Change is Hard

The change I’m proposing you make is the harder one.

When I started A Healthful Life, I had a nightmare of a time figuring out how to convey to people that I wanted to create custom tailored programs for them to find THEIR health. In a way that would last.

When I got hurt, I was really blessed to have a group of people advocating for my health and encouraging me to think about how I wanted my health to look over the longevity of my life. 

This is the difference between you and me: I don’t approach fitness from the standpoint that this is a 30 day and done program. I don’t view this as a temporary aspect of my life. I don’t see this as something I can “take a break from” or let up on.

I know that if I let my workouts go, if I let my eating go, my health will immediately go and I will know that because chronic pain will absolutely debilitate me. I know the potential consequences are not worth the risk.

However, I also know that most people don’t approach health in the same way as me. We, as a fitness industry, have established a standard of the quick fix with no road map of how to maintain the results you achieved.

Meeting someone where they’re at and creating change in a realistic way turned out to be the easy part. The hard part was getting the person on board with the change taking longer than what they wanted.

It means being patient and it means being willing to fail. You have to be willing to try things, see how they work and change them when they don’t. Which means you can’t beat yourself up when you try something and it doesn’t work, you have to be flexible and adaptable to try something different.

I get the appeal of the fast change. The instantaneous results. You want that fast result because you’ve taken so long to change that by now, you wanted that change like yesterday. You don’t want to take the time to make change that will last for the long term. It’s the “I just need to lose 15 pounds” but not thinking past what happens AFTER you lose 15 pounds. 

What I teach is not the temporary, rigid, give up your whole life change just to drop a few pounds. It’s the change that will teach you how to effectively incorporate healthy habits into your life, so you feel like you have balance and you’re not deprived of the things you love.

So you feel like you’re thriving and not surviving.

So you don’t make a drastic change just to lose it a year later when you permanently fall off the wagon, because you gave up too much and couldn’t take it.

I want you to know health as just life. Not a sacrifice, not an inconvenience, but just how you live your life. Healthy, sustainable change means taking the long road. It means trial and error to find what truly works the best for you, and being able to have the skills necessary to make changes when your life changes.

I Will Not Weigh My Food

Don’t ask me to weigh my food 🥘.

I’m kidding. But I will totally refuse.

I’m not a proponent of making super restrictive or insane dietary changes, unless medically necessary, when I coach someone because I know our relationship with food can be a tough one. 

We have this idea that in order to be “healthy”, we can’t have the things that we love. The occasional chips and salsa indulgence, a glass of wine with girlfriends, or some chocolate. We also think we have to calorically restrict ourselves to the point of deprivation.

The human body, and more importantly, the human mind is much more complicated than that. But the solution I want you to find is the harder one to obtain.

If you don’t have a healthy relationship with food you’re not going to get the transformation you want. All those things you restricted with your food will be for nothing because as soon as you stop, all the progress you made will totally stop.

I want to take the food you love 💕, the food your family loves and give you the transformation you want. 

Which means we have to examine your relationship with food as a whole, why you’re making the choices you’re making when it comes to what you get, and the appropriateness of those choices. It also means that at the end of it, you’ll be able to make choices about your food with  confidence, instead of beating yourself up for those choices.

Go To Dinner Recipes

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Whatcha Gonna Do?

I’m not insensitive. 

I just know this is an opportunity so it is what you make of it.

Being able to wake up ☀️, move your body, and create your own healthy lifestyle is a GIFT 🎁.

I never looked at being healthy in that light until I got hurt and the opportunity was taken from me. 

Now I know that even on my worst and unmotivated days, it’s still a chance to give to myself and take care of myself. That might mean taking things down a notch if it doesn’t work for me that day, or even going extra hard because I can. 

Either way, I don’t look at the choices I’m making as an inconvenience or an obstacle. I look at it as a chance to give to myself, to take care of myself when my time is valuable and my days are busy. 

I know when I have those opportunities, big or small, that I need to take advantage of them so I can serve the community around me in a bigger way. 

