The #1 Habit Most Women Miss in Their Workout Routine (And Why It Matters)

There’s one really important component of an exercise routine that often gets overlooked.  This missing piece can be the catalyst for efficient fat loss if you’re in weight loss plateau, better sleep if you experience insomnia, and consistent energy levels if you feel like you need to take a nap in the middle of the day every day.  I have good news and great news about the missing piece.  The good news is it’s actually a very simple habit you can add to your exercise routine.  And the great news is there’s so many ways that you can make this happen even with a busy schedule.  Today I’ll dive into the specifics of what this missing link is and how you can weave it into our exercise routine.

Let’s start by talking about the anatomy of a well-rounded exercise routine.  Working out isn’t just about burning calories to lose weight so you fit into your favorite pair jeans  or look lean and tone.  Now, deep down we all want to look good and feel like the sexy woman that we are in our favorite outfits.  This is sometimes the motivation we need to jumpstart our exercise routine that helps us get there.  However, when I work with my clients I’ve found there’s deeper, more valuable reasons to create an exercise routine that sticks.  One of the deeper reasons might be that you just want to improve your overall health so you can do all the things you want to do in your life, like live to see your kids get married, be independent and live on your own in your 80’s and 90’s (and beyond), and enjoy a rich life with minimal stress.

A well-rounded exercise routine can give you all this and more when you build your fitness foundation with three pillars: strength training, cardio, and recovery.  These three pillars, woven into a sustainable fitness routine, can help you take your health to the next level and beyond.

Out of these three pillars the one that’s often missing is recovery.  This is the pillar that is just as important as the workout itself.  When you’re not giving your body proper time to rest and recharge you’re causing unnecessary stress on your body that can inhibit weight loss, promote weight gain, cause hormonal chaos (such as intense PMS, infertility, perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms) and promote mood swings.  All these things are the opposite of what you want to get from your exercise routine.  Recovery activities are anything that relaxes you while giving your body an opportunity to heal, recharge, and destress from intense workouts.

On a quick side note, last week I talked about how to know if you’re exercising too much (which is more common than you may think).  If you haven’t read that article yet, head over here to check it out to see if maybe this is an area of your wellness routine that can be tweaked. 

So, what does recovery look like and how do you incorporate it into your exercise routine?

Recovery looks different for everyone and it can change depending on your mood, schedule, and most recent workouts.  For example, if I’m on a time crunch after a workout my post-workout cool down might be simply walking to the locker room and drinking water before I hop in the shower.  Other days it might be 10 minutes of stretching and mobility movements.

Taking a hot bubble bath with epsom salt is a relaxing way to give sore muscles much needed TLC after a strenuous strength workout and challenging hike.  Taking your dog for a walk is a leisurely way to move your body on days when your menstrual cramps are throbbing in your pelvic region.  Enjoying a walk with your family on a warm summer night after dinner is a great way to wind down and help your body digest food more efficiently.

Recovery activities can be planned or spontaneous depending on what’s happening in your life.  Weaving in recovery to your current exercise routine is a great way to make sure you avoid overtraining.  Of course, there can always be some wiggle room with your planned recovery.  For example, Sunday is our sleep-in day so we don’t usually schedule anything too early on these days.  This is the one day of the week we don’t wake up before 6am and can take our time in the morning.  If something comes up like a family BBQ or day hike with our friends on a Sunday we’ll definitely make an exception and get up early.  You can’t be so rigid with your recovery routine that you forget to live your life.

Spontaneous recovery can happen when you don’t get great sleep and wake up feeling tired and it’s only 7am.  Moving your body will help you wake up without making you more tired with an easy walk or yoga routine.  If you’re feeling crampy from PMS or your period, finding an activity that you can do instead of a strength routine can be super helpful with your recovery routine.  You can even choose to stay in bed to watch your favorite movie or binge your favorite sitcom (Friends anyone?).

The bottom line is incorporating recovery into your regular exercise routine can help you minimize stress, lose fat efficiently, sleep better, and have more consistent energy levels.

What’s your favorite way to recover from your workouts?

5 Signs You’re Exercising Too Much

Whether you’re a fitness enthusiast or really motivated to lose weight, it can be super easy to get caught up in an intense exercise routine.  I speak from personal experience.  There have been seasons in my life when I worked out all the time.  I was running, strength training, and doing high intensity interval training (HIIT) almost every day.  I started to become obsessed with working out.

One of these seasons was when I was training for my first half marathon back in 2012.  I was running after work and on the weekends.  When I wasn’t running (or working), I was doing strength training and HIIT workouts.  On the weekends, my hubby (boyfriend at the time) and I were either hiking or climbing up the sand dune at the beach.  Looking back, I probably didn’t give my body the appropriate rest it needed.  However, I was 31 at the time and my younger body was able to recover faster and more efficiently than my current 44 year old mid-life body.

Today I’m sharing 5 signs you might be overtraining.  While they’re all intertwined, you may experience all, a few, or only one of them. No matter how many you experience, if you notice something is off about how you feel I encourage you to take a look at your training and recovery schedule to see if you’re overdoing it.

Chronic Muscle Soreness

When you exercise your muscles don’t actually grow while you’re doing squats or lunges.  During your workout your muscles get micro tears in them.  The growth (and healing) process begins after your workout which means this is time when your muscles get stronger.  You could experience muscles soreness during the growth process since your body is actually healing from a micro injury.  Soreness can also be caused by not enough lactic acid moving through your muscles efficiently.  This can be mitigated with low level intensity movement such as a leisurely bike ride or walk.

When you do intense workouts too often you don’t give your muscles time to heal properly.  It’s like when you have a scrape on your knee and you keep picking at the scab, you’re not giving your skin the opportunity to do it’s thing and create new, healthy skin.

Weight Loss Plateau

When you notice the number on the scale isn’t going down, it could be a number of different variables.  I talk more about one of the variables with weight loss plateaus in another article here.  When I meet women who tell me they workout for 1-2 hours every day and can’t lose weight the first thing that pops into my head is that they might be overtraining.  Of course, this depends on the type of workout they’re doing but this is a red flag for me.

When you do a HIIT workout 5-7 days a week, spend 30 minutes lifting weights and then go for a run or do a spin class for an hour you’re probably overwhelming your nervous system.  Think about your nervous system like the boss lady.  It has different systems that control your hormones and tells it what to do depending on how you eat, exercise, and rest.  If you’re exercising too much and not getting enough rest, it will tell your stress hormones to kick into high gear along with your hunger hormones to make sure you’re eating enough calories.  You’ll most likely be craving starchy carbs because your blood sugar levels are going up and down too often.  I’ll dive more into this later.

Unable to Sleep

In my opinion, sleep is the ultimate recovery method.  This is when your body kicks into high gear and calls in reinforcements to repair your muscles, tissue, and nervous system from the physical stressors (i.e. workouts) of the day.  When you can’t actually fall asleep to get enough sleep, your body can’t do it’s thing.

Sleeplessness from overtraining can be caused by intense muscle soreness, high cortisol levels, high blood sugar (or insulin), or all of the above.  The most effective exercise routine is designed to give consistent energy levels throughout the day and help you fall into a deep and restful sleep at night.  If you’re feeling fatigue during the day yet unable to fall asleep when it’s time hit the hay, something is off balance and not normal.

Increased Sugar Cravings

The combination of not getting enough sleep and your cortisol levels increasing can be the catalyst for your sugar cravings.  Even if you don’t necessarily crave sweet treats, this can make you want to eat more bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, and all the other yummy carby foods.  When you give into your cravings and eat that bowl of pasta with garlic bread (my go-to dinner back in the day!), it throws off your blood sugar which then causes your body to produce more insulin.  This causes chaos in your body and can lead to weight gain or at least stalled weight loss.

Giving into your sugar cravings can also intensify PMS, PCOS symptoms, and pain due to endometriosis.  If you’ve been diagnosed with PCOS or endometriosis, creating an exercise routine that weaves in adequate rest has been known ease symptoms so you can go about your daily life with less interruptions.  You can go here to check another article I wrote about PMS relief.

What’s the solution?

While it might take time and a few brainstorming sessions, you can find a solution to your over training routine that works for you.  Often times my solution for overtraining comes to me by default, meaning sometimes life gets in the way of my training schedule and I need to prioritize something else that’s come up unexpectedly.  Other times I schedule it into my workout routine.  For example, if we go on a two hour hike carrying backpacks on a Saturday, I’ll plan on Sunday being a rest day where I do chores, go grocery shopping, or browse REI for two hours (yes, we’ve been known to spend two hours in REI).

This is where working with a health and fitness coach can be super helpful.  When you talk through something with a person (specifically one who’s an expert in habit creation) who can give you an outsider’s perspective to see your situation from a different angle.  This is often when you’re going to find the solution that works for you.  Your body is made up of complex systems that knows exactly what to do to keep you alive to survive or alive to thrive.  You just need to tune into your body and learn how to listen to it.

The (Unofficial) Start of Summer: Enjoy the Season Without Losing Your Groove

Memorial Day weekend is the start of summer fun even though summer season hasn’t officially started.  Graduations are happening, shorts and t-shirts are emerging from closets and drawers, and the BBQ cover is being taken off.  It’s time to celebrate warmer weather with get-togethers with friends and family, delicious food, and refreshing adult beverages.

Staying “on-track” with your healthy lifestyle habits can either be super easy or a bit more challenging this time of year.  By the way, I put “on-track” in quotes because you get to define what this looks like for you.

For moms with school age kids, it can be more challenging to stick to healthy habit routine during the summer since the kids are out of school.  When I was going to school way back when I remember summer being a free-for-all,  I got to sleep in every day (unless it was the week of vacation bible school) and my mom didn’t have to get us to school on time.

For moms who have kids graduating from high school, it can be an emotional time accepting the fact that their child is an adult now and free to do what they want (for the most part).  This is not only a new weather season but a new season for everyone in the family.  Newly graduated kids (yes, to me they’re still kids) are gearing up to enjoy their first summer before the next phase in their life.  Parents are preparing themselves to send their kid off to college or trade school, abroad for a gap year, or right into a full time job.

For some women, it’s a time of year to get back to healthier eating habits and a consistent exercise routine that got away from them over the past several months.  Because let’s be real, some years it takes a little longer to recover from the holidays and that’s okay.  If this you, it makes you a real human.

For other women, there could be some underlying anxiety on how to navigate summer festivities when they’ve made a lot progress with their mindset, habits, and weight loss.  This kind of anxiety can stem from getting derailed on a previous weight loss journey, whether years ago or more recently.

Whichever category you fall under, I’m here to share tactical tips with you to kick off your summer of fun while maintaining your healthy lifestyle habits or creating new ones.     

Tip #1- Skip the Bun

Before you totally discount this one, I encourage you to have your next burger at home without the bun.  I get that burgers are usually better with the buns (like In-n-Out burgers for example!) and I’m here to tell you that can taste just as good (maybe better) without the bread.  When we make burgers at home we enjoy them bun-less.

One thing I love about eating a beef or turkey burger patty without the bun is you can pile on more delicious ingredients without having to strategize how you’re going to pick it up and put it in your mouth.  I’m not one to shy away from eating with my hands (this is how I like to eat chicken on the bone), however, it’s so much easier and convenient to eat a patty with chopped bacon, mushrooms, guacamole, fried eggs, ketchup, and homemade ranch dressing with a fork.  Yes, we put all of these ingredients on our patties and not only are they nutrient-dense, they taste amazing.  Unless I’m super hungry from more intense workouts than usual or where I am in my hormonal cycle, this is an incredibly satisfying meal.

This is also an opportunity to get super creative with your burgers and think outside the bun.  Shake things up with your burgers and make them even more enjoyable and nutrient-dense by piling on all the whole food ingredients you can think of.

Tip #2- Get Outside as Much as Possible

One of my favorite things to do during the warm summer months is sit outside with a fresh cup of coffee in the morning and enjoy the fresh air.  When you’re out in nature your mood naturally (pun intended!) improves and you can feel your stress levels drop to a level of pure relaxation.  This is thanks to molecular fragments floating around called negative ions.  Ever feel super relaxed after being at the beach near water?  You can thank negative ions for being more prominent near water.

Getting sunlight directly into your eyes as soon as possible after waking up will help you sleep better at night.  Sleep is super important if you want to train your body to burn fat efficiently and keep your cravings in check.  Plus, you’ll have more energy to do all sorts of fun summer activities such as hiking, strength training, swimming, biking, and traveling.

Tip #3- Get Moving

Summer really is a great time of year to create a consistent exercise routine.  The sun rises earlier and stays out later which means there’s enough daylight throughout the day to workout at a time that works best for you.  While any time of year is a great time to create an exercise routine, biologically the summer months are an opportune time to get your ducks in a row.

Your body actually naturally wants to wake up when the sun rises and go to sleep (or at least wind down) when the sun sets.  Now, I understand it might not feel like it if you’re like me and love to sleep until at least an hour after the sun comes up.  Or if you’re a night owl (which I am not) and have the most energy after dark.  Doing the best you can to align your sleep schedule with the rising and setting of the sun during the summer months will give you more time in your waking hours to squeeze in a productive and effective workout.

These months in the middle of the calendar year are great for morning walks to get the blood flowing after you wake up and evening walks after dinner to help your body digest your meal better and lower your blood sugar (which helps with efficient fat loss).

You can even plan your summer BBQs around physical activity.  A game of frisbee, corn hole, or volleyball are fun ways to get off the couch into an upright position and move your body.  Plus, you can make it super competitive or laid back.  There doesn’t need to be a lot of talent that goes along with summer BBQ games.  The point is to make it fun and move your body.

Set Yourself Up for Summer Success

Take advantage of the next three months to soak up as much sunshine as possible (while of course protecting yourself from skin cancer) to help your body increase your feel-good hormones.  You’re more likely to make food, exercise, and sleep choices that align with your health and wellness intentions when you feel confident and happy.  You can lose weight while enjoying the summer festivities and indulging in your favorite summer treats (ice cream and wine spritzers anyone?).

If you need extra support during the summer months, I have two options for you: private group coaching or one-on-one coaching.  Both can be tailored to your specific goals, intentions, and lifestyle.  Go here to book a free call with me and we can chat about the details.

One Habit Can Change Your Life (and it’s super simple!)

Your current lifestyle habits are why you are where you are right now in your life.  They’re why you have a consistent workout routine or are not quite there yet.  They’re why you gravitate towards takeout for dinner rather than cooking a delicious homemade meal.  They’re why you have to drag yourself out of bed in the morning or jump up ready to start your day.

Habits are what you do day in and day out almost effortlessly.  They affect pretty much every aspect of your health and wellness.  If you want to make lasting change with any area of your health (i.e. weight loss) creating habits that move you in the direction of your goals is the key to success.

I’ve worked with clients in the past who were eating whole foods, moving frequently, and getting enough sleep that saw very little progress.  This can be incredibly frustrating!  Of course, with weight loss there’s several variables involved so the lack of progress could be a number of things.

One important aspect of your weight loss journey (and everything else in life) is your attitude and mindset.  These can be a bit challenging to keep in check when you feel defeated by not being able to lose weight and keep it off.

The one habit that’s made a huge difference in my life over the years is a simple one that can literally be done any where at any time: gratitude.

“Be thankful for what you have, you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never ever have enough.”-Oprah Winfrey

Gratitude is the low hanging fruit that many people overlook and is, in my opinion, underappreciated.  It’s one of the few actions you can literally do in less than a minute at any time that can improve your day almost instantly.  Expressing gratitude can be the catalyst that shifts your mood from “Blah” to “woo-hoo, let’s do this!”  And there’s evidence to prove this.

According to this article from Positive Psychology, gratitude actually changes the “neural structures in the brain.”  When new neural structures are formed, your ability to learn new things and make changes improves.  So, basically when you express gratitude   regularly you’re more likely absorb new information and create new lifestyle habits that support your weight loss intentions.

The even better news is that the article also says that gratitude can help you sleep better, be more resilient, lower your anxiety, improve your heart health, and more.  We all know great sleep and low stress levels are important for your body being able to burn fat more efficiently.

Gratitude has been known to increase your feel-good hormones such as serotonin and dopamine.  So, rather than grabbing your phone to scroll through social media to get your dopamine hit when you want to boost your mood, say out loud (or in your head) one thing that you’re grateful for in the moment.

Feeling anxious?  Express gratitude for at least one thing in your life in the moment.  You’ll feel your anxiety levels slowly start to go down.  Along with the calming sensation, you’ll experience a more positive mindset.

Lacking the motivation to workout?  Express gratitude for your physical ability to exercise.  You may feel a burst of motivation to get moving.

If you’re feeling frustrated with your weight loss progress, write down every single thing (yes, everything) you do on a daily basis to get you to your weight loss goal.  If you ate a salad with chicken and avocado topped with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, write it down.  If you chose sleep over a workout one morning, write it down.  If you enjoyed a glass of wine with your girlfriends, write it down.

Start including your small wins in your daily gratitude habit.  My hubby and I always share what we’re grateful for when we have a meal together.  We thank the animal for giving it’s life.  The ranchers, farmers, and even the truck drivers that transported our food to the grocery store.  I will also share that I’m grateful for a workout I did or the opportunity to teach fitness classes.  If I’m working on creating a new habit in my personal life or business, I’ll express gratitude for taking small steps to make it happen.

Don’t be shy about giving yourself the credit you deserve for taking action towards a healthier lifestyle.  Joining a gym, asking for help from a coach, planning your meals for the week ahead, and savoring a delicious piece of dark chocolate are all small wins that you can be grateful for every day.  It may not seem like you’re making progress but underneath the surface things are changing.  You just can see it yet.

I’m such a big believer in daily gratitude habits that I include it in my 12-Weeks to Sustainable Weight Loss program.  Health and wellness isn’t just about nutrition and fitness.  It’s about creating lifestyle habits that help you live an abundant life in all areas.  Gratitude is an important part the foundation of a rich life, whatever that looks like for you.

Action Step: Write down or say out loud 3-5 things that you’re grateful right now.

Crave Less, Thrive More: Your Empowered Guide to PMS Relief

Feel like PMS and period cravings take over your life once a month?  If this is you, I can totally relate.  Give me sweet potatoes, chocolate, and rice (not all mixed up together!) right before I’m about to start my period and I’ll be happy.  Maybe you crave salt and fat so potato chips feed your cravings (pun intended).

Whatever food cravings come up for you, this road can be a little tricky to navigate.  On one hand, I’m all about indulging in treats every now and then because you deserve to enjoy your life.  It can’t all be about strict diets. On the other hand, some of the foods you’re craving and eating could be contributing to more intense cramping, bloating, and fatigue.

The tricky part is finding a balance that works for you to satisfy your cravings while eating nutritious foods that minimize symptoms.  This is where I can help.  Today I’ll share how you can navigate your PMS and period cravings with fewer bumps in the road with my simple 4-step process.

Ready?  Here we go!

Step 1 - Evaluate Your Current Eating Habits

Your first step is to take a peek at what you eat over a 7-day period.  If you’re currently eating mostly whole foods such as chicken, beef, fish, eggs, fruits, and veggies, the next step will be easier for you than most.  You can go ahead and move on to step 2.

If you’re eating mostly pasta, bread, crackers, cereal, and other processed foods, I recommend shifting to eating more whole foods.  I understand this can be a big undertaking and something that might feel a little overwhelming at this time but it will be well worth it in the long run.

I used to have really intense periods in high school and throughout my twenties.  I would be in so much pain I just wanted to come home and curl up in bed.  I was cranky and exhausted every month.  It was not a fun way to live for myself or anyone around me.

Looking back, I know it had to do with the fast food I ate every day for lunch and the box of mac-n-cheese I ate when I got home from school.  I would eat anything and everything I could during that time of the month.  Did I mention I would eat the entire box of mac-n-cheese and eat the dinner my mom would make?  Yup, I didn’t shy away from eating (I was really active in high school and needed the calories) but the quality of food I ate was not so good.  This was probably the reason for my intense menstrual cramps and acne-prone skin.

Once I started to eat more whole foods and eliminate the processed foods, not only did my cramps not feel as intense but I didn’t have the intense food cravings.  Here’s the thing about your body: if you give it whole, nutrient-dense food it will want more of the same food and your processed food cravings will naturally diminish.  They may not go away entirely but you’ll feel like they’re at least under control.

If you need guidance on where to start with making the shift to whole foods, go here to book a free call with me and we’ll strategize together.

Step 2 - Prioritize Healthy Fats and Protein

During the last week of your cycle when you feel PMS coming on, your progesterone levels are at their lowest.. This is why you may feel more tired than usual, unable to focus, craving carbs (bread, rice, potatoes, baked goods, etc.), moody, and really just feel like your batteries need to be recharged.

When you give into your carb cravings this throws your hormones out of whack.  Eating high carb foods such as bread, rice, or potatoes, makes your body crank up the dial with insulin production to move out any excess blood sugar.  If you have too much insulin going through your blood stream at once, your hunger hormone increases which obviously makes you want to eat more.  You may notice you grab salty or sweet treats rather than whole food when your hunger levels go up.

One great way to mitigate any carb cravings is to focus on eating meals full of nutrient-dense proteins (meat, eggs, or fish), healthy fats (i.e. avocado), and veggies (broccoli, mixed greens, etc.).  This will help your body dial down the insulin production or keep it at a level that keeps your hunger and satiety hormones in check.  Plus, when you start your period, eating enough complete proteins (chicken, beef, bison, fish, and eggs) will replenish your iron faster.

Step 3 - Get Good Sleep

Have you ever woken up and felt like you could take on the world like the female super hero that you are?  Being well rested when you wake up might not be a common feeling for you but it can be.  More importantly, you deserve to wake up feeling well rested so you can have more mental clarity to make decisions that align with your healthy habit intentions like choosing a sweet potato over a cupcake.

Now, I can already hear the moms out there pushing back on this about how their kids wake them up in the middle of the night and feeling like getting great sleep is impossible.  If this is you, I want you to know that I hear you.  Taking care of kids isn’t always an easy task and it’s a 24/7 job.  I get it.

While I’m not a mom, I’ve experienced multiple nights in a row of not getting great sleep due to anxiety, middle of the night period issues, cats scratching on the bedroom door at 3am, hormonal disruptions, and I’m sure there’s more that I can’t think of off the top of my head.

Doing your best to prioritize sleep with your current lifestyle is key.  You don’t need to get 8-10 hours of sleep every single night.  In fact, I would recommend not setting this as a goal since it’s not realistic for most people, even people like myself who are child-free.

As with any lifestyle habit, this looks different for everyone.  It could mean getting to bed at 10pm instead of 11pm or sleeping in an extra hour one day a week.  It could mean turning off the screens two hours before you crawl into bed rather than scrolling on your phone until you fall asleep.  It’s not just about the number of hours of sleep but the quality of sleep.

When you have to drag yourself out of bed in the morning and feel sluggish all day, you’re way more likely to reach for processed foods rather than whole foods when your hunger kicks in.  This is not because you don’t have enough willpower.  It’s because your body is naturally craving processed food.  It’s basically a biological response to not getting great sleep.

This is actually the time of the month where you may want to consider resting more than usual.  If you exercise in the morning and didn’t get good sleep the night before, make the conscious choice to stay in bed longer rather than workout.  Say no to a social commitment on the weekend to stay home and take a nap or watch a movie in the afternoon.  Rearrange your schedule to squeeze in more rest than normal.  Remember, you deserve it.

Step 4 - Minimize Stress During This Time

This last step can be a challenging one because there are stressors in life that we simply don’t have control over.  So, the intention here is to focus on the ones you can control and work around the ones you can’t.  I know… easier said than done.

Let’s take a look at some stressors that you may be able to control in your life:

• Limiting your access to the processed foods you crave so you can’t just reach for them.  Don’t buy them and avoid them at the office.  Sometimes having these foods easily accessible can cause underlying stress that you might not even know is lurking in the background.

• Skipping a workout and choosing a nutrient-dense meal with meat or eggs and veggies.  Intense workouts can be stressful on your body and increase your cortisol levels which will cause even more stress.  Taking it easy and doing yoga or going for a walk is much less stressful on your body.

• Say no to a social event to open up time in your schedule to rest and chill out.  Being on the go all the time is an unnecessary stressor on the body and mind that can cause all sorts of hormonal disruption which can increase your cravings.

Make a list of all the stressors in your life that you can eliminate temporarily so you can navigate PMS and your period with ease and grace.  Brainstorm ideas about how you implement more rest during these days of the month.

Empower Yourself

As women, we’re programmed to take on a lot of responsibilities in every day life.  It’s what society has taught us.  It’s important to remember that you can ease up on responsibilities when you feel it’s needed.  You can get help with childcare or caring for elderly parents for a few days or even a week.  You may need to get creative but it can be done.  One of my favorite quotes from my mentor, Marie Forleo, reminds me of this every day: “Everything is figureoutable.”

When you empower yourself to honor your body this time of the month, you’re able to be a better friend, colleague, partner, mom, and daughter in the long run.  You may even inspire the women in your life to do the same.

The One Workout Every Woman Should Be Doing

If I had to share one piece of fitness advice for you, as a woman, of any age it would be get your strength training on.  Cardio is great to improve heart health and keep your lungs healthy, but strength training is, in my opinion, the most important and effective form of exercise you can do as a woman regardless of your health and wellness goals.

Now, I normally don’t give fitness advice to anyone without asking questions to learn more about them and where they are in the moment.  However, strength training is the universal form of exercise that everyone can benefit from no matter the age.  And the great thing about strength training is that you can start a program at any age, experience level, and body size.  I work with a wide array of clients including women who have zero experience with strength training, are currently active and want to level up, live in a bigger body, live in a petite body, and are in their 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s.

Before we dive into the meat and potatoes of this article, I want to share an incredibly inspiring video from YouTube about an 80 year old woman that can deadlift 255 pounds (more than I can at age 44!).  She didn’t start lifting weights until she was 76.  Go here to learn more about this incredible woman!

Okay, now that we’re inspired let’s dive into the juicy details of strength training at any age.

Strength Training In Your 20’s

It’s never too early to start a strength training routine.  There are two important reasons to start a strength routine in your twenties: habit creation and bone mass.  We’ll talk about the importance of both right now.

While creating new habits later in life is totally doable, it’s way easier to maintain habits as you age when you start early.  I started lifting weights when I was in high school and have kept my strength party going in one form or another ever since.  My women's strength training class in high school kickstarted my passion for health and fitness.  Fitness more than overall health because, I’ll be honest with you, my fast food habit back then was not the healthiest.  This is a story for another day (and maybe to be shared with a whiskey in hand).

On average, your bone mass peaks in your mid twenties so the more strength training you do, the healthier and more sturdy your bones will be as you age.  Once you hit thirty, your bone density starts to gradually decline so it’s super important to do everything in your power to keep them strong.  Healthy bones are less likely to break which means your chances of injury goes way down.  Strength training along with impact movements such as jumping and proper nutrition help create strong bones.

Strength Training in Your 30’s

This is a decade that can be full of personal growth and opportunities.  You’re no longer in your twenties and have (hopefully) learned from the mistakes you made in your younger years.  This doesn’t mean that you won’t continue to make mistakes.  I’m in my mid-forties and I still make mistakes, although different ones than back in the day.

Most women in their thirties know themselves at least a little bit better and have a clearer vision for what direction they want their life to go in than they did in their twenties (I know I did!).

Women are getting married and having babies later in life and a healthy body is more likely to grow a healthy baby.  Getting pregnant can be a little challenging in your thirties since, according to biology, you’re past your most fertile reproductive stage in your life.  Thankfully there are ways in which you can increase your chances of getting pregnant past your so-called prime, strength training being one of them.

