Ep #115: Jen Lamplough Podcast Takeover – Get to Know Jill

Welcome to The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you’re a woman who is midlife and plus sized and you want to start running but don’t know how, or if it’s even possible, you’re in the right place. Using proven strategies and real-life experience, certified running and life coach Jill Angie shares how you can learn to run in the body you have right now.

Jill: Hey rebels, you are listening to episode 115 of The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. I’m your host…

Jen: Wait, your host isn’t Jill Angie today. Your host is Jen Lamplough and I am taking over The Not Your Average Runner Podcast and I’m asking Jill all the things today.

Jill: What? Wait a minute.

Jen: I’m taking over, boss. I went into the Facebook group and I asked everybody what they wanted to ask you, what they want to know about you, and I got so many great questions, so I’m going to ask them all to you today. How about that?

Jill: I’m a little nervous.

Jen: You should be.

Jill: I’m not used to being on this side of the microphone.

Jen: I know, it’s really fun, isn’t it?

Jill: Be gentle with me.

Jen: I always am. So before we get into it, anything you want to talk about or can I dive right into my questions?

Jill: No, let’s just dive right in. I can’t wait to hear them.

Jen: Awesome. So I posted that I was taking over because you have such an interesting story and I thought like, people probably want to know more from you than all the coaching stuff that you give us, and so we got some great questions and the first question that we got was from Amy Miller. And Amy loved this idea and I love Amy’s question.

Her question is, “Jill, I want to know what advice the present Jill would give to the newbie Jill when she was starting out. What would she have avoided, done differently, et cetera?” Isn’t that a great question?

Jill: That is a great question. And it’s funny because I’ve been working a lot recently on trying to define my future self, but I haven’t really kind of looked backwards and said what would I have done differently. And that kind of stumps me a little bit. I don’t know what I would have done differently.

I think I would have – first of all, I would have told her to quit smoking a lot earlier. Or maybe never start. If I ever get to go back, if I ever get in the hot tub time machine, that’s the conversation I’m having with myself. But honestly, I think everybody does that. What advice would I have given my past self?

Jen: Say you came to you as a newbie, how would you have coached you when you started?

Jill: I think I would have said, first of all, stop trying to run to lose weight. Stop punishing yourself. And I would have said you know, you don’t have to run the whole time. You can do whatever you want and it’ll be amazing. I think I felt when I first started running that I had to live up to this expectation of running a certain speed and not stopping to walk and looking a certain way.

I was in my 20s when I first started, and I think in our 20s, we all kind of feel that way. But I think I would just say like, hey, take a breath and relax. And be a little kinder to yourself, and then also, I think I would have told her like, you can do a lot more than you think you can.

Because I used to quit on myself all the time because I was like, it’s hard, something’s wrong, it’s not supposed to be hard. And I’m like, now I know it is and it’s a good thing and it makes you a stronger person. So I think that’s probably the advice I would have given to myself is like, take a chill pill, just relax, it’s going to be fine, and push yourself a little bit harder because you’re way stronger than you think you are.

Jen: Okay, so you just affirmed me as a coach because I literally just got off of a coaching call and I said those exact words about things being hard. I’m like, it’s good that it’s hard, it’s supposed to be hard. The hard is what makes is great and that’s what makes us stronger. So thank you, you just affirmed me as a coach.

Jill: Yay. Exactly. But it’s true, and I don’t think we understand that when we’re younger because we’re still under this misguided impression that everything should be easy. And how do we teach that to high school kids?

Jen: I don’t know. You’re so right. You said the magic word, should. Any time we say the word should, we’re having that perfectionist thinking of you should be this fast, it should be this easy, or I should weigh this, or I should look like this, and that’s really hard to get out of in high school because that’s your whole life. It’s like, comparing yourself to others.

Jill: Yeah. For sure. And I think that was it. Newbie Jill was comparing herself to everybody else and so maybe that is the advice I would get is just stop looking at other people, stay in your own lane, run your own goddamn race.

Jen: And stop trying to – I’m thinking of myself and this isn’t the interview Jen one, but I would sort of say the same. Don’t try to create something that used to exist. I want to get back to when I was this speed or this weight, or whatever because that’s the past and you can’t recreate it. So try for something new.

