How To Be Your Own Success Story| 200

Magic makers! This is my 200th podcast episode!!!!  I can’t believe this. I still remember back in 2014 when I really wanted to have a podcast! But I couldn’t be consistent, and I stopped. I waited 5 years and then finally took the leap. You but your sweet bottom I was scared, but sometimes I gotta do a lot of shit scared.  You might not know the  entire path but sometimes its knowing the first few is all that you need.  This is something I try to instill in my clients and you guys.  Sometimes you don’t have all the answers and that is okay!

So, this blog today is a little different than in the past. I’ve asked my former clients and current clients to share a lesson they’ve learned from me, a takeaway, or an experience they have had with me.  Without you the listeners and my clients, I don’t know where I would be today. You give me ideas of what to talk about and I love that!

My whole goal in my life is I see you struggle, I struggled, and I DON’T WANT you to be struggling anymore.  I truly believe weight loss can be effortless. It’s a matter of us letting go, letting go of how we think it should be, and letting go of what we think it has to be and how it should look!

When it comes down to working with me there are 5 things I always try to instill in my clients:

1.Clarity – how can I help you get so crystal clear about what you want?

2.Choices – You have to own our shit. Own our choices, bottom line.

3.Connect – this is where you find what is your why. Why do we want this? This is your motivation.

4.Creative – you don’t have to be rigid. How do you shift? How can you get creative and shift what you have been doing that isn’t working?

5.Courage – the courage to go and keep going so you can ultimately be consistent.

This is  what I work with my clients all the time.

Having you as a coach was an amazing experience because you were all about realness, and your tough love was always so perfectly timed.  I am one to make excuses, just naturally. You really gave me the clarity that I needed in those moments to realize that I was making excuses whenever they were actually excuses, but you also were there for me whenever it was a legit situation where I needed to take a step back. This was a great lesson that you always taught me as my coach was that life happens and there’s a difference between life happening and making excuses because you don’t feel like doing something.  But you always wanted the best for me, so I really enjoyed having you as my coach. It would be great to have you as my coach again one day!

I started working with Malia again when she was a new mama. I worked with her before she was a mother, but she was trying to juggle it all! She was trying to do all the things.Sometimes kids get sick, and they don’t go to bed on time, it is what it is!  Is it an excuse or is it life? Shit happens so how do we come up with a Plan B?
I worked with her a lot on this.  How can we do this so we don’t feel like crap because we couldn’t do X, Y, Z? What are the alternatives so we can brainstorm these things before life comes at us? Clarity: The clearer we are about where we want to go, we are going to hit those goals!

Working with Kim was amazing.  It created the foundations for an entirely new and refreshed and maintainable lifestyle for me.  Over time, her guidance and expertise helped me reprogram my habits, which led me to lose weight, to become healthier, and to feel confident again. Transformation isn’t easy and Kim helped me develop the tools in my toolbox for long-lasting success every step of the way. 

Her communication is on point, and I always felt seen, heard, and supported.  Her program takes the guesswork out and allows me to have peace of mind that I could trust the process. So, it’s time to live your best hydrated and thriving life. Kim is amazing. If you haven’t worked with her, reach out to her and get started you’ll be so glad you did!

It comes down to the foundation.  I always said I want my clients to be able to outgrow me.  But I want you to be able to go back and say this is the foundation. We all get off track even me, so when you get off track how can you get back on track? When you have a foundation like Emily mentioned you can get back to basics! Yes, the basics are boring, but the more you nail them, the more you are able to be consistent.  This is where we are going to see the biggest bang for our bucks! In habits, that’s my jam. You know I want you to not have to think about these habits!

One of the important lessons that I’ve learned is that she’s taught me to approach fitness as a balance in my life.  I’ve always kind of had this all-or-nothing mentality, it either had to be perfect and follow a plan to a T. And if I didn’t and fell off then all was lost.  And one of the important things that I’ve learned from Kim as a coach is to not approach it that way. She’s encouraged me to approach fitness as a lifestyle and not really as an end game and something to achieve. So quite honestly, I’m still working on it. But it is something that I continuously try to work on.  It really is, you know, the journey, not the end game.

I do love Kim as a coach because she’s honest and holds you accountable. She doesn’t sugarcoat things, but at the same time is very encouraging and gives great feedback.  So, thank you, Kim, for all that you’ve done for me.

For Shauna, I can identify with this so much, and I’m sure plenty of you listening here can identify with her.  I’ve been working out for years, I’m a recovering all-or-nothing person and I always thought workouts had to look a certain way.

And Shauna again was another one of those mamas who was trying to get it all done. I really loved working with Shauna because she was a really busy woman at work, she traveled a lot, and I had to sit down with her and say, “Okay Shauna, how can we make sure you get it done without you beating the shit out of yourself?” 

So how do you balance?  How do you fit your fitness into your life? For a long time, my life revolved around my fitness. I didn’t have balance. Now that I am on the other side it is so freeing, and I want other women to feel that! We all have to hit our personal rock bottom and as a coach, it’s about navigating who needs to hear it, who’s ready to hear it, and who can actually take some baby steps toward that. I know that once I broke free of my fitness shackles, my life dramatically changed.

