Annie Tan-Cohen, mom and personal trainer, shares about what fitness and nutrition really mean and how to achieve it in a balanced way.

Connect with Annie on her website or Facebook.

Interested in booking a virtual training session?  You can email Annie.

Annie's favorite gadget is...an app!  She loves MyFitnessPal

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This is a transcript of the This Mom Knows Podcast - Episode - 13

Jennifer Uren
Hello, everyone, today we have an Annie Tan-Cohen with us. Annie is a wife and a mom to a six and a half year old daughter. She's a personal trainer who also does nutrition coaching, as well as being a personal stylist. So welcome, Annie.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Thank you. I'm happy to be here.

Jennifer Uren
Oh, I'm so glad you could join us. So we know very briefly who you are. But why don't you take a moment, tell us a little bit more about you. Um, you know, maybe where you're from, a little about your family and you know, maybe how you ended up with this conglomeration of fitness, nutrition and style.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Yeah. So my background is a little bit complicated, but I promise I won't bore you. So I was actually from Singapore originally. And I was born and raised in Singapore until I was in my late 20s. And then at that point, I was already working for Motorola for about three years or so. And then my then boss said that why don't I relocate you and have you come over here and work with us instead of virtually and so I took a day or two to decide it wasn't really very hard decision, you know, I've always wanted to come back. And I just felt like, that was the right time. And so I accepted the offer to come over. And that was in 2008. And so I, initially I just wanted to do life here and experience a little bit of difference in culture. And so I had to tell my mom that, you know, I'm not coming back yet. I'm not coming back yet. So anyway, so back home, I still have my mom, I have a brother and my sister. They're both older, they all have their families. And their kids are much older than mine. Their kids are in their 20s. They have a older teenager, I think she's 19 now. And yeah, we are not a very big family. And you will see very small families in Asia anyway. So back in 2008, I came here and then 2015 was the year that was very pivotal for me, because I was forced to leave my job and, and also, and also to make to make a decision about where I wanted to go. And so three years prior to that, I was actually thinking about making a career change and I just didn't know what to do. And I've always been interested in fitness and nutrition. You know, I've always been an active person, even when I was in college, I wouldn't lift weights, but I would run all the time.

So when, when 216 came, I was actually at a standstill, and I had to make a decision. Like right then and then and so I said, Okay, so let's just hop into personal training and see how I do so I got into the studying of it, and certification. And I said, Okay, well, if I, if I pass this, then I guess I'm supposed to work this, you know? I wasn't really very sure either. But I I just went with what my gut said was right. And so I i went ahead with it, I passed and I said, Well, it looks like I needed to be one right now. Right? And so that was in 2000... 2017 was when I got my license to practice as a personal trainer. And since then I started working with corporate companies, and then now on basically on my own now.

Jennifer Uren
Okay, so Well, that's exciting.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Yeah, for sure.

Jennifer Uren
Oh, well, you and I are recent acquaintances. But we have so many friends in common. And they have told me that you are known as someone who really knows fitness and nutrition. So maybe we could start by having you maybe briefly explain what those super broad categories with lots of preconceived notions and some aversion actually mean. So what exactly is fitness and nutrition?

Annie Tan-Cohen
So fitness to me, points to a lot of areas in our life. It's not just this physical part is also the mental capacity and also and also the spiritual side of it. Because I think for me, it's not just my life is just not one dimensional. I do the mental, I do the physical, and I do the spiritual and how fit I am, is how well I am in those areas. So I can be strong, but I can be weak here.

Jennifer Uren
Yeah, that's excellent. Because if I'm perfectly honest, I only think of these things in terms of the physical. And it really probably until today, I haven't really heard anybody talk about them applying to all three equally.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Yeah, it is true I, and that's how I that's how I think of it. And it's so important. And when you think about fitness, and sometimes a lot of people in our industry, especially, I feel like they're just very focused on the physical side. And you know, you want to look buff, and you are a certain way. And it's not really that, for me, in fact, is a very good combination of you can look, however you want to look, but you can have strength, your muscles, you can have strength in your mental mind. And also you can be at peace with whatever you believe in. Right? I believe in God and so I take that really seriously. I don't, I mean, obviously, I don't impose on people, my, my beliefs, but they all know that. That is just part of my philosophy. And so yeah, so that's fitness and nutrition, in a broader sense, is just how what we feed to our bodies. A lot of times, we will miss out and we get too busy and including myself, we get busy, and we miss out on things that we should have been we should be doing, but we're not doing and I was just telling one of my clients that you know, sometimes we just forget to drink water and that's simple nutrition but not all of us follow that lead, you know? Nutrition to me, in a very broad sense, is really just what we put in our bodies. And is that every time when we when we talk about that, and we say is that useful to me.

