TCO 205 | COVID Psychosis

205: Ben Alldis Becomes a Power Zone Instructor plus our interview with Jennifer Price

TCO 205 | COVID Psychosis

 

Ben Alldis is the newest Power Zone instructor.

John Mills joins us to discuss SoulCycle’s comeback plans

Jay-Z invests in fitness.

Dr. Jenn – So much Peloton content…so little time.

The Peloton blog has tips for incorporating yoga.

Peloton is celebrating Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Hannah Frankson is interviewing Olympians on IG Live.

Angelo joins us to talk about how long people use MetPro.

Ad Week talks about how Peloton instructors are becoming their own brands.

MSN has a follow-up on Jess Sims stopping her class.

Both Pop Sugar and Well & Good spotlight Tunde.

Kristin McGee is on a panel at an upcoming wellness seminar.

Sam Shepard talks about his love of Matty Maggiacomo.

Andrea Barber is now on Cameo if you want a custom message.

The latest Artist Collaboration features Usher.

All this plus our interview with Jennifer Price!

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here

Ben Alldis Becomes a Power Zone Instructor plus our interview with Jennifer Price

Are you excited? It’s like Homecoming eve.

No. Normally, we’d already been in New York City right now. It’s a giant buzzkill, to be honest.

Do you open your presents on Homecoming eve or Homecoming morning?

If I was there, they would be the presents that kept on coming all weekend. I think it’s going to be cool. Don’t get me wrong. That is a virtual event. It’s going to be a good one. I don’t mean to be down for everybody. It’s just that it has been so exciting in the past and to not be able to go and see all the people in person it’s not just the same.

The thing to keep in mind is that most people don’t go.

This is great because it brings those people in. I agree with that and that is cool.

I will say since we have gone, they were a blast and it is a shame not to be able to get to do it. It does feel a little anticlimactic for the people who have gone in the past, but it’s the reality of the situation. I bet you, no matter what, moving forward, there will be some sort of virtual component so everyone can take part.

I think so too. It needs to be that way.

If you’re reading this on Saturday or Sunday, this is recorded before Homecoming, so whatever Homecoming news has broken, it hasn’t happened for us yet. It’s like time travel.

That’s the other thing. When we did homecoming in person, I was off to work. We would be recording while we were there, which brought the excitement level up too.

Peloton is more than a bike. It’s an unbelievable community. Click To Tweet

We should probably segue before we get into stuff, just to remind people that our Tonal contest is almost over. May 3rd is the last day you can enter. If you would like to win a Tonal, your time is running out. It all goes to a good cause. It goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Greater Bay Area. Since Tonal was kind enough to donate not only the Tonal but all the smart accessories and one-year membership. You got everything and you’re set for a year. That means 100% of the proceeds will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. If you swing on by theclipout.com/winatonal, you can purchase entries for as little as $5. The more money you spend, the more entries you get, and it also increases with each dollar amount so you get more value of entries as you spend more money. Again, it all goes to a great cause to Make-A-Wish Foundation. Swing on there for your chance to win a Tonal. What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We’re going to talk about our newest Power Zone instructor. We’ve got some stuff to cover with John Mills. We’ve got Dr. Jenn’s segment and this is a special question from Susan Burton that I’ve been dying to air. I’m super excited about that. We also are going to be talking to MetPro with a nutrition question. There’s going to be instructor news, celebrity sightings, past guests updates, and all kinds of fun Peloton facts.

TCO 205 | COVID Psychosis

 

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts. Wherever you find your podcasts, you can find us. While you’re there, regardless of your platform of choice, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. If you’d be so kind, you can also leave us a review. That way people know we’re worth checking out. We have a new review. This is from Mr. Jay Bean 1. It says, “The best.” That’s the headline. “I look forward to Fridays and listening to this podcast, Crystal and Tom are hilarious and the guests always add such good input. Keep them coming in and see you on the leaderboard. The leaderboard name is Mr. Jay Bean.

Thank you very much for the kind review. We appreciate you taking the time to do that.

You can also find us on Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Check out our YouTube channel, where you can watch the show in video glory at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. Sign up for our newsletter with all the links and pictures. They get sent right to you. If you can’t remember the address for how to win a Tonal, there will be a link in the email. You can sign up for that at theclipout.com. There’s all of that. Let’s dig in, shall we?

We shall.

We have a new Power Zone instructor.

Ben Alldis is officially joining the Power Zone team. For those of you who have been paying close attention, you will know that Ben Alldis mentioned a few years ago on a live Instagram when somebody asked him if he was going to be a Power Zone instructor. He said, “Watch this space.” It’s been a long time in the making, but it’s finally here. His first Power Zone ride is April 30th, 2:00 PM, UK time, 9:00 PM Eastern.

We’re very excited. I know people always want more of those rides and they also want some variety. It’s not the same handful of instructor. It’s nice to get some new blood in the mix to give people some choices.

That’ll be a number five for the Power Zone instructors.

Joining us is John Mills. How’s it going, John?

I’m doing great. How’s it going?

Good. We’re both tired.

Whenever I talk to you guys, it’s all good day. I’m not working. When I’m not working, it’s all good.

That’s true and it’s always fun. We always get in a better mood and we talked to you.

That’s right. It’s all good and it is a great topic.

Some interesting take on a competitor, SoulCycle and their quest for a comeback story. I think their goal here is if they stage a good enough comeback, they might get a free Peloton.

Do you remember the days when you’d go, “Who are the competitors of Peloton?” They’ll be like, “It’s Flywheel or SoulCycle.” I was like, “It might be Echelon and Nautilus and ICON.” No one confuses it now. They’re like, “No, it’s Nautilus and ICON. This story talks about the evolution that got us here.

I think that this is an aptly named title of an article. The name of the article is SoulCycle and The Wild Ride. They’ve had one. Also, where is Town and Country? Is that where SoulCycle is from? Do you know? I don’t know why I’m asking you this. You live on the East Coast like all those states are this big and they’re all next to each other. I assume them all. It’s like, “You live in the state of Connecticut. Do you know John Smith? I know he lives in the state of Connecticut.”

That was a weird thing. When I moved out here, you drive an hour and a half and you might have driven through three states. I’m from California and it doesn’t work like that.

Around here in St. Louis, if you drive five minutes, you’ve driven through six municipalities. Each one of them will write you a ticket if your plates are expired. It’s a big problem.

Check your plates before you come to Missouri.

Does it go into what their plans are or is it a background on what occurred?

TCO 205 | COVID Psychosis

 

Is it all about the past?

There are a couple of things. It goes into the future as well, which is the interesting part to me. I’ll spend less time on the past, but it starts with the past. They were the darling and their instructors were celebrities. Everybody became into them like cult and celebrities were endorsing them, and then hit a couple of bumps because there are these scandalous type of things coming out. Right at the same time these scandalous things come out, the pandemic hits. They were just thinking about doing an at-home bike. Even though they weren’t too worried about Peloton because they were doing so well, they’re just thinking about it.

The pandemic hits and then the at-home bike becomes an important thing, but they’ve struggled with that at-home bike and they can’t get sales with it. They had the various platforms and then Equinox was like, “You need to use this platform,” then they had to change it to Equinox+. It talked about all this craziness that happened after they were way up here. That’s what the article is about. At the very end, they’re like, “This analyst says that 70% to 95% of the retail ecosystem is going to go back to brick and mortar.” That’s going to include fitness. It’s basically saying, “Everybody’s going back to the gym anyway. They’re going to be.”

Whoever wrote this article hasn’t been reading the latest reports because that is not what studies show at all.

That’s why when I came through at the end of it, I was like, “What? Is there another sequel to his book?”

It’s like when you try to speak something into existence. They’re like, “Let’s write it down and then if it happens, it was because of us.”

It’s like, “We’re trying, we’re trying,” then they’re like, “That was never going to work anyway,” because they couldn’t get that.

A lot of people don’t know this, but town and country is from the Latin meaning, wishful and thinking. The gym has for years treated people like absolute crap with these Byzantine agreements where you can only quit if you send them a notarized letter between the hours of 3 and 4 on a full moon.

It was worse than that. I couldn’t go down to the gym and cancel. They said that the manager is never there. I had to mail it in.

They called the company Equinox because it was the only time you’re allowed to resign from the gym. A lot of people don’t like the gym anyway. The gym has been mean to them for years. I would think most people wouldn’t feel bad about leaving the gym anyway.

I feel like maybe you have a harsher point of view on gyms than the average bear. I don’t know. Maybe all of that frustration that you feel about working out might be a little pointed at the gyms. I don’t know that I agree that they’re that angry. I do think that the convenience of working out at home, the time-saving, the money-saving far outweighs the complications of going to the gym. I’m not saying no one’s going back to the gym, but I think that most people are staying home.

Especially if you’ve already made a major investment in a piece of fitness equipment and you’re using it more frequently than the gym, I don’t know why you’d be like, “I want to sign back up.”

The only exception in my mind is a person who does swimming, whether they’re a triathlete or they just swim.

There was another article while we’re talking about SoulCycle or was this all bundled together? It was from CNBC.

Before we jump to this one, I do want to talk about John’s prediction. I don’t want to put words in your mouth about the last article because you asked some questions when you posted it about Peloton compared to SoulCycle. I’ll let you put it your way.

In my industry in technology, you see these things reoccur. You see these moments of deja vu often. In this industry, I’m thinking, is this a moment of that, where Peloton could look back and learn from what these folks did? They’re at the point now where they were at and stop themselves from this reoccurrence and deja vu moment. Is this an inflection point? That was my question. Are they potentially on a similar path if they don’t pay attention to what happened?

If they don’t pay attention, sure. My answer to that is that Peloton’s culture seems a lot healthier than SoulCycle’s. They have that going for them, but SoulCycle did not, but that’s just my opinion. I thought it was a great question and I wanted to point it out.

Just because you’re top of the heap doesn’t mean you’re going to stay top of the heap. When you’re up there, it’s easy to think, “We’re all good and nothing can ever stop us.” Ask Sears how that works out. When I was a kid, the idea that someone would take those zeros would cease to matter. It’s ridiculous and here we are.

That’s the precept that I was coming at. Especially since this all happened to SoulCycle, right at the 8, 9-year mark. Peloton is coming up on the 8, 9-year mark back then. There were these similarities that maybe pose the question without an answer. I was just asking the group.

The other thing we were going to talk about, John, is you found another article talking about the new CEO of SoulCycle. You had an opinion about the one-liner that she had.

The new CEO was brought in after the old CEO was fired. I don’t remember if she was fired or if she resigned over a scandal. They brought the new CEO in December. The article is basically asking questions about this new CEO is coming into some turmoil, how are they going to handle it? A question was posed to the CEO about, “You got these issues and all these scandals, how are you going to handle it? What’s up with that?” Her response was benign. It was like, “I read about some things. I guess we might have some cultural things we might want to deal with.” I’m going, “You think? Really?” That was the understatement of the year.

That’s worth noting and you know why that’s worth noting because right there, I’m going to make a bold prediction. They’re not going to fix this. It’s not going to get better because if you can’t own your mistakes and you can’t own what the company has done, you can’t fix it.

Especially when they’re prevalent, well-documented and we’ll publicize. These aren’t secrets that you can sweep under the rug. A quick Google search will bring them up forever now. You might as well live side by side by saying, “I’m the new person and I am against that.”

I thought she was to come out hard. She was like, “I think I read about something like that.” I’m like, “We read about it too “

While we’re talking of competitors, Jay-Z invested in a fitness company.

He’s also in another company, that climber thing. Beyonce is all up in Peloton. Jay-Z is over here in the climber. Now he’s in this LIT Method. It appears to have a combination of things going on here like it can be a rower. It can be ergonomic and also be able to do some strength things.

I think connected fitness is so hot. If you come out with anything that’s nice looking, pretty and does a couple of things, you’re probably going to make a lot of money. This thing does a whole bunch of stuff including rowing. The rowing is the core piece.

The rowing has been really hot right now. Everybody’s brewing out the rowers. They’re popping up everywhere.

The problem with this thing is I look at it and I can’t figure out what the hell you’re supposed to do with it. When I look at an elliptical, I know what I’m supposed to do on an elliptical. This is one of those things that want to reconfigure into so many different things that you’re like, “I do what now? I put my hand here and I put my other foot over there, and then I touch this, and then there’s a rope.”

You’re overwhelmed by it. Is that what you’re saying? Are you getting a sports-related panic?

I am. There’s too much. The Tonal does a lot of things, but it’s easy to look at here. There are two arms and the screen and I pull on crap. This is like, it’s all different angles and here’s wrapped around your ankle. What? What are we doing? That’s going to go pulling me back across the room like a slingshot.

TCO 205 | COVID Psychosis

 

I think it’s going to make a bunch of money though. Jay-Z’s going to back it. It’s going to make a lot of money, but it’s going to end up being fad-ish. That’s my guess.

I agree. Especially, especially because it doesn’t have any screen. There’s no one giving you any direction. That’s my point here. It doesn’t really do the connected fitness part of it. It’s not connected, guys.

