Episode 6 - Adopting a Weight Neutral Approach to Fitness with Canadian FitPro Beth Yarzab

Mar 29, 2021

Beth Yarzab is a multi-certified fitness pro and the founder of Vitality Practice - an online, body positive fitness community. Beth helps women move in a way that feels supportive and loving. Coaching participants to exercise intuitively and accept themselves fully, Beth empowers others to find strength, mental clarity, and joy. She works at canfitpro, Canada’s leader in fitness certification and education. In her spare time, Beth creates and facilitates workouts for Vitality Practice, teaches fitness instructor certification courses, and advocates for inclusive fitness for all.

In this episode she shares her journey with a negative body image and eating disorders and how she is now educating fit pros to take a different approach with fitness. She is influencing body inclusivity and ending weight stigma in the fitness industry with a goal of helping the industry adopt a weight neutral approach to fitness.

Can Fit Pro - Join us on April 10th for a virtual fitness conference

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Breaking Body Biases on Clubhouse

Transcript

Christine
I'm excited to have Beth Yarzab on the podcast today. Welcome Beth.

Beth
Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.

Christine
I'm excited to speak with you today because you are one of the reasons why I decided to even start the podcast or do more of this work on a broader level past what I'm doing in the studio. I met Beth at CanFitPro and heard your story and felt like, I felt very similar, how we got into fitness or some of the struggles that we have. So I'd love for you to share with our audience, how you got into fitness a little bit more about you, and then we can start talking about the stuff that we want to see different in the world.

