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DAMMIT! I Forgot Fitness is Supposed to be Fun, Not Punishment

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Fitness has always been a part of my life. My Mom was an aerobics instructor and honestly, my first memories of my entire life are of picking out her leotard and legwarmers and going to classes with her. For the most part, fitness has also been a very fun and social thing for me. I’m a big fan of group exercise (obviously, I started a wicked company that revolves around it, yay Hot Mama!). I love the people. I love the energy. I love the swearing. I truly love group ex.

Recently though, my workouts have become a grind. Like a “I really don’t wanna go in there and get on that treadmill and push, push, push myself. I hate it in there. Ugh” type of grind.

Here’s the thing, I was working out to lose weight, not to have fun. Yeah, I know. Me, the Founder of a fitness company that is successful because we make fitness fun, loving and supportive. Me, who battles against that F**KING scale and creates events to smash the aforementioned scales with sledgehammers. Yeah Me. I’ve been working out to lose weight. Because well, I’m uncomfortable in my skin right now and that’s not an awesome feeling. 

I have Hashimoto’s disease. It’s an autoimmune disease that attacks your thyroid. Basically, my thyroid doesn’t work at all and I take thyroid meds to manage it. It’s seriously not a big deal, but my medications never seem to even out and balance. This summer I became severely hypothyroid and couldn’t get on top of it. Weight gain and fatigue had me feeling self-conscious, embarrassed and oh-so-tired.

But, every morning I would get on my treadmill and hammer out some intervals. I would sweat and swear and couldn’t figure out for the life of me why I kept gaining weight. I would push myself and my workouts to a point where I started hating my body for not responding like it is supposed to. Stupid thyroid.   [Read more…] about DAMMIT! I Forgot Fitness is Supposed to be Fun, Not Punishment

Your Mind is an Asshole, Your Body a Gift – Why Do We Constantly Mix That Up?!

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Listen, I’m not saying your mind is always an asshole, but when it comes to what it says and thinks about your body? Most time…it’s an abusive asshole. Your mind controls how you feel about your body, what you think about your body and often these thoughts result in your overall feeling of shittiness towards yourself and sadly, more often than not it leads to body-loathing. 

We constantly hear about the power of our thoughts. We hear that our mind and our thoughts control our path, our destiny, and ultimately the energy we put out into this world (thank you, Oprah, and “The Secret”). And hey, I totally agree. There’s great power in our minds, our thoughts, our energy. What I need you to understand is that your mind can be a total cow and a completely abusive entity breaking you down, telling you you’re not good enough and guiding you towards your own self-destruction. 

Your body is a thing of beauty. It’s phenomenal. It performs miracles every freakin’ day. The fact that you wake up, breathe, have a heartbeat, smile, frown, cry, laugh, talk and move throughout your day is an incredible gift. But, do we acknowledge it’s greatness? Do we consider every day we get to get up, move, survive, thrive a gift? No…we’re too busy being told by our mind that we’re too lumpy, bumpy, chubby, boney, skinny, ugly, wrinkly and all the other crap our mind throws our way.

And yes, the media and society we live in have a lot to do with what our mind is incessantly berating us with. But, perhaps we need to find a way to stop our mind from controlling the greatness that is our body, that is our strength, that is who we truly are. Perhaps we need to start celebrating the glory of the miracle we live in and stop telling us that it’s not good enough.

Here’s the thing…you gotta stop talking smack about your body. What’s it ever done to you? I mean sure…we get injured, we get sick, and things happen to our body that we don’t particularly enjoy (hello peeing when I sneeze), but it houses my mind, my soul and where the heck would I be without this thing? I’d be a big blobby blob slithering around on the ground. 

It’s time to tell your mind to stop being so mean. It’s time to stop the negative self-talk reel that you have going round and round and round in your mind. And yes, I know that’s easier said than done, but don’t you think it’s time to at least start to try? The first step is simply “noticing what you notice”. This is one of the very first exercises we have you do in our Screw the Scale program. We simply ask that you start noticing when your mind starts talking smack about yourself or your body. What triggered it? What did your mind say? How did you react? How did you feel? Why did you respond the way you did? Just start noticing what you notice.

From there, after you start to see a pattern, change the thought. Try…just try…to put something positive in there instead of the negative crap you’ve been telling yourself for years. You won’t be able to do this all the time…the mind is a bully and will constantly try to bring you down…but take control and repeat positivity. You’ll win eventually. 

After you win a few times against your bully of a mind, your mind may actually start to change. It might actually acknowledge some strength, some endurance, some gifts your body has given you. Let those thoughts enter and embrace the warmth that comes along with it. Let your body absorb the kindness and nourish it as its never been nourished before.

It’s time to flip the switch and love your body. It’s time to tell your mind to bugger off and allow it to change and adapt and love something it’s been told to hate for a long, long time. 

Good luck, Mamas…go on…get out there and start noticing what you notice. If you need me, I’m here. All you need to do is ask for some help and I’ll be the first one shouting kindness at you and your body. 

 

When Sledgehammers Meet Scales, Magic Happens

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How can I possibly capture the emotional moments of women unleashing their strength and power in writing? It’s daunting and overwhelming, but I’m going to try to give justice to the energy and love that was felt during the Hot Mama Scale Bash Celebrations. 

It was last summer that I woke at 3am with the idea of creating a program where I combined fitness, fitness education and self-love exercises to help women learn to accept and love their bodies as they are. I landed on finally calling the “self-love” exercises “Love Yourself More” and they’re an integral part of our 8-week Screw the Scale (previously Screw Skinny) program. It is the combination of fitness and Love Yourself More exercises that make this program completely different than anything you’ve ever tried before.

I also thought it would be ridiculously amazing to offer an event where women could take back their power from the scale by bashing it with a sledgehammer. I wanted to give women the opportunity to smash (literally) a piece of equipment that has more often than not created heartache, self-loathing and body image despair. So, I created our Scale Bash Celebrations where we literally take a sledgehammer to scales and unleash the power we have within ourselves.

I saw a void in the fitness industry and I wanted to create a new, ground-breaking, self-loving fitness program. A lot of people workout to look better, fit into their jeans or lose a designated amount of weight. And, unfortunately, we’re heading into a season where we’re about to be inundated with getting “bikini-body ready”. That kills me. Every time. I needed to change that. 

Think about it: does the fitness program you’re currently on remind you to love your body? I’d hazard a guess that for the most part, that’s not the focus.

So, what about the work that has to go into accepting your body the way it is? Sure, let’s get fit and healthy, but perhaps we, in the fitness industry, also need to provide tools to help you learn to accept your body in its healthy form. That may not look like what the media images show us. That may look jiggly, wiggly, skinny, boney, muscley, not muscley, dimply or sleek. Health and fitness can come in all shapes, sizes, curves and glory. We need to start embracing and loving all silhouettes.

Why are we not teaching that? We were missing the point. 

But not any longer.

When sledgehammers meet scales, magic happens and programs like Screw the Scale can help us move past the numbers and towards self and body-love. The good news? I’m not alone on this mission, I have a band of women teaching this right along with me. 

About 100 women participated in our 8-week Screw the Scale program and I wish I could explain to you how humbling it is to hear how a program that came from my heart has impacted so many women. When I get pulled aside and told that this program helped you become a more patient, more energized, more loving Mother or that you can finally look in a mirror and love yourself, please know I am so grateful for your words. Your words are why I do what I do. Your words constantly inspire me to do more, give more.

Knowing that you’re taking the time for fitness and putting your health and self-love on your priority list is a beautiful thing. Learning that you’re happier, healthier and teaching your kids about the importance of fitness and body acceptance, well, that’s everything to me. So, thank you.

It’s beyond humbling. It’s beyond stunning. It’s beyond all my far-fetched dreams and expectations. 

So, How did the events go? Well…there were sledgehammers, scales, workouts, cheering, laughing, crying. There were so many emotions and so much love at each of the three events, I left feeling breathless, inspired and humbled. 

The energy of women bashing scales is phenomenal. Powerful. Beautiful. Even in the smaller groups, the energy put through the sledgehammer into the scale was exciting and…riveting. It went beyond the physical smashing and many women had a serious cry sesh shortly after. If we can help women step off the scale and learn that they’re so much more than that stupid number, I will celebrate and #dancedammit for the rest of my days. 

Trust me when I tell you that you’re worth it. You have strength. You have power. You are not defined by the numbers on your scale. I will help you raise your sledgehammer to your scale and bash it with the beauty and strength you have inside of you. Screw the scale, Mamas…you’re so much more than a number. 

 

Wanna know the coolest part? Me and my Hot Mamas…well…we’re going to continue pushing you to love yourself. This program will be offered at a franchise near you, just check in with them! And, if you don’t have a Hot Mama franchise near you (you should buy one), our online Screw the Scale program will be launching on May 4, 2017. So, keep watching for the magic…it’s coming.