Champions Mojo
Welcome Masters swimmers, triathletes, and anyone striving to live well and swim well! Hear powerful interviews with world-class champions, leading experts, and everyday heroes—sharing tips, tools, and stories to boost your motivation, training, and life performance. Hosted by Kelly Palace, elite Masters swimmer, author, and former NCAA Division I head coach. A podcast that champions you!
Champions Mojo
The CBS Survivor Who Swims Like an Olympian and Defies Age: Janet Carbin, ENCORE EP 290
What if your 60s is your prime? We sit down with Janet Carbin—a CBS Survivor Season 39 favorite, veteran swim coach, and one of the few female chief lifeguards in the country—to unpack the mindset, training habits, and nutrition choices that keep her strong in open water and in life. Janet brings a rare mix of humility and edge: she earns respect by doing the work, leads by example, and shows how authenticity can be a competitive advantage when the clock doesn’t lie.
Janet breaks down the mental models that carry her through discomfort, from framing tough days as “five 500s” to practicing hard skills until they feel simple. She takes us behind the scenes of her Survivor prep—learning to start fire without flint, drilling balance challenges, and building resilience for cold, rain, and social stress. We talk candidly about injuries, shoulder surgeries, and how to reinvent your relationship with sport at 60 by moving daily, adding variety, and redefining success beyond old personal bests.
We also dig into performance nutrition and why Janet calls sugar “poison” for long-term health and recovery. Expect practical guidance on when electrolytes actually matter, how to spot junk disguised as protein, and why real food supports consistent training. Leadership is the throughline: earn it, own it, and stay open enough to learn from the 17-year-olds on your team. If you’re navigating age, comeback goals, or a new chapter, this conversation offers a clear framework—be direct with yourself, move every day, fuel well, and practice the hard thing until it’s yours.
If this spoke to you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review. It truly helps. And don’t miss my new book, False Cure, now available at Amazon and Barnes Noble. www.False-cure.com
Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.
You're gonna walk out of here and do something different in your life. And I'm gonna start by saying that my first takeaway out of interviewing you is truly being authentic and owning my age and my limitations and my unlimitations, and just being inspired to be authentic and go out and continue to add to my repertoire and not look at what I can't do anymore, but what I can add. Hello, friends. This is Kelly Pallas, host of Champions Mojo, your place for better health, resilience, and master swimming. I'm taking a short break from recording new episodes of Champions Mojo for two exciting reasons. First, I'm launching my latest book, False Cure. It's a whistleblowing investigative journalism book about a denied health epidemic. If you'd like more information on that, it's in the show notes. The second and most compelling reason I'm on a break is here at Champions Mojo, we're preparing for the January 2026 reboot of powerful new weekly episodes with expert guest interviews, inspiring topics, and tips to take your mindset, health, and personal performance to the next level. We will be announcing some exciting partnerships with show. We will be announcing some exciting we will be announcing some incredible partnerships with the show, and I guarantee what we have in store for you will empower you and keep your mojo strong in the new year. While I'm prepping all this great stuff, we've selected while I'm preparing all this great stuff, we've selected some of our shows. While I'm preparing some of this great stuff, we've selected some of our best shows ever for an encore series. My hope is that if this is your second time listening to this episode, you'll take away even more insight and motivation. Or if it's your first time, you'll love this episode as much as everyone else did. So settle in and enjoy this Encore presentation in its entirety. We are going to be talking with my favorite survivor from season 39. She was the second to last person voted out of the show. If it hadn't been for that damn idle nullifier, I think she would have been the champion. But she is with us today because she's an amazing swimmer. And as you know, we have a lot of swimmers that listen, but we also have a lot of non-swimmers. But we're going to be so inspired to hear from her on how Survivor was, what she does with these four times a week open water swims. She got my attention and the attention of the swimming community because in the first water challenge of Survivor Season 39, she kept up with on a let's say it was about a hundred meter swim, maybe 50 meters, but it didn't matter, against Olympic swimmer Elizabeth Beisel. She went stroke for stroke with Elizabeth Beisel. And everybody on their couches just was like, what? But um she also has been a lifelong coach. She's coached many swimmers to the Olympic trials level. She swam herself in at Trenton State. Both of her kids got Division I swim scholarships, and she is here with us today. It's none other than Janet Carbon.
SPEAKER_00:Hello, thank you for having me. We're so excited to have you, Janet. Thank you for coming.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, and our theme for this show today is I'm I'm just gonna call it breaking barriers and defying age. So Maria and I are for us. I love it.
SPEAKER_04:I love it.
SPEAKER_03:You know, we're older gals here, and yet we're still out there doing like Maria did a 12-hour endurance road race on her bike this weekend. And, you know, I'm still doing master's meets, but you, Janet, you really inspired me because I feel like there is ageism is out there. People look at us, and they, you know, a lot of times people in Survivor that they vote the old people off first. So, what are your thoughts on how you're just out there still kicking butt?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I've always felt like age is a number. I'm very, very fortunate to have spent my entire life working with young people, swimmers, students, lifeguards that I continue to work with. And that keeps me young. And I'm a leader by example. I'm not going to ask my swimmers, my athletes, my lifeguards to do anything that I am not willing to do myself. It's a family, a swim family, a beach family, and uh there's a level of respect that I give them and they give me, and that's what motivates me. You know, when I have my lifeguards who are swimmers going off to college and talking about, you know, Janet, I don't know if I should get in the boat and row or do this or do that. Should I compete at Lifeguard Nationals or this lifeguard competition? Because, you know, they're on scholarships for swimming. And um I am a beach captain that understands that whole life since I was in it myself and a coach of it. And uh, you know, it's just they keep me young. They're they're the awesome people in my life. And then down here, I am so blessed with people my age that we open water swim with. And I just feel I I drive to the ocean going, how lucky am I? How blessed am I that I am driving to the beach in February and I'm meeting up with my swim partners and we're going for an ocean mile just to get it in. How how lucky am I? That's terrific.
SPEAKER_01:Well, we should say that you move recently, three years ago, moved down from New Jersey where it wasn't so easy to open water swim in February.
SPEAKER_00:It's true. I have always said that if you're an athlete in cold areas, you're a tough athlete because not only are you getting up at four and five in the morning when it's dark, but it's cold. Right. And it but yeah, it's worth it. So you're good at discomfort. It's kind of, yeah, my jam, you know, when you spend eight to ten hours a day on a beach and you know, getting up in the morning and getting in cold water and doing all that kind of stuff, it's cool, it's just a part of life. It always feels good afterward, like that first cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_03:Oh boy, isn't that the truth? It is. So, what things did you learn or take from your swimming career into being successful on Survivor?
SPEAKER_00:Well, my swimming career enabled me, I I became one of the first female lifeguards back in 77. I was the first one in Manisquan, and I I don't know how many were in the state of New Jersey at that point.
SPEAKER_01:You were the first female lifeguard on the beach.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, yeah. So, and as a female chief lifeguard now, which I've been I'm going into my 15th year in Spring Lake, I was always second in command, and I got this break. And there's only one other female chief lifeguard. She just got the job in Fort Lauderdale, and she came from my area and she swam with my daughter, and I'm so proud of her. But there's only two of us probably in the country. Um, and I work in a man's world and I'm and I respect the men I work with and I've earned their respect. I don't ever that's what swimming brought, you know, to survivor for me. Don't give me accolades that I didn't earn. If I'm not up on that clock, if I didn't swim that time and make that cut, don't give me respect and accolades. So when I went to the island, that's what I went with that attitude. That's why I started fire the first day.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, that's so beautiful. Yeah, I forgot about that, but yes, you that was one of my goals because you probably would have been voted out early.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. That is so good.
SPEAKER_01:So you're used to having to earn respect.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and that's what swimming taught you. Swimming totally taught me that because you can't fake it in swimming. You know, you can't, the clock doesn't lie, the laps don't lie, the the effort doesn't lie. And when you turn that over to open water, that's what I do with my rookies and my senior guards. We take I take them in by myself and I teach them, you know, that and I'll say to them, you're a six foot three 20-year-old, but I can swim faster than you. Think about that. Why? And then they start thinking, and then they start working, and then I talk to them. And the mental focus, which we know is 90% swimming, is what I and that's what I brought to the island to me, is my mental focus. I knew I wasn't gonna have a problem with the beach itself, but I wanted to break the barrier for women, older women, and I knew my best way to do it was to start fire without flint. So I practiced, and my husband, he helped me, and I learned what bamboo to use and how to do it. And he was a he was a great coach. He had the backyard set up with balance beams and and boards and giant slingshots, and yeah, it was great.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my gosh, that is so that's so great. So the you practiced, and how would you say like you could equate that to if you're giving someone advice and they're going into something really difficult, what would your advice with your mindset? So you said your your mindset was there. What what like did you ever do you ever talk negatively to yourself?
SPEAKER_00:I mean I try not to.
SPEAKER_03:So what is your mindset?