I think it will get a lot of investors. I don’t think it will make a lot of money like the title. It’s like, how many people listen to their music on the title? It’s pretty much Jay- Z and Neil Young. That’s it.

It does look nice. It’s complicated for Tom, but nice.

John, thank you very much for joining us. Where can people find you?

They can find me on Facebook and my Run, Lift & Live group. They can find me on Instagram @RunLiftAndLive or RunLiftAndLive.com.

Thank you.

Joining us is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and sports psychology consultant. You may know her from VH1’s Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn or VH1’s Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn, and her long-running radio show, the Dr. Jenn Show. She’s written four best-selling books including The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6 Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy, and she loves her Peloton. Dr. Jenn, hi.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks for being here.

As you know we’ve been pulling questions from our Clip Out community. We have a special one and I say it’s special because one of our listeners, Susan Burton, emailed this one. It’s a little long so I’m going to summarize, but I’m going to try to still get the feel of what she was asking. Her question is about feeling overwhelmed with Peloton content and her feeling of needing to do it all. She’s been around since 2014 and she’s watched the evolution, but now it’s reached a point where she can’t keep up. There are new series, new artists, new features, new badges, you get the picture. Here’s where it gets a little deeper. She says, “I want to find a level of participation I can feel involved in, but at the same time, not feel down on myself because I miss some things. If I have a twelve-hour car drive with my husband, it’s time for us to connect and have great conversations. Also, I have one ear pod in while on the app doing seated yoga in the passenger seat or a gas station stretch, or a rest stop meditation to get my blue dot and keep my streak.”

I have to say, I feel for Susan. I relate to her OCD and her need for the check box. I totally get it.

She said that even as she writes this email, she had to pause it because she got a notification that Andy and Rebecca Kennedy were going live talking about string stacks. She had to stop the email to go listen to the live. She said she realizes this is not normal or healthy and “Are you laughing because she’s laughing? Why is this so important to me?”

I am laughing because I relate to some degree. I think that I haven’t taken it to this level, but I get the anxiety that one feels when there’s this sense of, “I need to complete this.” Especially in the world of COVID that we live in, whatever we are, we become more of. If you’re an anxious person, you probably become more anxious. If you’re an OCD person, you become more OCD. If you’re a depressed person, you become more depressed. I think that for a lot of us, especially in the world we live in right now, for me, I speak from experience on this, that my Peloton workouts have been something that has helped me get through this stressful time. I do think that Susan has crossed the line from this being a healthy, wonderful outlet into a more OCD obsessive nature.

What we want to do is help Susan deal with the feelings that she’s avoiding while obsessing about Peloton. I would never suggest that she should not get her checkmark. I’m not that. I could never do that to someone, but what I will suggest is that she re-evaluate her relationship with exercise and what she’s choosing. I’m all for her getting a checkmark every day. I don’t think it’s healthy for her marriage or her relationships to have one earbud in doing meditation while talking with our husband. She needs to make a commitment to herself that when she is going to Peloton, she’s going to Peloton. When she is going to be with her loved one, she’s going to be 100% present or as close as she can. In all of this, that she’s going to examine her anxiety and look at what else can she do to address her anxieties, whether it is therapy or reading some books about anxiety or OCD, or talking to some friends or having some good outlets that she is not utilizing right now. Susan needs more outlet than just Peloton to handle this anxiety.

I think that there also needs to be a little grace. She needs to give herself some grace. Sometimes you may start a series or a challenge, and maybe you don’t complete it, or you don’t get the gold medal. Sometimes you start something and you’re like, ”I love Kendall’s first three Movie Rides, but the fourth one doesn’t call to me. I’m going to give myself the room to not do it and do something else that calls to me.” I think that Susan needs to do that. It sounds like she’s moved into obsessive land and we want to get out of obsessive land so this can still be a wonderful, healthy outlet for her.

The Movie Rides is a good example in terms of an analogy. You wouldn’t say, “I have to see every movie.” It stands to reason that maybe there’s a movie that you don’t care about. Maybe she’s doing horror movies and you don’t care about horror movies. Why do the movie ride just to do the movie ride?

I think it’s not just obsessive. There’s this other piece of it because like you, Dr. Jenn, I understand where she’s coming from. I ended up having to skip a lot of things that other people in the community get to do because I feel like people have one group or one instructor that they glom onto. Because I’m in so many groups and I’m doing so many things related to Peloton, I often have to skip most of it because I can’t do any of it all the way. I feel guilty. I feel bad. It makes me miss that part of the back at the beginning of Peloton. That was the pure joy I got. I feel like that’s part of it too. She wants to be with her friends.

It also speaks to we have to choose what’s important to us. There are challenges that I have done that it’s important to me to complete X number of hours of training for the annual challenge or it’s important to me that the first challenge I did was Emma’s Crush Your Core. I love Emma’s Crush Your Core. I’m begging Emma to do part two. For me, at least, what I’ve done to help find a balance is that I may pick 1 or 2 things that I say like, “This is important to me,” but then for something like a movie ride, that’s supposed to be fun. If it doesn’t call to you like that’s okay, you don’t have to finish that.

That’s not what’s important. What’s important is that you take the ride that calls you and it brings you joy. There are many great rides. I’m of the belief that we end up in the class we’re supposed to be in and we end up hearing the messages we’re supposed to hear. I can’t think of a time where I did a class where I was like, “This is not what I needed to hear.” There’s always something where I’m like, “That was the nugget. That was the thing I needed to hear, or that was the stretch that my body needed. That was a song that my soul needed to hear.” There’s always something. We have to have more of a philosophical shift and it’s very easy.

You’re talking about there are different communities, and there are some communities on Peloton and I admire them. There’s one person in particular that I follow and you’ll probably know who it is. She’s an ultra Peloton athlete where she will do like, “I decided to do 1,000 miles on my bike. I did twenty hours straight.”That’s amazing. I will never do that. I don’t aspire to do that, but more power to you. I bow down to you. I think we have to be careful that we don’t get sucked into the “wrong community,” a community that moves us from a healthy relationship with exercise into an obsessive relationship or one where it makes us feel bad. It’s important to be mindful of who we follow, what hashtags we use and follow, which parts of the community we connect with. Also, to give ourselves a break sometimes. That’s really important.

I would say that it’s also counterintuitive, but she also runs the risk of ending up in a place where she decides not to do any of it. I relate it to nerd stuff. In the ‘90s, Dark Horse comics came out with Star Wars comics and they were good. They started coming out with 3 or 4 titles a week and I was getting them all, then I would just stop. One day, I take them all off my list because it’s too much. I’m not spending $100 a month on Star Wars comics. There’s a lot of them. It can make you go the other direction.

