Can I Just Get 5 Minutes by Myself PLEASE?

In fairness, most of the time I make this comment out loud to the dog who is my constant shadow, and not my human.

I mean I’m not complaining…but…GOOD LAWD #momlife is a lot.

I am an introvert by nature. Well a socialized introvert. I realize I can’t live my life by myself and I need to be around people to adult effectively. 

I knew when I became a mom that I would basically have someone on me all the time. I read all the articles about moms having over stimulated central nervous systems because someone was always touching them, and how that impacted their relationships because once that little person was asleep for the night, the last thing they wanted was to be touched.

I know my alone time would be going away.

What I didn’t anticipate was that it would be gone for much longer than I thought. Don’t get me wrong, I love being an active participant in my household. I get a lot of satisfaction out of taking care of my people, sometimes I just need to be by myself. 

Some people hide out in their bathroom or their closet, for me, it’s the garage gym. Every being in my house knows when Mommy is in the garage, if it’s not a life or death matter, leave me the F!CK alone.

I don’t feel guilty about taking those moments anymore. I know that even 10 minutes to fill my cup will leave me in a better mood and more effectively able to take care of the people around me.

Time to go hole up in my garage gym. 

✌️ Mama’s busy.

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Today’s Workout

Grab the workout below for a little break from the stress that is adulting.

3 Rounds

25 reps each exercise

Toe touches

Bridge hip taps

Side leg lifts

Bicycle crunches

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Be Brave

I want you to get brave and curious about your strength. 

We are so quick to tell ourselves that we can’t do something. Really, we’re normally the first ones to doubt ourselves, to convince ourselves that quitting is OK because we wouldn’t have been able to do it anyways and to just plain give up.

When I got hurt, I had two roads in front of me. The one where I doubted myself and my capabilities constantly or the one where I said Fuck it and just tried anyways. It doesn’t mean I didn’t fail, oh girl I have failed and in spectacular fashion, but I’ve tried. 

Failing didn’t mean that I beat myself up about not being successful.

Failing meant I had the opportunity to see where my limitations lie and how I could get past it. It just showed me what edges could get expanded on and what I could change.

When I let go of those thoughts of failing, I could see my strength for where it was really at as well as where it could go. It made me curious to see where I could take things and where I could grow.

How strong are you REALLY? Have you ever even thought about it? If you stopped putting limitations on yourself, how strong could you become and what could you be truly capable of doing?

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.

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

$0.00

My Brain Needs to Stop

Mama needs a minute ✋.

I’m always thinking about things. What needs to happen, what has happened, the order in which things will happen. My brain is the type of brain that is constantly in motion and for it to stop, I have to FORCE it to stop.

I know I’m not alone. I know we all always have a million things on our mind, we’re often thinking of the next thing we need to do, or something that needs to get handled. We’re constantly trying to juggle every ball that seems to be in the air right now.

For my own sanity, I had to learn how to get my brain to stop, mostly because I wanted to sleep and it seemed for a long time like whenever my head hit the pillow, my brain started going a million miles an hour.

Rest assured, I tried everything and I have a TON of different coping mechanisms in place to get my brain to slow down depending on what I need given a certain situation. Yoga, meditation, breath work, and even a solid bedtime routine like I’m a child have all be helpful things in my life so I can get my brain to stop.

But one of the best ways for me to step away from those daily stressors is by working out. This is one of the primary reasons why I challenge myself so much with my workouts. I want my workout to be so challenging for that moment, that I can focus truly on just the workout and nothing else.

I know as a trainer, that kind of focus is super beneficial because when you’re challenged, you’re focused and you’re less likely to be distracted and get hurt as a result.

No better way to forget about the stress of my day, my To Do List that never gets shorter, and distance learning than by lighting my abs on fire 🔥.

3 Rounds

30 seconds each exercise

Plank hold

Bicycle Crunches

Crunches

Tuck ups

Mental Fitness

I didn’t always approach my fitness as a means to grow mentally stronger. Fitness for me initially was a means to get past trauma. Be it the trauma from my foot, the trauma from delivery, the trauma of injury…it was always my way to push past something negative so I could regain my strength.

Working out is the place where I can focus my emotions and tune out the rest of the world. Let’s be honest, sometimes all that noise can be overwhelming AF, and deserves to be pushed into a corner so you can focus on YOU.

However my journey with my strength continued and the injuries became a thing of the past, I began to use my workouts as a way to push my own boundaries. I adapted with my strength as my body adapted to being strong.

I figured that no little hour long (or whatever) workout was going to own me, so I might as well see what I can do. Like a scientist in a lab, I started pushing my boundaries so I could see where my strength truly rested. Sometimes I succeeded and felt like a freaking olympian. Sometimes I failed. Even in those moments of failure, I took it as an opportunity to see where my starting point was and what I needed to do to get to the next point.

I began to push my boundaries. In part because I know my workouts are a safe space TO push my boundaries and in part because I was curious about my own strength. 

Mostly, I pushed my boundaries so I would know on an intrinsic level that I am not limited by my boundaries. I know that I can continue to expand the limits of those boundaries, I can push the edges until I am eventually where I want to be.

I also know that if I can push my own limits, I can move mountains for everyone around me. If I can show up for myself, show myself how resilient and mentally fit I am, then everyone around me will benefit because I’ll be able to show up in a bigger way.

So don’t stress about the workout not being cute or comfortable. Don’t stress if a complicated exercise gets the best of you this time, don’t stress if your workout leaves you feeling occasionally frustrated. You’re growing, you’re changing and you’re getting stronger, and as you adapt and change, so will your fitness.

Give Me Your Best Excuse

Your excuses are NOT the conversation. 

Trust me, if there’s an excuse I’ve heard of it. I’ve heard you say it in passing, as much as I’ve heard you say it directly to my face. I’ve been doing this fitness thing long enough that I’ve heard it all. I’ve probably thought of it myself as well a time or two. 

Excuses are comforting though. They give us an “out” from all the things we don’t want to do, including reaching any goals about creating balance in the chaos amongst us. They act as our preverbal security blanket, keeping us in our comfort zone. 

That comfort zone is such a shitty place to be though. I mean I get it, the prospect of trying something new and epically failing is terrifying, the prospect of change in general for most people is super intimidating. Because while change itself isn’t necessarily hard, the anticipation of what waits on the other side is killer. We don’t like to live in ambiguity so we don’t, we stay securely in the place of comfort, even if it’s detrimental to our health and well being. 

Because look, you’re not an idiot. You know that you’ve hit that point where you want to change so badly, you think about it all the time but you also are low key terrified because you don’t know how that change will actually impact your life. How will eating healthier impact your family gatherings? How will making time to workout impact your relationship with your kids? Will your tribe understand WHY you’re doing what you’re doing, or is it so outside of the norm that you fear you’ll be rejected?

OR are you scared to change because you think if you do, you’ll suck at it, the change won’t hold and then all of a sudden you’ll become one of those people that everyone else says “well she tries and tries to lose weight but nothing seems to work” and that’s embarrassing AF?

The excuse is readily available to get you out of putting forth the effort though so you use it. The “oh I can’t get to the gym because of _________”; “I can’t eat healthy because __________________”.

After all, you can’t fail if you never try right?

Every time I think of an excuse, every time I hear one, I think of the alternative. For me, when excuses are being thrown around, I think about it like a crossroads, and then I think about the moment I started walking again.

Because my injury was so significant and the pain was so intense, I spent the first 6 months or so of being hurt on some hardcore pain meds. Like enough to tranquilize a horse. As a result, there’s not a lot I really remember about those first several months of my life. It’s hazy, with memories being filled in maybe by my subconscious but also by my parents.

When I got to walk again though, I distinctly remember that. I was off the pain meds by that point and I was FUCKING SCARED. I remember everything about that moment in time down to how the PT’s office SMELLED. That’s how vivid that memory is for me. And I remember thinking “meh fuck this, I’m good. I’m not strong enough and I’m going to fall and then I’ll be back in surgery” and the litany of BS continued. Then I remember my PT looking at me and saying “you can either get up and walk or not. It’s up to you but you’re not going to fall. You’re stronger than what you think”.

Obviously it all worked out but that anticipation of the unknown almost left me completely stuck in a reality where I was surviving, but not thriving.

I’ve taken that moment in time and carried it with me, compared every other tough as nails situation to it. Because if I can learn how to walk again, I can do just about freaking anything and BECAUSE I got the chance to learn to walk again, I’m going to try do just about anything. And if I fail, at least I failed trying, at least I learned and know where I need to make changes and at least I showed myself that I am stronger and more capable than I think I am.