Episode 55: Interview with Dana White; Owner of Jersey Women Strong & the Unweighted Project
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Welcome to Chasing Life podcast, where we talk about fitness, running, career, and life tips to inspire you to live your best life. I'm your host, Sarah Kane, and I hope you enjoy today's episode. Welcome to another episode of Chasing Life. My guest today is Dana White. Welcome, Dana. Hey, thanks so much for having me. It's great to have you. So why don't we get started with a little introduction. How long you've been running, what you do, and what has made you happy this week?

Awesome. Okay, so my name is Dana White, and I am the head coach and founder of Jersey Women Strong, which is an all-women's running group here in northern New Jersey. And I'm also the founder of The Unweighted Project, which is an online fitness and nutrition company. I, gosh, I have been running since probably my sophomore year in college. I was a competitive swimmer.

I hated running, as most swimmers do. And I basically just ran to keep in shape in the off-season for swimming. My college swim coach was a triathlete.

So she encouraged, you know, kind of all of us cross training wise to get involved with triathlon. So that's when I started running. And once I finished my college swimming career, got into triathlon, I had always been involved in coaching, coaching swimming, and it kind of just progressed into coaching running my, my bachelor's degree is in exercise science.

I was also a swimmer, but just in high school. So, so I love having other swimmers on the podcast and we can talk about that because anytime people find out you're a swimmer and a runner, their first question is, have you done a triathlon? So you've already answered that. How many triathlons have you done?

Oh my gosh, I've actually lost count of the number of triathlons, but I have done an Ironman, I've done a Half Ironman, and many different sprint and Olympic distances along the way. So I kind of transitioned then into run coaching, triathlon coaching, and now I'm back to mostly just run coaching specifically with women, and then fitness and nutrition coaching.

Which Ironman did you do? I did Ironman Lake Placid. Nice. Many years ago. Yes. Many years ago when it was still, I think around 1800 athletes, they've expanded that race quite a bit. And I think there's up over 4,000 athletes, but I was back when it was a little bit of a smaller, more intimate race. Yeah. Well, congratulations on that race. I am from New York. So I know a handful of people who have done Lake Placid and they have nothing but positive things to say about that race.

Awesome. Well, I'm from New York too. I'm from Buffalo. So why don't you tell us about the Jersey Women's Strong, how you started that, what inspired you and maybe a favorite moment you've had along the way?

Yeah, sure. So Jersey Women Strong, gosh, I had moved to New Jersey in 2010 and didn't really know a lot of people. We had just kind of moved around quite a bit. And I knew I wanted to continue my coaching. Where I had previously lived, I had started a women's running group just kind of on the fly. And once we moved to New Jersey, I knew I wanted to pursue that. So

I started actually was part at that point kind of the early phases of Jersey Women Strong. We were part of a national organization that is no longer functioning. But for the first two years, we kind of fell under their umbrella and then we graduated to Jersey Women Strong. But we basically honestly, it started as a nine week beginner 5K program. So and that's really

That is what I planned for when we first started. It was going to be nine weeks and I wasn't sure what was going to happen after the nine weeks, but I love coaching women. I love coaching runners. And so I, you know, decided I wanted to put together this nine week program and we did it and it was awesome. We had 25 people during our first program. And of course they finished and they were like, all right, what's next? So yeah,

So from that point on, it's just evolved. We started with about 25 women. We have about 140 now. We've been up as high as 200 pre-COVID. All ages, all abilities. We started as a couch to 5K. We now have marathoners, ultra marathoners, triathletes. We have people racing every single weekend. So it's been pretty contagious and pretty awesome.

Now, are you the only coach of that program or do you have a team of coaches that help to cover over these 100 runners? Yeah, so I am the only coach. We do have last, probably about a year and a half ago, we started a collaboration with another local coach who runs our track practices for us once a week. And that's been fantastic. But we meet twice weekly at a local park and I run those, you know, and there's not, you know, we always do something before, kind of talk and stretch and

I try to provide a lot of online support, but our weekend runs are very informal and we organize community events. We do a lot of community service. That's actually a big piece of our mission is the community service piece. What's a recent project that you've done?

So actually monthly, we work with an organization called Project Kind, and they are a homelessness outreach based out of Newark, New Jersey. So generally we do monthly what we call lunch packing events for them where we pack and then provide lunches for them to distribute in a local park in Newark. So that's always ongoing. We just did a run, a 5K event.

Just over the border in New York, actually in Rockland County for Center for Safety and Change, which is a women's domestic violence shelter. So, you know, that's kind of always been a big piece. And it's been nice for our members because they always have that opportunity to kind of give back if they choose to do that as well.

Yeah, that's awesome. Like it's kind of inspiring me of like maybe trying to form a women's only running group in my area. I mean, we have a really strong presence for our running club in general, but I feel like it's really special just to have like a women's only meeting. We do have our club sponsors, a women's only run, but I think it's special. Like it's,

maybe women sometimes feel a little intimidated started running if there's faster runners around them, but to have all women or women's only, I feel like that just kind of helps. Um, maybe women get started. Is that kind of what you've experienced along the way? It is. And I think there's been points in time where I've debated, um,

to open it up. Do we want to go co-ed? Do we want to expand? But to me, I think what I've learned over the years is actually kind of niching down more and more has helped. So we started as kind of a broad based

you know women's running group i would say now we tend to um it's probably women over most of our members are women over 40 who maybe started running later in life and it i think it does provide like you said there's just a different feeling

around running, around competitiveness. And don't get me wrong, we have some very competitive women as well. But I think there's some semblance of comfort when it's all women. And the nice thing is, like, we run and work alongside many other local running groups. So they all have their place, which I think

is great. Like I never feel like it's a competition, despite the fact that there's probably six other running groups in the area. We all just fit a certain niche and, and work with that. Yeah. Thank you for that message. And thank you for the work that you're doing with women. I mean, I know how running has changed my life. So I can't imagine the ripple effect that you've had on the hundreds of women that you've helped coach through that program. So that's awesome.

And then on top of that, you're serving your community. So that's just, I'm really glad that I could hear about this and that you were willing to join me and share. So thank you. - Yeah, yeah, absolutely. - So the next program that you're involved with is the Unweighted Project. So can you talk about that? - Sure.

My original education is in exercise science. I've always kind of been involved in coaching from some level, personal training, you know, I've done on and off throughout the years. Once I had my kids, I did a lot of in-home personal training. I was teaching spinning and

I just figured there was a way that I wanted to bring it all together and still have the flexibility to work from anywhere, be around for my kids, etc. So probably two years ago now, I transitioned to online personal training. And it was actually before COVID hit.

But so now, I mean, I strictly work with women over 40 who have basically gone through every diet on the planet and are ready to just be done with dieting, figure out a way to be healthy, fit and strong.

and have a program that's sustainable for the long term. So that's what I do now. I run an eight-week program. I have a few one-on-one clients, but mostly I run an eight-week program called Weighted Unweighted. And we work on basic things.

nutrition, lifestyle habits, and some exercise we've been there. But mostly it's working on creating new habits, working around the mindset, learning to have a better relationship with food, etc. What have you seen as maybe one of the biggest mindset struggles when it comes to food and nutrition? I think that

you know, for so long, women have been told that they need to weigh a certain

weight, they need to look a certain way. And that is, that's very hard to break through. And also, I think there's been so many dieting myths out there that are very difficult to break. I mean, we have a lot of people who are very either fat phobic or carbohydrate phobic, which I can completely understand, just because of the messaging that's out there. But that's very hard to break, you know, to get women to

to see that you can work carbohydrates into your diet, you can work fats into your diet, and that they can actually fuel your workouts on top of it and allow you to perform better during your workouts, which is going to burn more calories, which is going to make you feel better. Just, you know, the cycle kind of rolls into one another. But there's just so many mixed messages out there. And I think I typically, like I said, I work with the over 40 demographic. So

I do usually get people who have kind of had it with that. So they're not really necessarily looking for a quick fix because that's definitely something I'm very upfront about. I don't do meal plans. I'm not a registered dietitian, you know, number one, but I don't do meal plans. I don't tell you exactly what you should be eating because I want people to learn to live

the life that they're going to live, like within the constraints of their normal daily life. So if you like pizza and you like to have a glass of wine, we'll figure out how to work that in with, you know, your regular daily life. Do you have a success story that you would be willing to share? Oh my gosh. I'm trying to think. I mean, I definitely have, I would say a few great success stories, you know, in people that I've worked with, but I think,

I think the most important message that I see from my most successful clients for me is that they realize that this is very doable. I feel like

as women, the message we're getting now, especially as we enter like that perimenopause stage is that, you know, we're broken, we're doomed and your hormones are changing. And that mental space is very hard to break free of because the messages are out there and people feel it. Like we feel tired post pandemic on top of it. We feel very tired. But what I see is that with

a little bit of encouragement, a little bit of accountability, and a little bit of, I think the biggest thing for me because I do group programs, which I think are so helpful, people are hearing that they're not alone. So I think that's the biggest message. And I think that's even with the running group. You know, there's when we get to know each other and talk and they just, people realize they aren't as isolated as they think they are. You know, a lot of times I feel like we get overwhelmed by our emotion.

And we feel like, oh my gosh, you know, so much bad is happening. Why does this stuff happen to me? You know, why have I gained weight? Why am I so tired, et cetera, et cetera. And just being around other women and kind of validating that, like, yeah, this is happening. It's happening to me too. But here are the things that you can do.

to make positive changes. And it doesn't have to be quick. You know, that's the big message that I like, even with the runners too, like slow change, slow down, run slower. Yeah. There's so much that you just said that I love of, first of all, people having the courage to seek help or seek a change. And then also being vulnerable to share what they're struggling with because it's

it's a good feeling to know that you're not alone. Why don't we talk a little bit more about your running journey? So you're helping hundreds of runners. Are you currently training for anything or what does your current running look like?

Yeah, so I call my current running, running for life, running for, you know, for life and for sanity. So I'm not really training for anything in particular right now. I did recently do the New York City half.

So that was my most recent race. I don't really have anything big on the schedule right now. I do have a couple athletes that I'm coaching doing Berlin. We have several people that are running New York, but I have a couple athletes that I'm coaching privately doing New York, Chicago. So a lot of kind of what I'm doing now is very coached.

based. So, um, and I'm just trying to stay consistent with my own habits, getting my steps in, making sure I'm doing my strength training, and then I'm running probably four times a week, but low mileage at this point. Yeah, that's great. All right. So why don't we ask a couple of fun questions for you? What is something that you are currently obsessed with or loving right now?

Does it have to be health and fitness really? No, it's better if it's not actually. All right. So I'm going to totally nerd out, but like my recent obsession, I've become recently fascinated with birds. I guess this is what happens when you hit 50 or so I'm told. And I did hit 50 last summer. So, yeah.

Yeah, I've been, I guess this sort of happened a little bit during the pandemic because I was home a lot more. So I threw up some bird feeders in the back of my backyard and I have had one or two friends who were very interested in birds and I like would see their posts and think, oh, that's cute. But I've gotten recently into it and it's great because you can really tie it into

being in the outdoors, looking for things on your runs or my walks. And it's just gotten me outside a lot more and kind of given me a focus. It's almost, for me, it's like a little bit meditative. So it's an opportunity for me to get outside a little bit more and kind of get interested in a little bit obsessed with something other than something that's work related or coaching related. So it's kind of been fun.

Yeah, that is really fun. I listened to this podcast. She's a co host on the Bobby bone show. Her name is Amy Brown and she is like obsessed with birds too so people talk about it. Yeah, like I don't know hardly anything about birds I know I barely know like Cardinals and Blue Jays.

It's interesting. It's very, you know, I will say it's interesting because there's so many variations. And I popped into a couple different Facebook groups. And wow, I mean, people are really into it. So I've been learning a lot. I'm not sure that I'll get quite that into it as some of the people I've been introduced to, but it's kind of cool to learn something new later in life.

Oh, absolutely. And I love what you said about how it gives you like a meditative or like something to look for when you're outside. And so it's just like, it kind of gives you

Yeah, like a new focus or something I was trying to do a while ago, and I guess now that I bring this up, I haven't done this in a while. It's like every time I go for a walk in my neighborhood to try to notice something new. And so it's kind of like the same idea of like, oh, well, let's try to look for a bird. And then, you know, then you can learn more about it, see what it looks like or talk about it if you're with somebody else or this is a really good opportunity for that.

I love that. That's, and that's actually something I used to kind of do that with some of my athletes. Like I would, I'd ask them to run a new route or find something different on your run today. And that's a great point. Like that's something that,

That when you feel like you're getting into a running rut, and I do feel like not myself personally, but I am seeing a lot of runners right now a little bit in a rut. And I don't know if it's still kind of the post pandemic combination of like it's summer. It's hot, you know, at least here in northern New Jersey is hot. And I feel like runners are in a rut, but that's actually.

actually something that you can do. You know, run a different route, try to find something new, really look at the houses that you're passing on your route, try to notice something you maybe haven't heard before. So that's definitely great advice. Yeah, actually, so I ran the Boilermaker 15K just

this past weekend. And I've run that course like 10 times. Most of the time I'm wearing headphones. This time I didn't wear my headphones. And so I got to like experience this course that I've done the roads, but I got to like hear the crowds this time and hear all thousands of runners footsteps. And so it was just like a whole different experience just by taking headphones out. Now I love my headphones. I mean, I listen to podcasts when I run or music. But

But it's, I was glad that I didn't have my headphones in, even though it was a long race, like nine miles to go without headphones. If I was alone, I would just kind of go nuts. But because it would almost be too much silence for me if I'm like running the neighborhoods or something. But it was, it was special to hear a race and hear everyone's footsteps together and, and hear the crowds. So yeah, so just like a new experience. Yeah. Yeah.

Very cool. So another question that I like to ask people is what is the best advice you've ever given or received?

This one might stump me actually. Okay, so I think the best advice I have ever gotten and that I actually like to help my clients and athletes with. So when I was swimming in college, my coach at the time and mentor, Dorsey Reynolds, she would tell us to drive our own bus. And this was such a great thing. You know, as a college student, I probably couldn't appreciate it

as much, but as I've grown into a functioning adult and coach myself, I think it's such an important thing to kind of just control what you can control, control the controllables, drive your own bus. Yes, inspire people, try to make change where you can, but also know that ultimately there's very few things that you have direct and complete control over. One of them is yourself, so utilize that.

Yeah, I love that. And actually, it reminds me, that's one of the reasons why I love running is because I feel like that's one thing in my life I can always control. And I

When I started running, which was over 10 years ago now, like I was going through like a breakup and my job was under questioning. And like when, when I worked out, I felt better. And then I realized like, I can control if I run two miles or four miles or whatever distance I did that day. Like that was, I couldn't control what was going on with relationships or jobs or anything else, but I could control the movement of my body. And it helped me not only with the stress, but just like having that positive, positive

forward focus. So that's what that advice reminds me of. So the last question I'll ask you is what does chasing life mean to you?

What is chasing life means to you? That's a great question. I think that chasing life means really going after your own individual why. You know, I think that it's so important. This is one thing I work on with my clients, either whether I'm coaching them for running, whether I'm coaching them for nutrition, general health or whatever. We have to kind of define our own goals.

And our own wants. So when you're looking at the goals that you want to establish and where you want to be, you know, whether it's a running time goal, whether it's a physical goal, I think it comes down to finding the deeper reason.

and that deeper why. So, you know, I think that that really relates to chasing life and chasing your own life and your own desires because we can get caught up in, you know, that comparison game and the trying to keep up game. And it's hard. It's hard with social media.

you know, in our face and remember we're only seeing the highlight reel, right? So I think it's so important to circle back and, you know, stay in your lane, drive your own bus and make sure that that life that you're chasing is your own, right? It's based on your own wants, needs, and desires.

Yeah, I 100% agree with that. And I love asking that question because I get a variety of perspectives. And so thank you so much for sharing yours. Sure. Is there anything that we didn't cover today that you would like to share?

I don't think so. It's great. I always love to talk running, women's running, you know, women's nutrition and fitness. So I definitely appreciate the opportunity to be on and talk with you about that.

Yeah, it was great to hear about the groups that you've founded. It's really inspiring, kind of the difference that you've made in runners lives and your community. And yeah, it's like inspiring me of like, maybe that's what I want to do someday too. So thank you for that. Yeah, yeah, sure. So yeah, thank you so much for your time.

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