Also, with the exercise, it can make you injure yourself, then you’re out for the count.

Thank you very much for joining us. Until next time, where can people find you?

 

You can find me on social media @DrJennMann and my weekly column in InStyle Magazine called Hump Day with Dr. Jenn.

Thank you.

TCO 205 | COVID PsychosisThe Peloton blog this week featured How to Build a Yoga-Focused Workout Routine.

I appreciate this particular subject because it talks about how to incorporate yoga. When you’re used to doing a lot of cardio or if you’re just a hard-driving person, and I think a lot of type-A people go to Peloton, they are called to Peloton. You want to do yoga because you want to relax and you want to do healthy things like mobility and work on your body, but you don’t know how to edit it. Are we talking one day a week or three? I don’t know.

A lot of people feel like yoga doesn’t count as exercise. They feel like, “I’m here to get fit or lose weight or whatever. This is a waste of my time.”

I agree. They want to do it. What do you always say? I want to have had done that. How do you say it?

I enjoy having done it but I don’t enjoy doing it.

I think that’s how people feel about yoga. The thing is it’s good for you. You can enjoy the act of doing yoga if you can work it into your routine. The other thing is because so many of us are go, go, go, we’re not able to enjoy it until we learn how to connect to our mind. It’s an important practice to actually get there. The whole point of that is that this article has a lot of good tips on how to go about doing that.

If you’d like to check that out, that’s over on the Peloton blog. There will be a link to it in the newsletter that goes out this week from us. It’ll be nice and easy for you to track back down. Peloton is celebrating Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

If you got a chance to look through this it has a whole bunch of stuff that they’re doing. There’s going to be classes that are going to be themed with all kinds of music. They’re going to be highlighting different things within the community. Also, they’re going to donate $100,000 to the Asian American Federation, which is an organization that furthers justice, wellness and opportunity for Asian-American communities. They already had an existing partnership but they are building on that. There’s going to be special classes and there is a brand new drop coming that they worked collaboratively. By they, I mean Aditi, Emma and Sam worked to have a collection made that features the floral and custom prints that are inspired by the Asian and Pacific Island flora and fauna.

The cool thing is this is all coming. The confusing part is the blog says the collection drops in May, then the instructors are already wearing it. It says it’s dropping Wednesday, April 28th. If that’s the case, I have a feeling it’s going to drop in the UK tonight, drop in the US on Wednesday or Thursday, the 29th in the morning. That’s a big if. There’s also an email blast that went out about it and it said coming soon. Your guess is as good as mine. Sometime in the next few days, we’re going to have an awesome collection and it is gorgeous. I cannot wait for this drop. I’m sorry, Tom, things will be bought.

There’s a cool addendum to the Ride to Greatness stuff they got going on.

Since Ben Alldis and Hannah Frankson and have been team captains, they have been interviewing people. on Instagram and Hannah Frankson has been interviewing different Olympians. If you missed out on that, go over to Hannah’s Instagram and catch up on those. Those are cool interviews. If you haven’t already checked it out, make sure that you don’t miss the second game, the Ride to Greatness game. That’s happening at 1:30 Eastern on Saturday, right smack dab in the middle of Homecoming. I’m sure that is not a coincidence.

Joining us once again is Angelo for MetPro to answer your nutrition questions. Hello, Angelo.

I love being here with you guys. Thanks for having me.

We have other questions from our actual listeners. Donna would like to know what kind of commitment is needed? Is this something you need to do forever? If not, is there a transition to help you return to life without your coach? Is there a transition?

That is a great question, Donna. There’s opening a whole Pandora’s box here, but to get to the heart of it, the answer is yes, we’re going to help you get to where it’s sustainable and you can apply the principles ongoing now. Right out of the gates, we do ask more of a person as far as focus and intent because we’re trying to identify the levers and the dials for their unique metabolism. We’re going to be tracking things closely. Over time it will transition into more of a principled approach, especially when we’ve done it the right way and got your metabolism to a good place where it’s humming along. It’s functioning the way you want it to, instead of you trying to quickly jump and play second fiddle to what it’s doing or react to what it’s doing.

COVID psychosis is not a secret, but it’s not getting out enough into the medical community. Click To Tweet

Here’s specifically what I’m talking about. The problem all lies in losing weight, if that’s your goal, in an unsustainable way. Here’s what that means to me. That means I lost weight but I had to do something radical. I had to practically starve myself or I’m doing all the fruit smoothies or I’ve cut out all of one macronutrient or I’m only eating on this two-hour window or on days that start with the letter T. It’s not saying that that stuff doesn’t cause weight loss. It does, but it’s not sustainable. The people ask me and say, “I’m at my goal weight.” No, you’re not at your goal weight. “Yeah, I got on the scale today. I met my goal weight.” No. You’re at your goal weight when you’re eating normal and that’s how much you weigh. Until then we’re still en route.

Because of that, people are surprised to hear me say when somebody says, “I want to weigh 150 pounds” or whatever the number is. I say, “You want to weigh 150 pounds. Perfect. I’m going to dive you down to 146.” “I don’t need to weigh 146. I want to weigh 150.” I know you do, but by the time I get you to 150, you’re going to be at the lower end of intake, because we’re going to have taken you through metabolic revving cycles and cutting cycles, and revving cycles and cutting cycles. When you hit that, you’re going to be eating less than at other times during the period. We’re going to actually take you down 3 or 4 pounds lower than your goal weight or maintenance weight. Over a few weeks, we’re going to have you gain good weight, lean mass weight, back up to the weight we want to maintain as we get your body acclimated to eating gradually more and more. Now you’ve achieved that weight or that objective or that goal.

When it’s done right, you can see how it’s not just empty words. When we say, “It’s a lifestyle and you apply the principles,” that’s all true because you’re going to apply and learn the principles as we go along. There is some science and strategy behind how we make that practical. Those are all the things that you learn as you go through working with a coach. People will ask, how long will I work with a coach? That’s completely up to you.

TCO 205 | COVID Psychosis

 

The other part of Pandora’s box with this question is the emotional component and the personal side. When is somebody made permanent changes, and this is where for the sake of becoming cliche, it is a lifestyle and not a diet. It’s at the point where momentum and nurture are going to carry you forward. If you’re not sure if that describes you at this point, a good self-evaluation is to ask yourself when I fall out of routine, does momentum drag me back to a good routine of regular exercise, clean eating, etc. or when I get off track, does momentum carry me further and further off-track? It doesn’t matter what the scale says or where you get your body to if you’re still in that cycle personally. That’s where motivation, accountability and education from a coach can help you reach that objective.

The question is when you get off-track, are you going to go on a bender or a mender? I’ve already noticed it changing my relationship with food. Because I’m eating the same thing over and over again, which is my choice because I’m weird, just to be clear, you guys give lots of options for food, I’ve got in the mindset of like, “I just don’t eat that.” I still logically want it. I know that I would like it if I ate it, but I don’t feel like I crave it in quite the same way that I used to and I haven’t been doing it that long.

The lack of sugar has made a huge difference for me because I really crave chocolate and sugar all the time. Since I’ve started with MetPro, I don’t crave sugar and chocolate all the time. That is something that has never happened in my life before. I consider if nothing else changes, that is a huge win for me.

There’s a trick to that. We’ll answer that one and another question because I know that people have those questions too, but there is a strategy behind exactly that.

That’s a great teaser. Until next time, where can people find more information about all of this?

Go to MetPro.co/tco for The Clip Out.

Adweek had an interesting article about 10 Peloton Instructors Who Have Evolved Into Their Own Brands.

This is great. It’s interesting to see what we’ve been talking about putting on a larger platform. Get Ally Love, Cody Rigsby, Alex Toussaint, Emma Lovewell, Jess King, Tunde. You can see that all of these instructors have grown over time and how their platforms have grown. What’s also interesting is instructors like Tunede who haven’t been around this long told, but she has been really vocal about her feelings about things. Olivia Amato, Jess Simms, Chelsea Jackson Roberts. There has been a lot that’s happened and their voices have stand out in a good way. Chase Tucker. You can’t forget him. It’s nice to have this highlighted. It’s nice to take all this and put it in one place. It’s a great way to see that the instructors have grown over time. It’s not the same instructors you hear about over and over again.

I was surprised. I thought for sure Robin Arzon would pop up on that list. I don’t know if that’s because she came in as a brand or if she’s such an obvious choice, they don’t feel the need to include her. I don’t know.

Maybe because they couldn’t interview her she’s on maternity leave. It could be that simple.

It could very well be. We also talked about Jess Sims stopping a class and MSNBC has an article about it, and how it’s a good mental health lesson.

It is a good lesson and it cracks me up because this is article number two.

Two weeks later and they’re still writing about it.

This came out right after we recorded last time. I guess it’s only a little over a week but still, it’s a rehash of the same thing that we already talked about. She stopped a bootcamp early because she needed to listen to her body and she’s fine. She just knew she didn’t have enough gas left in the tank. This article takes that information and then takes it a step further by saying, “This is good. We need more people modeling this behavior.” I agree with that, by the way.

PopSugar had an article about Tunde.

These articles are super tiny. It was a good little article about the advice that she gave about making sure that you do certain things to make sure your workout doesn’t loom over you all day. The point is that if you don’t like to do things, get them done early. Do them and get them out of the way so it’s not looming over you. That’s what this article was about. She said something like this in a class and people have been asking her lots of questions about it. She then had to do an Instagram live about it because she had to explain like, “This is what I meant.” It’s those little throwaway comments. I’m sure it made perfect sense in her head, but people had questions like, “What do you mean, that exercise is bad?” Of course, exercise is not bad, but if it’s something you dread, make a point to get it out of the way so that you can get it done. You do that. As soon as you walk in the door, when you have a workout plan, you go do it. Because if you don’t, it’s not going to happen.

I can’t do it in the morning. I’m not an early riser like that. I normally tend to do it when I come home from work, but I do it the second I walk in the door because if not, if I sit down, I will keep sitting down. That’s what I’ll do. While we’re talking about Tunde, Well and Good also had an article with her.

This is an article talking about how she feels as a black woman having shaved her head and how it makes her feel more liberated, but also more exposed. There was a quote that she had that stood out to me. I’ll try to read it quickly, “When I revealed my short hair for the first time during my Women’s History Month Peloton ride, the response was overwhelmingly supportive. Many women from the black community said, ‘I see you.’ I knew they understood what it meant to be a black woman who was going against what society expected from them. For so long, my hair was a way for me to communicate how I wanted the world to see me. People approach me differently when I have a silky sleek style than when I’m wearing locks or braids. To put it bluntly, wearing my hair straight helps me fit in more and makes people perceive me as more socially acceptable. To cut my hair off and possibly put myself in a place where I’m less relatable to the masses was a risky thing to do. Yet when I showed my Peloton colleague, Jess Sims, my chop for the first time, she cried.” That was so powerful to me. I can’t even imagine feeling how that feels. It’s not something that due to me being white, I’ve ever had to think about.

TCO 205 | COVID Psychosis

 

I don’t think white people all the time know the impact that hair has on the black community. If you want to learn more, there’s a wonderful documentary by Chris Rock. It’s also a fun documentary. It’s not just an eat your vegetable experience, but it’s called Good Hair. It’s all about the idea of whether or not someone has “good hair,” and the lengths and expense that black people, but especially black women, would go to have “good hair.” That will give you some more insight into what’s going on.

It also speaks to her bravery. When I realized that she had done this, my first thought was like, “I could never cut off my hair.” That’s where that thought ended. I thought about how brave that must be from my point of view. I didn’t think about it from her point of view of what that meant and those deeper meanings. I’m so grateful that she speaks up and says these things and educates me along with other people. I feel very lucky to be part of a community that can do that.

There is a Wellness and Beauty webinar coming up on April 29th, which will have already happened by the time this goes live, and Kristin McGee is playing a role.

She is going to sit down and be on the panel. There are several other people that are going to be there as well. She’s going to talk about how Peloton launched their yoga program and being an instructor now. That’s pretty cool.

Rounding out the Instructors in the News segment, Women’s Health had an article about Ally Love and how she wakes up super early without an alarm clock.

She has a morning routine that she’s very proud of. She’s all about whether you have the sun, whether you don’t have the sun, whether you have your alarm clock or you don’t, do the same things every day. They don’t have to be the things that she’s doing, but you find a routine that does work for you and that motivates you. That’s the point of the whole article. Check it out for some great pointers.

BullAndBearMcGill.com, which is an art and culture website, sat down with various people from the arts and culture world and talk to them about their fitness routines and what they like and what they don’t like. One of the people that chimed in was Sam Shepard. It’s funny, other people were saying, “I like running” or “I like yoga,” and Sam Shepard was like, “I like Matty Maggiacomo,” like he is his jam. Sam Shepard is a very famous playwright. He won a Pulitzer Prize for a play called Buried Child. He also is an actor. He was in Bloodline. He played Chuck Yeager and The Right Stuff. He’s a working actor and a very well-known and well-respected playwright, and can’t get enough of Matty Maggiacomo.

I can’t either. I love Matty. That’s awesome.