Beth
Good and I'm delighted that I maybe started a little spark in you to get this podcast going, because you're just so good at podcasting. So you're meant to be doing this. Similar to you, Christine, I got started in dance at a young age and I just always loved moving with music and that transitioned to doing workout videos with my mom. And then just on my own lots of Jane Fonda, 20 minute workout videos in my basement and what kind of came along with that for someone who was a bit of a bigger body as a young girl, my body changed and I started to lose weight from doing a lot of these videos. And I started to get a lot of attention from family members and friends and community members, neighbors. Then people would remark about my weight loss and how good I looked. And I think I was missing something in my young life. , I won't go down that whole family story. My mom was an awesome mom and she also struggled with her weight and was on diets and , food programs and restriction and tried to exercise. So I saw her struggle with her own body image growing up, and I just really struggled with mine. So when I would get these external cues and validation that I was, you know, a meaningful person because, or valued loved person, because I was losing weight, I look back and I see the rollercoaster that started for me. And similar to you being told I wasn't in a dancer's body and I would never be a good dancer but I still loved expressing myself to music. So the kind of the dancing kind of, you know, moved into different things like I do Ukrainian folk dancing, which is kind of like moved away from jazz ballet tap, et cetera, into this folk dancing, which is more inclusive for sure, uh, around all different types of bodies. However, I also started doing fitness instructing, so I got certified when I was in university. It was an awesome part-time job for a student and it was, in my mind a way that I could get paid to stay on that weight loss journey. So it kind of fueled into that, I gained 15, 20 pounds that freshman year that it was like, just trying to restrict, trying to, I was over exercising and that cycle just continued. Oh, you're looking great, Beth and me loving it. And then gaining the weight back, getting more and feeling like so much shame about this. Like, why can't I keep the weight off? And I would feed this, whatever I was missing with food, like whatever emotions I was having or anything that was happening with family, friends, relationships, I would just eat. I would eat my stress away, my pain away. And it was, it was a binge eating disorder but I hit it. I was also hiding the food that I was eating like a lot and I never felt full. I just wanted to consume more, consume more. And then I would punish myself by overexercising and just, you know, crazy up and down on the scale, um, to the point where had my twins. Went through university, met an amazing man. It was my husband today and we had our twins and I was so concerned about losing the baby weight. Like I just hadn't lost that. I've got to prove myself. I'm a mom of infant twins, I'm going to lose all the baby weight. And even more like I'm going to show them like, show who this is like the crazy stuff that was going on in my mind that I've got to come back to work like even better than ever looking totally awesome. And thin, thin was always my ideal, even though I don't have that body type and so really restricting after I had my children and constantly exercising. We decided I was going to stay home with my kids instead of going back to corporate right after I had them. And so I fully launched a fitness career at that time and got certified as a personal trainer. I started teaching stroller fitness classes and bootcamps and personal training. And I just like, I was not eating all day and then I would binge at night and I would be so worried about gaining weight. But I'd be so hungry and I would never be able to think straight, like, I've heard you talk about this too like this foggy brain and being really anxious and being so anxious about gaining weight. I would weigh myself multiple times a day. Like it was just this terrible place to be mentally and emotionally. And it caused a lot of strain in my relationship because I can't eat pasta and I can't have that fresh bread around, like, and I didn't want my daughter's growing up, like witnessing that and being a part of that. And I was so worried that I was going to influence their own, you know, disordered eating or overexercise to the point where my doctor finally noticed my fear of gaining weight. And she really encouraged me to get help. I was diagnosed for an eating disorder. I was diagnosed with a binge eating disorder and I felt a lot of shame of that Christine, I couldn't even accept it at first. And I hid it for a couple of years and was like, when I finally started like telling people, telling clients who came to my fitness classes in these, because we developed such a strong community as you have with your community of exercisers and yeah being able to tell people what I've been struggling with. And I eventually wrote a whole blog and newsletter, and you wouldn't believe the outpouring of people who've experienced similar things and who appreciated my, my experience and my storytelling and sharing my vulnerability. And it, it just made me realize that I meant to get off this diet train. I started attending eating disorder conferences so I could learn more about my situation getting the help I needed, moving through it and I mean, I'm still triggered, but I haven't weighed myself for over five years. I haven't had a binge, like I used to have for, for over five years. And, you know, I'm feeling like I meant to be on a path where I can help others. With their body image with accepting themselves with just knowing that how they already are is, is their ideal self. They don't have to change anything and where I came from growing up in the fitness industry, I know you understand this, that movement was, you know, exercised and fitness programs were about weight loss. That was like, why would you exercise? If you weren't trying to lose weight? Like, I just didn't know anything differently. Cause I was always trying to lose weight. Even if I had clients who weren't interested in weight loss, it was like a surprise to me back in the day. So I've had to go through my own, you know, learning unlearning, um, Kind of journey to be on the path I am now, which is really about body positive fitness and helping create spaces where anyone feels welcome moving their body without weight loss, being the outcome, being the ideal outcome of it. And that's kind of where I'm at today.

Christine
Yeah and it's funny, you mentioned that about the weight loss or even just maintaining a weight. Like that struggle and you get to that weight, that you think is the ideal (I've put that in air quotes) so it's not just about weight loss. People just think that the only reason to exercise is to lose weight. Like you mentioned, or at least the fear you had of gaining weight, that keeps you moving. And there's so many other great reasons. I so appreciate you sharing your story. I know how difficult it is to share all the ugly parts, because there is, as you mentioned, the shame, the stigma, the stigma around eating disorders, and it's just, it's hard. And I think that you sharing your story with your clients here on this podcast, just everywhere you can just helps one more person realize I'm not alone in this it's it's, it's not just me. Other people have struggled and to not struggle silently, I think that's the mission. And I so appreciate your doctor, not many doctors. Uh, I've had doctors that praise me when I've in the middle of an eating disorder and I'm smaller and, you know, tell me to lose weight when I'm actually not in the middle of disordered eating. So I think that's a wonderful doctor. You have that helped you in that way.

Beth
I have a great doctor and when I see her for a physical she still wants to weigh me, but I'm just like, you don't really need to weigh me, but I step on the scale backwards. And then I, I just say, don't tell me the number and then she'll say, you know, she'll say like, Oh, it's the same. I don't even want to know that. But next time I see her, we go through this whole process. I'll just be like, I don't, you don't need to say a word cause you're just going to measure it. And I don't want to measure.

