Stop Doing Pilates & Do This Instead (have your strawberry matcha) Senada Greca: Kim Kardashians Trainer

0:00Kim Kardashian's team called you to train her what goes through your head. It was a little scary, but... You're a founder with 6.5 million followers on Instagram. You're around a lot of very successful billionaires like Kim Kardashian. What separates them from average people? Well, I can't believe I'm about to admit this, but I love certain parts of my body. My lower body has always been at what I would call the problem child.

0:24Senada Greca:We all have it. You could be as fit as possible or as skinny as possible. It makes me want to cry because I see women that are just destroying themselves by dieting. Have your strawberry syrup matcha. If that brings you that big smile that you just had, have it. For so long, as women, we were made to shrink. But at any point in time, you're enough. Don't necessarily want abs, but it's what abs represent. It represents you walking into a room and owning that room. And it's proven that. Creatine, fiber, or protein? Coldplund or sauna? Is it possible to get rid of cellulite? Hi, angels. Did you know that subscribing to our channel is free?

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1:29In case you missed it, you're allowed to be hot, smart, and rich. So let's get into it.

1:40Sonata Greca, are you ready to get hot, smart, rich? Let's go. Let's get into it. I am so excited to have many parts of this conversation unfold naturally. But for someone that's just clicked into this conversation, that doesn't know very much about you or what we're going to talk about, What would you tell them will happen to their life if they apply what we're going to talk about today?

2:00Senada Greca:It will be a transformational mind and body journey that will be hopefully taking them through. And not because we're not going to talk just about fitness. Fitness is just a small element of what is and portrays discipline and consistency and how that translates into confidence and trust and into so many aspects of your life. You just hit on so many of the buzzwords for HSR and like confidence and self-love and all the things. One of the reasons I wanted to book you was you made this video saying your brain craves dopamine, non-discipline, which is very different from what most people in your space preach.

2:42Can you explain what that means to someone who's just hearing it for the first time?

2:45Senada Greca:Well, our brains are wired to hit that button like mice to create those dopamine hits. And we're wired for survival. We're not wired necessarily to challenge ourselves. We're wired for comfort. But comfort doesn't necessarily lead us to growth. It does not lead us to expansion. What leads us into expansion, into the fullest expression of ourselves, is facing those challenges head on and even taking on challenges ourselves, putting them in our way, so to speak, and overcoming them. And that's what creates that expansion and the ability to reach our fullest potential. Did you ever have a light bulb moment that got you to rewire your brain this way?

3:27Or have you always, from a little girl, understood this like mind-body connection?

3:32Senada Greca:I think the strongest connection that I created between mind and body was when I started strength training, when I stepped into my strength. I think this is definitely coming into the cultural zeitgeist, but it's still very new for women. Why is strength training so important? The data is undeniable, first of all. What strength training does to our health, our long-term health and longevity, from, you know, all-encompassing mortality, the lower risk of all-encompassing different things that cause people to die, basically, cardiovascular health to lowering the risk of Alzheimer's. Two out of three people with Alzheimer's are women.

4:10Senada Greca:There's such a depression, anxiety, mood disorders. I don't think there is one disease state that strength training, working out in general, moving, but strength training in particular helps, you know, osteoporosis, which is loss of bone density, sarcopenia, muscle loss. So it is so crucial that we strength train, especially as women, you know, for the biggest part of history, it's been men that have been strength training, but it's actually women who benefit even more from strength training. So this is why I'm so big on that bandwagon of picking up those weights and and working out, it goes hand in hand, like developing strength and developing that discipline, developing a level of self-confidence and presence.

4:55Senada Greca:You develop a mindset of a warrior, not just in the gym, but outside of the gym. And I think a lot of the time is what we crave as people and especially as women, because for so long we were made to shrink. And I think strength training gives us that confidence to stand. You know, I don't know that necessarily we want abs, but it's what abs represent. It represents you walking into a room and owning that room. It represents being solid, being somebody that has discipline and self-trust. I relate to so much of what you're saying. Like I started strength training probably a year and a half ago because I was very much in that mindset of like the Pilates, the walking, the low intensity, because I think I overdid it a little bit with high intensity workouts, not necessarily strength training, but I'm just going to call them out.

5:42Barry's Bootcamp. I was obsessed, right? And I don't think that that was the right workout for me. So I kind of went the complete opposite way, where it was very high reps, but lower weights. And now I think I'm in that mindset of like, okay, how can I push a personal best? How can I add more weight onto it? For someone that still wants to be strong, but lean, how many days a week should they be strength training and trying to up their weight?

6:06Senada Greca:So it's different for everybody. Perhaps three days a week, that's on the minimum side and then balancing those strength training days between lower body and upper body. Or you can do a full body workout since if you're spreading it out, as long as you're being, again, intentional and lifting to a point where you're physically challenged. And I usually stick to the eight to 12 rep range. So if you're pushing yourself to where on that 12 rep, you're struggling and you can perhaps have one or more in you and that's what we call getting close to failure. And that's what simulates the muscles to grow versus when you are in Pilates or when you're doing lower weight and high reps, you're reaching fatigue.

6:49Senada Greca:And that does not recruit the same level of muscle growth, which is needed because if we have a completely sedentary life where we're not moving, we start to lose muscle mass as early as 30, three to eight percent per year. And if you are working out, but strength training in specific and ideally, then you can actually not just reverse that, but increase your muscle mass, which then relates to so many things, even, believe it or not, longevity, living longer. And like I said, your mental health, your cognitive function is very much related to that. I can't believe I'm about to admit this, but I love certain parts of my body.

7:30Like I would say my arms and my like kind of um decollage here is very fit it's toned it's the exact same exact way i want it to look my lower body has always been at what i would call the problem child very hard to get fit very hard to build muscle and i've noticed as i've entered into my 30s that it does have cellulite specifically around my lower body butt area what are the things that women listening to this that can relate to that can be doing to get rid of that? Is it possible to get rid of cellulite?

8:01Senada Greca:So it's cellulite. We all have it. You could be as fit as possible or as skinny as possible and you can have cellulite. We all have it to some degree and it could be determined by genetics. But there's always something that you can do to diminish the look of it. And it's proven that strength training actually helps with skin elasticity, with how your skin looks, skin use. and that is focused lower body strength training. I can personally say that I have had more cellulite when I was running marathons. So imagine the amount of cardio that I was doing at that time. And then I have now when I do minimal cardio, if at all, and I just strength train.

8:43Senada Greca:My cardio is in the shape of doing a full body workout where I'm doing a circuit with minimal rest. And then I do about one to two sprint sessions that take very little time after my upper body days. So 20 seconds to 30 seconds all out for five rounds of that. So that's pretty minimal thinking about how much I did cardio when I was training for marathons. And yes, I did have the back of the leg and butt cellulite that I, it's minimal now. And I'm actually bigger in size now, believe it or not. Talking a little bit more about this connection with the mindset, right? Because it's even interesting, like some days I go in and I'm like, I can do this.

9:25And it does impact my performance. You said something before we actually started recording where you were like, oh, it's my bad side. But then, no, I can't do negative self-talk. Walk me through the impact of how you talk to yourself and how you will end up showing up in terms of your workout, in terms of your fitness performance. Absolutely.

9:43Senada Greca:I mean, our brains listen, our bodies listen. They're very in tune with what we're saying, not just what we're saying, but what we're thinking. And there is even research that states to that fact. And even when we are actually saying something negative about somebody else, the brain does not know the difference that we're saying it about somebody else's things that we're saying it about ourselves. So I personally minimize, like, will it ever 100 % go away? But at least if you catch it and if you substitute it with something positive and you can always find something positive, sure, I'm feeling tired, but I am confident that even though I'm not feeling at my 100%, I will show up today.

10:25Senada Greca:I think it has such a huge impact on our physical and our mental sides. As someone with 6.5 million followers on Instagram and around people that have huge platforms that get a lot of criticism, that get a lot of hate, how do you block out the noise of people around you? Because even though that might not be relatable to people listening about the following, people listening to this have those people around them that aren't bringing the type of energy that they need to excel in their life. At a point in time, it would have hurt to hear some of the negative comments. But But I think strengthening, like I said, just permeates into so many different aspects of who you are as a person.

11:07Senada Greca:And I stand in my strength right now where those comments or the negativity doesn't affect me because I know who I am. I know what I stand for. And I know what I bring to the table. And nobody should let somebody that has not walked in their shoes and it's not doing what they're doing. and perhaps you only see a very small window into their life, let those comments that have, and those people that have a limited view and perspective of who you are affect your entire life, affect your reality. That's ridiculous. That's like allowing an uninvited guest into your house and allowing them to rearrange your furniture, allowing them to rearrange your life, your mind.

11:51Wow, I can relate to that so much. And that analogy of like letting someone into your house hits so deeply because it is your house. We live in this body. We only have one. Have you ever nursed yourself back from an injury, both mentally or physically, where you can apply a framework of how you've done that to whatever someone's dealing with right now?

12:12Senada Greca:When it comes to probably some of the biggest struggles that I have overcome is anxiety, depression and an eating disorder when I was younger, in my teens and early 20s. Nothing really changed until I made the decision to not be measured by societal standards and to create my own standard. Who am I? Like, who am I proud to embody? And I wanted to embody this strong woman, an emotional bit, versus trying to diminish into standards that we had no part in creating. So that is probably like one of the biggest accomplishments to where I don't need to take medication to overcome anxiety and depression.

12:57Senada Greca:And then the eating disorder, I stepped into the powerful woman by, again, having those positive affirmations towards myself and not just saying them and looking at yourself in the mirror and being like you're an imposter, but truly embodying them and feeling them in your body. So I think it's so important, you know, positive affirmations have this mixed belief system behind them that you're perhaps lying to yourself. But I think they work if you are embodying those affirmations yourself. One of my biggest principles that I have always used in business is own the narrative. Always own the narrative because then you can control the outcomes.

13:38Control, right? and I think these HsR love notes that I do publicly are affirmations of things that I'm actually dealing with but like by putting them out into the world it feels like I'm not suffering in silence the way that my brain can make me believe I am like I do think I have a very toxic brain that tells me things that people don't like you you're not good enough like someone's better you're fucking up like that is what my brain can sound like if I let it and these HsR love notes that I say publicly actually help me own the narrative. They help me feel like I'm back in control of my thoughts.

14:13And by putting positive affirmations, as you could call them out there, I feel like I get a lot of positive affirmations back. When you think about the word wellness, the word fitness, it's so intimidating, right? There's so many things that you have to get right. It's like inside of your head. It's the gym. It's the cooking. It's like the whole lifestyle of it. And that's what they say, like fitness is a lifestyle. What does fitness and health mean to you?

14:35Senada Greca:Fitness is life. Like eating is life. Like it's not a form of living. It's what we should all be doing. But we've chosen to kind of steer away from that. So like when we say it like lifestyle, it almost has a bit of a not a negative connotation, but it kind of like sets me back a little bit. It's like it's brushing your teeth a lifestyle. No, it's part of what you do. So that's my take on fitness and eating healthy or eating to support your goals. eating yourself to support your goals is that's part of what we all should be doing to take care of ourselves and be the fullest version of ourselves mentally and physically, because it just doesn't translate only into how we appear physically.

15:19Senada Greca:It translates to so much as to how we think, how we show up, who we are. So do you believe in that rule like 80-20? 80 being what? 80 being the kitchen. The studies obviously show us it's a little bit different than what we've been taught. That's what's so confusing. Yeah, I mean, everything is very confusing nowadays because for every argument, you'll find 10 pro and 10 against it. So I use this a lot. Listen to the expert within. What is the expert within? You know, we all have this knowledge. We all have that ability to tap into it and to listen. How does my body respond to this mixture of food and exertion?

16:03Senada Greca:And then dial that in. You know, I understand that we want to be told that this is the formula for you. And while you can take that formula and then adjust it to what works for you, to what resonates with your body and mind and to what, you know, how do you perform the best? How do you show up the best? Because we can take the most successful person's formula and it just doesn't necessarily work for us. We can take that and then adjust it to us by listening to the expert within. So my strawberry syrup matcha that I have every single day, is that ruining my desired result? Have your strawberry syrup matcha.

16:42Senada Greca:If that brings you that big smile that you just had, have it. Have it. Makes me want to cry because people feel like they need to eliminate all of the things to get the results. Life is a mixture of the joys and the discipline, but it's a mixture of those things. And yeah, it breaks my heart that people feel that they have to ditch all of the things to create health and joy because joy is such a big part of life. Do you feel like you see that a lot? Like, is that why you're getting emotional? I do. I do see that a lot. I see extremes. I see women that are just destroying themselves by dieting to where their skin and bones by, you know, walking and and doing cardio all day.

17:29Senada Greca:I see that on the daily where I live. From my own experience growing up, like I lived under that strict mentality. Like I can't do this. I can't do that. Restricting everything. And it didn't bring me joy. And I think now I've come in such a better place with myself mentally that physically that also manifests. But if you're not educated on nutrition or you don't have the time to go and do that research on every single nutrition panel, what is that cheat sheet guide of like quick things that people can look at and say, oh, I should never consume something. if it looks like that on the nutrition panel.

18:01Senada Greca:Yeah, absolutely. If it's anything that has like artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, like all of the, you know, like the red and all of that stuff that we already know, those are things that I stay away from. And personally, even though I've co-founded Aionic, which is a functional nutrition company, we believe that whole foods should come first. And supplements are just that. They're there to supplement. But I will say something. It is probably the anxiety over every single ingredient that is going to hurt you more than perhaps that single ingredient. And there are studies to this that your belief of what something does to you is more important than what actually that ingredient does to you.

18:44Senada Greca:If you felt like that ingredient was completely fine and it's going to make you live to 200 years, it's the belief of what something does to you that is extremely important. We have to talk about supplements, which we're going to get into your brand. But first, pick one that you want to start with, creatine, fiber or protein. Sure, we can talk about creatine because I think, you know, so many women have jumped on board of the protein bandwagon. And that's good because we should be prioritizing protein. But I think creatine still, I think, lacks some people to really understand like the benefit, mind and body benefit of creatine.

19:23What would you say to someone who feels like creatine is going to make them bulky and they don't want to take it?

19:29Senada Greca:First of all, like that is not reality for everybody. And if it's going to add a little bit, and that's proven at like higher grams of creatine. But if you stick to like three to five, you won't retain the water that what you're thinking is bulky. What it does, creatine does is pull the water into your muscles till your muscles saturate. And then it does not. That doesn't happen anymore. So it's just a temporary effect. And our muscles, believe it or not, are made up of mostly water. We need that water to be pulled into our muscles. And then creatine, a lot of the time we also think of all of these things, what kind of effect they're going to have on our body, what kind of effect are they going to have on our minds, on our brain?

20:11Senada Greca:And creatine is just having more and more of that day in the light of what impact, positive impact it can have in our cognitive function, in our brain. Isn't it just so funny, like the industry in general, how we market to men and women? Because I have seen so many creatine gummies come out. And it's interesting to me because I'm like, is that as effective as just taking creatine as a powder? But because it's in this cute little gummy form, it's more manipulative to women. If you could take either a creatine powder or a creatine gummy, which would you choose and why? Powder, 100%. Powder, 100%.

20:50Senada Greca:Again, there are studies behind gummies that, first of all, it doesn't contain the amount of creatine for it to be effective. What they say, three or five grams, whatever the case may be, but also the heating up process, that it diminishes some of that quality of the creatine and efficacy. And it also has other things that need to bind that into a gummy that is not necessarily good for you. So hands down, powder, powder, creatine monohydrate. And then, yeah, if it has like HMB or beetroot and beetroot extract, that elevates it because it makes the bioavailability and it creates an environment where the creatine can be even more effective.

21:32When you see a brand successfully targeting these young women with gummy supplements, what goes through your head?

21:40Senada Greca:You know, it's almost like taking a pill, right? And it will fix everything versus whether it comes to working out or whether it comes to nutrition to just kind of put in the effort. And yes, sure, like it's not a ton of effort between a gummy and a powder, but there's still a little bit of that distinction between the two. But yeah, I cringe a little bit at the gummies. Yeah, not my favorite thing for sure. Okay, let's talk a little bit about fiber because I think this is a new ingredient that's coming out that a lot of brands I think are going to start marketing. Absolutely. Walk someone through fiber and why we should be paying attention to it.