Instead of thinking of working out and being healthy as an obstacle or a struggle, find the part of it you love the most and focus on that especially during the times you don’t want to try. 

Find that positive aspect of your healthy choices and hone in on those. Put those choices and how much better you feel on repeat. Create the gift for yourself and then continue to give it to yourself. 

Healthy Living is Bigger than Changing Your Diet

I don’t subscribe to the healthy living programs that have you vacillating from one side of the pendulum to the other. There is nothing more frustrating 😤 than giving up every enjoyable aspect of life, getting this HUGE transformation and then totally losing it because the changes were too drastic.

That my friend, is the yo-yo of healthy living and I feel some aspects of that are worse than the lifestyle you currently have. Not only can it potentially mess with your body in irreversible ways, it also messes with your head. There is nothing a whole lot more defeating than working so hard to get this amazing transformation and not being able to hold on to it because the way you got it isn’t realistic for your daily life. 

I want a tailored program for you that teaches you the easy healthy habits you can have in your daily life, so you can still enjoy the life you work so hard for without feeling like you’re deprived of the things you love 💗.

It’s the harder change to make because it takes longer and I know you want the results NOW. It’s also the harder change to make because it’s going to challenge you to unpack why you make certain decisions so you can truly understand why you’ve gotten to where you are. But I know this change is more effective because I know once you make it, you won’t have to make any more changes. Ever again.

You’ll know why you make decisions about food and working out, and you’ll also know how to navigate around those reasonings so you can have the healthy life you want with the balance you also want.

Grab Your Dumbbells!

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We Don't Regress

I don’t care if you become stagnant or even plateau, but your ass better not go backwards. 

Life is going to get chaotic. That’s just a reality of adulting. Whether you work outside your home or not, between managing a household, pets, a family, or whatever it is that’s a priority to you, life can be crazy. The days pass by quickly and seem to be filled with a million things that NEED to get done but might not necessarily happen. 

I know exactly what happens to you when shit hits the fan and life seems crazier than normal. The first thing to go are your workouts. You just don’t have time right? You have this activity or that activity to get to, your kids need whatever they need from you, and frankly there’s just not enough hours in the day to get it all done. So bye bye fitness. You know what goes usually right after that? Your eating. I mean you’re not working out anyways so why worry about what your shoveling in your face? Plus you’re so busy that you don’t have time to even think about it. You’re more concerned with just having something as opposed to nothing at all. 

That’s all backwards motion to me. Regression at its finest. And no one is immune from it. But we have to have better coping mechanisms than that so when you are at the point where you can get consistent in your routine again, you don’t feel like you’ve been set back so far that there’s no catching up so there’s no point in TRYING to catch up. 

Don’t throw all your hard work out the window. When life gets crazy, we have to learn how to adapt and overcome. Have a plan for your week so you don’t get caught up in the chaos. Know the days that would work for you to get a workout in. Maybe that means you don’t get your workout one day, or maybe it means the workout is modified, but compensate for that in other ways. Be mindful of what you’re eating, make the effort to prep healthy snacks so you’re not grabbing for whatever is available and be intentional with your water intake. Maybe even cut out the alcohol on the days you know you’re not going to be working out. 

It doesn’t have to be perfect, this is all a journey and walking this journey means making the necessary adjustments to ensure you can still be making progress towards your goals. 

At the end of the day, don’t give up. Don’t quit on yourself and don’t go backwards. Remind yourself that your goals are still important and still deserved, even if the day isn’t perfect. 

What side do you start on with unilateral work?

I love this question because it shows me that you guys are actively thinking about what you’re doing and how to make it more effective. So get it girl. 

I love unilateral work because it helps create symmetry through the muscle systems in the body. Fancy. Really it helps create balance. 

None of us are balanced. We all have certain muscle systems that are stronger on one side than the other, we have one side that’s stronger with balance, all those things. The predominate side of our body always makes whatever work we’re doing feel easier. It’s just nature. 

I like to work unilaterally or one side at a time because it helps to bring that balance back to the body. And (without getting super into the science) the more you balance you have, the less likely you are to hurt yourself. Unilateral work also challenges your core in a whole NEW kind of way (just trust me).