Christine
it's interesting how that is the norm for doctors to measure. We could do a whole episode on, on the face that actual weight is not equal to our health, but yeah, it's, it's important to get proper care, whether it be for our physical health, for our mental health, for emotional wellbeing. So I'm glad that you're in a better place because you do a lot of great work, not just with your clients. You work specifically with Moms. And was that a result of you kind of being at a, in a better place around the time when or finding that better place around the time that you had your kids? Or what, what is the reason that you've really niched into working. With moms?

Beth
Well, I was definitely in the height of my eating disorder and overexercise and body anxiety when I started my business. And so that's been this, you know, 13 years or so of like going through that, but keeping the business and, and keeping the same clients kind of still attracted to, I think my energy and my heart, my business with heart. They would tell me you never focused on weight loss. I, you know, I had a couple of weight loss challenges and weight loss classes, and certainly my personal training clients would, would have the goal of weight loss. And I definitely, it was all like knowing what to do for that. But, you know, as, since I've stepped back from any of that kind of weight loss focus, and it just, just kind of over time organically happened. I wanted to focus, , with moms because I was a mom. And I know that, our bodies change when we become mothers, a lot in our confidence changes a lot in our body image changes. And I just, I felt like working directly with moms. That was where I was at with my own communities. And I love creating community. So a lot of my classes and, um, you know, interactions really focus on people connecting. And so I felt like moms really needed to connect. And I did as a mom. So I, I was definitely like, we do a lot of like, You know, coffee chats with the babies and like, you know, just stay after class and let's, you know, let's, let's have a chat. And even when I'm teaching on this zoom, we still do that today. So I just, I'm a very much a social person. And I, I wanted to create that community social feeling in my classes specifically for moms, because there's so much we're juggling. And that's sort of part of the career fit mom story.

Christine
And that community is probably even more so needed now, when dealing with this pandemic. What kind of things are you doing with career fit mom? I think I noticed that you also do not only fitness, but you do career advice.

Beth
Yes. So I used to work in HR and recruiting before I had my twins. This was my whole story. I loved careers and job development and helping folks figure out what they wanted to do with their careers. And then I loved fitness and I always want to kind of blend the two and for moms. Both of those are building confidence. When you feel good in your professional life, you have confidence when you feel good in your body, no matter what size you have confidence. And that energy is so attractive. And so that's what I, why I had career fit. Mom, as a business. Where I was blending, career coaching and fitness coaching for moms to help them through that transition into motherhood and into the rest of their, their lives. Now, a year ago, something changed for me personally, where I started a new job, a corporate job at CanFitPro, which is where we met. And CanFitPro is Canada's leading fitness educator. And so I had to make a decision about my business because my new role at camp fit pro was really kind of combining, , career, but career development for fit pros. So we certify and provide continuing education for fitness professionals, personal trainers, group fitness instructors, health coaches. And so this was an opportunity for me to work at that level and niche down kind of move away from moms as the focus and move into like the FitPro world. So I took that opportunity a year ago and I decided to just downplay the career coaching side of for now of my business and just focus mainly on fitness. So, you know, this is, this is life, right? This is careers. We all go through these different iterations. And , I feel like we all have so many talents that are transferable. So that's kind of the story of how, how it was career fit, mom and how it's mostly on the fitness side and focused on fitness education for my main kind of nine to five job.

Christine
And I'm excited for that because that's, again how we met and you're doing so much good in the fitness industry, educating fitpros and bringing more awareness to a topic that I personally haven't seen at a fitness conference until I attended CanFitPro. It was so amazing to hear the topic of inclusivity and body positivity, body image, all those topics that just generally aren't at fitness conferences. So I'm excited that you're doing work in that area. So tell me a little bit about what you'd hope to see in the industry overall. There are some baby steps being taken and that's always a good thing. What are some things that are on your wishlist to see in the future?