I struggled with whether to file this one under past guest update or celebrity. Either way will work, but I felt like Andrea Barber would have felt better being in the past guest update.

I think she would. She’d be honored.

I wanted to throw this out there that a lot of people listening to our interview loved hearing from her and she’s on Cameo now. If you’re unfamiliar with Cameo, for a fee you can either message with celebrities. They’ll record special messages for you and whatnot. If you reach out to her on Cameo, which super easy to find Cameo.com/AndreaBarber. I think they’re even working on you can have live conversations with people. If you can’t get enough of Andrea Barber or you want to have her congratulate somebody on our Peloton milestone, I bet you she’d love to do that.

She’d be beside herself with excitement to do that. She’d probably get all dressed up in time here.

I looked at some of her videos on Cameo and she does like to bring in the props.

I think she’s amazing. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met.

She’d probably go record it on her bike or something. I will also point out that she did not ask us to talk about this. This is not a paid commercial. Some of our things are paid commercials, I’m not going to lie, but this is not. I saw her pop up in the ads on Cameo. I was like, “We should let people know that she’s out there. If they want to have her record a special message or especially a Peloton related message, she’s available.

There’s yet another and the ever-increasing artists series over at Peloton. This time, featuring Usher.

Don’t forget Usher is going to be doing a talk with Ally Love. This is obviously the beginning of a great collaboration

Joining us is Jennifer Price. Jennifer, how’s it going?

I’m good. How are you?

We’re good. We are happy to have you here and appreciative that you are going to share your story with us. First, I want to find out when you first heard about Peloton and how did you first hear about them?

I’ve had Peloton for several years. Funny enough, I first learned about it from one of my good friends. We were on a trip to Guatemala. Her husband was back home in Chicago and ordering up the Peloton bike. I was like, “What’s this all about?” I’m a fitness instructor myself and teach spin classes. I was like, “This is interesting.” They got it. I checked it out. I’m like, “I’ve got to have one of these.” Even though I was a fitness instructor, I’m like, “I need one of these at my house.” I started out with the bike, and then many years ago, I got the tread. I’m a collegiate runner. Running is more my thing. I never was a treadmill runner, but the Peloton tread has been a game-changer for me.

What about it? Did you feel like it made a game-changer for you?

The community is amazing. I don’t like that monotony of being on a treadmill. I’ve been a lifelong distance runner. I’m from Minnesota originally. We get out and run no matter how cold it is. As you get older, it’s like, “I don’t want to slip and hurt myself.” The tread, I didn’t use to love hammering out the miles on there. The Peloton tread with doing classes, meeting up with people, and you start getting to find the same group of people. You start pushing each other.

Honestly, my dearest friends that I talk to about all of my life challenges are a couple of groups of Peloton moms and friends. Most of us have never met in person. A few of us have. We met at the Chicago Marathon in 2019. We had virtually trained together and then met up in real life, which was fun. The Peloton community is extraordinary, especially for what we are going through. My group of ladies had been incredible, generous, supportive, loving. It’s more than the bike. It’s an unbelievable community.

TCO 205 | COVID Psychosis

 

For people out there who maybe haven’t had the opportunity to meet you, and want to put a face with the leaderboard name, what is your leaderboard name so they can find you?

PositiveVibes31.

I’m curious how you came up with that leaderboard name.

I am big into positive vibes, positive affirmations. It’s important that no matter what you’re going through in life to try and find something good. We’ve been through a lot of challenges. My husband and I have a son that was born extremely premature. He’s almost eighteen years old but has multiple disabilities. We learned together as a team that it’s much better in life if you try to pick out the good things and the positive things instead of, “Why me? Why did this happen? What could have been?”

That’s why it’s important for me so close after losing my husband to talk about his story and share it because I want to help other people. We were the type of team together that when we were going through things, we dug deep. We can do things simultaneously. We’re grieving. We’re devastated, but we have to live for him and keep moving forward, especially share this message because this is important. Had I known about COVID psychosis, we’ll talk about it soon. I still feel like he’d be here.

I had never heard about it until Crystal was like, “We have a potential guest that has gone through this.” Full transparency, my first thought was like, “Is that a thing? Let’s Google this and watch some of the news stories to make sure that this is real.” Unfortunately, it is. We didn’t enter into it lightly. It was like, “We needed to do a little bit of investigating on our own before we put information out there.”

Can you please share your story? We’ll jump in with questions as we go through.

We had never heard about this. We took all the precautions. We took COVID very seriously. We have a son with disabilities, so keeping a healthy home is very important. We did all the masks, social distancing. Unless you’re living at home and have no interaction, you have the potential to get it. He tested positive. He had been around some friends and coworkers during the week that also tested positive. He had just received the first dose of the vaccine, so we thought as the week was going on that he might feel bad because of the vaccine. I had gotten a second dose, and I was feeling a little under the weather for a few hours. We thought it was that.

By Friday, when some people he was around had tested positive, I sent him to Urgent Care, and sure enough, he was positive. In the coming days, he was struggling with his oxygen, breathing, fatigue, and not even being able to do much. He was quarantined in a room. He wasn’t doing anything. He was pretty sick. By that next Wednesday, I said, “We might have to go to the hospital.” I have an oximeter. I was checking his oxygen levels. They were getting around 90 and sometimes dipping below, which is the cutoff point for heading to the hospital. I called the doctor. He was able to get him in for the BAM infusion. We got that the next Thursday. I was hoping that his oxygen would start perking up. I kept checking it, and it wasn’t yet.

I took him back to the ER. He went there. He got some steroids and an antibiotic. They thought he had pneumonia, but some doctors say, “That’s part of COVID.” By Friday morning, he was home. He wasn’t admitted to the ER, but then the next morning, he wasn’t doing any better. We took him and had him admitted into a hospital where his sister works, so she could get all the team of doctors together. While in there, he was getting the Remdesivir, which is a 3 to 5-day at least infusion. We knew he’d be in there during that time. While in there, it’s difficult. It’s not like a normal hospital stay. You’re extremely isolated. Nobody can visit you. Staff isn’t popping in and out because anybody that comes in your room has to first fully gown up to full PPE. It takes a lot of time.

If one of his monitors was going off and he was hitting the call button, nobody would show up for 30 minutes. He got panicked, especially because, as parents to a child that spent four months in the NICU, we spent a lot of time listening to those and watching things on the monitors. That brings back some scary times. It was causing him a lot of anxiety. I would call the front and be like, “Someone needs to get in there. Please turn this off because he was getting himself scared and stressed out.” While he was in there, his heart went into AFib, which is another one of those things with COVID that they’re seeing.