SPEAKER_00:My mindset is is I can get through anything. And the funny thing is, and I've taught my daughters this, who were both swimmers, and I'll say it to my swimmer lifeguards. When we were on the island, I've been thinking, you know, and it's cold and rainy, and I know in three days I might be able to get a food reward. I used to go in my head, okay, this is like doing five five hundreds. Just put your head down. Let's get the first five hundred done. Let's get the next 500 done. And by the second day, I would equate it to the next set of whatever I was swimming, you know, and and it's true. And I would tell my daughters that, you know, my one daughter's in labor. I have two granddaughters from her, and I'm like, okay, we're doing it, we're doing a the double workout today. You know, just like think about that. And she'll she's been very successful in business also, and attributes that to her swimming.
SPEAKER_01:So the the the the mindset of the athlete, I've done this before, I've done this hard thing, I can do whatever this next thing is. What would you say to somebody who maybe isn't necessarily an athlete? What how would you say, what would you say to reach for when you're trying to do something tough?
SPEAKER_00:I tell people, and this is something that I really strongly believe in. There's that inner voice inside of you. And as women, I believe our culture doesn't cultivate that. And that's what I really that's been my mission, and that's my mission today, is to cultivate that inner voice. You know, I say, listen to your gut. Everybody has it. Listen to it, and that's why I told Elizabeth Weisel at one point when we were together. I said, What is your gut telling you? She's like, You're right. And it's it's so true. It is never, ever, I'm 60 years old. It has never ever failed me.
SPEAKER_01:And listen to your gut.
SPEAKER_00:Listen to your gut, listen to that little pit of your stomach. And if you're gonna give up, what is that little pit of your stomach saying? Is it okay with that? Because it might be. Some situations you might need to step back. Listen to it, you know. But if it doesn't sit right, then you gotta figure out a new way. As I as I t I would tell my athletes and my girls, you know, we know we want to get to here, you know, and this was our goal and our path, a straight line, but bumps come in the road, and you just gotta go around them, you can still get there. And uh, and both of them did. I remember sitting, I sit all my swimmers down at some point. I just had another talk with another one this past summer, but I sit them all down. And I with my girls when they were 12 and 13, I sat them down and I said, What do you want out of swimming? Do you want to enjoy it? Because it's an awesome sport. Do you want it to pay for college? Do you want to go to they had the ability to be Olympians? And we sat and made decisions as where we were gonna gear their swimming towards. And I did that. I had one of my girls that went to South Carolina, and uh she's graduated and we went to Lifeguard Nationals, and she's like, I'm having a hard time. And I said, You need to develop a new relationship with swimming periodically from year to year. Andreas Rostenberg, he's a coach in New Jersey, he swam for Texas. You know, at one point he had, you know, when the Olympics fell out of focus for him, you know, he was like, I don't know where to go with my swimming. Every swimmer, every single swimmer I know has to develop new relationships. It's like a toddler that grows up, a swimmer that grows up. Where does your swimming change? And for me, my swimming has changed. I still pool swim probably two or three times a week. You know, in the summer I'll do a little bit more because the master's swimming that I run is right there at my office. So how can I not when it's right there? But I do a lot more open water swimming now. That's my new relationship.
SPEAKER_03:So, what really inspired you to get way out of your comfort zone and do Survivor?
SPEAKER_00:I wanted to do Survivor since the first season. I it was like I used to physically be in pain when I'd watch the show and I'd be like, oh, I want to be there so bad. And I applied four times over a 20-year period, and they were really funny, funny and fun to do. The last one that actually flat they noticed, Survivor noticed, was a rain day with my lifeguards. We were all bored, and I said, let's make a video. And we had the best time making this video, and it was so funny, and sent it in, and um, the irony was I probably should have been on the edge of extinction, but when they called me, the time was too close to make it happen. So I actually thought my survivor dream was over, and I finally accepted that it wasn't gonna happen. And then August, I got an email and a phone call. I'm leaving for Lifeguard Nationals, my boat's hooked up, and I got, hey, would you like to audition again? And it started from there.
SPEAKER_03:So when I look at Survivor, I love watching it. I've watched every season at least, at least once or twice. And I see bug bites and starving and freezing and uncomfortable, and I just say, Oh, I would never do Survivor. So, what attracted you to it? Like, what was the what was the attraction?
SPEAKER_00:I knew living on a beach was gonna be okay. I knew swimming was gonna be okay. I knew open water swimming, since I'm a chief lifeguard and I've spent my life on the ocean, was gonna be okay. Why not? You know, I'm I love adventure. You know, at this point I need a new adventure.
SPEAKER_01:And you like to suffer.