Beth
One of the reasons why I took this job and I quickly realized I could influence at a higher level or broader level. If I was trying to bring more awareness to body inclusivity in a weight perspective of fitness to a company that educates and certifies fitpros because imagine Christine, if, if a personal trainer is learning about weight neutral fitness and how to coach their client, who's got a big weight loss goal and how to take that outcome of weight loss away, but focus on how they're feeling and how they're moving and how their energy is improved and how they're, you know, they're sleeping better. And their stress levels are, I mean, there's so many benefits to exercise beyond any kind of body shaping. And if we can have personal trainers and fitness instructors already understanding that through their education. And then they go, when they work with clients, they're then spreading that out at like community level one to one or one to many. I feel like we can really start to see some movement and change and everyone's wellbeing, their mental wellbeing around body image, around weight, you know, body they're beautiful. Beautiful thing. I've come to know. I wasn't always that way, as I told you with my, my early growing up and I, I fully admit and regret that I had a lot of fatphobia because it's not safe to be in a larger size body in this diet culture. And so. You know, there are a lot of fitpros have their own body image issues, I feel this kind of education is really important and really great to have these kinds of conversations at fitness conferences, but also that folks have a fear of being in a larger size body because there's a lot of discrimination and bias against people on a larger size body. So when we start to have conversations that make it okay and make it like celebrated to be in different sizes of bodies, I feel that there's going to just be a lot more people willing and feeling open and, and safe to exercise and move their bodies in ways that are joyful for them, which will then help their confidence, their health, just overall, everything without being attached to a weight loss goal or outcome. And I think that just is going to be a fantastic move for this culture so we can reduce the diet culture and start to eliminate it.

Christine
So true and Beth you're so right about the impact that can be reached because it just continues to multiply and multiply and the fat phobia that exists out there, it can affect us, even us doing this work. We have these conversations all the time. It can pop up tomorrow for me that some of my behavior or thoughts, you know, belief systems and have been built for you know 30, 40 years they pop back in. It's hard to get rid of that diet culture. And it's something that it's so important as a fitness instructor to, check our bias, check our fatphobia to make sure that we're really serving our community so that way we can help more people. So what are some strategies you have for let's just speak with two fitness instructors right now, try to give some simple things that we can do in our teaching or in our daily life to help, you know, get rid of diet culture and really reach more people?

Beth
Well, we used to talk about, you know, beginner level is this exercise it, if you're more advanced and so I've stopped take taking away like levels of exercise and I'm just, you know, exercise one, exercise two, or, , you might want to try this. And I always start when I'm teaching fitness classes with a very base movement, and then I add on progressions and I just, I typically stay at the base move. I mean, one feels that that's success where they, you know, exactly it is. It's totally successful just to be moving, just to walk in the door of the studio or just tune into a, an online class. Right. So, , I let the folks who want to take a higher intensity option. Take it. I'll show it I'll demo it. I might have someone else in the class demo it if I've asked them permission in advance just so that I can, , show lots of levels. So multi-level teaching. Absolutely. And then when I'm programming, I also try to think about how would this movement feel for someone who's got, , mobility issues or fatigue, , , a larger size of belly. I, so I try, I try to give options and I need to get better at this myself, but I give options by thinking about that. Like if this spinal twist and hugging your knee close, doesn't feel good on your knees or hips or belly, then here's another way to do this exercise. You don't need to bring the knee and close to your chest. You can leave it open and just do the spinal rotation, um, in this way. And so I always show those modifications or just different ways of moving your body. It's not right or wrong. It's just different ways. Again, diversity of movement for diversity of bodies. And I always tell folks that every day is a different day. They can assess how they're feeling, how much energy they have to bring to a workout. , And to never compare themselves to the past the future, anyone else just to enjoy the moment. And I, I like your types of classes when you teach dance, because I find for people, they can't think about anything else, but the movement when the choreography is a little bit more like it's not just doing jumping jacks, right? Like it's a little bit more layered. And so that kind of class I liked teaching as well, because you're mindful and being enjoying that moment or maybe, maybe it's okay if you're looking forward to it being open over because it's challenging and that's normal too. Not everybody likes exercise and that's okay. Um, but you know, just. Trying to stay in that moment where you're moving your body and I'm noticing how it's feeling and being grateful for what it's doing for you.