They can get it out of it. They started a new medication. We were trying to get him to calm down. I had him at that time listening to his Peloton meditations while he was in the hospital, try to center his breathing and that was Sunday. By Monday, he seemed to be back in normal sinus rhythm. That was good. We were feeling hopeful. He wanted to get out of there, but he needed one more day of his Remdesivir. I’m like, “We got to stick it out one more day.” He kept saying, “I can’t believe I’m getting sicker. I’m in the hospital getting all of this treatment, and I feel like I’m getting worse.” On Tuesday, he’s like, “I need to get out of here.” It was this last day.

We got him discharged. We brought him home and cleaned up. We were hoping in the next coming days that he was going to get some energy and some strength back. We knew it was going to be a long road because he had been very sick in the hospital. He was very weak, fatigued, a little bit cloudy at the time. He got out on Tuesday. We have our own business. Wednesday and Thursday, he would go out to work, try to do a couple of hours in the morning, then he would come home and rest. Even then, when he would come home, he had so much anxiety, panic, and fear. He couldn’t even pinpoint what it was. He was talking differently. His tone in his voice was very soft and panicky. It was very different.

I’ve been with my husband for 25 years. I know when he’s stressed out when he’s anxious about something. This was far different. He wasn’t himself at all. We would lay there in the afternoons. I would lay with him holding his hand. We would listen to our Peloton meditation, try to get him to breathe, calm down, and relax. By Friday, he was feeling worse. The anxiety was getting to be too much for him. I called the doctor, and they prescribed a medication for anxiety. We started that. By Friday evening, he thought that was helping a little bit. Saturday morning, he had another dose. He was with my brother-in-law. Everybody was trying to be with him because he was weak and fatigued. Not that we were concerned about his mental health, or he had made any mention that he had any thoughts of harming himself. It was just he was scared and panicked about things that weren’t even an issue.

We cannot live in despair. We must live in hope. Click To Tweet

He came home. That’s when it hit. My daughter was supposed to be going to a slumber party. I told the moms, I’m like, “She needs to stay home. We need to get him to relax, try, and take his mind off of things because we need to have one more day. Come Monday, I’m going to rattle the cages, talk to all the doctors, and we’re getting a new course of action here. This isn’t going in the right direction.” We made him his favorite meal. He hardly would eat anything. He was pacing back and forth through the house. He would stare out the window, sit down, stare out into space and look. We would try to talk with him, and he would be scared. He would say, “I’m scared.” He couldn’t say out what or why. No reassurance was enough for him. It was terrifying.

I finally got him to rest on the couch. We watched a movie and snuggled up with him. We finally got him to sleep. He slept, and we were sitting there. My daughter and I were like, “He’s finally resting.” He got a good night’s sleep. We got him up to bed. Sunday morning, he wakes up. We wake up early before the kids. He’s like, “I feel better. That was the best I’ve slept. That’s the best I’ve felt yet.” He seemed more vibrant. His eyes didn’t seem scared. I was like, “This is good.” I texted his mom and sister right away and said, “I think we’re turning the corner. He’s feeling much better.” He was going to leave the house to go to our business to do some paperwork for a few hours. He’s like, “That helps my mind stay busy. I’m going to go up for a few hours, and then I’ll be back.”

TCO 205 | COVID Psychosis

 

We have farm animals out there, donkeys and cows. I was going to feed my son and then meet him out there to do chores within 30 minutes. When I was leaving the house, for whatever reason, I looked to find my friends, and I noticed he was at our other farm that’s a few miles away, which wasn’t a huge concern. We have cows out there. He hadn’t been taking care of them. His dad had because he’s been so sick. It wasn’t uncommon for him to step out there and see how everybody’s doing. I called them and said, “You’re out at the other farm. How’s everybody doing?” He’s like, “Everybody’s great. I’m checking on everybody.” I said, “I’ll see you back at the shop then, in a little bit.” He’s like, “I’ll see you in a bit.” No inkling of any problem, concern or anything had changed.

His dad called me about twenty minutes later. He had been doing his farm rounds and saw his truck at the farm. He drove in and said, “I see his truck, but I don’t see him. Where is he?” Right away, I was like, “Maybe he’s out on the RTV looking at fencing or in the pasture hoping.” A few minutes later, his dad calls back, and he was gone. He had found him. It was still unbelievable. His life was wonderful. He was thriving. A lot of people go, “Maybe there was something.” No, it was 100% COVID. His business had never been better. Everybody in our family was healthy. Our son is doing great. No issues whatsoever.

In fact, he was just with a friend. They were at a farm. Somebody had taken their life there years before. He was saying, “Life can be tough and hard but you can’t do that to your family. That’s too much for a family to bear.” He had this conversation with his friend. Everybody thought, “There’s no way. There must be foul play. Somebody must have been out there.” It’s not the case, unfortunately. We know with 100% certainty that it wasn’t our band who took his life that day. He was not in control of his brain. We saw that. We noticed it. We didn’t know what it was. Later that day, one of our friends had heard and called. I was explaining what his behaviors had been like. That’s when she’s like, “Have you heard of COVID psychosis?” I was like, “No, but what is that?” She sent me three CDC articles. Immediately after I read them, I said, “This is exactly what was happening.” I knew immediately.

My guess is you’re becoming something of an armchair expert because of your circumstances. Is there any indication? Is it because of a lack of oxygen? Is it the unusual mixture of the medications? Is there any indication as to what leads to it?

Not exactly but it’s all of those things. That’s the perfect storm of what this virus is doing. They are finding that it is crossing the blood-brain barrier. That’s a big deal of what’s causing severe brain problems. There’s a lot of inflammation. That is causing not only brain issues, heart issues, all sorts of things like that. Also, the medication, you don’t know your chromosome and fibroids. Those things can cause a lot of issues as well. It will be interesting as the actual doctors, neurologists, and everybody starts putting their heads together on this. That’s my goal. I’ve talked to numerous doctors since this, and they had no idea. They’d never heard of this, which is astounding to me.

We’re years into this. The studies are out there. This is not a secret. If you look, the NIH has things. The CDC has things, the Mayo Clinic. This is not a secret, but it is not getting out there. I’m talking to anybody. I’ve been in Chicago news stations. I have talked to the governor of Illinois. We have to get this out so that if someone comes to the hospital presenting these problems and symptoms, what is going to be the best course of action? You can’t throw him some anxiety med and say, “Go see a therapist.” It’s bigger than that. We got to see as a part of the equation, at the beginning with COVID is something within anti-inflammatory.

I’m not a doctor, but that seems to be what’s going on where it’s crossing that blood-brain barrier, getting in at the cellular level, and changing things. Some studies say it’s rewiring people’s brains. I’ve had countless people reach out since this from across the country. I had one woman tell me her husband had this in September 2020. He had severe psychosis where they had to have the police in the hospital, pulled him down, lock him in. It’s horrible stuff. He’s still not better. He’s still the same.

Have there been cases of people who’ve come out the other side? Is it too soon or not enough cases to even suss all that out yet?

It will be interesting. I don’t exactly know if people have come out 100%. I know a couple of our friends who are a month out from COVID are having some serious brain side effects where they are not able to work. They’ll go in, and they try. Very dear friends of ours are smart professionals, businessmen, and they can’t get their brains to work. They don’t remember things. They can’t figure out how to do their job. They’re scared. It’s heartbreaking because they’ve gone back to the doctor time and time again since this. They don’t know what to do or how to treat them. That’s what we have to change.

Our governor in Illinois has been amazing. He was wonderful when I reached out to him. He knew our story. His chief of staff has reached out to the president’s chief of staff and his members of the COVID task force to try and get this at the top. We can’t continue in the triage phase of this where we’re identifying the virus, mask, and social distance, and we’ve got the vaccination. We know all these things. All we’re talking about is how many people are getting vaccinated, which is great and important, but we’re not talking about how this is truly impacting people’s lives how many will never be the same.

Were they able to do tests? Whenever Ben was in the hospital, were they able to do anything to look at now, to be able to see, “Here might be some inkling of what happened?” Is there anything that they can do with that?

No. We even asked with an autopsy. Would they be able to look at his brain and see but without a prior image to compare it to, they said no. I have seen some of the studies that have looked at brains after they have passed from COVID. That’s where they see a lot of the inflammation within the ventricles and stuff to say that there is proof that this is entering the brain and causing damage. It’s scary. It’s going to be something that is going to continue for a long time. We don’t know how this is going to affect people. Not only long-term but is there going to be another early onset of other neurological problems down the road? We’ve got to be talking about this. They have to be looking into this and get the smartest people they can to be studying this and bringing it all together. It’s all around there, and it’s choppy information, but we have got to put these puzzle pieces together so that doctors in these hospitals know what to do, what to look for, and what’s going to be the best course of action.

Since we all found out about COVID, that’s been the thing that’s scared me the most is that it’s not consistent. It’s not one thing that everybody gets, and then they get better. It varies wildly from person-to-person. There are these long consequences that we don’t even know what they are. That’s why I’ve been so scared of it. I feel like there are a lot of people that don’t get that, that they do not hear that from the right people.

My husband was a 48-year-old former college athlete, hardworking farmer, strong, healthy, never would have thought that he would have been so sick by this. We have other people who aren’t healthy in their lifestyles who had it and did fine. This thing is a nasty, sneaky virus that you cannot predict from one person to the next how it’s going to impact them. It’s scary.

It’s very new in your world, but is there a website, an organization? Is there something that people can do short of other than putting it out there so they’re aware of it?

That’s one of the great things about Peloton. We have many communities on Facebook. My friends have been sharing my news and stories. Getting our story out there, but it’s so far beyond our story. This is not an isolated incident. This is going on, no doubt, across the world because this is a global pandemic. People can look at that. Even if you Google it, there are many articles on this. It’s beyond a little brain fog for a few days. You have to be aware of looking at your loved ones. If you notice that they’re not themselves, it’s far more serious than some brain fog. I wish I would have known that. He would’ve never left my side until I could have taken him up to the Mayo Clinic and got answers. That’s what we would have done.

I’m sure that’s hard to look back on and say. You don’t know what would have happened. Maybe something even more catastrophic would have happened if you had been there.

My husband was a go-getter. He was the most compassionate man. He was the larger-than-life guy. He has left a gaping hole, not just in his family’s hearts but in many. The small community that we live in Morris, Illinois is reeling. People are stunned and broken-hearted. It’s not something that if he went to have come out of this 100%, his quality of life would have been tough. He lived life fast, worked hard, and had his hands in many different things. To see people not coming out of this and being able to go back to being who they were, that’s the scary part. The long-term effects for those that are still here and still struggling so many months later, it has to get figured out more.

I appreciate you sharing and being open. I don’t even know how you’re functioning, let alone out there telling your story. I admire that in you. I don’t think that I would be able to do it.

You find it because we have, unfortunately, been through such a devastating time with our son. He was only 1.5 pounds when he was born. He’s many miracles. He almost left this world too many times. He’s been airlifted. We’ve almost lost him too many times to even share. We have been through extraordinary, difficult times together. It’s something that you learn to grieve. Every day it’s a roller coaster of one minute of sobbing, next minute, pulling together, and sharing the story. That’s what we’re doing because it’s important. I can’t just take the time to grieve, let this sit, and think that other people didn’t know because within hours, I found out about this and wish I would have known.

TCO 205 | COVID Psychosis

 

You feel like it’s your duty to let other people know. That probably is giving you a sense of purpose. That’s helpful.

That was my husband. We talked a lot about what if one of us left this world at some point and what the wishes were for the other one. Those are conversations that we had. He was very adamant about being happy and living life. He didn’t want the typical visitation where the family has to sit for hours and get the condolences. He didn’t want to put people through that. We had a little friends and family separate party, then did a wonderful and beautiful service forum and tribute. In summer, we’re having a huge celebration of life. He’s one of those guys that have great friends from grade school, from high school. He was a college football player.

We’re going to have a lot of people getting together, sharing stories, and surrounding each other with love. One of the preset during his service, which was spot-on for him is, “We cannot live in despair. We must live in hope.” We’ve created a foundation that we’re starting that’s called Live in Hope for Ben Price Foundation. He did a lot of charitable work. He did a lot of good deeds for people. We’re going to do this foundation and continue his mission to do good things for people. Keep his memory alive and keep him with us. We miss him.

Thank you so much for joining us. I’m sorry for the circumstances. We appreciate you sharing your story with us and giving us the opportunity to help spread the word. If someone else finds themselves in a similar circumstance, they’re at least aware of potentiality and can take precautions.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. If we can get it out to one family and it helps them, which I already know it has, it’s everything for us.

We will do our best. I know the Peloton community is behind you. They will continue to be behind you. If there’s ever anything we can do, please reach out and let us know. We will do it.

Thank you so much.

Have the best rest of your day that you can.

Take care.

Thank you. You too.

I guess that brings us episode to a close. Until next time, where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, the bike and of course the tread @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. Find the show online on Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Swing on by our YouTube channel. Watch the show in video and you can subscribe to us while you’re there as well. YouTube.com/TheClipOut. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

Important Links:

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

Join The Clip Out community today: