How Can You Create Freedom Through Fitness?

Obesity is the next major epidemiological challenge facing the world today. According to PubMed Central, the annual allocation of healthcare resources for obesity and related comorbidities exceeds $150 billion in the United States. Obesity rates before COVID were approximately 43%. This has risen over the past 30 years and today nearly 50% of the population in the US is obese and another 20% is overweight. People have access to sugars, carbohydrates, and fast food more than ever before and there is a lack of fitness education, accountability and coaching. We live in a time where, statistically, we have a higher risk of dying from obesity and overeating than from starvation. So, what can we do about it? I invite you to join me in spreading the message of health and wellness versus sickness and destruction.

This blog post summarizes just a few of the golden nuggets from our insightful conversation, for the full details listen to the entire episode here or on your favourite podcast platform by searching for the Self-Care Goddess podcast.

10 Factors To Offset The Global Obesity Pandemic

We Learn by Example: Children learn by example. If parents do not develop healthy habits like staying active, eating well, remaining hydrated and getting enough sleep, children are going to follow the same footsteps. This is a huge problem especially for the younger generation. It is human nature to take the path of least resistance. The amount of effort required to do something influences what we think & see, suggesting we’re biased towards perceiving anything challenging to be less appealing; as a result, we are most likely to opt for the cheeseburger than the heathy alternative like a salad.
Fitness Is the Positive Gateway Drug to A Better Life: If you look at someone who’s healthy, fit and active, they’re positive, have good energy and consistency. For example, before his fitness transformation, Bryce was one of the least performing sales reps in the company. After his fitness transformation, his performance at work started to change – he had more energy, confidence & enthusiasm, could sleep better and get up earlier. From a sales perspective, he was more proactive and nurturing leads and within a year he became the highest performing sales rep in the company! This is why we say that fitness is the foundation, because when you feel better, you think better and everything in life gets better, including health, relationships, work, experience and ability to give back to the community. With focus on a healthy lifestyle, everything in life gets better holistically.
Consistency Compounds: On the days that we do work outs, we are a lot more conscious in terms of our food intake. We start counting calories and begin making more health-conscious decisions automatically with a consistent fitness regime.
The Amygdala: A little walnut size piece of our brain called the amygdala is in charge of emotions like fear and anxiety. According to research, when we are active in bilateral stimulation – while moving our feet running or walking, the activity in the amygdala reduces, so feelings of anxiety and fear are calmed down and subdued. From a chemical perspective, we start feeling better, get happy thoughts and feel creative after an intense workout.
Set Your Fitness Goal: For an average person who just wants to lose weight, feel better and look better; a 30-minute-high intensity session 3-4 times a week (interval training), working on the core, lower body, upper body, getting strength training along with cardio is the secret sauce for a happy fulfilled life.
Rest & Recovery Are Important: There is immense value in rest and recovery. A huge misconception is thinking that we need to spend 7 days in the gym and 2-3 hours for each session. In fact, during strength workout, we’re breaking down the muscle fibers so when the body is resting with a good night of sleep after workout, the muscle fibers will restore. We all need valuable rest and the only way to build the body to get lean and toned is recovery. Make sure that you incorporate at least one rest or active recovery day for taking care of yourself long term in the weekly activity schedule.
The Power In Yoga: Bryce recommends on a recovery day to do Yin Yoga for 20 minutes. It has a flow that is ideal for an active recovery day as long as we’re not overly strenuous. If you don’t have a good flexibility stretching practice, you’re at a higher risk of injury. We get good flexibility, breathing patterns and movement through yoga.
Hire A Coach: All humans are flawed & need help. There is immense value in getting an accountability partner or hiring a coach because we all have blind spots and vulnerability. First know yourself, then figure out what problem you need solved. There are many people that have had your problem, they’ve solved it and can help you with that problem, oftentimes getting you to where you want to be sooner and faster and avoiding the mistakes that your coach made.
Abs Are Made In The Kitchen, Not In The Gym: If you want to lose midsection weight, your biggest focus needs to be in the kitchen from a nutritional perspective. Unfortunately, it is a fact that many people overeat. Once you’re in a caloric deficit, consuming less calories than your body is burning, then in accordance with the law of thermodynamics you will burn fat & lean out. The muffin top is the last place that your body will naturally burn fat especially in women because our bodies are designed to store fat in the midsection – this area is the hardest or takes the longest to burn fat. You can’t out train a bad diet, if you really want to burn fat, lean out, get toned and change your body composition pertaining to fat, you have to focus on three core macronutrients proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
Confidence – a driver for freedom: Research shows that people with really good abs usually have a lot of confidence and vice versa. Confidence can be developed or some of it is factory installed in us depending on our life experiences. If you want to gain more confidence, you need to keep the promises you make, not necessarily just to others, but to yourself. The most confident people, trust themselves the most. So, if you make a promise to yourself that no one might know and you keep that promise, you create more self-trust and increase your confidence. The opposite is also true. When you set your alarm to wake up at five o’clock, and then hit snooze repeatedly you’re actually breaking a promise you made the night before with yourself! Confidence is derivative of stacking the little wins on a daily basis. Another strategy to derive confidence is putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. Working out, eating lean healthy foods, lifting weights, and not opting to have the cheesecake, are all examples. A challenging thing to do, hard in the moment but when you do that, a byproduct is increased confidence.

For more information read my blog post “Yoga: Your Secret To A Healthy Heart, Mind & Body” on here.

Feminine Energy Vs. Masculine Energy

Here are some differences we talked about during our podcast:

The feminine is the flow and the masculine is the structure. Structure is really important to automate and improve but it is meant to serve the feminine.
The feminine is desire and the masculine is production of that desire.
If the river is feminine, the river bank is masculine. Without the river bank the water doesn’t have any direction and makes a mess everywhere. Conversely, if we don’t have a river, we lose the point of the river bank. Spending all the time in the masculine robs us of our radiance and purpose.
The left side of our body is the feminine receiving side and pertains to our past. The right side is the masculine and it is all about the future.
Feminine is the receiving energy, the masculine energy is the giving energy.

Listen to the conversation with TEDX speaker Philipp Humm on episode #42 “How to Build YOUR Confidence with Constructive Embarrassment”, on the Self-Care Goddess Podcast.

You Must Pass The 12-Week Period To Stay Motivated

Have you noticed that anytime you try something new, whether a new diet, protocol or workout program, you get excited at first, but then the muscles start feeling sore?

To keep up the enthusiasm it is important to put one foot in front of the other. According to Bryce Henson on the Self-Care Goddess Podcast; one must pass the 12-week period and see enough progress to remain motivated and continue the new lifestyle and workouts. Here are 3 types of workouts you can choose from:

Strength Based workout: Working with your muscular system, resistance training including lifting weights, holding a plank and enforcing resistance are all strength workouts.
Cardiovascular Workout: Cardiovascular activity includes high knees, jumping jacks, burpees, mountain climbers etc. that increase your heart rate.
Classic Workout: Classic workout is a blend of both workouts -15 minutes of strength & 15 minutes of cardiovascular, working the legs by running and sweating while building strength.

In a 30-minute strength-based workout, 20 minutes is focused on the strength and 10 minutes is focused on the cardiovascular and vice versa for a cardiovascular workout. Bryce calls these workouts metabolic conditioning.

Have you tried my awesome “Zucchini Aglio e Olio” recipe?

Here are this week’s self-care tips. For past podcast guests self-care habits, check out my Instagram or Facebook page.

For free guided meditation videos and Breathwork demonstrations subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Take Home Message

In the words of Bryce Henson “My biggest call to action & biggest recommendation is start small and show consistency”. Everything that we embark on in terms of any personal or physical change must be sustainable to show progress. We have a serious worldwide issue with obesity and we can connect it to confidence, freedom and mental health. It is important to hire a coach because knowing what we don’t know is super important to a successful life. We think we’re the only one going through issues of being overweight with the muffin top – but there are many on the same path facing similar challenges.

The secret is good self-leadership; if you can have self-control & self-mastery, you can lead yourself in a positive way and change the world. Then you can start leading your family, and good things will happen because you are now leading by example – walking the talk on the path of health and wellness.

Connect with Bryce here.

Listen to the full podcast episode #67 on the Self-Care Goddess Podcast.

I look forward to connecting with you and learning more about your story and your health and wellness goals. Schedule a FREE introduction call here.