This Q&A session was recorded with myself and Morgan. We wanted to give the option to watch and listen, or simply read the transcript as Morgan shares both her background with OnPoint and her work with her clients. Enjoy!
Brittany Lin:
All right. Hello everybody. We are back with our next episode of get to know your OnPoint nutrition team. Just waiting for everyone to sign on here today. We've got Morgan who is one of the registered dieticians on the team, and she'll be joining us. Morgan is just automatically, really, really cool because she has a background in sports nutrition. She's a certified personal trainer and I've got lots of questions for her, myself. If you have any questions for Morgan be sure to drop them in the comments and we'll integrate them into our little interview today.
She should be popping on here any second. There she is. Hey Morgan. How are you doing?
Morgan Fereck: I'm good. How are you?
Brittany Lin: Good! Welcome to get to know your OnOoint Nutrition team. Yay!
Morgan Fereck: Thanks. I'm excited to be here.
Brittany Lin: So you might have been on when I was bragging about your background, but I figured maybe you could tell everybody what you were doing before you came to OnPoint because we all need your help.
Morgan Fereck: Yeah, for sure. I first started working in a clinical setting, and worked there for about three years and then transitioned to more of a proactive approach versus a reactive approach and worked with clients in a gym. I worked with them on nutrition, as well as working with clients to help them just add in some strength, training and work on how nutrition and strength training go hand in hand.
I had a class that I would teach three days a week probably close to like three years. I had the same group of women the entire time. What was really exciting about them was I could integrate nutrition into their fitness class. So we had a lot of fun. Like we would literally laugh through the entire session, but then over time, I would also help them increase their strength and increase and their endurance. I would also do it in sneaky ways where I would look at them and like have a conversation and then creep up their incline on their treadmill or I would switch their weights when they were doing their cardio aspect. So working with them to kind of just create the experience of knowing that they can push themselves to different limits without really noticing.
Brittany Lin: I'm sure you've seen in a lot of people that it's such a mental game as far as working out goes. And so as a dietician, do you feel like you kind of play into the mental aspect of maybe doing more than you think you could as far as your health?
Morgan Fereck: Well, a lot of the time we played games, or we would kind of tap into why they felt they hit a wall – whether with their nutrition or their fitness - and nothing seems to be happening. But then when you add a little bit of a challenge it helps to break past that wall. Do you think you can do five pounds instead of three? Do you think you can do ten reps instead of seven? Adding that little bit of a challenge helps break that mental barrier and they realized they can push themselves to a new limit instead of feeling comfortable where they work.
Brittany Lin: That happens to me.
Morgan Fereck: Yeah. I've had bad shoulders my whole life. So, I would be the girl that can only do five pounds with an overhead press, but I challenge myself to do an overhead press that's higher than my five-pound weight. And I would try to increase it or I'd mentally think like, I don't think I can do this. And then one rep at a time you build that stamina to really boost it up.
Brittany Lin: Maybe I'll hire you as my trainer. I love that. And so I know that you've been with OnPoint for - how long now? Six months already! What do you like the most about working at OnPoint?
Morgan Fereck: I really like the program itself and focusing on tracking your [food group] targets instead of talking calories. I think this has been something that a lot of people have really thrived on. Making that transition from being in a clinical setting or even in the gym setting, everybody worried about macros. And now that I've taken that away, I am teaching everybody the importance of carbohydrates. Including starches in their day has been super exciting and super fun too, to really notice where they feel the energy coming from or noticing that clients are seeing success with their weight and not worrying about their carbohydrates or not worrying about how many calories they're having. So that's been one of the things that I think I like the most.
Brittany Lin: I’ve noticed that people are always like, am I allowed to eat this? I'm like, yes, you're allowed, of course - we're here to help. And it's all about balance and it's all about, you know, that partnership and working as a team.
Morgan Fereck: Clients will say – “I did a bad thing” or “I ate the wrong food” and I'll be like, there's no such thing as a bad food. It's this idea of diet culture that really confuses people. Yeah, you can have an ice cream sandwich, if you want to have it for dessert. I'll have one! But we're not having 15 of them, and that's not the only thing we're eating all day. That's the difference.
Brittany Lin: Totally agree. Yeah. I agree. So I'm going to ask you some random questions. So, my first question, what is one food or beverage that you can't live without? And it can't be water.
Morgan Fereck: Oh, no, I wouldn't say that anyway. Um, it's definitely pizza. Especially because when I grew up, we would have pizza Fridays, especially during lunch. So, pizza is probably something that I could never really give up. And it's funny because pizza doesn't agree well with my stomach, but I'll eat it anyway. Or just kind of know like, alright, it'll have a little bit of a stomach-ache afterwards, but I'm going to enjoy the pizza and balance it with healthy things as well, as much as I can. Pizza is definitely one thing I can't live without.
Brittany Lin: So, what's your pizza of choice? Like, are you a classic margarita lover? That's your favorite type?
Morgan Fereck: In Northeastern Pennsylvania, you can go down the street and have four different pizza restaurants and all of them be completely different. So, my favorite is a thicker dough and then super, super saucy. Some of the other ones I like have a thin dough, but then very cheesy. So I kind of like it all.
Brittany Lin: Have you ever had tomato pie before?
Morgan Fereck: It's not a normal Northeastern thing I've heard of it. I don't know that I've ever tried it. I thrive on the cheese, but I don't know that I have ever had tomato pie.
Brittany Lin: All right. That's going to be maybe our next adventure - Morgan tries tomato pie.
Morgan Fereck: I'll try my first tomato pie. Yeah!
Brittany Lin: Yes - like an influencer video. So that that's definitely going to have to be on the roster for one of these videos. Um, but meanwhile, before asking the next question, anyone who is watching please feel free to comment any questions you might have for Morgan today. Just, you know, casual Wednesday conversations here. What is one fun fact about you from your childhood or some quirky habits you had? What were you like as a kid?
Morgan Fereck: I don't know. One fun, random fact is that I'm the only left-handed person in my entire family. So growing up was pretty tough. It was interesting because I was the only left-handed tennis player on my tennis team. So my dad was my coach and didn't know how to teach me things because it's backwards. So, as I was learning tennis, everybody was like, “okay, we're going to do forehands”. And then I’m stuck doing the opposite. I've got a killer backhand in my tennis game. Because I'm a lefty, I also really struggled in the kitchen and I cut myself all the time because a lot of kitchen utensils are made for right-handed people. You probably wouldn't notice if you're right-handed.
Brittany Lin: Well, I'm lefty and I always cut myself and I just thought I was bad with kitchen tool.
Morgan Fereck: That's what I thought too for a while. And then I'm like, something has to be be wrong because this can't be just me. When you look at a knife, they're serrated to the right. If you use a right hand, you don't cut yourself. But if you use your left hand, cuts everywhere.
Brittany Lin: Oh my gosh. I literally never knew that. I'm changing what our next adventure together is going to be - left-handed tennis game and a tomato pie.
Morgan Fereck: We'll play and then get tomato pie.
Brittany Lin: Perfect! So that's going to be our next adventure. Anyone who wants to join us, we'll give you the details after, after COVID you can join us.
I one more random question and I know you're hosting a webinar on Monday. Last random question. If you were on a desert Island, what two items would you bring with you? And I can tell you Emily, who we interviewed last week or two weeks ago said her husband and her son, which I didn't allow her answers. So she decided to bring a knife and drinkable water, or something like that. But you can't bring people in my game.
Morgan Fereck: I think that I would bring…. have you ever heard of the LifeStraw? I would bring one of those because then I would have unlimited drinkable water. I would definitely bring a LifeStraw. And then, I probably would bring some kind of tool to chop down the trees to make fire, coconuts, or create some kind of shelter. So, I would say some kind of chopping tool.
Brittany Lin: What's that big….? Oh, a machete!
Morgan Fereck: Maybe. Alright. Quite opposite things, but yeah, I think I'd feel like a machete would be pretty helpful.
Brittany Lin: That's perfect! As we finish up our little interview today, Morgan will be hosting a webinar this Monday the 22nd at 6:00 PM. We're going to be posting about it in our Instagram with a signup. Morgan tell us what you'll be talking about.
Morgan Fereck: My webinar is called Plan Like a Pro: Exercise Edition. I'll be walking you through a week’s worth of planning and talking about what exercises we're doing and planning our nutrition around that. I've had a lot of questions in the past of when's the best time to eat around my workout? What can I have either before or after? I think this webinar will be really helpful for everybody. If you are a morning person or a PM workout person, this will help you plan your day a little bit better to know what kind of foods we're having around that workout to fuel it the right way, and also to help you recover the right way.
Brittany Lin: Yes, exactly. You'll be walking people through the tips and also actually creating a meal planning guide. If you register for this webinarm, you’ll receive a free meal planning guide focusing on exercise, nutrition and how to plan your meals just for your workouts – plus a shopping list! You'll get all of that sent right to your inbox from Morgan.
Morgan Fereck: The way that I broke it down explains the menu for the week, including two days of what a morning workout looks like, two days of an afternoon, two days of a PM. And then also including a rest day because I encourage those just as much as I encourage working out.
Brittany Lin: Love it. I want to get my hands on that too. Does anybody else have some questions you want to ask before we sign off? We have someone in here saying that they love morning workouts. Every time I work out in the morning I'm so glad I did it!
Morgan Fereck: I think that it like wakes you up, too. If I have a break from our client calls in the morning, I go outside as soon as I possibly can. Even on the days that it's a little bit colder or it's just like, not as exciting. I also have my Garmin connected to my friends’ and they will be like, “Morgan, it's snowing. What are you doing outside already?” And I'm like, well, I have to wake myself up. So I try to get in like any type of movement as quickly as I can.
Brittany Lin: We have people also commenting - team morning workout vs team evening workout. I mean, for me, it depends on the day for you.
Morgan Fereck: I think I'm a morning workout person. I'm much more of a morning girl. Then come the afternoon, I can kind of shut off and relax.
Brittany Lin: Hmm…..I like both of them, honestly.
If you come to Morgan's webinar, you're going to get a meal plan for both types of days. So depending on your day, you might want one, you might want the other another week. Maybe you want all of them. Monday the 22nd at 6:00 PM Eastern. I think we're going to sign off for today. That was great! This is so fun. If anyone else has other questions, you can just message OnPoint Nutrition and I will relay those messages to Morgan and get you your answers. We'll talk to you next time!
Topics
