(00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating, or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in. Discomfort is where growth lives. This thought occurred to me at about 3:00 AM and it was right before we were going into our first day of the act as If retreat, and I wanted to start the weekend off with a great message and set the tone for everything.

(00:43):
And this thought occurred to me, discomfort is where growth lives. And with that, I was like, well, this weekend we’re going to make everybody really uncomfortable. And I kind of chuckled to myself because, yes, I know the actual word is uncomfortable, discomfort. It’s not uncomfortable. But then as I thought about this phrasing of it, we’re going to make ourselves uncomfortable. I liked it more and more because so often what happens is we hear uncomfortable and we get uncomfortable. We push back against wanting to make the change. But the second I phrased it as uncomfortable, all of a sudden it was kind of like, huh, okay, maybe I’m going to do this. There was a lower barrier to entry. There wasn’t that wall that went up. And we really need to find ways to help ourselves overcome that hurdle, overcome the resistance against the hard, the resistance against the change if we want to make a change and see the results we want.

(01:38):
Because being uncomfortable living in that discomfort is where we’re going to see that growth really happen because we’re pushing our comfort zone. We’re pushing yourself to have to overcome something. So I started thinking more and more about this, and especially with the holidays coming up and some of the challenges we’re going to have, but really at any time of year, we’re going to need to make a change. And so we’re going to have to embrace being a little uncomfortable, and we need to be almost grateful for it. The more we can be grateful for the challenges, the more we’re going to embrace making changes, the more we’re going to see that strength and confidence built, because we don’t just naturally have these things. These are something that are created through what we overcome. Yet so often, we do want to run from these struggles. We want to run from these challenges.

(02:23):
We don’t want to go back to being a beginner, to feeling foolish, to feeling bad at something. But it’s only when we actually are faced with obstacles that we learn something new, that we move forward towards our goals. We really don’t succeed when times are easy. We succeed because of the failures and the struggles that teach us different things. And I mean, if you really think about what failures are, they’re not moving forward. They’re just learning with frustration. Those are the things that ultimately catapult us into the new goals that we want. So I just wanted to have you have this perspective when you’re going into something new and you’re looking for that growth, instead of pushing back, push into the discomfort, even tell yourself, I’m going to be discomfort. Just so even mentally, your attitude slightly shifts around what you’re about to do, and you maybe have a little bit of amusement with it because that is where growth is going to happen.

(03:15):
You’re not going to get good at something by turning back every time you hit that hard, because that is what we often want to do. We hit the same hard, we go back, we try and find another way around it. Oh, this diet didn’t work for me because of X, Y, and Z thing. Let me find another way around instead of saying, Hey, why didn’t this really work? Okay, yes, maybe I tried a low carb diet, so I’m blaming it on the fact that I like carbs and I’m going low carb. But let’s take a deeper look at this. Is it really just the carbs? Is it the restriction? Is it that I tried to do too much? The more we can sort of see it as a why funnel, asking ourselves why getting more specific with really diagnosing the problem, really digging into it, even the emotional component that might be there, how different tools or tactics are tied to previous experiences.

(03:58):
And I bring that up because when we think about tracking, often that is something we are very comfortable with tracking. We don’t like to do it. We see it as hard. We see it as restrictive. If we ask ourselves why, we often learn, okay, well, I’ve always done tracking when I’ve had to cut out. And then because I’ve had to cut out things, I felt restricted and I felt miserable, and I felt hungry and I felt deprived, and then the results didn’t snowball the way I felt they should, and I didn’t see my effort being worth the outcome that I was getting. And so there’s all these other things that are actually tied to that tactic, that tool of tracking that if we don’t break down with the why and the why funnel sometimes is really narrowing it down to what it really is is uncomfortable in and of itself.

(04:38):
We’re never going to move forward. We so often run from what is uncomfortable. We run from the discomfort, and that really is what we need to embrace more of if we want to see results. So I would challenge you as you’re going to push into a new goal, to be grateful for this discomfort, to be grateful for your mistakes, to be grateful for your flaws, because that is what’s going to teach you the most. We always hear that change results happen outside our comfort zone, yet so often we aren’t willing to push it. And I do also say this, recognizing that there’s only so much discomfort we can really embrace at one time, and if we do too much, we’re going to rebel against it. That is Newton’s the third law. Every force has an equal and opposite reaction to it. And so the more we push into something, the more we’re going to get that push back.

(05:26):
So we need to recognize that and recognize that sometimes we have to sort of slowly push the edges of the comfort zone versus just busting through them and out of them. But there is going to be a little bit of uncomfortableness, uncomfortableness with it, but we want to try and see what we can do to really make it as easy as possible to make those changes. So I just urge you, instead of running from it, instead of pushing back, find a way to allow that attitude to embrace it, because that is where we’re going to see the best results happen. Stop running for the hard, be grateful for it. So again, discomfort is where growth lives. Find ways to make yourself comfortable and think of it in that term so that you lower that barrier against it just a little bit every time you have to push into it. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone you know.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free work, workout, and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in. Your all or nothing attitude is why nothing has ever worked. And if you’re thinking right now is not the right time to start something you wrong, right now is the perfect time to start something because things aren’t necessarily going perfectly to plan or you have other priorities, and this is really the power of the 1%.

(00:48):
When we make changes, we wait for that perfect time. We think we need to do everything all at once, and this ultimately is what sabotages us because not only are we designing for an ideal time, which most of life isn’t really, but we’re also doing so much all at once. We ultimately overwhelm ourselves. It’s why we might’ve thought in the past, I just don’t have the willpower. Some of us have more willpower than I do. I’m just not disciplined. We never allowed that to actually build by meeting ourselves where we’re at. So we have to remember that small changes can yield big results when they snowball over time and we get good at what we consistently do. So in terms of the power of the 1%, if you’re thinking it’s not the right time, you have other priorities, own them. Assess what they really are, look at your lifestyle and break it down and then say, what is something so silly, simple, on the worst of worst days, I could do it because the more right now isn’t the right time to start.

(01:42):
It is the right time because you can plan for what life is really going to throw at you. You can make changes that you know can actually become disciplined with because they’re based on what you need and need right now. So often we do even get stuck in January making changes and then not assessing what we’ll need during the summer during the holidays next year. And that’s why we create habits that don’t work. We don’t allow them to even evolve even if they do work for a specific time of year. Because as our body, our needs and goals change not only over the years, but even over the course of a single year. The exact habits we do and how we implement them will need to shift and evolve. But the more we’ve created discipline through 1% changes off of where we are currently, the more we’ll have sort of that higher foundation, our lows will be less low.

(02:26):
So if right now feels like the wrong time, really look at on my worst of worst days, what can I do? Can I drink a little bit more water today? Can I track my protein and increase it by 10 grams at one meal just adding an egg into one meal? Can I do a five minute workout? I like to think of this approach even as the one minute change. What can I do for one minute that can have an impact? And while it might seem silly today, that one minute, if you think about it, if you do one minute for 365 days, that’s 365 minutes. That’s over six hours of change that you’ve done a lot of times through that one minute. We don’t stop at one minute. You don’t go wash your dishes and do one minute. You usually finish the entire dirty dishes in the sink.

(03:06):
You do everything that you should when you start that workout for one minute, most of the time you do a whole workout. You do everything that you outlined and the few times that you don’t, you still did one thing and you usually feel more successful for it. You want to do more the next day. So there’s really a build to it. But I want you to take the approach of what can I even do for one minute, even if it seems very simple right now? Because we have to remember that a lot of the power of change isn’t in the actual action we’re doing. It isn’t in the habit. And that singular instance, it’s the success mindset we’re creating. Because the more you do, the more you do, the more you feel successful, the more you want to do. As you see those results snowball, think about how motivating that is.

(03:45):
Think about even the workout. You didn’t want to do the one that you really, really just wanted to lay on the couch, not go do, and you did it anyway. You feel so good for overcoming that hard. So if you can get yourself to do one minute, not only will you do more, but you’ll make a change that can allow you to build. And the more we meet ourselves where we’re at, the more we’re going to create that discipline. Because discipline is really built off of doing things consistently. And what we can do consistently is something that does feel really easy to start. The more we try and just bust that comfort zone over pushing the limit slowly, the more we ultimately are relying on motivation and willpower, which are very fleeting. We’re relying on things going well, all of our priorities being in line with this specific goal, which really honestly isn’t most of life.

(04:29):
So the more you can sneak something in, almost feel like you’re not making that change, the more you do become disciplined with it because it already feels more natural. And as you feel that success build, you become more willing, there’s a less of a mental barrier against making bigger changes. You feel more comfortable being uncomfortable in more ways because you’ve seen that success and you feel yourself even becoming stronger and more confident in your ability to change. So I would really urge you if you’ve had that all or nothing attitude. If you’re at a time where you’re like, well, now it’s not the right time. Own the priorities you have. Own everything going on right now and plan for it instead of trying to wait for some perfect situation because that’s really what’s so often kept us stuck, spinning our wheels, feeling like nothing will ever work for us off of this.

(05:14):
I do want to announce my new 21 day challenges that are available through Cyber Monday. Shameless plug for them, but they are built off of the power of the 1% in those small changes done daily because the more we think, what’s one thing I can do today? How can I build off that tomorrow? And the more we do that, the more we’re going to unlearn old habits as we implement new ones and not just be relying on willpower. We’re going to see those changes truly snowball because we’re meeting ourselves where we’re at. So whether you want to improve your gut health or kickstart your metabolism or manage the symptoms of menopause, I really want you to check out my 21 day challenges that are available through Black Friday till Cyber Monday. They will not be available after that, but make sure to check them out and really get started building towards the that you want in a sustainable way, because we don’t want to look good, feel good for one day, we want those results to last forever. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack podcast. Again. This is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone I.

(00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free work, workout, and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in. Is your goal weight actually sabotaging your fat loss results, your body recomp success? The simple answer is maybe, and it’s something we don’t often think about, but seeking to see faster results on the scale is often what leads to us doing unsustainable habits and us not seeing the recomp we want and ultimately regaining the weight very quickly.

(00:54):
We also have to recognize where this goal weight is really coming from because it’s not only the fluctuations on the scale, but truly our goal weight that can hold us back. Because when you have that specific number you really want to drive towards, you are staring at the scoreboard versus focusing on the habits that you need to be doing or the play on the field that you need to have in order to get that scoreboard to change. And in staring at that, a lot of times we aren’t implementing a lot of the practices. We don’t realize what needs to change. And we get caught up so much in that that we ultimately either don’t make changes, get overwhelmed, stop, don’t keep doing the habits that we need or actually accurately adjust based on what’s going on. So we need to stop staring at the scoreboard.