Christine
Yeah. Being mindful is so important. Even I like how you said not comparing yourself to giving yourself because you're different every day. We have my zone at our studio, which I feel like is a curse and a blessing at the same time. I love numbers, but I don't love numbers. So when I'm working out with the myzone belt and seeing what I'm doing on certain days, it feels really good. I'm not comparing myself to anyone else or even myself. But I like to check in to see if that number is matching how I'm feeling. And I've tuned more into my mindfulness as opposed to, I think it was originally created to game-ify your workouts, which really can help a lot of people. Everybody's different. Some people like that challenge of making it a game and taking their mind off things. But I've noticed that I really have to focus on mindfulness for myself. So I don't start comparing my number to someone else. Or my number to myself, because today I could wake up and say, I just need to move a little bit. I don't need to do a crazy workout today. And some days I wake up and I just have on a tremendous amount of energy and I just want to move my body a lot. So just being very mindful is so, so important so I appreciate that.

Beth
About the trackers and things like, I was definitely habitual heart rate monitor, wearer and Fitbit, Fitbit, and I can't wear those anymore. I know they work for a lot of my clients. A lot of my clients have Apple watches. It's a trigger for me, I guess, too much tracking. I attract so much for so long calories in calories out. And I just, I go by the feeling of the intuitive movement. Like what do you feel like doing? What kind of movement do you feel like today? And. I, I get it. A lot of times people just, they have so many other things going on. They don't want to think about what movement they feel like doing. They just want a coach to tell them. So that's my job is, Hey, today, it's, you know, we've got these options and there's always multiple levels and you're welcome to freestyle. I think that's the other thing I would say to fitpros is tell your clients that they're welcome to freestyle that if they're with you in class, they never have to do what you're doing as the instructor They can always just do their own thing too.

Christine
Yeah, we do that a lot in dance. We say it's their opportunity for a solo that this is now their solo performance. There's really no right or wrong way to do anything. In fitness, as long as we're staying safe in dance, pretty much everything we're doing is generally safe. So really it's an opportunity for solo for, for a spotlight solo in class. But yeah , I appreciate your thoughts on that. Let's talk a little bit more about some advice for regular fitness participants because you see them, with the clients that you serve and whether it be in personal training or fitness classes, what tips can you give to people that are struggling right now with weight or maybe they've had similar experiences hearing your story with shame and some anxiety around weight loss, weight, gain, all that kind of stuff. What advice would you give to people?

Beth
Yeah, I would hope that they could find a community with you, with me, with all of us who are doing this work, and to feel loved and validated just for being who they are. There's some amazing communities out there and hopefully they can find a, uh, a movement community, whether it's in person or online that they feel welcome at. And if they don't, they should walk away from it. I also recommend, um , for a lot of my clients and for me, it's no mirrors. The mirrors are really a big in fitness studios. Some. Some are moving away from it and I'd be interested to know what you're doing at pop fit. But I used to have my participants turn away from the mirrors cause we have mirrors in the studio because I wanted them to hear my coaching and be able to kinesthetically change their position, to get the right form, the safe form of the exercise. And I would have some feedback saying they want it to, they felt like they had better form when they could look at the me in the mirror, but I could see them checking each other out. Right. And there's that comparison. So if the mirror is a trigger for you, then move to a studio that doesn't have a mirror or do something online where you don't have to look at yourself or look at other people. It's just, there's so much like negative self-talk happening potentially when you go into a group class. You know, anxiety Bo, is this going to be like the right level for me? What are what's everybody going to think about me? How am I, am I going to perform okay. In this class? Like, and I'm so I, I, I do certify new fitness instructors with camphor pro, and this is some of the stuff I'm talking about. So even though you have to really think about for someone who's coming back to exercise, or maybe just trying to find that safe environment that. They can be very particular and ask the right questions and be curious and just get a bunch of, you know, uh, trials at places before you commit, , and offer feedback. Because I feel like if you feel like you're safe to do so, because management needs to know, um, you, you know, we want to see more. Body diversity, even with the fitness pros that are teaching and leading classes are doing personal training sessions in marketing, in the staff, that's in a gym, all of these things because then more people will feel like they belong. Um, and that's, that's a big part of it as well. So look for those places where you feel you belong.