Jill: Yeah, for sure. And you know, actually I want to add to my answer a little bit more too because one thing that Amy asked is what would she have avoided or done differently, and one thing that I recognize now is that yeah, I made a lot of “mistakes” when I was younger and if I could go back and relive it I might do it differently, but then again, I might not.

Because I would not be the person I am today, I’d not be the coach I am today, I would not be able to relate to people the way I do had I been perfect when I was younger, had I done things differently. I think I needed to make all those mistakes so that I could help other people kind of find their path as well.

Jen: 100%. Mistakes are gifts of learning. I love that. So true. Thank you, Amy, for the question. Our next question is from Russ Ellen Mangen – sorry about that. It’s late, I’m tired. Okay, and Ellen’s question is, “What made Jill jump from the corporate world and now into our giant running universe that she has spinning around her? And just where is she hoping it goes other than one million women running?” I love the thought of you as like, the sun and all of us are orbiting around you.

Jill: My god, that’s terrifying. So yeah, okay, so the jump that I made from the corporate world, I mean, I can give you a little bit of my story of how I got to the point where I was like, hey, I’m done living corporate life and I’m going to do something else. I was feeling pretty dissatisfied with working a corporate job for quite a few years, and I was constantly seeking what else could I do, and I didn’t really see any other path.

So I was just trying to always like, okay, maybe I’ll just get a better job, maybe if I made more money, maybe if I had a nicer car, maybe if I took better vacations, I was just looking externally for some sort of satisfaction because I wasn’t feeling it inside me. And I really thought that my job was the problem. I thought my life was the problem. I was the problem. My job was fine.

But one thing I did do, as I was kind of going through this, what am I going to do with myself, I started out finding things – I was doing this as a side gig. My mom passed away in 2006 and she left all these collectibles behind. And I was like, my brother and my sister were like, we don’t really want them, it’s nothing that we want to add to our household. It was a bunch of Franklin Mint plates that were super meaningful to her but completely not meaningful to me or my siblings.

And so I took pictures of all of them and I sold them on eBay. And there was a bunch of other stuff that she left behind. I was like, alright, I’ll just sell it on eBay and we’ll go from there. And I was like, I kind of like selling stuff on eBay. I thought it was super fun. I love putting up the listings, I loved taking the pictures just so and writing this is a fabulous blah, blah, blah, and kind of being really creative with the writing.

And I started to see you know what, maybe my life doesn’t just have to be flying around the world auditing pharmaceutical manufacturing plants. Maybe I could do something else. And so that sort of opened up this whole new path for me that I was like, I don’t have to do something in pharmaceutical, I don’t have to do something in chemistry, I don’t have to do something in corporate.

I could maybe create my own job. Obviously, I did not end up selling full-time on eBay but it got me thinking. And so simultaneously with all of that, I signed up to do the breast cancer three-day, which is that you walk 20 miles and you camp out overnight, and you walk 20 more miles the next day. It’s kind of like a Ragnar but not as nice.

Sadly, the Ragnar was way more comfortable than the three-day. But I was like, 270 pounds at the time, and so I hired this personal trainer and I said, alright – again, I was like, I’m doing to do this three-day because I’m going to lose all this weight. What the fuck? We should just not be allowed to think that shit because it never works.

But anyway, that’s what I thought. It was 2008 or 2009 and so I hired this trainer and I didn’t really lose any weight, but what I started doing was getting really strong. And then she started teaching me yoga. I started taking yoga classes with her, and she taught me all about how to stop comparing myself to other people, how to stop comparing myself to myself, and how to just stop judging.

And I mean, I swear to god, once I started to see that there was this possibility that I could exist without losing weight, that I could just kind of love myself as is and not have to change so that I could feel better about myself, I was like, wait a minute. Other people need to know about this. Maybe that’s what I was put on this planet to do.

And so – and I kept working with her but the idea started to germinate, probably in 2010 I was like, I might want to be a personal trainer. And so I thought about it and I thought about it, and eventually I got certified by AAFA, the American Association for Fitness and Aerobics. I think that’s what it stands for.