SPEAKER_00:I guess, you know, you know, it was funny. At one point on the show, when I fell from grace, is what I call it. I dug a hole, because that's what we do on the beach when we have bad weather. And I slept in the hole two or three nights. By the second or third night, I loved it. I was like so much happier there, and but I needed to get back into the game, so I had to enmesh myself back in with the with the tribe. But yeah, I mean that was the most wonderful nights when I slept by myself in the hole that I dug.
SPEAKER_03:What was the hardest thing in Survivor? Like, what was the hardest?
SPEAKER_00:The two hardest things were it was very, very cold at night and it rained. I can tell you day 26 and day 34 were brutal. Brutal. It rained for 17 hours, one of them. And you were freezing, you were cold, you dreaded the rain. Um, the other thing was the psychological game was much harder than the physical, much harder. I did not expect it to be as intense as it was.
SPEAKER_01:Um that's my question. You seem like a real straight shooter. I am, and so how do you go on to a show like Survivor and do as well as you did being a straight shooter?
SPEAKER_00:You know, prior to going on, I didn't know because I had four goals going on break the glass ceiling for older women. That was my first goal, and start fire without Flint, find an idol, and win the show. I oh, and spear a fish, which I did. That was like awesome. Um, I was going to go in with a game plan lying about my age, you know, because I thought that would have but you know what? 48-year-old woman, it wasn't gonna be any better than my uh actual age. So I've right before I went on to the show, I said, you know what? I could probably lie for about three days and then it would all fall apart. So I'm just gonna go be me. And I did have a people think that even my survivor friends think that I can't be devious. I absolutely want 100. I tempered my it was said to me, oh, there's the chief lifeguard. There were some couple moments that I you saw the boss come out because I have 150 lifeguards that I manage and was a swim coach for you know what I mean. It's that's there. But I tempered that. I didn't want them to see, I wanted them to see the person they thought that couldn't be devious. There was a lot of stuff that you didn't see on the show that was behind the scenes. So you were deliberate in your interactions.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:I I love the two, like you just hit two gems for me. One, you had goals, you had defined goals going in there. Like I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do this. That's from swimming. Yeah, and that's beautiful. And then you were clear that you were gonna be authentic. You could have gone in there and said, Hey, I'm 48. And but you were gonna be authentic. So I I love that.
SPEAKER_01:And also, yeah, you know two sides of yourself. There's the there's the leader manager side, and then there's the side that can be nice and and be more interactive, relational, I guess.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't want to be the leader coming off. I was trying very hard not to be. But in my job, and as a teacher, a swim coach, and a lifeguard chief, my I observed people. So there was a lot of observing that I that was going on. And when I saw the cracks happen, I used them.
SPEAKER_03:Janna, what is your biggest obstacle that you've overcome in your life?
SPEAKER_00:My biggest obstacle? Probably creating the position, it's it's probably creating the position that I'm in now as a chief lifeguard in a man's world, and I don't know that I would view it as an obstacle as much as a challenge, and establish myself rightfully so, not because I'm the token woman. You know, I there's another man that I we run the County Lifeguard Associate Chiefs Association, you know, I earned it, and I'm proud of that, you know. But any mother can say the biggest obstacle is making sure your kids come out okay, you know. My older son is challenged, and uh he's a wonderful human being. He's 34 years old, and you know, I could say that was a biggest obstacle. Um, they're just challenges, you know, a failed marriage. Uh, I was a single mom with two kids before I met my current husband who took the kids on, and we had a child together also. We had to explain to them that they weren't biological. They all think that John's their dad anyway.
SPEAKER_03:Any health challenges? Have you ever had any health challenges? Your shoulders?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. Well, that's kind of just I have a full replacement in my left shoulder, and I'm trying to hold off replacing my right shoulder, and I've had five shoulder surgeries. You know, it's the old swimmer, you know, I was a butterfly, which I can't swim butterfly anymore. I mean, I used to swim butterfly while everybody was doing freestyle, you know, and uh I just I can barely do a lap of butterfly without dying.
SPEAKER_03:Well, this is a great time to tell you and launch some a little bit of a little bit of coaching. I have had diagnosed MRI uh shoulder impingement and a torn rotator cuff. Couldn't raise my arm here, used to do butterfly, can barely do butterfly anymore. And I have recently found a book, and I'm gonna put it in the show notes because but it's called Hanging to Cure Your Shoulder Problems. Really? And it is amazing. You hang from a a pull-up bar straight down and you hang, you need to look it up, but you hang for on and off, you start slow, like three times 30 seconds, but you work up to hanging for a total of 15 minutes, and it remodels your shoulder. I could believe that. And it totally like even the the stats, this just you know, double blind, placebo controlled, they had a hundred people, 50 of them had torn rotator cuffs and shoulder impingements, and it healed a torn rotator cuff. So without surgery, so you may want to try hanging.