Christine
Giving that feedback is such a, such a great thing to do too. And realizing that not every place is for for everybody. Like we do create an inclusive space that is welcoming to everybody, but we may not be the right workout for everybody. Like if you're come, if you're looking for an intense bootcamp that makes you want to just throw up at the end of it, It's not here. You're not going to find that here. And there are people that like that kind of workout. So really finding that safe place that you will enjoy going to whatever it is you enjoy doing. Because there's different, different strokes for different folks. But the mirror thing is very interesting. Because I, I can see both sides of the mirror. For dance specifically, we both grew up in dance mirrors in our lessons were extremely important. So we could see our form, how we're dancing, especially when it came to our lines and things. And we have a lot of mirrors. I have a 6,000 square foot studio, so we have a lot of mirrors space in our studio. And we do have some blind spots that if those that come in don't want to see themselves. There's plenty of places that they can stand in to feel that they don't have to see themselves. Not everybody wants to see themselves, but there are a lot of clients that I have that love seeing themselves it motivates them to perform. And it's their workout. Like we don't need our instructors performing for the class, but when you're participating in a dance class, you want to kind of feel like you're dancing and Beyonce is video or JLo's video. And sometimes that, that mirror will give you that instant feedback of how you're doing. That was one of the things that I, that was brought up as we went virtual, is that everybody's at home and they can't see themselves anymore. Good and bad. There could be both opportunities for good and bad enough in that scenario, but yeah, having those blind spots. And then the other thing that we did was we have some club lighting that we put in our studio. So it dims everything. We dim all the lights down. Again. Some people like to see themselves in bright lighting other people love the DJ lights. So, you know, we have classes that have options for both, but really trying to create a space that is a fun environment and again, reaches as many people as possible, but there's some times that you just can't can't please everyone, but trying to create those safe places.

Beth
I had a client she's still my client and she wouldn't wouldn't come into the studio. She didn't have a blind spot. She didn't want to see herself in the mirror. She's a lot of body hatred still, and she's not, she's not where we are yet. Right. So she's still on the weight loss cycle and on the train diet train for sure. Um, I love her to pieces, but you know, she, she can't see herself, so she'll just be in this other area where there'd be no mirrors at all. Or she could be really out of anyone's line of sight, except me as the instructor. Cause I was always watching for her.

Christine
Yeah and it's hard. Because that might be a reason why someone doesn't even step foot in a gym or a studio. They don't, they don't even take that first step to come in for fear of being judged and they're already judging themselves. And that's why I think this year you're going virtual. I hope that a lot of people took that as an opportunity to have their in their home, they have a safe place to work out and join different. Virtual workouts find one that they love and hopefully get to a better place.

Beth
And that's why I said try things because you don't necessarily have to go in the class. You could watch, you could watch from the door. You could ask the instructor. If you can, you know, have a seat on a chair, watch. I think that would be totally fine. Depends on their comfort. , same with virtual classes. Just turn your camera off. We as instructors, love to see you with your camera on because we love seeing you move your beautiful body, but if you don't want to have your camera on, then you can say, um, I'm not, I have a bandwidth issue. I can't turn my camera off. So virtual is great for that.

Christine
Yeah, absolutely. So let's do a few fun questions at the end. So we always like to find out from, from our guests, what their favorite movement is, what their, some other favorites. So I'm going to ask you what your favorite way to move your body.

Beth
Definitely dance fitness. Um, yes. So I just love moving to music. That's definitely my favorite. So one day we'll be working with you in person I'm sure. And getting to do some of your choreographies. I think that would be great. I think for now I'm just, uh, watching the YouTube videos.

Christine
dancing in the dancing in the bedroom, right? So you're a favorite way to practice self care.

