Health Coach | Speaker | Writer | Welcome to my digital diary! I'm here to help you blend life & fitness to find your health & happy! Thank you for being part of my family & allowing me to add value to your journey!
Sister, 2 months ago I wouldn’t have thought one of the most important decisions of my week would be what sweatpants I’m wearing to the living room today?
I stumbled across a to do list as I flipped back through my daily planner…
…I welled with emotion.
It was so BUSY.
Photo credit: @doot_doodler
Busy with apts, shopping lists, workouts, work schedules, errands to run, consults, projects ideas, meetings, down to what color scrubs I needed to wear to make sure I went to the right hospitals.
Stress — on my body, mind, & spirit.
I felt ashamed to discover it. Time & life have changed so much. Forced to slow down. To long for that old life, the “normalcy.”
It was also a great reminder.
A reminder of how we’ve transformed busyness into beingness.
I’m different now. I long for pieces of that old “normalcy” but not the busy.
I loathe the word busy. I used it as a bullshit excuse & conversation filler for years. I catch myself doing it now.
I used it for not doing things I wanted to.
Travel. Vacation.
Spend time with friends & loved ones.
Invest in a new project, job, or venture.
Move.
Just fucking BE & do what I want to in a day.
Mostly out of fear of not having enough money or being seen as lazy. BUSY made me feel safe & worthy.
Same with control. If I control my body, my food, my workouts, my schedule — everything will be ok. Which in the past I’ve realized leads to disordered eating & body image & a poor relationship with food, myself, & exercise.
You place your worth on what you look like & how much you’re achieving.
Photo credit: @what.is.mental.illness
So when you’re not “busy” what initially happens?
You emotionally eat.
You doubt yourself.
You compare.
You get anxiety.
You lose your labels & sense of self.
Your relationships suffer.
Basically you step on the hot mess express full speed ahead.
Emotional eating is a biggie.
So here are some things to help you:
🌞 Stay occupied, halfway organize your day and do a brain dump the night before. That way you kind of know what to expect & can set a semischedule.
🌞 Jot down tentative eating times so you have something to stick to — expectations & commitments to yourself. And this way you can plan around your activities for the day.
🌞 Good activities that help pass the time positively:
-Cleaning house
-Purging old things from closets and spaces it makes way for new positive energy
-Take a nap, most of us don’t get enough sleep anyways
-Read — Knowledge + action is power
-Invest in a new learning course or workshop — be a forever student
-Color or pick up a creative hobby that keeps your mind and hands busy
-Go for a walk or do a mini workout for 20 minutes
-Call a friend
-Brain dump and schedule your week
-Listen to a podcast or write in your journal
-Go shopping, run errands, get out of the house
-Keep trigger foods out of the house if you know you can’t control yourself well around certain foods
– Eat a big breakfast with plenty of proteins and fats they will keep you fuller the majority of the day: things like eggs and sausage, eggs and bacon, burgers, roasts, it doesn’t have to be breakfast food
It’s ok to plan, but leave room for grace, flexibility & adventure.
Next time when I’m sitting in traffic, running late, I’ll reflect on the time of not having anywhere to run to. I’ll remember in the midst of confusion & suffocating stillness I grew strong, calm, & found a new appreciation of life & control.
I start my mornings with gratitude, a walk, & something inspiring to get my mind in the most abundant state possible.
Todays read, “Advice from a dying 24 yr old.”
Do you ever think about how most of us go through days on autopilot, merely existing. Those moments you get home & don’t remember the drive?
We chase material things & achievements yet feel empty & lost inside. We worry about dumb shit & things that don’t really matter in the end & fulfillment like bills, titles, money, what others think of us, etc.
Why?
None of us truly know the answers & what happens to us after this life. How we navigate this life, however, & the choices we make along the way, define our character & existence. Our experiences & choices shape us, but many of us spend our lives locked into commitments chasing money, power, & stability instead of digging deep within us.
We count down the hours on the clock until we can go home for the day, rest, and do it all again the next day. We run around all chasing something, and wake up one day wondering why we even chased it. It may not matter to you now what you do with each day of your life, but maybe this advice from a dying 24-year-old will give you a wake up call.
I hope you will take some wisdom away from this, & realize we only have a short time on this planet. We may as well make the most of it, & love & live as authentically as we possibly can before our time is up.
POWERFUL ADVICE FROM A DYING 24 YEAR OLD
“I am only 24 years old, yet I have actually already chosen my last tie. It’s the one that I will wear on my funeral a few months from now. It may not match my suit, but I think it’s perfect for the occasion.
The cancer diagnosis came too late to give me at least a tenuous hope for a long life, but I realized that the most important thing about death is to ensure that you leave this world a little better than it was before you existed with your contributions . The way I’ve lived my life so far, my existence or more precisely the loss of it, will not matter because I have lived without doing anything impactful.
Before, there were so many things that occupied my mind. When I learned how much time I had left, however, it became clear which things are really important. So, I am writing to you for a selfish reason.
I want to give meaning to my life by sharing with you what I have realized:
– Don’t waste your time on work that you don’t enjoy. It is obvious that you cannot succeed in something that you don’t like. Patience, passion, and dedication come easily only when you love what you do.
– It’s stupid to be afraid of others’ opinions. Fear weakens and paralyzes you. If you let it, it can grow worse and worse every day until there is nothing left of you, but a shell of yourself. Listen to your inner voice and go with it. Some people may call you crazy, but some may even think you‘re a legend.
– Take control of your life Take full responsibility for the things that happen to you. Limit bad habits and try to lead a healthier life. Find a sport that makes you happy. Most of all, don’t procrastinate. Let your life be shaped by decisions you made, not by the ones you didn’t.
– Appreciate the people around you. Your friends and relatives will always be an infinite source of strength and love. That is why you shouldn’t take them for granted.
It is difficult for me to fully express my feelings about the importance of these simple realizations, but I hope that you will listen to someone who has experienced how valuable time is.
I’m not upset because I understand that the last days of my life have become meaningful.
We care so much about the health and integrity of our body that until death, we don’t notice that the body is nothing more than a box – a parcel for delivering our personality, thoughts, beliefs and intentions to this world. If there is nothing in this box that can change the world, then it doesn’t matter if it disappears. I believe that we all have potential, but it also takes a lot of courage to realize it.
You can float through a life created by circumstances, missing day after day, hour after hour. Or, you can fight for what you believe in and write the great story of your life. I hope you will make the right choice.
Leave a mark in this world. Have a meaningful life, whatever definition it has for you. Go towards it. The place we are leaving is a beautiful playground, where everything is possible. Yet, we are not here forever.
Our life is a short spark in this beautiful little planet that flies with incredible speed to the endless darkness of the unknown universe. So, enjoy your time here with passion. Make it interesting. Make it count!
(n.) the time after a meal spent around the table with loved ones; a time to digest food, love, & friendship.
I was reading about the Spanish tradition where people sit at the table after a meal, talk, & connect with friends & loved ones.
Sweet presence — that’s what it is.
And I thought to myself, how did we lose this in our lives?
The savor of the truly important things in life?
—> the feel of sunlight on your skin
—> long, lingering hugs & the smell of fresh flowers
—> the taste of a home cooked meal with family
—> laughing with friends & meaningful conversations
—> the ability to simply move your body, health
—> peaceful sleep, clean sheets, the taste of fresh coffee
—> the feeling of the first time someone looked at you & told you they loved you
—> knowing you have the entire day to sit in your pjs & the freedom to do absolutely nothing
As basically the entire world has been forced to stay home due to the recent pandemic, I feel we’ve discovered we’ve lost our gift of presence through constant numbing & hustle.
I thought this was fitting to serve as a reminder both to ourselves whether we’re working or home or everything in between — the people you come home to…
family
friends
friends that become family
those you can’t wait to get on the phone with
those you connect with via social media
the simple feelings & emotions we experience in our everyday “mundane”…
These are the things that truly matter & we mustn’t forget when we’re feeling lost.
For me, I’d be more interested to learn from 80 people in their 80’s who were totally lost in their 20’s & 30’s that figured out what was truly more meaningful in life than 80 people in their 20’s & 30’s that figured it out early & never got lost.
It’s in the lost where we discover truth & ourselves again. 💟
I went into this low carb, insulin reset diet as another learning experience. What I found was a wake up call.
A lot of knowledge and life bombs here 💣
With the dramatic life changes for us all over the course of the past 2 weeks, cliché as it sounds, everything happens for a reason at precisely the right time.
Why the reset? I had been overly stressed, trying to cut, eating a high amt of carbs (via jasmine rice/rice Chex/occasional alcohol) while intermittent fasting & focusing on 2 (occasionally 3) larger meals a day.
👉🏻I have Crohn’s, struggled with a missed diagnosis of IBS basically my entire early life & was overweight.
👉🏻Don’t digest fruits or vegetables or fiber or seeds or skins well
👉🏻Thrive off animal meals & animal-based nutrition
👉🏻Struggled with disordered eating & bingeing
👉🏻 Spent 4-5 years healing my gut & getting myself out of metabolic adaptation because I ate poverty macros for fuggin forever
👉🏻Tried to competitively CrossFit on Paleo, Quito, low carb & did all the dumb shit for years
👉🏻I eat lowfodmap, gluten-free, dairy free, bullshit free 😆, and basic af, not cute meals are my jam. Why? Because that’s how I like to eat, Karen.
Save this for later 😉
My cut started out well, but as we progressed I noticed my energy was all over the place I was starting to feel more out of control eating larger meals (I was fuller throughout the day). My fasting blood sugar was consistently higher (for me) around the 95 to 100 range, staying elevated even 2 hours after eating.
Mine typically sits around 80 to 85 in a controlled environment, fasting.
My digestion was decent, but I still felt inflamed, puffy, & like I was carrying a lot of “fluff” around my middle which I did not have in my 20s. (I was more low carb as far as my diet approach in my 20s, & my workouts were lower intensity). I didn’t CrossFit until my 30s.
My lifestyle now is very different from even December 2019. My stress is higher & I’m traveling more.
My last cut was amazing (I had not dieted in 2 years & was coming off of a surplus) My schedule & stress were more controlled.
Last 12 week cut for a photo shoot.
💭🤔 HELLO!!!! Katie, you’ll be 38 in July, you don’t have the same body you had in your 20s. Dude, you’re almost a legit Cougar 😻😂
💁🏼♀️It’s time to get real, refocus, & realign.
To those of you in your 30s, let me tell you, things change quickly. You don’t recover as quickly, nights of bad decisions haunt you for weeks, and you’d rather go to bed by 9:30 than stay up & go clubbing. PS you still don’t have your shit together in your 30s. 👍🏼🤘🏻
I’ve learned this is the time to accept, adjust, & think about longevity more so than a ripped set of abs.
I love being lean & feeling light & strong, but just because you look the part doesn’t mean you’re healthy on the inside. Abs, striations, & single digit body fat — don’t help you live to a ripe old age.
These require different levels of commitment and flexibility with your diet and training. Be realistic.
MY CHANGES:
👉🏻Focus on a low carb approach, primarily animal-based nutrition. Why? Because I thrive off animal meats & already don’t digest fibers and plants well. I will harp at you till I’m blue in the face, go your own way! Don’t send me fucking hate messages because I eat animals. I’m not telling anyone to eat this way, I’m simply sharing my experiences and reasoning why.
👉🏻I also am not “CrossFitting” because all the gyms are closed, therefore, my activity is more lower intensity. This would warrant lower carbohydrates for my needs are not as high.
👉🏻I am also sleeping more, reducing caffeine intake, & fasting at least 14-16hrs overnight to recover, give my digestion a break & allow my body to balance itself out.
👉🏻I need an approach that is going to keep me fuller, longer, with less energy crashes to sustain long days working at the clinics & hospitals. I don’t like worrying about food & a bunch of meal preps, just my personality. I prefer two large meals a day. Naturally, protein and fats will do this. they take longer to digest and are harder to digest by the body — keeping blood sugar more stable, energy levels more stable with you feeling fuller, longer like a cherry on top. Which is why I’m taking a higher protein, higher fat approach.
👉🏻Macro wise, I am loosely tracking just to make sure my calories are in check. Keeping my carbs 50 g & under. Not really paying attention to where my protein & fats fall, obviously I’m getting plenty of both with animal-based nutrition with the inclusion of nut butters.
👉🏻I Am tracking weight, progress photos, & blood sugar with a simple glucometer (am fasting, 2 hrs post meal, bedtime) just to see how my body tolerates specific ratios, salt intake, stress, & food choices. Not because I’m focusing on the weight on the scale. Obviously when reducing carbohydrates, you’ll naturally lose water, so a lot of this is water weight loss, initially.
Me this morning 3/24/20 113.7lbs
THINGS IM LEARNING:
✅CrossFit is not in aesthetic sport. Stop choosing CrossFit to look like a bodybuilder. Align your training, lifestyle, & align your food. Manage you mofo stress!
✅I personally feel much better on a carnivore-ish diet which aligns better with my lifestyle right now.
🌀My digestion is exceptional, my bloating is gone, bowel movements routine & normal, my puffiness is gone, I feel lighter.
🌀After nine days I’m noticing aesthetic changes finally. Stomach is starting to lose that patchy fat in my stubborn areas above and below my belly button.
🌀Yes with the training differences I’m getting smaller, and softer but I’m fitting more naturally back into my happy setpoint. My weight is staying around 113 pounds.
🌀I don’t hurt as much (minus my broken toe I have right now).
🌀No energy crashes, I have absolutely no cravings for sugar and I’m offen satisfied with one large meal during the day after my fasted walk.
🌀I love walking, it is my savior mind and body. I don’t need to work out six days a week and I need to sleep more. Duh.
✅The more data we have the more we can make educated informed decisions about our lifestyle & food choices. Do we need to worry about tracking & measuring all of the time — NO! But there’s a time & a place for it so you can learn & make educated decisions about how to live your life for YOU.
Quit whining, complaining, yo-yo dieting, yo-yo training, yo-yo living your life aimlessly because you’re not educating yourself. Get tested, invest in mentors, coaches, doctors to help you. There are free podcasts, wonderful people & resources on social media, books you can purchase & things out there at minimal cost.
✅Your goals should be centered around 4 different areas: healing, performance, aesthetics, & longevity. Your seasons will change, adjust accordingly.
✅People just think glucose is just a measure of carbs, it’s not, it’s a measurement of your lifestyle. Stress, food choices, sleep, your workouts, air pollution, under eating, over eating, toxins, artificial shit you put in your body or on your body — it all matters. It all affects your physiology, hormones, gut health, & processes that go on internally.
✅You have to ask yourself what level of stress you are OK with in your life. Adjust accordingly. If you choose this stress level, don’t bitch when you don’t get what you want.
✅The biggest thing people ignore are their mindset & their thoughts. So why are people having such a hard time right now being at home with their thoughts?
BINGO.
I hope this helps you wherever you are in your journey. Remember only you know your body best. I am not endorsing anyone to follow any particular diet I want you to learn, I want you to follow your heart, and I want you to ALWAYS listen to your gut. ❤️
Sometimes people, places, things, our comfortably controlled routines — the old you — must be lifted from the VIP seats of your life to allow the aligned ones in.
Hello #covid19
This removal usually hurts like hell.
It usually is a big kick in the azzzz frankly.
It creates scars.
Scars we don’t other people to see so we hide them. We mold into people & titles we think other people will like to approve of.
What happens when they’re stripped away? What do you cling to?
What do you discover?
What do you let go?
This time has been challenging for me too. I’ve had to basically relearn how to live & sit uncomfortably in my feelings. I don’t sit & rest well. #gsdqueen
I am beyond grateful, however. For some downtime & slowdown to refocus on what makes me unique, refocus, gratitude for simple things, & realizing I am fuggin awesome no matter if I’m being productive or not.
Don’t put yourself on the clearance rack — I tell my clients this all the time. With anything in life — dating, fitness, food, career, personal development.
People doubt their ability, they’re ashamed of their scars when there are people out there in awe of their potential.
I remind myself to savor relationships & connections made, no matter what the outcome, to not doubt my abilities & worth, to not settle, & to share my scars freely, & choose gratitude ALWAYS.
Here’s to service, presence, & new beginnings.
Xray on 🤘🏻💀😷
Gimme a ❤️ & one thing you’re grateful for today!🙏🏻👇🏻
I’m really tired of hearing about this quarantine.
I feel the reason people are having a hard time is because they’re forced to sit with their feelings, thoughts, & forced to manage their relationships with one another.
“You learn to love yourself in the context of relationships with others.”
-Ester Perel
I am one who’s love life with herself & others were a complete shit show until I started working on myself. My personal, emotional, & professional life struggled.
I had one failed relationship after another. I wandered around aimlessly from one job to another, not really knowing my place or purpose. Not really understanding why I like juggling so many different things and interests. I felt like there was something wrong with me – UNTIL I researched more about how I was wired, why, who I wanted to be, how I wanted to feel, what kind of partner made me FEEL the way I wanted to in a relationship, and what values & pillars were important to me in life.
Only then did my life start turning around and getting much clearer.
I researched Human Design, my astrology, started following accounts that made me feel good, and started doing the inner work with Lacy Phillips.
Call me woo-woo, call it BS, I DGAF. I respect everyone’s opinions on matters of spirituality & the Universe. All I know is my life is much clearer & #abundantAF
Go your own way 😉
Anywhoodle, back to the main question at hand…
I had a DM today & she asked me how I knew I was with the right person because she was unsure she was in the right relationship. That this quarantine was leaving her questioning things.
I asked her, “Are you looking for a LOVE story? Or a LIFE story?”
She asked what that meant & I explained via life thru my lens & things I learned from Ester— I was always searching for a LOVE story, the knight in shining armor, the perfect relationship, the fantasy — LOVE story. LOVE stories are not LIFE stories. They share different ingredients.
When you’re looking for the right person it’s not about what you’re attracted to it’s about who can you build a LIFE story with.
Things that are important to have in common with your partner:
–Your relationship with others. Do they like community or do they like spending time alone? How do they treat their family? How do they treat other people? Were you/they raised for autonomy or were you/they raised for loyalty & working together as a team? Children?
–Emotional availability & compatibility. Love languages, understanding of these. Outlook & attitude on life.
–Understanding the conditioning of their environment before judging. Why do they do/think/act the way they do? It’s a product of how they were raised in the environment they live in. Can you live with this & evolve together?
“What about expectations?” she asked.
The moment you have an expectation you create dependence. That dependence means you or they have power.
You create a condition that can be broken resulting in disappointment. Have you communicated this expectation with them?
The answer is what do you do with that power?
How do you use it? How do they respond to it?
Do you/they get defensive or do you/they try to understand & ask questions. That’s how you deal with struggles. You repair via communication & healing.
If communication & trust aren’t there, no matter what kind of relationship you’re in — it will never thrive!
Show the other they still matter.
Get them their favorite book, drink, give them a hug, LISTEN, let them speak, give them their space.
Self-awareness, trust, appreciation, & accountability are true freedom & home.
Successful, thriving relationships have a high degree of appreciation.
Negative, failing relationships highlight the negative.
This not only applies at home this also applies out in society & with yourself.
If someone asked me what are 3 pieces of advice to keep in your front pocket today they would be:
1.) The quality of your relationships determine the quality of your life.
A.k.a. make sure you have a rich life.
Don’t be a dick, follow the Golden rule.
2.) Invest in your relationships
No one has ever died hoping they had worked more.
Make it your purpose that when people think of you they smile. That’s your legacy you leave in the hearts & minds of others.
3.) If you have a dream, a person, a ping that has been in your heart & your mind — do it, follow it.
A lil bit wolf, a lil bit woman — it’s the wild that made her beautiful. @lil_bit_of_fit
She finally started to love the pieces of herself she used to hide & run from.
The scars, the imperfections, the things that made her different — like her Indiana twang, the way a strategically placed cuss word just rolls off her tongue a little bit sweeter, & the way she loves selflessly without abandon.
The scars physical & mental.
The ones on her shin missing a box jump.
The ones on her chest from falling off a tractor in childhood.
The ones from having her gallbladder removed, cervical cancer, Crohn’s, umpteendozen farm injuries.
The ones on her heart from self loathing, disordered eating, overtraining, periods of debt, failed relationships, food fear, fear of failure, fear of fucking up societal timelines & wondering if she’ll ever have her shit figured out.
Livin life somewhere among boots, scrubs, & lessons…
She stared at her picture & out the window, always something on her mind, & finally felt the peace & acceptance of her past, present, & future, all the knowns & unknowns, & realized the experiences & pieces that made her beautiful…
…a lil bit wolf, a lil bit woman — it’s the wild that made her beautiful. – @lil_bit_of_fit
And with that…I finally got my shit together this morning & launched my website, my little writing space to hopefully add value, laughs, mentoring, coaching, & shine some light in this world.
It’s official — lilbitoffit.com
Working on a blog for y’all later, stay tuned: 10 HABITS HAPPY & SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DO DIFFERENTLY.
