Look at You Girl

Look at you. 

You’re incredible. 

This is your friendly reminder to NOT discount your efforts to take care of yourself.

Because I know you’re not getting reminded enough of how much your efforts count. Even when they feel too small and too insignificant for you to feel like they matter or will make a difference.

Grab Your Dumbbells!

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Taking time out of your day to take care of your health, to workout, to eat well and make sure everything else in your life is handled is not a small feat. It’s not something to be discounted or ignored.

More often than not, we don’t give ourselves any credit for all the things we do.

We feel like it’s the expectation that we’ll just handle everything even at the cost of our own health and wellbeing. We know that without us, the things that matter wouldn’t get handled.

So that chaos of managing our circuses becomes an expected part of life. It doesn’t mean we do it alone, but it does mean that our focus more on those things than the things we need.

It’s just our nature right? Make sure everyone else is handled before we give anything to ourselves and if we run out of hours in the day taking care of everyone else well then…oh well.

It’s the thought that “if I have enough time, I’ll take care of me” with the caveat of knowing taking care of me means everyone else is already taken care of.

When you’re being diligent about your health and mindfully planning taking care of yourself into your day, don’t discount that effort.

Don’t downplay it, don’t ignore it, and don’t think it doesn’t matter.

Even if it feels like you’re making baby steps forward, they’re still steps forward.

I Want Your Arsenal of Whys

Ok ya I’m a curious person by nature. I like observing and listening to people, I like understanding why they do the things that they do. I think that’s why I went into psychology for my formal education and really why I liked working with victims of violence. Sure it was all really intense, but I liked hearing people tell their stories, I liked learning about them, and figuring out what drove them to engage in specific behaviors.

Maybe that’s why I like serial killer documentaries on Netflix…

When I moved into training people full time, my curiosity expanded into learning why someone would workout. I know why I workout. I know that on a superficial level, I’m working out to keep my weight in check and my chronic pain in check so I don’t need further intervention on any of my previous injuries, specifically my food. On a deeper level, I know I workout because I want to show myself that even though I suffered this life changing tragedy, I’m still strong and still capable.

We all have a reason WHY we workout 🏋️‍♀️. Why we take time out of our busy days, with all things our families, our work, our friends need from us.

Your reasons are most likely not the same as my reasons, but you still have them. You still have your reasons, superficial or not, that bring you back to what you’re doing time and time again. Those reasons are obviously insanely valid, otherwise you wouldn’t keep coming back.

I’ve heard so many of your why’s over the years. I’ve been so fortunate to be in a place of confidence with you that you’ve even shared some of those deep, dark, don’t share them with anyone else why’s. You’ve confided things in me that you’ve never told a single soul, and I’m grateful for that level of trust. Not just because it shows me how valuable I am to you, but because that understanding helps me HELP YOU.

But I want you to have 200 reasons WHY. Ranging from the superficial reasons to the deep, dark reasons that no one else knows.

You know when you get into an intense workout, it’s going to start to suck. You know you’re going to hit a point where you can very easily justify cutting an interval off early or stepping away from a workout early. Because really, if you leave 2 minutes early on a 30 minute workout and you’re by yourself, who’s going to know besides you?

It’s in those moments you’re going to need all the reasons in the world to keep coming back.

So when your workout gets to the point when you start to question your life choices and the first 20 reasons why you show up aren’t good enough, I want you to fall back on all the other reasons.

Think about those why’s, maybe even write them down so you have a direct reminder in those workouts for why you’re doing what you’re doing.

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Organized Sports are NOT My Thing

I was NOT the kid in organized sports.

My mom likes to tell this story about how my parents put me in soccer as a kid, and my general attitude was “If i get to the ball, cool, if not…also cool”. I’m pretty sure I showed up for the donut I got when the game was over.

I have never been in competition with anyone but myself. That used to kill me in the CrossFit community because it’s all about competition and I never could bring myself to care. Even when people were taunting me that I didn’t lift as heavy or finish the workout as fast.

My reaction, albeit not a well received one, was “ok cool. Did you get a metal for your performance? Like what did that provide for you?”

I truly don’t care if you outperform me, even now as a professional in the fitness industry. That’s cool. Get yours. Considering we’re all different, we have different body types and muscle composition, I KNOW people will always be able to outperform me.

Start Right Now

All I ever want is to do my best and show up for myself every single time.

When I went into the fitness industry, that aspect of competition was the part that bothered me the most. Some of that stems from my injury and the knowledge that my body’s capabilities are different than the person next to me. That knowledge extends past my own body’s capabilities to everyone I train.

To me, there is no point in being competitive with the person next to you because you’re two completely different people. You’re at a different point in your journey with wellness and fitness, you have different goals, and you’re also approaching your journey from completely different starting points.

That competitive spirit when extended towards someone else will only set you up for potential failure because you feel like you fell short, and then you feel discouraged as a result.

But it’s in our nature to look at the people around us, to be inquisitive as to their performance, and to compare what they are doing to what you are doing.

The challenge then becomes turning on your blinders so you can focus on you and your body, your goals and NOT the person next to you.

Here’s my Top 3 Tips to Staying Focused on Your Goals and not what the person next to you is doing during your workout 🏋️‍♀️:

1. Applaud the person next to you instead of wishing you could do what they were just doing. They’re kick ass and so are you AND you both are doing something that is good for your bodies. Celebrate that instead of being disappointed that you can’t do what they just did.

2. Remind yourself that everyone is on a different journey. Your WHY for working out is totally different from the person next to you and so is where you’re at on your individual journeys.

3. Celebrate 🎉 ALL the victories. Even the small and seemingly mundane ones. You got off your ass and did a workout on a day you literally would’ve rather been doing anything else? That’s winning girl. That’s creating all those heathy habits that will lead you to change.

Change Your Mind

Sometimes we have to change our mind before we create our muscles.

Mindset fucks people on their workouts. Yet it is the one part of the workout most people don’t want to talk about. I notice this ALL the time on social media and the amount of dropout I get when I start talking about how much your head plays a role in the success of your workouts.

Grab Your Dumbbells!

As an instructor, I’ve gotten to see the power of how someone thinks for so many years in so many different people. I’ve seen the power of thoughts propel a person forward into doing something they didn’t think previously possible, and I’ve also seen the power of someone’s thoughts totally hold them back.

I made it a rule in my class that no one was allowed to say “I can’t” when it came to an exercise. As soon as that thought creeps in and you voice it, you won’t be able to do it. Even though I know before that negative thought came in, you very well could’ve done it and done it well.

Most of the time, it’s a matter of being patient and showing yourself compassion that the first time you do anything complicated, it’s going to be a mess. There’s a learning curve with anything, especially fitness. A lot of the times we think we can’t do it because we don’t know the progression of exercise that goes into the hard exercises. That you have to build muscle memory, you have to warm up and activate your body, and build up to the hard exercises.

This is where your mind is the only thing holding you back. Your mind is the only thing creating the excuses that are holding you back from achieving your fitness goals. It’s amazing the limitations we put on ourselves because we’re scared or intimidated.

But if limitations are self imposed, how do you get past that negative thought process?

Your mind is the hardest thing to change. It’s such a powerful muscle and it has so much control over everything we do.

How do you turn that tiny voice saying “Yes I can” into a roar?

Here’s the Top 3 Changes I made to get my mind on board with the change in my body I KNEW I deserved:

1. I started realistically. Not small, but realistically. I planned workouts 🏋️‍♀️ into my day that I knew wouldn’t have me rushing for time or stressed that it was taking up too much of my day. I made sure I had back up workouts planned for when my original workout 🏋️‍♀️ wasn’t going to fit into the constraints of my day.

2. I listened to my body and respected it. It meant shoving my ego out of the way and meeting my body where it was at for THAT DAY. Maybe that means going lighter on the weights because I slept funny or doing a yoga 🧘‍♀️ session instead of cardio because my hamstrings felt tight. Regardless, I was showing up for myself and reinforcing healthy habits.

3. I focused on how GOOD I felt AFTER the workout 🏋️‍♀️. I never forgot my ultimate fitness goals, but that is not my main focus during my workout. My focus is on the knowledge that I’ll feel amazing when my workout is done, regardless of the kind of workout I do.

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.

How BIG Can You Fail?

I want you to fail.

Slow down homie. I know you’re like “wtf is her problem? She wants me to suck?” 

Just wait a second. I know it sounds crazy so just hear me out. 

I want you to have those moments when you tell yourself you can’t do it, when you quit, when you get so frustrated you don’t know how you’ll do this again tomorrow. 

There’s power in those moments. You can learn from those moments. 

Because failing is a frame of mind. Failing is a starting point. Failing is a launching pad to your inevitable success.

I remember the first time I walked after I was hurt without assistance. At that point, I had been through multiple surgeries, one of them leaving me with metal sticking OUT of my foot for a number of months. I was in a wheelchair, I went to a walker, and then a cane. I was in physical therapy 3 days a week, and swimming at least that many days a week as well to build up range of motion in my ankle that was basically frozen from trauma and then being stuck in a boot for MONTHS. 

When my physical therapist told me to take a step, I told her I couldn’t do it. I was so freaking scared, I talked myself out it. There were tears and lots of frustration.

Then I took a breath, and took a step.

I tell my clients all the time the phrase “I can’t do it” isn’t allowed in my class. I know you can do it, maybe not today but you will. 

Think about the things you couldn’t do a month ago, 6 months ago, that now feel easy. The exercises you’ve mastered, the increase on the weights, or even the accessibility of certain intervals.

I also know that failing gives you a baseline. It shows you where you’re starting from, and where you’re going to grow. It gives you a foundation. A launching pad for continued strength and transformation. 

It also shows you that you’re more resilient and more of a badass than what you may have previously thought. Because after the moment of failure, you’re going to keep showing up and keep putting in the work. 

I know you’ll succeed and your fitness goals will become your reality, your healthy changes will become your lifestyle, but you need a safe space to figure out your starting point.

From there you’ll see your growth and ultimately get your transformation. 

Grab Your Dumbbells!

I'm Not Comfortable

I never knew that I could feel so freaking uncomfortable in my own skin and it made me sad because I didn’t think I had the power to change it.

But the prospect of changing things was so daunting because my days were stacked to the BRIM with stuff that needs to get done.

Want to make a change and not sure where to start?

Here’s the Top 3 Changes I Made to Get My Comfy Back:

1. I did something active every day. On the days I could workout, I definitely did, even if it was a HIIT workout that was only 10 minutes. But if a workout wouldn’t work for my day, I made a point to do something that was active. I went for a walk with the dog 🐶, I stretched 🧘‍♀️, I took the stairs instead of an elevator.

2. I drank more water 💦. It’s so easy to forget to have water when you’re running around like crazy 😝, but the benefits are beyond worth it. Pro tip: can’t remember to drink water? Set an alarm on your phone to remind you.

3. I became mindful of what I ate. I didn’t cut things out, but I made sure that healthy, whole food 🥘 made up the majority of what I was eating.

You'll Never Be Ready

If you waited until you were ready it would never happen. Your life will always be busy, your plate will always be full, and there will always be entities in your life demanding of your time and energy.

If we know nothing else for certain, we know that.

Change takes a leap of faith. But not in the way you’re thinking.

This is a leap in faith in YOUR ability to make your workouts work in YOUR life and your schedule. I know it’s the easy answer to tell you that you’ll just figure it out, when the reality of figuring out is super daunting.

But at the end of the day, if you want to see that healthy living change, where living to your best ability means regular workouts and solid nutrition, you will figure it out. Maybe it means HIIT workouts so your workouts aren’t as long, maybe it means being realistic with how many days you can workout, and maybe it means incorporating in some meal prep so you’re not as stressed about grabbing healthy food.

Whatever the solutions are for you to get all these things under control, it’s going to have to happen when you’re not ready. It’s going to have to happen when life is busy and crazy and chaotic. It’s going to happen before your schedule is ready. But it is going to happen when YOU are ready. When the prospect of NOT changing is worse than the prospect of changing, feeling better, and being healthier.

My best advice to you? If you know you need to start before you feel like things are perfect and the planets have aligned, ask for support. Let other people know that what’s going on with you. That doesn’t mean you need to spill your guts and tell them that deep down embarrassing goal, you can keep that to yourself, but you do need to tell at least one person what you’re going to be doing.

Have that person hold you accountable, love you and support you. Then the pivot won’t seem so daunting because you know you’ll have someone in your corner who will love you through it.

Grab Your Dumbbells!

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Your Reaction is Everything

You can control your reaction. 

In life for sure but also in your workout. A lot of the time what ends up happening when the workout gets hard isn’t your body giving up, but your brain telling you to quit. 

That little negative voice in your head ends up getting so big and so loud that you stop. Eventually, you continue to fall into that negative line of thought so often that you stop working out all together. 

It just seems like the easier solution because showing up and failing isn’t appealing to anyone. 

I challenge you to have power over that voice. 

It won’t happen right away, it takes time, it takes practice and even with that, the negative voice will still creep in. It’s like our natural reaction to challenge. 

I’m not saying that you need to make the negative voice go away completely, but I am saying that you need to temper your reaction to that negative voice. 

When I find that negative voice kicking in, I tell myself “I got this” on repeat. Then I try to NOT take a break. Maybe I slow down what I’m doing, get my breath back, or switch to lighter weights but I try to keep going. I know for me, if I stop, I’ll STOP. So I avoid it at all costs. I check my form, I check myself, and I keep going. 

I challenge you to do the same. Whatever it is you need to remind yourself that you can get through a 10 minute workout, that the workout won’t own you, do it. Control your reaction so you can see that you are capable and completely in control. 

New Ceilings

I want you to turn your current ceiling into your new floor.

Working out is one of those things for me that never gets boring because my body is constantly changing. Yes I’m getting older, sure it’s harder now to lose weight and gain muscle than when I was 22, but I don’t focus on that when working out. 

That would feel like failure. 

I work hard to stay in the present moment and I focus on my continual acquiring of strength and advancement of fitness. 

I set new goals and challenges for myself, maybe in heavier weights or more complicate exercises, I continue to raise the bar. I constantly increase my standard because I know I am capable and I encourage the same of those around me. 

Keep your interest, keep it interesting, and keep it going.