Midlife Fitness, Fat Loss Myths & the Science of Training for Women with Alyssa Olenick, PhD

Alyssa Olenick (0:00)

Find a good training plan. I think for so many women, you're gonna cut through so much BS for yourself. If you don't try to DIY, spin your wheels yourself, just get a coach or a program or an app or whatever it is. You got two people right here who can help you, but there's plenty of others out there. Get a good training plan that will challenge you and remove the thinking for you.

Hailey (0:18)

Hi everyone, my name is Hailey.

Laura (0:19)

And this is Laura.

Hailey (0:20)

And welcome to The Body Pod. Alyssa, welcome to The Body Pod.

Alyssa Olenick (0:27)

Yes, I'm excited we finally got to make this happen.

Hailey (0:30)

And that you're in Colorado and we're here in my home, so I'm super stoked. So thank you for making the effort.

Alyssa Olenick (0:35)

This is perfect timing, honestly. We had to wait until I got here to do it.

Hailey (0:39)

I was gonna say, you've been on my list for a year, so it is about time that you're here. So let's start with, you wear a lot of hats. You're a podcaster, you're a coach, you're a researcher.

I mean, you're a scientist. How do you fit it all in?

Alyssa Olenick (0:58)

Yeah.

So I joke now, I call myself a jack of all trades, but I master a few. Now, I actually think I've mastered a few of these things. I have really, really been in this between sports or fitness or school for such a long time that I've got to gain a lot of experience. I've also always very much so been curiosity driven, like learning as much as I can, and I've always been big on like no experience is wasted. Everything is going to contribute to something I'm going to learn and gain. So I think part of that comes with time. I know most of your audience are 10, 20 or so years older than me, so I've seen very young to them, but I feel like I've done a lot in my, I'll be 33 next month, years of my life because I've just said yes to a bunch of things. So I think part of that has come from just a lot of different experiences in seasons. And then some of the things that I am, I'm not doing now or some things, but as my career has grown, I have to almost get more essential with it. So I am still having my hand in a lot of different places, but maybe not as extreme as they used to be in those kind of thing. I think a lot of people are like, oh my God, how does Alyssa do it all? And I'm like, I don't, or I did it all at one point and I still get to reap the benefits of that all in period, so to speak. So yeah, and I work a lot and I'm always busy. That's the honest answer.

Hailey (2:22)

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, you'd have to be. When I look at it though, what does your day look like? Because you're doing these ultra marathons, your content is amazing, like you have this big presence in social media.

How do you fit it all in?

Alyssa Olenick (2:36)

Yeah, so at this point, I think it was harder in some ways when I was starting it. So for those who aren't familiar with me, I started my PhD and started running ultras and started my business all in the same semester because I am crazy.

Hailey (2:52)

Nuts.

Alyssa Olenick (2:52)

Yeah, but I've learned a lot by going all in in different periods of time. I also worked myself to the point of real bad burnout at that point in time. So I was definitely really, really pushing it and touched the sun a little bit, but I've never regretted it. I learned so much from going all in and I was in my 20s and taking a chance on myself and going after big things. And a lot of people don't ever do that or they wait to do that. And I didn't, so I never regretted that. I've learned so much from that, but I've learned a lot of lessons since on capacity and pulling back and not perfect at it. But something that I've been able to do since my business has become a little bit more structured and established in the last few years is I have a team. People don't realize I have a team. It's not massive, right? But I have people behind me doing a lot of things for me, that are doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff. So I can do what I do. I also would be totally remiss to not mention that. My husband is my wife.