Elevate Your Energy: Wellness & Fitness Tips

Speaker 1: look at the health and fitness space especially if you hop on social media and it can be very overwhelming you have people telling you you need to do keto you need to trct your Macros you need to hit 10,000 steps a day you need to work out 5 to six days a week and you're like wait where do I start though should I do be doing all these things and then you get paralyzed because you're like I just don't know what to do and so I try to encourage people to start small I'm Melanie bar welcome back to the Sheil it podcast your go-to play to empower you to live the life and business that you crave I'm here to talk about everything from Having the courage to make life and career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech Innovation I'm here to celebrate your wins and navigate through your challenges I live in the city now but I grew up in a town of a thousand people I've navigated major life leaps a senior level corporate career worked in professional sports and now as is a successful entrepreneur who loves business technology family and making meaningful connections with you and the sheb built it Community I also love a good workout and dose of self-care magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so turn up the audio open your favorite Notes app grab your favorite drink and here we go welcome back to the shil to podcast thank you for joining us Becky you are a registered nurse certified personal trainer nutrition coach and marathon runner share with us a story behind becoming a nurse and launching your platform beex lives healthy I've been a nurse going on 13 years in May which may is National Nurses Week congratulations to all the nurses growing up I always wanted to help people my mom pushed me in the nursing Direction I think she always wanted to become a nurse too and she works at a GI center after a while especially heading until 2015 2016 I started getting burnt out with nursing was new to Southern California then and I fell in love with the lifestyle out here just being outside year round being able to run walk the dogs work out outside it was so much easier to eat healthy here too everything was at your fingertips whereas like back East it's not necessarily like that love the lifestyle out here I started training for marathons and at that point I was like oh I'm doing a good job at this myself I think I want to help other people too on their health and their fitness journey around 2017 that's when I got certified as a trainer and I still worked full-time as a nurse then but I went all into it in 2018 until the pandemic really and focus on coaching mostly in person I created a workout guide my ex-boyfriend owned a gym in the South Bay which was really convenient for building my business and content purposes and learning everything I could about Fitness and then Co hit and I was like maybe it's time to go back to nursing so here we are doing both it's so great you help people I am a mom of twins and I ran a full Marathon right before they were born and then after having the twins I didn't know if I'd ever run another one and then I had a group of friends say we're running a half marathon and I thought I've always wanted to run another one so last year I ended up running two half marathons but it's so great how you help your clients because sometimes getting back into something can be hard or we just need that little push or the help from someone to learn how to train differently than we trained before yeah having a coach is so valuable I will always have a coach just because it's always somebody that I can learn from who force me to be better too I love helping people whether it's in the hospital my patients or outside of the hospital in more of a preventative way right now I mostly work with clients who are healthcare workers just because we spend so much time taking care of everybody else it's nice to be able to give back to them too and teach them how to have healthy habits that are going to last a lifetime how do you integrate your background in nursing into your work as a nutrition coach and marathon runner working as a nurse and being able to learn how to balance my lifestyle with Fitness Nutrition that's why I've dedicated time to helping other nurses or other healthcare workers because I'm like okay I've got this down myself let me teach what I've learned throughout the years I've done things right I've done things wrong but let me teach what I've learned along the way to my clients that way they can show up better as nurses as better co-workers better for their patients better for their loved ones I'm sure being a nurse is much like traveling all the time it's hard to get in the nutrition and the workouts when you're working such long hours yeah your schedule is always changing too you never know what you're going to walk into so just a little bit of preparation will go a long way and set you yourself up for Success something that I try to teach my clients is embrace the flexibility you don't have your typical Monday through Friday schedule which is okay too some people don't want that always have a plan B too because life happens and plan a doesn't always happen so true what advice would you give someone who is looking to improve their overall health and fitness but doesn't know where to start just start small because honestly you look at the health and fitness space especially if you hop on social media and it can be very overwhelming you have people telling you you need to do keto you need to track your Macros you need to hit 10,000 steps a day you need to work out 5 to six days a week and you're like wait where do I start though should I do be doing all these things and then you get paralyzed because you're like I just don't know what to do and so I try to encourage people to start small with the little things meet yourself where you're at too and that's what I try to do with my clients just just meeting them where they're at if they come in working out two days a week we're not going to start it 5 days a week that's just going to lead to burnout injury and then they're going to fall off the wagon too after a few weeks because it's just not going to be sustainable so just starting small meeting yourself