Thank you for checking out The Community Conversation, brought to you by Prototype Training Systems, home of CrossFit Prototype. The Community Conversation highlights a different member of the Prototype Community each week and allows them to tell their story, share their life experience, and communicate their perspective on all things fitness.
We’ve all listened to podcasts and watched YouTube videos that highlight some of the world’s greatest leaders and visionaries. We believe we have some AMAZING people at Prototype and we want you to get to know them! (Check out our last episode here!)
To that end, I want to introduce our 2nd Coach on the Community Conversation Christina Wagher. Believe it or not, Christina has only been part of the Prototype community for a year and a half but it’s felt like a heck of a lot longer! Stina, as we call her is our token Vegan at Prototype (you can tell by her many veggie tattoos), she’s a professional chef, mom, personal trainer, kids coach, weightlifter, artist, you name it she probably has the skills to do it!
So, click the link below to watch this Community Conversation on our YouTube page! You can also check out The Community Conversation on all major streaming platforms including Spotify! Don’t forget to subscribe!
Mike Collette 0:02
Hey everyone, thank you for tuning in the community conversation brought to you by prosafe train systems home of crossett prototype. The community conversation highlights a different member of the project community each week, and allows them to tell their story, share their life experience, and communicate their perspective on all things fitness. We’ve all listen to podcasts and watch YouTube videos that highlight some of the world’s greatest leaders and visionaries. We believe we have some amazing people here a prototype and we want you to get to know them. So to that end, I want to introduce our second coach and the community conversation, Christina. Believe it or not, Christina has only been part of the product community for about a year and a half, but it’s felt like a heck of a lot longer. Steena as we call her is our token vegan prototype, you can tell by all the veggie tattoos that she has. She’s a professional chef, a mom, trainer, artist, you name it, she probably has the skills to do it. So, Christina, thank you for being part of the community conversation today.
Christina Wagher 1:01
Thank you. Appreciate that.
Mike Collette 1:03
So we’ll address the pink elephant in the room. You say you’re awkward on these sorts of situations. So don’t be awkward. It’s not going to be awkward. It’s going to be fun. So let’s kick things off. Why don’t you give everyone a little bit of information on your background? How did you get involved at prototype here? How did you start your journey as a coach? Give us all the details. People are dying to know.
Christina Wagher 1:32
All right, let’s dive in. So as a lot of people know, before I came here, I was doing some you know, professional cooking, I spent a long time as a chef at a high end restaurant in Putnam, Connecticut scald at five main. I learned the ropes there loved cooking, got in touch with some pretty fancy stuff. spent a lot of years under the wing of a master chef from Cambodia. So that’s where I learned how to do you know, sushi. spent a few years doing, you know, sushi chef stuff, learn how to cut fish and do all that fun stuff. And then I moved into you know, saute, Garmisch, a grill and all that all that great stuff there. So from there, I wanted to take things a little bit more personal, you know, I ended up having a baby, things like that. So I met a family at the restaurant that used to come in. And then I started doing private chef work for them love to doing that. did a little bit of bartending on the side, you know, long story short, I really just figured out that I loved servicing people and making people happy. And food really can’t go wrong with food, right makes everybody happy. So I did that for a long time. And then, you know, being a chef is really demanding a little bit more physically and emotionally demanding that I wanted to, you know, spend the rest of my life doing, and I have such a passion for cooking, that I still wanted to be able to kind of give that to my family, and the people that I really loved. And I felt like doing it as a career was really draining. So, you know, I figured I really got to figure out another way to service people and take care of people that you know, to the best of my abilities. And I’d had always kind of enjoyed working out but never really found my, you know, what I what I wanted to do with that. But, you know, I found my partner, who is Tosh I talked about her all the time in my classes and everybody feel like everybody kind of knows her. She was pushing me and she’s like, yeah, you know, you love to exercise. Why don’t you look into that and talk to my stepmother who is a certified, you know, CrossFit coach, personal trainer, she’s travel, honest, everything like that. And she inspired me to look into my personal training cert. So I started doing that. And as soon as I started doing that I immediately uploaded like this resume that showed that I really had no experience in the field. And Steve found me. So came in, did a couple of interviews. I think it did like three interviews with you guys. And I remember my first interview, you guys had me take a class or no, my second interview, you guys had me take a class before the interview. And I had never done CrossFit before. And it was coach Brian. It was like a 9am or something. And he’s like, yeah, we’re, we’re going upside down for the strength today. And I was like, Yeah, right. And he’s like, No, no, we’re doing handstands. Like okay. So that was the day I did my first handstand. And here we are.
