Turning It All Around

Jeannie Oliver: 00:00:40

Hello, and welcome to episode one of the nutrition edit podcast.

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I'm your host, Jeanie Oliver, and I'm a functional nutrition and lifestyle coach.

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And for the last 10 years, I've been helping busy professionals dial in

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their nutrition and fitness to cultivate healthy lifestyles that they love.

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Are you a woman who's been successful in nearly every area of your life,

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but you feel like your health is still a sticking point for you.

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Do you wish that you had more energy and you felt better in your own skin,

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so you could enjoy your life more, or maybe you feel like you're doing

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everything right when it comes to nutrition and exercise, but you just,

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aren't seeing the results that you want.

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If this is you, I am.

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So glad that you joined me today and you're not alone.

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Many of the women who come to me are struggling with things like

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sleep, chronic stress, gut health, hormonal issues, and excess weight.

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And what used to work for them is no longer moving the needle.

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So many of us have all tried the fad diets.

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We've counted, calories, counted macros.

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We try to eat less and exercise more.

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But while those approaches may have worked in the short term for

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us, the results didn't last and they certainly didn't teach us

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how to create a healthy lifestyle.

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That's actually sustainable long term.

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If the eat less exercise, more approach actually worked.

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It would make things a lot easier, but the body is not that simple.

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And women's bodies are far more complex than men's are.

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So we need to understand those differences and figure out what it works for us

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as individuals, instead of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

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, but there's so much noise out there, right?

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When it comes to nutrition and fitness, and it's hard to know what's actually

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legit and what's just nonsense.

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That's beautifully packaged up with good marketing.

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It's really easy to get overwhelmed by all the information or get

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discouraged after we try something and it doesn't work for us.

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And because of all the demands on our time and energy, it's often easier

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to give up on or put off our goals.

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If we have no guarantee of.

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And I totally understand this.

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I mean, life happens and we focus on different things during

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different chapters of our lives.

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For example, when we're young and we're building a career, it's easy to put work

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before our health, because we can still get away with eating like teenagers and

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going out every night on the weekends.

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And we kind of are trying to get ourselves established in our

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workplace or whatever we're doing.

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And then once we get married or start families, it's harder

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to prioritize our health.

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Now that we have children to keep alive and partners are

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aging parents to care for.

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So we put everyone else.

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Needs first and sacrifice our workouts and our nutrition to accommodate

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everyone else's needs and schedules.

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But the reality of this is that nobody benefits from that in the long term.

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If we end up losing our health, if this sounds familiar to you, I have been in

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your shoes and I'm here to tell you that you can overcome these things and start

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feeling great again and learn how to create a healthy lifestyle for yourself.

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And.

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Maybe you'll start feeling good again, or maybe it's actually the first time that

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you'll start feeling good in your life.

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And either way, it is never too late.

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Like now is the time to start, regardless of what place that you're at or what stage

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in your life that you're at right now.

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And while it's never too late to start taking good care of

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yourself, it's definitely easier to learn and maintain self care.

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If we started an earlier age, which is true of any skill, right?

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So younger people out there, if you're listening, just believe me.

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When I tell you that you.

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So glad that you did not put off learning how to care for your body

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and prioritize your wellbeing.

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Just start it now and know that you'll be really pleased later

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in life that you did that.

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you know, if any of this sounds familiar to you, you're in good company since

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this is the first episode I wanna share with you, just a little of my

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backstory and how I got into this.

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Because I'm not somebody that's on her high horse who has a list of

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degrees, but no real life experience.

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I have been in the trenches, so to speak.

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And I've struggled with many of the same things that you.

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From thyroid issues to chronic pain, depression, anxiety, I've had eating

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disorders, dealt with adult acne.

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Well into my late thirties.

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Um, I've been 50 pounds overweight.

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I've struggled with insomnia.

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You know, my own health issues have kind of run the gamut.

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Since I was a kid, I was given antibiotics, almost nonstop from birth

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all the way through my mid twenties.

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And I'm still working on healing.

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My gut as a result of that.

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I grew up in Southern California, which is a very body conscious culture.

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You probably know and I was a naturally thin kid, but I was still

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always worried that I was too fat.

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I started thinking that my thighs were too big at about age 13, and I remember

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drinking slim fast shakes in high school instead of eating real meals.

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Whenever I wanted to lose a few.

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I'm horrified at that thought now because I was five foot 10, and I only

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weighed about 125, maybe 130 pounds, but that was the culture at the time.

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And all the women I knew were constantly dieting.

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So the mindset was reinforced.

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I was also an athlete.

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I was running track and cross country, and we were pressured by our

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coaches to stay as lean as possible.

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and, you know, again, looking back, it's just kind of crazy to me because

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we were all pretty, pretty lean, healthy kids, and there was no reason

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that we should have been focused on.

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Or weight at the time, it was also the age of fat free, everything.

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Many of you will remember this nonsense and I was trying to be a

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vegetarian, but I had absolutely no clue how to do that in a healthful way.

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So it meant that I was eating mostly processed carbohydrates, and I

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was what I now refer to as a star.

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I shedder at the thought of all the like snack Wells and plain

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bagels and bowls of fat, free pasta and fat free candy that I ate.

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But, you know, during that time, that was what we were told was healthy.

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And I did not know any better.

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So.

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Fast forward to my early twenties and I had put on about 50 pounds.

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I was also regularly binging and purging.

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I was struggling with depression and insomnia and had a few of mysterious

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health issues going on that no one seemed hands have answers for me

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about, um, thankfully I did find a naturopathic doctor who diagnosed

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me with a thyroid disorder and as soon as I started treatment for

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that, I started to feel better.

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Shortly after I did an intensive outpatient treatment program

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for my eating disorder.

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And that was, I'm so grateful that I actually had access and was able

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to do that because everything did gradually start improving, but I still

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had a pretty negative body image.

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Um, I still was struggling with acne at that point.

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I had trouble sleeping and I just generally didn't feel that great.

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It wasn't until probably my late thirties.

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after trying all the fad diets at quick fixes without success.

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When I finally hit a breaking point, I remember standing in front of the mirror

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in my room and asking myself how much more of your life genie are you gonna waste

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feeling like crap and hating your body.

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And I had already spent good two decades, wishing I was Thinni prettier.

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You name it.

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And it was exhausting.

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I decided in that moment that I was sick of feeling disappointed in myself

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and that I was no longer willing to postpone my happiness until I reached

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a certain weight or a certain size.

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I just wanted to feel good in my own skin for once and start enjoying my.

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I still wasn't sleeping.

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Great.

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And during one of my sleepless nights, I saw an infomercial for a

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fitness program that looked like fun.

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So I actually bought it and committed to doing the entire 90 days and other

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than running track and cross country, when I was in high school, I had never

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stuck with working out consistently for more than a few days at a time.

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So it was a really big deal for.

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And after a few weeks of doing this, my energy and mood had improved a lot.

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And I started sleeping better, which was really huge for me

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for the first time in my life.

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I started feeling strong and my relationship with my body shifted it,

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it changed from not only worrying about losing weight, to wanting to get stronger.

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And I actually started appreciating what my body could do.

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It felt really empowering to.

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Just embrace, like feeling strong and seeing what my body could

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do for me instead of just being focused on, you know, all the

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imperfections and my looks only.

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And, you know, I did lose some body fat with that workout

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program, but it wasn't my focus.

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Instead of counting calories, I started eating to fuel my workouts

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and build muscle and the fat loss just ended up being a side benefit.

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Um, the more that I continued to learn, how to personalize my diet and workouts,

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the better I felt and the more healthy and kind my relationship with my body.

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and I really became fascinated by nutrition and the idea

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of using food as medicine.

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So a year or so later, I enrolled in nutrition school

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and I have never looked back.

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I absolutely love what I do.

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I feel really lucky and I am someone who loves to nerd out on information.

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And thankfully nutrition is something that's constantly changing.

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There's always new information out there.

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So it's nearly impossible to get bored.

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There's always something new to learn.

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You know, I also am really determined to take all of those challenges that I

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had in my life and turn them around into something that's good and beneficial.

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And I wanna use my experiences and my knowledge to help make your life easier.

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My goal here is to help you avoid the mistakes that I made, learn how

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to use food as medicine and start learning how to honor your body.

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And, you know, I share this journey with you because I want you to know that

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if I can overcome all the challenges that I have had, you can too, and

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know you don't have to feel crappy just because you're getting older.

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I'm in my forties now.

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And I feel, and look better in many ways than I did in my twenties and thirties.

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And I can't tell you how often I hear clients say.

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After, you know, working with me for a little while and making some changes to

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their food and their fitness that they had forgotten what it was like to feel good.

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And honestly, people like you deserve to have a healthy relationship with food.

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You deserve to actually enjoy what you eat and.

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Stop moralizing.

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You know, I was good.

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I was bad.

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All of that nonsense, you know, feeling deprived all the time or eating, you

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know, bland rabbit food that, that you don't enjoy at every meal, you can have

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more energy in your thirties, forties, or fifties than you did in your twenties.

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And you can sleep well at.

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Feel more productive and focused during the day.

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And you may even find that you feel a lot less stressed once you replace the foods

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that are stressing your body out with the ones that nourish and nurture you.

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And when it comes to movement and exercise, this should be fun.

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A hundred percent.

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You should be having fun with exercise, getting more in tune with your body

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and learning what works best for you in whatever stage you're at right now.

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It's really about finding something that you enjoy and that gives you

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joy and that you wanna stick with.

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And that works for you.

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It's not about forcing yourself to do what you think should be doing.

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So many people tell me, oh, I, I should start running.

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I really feel like I should run, but they hate running.

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Like, don't do that.

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Don't force yourself to do something that you hate.

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You'll just create a negative relationship with exercise and

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you're not gonna wanna do it.

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So, but the first step that we have to take is really deciding

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that you want something more for.

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You have to get to the point that you decide that your wellbeing is worth making

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some changes and be willing to unlearn all the bullshit, the society and the media

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and whatever those voices in your head.

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All those things that they've ground into your head all these years.

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It does take some work to unlearn that for sure.

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But you have to make the decision that, you know what it's worth it to

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me, it's worth it to put some effort in to make the change, change the

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narrative and start really caring for myself and honoring my body.

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My mission as a coach.

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And my goal for this podcast is to empower you by giving you the practical

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guidance, the tools, and the support that you need to better understand your body,

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learn how to advocate for your health and start feeling like your best self.

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I have some really great guests line up for you this season, and we're gonna

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talk about mindset, emotional healing, um, we'll touch on health trends and.

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Fads, things like that.

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We'll talk about metabolic health and even funk you're gonna learn some

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practical and surprising sometimes even quick ways to improve your physical and

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mental health and your overall wellbeing.

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So be sure to subscribe.

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So you don't miss anything anyway, that is all I've got for you today, but we have

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so much fun coming up this season, and I'm super excited to have you with me.

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So thanks for joining me today.

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And if you enjoyed the show, please take a second to leave me a review and share

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it with anyone else who might enjoy it.

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All right.