Jennifer Uren
And that can be applied to the spiritual and the mental as well. You know, what, are we feeding our soul? What are we feeding our thoughts? And yeah, so yeah, so what I love that? Well, I have to be completely honest with you. Since kindergarten, it has been my life's mission to avoid physical exertion. I was always trying to get out of Phy Ed and I kind of associate of fitness with working out, running, sweating - sweating is the worst part of it for me - and anything that's hard. But the older I get, the more I think it actually has to do with strength and just general health. And so I'm guessing there's other moms like me listening who don't enjoy this so much. So how would someone like me begin to embrace fitness?

Annie Tan-Cohen
I think I think fitness, like as, like I said, if it applies if your philosophy in that is all those three prongs, you need to figure out what your goals are. So for example, it can be as simple as I want to be able to do one pushup, that's the physical part, right? Okay, so that doesn't, that requires consistency. So it's not necessarily a sweating class, you, you, you do sweat, but you don't sweat profusely. You always...

Jennifer Uren
Thank you.

Annie Tan-Cohen
...and in fitness, you know, especially to, to do one pushup, you're always thinking about the the strategies to go about doing that. And there are steps to follow. And they are not. They're not difficult. And for me, I always so so for new, so not for new people out there who are thinking about maybe doing one successful pushup without pain in the back or, or like, anything like that. I want, I want them to think about, okay, what are the steps that I can take toward that? And there are simple steps to take towards that. Right. And so there are good coaches out there that are like they're available to teach you. And so really simple steps to a big milestone for a lot of people. Right? Yeah. So for me, really the really the build up from that foundation. So always think about foundation, what do I need and even to move on? Well, I think you need to get your gait right. And a lot of people ignore that and they just go, I just go out and run and I'll be fine. But no, not really. Because you really need to start how to walk properly before you bought. It's just like, you need to start crawling before you start walking. Yeah, and a lot of things start with the very good, the good 'ol fundamentals like I like to call it. There is a method to the madness. Like I tell people. And I said, I promise you, I won't lead you astray. But if you would trust me, I would guide you step by step. As to how to get there.

Jennifer Uren
So it sounds like you kind of start with the beginning in mind with some short term goals, and not necessarily with a big end goal. Like we're gonna have you running a marathon before you know it or anything big like that. Okay, yes. Yeah, well, that's good.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Oh, even thinking about or thinking about, oh, I want to lose 50 pounds of excessive weight.

Jennifer Uren
Mm hmm.

Annie Tan-Cohen
That is a good goal. But it is a very stretch out goal, a lot of weight that and probably think that is astronomical, and it is astronomical, when you think about it. But if you say, you know what, I'm just going to make a goal to lose a goal a pound a week. Yeah. And that can be achieved in several different ways. And those different ways can be very, very simple. And so when I do coach people, I, I, I kind of slow them down a little bit. And I said, think about those little things that you can do that little goals that you can make. And then you can get to your astronomical goal.

Jennifer Uren
Yeah, that's and I can attest to that. My husband has lost it. Oh, well over 100 pounds. And it was...

Annie Tan-Cohen
That's awesome.

Jennifer Uren
...the day by day by day, it wasn't looking at it was today I did this today I did that. So yes, yes. So when it comes to the fitness part, what is more important, or the equally important strength training or aerobic? Especially as you know, we have kids, we're getting older, you know, what would be more important to make sure is being focused on?

Annie Tan-Cohen
it has to be both the heart, okay to get work done. So that that cardiovascular part, the muscles need to be there, because you need you need them to protect the bones. So it's really, it's really both when you think about it, the muscles around the heart, they need to be worked as well through a robot exercises. The muscles are through the weights and your own body weights. So if you if you think about it, it's really, it's really both and especially when, in the US there are so many send me so many of us who would who have very little, or the lack of I guess, the cardiovascular capacity to do to do things. So that in itself is a is a red flags, or whatever is a red flag. That is something to be paid attention to.

Jennifer Uren
Mm hmm. And it's interesting to have you describe it as working out the muscle of the heart. So really, it's all strength training. It's just different muscles. And I hadn't thought of it that way before. No excuses now.

Annie Tan-Cohen
You're kind of like, oh, today I have to climb my stairs a little bit.

Jennifer Uren
Yes, I know. I know. But we are now in a house with more stairs. And I noticed that my, you know, my tracker says I'm doing a lot more physical activity because of that, which is great. But that's kind of true. I think as moms where it seems like a lot of activity is built into life, especially during those toddler ages, when we're chasing after them, we're picking them up. So how can we leverage that to our advantage and then just sort of keep it going with something else? Is there, you know, is there a way to kind of integrate fitness and the kids so that we're not adding something else to our plate but we're taking advantage of them?

Annie Tan-Cohen
So, um, so I have a really good example. So if you think about toddlers, they like to run around like you said, they like to climb things and I would say climb with them. If they like if they're at the beginning stages of climbing up the stairs and trying to crawl and you know, you just mimic them mimic what they do. And here you go. You're you're doing some cardiovascular workout and you're also working the whole full entire body actually. So think of it as something that you can do with your toddler and not necessarily oh I need to carve out five-minutes to do this, or 15-minutes to do that. And a lot of times when we you know, even when we were in the bathroom, even though when we're young moms, we don't necessarily get a toilet break necessarily, right? If you do have a minute, right, and you have your toilet toilet seats, you can put down a toilet seat. And then you can just stand up and down, like, sit up and down, do squats and do squats. Yeah. Okay, you need to make sure that your knees are not hurting. And if your kid just happened to walk in and go, Oh, let me put on my pants. And I'll do squats with you. And you carry them in your in your arms, right? really secure them. And then you can do the same thing with them. Right? Okay, these are the simple things that we can incorporate with our kids. And if we're running in the field, that's even better, we can grab some water bottles and say, Hey, lift us with me and they, and whatever you do, guess what they follow you. And so if you're able to make simple cues, like oh, move your arm like that, and you demonstrate to them, you do it with them. And then it's just more fun. And then if you're at a point where, okay, I'm laying on the ground, now now I want to lift something I want to, I want to do maybe like a chest press or something, you just carry them in your arms, and you can do the chest press, um, simple things, it doesn't have to be very complicated, it doesn't have to be thought through, it just needs to be careful to what you can do and what you're supposed to do. A lot of women, especially young moms, we have to watch out for the lower abdominal area, because those are the areas that because of the childbirth, they're especially weak. When I do advise them, I do advise them to "Hey, you know what, we have to let that part of the body heal, and then I'll teach you how to heal it. And then we'll go ahead with other exercises that you think you might want to want to include in your regimen."

Jennifer Uren
That's great. And then as they get older, you just keep staying active with them. And keep going.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Okay. And also, you know, when they get older, and then when they venture into something more, they learn some things at school, you just follow them. And then you say, Hey, you know what this is the this is the correct way to do it. Because usually when they follow physical education in school, they don't necessarily look at the technique, right? So they can miss a few things here and there.

Jennifer Uren
Right, right.

Annie Tan-Cohen
And so you kind of just rein them in, and you say, Oh, this is the, this is the way to do it and let mama teach you. And so and this, and that's how my daughter picks out some of the things that you know I do, because I say, hey, do this, you know, I make small changes, and she gets it.

Jennifer Uren
Yes. And then she's modeling it for the other kids in school. And they're learning so yeah. Well, it seems like it seems like fitness is always in season in some way, shape, or form. And you know, after New Year's resolutions start to get broken, we start thinking about, oh, well, now I've got bathing suit season coming up. And so tell me, let's talk a little bit about pros and cons of like gym membership versus at home equipment versus fitness classes versus personal trainers.

Annie Tan-Cohen
I think the only disadvantage to having a gym membership is that sometimes we don't have a plan. And I think that's really the only disadvantage I can think of. And because we don't have a plan, we don't know what to do, when we don't know what to do when we look at those equipments. Yeah, we can't figure that out. Because in our minds is like, what do I go next, right, about what to do next. And so always have a plan. Okay. And then to I can speak to the personal training trainer part. I hired two personal trainers myself before. And they were very, very helpful. And actually, I think they were the catalysts to me pursuing this profession. And just, you know, starting my own business, both both Jeff and Kathy, they are very motivating people. You know, Jeff taught me differently, and so did Kathy. And so they were both very, very, very strong people. And, you know, and I feel like, when I go to them, I when I went to them, I had a plan they had for me, and so I find it, it was a no brainer. I just follow what they do. And yeah, that worked out for me for that season of time. And especially for motivation. And I think, for young moms, especially when I went to Kathy, when I was a younger Mom, I felt like I had all these things in my mind, but I couldn't put them on paper. And so it was, it was hard. But Kathy was there to say, you know what, this is what you do, just make sure you show up. Right, you show up and do the work. And that was what I did. Yeah. And so that's really the that's really the pros of hiring a trainer. I also I think, for me, I know someone would say, you know, consider the costs of it. I think even if you were to seek that personal trainer for eight weeks, you will benefit a lot from just what they have to teach you.

Jennifer Uren
Yeah, it's that foundation again, right?

Annie Tan-Cohen
Exactly. And if you're, if you're open enough, if you're coachable enough, and that's the word if you're coachable enough, you can learn just about anything from anyone. And so, so as to all the other personal trainers out there. So I would say someone who is really a beginner and working out can really benefit from that. And working from home again, that you require a plan, you read require, equipments, and you want to not do not try to do everything, because not everything is beneficial. And we think about looking on, and now we have the tendency to look at YouTube, because it's all easily available, right? No doubt, but

Jennifer Uren
there are many voices

Annie Tan-Cohen
Exactly are too many voices. And there are also different techniques to approach the same problem, right? Where do you go, and that adds to the confusion. So if you can go to a person whom you think you can trust, somebody who has the actual expertise, then you are actually learning from them real life, right? Even if it's virtual training, you can get a lot out of it. Yes, listening to them listening to their cues, what to watch out for, and then they can cater to your needs. You know, if you have lower back pain, there's no reason for you to start with sit ups is just is just that

Jennifer Uren
Strengthen other muscles first, so that you're setting up for success. So...

Annie Tan-Cohen
Exactly.

Jennifer Uren
Well, that's great. So have a plan, focus on the foundations. Those are excellent. Let's let's switch to nutrition for a few minutes. There are so many opinions out there with what to eat, when to eat, what foods are bad. It can be exhausting to try to keep it up. Do you, yourself ascribe to a certain type of eating? Or do you just focus more on the quality of the food?

Annie Tan-Cohen
You know, I don't necessarily ascribe to any way of eating, I would say I try to eat as dense as dense foods as I can, as "clean" as I can. And I know that you know in the in the foods that we eat what we can get nowadays, unfortunately, they are very tainted unless you go organic. And I try to go organic as much as I can. But I have to measure costs of going organic and so I have to make a choice as to what I want to get for organic, and where I want to spend my money on. So I would say if someone is thinking about starting on a nutrition actually, nutrition is 80% of gain, right? In order to be healthy in your body. You think about you think about. So what's the easiest for you and it's more sustainable. And I think that some of us we ascribe to certain things because they appeal to us, for example, paleo. Now, paleo is not bad. But you have to think of the nitty gritty things that you the rules and the rules that you have to follow, right? And if you find that it's very stressful, it's probably not for you. If you're thinking in your mind, like what am I going to eat tomorrow? What am I going to eat the next day? That's really not for you. If it stresses you out, then it's not for you.

Jennifer Uren
So that's great.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Yeah. So think about, think about what works for you think about what is more sustainable in a long term because ultimately, you want a change in your lifestyle. You want longevity. Yes. For your lifestyle change,

Jennifer Uren
yeah,

Annie Tan-Cohen
yeah. Because it's not just "oh, I do it for three months, and then I'm just gonna quit this and then do another thing."

Jennifer Uren
Or go back to what? Yeah, what the cause the problem?

Annie Tan-Cohen
Yeah, yeah, it eventually gets old.

Jennifer Uren
Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that nutrition is 80% of it, when my husband lost the weight he did not work out, it was just food and changing how we ate that got him to that point. And I know for us, one of the things that finally made it manageable was we stopped thinking in terms of calories, in grams, and that we just started thinking in terms of protein, produce, grains and fats. And then we weighed and measured that. So I know exactly what to have. And I'm having like two pounds of produce every single day. It's a lot of fruits and vegetables. But But I don't worry about, you know, did I have, you know, too many apples versus, you know, greens versus, you know, I just I don't go to that level of it. Because, for me, like you were saying something that is sustainable. You know, so that that's very true. I'm just attesting that to the fact that yes, when you find something that you can manage well, it's going to maintain well, so.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Yeah, and I just feel, I just think that there is no one size fits all is the same as when you go to a personal trainer, cookie cutter, regimen. One great. go well with the other person just because it's not sustainable to do.

Jennifer Uren
Yes, yes. Well, and some people are, they could eat, you know, potatoes all day long, and the other person could eat strawberries all day long. And in either case, that's not good. Yeah. So

Annie Tan-Cohen
absolutely, yeah,

Jennifer Uren
yeah.

Well, you mentioned this earlier, so let's just talk about it. Let's talk about water. Which I chuckle because I have convinced myself that if I'm drinking decaf, what decaf coffee I can count it is water, because there's no caffeine in it. So I don't like water. So talk to me about that. What do I really need to do? And what can I get away with?

Annie Tan-Cohen
Well, I guess you can get away with I guess you can get away with those zero cal sweetener. Those liquids, sweetener, and they, there are more, there are better quality ones out there. You can use that as a as a taste, adder to the water.

Jennifer Uren
Okay, to flavor it.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Yeah, to flavor it. And, or you can actually use like lime and lemon since you have produce, you know, yeah, add these things to the water and even strawberries can help. Even a little bit of cilantro, celery, those things can add flavor to it. Now if you're not obviously using cilantro or celery then don't put fruit. Yes, they use use you you fuse them into the water. And the the magic to drinking enough water, which I can't attest to it, because I still am not drinking enough water. And, but I can say this, when I have my bottle marked out for me. I know that I have to drink it. And if I don't drink it, I will feel that, Oh, I didn't. What am I doing? I am not hitting my goal. And so and so I would get I would get competitive with myself and and want to do that with my and it's the same with my protein intake. So if I you know, intuitively, intuitively if I know that, oh, I hadn't hit my protein goal today, I'll just make two hard boiled eggs. And I want to hit that you know, it just is in the back of your mind that you got to do it. And so if it is in front of your face you you will do it because it's like staring you're staring at you. Yeah. And so that is a that is a good way if you're not a water drinker and you don't like water at all, you know, and that was my way of getting past that.

Jennifer Uren
That's great. That's helpful. I need that to be my goal. But I'm such a when it's cold outside. I don't want some and want water. I want a hot drink so and then I freeze in the summer because the air conditioning is on so I - yeah...

Annie Tan-Cohen
My mother my mother actually taught me taught me something when we were young. And so actually in Asia. When we were growing up, my mom would never allow us to drink cold water in the morning or even in the afternoon and we are like literally taught to drink warm water every time and so, she's saying that, you know, she says that you cannot, you cannot, you cannot reduce the temperature of your body so quickly because you can you get that, you get that shock. And now some people think that it is good for them because it helps them to burn calories. But I want to believe that what what my mom says is correct. I mean, most of the things that she says is right, but then I'm like, you know, I, I try to drink warm water when I wake up. And that is usually very helpful. Because if you add some drops of lemon into it or of lime into it, it becomes more palatable. And also is good for your system to to flush it out the first thing in the morning even before you brush your teeth. Okay, I can attest to that. Because, okay, because my, my bowel movement actually became better.

Jennifer Uren
Oh, that's interesting. Okay. Very interesting. I know, there's, there's a lot of wisdom to what our moms tell us. Oh, well. So you are a personal coach, personal trainer. Okay. And so tell us a little bit about, you know, how you what that looks like in your everyday life with your family, with your friends, your business?

Annie Tan-Cohen
What is it like every day, my schedule was very dependent on my clients, and as you can see, but they they often schedule ahead of time, it's just this week has been crazy, you have to think, think that you're trying to shift around,

Jennifer Uren
burn off the calories.

Annie Tan-Cohen
So they want you know, they want to come in and schedule different things. And so my schedule is very dependent on my clients. But I also have boundaries where I, where I follow, you know, I have to stop working at 230 so that I can go pick up my daughter from Yeah. And then I start very early in the morning because of my daughter as well. So my day starts really early. I don't necessarily work out in the morning, because that never happens. Okay.

Jennifer Uren
You're a real person, a real mom.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Okay, so anyway, um, so, so then I usually start at nine, I usually start at 9/9:30, my clients would start walking in and we'll start and so the planning part usually happens the night before I plan out what to do or the morning after, depending on when the appointment is the appointment that for I have my morning to get time with. So what they what they need to do. And the funny thing is Jenn that I don't, I don't usually go by what I was taught to do. Yes, I follow most of the principles by what I by what I've what I've been taught in school, but a lot of it is if my client walks in and, and he feels, and he feels like oh, my shoulder is aching or my neck is hurting me. And there's just no way that I could just put him or her through a workout that would put a lot of stress on them.

Jennifer Uren
Yeah

Annie Tan-Cohen
And so I don't. I usually just ascribe to 75% of i do i work 75% of what planned on them. 25. Okay, fine. I have to I have to think on the spot. I have to erase some I have to add some. And I have to work therapy on them. And then just different things. And yeah, I don't believe in Okay, now you're here. Okay, we got to work you out for an hour. Yeah, it really isn't like that for me. For me, I care for the person first. And then I give them the workout that I know that they will do and then they will succeed at it. Because it's more important to me that my client feels Okay, I'm energized. And I'm not that sore. I don't have to be sore to to, like, say that I've done a good job, you know, right, or I've put in the effort. Really, sometimes it is giving, giving the stretch that they need, giving them the rollout that they need before, you know, before dumping on them, the regiment that I've worked for them, you know, I've planned out for them

Jennifer Uren
Which goes back to what you said before with the foundation and a plan so that you accomplished something great.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Yeah. Yeah, I want that. See, so I always go back to what they can do.

Jennifer Uren
That's great. Yeah, well, our time is going by quickly. This is been great. I've learned a lot. So I'm so we're gonna switch gears slightly. And one question that I ask every guest is very light hearted and fun. I'm a gadget girl. So my question is, what is your favorite gadget?

Annie Tan-Cohen
My favorite gadget? (shows phone)

Jennifer Uren
Ah!! Your phone! Do you have like a fitness app or a meal app or anything like that? What's your favorite app to use on it?

Annie Tan-Cohen
Well, when I was, when I was religiously checking my food, I was using My Fitness Pal, I think that was one of the best one of the best apps that I've ever used. Because it does, you know, not only does it give you some tips, but then it also provides you with a good platform. And it's so easy. If you cook a recipe, you can add that recipe and then they can calculate...

Jennifer Uren
It does the work for you,

Annie Tan-Cohen
...for you. And theydo a good job for me, I don't have to manually key them in them. If I'm motivated, I will do that. But to save time, I would just use what they have on an app. And when I was, you know, when I was trying to change my body composition, I had to I had to work with that app a lot. So I say My Fitness Pal. They're your friend. Great.

Jennifer Uren
Well, good. Well, how can people connect with you and maybe chat with you further, or at least find out more about the services that you offer?

Annie Tan-Cohen
Yeah, so um, we have a website is www.wellnesslife.us they can always go on there and there is an icon that you can click to book an appointment with me or you can choose to email me at [email protected] or you can also call me at 224-366-9100.

Jennifer Uren
Excellent. And you I think you said to me off camera before that you do both virtual and in person. work with clients

Annie Tan-Cohen
Correct. Yes. And that that's also coaching through coaching them through some, some nutrition, some nutrition issues that they have.

Jennifer Uren
Excellent. Well, Annie, thank you so much for being with us today. It was great chatting with you and learning more about fitness and nutrition and I appreciate your wisdom and thank you for sharing.

Annie Tan-Cohen
Thank you so much for having me. And I like this a lot.