Tag: goals

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On Slow Progress, Time, & Consistency

I work as a health coach within a weight-loss and wellness clinic, and have for almost two years now. Previous to this endeavor, I coached exclusively women in one-on-one lifestyle programs aimed at gradual changes over time – with a six month commitment from each client. Knowing both sides of the “wellness-coin” at this point, I know a few pros/cons from both angles.

The obvious appeal of a weight-loss focused program is the fast results. Within the VitaLife program, our clients achieve an astounding average of 20 pounds of weight-loss within a 40 day period. Wow, right?! It’s almost miraculous, especially when you consider that the loss happens not with any shakes, pre-packaged meals, snack bars, shots/drugs, or surgical intervention. So what’s the schtick? How does it happen?

Whole clean foods….with temporary restrictions. 

There is no way to achieve dramatic loss quickly without dramatic change.

So, the benefit is: fast loss! Yay! Also – most people end up feeling AMAZING once they rid all the toxic crap from their diet and begin to hydrate from the inside out over the span of 65 days. The drawback is: you give up a lot of things for a short period of time to force your body into fat burning. 

Now, I hate restriction. I hate feeling like I “can’t” have anything I want to have food-wise. And there are lots of healthful foods that are not included in the program, simply due to the science of making the body shed fat fast. This type of program works really well for many, but where they fail is when/if they are not ready to make notable changes to their diets and lifestyle in the long-haul once the program is done.

You cannot keep doing the same thing over and over (diet-wise: i.e. junk food) and expect different results than you’ve already had (weight-gain and/or health struggles). 

So what’s the other option for health coaching and wellness? It’s the trifecta of long-lasting, and true change: Slow Progress + Time + Consistency. As a coach, this is my bread and butter (delicious, and I always crave it for myself and others!). As a mom/wife/woman, this is where I reap the most benefit personally: when I commit to changes that are gradual, buildable, measurable, and sustainable over time. (I like a checklist and a plan – anyone else?)

“Weight” is something that can be manipulated with drastic behavior changes for a short time, but HEALTH is something that comes from “tending your garden” so to speak:  to first culture nutrient-rich soil, plant individual seeds, and give them time, sunlight, water, and a climate to flourish.

I am a certified holistic health and wellness coach, meaning I see individuals as complex and unique, and each dealing with different goals, challenges, and physical realities. In order to really see change happen in your life — the kind of change that keeps you fulfilled, happy, motivated, and empowered — you need to be able to assess what your goals are, what challenges are in place currently, and how to physically and mentally commit to the change over long periods of time. 

Consistency of your behavior and mentality over time is what changes everything.

So what are the pros of a long-haul approach to wellness coaching: You get to keep flexibility in your lifestyle (without so much restriction), and you build stackable habits over time that are more likely to last in your lifestyle. And the cons? Well, it takes time, and you may not *see* the “results” as clearly (like a number on the scale) or quickly as you want.

I’m a radically different person today than I would have been had I not committed to changing my health and wellness at age 22. Your impetus toward change may be different from mine – and for some, it starts with a fast-fat-loss type program… but what matters over everything else is your decision to change, and to make it happen over time.

The fitness coach I’m following lately – Hannah Eden – does a good job of reminding me that the journey is never over in terms of fitness and health. Once one goal is met, then it’s time to set another and another and another. It’s through constant challenge over time that we grow, and become stronger not only physically in the gym, but also mentally in our lives. (*Disclaimer: some who are prone to mental illness or eating/exercise disorders may not be able to healthfully take this approach.)

Last year, I committed myself to the new “journey” of being an Athlete. While I have been relatively fit and active in various ways and intensities for the past 10 years (I’ve run five half marathons, done lots of different group classes over the years, gone through body-building programs and challenges, etc), I want to continually push myself into new athletic feats. 

My recent endeavors have been focused on HIIT – with plyometric movements, kettlebells (this is all new to me), and animal-flow style body-weight training. This type of exercise is about metabolic conditioning, to maximize fatigue in a short 30-45 minute workout. It’s effective! Below, you’ll see the effects of about 15 months of consistent resistance training and metabolic conditioning. It’s minimal difference on the scale (+/- 5-7 pounds), but major difference in recompositioning and body fat. This type of change happens slowly, progressively, over time, with consistency. (Oh, and a clean plant-powered diet!)

  • Not a before / after… just progress/change over time: November 2019 – Jan 2021

Whatever your goals are now, take time to really focus on the pros/cons of how to approach them, and recognize that either way (fast weight-loss or slow change), you’ll need to commit to yourself for the long run to really see the pay off. If you want some support, a good ass-kicking, a cheerleader, and/or a guide for the road, you know how to reach me. :-) 

You’ve got this. Now take a step!

– Whit

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Starting Over: Part 1

We all have to start over at some point in our lives.

Depending on how you’re feeling about it, the process can either be incredibly painful, or a fresh bright chance at a new beginning. For many of us, starting over can actually be a complicated mess of both these emotions, tangled up in this indecipherable web of conflicting feelings. 

I’ve had many years to process what happened to my dream, to my career vision with health coaching, and even to my marriage that waned and bent under the weight of failures and miscommunications. I started She Lives Fit as a bright and beaming 24 year old, ready to take on the world and make waves of positive change. Less than a year into my venture, I realized it was going to take a lot more financial security to make ends meet for my husband and I, and I gradually eased back into part time and eventually full time employment in other ventures. I was devastated, but still continued to accept a few clients on the side of my many hours of work and private teaching and volunteering.

In 2016, I birthed my son. Becoming a mother fundamentally shifted my entire life. (I feel like there should be a warning about the degree to which women feel altered hormonally and emotionally while breastfeeding, even when it’s not fully considered postpartum depression.) It was the closure of any “free time” I had to engage in entrepreneurial work while also working full-time and nursing my infant. I quietly let the door shutter on my dream, as my strained marriage and family responsibilities took its steady toll on any flicker of hope I had left.

I mourned the loss of this dream. Mourned it, cried over it, berated myself, gained some weight, struggled with certain healthy habits amidst roils of life change, and eventually just concluded I needed a new dream. Washed my hands. Moving forward. “You failed. Suck it up, buttercup.”

I experienced the end of my first marriage throughout this mourning process as well. Cue sweeping waves of emotional ruin, complete devastation… and somewhere buried under the ash: the smallest seed of hope for a new life and new dream ahead.

Starting over isn’t easy. Anyone who has been through a traumatic “end” of some kind knows that. And sometimes the way we start over is just by licking our wounds, tending to our emotional scars, and taking one baby-step at a time into a new existence.

Thankfully, the end of one chapter of my life began the start of a beautiful new vision and reality. I started my life over, grew into a more confident mother by single parenting, resolved to do better in my future relationships, and build myself into the self-made and confident woman I knew I could be and wanted to be back when I was 21 years old. I remarried – and have so much to be thankful for. My spouse is loving, encouraging, and supportive in all the right ways. From the beginning of our relationship, when I confessed my feelings of devastation and failure with my business, he said it wasn’t over. He said he could see it happening again – just with the right foundation in place. He believed in me long before I believed in myself, and for that I am so grateful.

When we got married, I quit my full-time employment in medical care, and moved into the position I hold currently with VitaLife: working in health and wellness coaching again, with the security of a business model that I knew would be successful, and support at home to make it happen. I also was able to focus on my private voice studio and expand the number of students I could teach. Everything was falling into place.

A few months ago, I was looking through bank statements and saw my recurring monthly web-hosting payment on my ledger, and got extremely agitated. 

“This is so dumb, Whitney. Why keep this stupid website you never even update or use, when you aren’t coaching on your own!? You keep paying year after year to keep this useless thing, just cancel it already.”

I slogged through the irritating process of resetting my usernames and passwords because I couldn’t remember any of it, and got logged in to my host site and hovered over “cancel”… I clicked it… and it said, “Are you sure you want to cancel and deactivate your domain?” 

And I hesitated. I wasn’t sure.

That tiny seed under the ash had been growing subconsciously, being watered and tended lovingly with the affirmations of my husband and the little pieces of fate falling into place over the last year with my jobs and life. I’ve been happier and more content than ever, which is the most fertile place for hope to germinate and thrive.

I didn’t want to give it up. I didn’t cancel, and I didn’t let go.

After a lot of discussion, excited brainstorming, and the right support, I decided it was time to refocus. Time to relaunch my dream, in a new direction and with my new life. I know so much more than I did nearly a decade ago when this all began. My life looks totally different, and so does our society and cultural norms. (And amidst the COVID nightmare we are all experiencing, I have had a lot more time at home to fill with work and projects.) The equation is completely different now….

It’s time to start over.

And I’m so glad that you’re here.

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Creating Your Life

This morning over breakfast with my best friend, we had a discussion about passions and living with purpose. We were talking about how sometimes our “passions” may be fleeting and lead us in a wayward direction, but there seems to be a deeper inner drive that we each feel meant to pursue and fulfill in our lives.

We both agreed that we are meant to create.

Outside of just “passions” – or really, overzealous hobbies – we both feel the deep longing and need to create and make. For me, in my exploration of careers and direction, I originally thought this need could be met by a career in graphic design (similarly, my best friend is also a graphic designer). I have always appreciated art, and been a hobby artist myself. I love to draw, to layout materials, to design greeting cards with the perfect combinations of texture and color and shape…so why not do it for a living? I quickly found myself gasping for air (and inspiration) in the design/marketing/advertising world, and my inner spirit felt dead doing mundane projects for the same companies over and over again. There was no creation. Nothing sung to me or through me. I felt trapped and lifeless, doing what I had thought was “my passion.”

FARGO_theatre.jpgOver the past few years, my passions have taken me in a few different directions to ultimately land me where I am now, feeling more at peace and fulfilled doing work that I love each day. I started out of college as a newspaper editor, transitioned to a graphic designer at an ad-agency, then to a graphic artist at a printing company. Along the way, I started teaching voice lessons to fill my spirit and joy of music in my life, and also picked up a part-time position as the music and arts coordinator at my church. These side-jobs filled my drive to createmore than any of the work I was doing in my main jobs, which occupied my mind and time for the majority of my week.

I knew it was time to switch directions…but what direction would allow me to create and really be inspired and joyful about what I’m doing (without any alternative motive to manipulate or sell to consumers for money’s sake)?

Listening to this inner need to create and following the lead of my natural gifts and talents, I have found myself in a place of true soulful inspiration and joy. I realized that outside a natural “eye” for design and visual art, my gifts are more strongly suited to working with people and creating relationships among those who are hungry for more joy in their lives. Though I don’t create advertisements or company logos like I used to, I am satisfying my need to create by fostering more meaningful creations in my life.

I create inspiration. I create relationships. I create goals. I help others to create happier, healthier lives for themselves and those they influence. 

And that, my friends, is the best kind of creation to me. The kind the inspires you to create a life you love.

What is your innate need and longing? Are you satisfying it by what you’re doing today? If not, how can you explore what other ways in life you can fulfill your calling?

We are Creations and Creators in this life. Today I encourage you to take one tiny step toward creating a life you love. You are a product of where you devote most of your energy. Are you channeling it in a direction that creates the kind of opportunity and passion you long for?

Create a life you love. It is in your power. Do you believe me?