Circle of Trust

Can we be in the circle of trust right now?

I’ve gotten to train a TON of people over the years. Really, I tried to count one time how many people I would see in a week and I astonished myself.

I’m not saying that for bragging rights, I’m saying it to make this point hit home even more.

I have NEVER heard SO MANY freaking people complain that they get to move. Dang. If y’all spent as much time on your workouts as you did WHINING that you get to workout…anyways, I digress.

This is something that all of my people have in common. You complain.

Let’s talk about why this hits home in a unique way for me: 

• You complain you don’t have time to workout and then you complain when you make the sacrifice in your day TO workout. It’s like there’s no winning. You’re stuck in the proverbial rock and hard place dilemma.

• Every time YOU complain, I think about all the times I would’ve given literally anything to be able to get out of bed, get rid of my injury and workout. I know that this doesn’t apply just to me. Every time you complain, there’s someone who would willingly take your place. While giving anything to do it.

Don’t complain that you get to workout . Be thankful that you get to workout.

Think of it like this: Your body is capable of amazing and wonderful things. Your workouts are an example of those capabilities. How freaking blessed are you that your body can do this for you today? That you can move today?

I used to end my classes with: You woke up today. It’s a good day to have a good day. Go out and make it great.

Because even when the workout sucks, in the bigger picture of life, you can move and that alone is an amazing thing.

Don’t get me wrong: complain all day when the workout gets hard. The workout SHOULD get hard, you should be challenged but dang how lucky you are that you get to do it.

Don’t complain that you get to show up for yourself in the first place. 

It’s an amazing thing that your body can do this for you today, that you can move, that you can show yourself your strength, AND that you can take the time out of your crazy day to do it.

Approach your workout from that place. Ya the work might be hard, but you can do it and you’re stronger for it.

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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What's Holding You Back?

I know there’s a lot that holds people back from working out at home. Some of it is vibing off the energy of a class, having friends around you to workout with, or just being able to compartmentalize that this gym environment is where you sweat and get uncomfortable.

today’s workout

5 Rounds

5 side lying tricep push ups (each side)

10 froggie sit ups

15 bridge hip taps

Grab Your Dumbbells!

$0.00

I used to love working out at a gym. Not the classes mind you, but just the whole gym environment. I didn’t like the classes because I didn’t like the unsaid level of competition, but I liked that when I went to the gym, I could focus completely on my workout and nothing else because no distractions from my house existed in the gym.

Kinda like going to a library to study.

The other part is that we get stuck into a rut with those at home workouts. We get used to doing certain workouts, they become our go to workouts, and then we get bored because we’re doing the same thing over and over again. Even as instructors, we can get stuck in a routine of being repetitive with our exercises. It’s hard to know how to break out of those routines especially when you’re more limited on what you have available to you at home verses at a gym.

It becomes monotonous.

That monotony turns into excuses to not workout because we’re not excited about it, which turns into us regressing into bad habits of “taking a break” on our workouts, only to lose all the results we worked so hard to get.

You gotta keep your home workouts fresh. Switch up the intervals, the exercises, and even what weights you’re using.

As soon as you feel monotony creeping in, as soon as you feel like you’ve become repetitive with what you’re doing, it’s time to switch what you’re doing. Maybe you go from interval training to endurance training, work resistance, or focus on lifting more.

That way your brain stays excited about what you have for your workouts and you’re more likely to show up for it.

Do Me a Favor

Put your To Do List on hold.

I feel like the hardest part about working out at home is the sheer fact that you’re AT HOME. Everything that demands of your time while you’re at home is in front of your face while you’re trying to take time for yourself.

Easier said than done huh? That To Do List is important and I KNOW there are non-negotiable aspects of that To Do List. Things that have to get done today.

I know it’s a MILLION things you have to get done. After all, there’s a lot of people who depend on you to make their lives run seamlessly and smoothly.

Laundry that needs to be folded, puppies that need walking, and those lunches aren’t going to make themselves.

You look around your house and see all the things that need to happen, it gets super overwhelming, but because you’re a total boss, you get to work. It doesn’t matter if that means your workout gets totally neglected, because it’s not like your time was spent chilling on your couch.

I want you to look at all those things and make them wait. 

Make the conscientious decision to put yourself first. Don’t say “I’ll get to my workout when (fill in the blank) is handled”. Get to the workout first. Handle the workout before you go into handling all the other things that demand of your time, energy, and attention. 

All those things will be there when you’re done working out. But working out has to take the priority at least for a minute. Not just because you deserve to have that time to take care of your body and to move, but also because when those thoughts about what you need to get done post workout start creeping in, you get distracted. Distraction, the majority of the time leads to injury. 

There’s nothing worse than working your ass off just be sidelined by a preventable injury.

When you workout, you have to make sure your mind is in the game for that very reason alone. While I know that doesn’t sound exciting, when you can leave your worries and concerns at the door, you’ll feel better after the workout.

Here’s the 3 things I do to make sure my To Do List doesn’t distract me from my workout:

1. I schedule my workouts. Blocking the time out for my workout in my calendar gives me the assurance I need to know that I have the time built into my day to workout and I don’t have to worry about squeezing it in at some point.

2. I give myself 5 minutes to get my workout 🏋️‍♀️ area organized. Maybe it’s picking up clutter or Swiffering, but I know that if I see something that needs to be cleaned 🧽 during my workout, it’ll give me a great excuse to STOP 🛑 my workout. So I handle what I can before I start.

3. I set the kiddo up with snacks and her OWN distractions. Workouts are like being on the phone 📱 for a mama, at least in my house. She doesn’t need me until she sees I’m doing something FOR ME, so I make sure she’s engrossed in something before I start. Maybe it doesn’t last the whole workout, but I know it’ll last the majority of the workout.

Half Assed Results

If you half ass your fitness🏋🏼‍♀️ routine, you can’t expect spectacular results. 

But how can you realistically fit a workout into days that are already jam packed?

Here’s my Top 3 Tips for Crushing Your Workouts 🏋️‍♂️ When You’re Busy AF:

1. Plan. Take time on a Sunday night to plan out your week, including when your workouts can fit into your schedule. Then book mark that time in your calendar 🗓 like you would an appointment to the doctor. You won’t cancel an important appointment, so don’t cancel on yourself.

2. Be realistic. How many days a week are you working out RN? How many days do you WANT to workout 🏋🏼‍♀️? Don’t jump to your most ideal goal, make incremental changes so you can adjust to the new normal without losing your sanity.

3. Have a back up. When you do Step 1, include what workouts you WANT to do during those times. It makes transitioning into the workout faster because it takes out the thinking. And then have a back up workout in case shit hits the fan and you don’t have as much time as you intended.

Make the Change

I had to make a change because I was over having to suck in my tummy ALL THE DAMN TIME. Seriously. My abs hurt 😔 .

I didn’t feel like I was asking a lot to feel comfortable in my own clothes. Much less my own skin.

But dang girl, how do you even take accountability for your health when you’re responsible for EVERYONE AROUND YOU and that To Do List isn’t getting any shorter?

Here’s my Top 3 Easy Changes to Start A Healthful Life NOW:

1. I was realistic with my time. We all have demands on our time that can’t be changed. Don’t put extra pressure on yourself to workout 🏋️‍♀️ on a day when you know it realistically won’t happen.

2. I checked my portions. I’m not one to cut out anything unless it’s due to a medical necessity like an allergy (I mean we only get one life, so I’m gonna eat the chocolate 🍫 and drink the wine 🍷), but life is best lived in moderation so I had to learn how to cut myself off of the things I adored. (Extra PRO TIP: portion out your snacks or meals and then put everything away. That extra level of effort to get more will have you thinking 🤔 twice before you do it).

3. I increased my water intake. Most of us live in a state of dehydration without even realizing it, making us feel sluggish or hungry when we’re truly not, so I invested in an awesome reusable water bottle that I could cover with stickers and I take it with me everywhere. That way I have no reason to NOT drink water.

Tell that Negative Voice to STFU

Why do we always go to the negative narrative when the workout gets hard?

I do realize we can be our own biggest critics. I feel like it’s just human nature, albeit a crappy one, but that’s our inclination. Shit gets hard and we automatically start telling ourselves how much we suck.

When really we don’t.

But when that negative narrative kicks in, all we end up doing is sabotaging ourselves. It creates this horrible cycle because we end up dreading the workout, knowing it’ll be “too hard”, thinking “we’re not strong enough”, and then we’ll find an excuse to avoid the workout. Then the cycle continues. Much to our own personal detriment.

So we gotta change that narrative.

Working out for me is a reminder of how strong I am, even though it wasn’t always that way. My workouts will always get hard, that’s intentional because I don’t have a lot of time in my day TO workout so I want to feel like every workout is worth my time.

When I get into that space where the workout is making me want to quit, when it’s THAT hard, I simply tell myself “yes I can”. I put that on repeat and I keep going. And even if the workout isn’t pretty or isn’t my best, I still proved to myself that I could do it.

You have to find that positive narrative for yourself. I found that space for myself by having some serious reflection about all the bad shit I’ve experienced in my life and how I overcame ALL of it. Which is just a testament to my own strength and resilient, but we’re all the same in that regard. We’ve all been through shit, be it positive or negative, and we’ve ALL gotten through it.

So yes YOU can do it. You can continue to prove to yourself that you’re strong, that you’re resilient and you’re more capable than what you think.

Stronger Today than Yesterday

I dare you to get stronger than yesterday. 

The first time I worked out after I had my daughter, I legit felt like I was going to have to get a new job. I felt so weak, I didn’t think I would ever be able to train people again.

It sent me into a straight panic.

I had no idea what I was going to do or how I should handle things. I felt weak and it made me feel so discouraged. I pride myself on being able to teach people the things that I put my own body through, and at that point in my life, I didn’t feel like my body could effectively do anything.

Then I realized that I wasn’t any different from the people around me. If I felt that way after having a kid, I probably wasn’t alone in that sentiment of feeling like I would never be strong again. 

I knew I could fix it though. I just knew it would take time.

I regained my strength. It took time and a whole lot of patience because I knew that in order to regain my strength and maintain my strength in a healthy manner, it wouldn’t be an overnight adventure. 

But then I took a deep breath, and I set small incremental goals so I could regain my strength and whenever I felt like I wasn’t getting there quickly enough, I reminded myself that consistently doing the work would get me the results I wanted.

How Ya Feeling Today?

I felt like shit in my own skin for a L O N G time.

Discouraging doesn’t even begin to describe how horrible I felt. People would tell me it was my new normal after having a kid, I just needed to accept that my body would be kinda...fluffy...that I had a c-section so this was reality now. Shit, people were saying that to me before the kid even came out of my body. Like I had to just accept that I would have this mambod and it would be jiggly and gross and I wouldn’t like how I looked at all…

Deep down, my instinct was SCREAMING that this was a load of bullshit. 

Even with the experience and education to know what I needed to do to get to the place where I felt like home again in my own body, the process was still daunting.

Because I was tired 😓 and the thought of having to do anything felt like too damn much. Adjusting to being a new mom was a LOT and looking at all these women who looked like they had all their shit together with no effort and looked amazing helped nothing. Especially when I had a kiddo who would scream her head off any time I tried to work out. I’m serious. Even if she was in a dead sleep and I tried to workout, she would scream.

Then I started thinking that if I felt like this with all my years of experience, with all the education I have for losing weight and working out, someone who doesn’t have that background must feel a million times worse than me. Like just give up and not even try worse. Because I have the benefit of knowing how to tweak workouts when I feel like I’ve plateaued and I know how to work my fitness game to best serve my body. Hell, it’s what I do for a living. Of course I knew what to do for myself. But I’m not so naive to think that everyone has that kind of background or even that basic body awareness.

That’s why I want to help YOU. I know how tired you are, I know how overwhelmed you feel, I know you have NO idea where to begin. But I do and I can help you through it so you can get to the place where you have energy and you feel like yourself again. I’m doing nothing if I’m sitting on all this expertise and not sharing it with the people around me. I don’t want you to give up and equally as important, I know that when you take care of yourself, it’s easier to take care of those around you. So let me help you. Let me share my knowledge and experience with you by meeting you where you’re at on your journey right now and showing you the way to get to where you want to be.

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.