(01:33):
We also need to recognize that that goal weight might not actually be what we really want and understand the whole ramification of that. Not to mention the fact that trying to see that happen faster often leads to us creating those unsustainable habits losing weight very quickly. But we’re not a controlling for whether or not we’re losing fat versus muscle. It’s why we don’t necessarily look leaner or achieve our full body recomp that we want. And it’s also why we end up regaining the weight very quickly or feeling like we can’t eat anything without the scale jumping 20 pounds. So I want to break down why it’s potentially important that we reassess what our goal weight should be and even let go of our goal weight and also the reason why the scale can change so often and how we can really change how we even use this device to our advantage.

(02:18):
So going to the goal weight, is it really that number that you want? And I say this because a lot of times we’ll say, I want X weight. This is the weight I should be at. Well, Y is that number so important to you, and I think this is a really key reflection we need to do because often that number really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all. The reason we have that number stuck in our head is because that was the number we were at at our wedding when we felt like our most fabulous and we loved the way the pictures look. It was the number we were at when we PRD in that race. It was the number we were at when we felt amazing, when we loved the way we looked, when we loved the photos, but it’s the feeling we’re after not the number.

(03:01):
And we need to separate that out because if you had all the things you had at that point, if you fit back into the clothes, if you loved how you looked in photos, if you had all the energy to PR in a race, would you really care if you hit that number? And the answer is truly no. That number has no relevance outside of it is a marker of that time. And in noticing that and in assessing that, we need to find all the other ways we can measure success to get back to that lifestyle, to own the habits that we had then and all the things we were doing to feel our most fabulous. Because a lot of times we’ve let those habits slide. We’ve let that lifestyle slide, those mindset slide. And so even now looking at photos as we’re in our journey forward, we don’t see the success of snowball because we don’t have the mindsets we had at that time.

(03:44):
We don’t have that feeling of confidence that we had built at that time. And so we need to assess what does that number represent in terms of these other factors to strive to act as if and also to measure progress in all these different ways to help us truly assess if we are or aren’t moving forward because the scale simply isn’t going to change quickly. And the more we try to, the more we sabotage our success from creating those unsustainable habits to creating metabolic adaptations to not really seeing recomp happen. Because we often say, oh, my results are slow. Well true fat loss is slow and it should be slow. You can’t out exercise around diet time as much as you want to. You got to put in the daily work and you got to put it in day after day after day for a lot longer than you want.

(04:26):
And a lot of what leads to the speed of our results is all the things we’ve done prior from the mindsets. We’re willing to embrace the discomfort we’re willing to embrace to even how long we’ve had the weight on because the longer you have it on, the longer it’s going to take to get it off. That’s why if you just gain it recently, it’s a lot easier sometimes. So it’s why you can’t judge someone else’s six week transformation to your own because we’re all starting at different points and everything we’ve done prior in our life really has an impact. But so in assessing how to navigate the scale, how to judge progress in other ways, you do want to track performance. You do want to track measurements, you do want to track progress pictures. All these things can help try on that outfit that you felt really fabulous in at that time.

(05:05):
How are you making progress towards that? But assess all the different lifestyle factors that you were even doing, not just your goal weight. And I say this too because even if you do want to drive towards a goal weight, it’s going to fluctuate daily and you’ve got to understand why it’s going to fluctuate daily. It’s going to fluctuate because of inflammation. If you’re stressed, if you’re not sleeping well, if you have more muscle tissue damage from tough workouts, yes, if you have a tough workout Friday night and you weigh in Saturday morning and there’s muscle tissue damage from that, guess what? You might see the scale increase. And it’s not from doing anything wrong. You did do everything right that week, but you see it go up because of that inflammation, that muscle tissue damage, potentially even storing more glycogen if you had carbs later at night.

(05:45):
And also because you need that to repair and with the glycogen storage. So if you have more carbs, you’re going to bring with that water weight and see the increase. So the scale is going to fluctuate, not for negative reasons all the time. It’s for recovery and repair. It’s potentially a negative reason that we’re stressed and inflamed from that, or lack of sleep. Maybe you didn’t poop yet. You can have a full bowel. But it’s a lot of different reasons that aren’t really fat loss. The scale is showing your weight in time on that moment. And so if you’ve even eaten food, if you’ve consumed water, that is going to increase your weight on the scale. If you go away right now, go eat some stuff or even go sweat out some stuff and dehydrate yourself and then go away again, your weight is going to change.

(06:26):
And that’s why we can’t base things only on this. And that’s why you have to understand the nuance to the scale and what it’s really telling you, which is just your weight, not muscle versus fat. And that’s why there’s other forms of measurement with the progress photos, the measurements, the using the clothing is so key, but then also recognizing the reasons why it fluctuates. And I even like to, when I’m deciding how to use the scale, because I do understand, and I even use goal weights to help set macros sometimes to get an estimate if we don’t know where someone’s starting from or even if someone’s maintenance is right now lower because they’re undereating and we want to boost it or just to give that estimation, you can use goal weight to do some different calorie calculations. However, I don’t like to get so focused on that, and I like to make sure that clients know how they can really use a pursuit of that to their advantage, whether it’s weighing once a week, whether maybe it’s not really weighing at all, and just using that check-in once in a while, whether or not it’s weighing daily.

(07:19):
But you have to understand then the fluctuations and the impact they have. So if you’re weighing once a week, you want to run through potentially the checklist of, Hey, hey, am I sore? Did I work out later at night? Did I have more sodium or eat out? Is there some other change? Did I sleep well? And you might want to track those things in a journal before you step on the scale to even see the impact, because that way if you don’t get the result you were thinking that you should have gotten, you can go back and assess was my consistency there and my macros was my consistency there and my workouts, and I also see that I was sore. I started a new progression. That might be why, but you can at least put it in its place. And if you are really impacted by that one fluctuation each week, you might have to weigh daily.

(07:54):
So we often say don’t weigh at all, which again, the scale is not the best indicator of body recomp. And if you are struggling with really being attached, that’s a goal weight. You might need to step off the scale and put it away for a while and only use measurements and again, those other things that represent that lifestyle. So you can get back to that feel that you had at that goal weight. But if you are really sensitive to those fluctuations, it can help you desensitize yourself by a little immersion therapy and actually weighing every single day, even multiple times a day to start just to see all the fluctuations and all the reasons why we don’t want to get so conditioned to want to do it or need to do it to watch, but at the same time, sometimes doing a little bit more to see how much it really varies can help us mentally separate from it as well.

(08:36):
But even with that too, if you know did the habits and you do that little journal and you celebrate, Hey, I have all these habits wins, maybe trying on the clothing to say, Hey, I have these clothing winds. I know the inches are going off. What does this weight then relate to all these different factors. You can then step on the scale. So I also do like to put it in its place like that. And what I mean by that is you celebrate all the different wins. You’re doing all the different habits. And so then you get the estimate of, Hey, what weight now represents this fabulousness? Because that’s how we can even find a way to use our weight for maintenance. When you reach your goal, when you’re feeling like you’re looking good, when you’re seeing those inches come off, assess what that weight is now for you at my most fabulous, what weight is that?

(09:17):
Instead of saying, oh, well, it’s not my goal weight, who cares? It’s what you weigh right now when you feel really fabulous, and that’s what your goal weight was based off of, and your goal weight is going to change as you gain more muscle as potentially you’re not in a deficit. So when you lose the weight, you might hit a little low and actually gain a couple pounds, but ultimately look leaner in that maintenance process a couple pounds up because you’re not deficient in anything. When you are depleted in a deficit, you’re not storing anything extra. And so just by storing so that you’re not depleted, you’re going to gain a couple pounds, but use that then that weight and the scale to help you understand, okay, this is what I weigh when I look the way I want to look now. So that’s another way to use it of I did the habits, I did the journal, what weight now represents how I want to look and feel.

(10:03):
So you can use then to set a new goal weight that way. But I think it’s really key just breaking down all the different nuance of things that we do understand what our goal rate really means, which again, it just relates back to getting back to a feeling we had. That is what we are ultimately searching for, the feeling of fabulousness that we had. And our goal weight is just the number that we might’ve weighed at that time. So we’ve got to assess the lifestyle, assess all the other components of it, all the other measurements of success that led to us feeling fabulous and that represented the fabulousness of that time. Used those not only as measurements of success, so the clothing that we wore that we’ll know when we fit back into that, we feel our best, the performance goals that we had, but also again, assessing the lifestyle habits and the mindsets we had to help us implement them.

(10:46):
Now, to act as if, to get back to that feeling of fabulousness, but then stepping either off the scale or knowing how to use the scale to our advantage, whether it’s weighing once a week, again, not using it, and using progress, pictures, measurements, all those things. Or even weighing daily and understanding the fluctuations. Even using that journaling of all the different reasons why the scale can change. And going through that list before we step onto it to understand what the number is really telling us while assessing our consistency and habit. And I think celebrating those wins before you step on the scale is so important because then you have that accurate reflection like, Hey, if you weren’t consistent with your macros, okay, that’s going to have an impact potentially when you step on the scale and you’ll own that. But the more, hey, these are the habit wins, or here are my areas for improvement, here’s my journaling on why the scale might be impacted or how I can interpret that number.

(11:31):
And then you step on it, that can give you information. And then as you feel fabulous seeing progress in the other forms of measurement, jumping into that lifestyle where you know, feel your best, you can then weigh on the scale to help you understand what weight will help you maintain all that fabulous then, and that will change over time. But I really hope this helps you get some perspective on the scale and not allow the scale to sabotage you. Because wanting to see it change faster, going after those fad diets where we’re trying to lose 10 pounds overnight, is ultimately what leads to us creating unsustainable habits, regaining the weight and repeating this yo-yo dieting cycle, and not losing fat any faster, but losing muscle, which then leads to metabolic adaptations, thus blaming our hormones more, even hormonal imbalances, which then make it harder to lose the weight later.

(12:16):
Make us blame our age, make us blame menopause, make us blame all these other things when really it’s poopy dieting practices and poopy training practices that have added up that we haven’t owned because we’re so caught up in the scale. So let go of the scale. And again, that doesn’t always mean not using it at all, but let go of the power the scale has and start to assess these outside factors and really understand what this tool is telling you. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone I.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript

Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating, or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in. Super excited to be joined by Jessica. She’s a fabulous coach and part of my leadership team and just an all around amazing person. So Jessica, thank you so much for joining me today.

Jessica (00:38):
I am so excited to be here. Literally, I’ve got goosebumps because this is one of my absolute favorite topics, is truly helping women live the life of their dreams. And it starts with taking care of you. It really does. So thank you so much for having me. I love it.