where you're at and slowly building up is probably the biggest tip it's so true and training for something is always different last year when I was training for the two halves I would run faster but I would walk occasionally this year I'm going to go slower and be more sustainable so you know how you said start slow now I'm starting slow but I can maintain the running without walking so it's so interesting how it affects training and it affects the way you deal with your health and fitness I love that you've ran all these races too it's so inspiring especially as a mom it's not easy when you have two kids at home yeah so I give you so much credit oh thank you I didn't know if I'd run another one because when they were little they would get sick and then I would get sick and then it would mess with the training but it feels really good to do it and I've learned that I love I feel so much better when I'm running you got to find that thing that you love to do where when you're done you're like oh I feel amazing it could be anything it could be pickle ball whatever it is for you and like we live in such a beautiful place too to be able to train as someone with expertise in both Healthcare and fitness what unique insights do you bring to your clients's Wellness Journeys especially as a nurse I've worked in ICU for most of my career I see what happens when people don't take care of themselves unfortunately and that's what I try to convey it's it's not about losing x amount of pounds clients come in with a weight loss goal but it's really not about that at the end of the day it's about building these healthy habits just to prevent those comorbidities down the road we even saw with Co all the patients getting sick those are the ones with heart failure COPD obesity things like that if we can start now and prevent those things it's so important that preventative aspect and I've also told myself I can do 5 to 10 minutes of weights and that's going to move the needle on days I can do more but if I'm having a stressful day I have started to do five minute meditations because that is life-changing for me in the morning with two kids and trying to get them out the door and then starting work and all the things and then sometimes I'm like okay I'm doing 10 to 15 minutes of Weights that's all I can do I know I'm going to feel better after doing that so that's such good advice and I think just embracing it's not that All or Nothing mindset you don't need to go in and do an hour and a half like something over nothing that's really all that matters I have clients who have little kids too have them alongside of you like working out and see if you can get them to engage in it as well and then if they get bored after 15 minutes okay at least you guys said something instead of nothing it took me a while to learn that too it was hard for me because I training for marathons was used to going out and running at least an hour a day and some days when I started training again if I couldn't get that hour I would beat myself up a little bit but I thought I can't do that I have to be happy about what I've done because I've done something to move forward yeah that's hard too as somebody who's ran marathons and like running all the miles going in hitting 10 to 15 miles on the Strand on the weekend and then coming back and only doing three miles it's not only but in your mind you're like I get three definitely in my mind it was hard in the beginning yeah and I can get that way at times too because I don't run like I used to and I'm like oh man you only did two and a half three miles but it's something it's better than nothing you feel good yeah share with us a success story from your client's Transformations that stands out to you I recently had a client who she's an anesthesiologist she's incredible she's been with me for almost two years I give her so much credit balancing her busy job and her health and fitness she's such a rock star but she has friends coming up to her now asking her about our training asking her about nutrition when my clients are rubbing off on their friends their families that's a win their friends don't have to work with me as long as my clients I see them instilling healthy habits in other people that's a huge win spreading the word spreading the knowledge I love that I've also had another client who she's actually a dietitian but after working with me I inspired her to start building her own business with coaching women I love that cuz it's like I've worked with so many coaches who have inspired me as well to start my own business so it was cool to see one of my clients do the same thing and that's great that you're making a lasting impact and inspiring others to go for their in their lives too at the end of the day if I can teach them something like that then I'm happy what are some common misconceptions people have about Fitness and Nutrition and how do you address them in your coaching practice trying to do it all you have to work out seven days a week you have to work out for over an hour you have to do all the hit workouts you have to get 10 different exercise in a workout that was something that I thought I had to do early in my health and fitness journey I had to workout 7 days a week there were no rest days if it was a rest say it was like a Power Yoga sculpt class down at SoHo or something when that's not a rest in the beginning everybody thinks you need to do more but sometimes less is more too and again meeting yourself where you're at will set you up for success in the long run too another thing I had to learn and thinking through training is in the morning I usually do the five-minute meditation because that really starts off the day and then I have kids and now they're drop offs for sports it might be 3:30 to 5:00 and I have to drop off at 3:30 and pick up at 5: and and in the past I try to fit the workout in in the morning now I work straight through to 3:30 and then I'll drop them off and then I'll go run while they're doing what they're doing and then go back and pick them up but it took a while to think oh that's where I can fit it in so it's really interesting to look through your day cuz sometimes I think oh I have to do weights and cardio you get that in your head that's your workout time but I had to say it's okay to split them up yeah be flexible too especially when you're in different seasons of life I don't have kids I'm not married when I am things are going to look a lot different you just have to go with the flow and be okay with moving workouts or moving the type of workout you're doing too maybe in one season you're in marathon training the next season you might not be running marathons maybe it's a 5k season or maybe you're more into weights in that season so learning to be flexible and figuring out what season of life you are in too yeah and even if you travel or have a very demanding job I'm in the season of kids but someone else could be in the season of I just have a very demanding job I remember when when I worked for the LA Dodgers I worked 12 to 15 hour days it was very hard to try to fit the workouts in sometimes it's not realistic like when I'm at the hospital I'm gone from 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 at night with traffic and whatnot and I'm like we're not working out on those days so getting in a walk on campus at lunch that is enough but it took me years to get there and be comfortable with a walk on work days as a marathon runner how do you balance training for endurance events with your professional responsibilities just planning ahead I don't run as much as I used to but marathon training is like a full-time job treating it like a job you need to put it into your schedule you need to plan your work around it things with your kids things with your family treat those training sessions like appointments with yourself planning ahead is crucial yeah and when it comes to marathons it's interesting because when I'm training I write out a calendar and then I put it on the wall I force myself to look at it and then I cross it off cuz then I've told myself I've already done it when I went to the last LA full marath it was so fun to see my friend ran it for the first time but then her uncle walked it walked the whole thing and so that's what I love about marathons 2o is just finishing it and going that distance it's such an accomplishment it really is I love that you put the calendar up too because it it forces everybody else in the house to see it so they're on the same page having this conversation with a client a little while ago it's she's somebody who's struggling with weekends and how to navigate your health and fitness on weekends with friends tell your friends and your family your goal goals too they're most likely going to be supportive of whatever you have going on and if they're not then maybe they're not like the friend that you thought they were either tell them your goals too that way they can support you in getting up early to do a training run or maybe getting out for a training run after a long day of work or supporting you if you're car looing whatever it is that way everybody is on board too and you never know who you're going to inspire by your journey either it's funny cuz I put the calendar up in my office so no one really sees it but that's good because now I might put it on the refrigerator so that my whole family cuz it's not pretty but it comes down after the few weeks of training it'll be gone but that's really good advice so maybe I'll try to put it on the refrigerator so they know what are your future goals and aspirations within the health and wellness industry and how do you plan on continuing to make an impact in the lives of others so actually this great question because I found out this morning I just got into school to become a nurse practitioner so oh congratulations thank you it all happen so fast I applied Monday and I I found out this morning so that was quick but I'm excited I'm going to go back for my psych MP I just feel like it's my calling and I think it'll go really well with coaching too and I think it's just time to kind of level up in my nursing career I've been a nurse for 13 years I'm over bedside I'm just really tired it's the time to take the next step too so happy for you we're all going to take a minute and celebrate with you I've been watching some heavy shows on Netflix and I watched hankmed a long time ago and it just randomly popped up on my feet again and so I thought oh I'll watch that and it's about a doctor that makes house calls and has a nurse practitioner with him so fun because that's what I've been watching at night just as something light it's really light and it's really a silly show but watch it I'm all for I love watching TV at night I'm like this is the one downtime that I have yeah yeah I was watching something too heavy you got to balance the heavy shows with the the light shows some of that like and some reality TV and a little bit of everything magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one thing that you do each day to make sure that you find and live your joy I really try to romanticize the little things like my morning coffee is my favorite thing in the world my morning coffee or even just getting out for a walk whether it's with my dogs on the Strand or a walk at work if I'm at the hospital not big things they're little things but it's like the little things that truly bring me joy because sometimes a dayto day can a lot too when you're so work focused you're so busy you're like wait when do I have time for myself when sometimes I don't even view working out as like time to myself anymore it is but it's a part of my routine so I'm like what are the little things I can look forward to and it's my morning coffee at home or going to two guns around the corner for a latte or something it's like those little things bring me so much joy so yeah don't discount the morning coffee so important and fun yeah and it's like I started making lattes at home to and I'm like oh my God I just leveled up my coffee at home so so fun thank you for joining us today and for sharing your love of health and fitness with the world can you please share with us how and where we can find you find me on Instagram or Tik Tok be lives healthy and then my website is the same thing beex lives healthy thank you so much for having me thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our Sheil it website or at she built it on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave