Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
This week on the show Betsy shares her journey along with todays co-host Jennifer Price.
Jennifer is a registered dietitian Betsy has worked with this year (part of her “Pit crew”). They dive into when it’s ready, how your perception of your self and your body impacts your outcomes and that change can feel good.
Jennifer is a Registered Dietitian with her master’s degree in Foods and Nutrition with a Sports Nutrition emphasis. She has a passion for helping people learn to fuel their bodies well for exercise and for life. She has experience working with athletes of all ages and walks of life, and she loves working with individuals to not only reach their fitness goals but also to improve their health (physical, mental, and emotional) through nutrition and exercise. She has participated in various forms of exercise throughout her life, but her favorites are strength training and hiking! Some of her favorite things include her husband Jake, her two dogs, her houseplants, chips and salsa, and all things outdoors.
Find her here:
IG: @theadventuringdietitian E-mail: jennifer.p@rpstrength.com Work with me: https://rpstrength.com/rp-coaching?selected=diet-plans-menu_coaching
Transcript:
Hi, everyone. Hello fellow adventurers, welcome to The Art of Living big. I have a guest today, but it’s sort of, it’s sort of like a co hosting experience today. My friend, Jennifer Price. Hi, Jennifer.
Hi, Betsy, thank you so much for having me.
I’m excited to have you here today. So tell everybody about you and what you do, and then it will make sense maybe why you are my co host.
Yes. So, um, I’m Jennifer Price. I am a registered dietitian, I have my master’s in foods and nutrition. And I mainly work with clients in kind of a nutrition coaching setting. I also do some nutrition counseling in person, but basically just work with people to reach nutrition related goals, whatever that might be.
I love it. So I reached out to Jennifer, because I had a nutrition related goal. So I had been working with Jennifer, how long? How long was it was May? Right? Yeah, I think about six months.
Yeah, six months is what I was gonna say somewhere around there. Yeah.
So I’ve been working with Jennifer for the past six months, we just kind of closed up our relationship, but our relationship will start again. But I wanted to have her on because I wanted to, you know, I’ve been thinking about how do I talk about sort of this journey that I have been on over the past six months? Like, how do I talk about that and explain it will also not really wanting to? I want to say not wanting to talk about it, but almost like not wanting to dissect it too much until I was to a point where I knew I could look at it with some kind of like, like, I didn’t want to jinx it. Don’t I mean? Yeah, like, I didn’t want to jinx it. So, So Jennifer, tell, why don’t we start with you just kind of saying, trying to think of the best way to start this. Also, I’m just talking about it out loud while we’re on air, which is totally fine, because everybody’s used to me. So I’m gonna say what my experience was. And then I think we can dive in that way. I think that’s a good segue. Yeah. Okay. So I have talked on the show before about, you know, years ago, I was my whole life really athletic, and really liked to move my body and involved in a lot of things. And, you know, if I ever had weight to lose, it was like five pounds, and I just didn’t drink that weekend. And like, my life, as a younger person was really simple. And I’m very lucky in that way. And when I was in my 40s, I probably got in the best shape of my life. And I owned a CrossFit gym. And I competed in Olympic style weightlifting, which, at the competition level, I had to hit a certain weight goal. And so I was put in an age class and a weight category. And so I was super hyper aware of my weight, and all of those things. And then when I was about 45, things started to shift. And there were a lot of shifts in my life. I’ve talked openly about, you know, my daughter’s mental health struggles. You know, there were a lot of things happening in my life. And I noticed that I was gaining weight. And it was like, sort of started at slow at first, and you know, it was like 10 pounds, and then it was like 20 pounds. And then I was like, this is uncomfortable. But I didn’t see a way to with everything else happening in my life, to slow it down, or to even like redirect that. And the interesting thing is that I knew what to do. Also, we can all just Google it. Like everyone, we can know what to do. Yep. But I kept saying, I’m not ready. Like, I just knew I’m not ready. And also at that point, I really didn’t like it. Like I didn’t like how I felt I didn’t like how I looked. So now several years go by, I really am up like, you know, I’ll be honest, up like 40 pounds more than is comfortable for me. And last year, if you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you know that my dog died. And that created an avalanche of change. For me. It’s like it made it was so disorienting that it made me really take a look at all the parts of my life and say these are the parts I’ve been able to ignore. Because I had so much love from my dog. I know this might sound silly, but like I had so much structure with her because she was diabetic or epileptic. I mean and on medication all the time and like, everything was very structured. I could ignore all this stuff. And then all of that changed. And I got to the point where I was like, I don’t want to ignore stuff anymore. And last August, I started really changing my life. You know, I’ve talked about it on the show, but I left my husband for a certain amount of time. You know, I really dove into what do I want? What are my standards, I’m raising my standards for people in my life. You know, if you want to spend time with me and be with me, I was raising my standards for myself and how I wanted to live my life, how I wanted to run my business, like all of these things. I went to Iceland, I ever had this experience. And the thing that happened to me in Iceland was I was around a group of people that I’d never met before. So it was almost like that moment, like when you’re in college, and you’re like, nobody knows me, I can be anybody. And I realized what I wanted them to know about me, wasn’t what I was showing up as, like, what I wanted them to know about me was, I used to be an athlete. And I’ve always been really active. And this is me, when I was younger, doing the stuff I used to really go for stuff, you know.
And when I left that experience, I thought, I don’t have to just show that I could just be that, like, I could just be that. And so for the following months, when I got back, I decided I was just going to do what I would tell a client to do, which is, number one, do a ton of mindset work. And number two, I would ask myself every day, am I really ready? Like, am I really ready? Because I believe and and I’ll pause now, Jennifer, to get your thoughts on this. But I believe that my wait was serving a purpose for me. What is what’s your experience with that?
Yeah, that’s a really interesting idea. I definitely believe that too. I would say that the amount of clients that I’ve worked with that have gotten to the point that they can recognize and appreciate that is very few. So I think, again, you know, we’re going to talk about this more, but just a testament to you as a person is the fact that you can hold that and also say I’m going to work towards this other thing when it’s time to. But you know, yeah, you know, I talk to clients a lot about this idea that we can’t be everything all the time to everyone, we cannot do everything at 100% all the time. And there are seasons where, you know, losing weight is not a priority. And it shouldn’t be I mean, I truly do believe that. And I think sometimes actually trying to pursue that and a season when it’s not time for that can actually be harmful in other ways. So yeah, I guess that’s kind of maybe what you were asking, but I 100% believe that, that that can be true.
Yeah, I think that like, you know, of course, I’m coming from like the unconscious expert point of view. Yeah. But like our unconscious minds, only do things that it thinks is helping us, right. So if there’s any behavior that we’re having, that’s not helpful. It’s really because my unconscious mind is created that as an adaptation. And I had gone through several years of really unhappiness with my husband, who has done so much work himself. And, and we are so good. I want to just say that, like, I’m so impressed with his ability to change and to hear me and to want to shift, you know, so. But I was creating a barrier between me and him. Like that. The fat I had on my body was a barrier. And I needed that barrier, because I didn’t know how else to do it. Or I didn’t know how I wasn’t doing it. I wasn’t creating the barrier any other way, or creating any boundaries. And so it was my body’s way of creating that boundary. And you know, the other thing, you know, I talked about my daughter being so sick for so many years, and I joke that I would like hide in the closet and eat chocolate chips, which isn’t totally a joke, like I really would. But like I have said this before as well. I was going through those like that, that like five or six weeks where I was doing all that mindset work on myself before you and I started working together. I got a level of clarity of like, my body got fat on it. It has fat on it. I am not fat, I am a lot of things like but I am not fat, my body got fat on it. Thank you, thank you body for only doing that and not getting cancer, God forbid or GERD or something else, you know what I mean? All it takes is get some fat, what do you do? Like I can Google it and figure out how to do that and I can hire somebody to get support. Yeah, so I think there was this moment of like acceptance. So I don’t know if you see this with people that are successful working with you. And I don’t mean to be the only one talking
you pipe in you I share well But this is great. This is great.
So I think kind of walking through this process is going to be helpful first. So I know that for me, I had to get to where I was like, I can’t do this work from a place of hatred, or unhappiness or even dislike. Okay, so like, a couple years ago when I was like, I should lose weight, oh my god, I’m fat, I should lose weight, it hurts me to even say it out loud. But like, I knew that is not the place. And the reason I knew that is because when I work with clients, and they’re struggling, I love them so much through that struggle, like I feel their pain, and I understand why. And I just want to give them a big hug. And so I thought, if I’m my best client, then do I go you fat? Fuck no, I don’t. I say look at you, you amazing human, that you handled so much stress, and so much chaos, quite frankly. And all in all you did was got a little bit of fat on you. That’s not even that much. You know, I I saw a picture of myself, when I was in Sedona was just actually when you and I started our work together. And I’m so I’m so big in that photo. And you know what I saw a second I saw it. I thought, I love her so much. She deserves more. I didn’t think oh my god, you’re disgusting. Don’t post that. I thought, You know what I thought nobody’s going to see what I see. Everybody is programmed to see my fat that my body has on it. But that’s not what I see. I see like, perseverance and struggle and overcoming things. And someone that risked things and someone that’s, like, grown so much and change. Like I just, I just knew, and I got a couple messages from people that were that I knew they saw what I thought they saw. And I knew I couldn’t even explain what I saw. And I had said something on Instagram or Facebook about how I wanted, I was creating more discipline in my life, because that’s one of the places where I wanted to uplevel right, I want more discipline. And someone messaged me and said, You don’t have to change. And I knew they that what they meant. I knew they meant you don’t have to lose weight, which meant you do have to lose weight, because I’m noticing you have to lose weight. And I thought, Oh, you don’t know. And I’m not going to explain it to you because it doesn’t matter. You don’t know what I know. You know, and so I think it was when I got to that point that I thought I love her so much, she deserves better. And I thought I’m going to invest in somebody that can help me help me to pull out the better. And that’s when I messaged and hired you. And then sent you a janky half naked photo of
Yeah, you know, that is I know, we’ve talked about this before, but I honestly feel like that’s one of the things that I would say the majority of the clients that I’ve worked with, that haven’t just been successful in the short term, because we you know, when we talk about this idea of weight loss, you know, you can define success in that area a million different ways. But to me, you know, it’s not just losing as much weight as quickly as possible. And that being that it’s actually doing it in a way that supportive of your body supportive of your health physically, mentally, emotionally, that maintains progress long term. And you know, if that’s kind of our definition, I feel like my most successful clients almost always come from a place of not not resenting the process before it even starts, I guess would be how I would frame it. I mean, that’s something that I it’s kind of a red flag to me, when a client kind of comes fills out their paperwork, and just kind of even in an intro email, I already get the idea that they’re like angry about this process that they feel like they have to do because they’re angry at their body that they gained weight in the first place. And I mean, just to step back for a second like what a it’s heartbreaking, honestly, that so many people are moving through the world that way. I mean, it really is it’s like what you’re talking about, you know, thinking about these humans who are like full complex people who have most of the time been through something that’s like incredibly challenging that has maybe contributed to them being at that place. And you know, culture or whatever you want to call it has just kind of created this narrative that that they somehow are messed up because they got there that they need fixing that. You know that they have to do something They hate in order to, you know, get to a place where they feel good about themselves again, you know, it’s just, there’s so much messiness in this whole, I don’t know, culture around weight loss and dieting and everything. And I see that so often. So I guess back to your point, I think I mean, that was one of the things that I noticed almost immediately is you coming into it not with that attitude of like resenting the process before he did have even become begun not hating yourself, you know, and that being the place that you were coming from with wanting to pursue weight loss?
Yeah, I think I even said that in my very first. Like, I had to fill out like a questionnaire and I think I even said that, like, I know, like, I want my insides my outsides to match my insight. Yes,
I remember that. Yeah. Yeah.
And I, you know, I think a lot of it’s like marketing messages, right? I mean, we’re told constantly that, especially for women, our beauty is on a scale of like fineness, right, like, and our beauty is our worth. And so your worth then can go up and down based on this, like, arbitrary
body fat your body happens to have on it at a particular time. Yeah.
And not even body fat. It’s like your gravitational pull. Because like, if I have a little extra water, you know, like it that number. Yes, that number. And I actually say that to myself a lot. Like, because I will weigh myself and especially through this process, which we’ll get into, I weighed myself every day. And I’m, and I would say, like, what’s my gravitational pull today? Like, that’s what? That’s all it was. It was just me measuring that.
Let’s not add more emotion to it. And yes, yeah, yes. I
love that. Yes. Years ago, I had a coach, a business coach, who would say, let’s look at the data, not the drama, because I liked that a lot, right? Because I would say like, you’d be like, alright, let’s just look at the numbers. And that’s totally what I felt like I had made that shift of like, let’s just look at this is just data. This is just telling me if something’s working, or if I need to make an adjustment. Mm hmm.
