327: Adding 1,000 Calories in A Reverse Diet with Ashley Spontarelli [I Did It Series]

Introduction 

You're listening to Biceps After Babies Radio Episode 327.

Hello and welcome to Biceps After Babies Radio. A podcast for ladies who know that fitness is about so much more than pounds lost or PR's. It's about feeling confident in your skin and empowered in your life. I'm your host Amber Brueseke, a registered nurse, personal trainer, wife and mom of four. Each week my guests and I will excite and motivate you to take action in your own personal fitness as we talk about nutrition, exercise, mindset, personal development and executing life with conscious intention. If your goal is to look, feel and be strong and experience transformation from the inside out, you my friend are in the right place. Thank you for tuning in. Now, let's jump into today's episode.

Hey, hey, hey! Welcome back to an episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke and we are bringing back an old series. So, if you've been a loyal listener of Biceps After Babies Radio, you know that back in around the two hundreds we did a series called the I did it series and the whole point of the series was to bring on MACROS 101 alumni to be able to share about their transformation, with the idea that the more stories you can hear, the more variations you can hear, the more women in their 60s and 40s and some with autoimmune diseases and some with six children and all of the variations in between. If you can hear them and how they've been successful, that maybe, just maybe it'll be possible for you to start to believe that your success is inevitable as well. And just like any journey, when we can talk to somebody who's been through that journey and learn the lessons from them ahead of time, that can make our journey a little easier as well.  And so the whole idea was for the MACROS 101 alumni to come on, share their aha moment, share their breakthroughs, share what's made a difference for them in their journey so that you can start to apply it to your journey as well.  

Well, we did that series for a while. They were actually extra Friday series like Friday episode. So we did a Tuesday episode and then the Friday episodes were that I did it series and that was awesome and I got really burned out. So I was like having to produce two episodes a week. And so we stopped the idea of the series, mostly because I didn't have the bandwidth to have two episodes come out a week. And so we got that kind of died out and I decided that we're going to bring it back and I'm really excited about it because I was telling somebody else that we were deciding to bring it back, she was like, Oh my gosh, I love the idea of series, so I know that it was a fan favorite and if you enjoyed it, well, we're going to have some new episodes coming in the future, and if you like it, you can go back and listen. There's a whole bunch of them back in the two hundreds. Like I said, if you're if this kind of format is something you want more of, you got tons of them back in the in the two hundreds.  

So anyway, the I Did It series is back. We're not going to be doing them every week, they'll be kind of interspersed with our other episodes. So a little bit more reasonable for me in terms of timing and time commitment, but I am really excited to kick it off with a fantastic interview that I had with Ashley Spontarelli and she like she's fantastic. Her story is such a good one because I find that reverse diets are so mentally challenging for so many women. And so when I can get somebody who comes in and is committed to that process, even though they're afraid and then has the outcome that she had of being able to add so many calories and have such an amazing transformation not in terms of the scale, but in terms of so many other aspects of her life, which we'll talk about during the episode. It's just so exciting to be able to share that so that those of you who are teetering on the edge of of a reverse diet, or thinking maybe that's the next step so you can start to kind of see what's available to you on the other side of of that very real fear that a lot of women feel. 

Now if you have zero idea what I'm talking about when I say reverse diet, you are not alone. This is a term that a lot of women don't know. It is probably the best kept secret of like the weight loss industry and by best cap I mean like worst kept secret because it's not a secret anybody should be keeping. It's something that needs to be a part of your journey if you want to be successful in the long run and not just lose weight, but want to lose weight and keep it off. You need to cycle through the phase of a reverse diet and maintenance and eating more calories. It cannot just always be about, be about eating less. So if you want to learn more about reverse dieting, I have a couple of podcast episodes that I direct you to. Episode 266 is a really good one where I talk about the different phases of macro counting. Episode 170, Episode 9, where I talk about the nuts and bolts of reverse dieting and Episode 42.  

So 266, 170, 9 and 42 would be the episodes that I would direct you to in order to learn more about reverse dieting and why it's such an important part of your of the phases of your journey, and when you need to start thinking about and considering starting to reverse diet. OK, well, without further ado, let's jump into Ashley's experience with her reverse diet.  

Amber B 05:04 

I'm so excited to welcome Ashley Spontarelli to the podcast. Welcome, Ashley, thanks for coming on. 

Ashley Spontarelli 05:11 

Yeah. Thanks for having me. I’m excited. 

Amber B 05:13 

Yes, I was just telling her before we hit record of how excited I am to be able to share her experience because I think it's going to be very relatable to a lot of women and maybe something that maybe you don't want to hear, but that may be helpful to hear some of the lessons that Ashley learned. So let's start. I want to kind of start way, way back because I know that a lot of what we bring into adulthood was modeled for us as a child. And so I would love to learn a little bit about your upbringing as it relates to health and fitness. Like what was taught to you early on in terms of Nutrition and exercise. 

Ashley Spontarelli 05:46 

Yeah. So I grew up in the 90s, so my mom was constantly careful about what she was eating. I grew up in a home where she wrestled with an eating disorder in high school. So that kind of always followed her. And I think she tried to cover it up a little bit, but definitely was very obvious to me that she was always. I was like I can't eat that or oh, you know, I'm going to have that this time, but never really like showing me that moderation. It was more just like labeling foods good and bad. And that's how I came up. Like, definitely remember times in high school sneaking out of my room and getting ice cream and then like taking it back into my room and eating it alone because, like, I didn't want to feel like ohh, I ate the ice cream, you know, like, yeah, I already ate a big dinner. I don't really need the ice cream, you know? So that's kind of where I grew up with. And then in turn just a like followed a lot of yo-yo dieting, a lot of restriction like oh, maybe if I cut out sugar then this is going to work. Maybe if I just like very much that less is more mentality throughout my entire life. 

Amber B 07:03 

Awesome. So then let's you know, skip ahead many years to when you joined MACROS 101, like what? What made you, what brought you to that point? What were you struggling with? What were you hoping you know, to get out of the program?  

Ashley Spontarelli 07:17 

Yeah. So I have been on the wait list for MACROS 101 for a while now and never really like pulled the trigger. This time around I actually had a knee surgery back in November. I've always been like super active. Well, I shouldn't say always more later in life. I've been like super active and use kind of exercise as kind of that crutch to get keep my maintain my weight, but I had to have knee surgery in November and with that, I put on like a couple pounds, like super quickly, even though I was still like not having to be like sedentary. But like super cricket came on and just kind of realized with that I thought that I was being proactive with my nutrition, but it was always like cut, cut, cut, you know. 

Amber B 08:02 

Yeah, yeah. 

Ashley Spontarelli 08:03 

Realizing like I was eating pretty low calories and my body was like still in that like if I took off of the break from exercising for like a second I'm going to put on all the weight, you know, and definitely I wasn't. Like not like overweight, but they had some like, you know, aesthetic goals that I was working towards. So at that point, I just realized like. Man, something that, like my body is not happy with what I'm doing right now and I need to listen to it and that was when I just realized like, Oh, I think I need to do because I think I need to reverse and I know I cannot do it alone because it was really a scary realization, yes. 

Amber B 08:42 

Yeah. How did you realize that? Because. Because I like that realization that maybe a reverse diet is like the next thing I need to do. It sometimes takes women a really long time to be able to get there. What made you realize it? Do you do it? Was there a moment where you kind of have that realization or how did you even come to even know what that was? I'm always so interested because reverse diet is so foreign to so many women. 

Ashley Spontarelli 09:03 

Yeah. Yeah. And honestly, I've learned it from you. Like following a lot of your free content. Excuse me, but just realizing I was so hungry all the time. Like, so tired. And the thought of like having to slash my calories even lower to meet my goals. So really daunting. I'm just thinking like I love the feeling of being strong. I love weight lifting. I love exercise, but getting to a point where it was a little bit unhealthy in the way of like punishing my body like oh, I had this, you know, like I ate more yesterday. I should do a lot of cardio, you know. And not wanting to be on that hamster wheel anymore, like everything was so emotional, feeling like I just wanted to know the answers of like, what works for my body and how can I take the emotion out of it and like, not be like up and down all of the time. 

Amber B 10:01 

So good. Yeah. And you said something. But I think it's really important to to point out, because I I see a lot of women get stuck in the cycle and that is what you said like as the reactive cycle, which is like we are, we are super reactive to, Oh, the scale went up. I need to cut. Oh, I'm like, you know, whatever. Like, I ate that bad thing. Now I need to go work it off. Right. It's like this very reactive sense of our health and fitness rather than this like proactive of like what do I, what do I want to do next week? Or like maybe I maybe I wanna do a cut, but I'm gonna plan for it three weeks from now because that's a good time to start cut right, so many of us get stuck in that cycle of reactivity of and and and emotionality kind of as you were speaking to. And you know, I really love to help clients get out of that reactivity out of that emotionality and be able to like, let's take a step back, let's make a really good decision about this and we're going to always make better decisions from that place than that, that place of reactivity. Do you know how many calories you were eating back when you were saying I was feeling really tired. I couldn't imagine slicing my calories anymore. Do you know about how many calories you're eating? 

Ashley Spontarelli 11:05 

Yeah. So I have been tracking for a while, a couple of years like on and off and really honestly it came from like just putting in stuff into my fitness pal and like doing, yeah, yeah. 

Amber B 11:13 

Sure. Yeah. Let it calculate for you. It's like the worst idea ever, but where everybody starts, yeah. 

Ashley Spontarelli 11:19 

Yeah, exactly. So when I was like, feeling fluffy. So it was honestly, just like a roller coaster. Yeah. Like, OK, so this week I'm going to eat 600, 1600 calories, you know, so it's really anywhere from like 1500 to about 1800, but like now I'm eating 2500 calories like every single day. 

Amber B 11:39 

I mean, mind blown. 

Ashley Spontarelli 11:41 

It's insane. Yeah, it's really insane. I I still don't really understand it and really didn't, like, want to believe that, like, my, it was possible. 

Amber B 11:44 

Yeah. 

Ashley Spontarelli 11:51 

For my body. Yeah, I'm doing it. 

Amber B 11:55

OK. So you, like, drop the bomb you like shared where you're at today. Let's talk about how you got there. Because I know I'm just listening like, some jaws just dropped as they were listening to to that. And, you know, there are other women who are listening to this who are kind of where you're at. You were at right. And that sounds amazing to be able to, like, increase their calories so much. But so let's go back. So you started MACROS 101, you kind of knew that you were probably needed to start a reverse there was fear there, yes.

Ashley Spontarelli 12:22 

A lot, OK. 

Amber B 12:22 

A lot of fear. 

Ashley Spontarelli 12:24 

Honestly, even just coming in, I was like two trial cut sounds good, right? 

Amber B 12:27 

Maybe not. Did you do it? Did you do the two week trial? 

Ashley Spontarelli 12:30 

No. 

Amber B 12:31 

Ohh you didn’t? 

Ashley Spontarelli 12:32 

I Didn't. I would not let myself do it. I it was very much like talking myself off the edge, but I did not. I was like, this is why I am here. I am done. 

Amber B 12:37 

Yeah, good for you. Yeah. 

Ashley Spontarelli 12:41 

With this good for you wheeling my body. 

Amber B 12:44 

Yeah. OK. So talk to us about like those first couple of weeks as you're starting to face your fear head on of like actually doing the dang thing, eating more calories. What what was that experience like for you? 

Ashley Spontarelli 12:56 

It was really hard, way harder than I thought it was going to be. 

Amber B 13:00 

What was hard about it? 

Ashley Spontarelli 13:02 

So I I'm I'm person that tends to put on a lot of weight around my cycle in general. So I was actually started MACROS 101 like fresh off of my cycle and I was used to like at the scale like going way down like right afterwards. And it did it it like stayed there and that kind of freaked me out because that was like 4 lbs heavier than like my typical weight usually is, you know, and it just stayed there until I got up to like 2300. That's when it dropped back down. But like, it was like several whole weeks of just like getting there and being like OK, I'm just going to, you know, trust the process, keep going measurements were key for me. I had days where I was literally measuring a couple times a day, yeah. 

