Kersten Kimura is a personal trainer and a women’s health coach. Her goal is to help high-achieving women recover from the burnout that’s caused by overtraining, under-eating, and too much stress. After recovering from severe burnout, herself, she now teaches women how to find the healthy middle ground with food and fitness and get results without doing anything extreme. She’s speaking my language because, I WAS ONE OF THOSE GIRLS!

I can totally relate to Kersten and her clients that she works with. If I didn’t workout every single freaking day and if I wasn’t sore all the time, I was a failure. If I wasn’t burning a certain amount of calories when I was doing cardio, my thought was then why do cardio and eventually my body gave me the middle finger. Maybe you are an over trainer, or you have overcome it, or you are in it and you just don’t know it. That is the focus of the conversation that I had with Kersten and she dropped some serious knowledge bombs for me to give to you guys!

When you are in that overtraining mode, you think it is totally normal, you think that everyone does it. You think that you are no excessive, you are not crazy and that your body can take it. But guess what girl, I see you!!! I have been there, and it is just a matter of time before your body decides to not do what you want it to do and you are going to crash.

Kersten’s schedule was intense. She worked out 6 days a week running for about 60 minutes a day or 10K (6.2 miles for us ugly Americans ) then she started training for marathons and the running turned into more and more miles every day. She was eating less and running more, and sometimes would not eat and go run for hours at a time. After 6-7 years of this, she found strength training and how strong it made her and the muscle she put on but it meant she had to eat more. She started eating better with more calories, but the OVER TRAINING was still there.

Her workouts still consisted of 6 days a week and even on her rest days, she still had to do something. She always had this huge fear that if she didn’t work out 1 or 2 days a week that things would go to shit. Sound familiar”’ As Kersten did more and more strength training, the running fell off a bit, but she was working out an average of 90 minutes to, sometimes up to 3 hours!  And a lot of these workouts were extremely intense with HIIT and power walking. And this went on for a while.

There were signs that Kersten was overdoing it and pushing herself way too hard, but she didn’t want to think anything of them or pay any mind to them because she was way too focused on her how she look, how much she weighed and how long she was training for. Looking back, she used her training as a way to measure her self-worth. She was cold a lot, she had irregular and missed periods, she was not sleeping and she didn’t realize that this was part of something bigger until in 2016 she started getting really exhausted a lot and she knew than that something was up because she just wasn’t motivated anymore… She wasn’t excited to work out like she used to be. She just thought life was catching up to her.

Kersten had gone to see an acupuncturist for another injury and when she started talking with them about her health, she then realized that these symptoms she was having were not normal, they weren’t supposed to be happening. The acupuncturist started asking her all kinds of question, from her sex drive and period to sleep and right there she said that she didn’t have any of those! And that is when the acupuncturist told her that her body could be reacting this way because she was too active and told her that she needed to take it easy and slow down at the gym

Kersten was waiting for this. For this permission. She didn’t know how to do this, but she had wanted some sort of external permission to slow down... And hearing it from someone else that she can do it and that she should do it for her health, felt sooooo good! She knew that this acupuncturist was right, she knew that she had hit rock bottom, she just could not admit it. And this holds so true to so many of her clients even though a lot of them hate it when they hear me say this exact thing to them.

Slow Down…

For many of us, it has to be a cascade of events to finally say, maybe there is something wrong with me, maybe I need to see someone. Maybe I need that permission to see someone.And I truly hope that this podcast gives someone permission to slow down because if someone had given me permission to slow down, I would have slowed down before I broke down. Before I completely crashed.

Kersten said it best If you don’t hear your body whisper, you will never have to hear it scream.You get these whispers from your body all of the time, and you (your ego) are still saying I know better and ignoring the whispers. But when your body does scream, it will shut down functions and coming out of that will take much longer than if you had listened.  How many times have you been laying in bed and your body is like, Girl, today is not the day and you are like NOPE you don’t know what I need!! YOU ARE NOT LAZY!! THS is your body telling you to slow yourself!!

The line between being dedicated and being obsessed is very vague! And sometimes you don’t know where exactly that line is drawn.

You don’t have to be crazy about the numbers, you don’t have to be a perfectionist and get 30,000 steps in every day or burn 3,000 calories a day and stick to strict caloric intake or workout for hours a day! Make peace with numbers.  Numbers now are a tool to experiment with, not something that runs your life and days. If we are able to get 10,000 steps then great, if not then don’t beat yourself up about it. These numbers are simply just data now.

I want you to think about your bank account, this is a great example of what I am talking about. If I have $3,000 in my bank account, and I want $5,000 in my bank account, I know it is not an overnight thing. I have to do a few things and it will not happen today, but I will eventually get there. For many of us, we think that the more we do now at this moment is getting us to our goal faster, but instead, you just need better tools to figure out how to get to that $5,000.

So, to help people with all of this, realizing they are overtraining, Kersten has created the 3 Phase Approach: The Recovery Burnout Spectrum which consists of the Burnout Phase, the Healing Phase, and the Balance Phase.

Burnout Phase

By the Burnout Phase, you are overtraining and under eating and being really stressed out in general! You are doing a lot of workouts and being super perfect with your workouts, you are under-eating or dieting constantly and your metabolism starts to slow down. In return you have no sleep, you get headaches, no periods, constipation, hair loss and just feeling really drained.

Healing Phase

The Healing Phase you have to start doing the opposite things that you were doing before. So in order to get better, you have to nourish your body which means getting enough of all 3 macronutrients. Not cutting all the carbs and giving your body the fuel, it needs. You also have to slow down and do less.

Balance Phase

The Balance Phase is when everything is healed and things are going well. You are mentally feeling better and your relationship with your body gets better as you enter into this phase. This is the middle ground. You start working out a little more intensely, but carefully this time. Can bring back your Fitbit and Apple watch as long as it doesn’t make you obsessive. You can start tracking your steps and be conscious of how much protein you are eating. THIS IS THE MIDDLE GROUND where you can make choices based on how you are feeling and what your body needs. And you add in your knowledge about basic nutrition and exercise that you have learned.

But let me make this clear There is no 12 weeks to burnout free and healing and balance, there is no finite timeline.  It is a listening to your body process.Everyone is so different. 12 weeks may be enough to get out of that damage phase for some people, but for others, they may require 24 weeks or more to get out of it.

How do you help someone who is at that burnout phase who is TRYING to step into that healing…’

Sometimes people see that there is no other choice and they stop completely!!

And others need a gradual approach and it consists of baby steps, like going from 1 hour of cardio to going to something that’s easier on your body. She doesn’t take everything away from you… And Kersten eases each person in and insures to give the mind and body time to adjust.

We know that you see people who have these perfect bodies and you want to be just like them, but in order to get that, it’s not about working out more and more and rest very little, you have to workout hard AND rest hard too! That is why people look the way they do and look as good as they do!! Balance!  You can have it all, but you have to take the first steps to heal and what comes after that.

I want you to take some stock, are you that person who is caught up in the workouts that must be a certain time, you cannot eat a certain thing, you have to take in certain calories, do you have a LOT OF RULES’  Maybe its time to take a step back from the rules and see where it takes you. And ask yourself, “Are you in any of these phases right now’Which phase are you in’.

If you are unsure, reach out to one of us! We would love to help go over this more in full and help you get to that next level.  With things like this, it is really imperative that you have a support system, that you have a coach and mentor to get you through this. HELL, I have been using a coach for 3.5 years after my burnout!  And if you are in that burnout phase please!! Kersten is the one to help you!  No shame at all, just reach out to her if you have any questions. And if you know someone who needs to hear this, share it with them, they do not need to suffer in silence!

What is one thing that makes you feel magical’

“Getting a really good, full night’s sleep. Sleep has been a problem for a very long time. When I stopped doing so much it got a lot better. But I am still sensitive to it. So, if I do too much during the day, I know my sleep will be affected. A night of truly a good nights sleep is what does it for me.! Kersten

Another episode you may like is this one with Natalie Newhart, The Secrets to Heal Metabolic Damage

Links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kerstenkimura/

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/balanced-vibes-podcast-healthy-fitness-food-and-mindset/id1509566999

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXUL86gzaJKANEC2ZrB9CzQ

Website: https://urbanjane.co/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FabFitSquad

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/

Website: https://kimbarnesjefferson.com/

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661

The post Are You Ready To Break Up With Overtraining’ appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

 I think it’s always amazing when I can talk to someone, like Lisa, about topics such as obsession because she has personally experienced these hurdles in her own life.  She is insanely knowledgeable from a clinical standpoint because of her education, but she has also lived and worked in the fitness industry for years, which gives her a leg up in understanding how the body works and how people can push their bodies and physics to these insane places!  She has also had to overcome her own battles with her body and food so those personal experiences bring knowledge and a whole sense of community full circle.  

 Lisa is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT) and now, through her coaching and training, she specializes in helping others design a life that allows them more time doing what they love. She is also the host of the podcast, The Therapy Show with Lisa Mustard, and wife to Billy and mama to 2 girls!  She has loved everything about health, wellness and fitness for 20 years, but she still felt she needed to change things about her body. 

 While working in sports marketing she was surrounded by people who are obsessed with health, people who have to do this to be the best, because it was their job!  So while being surrounded by the best and having to work on their bodies the way they did,  this stuff began to rub off and she kept wondering “why can’t this be me’”  Lisa loved what people were able to do with their bodies and she wanted to be able to do that as well. How many of us can totally relate to this!’!’  

Lisa began obsessing over fitness and wanted to add more and more muscle. So she started eating for muscle, then wanted to see things change, so she cut calories and turned to cardio thinking this was going to get her the results she wanted.  She went down the path of cardio and dieting, cardio and dieting and like many of us who have experienced this, she wasn’t seeing any results and she couldn’t understand why!   

She didn’t really have an eating disorder, but she instead called it disordered eating. Lisa knew there wasn’t something right with her thought pattern about food and her body,  and this was affecting her everyday behavior.  She obsessed about everything she ate and it eventually got to the point that she wouldn’t even go out because she couldn’t control the food at these events that she would be at.  Lisa finally had a breakdown..   

Tired of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the results and not getting them, so she turned to her husband Billy who had for years advised her that she had to stop doing so much cardio, begin heavy lifting and eat more carbohydrates.. Which come on ladies, we don’t want to hear that or do any of that! 

There are so many people out there who are stuck on this notion of, do more cardio and cut calories, limit carb intake and it is really not the right way!  Cardio makes us hungry, so the more cardio you do, the hungrier you are, and the more you want to eat!! So we don’t get the results we want because our body is not being fueled and worked out properly. So we HAVE TO CHANGE what we are doing when things like this are not working. 

When it comes to change in your life and wanting better for yourself, you’ve got to try different things, you cannot stay in that cycle of doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.  That is where the change is going to happen, by trying different things to get you to your goal!  But remember, just because you try something different doesn’t mean it’s going to be the ticket for change. You may have to try a variety of things until you get to what works for you.  

When Lisa changed up her routine that she had become so used to, she told herself she would be in this new commitment for the long haul.  This wasn’t some 30-day fix or 60-day program. This was something that would create slow and gradual results from a workout that was sustainable, maintainable and a long term LIFESTYLE CHANGE. And I have talked about this time and time again, your MINDSET needs to be in the right place. You need to be in the right place, have your why and get to a point where you are at peace with your mindset as Lisa had become when she found what worked for her and gave her the results she wanted.  

If you noticed above, I also said that you have to know your WHY, why you want to change.  We know we want to change for ourselves and fulfill our needs, but we also may want to change for the people and loved ones around us.  For Lisa she wanted to raise daughters that were healthy, strong and confident, so she knew that she had to be a healthy, strong and confident mom. And that wasn’t going to happen with her daughters witnessing her struggle over this unhealthy relationship with food and fitness. So if this is resonating deep with you, and you have been in Lisa’s shoes, you have to want to make that change so that the ones you love most aren’t affected by the obsessions.  

Through Lisa’s personal experiences and struggles with food and body obsessions, she has gathered a ton of helpful knowledge that I urge you guys to try if you were Lisa was.  Here is a list of some of the tips, tricks and hacks Lisa has found useful: 

• Get out of the safety of what I used to be. 

• Look to the women who have what you want, or what you want to accomplish, or have been through what you are going through. See what is working for them! 

• HIRE a coach if you need to hire a coach!  It’s a beautiful gift and you will be grateful you did it.  You need someone to help you answer questions you don’t want to ask yourself.  

• Do not do your own program.  Because then you will just have you do the things that are easy for you! You need to be challenged. And that is where a fitness coach will come in handy who can help create a program for you. 

• If you want to do cardio, go for a walk. It’s relaxing, it’s cathartic, and it gives you “me time” to think or reflect on things.  

• Get in the right mindset! 

• Remain consistent! “What you do today will pay off in a couple of weeks.”  

• EMBRACE THE JOURNEY! There will be up’s and down’s, but that is the beauty of it!  

• Give yourself some sort of alone time to reflect within yourself. Write in a journal or read a book. 

Self-reflection will play a huge role in this because it will give you that time to you need to look at what you are doing, why you are doing and what you need to change to get you to a happier, healthier version of yourself.  So whether you are starting a new program, or working on one currently you’ve got to ask yourself these things to find out if you even are on the right path…..  Do you like the workouts that you’re doing or the food you are eating”  Can you see yourself doing this for the next 5 years’  If not, ask yourself what will make you happy’  Are you happy with what you are doing’ What does success mean for you”  Because “What you are doing should lead to your success.”!!! 

Now that Lisa has self-reflected and found what works for her and every aspect of her life, she looks back and doesn’t understand why she obsessed so much!! Now that she has found something that she truly loves and feels good doing, she never gets on a scale, she works out and eats right (and indulges when she wants to because she can!), she is happy, she doesn’t obsess about things, she doesn’t stand in front of a mirror anymore and pick herself apart, and MODERATION has become her Mantra! 

Here is a breakdown of what Lisa did moving from her old obsessions of cardio, calorie-cutting and limiting herself, to finding a workout that got her results and a diet that worked with her lifestyle… (lean out and loose the muffin top!) 

• Eased up on the cardio and started lifting heavy again (4 days a week) progressing my weights. 
• Played around with nutrition. 
• Intermittent fasting, in the beginning, this was helpful because it helped manage her calories. 
• Eating enough protein, vegetables and carbohydrates.
• Eventually, she stopped intermittent fasting and ate in the morning because she wanted more energy for her morning workout. So she kept the same amount of calories, she just shifted her eating schedule.  
• If you drink alcohol, you need to manage that and rein that in.  
• Don’t do more than 30 minutes of cardio 3-4 days a week. You don’t need to be doing anything crazy, moderate intensity on the elliptical is just fine. 
• Or go for a long 60-minute walk for once or twice a week. 
• If there is a day that you don’t feel like working out, then take the day off and if you give yourself that rest, you will come back the next day ready to go! 
• Figure out what it is you like to eat. 
• Lift heavy weights. (sooo important) 
• You won’t get the same results from boot camp classes, bare or pilates.  

“You CAN love your body but still want to change it.”  

What makes Lisa Mustard feel magical”…. When she is with her 2 daughters and she is just connecting with them. That mother-daughter time sharing with each other and talking is where it is at! Having those moments of understanding and validation and just the I love you is so amazing for her.  Momhood and family time with Billy and the girls just being together doing things, having fun or watching a movie is really, truly magical in itself.  

www.lisamustard.com

Social sites: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetherapyshowwithlisamustard/ 

https://www.facebook.com/lisamustardchangeagent/ 

IG: @lisa.active.life and @thetherapyshowwithlisamustard 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamustard/ 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lisamustard/ 

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FabFitSquad 

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/ 

Website: https://kimbarnesjefferson.com/ 

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661 

The post How To Break Up With Body and Food Obsession appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

This conversation will help you understand how you can turn it around and have the healthy life you desire.

Their conversation will show you:

• How Natalie got started in CrossFit
• Her journey through qualifying for the CrossFit Games
• The bad advice that got her disqualified
• Not being able to stop the bingeing
• Why it sometimes takes a change in environment
• How she learned how to break up with the exercise more and eat less model
• Her journey back from adrenal fatigue, prediabetes and metabolic syndrome
• The opportunity of rest days
  Resources
  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/natalie.newhart/
  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nat.newhart

The post Discover The Secrets To Healing Metabolic Damage appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.