One huge benefit of strength training is maintaining healthy insulin levels.  If you’ve gone through my program, you’re already aware that insulin is the hormone that directs other hormones and nutrients where to go and what to do.  It’s basically the hormone boss-lady in your body.  Insulin plays a super important role in making sure you have just enough blood sugar running through you at once.  If you have too much insulin too frequently and it has to move a lot of blood sugar around, it can cause weight gain, diabetes (which we all know isn’t good), and prevent you from ovulating (which is kinda important to get pregnant).

Even if you don’t want to have a baby in your thirties, creating a strength training routine that works for you can help you get good sleep, have consistent energy levels, improve your overall health, and prepare your body for the next biological phases: perimenopause and menopause.  Now the strength party can really begin!

Strength Training in Your 40’s and Beyond

When you reach the beginning of your fourth decade on planet Earth (or maybe a few years prior), your body slowly starts to transition out of your reproductive years and into the final phase: post menopause.  This biological process can take several years and every woman’s experience is different.

If you’re in your forties and you’ve never had a consistent strength training routine, now is the best time!  I’ve had clients begin my fitness program in their forties with little to no experience with weights and within a few weeks they’re feeling more confident with their form and already feeling stronger.  In fact, my expertise as a women’s health and fitness coach is working with beginners who want to add strength training into their movement routine but don’t know where to start.  Strength training is a skill that can be learned and mastered no matter what your age.

If you’re a fitness enthusiast like myself and have been pushing dumbbells and kettlebells around for decades, you may notice a few changes before, during, and after your workouts.  You might be unable to build (or maintain) muscle like you did in your twenties and thirties.  This is because testosterone levels naturally go down as we age.  This hormone helps build muscles so without it, your body isn’t able to do this as well.  Estrogen plays an important role in maintaining muscle mass and what happens to estrogen as we age?  Yup, you guessed it!  It goes down.

Here’s the great news!

I don’t want you to finish reading this and think that once you’ve joined the Forties Club that you’ll get weaker every year for the rest of your life.  Okay, I know this is a little dramatic but this is sometimes the mindset the we slip into when we learn about the aging process.

You don’t have to live out the second half of your life unable to get out of bed, off the toilet, or carry your own groceries.  There are lifestyle habits you can implement to mitigate muscle loss and even gain muscle.  Yup!  You read that right.  It is possible to gain muscle in your forties and beyond.  You just need to make a few tweaks to how you gain muscle.

My top three tips for gaining muscle at any age are:

1. Get good sleep - Your body goes into repair mode when you sleep and this is the time when the human growth hormone increases, which is beneficial for muscle growth.

2. Consider taking a creatine supplement - While creatine is found in meat and seafood, supplementing with it can help with muscle recovery if taken after a workout and with performance if taken before a workout.  Check out this short article from Harvard Medical School that talks about how it can help mitigate muscle loss as we age.

3. Eat enough protein - Eating enough protein for your body that supports the intensity of your workouts can be a game changer with building muscle.  Muscles are made of amino acids and our body gets amino acids from protein to rebuild muscles.

Want to dive a little deeper into strength training?

Go here to check out my article about strength training and metabolism: 3 Reasons Your Hubby’s Losing Weight Faster Than You.  You can also go here to check out my podcast episode here where I share 3 Tips to Get Comfortable with Strength Training.

Feeling inspired to build strength and confidence at any age—and want a coach who’s got your back every step of the way? Let’s do this together! Book your free call with me today and join a supportive, empowering journey to a stronger you.

Wellness Gets Way Easier With Systems That Support You

If you’ve found yourself saying “I’m too lazy to eat healthy and exercise!  I just don’t have the willpower.” you’re definitely not alone.  This is something I hear a lot from people, especially women.  As women, we’re juggling a lot throughout our daily lives: partners, work, cooking, grocery shopping, kids, cleaning, laundry and the list goes on.

Here’s the thing about saying you’re “too lazy to eat healthy and exercise,” it’s a story you’re telling yourself that’s not actually true.  In fact, it couldn’t be further than the truth.  You actually do have the willpower within yourself.  You just need to bring it to the surface by getting efficient habit systems in place.

Before I dive into how to find the willpower within yourself, I want to say that I get where you’re coming from by thinking you’re lazy.  I thought this about myself for years until I cracked the code on effective habit systems.

It’s easy to feel this way when:

• You struggle to stick to a healthy meal plan

• You have to drag yourself out of bed in the morning to workout

• You have a super busy schedule with work, family, and social events

• You just want to scroll through social media or binge watch a show after dinner

• You can’t resist the sweet treats in the break room at work

These are all valid reasons to make you think that you’re lazy.  The reality is these are simply obstacles that are getting in your way and you just need to find a way to overcome them to uncover the willpower that’s inside of you (trust me, it’s there!).

I realize this is easier said than done.  It might be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier.  I share this from personal experience.  Creating new habits is my superpower.  This is what I’m trained to do to help my clients create sustainable lifestyle habits that work for them and I’ve mastered this skill in my own life.  Creating habit systems in my life that are fun (for the most part) and fold into my life efficiently (and sometimes effortlessly) has made healthy lifestyle habits easy.

Okay, let’s dive right in!

Making your new habits easy for yourself is key in creating a habit system that works for you.  Having systems in place that you can do over and over again help you get the habit you want to implement ingrained in you.

When you’re creating a new habit, your brain is actually creating a new neural net so you can eventually do the new activity pretty much without thinking about it.  It takes time and energy to create these new neural nets in your brain which means you need to do something new over and over again to make it stick.  If you make it too complicated, you’ll be tempted to give up too easily and your brain won’t have enough time to put it on autopilot.

I learned this throughout my training as a health coach and from BJ Fogg’s book, Tiny Habits.  There are a lot of habit books out there and this one is definitely my favorite.  If you tend be more analytical, this habit book might be good for you.

So, what does a habit system look like?  Let’s take a look at different scenarios…

That cupcake calling your name in the break room? Yeah, that’s not just temptation — it’s part of your habit system doing its thing. Hitting snooze five times before dragging yourself into a half-hearted workout? Yep, that’s your current exercise habit system. And that nightly scroll-a-thon on the couch after dinner? You guessed it — another habit in action. The good news? Systems can be reworked, rewired, and made to actually work for you — not against you.

If you want to get different results such as healthier eating and exercise habits, something needs to change within your habit system.  Rather than thinking you have to do all this work to create a new habit, think of it as simply updating your habit systems to get the results you want.

As I mentioned earlier, the most important thing to do is to make your new habit super easy.  I personally don’t like complicated processes, at least not when I’m creating a new habit.

You decide to work with a health and fitness coach (a win for you!).  You’re ready to make changes, but then you’re handed a meal plan packed with ingredients you don’t buy and recipes that feel more like a cooking show than real life. You do your best, stick with it for a week, but pretty soon, it’s clear: this just doesn’t fit your life. You’re busy, the meals aren’t enjoyable, and you're only following it because someone told you it’s “healthy.” But here’s the truth — lasting change doesn’t come from forcing yourself to eat things you don’t love. It comes from building habits that actually fit you, your lifestyle, and your taste buds.

The next thing you know, you’re telling yourself that you can’t eat healthy because you’re lazy and don’t have the willpower.  Then your thoughts transform into “Why did I invest in a coach when I can’t be helped at all?”  This frustrating cycle continues until you get habit systems in place that actually work for you.

Here’s my philosophy as a coach: it doesn’t matter how healthy a meal plan or effective an exercise routine is if you’re not going to stick to it.

The reality is you need to figure out a healthy meal plan that you enjoy eating and is easy to prepare (30-minutes or less is my go-to during the week!) while at the same time is made up of nutrient-dense, whole food (meat, seafood, eggs, veggies, fruit, nuts, berries, etc.).  This can be done with a mini experiments and patience (sometimes a lot of patience!).

The same is true for an exercise routine.  When I’m programming workouts for my clients, one of the things I want to know is which type of exercise they really don’t enjoy doing.  I’m talking any movement they would really struggle to find the motivation to do.  And then I want to know what they do enjoy doing for exercise.  It doesn’t have to be a movement they actually love but at least tolerate (sometimes with a smile).

Speaking of exercise… an important part of your fitness habit system is getting ready for your workouts.  The small steps you need to take to get to your workout space (the gym, your living room, or your corporate wellness group fitness class) make a big difference in whether or not you get to your workout.

Packing your gym bag the night before can give you more time in the morning to get to the gym.  Putting your workout clothes and shoes near the front door so you can put them on right when you get home from work can make it easy for you to go for a walk before dinner.  Putting on your workout clothes right after waking up in the morning before you have your coffee can get you in the mindset to workout.

Now it’s time to take action!

What’s one tweak you can make to a habit system where you want to see different results?

Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

• Remind yourself why you don’t want to eat the sweet treats on the table or avoid the temptation all together by not walking into the break room.

• Find a time of day to workout when you have the energy so you’re not dragging yourself out of bed when morning workouts don’t work for you.

• Go for a walk after dinner rather than picking up your phone or turning on the TV.

There really are so many different ways you can make tweaks to your habit systems to make them more efficient.  Every small step in your habit systems will help you find the motivation to take action and actually see the results you want and deserve.

Remember… You’re not lazy!  You just need habit systems in place that work for you.

10 Ways to Prioritize You—Because You Deserve It!

Self-care is a term that can mean different things to different people.  To some, it might mean going to a fancy spa and getting a luxurious massage or getting a mani-pedi.  To others (like myself), it might mean sitting in the sun for 10 minutes or sitting alone in a room for 5 minutes by myself.

Most people think you have to spend money on self-care when the reality is you actually don’t need to spend any money at all to treat yourself to a luxurious moment in your life.  There are a lot of ways you can take care of yourself that take minimal time and effort.

I’ve broken down 10 self-care ideas almost anyone can do no matter how busy life gets.  These are simple and easy (which is a combination that I love!) ways to show yourself some love and that you’re worthy and deserving of living your dream life.

Let’s get started with these ideas and how to implement them!

Focus on Positive Self-Talk

This one can be a game changer in all areas of your life.  Talking to yourself as if you’re your bestie is showing yourself that you’re worthy of respect.  I’m not talking about being a pollyanna and being positive 100% of the time (this is totally not realistic and actually unhealthy!).

When you make a mistake, give yourself grace and remind yourself that you’re human.  Limit your pity party to 5 minutes or less and then move on to what you learned from the mistake and how to fix it.  Then… move on with your life.  Repeating this process over and over creates resiliency.  Resiliency can make overcoming any obstacle (especially those related to weight loss) feel almost effortless in the long run.  This is easier said than done and something I’m constantly working on myself.

Take a Hot Bath

A hot bath with your favorite bubble bath or epsom salt (or both) can give your body what it needs to decompress from a stressful day.  The hot water and epsom salt relaxes your muscles and minimizes soreness from workouts.  It can also help ease those pesky menstrual cramps so you don’t have to suffer every month.

So, grab your bath pillow, favorite book or relaxing music, and glass of wine and slip into a nice hot tub of water.  Or just enjoy your bath in silence with your eyes closed.  You’ll emerge from your bath feeling better than you did when you got in.

Go on an Exercise Date With Your Partner

When my hubby and I started dating, several of our dates were Saturday morning meet ups at the sand dune or trailhead.  It was a great way for us to talk and get to know each other while being in the fresh air and sunshine.  It was an opportunity to get away from the screens and have meaningful conversations to see if we’re compatible.

We still do this almost every weekend after 13 years together.  Staying active is an important value we both have as individuals and as a couple.  It’s something that we bond over even after being together for over a decade.  Whether you’re in a new relationship or seasoned one, exercising together can help you get or stay healthy together as a team.

Get Out Your Crayons (or Colored Pencils) and Coloring Book

When I was kid I loved getting my color crayons (yes, I still call them color crayons) and coloring books out to sit and color.  I could do this for hours on end.  As an adult, we tend to get away from the simple activities we did as kids when we should really be moving towards them.  It gives us a much needed break from “adulting.”

If you go to a bookstore (yes, they still exist believe it or not!), there’s a wide variety of adult coloring books.  You can choose one that features National Parks, super heroes (I have a Wonder Woman book), nature, holidays, and so many more I can’t list them all.  I found a Barbie coloring book at Target a few weeks ago that took me back to my childhood.  I’m sure you can find one that piques your interest.  Coloring can be a relaxing way to unwind, tap into your creativity, and allow your mind to wander.

Enjoy a Cup of Coffee

My favorite morning routine is sipping on a freshly brewed cup of coffee.  While the caffeine boost gives me energy, the taste of coffee and the ritual of starting my day off in a relaxing way is part of my self-care routine.  To me it’s not just about sipping the coffee, though I do love the taste.  It’s about this entire process.  We make hand-brewed pour over coffee every morning and while it’s a bit of a process, it’s well worth the effort.

My hubby and I have certain days of the week when each of us make the coffee.  On Sunday mornings, I get to sleep in a little while my hubby gets out of bed before me and brings me coffee in bed.  Letting him do this is part of my coffee self-care routine.  Let your partner do the heavy lifting with your coffee routine so you can sleep in a little bit.

Watch a Few Episodes of Your Favorite TV Show

Sometimes we feel the need to escape from our current life momentarily and step into different reality.  Turning on your favorite TV show for a few laughs (or maybe some tears) can be a relaxing experience to help you unwind.  My top three favorite shows are Friends, The Big Band Theory, and The West Wing.  While The West Wing is obviously more of drama than a comedy, all three of these shows can make me laugh no matter what kind of mood I’m in.

Just to be clear, stepping into a different reality (especially a fictional one) isn’t a way to avoid any problems happening in your life.  It’s an opportunity to step back and take your mind off what’s happening for a short period of time.  Often times stepping away from a problem and doing something else can actually help you solve your problem.  So, having fictional friends that you can “hang out with” at Central Perk, the Comic Book Store, or in the Oval Office can help your brain go do it’s thing to find a solution while you sit back and relax.

Eat a Meal with Meat (or Seafood) and Veggies Only

You might be asking yourself why I included this one as self-care.  The answer is very simple: eating whole, nutrient-dense food is one of the most important self-care activities you can do for yourself.  This is something we often overlook when we think of self-care.  If you want to start small with your self-care routine, start by eating one meal a day that’s made up of chicken, beef, bison, seafood, or eggs and veggies.  This is treating your body with the respect it deserves so it can do what it needs to do to keep you getting great sleep, stay lean, and age gracefully.

Say No to a Social Event You Don’t Want to Go To

This can be a hard one if you’re a people pleaser like me and want to say yes to everyone to avoid any conflict.  What I’ve learned over the years of being a professional people pleaser is that I’m not actually avoiding conflict when I say yes when I actually want to say no.  After I say yes, there’s always regret bubbling up inside of me for committing to something I didn’t want to do.

Along with being a people pleaser, I tend to be a very loyal person so telling someone yes when I wanted to say no causes more conflict within me.  Saying no to a social event you don’t want to go to can feel incredibly liberating.  I just said no earlier this week to a social event that I almost said yes to only because I wanted to support my friend.  It felt really good to say no with zero guilt creeping up afterwards.  The older I get the more I want to protect my time.  Plus, I don’t like going out on a school night unless it’s something really fun like Taco Tuesday!

Improve Your Relationship with Money

This is one that I’ve been working on slowly over the years and have recently accelerated my efforts to level up.  We are all where are financially as the result of our money story and beliefs about money.

Now, I won’t go into more detail about specifics since I’m not an expert on the topic but I will say this: while money doesn’t make you happy, it does give you choices.  You’ll have more choices to travel, invest in your health and wellness, buy all the food you need, or treat your family to a night out.  When you have a healthy relationship with money you don’t worry about it as much.  The less worry you have in your life, the more you channel your energy into focusing on what you want to do with your life.

Wash and Condition Your Hair

This may sound like a silly one but tell me, how great does it feel to get out of the shower, run a comb through freshly washed hair, and go on to either let it air dry or use a hair dryer?  I washed my hair last Sunday even though I could have waited until Monday morning because I love the shampoo and conditioner I use and how my hair feels when it’s clean.

Healthy hygiene is definitely up there on the self-care priority list.  Having clean hair helps me feel more confident in my own skin even when it’s just me and my hubby lying around watching movies on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Prioritize Your Self-Care Today

To wrap it up, when you take care of yourself first you not only improve your health, but your confidence increases, as well.  You feel more relaxed and energetic, ready to take on the world.  You’re body is able to burn fat efficiently, you experience more motivation than before, and you’re able to better take care of those around you.  By helping yourself first, you’re in-turn helping others at the same.  It truly is a win-win!

7 Reasons to Take Care of YOU Right Now

When was the last time you did something for yourself?  I’m talking about something that was not influenced by your kids, spouse, friends, or anyone else in your life.  Something that was all about YOU.

If you can’t remember, it’s totally okay.  To be honest, you’re probably not alone.  So many women (myself included) find it challenging to carve out time for themselves.  As women, we’re taught to take care of everyone else around us first.  Now, I realize this isn’t true for all women but it’s a common theme among women who are married, have kids, or take care of elderly parents.

Let’s chat about why it’s important to take care of YOU right now.  Next week we’ll tackle self-care strategies and how to implement them into your life so be sure to tune in then.

Respecting Yourself

Take a minute to think about how you treat someone who you truly respect.  Would you talk to them with words of discouragement or encouragement?  (We’ll chat more about self-talk next week.)  Would you jump in and help them when they needed it?  When you treat yourself with the utmost respect that you would another human, you get to know yourself on a deeper level.  You gain clarity on what you really want and not what you think you want based on what others are telling you.  Living your life the way society tells you is the “right” way is not treating yourself with respect (unless it aligns with your values, of course).  I’m sure most of us have done this at some point in our life.  When you gain clarity on what you really want, you’re able to set your life up in a way that aligns with your values.  Which leads into the next reason for taking care of you.

Realistic Expectations

When you start showing yourself more respect and get super clear on what you want, you organically begin to set up realistic expectations for yourself.  Your focus shifts to the healthy habits you can fit into your life rather than rearranging your entire life to force habits into it because, well, that’s not fun.  This helps you set realistic expectations.  Now, you may need to make a few adjustments with your schedule to squeeze in 2-3 workouts during the week.  For example, if you can’t (or don’t want to) workout in the morning but you want to start exercising regularly, find times during your week that work for you.  Maybe you have 30-minutes when you get home from work where you can squeeze in a 20-minute at home workout.  Or go for a walk after dinner with your family rather than watching a show.  There are ways to get creative.

When you set up realistic expectations for your own life (and not anyone else’s) you’ll experience more success and learn how to celebrate your small wins.  For me, packing my gym bag the night before is something to celebrate because it makes my mornings so much more relaxed.  It gives me more time to read and enjoy my morning coffee, which is part of my self-care routine.

Respecting yourself proves that you’re worthy and deserving of the healthiest and happiest version of yourself.

Increased Confidence

When you start taking care of yourself, you organically begin to feel more confident in your own body.  The small wins I just mentioned?  Each and every one of these is going to give you a boost of confidence.  Some will be small and others will be big.  Each of these wins, no matter how big or small, will motivate you to keep moving forward.  You may not notice it in the moment but the motivation is there.  You just need to trust the process.

When your self-confidence is higher, you naturally feel like you deserve more.  You’re more likely to stick to what you define as healthy lifestyle habits: frequent movement, nutrient-dense foods, plenty of rest, and most importantly, indulging in life’s simple pleasures (chocolate and wine anyone?).

More Energy

There might be seasons in life when you feel exhausted all the time.  If you’ve just given birth, your adorable, tiny new roommate might be a challenge to get used to (it’s good thing she’s super cute!).  If you have a deadline at work, you might be working long hours to not only get a project done, but do it well.  If you’re planning a wedding, getting together all the details for your special day might feel like a part (or full) time job.  When you prioritize your self-care during these times, you’ll have the energy you need to power through this time in your life.

Even during the seasons in your life that are busy, but not crazy busy, you’ll experience more consistent energy levels when you focus on your self-care.  I’m not saying every day is going to be filled with energy levels that keep you moving like the Energizer® Bunny all day long but you can experience more days like this when you do than when you don’t.  Eating nutritious meals, drinking plenty of water, and laughing are all things that can help you feel alive and energetic.  This leads us to the next reason to prioritize your self-care…

Better Moods

Those times when your anxiety is at its peak, you’re snapping at your hubby (or kids) for no reason, or you feel like your world is crumbling around you can be few and far between when you make yourself a priority in your life.

As women, we can be very skilled at saying everything is good even though on the inside we’re about to lose our shit because we spilled a glass of water.  I know you’ve been there because I’ve been there, too.  When there’s a dumpster fire going on inside of you it’s okay to admit it.  This will help you let the emotions flow so you can move on.

Once you grab the fire extinguisher and put out the dumpster fire, it’s time to replace the “everything is good when it actually isn’t” skill with one that makes you an expert at carving out time for yourself on a daily basis.  We’ll dive into the nitty gritty about how to do this next week.  I promise you it can be done with time and a lot of patience (and maybe some wine or whiskey), which I know you have deep down inside (the patience, not the wine or whiskey).

Once you master the self-care skill, you’ll notice you’re in a better mood more often.  This will help you overcome challenges that come up and become more resilient.  You’ll find yourself bouncing back faster after a set back.  You’ll feel your anxiety melting away and become more optimistic about your future.  Your relationships will improve and you won’t need to apologize as often for yelling at your hubby because he didn’t put the toilet seat down.

Better moods naturally lead to our next reason…

Efficient Fat Loss

One skill to be mastered that often gets overlooked when you’re wanting to lose weight is managing your stress levels and keeping your cortisol in check.  This can be the missing link in your fat loss puzzle.

You’ll always have stressors in your life which this is actually a good thing.  Your body actually needs cortisol (your stress hormone) to thrive.  Cortisol in combination with serotonin helps your body wake up in the morning.  Plus, when you’re actually in a life threatening situation, cortisol protects you by helping you react effectively.  So, we want a healthy level of cortisol that keeps us alert but not too much to where we’re always feeling like we’re on edge.  When this happens your body automatically goes into protection mode and keeps any extra fat on you to make sure you’re good to go at any time.  It’s your body’s way of keeping you alive in moments of distress.

When your stress levels are at a healthy level, your body feels more relaxed and wants to let go of any excess fat it’s holding onto to keep you thriving and not just surviving.

Improve Your Overall Health

Taking care of yourself by doing all the things (eating whole foods, relaxing, taking a hot bath, sleeping, etc.) lowers your chances of heart disease, high blood pressure, and   other chronic diseases.  Creating lifestyle habits that focus on self-care before going through menopause is super important.  The hormone estrogen is important in protecting you from heart related issues.  Since your estrogen levels drop significantly during menopause, having self-care habits in place can help prevent heart disease post menopause.

What’s your number one reason for taking care of YOU?

If you’ve been part of my community for a while (or have worked with me one-on-one), you already know I’m a big fan getting clear on your Why.  So, if you wanted to make self-care a priority in your life today, what would be your motivation?

Health and Fitness Coaching: Unnecessary Expense or Smart Investment?

When was the last time you checked in with your money mindset?  I know you’re probably wondering why I’m talking about money mindset when I’m a health and fitness coach.  That’s fair!  There is method to my madness, I promise.

There’s a connection between how we spend our money and our values (what’s most important to us in our life).  Sometimes we think we know what we value most in our life but the reality is our words don’t always line up with our actions.  We’ll do a deep dive on this topic today.

We spend our money on the things that are important to us and that are needed.  We all need food to stay alive.  Life is much more enjoyable when we have a warm, comfortable, safe place to sleep.  We need some form of transportation to get us to the grocery store, work, school, and wherever else we want to go.

After all our basic necessities are paid for we have the choice to spend, save, or invest the leftover at the end of the month (if there is any which I’ll talk about as well).  These are three completely different actions.  While I’m not a financial advisor (nor do I want to be one), I’m going to share with you how each of these relate to your health and wellness values.

Spending

There’s always new health and fitness trends roaming around social media these days.    Let’s rewind for a sec.  In the 80’s, it was the Step Aerobics platform promoted by the original cardio queen, Jane Fonda.  Back in the 90’s, it was Suzanne Sommers’ thigh master, which was actually a very effective tool to firm up your thighs and there’s still versions available today.  Dance classes (Zumba anyone?) became a big hit in the early 2000’s as the go-to workout to do.

There’s not only fitness trends that become popular but nutrition trends, as well.  If you think about it, we’re always hearing about the latest “super-food” that you just have to eat because it will turn you into Wonder Woman and you’ll be able to fly your invisible plane and use your lasso of truth to make people tell you the truth.  Okay, maybe I’m being a little dramatic but, honestly, who doesn’t want to be Super Woman?  My point is that there’s not one food (or supplement for that matter) that’s going to make or break your health and wellness.  I’ll dive more into this in the investment section in a bit.

If you want to keep up with the latest health and fitness trends I’m all for it!  Just be sure it’s actually something you enjoy doing (or eating) and not something you’re doing  (or eating) just because social media influencers are telling you it’s good for you.  When you fall into this trap you might be adding an unnecessary expense to your spending habits.  You’re the only one who gets to decide what’s good for your health and wellness.  We’ll tap into this later on.

On the other hand, if you say you want to scale back on your processed food intake to eat healthier but say you can’t because it’s too expensive, I encourage you to take a look at your spending habits.  What can you take a break from buying and spend that money on meat, eggs, or veggies instead?  Every few months or so we’ll do a no-spend month where we don’t buy any extras.  We don’t eat out (or scale back on this) and only spend our money on the regular expenses that keep us alive and kicking (i.e. food) and the necessities (i.e. insurance).  It definitely opens our eyes to unnecessary spending that’s happening that we’re not aware of.

Saving

If you’re a saver like me (which, by the way, I wasn’t always), this can definitely benefit your health and well-being.  Having money in the bank in case any unexpected expenses come up such as a car repair can help you avoid diving into panic mode.  You know what I’m talking about.  The one that pops up during a routine maintenance check that adds an extra $500 to your bill.  This happened to us the week of Christmas and, while it wasn’t too expensive, we were really grateful we were able to pay for it no problem.

The constant stress about money can take a toll on your overall health.  When your cortisol (your stress hormone) levels are constantly high, this can create chaos with your hormones. When your hormones are out of whack sugar and salt cravings increase, anxiety levels go up, you have trouble sleeping, and you may feel less motivated to move your body.  Before you know it, you’ve eaten the entire box of cookies and it’s 1am and you’re still scrolling through social media.  These are just a few things that can inhibit your body from burning fat effortlessly.

Enjoying peace of mind when it comes to having a cushion in the bank can help you feel calm and collected even when surprise expenses come up.  When you feel relaxed and optimistic, you’re more likely to make food and movement choices that actually align with your health and fitness goals.  It will make creating sustainable lifestyle habits more enjoyable and feel effortless.  Which brings us to the last money topic.

Investing

Now we’re going to talk about the good stuff!  Investing in your health, in my opinion, is the best way to create lifestyle habits that are sustainable.  There’s something really satisfying to me when I hand over my money in exchange for something that I know is going to help me get great sleep, feel strong, have energy, and feel confident in my own skin (which is something I’ve struggled with all my life).

So, what does this look like?

Well, this looks different for everyone.  Now, I know I talk a lot about the benefits of health and fitness coaching.  I do this because I truly believe in the value of it, which is why I got into this industry.  This is why I’m committed to writing about women’s health every single week.  This is why I started the Wellness Abundance Podcast.  This is why I get out of bed every day and make it my daily mission to impress upon women like yourself that you can live in a healthy body while enjoying life’s simple pleasures like chocolate and wine.

Some women benefit from joining a gym and signing up for group fitness classes.  Other women prefer investing in fitness videos and workout equipment they can do in the comfort of their own home.  By the way, if you’re not on our Women’s Weekly Wellness email list, go here to join and you’ll receive our Guide to Fitness For Weight Loss that includes 27 on demand fitness videos you can do at any time in the comfort of your own home.

Okay, I digress.  Let’s get back on track.

Personally, I like to invest my money in grass-feed meat, wild caught seafood, pasture-raised eggs, and organic fruits and veggies whenever possible.  This aligns with one of my core values of eating as many nutrient dense foods as possible.  Of course, only the ones I actually enjoy eating.  You won’t catch me eating liver.  EVER!  I’ve tried it once and never again.  Yuck!

To be honest, it’s actually easy for me to choose nutrient dense food over processed food because it’s a core value of mine.  Same with my hubby which was actually one the qualities that attracted me to him.  Health and fitness being a priority was a “must-have” quality on my list I was looking for in a life partner.  In fact, it was at the top of my list.  Yes, I had a list of the qualities for a life partner.  That’s a fun story for another time.

One of the first things I want to learn about my clients is what they value most in their life.  What’s most important to them?  This conversation usually starts before we actually start working together because they come to me for help them align their actions with their values.

Just to give you some clarity on this, here are some examples of women who’ve enrolled in one of my programs:

• She’s having fertility challenges and wants to start a family

• Osteoporosis runs in her family and she wants to prevent it with a strength training routine but she doesn’t know where to start

• She wants to lose fat to be healthier because of a scary diagnosis

• She feels wants to take her health and fitness to a different level

At the very beginning of our coaching relationship, we chat about her values and why it’s important to her to create healthy lifestyle habits.  This then translates into a great conversation about what her life would look like if she implemented these changes and found success.

As we work together and collaborate on a healthy lifestyle strategy, we keep in mind her values and how they relate to her food, fitness, and rest choices.  This makes it easier for her to choose whole foods over processed foods, a workout over sitting around, and sleep over doom-scrolling or binge watching a show.  My ultimate goal as her coach is to help her get to a point where it’s almost effortless to make choices throughout her daily life that support her health and wellness intentions.  This is why my signature program is called 12-Weeks To Effortless Weight Loss.

Working with a health and wellness professional like myself is one of the best investments anyone can make in their future.  Just imagine how liberating and amazing it will feel waking up every single day knowing that you’re going to make the best choices for your body.  You’ll feel lighter, more energetic, and confident in your own body.  And you deserve to feel this way no matter what season of your life you’re in.

All or Nothing: Why This Approach Never Works For Weight Loss

Quick question for you… If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, would you consider yourself a perfectionist?

If you’re answer is yes, this article is definitely for you so keep reading.  If you’re answer is no, this article is definitely for you.  No, there wasn’t a typo in the last sentence.  Stay with me and I’ll explain later why this is an article every woman who’s been on a weight loss journey - that’s had so many ups and downs you stopped counting years ago when you realized you ran out of fingers and toes - should read.

When you think of perfectionism, what’s the first thing that pops into your head?

Type-A personality

Extremely successful person (I’m talking multi-millionaire status)

Needing everything in it’s place before you start

Going all in (We’ll chat about how to redefine this one)

Obsessive compulsive person

Never satisfied and always critical

These were the first things that came to mind when I started writing this.  Part of the definition of perfectionism according to Merriam-Webster is “a disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable.”

So, why am I talking about perfectionism as a health and fitness coach for women?  Well, I’m glad you asked because there’s a direct link between perfectionism and a woman’s ability to lose weight.  Yup, it’s true!  This is the number one hurdle that gets in the way of my clients creating sustainable, healthy lifestyle habits that work for them.  There’s a pattern I’ve observed over the years with my clients who don’t experience the weight loss results they expect.  I’ll share this pattern with you and what links perfectionism to weight loss.

Let’s dive deep and see what hidden gems this connection has to offer!

The link I’m talking about is what I like to call the all-or-nothing connection.  Simply put, the mindset here is that you have to do everything right all the time or you’ll never lose weight.  I get this mindset because I used to have it.  If something didn’t go my way, I would give up way too easily and just think that what I was doing didn’t work.

Let’s get into some specific examples that you might be able to relate to.

Too Invested in the Scale

This is a big one because we’ve been brainwashed to think the number on the scale defines our health and value as a woman when the reality is it’s actually just a number.  Here’s the thing about the scale: it’s not an accurate measurement of not only your weight, but your health.  There’s different variables that go into the number on the scale.  It doesn’t reflect any water weight you might be holding onto depending on what you ate for your previous meal or how much lean muscle mass you have.  Lean muscle mass is more dense than fat.  I go into a bit more detail about this in a previous blog post here and podcast episode here.

When you see the number on the scale stay the same (or go up), what’s your first thought?  A few things I hear from clients is that they think they’re not doing enough or what they’re doing isn’t working.  Whether or not one or both of these is true is not the most important thing to consider.  When this happens, the most effective first step in evaluating the situation is deciding whether or not you’ve set up realistic expectations for yourself.  This is the next part of the all-or-nothing connection…

Sets Unrealistic Expectations

Your body has a survival mechanism built into it to make sure you stay alive and kicking.  Your body knows exactly what it needs to do to keep you healthy and this may include keeping extra weight on you.  If you’ve still got your period, your body is basically always on standby, ready for the possibility of growing a tiny human at any moment. It’s like your body’s built-in safety net, making sure you don’t get too skinny, because if you’re not careful, your fertility could take a hit.  Your body’s got your back, even when you’re not planning on a baby just yet. This is just one of the amazing things our bodies do that we should celebrate!

Another thing many women don’t take into account is hormone fluctuations.  Your hormones fluctuate throughout the month (which is what they’re supposed to do) which means your body responds to food, exercise, and sleep a little differently depending on your hormone levels.  If you’re perimenopausal, your hormones might be fluctuating in a different way then before in ways you can’t predict which can be frustrating.  I know first hand how this feels and it’s not always fun.

When you don’t see the number on the scale go down or it’s not going down fast enough, it can be easy to just give up.  This just happens to be the third link in the all or nothing connection.

Gives Up Too Easily

In the moment, sometimes throwing in the towel and giving up seems like the easiest option.  Which it just might be unless you’re willing to keep moving forward.  The challenge here is that in today’s society, we’re given instant access to so many things that we’ve almost forgotten what it was like to have to wait for something.

We no longer need to wait a week to get photos developed.  We take pictures on our phones and can view them immediately.  No need drive around town searching for a 24-hour photo.  Ah, the good old days when you got photos back that didn’t turn out the way you envisioned it!

When I was growing up, if I missed a new episode of Friends, I had to wait for the rerun.    Back then, TBS wasn’t a constant stream of network TV show reruns like it is today so sometimes I would have to wait weeks or even months to catch the episode I missed.  If I knew I wasn’t going to be home, I could’ve put a VHS in the VCR (the 80’s and 90’s version of the DVR for the young folks) and program it to record the episode. But, to be honest, I didn’t really know how to program the VCR to record a show so there was no guarantee it would actually record the show.  My success level with this was pretty low.

These days, if we miss a new episode of a show the day it’s released on a streaming service, it will be patiently waiting for us to watch it at our convenience.  No patience needed on our end.

The thing is, your body doesn’t burn fat on command no matter how many whole food meals you eat, strength training sessions you do, or hours of sleep you get.  It’s all about patience and trust. Trusting the good habits you’ve got in place and getting back on track when needed will keep the momentum going, even when it feels like nothing’s happening. Perfection is totally overrated. No one’s got it all together. But consistency? That’s the magic sauce that’ll keep you moving forward, even when it feels like you're stuck in neutral.

To wrap it up, if you feel like you’ve experienced any or all of the above, you may have fallen into the all-or-nothing trap and just didn’t know it.  This is totally okay.  The great news is now that you’re aware of it, you can let go of the all-or-nothing mindset and go about your weight loss journey with confidence knowing that you have patience, willpower, and motivation to achieve your realistic weight loss goals.

A Woman's Super Power

For most of our time on Earth, women have been under appreciated and under estimated.  There have been times throughout history where women have been given more power just to have it taken away.  It wasn’t until 1919 when the United States Senate approved the 19th amendment which gives women the right to vote.  For about 150 years after our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, women did not have many rights, if they even had any at all depending on where they lived.  While we have many more rights today, there are situations where we have to work harder to be recognized and appreciated.  This, to me, is ridiculous considering we make up 51% of the population, grow humans inside of us, and manage a career and a household.

Now, just to be clear, I’m not a full on feminist but I do strongly believe men and women should be treated equally.  While I am an independent woman and can navigate life on my own, having a partner that I trust and can rely on makes life easier and more fun.  However, I realize this isn’t for everyone.  Not all women (or men) want a life partner and I get that.  When men and women learn how to use their unique super powers for good and not evil, life will be not only easier and efficient but so much more enjoyable.

One area where women are not seen and heard as much as we deserve is health and wellness.  Way too often women are treated as small men when it comes to how to eat, exercise, and rest because our bodies are not studied nearly as much as men’s.  The reality is we aren’t just small men.  Our “plumbing” is a bit more complicated than men’s and, on top of that, our hormonal cycles are completely different.  All of this can affect the way our bodies respond to food, exercise, and rest.  These are the Wellness Abundance Coaching Pillars that build a strong foundation for sustainable weight loss, fertility, mobility, consistent energy levels, and navigating hormonal changes at any age.  This is why women need to be seen and heard more and on a deeper level in all areas of health and wellness.

With that being said, there are other life factors that can affect your health and wellness indirectly.  I’ll dive into a few of these today.

In the meantime, let’s chat about how you can use your super power as a woman to become the healthiest version yourself today.  After all, as a woman you’re much more capable than you give yourself credit for.  It’s time to grab your toolbox, unpack your tools, and figure out how you can utilize them to use your super powers for good.

Ready?  Let’s go!

Advocate for Your Own Health and Wellness

Since the scientific community has left us behind (I’m not blaming them, just stating a fact) it’s time to do your own research.  A great starting point is to get in tune with your own body.  In the beginning, this can be a bit of a tedious process but well worth the effort.

When I started paying more attention to how I was feeling throughout my cycle, I was able to satisfy my sugar cravings by eating more potatoes or protein to put the kabash on them.  I also learned that when I start my cycle (FYI- your cycle starts the first day of your period) I’m going to be tired, crampy, and maybe cranky.  I know not to schedule intense workouts, get far more rest, and do my best to get my attitude in check so I don’t bite my husband’s head off.  No one wants to be around a cranky wife.

Knowing your body well is super helpful if your spidey senses are telling you something’s off.  If you feel like something might not be right, reach out to your healthcare provider right away.  If you know what’s normal with your body and something isn’t right, you’ll have the confidence to walk into your healthcare provider’s office and let them know exactly what’s happening so they can better help you.

Take Action to Get What You Want and Deserve

One thing I’ve struggled with throughout my life is asking for what I want with confidence.  Much of this stems from a story I tell myself that I know isn’t true: that I don’t deserve the success I dream of every day.  Maybe for you it’s the fear of rejection.  Or something completely different.

Overcoming mindset hurdles takes time and whole lot of patience.  Finding the courage within yourself to ask for what you want can make a huge impact on your physical health.  When we’re feeling confident in one area of our life we can translate it to another area in our life where we may not feel as confident.  Plus, when we’re experiencing fear and anxiety our stress levels tend to go up which increases food cravings, inhibits your ability to get great sleep, and can cause all sorts of health issues.

So, how do you build the confidence to ask for what you want?  Make a list of areas in your life where you feel you’re under appreciated and want to ask for more.  Start with something small such as customizing an order at a restaurant.  Before you ask for what you want, remind yourself that you deserve it and assume that you’re going to get it.  Ordering food at a restaurant is an easy one because most restaurants will allow you to customize your order to some degree.  Be prepared to share why you want to customize your order.  For example, I always ask for no cheese because my body does not respond well when I eat cheese.  I’m always prepared for any pushback by being open to sharing that I have a food sensitivity.

Once you start getting what you want with the small things, your confidence will continue to grow so you can start asking for the bigger things.  For example, if you want to ask your boss for a pay raise or increase your rates, use the same tactic as you did at the restaurant.  I’ve done this before with my personal training rates and at first it was super uncomfortable.  What I found was that most people were totally okay with a rate increase.  In fact, I’ve even had clients tell me they’re happy to pay more for my services because they get so much value from them.  This is always a huge confidence booster for me because it reminds me that what I do is very much appreciated by others.

Your boss may see the value you bring to your team and the company and be happy to increase your salary.  When you carry yourself with confidence and show the immense value you provide, a great leader will recognize it and acknowledge it.  If they say no, then maybe it’s time for you reevaluate your situation and go somewhere you’re truly appreciated.

Tap Into Your Strengths

Treat your strengths as though they’re your greatest asset because they are.  We tend to get so wrapped up in our weaknesses that we rarely recognize our strengths.  It’s super easy to focus on your weaknesses when you’re constantly comparing yourself to others.  This takes you down a road that does not get you to the life you want and deserve.

One thing that has helped me tap into my strengths over the years is to make a list of everything I’m good at.  How do I know if I’m good at something?  Most of the time these are things that I really enjoy doing.  With that being said, you can be good at something and not enjoy it.  For example, there are jobs I’ve had in the past that I was really good at, but after awhile it just wasn’t fun for me anymore.  I didn’t look forward to going to work.

Now I focus on my strengths of being an empathetic person, actually listening when I’m talking with someone, creating workouts that are effective and my clients enjoy, and maintaining healthy lifestyle habits that work for me.

There can be weaknesses you have that you want to move over to the strengths column.  This is a great example of a weakness that should be acknowledged so you can get better at it.  If one of your weaknesses is staying consistent with a workout routine, brainstorm ideas on how you can be better at it.  Begin by viewing it as one of your strengths.  This will help you flip the script as you’re making the changes needed to improve your skillset with sustaining a workout routine that works for you.

The bottom line is that we as women deserve to been seen, heard, and appreciated for the immense value we bring to the world.  It may not feel like it all the time but everything you do in your daily life is making an impact, even if it’s a small one.  The little daily actions add up and you never know who you’re going to inspire just by tapping into your super power as a woman.  Change happens when we band together to overcome obstacles and show the world what we’re made of.  You’re tougher, stronger, and more impactful than you think you are so it’s time to start acting like it.

Action Step: How can you tap into your super power as a woman today?  Get out there and do it!

Why You Need Your Gal Pal Inner Circle

When was the last time you had a girl date with your one of your friends?  As I’m writing this article, I can’t remember the last time I met up with a girlfriend for lunch or coffee.  Now, I see some of my girlfriends regularly but it’s not intentional.  It’s usually throughout my work day because we just happen to cross paths.

Creating your gal pal inner circle can be an incredibly powerful way to bond with women that you trust and can be totally transparent with.  I’m not saying every meet up needs to be like an episode of Sex and The City where you’re sipping cosmos and hearing about each other’s sex lives.  Unless, of course, you and your girlfriends want to channel your inner Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, or Samantha.

Reaching out to your gal pal inner circle regularly can help you better navigate the ups and downs of being a woman.  I talk about this all the time but it bears repeating: being a woman isn’t always easy. The intense period cramps, fatigue, mood swings, brain fog, etc., can be frustrating and hard to deal with at times.  Once perimenopause (followed by menopause) comes into play, it’s a whole different ball game.

Ease Your Anxiety

Creating a social connection with other women regularly can improve your mental health.  Having someone who understands what you’re going through can be a game changer with decreasing anxiety and depression. You won’t feel so alone in with the challenges you’re going through.

The men in your life might put a lot of effort into empathizing with you when you have a random mood swing driven by hormonal fluctuations but they can never fully understand the physical sensation that comes along with it.  You know what I’m talking about.  When you can literally feel the rage boiling within you and before you know it you’re raising your voice at your partner or kids or both.  Then you feel a wave of guilt for lashing out at them for no reason at all.

This is just one example of the emotional roller coaster we ride as women.  Opening up to someone who understands your experience may help you navigate it better the next time around.  Plus, you can exchange ideas about how to minimize the mood swings and get them in check.  Maybe your girlfriends have found a way that works for them that you can try.

Lose Weight Together

Exercising with your gal pals can empower you to create a consistent strength training routine that will help you burn fat.  It’s common for women to feel a little intimidated by the thought of pushing weight around in the gym, especially one that’s filled with men.  For decades, the fitness industry promoted cardio as the best way for women to get thin.  Jazzercise and Jane Fonda workouts were all the rage back in the 80’s and 90’s.  What research has taught us since then is that strength training is the way to go when it comes to fat loss.

Fun Fact: Jazzercise is still a thing and it’s been enhanced to include strength training.  No need to get rid of your head band, leotard, and leg warmers.  If Jazzercise is your jam, you can get your cardio and strength training on in one workout session.

For many women, pushing heavy weight around is unknown territory.  This is actually the most common reason my clients come to me for help.  Surrounding yourself with women who feel just as uncomfortable with strength training as you may actually help you feel comfortable lifting heavy things. The thing is women need to train differently than men to get results.  While there are some universal fundamentals of growing lean muscle and burning fat, there are some nuances between men and women when it comes to getting results.  I’ll get into those in another article.  Stay tuned!

Not only do women need to train a little differently, our nutritional requirements change depending on where we are in our cycle.  Some times we need more iron to make up for blood loss.  Other times we need to eat more starchy carbs to get our progesterone levels up so we can get great sleep and have more energy.

Create Healthy Habits Together

Gathering your gal pals and talking about the ins and outs of all the hormonal fluctuations, brain fog, fatigue, cramping, and entering the exciting new phase of mid-life can feel empowering.  Sharing how you’re handling a new perimenopause symptom such as hot flashes or brain fog can inspire your girlfriends to learn how to embrace this new phase of life.

There are lifestyle habits that you can implement to minimize all the fun symptoms of being a woman.  Nutrition, fitness, and rest are the lifestyle pillars (a.k.a. the Wellness Abundance Coaching Pillars) that are the foundation for a healthy, thriving body at any age.  You may not be able to get rid of brain fog, menstrual cramps, breast tenderness, and other symptoms all together but you can get to a point where they’re tolerable with a strong foundation.  If you’re experiencing debilitating cramps, brain fog that is interfering with with your life frequently, or any other really intense symptoms, please go see your health care provider just to be sure everything is all good.

Need some guidance on how to build a strong foundation for your nutrition, fitness, and rest that works for you?  You and your gal pals are welcome to join my semi-private 6-Week Healthy Habit Reset program that will give you the support you need to create nutrition, fitness, and rest habits that work for you.  You’ll learn about the hormones that are causing your sugar and salt cravings, fatigue, lack of motivation workout, and energy surges.  Having a better understanding of what’s happening in your body can help you make lifestyle choices, burn fat effortlessly, give you consistent energy levels, and navigate unexpected mood swings like the boss lady that you are.

While this is a program I only offer a few times a year to the public, you and 5 of your friends can join at any time to have your own private friend group coaching.  This means you can personalize this program to fit the needs of you and your gal pal inner circle.  So, grab your gal pals and book a call with me here so we can hash out all the details.

What’s the real reason you want to lose weight?

Weight loss, like anything else in life, can be a tricky road to navigate.  It can be exciting to see progress and frustrating when you think you’re doing everything “right" but hit a plateau.  Yes, you read the correctly.  I put the word right in quotation marks.  Sometimes there’s not necessarily a right or wrong way to do something.  There’s several ways to go about doing something and you just need to find the one that works for you.

Before you even begin your weight loss journey, one important question to ask yourself is: Does your weight loss goal align with your values and vision for your life?

Now, you might be wondering what in the world your values have to do with weight loss.  Or how the connection between weight loss and your vision for your life will help you burn more fat.  I get that it might not make much sense now, but don’t worry.  At the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of the importance of aligning your values and vision for your life with your health and fitness goals and how the two are connected through your Why.  By the way, this is the very first thing I tackle with my clients when we start working together and the conversation continues throughout the time we work together.  You’ll understand why this is first and foremost as you continue reading.

Ready?  Okay, here we go!

Makes It Easy

The first and probably most important reason is it’s going to make your life easier.  When you’re aware of what your values are you can create a strategy that aligns with what you believe in and how you want to live your life.

For example, it’s so easy to get caught up in following all the health and wellness influencers on social media who tell you how and what you “should” be eating to lose weight.  Or there’s a specific workout that’s going to help you burn more fat when you complete it at least 5 days a week.  Should you focus on eating mostly whole foods? Yes, of course.  But you have the freedom to choose which whole foods you want to eat.  Would it be beneficial for you to workout at least 5 days a week? Absolutely!  But is it realistic for your schedule?  Maybe not.

If you want to make time to help your kids with their homework at night, you can schedule your workouts around this even if it means starting with one day a week and building from there.  If you want to get more movement in on the weekends but value spending quality time with your family on Sundays, you can include them in some sort of physical activity.  My hubby and I love to go on hikes together on the weekends.  We get quality time and sunshine, fresh air, and movement.  This aligns with our values of staying connected as a couple and getting movement in on the weekends.

Keeps You Focused

Creating sustainable lifestyle habits that help you lose weight and keep it off isn’t always easy.  In fact, some days it can be really messy.  I actually just experienced this today.  I was short on time this morning for my workout because of a last minute work commitment for my hubby.  So, I had the choice to either skip my workout all together or squeeze in a 10 minute burpee workout.  While choosing to skip my workout all together would have been a great choice (I’ll touch on why in a moment), I chose to do some sort of movement within the 10 minutes I had available.  It was an easy choice for me to make once I talked through it with myself, and of course I felt awesome after my 10 minute workout.

Now, let’s chat about why choosing not to workout could have been a great choice.  Obstacles get in your way in life and there’s really no way to avoid them.  If I would have chosen to skip my workout and head straight for the shower, I would have been okay with that because I went through my options.  I could have just shifted the workout I had planned to later in the week.  In addition to being able to shift my workout, I’ve set realistic expectations for myself and am very aware that I’m not going to be perfect. Ever.  Perfection does not align with my value system.  In fact, I don’t even like using the word “perfect” with myself or with my clients.

Trust Your Body

Learning how to trust your body and give it what it needs is a skill that I teach in my programs.  I’ve said it over and over again and I’ll say it again right now: when you give your body the appropriate input, it will provide you with the optimal output.  Your body knows exactly what to do when you give what it wants.  I’ll be saying this for the rest of my life and it will probably be the last words I speak because it’s true.

Getting really good at listening to your body and feeding it when it needs to be fed, moving it when it wants to move, and giving it rest when it needs to rest can be a bit challenging in the beginning.  One of the reasons this can be challenging is you might need to unlearn some things.  For example, when you’re PMSing and you’re craving sweet stuff, you could be telling yourself that it’s okay to eat an entire cake because that’s what your body wants.

Yes, your body most likely craves more carbs during this time in your cycle.  There’s actually a biological reason for this being that your progesterone levels are low and your body is telling you to increase them.  One way to do this is with starchy carbs.  Rather than eating an entire cake, experiment with whole food carbs such as potatoes or even rice.  Just to be clear, I’m not saying you can never eat cake.  I love cake and I eat it!  I just don’t eat the entire cake because I know if I did I would feel really sick afterwards and it’s just not worth it to me.

Advocate For Yourself

Most of my clients are working with other health care professionals in one way or another.  Some are seeing therapists to work through trauma or life challenges while others are working with their physician to get a medical condition under control.  Having a clear understanding of your values and your vision for your life will help you advocate for yourself while working with health care professionals.  This includes working with me as your health and fitness coach.  I’ll explain how advocating for your self while working with me benefits you later on.

For instance, if you’ve been experiencing heavy bleeding or insulin resistance with your PCOS diagnosis, your physician may want to put you on birth control.  If you really do not want to go on birth control because you had a bad experience with it, you have the freedom to say “no thank you” to the hormones and work with them to create a more holistic way of managing PCOS.  Now, I’m not a licensed medical doctor but I do know enough about PCOS to know that it can be managed with lifestyle habits such as food and exercise.

So, why is it important to be an advocate for yourself when you work with me?  My role as your health and fitness coach is not to tell you exactly what to do.  I’m here to help you find nutrition, fitness, and rest habits that align with your lifestyle, goals, values, and vision for your life.  Being able to clearly communicate with me will help you get to a deeper level so you can get results.  It’s what I’m trained to do and it’s actually the best strategy for you as my client to get results in the most efficient way possible.  I may be the women’s nutrition and fitness expert in our coach-client relationship but you’re the expert in your life and you know what’s best for you.

Now it’s time to take action!

Write out everything you value in life.  What’s really important to you?  If you were the healthiest version of yourself, what would your life look like?

Need help with this?  Go here to book a free call with me and we can work through this together.

3 Reasons Your Hubby’s Losing Weight Faster Than You

I think it’s fair to say we all love our husbands on some level yet there are those little things that annoy us about them.  This happens in any kind of partnership whether you’re in your in a relationship with a man or woman.  There’s always going to be little quirks that just get under your skin.

One big frustration for women who are in a relationship with a man is how easily they build muscle and lose fat.  It’s almost like they can just pick up a dumbbell, do some bicep curls, and they wake up the next morning and they have huge biceps.  Or you can literally see the fat melting away during a 60 second plank.

Okay, maybe this is a bit of an exaggeration, but it can feel like this at times.  I used to get so frustrated when my body was burning fat and growing muscle at a snails pace while my hubby was looking leaner within a few days of cutting out junk food.  I could not understand why it was so easy for him to build muscle and burn fat and it was more difficult for me until I started looking into the difference between my body and his.

Here’s the thing about fat loss: Each individual body has its own challenges it has to overcome.  For example, women have different hormonal fluctuations and each woman will experience a different cycle than other women.  I’ll touch on this later on so be sure to keep reading.  In addition to this fun fact, women are not just small men.  We have different nutritional, fitness, and rest requirements so our strategy isn’t the same as theirs.  Plus, there are some biological differences where our bodies want to hold onto extra fat.

Let’s dive into the top 3 reasons you’re not losing weight as fast as your hubby.

Women have a lower resting metabolic rate

Your resting metabolic rate is also known as your metabolism.  This is how much energy your body expends to keep you alive and kicking throughout the day.  Your body also uses energy to digest your food and make sure all the nutrients go where they need to go.  Since most women are smaller than men, we don’t have as much weight to carry around so we don’t need to burn as many calories to stay alive and we probably don’t eat as much as men.

One thing that can increase your metabolism is building more lean muscle mass.  Yup, getting your strength training on and toning up your body will help increase your metabolism.  You don’t need to spend hours a day throwing heavy weight around in the gym.  Bodyweight exercises are a great starting point if you’re new to strength training.  If you feel intimidated by strength training, check out my podcast episode 3 Tips To Get Comfortable With Strength Training.

Coaches Note: Your metabolism won’t increase significantly when you tone up but every little bit counts.  Plus, there’s several other benefits of building muscle we’ll get into in another blog post.

Women don’t bulk up as easily as men

So many women worry about getting big and bulky if they start lifting weights.  I have great news for you if you’re one of these women: it’s very difficult to get super bulk unless you’re “juicing” (taking performance enhancing drugs).  Women don’t naturally make enough testosterone to get super big and swole like men.  It takes our bodies longer to build lean muscle mass.

Don’t let this fact deter you from starting (or continuing) your strength training program.  You can build a good amount of lean muscle mass that’s appropriate to your body type when you eat enough protein and consider supplementing with creatine.  Before you think “Now I have to track my protein intake.  I don’t have time for that!” I can tell you right now you do not need to do this - unless, of course, you want to.  Protein intake is always a guesstimate and can fluctuate from day to day.  Since it takes time to get a feel for the amount of protein that’s right for you, I encourage you to do mini experiments as you’re navigating your weight loss journey.  This is something I can help you with when you enroll in one of my programs.

Use this fun fact as motivation to create a healthy, lean body that can effortlessly navigate any stage in life and age gracefully.  Tap into your femininity and use your woman super powers to live the life you dream of and, more importantly, deserve.

Women have different hormonal fluctuations

One important factor that may often get overlooked is that women have different hormonal cycles than men.  Your hubby doesn’t need to navigate PMS, bloating, mood swings, fatigue, and all the other fun things we experience being a woman.  Okay, maybe they have to deal with these things indirectly by listening to us complain about intense cramping and doing their best to be sympathetic when we bite their head off for no reason other than an unexpected mood swing.  So, yeah, men have to deal with PMS too.  Just in a different way.

Okay, back to the topic at hand.

There are different times of the month when you’re feeling energy surges where you feel like you can run a full marathon even though you’ve never run one before.  There are other times when you experience energy lulls and you feel like you want to curl up in bed with a box of cookies and fall asleep binge watching your favorite TV show (Friends anyone?).  It’s super important to take this into account on your weight loss journey if you want to learn how your body can lose fat almost effortlessly.

During these hormonal phases, it’s important to give your body the rest it needs or go hard with your workout and make the most of your energy surge.  If you feel hungrier right before your period, feed your body with more healthy proteins, fats, and carbs.  Give it what it wants.  Within reason, of course.  I’m not encouraging you to eat an entire box of cookies.  There are lots of healthier ways to satisfy your sugar cravings like one of my favorites: roasted potatoes.

If you’re not aligning your nutrition, fitness, and rest with your cycle you could be slowing down your fat loss.  The key is find what works best for you and your body and adjust as needed.  This process takes time and a lot of patience.  I speak from experience.

To put it simply, ladies, weight loss isn’t a race.  Remember to stay in your own lane and find a way that you and your hubby can support each other.  It’s about small steps, big victories, and treating yourself like the boss lady you are along the way.

The Key To Effortless Weight Loss

Today’s health and wellness brain teaser is one that many people get stumped on more often than not…

What’s one thing you have control over that can be the catalyst for effortless weight loss?

If you’re thinking exercise, it’s a good guess, but not the one I’m looking for.  Exercise is definitely an important part of a healthy lifestyle but it’s not the catalyst for sustainable weight loss.  So, you can stop exhausting yourself with intense cardio workouts every day and take a nap.  You deserve it.

The answer is (drumroll please)… the food you eat.

We always say in our home that you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet (or what I like to call eating style). Without an eating style designed around whole foods, you’re unlikely to find success with losing weight and keeping it off.  I’m talking about genuine fat loss that helps you lean up and feel like a boss lady every day of your life.

The best way to design a weight loss eating strategy that works for you is to cook more meals at home.  I’m not talking about boxed Kraft mac-n-cheese or frozen meals with 5,000 ingredients in them that you can’t even pronounce.  I’m talking about meals made from whole foods: veggies, meat, eggs, seafood, spices, etc.  If this sounds overwhelming just thinking about it you’re definitely not alone, but hear me out.  It’s actually easier that it sounds.

I get that it can sometimes feel like a chore to go through the whole process of finding recipes, going to the store, cooking the meals, and then cleaning up all the dirty dishes.  I love to cook and some days it feels like a chore to me.  Sometimes grabbing takeout feels like it’s the most convenient way get food in your belly.  And sometimes it is the best way.

While takeout can be really convenient when you’re not in the mood to cook or clean, there is an easy way to create homemade meals without the overwhelm.  It doesn’t need to be complicated.  When you’re juggling a full-time job, kids, partners, laundry, and all the other fun adulting tasks, adding one more thing to your to-do list can feel like it’s too much.  Finding ways to make it easy for you and your schedule is the key to success with home cooked meals.  This is something I talk a lot about with my clients.

Plus, there are several benefits of making homemade meals, one of them being your ability to dial in your nutrition to actually work with your body and give it what it wants when it needs it.

Here are 5 reasons to cook at home more…

#1 You have complete control over the ingredients

There’s a lot of not-so-healthy ingredients that restaurants use when they prepare meals, most likely because they’re cheaper.  The same goes with processed food you find in the frozen food section at the grocery store and in the boxed meals on the shelves.  Nowadays, there are healthier frozen food options that are super convenient to just throw in the oven.  Those I’m totally onboard with.

When you cook at home you can choose higher quality meat such as grass-fed beef or pasture raised eggs.  With that being said, don’t get too caught up in grass-fed and pasture raised.  Just get the highest quality your budget allows or what’s available.

There’s a lot of frozen food and jarred sauces that have vegetable and soybean oil in them.  These are the oils that you want to avoid most of the time because they can wreak havoc in your body and cause all sorts of inflammation (and not the good kind).  If you’re in a pinch and you really want a sauce for your meal, don’t get too caught up in the ingredients.  Just be sure to add these sauces to your “occasional” food list.

#2 You can make more than enough and have leftovers for lunch (or dinner later in the week)

One thing I love about making dinner at home is that I can make more than I know we’re going to eat in one meal.  This means I have leftovers to eat for lunch the next day. Having cooked protein ready to add to any salad or pop in the microwave with some veggies is a super convenient way for me to have a nutritious lunch on a busy week day.  As a bonus, sometimes the meal tastes even better when it’s been marinating for a day or two in the fridge.

This is a game changer when I’m at the end of my cycle and PMS cravings are trying to get me to eat junk food (you know what I’m talking about!) when my body really wants nutrient-dense food, it’s easier to fight the cravings and make different food choices when I have whole foods readily available.

#3 You can make it super easy any day of the week

I don’t know about you but I don’t have time to make a meal that takes an hour or more to prepare and cook during the work week unless I want to eat at 8pm, which I don’t.  That’s the time I’m flossing and brushing my teeth, getting ready to get into bed and dive into the fiction book I’m reading.

I make a lot of meals that take 30-minutes or less during the week.  Taco bowls are super easy to make because all you need to do is cook up some ground meat (which takes about 15 minutes) and grab your favorite toppings.  We add taco seasoning, olives, salsa, and guacamole.  If I make homemade guacamole, I make it while the meat is cooking.  I always make two pounds of meat to make sure we have leftovers for salads, soups, or whatever spontaneous meals I decide to throw together.

We also buy grass-fed beef patties from Costco and turkey burger patties from Trader Joe’s that can be cooked from frozen.  You don’t even need to remember to take the meat out of the freezer the night before.  With my perimenopause brain fog that’s currently happening in my world this makes my life so much easier.

You can cook up some frozen veggies to enjoy alongside your meat and you have a delicious nutrient-dense, homemade meal in less than 30 minutes.

#4 You can add as much flavor or spice as you want to make it appetizing

Everyone has different taste preferences.  Some people prefer spicy while others not so much.  At home, you can season your food to your liking along with the rest of your family.  When we make taco bowls, we add our own amount of taco seasoning to our individual servings.

This is great if you have a family to feed and everyone has different taste preferences.  Your kids might like their food on the bland end of the flavor spectrum while your partner might like theirs on the full flavor end of the spectrum.  Everyone in the family can be happy with their meals, even the picky eaters.  You know who they are!

#5 You’re more likely to lose weight and keep it off

There’s a lot of temptation when you eat out which means you’re more likely to indulge in foods that might not align with your health and wellness goals.  If you’re avoiding bread because you just don’t like the way you feel after you eat it, it’s easy to say yes to the bun when you order a burger or fill up on the bread before your meal.  Freshly baked, warm sourdough bread with butter on it is one of my indulgences when eating out.  It’s super easy for me to over do it which is one of the reasons why I avoid eating at restaurants that serve it.

If one of my clients recognizes there’s too much temptation with certain foods when they’re right in front of them, we work together to create a strategy to make it harder for them to eat those foods.  It’s easy to minimize food related temptations when you prioritize making homemade meals.  At home, you can simply choose not to buy buns or any kind of bread.  If the bread isn’t readily available, you’re way less likely to give into the temptation when you’re is craving it.

Now it’s time to take action!

What’s one step you can take towards cooking more meals at home?

Are you the leading lady in your life?

Life is full of challenges.  It may feel like you’re having to climb to the top of Everest to overcome some challenges while others might be a breeze to overcome.  This is the reality of adulting and life in general.  It’s not always fun and at times it feels like one challenge after another is coming at you like a cheetah running as fast as possible in your direction.  You have to do your best to tame the cheetah by giving it an edible or shot of whisky to calm it down (unless cheetahs are angry drunks. I’m not sure since I haven’t met any drunk cheetahs…yet.)

As women, not only do we have day-to-day challenges of work, kids, and partners (having a husband can be a lot like having a kid) to navigate but also health related challenges that come up thanks to the hormonal changes we experience throughout the days, months, and years.  Our hormones can be a bitch to deal with especially during PMS or perimenopause (can you say sugar cravings and crying fits!) and not always easy on our partners, either.  I’m sure my hubby would lovingly agree with this statement. [SMILE]

Are these challenges that than can be avoided?  Maybe. With a few small changes to your nutrition and fitness they can at least be minimized.  Here’s the catch, making these small changes comes with another set of challenges: new habit creation.

Creating new habits and letting go of old ones takes time, patience, and most importantly, effort.  When you’ve been doing the same thing for several years, you’re on autopilot.

Your autopilot:

• takes you to the drive-through to pick up dinner.

• keeps you scrolling through social media when you could be sleeping.

• presses snooze instead of getting out of bed to workout.

Any of this sound familiar?

You may feel super comfortable while being on autopilot and think you’re taking the easy way out but you may just be creating more challenges for you in the future.  One day you may wake up overweight, exhausted, and moody asking yourself “What just happened?  How did I end up here?”

Whether you’ve experienced this moment or not, there’s still time to change the script and write a new health and wellness future for you.  The very first module in my signature program talks about how you’re the leading lady of your own life and now is the time to start acting like it.  The first step is to ask yourself: what do you want your life to look like?

• Do you want the challenge of taking medication for diabetes and experience all the fun (not-so-fun) side effects that come with it or learning how to eat to train your body to be a fat burner?

• Do you want the challenge of not being able to get out of bed very easily or creating an exercise routine that you’re willing to do?

• Do you want the challenge of being overweight or learning how to give your body the nutrition it wants when it needs it?

• Do you want the challenge of feeling tired all the time or creating morning and nighttime routines that help you get awesome sleep?

You always have the freedom to choose your challenges.  Even if a challenge is out of your control, you have the choice to change your mindset about it.  Is it easy to do?  Not always!  Mindset is something I’ve struggled with most of my life and still do to some extent today.  I’ve learned over the years how to overcome any mindset challenges that come up for me by putting in the work.  Getting my mindset in check is definitely one of the most important skill sets I’ve learned over the years.

This has helped me create sustainable nutrition, fitness, and sleep habits that help me maintain a healthy weight, experience consistent energy levels, and minimize any perimenopause symptoms up to this point in my life.  I’ve become the leading lady in my life and I challenge you to do the same.

What’s one health and wellness challenge that you want to eliminate from your life right now?  What are you willing to do to overcome this challenge to become the leading lady in your life?

3 Reasons to Ditch Your Scale (And What To Do Instead)

If you’re someone who gets obsessed with the number of the scale, I invite you to join my new Obsessed With The Scale Club.  I already have thousands of women on the waitlist to join this exclusive club.

If you’ve ever felt frustrated that the number on the scale was either not budging or going up, weighed yourself every day (sometimes multiple times a day), or increased your intense cardio workouts from 5 to 7 days a week to get that number down, you’re a prime candidate for my new club.

What will we talk about in our club meetings?  Well, I’m glad you asked.

First, we’ll begin by talking about why the number on the scale is so important to us.  My gut is telling me there will be a consensus that this number defines where we are on the hotness scale.  The higher up we get on the scale, the more confident we’ll be according to society.  Who doesn’t want to be a confident bad ass woman? A She-E-Oh of life?

Next, we’ll talk about how many times we go crazy about the number going down one day and going up the next day.  This will be a great segue to into our next conversation about how we can decrease the number of calories we eat in a day and increase our cardio workouts from 5 days a week to 7.  We’ll come up with all sorts of “great” ideas that seem totally logical at the time but in the end will lead to chronic fatigue, insomnia, intense PMS, mood swings, hormonal imbalances, sugar and salt cravings, and, ironically, weight gain.

The cycle will start all over again from the beginning and it will go on for the rest of our lives.  If you feel the need to let your inner rage woman out, please so do now.  Just be sure to do this without harming others or yourself.

Okay, I really haven’t started a Obsessed With The Scale Club.  I think you’ve already picked up on the fact that this is club is tongue-in-cheek.  I’ve worked with many clients (including some men) whose primary focus is the number on the scale.  This is totally understandable.  As women, we’ve been conditioned to weigh a certain amount in order to be seen as hot, beautiful, or gorgeous.  This is a mindset I’m on a mission to help women change.

Here are 3 reasons why you should ditch your scale and what to do instead.

Reason #1: Minimize Confusion, Frustration, and Disappointment

Focusing too much time on the number on the scale can cause a lot of confusion that naturally leads to frustration and brings feelings of disappointment to the surface.  You think you’re doing everything right: one hour of cardio a day, counting calories or carbs or both, strength training sessions five days a week, and working out no matter how you feel, even if you’re tired, hungry, and crampy.

Your body can be predictable if you actually take the time to get to know it.  I say this over and over again and I’ll say it again: your body wants you be healthy and it’s designed to help you thrive when you give it what it wants. You just need to know what to give it and when.

One great way to get to know your body is to track your menstrual cycle.  Think back to the first day of your last period.  This is day one of your cycle.  If you can’t remember when you started, wait until you start again and make a note of this day.

Once you know where you are in your cycle, you can start taking note of your energy levels, sleep patterns, hunger levels, mood swings, and anything else that you’re inspired to write down.  You may notice that in the first few days of your cycle, you’re not in the mood to workout or just don’t have the energy to.  This is actually to be expected.   I do a deeper dive into all of this in my signature program you can check out here.

Once you get a few weeks into your cycle and you’re at the point when you’re ovulating, you may feel like you have a surge of energy and want to go hard during your workouts.  Go for it!  Just proceed with caution because along with high energy levels and better moods, your chances of injury go up.  Fight the urge to overdo it.

After you get close to the end of your cycle, you may notice your hunger levels increasing to the point where you eat your first meal of the day full of protein and healthy fats and an hour later you’re hungry again.  This is how I feel during this phase of my cycle.  I feel like I could eat all the food in our fridge, freezer, and pantry within 24 hours.  Even during this phase when I eat more I still don’t gain weight because I know how my body operates.  It needs the extra nutrition.

Coaches Note: When your hunger increases, this is not the time to indulge in junk food.  Focus on whole, nutrient-dense food that your body thrives on.

Reason #2: There’s Other Ways To Measure Progress More Effectively

Here’s the hard truth about the scale: the number on the scale doesn’t always reflect your progress accurately.  There I said it.  Now that the truth is out there, let’s talk about it.

Fun Fact: Muscle is denser than fat. Yup, it’s true!

If you take a fistful of fat and fistful of muscle and place them each on their own scale, the number on the scale with the muscle will be higher.  So, if you’ve been getting your strength training on for several weeks or months, you’re most likely gaining lean muscle mass which will make the number on the scale either stay the same or even go up a little.

A more effective and accurate way to measure your progress is to go by how your clothes fit.  If you have a pair of jeans that are just a bit snug and then one day you slip them on and they feel a little loose, this is a sign of weight loss, most likely fat loss.  This means you’re most likely leaning up and building muscle mass to mitigate osteoporosis, support your joints, and be able to defend yourself at any time.

Taking measurements of your arms, hips, thighs, and stomach with a fabric roll tape measure is another accurate way to measure your progress.  This bad boy will give you a good baseline to measure your progress for whether or not you’re burning fat and gaining lean muscle.

Reason #3: Sustainable Fat Loss Results Take Time and Patience

Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you started eating better and moving your body more and the fat just melted away until you got down to the weight you want?  The reality is your body doesn’t work this way.  You may notice that you lose weight in the beginning of your weight loss journey effortlessly and think “Cool!  This is actually working!” However, this may just be water weight and not necessarily fat.  This is actually your body adjusting to your new eating style, movement routine, or both.

To burn fat and keep it off in a sustainable way, your body does this slowly.  Sometimes so slow it can be incredibly frustrating but it’s actually a good thing.  You most likely gained the weight slowly over time and now your body wants to slowly burn the extra fat slowly to keep it healthy.

I say this over and over again in my programs and I’m going to say it again right now.  Your body wants you to be healthy and this is always its number one priority.  The challenge is there’s sometimes a disconnect with your timeline and your body’s timeline to get to a healthy weight and they don’t always line up.

Rather than focusing on the number on the scale, start celebrating the action you’re taking every day to get to your healthy weight.  Did you eat more protein at breakfast?  Give yourself a high-five!  Did you do a strength workout after work?  Do a happy dance!  Did you get a full night’s rest and wake up feeling awesome?  Be grateful for your efforts to get to bed on time!

Shifting your focus from the number on the scale to your daily wins will shift your mindset to the things you can control: your efforts and actions.

So, how do you gently tell your scale you need your space?

Now, you don’t need to break up with your scale completely.  Taking small steps to simply scale back (pun intended) the number of times you hop on the scale to check your weight might be a good starting point for you.  If you currently get on your scale once a day, maybe get on it every other day or once a week, instead.

Before you get on the scale next time, remind yourself that you are a bad ass confident woman no matter what the scale says.  It doesn’t define who you are as a woman.  Your effort, commitment, and trust in your body are what makes you the bad ass confident woman that’s going to get you to a healthy weight for YOU.

Want to brainstorm ideas on how you can move away from the scale? Go here to book a free call with me and we’ll chat about what might work best for you!

What’s the threshold when you want to give up?

We’re just about to wrap up the second full week of 2025 which probably means you’ve been working towards your New Year’s resolutions for a few weeks now.  Maybe the newness and excitement of a new health and fitness journey is starting to wear off.  Or things just aren’t going the way you planned so far.  This was me the last few weeks.

We live in Southern California and thankfully the fires are not close enough to us that we’re in danger, however, we’ve experienced power outages and super strong winds that got in the way of my personal and professional goals.  It was not the way I imagined kicking off 2025 and definitely threw me for a loop.

It got me thinking about New Year’s resolutions and how to navigate challenges when they come up right at the beginning of the year.  Many studies show that most people never follow through with their New Year’s resolutions.  Yup, that’s right!  I typed NEVER.  By the time February rolls around, they’ve thrown in the towel and gone back to their old habits.

To be honest, this doesn’t surprise me at all because habit change is hard.  It’s hard for me and I’m a trained health and wellness coach who teaches people how to create lifestyle habits that stick.  So, if this you and you find yourself saying, "I can’t do this s#%t anymore!” within the first six weeks of the year, I get it.

Challenges are inevitable and a part of life regardless of what you’re working towards.  I’ve worked with several clients over the years and noticed a pattern when it comes to creating nutrition and fitness habits that are sustainable.  The bottom line is it’s not a linear path, especially if your goal is weight loss.  There’s ups and downs along the way no matter how motivated and committed you are to achieving your goal.

Fun fact: I recorded a podcast episode last year about this pattern.  If you want to learn more about the Wellness Abundance Coaching 5 Stages of Habit Creation, go here to check it out.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…

One thing that I believe is super important to know about yourself is, at what point do you seriously think about giving up?  I’m talking about the “cracking open that bottle of wine and throwing away the cork because you know you won’t be needing it” phase.  Or the “eating an entire box of cookies in one sitting” phase.  Or the "sulking on the couch letting all the negative chit chat in your head tell you all the reasons you can’t make it happen” phase.

Now, I’m not trying to say there isn’t a time and a place for drinking wine straight from the bottle and bypassing the wine glass.  Believe me, it’s something I’ve considered many times and I know you have too (no shame in this!).  Sometimes it’s a necessary part of the process to get to where you want to go.  So, I’m here to encourage you to do what you need to do during this time.  Just be sure to truly enjoy every single sip from that bottle of wine and savor every single bite of every cookie you eat.

After you’re done, you can just give up OR shake it off, put on your big girl panties, and move on to the next step.   

The important thing is to recognize that this might be your “giving up” threshold, which is actually really exciting!  It may not feel exciting at the time BUT it’s the first step in the next phase.  You’re coming out of the “I just can’t do this!” phase and moving into the “I’ve totally got this!” phase.  At the beginning of the “I’ve totally got this!” phase, you may need to just keep doing what you’re doing and develop more patience or channel your inner Ross Gellar and pivot.

Working with a health and fitness coach like myself can help you navigate this territory.  Let’s be real and admit that we can’t be successful on our own.  Do you have the ability to make a lot of progress tapping into your own resources? Yes, of course you do!  However, I guarantee no one who has ever been successful at creating new lifestyle habits has done this without help.  I know I can’t do it on my own.

The ideal time for you to reach out for help is actually before you hit your giving up threshold.  If you get ahead of it and brainstorm ideas on ways you can overcome any obstacles that get in your way, by the time you get there you already have a list of ideas ready to go.

If you’ve already reached that threshold and you actually don’t want to give up but don’t know what to do, I can help.  If you’re willing to put in the work on your end, I’ll do the same on my end.  I’m confident I can help you get past your giving up threshold and get to your destination.

As much fun as it sounds, sitting around sulking with your bottle of wine and box of cookies probably won’t give you a body that ages gracefully, is full of energy, and stays lean and strong.  There’s no magic formula (if there was one and I knew it, I would share with you in a heartbeat!) to overcome the hurdles.  You just have to go at them head on, whatever that looks like for you.

So, go here right now to book a free call with me so we can chat about your “I just can’t do this!” threshold and create a strategy to help you get past it.  Set yourself up to be on the “I followed through with my New Year’s resolution(s)!” trolly.  You’ll look back at this time with a smile and feel a wave of gratitude that you didn’t give up.

The Fertility Trifecta

Have you or anyone you know struggled with fertility challenges?  If you’re going through this right now, I empathize with you.  While I haven’t been through it myself I have plenty of friends who have struggled to get pregnant over the years.  I’ve seen first hand how stressful and emotional the entire fertility process can be not just for women but in men as well.  Fertility can be a journey that can feel lonely and confusing and be challenging on relationships.

While there are several different paths to fertility, the one I would begin with if I was experiencing infertility is lifestyle habits.  Specifically, what I like to call the Fertility Trifecta (i.e. the Wellness Abundance Trifecta).

If you’re not looking to get pregnant, don’t stop reading now.  There’s lots of good stuff here that will help improve your overall health.  So, keep reading…

Your body’s ability to grow a human inside of it at any time is actually a sign of a healthy, thriving body.  Even if you’re like me and not looking to bring another human into the world, being fertile is something to strive to in your reproductive years.  Plus, the lifestyle habits you create now to boost your fertility will help you navigate perimenopause and menopause almost effortlessly.  And, let’s be real, I think every woman wants to age gracefully and breeze through the inevitable changes our bodies go through later in life.

So, what is this Fertility Trifecta of which I speak?  Well, it’s actually very simple (yet not always easy to implement): whole food nutrition, frequent movement, and good quality rest.

Ready to dive into all the juicy details?  Let’s do this!

Whole Food Nutrition

Now, with nutrition it’s super easy to go down the rabbit hole of supplements especially if you’re working with a fertility practitioner.  Often times practitioners will create a protocol to help with any nutrient deficiencies that includes supplements.

Here’s the thing about supplements: they’re meant to be taken if you don’t eat enough whole foods with the nutrients you’re deficient in, or if your body doesn’t absorb those nutrients properly.  In my professional opinion, the first line of defense for nutrient deficiencies should be whole foods.  If there’s any nutrients you’re deficient in and you don’t like any whole foods with those nutrients, then supplements are great.

Two supplements that I take daily are magnesium and collagen.  These are nutrients that are difficult for me to get enough of through my whole food eating style.

Now, let’s chat about whole foods.  I think it’s pretty obvious that your body thrives on whole, real foods such as veggies, fruit, meat (especially red meat), seafood, eggs, and nuts.  Creating an eating style that focuses more on whole foods is a great way to build a foundation for a nutrient-dense eating style for when you’re pregnant and passing nutrients on to your developing baby.  And it can be super helpful after your little one comes into the world with your recovery from pregnancy.

The challenge is moving away from processed foods and incorporating more whole foods.  Being super strict right out of the gate can be difficult and isn’t always the best strategy for most people.  I did this when I was training for my first half marathon.  I was super motivated to dial in my nutrition to support my training efforts.  If you can find the motivation within yourself to be strict in the beginning, go for it.  Just be sure you have a solid strategy in place to help you stick to it.

For most people, slowly moving away from highly processed food and focusing more on whole, nutrient dense foods that you enjoy is a better strategy.  Once you slowly start to add more whole foods into your eating style, you’ll have more consistent energy levels, sleep better, your mood will improve, and you’ll simply feel better overall.  Focus on how you’re feeling after eating a nutrient-dense meal and use this as your motivation to keep moving forward.

Frequent Movement

I think it’s safe to say we all understand that frequent movement is a key component of a healthy body.  With that being said, too much intense physical activity can inhibit weight loss, decrease fertility, and put too much stress on your heart muscle and the rest of your body.  Finding the sweet spot for your lifestyle and fitness level is key to creating an exercise routine that you can stick to and that’s effective.

When someone asks me what the best exercise routine is my answer is always the same: the one that you enjoy doing that includes cardio, strength training, and recovery.  One of my favorite aspects of being a fitness coach is helping my clients personalize their exercise routine.  I even do this with my group fitness classes.  If you’re struggling to find the motivation to exercise, you’re most likely choosing workouts that you don’t enjoy.

If you feel anxious or unsure about exercising, work with a professional to make sure your form is on par to avoid injury and get the most out of your workouts.  This is the  number one reason my clients come to me for help.  It’s super important to make sure you’re doing the movements correctly to not just avoid injury but to get the most out of the movement.

Good Quality Rest

We all have some form of stress in our lives.  Your fertility challenges can be causing a strain on your relationship with your partner.  You could feel a little (or a lot of) jealousy when a friend or family member shares that she’s pregnant.  You could feel pressure from people in your life to have a baby when they don’t know you’re trying and it’s not working out at this time.  Even when your little one arrives, you’ll experience different stressors in your life.  These are just some of the mental stressors that you may experience.

Then there’s the physical stressors from workouts.  When you do a strength training workout whether it’s with your own bodyweight or lifting weights, your muscles get micro tears in them.  These tears need time to heal and repair to grow more lean muscle mass.

Sleep is one of the best ways to recover from any stressors in your life.  This is the time when your body’s recovery systems kick into high gear and goes to work to realign any systems that aren’t working properly.  For example, if you’re struggling with insulin resistance (your body’s ability to process carbs efficiently) your body will make sure your stress hormones (cortisol) drops to a healthy level to enable your body to process carbs more efficiently.  This will also help you squash any sugar cravings before they start so you reach for whole, nutrient-dense foods rather than the ones filled with sugar.

While sleep is definitely super important, there are several other ways you can rest and recover from daily stresses.  Going for a walk, journaling, meditating, stretching, having coffee or lunch with a friend, intimate time with your partner, and reading a good book are all ways you can relax.

This is a topic that comes up a lot with my coaching clients.  As women, we tend to put other people’s needs before our own.  It’s in our nature to be the nurturing one.  The problem with this is we take on too much and, before we know it, we’re experiencing mood swings, weight gain, and the fluctuation of our energy levels throughout the day; it feels like we’re on roller coaster.  It doesn’t have to be this way.

When you implement the Fertility Trifecta (a.k.a. Wellness Abundance Trifecta), you’re investing in yourself and creating a healthy baby-making body.  When you invest in yourself you’ll be a better parent and partner.  This in and of itself will help you create abundance in other areas of your life.

Check out our podcast episode on this topic here.