So when I’m doing a new exercise that’s unilateral, I start on my dominate side. Not only because it makes the movement feel “easier” because my dominate side is more coordinated, but it also helps give the movement more dexterity. 

Regardless of how you start, it’s imperative to be taking notice of how your body is moving and how things feel from side to side. The ultimate goal is that eventually both sides will feel exactly the same, whether you start on your dominate side or your side of opportunity. 

Which all makes me sound super smart. 

It also helps create neurological pathways, giving your body more awareness of what it’s doing so by the time you get to the second side, you don’t feel like AS much of a hot mess. 

That being said, it could be an extra mental challenge if you start with your non-dominate side first, so if you’re looking for that extra push, I say go for it. Give yourself that extra physical and mental challenge.

And keep doing it. Make unilateral work a regular part of your fitness programing so you can increase not just your mind/body awareness but also the symmetry in your body.

Makes Me Nostalgic

One of my favorite memories growing up was learning how to cook with my grandparents. I was really fortunate to have two sets of grandparents who lived relatively close to my family and were super involved with us growing up. 

I was also super fortunate that they were all amazing cooks. Like amazing. No wonder I love to cook because between the grandparents and my parents, I definitely saw the power of fresh food and creativity in the kitchen. 

Now if your family is anything like mine, you know that the special foods are all busted out near the holidays. For us, that means some serious Italian food for Christmas. Which means this cookie that my family calls Wanda (but we pronounced Wan-see) but you might know it as Frappe or Chiacchiere. Pretty much it’s fried dough with powdered sugar on top that I can eat by the bucket load. It’s that good. Simple and light but super delicious especially with coffee. 

That was always our dessert on Christmas and I LOVED it. I was obsessed with it. So I asked my grandparents how to make it. 

My grandpa had this HUGE circular cutting board and a specific pastry cutter AND rolling pin for this adventure. I’m not even kidding. Now they’re mine. 

Let’s talk about how excited he and my grandma were for this opportunity to teach a grandkid how to make really a part of our heritage. I must’ve been like 8 years old but I still can feel how excited they were to share this part of our family with me. 

Side note: my grandpa, God love him was umm let’s say particular about certain things. Especially when cooking. Like he had his way and not to say your way was wrong BUT his way was better. Oh and if all of your cookies weren’t the same size (this went for meatballs too), the whole batch got tossed and you had to start from scratch. I’m not kidding. But I loved that kind of attention to detail he had. 

Anyways, fast forward to the special trip my grandparents made just to see me and teach me how to make this cookie. 

I’m standing there in my parents kitchen, circular cutting board and all, sandwiched between them, listening to them bicker OVER my head about who made it better. It didn’t stop there. Then it was them telling me why each of them had a better method and why I shouldn’t listen to the other one. 

I loved it. I couldn’t stop laughing, they were just so serious about the whole thing and I kept thinking “it’s just a cookie”.

But it’s so much more than that and now every time I cook anything of Italian fare, I’m flooded with all those memories of times I won’t get back but I’m happy to have with me. 

This recipe is my way to do Italian without losing the simple things that make it delicious, while keeping it healthy. 

Give it a shot. Let me know what you think. 

You're a Winner

We are first caliber winners today. 

I tell my clients all the time, your ability to perform on a workout isn’t a strength issue. This is ALL a mindset issue. 

When we get into those tough moments on a workout, and I don’t care how long you’ve been working out for, if you’re continuing to challenge yourself the tough moments are guaranteed to come, your mind so often goes to the negative. We start thinking about how we’ve failed, how we could’ve been stronger, how we should’ve gotten in one more rep...

Fuck that noise. 

I want those moments to inspire confidence and positivity in you. When it gets hard, when you notice your brain going to that “you suck” place, I want you to switch your thought process to celebrate the things you’ve already done. The things you’ve already achieved. 

The reality is that most people won’t even show up or try. You’ve already done more than most people would attempt. Be proud of that, celebrate that, don’t focus on anything else besides that effort and know that with every single workout, you’re getting stronger. 

When my mind starts to go to that negative space this is what I do:

1. I stop. When your mind goes to the hateful place, your body is going to start to get lazy and your form will start failing. This can lead to injury but it also leads to you thinking the exercise is harder than it’s designed to be because you’re not putting the work into the correct muscles.

2. I take a deep breath and remind myself of some accomplishment I’ve had in my life. It can be the most seemingly insignificant thing but shit girl, we all have achieved things.

3. I put my positive mantra on repeat. Feel free to take mine, but I literally repeat “you can do this” in my mind until the workout is over or that hard part is over because I KNOW I can do it. Sometimes we just need the reminder.

Working Out at Home Sucks

Getting into a workout routine, especially one that’s at home, sucks. 

Really working out alone isn’t the funnest thing on the face of the planet. I do it because I know I need to move my body to decrease my chronic pain, and I crave the endorphin rush (now) but when I first got started I hated it. The making time for the whole thing, figuring out wtf to do, finding the motivation to actually do it, none of it was fun. Oh and don’t even get me started on not seeing results right away. There’s nothing more frustrating then busting your ass and to no avail. Like COME ON. 

Then here you are trying to get the workout done at home and if you’re like me, it just got exponentially harder because of the distraction factor. 

Like my couch calling my name to go sit down. Or me noticing everything in my house that needs to be cleaned, picked up, or organized. 

I need some straight up tunnel vision to stay focused and make sure I actually get a worthwhile workout done. 

Here’s my 3 tips to creating your At Home Workout Tunnel vision:

1. Good music. Feel yourself getting distracted? Focus on that kick ass Spotify playlist you save for when your kids are outta ear shot. This is the motivating music with all the shit that has you pounding your chest and all the bops that make you want to move.

2. 5 minutes. If you’re like me and the clutter drives you bat shit crazy when you workout at home, give yourself 5 minutes (yes on a timer) to put away all those things before you start working out so you’re not tempted to do it DURING the workout.

3. Go outside. Ya fresh air and all of that, BUT when you’re outside, it’s that much harder to get inside to your couch. It takes that much more effort plus I’ve found for most people, their outside areas tend to have less STUFF as compared to their living rooms which means less distraction.

Cold Weather is My Jam...and So is Coffee

Back to cold af mornings and you won’t hear one complaint from me. I absolutely hate when you wake up for the day and it’s already hot and you’re already sweating. It seriously drives me nuts. So bring on all the cold weather. Well San Diego cold at least. 

You know what makes cold mornings even better for me? Well a bathrobe for sure but also caffeine. There’s nothing better to me than waking up on a chilly morning, getting cozy again and then getting fully caffeinated for my day. 

That’s why the recipe linked in this blog is my total jam. But it took a second to figure out and wrap my head around. Not only because I was like “butter in coffee? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” but also because you have to get the right amount of all the healthy fats in bulletproof coffee to make it taste delicious. 

Holy shit though once you nail it, that frothy goodness is all you need. Especially on fasting days. I’m all about it. I could talk about how healthy fats for women promote healthy brain function, heart function and curb late afternoon sugar cravings but really who cares? We’re all adulting. Caffeine is a must. 

The other rad thing: research coming out shows that women who upload (which is the fancy pants way of saying HAVE MORE) healthy fats in the morning are totally setting themselves up for success. Why you ask? Well…the increase of healthy fats helps you to curb the energy crash that can lead to a sugar increase in the mid-afternoon AND healthy fats in the super long term help to prevent things like Alzheimer’s and dementia. I know you might not think about things like that, but I definitely think about my long term health…constantly.

My word to the wise though: if you’re new to incorporating large amounts of healthy fats into your healthy lifestyle, don’t go all crazy with it. Start with small amounts and gradually increase it over time. Otherwise you might have an adverse reaction that could act as the kind of cleanse that’ll have you spending your chilly morning in your bathroom. Just sayin. And if you need to know what to do because you’re not sure, I’m always here to help.