Beth
Well, I love, um, masks like face masks and skincare. Uh, so I have a favorite beauty brand, so I definitely indulge in the beauty stuff and even doing makeup. Like I haven't worked at an office for a year, but I do my makeup every day. I just have like a little five minute routine, but it's my self-care, it's just, you know, a little bit of eyeshadow or eyeliner and mascara and I don't know. It's just part of what I like to do for myself.

Christine
It's important. Those moments of self care, especially as a mom and even if you don't have to go anywhere, it just makes you feel good. And it does make you feel good. So is there any favorite song, artist or genre of music that you just feel like is inspiring you right now?

Beth
What comes to mind is Taylor Swift, because she's a powerful woman and I've seen her in her own journey. And I think she's got a stronger, healthier body image now than she did, perhaps when she started as an artist. And, uh, my daughters, like I mentioned, I have twins they're 14 and that was their very first live concert was to see Taylor and we've done lots of road trips together where we just play, Taylor's a Spotify playlist on just shuffle and we sing our little hearts out with Taylor Swift. So that's kind of my favorite artists and music, I guess.

Christine
I love Taylor Swift. She's often on our playlists for classes. I don't know, in Canada, how long you've been on lockdown, but definitely you've been on lockdown for some of 2020. So looking back, is there anything that you found binge-worthy? Most people have gotten into some TV show or movie or book or podcast. So is there anything that you've liked to share is your binge-worthy thing of 2020?

Beth
Well, we watched the entire, every single season of the X-Files with our daughters. It's like old school. Like it started out with, you know, early, I think it was early to mid nineties, very FA foggy grainy, kind of like TV too. My husband and I hadn't even seen like the most recent seasons of it, but we watched, Oh my gosh, it took us months to watch it. But we, we had some great conversations with our daughters just around Fox and a Scully or a Dana Scully, Fox molder and data Scully of the X-Files.

Christine
Wow. And it's still on now?

Beth
Well, it's finished, but you can catch it on Netflix, but they did have a couple of recent seasons. Like it went away, they did some movies, then they had some other seasons and they weren't. They weren't awesome. I still like it.

Christine
There are a lot of them 90 shows making a comeback. I have not checked out, I did did not watch the X-Files. So maybe that will be one on, are something to go back and watch in current times. But thank you for that recommendation. And I just loved having you on the podcast today. And can't wait to see what you're doing in the fitness world, with not only CanFitPro, but your own personal work with clients and with fitness professionals. Is there anything else you'd like to leave us with today before we say goodbye?

Beth
Oh, I just want to thank you for the work you're doing Christine and this, I think this podcast today shows the power of virtual connections because you and I literally met in a chat box Zoom conference and, uh, followed each other on Instagram and had messages. And it's pretty cool in this virtual world that you can build meaningful relationships with people. And so I thank you for being part of that relationship building with me. And I encourage others to do the same these days.

Christine
Very very good advice. I 100% agree with you and I am, I'm more of an introvert, so this virtual world, I think gave me a different energy to be able to connect and network in a deeper, longer lasting way. So I appreciate all the work that you're doing and the friendship and professional relationship that we've built as well. And I look forward to so much more that we're going to do in this industry and destroying diet culture. So thank you so much for joining today.

Beth
Thank you. Let's do this.

Podcast Host

Christine DeFilippis

Movement motivator, body liberator and unconventional fitness professional, Christine is the owner of Pop Fit Studio, a HAES & weight inclusive fitness studio in the US. She is also the creator of FitProEd, an online education platform for group fitness instructors that would like to expand their expertise. After close to 30 years in the fitness industry, struggling with eating disorders, weight cycling, body dysmorphia and a lot of unhappiness, Christine shifted her focus to joyful movement and created the Breaking Body Biases podcast to amplify voices of fitpros, dietitians and other wellness practitioners looking to destroy diet culture.

Episode 6 - Adopting a Weight Neutral Approach to Fitness with Canadian FitPro Beth Yarzab

Podcast Host

Two Step