Mike Collette 4:19
That’s awesome. I love the translation of servicing people in one industry, how that kind of carries over into multiple industries. Because, you know, when you’re at a restaurant, working with people making them happy, there’s also a huge relationship component to that, which you certainly bring that to prototype. Why don’t you talk a little bit about like, your journey as like a as a trainer, and like how that’s been going and like just being part of the community and what your thoughts are. You know, you’ve been doing this for a year and a half now, but you’ve accelerated so quickly. I would say probably one The fastest people I’ve seen, like pick up the skill set and learning how to do all this sort of stuff. Like what’s that been like?
Christina Wagher 5:11
Ah, so I’ve always been an all or nothing kind of person. So, generally, I just dive into things as, like headfirst, I would say that, you know, you guys have made have really given me the ability to excel at the pace that I’ve wanted to give you guys. So, and I’m when I say that, I mean, you know, it’s been very structured and supported. As far as like, you know, when I started here, you know, guys have me on this great schedule, you guys really submerge me in the community allowed me to take as many classes as I needed to, you know, this community is so welcoming, it’s really easy to just be myself, and I’ve always kind of just been like, the social butterfly, like I just I love to communicate with people and, you know, create these relationships. And, you know, I remember, like, within the first month or so, I was coming to these classes, and I, I, you know, I’m very kind of goofy personality, I don’t really, you know, unapologetically myself, I guess I can say, and I remember coming into a class, and I just felt so comfortable to be myself. And I was like, I think this is the place like, I think this is where, you know, I belong, so I realized that so quickly. And because of that, it just made me feel really comfortable to just be me, you know, openly communicate with people and just make these relationships. And it’s really just been natural. And as far as like, the fitness industry goes, you know, learning, everything was pretty, pretty intense. You guys put me in some pretty uncomfortable positions, right from the beginning, you know, as far as just getting up there and getting in front of people and doing it, but because like this community is just so supportive, and just judgment free. You know, even making little goof ups, you know, I still do now, here and there, you know, people don’t hold it against you, and we’re all human. So it’s been an amazing journey so far. And I feel like every single day, I learned something new, you know, fitness wise, you know, human why, like just everything. So it’s going really well. And right now I’m working on my nutrition certification. So I’ve been doing that for a couple of weeks. And I’m really looking forward to the next steps. And growing and helping more people in that way.
Mike Collette 7:24
Which has a great carryover to back to the cooking being a professional chef being in the foodservice industry. Why don’t we talk a little bit more about that? Because I know we were during the pandemic, you’re doing special cooking show, and people love talking about cooking. When did you also, you know, start your journey as a vegan because I don’t know if everyone knows that, like, that aspect of you as much. They all know you’re vegan. Right. But yeah, not necessarily like what, what, that’s what that’s been like, and the impact that it’s had on you.
Christina Wagher 7:59
Yeah, so that’s a great question. I don’t typically talk about it too, too much. Just because I feel like there’s like this stigma around vegans that were pushy and judgy and things like that. So, you know, I
Mike Collette 8:10
like CrossFit, right?
Christina Wagher 8:11
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, it is. It’s like, you know, there’s it’s like a spinach juice Kool Aid. But no. So I started my vegan journey, right after I had my son. So February will be five years for me vegan. And the reason why I started it was because my son was born and he was allergic to dairy. We figured that out right away because I was breastfeeding and he was like projectile vomiting every time I had any little bit of dairy. So I went got some allergy testing done for the both of us. We’re both lactose intolerant. He’s severely allergic to dairy. So we just cut that out. My sister was living with me at the time, and she’s like, Hey, you know, I’m vegan. Like, you’re cutting dairy out, you know, let’s, let’s, let’s just cut it all out. And like, Yeah, okay. You know, at that time, I was heavily relying on like seafood and chicken for, you know, my sources of protein, hated beans. And cutting out dairy was really hard for me. I mean, when I was pregnant, I was notoriously caught chugging gallons of milk sitting on the floor in front of the fridge. So it was definitely quite the 360. So long story short, didn’t believe her that it was going to be something I was going to be able to do. And she’s like, Come here for a minute and brings me in the living room. She’s like, you got a little bit. Let’s watch this, this movie. And she pretty much brainwashed me with a couple of movies, these vegan documentaries that don’t recommend watching unless you’re ready to make some changes because they’re pretty harsh. One of them is cowspiracy. The other one is Earthlings. And they’re both just really intense, super empathetic and sensitive person. I’ve always loved animals. So I just felt like it was my duty to kind of make the change and make it better impact on the world. With my with my footprint So I immediately was like, You know what, I can do this. And within a month, my energy levels were higher, I felt just better overall, it was more sustainable financially, believe it or not, because I was buying such expensive, you know, cuts of meat, and things like that a lot of people have this stigma that being vegan is more expensive. And it doesn’t have to be. But I started learning, you know, that beans don’t suck. I hated beans. So now like, I love them, I eat them almost every single day. And then I just slowly got into the habit of just, you know, I’ve always loved veggie. So that part was never really challenging for me, but it was more or less just, I think the biggest struggle was finding sustainable sources of protein that aren’t the same exact thing every single day, you know, at at a higher you know, performance level, doing more exercise, being able to sustain that, but it’s, it’s going really well. So, you know, I can say proudly say that February will be five years that I haven’t had any meat or dairy at all. or eggs, meat, dairy, eggs, fish, a lot of people are confused about that. But
Mike Collette 11:06
yeah, so yeah, cuz you’re vegan, not vegetarian. And there’s, there’s a difference between those two? Right? Can you just explain that just so everyone listening? Maybe Understand?
Christina Wagher 11:18
Yeah, so. So being vegan, typically, it’s classified as you don’t eat anything that had a face, or had a mother, as strange as that sounds so or came from an animal at all. So we don’t consume, you know, seafood, dairy products, any byproduct of an animal eggs, shellfish, you know, meat or anything like that. And, you know, that can really go as deep as you want it to. So, you know, some vegans are so hardcore to the point where they don’t even eat honey. I believe in holistic medicine. So I definitely do consume like manuka honey, in local honey, especially this time of the year to help with allergies and stuff. And if you don’t know about Manuka Honey, look into it. It’s really awesome for you know, healing cuts and other things. It’s, it’s pretty crazy. It’s pretty crazy how it works, but, and then, you know, things like, you know, people certain people don’t eat like, or won’t drink certain wines, because they’re filtered through, you know, bones or whatever the case may be, but I don’t really go to that extent. Certain beers I won’t drink because they’re filtered with rehydrated fish bladder, which is Isn’t that crazy? I know. Like,
Mike Collette 12:25
Rehydrated fish bladder?
Christina Wagher 12:27
Yeah, so look it up. shipyard pumpkin is one of them. pumpkinhead. And I found that out. I’m so sad. So that’s like when my favorite pumpkin beers. But the Samuel Adams one is way better. Gotta admit that. So yeah, that’s the difference there. vegetarians eat fish, I believe. And they also eat dairy dairy products as well.
Mike Collette 12:49
Got it. So I have two follow up questions for folks that may be on that vegetarian vegan side, maybe leaning towards it that are listening to this or have questions is, number one is how do you how are you getting in? Like your, your protein sources, like quantities that sustain? You know, muscle building activities? Because you are like working out? right a lot? And then the second question, which is kind of unrelated is you’re still doing like food prep cooking. I know you’re cooking primarily for your family, but like you’re still you still like, like cook and or make food that utilizes like animal products. Yes, or now for your family. But just like in general, or do you have you can please stop doing that and just completely just went fully vegan on the cooking side.
Christina Wagher 13:41
So awesome. Those are good questions. So the first question, as far as like, that was a struggle for a little while I did reach out to john and Leah when I first started at prototype for a little bit of help with that. Just because like transitioning from a normal strength and exercise and conditioning routine to something that’s higher intensity, like CrossFit. You know, you need to sustain a little bit more if you want to build that muscle and maintain it. So a couple different ways that I make sure I get in my protein every single day. One I have my favorite protein bar that I have first snack, I have a couple different ones one’s garden of life. And the other one is a Vega bar I used to drink I used to eat the builder bars, because those are pretty good nutrition wise, but they upset my stomach for some reason. So I stopped eating those. But those are 20 grams of protein. All of those bars that I snack on I do a protein shake after I work out or earlier on in the day typically. And I love Vega, Vega ghosts protein powder. So anybody who’s vegan or vegetarian looking for really good plant based protein powder, highly recommend the ghost. My favorite one is peanut butter, cereal milk and chocolate cereal milk. This just like super nostalgic the way that they taste. It’s great. And I like them blended I like a frozen protein drink. I’m super bougie about that. I put like little chocolate chips in it and bananas and stuff. And it’s just it’s delicious. So just Those two things together is almost, you know, between 50 and 75 grams of protein depending on how I make the shake, because I use a protein plus flax milk. And then, you know, I’ve just found like these little sneaky ways to get an extra protein during the day. So, you know, typical meal for me is like, you know, protein keen, you know, my protein would be, you know, a combination of say tan or tofu. Or, you know, Tempe beans and make my own homemade bean burgers. You know, I will add a side, you know, for starch or rice can be, you know, keen wild rice, sweet potato, you know, and believe it or not, vegetables have a ton of protein in them in the as well. You know, broccoli and asparagus and spinach and things like mushrooms and stuff like that have a little bit of protein in them, too. So I kind of typically just pack every single meal with protein. You know, even my snacks, I try to keep them higher in protein, as far as that goes. So I really haven’t had a problem with maintaining that. I started drinking a recovery protein shake at night, too. That’s helped a little bit, just gives me an extra like 15 or 20 grams of protein. I bought this cereal that’s called high key, which is like almost 20 grams of protein. And I love cereal. I always have. I drink that with my flax milk. So it’s like it’s just people, you’d be surprised how much protein I get. get at least 120 150 grams a day.
Mike Collette 16:25
Oh, wow.
Christina Wagher 16:26
Yeah.
Mike Collette 16:27
It’s all through vegan. Right? Yeah.
Christina Wagher 16:29
So I’m 100% vegan.
Mike Collette 16:31
That’s great. And then
Christina Wagher 16:32
the second question that you asked me, so typically, so for my family, I prep three days a week, I prep on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. And that, you know, obviously sustains for those two or three day periods, for lunch and dinner, and then breakfast, we kind of we kind of figure it out. We do like oatmeal or whatever, protein oatmeal or whatever. But for other other people, so right now, I’m not servicing anybody as far as like, you know, preparing meals for them. And typically, I will try to make a vegan meal that’s like, like, sneaky, like, you’ll like I make certain meatball meals or start lasagna or enchiladas or other meals that most people can’t really tell that they’re vegan, other than the fact that they’re, you know, loaded with veggies. But um, right now, currently, quarterly. Boston Scientific does having me do cooking show like a cooking thing with them, where like, they’ll kind of substitute their own things that aren’t vegan, but I typically won’t work with things that aren’t vegan, unless I’m like, you know, going to a friend’s house and they’re asking me how to break down a fish or how to, you know, clean up a terrorist, major things like that, because I do know, you know how to break down like a prime rib. If somebody wants to buy like a huge prime rib, I don’t mind helping with things like that. I’m pretty desensitized to it. As far as like, you know, I’m not one of those beacons that’s like, Oh, my God, and unless I’m listening to dance, you know, Turkey in the whichever story. That one’s like, that. one’s a little cringe worthy.
Mike Collette 18:02
You can already hear that story doing hung out after Friday Night Lights, the after hours in the parking lot to hear that story from Dan. So if you want to hear that story from Dan reached out to Dan McCarthy, he’ll tell you that story. It’s funny you brought that up? Yeah, I didn’t know we were gonna go there. That was good.
Christina Wagher 18:22
That’s like the only thing I’m like, Nope, that’s the line for me.
Mike Collette 18:25
Yeah, I don’t think many people would be like, yeah, that was that’s a, I want to eat a I want to eat a hamburger after that. Or Turkey burger. After that. So we talked cooking, we talked like vegan nutrition. We’ve talked like exercise, and working out. I mean, have you been able to like take like, all those sorts of things, or I know you’ve applied the vegan eating to like family life? Like how is your I guess like that? How does that work? Like, is that really like everyone’s like, all good, like with the vegan food? Or like, I know your son and he totally good with that. Do you want to you know, Hey, Mom, we go to McDonald’s and eat chicken nuggets. Like, you know, how does that how does that work? Because there might be some people listening to this, they’re like, you know, they might want to lean closer towards the vegetarian vegan side, but maybe the hiccup is, you know, being able to you know, and you have the skill set of being able to cook unique meals and be creative and, and make things but not everyone has those skills. So what would you kind of consult or tell folks that are you know, that might have that that obstacle or challenge with kids getting them to eat these things? Because I didn’t want to eat any vegetables when I was a kid just saying, but yeah, no, no, it’s changed now.
Christina Wagher 19:44
That’s a good that’s a good one. I like that. Um, so my whole family is vegan as far as like, my my girlfriend and my son. My sister and her boyfriend are vegan as well and they they care for my son during the week for me so that That’s super helpful. And my girlfriend was actually vegan for like three months before I even met her, which is pretty cool. So a lot of people give her a hard time like, oh, you’re vegan for her, you know, good for you. So, but it’s funny now so yeah, we’re all vegan. My son born and raised vegan, so he really doesn’t know much different. He’s four years old now. So he’s not, you know, he, I don’t want to say that we’ve programmed him to like, not want certain things, but we have one he’s extremely allergic to dairy. So we do kind of enforce like, you know, when you’re at school, you need to ask your teachers like does this have cow’s milk and it we’ve kind of decipher that difference between cow’s milk is something that we don’t consume and almond milk or oat milk or other milks are things that are safe for us. And as far as like you know, veggies go like I’m I’m like a sneaky ninja when it comes to getting my kids to eat veggies, I mean, I make I go I go pretty far to an extent to make it happen like I do. I make homemade tater tots with, you know, potatoes, white beans, and broccoli. So kind of pack those in with like nutritional yeast as a binder. I’ll use like a flax egg sometimes to keep it together. And for those of you who don’t know, a flax egg is just like a, you know, a substitute for regular egg. It’s just flax meal and water, you mix it up, and it creates like this, you know, binding texture. So I kind of add that and I pack them in and then I make them into these little tater tots, and I will freeze them and prepare them and keep them for a while. He eats veggie burgers. We do. You know, tons of stuff. I mean, he doesn’t give me too big of a problem about eating veggies because he’s eating them his whole life. I mean, even when I was pregnant, I was just constantly eating like weird things like brussel sprouts and asparagus and there’s a rumor a myth, I should say I’m not sure if it’s true or not that the more you know, robust things that you consume when you’re pregnant, that your baby tastes them or gets used to the tastes or something. I’m not sure how true that is. But I just chop things up really small. So like if parents if you’re trying to trick your kids into eating, you know, more broccoli or more things like that. My son loves white rice. If for those of you guys who don’t know, he’s half Spanish, so he loves his rice, rice and beans, he’s very big into that. So I’ll make him like his, you know, his Spanish rice and I’ll chop up really really fine like mushrooms and and broccoli and things like that. And then I’ll just mix it in the rice and it’s just so small that he doesn’t care. Or really give me a hard time about it. So we try to avoid just like eating tons of processed stuff and just keep keep Whole Foods. He loves his tofu. You know, if you make it the right way, it’s good. You just got to marinate it. Make it nice and crispy and make sure it tastes good. So he’s a he’s a ketchup fanatic. I don’t know why people like ketchup. But he loves it.