SPEAKER_00:I will absolutely try it because after each of my surgeries, it's it's pretty funny that you say that because I used to hold on to the flagpole and just while I was coaching and just hang on to the flagpole and just try and stretch my shoulder, and it would feel so much better.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well we'll put that in the show notes, but I while we had everybody's you know attention in the bad moment. So your obstacles, what what I'm hearing is you've had a lot of big obstacles that are typical and and not typical, but that are pretty bad. And yet you don't even like when we ask you that question, you can't even find the obstacle.
SPEAKER_01:They're just challenging. They're in the past. Yeah, I'm past. I like that. You know what I'm really impressed with, and I I want to hear you talk about this. Your self-talk is so positive. And I think, you know, I don't want this to be a sexist thing, but I think sometimes we women can be hard on each other, hard on ourselves, in our heads. So did you that's something you developed?
SPEAKER_00:It's funny, yes. I would have to say I developed it because I grew up in a very crazy household, so there wasn't a lot of that going on with my husband John. He actually taught me this. He used to say, get more direct in your thinking. I and I used to go, that's thinking like men. So I'd sit back and I'd watch the other chiefs interact and different men at different points interact, and I'd watch the way they interact, and none of men don't put themselves down. And I started developing, and I would call it my male way of thinking. If I could teach more women to do that, which I have, you know, I think talk to us, give us the three things be much more direct.
SPEAKER_03:What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00:Be direct, like women don't hint. Yeah, women, yeah, be much more direct. Women talk flowerly until they get to the point they want to get to. It might take in five minutes, the last 30 seconds is what they really wanted to say. Men start with the first 30 seconds, the that last 30 seconds. So I started doing that. Be direct, that's one thing. Be direct, be honest, as hard as it might be, be honest, and then own it. Whether somebody agrees with it or not, own it. And if you'll notice, men do that. And that's why I think their relationships, and I watch them, and I started to do that with myself. So your thoughts are the same. You try to be direct and honest and own it. And own it. Owning it's really important because I think a lot of people, and I hate to say it, but probably more women than men, are afraid to own it because it might not be the popular or the maternal or the feminine way of thinking that they might be thinking, but it's okay. Own it.
SPEAKER_03:Well, look, can I can you can coach me for a second, coach? Okay. So if I'm you know, I'm freaking out a little bit about a birthday I have coming up, same one you have coming up, and I tend to find myself talking about age. So what what do I say?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, what I do, because I turned 60 in June, what I do is prior to that, I started referring to myself as 60. What is 60? I'm 60, so what does that mean? So what can I do at 60 that I couldn't do at 59, 58, you know, 50. And then then I started to embrace it by saying it, saying it out loud. I started to embrace it, and then now I'm like, dog, I'm 60, let's go. And that's that's owning it for me. And it's a lot of self-talk, and it's a lot of saying, you know, it's okay.
SPEAKER_03:But you're saying things that you can do now that you couldn't do, and I'm finding as I turn 60, there's so many things that I can't do that I used to do.
SPEAKER_00:Then find something else, find something new that I can do. I started trail riding on a bike a month ago.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Met a whole bunch of women that have now come to me, my age and maybe probably younger, but that are meeting up with the trail ride. Met a bunch of women that are playing pickleball up at Wickham Park every week.
SPEAKER_03:I do that.
SPEAKER_00:Find something new.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And do it. And keep doing what you're doing, but develop a new relationship.
SPEAKER_03:I love that.
SPEAKER_01:I do too. I like that. I like the idea of becoming a new person at 60.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and Maria, you and I were talking about this this morning over coffee. That, you know, you and I have won about every title you can win in endurance cycling and master swimming.
SPEAKER_00:Find something new.
SPEAKER_03:And those are not gonna keep easily.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You know, so we need to find something new.
SPEAKER_00:You need to keep doing that, but have a new relationship with it and say, you know what? I did that. And I can still do that, and it can still be a part of my life because it's part of my life, but in a different way. It's like it's like a a relationship that you have with your children or your partner. It has to keep changing in order for it to get developed and grow. Well, same thing with you. Develop that relationship with yourself. You know, that's where us as women sometimes worry about everybody else. But they're gonna be better if we're better, right?