Yes, I love that, you know, talking about just the data versus drama thing. I love that, by the way, that’s great. But you can use that, take that appreciate it. For me to steal from you. But yeah, I talk to clients about this sometimes, like, you know, the scale just not to go down this rabbit hole, but it just fluctuates. That’s what bodies do. There’s that’s measuring a lot of things other than your body fat on any given day. And we’ve talked about this a lot. And you know, most people know that conceptually, but still, it feels just very emotional every time they step on it and see, yeah, number one way or the other. And then, you know, a lot of times, what I see is that emotional response to that number is what creates these patterns of self sabotage of, you know, giving up of like cyclical kind of yo yo dieting, whatever else, it’s, it’s not that number on a given day, it’s the story that they create, in their mind is a response to that number. It’s like, it’s not just though, I must be just retaining a little more water today, whatever, I’m just gonna keep keep on with my life, and I’ll weigh in tomorrow, not gonna think anything else about it, it’s this, this isn’t working, I knew I couldn’t lose weight, I need to do something different. I might as well just quit. You know, it’s like the stories that are not true. But that get created in our minds as a response to that number on a given day that been weaved to, you know, this kind of cyclical dieting. So I feel like it’s foundational to be successful in this area, if you’re going away, which you don’t necessarily have to, to be able to do that to like, you know, not say, I’m not going to have any feelings about this, but I’m not going to create a story around it. It’s just going to be what it is. And I’m gonna write
Yes, yeah. You know, one of the things when I would have like, my check ins with you, and I would send my weight, and then you would have me send you other things that were non weight related, that were good, right. So like, machines were looser, or, you know, whatever it was, and I remember thinking, you know, if, you know, if, if, if somebody came to my house, and I said, come on in to my kitchen, and I’ve got some flour here, and I have eggs, and I have salt, and milk and all this stuff, separate. And then we started all together, and then we like made this cupcake. Right? And then now you have a cupcake. But if I just said, here’s some eggs, you’d be like, Well, what do you want me to do with this thing? Right? But we’re not just the eggs. And we’re not just the flour. We’re not just I’m not just the way I’m a lot of other things like I’m the whole fucking cupcake. And so like, How can I bring the whole cupcake to it instead of just looking at that one thing and making a decision if that’s a good thing or a bad thing on any given day, right without any other context to the rest of the cupcake. And so I think that like having that, where I would send you wins I send you the number, and then I was send you the winds and the winds weren’t the number. Yeah. Can you talk about that a little bit? Like why that’s important and why you do that?
Yeah. I mean, really, for the reasons that you mentioned? You know, I mean, I think the things that we’ve been talking about this whole process, it just gets, again, culturally, societally, whatever it is just boiled down to like, what’s that number doing? That’s the whole thing. Yeah. And that is just so I don’t know, that’s such a narrow view of the process, you know, and even, you know, even if, you know, I’m always interested, like when people set a weight related goal, okay, well, but if you like, say, you hit that number, but you look and feel exactly like you do today that, does that actually mean anything? And it’s interesting sometimes to people it does, and it’s like, okay, well, we need to talk a little bit more about that. Because, you know, why, like, why is that the only thing that seems to matter? And you know, the inverse of that too, like, a lot of times you will be like, Well, no, if I looked and felt the way that I wanted to in my body, then who cares? You know, like, Okay, well, then we can track looking and feeling separate, you know, because when we set weight related goals, and most of the time, it’s, it’s because in our mind that correlates with feeling a certain way, in our bodies, feeling a certain way, and clothes moving through the world with like, a certain, you know, level of confidence or whatever it might be. And so, if, if that’s really the things that we’re after, then we need to track those things, too, because they’re not the same. They’re not exactly the same, you know?
Yeah. Yeah, I loved that. I felt like that was so helpful, to be able to then say, you know, these, these are all good things that are happening. And I think the more that you’re redirecting yourself to, like, these are the things I want, these are the good things, then you start seeing more and more and more of those
things. Absolutely. And something else too, that you did a great job of, kind of continually, like updating me on and you talked about in check ins was stuff that had to do with kind of just your, I guess, relationship with food and your body throughout this process, which I think is also something that gets overlooked. You know, it’s like, I always like want that information, because I don’t want to be celebrating a lower scale number, when behind the scenes, you know, this person’s relationship with food and their body and with everything else in their life is like going to shit. That’s not Yeah. So I think that it was really helpful to that you always kind of continually incorporated those things, because I don’t if the scale is going down, but everything else is getting worse than that is not a win, you know, we have to make sure that that we’re, you know, addressing, like holistically everything and making sure it’s all moving in a positive direction.
Yeah. So let’s, I want to do like a recap of like, the moment so I get home from Iceland. I’m like, Okay, if this is what I was trying to show people, this is probably who I really want to be, and show up as more of. And so I started doing this mindset work. Now I have a specific thing that I do with clients, I call it a cocoon day. And now I do them in Atlanta. So they come here and we spend the day together. And it’s like six or eight hours where you just work on one specific thing. And so like if it’s weight, for example, you’d work on that one thing, because our conscious minds like want one thing, but our unconscious minds if they’re still going in a different direction. It’s like having a train on two different tracks. Like it can’t move. It can’t go either way. Because it’s, it’s, it’s like counterproductive. And so I started doing this work like mostly on the weekends with myself, like, I’d say to my husband, like, Okay, I need like two hours to myself, or I need three hours, and I would work through this whole process. Then when I saw that picture, I was like, Oh, I think I like I know. I know. I’m ready. And I reached out and hired you. And then we started on this process. Now, the I want to explain what we do with the cutting and the what do you call it cutting?
Maintenance?
I mean, how do I not know that? Because I’m so so can you explain that? What what what we’re actually going to be talking about, like what we’re doing, like what is it we’re doing? The whole process? What are we doing?
Yeah, so I specifically approach things in what we would call like a phasic or a periodized manner. So basically, how a lot of people approach weight loss is they just kind of start eating less or start a diet with no real like, there’s no plan for what happens when you can’t keep that diet up or when you need a break from it or you know when your food is eventually insanely low and you feel like you can’t go any lower and then what you feel stuck. So we approach things in a way where we do kind of these shorter term what we call like cuts or fat loss, Fat Loss. uses different terminology, but basically just kind of a defined period of time where we eat in a deficit in order to elicit weight loss. And then usually, you know, that’s somewhere around like three ish months depends on the person might go a little longer might be a little shorter. But somewhere around there is usually when people start building up kind of some mental, like diet fatigue, and then you know, just some physiological kind of metabolic adaptation that happens, that kind of thing. So when we get to the end of that kind of defined period of time, we basically just increase calories back up to roughly what we call maintenance, which is basically the amount of energy that your body needs to just maintain its weight. So not necessarily lose that game, just maintain that lower body weight. And that just reverses all of the kind of adaptations that have built up over the period of time that you’ve been eating in a deficit, because that is a stressor on our bodies and our minds to be intentionally under eating, it’s not something we want to just do, chronically. And so we spend some time at maintenance, usually, again, like several months, and then if you have more weight you want to lose, you just kind of repeat that process until you end up where you want to be. And then maintenance just kind of becomes life after that.
And I love I love this because then maintenance becomes life, because then you’re not afraid of gaining it back. Because you know, and you’ve learned and your body has adapted to a certain amount of calories. And you know what that is or what that feels like. And then it’s so much easier. Yeah, so I want to kind of give a recap of where I am right now in this process. So I’m like, about finishing maintenance, about to start a second cut, which I think I can get away with one more cut, and then I’ll be done. But we’re just going to, and how I’ve approached this whole thing is I’m just gonna do my best. And then however my body responds to it is how it responds. And then I’ll do maintenance again. And if I need to cut again, then I will do that. So I use happy scale, to keep track of my weight. And we’ve talked about this too. I know you recommend that to your clients. But basically happy scale gives you a trend. So it gives you like an average. So when I take my weight in the morning, and I put it into the app, it just tells me which way I’m trending, which to me is really helpful because then I’m not really looking at that number. It’s giving me like a holistic approach. Yeah, can I help them? She’s absolutely
yes. Sorry. Yes, I absolutely. I tell everyone, please. Because this is kind of going back to what I was saying before I so often people just look at these numbers in isolation, and it creates this whole emotional spiral. And anything we can do to step back from that a little bit, zoom out, look at the bigger picture is helpful. And so tracking weight using like trend lines, rolling averages, things like that happy skill does both of those is incredibly helpful, because otherwise you can just get completely lost in you know, that number jumping around, because it’s going to and you can read into every single piece of data. Without you know, it really meaning very much. So yes,
yeah, it kind of gives Yeah, it gives it like a little bit of a more of a context or a stroke dice. Yeah. Yeah. So I found that to be super helpful. So So every day I would wake myself stick it in happy scale. And during my cut phase with you, I mean, I think we were done. I now my happy scale shows me at like 17 pounds down. So um, you know, just about almost 20 pounds, and depending on the day, and and then now I’ve just been maintaining and keeping that weight which I am the queen. She’s the
queen of maintenance. Yes.
Almost to the ounce. Yeah, it’s
impressive. It’s very impressive.
It’s like my secret skill. I thought I was only really good at making poached eggs. I don’t know, if you knew that about me. I make? No, and that’s a skill. I mean, that’s, oh, I can’t do it. Ya know, a lot of people can I always say that God was like, you know, handing out the gifts. And then he got to Betsy, and he was like, I don’t freaking know what to get in that just give her the poached egg. So I can do a poached egg and maintain,
which is an amazing skill to have. But it really is. But also,
I want to talk about a couple of the mindset things that I think really helped me and you can reflect back and kind of share what your feedback is, too. Yeah. So um, one of the big things for me, was just because I am paid for it, doesn’t mean I have to eat it all. And I think that there’s something like when we go out to dinner, or we get we buy something fancy to make at home or whatever we think, Well, this is so good, or I paid so much money, I should eat it. And I realized that for me and one of the things that I did in my mindset work was school. slowing down the process of eating. So I, I took the moments where I knew I was hungry. And I there’s a NLP system that I use. But the moment I knew I was hungry, how did I know I was hungry? How did I know what I wanted to eat? How did I choose that? How much of it to eat? How did I know it was time to stop. And I realized I was getting past the how I know it was time to stop. Because I was with somebody that I didn’t want. They were still eating. And I didn’t want to make them feel like I didn’t want to eat or make them feel guilty for eating or because I paid a lot of money for it, or we were out to eat. And this is fancy, and I should eat it all. Or even it’s really good. Because sometimes stuff is really good. And you’re like, I want to keep eating it because it’s really good, right? And that whole process of understanding that honestly, like changed so much for me. And I think that’s why I’m so great at maintenance now, because I understand what triggers me to eat and what I want to eat. So,
yeah, amazing. I just, if you could just keep talking about that. You could tell everyone that that would be amazing. Yes. Oh my gosh, I could not agree more with how important that is. It’s really interesting. You know, when you start paying attention to behaviors around food in general, you realize how much of it is dictated by things besides, besides hunger, besides even like wanting to eat that food, I mean, honestly, like, there are so many factors that, you know, cause us to eat for whatever reason, and we just don’t realize it, we’re just moving through life kind of reacting to these things and eating from impulse over eating, you know, eating as a response to things, you know, happening around us, whatever it might be, if you can create awareness around those things that you were just talking about. I mean, it’s like, transformative, totally changes your
life. Yeah. And you know, there were, there were a few times where I would be out with my husband, or, you know, I went on vacation a couple times while I was on my cut. And we talked about that. And I decided that I was just going to be really, really clear about what I wanted. So I want to talk about that for a second. So I know for me that I like a lot of different textures in my food. So I don’t want to just have ice cream. I would want to have ice cream with Jimmy’s on it. Do you know what I mean? I want a shirt true to reboard because I want soft cheese and hard cheese and nuts and cranberries. And like all of that, like I want all of that stuff. Honestly, as a woman in our culture of fineness, it was almost hard for me to say that. That’s my food preference. Isn’t that interesting? Just now it’s interesting. Yeah, like where I was like, I don’t want to say what I want to eat for food. God forbid somebody think I like food. You know,
God forbid that I said ice cream actually tastes good.
I know what the heck. So I realized that about myself. So like when we were on vacation, and my husband would say what do you want? I mean, what do we usually say? We’re like, I don’t know. What do you want? You want to tell me and you want loon? Like I didn’t do that. I thought, what’s the texture that I want? What’s the temperature? That’s a great one to start with. Do I want hot or cold? Yeah. And then like, what’s the texture? Uh, could I go to a place where there would be I really like bowls, because there’s a ton of different textures in there. And it would satisfy me like emotionally while I was eating it. So I really so I found that I really liked bowls I found that I really like like, to go to someplace where I could get like we went when we were in Key West. I was like, I just want to go get a shirt true to reboard so many times, I would want the appetizer. And then I’d be like, well, then I gotta get a meal. Like I got the appetite. But the appetizers really what I wanted because I wanted the snack or whatever the heck it was. So I just started making that, like my meal. I mean, I would choose healthy things, but I wouldn’t get caught up in it. If it was like, today I really want nachos. Then I’m gonna get nachos, but I will get full and sick of nachos pretty quick. Like I don’t have to eat the whole plate of nachos. So the second part of that was getting really clear on the texture and what it was I wanted hot, cold all that. But then also knowing, like, what’s my exit? Like, how do I know when it’s time to be done? Or to be done with this? Like, am I still hungry, but I’m done with this. And there were times where I ordered something. And I thought this is the texture. This is the thing, this is what I want it came I looked at it and right off I was like I don’t want this. Like maybe it was like cheese tip let’s say and I will say through this process. I You know, my palate changed, I choose much healthier stuff. But there are still times right cheese do the cheese dip would come and I would look at it. And I would say, I’m not eating that. And Craig would say we you just store that? And I would be like, that’s fine. I’ll pay for it. I’m not eating it. Just because I paid for it. And I ordered it doesn’t mean I have to freak need it. And I would know this doesn’t make sense to you. And I’m fine. If it doesn’t make sense.
Um, yeah, you know, it’s so interesting that you say that, because I believe I’m just listening to you talk. And I’m like, wow, there are so many people who are doing this. And they just haven’t recognized that they’re doing it like you even saying that you would order a cheese dip, and it would get to the table. And you would be like, Yeah, I’m guarantee you, like 99% of people would hear that and be like, There’s no way. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. But, you know, you’re exactly right, like we do, we just if we pay for something, or if we have it on our plate, or if we’re, I mean, we just eat it. That’s just what we do. And a lot of times, like over eating, just eating maybe past fullness, or more than we even really want to eat is looking for a satisfaction of some sort of like craving or, you know, something beyond just like filling our stomachs. And what I see a lot of times people like have a craving for something sweet, let’s say. And so in order to try to satisfy that they go all the way around the world trying to eat every other food to satisfy that actually still landed on needing to eat something sweet because nothing else satisfied that desire, whatever. And I think that’s kind of the same thing. It’s like, you can eat the thing, but it’s if it’s not really what’s going to satisfy you, then, you know, it doesn’t bother.
Why bother? And just eat the thing? Because maybe you only need two chips. Honestly, if you’re really paying attention. Yeah, no. And the other thing is, if you’re really paying attention, really shit food doesn’t really taste that good. Yeah, it only tastes really good. If you eat it fast.
Your brain has time to register.
And maybe there’s something about that, you know what I mean? Like, maybe that’s what you need in that particular moment like door, there was no judgment. I think, like I released all the judgment. And I was like, I ordered this, and I don’t want it and I’m not going to eat it. And there’s no judgment. And I ordered this, and I’m going to eat two of them. And I’m not going to judge, you know, like,
not assigning any morality, you’re right and wrong to know. Yeah.
It just became really, if I became in control, you know what I mean? Like, I really be totally control of that. And I think that that was like a huge thing. You know,
just That’s massive. Yeah. You saying that? I think that just literally being able to say I feel in control of my food choices, or I feel in control of myself around food is what so many people want and just don’t really know how to get there. I mean, that feels completely unattainable for most people. I think so yeah. That’s
one of the things you said to me that was actually really helpful was right. In the beginning, you said, Look, we’re going to do this for 12 weeks. And it’s a choice. Like you live in a world where this is a choice. And this is a choice you’re making. And you can just remind yourself every day, this is a choice I’m making. Like, I don’t have to do it. Nobody’s making me do it. And then I’m choosing it. And you know, we actually went over the 12 weeks, because I kept saying this is too easy. Yeah, I was like,
oh, never happens. By the way. I was like,
This is so simple, and fun and easy. And so we kept going. And then one day, I was like, I need a break. I don’t want to think about it. And so then we immediately moved to maintenance. Like it wasn’t like, Oh, I didn’t reach a certain point. I didn’t lose. Like I really wanted to get to that 20 pounds, I think, but at that point, I didn’t care. Like I was like, I know that’s coming and so I can relax. And there’s no anxiety around it not coming. Because I know it’s coming. It’s just not right. This was not today.
Right? Right. And trying to kind of barrel through that point. Yeah, it’s not it doesn’t it doesn’t help anything you know, it really doesn’t and that’s a lot of times people are so attached to I want to lose this amount of weight in this timeframe that they push past that point where their brain is like hey, like for like a little bit here we need to step back and just say no, it’s fine. I’m just going to finish I can grit my teeth and just get through this and that’s when we see a much higher you know, rates of like rebound afterwards. Yeah, like a much higher likelihood of not being able to keep it off because you end up just kind of run into the ground mentally. Well, I think
when you don’t know when it’s going to end when you’re like I’m gonna lose 40 pounds so I’m just going to diet till I lose 40 pounds well after like overwhelming like God and after like 20 weeks you’re exhausted, but you can’t stop because you haven’t been successful. Yeah, right. You have been. And if you’re more focused on, like, the behaviors and the shifts that are happening like that is, then you’re constantly successful. Absolutely. And then the other just will come like, I still have 20 pounds to go. I don’t care. It’s gonna happen. I know it’s gonna happen. Yeah. So another thing, and I’m like jotting down things I like, I don’t want to miss anything that I want to say, with the mindset work that I did, you know, I focused so much on identity. And I think I mentioned this to you. But one of the very, very strange things that happened, because I did so much mindset work was that when I started working with you, I had only been working with you like two weeks, and I went in one day to the bathroom and flipped on the light and saw myself in the mirror. And I was shocked that I looked the way I look like, like, I was like what he’s like, I mean, it’s only been two weeks. So I know, I haven’t lost all the weight. But in my head, I had, like, in my head, I was already the weight. I wanted to, like I looked at it, I don’t even now I don’t have words, it was the strangest thing, because I was like, I’m not that. And so I think that’s why it became so easy. You know, sometimes you hear people say like, if I could just lose 20 pounds, I would be I would keep it off. Yep. That’s where I was. I had lost mentally lost the 40 pounds. And so I was already there. And I just kept looking in the mirror going, Oh, my God, my physical reality hasn’t caught up. And it feels so like, just like, like, just connect. Yes. Yes. And I’m curious. Is that a thing? Like when people finally make that shift? You know, like, and when do people make that shift? Do you think typically, like if they haven’t done like a bunch of NLP on themselves first?
Yeah, you know, I think I told you this actually, when you sent me that email that you’re I think the first person who’s ever had that specific reaction, at least that has been communicated to me because way more often, what I see is people who have lost a lot of weight, still seeing themselves as the heavier version of themselves and like having a really hard time. I guess, you know, getting rid of that, like body dysmorphia, whatever you want to call it, but just like not being able to recognize, like, Hey, you don’t look like that anymore. So it’s interesting, you know, I’m just thinking about that, as it pertains to your response, which was so different. And just wondering, like, what were the kind of mental discrepancy is there as to why, like you had you were like, already identifying with the successful version of you, whereas I think a lot of people still carry that feeling of like, failure that they felt when they were at that, you know, heavier way. I don’t know. That’s really interesting, though. I mean, I definitely don’t see that very often. To be honest.
I think that’s the well, like with NLP, we work on the highest level of unconscious change, which is your identity. So I had done so much identity work, like to really shift that. The interesting thing is, I think people started responding to me differently, even though I hadn’t lost the weight. Like interesting. I went to go get my nails done. And the guy that does my nails was like, You seem lighter, like, happier, you know? And I was like, oh, like, I just I wanted to say like, well, I’ve lost 20 pounds, but you can’t tell yet, like, but I was. But he reminded me of that movie, with Amy Schumer that I feel pretty ideal where she and I’ve talked about this on the show before because after this happened, I started thinking about that movie a lot. But like, she’s in the movie, she’s, like, described as like, the chunky, whatever. But she’s probably like a size eight. She’s not chunky. But that’s how she’s described she is having all kinds of issues with boyfriends and friends at work and all of this stuff hits her head and thinks she’s beautiful. And then she starts acting like that. And everybody starts responding to her differently. Because they have to because she’s different. And I kept thinking that’s what’s happening to me. Like, not I feel pretty, although like, I I feel thin. And I know that I’m not representing that way. I know. But I felt like nobody could see it. Like nobody could see that I was still heavy. They were getting this like an interpretation of me. So many people have said you look so different. So tell us different. So wild. Yeah, I definitely think it has to do with the identity and then that’s like a self fulfilling thing because people are responding to me. Right like a skinny person holding the door for me. I mean, things like that. Do you know what I mean? That I noticed changed when I guess wild yeah out.
You know, that does. It’s something that I talk about with clients too, which is kind of just I guess it’s like a little a slightly more superficial version of that. But that going back to the identity thing, you know, like we behave in accordance with those things. And so, like when we have these labels on ourselves, like, so many people who have gained weight have just these like subconscious labels that just keep them stuck, you know, it’s like, yeah, these narratives that they have suddenly started to believe like they as a person are lazy, they as a person have failed in some way, they, as a person, you know, are like broke it, whatever it is, you start to kind of take those labels on. And it again just becomes like this kind of self fulfilling prophecy rather than, like, the narratives that you’re talking about of like, No, I’m like, I’m someone who has lost weight successfully. I’m someone who makes these food choices. I’m someone who exercise like, I’m someone that does these things. So I’m gonna do these things. Yeah.
And I’m somebody that values myself so much, right? there’s a part of us unconsciously, I believe that we think, Well, I don’t deserve to put the time in to create good healthy food, or I don’t deserve to put the money in to get help with this, or whatever it is. But I think that up leveling of like, you know, and I mentioned this at the beginning of the show, like with my husband, like, if you want to be with me, then you got to uplevel because I’m up leveling, do you know what I mean? Like, if you want to be part of this, whether you’re a friend or a partner, or whatever, like, like my standards change. And I just think that that’s such an important thing. And sometimes people will say to me, how do I change? And I’m like, raise your standards? Like, that’s the first thing, right? What are your standards? Because if what you have isn’t matching, then they’re, they’re lower than you want them to be.
Right? Yeah, totally.
Um, two things. Before we wrap up. One thing is, I want to mention, I noticed once I hired you, and it had been only been like a week or two, I came home and cleaned out, like, swept through my closet. I’m talking like, it was like a Saturday, Craig and I were supposed to go do something. And I was like, I can’t because I’m compelled to clean out a closet. It was like, I had to shed this version of me that had been hanging out in my closet, reminding me of how far I had gone from that version, right? The size too close. Like all of this Lululemon shit, you know what I mean? Like, I just was like, I was like, Look, you had a place in my life, but I’m not gonna step into my closet every day. And have you remind me that I’m not that anymore, because I’m way more than that. And that’s just not reflected in here. So all of you, you’ve got to go. And I just literally, like, took every single thing like KonMari style out of my closet, threw it on my bed, separated it into piles, I sent a ton of it to my cousin who was pregnant, and she could wear a size to pregnant. So part of my family got the jeans to her, so that felt really good. But then literally, I had like three things in my closet. And it gave me an and I’m grateful that I’m in a position where I could do this. But it gave me this opportunity to be like, how do I want to show up? What do I want to look like? What do I want to wear? What’s my style? Because my style probably wasn’t that now I’ve changed so much. Like not just my weight change, but I changed. And so almost like releasing that old version of me and saying thank you, thank you, thank you, but we’ve moved on and you can just go and all the remnants of you can go to was like the purge. It was so good.
Boy, yeah, yeah, that’s powerful. I mean, the clothes thing, so many people come to me with goals of fitting back in. Like, the goal is just to fit back in this pair of pants or to like fit back in this piece of clothing. Yeah. And clearly, we owe it to ourselves to set bigger goals than that, you know? Yeah. I and I totally agree with you to about that. That’s just keeping clothes around. Just a very practical tip. But like I completely agree with you like keeping clothes around that you don’t fit in anymore. Does zero. Good. not helpful at all. It does nothing good. And it’s just like you can get more clothes. If you get back to that size, then that is great. And you can buy some more stuff.
I’m saying even if I fit in this, it’s not in style. Yeah, what the hell am I doing?
Yes. And I think there is I mean, you can speak to this maybe for a lot of people there is like a probably a lot of emotion wrapped up in that. It’s not just Yeah, I’m just gonna like get rid of these pose. It’s like maybe sometimes feels to people like it’s just giving up on something that they have been pursuing for a long time. It feels like saying that’s just not going to happen. Yeah, it’s not saying that it’s just saying This doesn’t this doesn’t fit my body, right? Yes, I’m gonna keep it here.
And I still have 20 pounds that I’m gonna lose. But I bought clothes that made me feel really good in my body right now. And I remember when I was starting maintenance, you were like, how, how is this gonna feel? How do you feel about it? And I was like, I know I’m good staying at maintenance, because we were worried I was going to keep trying to lose, right? Because I was like, it felt so easy. But I was like, I know, I’m gonna stay at maintenance, because I just got a whole bunch of winter clothes that fit this body right now. You know? And like, that’s okay, like, I’m gonna like, I’m gonna support this body. And when the new body comes, she deserves support to Yeah, but I’m not going to wait for her to show up. This, this body needs to know it’s important.
Absolutely, absolutely. And buying clothes that fit your current body well improves just body image and how you feel about yourself in general, too, you know, and I find people keep these clothes that are like these really small sizes and in the current version of themselves that they already don’t feel great about also wears clothes that they don’t feel great about either, you know, and it just makes everything worse. So yeah, I completely completely agree. That is amazing.
And I tell people now it’s like today getting on the elevator or getting off the elevator and getting back on the elevator. Someone was like, You look so cute. And I was like, see, like, I’m like, it’s it is like, I joke to my husband. Like if anybody says I mean, if anyone says anything to me that I look good. I talk about it for like four days. To me. I make a poster. I mean, I write it on the whiteboard on the frigerator random man open the door, you need to know what it’s like celebrating that? Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. I think if you’re like, unhappy and sad and shitty looking at, but you’re a size two and you have beautiful clothes. Nobody says that to you. Like I think people like the hot like the absolute learning of it. You know what I mean?
Totally agree. Okay, so
the last thing I want to talk about, I know you’re probably running out of time, do you have to keep going? Okay, so this is the last thing I want to touch on is I did a ton of mindset stuff around the food, right? That was really important to me. And then when we started working together, I started, like, let’s work out, like getting that back in. And in the beginning, it was really fun. I was sort of surprised that I wanted to work out because I hadn’t done specific mindset work on that. And it didn’t last, like we started, I felt really good. I actually joined a CrossFit gym. And it was really fun. I actually really liked the routine of it and going there. And then I started feeling like the environment wasn’t super friendly. Like, you know, every CrossFit gym has its personality. And that probably wasn’t the best fit personality wise. And I was feeling kind of like the old lady, like I didn’t really fit in and people weren’t really talking to me, you know? And, and then something was said by the owner about and I just was like, I’m not gonna give him my money anymore. And you and I talked about it. Yeah. And I was like, I’m not doing this. Like I’m not, I’m not doing it. And then I didn’t, I kind of just petered off. I was walking a lot, and then it just my dog hurt his ankle. And then I was like, I guess we’re not walking. And so now I’m in maintenance. And I’m like, I think that’s the next thing. Like, for me, I was like, that’s the next step. Like I have a handle on the food thing. I can keep my weight I can eat I honest to god, I can eat anything, there’s nothing I don’t eat. Right? I just look at it from a much more holistic view. And I get exactly what I want. And I only eat it till I’m done eating it. Like, I don’t eat it till it’s gone. You know. So I feel like I have such a good handle on that. And so I was like, I’m going to do the mindset work on the working out. And that was sort of like the final frontier for me. So a couple of weeks ago, that’s what I did. I did four hours one afternoon, my husband clean the house, because I was busy. And that was
really amazing. Yeah,
I mean, I Instagram for that dude. I mean, like, everybody needs to know he’s cleaning house so I can do this work. And I just really got into like, releasing the shit. You know, I think we all want to move our bodies. I really do. I think we have an innate need and desire to move our bodies but our bodies do crave movement. Yeah, yes. But all of the messages or even for me it is the the like strictness of trying to like contain it or make it look a certain way made me just reject it like it made me just not want to and so I did a ton of work on that. And then I did specifically in NLP we call it a compulsion technique where I used the compulsion I have to brush my teeth now I have a compulsion to go Wash my teeth. I have been to a training before where the lady I was sitting next to, during that whole week was like you brush your teeth more than anyone I’ve ever known. Like, after lunch, I would brush my teeth in the afternoon we’d go, like I just like brushing my teeth. So that’s a thing. And so I used that. And I took that compulsion, and I just put it on the working out. But I didn’t put parameters around it. Like I just want to be compulsive to move my body, whatever that is. And yeah, and so that’s what I’ve been doing. And it’s been so it’s been easy, like the eating was easy. Like, we’re everyday now it’s been almost two weeks, worked out every day, even even days like Monday or Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t do the like I’ve been following an app, which I’ve found really fun. I will stop the moment it doesn’t feel fun. But even on Saturday and Sunday, like I still move like I just stretched. I did some yoga one day, I did go for a little walk like just moving the compulsion to move everyday. It’s almost it actually has been surprised. Like I’m almost surprised even though like I do this every morning, I’m up but like six o’clock, like ready to like excited. I don’t have anything. Yeah. So what’s your what do you see typically like with people? Does the working out in the meeting go hand in hand does is it staggered? More like I’m experiencing? Or what’s your
interesting question, I’m trying to think I don’t they don’t always go hand in hand. No, they definitely don’t always go hand in hand. And I think sometimes people need permission for them not to because sometimes people like that’s a, it’s when you have those things paired together, you’re trying to just especially if you’re someone who’s coming from a place of not doing really either one, a ton of change like a ton to do all at once. And so I feel like sometimes people feel like they have to when they start making diet changes, they have to also start working out like five days a week and doing all of it. And then I see people get burned out just from trying to change too many things at once when they weren’t ready, which again, goes back to just having to be ready. I mean, that’s kind of the bottom line for all of this. But, um, yeah, you know, and I think part of part of that kind of those things being coupled together, I think is because exercise to so many people is simply just another kind of way to manage weight, like that’s yeah, value that it has. Yes. And I think that’s such a huge disservice. Because oh my gosh, exercise is amazing for so many reasons. And I would put weight loss, like pretty far down on the list. Like there’s so many other reasons why it’s so amazing for us to exercise. And so I think that can be helpful to just like to remove the pressure of like, oh my gosh, if I’m going to try to lose weight, I have to immediately jump into doing everything, right? You don’t you know, I mean, honestly, you’re proof of this, like, you can just change your diet and lose weight, you don’t need to exercise. Yeah, and I would hope that similar to what we were talking about with not coming from a place of resentment or hatred towards your body, when you start to make diet changes, like people do that with exercise as well. It’s like a
punishment, like, I shit, I’ve got to go and do this work. Yes, yes,
instead of like this thing that should be like, Oh my gosh, how amazing that we can move our bodies and do these things. And we can get stronger and like, how cool that our bodies adapt to these, you know, yeah, like forms of exercise in different ways. And we, you know, change on like a cellular level as a response to exercise and like our, you know, mental health and everything, everything. Um, and so I think sometimes it’s good for people to separate them just so that they can not have exercise just to be so closely tied to weight loss, you know. And it can come from a place of like, no, genuinely, like, I just want to move in, it feels good. And let’s just give myself space to figure out what that’s gonna look like, you know, yeah,
I do think that that for me of going, I’m not working out. Like that was actually really empowering to be like, I’m not doing that right now. So there wasn’t the everyday I didn’t wake up feeling guilty, right. And then there was a point where I was like, Okay, I want to do this. Now. I’m gonna do the mindset work to support it so that it’s easy, because why do we do stuff? It’s hard, like everything. Like I’ve said, years ago, years ago, when I owned the CrossFit gym, some lady called me and she was like, I’m gonna come in and work out, I want you to put me on a nutrition plan. And I want you to, you know, put me on this workout plan and tell me when to come in. I’m like, picking on myself. It’s just smoke. And then she’s like, I’m gonna do this, like seven days a week. And then I also have a really bad Mountain Dew problem, so I’m going to just make sure that I don’t have any Mountain Dew, so I was like, Are you smoking? And she was like, Yeah, I’m gonna stop that too. So I’m like, okay, so you’re gonna go in here and like work out seven days a week and eat perfect and not have Mountain Dew and quit smoking. Like, What kind of monster are you? Like, and so I
can see into the future, and this is not going to go,
not gonna go well, right? Like if you’re trying to change everything. And so I think for me even, even though I know that when I make a change, I’m going to do it from my head first from the highest level of my identity so that that change is easy. You want to quit smoking, I’m telling you, that can be easy. I think people don’t do things like that. I’d love to lose weight, but it’s not going to be easy. So they don’t want to do it. I don’t want to lose weight, because it’s not it’s not going to be easy. That’s going to be really hard. And I want to say, I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think it has to be hard. I think it has, it’s going to be different. And it can be a change. But if you go from it from the perspective of your head first, and then you get the support to do the thing from the physical. It’s, it’s not easy. It’s really fun. And it’s a process and it can change your whole life.
Mm hmm. That is so good. Because I agree with you. Sometimes we like overly prepare people for how hard this process is going to be. And then yeah, that again, just not a helpful place to come from. Because it really doesn’t have to be it doesn’t have to be that hard. It doesn’t have to be miserable. In fact, I would argue like it probably shouldn’t be miserable. And we need to do a little about why do
it like why do you do anything if it’s miserable, because you’re here to have joy, we’re here to have joy. One of the things you said to me was nobody, it’s never this easy for people. I told everybody that. I mean, I’ve talked about that for days, that was one of the things that went on the whiteboard. Right? So.
So it’s true is true. It so
it makes a difference. right mindset? Oh
my gosh, yes, yes, yes. And if you know, honestly, like, it’s something that, you know, even like, RP as a company preaches a lot more even just recently as data and stuff continues to come out on this. But like, you know, if you could just spend like, even like a month before you jump into another diet, just focusing on that your chances of being successful are, I mean, 100 times higher, you know, like, it is, it’s hard to overstate how essential that is to be successful. And if you can just have the patience and the just, like, literally just make yourself do that. I mean, I think you’re a testament to how significant it can be. Yeah, I
want to say, and easy and fun. Yeah, I always say like to I say this to my clients a lot, just pause, just be like, I’m not gonna do that thing yet. But I’m just gonna get totally ready. I’m going to make sure everything, all the railroad tracks and cars are on the right track, and that it’s all going in the direction I want, and then you just get to enjoy the ride. Absolutely. I’ve had so much fun. It’s been a fun ride with you, Jennifer.
Oh, it has been fun. And you again, just a testament to you as a human. I mean, your attitude throughout all of this has been just so positive. And that is so refreshing from like, a coaching perspective, because it honestly it’s not, I don’t I don’t I didn’t I don’t do this because I want people to feel like I’m like, you know, going to slap the wrist if they eat off plan or what it’s not. That’s not fun. You know, that’s not I don’t want people to feel like they’re being tortured, because they are doing something again that they chose to do. Yeah. So it is so refreshing and so unusual for someone to have, like, just such a positive attitude. And like, you know, just I don’t know, yeah, just like not that there weren’t, like, you know, things along the way, but just not viewing them as like catastrophic things that just get blown out of proportion. And just acknowledging that for what it is and not letting it taint your view of the entire process. It’s just super unusual. And yeah, it was so it’s been so fun working with you, by the way. Yeah. Oh, thank
you. And thanks for coming on my show. This was really fun and amazing co host.
Oh, well. Thank you. Thank you for letting me co host and honor. tell people how they
can find you.
Yes, so I’m on Instagram. It’s at the adventuring dietitian. I don’t post very often but I’m on there. And then they can email me it’s Jennifer dot p at RP strength.com. If they have questions, or maybe you’re interested in coaching,
yeah, I love that you’re the adventuring dietitian. Because you know I always say hello fellow adventurers because I really Yeah, cuz I believe we’re here on an adventure.
Adventure, isn’t it? Yeah.
Thank you so much for being here. It was so fun to have you.
Thank you, Betsy. It was fun. Thanks so much.
Jennifer is a Registered Dietitian with her master’s degree in Foods and Nutrition with a Sports Nutrition emphasis. She has a passion for helping people learn to fuel their bodies well for exercise and for life. She has experience working with athletes of all ages and walks of life, and she loves working with individuals to not only reach their fitness goals but also to improve their health (physical, mental, and emotional) through nutrition and exercise. She has participated in various forms of exercise throughout her life, but her favorites are strength training and hiking! Some of her favorite things include her husband Jake, her two dogs, her houseplants, chips and salsa, and all things outdoors.