Cori (00:52):
Well, when you think about taking care of you, it seems like a selfish act, and I would say a lot of us are about taking care of everybody else in our life and deprioritizing ourselves. How can we get out of that mindset and what does it really mean to take care of ourselves?

Jessica (01:09):
Yeah, it’s such a really good question because I think it’s so deep rooted in just who we are. Typically as women, we are givers. We like to take care of others, and I want you to think about if you’re a mom, I’m a mom, I’ve got three kids, two of them are married. So yes, that ages me a little bit. Holy crap. But it is, it’s like you take care of your kids, you take care of at work, you’re taking care of other people. That’s typically what we do. But if you can look at those people that you take care of and put yourself in their shoes, would I want my daughter undervaluing herself? Absolutely not. I would tell her the exact opposite. If my son was not taking care of himself and he was constantly school work, all of the things, I’d be like, hold up buddy. What are you doing for you? And so if we cannot actually flip that script just a little bit about what would we tell other people to do for themselves and reflect it back on us, I think it helps us change that mindset.

Cori (02:15):
It really is sort of taking that practice what you preach, lead by example attitude with things. Because if we’re not doing it, how can we expect other people to do it? And we do want to be that great role model, and we’ve all heard that expression. You can’t pour from an empty cup, but I don’t think we really take that to heart. How can we even start to recognize that maybe we aren’t doing the things we need to take care of ourselves?

Jessica (02:40):
Yeah. I would ask you actually some really important questions because they’re the little things in your life. Are you sleeping well? That’s one of the biggest ones. In fact, Corey and I, okay, we were literally chatting before and we’re like, okay, do we ever sleep? Yes and no. It’s a loaded question because there are times, but is your sleep affected? Do you have motivation to do the things that you love to do? I love to mountain bike, I love to ski. There’s things like that, and it’s times when you’re like, oh, I don’t even want to do that. I don’t even have the energy. So I’d ask you to take a look at the little itty bitty things in life, whether it’s you’re snacking and you’re just constantly looking for little things to fill yourself with energy because that’s what it is. Food is calories. Calories or energy. It’s like are you filling those little voids with other things or do you just not have the motivation to do it? So it’s really taking a deep look at ourselves and what we’re doing to say, am I actually filling my own cup or is my cup kind of empty? And it’s the little things that are the biggest triggers.

Cori (03:50):
And I think that’s a theme that I see popping up in any aspect of life. Anytime we want to make a change, anytime we want to reach a goal, it’s that pause and self-reflection. This thing we at least want to do and we want to find something new to take action on. But if we don’t truly assess what’s going on, we can’t make accurate changes that add up. And that’s where we even see ourselves stressing ourselves out by adding on more that doesn’t really match what we need. So in diving into that, what are some really good questions we can start to ask ourselves to build that self-awareness and see where we can make adjustments?

Jessica (04:25):
There’s two questions that always come to my mind. Always, always, always. And so if you can actually take a little notebook, I always have a notebook with me. So grab yourself a little notebook, draw a line right down the center of it, and on one side of it, put what do I want more of in my life? And on the other side, what do I want less of in my life? And start listing those things out because that’s going to give you, I think, some of the first indications of maybe what do you need to take out of your life? And then what do you want to add into your life? And again, it starts with this simple little thing. So some of the things that a lot of even myself included is I want less idle TV time in the evenings. That’s an easy one.

(05:10):
So that’s something that I’m going to cut out. I don’t have to do more of it. I can actually cut it out. One of the things that I want more of in my life is I actually want more music in my life. Sometimes you get finished working whatever, and I’m cooking dinner and I just don’t throw music on. I’m like, why don’t I do that? It’s those little things that actually fill your cup. So I would really look at those two columns. What do you want more of in your life? What do you really enjoy? What makes your body happy? What makes your soul happy? Is it sunshine? Whatever it is. And then what do you want less of in your life? The little things that you’re tolerating that maybe you don’t want to tolerate anymore.

Cori (05:53):
And I think there’s a key word that you put into both of those want, because it’s not, don’t want, it’s not have to do, it’s not should do. It’s what do you want more of and what do you want less of? Because I think so often when we cut things out, we are thinking restriction, we’re thinking, I shouldn’t be doing this, but really assess what don’t you want? What doesn’t serve your ultimate goal? What doesn’t sort of benefit your why? And the more we do that, the more we’re in a positive mindset to reflect further and even see other areas that we might’ve let slide that we didn’t even recognize we’d sort of let go of that were very important to us.

Jessica (06:34):
Yeah, it is. And that’s what self-care is. It’s like verbalizing our wants and our desires. It’s getting to the root of who we are. Think about it, how were you when you were eight years old? How were you when you were 12 years old? What did you want in life? And kind of get back to that little kid mentality and actually verbalizing it. If you think about a baby, a baby cries when they want something or need something, right? Well, what do we do as adults? We may not cry. Sometimes we do, but I mean, we act out in other ways. And again, it’s those little things. So self-care really is verbalizing and self-reflecting on it, and it makes it a healthy environment for you to kind of get back to what does my soul really want? What do I want?

Cori (07:23):
And it’s stepping back, not just in the moment of what we want, but really to the core of who and what we are and the life that we want to lead, which I think we can sometimes lose. How can we reconnect with those core values, really understand our why a little bit better when there are so many immediate little, I’ll say paper cuts that we’re getting, but we even treat like they’re knife wounds when they’re really not. How can we refocus on the values that truly matter to us and doing more of the things align with that.

Jessica (07:50):
Yeah, I think it is. It’s the self-reflection piece. And it’s hard because when you’re first getting into this and you start reflecting on it, you’re like, well, crap, I suck, man. I didn’t do good at this. You start beating yourself up. And so, okay, let go of that. And actually, I want you to start thinking about dreaming and what are your dreams? Because a lot of times as adults and especially as women, we stop dreaming and we stop thinking about what do we want in life? Where are we headed? You’ve heard of the bucket list and all the things put in your bucket list, but what do you want your life to be like? If you could design your life, what would that be like? Another thing that is a really interesting thought is who are you jealous of? Now, I know that sounds really odd, but if you think about, okay, Corey, for you, oh my gosh, I’m so jealous of your shoulders and biceps. Okay, well yeah, see, but what did you have to do to get there? You had to put work and effort in. And so instead of being jealous of it, I want to be inspired by that. And so you can flip that emotion of jealousy to, well, maybe it’s because that’s what I want in my life and I’m going to be inspired by it.

Cori (09:15):
I love that flipping that comparison to something that is motivational, aspirational. And I think you hit on something so key that I see every day, honestly online is, oh, I can’t achieve that because I’m X age or I can’t do that because of this other priority. And if we don’t own our priorities, they do become our excuses. But excuses can also be busted if we have a strong enough reason, we want to achieve something and we look to meet ourselves where we’re at. But so often we just hold ourselves back and we do set these boundaries that we’ve never tested or question in years, and we look at somebody else having something and instead of saying, well, how did they get there? How can I follow in their footsteps? We just say, I can’t have that. And it’s something of, or I always take the sort of perspective or outlook of, well, what can I at least do to improve? Yeah, sure. Maybe I won’t get to that goal in the exact way. I see it in my mind right now, but what can I do to improve? Because there’s always a way to move forward and what’s the point of not at least trying? Right,

Jessica (10:15):
Exactly. What’s going to be the worst case scenario if you try nothing, there’s no worst case scenario. I mean, even if you don’t meet that super high goal, are you going to be one step closer? Absolutely. Are you going to learn something about yourself along the way? Absolutely. Are you going to see what’s working? Yes. Are you going to see what’s not working? Yes. Are you going to, there’s no risk, so go for it. Give it a shot.

Cori (10:48):
Everything ultimately moves you forward. And in shooting for the stars, maybe you don’t hit the stars, but you’re going to get a lot further than you would if you didn’t shoot for ’em. And so the more we can see it as opportunity in always seeking growth and always wanting more while celebrating all that we’ve accomplished, all that we are, the more we will be taking care of ourselves. Because I think there’s nothing that holds us back more than not believing we can achieve more, but in believing we are capable of more in questioning our own boundaries. That is almost the best thing we can do to take care of ourself. But it’s a challenge to do that. And it’s all well and good that we say that, but how do you keep that comparison from becoming a negative, from becoming envy? How do you get yourself taking steps that are in line with what you truly want for you in your life?

Jessica (11:36):
Yeah, I call it a roadmap because it is. It’s actually prioritizing your feelings and saying, yeah, these are my wants and my desires, and yeah, I’m going to go for it. And even if I don’t, like you said, if I’m not going to hit the moon, at least I’m going to hit the stars. You’re going to get somewhere up in that solar system. But it’s having that roadmap. And so that’s where, again, if you know, okay, here’s what my goal is. Okay, here’s the things that I need more of in my life to be able to reach that goal. Here’s the things that I want less of. And then what are the steps that you’re going to take along the way? But then also how are you celebrating yourself as you meet those little goals? So you have to set out a roadmap. Again, like I said, I keep little journals.

(12:21):
You have no idea how many of these little books I literally keep planning around because it helps me to roadmap for myself constantly to achieve those things. And so if it’s a journal for you, do that. If it’s, I’m trying to, the vision boards, putting things together and you have it in your closet or whatever it may be, but finding something that you can actually visually see where you want to go because then you can again take those little steps towards it. And if you start getting way off track, it’s assessing it, assessing yourself, reflecting on it and then coming back to it and saying, well, yeah, I got pulled off to the left side because of this. Maybe I need to switch gears just a little bit.

Cori (13:09):
I think you touch on so many key components there of it’s the self-reflection because we learn so much more in reflection than even in doing the action. And it helps us see the things we’re doing that are serving us and not serving us. It also reminds us of why we started the things we want more of, the things we want less of. But even in writing that down and that reflection and how much that helps us, I think even having the notebooks around like you do or having that vision board, it’s not only a vision of what we want to remind us of or why, but it changes the environment. And I bring this up too because I think so often in the habit changes, we don’t recognize that it’s not that we’re just doing the habit, it’s all the things that prepare us to do the habit.

(13:45):
So going to the gym, if we put our clothes out the first time, we don’t put our clothes out, we might not go to the gym because it’s not just the habit of going to the gym, it’s the habit of putting the clothes out, which then remind the other habit. So it’s like in having those notebooks around, you are reminding yourself to constantly reflect. You’re reminding yourself of even what you wrote down in that book or to even reassess am I in line with that? And I think that’s such a key component because that’s really what spurs the action.

Jessica (14:11):
Yeah, it is. It is. Those visual reminders. So quick story. So this is many, many years ago, my two oldest kids were really young. So when my daughter was born, she’s more two months premature, and my son was 16 months old when she was born, and my husband traveled for work, which meant I was pretty much a single mom for most of the time. I went through postpartum depression, the whole thing. A couple of years later, I had my third baby and he still traveled for work. And so I felt like my life was so out of balance. And that’s where for me, I went back to this of, I had to reflect on why was I feeling this way? What did I value as myself? I had given up all my hobbies because I was giving everything to my babies. And so I had to have those visual reminders.