Amber B 13:50 

Just to like, reassure yourself. 

Ashley Spontarelli 13:52 

Yeah. Yeah, because they're just like made me. I had a couple of days where I even got into my like I used MacrosFirst now but like got in there and flashed my calories and then would be like I mean I can't do this and then change it back.  

Amber B 14:06 

So relatable. 

Ashley Spontarelli 14:07 

Usually we could get like 5 to 10 minutes, but you know I would change it back but really working on my relationship with the scale was like key to getting there and coach Melissa was the one that, like, coached me through that and really made a huge difference in just being able to stick to it and trust the process. 

Amber B 14:28 

So good. Yeah, I mean, and if I would love to talk with you about how you improved your relationship with the scale, cause I think there's a lot of women out there who who have identified that they have a poor relationship with the scale, but they don't know what to do to be able to improve it. So can you kind of speak to a little bit of like what your relationship with the scale was like? And then maybe what that tipping point or that aha moment with Coach Melissa was that helped you to see a different perspective or improve that relationship. 

Ashley Spontarelli 14:51 

Yeah. Yeah, I definitely had a kind of, like, two relationships with the scale. One was like, either I'd hop on it and I would let that like my entire day, no matter what that is, that's how it was. And then other side of things just kind of like, I'm not weighing myself ever. I don't want to see it in both of those weirdly, just like we're not very healthy for me. I was really. I don't, honestly, probably one of the biggest things I was nervous about going into MACROS 101 was having to weigh myself every day and I found it nearly healing to do so, just learning like what my body does like and learning that it's a data point and all of the different factors that play into why I might see that fluctuation and but like only one of like like a zillion different ways that can you know play into the fluctuation is that gaining you know like that's the only one of the factors and most of the time I'm seeing like water weight that's it like water. 

Amber B 15:47 

Right. 

Ashley Spontarelli 15:57 

So really, just like focusing on that, I actually on my scale right now, I have like taped. Like pretty much every little like take away from the relationship with the scale module like on there. And while I'm standing on there, I like repeat it to myself and read it to myself. But it's been like that repetition that's really helped even like at first I was like, I was just going to do nothing to take this on here. But I'm like, seeing myself like feeling that more throughout the day, you know, like for example my husband and I went on a date and had Chinese food and like before I even got on the scale. The next day I was like, OK, lots of sodium. It's going to be up and guess what? It was up. Yeah, and I was just like, alright, no big deal. 

Amber B 16:35 

Sure. 

Ashley Spontarelli 16:40 

But working through that with Coach Melissa, so like, OK, where does this come from? What am I afraid of? What do I think what it means? And I was equating every game with that. And it wasn't, you know, it's a good place really getting to the bottom of that. My biggest like out of the AHA moment with her was one day I had gotten on the scale and it was up again. I kind of really pinpoint why and I was starting to do that like spiral, you know again and realized like my gosh, I am putting in so much work. I am killing it in my workouts. I am killing it with my nutrition. I'm working hard all day and then I'm letting this one tiny little moment of jumping on the scale undo all of the other stuff. And that was kind of like my biggest take away from just like focusing on the scale was I'm letting one second determine my entire happiness for the day like that's just crazy.  

Amber B 17:35 

Like too much power for like one thing really. Yeah. 

Ashley Spontarelli 17:37 

Yeah, exactly like I want to take that power back. And I feel like. It's been not perfect and definitely like a very slow process, but I'm getting there and I really did not think that that was a possibility for me, especially with weighing myself every day, but for some reason it's like taking the. I don't know the like magical mess out of the number for me, it's just made it data. 

Amber B 18:02 

Yeah, I mean, on some level, it's just like even a matter of like exposure therapy. It's like it's. It that one time stepping on the scale is has much less importance because you're doing it every single day versus like doing it once a week where it now you hype it up to be this like one time a week that you're weighing yourself. So you know it's almost like you just get that experience and that practice of talking yourself through this experience and I really loved it. It's such a powerful place to be to be able to anticipate changes to like when you went out and you said I'm probably going to be up. I've eaten a lot more salt than normal. So I can anticipate that the scale is going to be up. It is. I anticipated that. I knew it was going to be. I knew in a couple days it will be back down and to be able to like anticipate those fluctuations too as a really powerful place to to be able to be in your journey. It's open. OK. Talk to me a little bit about the difference in your body, your energy levels, anything that you notice different between eating 1500 calories a day and eating 2500 calories. 

Ashley Spontarelli 18:59 

Yeah. So it's crazy. So one probably like the biggest take away that I've made is I have been like wanting to master a handstand for like over a year. 

Amber B 19:10 

Oh fun! What a fund goal. 

Ashley Spontarelli 19:11 

That’s like a goal of mine for like, over a year. I know, like, I I have my, like, yoga teacher certification. Like I should, I know all the logistics of getting a handstand and I could not do it. 

Amber B 19:21 

Yeah. Uh-huh.  

Ashley Spontarelli 19:22 

Three weeks into MACROS 101 and I stuck the handstand like did not change anything except for what I was eating, you know? And it just, like, happened. And I almost like wanted to cry afterwards. So I was like, this is what my body can do when I'm actually giving it the tools that it. 

Amber B 19:33 

Yeah. So good. 

Ashley Spontarelli 19:36 

Needs to like before. And I've seen that carry into like everything in the gym like just everything is going up here and there. It's just been crazy to see like, the overall energy, sleeping better. I feel like probably the hardest part of the day would be like the afternoon slump for me. So like getting the kids from school and making it to dinner. I was like, not allowing myself to eat anything between those periods of time you know? And so snippy with my kids. And so tired, like wanting to take a nap. Now I'm like, oh, I'm just going to get a snack and get to dinner time and sometimes I’m like I'm not even really hungry for dinner yet because I've been, like, feeling my body all day long, like feeling actually, like, nourished and having the energy is wild when you have been like, just chronically depriving your body. Yeah. And honestly, I was like, thinking like in the way of like eating like whole foods and really focused on like eating good things like I just wasn't eating enough of it, you know. 

Amber B 20:44 

Yeah. Yeah. Did you get to a point because this is a point that a lot of women get to in 2500 Calories is not a small amount of calories where it actually gets hard to eat or it gets hard to hit that amount of food, did you hit that point? 

Ashley Spontarelli 20:57 

I did, and honestly that I I don't need to know if I could keep going past 2500. I maybe, but I didn't get to a point where I started gaining, you know, And then like backed off. I just got to the point where I was like, I'm feeling really good. I'm feeling full. I don't like there some days when it's a little bit of a struggle to eat that much. 

Amber B 21:01 

Sure. Yeah. 

Ashley Spontarelli 21:16 

Just like I'm just going to stay here and remember that. Like, if I get to a point where like I am putting on more muscle on my body and getting hungrier, I can keep going up. 

Amber B 21:25 

Yeah, that's good. That's so good. Yeah, because that is a common place where people get to. It's like it's so hard to actually eat that much food and you have to shift the way that you're thinking, because when you're trying to eat, you know 12, 13, 14, 1500 calories, you're usually going for like the low calorie, high volume stuff and people really need to start to transition the foods that they're eating to more low like low or yeah, low volume, high calorie foods to be able to get that that much that many calories in. That's really good. Have have you noticed? Or you know how has your transformation in this area impacted other areas of your life because I know that when we change the way that we think about things, when we change our relation to scale, we change the way that we're eating, it can impact, you know, relationships and professional life or your mental health or what have been the ripple effects for you as you've gone through this transformation. 

Ashley Spontarelli 22:17 

Yeah. I think the biggest thing is I'm learning to trust myself.  

Amber B 22:21 

So good. 

Ashley Spontarelli 22:22 

Like I'm learning to trust my body for so long. I labeled my body as like, broken, like I can't do the things that other people can do, even though putting in so much work, like maybe more than most people. And like here, I still am, but like learning that like. Like I really just I MACROS 101 kind of helped me put the blinders on in a way and like, focus on me and like, what does my actual body need? And in that I'm learning like to trust myself in other areas, like I'm not like when I want to say no to things you know, like little things like that. Having more energy to actually be a good mom. I've been in, like, kind of just with her our past history of these past couple of years, we've kind of been in survival mode for a really long time and I've been doing a lot of like the mental work of in therapy and like trying to heal myself in that way, but still feeling a lot of that, like sluggishness and feeling like I'm putting in so much work but still feeling like crap all the time and I feel like my body is finally starting to catch up with, like the other work that I'm putting in in other areas, which is really been cool and rewarding to see. 

Amber B 23:40 

Yeah, yeah. It's just, I mean, it's amazing how impactful your nutrition is, right? And just how you feel your emotional health, your mental health, like trying to like you said before, chronically running on low fuel, your brain isn't getting enough nutrition. Your your muscles aren't getting enough nutrition, right, like it makes everything harder and so I love hearing that your transformation is eating more food and fueling your body better and seeing how you feel differently when when you're doing that because it it can make all the difference in the world and a lot of women who are chronically under eating have never had that experience. And so they don't even know how to compare it. You know, it's like it could be so much better. You don't even know because you've been chronically under eating.  

Ashley Spontarelli 24:25 

Yeah. 

Amber B 24:26 

If you can go back and like now. So I always think it's interesting, right? The reverse is such a mental challenge for so many women, and it is very scary for a lot of women, and it makes. They don't feel like it makes logical sense, right? It, like, goes counter to everything you think, which is like eat less and that's always better. And so like, I totally get that. But now you're on the other side of it, right. You've you've gone through the experience. You you address the fear head on. And you did it anyway. So I wonder if you could send a message back to Ashley who was just like, beginning this journey. Or maybe somebody else who's starting a reverse right now and is standing on the edge really scared. What message would you go back and give yourself? 

Ashley Spontarelli 25:04 

Yeah. I would just tell myself that it is worth it. I went into MACROS 101 thinking like, oh, maybe I would be the kind of person that, like, adds calories and still loses weight. Like, just let go of that. Stop focusing on the number like I. You may not lose a single pound and yet you're going to lose so much and gain so much more. I think the things that I lost was, like so much shame around food and so much just. I don't know, like guilt and all of that. And then I gained like so much more confidence and gaining trust in myself like it is worth every bit, even if you don't lose a single pound. 

Amber B 25:52 

Yeah. Yeah, and I think. It's like what a beautiful way to describe it too it's like you didn't lose weight doesn't mean that you didn't lose things that you needed to lose, and it doesn't mean you don't gain things that you that you needed to gain. And I think when we get, I mean I think this is one of the problems of having so much reliance on the scale as it becomes the only indicator of whether or not we're getting “results”, right? Like the scale goes down, we're getting results. If the scale doesn't go down, we're not getting results and what you did was expand your definition of what “results” are realizing that like the scale actually stayed the same the whole time. And that's the biggest one of all. You know, like you're eating more food, you're fueling your body, you're able to address your relationship with the scale you're able to address your and heal your relationship with food and not have the guilt and shame and carry that with you. And that all happened without anything changing on the scale. And I think when we can widen our view of an understanding of what progress looks like we realized, oh, I've actually made a lot more progress than I may have, even if even if I lost 5 lbs or 10 lbs or whatever. You know the goal is. And that's really tough to build. 

Ashley Spontarelli 26:56 

Yeah, yeah, definitely. 

Amber B 27:00 

What message, just sending messages to everybody, you just send a message yourself. What message would you have for maybe someone who's listening to this, who is at the beginning of her journey, whether it's a reverse or whether it's a cut. But it's like, just like standing on the precipice of maybe they've listened to podcasts and they're thinking about, like, embarking on their own journey, but they're standing right at that, that decision making point, or someone who's gotten started and falling off the wagon is kind of listening to this to motivate themselves to get back on. Do you have any words of wisdom for that, that person? 

Ashley Spontarelli 27:32 

Yeah. You know, I think the biggest thing I would say is just maybe it's not the problem the problem. Maybe the problem isn't that you haven't gotten there yet, but maybe the problem is that you just need to redefine your definition of success. 

Amber B 27:52 

Yeah. It’s good. 

Ashley Spontarelli 27:53 

Because for me that was like the biggest thing, you know, like, I needed to figure out that, like, my success actually wasn't losing this much weight, my success was finding a way to work with my body and doing the mental work. You know, it's so much more than the number, but just really. Yeah, don't be afraid to evaluate and redefine your definition of success. 

Amber B 28:23 

It's really good. So what's next for you? What like what are some of the goals that you have coming up now? What, like what are the next phases you're going through? What's that look like for you? 

Ashley Spontarelli 28:32 

Yeah, really working on the pull up right now feels very attainable.  

Amber B 28:37 

Oh my gosh, yes! 

Ashley Spontarelli 28:38 

It feels like really unattainable right now. And I've also like had this like, weird lie in my head. Like I have to lose weight in order to get a pull up because I have less things to pull, you know? And I'm just, like, silencing that, like, Nope, we're getting there.  

Amber B 28:52

OK. Here's. Here's always my thing that I say. I've I've the max I ever worked up to was doing 60 LB like a 60 LB weighted pull up so you can add 60 lbs to my body and I can still pull myself up. So if that's the case. Like yes, losing weight will make it pull up easier, but it doesn't mean you can't get it because you can weigh a whole lot more and still do a pull up.

Ashley Spontarelli 29:12 

I love that. OK.  

Amber B 29:13 

There you go. 

Ashley Spontarelli 29:14 

Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that, like, as far as macros go, I joined beyond, and I'm super excited because, like, even just like, one week into beyond, I was like, OK, maybe. We should cut now, you know I needed some support, so I'm like, I'm really glad I'm here because I know I need. 

Amber B 29:30 

Were you on the call, were you on the call today? We kind of talked about that. 

Ashley Spontarelli 29:32 

I wasn't. No, I couldn't make it.  

Amber B 29:33

OK. Well, you'll have to listen to it.

Ashley Spontarelli 29:34 

But I have to listen to it. Yeah, for sure, but yeah, I'm just rocking maintenance for as long as I can right now. I have. I'm very tempted to, like, set an end date for maintenance, but also just really want to be in tune with my body. And like how long my body needs to stay here. You know, and it's kind of like a hard because it's not like reached my like right ideal aesthetic and then I'm going to stay here like that would be awesome. But now I'm just like trying to figure out how to love myself right here and see how much growth I can find in this place. 

Amber B 30:11 

Yeah. Yeah, that's super powerful. And I want you to keep me updated on the pull up.  

Ashley Spontarelli 30:18 

For sure. 

Amber B 30:19 

You can keep like posted, post some videos like it's one of my most favorite things, especially for like my scene and beyond. But then and build your workouts as well. So like, when people set that goal and then they update us, Eve did that like, there's been a couple of people who have gone through the program who, like, kind of we go through that journey with them of getting their first pull up, so it's it's a fun one. Awesome. Well, this has been fantastic Ashley, thanks for coming on and sharing your story. And I can't wait to see what's next for you. 

Ashley Spontarelli 30:41 

Absolutely. Thank you. Appreciate it. 

Amber B 30:45 

What a great episode to kick off our I Did It series, the bring it back the I did it series. I hope you really enjoyed that episode. Ashley brought so much to that episode. I'm just really grateful to her and for all the MACROS 101 alumni that we have coming up, we have some really fun stories to be able to show you. So hang, hang tight. They are coming and they are good.  

If you're wanting to get on the interest list for the next time that we open up doors to MACROS 101, you can go to bicepsafterbabies.com/waitlist and that way you'll be first in line when we open doors to the next round of MACROS 101 so that you too can get the coaching and the help and the breakthroughs that Ashley had during her journey with us. That wraps up this episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm Amber, now go on and be strong because remember my friend, you can do anything.  

Outro

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