SPEAKER_01:That's so great. I love this concept of developing a relationship that changes with your sport, with your family, and with yourself. I just think that's really, really smart.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and how about I think what we women do really well, and I think people do it in general, is we do as I say, not as I do, or you know, I can coach others to tons of success, but when it comes to my own self talk, like I can coach people all day long about what they need to say. What do you how do you respond to that?
SPEAKER_00:Um, my response is it's very important to me to lead by example. And I may not be able to get in and swim an 8,000 or Or do you know whatever that the kids are doing, but you know what? I'm gonna get in and swim. And I'm gonna show you what I can do. And I've never I've always gotten respect for it. You know, um, and then when you try something new, like I started rowing several years ago, so I got that's my goal on my beach is to get all my girls rowing, plus my boys, you know, my boys are just as important to me. And without my boys and my girls respecting each other, which they do, you can't grow. And they do, and that's important. And if if I'm going to be vulnerable, you know, I may have been a champion at one point in my life in butterfly. It's okay not to be right now, but you know what? You're you're gonna see what I can do, and that's my vulnerability. If you let people see that you're vulnerable, they're gonna respect you. If you're gonna do something new, you may not do it the way you used to. Oh well, but you're still doing it. Lori Kruger, who is a a cyclist, triathlet, and one of my open water swimming friends, said to me one day, she she we were we were swimming, and I said to her, I said, we're not unique. And she looked at me and she says, Well, we are. She's 59. She said, We are unique to a lot of people our age. I said, Yeah, but we're really not. There's still a lot of people out there that are don't believe you're unique. That's another key thing for me. There's so many people out there that can do what I can do, and then some that I can learn from and enjoy. And I think that's really important, is to not believe that I'm and I think we do that a lot as human beings as we get older, men and women. Just because you get older, you think you're better, or you have to live to a certain standard, or you have to do something, you don't. You're not unique. Do the what you can do, and people will respect you for it. For trying, for just putting yourself out there. I mean, I have 16, 17-year-old kids that I learn from. And I think too many older people think that they should they they can't do that. That they'll be less than, or they should just because they're older, they deserve the respect. No, no, no, no, no, no. I've never believed that. And it's worked for me.
SPEAKER_01:I love that. I love that combination of earning it and also humility. Yeah. That's what you're talking about. It's like, hey, we're not unique. There's there's people out there, but but but you're obviously confident in who you are and what you've done.
SPEAKER_00:I think because I believe I'm not unique, I think that gives the confidence because I don't have to set a standard to somebody else.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I've always felt that way that I'm nothing special. I think that's what makes me be able to do champions mojo and be a podcaster. It's like I'm I'm just average little girl with seven and a half size feet, and you know, anybody can do what I've done, and you know, we can all do it.
SPEAKER_00:We can definitely all do that special thing in our lives just because we're who we are. And you know, you're not special, you just gotta be open, be vulnerable, be humble, and be willing to listen.
SPEAKER_03:And be willing. Yeah, when when you're older, you think, Oh, I need to lead the way, I know, you know, but you know, you might have a great 21-year-old that's gonna show you something that you never even thought possible.
SPEAKER_00:I learn so much from the young people I work with all the time. And I and I tell them, Wow, thanks. Yeah, and they look at me like you're open.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I love that. I love that. So, what would you say? You're obviously a champion. We talk a lot about champions' traits, which which we'll get to. Um, how about your routines and rituals? Uh for like a day or a week. Yeah, like a day or a week, or something that you know. You're a champion.
SPEAKER_01:What do champions do?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, what like a lot of people talk about they have morning routines or they have exercise routines, or what things do you do that make you get into a space of success?
SPEAKER_00:Well, probably six mornings a week, I do something by six o'clock in the morning, 5 30, 6, whether it's like today I went spinning and I had boot camp, and then I probably, if I wasn't here, I would have taken my kayak down to the beach and did some kayaking, riding waves and stuff like that. But you know, there has to be people always say, Oh, you just love, you know, working out. Well, no, not really. Not really, but you know what? I like what it does for me, you know, and um it's important. Like Tuesday morning, tomorrow morning, uh, every Tuesday, I'm gonna meet my swim partner up in Cocoa Beach, and we do our ocean mile and and who and other people that come. And Wednesday morning is spinning and at 5 30 and something else in the afternoon. Sometimes I'll take off from that. And that could be just the straight beach day where I body surf or something. Depends on the waves. Thursday morning is swimming in the pool, Friday morning swimming in the pool, and then swim open water at night, Saturday morning is pool swimming, Sunday mor I mean ocean swimming, and then Sunday morning is ocean swimming also. So six days a week you exercise in the morning. Yeah, I try and take a day off, but sometimes it if I if I wait till eight o'clock, that feels like a vacation. So I just think you have to do something, you have to move. And then then I add in the fun things. The Wednesday, if it's cold out, I'm gonna go meet these women that have invited me to play pickleball. I got two women at my gym now that call me up to go trail riding behind my house on the bike that I have, my little green bike. You know, so I just think every day you need to move. You need to. A friend of mine that I used to run at 4:30 in the morning at the track in Jackson, New Jersey. It'd be ice and snow, but we met every morning before school and ran around this track. You gotta break a sweat. Every day. Somehow do something. Other rituals for doing something is my ritual. Okay. You know, any mindset rituals of uh meditation or I yes, I do do um I will intersperse yoga in there, and it will be yoga where I'm I'm really becoming introspective. And I started doing some meditation, breathing. It's hard for me because I'm a very hyper person, so that's a real challenge for me. I'd rather go swim three miles than sit down and have to be calm, and I try. So that's that's my afternoon.
SPEAKER_01:What about nutrition? Do you have a particular nutrition ritual or I do?
SPEAKER_00:I've always been conscious of nutrition, and I speak a lot to my athletes about that because it's it's an issue with swimmers and especially female swimmers, eating disorders and poor nutrition and things of that nature. It's a real issue, and uh I have very strong feelings about it. But uh for before Survivor, I was probably a vegetarian for about 15 years, and then knowing I was going on Survivor, I started introducing meat in my diet because I didn't want to be physically ill on the island in case I want it and a reward, and I'd need it. And now I'm back into that. But I have nothing against people that eat meat at all. It's just a personal choice for a lot of reasons for me. You just have to eat healthy. Sugar is poison. Poison. Um, and I mean that. It's an addiction. It I believe it causes 90% of people's health issues later on in life. And I think that there's I know I probably sound like a wacko, but I'm sure there's a lot of things. No, I completely agree with you. You are preaching to the choir.
SPEAKER_01:I totally agree. I'm a reformed, well, not even reformed, but I'm an addict today.
SPEAKER_00:I have to say no to sugar. It's it's it I it changes your personality. I think there's links to cancer with it. I really do. I know it sounds crazy, but I really I don't know how because inflammation and proliferation of cells.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, that's been proven cancer grows more in sugar.
SPEAKER_00:And I think sugar is probably the number one, and and everybody cracks up around me because you know we'll be having our morning meetings with the lifeguards, and I got broccoli out there. You know, and I don't have time frames with food. You know, I will have I make my own tuna, I make all my own stuff, and I'm a uh foodie, I guess you would say. I it's that on my bucket list at some point. I'd love to publish a cookbook, a vegan vegetarian cookbook. I have a file folder with a million recipes, and I'm always in my kitchen experimenting. But um, my guac and my red sauce, you can't beat it. Um, you know, I think nutrition is is a big, big factor to a lot of people and how they are living later in life. I think it's a huge I think if you didn't exercise and you fixed your diet, and I mean take sugar out of it, and I'm not saying completely, I'm just saying not the way it's in people have no idea how much stuff is in all this marketing. You know, what are the the protein bars, half of them are useless junk. I probably shouldn't be saying that, but no, it's that's true.
SPEAKER_03:They're full of trees, like full of chemicals and sugar and but they're marketing as an athlete.
SPEAKER_00:This is gonna help you be a better athlete. You know, Gatorade, Gatorade, things like that that that have good balances. They do balance the blood with electrolytes and things like that, but that's after two hours, not after a half hour or an hour or an hour and a half, it's after two hours of severe, intense workouts, workouts. You know, and people think, you know, you see them walking into the gym with their Gatorade bottles, and I just like go, oh, you're killing it.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_01:I like that. I like that message about sugar because it's it's addictive, as you said. It is a lot of people don't understand how much uh sugar they get in their diet.
SPEAKER_03:I love that.
SPEAKER_00:My uh oldest daughter, a little joke in our house, because my mother lives with us, she's lived with us for 24 years, and uh my oldest daughter, when she comes to visit, she'll bring in like donuts or cookies or she goes, because I know mom's neglecting you because there's nothing in the house.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that sounds like a very familiar story, I'm sure, to a lot of people. So, what traits do you think champions share?
SPEAKER_00:I believe champions share the belief in themselves. I believe the determination to never give up. Um, that little inner voice that says they that it it's okay. Because there are champions that shouldn't be champions. If you looked at all the um things in their life, they shouldn't be a champion. I believe that in my life, I am I did have a very successful swimming career, hands down, but I believe that the challenges in my life made me a fantastic coach. And I don't want to say that that sounds very braggy. I don't want to say that I mean a fantastic coach because I understood the kid, you know, and I think that being open to listening to others, it it's so frustrating as a coach to see this kid with incredible talent, but they won't trust you or listen to you, and it goes out the window. So I believe that champions have a belief in themselves, a trust, a willingness to listen, a willingness to change. And I believe they're they're key elements to anybody that's gonna be a champion.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. I think you have been so inspirational.
SPEAKER_03:And then, Janet, if you can come up with something that because of this conversation, you're gonna walk out of here and do something different in your life. And I'm gonna start by saying that my first takeaway out of interviewing you is truly being authentic and owning my age and my limitations and my unlimitations, and just being inspired to be authentic and go out and continue to add to my repertoire and not look at what I can't do anymore, but what I can add.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. My takeaway.
SPEAKER_03:You're gonna have to do two. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Well, one of my takeaways then, this just blows me away, is our converse conversation around self-talk. I I just think you have nailed it, this concept of being of owning, owning your being direct, being honest, owning it, and and doing that in our heads too, not just with other people, but the way we talk to ourselves, listen to your thoughts and and make that you refer to it as more like a man, but make make it positive and make it own your thoughts and make them positive, and that you can change the way you talk to yourself. I loved your story about working on it. It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_03:And your life may look like it's been easy, but when I'm listening to the prep, prep, prep, here you go on Survivor. You build the fire with no flint, which is not easy. But then to hear the backstory, you practiced, your backyard was set up, you knew the difference between coconut husk and bamboo. And so I think just really whatever you want to succeed at, you have to prep. You gotta work, you gotta put in the laps, you gotta put in the the the work. So you're a hard worker, obviously. So that that for me is a takeaway of your success has come at being prepared slash working really hard.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I like that. And you don't even you don't even know you do it. I mean, we tell you, you know, we ask you about it, and you know, yeah, I did this and I did that and I did that. But so I I I love that. That's really true. And my my other amazing takeaway, I think it's so important for all of us, older, you know, I'm getting up there too. And and just this concept that we need to be learning from everyone. You're I love that you said I learn from my kids. And I'm starting starting to experience that first. I'm going from a changing relationship, as you said, with my own kids who are now adults. Now I'm not teaching them really, they're teaching me. And I think being open to that and the what you talk about, you're just your humility in saying, I what can I learn from the people in my lives? That's such a great take-home for me.
SPEAKER_00:I'm really happy for you. Uh, just a little hint on your kids. My daughters are my best friends. Yeah. Um, and we actually, my oldest daughter, who is 33 now, 32. Um, we probably call each other every day. Um, my younger daughter, who's 26, we have over the years, it was a little harder with her because my older daughter and I were so tight. She's like, I just felt so we've always talked about it when she was 13 and 17 and 20. And now we have a great relationship because I said to her, I said, Jen, I'm a I'm a human. Let's be adults with each other now. And now we have a little signal with each other. And it's like, I'm not, we're not doing the mother-child thing, we're doing the adult adult thing. Nice. And the two of us, and she's like, Yeah, and we have a blast when we do that. And it's hard, it's work sometimes, but man, how awesome is it to have like a relationship with your kids that you can call them your friend.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's beautiful. So, Janet, you're up. What are you coming out of here with?
SPEAKER_00:My takeaway is my new adventure of this speaking program that I'm nervous about, that I I get overwhelmed, just talking to you two just helps me think I'm I'm still going in the right track and to believe in it. Believe in it. Oh, absolutely. You're gonna be amazing. You are a pop star.
SPEAKER_01:You are, you're absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_00:I'm scared of it, you know. You've been doing it for an hour. You're great. So, and I also feel like I've met new people that maybe we can hang out and do some swims and do some stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you're inspiring the inspirers. That's right.
SPEAKER_00:So that's that's that's exactly right. Well, you guys are awesome.
SPEAKER_03:Thanks. Well, we're under an hour just by the skin of our teeth, which is our goal. So thank you so much for being watching you and cheering for you. And we're, you know, we're still fans and and yet we're shoulder to shoulder as strong women.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03:Thanks. Thanks so much for listening to this Champions Mojo Encore episode. If it inspired you, please follow the show, share it with a friend, and consider leaving a quick review. It truly helps. And don't forget, my new book, False Cure, is available at Amazon and Barnes Noble. I'll be back in January 2026 with all new episodes to help you live well, swim well, and keep your mojo going.