(15:03):
I actually went to a craft show where they have the 10 by 10 boos up everywhere and all the homemade goods. This lady was selling pottery. And with her pottery at the stand, she had these necklaces and it was a little piece of pottery, just really little. And it had the Japanese symbol for balance on it. And then on the backside of it, she’d engraved the word balance in English. And I was like, balance. That’s what I need more of in my life. And so I bought that necklace and I wore it until it broke. And every single time I felt like I was out of balance. I was out of whack. I wasn’t valuing myself. I would actually touch right here. And you’ve probably seen me do that multiple times today. It’s because it’s ingrained in me now because when I touch here, it reminds me that I matter and that there’s balance.

(15:54):
And so for you, it may be bracelets, these little bracelets that I actually make these bracelets, it’s just like one of those little hobbies because I wanted not idle time in my life in the evenings. So it might be a little visual reminder, a piece of jewelry, something special that you wear. Maybe it’s a picture on your wall that’s that visual reminder of what your goals are, what your dreams are. Because when you start achieving those things, you’re going to feel better about yourself. And that is true. It’s not a massage, it’s not a pedicure. It’s like living your life.

Cori (16:34):
It’s what I’ve heard you call those out of the box ideas of how we can do that self-care. Because we do think of habits as this is the habit. This is what you do, self-care. You go get a mani-pedi, you get a massage, you do these things. But self-care really is about doing something that matters to you. That’s it. And it might be even saying no to something that you don’t want to do and feeling confident in saying no. And I bring this up because I really want you to touch on the power of no, because I know that you really advocate for that too. Because I think so often we do just think about adding more, doing more, wanting more, not about what we want to do, less of, not about the things that might be detracting from our self-care that don’t need to be done by us, but we’re prioritizing other things. So can you talk a little bit about the power of saying no to things?

Jessica (17:26):
Okay. I am going to tell you another story. You guys, I’m so full of ’em because with age, it comes a lot of stinking experience. So when my kids were little in kindergarten, they used to ask for parent volunteers, and I’m like, I’m going to be the best mom ever. I am going to go volunteer in the class once a week. And so I would literally carve out this amount of time. I would go and I would volunteer, and I’m pulling my hair out because I love children, but I am not meant to be a teacher. My youngest daughter, she is a born teacher. I am not. And it just didn’t serve me well, and I would feel so drained. It came to the point where I literally had to say, no, I’m not going to do that, but I can serve my kids and my kids’ teacher and their class in different ways.

(18:24):
I was asked so many times to also run the concession stands for different sporting events. So what is in the concession stands? Hot dogs with chili out of a bag and cheese out of a bag that is full of all of the crap. And like, oh my gosh, literally it makes me cringe. And I would go in there and I’m like, here’s these athletes. They’re out there performing their little hearts out and I’m giving them just not the best foods. And again, I ended up saying no to those opportunities because it didn’t fill me up. It made me feel worse. And so I had to say no. And I think if you can look at your life too, there’s probably a lot of things that you’re doing that you’re, again, I’m going to use the word tolerating. You’re tolerating it. You’re like, I’m doing it, but I don’t like it. What are those things? And can you actually start saying no to those and start saying yes to some other things that are going to serve you better because you’re going to be a better person because of it.

Cori (19:30):
You’re going to play to your strengths and ultimately probably serve everybody even besides yourself a lot better. And I think we don’t recognize that so often when we are doing things outside of our strengths, we’re not doubling down on the things we’re really good at. We end up spending more time, more energy, not doing things as well, which then even drags us down more because we don’t feel successful with those things. Instead of saying, again, that self-awareness, that reflection, what am I really good at and how can I use that to my advantage to not only fill my own cup, but help others a little bit more? And it does come back to saying no. And the more we get opportunities, the better the opportunity we’re going to be saying no to. And I know I struggle with this where I’m like, I want to make sure that everybody feels supported, that they know I’m doing enough, that I’m there for them, that I’m not relying on other people.

(20:17):
But in doing that, we often just end up making the situation a lot worse and making everybody else’s experience even a lot worse. So it is very important that we do take that time to self-reflect and say, what can I say no to that will give me more of doing more of what I want and also eliminating the things that I know I don’t want to do that don’t fill my cup, but really playing to my power and owning my power because in that we are so much stronger and everything does function so much better. It’s like a hard thing to do.

Jessica (20:52):
It’s, it’s really hard to do because we want to be good at everything. We want to be seen as that person that no matter what I can be counted on. But again, if you can switch that language that they can count on me to do my best at what I do best. And if I know that somebody else is going to do it better, then they know that I’m going to tell them that somebody else is going to be better at that. And so I want to kind of finish the story about the concession stance because seriously, it was awful for me. Just great. When you see some of that food, you’re just, and knowing what these kids were doing. So what I ended up doing is I would actually buy fruit and I would get protein bars, and I would take them to the coach and say, here you go.

(21:43):
And those things were always gone first. And I actually felt empowered by that, and I actually got energy from doing that, especially seeing those kids eating better foods for themselves instead of running to the concession stand. And so it’s the same thing when you start saying no to something and saying yes to something that actually gives you the energy and also leaning on other people. It was really cool because other parents started to catch on and other people did it too. And you can actually create, Corey, you talk about a snowball a lot. We snowball our results well. We can also snowball, snowball the results of our self care when we play into our strengths.

Cori (22:25):
Not only that, but I think you hit on something that’s really key when it comes to self-care. A, it’s not selfish, but B, it doesn’t have to be even about doing something for you directly. And while changing the food they were eating was for you because you didn’t want to be feeding them that food. So it was, I guess, drawn from what you wanted. It was for other people. And sometimes doing for other people in the way we want to be taking care of them is that self-care we need. And the more we do, the more we do, which means sometimes putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations. But I do think it’s really key to note that everything you want to do won’t be about, again, things you want to do just for yourself alone. It might be things you want to do because the impact they will have on other people’s lives as well.

Jessica (23:12):
Oh my gosh. So many times we do things for selfish reasons, but there’s this really cool byproduct. I really think one of the biggest ways to get yourself out of a funk is serving somebody else. Because you look around and the things that people go through, and Corey, you and I and the rest of the coaches, we see some of the challenges that our clients have and the things that they have to go through. And we’re like, man, that’s a tough thing. And in that area of life, maybe I’m a little bit more blessed. And so by helping them, it’s selfish because we also get the rewards back.

Cori (23:50):
I always like to say that you can be selfish and selfless at the same time because a lot of times in wanting to take care of somebody else, you are getting good feelings back and it’s not bad to own that. But I think there can be that balance and we can really take care of ourselves through taking care of others. It’s just, again, really reflecting on what we want more of, what we want less of, where our priorities lie. Now in this, I want to ask you if someone’s looking to do more self-care, struggling with some comparison, they’re struggling with figuring out what might fill their cup. How would you go about recommending they find ideas to take better care of themselves, build that self-awareness if they’re struggling to ask those harder questions or really find their deeper rooted why?

Jessica (24:35):
Yeah. One of the things that I love to do, and this is Corey, I think you’ve seen this with me over the years. I love reading books, listening to podcasts, really doing personal development and professional development. I think that’s one way that you can start to learn a little bit. But one of my favorites is it’s called the five love languages. So if you are not familiar with it, the five love languages are words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service and receiving gifts. And if you want to, there’s a quiz like go take the quiz, just Google it, whatever. Because what that tells you is how you actually feel loved. And so for me, my top love language is quality time. And so for you, it may be something different. It might be words of affirmation. And if it’s words of affirmation for you, you can actually ask somebody, tell me something that you enjoy about me, or what have I done? Well, and you can ask friends, spouses, coworkers, whoever. But if you can play into how you feel loved the very, very most and understand that about yourself, then you can start asking for those things. That’s probably one of the biggest and best ways that I could say to start understanding yourself a little bit better.

Cori (26:04):
And even understanding how you like to receive love or you feel love. You can see the things that might be detracting from that. If you do like positive words of affirmation, if you do like some of these different things, you might notice that, hey, by going on social media and seeing certain accounts, they don’t really suit you because they sort of drag you down. They don’t affirm what you want to hear, good things about yourself. They make you start to think negative things about yourself. So maybe you unfollow some of those. There’s lots of ways that you not only find to ask for that positivity in your life, but also ways you see are detracting from it that you might not have realized before.

Jessica (26:42):
Oh my gosh. So true. I am a true believer in social media cleanses. I just am. And I’ve had, it’s called my zero tolerance policy. See, again, there’s that word tolerant or tolerate. Because when I see a post from somebody that makes me feel less about myself, that pulls me down even in it that I have a hard time reframing my mind around it. I’m like, yeah, you’re out. I’m like, I just don’t need that. But on the flip side of it, I really do seek for who are some positive influences. People again, that I’m inspired by, follow more of those. And that’s a simple way because let’s face it, social media, it’s a beautiful part of our world, and you can either choose to engage in some of the more negative aspects of it, or you can choose to be engaged in the amazingly positive aspects of it, and you can learn so much. So again, even there, it’s about reframing your mind, but think about your social media. How are you feeling your brain?

Cori (27:57):
I want to go back to, I mean, I think those are really great tips to cleanse your social media. Of course not of redefining strength because we’re fat. Amen. You want to hear everything from We’re inspiring. Yeah, we’re inspiring. But off of that, and I totally get that because there are definitely accounts that I’m like, I can’t watch this account because there’s just things that it puts me into a negative mindset or even frustrates me as a coach where I’m like, don’t say that to their own clients. But that’s a whole other story. But going back to a word that you brought up a couple of times that I really want to touch on because I think it’s so important, tolerance tolerating, because I think this is something that we don’t recognize our choice in the matter of as much. We just tolerate it. We just let it go. But we have to recognize that we have a choice what we tolerate, how can we recognize even when we’re tolerating something we shouldn’t and go about changing that because our tolerance level has to go down if we want more out of our life.

Jessica (28:57):
It is something that I’ve had to learn over the years. And so I think one of the best ways to do is if you can even just again, put some type of physical reminder, if it’s the word tolerate is your screensaver on your phone or your desktop or whatever it may be, just so that it’s like in the forefront of your mind. Mind. We feel emotions in our body in different ways. Some of us will feel it here in our chest. Some of us will feel it in our gut. Sometimes. For me, it is the tip tops of my ears. They feel like they’re so hot, they’re going to explode. But it’s weird things. It could be a lump in your throat, whatever it may be, but for maybe a day, two days, three days, you really think about going through your life. Where are you feeling those emotions?