I went to this three-day training, I got my personal trainer certification, and I started training my friends part-time in a spare room in our house. And I really fucking loved it because I was like, oh my gosh, I can actually help people learn to love themselves and get strong. So that’s when I was like, alright, I need to do this full-time. This is a thing. This is a viable thing.

I quit my corporate job. I will never forget the day that I told my boss. I was like, hey, so I know you just gave me a promotion but I’m quitting in two weeks. And my boss was British and she was in the UK. It was where she was located so we were doing all this over the phone, and she was like, this is what you were meant to do. I’m so glad you finally figured it out.

Jen: That’s amazing. Oh my god.

Jill: She was super happy for me and so I quit and I was a personal trainer. I opened a studio in my own home. My ex-husband and I had a really big house without – because I thought oh, a big house will make me happy. So we bought this big house and then lo and behold, still not happy.

So we had a couple of extra rooms, so we turned it into a personal training studio and that’s what I did full-time for a few years. But meanwhile, I wrote the book Running with Curves, which is now called Not Your Average Runner, and just women were emailing me left, right, and center, saying oh my gosh, you just changed everything for me because I thought I had to do it this certain way and you’re giving me permission to do it another way.

And so once that book came out and I started getting people emailing me about how can I work with you, I was like oh, now I really see what I was meant to do. So I think it was 2014 or 2015 maybe I started the business of coaching runners. And then by 2016 I had actually shut down the personal training completely. So that was a very long story.

Jen: No, that’s really great. I didn’t know the whole eBay part of it and all of that. That’s so interesting. Isn’t it funny how like, these things happen and you look back and you see the path and you’re like, oh, that’s amazing.

Jill: Yeah. I mean, I even had a business name. I had a tax ID for my eBay business but I was called Lola’s Closet because I had my greyhound at the time. Her name was Lola. And so I named the business after her and it was super fun, but then I was kind of like, I just don’t know if I could spend every day all day packing and shipping things.

It was kind of fun when it was a little thing I was doing on the side and I would go to thrift shops and hunt for deals and mark them up and sell them on eBay. And now eBay, there’s all these other rules. So I kind of was doing it in this time where it was the wild, wild west. It’s not like that anymore at all.

But anyway, it was kind of fun because it’s just like, if I hadn’t done that, I don’t know if I would have seen that there were possibilities for me outside of just doing a corporate job and working my way up so that I would be like, a middle manager, it’s just not who I am, but I thought it was.

Jen: Wow. Yeah, and I think a lot of people are in that position. They think like, this is what I should be doing with my life. There’s that magic word again. Should.

Jill: And I think I had over 20 years invested in that career. I had a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry, a Masters degree in chemistry, a Masters degree in quality assurance and regulatory affairs. All of my training and education, I invested lots of money and years and so forth into that career, and then I put continuing education and so forth. 20 years.

It was a really hard thing to get to because I was like, but I spent all this time, I invested all this time in being this person. How can I just not be that person anymore? And I think we make that mistake all the time in our lives is we throw good money after bad. It’s like, well, I already made an investment so I need to just stick with it. And it’s like, actually, you don’t.

I mean, I was – how old was I when I quit my job? I quit, I gave my notice in 2013. So I was 46. I mean, I was at a point where most people are I’m too late to change careers, and I was like, oh yeah, no, I’m just going to jump off this cliff. I got no safety net. I had saved up a bunch of money to kind of make sure I was able to pay my half of the mortgage and so forth.

But sometimes you just have to jump and I was kind of like, I don’t know how to run a business, I don’t know how to work for myself, I’m kind of a procrastinator, I’ve never done this before and yet I was just kind of like, I know I’ll figure it out. I was terrified and I was like, I also knew I’d figure it out. And I think that’s it. That’s sort of the thought that keeps me going through a lot of stuff because owning a business is kind of a roller coaster.

As you know, you see the inside of Not Your Average Runner and some days I’m like, what are we doing? Oh my gosh. We’re a really small team and I’m the only full-time member of the team, and so there are times when it gets a little bit crazy but always, my underlying thought, my underlying belief is I will figure this out no matter what. It’s going to be okay.

