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PNN Interviews:
Krista Schaus

Krista Schaus is a unique PNN member. Starting out as a PN user and competitive powerlifter, Krista grew her coaching practice, eventually becoming a strength coach and PNN practitioner. And, as a PNN member, Krista hasn't looked back, quickly becomming one of the top individual PNN practitioners.

You can learn more about Krista and her approach in the interview below.

Dr Berardi:
What is your involvement in the sport and/or fitness community?

Krista Schaus:
I am both a competitive strength athlete and strength coach. I own and operate Defining Edge Fitness Inc. out of Cayuga, Ontario and compete in IPF powerlifting (60 kg open class).

My passion for strength / fitness and nutrition flourished when I became a police officer as it was very important to me to be as functionally fit and healthy as possible to survive the stressful life of a law enforcement officer. As the years went on, and I learned what happens to many officers after decades of shift work, high stress, poor nutrition and inactivity, I decided to make my passion my career. I left the police force to pursue my goals of education people about the benefits of being strong, fit and healthy. Today I work with clients ranging from teenagers to seniors, competitive athletes, business owners, law enforcement officers and men and women simply striving to become their personal best.

My own competitive and training backgrounds includes women’s softball, gymnastics, Tae Kwon Do, fitness competition, obstacle course competition, cycling, bench press and have made the powerlifting platform my competitive home.

Dr Berardi:
How long have you been doing this?

Krista Schaus:
I have been lifting weights for much of my life, nearly 25 years. I have been competing as a strength athlete for 9 years, and sharing my knowledge and passion for fitness for over a decade.

I picked up my first dumbbell when I was 9 years old and haven’t spent much time away from the weights since. I began an informal strength training session in grade 9 and suffered many odd stares and comments from the football team.

My love affair with strength training was off and on until I made a more serious commitment in 1999, my 5th year into my career as a police officer. I was fortunate enough to befriend a Galaxy fitness competitor who became my training partner. She taught me the PN lifestyle and solidified my relationship with proper strength training and energy system work (over “cardio”).

From that time on, I have been fortunate enough to come in contact with many experts and icons in the strength and fitness world who have taught me, helped develop my training philosophy and inspired me to keep working in the field I love including:

Bill Jamison (IPF Technical Advisor)
Scot Prohaska (Strength & Sport Performacne Coach)
Shawn Vint (FitDV)
John Berardi

I was particularly thrilled in 2004 when I first learned of the Precision Nutrition system. Finally, someone has put together much of the information I learned from the best about transformative nutrition into an awesome user-friendly package. It seemed to good to be true!

Dr Berardi:
What motivated you to seek out my nutritional system? Why did you think it was important? What needs did your clients/athletes have that weren’t being met?

Krista Schaus:
In 2004, I sought the training expertise of Scot Prohaska to help me bust through some plateaus and get me back into competitive condition after the birth of my second child in 2003. Scot had been working with some NHL players during their off season at that time and knew a great deal about high performance training and nutrition protocols. He introduced me many of the PN concepts including the 7 Habits, post workout nutrition, G-Flux and nutrient timing.

When I began my own strength training business full time in 2005, I knew nutrition was a huge part of client success and miraculous results. I recalled everything I had learned from my coach and looked into bringing Precision Nutrition to my clients. I wanted them to reap the same benefits I had. (I lost 5% body fat, while maintaining my 60 kg weight class and put nearly 100 lbs on my powerliftting total).

Dr Berardi:
Be honest, did you have any reservations before you started working with me? If so, what were they?

Krista Schaus:
From a athlete/client perspective, I initially had a hard time accepting that I could eat less complex and starchy carbohydrates at certain times of the day and have more strength and energy. I was concerned about the low carb brain fog I used to experience in my fitness competing days. Because of the “post workout” and “anytime” concept of meal timing, my fears were quickly put at rest. I had more energy than I had ever experienced and got leaner fast.

From a PNN member, I had absolutely no reservations about working with you. I had learned enough from people I highly trusted and whose opinion I valued greatly, to know that JB was top notch. This was a team I was happy to join. I knew what I had experienced myself and couldn’t’ wait to see those results in my clients.

Dr Berardi:
What do you and your clients/athletes like best about the nutritional system?

Krista Schaus:
Super shakes are a big hit amongst my clients. Everyone loves a way to eat well with little time. I personally was thrilled to see recipes for protein bars. I have tried to make my own protein bars for years and have failed miserably. Thanks for saving me time, money and heart ache (I guess I’m not a gourmet chef after all).

The system also appeals to many different learning styles. As an educator, (oh, forgot to mention I was a college professor for two years and currently working on a degree in Adult Education), I always appreciate when the time is taken to teach something in different ways. Not only does the multimedia approach enhance learning through seeing it, hearing it and reading it, it ensures that the message will get across one way or another.

When a client picks up PN for the first time from my office, I always tell them to listen to the 7 Habits CD on the way home in their car. That will get the learning started right away.

Dr Berardi:
Did your clients/athletes find the advice hard to follow?

Krista Schaus:
That has not been my experience at all. The 7 Habits make it very user-friendly. Even if ALL they adhere to is a few of the habits initially, they WILL make progress. For people that are very new to this way of eating, nutrient timing is sometimes hard to grasp but this is where the learning sessions come into play. I take the time to go over the “Post workout” and “anytime” concept in more detail. Once they understand why they will get better results by taking advantage of those windows of “higher carb” opportunity, they get it AND the added bonus is they are motivated to work out more often during the week.

Dr Berardi:
What kinds of results did your clients/athletes get when using the program?

Krista Schaus:
I have seen all sorts of cool things from a retired principal suffering from years of chronic stress regain her life by switching from a popular “weight loss” program to a more PN-friendly system to a 230 pound mother turned lean 67.5 kg class powerlifter (that’s 148 lbs). She became a personal trainer and is now a PNN member herself.

Recently, I have seen about half a dozen of my female clients lose an average of 12 lbs and 5% body fat over 12 weeks. The awesome bonus is many of them had goals of being able to master chin-ups. With their leaner, more muscular physiques, many of them have accomplished that goal or are even doing weighted chin-ups for reps. They could not have reached that goal without PN.

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The flip side to that, I have had two male clients attain their mass building goals. A male police officer has just reached 180 lbs after starting at 168 lbs in August (Oh, he has lost 2% body fat in the process). Another male friend is close to his lean and muscular 200 lb goal after nearly two years – a more than 25 lbs gain from the skinny 173 lbs he started at.

One of my female “gainers” impressed her doctor recently when she had gained 6 lbs of bodyweight since her last checkup. She was at high risk of osteoporosis, suffered from chronic back pain and was nearly 10 lbs underweight at 115 lbs at 5’4”. Now at 121 lbs she is sexy, sleek and virtually pain free.

Dr Berardi:
What are the top 10 things you learned while working with my system?

Krista Schaus:

1. You can get lean and enjoy food at the same time

2. Fish oils rock!

3. Tip of the Day: Chilled green tea and Greens Plus upon waking

4. Read and learn as much as you can about individualization

5. Eat every 2-3 hours (without fail!) is listed as Habit #1 for a reason!

6. It’s all about timing

7. People cheat on their food journals (don’t cheat yourself! Be honest)

8. JB doesn’t think Kraft Dinner is a great post workout meal (if it sounds too bood to be true…)

9. Oatmeal Apple Pie seems too good to be true

10. Popeye was no dummy (a side of spinach at breakfast… or any meal will pay tribute to the little guy with the big forearms)

Dr Berardi:
Describe your total experience implementing the system to date.

Krist Schaus:

- Call PN
- Get PN
- Learn PN
- Use PN
- Live PN
- Love PN
- Become PN
- Teach PN… cycle continues

Dr Berardi:
If someone was hesitant about working with us, what advice would you give them?

Krista Schaus:
Hmmm? I don’t get the question. Hesitant / Working with JB… does not compute.

Dr Berardi:
Any parting words?

Krista Schaus:
Thanks PN! Not only have you given me the tools to carry on what my mentors have taught me over the years, you have enabled me to pass this knowledge onto others AND helped me with gift shopping. PN makes a great gift!