(29:44):
What is triggering to you? And start recognizing it and paying attention to it. And as you start paying attention to it, I think that gives you a little bit of an instance of like, man, I’m tolerating this. It may be like you open up the cabinet and you’re like, dude, I have got so many expired foods in here that I’m just hollering. I am just not getting rid of them. Or maybe it’s foods in there that are not going to serve your body and your goals the way that you want them now. Feel that in your body. Start recognizing when you’re like, ick, that doesn’t feel good. Or, oh, I should really get that done. Listen to those feelings, listen to them.

Cori (30:32):
And then in listening to them take action on them. I think that’s something that we don’t give ourselves permission to do a lot, where if there is a food there that you really don’t want there, throw it away. And recognize too, that strength is built through what we overcome. We just think strength is given to us a lot of times, and it’s not. It’s something that we do build. We get comfortable being uncomfortable in a lot of different ways, and that is that strength being built. But if you think about the workout, you didn’t want to do the meal prep, you didn’t want to eat that, you did all these different things. That’s where we really feel our best on the days you do something you didn’t want to do. So if you have that feeling and you throw that food away, you’ll be surprised by how much that small action can really lift you up, because it’s the act of taking care of yourself and showing yourself how much more is really possible even.

Jessica (31:20):
Okay, let’s go back to what do you want more of in your life and what do you want less of in your life? You want more of those happy feelings of like, dude, I accomplished that, or Man, that has been bugging me for a while and I just took care of it. You took action on it. You feel proud about yourself. Isn’t that what ultimately you want more of? Yeah. Yes,

Cori (31:42):
It’s exactly. You want those actions that allow you to have that feeling. And I think even recognizing that that feeling is what you’re seeking and what really correlates with that in terms of the actions you can take. And it makes me all think about the fact that we can’t a lot of times control the thought we have, the emotion we have in the moment. It is natural, it is innate. It’s built on patterns that we haven’t even necessarily revealed sometimes. But even in having that thought, that feeling, we can always control our action or reaction to it. And so with all of this and building that self-awareness, starting to bring to light all those thoughts that you have, all those feelings that you have that maybe you can’t stop, but you can stop the next thing that happens from ’em. And I think that power of choice, that decision we all have, that taking agency and ownership is so key. So in that, Jessica, if someone is looking to take care of themselves, wanting to make this change, what would be some closing thoughts, recommendations to help them take what they’re feeling and really turn it into those actions that move them forward?

Jessica (32:43):
Yeah. Self-reflection, period, end of story. It’s really assessing who you are, what you want, what your desires are, what your goals are, what are you tolerating, what do you want? More of the list of questions that we’ve talked about. And I think as you’ve been listening to this today, you’ve probably been like, oh, that sparked something in me. Oh, I felt that in my core. Those things are telling you. Those are the reflections. So pause for a moment, pull out a piece of paper, jot those things down, reflect and from those reflections, draw a stinking arrow. You’ll see this with so many things that I do. I’m like, okay, here’s the thing. Draw an arrow. Write the word action. What is the action that you’re going to take because of it? And then start putting them on your calendar. Start telling people about the actions because it’s going to help hold you more accountable to those things. I mean, doesn’t that sound better than going and getting a pedicure that’s going to last for two weeks to really change your life? Doesn’t that sound better, you guys?

Cori (33:49):
Well, I got to say my feet are ticklish. So I’m not the biggest fan of pedicures. Manicures are another thing, but I love that you first said, when I even said action, you said reflection. Because I think we so often don’t think of the thinking about it as an action, but it is. And if we don’t take that action first, we can’t set other actions in place that will truly move us forward and make us make a change because we’re going to repeat the same things we’ve always done. We’re going to search for a new macro ratio, a new workout, a new place to go get a manicure, a new massage place. But none of these things are actually going to address what do we want more of? What do we want less of? So that reflection first to start is just so key. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes, and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life with someone.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript

Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating, or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in. Super excited to be joined by Jessica. She’s a fabulous coach and part of my leadership team and just an all around amazing person. So Jessica, thank you so much for joining me today.

Jessica (00:38):
I am so excited to be here. Literally, I’ve got goosebumps because this is one of my absolute favorite topics, is truly helping women live the life of their dreams. And it starts with taking care of you. It really does. So thank you so much for having me. I love it.

Cori (00:52):
Well, when you think about taking care of you, it seems like a selfish act, and I would say a lot of us are about taking care of everybody else in our life and deprioritizing ourselves. How can we get out of that mindset and what does it really mean to take care of ourselves?

Jessica (01:09):
Yeah, it’s such a really good question because I think it’s so deep rooted in just who we are. Typically as women, we are givers. We like to take care of others, and I want you to think about if you’re a mom, I’m a mom, I’ve got three kids, two of them are married. So yes, that ages me a little bit. Holy crap. But it is, it’s like you take care of your kids, you take care of at work, you’re taking care of other people. That’s typically what we do. But if you can look at those people that you take care of and put yourself in their shoes, would I want my daughter undervaluing herself? Absolutely not. I would tell her the exact opposite. If my son was not taking care of himself and he was constantly school work, all of the things, I’d be like, hold up buddy. What are you doing for you? And so if we cannot actually flip that script just a little bit about what would we tell other people to do for themselves and reflect it back on us, I think it helps us change that mindset.

Cori (02:15):
It really is sort of taking that practice what you preach, lead by example attitude with things. Because if we’re not doing it, how can we expect other people to do it? And we do want to be that great role model, and we’ve all heard that expression. You can’t pour from an empty cup, but I don’t think we really take that to heart. How can we even start to recognize that maybe we aren’t doing the things we need to take care of ourselves?

Jessica (02:40):
Yeah. I would ask you actually some really important questions because they’re the little things in your life. Are you sleeping well? That’s one of the biggest ones. In fact, Corey and I, okay, we were literally chatting before and we’re like, okay, do we ever sleep? Yes and no. It’s a loaded question because there are times, but is your sleep affected? Do you have motivation to do the things that you love to do? I love to mountain bike, I love to ski. There’s things like that, and it’s times when you’re like, oh, I don’t even want to do that. I don’t even have the energy. So I’d ask you to take a look at the little itty bitty things in life, whether it’s you’re snacking and you’re just constantly looking for little things to fill yourself with energy because that’s what it is. Food is calories. Calories or energy. It’s like are you filling those little voids with other things or do you just not have the motivation to do it? So it’s really taking a deep look at ourselves and what we’re doing to say, am I actually filling my own cup or is my cup kind of empty? And it’s the little things that are the biggest triggers.

Cori (03:50):
And I think that’s a theme that I see popping up in any aspect of life. Anytime we want to make a change, anytime we want to reach a goal, it’s that pause and self-reflection. This thing we at least want to do and we want to find something new to take action on. But if we don’t truly assess what’s going on, we can’t make accurate changes that add up. And that’s where we even see ourselves stressing ourselves out by adding on more that doesn’t really match what we need. So in diving into that, what are some really good questions we can start to ask ourselves to build that self-awareness and see where we can make adjustments?

Jessica (04:25):
There’s two questions that always come to my mind. Always, always, always. And so if you can actually take a little notebook, I always have a notebook with me. So grab yourself a little notebook, draw a line right down the center of it, and on one side of it, put what do I want more of in my life? And on the other side, what do I want less of in my life? And start listing those things out because that’s going to give you, I think, some of the first indications of maybe what do you need to take out of your life? And then what do you want to add into your life? And again, it starts with this simple little thing. So some of the things that a lot of even myself included is I want less idle TV time in the evenings. That’s an easy one.

(05:10):
So that’s something that I’m going to cut out. I don’t have to do more of it. I can actually cut it out. One of the things that I want more of in my life is I actually want more music in my life. Sometimes you get finished working whatever, and I’m cooking dinner and I just don’t throw music on. I’m like, why don’t I do that? It’s those little things that actually fill your cup. So I would really look at those two columns. What do you want more of in your life? What do you really enjoy? What makes your body happy? What makes your soul happy? Is it sunshine? Whatever it is. And then what do you want less of in your life? The little things that you’re tolerating that maybe you don’t want to tolerate anymore.

Cori (05:53):
And I think there’s a key word that you put into both of those want, because it’s not, don’t want, it’s not have to do, it’s not should do. It’s what do you want more of and what do you want less of? Because I think so often when we cut things out, we are thinking restriction, we’re thinking, I shouldn’t be doing this, but really assess what don’t you want? What doesn’t serve your ultimate goal? What doesn’t sort of benefit your why? And the more we do that, the more we’re in a positive mindset to reflect further and even see other areas that we might’ve let slide that we didn’t even recognize we’d sort of let go of that were very important to us.

Jessica (06:34):
Yeah, it is. And that’s what self-care is. It’s like verbalizing our wants and our desires. It’s getting to the root of who we are. Think about it, how were you when you were eight years old? How were you when you were 12 years old? What did you want in life? And kind of get back to that little kid mentality and actually verbalizing it. If you think about a baby, a baby cries when they want something or need something, right? Well, what do we do as adults? We may not cry. Sometimes we do, but I mean, we act out in other ways. And again, it’s those little things. So self-care really is verbalizing and self-reflecting on it, and it makes it a healthy environment for you to kind of get back to what does my soul really want? What do I want?

Cori (07:23):
And it’s stepping back, not just in the moment of what we want, but really to the core of who and what we are and the life that we want to lead, which I think we can sometimes lose. How can we reconnect with those core values, really understand our why a little bit better when there are so many immediate little, I’ll say paper cuts that we’re getting, but we even treat like they’re knife wounds when they’re really not. How can we refocus on the values that truly matter to us and doing more of the things align with that.

Jessica (07:50):
Yeah, I think it is. It’s the self-reflection piece. And it’s hard because when you’re first getting into this and you start reflecting on it, you’re like, well, crap, I suck, man. I didn’t do good at this. You start beating yourself up. And so, okay, let go of that. And actually, I want you to start thinking about dreaming and what are your dreams? Because a lot of times as adults and especially as women, we stop dreaming and we stop thinking about what do we want in life? Where are we headed? You’ve heard of the bucket list and all the things put in your bucket list, but what do you want your life to be like? If you could design your life, what would that be like? Another thing that is a really interesting thought is who are you jealous of? Now, I know that sounds really odd, but if you think about, okay, Corey, for you, oh my gosh, I’m so jealous of your shoulders and biceps. Okay, well yeah, see, but what did you have to do to get there? You had to put work and effort in. And so instead of being jealous of it, I want to be inspired by that. And so you can flip that emotion of jealousy to, well, maybe it’s because that’s what I want in my life and I’m going to be inspired by it.

