I want to be ALL of the Things

A successful entrepreneur, a personal trainer who is able to provide individual fitness to all who come my way. I want to be able to have platforms for everyone: Online Self-Paced Course, Virtual Training Session, and In person Options that are affordable and effective.

I want to be able to expand those options to include the perinatal realm. As I write this, I am in the middle of getting my Perinatal Fitness Certification! I am very excited about it, not only to be able to help other women going through the process of child bearing and then rearing, but it is also going to benefit me on a personal level: I am 19 weeks pregnant.

I am almost halfway there to welcome our first child into this World, and I want to be ALL of the Things for them! (We are only having one, but we don’t know the gender) I am a personal trainer, an eternal optimist, but I am starting to get the sinking feeling that I WON’T be able to be all of the things, not all at once, and that is hard! I want to be able to keep my business successful and afloat, however, I plan on taking 12 weeks for maternity leave. If this course has taught me nothing else, it has taught me that our bodies while pregnant and postpartum go through A LOT. So many physiological changes, not to mention psychological changes, hormonal changes, and oh, this BIG change of you having to take care of another human. I am fortunate in that I have a partner who will be there to support baby and me, others are not so fortunate. Being an entrepreneur and making the choice to not pay into disability insurance means no paid maternity leave though. So we will be going from 2 paychecks to 1, and for three months. It’s a lot to take in and prepare for.

My friends, family, and husband all say that it will all be okay. I KNOW that everything will work out in the end, but what is that going to look like? What will my business become while I am gone? Will I have clients left to come back to after three months? Will I feel extra pressure to get back to work early even if my body and mind aren’t ready for it? Personal training is a demanding job, I don’t work out with my clients, but I am demonstrating for them, I am spotting them, I have to be “mentally there” with them so they don’t injure themselves, and I am on my feet most of the day. I love what I do, I just want to make sure I do it well and KEEP doing it well. Not only that, but I want to be there for my child too! I want to make sure I don’t miss their first steps or working only to pay someone else to take care of them… Right now it feels like a tight rope without knowing what the rope is attached to on the other side.

With all of these thoughts swirling in my mind, it makes me pause and ask: Where did I get this idea from? When and where did I think I could do it all?

Michelle Obama wrote about this in her book Becoming. I am paraphrasing here, but she basically says that she was burning herself out because she was trying to be the best lawyer, best mom, best wife, etc. and the fact of the mater is, you can’t be all of the things all of the time to everyone.

Dang, if Michelle Obama couldn’t figure it out, I guess I am fixated on a myth… a myth that I can and should be able to do it all. So why does it feel like such defeat? If I were Superwoman I would cradle Baby E in my Lasso of Truth while training my clients. Unfortunately, my golden lasso is nowhere in sight. I will just have to take one day and step at a time. For a woman who loves a plan, this is a hard thing to accept.

For the readers out there that have made it this far and can relate, know that you aren’t alone. We are staring off into the tight rope abyss. Taking one unsure and unsteady step at a time figuring out our future and life as a mom and an entrepreneur. Over the next few months I am going to use this space to get things off my chest and to provide more inspiration along the way. Once I am fully certified, you will also be able to find perinatal dos and don’ts when it comes to fitness and nutrition. Until then, my friends, keep that chin and chest up so you don’t lose balance on the tightrope.

Xoxo

Sara

A CULTURE OBSESSED WITH BEING THIN

Keto, Intermittent Fasting, Low Carb, Atkins, Blood Type Diet, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Lose-It, My Fitness Pal, the “F-it” Diet…  one thing we are not short of in 2020 is the endless options of diets on the best way to lose weight, and FAST!

Our culture today is OBSESSED with thinness, yes the Body Positive movement has come a long way,  but time and again I see the same thing.  My clients want to lose weight, period… at the beginning, a lot of them don't even care how it’s done. As long as they see the number on the scale go down, they are happy.  According to Business Wire, between 2019-2023 Americans will have spent $72 Billion* in the weight loss and diet control markets. 72 BILLION, with a “B!”  That’s a LOT of money… Unfortunately, the winner is always the industry and rarely the individual. 

Why is that?  Because Americans are so obsessed with losing weight and being thin, that they are willing to pay a lot of money for those results.  I did the math for you, with $72 Billion, that would mean every US citizen is paying $219.38/year.  EVERY. US. CITIZEN!  Yet, at the same time, US obesity rates are at the highest they have ever been.  What gives?

In my seven years of being a personal trainer, I have seen a trend: desperation.  People are desperate to have instant results.  So they are willing to try any and all diets to obtain quick weight loss like their best friend’s mom, or that pesky co-worker who always just seems to shed weight without a problem… ugh, so annoying.

What happens when they do select X, Y, or Z program is that it is usually done without too much research behind it.  It’s done based on the results that co-worker got, it was the good ‘ol ego comparing themselves to someone else.  I hate to break it to you, but we are all unique!  EVERY single one of us on this planet is unique! 

We all have different needs, health histories, genes, environmental stressors, incomes, everything!  I LOVE that fact, we are all our own little endangered species, so I think it is time we look at and after ourselves individually & properly. 

Before diving into what you can do as an individual, let me give you my argument as to why I don’t think you should try your co-worker’s diet, even if they did lose a bunch or weight, or put on a lot of lean muscle.  

Top 5 Reasons I have found

that a successful diet for one person doesn’t mean another person will have the same results:

• The diet only works for a short while and then you no longer see results due to a reduction in “water weight” but nothing else.

• The diet doesn’t consider your normal routine: Example, eating 8 small meals a day, or limiting intake to only certain hours and you work a swing shift or at a job where that is just not realistic. 

• The diet isn’t right for you because of pre-existing health conditions; for example, a Type 1 diabetic would not be able to do pure intermittent fasting, their glucose levels would bottom out.  If you have kidney problems and you put too much lean protein in your diet, it would be too much stress on your kidneys and then harmful to the rest of your system.

• The COST!  My goodness, the COST!  Your new diet may not be affordable based on the list of ingredients you are supposed to stick with.

• Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum annnnnd now, for the Number 1 reason why someone else’s diet hasn’t worked for you: IT’S NOT SUSTAINABLE.

---

The number one reason I have seen people fail at others’ diets is because they are

TOO RESTRICTIVE.

---

I’ve said it once, and by Spirit, I will say it again: EVERYTHING IS BETTER IN BALANCE.  What that means for me is different from what it means for you, your mom, my mom, your pesky co-worker, to all of my clients.  WE ARE ALL UNIQUE, therefore, our nutritional needs are unique, and for nutritional/diet success means looking at yourself on the individual level and figuring out what you need.  Not only what you need to lose weight, but to be nourished, to fuel yourself for the activities you want to do and the life you want to lead.

Sounds simple enough, right?  The real question is, how do you know what you need, and how do you create a nutritional plan that will help you reach your goals? 

The answer is: BALANCE

In general terms, you “know” what you should be eating: vegetables, fruit, grains, proteins, and healthy fats.  We all learned the Food Pyramid or My Plate growing up.  The problem with those diagrams is that food and nutritional science has come a long way since the original Food Pyramid was introduced back in 1992.  In fact, research from the Harvard Medical Institute suggests that the food pyramid from ‘92 added to the weight gain of Americans, with many of them choosing refined carbohydrates instead of the whole grains we all know is better for us today.

Now the question becomes; What is the right BALANCE of nutrients for me, my overall health needs, and my fitness goals?  Because really, at the end of the day, we all know that more calories out compared to calories in, is what aides a person on their weight loss.  Yet, it isn’t that simple and should not be considered as such.

Say it with me, “Not All Calories are Created Equally!”  Counting calories does help some people, but really what you should focus on is the QUALITY of that calorie.  What is that food providing for you?  How is it going to help fuel you and balance out all of the other foods so your body can break them down to create energy for our desired activities?  

You don’t need a degree in nutrition or food science to figure this out, I suggest starting with the basics and then going deeper from there.

Here are some of those basics that I like to tell all of my clients:

• Don’t Skip Breakfast!  Our bodies need more energy in the morning than they do at night.  Those who intermittently fast should put their eating hours to where it makes sense for their day so they have the energy to get through it, not be hungry/hangry etc.  Our bodies are ready for nutrition when we wake up because all night while we have been asleep our systems “housekeepers” get to work.   That’s when our body heals itself, our digestive tracts start to heal if we have given ourselves inflammatory foods, our chemicals in the brain and body reset, and then we wake up ready to go off to the races. 