Mike Collette 22:52
I put ketchup on my ketchup, Ah, shirt that I saw one day and I always resonated me. I was like I put ketchup on my ketchup. That’s how much that I use it. I’m a huge huge condiment person. like sweet. Sweet.
Christina Wagher 23:06
Yes, I think that’s what it is. I think it’s a sweetness because he you give him catch up and he’ll eat anything. He’ll dip broccoli and ketchup. That’s great.
Mike Collette 23:14
I would probably do the exact same way. You’re You’re so lucky that they have you to be able to cook and I’m starving right now just having this conversation. And I know you’ve brought in some good treats for all of us to have and you know I don’t even even realize it tastes so good. You don’t realize that they’re that they’re vegan or there’s no meat or animal products in them they just do these tastes really really good Yeah, your your your family is is certainly lucky to have Yeah, with this oil with the cookie notice up let’s let’s kind of circle back on the fitness side of things, though. So you know, you’ve been doing the weightlifting program with coach Joe. I mean, you just finished up the open crushing those workouts What are your like as a coach like what are your goals? Or what are your like goals or fitness goals in your train? Four are working towards now because they think that would be a nice thing to just talk about because you know, as as coaches, Greg fishes like what we do, we don’t work out all day. Right? But it’s like what we do. But we also have like things that we’re working on and those sorts of things. I talk a little bit about that.
Christina Wagher 24:31
Yeah, absolutely. The open was like such a fun experience. I mean, this community is literally just, there’s so amazing. I have I don’t even have words for it. But it made me realize a lot of things like my goals were totally different going into the open as they are now as I’m sure a lot of people feel that way too. But you know, coach Joe is amazing with weightlifting like if if you know if you have any sort of interest or curiosities as far as that goes, you know, you just just got to go for it. And I say that because there was just a meet recently. And I, I went to it, and I was super nervous about it, because I haven’t been focusing as much on my weightlifting as much because I was doing programming with Joe for a long time. And I showed up, and it was such an amazing time. Like, like I said, communities just amazing supportive. You know, it just felt good to get out there and lift and that kind of really sparked that flame in me like, okay, I really have a passion for weightlifting. And I need to kind of stick to this and keep it moving. So, you know, as far as like, you know, some performance goals that I have moving forward, you know, I recently hit 175 on my clean and jerk, so I’m kind of hoping to get to, it’s kind of an aggressive goal, but I’m hoping to get to 200 by the end of the year. So we’ll see, just got to keep working at it, keep getting stronger, I stopped for a while and focused on just strengthening my upper back. So I was able to get some total bars strung together for the first time in the open. And that was a big win for me. You know, it’s, it’s hard, especially as a coach to take a step back and slow down. So for the longest time, I was like, I just got to keep doing tota bars, I just got to keep doing this, I got to keep doing that. And, you know, the bigger picture was that I needed to strengthen my, my upper back, my, you know, my middle traps and just work on, you know, fixing some things that I had going on in my shoulder that was causing me pain. And I did it I slowed down and I worked on that. So I was able to do that. So now one of my next rules is to hopefully get a muscle up by the end of the year. And you know, get some chest to bars haven’t been able to get those yet either. And just you know, just stay consistent. You know, I’m finally in a really good routine with working out six days a week and just keep at it. So I just want to continue to get a little bit faster, a little bit stronger. Just kind of like we all want to.
Mike Collette 26:53
Fantastic. See everyone you guys listening. Even your coaches have goals we’re working on, right? We’re all humans. We’re all working on things like it. muscle ups. 200 pound clean and jerk. Fantastic. Christina, I got some final questions for you here. Right the Spitfire around. You’ve probably heard these ones. Yeah, the 15th episode, so it should be a no surprise. Now I gotta change up these questions. First one is, is what’s your favorite movie? Your favorite TV show? Of All Time and also what are you currently watching are binge watching right now.
Christina Wagher 27:33
Oh, okay, this is a hard one. And I thought about it too. I knew you’re gonna ask me this and I thought about it. So my favorite movie of all time, I’m not a huge TV watcher. I very rarely slow down to watch TV. And when I do I normally just pass out. But But I have to say I think one of my favorite movies of all time this is an old one. Disturbia guys remember that one?
Mike Collette 27:57
Derby is that with Shea Lebouf? Well, yeah, movies. Halle Berry in that movie.
Christina Wagher 28:04
No. is another little like blonde firecracker in that movie.
Mike Collette 28:08
Disturbia got it.
Christina Wagher 28:10
It’s a good watch. It’s kind of like a fairy like suspense. It’s like a little bit of, you know, different stuff going on in that one. It’s good though. I love shallow but every time I watch a movie, I’m just like, just to my favorite TV series of all time. I’m stuck between weeds and and Dexter was really good to Dexter. Almost good. I liked that one gave me anxiety. But I did like it. You was good. So it was like three of them.
Mike Collette 28:40
You that’s the one that’s on Netflix, right with the guy that’s like, he’s like obsessed with this girl. Yeah, yeah, that’s creepy.
Christina Wagher 28:49
Yeah. That one instilled like a whole new level of paranoia and my partner, which I don’t appreciate, but she’s like, you can’t, can’t go for walks.
Mike Collette 29:00
It’s kind of crazy. It is. I do remember. I did watch that show. And it’s like, addicting. But it’s also like the heck. You have like weird mixed emotions in that show. Totally. It’s like, it’s like, he really likes her. But he’s also like, a psycho. It’s I
Christina Wagher 29:16
You feel bad for him, but you hate him at the same time.
Mike Collette 29:19
Yeah, it was so weird. I but yeah, it was a good show.
Christina Wagher 29:23
Things like that. That make me think. So definitely that one. And so I just finished binlog binge watching one division. It went by so fast, which is so sad. So cool. I’ve never really been big into Marvel stuff, but like, the way that they executed it was so good. And if you watch it, and you’re like, Huh, first couple episodes are weird. Just stick through it. It gets really, really good. And then I’m also binge watching forged in fire. I’ve seen most of them, but I just love that show. It’s so cool. Have you seen that before?
Mike Collette 29:52
No. What is that?
Christina Wagher 29:53
So Forged In Fire is, as you guys know, my girlfriend’s a welder. So I’m like, we’re like super rare. Interested in any like any sort of creating like with metal and stuff so fortune fire is like this competition show where they bring in all of these forgers that make these knives from scratch. So you forge metal, you make knives, and they they go through these different challenges and stuff and then at the end they make them recreate this like iconic battle weapon, which is so cool. Like samurai swords and stuff, and they have to do it in their home Forge. So, it’s pretty cool. It’s just interesting to see how people can you know, create things from their hands like as a creator like I consider myself a creator as far as like food and painting and drawing and things like that. So like seeing people create things from nothing, it’s just it’s insane, especially the art of metal. So it’s pretty cool.
Mike Collette 30:43
I’m not a creative person in that regard. I don’t have that my brain operates I have a huge respect for people like like you they can do that is not my skill set. So do I know what the metal doing? Like? My cousin’s a glass blower? Like this? blows my mind? blows my just blows my mind. I mean, there’s a show on glass blowing now too. And it’s like a show for everything. I sat next question is favorite musician, artists, fans, whatever, all time favorite music. Oh,
Christina Wagher 31:14
that’s a really hard one. Again, I’m probably gonna give you a really a couple of them because it’s just so hard for me to
Mike Collette 31:21
Its all good.
Christina Wagher 31:23
And they all go in different directions. I mean, guy I, my go to on like a chill day is either like slightly stupid or sheep dogs. Those two are just like chill vibes. Good music. I love like, I love kid Cuddy. I always have musics deep, meaningful. It’s good stuff. Some of his musics not that great, but some of the older stuff is really good. So what was that just favorite artists, right? Is that what you said?
Mike Collette 31:49
Favorite musician/ artist, whatever of all time.
Christina Wagher 31:50
I got a few. I mean, I love queen. I love old school, rock and roll. I mean, anybody who takes my 530 knows that I’m pretty well rounded with music. I play literally everything that you can think of. So I love dubstep. I love electronic music. I love oldies, I love reggae. You know, I love metal. I love everything really can’t. Not too big on country, but I’m starting to kind of get back into it. A little bit like the sheep dogs is kind of out of my, you know, it’s like little country vibe, a little rock vibes. It’s just really good. Feel good music. So definitely recommend checking them out.
Mike Collette 32:25
The medley of music. Oh, yeah, that was, I would say last question is what is your favorite hobby? Everything you do, and you’re not like working out? Or like working or at the gym or whatever with your, with your family? or just in general? What’s your what’s your hobby of choice.
Christina Wagher 32:43
So if I would say, if it’s not involved in like physical activity, because I love to just be outside. I love to hike. I recently picked up rollerblading, which makes me feel ridiculous, but it’s really fun
Mike Collette 32:57
So go off some sweet jumps.
Christina Wagher 33:01
I won’t be in the next week. That would be a mess. No, but I think my favorite my number one favorite hobby. Like if I’m just gonna sit down and do something by myself is, is drawing and painting. I love painting. I love drawing. I love love doing art stuff, super releasing, and it’s rewarding.
Mike Collette 33:18
So what kind of art isn’t just like self portraits or just kind of doodling like what are? What are your? Yeah, so I feel like I know a lot about art because it’s watched a documentary. It’s like called the greatest heist or robbery. This is all it’s called. This is a robbery on Netflix. And it’s about the Oh, I don’t even know like this was in Boston. Back in. Whoa, that 1990 early 90s. And it’s the I don’t even know this museum existed in Boston. And apparently they have all these amazing paintings and guys robbed these paintings. And they still really haven’t figured out who did it. But it’s like, like, the story is kind of crazy. And I mean, they stole like $200 million worth of art. Like, like, we’re talking about, like, you know, some serious things anyway. Some pretty much a painting now. But, but what what do you what were you saying was your like your your go to what do you do?
Christina Wagher 34:22
So I mean, I love to paint. Like, I love when people give me pictures to paint. So like, in the past, I’ve done portraits of animals. You know, I did a portrait of my mom’s cat who passed away. I did a picture for my dad’s birthday of him and his little French Bulldog. You know, I love being able I love when people give me a painting a picture. And I don’t like doing it exactly as its as its looked. I like doing it as it’s perceived. So if I see it as like a, you know, like a fun and or whimsical picture, then I’ll kind of do it a little bit more abstract or, you know, if I see it as like a dark or sad picture. I kind of do it a little But more of like a different tones and stuff. So just kind of really like accentuating and highlighting like what’s going on in the picture to give it like that amplified feel. I love recreate 11 recreating images, I guess I could say it’s like my favorite thing to do.
Mike Collette 35:14
Like recreation. Well, Christina, this was awesome. I really appreciate you being part of the community conversation. It means a lot to not only me but community and everyone that’s watching tuning in. Remember, every week we’re releasing a new community conversation with a new guest to get you started to get to know about the new community conversations posted to our YouTube page or daily newsletter. We’re also finding on podcasts, Spotify, Google, also posted in our community members only group on Facebook. So lastly, if you are interested in being on a community conversation, to shoot us a message and we’d love to have you so until next time. Thank you, Christina. And thank you
Christina Wagher 35:57
I appreciate it. Awesome. Thank you so much, Mike.