Cori (09:15):
I love that flipping that comparison to something that is motivational, aspirational. And I think you hit on something so key that I see every day, honestly online is, oh, I can’t achieve that because I’m X age or I can’t do that because of this other priority. And if we don’t own our priorities, they do become our excuses. But excuses can also be busted if we have a strong enough reason, we want to achieve something and we look to meet ourselves where we’re at. But so often we just hold ourselves back and we do set these boundaries that we’ve never tested or question in years, and we look at somebody else having something and instead of saying, well, how did they get there? How can I follow in their footsteps? We just say, I can’t have that. And it’s something of, or I always take the sort of perspective or outlook of, well, what can I at least do to improve? Yeah, sure. Maybe I won’t get to that goal in the exact way. I see it in my mind right now, but what can I do to improve? Because there’s always a way to move forward and what’s the point of not at least trying? Right,

Jessica (10:15):
Exactly. What’s going to be the worst case scenario if you try nothing, there’s no worst case scenario. I mean, even if you don’t meet that super high goal, are you going to be one step closer? Absolutely. Are you going to learn something about yourself along the way? Absolutely. Are you going to see what’s working? Yes. Are you going to see what’s not working? Yes. Are you going to, there’s no risk, so go for it. Give it a shot.

Cori (10:48):
Everything ultimately moves you forward. And in shooting for the stars, maybe you don’t hit the stars, but you’re going to get a lot further than you would if you didn’t shoot for ’em. And so the more we can see it as opportunity in always seeking growth and always wanting more while celebrating all that we’ve accomplished, all that we are, the more we will be taking care of ourselves. Because I think there’s nothing that holds us back more than not believing we can achieve more, but in believing we are capable of more in questioning our own boundaries. That is almost the best thing we can do to take care of ourself. But it’s a challenge to do that. And it’s all well and good that we say that, but how do you keep that comparison from becoming a negative, from becoming envy? How do you get yourself taking steps that are in line with what you truly want for you in your life?

Jessica (11:36):
Yeah, I call it a roadmap because it is. It’s actually prioritizing your feelings and saying, yeah, these are my wants and my desires, and yeah, I’m going to go for it. And even if I don’t, like you said, if I’m not going to hit the moon, at least I’m going to hit the stars. You’re going to get somewhere up in that solar system. But it’s having that roadmap. And so that’s where, again, if you know, okay, here’s what my goal is. Okay, here’s the things that I need more of in my life to be able to reach that goal. Here’s the things that I want less of. And then what are the steps that you’re going to take along the way? But then also how are you celebrating yourself as you meet those little goals? So you have to set out a roadmap. Again, like I said, I keep little journals.

(12:21):
You have no idea how many of these little books I literally keep planning around because it helps me to roadmap for myself constantly to achieve those things. And so if it’s a journal for you, do that. If it’s, I’m trying to, the vision boards, putting things together and you have it in your closet or whatever it may be, but finding something that you can actually visually see where you want to go because then you can again take those little steps towards it. And if you start getting way off track, it’s assessing it, assessing yourself, reflecting on it and then coming back to it and saying, well, yeah, I got pulled off to the left side because of this. Maybe I need to switch gears just a little bit.

Cori (13:09):
I think you touch on so many key components there of it’s the self-reflection because we learn so much more in reflection than even in doing the action. And it helps us see the things we’re doing that are serving us and not serving us. It also reminds us of why we started the things we want more of, the things we want less of. But even in writing that down and that reflection and how much that helps us, I think even having the notebooks around like you do or having that vision board, it’s not only a vision of what we want to remind us of or why, but it changes the environment. And I bring this up too because I think so often in the habit changes, we don’t recognize that it’s not that we’re just doing the habit, it’s all the things that prepare us to do the habit.

(13:45):
So going to the gym, if we put our clothes out the first time, we don’t put our clothes out, we might not go to the gym because it’s not just the habit of going to the gym, it’s the habit of putting the clothes out, which then remind the other habit. So it’s like in having those notebooks around, you are reminding yourself to constantly reflect. You’re reminding yourself of even what you wrote down in that book or to even reassess am I in line with that? And I think that’s such a key component because that’s really what spurs the action.

Jessica (14:11):
Yeah, it is. It is. Those visual reminders. So quick story. So this is many, many years ago, my two oldest kids were really young. So when my daughter was born, she’s more two months premature, and my son was 16 months old when she was born, and my husband traveled for work, which meant I was pretty much a single mom for most of the time. I went through postpartum depression, the whole thing. A couple of years later, I had my third baby and he still traveled for work. And so I felt like my life was so out of balance. And that’s where for me, I went back to this of, I had to reflect on why was I feeling this way? What did I value as myself? I had given up all my hobbies because I was giving everything to my babies. And so I had to have those visual reminders.

(15:03):
I actually went to a craft show where they have the 10 by 10 boos up everywhere and all the homemade goods. This lady was selling pottery. And with her pottery at the stand, she had these necklaces and it was a little piece of pottery, just really little. And it had the Japanese symbol for balance on it. And then on the backside of it, she’d engraved the word balance in English. And I was like, balance. That’s what I need more of in my life. And so I bought that necklace and I wore it until it broke. And every single time I felt like I was out of balance. I was out of whack. I wasn’t valuing myself. I would actually touch right here. And you’ve probably seen me do that multiple times today. It’s because it’s ingrained in me now because when I touch here, it reminds me that I matter and that there’s balance.

(15:54):
And so for you, it may be bracelets, these little bracelets that I actually make these bracelets, it’s just like one of those little hobbies because I wanted not idle time in my life in the evenings. So it might be a little visual reminder, a piece of jewelry, something special that you wear. Maybe it’s a picture on your wall that’s that visual reminder of what your goals are, what your dreams are. Because when you start achieving those things, you’re going to feel better about yourself. And that is true. It’s not a massage, it’s not a pedicure. It’s like living your life.

Cori (16:34):
It’s what I’ve heard you call those out of the box ideas of how we can do that self-care. Because we do think of habits as this is the habit. This is what you do, self-care. You go get a mani-pedi, you get a massage, you do these things. But self-care really is about doing something that matters to you. That’s it. And it might be even saying no to something that you don’t want to do and feeling confident in saying no. And I bring this up because I really want you to touch on the power of no, because I know that you really advocate for that too. Because I think so often we do just think about adding more, doing more, wanting more, not about what we want to do, less of, not about the things that might be detracting from our self-care that don’t need to be done by us, but we’re prioritizing other things. So can you talk a little bit about the power of saying no to things?

Jessica (17:26):
Okay. I am going to tell you another story. You guys, I’m so full of ’em because with age, it comes a lot of stinking experience. So when my kids were little in kindergarten, they used to ask for parent volunteers, and I’m like, I’m going to be the best mom ever. I am going to go volunteer in the class once a week. And so I would literally carve out this amount of time. I would go and I would volunteer, and I’m pulling my hair out because I love children, but I am not meant to be a teacher. My youngest daughter, she is a born teacher. I am not. And it just didn’t serve me well, and I would feel so drained. It came to the point where I literally had to say, no, I’m not going to do that, but I can serve my kids and my kids’ teacher and their class in different ways.

(18:24):
I was asked so many times to also run the concession stands for different sporting events. So what is in the concession stands? Hot dogs with chili out of a bag and cheese out of a bag that is full of all of the crap. And like, oh my gosh, literally it makes me cringe. And I would go in there and I’m like, here’s these athletes. They’re out there performing their little hearts out and I’m giving them just not the best foods. And again, I ended up saying no to those opportunities because it didn’t fill me up. It made me feel worse. And so I had to say no. And I think if you can look at your life too, there’s probably a lot of things that you’re doing that you’re, again, I’m going to use the word tolerating. You’re tolerating it. You’re like, I’m doing it, but I don’t like it. What are those things? And can you actually start saying no to those and start saying yes to some other things that are going to serve you better because you’re going to be a better person because of it.

Cori (19:30):
You’re going to play to your strengths and ultimately probably serve everybody even besides yourself a lot better. And I think we don’t recognize that so often when we are doing things outside of our strengths, we’re not doubling down on the things we’re really good at. We end up spending more time, more energy, not doing things as well, which then even drags us down more because we don’t feel successful with those things. Instead of saying, again, that self-awareness, that reflection, what am I really good at and how can I use that to my advantage to not only fill my own cup, but help others a little bit more? And it does come back to saying no. And the more we get opportunities, the better the opportunity we’re going to be saying no to. And I know I struggle with this where I’m like, I want to make sure that everybody feels supported, that they know I’m doing enough, that I’m there for them, that I’m not relying on other people.

(20:17):
But in doing that, we often just end up making the situation a lot worse and making everybody else’s experience even a lot worse. So it is very important that we do take that time to self-reflect and say, what can I say no to that will give me more of doing more of what I want and also eliminating the things that I know I don’t want to do that don’t fill my cup, but really playing to my power and owning my power because in that we are so much stronger and everything does function so much better. It’s like a hard thing to do.

Jessica (20:52):
It’s, it’s really hard to do because we want to be good at everything. We want to be seen as that person that no matter what I can be counted on. But again, if you can switch that language that they can count on me to do my best at what I do best. And if I know that somebody else is going to do it better, then they know that I’m going to tell them that somebody else is going to be better at that. And so I want to kind of finish the story about the concession stance because seriously, it was awful for me. Just great. When you see some of that food, you’re just, and knowing what these kids were doing. So what I ended up doing is I would actually buy fruit and I would get protein bars, and I would take them to the coach and say, here you go.

(21:43):
And those things were always gone first. And I actually felt empowered by that, and I actually got energy from doing that, especially seeing those kids eating better foods for themselves instead of running to the concession stand. And so it’s the same thing when you start saying no to something and saying yes to something that actually gives you the energy and also leaning on other people. It was really cool because other parents started to catch on and other people did it too. And you can actually create, Corey, you talk about a snowball a lot. We snowball our results well. We can also snowball, snowball the results of our self care when we play into our strengths.

Cori (22:25):
Not only that, but I think you hit on something that’s really key when it comes to self-care. A, it’s not selfish, but B, it doesn’t have to be even about doing something for you directly. And while changing the food they were eating was for you because you didn’t want to be feeding them that food. So it was, I guess, drawn from what you wanted. It was for other people. And sometimes doing for other people in the way we want to be taking care of them is that self-care we need. And the more we do, the more we do, which means sometimes putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations. But I do think it’s really key to note that everything you want to do won’t be about, again, things you want to do just for yourself alone. It might be things you want to do because the impact they will have on other people’s lives as well.

