Category: Fitness

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There’s more behind a picture than a wall

What I do & look like now really doesn’t mean jack or offer you as much value than the story that got me here today.

I can give you all the advice on what I practice & preach daily, but you can’t replace life experience, feeling emotions, & putting in the work.

I don’t know everything & I’m not an expert. But I have lived similar struggles just like all of you & I know what it feels like to sit in a shxt pool of self loathing.

🖤I was the fat girl. Kids were mean.

🖤In the 6th grade I was told I was too big to be a cheerleader.

🖤This one’s for the 14 yr old me that thought rice cakes & sugar free jello were meals & restriction was the only way to be thin & thus loved.

🖤This one’s for the 16 yr old me that thought skinny & having a boyfriend was all she needed for happiness & worth.

🖤This one’s for the 18 yr old me that beat herself up for gaining 20lbs in college bc she made memories w/friends. 

🖤This one’s for the 20 yr old me that binged & purged & let food consume her every thought because she wasn’t as pretty or skinny as other sorority girls. 

🖤This one’s for the 22 yr old me that got married too young, was a people pleaser, & turned to drinking to numb the feelings.

🖤This one’s for the 28yr old me, divorced, lost, partying, gut issues, & starving bc her body was the only thing she thought she could control.

🖤This one’s for the 32 yr old me that discovered Crossfit & fell in love with being strong, but let PR’s & comparison lead her to overtraining & completely fxckin up her hormones & gut for yrs.

🖤This one’s for the 36 yr old me struggling to figure out how to date & live in a world as an athlete with Crohn’s & special needs.

🖤This one’s for the 38 yr old me that continues to grow & evolve in a life that constantly changes.

For all the humans who scroll, comparing when they see a beautiful photo, know there’s a story & a lifetime of struggle there too.

What we do now is not a reflection of livin a perfect picture life, it’s a reflection of a lifetime of scars which are far from picture perfect —we should wear them proudly.

There is HOPE💓 

Link HERE if you need a consultation & pep talk to get back on the right health journey for you🙏

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Fall in love with the journey and build your foundation first

Remember when your mom & dad used to say, “You’ll understand when you get older.”?

Well, I’m almost 40 & just when I think I have everything figured out I realize I still don’t understand a fuggn thing. 😂 

The difference — I’ve learned to embrace & fall in love with my journey.

Learn from the lessons of your past.

Self awareness is a super power.

Had a fun podcast with Dan Rosada & @bigfatlifepodcast today! That will drop next Wednesday, I will post all the links! 🤘🏻

We talked about building our foundations 1st.

Most people wanna over complicate things or they just want people to tell them what to do without educating themselves or understanding how their bodies work, their emotional ties & relationship with food, how they respond to food, exercise, stress, etc.

I put it like this, you don’t tell builders to go ahead & put the walls & roof up on a house without building a foundation, right? Because it won’t work will it? Everything will come crumbling down.

I chatted with a friend today about age. How we don’t really understand why people fear getting older.

I don’t know about y’all but my 20’s & early 30’s were a train wreck. As I’ve aged, I started to wake up & realize I had been livin for everybody else but me. I disappointed myself with comparison & expectations instead of falling in love with the process & journey.

I ignored addictions to things like sugar & carbs, excessive alcohol/caffeine, men, negative self talk, seeking to change my body to make myself feel better rather than changing my mindset & relationship with self.

Now is the time to build your foundation & fall in love with YOUR journey! 🌈 

Xoxo 

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Finding the right diet for you & what you should be tracking! Why I use a NutriSense Continuous Glucose Monitor

If you have a body, you’re an athlete. Athletes strive to function at their best! 

The amount of information on the interwebs as the “right” diet is for you is astounding & confusing.

I used to be one that followed what everyone else was doing especially if I desired to look like a specific person, whether deep down I knew their training & diet methodology didn’t align with me.

So I started collecting my own data to solve the riddle & choose what was best for my health & body goals:

-Bloodwork & testing via my family doctor & functional medicine doctor

Ex: Hormones, routine labs, thyroid, inflammation markers, lipids, gut tests if I was having bloating/pain/abnormal symptoms

-Tracking Food via @myfitnesspal

Ex: calories, macros, trigger food symptoms

-Tracking via my @fitbit Versa 3 

Ex: sleep quality, menstrual cycle, steps, weight

-Journaling Biofeedback

Ex: sleep quality, mood, performance, recovery, energy & digestion when eating certain foods & meal timing

-Tracking ketones via @ketomojo

-Tracking glucose NOW via @nutrisenseio continuous glucose monitor (CGM)

**CODE: KATIE25, LINK HERE**

https://www.nutrisense.io/

Since transitioning to a carnivore-based diet, I am particularly interested to see how my body regulates glucose to keep me my healthiest.

I want to see if there are things I can do to optimize my health like experimenting with meal timing, meal sizes, fasting, work out intensity, sleep, etc, to keep stress levels down, performance in the gym strong, & energy levels exceptional so I can be EXTRAORDINARY!

Age is just a number & your quality of life, impact on this world, & longevity hinge on your ability to understand & take care of the only forever home you will ever have — your body. 🏠❤️

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All About Gut Health on the Self Transformed Podcast with Emily Nichols!

I don’t eat vegetables or fiber.⁣

I eat a 💩 ton of meat.⁣

⁣Why? 

It works better for ME & my special digestive needs.⁣ For decades I chased fat loss & performance as a Crossfit Athlete following diets because everybody else was doing it. But I found myself broken, emotionally eating, inflamed, bloated, & unable to lose body fat despite “eating ‘clean’ & all the right things.”

⁣Honored to have the opportunity to chat with @emilynichols22 on the @selftransformed podcast today! You don’t want to miss this episode!

⁣

Had a consult call yesterday with a client struggling to find the right diet. The problem — focusing solely on fat loss & not holistic health first. That includes mindset, gut health, & your relationship with food & exercise.⁣

⁣First thing’s first — there is no such thing as a “clean” or “best” diet. This only creates food fear & stress. There are only foods that NOURISH & make you feel GOOD & foods that HINDER you & make you feel CRUMMY. Some of these can be those deemed “healthy” like fruits & vegetables, you just can’t break them down & digest them properly.⁣

You may still be having symptoms because:⠀⁣

❌You haven’t addressed the root cause. There is a reason for symptoms. Don’t put a bandaid on it. My approach is find the root cause & develop a system to fix it. Is it an infection, stress, lifestyle, overtraining, Candida, bacteria, no sleep, too much fiber/too little fiber, not chewing your food, too large of meals, food combos?⁣

❌You’re stressed af & not making a change. That gut brain connection isn’t bs. It controls many things from mood to energy to digestion. If you can’t chill out, your gut can’t do its job.⁣

❌Sleep. Rest & digest means just that. If you’re always wired, it’s hard for the body to adequately rest & digest. It affects the 🚽 too.⁣

❌Histamine/food intolerance: some lack enzymes to break down specific foods &/or our guts are so inflamed we’ve developed an intolerance over time.⁣

❌Stress. Over exercise. Under eating. Malnourishment. Life stress. ALL STRESSORS.⁣

Love y’all & I’d love to hear your experiences/feedback below and on the Gram!

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Don’t be upset about the results you aren’t getting from the work you didn’t do

A client got pissed at me yesterday. I said, “Good, then I’m doin my job.”

I had several conversations yesterday via dm with people letting their mindsets & emotional heaviness get the best of them.

On repeat: You attract what you put out. You cannot become what you want by remaining where you are.

You gotta shift your mindset. Mindset is part of the work.

This particular client, flat refuses to eat more food yet wants to gain muscle & heal. And I get it, it’s a mindfxck. 

And I don’t care what goal y’all are chasin in whatever facet of life — DON’T BE UPSET ABOUT THE RESULTS YOU AREN’T GETTING FROM THE WORK YOU DIDN’T DO.

4 things I live by…& letting my weight or my Crohn’s or excuses control me — NOT any of those 3 things…

1.) Be mentally attractive, kind, & be worth knowing. You attract what you put out.

2.) Thou shall not judge because thou has fxcked up too.

3.) You either DO or you DON’T.

4.) 2 things I don’t like to share, toothbrushes & wieners. 

⁣

💁🏼‍♀️Slap that last one on a T-shirt.⁣

⁣

January 2021 I picked my word. Actually I picked 2: JOY & SURRENDER.

⁣Book Recommendation: One Word

How I choose mine:⁣

Step 1: Determine the person you want to be & embody. ⁣

Step 2: Identify the characteristics & things you need to do to be that person. ⁣

Step 3: Choose the word that resonates with your person & the life you want to create. ⁣

⁣

I want to know what y’all chose for 2021! What’s your word?👇🏻⁣

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Learning how to love your imperfections

I’ve always hated my back. Rarely ever take back progress pictures. I feel partly because I don’t want to give a reason for negative thoughts to creep in & pick myself apart when I know I have to love myself for the sum of who I am in my entirety.

There’s 5 months & 11lbs between these pictures. I love this woman & her season in both pictures. The left is now, the right was on family vacation in October.

Things I used to loathe:

  • My scoliosis – it throws my hips off. My body is not symmetrical, I squat lopsided.
  • My left boob is bigger than my right & neither boob is as big as I would like. Hey there’s at least a handful, I’ve been told that’s all you need right?! 😂
  • My elbows don’t straighten. I can’t fully lock out in any lift which limits my abilities. My CrossFit coaches used to yell at me, not knowing it was a defect.
  • I have stretch marks & cellulite from gaining & losing 50 lbs over my lifetime. I always wanted slender legs, it’s just not the way I’m built. But my ham hocks are strong.
  • I have a red sun spot on my nose I have to cover from getting burned as a child on vacation & bailing hay on our farm.
  • I chew on the inside of my lip, still don’t know why.

From being the girl who refused to take the T-shirt off at the beach or pool to the woman now brave enough to show the canvas God gave her — hats off to you sis.

Wanted to remind y’all you can’t hate yourself happy, skinny, strong, successful, worthy, or LOVED.

 Stop putting new energy in old containers.

@jamesclear said, “The events of your past are fixed. The meaning of your past is not. The influence of every experience is determined by the meaning you assign to it. Assign a more useful meaning to your past & it becomes easier to take a more useful action in the present.”

I put a Post-it on this mirror of a reminder I saw yesterday: “This Chapter of my life is called: now that I know better, I must do better.”

Have a beautiful bootylicious weekend y’all! ❤️🍑🦾 I’d love to chat with y’all on the gram, never hesitate to reach out!

http://www.instagram.com/lil_bit_of_fit

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A day in the life: What I learned over 1 year on the carnivore diet

Lotsa carnivore questions today about what a day in the life of this girl looks like. It ain’t special y’all it’s just a routine that works for me. 

I’ll summarize for those who are new around here! Welcome! 🥩  Bookmark this on Instagram, there’s a lot of info! I also did an interview which is here on my blog that explains all of my transition over my carnivore journey.

▫️I don’t ‘treat myself’ or ‘cheat.’ Food is not a reward/something to earn. I also dislike saying cheat because it implies it’s going to benefit you in some way. Cheaters cheat to win. Do you really think you’re winning by cheating yourself?

⁣

▫️I eat 2 meals/d on avg. My days off or if I can sleep in, I now eat 1 meal. You must experiment. Your experience/needs will be different than mine.⁣ It takes TIME. It took me an entire year to fully adapt &, yes, I gained 15lbs initially.

⁣⁣

▫️Majority of meals are my Airfryer Crispy meat bars. 85% ground beef, ground chicken. Avg 2lbs of meat/d. Ground meat is easier to digest & track. I removed most pork & dairy, I don’t digest’em well. I don’t add extra fat often. Choose meats that are higher in fat. No I don’t like organ meat, I prefer the taste of grain fed over grass fed beef.

⁣▫️I stick to beef bc it’s satisfying & delicious but not SO delicious I want to binge. Food addicts tend to have issues controlling carbs, sugar, sugar free substitutes, keto treats, dairy, butter, cheese, bacon, pork rinds, hyper palatable & processed meats)

▫️I track macros loosely. It keeps me accountable & I know where to adjust. Rice cakes on occasion post workout or in the evening if I need them, rarely above 50g/day. Macros 10% C – 30% P – 60% F for ME** around 1900-2100 cal/d. Workout fasted at 5 AM on weekdays. Yes I drink coffee before. Work out 5d/wk, 1 active recovery day, 1 rest.

▫️YES, you can CrossFit & carnivore, CAREFULLY. Comes down to allowing yourself to fully adapt to being fat-fueled, meal timing, eating ample calories, & RECOVERY.

⁣⁣

▫️Sleep=nonnegotiable. 7 hrs min. Zzyquil helps. I take it most nights because I can’t shut my mind off.

⁣⁣

▫️Still hit 13-15k steps/day⁣, even on rest days, drinkin a ton of water + electrolytes, fasting when I’m not hungry (~18hrs avg), eating when I am.⁣⁣ No extended fasts, no snacking.

⁣

▫️I do drink socially. I don’t typically eat & have cocktails I choose 1 or the other. I also don’t like to eat late. Last meal is usually around 2 or 3p.

▫️Favorite self care is coloring, writing, walking, live music, time with friends, working out @3kings_athletics , @hotworx.fishers infrared saunas, @vitalityivbar , routine colonics treatments via Brandy Mason Colon Hydrotherapy in Carmel (I have her info), @massageheightsindy

All of these experiences are going to be different for you but I hope what I’ve learned throughout my journey can help steer you in the right direction 😉🐮 

Happy Friday, keep calm & carnivore on🤘🏻 

I’d be glad to answer any of your questions, drop them in comments or send me a DM on the gram http://www.instagram.com/lil_bit_of_fit

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Healing and losing the weight often means doing things you don’t want to do

“Your appetite will correct itself.”

Used to think this was bullshxt.

When I started an animal based nutrition approach this is what I heard. In this photo I was about 10lbs heavier on vacation, embracing the journey.

Had many of you ask about this yesterday & my recent weight loss.

I’m excited many of you want to try a more animal based approach & YES I absolutely believe its a wonderful lifestyle of eating which corrects many health issues, but I also want to make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons & not just wanting to hop on the “bandwagon” because you seek weight loss. 

It’s not for everyone’s lifestyle needs, some of you NEED specific kinds of carbs in your diet to feel & function better. Just because I prefer this style of eating doesn’t mean I think everyone should do it. No diet dogma here. We’re all different.

I had a question from a follower yesterday asking what she needed to do to heal gut issues & finally see weight loss. 

I responded with some hard truths.

You will most likely have to do things you don’t wanna do. Things I had to do:

  • Reduce workouts: no more 2 hrs of CrossFit & 20k+ steps a day. More rest days. I have to modify, reduce intensity & steps. Requires me swallowing my ego & not picking weights & movements I don’t need to do anymore for LONGEVITY as a goal.
  • Ate in MAINTENANCE & SURPLUS for almost 8 MONTHS. GAINED 15lbs in the process. Experimented with intuitive eating, macro ratios, fasting, meat, portions, tracking glucose & ketones, etc. Figured out I get better results tracking macros. Ground meats work better as far as tracking, simplicity, & satiety. Carb refeed days via rice cakes or white rice work great when I need them with minimal negative feedback. My appetite did “correct.” I eat slower & know know when I’m truly full.
  • Different fasting windows affect you differently. Don’t recommend any newby to fast, just get adapted to the way of eating 1st. You’ll find what works best. I can fast longer now. I don’t do extended fasts. The longest I go is about 20hrs.
  • What gets TRACKED gets MANAGED. I know a lot of you don’t wanna track but HOW ARE YOU GONNA KNOW WHAT TO CHANGE IF YOU DONT HAVE ANY AWARENESS OF WHERE YOU’RE STARTING? Quality & quantity matter. After a while you master it & won’t have to track but you need to learn quality & quantity & how it affects you 1st. It’s about making EDUCATED choices.
  • If you’re having gut/hormone issues, do a true elimination diet & stick to something longer than a few days or 2 weeks. This takes TIME. You didn’t have these issues after 1 day &/or put on the weight in 1 day. There are no quick fixes or magic. Put in the work. Get help from a coach or practitioner, get tested! Quit guessing. I worked with multiple practitioners, coaches, protocols & diets, & tracked symptoms/trigger foods for DECADES.

Do the DUE DILIGENCE — experiment, eat more, educate yourself, sleep more, have patience, seek help, fix your relationship with food & self 1st, quit binging on the weekends, overtraining, & treating your body like a dumpster fire.

Here’s to embracing the journey!

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What fitness and being raised on a farm taught me

Life ain’t always tacos & tequila 🌮🍸but it should be 🎉 😝 (more like beef & bourbon🥩🥃 for this girl.)

In other words, you don’t always get whatcha want but ya get whatcha need. It hinges on your perspective & reaction.

Yes, ‘whatcha’ is a word. Hxll my talk & text can’t even decipher my Indiana twang. Anybody else have that problem? 📲 

Raised on a cattle & crop farm in small town Indiana I grew up hearin things like, “Sexy as socks on a rooster” and “Quit your dickin around” an awful lot. 😂 

Cleaning the barn 💩🐮 was punishment. That and picking up rocks out of the field.

And you did not wanna hear mom say I’m gonna call dad — you knew your a$$ was in trouble.

I wouldn’t have changed my childhood for anything. Priceless life lessons that never could’ve been taught sitting in a classroom — the value of hard work, honesty, the Golden Rule, love, teamwork, responsibility, discipline, & the relentless pursuit of betterment.

Katie what the hxll does this have to do with your bathroom photo this mornin half naked in @Amazon underwear? 😆 — I’m getting to that.

You see these life lessons were the foundational bricks that transferred into my success habits AND fitness.

Most people scroll & look at the after photo & want to be &/or look like that person but they’re not willing to commit & do the work behind it. That’s what you need to think about. 

Can you do what that person had to do to get where they are? (Eat more food, reverse diet, commit to healing & rest, work thru the hunger in a cut, etc)

Is that your story & authentic self?

Have you learned the correct bricks to build your foundation? (Macros, eating maintenance, what foods you can digest, trigger foods, eating schedules, workout schedule, etc)

Growing up on a farm & fitness taught me a few things:

— They taught me I CAN do the hard things. I’m stronger than I think.

— They taught me how to stay committed, not just by what I looked like in the mirror, but simply by keeping the promises I made to myself to be healthy.

— They taught me discipline. Getting those workouts in, working with my 4H calves, hitting the macros, eating foods I can digest vs crap, sleeping over drinking all night.

— They taught me the value of hardwork & that I can do anything I put my mind to.

— They taught me having a serving & loving heart is more important than having a set of abs or five grand champions. 

As creatures on this earth, we either find comfort in not trying or comfort in the extreme. It’s difficult to find comfort in the balance.

There will be bumps along the way. They’re called lessons and remember you don’t always get what you want you get what you need 🌱 🪴 

Cheers y’all happy St. Patrick’s Day from Kelly Farms🍀🍻 

Go make memories, have fun, remember no good story started with a salad 🥩🥗🥂😄

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3 Hard Truths To Take With You Into 2021

I read, “You’re never going to be 100% ready and it’s never going to be just the right time, but that’s the point. It means that every moment is also the right moment. If you want it, you just have to do it.”

Hi five to whomever wrote that.🙋‍♀️ 

You wanna know why it’s so hard to get what you want (or what you think you want)?

Fear.

Doesn’t matter if it’s losing weight, talking to a person you like, moving, asking for a raise or going after that job you want.

Muscle ups scare the shit out of me but I commit to practicing relentlessly because I believe in my ability and deservingness of having what I want out of life.

**Some hard truths to take with you into 2021**

1.) You have a short term attitude that doesn’t align with your long-term intentions

Without a long term intention & approach to anything in life, you’re bound to suffer a rebound when you figure out it isn’t working. It’s that “oh fxck” moment…

How  you respond afterwords determines everything.

Take weight loss for example. Say you go low carb, lose a few pounds of water weight after a couple days, then discover it’s harder than you thought, your body isn’t responding as quickly as you thought — so you go back to old self sabotaging habits.

How about we commit to something more than 2 weeks? Commit, experiment, try & THEN if it’s still not working, it’s OK, be proud of yourself for trying!

Part of success is willingness to take a risk, yet also being smart enough to own it if it’s not working and search for another solution.

2.) You lack a quality support system 

Your environment is everything! Fitness, career, social media, relationship related — doesn’t matter.

Any source that makes you feel bad about yourself and drags your vibration down — get rid of it, unfollow, block, trash it. Replace them with sources and people who are positive & successful & living the life you desire.

I personally have been called a savage for the ability to cut people & things out of my life with no remorse if they are not serving my highest alignment, but guess what? I am a whole hxll of a lot happier because of this skill. Doesn’t mean you have to be an dxck, but be HONEST.

Don’t worry about what other people think of you, you will never be happy if you’re constantly people pleasing. Own your shxt, own your life.

You control your thoughts, environment, and reality of your life. Choose accordingly. 

3.) You lack clarity & don’t really know what you want

Write out your thoughts, feelings, and intentions. Learn to BE with yourself. Align your thoughts & actions accordingly to be the person you want to embody and that life will follow. 

If you’re chronically stressed, sleep deprived, overworked, & talk down to yourself, your life will be a helluva lot harder. 

Set you day up for success. You should have a success routine & habits in place. I wrote a blog just the other day about 8 things you should do every single day to be more successful. I suggest you go back and look at that.

Keeping these 3 hard truths in mind will allow you to create the space to welcome more abundance in your life. 

If you WANT IT, you have to DO IT.

Make yourself proud. 

Oxox Coach K