I just wanted to share one of my favorite lessons that Kim has taught me. Over the years, for which there have been several as I’ve known Kim for close to 10 years, she’s been my coach, getting me fit for stage, and I owe her tons of gratitude for helping me meet those dreams.  Kim always delivers her lessons with humor, and I found that great in my coach.

But my favorite lesson was “It’s not about the right foods. It’s about what’s right for you.” I had a lot of digestive issues that I had to deal with, and Kim really helped me identify what supposed “good foods” were actually not so great for me.  And that really, really, really was a lesson that I don’t think I would have picked up on my own. So, it may seem simple, but it was a very valuable lesson!

I am sure many of you fall into the same category as Angela.  The good food list, right? You got that list and that is what you ate from, and we never take into account whether it works for us. It was an aha moment when we looked into what types of food, she was eating that made her feel bloated.  Gut health, everyone knows what you are talking about and a lot of what Angela and I had to do was working to clear up her gut health.

I can’t eat bananas first thing in the morning because I crave like a crazy person! If I have eggs, my body digests them so quickly I’m so hungry.  Yes, they are great foods and on the good foods list, but something isn’t working for you even if it’s a good food.  We need to find that Goldilocks spot, is it too much or too little?

Knowing Coach Kim for as long as I have, I can honestly say she is a force of inspiration that will bring you to any goal you might have.  I am now more consistent with adding variety to my nutrition. And she also showed me how important it is to focus on sleep and stress to help make all of my efforts fall into place.

Joanne has been a client on and off for several years and sleep and stress were the albatross for her.  She could work her ass off in the gym but the sleep.. No matter how hard she worked if she was still stressed out and didn’t sleep, it was a yin and yang, and the outputs weren’t matching the inputs.  I love when my clients have those AHA moments and Joanne had one of those and was like holy shit!

For many women, we take that for granted, we are indoctrinated into the hustle and grind culture.  Many of us dismiss that we only sleep a handful of hours and normalize stress even though we are killing it in the gym.  We are wondering why our bodies aren’t changing.  Why are we not putting on muscle?  Why are we still flabby? Why are we not losing weight?

It was so amazing to see the changes in her physic when the light bulb went off for her about sleep and stress!

I just want to thank you so much for being honest with me to help me reach a goal that I’ve had for so many years.  And I know this is specific, but back then I was an athlete, and I can’t really say I’m an athlete right now, but back then you made a world of difference.  I really needed you to help keep me accountable and to be honest with me and I reached my goal with your help, and it was really incredible!  It’s just a moment that I will treasure for the rest of my life to win that championship!

For a long time, my clients were 50/50.  Half were competitors and half were regular folk trying to fit into a pair of jeans.  If you are a competitor, I just dieted you a bit harder, but the principles all stay the same.  We are getting clear with what you want, talking about your food choices, connecting with our goal, getting creative with our workouts and food.  No matter what, we have to have the courage to see things through so that we can have consistency!

My superpower is accountability.  Checking in with clients isn’t a waste of time, being accountable to them is not a waste of time.  For many of us, we need someone to look over our shoulder.  When you check in with a coach, you are being held accountable.  As a coach, I am not going to say hmm you have to make up for it.  Instead, I always want you to work on your REPS.  Come up with something that is realistic for you.  Are you excited about it?  Can you make a plan?  And is it ultimately sustainable?

Karen needed accountability.  She was running around with 2 kids in sports, and she wanted someone to call her on her shit.  When you come to a coach, we are not about fixing you!  As a coach, come and say this is what I need from you.  This is a partnership, and we are not going to give you more than you can do.  Many of you are spot on, but you need little tweaks here or there, so we will do that when you come to work with me!

We worked together in 2016 when I was training to compete in the women’s Tri-Fitness Competition, and then I went down to Miami for Fitness Universe. The one habit that I still do to this day is to have breakfast for dinner, which seems silly, but I had such a regimented schedule and you had to work your hardest to get me to change up the regular breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals to shock my body and just do something different.  Once I got over the hurdle, I would have breakfast for dinner, and I make breakfast for dinner sometimes for my family and my husband and boys!

The number one lesson that I have learned from you was to trust the process.  The journey always had so many ups and downs. But if you are listening to your coach, putting in the work, putting in the time and energy that’s required, and trusting that the process will work for you.  In the end, you’ll have really great results, whether it’s for competition like it was in my case or getting ready for a special event or a family function.

I would definitely say that may not be that easy all the time but trusting the process and the journey that you’re on. When you’re working with someone experienced to coach you through it will definitely give you the best results.

I truly enjoyed my experience with you, Kim, as we prepared for Tri-Fitness. You are aware of the competition and what is involved.  You took the time to get to know me as an athlete and understand what I was preparing for between the two shows being two weeks apart, and you put forth the best plan to follow. 

I would say you’re very direct when you’re coaching your athletes. But for someone like me, it worked really well because I was going to follow whatever you told me to do because I wanted my end results to be the very best.  And they were and I’m very fortunate for that. I really appreciated everything you did and supported me. 2016 was definitely my most successful and favorite year that I competed! And I owe so much of it to you.

I can relate to Gina so much.  We both grew up in the same era of fitness competitions.  There was only one way and if you have been doing it for so long it’s really easy for you to be caught up in your shit!  Trust me, I’ve been there and had to get out of my own shit! It’s a matter of working with someone to say what you are willing to do. As a coach, I don’t give you a list. I don’t do that shit of what is good and bad.  We get clear about where you want to go, and we talk about your choices.  Where can we go from here? What are you willing to do right now?

I like to keep things simple! We like variety but we keep it simple. Switch it up each week as to the fruits or veggies you pick that week!   We need to shock our body, if we keep feeding it the same things over and over for decades, our body is going to go, “I know what to do and the minimal level of energy I need to give to make it work!” When we switch our foods up we are giving our body the ability to be efficient. An efficient machine!  I know switching things up is hard, but those little subtle things you do will keep your body on its toes.

Trust the process. Everyone has to take these first 3 steps!  I’m grateful because a lot of my clients, I connect with you as a person, I want to know about you and your life and when I know about you and your life, I can say, “Okay given what is going on, how can I structure this?  Given your situation, how is this going to work out for you?”

Six years ago, at the age of 49, Kim took me from fit to fabulous and stage ready in about five months, maybe less.  I was really not sure I could make it. A lot of changes were made to my diet even though I was doing well.  But she ramped up my exercise and could look at pictures and just tell me what I needed to do to change my diet to make me ready for the stage.

So, at the age of 49/50, and 51, Kim took me from fit to fabulous to stage ready in a teeny tiny bikini and five-inch heels. And I was in four different competitions placed in each one.  it was a bucket list of mine so I’m super excited.  And not that anybody out there listening to this needs to be stage ready, but no matter what your goal is, Kim can get you there!

I knew her professionally, so this was so interesting but to see her in camp and be her coach was amazing!  I love when women who have been thinking about this for so long, finally take a bite out of life and say screw it and go for it!  I love that!  And Lisa is a perfect example of many of you listening.  Most people come to me and are already eating really good and healthy food.  But a fitness competitor there is not a lot of extras where normal people can get away with extras. So maybe it’s something like we can eat chicken sausage, but for competitors it’s a bit too fatty but for others it’s ok! So, with fitness competitors it comes to choices when it gets closer to the show.  You have to be stricter with your food.  You have to get to the gym 6 days a week. You have to be committed.

Fitness competitor diets aren’t sustainable.  If you are a busy mom and you want to just diet like a competitor, this isn’t it if you aren’t competing!  For all of us, its nutrition and how is your nutrition serving you? This isn’t about starving yourself or bringing yourself down to a dramatically low-calorie count.  Look at your food and say what are you eating? If you want to share with me a 3-day food log, DM me this and I will give you some feedback on that!

For me, something that Coach Kim did was to help instill confidence.  And I think that I still carry that with me today.  Feeling like I am worthy enough to do things and to be great. And why not me, was kind of the overall confidence boost I needed to get out on stage. Something that has stuck with me from Coach Kim is that you’ve got to put the work in if you want to get the results. It’s an ongoing, lifelong change to be healthy for the long run, not just something that you’re going to do for a show. So, a lot of habits have still been instilled in me that I’ve learned from Coach Kim, and she was a great role model and always leading by example!

I adored Jackie and working with her. I love the intangibles. Yes, I had them hit their goals, but I love the non-scale thing and the confidence. That is my ultimate goal. I want women to feel CONFIDENT in their body!  If you are not feeling good in your skin, it’s so shitty! 3 of my favorite words; Confidence, Courage and Consistency! I always want women to feel that! Because when you feel this, what can’t you do? Even if you aren’t at your goal weight, I still want you to walk into a room and say how you are doing and own it!

As I close this out, I want to thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you to the women that I bump into the street who say they listen to my podcast. Thank you for the reviews you give me on this.  It is so great I have such a supportive community and making sure I am doing everything I can do to support you.  I am always open to suggestions for the show and feedback because without you I don’t have a show!

I didn’t know how this was all going to work out, I didn’t know I’d be talking to myself into a box for 200 episodes in my office but here I am! And I just had to do this scared… I do a lot of shit scared. I take the leap and close my eyes and hope it all works out, and luckily it has thus far worked out for me!  I had to stop putting it off and just do it!

If there is anything out there you have been putting it off, there is someone out there that can help you!  And when it comes to health and fitness and you need someone to help you with this, I am here… Even if I am not the person you resonate with, I know a lot of people and I can point you in their direction.  I love providing these episodes for you and THANK YOU for all the love and support you have given me these past 200 episodes!

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5 Days To Consistency challenge – This 5-Day challenge will help you create a personalized plan and develop habits for long-term success in just 5 days.

What every Woman Ought To Know About Gut Health Episode 198:

How to Successfully Deal With Stress Episode 193: