to do a lot of fitness competitions and my clients back then used to be people who wanted to go from like a four pack to a six pack. And my client base has shifted more towards you know, women who just want to not hate themselves naked and I think a big piece of staying on track is a mindset thing which is approaching this from a place of self love and not a place of self hate. I think that once we start looking at food, you know what, I’m eating this because it’s going to make me feel good. I’m eating this because I’m taking the time to plan my meals because I love myself enough to make sure my energy is stable and I’m not tired and, this is how I show myself love.

Christine : This is how I show my self care. That is so big for women so big and once it becomes, because I feel like a lot of people, they make their food choices based off of convenience and their mood and you know what? What am, what’s my mood? And once we start being like, you know what, I’m going to nourish my body. I’m going to take good care of myself. I’m going to foster these things. That’s a great place to start from because it no longer becomes this, Oh, I got to lose all this weight. Oh my clothes don’t fit. It’s, it comes this, you know what, I’m doing this for me. And it’s funny. In my private Facebook group, um, the ladies started calling their workout time me time and it’s this like cool little thing in our community. And I love that because we can look at workouts as a chore, but instead it’s like, no, this is my time away from my kids, away from my family, away from my work and just the time for me to just hear my heartbeat and just be, and I think that’s a really great way to look at it, to keep you going.

Dr. Cates: Right. These self self honoring choices and time for self care that we, we take care of so many other people and that in order to keep doing that and doing it really well, we have to have some self care, self honoring choices for herself. And yeah and I, and I think it’s so true. We are definitely a society of convenience and everything is at our fingertips. So it’s this dangerous combination of your mood and what’s available. And you can have anything at any moment if you go in to go pay for the gas and there’s like candy bars right there. I’m like, Oh, I’m hungry, that’s the only thing there, it’s convenient, it’s easy, it’s cheap. I’m just going to eat that and I, and, you know, Hey, I feel like I need chocolate. Right? So, instead, you know, there are a lot of other ways to look at that and maybe you know pausing and thinking, is this really a self honoring choice?

Christine : Absolutely. Absolutely.

Dr. Cates: So are there any tips that you have for people because convenience is such a big thing and we’re busy. We’ve, we’re raising kids where you were working, were you going to the gym or socializing with our friends? We’re doing all these things. Are there any things that, anything that you can any tips you can provide to make it a little bit easier, a little bit more convenient, but still sticking with healthy eating habits. And fitness goals?

Christine : Sure. The number one thing, this is going to sound a little irrelevant but it’s not, is before you start on these types of goals and journey, clean your house, clean your car, clean your kitchen, clean your desk, come approaching it from a place of organization. It gives you a sense of power, it gives you a sense of control over your immediate surroundings. And I feel like that’s just a really good baseline mental space to approach it from. Number two is you want to meal plan. Not everyone likes the idea of leftover, so if you don’t like you don’t like meal planning. Meal planning really helps for busy people though. You get it done on maybe once or twice a week, maybe like on a Saturday or Sunday and like maybe a Wednesday. Have that be your time. You’re going to save money, you’re going to get to the grocery store. It’s, it’s just going to be intentional with the food prep. If you don’t like that, you know, make good choices throughout the day and just track it in a tracking app like on my fitness pal or a Lifesum and those, those three things, you know, just tracking meal prepping and cleaning I’m telling you there’s just something so powerful about a clean and organized environment.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, that’s definitely part of my morning routine because in the morning, like getting the kids out of the house and it’s like they leave and it’s just like a tornado hit the kitchen and then the path of the way out the door. And so that’s, and I work from home, so for the most part, so it’s, you know, I’ve got to get this organized and, and it’s become sort of automatic, but if I don’t do it, it’s like, Oh my God, that’s just bugging me that that’s there. Even if I’m working in my office and not in the kitchen, you know, I’m not even in there. There’s something about it that is, and I used to have somebody come in and clean for me and I realize I, then they’re in my space and they don’t always put things where I want them to. So, I mean certainly I’m not opposed to help, but I do have, you know, cleaners that come in once a week, but it’s, you know, like these little things, it’s almost like you can always, it can also kind of become meditative. Like just, you know, going through the daily, you know, put on some music and just let that be a part of your day and cleaning the space and then everything’s where you want it to be.

Christine : I feel like people get an instant sense of gratification too with cleaning. It’s very therapeutic. And I actually encourage my clients when they’re stressed out, when people want to stress eat. I stress clean actually. Like it sounds really silly but give me like the Clorox, the gloves, let me just, it really helps calm my nerves when I’m tempted want to overeat from stress.

Dr. Cates: Right. And when you were talking about food prep, to me it doesn’t necessarily mean leftovers cause I know some people don’t like leftovers, but even just chopping vegetables or you know washing your lettuce and having it ready, then you can just throw things together so much easier and instead of grabbing, you know, a handful of chips, you can have a handful of chopped veggies that are already prepared for you. So I think that, and I love leftovers. I think food tastes better when it’s been sitting a day and the, all the savory spices and everything that garlic has at a time to like permeate the food. And I think that’s great. So I haven’t, I’ve never really quite figured out what the issue is with leftovers.

Christine : I’ve been brought up on that style of cooking too, so, you know, but everyone’s different.

Dr. Cates: Sure. Yeah, I understand. Well it’s, so, it’s been so great having you on the podcast. Will you tell everybody where they can find you, I know you’ve definitely got, social media following. You also said you have like some groups that and you do lives and so tell people how they can find you and follow you.

Christine : Sure. So my biggest platform is my YouTube channel. So you guys can find me on the Gauge Girl Training YouTube channel. I’m on Instagram at Gauge Girl Training. And you can check out my nutrition company @gaugelifesupps on Instagram. Facebook Gauge Girl Training. So just Gauge Girl Training across the board. But yeah, YouTube, I answer a lot of videos on any kind of question you’ve ever had. You just type in Gauge Girl in your topic a guarantee a video will come up on it cause I have almost 700 videos.

Dr. Cates: That’s great. Well thank you for all the education you do. And then how do people get used to thinking about a Facebook group? I think, how do people get it?

Christine : So that’s a private Facebook group for my active clients. So once you purchase your program, you’ll get invited in there. Okay. It’s for accountability and community.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, those are so great. I have a few of those with my audience too and people love that. It’s such a great supportive place to be. All right. Again, thanks for coming on today. I really appreciate it.

Dr. Cates: I hope you enjoyed this interview today with Christine. To learn more about her, you can go to thespadr.com, go to the podcast page with her interview and you’ll find all the information and links there and while you’re there I invite you to join The Spa Dr. community so you don’t miss any of our upcoming podcasts. Also, if you haven’t found out what messages your skin is trying to tell you about your health, you could take my skin personality type test theskinquiz.com this is a free online quiz. It takes just a few minutes. You’ll find out if you’re an Amber, Olivia, Sage, Emmitt or Heath what that means and the root causes are that you can address. Just go to theskinquiz.com. Also, I invite you to join us on social media The Spa Dr. is on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest. And join the conversation there and I’ll see you next time on The Spa Dr. Podcast.