And I think that belief, you can steal that belief for pretty much everything in life. If you just believe it’s going to be okay then things are okay. It’s super fun how that works.

Jen: Amazing how our thoughts create our results, isn’t it?

Jill: I know.

Jen: But the interesting thing about that though is you didn’t go from being a chemist to owning this business, the leap off the cliff wasn’t that big, right? You sort of did it in little steps and so I think people see you where you are now, but they didn’t see all the steps that it took to get there. So it’s like, well I can’t quit my job and start my own business and be doing what you’re doing.

But you don’t have to go from A to Z. You can go from A to B and get started and it can be part-time on the side or just a little bit here and there and you work your way up to trying something new. But if you don’t try, you don’t know what the possibilities are.

Jill: Yeah. That’s a great point because I definitely did it part time. So I would work all day and then I’d come home and I would spend four or five hours every night working on my business. And that went on for a solid year and then I was kind of like, okay, I think this is viable. I think I can make this a full-time thing.

But then I had four or five clients, and then I went full-time. And then I had all this space in my schedule and so then I slowly had to fill that up. But you’re right. It didn’t happen overnight. And I think that’s a great metaphor for running because people think oh, I should be able to run 5K right out the gate. No. You just need to be able to run 30 seconds. It’s all you got to do right now. That’s it.

Jen: I love that. What a great story.

Jill: And here we are.

Jen: And now here we are. Episode 115 of your podcast.

Jill: I know. So fun. But as far as – Ellen also asked where am I hoping it goes…

Jen: Other than a million women up and running.

Jill: Yeah. For sure that, but I have so many grand visions for this business and for this movement because it’s really more than just a business. For me, it’s a business because it’s certainly how I pay my bills, but it’s also a labor of love and it’s also – I like to think of it as a revolution. So I mean, I have this vision of Not Your Average Runner in-person running clubs around the country and regular meet ups.

Us having thousands of women in Run Your Best Life, in our coaching membership that are just getting out there and running their best lives. So I have a vision of a lot more in-person stuff and we’re starting to do that now by doing the retreats that we’re doing. But for sure I want to franchise it out and have local running clubs and stuff but it’s going to be a while little.

And there’s an app in the works. Apps are fucking expensive though. It’s like, 50 grand to create a rudimentary app and then you have all the customer service that goes along with it and everything. And so I’m like alright, that’s not going to happen 2020.

Jen: Yeah, it’s no small feat but we’re going to get there.

Jill: No, it’s not. We are going to get there. Yeah.

Jen: Alright, good. Alright, our next question is from Heather Taylor, and Heather asks, “How long did you run before you started to feel proficient and confident running a race?”

Jill: You know what’s kind of funny is I don’t know if I ever didn’t feel proficient and confident, and I think that’s just because I’ve never actually had the thought – maybe a little bit on the edge of my brain but for the most part, I’ve never really had the thought I don’t belong here, and I’ve never really had the thought I don’t think I can do it.

I mean, sometimes before my first half marathon, I knew I could do it because I’d already done a 12-mile run. I finished that just fine. So I wasn’t worried that I would finish. It was more like, will I finish in the time that I want to finish in, but I don’t think I’ve ever thought I can’t finish this distance. So I would say, how long did I run before I started to feel proficient and confident, like, I felt that way from the first race.

But I really think that the thought I don’t belong here is just not an option in my brain because I feel like I just have decided oh, these are my people and I belong. And it’s kind of funny because I know people have said before like, I get fat shamed all the time or people make comments to me all the time. And I’m like, people don’t say those things to me.

And I always thought maybe they don’t say them because I exude confidence or something like that, but I think what it really is is my brain does not process those comments as insults or people making fun of me or people putting me down because I don’t have any beliefs – if somebody actually came up to me and said you’re a fat bitch, I’d be like okay, alright, I heard that. And then I’d be like, you’re just confused.

But when people make comments that you can interpret multiple ways like, my brain just literally does not interpret them in a way that I feel insulted. And so I think like, how long did it take before I started to feel proficient and confident, it just never occurred to me that some of the other runners wouldn’t want me there.

Jen: That’s amazing.