Jessica (23:12):
Oh my gosh. So many times we do things for selfish reasons, but there’s this really cool byproduct. I really think one of the biggest ways to get yourself out of a funk is serving somebody else. Because you look around and the things that people go through, and Corey, you and I and the rest of the coaches, we see some of the challenges that our clients have and the things that they have to go through. And we’re like, man, that’s a tough thing. And in that area of life, maybe I’m a little bit more blessed. And so by helping them, it’s selfish because we also get the rewards back.

Cori (23:50):
I always like to say that you can be selfish and selfless at the same time because a lot of times in wanting to take care of somebody else, you are getting good feelings back and it’s not bad to own that. But I think there can be that balance and we can really take care of ourselves through taking care of others. It’s just, again, really reflecting on what we want more of, what we want less of, where our priorities lie. Now in this, I want to ask you if someone’s looking to do more self-care, struggling with some comparison, they’re struggling with figuring out what might fill their cup. How would you go about recommending they find ideas to take better care of themselves, build that self-awareness if they’re struggling to ask those harder questions or really find their deeper rooted why?

Jessica (24:35):
Yeah. One of the things that I love to do, and this is Corey, I think you’ve seen this with me over the years. I love reading books, listening to podcasts, really doing personal development and professional development. I think that’s one way that you can start to learn a little bit. But one of my favorites is it’s called the five love languages. So if you are not familiar with it, the five love languages are words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service and receiving gifts. And if you want to, there’s a quiz like go take the quiz, just Google it, whatever. Because what that tells you is how you actually feel loved. And so for me, my top love language is quality time. And so for you, it may be something different. It might be words of affirmation. And if it’s words of affirmation for you, you can actually ask somebody, tell me something that you enjoy about me, or what have I done? Well, and you can ask friends, spouses, coworkers, whoever. But if you can play into how you feel loved the very, very most and understand that about yourself, then you can start asking for those things. That’s probably one of the biggest and best ways that I could say to start understanding yourself a little bit better.

Cori (26:04):
And even understanding how you like to receive love or you feel love. You can see the things that might be detracting from that. If you do like positive words of affirmation, if you do like some of these different things, you might notice that, hey, by going on social media and seeing certain accounts, they don’t really suit you because they sort of drag you down. They don’t affirm what you want to hear, good things about yourself. They make you start to think negative things about yourself. So maybe you unfollow some of those. There’s lots of ways that you not only find to ask for that positivity in your life, but also ways you see are detracting from it that you might not have realized before.

Jessica (26:42):
Oh my gosh. So true. I am a true believer in social media cleanses. I just am. And I’ve had, it’s called my zero tolerance policy. See, again, there’s that word tolerant or tolerate. Because when I see a post from somebody that makes me feel less about myself, that pulls me down even in it that I have a hard time reframing my mind around it. I’m like, yeah, you’re out. I’m like, I just don’t need that. But on the flip side of it, I really do seek for who are some positive influences. People again, that I’m inspired by, follow more of those. And that’s a simple way because let’s face it, social media, it’s a beautiful part of our world, and you can either choose to engage in some of the more negative aspects of it, or you can choose to be engaged in the amazingly positive aspects of it, and you can learn so much. So again, even there, it’s about reframing your mind, but think about your social media. How are you feeling your brain?

Cori (27:57):
I want to go back to, I mean, I think those are really great tips to cleanse your social media. Of course not of redefining strength because we’re fat. Amen. You want to hear everything from We’re inspiring. Yeah, we’re inspiring. But off of that, and I totally get that because there are definitely accounts that I’m like, I can’t watch this account because there’s just things that it puts me into a negative mindset or even frustrates me as a coach where I’m like, don’t say that to their own clients. But that’s a whole other story. But going back to a word that you brought up a couple of times that I really want to touch on because I think it’s so important, tolerance tolerating, because I think this is something that we don’t recognize our choice in the matter of as much. We just tolerate it. We just let it go. But we have to recognize that we have a choice what we tolerate, how can we recognize even when we’re tolerating something we shouldn’t and go about changing that because our tolerance level has to go down if we want more out of our life.

Jessica (28:57):
It is something that I’ve had to learn over the years. And so I think one of the best ways to do is if you can even just again, put some type of physical reminder, if it’s the word tolerate is your screensaver on your phone or your desktop or whatever it may be, just so that it’s like in the forefront of your mind. Mind. We feel emotions in our body in different ways. Some of us will feel it here in our chest. Some of us will feel it in our gut. Sometimes. For me, it is the tip tops of my ears. They feel like they’re so hot, they’re going to explode. But it’s weird things. It could be a lump in your throat, whatever it may be, but for maybe a day, two days, three days, you really think about going through your life. Where are you feeling those emotions?

(29:44):
What is triggering to you? And start recognizing it and paying attention to it. And as you start paying attention to it, I think that gives you a little bit of an instance of like, man, I’m tolerating this. It may be like you open up the cabinet and you’re like, dude, I have got so many expired foods in here that I’m just hollering. I am just not getting rid of them. Or maybe it’s foods in there that are not going to serve your body and your goals the way that you want them now. Feel that in your body. Start recognizing when you’re like, ick, that doesn’t feel good. Or, oh, I should really get that done. Listen to those feelings, listen to them.

Cori (30:32):
And then in listening to them take action on them. I think that’s something that we don’t give ourselves permission to do a lot, where if there is a food there that you really don’t want there, throw it away. And recognize too, that strength is built through what we overcome. We just think strength is given to us a lot of times, and it’s not. It’s something that we do build. We get comfortable being uncomfortable in a lot of different ways, and that is that strength being built. But if you think about the workout, you didn’t want to do the meal prep, you didn’t want to eat that, you did all these different things. That’s where we really feel our best on the days you do something you didn’t want to do. So if you have that feeling and you throw that food away, you’ll be surprised by how much that small action can really lift you up, because it’s the act of taking care of yourself and showing yourself how much more is really possible even.

Jessica (31:20):
Okay, let’s go back to what do you want more of in your life and what do you want less of in your life? You want more of those happy feelings of like, dude, I accomplished that, or Man, that has been bugging me for a while and I just took care of it. You took action on it. You feel proud about yourself. Isn’t that what ultimately you want more of? Yeah. Yes,

Cori (31:42):
It’s exactly. You want those actions that allow you to have that feeling. And I think even recognizing that that feeling is what you’re seeking and what really correlates with that in terms of the actions you can take. And it makes me all think about the fact that we can’t a lot of times control the thought we have, the emotion we have in the moment. It is natural, it is innate. It’s built on patterns that we haven’t even necessarily revealed sometimes. But even in having that thought, that feeling, we can always control our action or reaction to it. And so with all of this and building that self-awareness, starting to bring to light all those thoughts that you have, all those feelings that you have that maybe you can’t stop, but you can stop the next thing that happens from ’em. And I think that power of choice, that decision we all have, that taking agency and ownership is so key. So in that, Jessica, if someone is looking to take care of themselves, wanting to make this change, what would be some closing thoughts, recommendations to help them take what they’re feeling and really turn it into those actions that move them forward?

Jessica (32:43):
Yeah. Self-reflection, period, end of story. It’s really assessing who you are, what you want, what your desires are, what your goals are, what are you tolerating, what do you want? More of the list of questions that we’ve talked about. And I think as you’ve been listening to this today, you’ve probably been like, oh, that sparked something in me. Oh, I felt that in my core. Those things are telling you. Those are the reflections. So pause for a moment, pull out a piece of paper, jot those things down, reflect and from those reflections, draw a stinking arrow. You’ll see this with so many things that I do. I’m like, okay, here’s the thing. Draw an arrow. Write the word action. What is the action that you’re going to take because of it? And then start putting them on your calendar. Start telling people about the actions because it’s going to help hold you more accountable to those things. I mean, doesn’t that sound better than going and getting a pedicure that’s going to last for two weeks to really change your life? Doesn’t that sound better, you guys?

Cori (33:49):
Well, I got to say my feet are ticklish. So I’m not the biggest fan of pedicures. Manicures are another thing, but I love that you first said, when I even said action, you said reflection. Because I think we so often don’t think of the thinking about it as an action, but it is. And if we don’t take that action first, we can’t set other actions in place that will truly move us forward and make us make a change because we’re going to repeat the same things we’ve always done. We’re going to search for a new macro ratio, a new workout, a new place to go get a manicure, a new massage place. But none of these things are actually going to address what do we want more of? What do we want less of? So that reflection first to start is just so key. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes, and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life with someone.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript

Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating, or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in. Stress and your diet. When we think about stress and we think about our nutrition, often we think about the things we do or do not eat out of stress. But our diet can not only be impacted by stress, but also impact the stress levels we feel. And I’m super excited to dive into all this today with Andrea. Andrea, thank you so much for joining me today.

Andrea (00:49):
Thank you. I’m super excited to be here as

Cori (00:50):
Well. So let’s talk about stress in your diet. What is the impact stress can have on our diet and what impact can our diet have on our stress?

Andrea (01:00):
Sure. So nutrition plays a role in managing and reducing stress. The relationship between diet and stress are mutual. Not only can stress influence our eating habits, but you can also impact your stress levels and the different foods and the way your body reacts to stress as well.

Cori (01:17):
Now, I think a lot of us are a little bit more familiar with the impact that stress can have on our diet, whether we eat out of stress and some foods that are more comforting than they are nutritious or even having stress impact us in a way that we don’t eat. Can you talk a little bit about why we even turn to specific things? Often when we are stressed,

Andrea (01:37):
So when we’re stressed, we’re looking for something to self-soothe. So we want to make sure that we’re trying to find a way to make ourselves feel better. Either we go in and we hide or we go out and we eat something. So we’re trying to self-soothe. So it’s just innate way for us to make ourselves feel better when we have a reaction. Either we’re nervous, we’re anxious, or we’re stressed, so we turn to something that’s going to make us feel better. And food being one of the things that help us, makes us feel better.

Cori (02:05):
And a lot of us can even think of when we’re talking about stress, like those foods we turn to. I know I’m a desserts person, a sweetss person, so I turn to those things. Why do you think that we often turn to specific foods when we are stressed to help ourselves, comfort ourselves?

Andrea (02:20):
Sure. So we’re looking for that increase in mood, that increase in feeling better in that sense. So a lot of times, like you said, you turn to desserts, candies, and cookies. Those can lead to rapid increases in blood sugar, but also rapid drops in blood sugar, and that causes our mood sinks to go up or down, but it also can cause our stress. And then on the other setting cause inflammation as well, which negatively impacts our stress too. Sometimes we also turn to caffeine or alcohol. A lot of times where I’m really stressed out, I’m going to turn to, I’m going to have a glass of wine. Yes, that makes us feel better at first. It helps us relax, but then it also disrupts our sleep, which in wins in a long time can increase our stress levels as well.