• Eat Like A King At Breakfast, A Princess At Lunch, And A Pauper At Dinner (last meal of the day should be the smallest portion).  Again, this is so we can fuel ourselves throughout the day, our calories should be heavier in the morning than in the evening, because we don’t need the energy our bodies create with the foods right before we go to bed.  Late night eating and overeating increases the chance of weight gain, heartburn in the evening, disturbed sleep, and really just effing up your whole circadian rhythm and gut biome.

• Serving Sizes Matter! You can refer to My Plate, but as a general rule of thumb, you want “two handfuls” of fruit/veggies, “one fist” of grains, a “palm of your hand” of protein, and then a “thumb size” of healthy fats.

Once you familiarize yourself with the basics, now it’s time for you to dig deeper.  If you haven’t been paying attention, this is UNIQUE FOR EVERYONE!  You will need to look at what your body type is to better understand where you carry your weight and what that means for you.  You will need to look at your health and your family health history to see if there is a higher risk of heart disease, intestinal issues, etc.  If so, you want to make sure you are eating in a way that will help prevent those complications.

Then, we get to dive even deeper.  Which nutrients is your body lacking?  That can be determined by a blood test with your physician, or you can just take a look in your refrigerator.  Is it colorful?  To maximize your nutrient intake, you should be eating the rainbow with every meal.  The more colorful your meal is, the more diverse in nutrients. If you look and see the same old colors again and again, it’s time to look up some recipes and get creative!

If you STILL feel like you aren’t getting anywhere in the weight loss/gain goals department, it’s time to talk to a nutritionist or dietician.  Now, NOT ALL OF THEM ARE CREATED EQUALLY!  I have a friend who is a holistic health coach, and she works on a plan WITH you to discover how you keep the foods you love, but also change your behavior patterns to help you know what you ought to be eating for your goals.  What you DON’T want is someone giving you a list of foods that you Can and Can’t have… unless you have an allergy or sensitivity, all foods are fair game, but of course as I said earlier, not all calories are created equally, so you need to make those choices with intent. 

Speaking of food allergies and sensitivities, I have gone down my own nutritional journey lately and found that my body has severe sensitivities to foods I thought were healthy.  Yes they were high in nutritional value, but they were causing inflammation, fatigue, and water retention for me.  So that is the last piece of the puzzle.  If you have the financial means, I HIGHLY suggest that you do a food sensitivity test so you know what causes inflammation in YOUR body.  For me, I have been free of Chicken, Egg, Almond, and Garlic for only a little while now, and I couldn’t tell you the last time I have felt this good.  I thought those foods were good for me, and they ARE good, healthy foods, but my body said, “No thank you!”

We don’t know what we don’t know, the more we think about ourselves as an individual, the more likely we will be able to utilize the tools we have to create a plan tailored for us.  It’s time to stop comparing ourselves to others or trying the latest fad diet to help us lose those pesky pounds that just won’t come off.  It’s time to stop yo-yo dieting, and time to pick a nutritional plan that becomes our DIET.  Your consistent daily diet will keep you from dieting, it will nourish your body, and will help you achieve your goals.

Until next time, stay healthy, stay happy, and remember; Everything is Better in Balance.

Xoxo Sara 

Referenced:

*The $72 Billion Weight Loss & Diet Control Market in the United States, 2019-2023 - Why Meal Replacements are Still Booming, but Not OTC Diet Pills -https://apnews.com/press-release/pr-businesswire/ec35f3315f9a4816985615391f41815a

Online Training Programs that are Fun, Challenging, and Affordable

 How to pick the one that is right for you

Google “Online Workouts,” what do you get?  

You get inundated with results.  You have the “Best 8 minute workout for your butt!” or you have the trainers “giving” you free workouts only to keep harassing you with the spam emails… NOT the SPAM!  

There are some great ones out there, don’t get me wrong.  I have done several of them myself. I am an online trainer, afterall.  There are a myriad of wonderful fitness routines, target exercise, etc.  However, there is one big looming question, 

“Is this the right exercise for me and my goals?”

Not only is there the question of if the exercise video you chose is the right one for your goals, but also, 

“Am I doing this right?”  

How many times have you been there?  Following a fitness routine is hard enough in a physical class, let alone trying to follow someone on the TV, your phone, or tablet.  

How can you get the feedback you need?  

If you like the one exercise, how can you make sure the program you purchase is going to help you with your goals?  

I have always been active, but after college I had found myself out of shape and broke.  I wanted to feel better and feel good in my skin again, but I couldn’t afford the fitness studios or packages sold online.  Since I was in a pickle, I did what any sane woman would do, I went to Pinterest.  

In Pinterest, were pictures and lists on what to do, but I always ran into the same problem, I wanted more.  I wanted structure, and I wanted to see results a little faster than a ¼ inch gone here and maybe a pound lost there.  This was before my life as a group fitness instructor and then personal trainer, but I had been involved in dance and sports all of my life, there had to be a better solution. 

I feel like a lot of us, especially women, want to make exercise fun so we opt for new videos online to keep it “fresh.”  When I started considering my online training packages I knew I had three struggles when I searched for online programs that I wanted to eliminate for potential clients. 

The three goals for my online training are: 

• make it as accessible as possible (meaning both financially and physically)

• make it fun & challenging 

• and lastly, my main goal is to TEACH you how to workout.  

I have my programs based on video library workouts, not your typical “Press Play and Move” model.  I want the person who purchases my online training program to feel confident in their movement, I want them to feel challenged, and I want them to learn how to create a workout from the tools that I give them.  

It is my duty to make sure anyone I come into contact with leaves me stronger, healthier, and/or happier than when they first met me.  With my online programs, I have made them flexible enough for you to be able to be in as much or as little contact with Natural Fitness 704.  I have workouts that take you from 0-100, with bite sized steps along the way to mitigate any risks of injury or boredom.  

The online programs are broken up into levels

Each level has 3 cycles to give you three months of workouts that build on top of each other.  Completing Level 1, for example, will get you ready for Level 2 and so on. 

Although the first three levels are pre-programed, there is ALWAYS room for customization, as even though these exercises are great foundational pieces, you may have an injury we need to work around, health condition, etc.  It’s all about finding the RIGHT fit for you!

Not being able to communicate with the online trainer was a big problem for me in the past.  I have organized different add ons for my clients to be able to contact me as much as they like for any and all questions.  Here at Natural Fitness 704, we believe that fitness is for ALL people.  We all have the ability to take control of our health and fitness, no matter our age, gender, or income bracket.  

For fun, let’s pretend that my online program isn’t the right fit for you, this would be the case if you DID want the “press play and forget it” option.  I will have online workouts like that on my website in the future, so let’s just pretend for the moment that you are looking for someone or something else, what should you do to find the right fit?

Firstly, you need to know what your goals are 

Have a nice long chat with yourself about what your overall goal is and set smaller goals to help get you there. Now, once you know what those goals are, it’s time to find a plan that is right for you.  

Secondly, check out the trainer

Who is providing the program? Are they certified?  Is there a 3rd party that can verify that they are certified. For example, you can search for certified trainers, I’m certified through ISSA, but I’m also a member of IDEA Fitness, where they have verified my credentials.  

How long have they been training?  Now, I know that there are a lot of fantastic trainers young and old alike.  Experience DOES speak for itself though.  Make sure the trainer of your program has testimonials, check their social media pages, etc. 

Lastly, what does it cost?

Is the price that they have their program set at affordable for you to keep going?  Results don’t happen overnight, so you need a program designed to last at least a few months for your body to have time to respond to that new stimulus.  

Hopefully this helps you navigate the Wild World of Webs to find a trainer and an online fitness program that is right for you.  Remember, the more upfront you are with yourself at the beginning is better.  What are your goals, what is your budget, and what type of experience are you looking for?

Us here at Natural Fitness 704 want to make the World a happier and healthier place where our minds and bodies can grow.  If you have questions, please shoot me an email at naturalfitness.704@gmail.com. I’m here to help you navigate your options to find the best program for you and your goals.  Let me help you take that first step in your fitness journey by signing up for my emails (I promise, NO SPAM!).  What you will get is a link for your trial workout.  It will give you a chance to “meet me,” Sara, and to see what you can expect from a program with me.  

Don’t feel like committing just yet?  Give me a follow or shoot me a DM on Instagram or Facebook @naturalfitness.704  You’ll be able to meet me, my pups, some of my clients, and the best Vice President in the fitness game (my husband).  

I’m looking forward to connecting with you and helping you find the best solution for you and your goals.  

Until next time, stay healthy, stay happy, and remember; Everything is Better in Balance.

Xoxo Sara