Jill: I know it’s kind of funny. It just never ever occurred to me and I know, I’m pretty fat. You look around, you look at me and you look at the other runners like, it’s obvious that I’m different from most of them. But yet, my brain is just like, I belong here just as much as the rest of them. It doesn’t mean I don’t feel a little self-conscious thinking, god, everybody’s so fucking skinny and I’m not. But the prevailing thought is always just like, I belong here. And if somebody comes at me and is like, get out of my way, I’m like, no. I’m so sorry, but no.

Jen: I think that’s a perfect example of you find what you seek. So if you think people are always insulting you, you’re going to hear insults. But if you’re not looking for that, even if they think they’re insulting you, you’re just not hearing that, right? So the brain finds what it focuses on.

Jill: Exactly, I think that’s it. It’s just an example of all the thought work that we teach. The brain finds what it focuses on and you get what you’re looking for. And I’m just not expecting people to insult me. Although, funny story, so Amy and I were at the Valley Forge half-marathon a couple weeks ago and there was this guy – so the path, it’s on a bike path, the half-marathon was on a bike path and it was not closed to cyclists.

So we’re out there running and the usual, you know, hundreds of cyclists that use that path for training were going by. And there was this guy riding towards us and he had a strobe light on the front of his bike. And it was reflecting off of the foliage because we were in sort of a shady part. And this was like two o’clock in the afternoon, there was no need for a strobe light in my opinion.

So it was like mile 10 or 12 and we were both like, alright, we’re ready to be done. We were a little cranky. And he’s coming towards us and I’m like, what the fuck is this guy’s problem? And so, very out of character for me, he’s coming towards us and I said, “Dude, your light is seizure-inducing.” And he didn’t even make eye-contact. He kept riding by, and about 10 feet behind us, he heard him go, “You’re seizure-inducing.” And I just lost it.

I was like, that was an awesome comeback. So even when people insult me, I’m like amused and I think it’s hilarious, rather than being offended. Like, Amy is all offended. I’m like, oh my god, that was so funny, and she was like, what is wrong with you? And I’m like, he said I was seizure-inducing. I’m going to remember that.

Jen: That’s like a comeback from my four-year-old. I’m like, no you’re seizure-inducing. I mean, come on…

Jill: Exactly. It was just so perfect and so funny. And then I realized how ridiculous I was being by yelling at this guy because he’s got this strobe light on. Like, He didn’t really need it, but also, he was trying to make himself visible and so here I am yelling at this poor guy who’s just trying to be safe, you know…

Jen: That’s amazing, I love that story, that’s so great. Alright, our next question is from Stormy Paige Campbell and she says – I love the name Stormy, by the way, it’s adorable – “What’s your favorite long running exercise and what are you and Andy doing for a post-marathon celebration?

Jill: Okay, I’m not sure what she means by favorite long running exercise.

Jen:  Like, maybe what’s your favorite distance, like long-distance?

Jill: Oh, my favorite distance, I don’t know if I have a favorite because sometimes I’m in the mood to go out and just run really far. I love half-marathons, but sometimes I’m like, I just want to do 5K.  So I don’t think I have a favorite.

Jen: What other exercises of yours are favorites besides running?

Jill: I love spin class. I don’t do it nearly as much as I’d like to because I feel like all my time right now is taken up by either running or strength training. But I love spin. I love to go out and walk. I like to swim. If there was a way for me to swim without getting my hair wet – I know right, I guess they call it a bathing cap or a swim cap, but a swim cap pulls my hair out. I don’t like to go in a chlorinated pool because it jacks with my hair color and I spend enough money to color my hair every few weeks, cover up the grey, and then I’m going to get in a pool… So I don’t swim as much as I like because I’m always like, I don’t want to ruin my hair.

Jen: Swim caps hurt too. I feel like they pull your hair.

Jill: They do, they pull your hair out. Yeah, I’m not a fan.

Jen: Maybe that’s what she meant, maybe she typed wrong and meant what’s your favorite non-running exercise. I bet she just typed wrong.

Jill: I would say, if it’s cardio, my favorite non-running is either spinning or walking, but I like yoga and I like strength training. Sometimes I don’t like strength training, or I tell myself I don’t like it, even though I actually do like it. Once I’m doing it, I’m all in. But it’s the getting warmed up – I don’t know why. There’s really no barriers to doing strength training because you can fucking do it in front of Netflix, right? There is no reason not to. But I always have drama in my heads about it, so it’s always like a big kerfuffle in my brain to get myself – like, oh my god, I have to go find the resistance band or I have to drag the kettle bell down from upstairs.

Jen: I don’t think you’re alone in that though. I think people resist strength training for some reason.

Jill: Yeah, and really, like, when I do my strength training, like, my body feels better and everything, so it’s always just a – I was talking to my coach this morning about something I was resisting doing, getting up in the morning, and I’m like, I just don’t want to. And she’s like, but you do want to. And I’m like, no, I don’t, I don’t feel like it, I’m cozy and warm in bed and I don’t have to start work for a few hours. And she’s like, but you do, you really do. And I’m like, no I don’t.

And she said, tell me all the reasons you do want to get up in the morning. And I was like, well when I get up in the morning I get more done and I gave her all the reasons that it’s awesome and she’s like, see, you do want to get up in the morning. And I’m like, damn it, Lauren, I hate it when you’re right.

Jen: I say that about you all the time. She’s always right, damn it, Jill.

Jill: Mother fucker. Yeah, so I would say probably spinning is my favorite non-running exercise. And then after the marathon – so Andy and I have a hotel room the night before and the night after because we live about – now that we’re in Princeton, we live about an hour and 15 minutes from Philly. So, I mean, it’s going to be like an eight-hour day for me out there running this marathon.

So we got a hotel room so that after he finishes, he can go back, take a shower, maybe take a nap, come back – I know, right – and meet me at the finish line and then we’re going to go out to dinner and wear our medals all around town and be obnoxious about it and then pass out. That’s what we’re doing after.

Jen: That sounds super fun, yay. It’s exciting. It’s coming up in six weeks.

Jill: It’s six weeks from – fuck, it’s six weeks. I have an 18-mile run this weekend. I’m a little…

Jen: Oh, 18 was my best training run.

Jill: Yeah? Alright, that’s good, that bodes well for me.

Jen: Yeah, 18 was my favorite, that was the best one I ever had, yep.

Jill: How was 20? Not so good?

Jen: I didn’t do 20.

Jill: Oh, you did your marathon right off 18 miles. Oh fuck, that’s impressive. You’re kind of a badass. You have pretty good endurance, I’ve got to say.

Jen: That’s boot camp for you. I do that boot camp class and I’m telling you, nothing gives you endurance like that class.

Jill: That’s good to know. I wonder if I could fit in a few boot camp classes…

Jen: Like cramming for the test five days before.

Jill: I know, it’s a terrible idea.  I’ll get hurt, but anyway.

Jen: Don’t do it. Alright, I love this question, Stephanie says, “How does Andy really feel about Maddie, your cat?”

Jill: He loves her. He absolutely loves her. Sometimes he gets jealous because, like, I’m home all day with her, and so she naturally follows me around all day long, and so we’ll go to bed at night and she’ll sit at the end of the bed and just stare at me. She will just make eye contact with me and if I look away, she still stays focused on my head. And we’ve played around with it that I’ll put the blankets over my head and he’ll watch her and she will still be looking at where my head was. But it’s not in a cute way. It’s a very serial killer psycho I’m going to cut you kind of way. He’s like, “She doesn’t stare at me like that,” I’m like, “Yeah, be glad.”

Jen: Oh my god, that’s so funny.

Jill: But she’s like, when I’m not home then she will come and sit in his lap and he gets really excited about that, so he loves her very much.

Jen: She’s really soft. She’s one of those bunny soft cats.

Jill: I know, she is. I pick her up all the time, she’s like, stop picking me up. But I just like to rub her belly. And she’s really chill, so I can just pick her up and hold her and run her belly and she’ll put up with it for a little while. And then she makes this weird noise, and that’s like, put me down. But she really lets us manhandle her a lot.

Jen: She’s so cute.

Jill: She’s a good cat.