Cori (03:02):
It’s kind of interesting to think about, but we turn to these things out of comfort and then in comforting ourselves momentarily, we actually create more stress for ourselves or a lack of sleep, which creates stressors. Another way, inflammation. That is a stress around our body. So it’s like we turn to sugar, we turn to alcohol, we turn to caffeine, all these things that ultimately negatively impact us and keep us stuck in that cycle. And it’s something that I think we’re all prone to. And it’s not just those foods, right? It’s even processed foods that we can turn to. What impact do they have in then? How can we break the cycle?

Andrea (03:37):
Sure. So the impact specifically for processed foods, there’s a lot of diets high in processed foods, but they’re going to lack those essential nutrients and leading to deficiencies, which then can often turn increase our moods, affect our moods and our stress levels. A lot of additives and processed foods like food colorings, MSG also have an impact on our mood as well as our cognitive function. But to break that cycle, that’s where it’s a little hard because this is a habit that we’ve always done. So when we need to recognize that it is a habit, but also we have to take a step back and realize what are the other things that we can do to relieve stress? Is it going for a walk? Is it doing deep breathing? Is it journaling? Is it something that we don’t have to turn towards food or can we get those bad? Not those bad. Can we get those foods out of the house, out of sight, out of mind, and maybe turn to something that might be a little bit more helpful in terms of how to deal with stress.

Cori (04:31):
It’s hard though to break those patterns and behaviors. And I think the first step is giving ourselves grace when we do repeat that stress eating pattern that we’ve always fallen into, but then step back and recognize why it’s occurring, what stresses led up to it. And then I love those replacement behaviors. Sometimes it is simply removing something from our environment. Sometimes it’s saying, Hey, when I walked this cabinet, instead of going right for the thing in there, I have to go take a walk around the neighborhood, or I have to go do my workout, I have to do something else before. And if I still want it, then I can even work it in. And even sometimes saying, Hey, I can work this in and if I want, can help us alleviate any feelings of guilt which might contribute to us than eating out stress and even feeling worse from it. But not only are there replacement behaviors, there are nutritional strategies we can implement or things we can focus on in our nutrition to help us not only not eat those things out of stress, but better manage our stress levels. What are some things we can start to focus on if we are finding ourselves stressed or wanting to repeat that same pattern in terms of adjusting our diet?

Andrea (05:30):
Sure, there’s five nutrients that we want to look for, specifically complex carbohydrates like whole grains. They increase the availability of tryptophan. Tryptophan is in the brain, which is converted to serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, and serotonin helps us increase our mood and our relaxation. And then on the other side of that protein, protein amino acids are precursors to the neurotransmitters which we just tryptophans in Turkey, chicken, dairy, those types of things. And those are the precursors to serotonin, which then again leads to increased mood and relaxation. There’s also healthy fats. Omega threes specifically found in fish, flax seed, walnuts. They’re crucial for your brain health and they can help reduce inflammation and stress. And then there’s a couple of vitamins and minerals that we really want to focus on. One being vitamin B, it’s essential for energy production in our brain. You can get that in whole grains, meats, day, eggs and dairy.

(06:33):
But then also magnesium, which Michelle talked about a couple of weeks ago, helps regulate our cortisol and helps promote relaxation. We can get those in dark leafy greens, nuts, seeds, and whole grains as well. And then vitamin C, which helps support our adrenal functions, right? That’s where we kind of really feel that lull when we’re really stressed out, really feel that fatigue. So to reduce that, we can eat our citrus fruits like oranges, strawberries, bell peppers and broccoli. Those will really help bring those vitamin C levels up. And the last but not least, we can’t forget our antioxidants, berries, nuts, dark chocolate. Who doesn’t want dark chocolate when you have that craving for dark chocolate or something sweet rh not turned to dark chocolate and some raspberries. You’re getting both antioxidants in both and it’s a great snack. But that’s going to help combat our oxidative stretch, which can contribute to anxiety and depression.

(07:22):
So those are a couple of foods that we really, really want to focus on, but we also then can turn to some different patterns focusing on nutrient dense foods like fruits, vegetables, more whole foods, right? We want to get more from the source, more out of the original source. And then balanced meals, really eating at a regular time every day, every couple hours because we all know when our blood sugar gets low, we become that really hangry person and we’re going to be really irritable and really stressed. And so why not get onto a balanced plan where you’re eating every couple hours, but eating balanced meals to prevent blood sugar fluctuations, reduce stress and anxiety as well.

Cori (08:02):
Really by addressing some of these things in our diet, we can help prevent stress levels from rising even more in the first place. But we can even think of some of these things as the replacement for the more processed foods we might grab. If you’re craving something salty, go for those nuts, get those healthy fats. If you’re craving something sweet, go for the dark chocolate and maybe berries even mix in a Greek yogurt parfait to get that protein. We can think about using some of these things to not only replace the more or the less macro friendly things we would have that would bring us into this negative cycle of feeling guilty then for eating, which takes us down the spiral, but we can also help alleviate future stress. And I do love that you mention the meal timing as well, because I think a lot of times we know when we’re going to have a stressful time period of life.

(08:43):
We know when life is going to be shifting slightly, whether it’s priorities with work or kids going back to school or whatever it is. And so proactively we can even consider, hey, what are my stress levels going to be? How can I make sure that I’m not getting hangry or not feeling so deprived? And how can I create that interval or eating schedule that will help me stay consistent and get in those nutrient dense foods? If you’re working with somebody who is going to be having a stressful period, what sort of recommendations do you make for them? Andrea to, I’m going to call you Michelle from the magnesium, but Andrea, all the good nutritional things, dietician approved, but what strategy would you sort of implement with them to make sure that they’re getting ahead of things? Because I think the more we plan for those times where we would usually eat out of stress, the better off we’re going to be

Andrea (09:32):
100%. And it’s all about planning and setting yourself up for success. The kids are going back to school, right? It’s a change for you. It’s a change for them. It’s a huge new season in your life. So why not pre-plan for it and try and set yourself up for success, but also have grace because those moments of stress are going to happen working in some of those foods that you know that are going to be a feel good food for you. So maybe pack your meal, packing your lunch for the day when you’re going back to work. Maybe you’re a teacher going back to work and it’s the first week of school. It’s a little stressful, but setting yourself up for success, maybe putting in kind bars that have a little bit of dark chocolate and some nuts in there that’ll help you with that sweet craving when you’re stressed that you know can grab to.

(10:15):
But making sure you’re eating those snacks throughout the day. Maybe limiting your sugar intake or limiting your caffeine intake because there’s that fine line when we’re feeling a little bit tired, we gravitate towards caffeine to pers up, but then if we go too far, we’re going to get a little anxious. So making sure that we’re limiting our caffeine intake. And we forgot one specifically about staying hydrated throughout the day. Staying hydrated throughout the day is super, super important for your energy levels to help you feel full, to help you fiber go through all these different things that we’re looking for that can help our cognitive function. But setting yourself up for success on those days when you know you can preplan, maybe do some ingredient prep, but also just try and do what you think is best, that 1% difference than the day before. And actually get yourself into that normal schedule.

(11:04):
See what worked for you, see what didn’t work for you. At the end of the day. Assess your stress levels. How am I feeling? What if I went for a walk? Is this going to make me feel better? Yes, I really want that candy bar. Okay, what if I went for a walk and thought about maybe listen to a podcast and I come back, do I still want that candy bar? Why don’t I have half today and maybe have the other half tomorrow if I still need it? I’m not going to say that you can’t have that food that you want, but just work it into your schedule and making sure, okay, I’m going to go for a walk, I’m going to eat an apple, and if I still want it, then have it because you’re going to eat five different things to get to that craving anyway. So planning your success throughout the day, but using those different techniques, breathing, journaling, maybe reading a book or gardening, going for a walk, drinking water before you go for the candy bar, just trying to milk yourself out of that knee-jerk reaction so that way you’re not going for it all the way and analyze, do I really need it? Do I not? What could I do differently? And just having that little conversation with yourself really helps you step into that other fork in the road in that different direction to change that habit.

Cori (12:06):
It really is that self-awareness and that little pause to reflect that makes the difference, because it’s not bad to have something we’re craving. It’s not bad to say, I do want some caffeine. I do want my glass of wine. I do want my processed food. But you want to strike that balance and also not have it be something you just default into and repeat that same cycle. Creating more stress, more guilt, not seeing the results you want, snowball. It’s why tracking to even work those things in so that you don’t feel restricted can be key. And it is why taking that time to have that water and then say, what do I really want? Because as you pointed out, if you keep trying to willpower your way through cravings that you truly want something, ultimately, often we end up still eating it and we’ve eaten five other things in the meantime, or we go overboard with it because we feel so guilty and we take that flat tire and then go slash the other three tires. So it is about really assessing what you want and just trying to break the instant pattern of going to that comfort food to help alleviate your stress over saying, what do I really want? What is my balance? So in summarizing all these tips for people, if you were to give them sort of a checklist of here’s how to navigate stress a little bit better through your nutrition, what would that be?

Andrea (13:16):
I would start off with eating balanced meals, making sure you have everything representative in your plate, your protein, your carbohydrates, your fruits and vegetables, your fats, healthy fats as well. And then try not to skip meals. Try to make sure you’re packing healthy snacks. And apple’s really portable oranges are super poor bananas. Those kinds of things are really portable throughout the day. Carrot sticks, just if you want something crunchy. So setting yourself up so you’re not skipping those meals and keeping that blood sugar at a consistent level. And then of course, limiting the sugary snacks and the caffeine, like you said, go ahead and have that coffee, but maybe have a latte with almond milk instead of the vanilla with it, or whatever it might be. But enjoying that, but at a different level, maybe having a herbal tea instead. Staying hydrated is the number one thing that I really want to drive home, because that will definitely help you feel full, but it’ll help with your digestion as well.

(14:14):
And then mindful eating, I think this is the hardest one, but mindful eating, being self-aware of where you’re at throughout the day can help you reduce stress and think about different options that you could do differently next time. And of course, stress is going to happen. Stress is always there, waiting for you. What worked for one day might not work for the next day, but really having that self-awareness of saying, okay, I did this yesterday. It worked. I’m going to try it again and see if it works. And pretty soon you’ll notice that that habit is going to be changing and you’re going to go in a different direction.

Cori (14:44):
It’s trying to change those mindsets, the environment that we’re in, trying to break that instant response so that we can actually pause to assess what we want. I think that’s so key and so important to really highlight in that yes, you’re trying to get that protein, yes, you’re trying to eliminate processed foods, but a lot of it is just making sure that you are truly consuming something that you want striking your balance and not creating more guilt or more stress around the decisions you’ve made, but actually trying to move forward to feel and fuel your best. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes, and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript