Tony skinner
Hi, and welcome to podcast my business. And today we have Irena Geller from irenageller.com.au. How are you Irena?
Irena
I’m really well how are you? 
Tony skinner
I am fantastic. It’s Friday afternoon. I like to have as much fun as I can with my Friday. So
Irena
wel you picked the right person
Tony skinner
indeed, and we’ve met a few times and you know, we’ve caught up quite a few times, so we know each other well enough. Yeah. So I guess I’ll let you introduce what you who you are and what you focus on.
Irena
Okay. So as you know, my name is Irena Geller but I will repeat it again and I’m a coach and author in the health and weight loss industry. And what I do is I help women to put down the fork and pick up their life. So I help busy women who self sabotage is I helped them to lose weight and eat with freedom, while liberating them from their inner critic. So that’s what I do.
Tony skinner
Hmm. Okay, so that’s interesting, isn’t it? That self sabotage? certainly true. I mean, I’ve definitely got a bit of an iso baby.
ir
How old is your baby?
Tony skinner
Just about three months old.
Irena
And are you gonna keep growing that baby?
Tony skinner
I am not the gyms are back tomorrow back in the gym from Monday. It all stops from here. Look, you know what? The reality is when you’re stressed? is not the time to be looking at making major changes.
Irena
Sure. And I mean, let’s face it, we were hit with something that no one expected and we really interrupted our routines people didn’t know know how to react?
Tony skinner
Yeah. Well, except for clever people like you that you had. And you knew what to do and make changes.
Irena
Well, what I decided to do, Tony is I decided to take control of what I put in my mouth and what I allowed to enter into my mind. And by doing that, I mean probably sounds easy. It was definitely challenging. I as a result, I lost 12 kilos. Wow. Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. It is. Yeah, I feel really good. Yeah. Huh. I, you know, with some weight that I’d put on when I went through menopause a couple of years ago, and I was finding it a little bit hard to shake. But I just felt like I wasn’t walking my walk and talking my talk. So it was really important for me to to accomplish that. Yeah.
Tony skinner
Well, I agree with that. But like I say, you know, there are times when you can’t possibly do everything. We’ve just had our, our event, the crisis that’s changed the world for everybody. Yes. Now is the time to head back out. Pick up that barbell and put down that fork. 
Irena
Yes, that’s right. That’s exactly right. That’s a really good way of putting it pick up a weight or pick up a bottle. That’s one litre you could even lift that. But you mentioned the gyms are going back on Saturday. Yeah, and you’re the gym tomorrow.
Tony skinner
I’m at the gym on Monday. I traditionally, dont like go to the gym on the weekend. You know, I think that people are gonna go tomorrow going to meet those massive gym heads. I’m a gym head, but what I do is that for a long time now I’ve had a personal trainer on Monday at 7am.
Irena
Excellent. That’s a good habit.
Tony skinner
Yep. And I do that because 7am I’m in the gym, because I’ll pay for it and my personal trainer I’m tight with my money. It forces me to turn up. Yeah, forces me to do it.
Irena
So it sounds like accountability works for you.
Tony skinner
Yeah, Yeah, it does.
Irena
And you train once a week or a couple of times a week,
Tony skinner
no, no, three times a week. In fact, I was doing really well.
Irena
Fantastic
Tony skinner
before rona struck even though my pt said, Oh, look, you’re more flexible. Is it? Because you’re doing more or be more active or whatever it is, but what how do you what do you advise for people who want to burn off the ISO baby?
Irena
Okay. Well, the thing is, it’s a two prong approach. It’s nutrition. Actually, when I say two prong it might even be three or four. But nutrition and exercise worked really well together. And that is because the exercise builds the muscle which means you’re metabolism is sped up, plus your mood changes, you shift your mood when you exercise, which means you want to eat better. But it’s really important to eat well, so that you don’t feel so you feel motivated to exercise, if that makes sense. Does that make sense?
Tony skinner
Yeah, it does. Because as you exercise, you’re naturally have a desire or requirement eat more
Irena
energy, more protein. Yeah, well, definitely more protein, but fat is important as well. So I’ve got two tips today. Tip number one is to become aware of like self awareness of what is going on in your life when you’re eating, reasons why you’re eating and reasons why you do a lot of things. In other words, kind of going inside and exploring your inner landscape. And my best tape tip is when you’re hungry, ask yourself, What am I hungry for? Because it’s not always physical hunger can be emotional hunger. You might be hungry for more me time time with yourself more self care. More love could be anything. But often people mistake their hunger, their emotional hunger for physical hunger. So
Tony skinner
I do that a little bit in the evening I’ll have dinner and then I’m gonna have a snack later or what have you. Mm hmm. And I know I’m not starving hungry. My stomach isn’t grumbling or not being made to eat by my body. Is that what you’re referring to? 
Irena
Yes, I am. So when you snack what what need or what hunger? Are you actually feeding
Tony skinner
I think it’s just habit.
Irena
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It is habits but also you obviously have a nurture a craving to have something.
Tony skinner
It’s probably a sweet tooth. If anything. Yeah, yeah.
Irena
And if you do that over a period of time, and you satisfy that urge or craving, then it turns into a habit and could possibly turn into an addiction as well. Because of the way that our brains are wired
Tony skinner
and the evil, the evil food industry that puts fat and sugar together because salt and fat
Irena
salt and fat. They’re the things that people crave. It’s either sugar and fat, or salt and fat. And you know why Tony?
Tony skinner
biology I believe,
Irena
because fat makes food very palatable, very smooth. And the sugar hits the dopamine and the salt satisfies kind of the same thing and they taste really good together.
Tony skinner
Yeah, it’s interesting the way the way I talk to people about it, and again, it’s back to my routine and I know I’m saying on Monday, but hate Sunday. Couple of days. Yeah, definitely. I said if you look, you know, what if you get 200 grams of corn chips, like a bag of corn chips, and you get a 200 gram block of cheese. Mm hmm. How many of the corn chips Can you eat? And how much of the cheese Can you eat?
Irena
So tell me what you’re saying that you can eat all the corn chips, but you can’t eat all the cheese. So they
Irena
you can melt the cheese over the corn chips
Tony skinner
well, they probably are. But yeah, that’s how insidious it is and how easy it is and blood sugar and everything else. Yes.
Irena
Yeah, so actually, you know what the just talking about what are you hungry for? There’s a great I don’t know if it’s a tale or whatever it is by no Cherokee, who talks to his grandson and I’m not going to get into all of it. Because we don’t have Time, but towards the end, this the grandson asked which wolf will use? Which wolf is hungry or something like that. And the grandfather says something along the lines of Oh, which wolf Will you feed today, but it talks about, you know, like happiness and anger and sadness. But in this particular case, you could apply to a you’re going to feed the the wolf that’s physically hungry or the wolf that’s emotionally hungry. Sorry, I’ve that sort of took forever.
Tony skinner
That’s right. But now I can understand the concept of the wolf or whatever it might be that that you go, we’ll hang on what am i feeding is that I guess is that part of your strategy is to identify things that way. put labels on
Irena
Well, I wouldn’t say that I put labels on things because I believe that everyone is quite unique and people ate for different reasons, but when people eat emotionally, which is my specialty, I’m actually an emotional eating coach. Do you know because of my own experience my own life experience, but also, because a lot of people do eat for emotional reasons, you know, whether it’s stress or boredom or whether it’s sadness, or a lot of people even eat when they’re happy. So it’s, that’s why I’ve mentioned self awareness. Because a lot of people are not aware of the reasons why they eat. So when you actually become aware, and you’re able to get to know yourself better, then you have a better chance of changing your behavior.
Tony skinner
It’s interesting what you said about some people eat when they’re happy I when the crisis hit, Hmm, I as we all were massively stressed. I lost my sweet tooth.
Irena
Oh, isn’t that interesting? So did you gain a salty tooth
Tony skinner
No, I didn’t, not massively, but what happened is as things Got calmer and better and I was happier in returned.
Irena
Okay, so that’s interesting. So, in the evenings when you actually have your snack, what kind of mood Are you in?
Tony skinner
I personally think I’m just bored
Irena
Bored. Yeah. Are you watching television? When you snack 
Tony skinner
Of course, yes. Who doesn’t do that?
Irena
I don’t watch television. Tony. Don’t you know, not only on the weekends, sometimes Yeah, I tend to read or meditate. But I mean, you know, that’s probably quite unusual because most people do watch television. I just find it quite boring. Huh?
Tony skinner
Yeah, I understand that. And, yes, I don’t live on my own. So it’s not completely Well, it is completely my fault. What am I saying? I can’t blame anybody else. And that’s the other thing as well.
Irena
We always are responsible for our actions.
Tony skinner
Yes. Yeah, indeed. And that’s why back at the gym on Monday, back into it. I’ve focused targeted this what I’m going to do, and I’m just going to get on with it. And that’s what everyone needs to do. And we all need that helping guidance. So I encourage everyone to get in touch with you jump on your website, and you can do book free chat now. And that’s a quick assessment.
Irena
And that’s how I also have a free a guide called eat with freedom that people can download. Which is very helpful.
Tony skinner
Awesome. Okay, look, thanks very much for your time I read it anything else you’d like to add?
Irena
I just wish everyone have a great weekend and a great journey returning back to the gym. So two yoga studios and peace and love and self awareness.
Tony skinner
Fantastic. All right. Thanks for your time.
Irena
Thanks so much, Tony.