Jen: What else do you guys call her besides Maddie? Do you have other nicknames for her?

Jill: Andy probably doesn’t know this but my nickname for her when nobody else is around is Pumpkin Pie. I have no idea, I just started calling her that one day and now I call her Pumpkin Pie.

Jen: That is so cute.

Jill: And we also call her Psycho, Crazy Town, because sometimes – she’s two, so she just runs around like a maniac sometimes. But mostly it’s just Maddie.

Jen: She’s so cute. How fun. Alright, I think we have time for one more question.  And this is from Heather Jones. And Heather wants to know when did you start running and why? We know when you started your business and all of that, but when did you actually start running and why?

Jill: So, it was in the 90s. It must have been in 1997 because that’s when I bought my house in Lancaster. I would go running – I lived in one of those little, those really close packed row houses that are really common in Pennsylvania. And they’re common in other cities, but these are like little two-story row houses and there were just street after street after street of them. And so I lived in one of those neighborhoods and so around my block, I think it was like a half-mile, and so I would just go out and try to run for 30 seconds, walk for 30 seconds, or whatever, and do as many laps around the block as I could.

And I wanted to lose weight, that’s why I started. I mean, and honestly, my reasons for running for many years were driven by a desire to lose weight. I fell in love with it along the way, so I think I started doing it for other reasons as well, but I also always had this, yeah but I should be losing weight. so I would count the calories that I burned when I ran and I would count the calories that I ate and tried to measure it all out and it was fucking exhausting and yeah, I stopped doing that a while ago.

But yeah, I mean, it was for weight loss. It wasn’t for any other reason. I always hated running. I played tennis in high school and our coach used to make us run. I fucking hated it. Tennis is a sport where you run a lot. I’m really not sure why I thought it was unfair that she made us run, but you only had to run like 20 steps at a time to get across the court. And then I was a swimmer in high school, which involved zero running whatsoever. So I always avoided it.

But I always thought to myself, that’s the fastest way to lose weight, that’s the thing that burns most calories, that’s what I should do. But I’m glad that I started running, even though I’d started running for reasons that I don’t have now, it got me into it. And because I wanted to lose weight so badly, I was willing to keep coming back to running over and over again long enough to fall in love with it.

So I mean, it’s kind of like I look back and I think I wish I hadn’t started for weight loss, but I wanted to lose weight so badly, I was always willing to keep running even though it was hard and it motivated me to stick with it. So I guess I regret nothing.

Jen: Oh, the 90s, when we were all eating boxes of Snackwells and counting calories.

Jill: Fucking Snackwells. Snackwells, and I think they still make like the Lean Cuisine and the Weight Watchers frozen meals, but good lord those things were disgusting.

Jen: Do you remember though, we’d be like, Snackwells are fat free so I can eat a whole box.

Jill: Yes, I do remember that, and they tasted awful. It wasn’t even like they were good.

Jen: I know, the 90s ruined all of our metabolisms.

Jill: For sure, yeah, that is one thing I do not miss is the constant obsessing over calories and everything.

Jen:  No kidding.

Jill: Not good for the brain.

Jen: I have a question for you. This is a surprise question. It’s a good question; what is your favorite thing about the women that we coach in Run Your Best Life?  Like, what do you love most about them?

Jill: Just everything.

Jen: I know, right.

Jill: I love them so much. I love their willingness to fail and try again and fail and try again. I love their courage. I love that they’re all just like – and they’re so honest and open. They’ll come into our Facebook group and they’ll be like, that was such an awful run and I feel so miserable, but they’re willing to be coached around it. They’re not just like, “I just had the worst run of my life and I quit running forever.” They’re like, “I just had the worst run of my life, I’m going to have a little pity party for a moment, alright, let’s get to work, what do I need to do?”

And that inspires me because, to be honest, there are days when I’m just like, I do not want to run today, this does not sound like fun, this is the worst thing ever. I will go into the Run Your Best Life Facebook group and I’ll just read through what everybody else is doing and I’m like, oh alright, get out there. They’re going, you might as well go. And so I just love that I’m coaching them to be the best runners they can be, I’m helping them use the tools to live their best lives, and then I get to be inspired by them as well.

Jen: It’s amazing, isn’t it? I learn from all of them and I remember when I used to teach, I would always learn from my students too, you know what I mean. And that’s, like, the best part of being in a group like that, and the bravery of showing up.

Jill: I think that’s it, yeah, like they’re a bunch of brave badasses, even though they don’t believe they are, they are because they really do show up for themselves. And Mary Beth in the group, she did a Facebook live this morning talking about how her son’s been sick so she’s kind of back and forth to the hospital and a whole bunch of things going on in her life, and she was almost going to not do her run today. And then she thought, you know what, like, I need to show up for myself if we’re going to show up for all these other people. So she pulled out her minimum baseline. She did two miles. She made it happen even though she didn’t want to, even though anybody looking at the circumstances would say, you’re totally justified in not showing up for yourself. She showed up anyway and then she did a little Facebook live in the group to tell everybody what had happened and I was just like, this is what it’s all about, being an example of what is possible so that other people can learn from you.  So good.

Jen: Yep, that’s the definition of success right there. Well, those are all the questions that I have for you tonight. Thank you for being on my podcast…

Jill: Thank you for having me, it’s been delightful. It’s been so fun.

Jen: I don’t know how we end the podcast.

Jill: I don’t know either. I always say, “Until next week,” and I blow a kiss at the camera or I blow a kiss at the microphone. Nobody knows that. But I do want to mention – we’ve talked a lot about Run Your Best Life tonight and I don’t even know if you and I have had this conversation yet, but November is the last time we’re going to have an open enrollment for Run Your Best Life because the group is growing and it’s super amazing and we want to take a little bit of time to make sure we’re really serving everybody in that group. So we’re not going to be taking on new members for several months basically while we’re making some changes to the website and we’re adding a few new things to the group.

So, basically, if you want to get into Run Your Best Life, you actually need to do it pretty soon because in November, we’re not going to be taking on new members. I’m not explaining this very well. And I’m not sure at what point we’re going to be opening it up again to new members, so now is really the time.

If you’ve been hearing us talk about Run Your Best Life and thinking, oh my god, I really need to be in that group, I’ll remember to do it next week or I’ll do it after my next payday or whatever it is, we just want you to know that the time has come to make a decision or it’s going to be made for you.

Jen: Well, November and December are going to be a really important time to be in the group because we’re talking about how to get through what I think is kind of the hardest part of the year to stay fit, which is the winter and the holidays, and then doing the goal setting for 2020 in December so we are ready as soon as the year hits to launch with our new goals. So they’re going to be really important times in that group. And so everyone who’s in there now is going to get that training, and you have a little bit of time left to get in before we close.

Jill: That’s a great point. And last year, when we did this exact same thing with the goal-setting work that we did in December, and everybody found it to be really helpful and has carried through a lot of the stuff that we did last December through this whole year. And so we took everything we did last year. We learned from it, we’re adding to it, we’re making it even more impactful and then we kick that off on December 1^st. But again, you’ve got to be in the group to actually benefit from all that stuff. And if you want to join, you can just go to runyourbestlife.com, all the information is there.

Jen: Well, thank you for letting me take over thee podcast and interview you.

Jill: This is super fun. We should do this again. I like it.

Jen: I know, it is fun. I love hearing your stories and I know everybody will too.

Jill: I love just being able to sit here and, like, I don’t know, answer questions.

Jen: It’s fun. Like, having a chat.

Jill: It’s pretty good. Well, do you want to do the closing, or do you want me to?

Jen: I’m going to do it since I’m still taking over.

Jill: Okay.

Jen: So thank you, everyone, for listening. Go to notyouraveragerunner.com to get the show notes from today’s episode, or if you want to join Run Your Best Life, go to runyourbestlife.com and we’ll see you out there in the running world, muah… That was stupid.

Jill: We’re still recording.

Jen: Oh dear. This is why you do the podcast and I don’t okay, for god’s sake.

Jill: Okay, for real this time, we are signing off, bye.

Jen: Alright, bye.

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you liked what you heard and want more, head over to www.notyouraveragerunner.com to download your free one week jumpstart plan and get started running today.