Real Happy Mom

Practical tips and encouragement for moms

What Every Mom Needs to do to Lose Weight

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Raise your hand if you have gained some weight since the start of the pandemic. Raise your hand again if you are ready to lose some of that weight.

I have both hands up and a guest that is going to help with this and more.

Spoiler alert. The key to losing weight actually starts with self-care.

In this episode Jennifer shares why this is so important as well as:

  • The two main reasons why moms have such a hard time prioritizing their health
  • The big mistakes moms are making with their self-care routines
  • Plus, three self-care routines every mom should be doing

Check out this episode so that you can have the foundation for a sustainable health and fitness routine. Which all starts with making you a priority.

About Jennifer

Jennifer Nagel is a coach and certified trainer for women over 30 who want simple fitness solutions.

Through her signature Build, Shred, Boost! Method, she’s here to shake up what you THINK you know about health and fitness — while making it feel simple and easy.

Her practical advice has been featured in POPSUGAR Fitness, MyFitnessPal, Thrive Global and she is a featured fitness expert for Well + Good.

Connect with Jennifer

Website: www.therealjennifernagel.com
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/figuredoutfit
Instagram: www.instagram.com/therealjennifernagel
Free Masterclass: www.therealjennifernagel.com/fatlossmasterclass

Links Mentioned

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Transcript of this episode

Toni-Ann Mayembe 0:05
You are listening to the Real Happy Mom podcast. A weekly podcast for busy working moms to get inspiration, encouragement and practical tips for this journey called motherhood. My name is Toni-Ann, and you are listening to Episode 160. Oh, Hey there and welcome back to another episode of the Real Happy Mom podcast. Super excited to be back again. And super excited for my guest today, Jennifer nagoshi has been on my list of people that I wanted to talk to. And I’m so glad that I was able to talk with her on this episode. Now, if you don’t know about Jennifer, Jennifer is one that you can find on Instagram and all over the internet. She is the one that is going to be helping moms out with health and fitness. And today in this episode, if you’re thinking, Okay, Tony, I’m losing weight right in and shape, rate, do all things put myself first when it comes to health and fitness. This episode is for you. And you will be surprised that Jennifer is not going to talk about food in exercise as much as you think when it comes to health and fitness. She focuses on something a little bit different. And I actually was going to title this episode, the number one thing to do for self care, because that’s really what we are going to be hitting on. So in this episode, Jennifer is going to be sharing with us a little bit about her story and how she even got started on this health and fitness journey. As well as the two moms don’t prioritize themselves when it comes to health and fitness. Then later she moves into talking about some of the big mistakes that we are doing when it comes to our self care. And then lastly, she ends with some of her favorite self care routines that we can start to implement as busy moms. Now if this is something that you need help with, you definitely want to make sure that you stay tuned to the end. Because Jennifer shares a lot of really great tips and a lot of really great information that will help you with just realizing how you can start to make those small changes that will get you that big result that you’re looking for. Now, before we jump into this episode, remember to join me inside of the Real Happy Mom Facebook community. If you’re like toniann, what are you talking about clapback chat packs. So Real Happy Mom Facebook community is the after party to the podcast. Here you’ll find more of the inspiration and encouragement that you need to help you get through the week as well as monthly trainings. And I show you how to use a project management tool called Trello. And in these monthly trainings, I show you different ways to use Trello so that you can start to systematize things, get your life organized. And just be ready to tackle the day, the week the month ahead. Now join me over in the Facebook group by going over to Happy Mom comm slash community Again, that’s Real Happy Mom comm slash community and I cannot cannot wait to have you inside them. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s go ahead and jump on into this week’s episode with Jennifer.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 3:16
All right, Jennifer, welcome to the podcast. I am excited to have you. I am so excited to finally talk to you. Yes, yes, this has been a long time coming. For those of you listening. I’ve been wanting to talk to Jennifer for a hot minute.

Jennifer Nagel 3:30
So we got Jennifer on the podcast. So super pumped to have you today. But we have a lot that we’re going to talk about. We’ve already been talking already for a little bit before I hit record. And yeah, definitely want to hear all the goodness that you have to share with us. But before we jump into our topic for today, I wanted you to share a little bit about you and what you do.

Jennifer Nagel 3:52
Yeah, thank you so much. Well, I am the CEO and head coach of figured out fitness. And basically we work with a lot of women who are trying to get into shape. And the thing that’s important about our philosophy is we really do like to focus on your health first. So everyone wants to maybe tone up or drop some weight or learn how to eat differently or start to exercise more but our whole focus is making sure you as a whole person are in great shape and all the other great results will come from that. But yeah, it’s the health piece is such an important thing to me because of my own personal history. And so it you see that infused into a lot of the things that we do. Awesome, awesome. And I love that you are about health and fitness because that is one thing that has been honestly a goal for me to really prioritize this year just because with COVID I’ll be honest, I can’t let myself go and gained a whole bunch of weight and got super uncomfortable and got to the point where I didn’t even like walk and pass the mirror because I’m like Who is that woman looking at me like I don’t know.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 4:59
Her because I had gained so much weight. And I feel like it has been a struggle with not necessarily what losing the weight but more than mentality that I have to let go in the bad habits. So I was just wondering like what got you to this point? Was there a breaking point that got you to actually gets where you are now where you’re actually helping moms with their health and fitness?

Jennifer Nagel 5:23
Absolutely. But first, I gotta back up, say girl, you still look cute, don’t even worry about. But yeah, I, if you want to rewind a few years to get to kind of where how I got here, I would love to tell you that I’ve always been the picture of perfect health. But that would be a huge lie. Because there was one point in my life, I was going through a divorce and becomes a single parent. And so it’s me and my little four year old and I’m starting completely over I mean a new place to live, I’m really having to figure out how to be a single parent. And my daughter’s dad is very involved. But you know, it’s still still just me when she’s with me. And then of course, at the same time, which sounds great, but I got promoted at work. And I’m like, whoo, I got promoted. And then I’m also like, Oh, my gosh, I got promoted. So I had all this additional responsibility. And I was really working extremely hard, I was exhausted. And you know, I would love to say that I was practicing self care. But in reality, I was living off of diet, Dr. Pepper and peanut butter,

Jennifer Nagel 6:34
barely sleeping, dealing with the emotion of going through a major life event dealing with the additional stress of, you know, taking on this new role in this large new project and also trying to hold it together for my daughter, I didn’t want her to feel like she was missing out or that I couldn’t do the things that I was trying, you know, that I could have done for her before when I was married. And so there was a tremendous amount of pressure that I put on myself. Well, I’m sure many of you listening can probably figure out that when you combine no sleep, terrible movement or non movement, horrible eating habits and a ton of stress, it’s not going to give you a great result. And so I would say you know I used to, I would have considered myself very healthy, very fit. But then going through this process, I would say about six months later, I was feeling terrible. And I took myself to the doctor. And after looking at all these different tests and all this stuff, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, and I was only 31 years old. So here I am, this young mom, thinking like oh my gosh, I’m already on old lady pills. 31. And although I was working so hard to make this great life for my daughter, I realized that that time if I don’t stop and actually take care of myself, I may not even be around for my daughter, because in six months, my whole health care went to crap that went down the toilet. So it was at that moment that I really wanted to start making changes. And I would love to tell you that I just got up the next day. And I felt perfect. But the reality was it took me time I had to figure out how to do it, I had to figure out how to find time, I had to figure out how to set boundaries and take myself to bed at a reasonable hour. So yeah, that’s that’s the turning point. But I did I started to find a fitness community and I loved it so much. I started getting certifications. And then I started teaching and then I started coaching and, and fast forward. And that’s how I got to where I am today. So I absolutely love working with women who have similar stories or versions of that story where, you know, they’re desperately just trying to hold it together. And sometimes you just need a little help you need someone to give you permission to say it’s okay to take care of yourself. It’s okay to prioritize yourself. And that’s the best way that’s the best way you’re going to show up as a parent, single parent, or, you know, multi family, parent household, it doesn’t matter, you really do have to pause and and take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. Yes, definitely. I totally agree. And I wanted to back up into your story because I know that she said that, you know, one point, yes, you were relatively healthy and fit. And then in a few months, things went downhill pretty fast. So I was just wondering, was it? Do you contribute a lot of that to the food? And like you said the non movement in the sleep? Or was it weight gain? Like what what do you feel like was one of the are some of the really big contributing factors that that led up to at least that diagnosis? Because I’m I don’t know, is that actually in the family or is that something that you’ve never had a problem with before?

Jennifer Nagel 9:52
Well, yeah, I never had a problem with high blood pressure before. I only have one other member of my family with high blood pressure. So it’s not

Jennifer Nagel 10:00
Something that runs in our family. But I can tell you for sure the catalyst was the big emotional change of going through divorce because it was that that made it difficult to sleep. And then when I didn’t sleep, I didn’t eat well. And when I didn’t eat well, I certainly wasn’t moving well. And it just became this, this domino effect that spiraled out of control. And you’ll hear me talk a lot about sleep, because I honestly feel that it’s one of those things that we continue to forget about when we’re talking about our health picture. But when you don’t sleep, not only physiologically is your body, not able to repair itself and do a lot of hormonal things that are happening in your sleep. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff that your body is doing, I kind of think about it, as you know, shutting down the factory and making all these repairs. But the other thing is, have you ever tried to like go for something when you are dead tired? You know, I know, we’re talking to moms, so you know what I’m talking.

Jennifer Nagel 11:01
When you’re exhausted, you just it’s hard to focus on taking care of yourself, it’s hard to focus on exercise, because you’re just in such a deficit, that you can’t really function. So the emotional stress was certainly the trigger. But the thing that hurt me the most was the lack of sleep, because the after that I just couldn’t make great choices. So one of the very first things I focused on was just being able to sleep. And in order to do that, I went to therapy. I talked to a counselor, I you know, did sleep exercises, I turned the lights of the you know, electronics stuff. But once I started to get to sleep regularly, it was so much easier for me to focus on eating differently and exercise regularly. Because you know, I had the energy to do those things. I had the mental capacity to do those things.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 11:55
Yeah, yeah, no, that’s really good. And I love how you brought that correlation in there. Because I think that is something that’s often overlooked. Because I think a lot of times when we think about health and fitness, we immediately start to think about the food, which Yes, that is definitely a part in it. But there’s other components, too, as well, at least that I’ve been learning on my health and fitness journey, that it’s not necessarily the food, that’s the problem. For me, it’s maintaining that stress. And then, like you said, with sleep, and the other things in our environment, too, as well. So I love that you brought up sleep. Because that, like I said, that’s one that’s often overlooked. But I’m thinking about the moms who are definitely trying to do better. And they they really do have a desire to actually start making it a priority as far as their health and their fitness. But I was just wondering, after you’ve been working with moms for a while, why do you think it’s so hard for us as moms to prioritize and, and make ourselves a priority when it comes to our health and fitness? And also share with us some ways that we can actually do better about this too, as well?

Jennifer Nagel 13:02
Yeah, I am so glad you asked me that. Because I think there are two main reasons why we as moms have such a hard time putting ourselves first and making it a priority. And the first thing is, I think it’s cultural, that in a lot of families, mom is at the center. I mean, yes, if you’re there’s a father in the house great, and they do wonderful, important things. But I find that a lot of moms are the emotional center of their house. So this was the time this is being recorded. This is prime back to school time. For us. This is usually my most stressful time of the year. Now, thankfully, we’ve got most of our kids have graduated, they’re out of school, but we still have one in school. And there’s 8 million things to do. And I find that mothers tend to take on the most for the other people in the family. Because, you know, we’ve been taught that, you know, we’re here for our kids. And, you know, it’s such a great honor to be a mom, and we need to take care of these little bundles of joy, and they’re looking up to us, and we have to, you know, take care of them. And we do that oftentimes at the expense of ourselves. But, um, as you and I were chatting about before, I think my big health wake up call helped me realize that if I didn’t put myself first I wasn’t going to be any good for my daughter. And the other thing that I realized is she watches me. So I could tell her Oh, honey, I want you to you know, be independent. And I want you to take care of yourself and I want you to get a good education and work hard and eat a good breakfast. But if I’m not doing those things, why would she do those things? So she is definitely someone who watched me and as soon as I really observed that really understood that. I even now I’m very conscientious of how I talk to myself and and how I treat myself and what I say about myself in front of her because she is you know, I can tell her 8 million things but which is learning from is what I’m actually showing

Jennifer Nagel 15:00
calling her and what I’m doing. So for a lot of folks are really it’s it’s that push pull between culturally and I think from a society standpoint, saying that as a mom, you have to sacrifice and, and do these things for your children. And the reality being that being a great mom, sometimes it’s just showing up and being the best you because that’s what the kids are learning from, they want to follow your example. The second thing that I think it really holds us back for prioritizing, I find that at least a lot of the people that I work with, we are high achievers, we have such a high standard for ourselves. And one of the things I love to tell people is ditch your deadline. So is very common for someone to come into our program and say, Okay, I know I have to make a SMART goal. So I want to lose 10 pounds by December 31, and blah, blah, blah. And so they’ve got this idea in their head that this change has to happen in the short amount of time. And it’s great to have goals. And I think goals are very, very important. And I do love specific goals. However, the challenge becomes so what if something is off? What if something happens in your family, or what if you know your progress doesn’t go exactly according to plan, then they get really discouraged. And it’s really difficult the next time around to say, Well, I want to prioritize my health and fitness because you have told yourself the story of well, I tried it that one time and I had this goal and I work really hard and it didn’t work. The reality is that we can set lots of goals and plans and just think especially moms, you know this Think about your kids, you can have a plan for how things are supposed to work out. But the reality is things will work out whatever way works. And it’s the same with our health and fitness we what we can control is how we show up when we show up and how often we show up, right. But we can’t always control the exact outcome I would love to say health and fitness is is wonderful, simple formula. You put x plus y, you’re going to equal z. But there the reality is there are so many variables. So I know a lot of people get easily discouraged. And so I always tell folks, ditch your deadlines, and really fall in love with a process fall in love with the boring stuff, because that’s the stuff that really works.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 17:25
I love that love it. Because I know I think I probably I’m definitely guilty of both those two things were definitely I am the center of the universe around here. It seems like everybody wants to come to me when they lose something or they have an issue mommy has to fix it. And mommy tends to take on everything. But I never really thought about being such an High Achiever how that actually can, it’s a good thing, but can kind of come back independent, but especially when things aren’t going, the way that I plan because I’ll be honest with you, like has been happening and not exactly the way that I wanted. So I’m glad that you brought that one up. Because I think a lot of times we forget that, you know, things are gonna happen and life is gonna life and we just kind of have to

Toni-Ann Mayembe 18:12
I don’t know a better way to say it, but we just kind of have to deal with it. But like you said, we can’t control some things and the things that we can control. That’s definitely what we want to, to really, you know, put our energy towards fixing. But I think a lot of times we get

Toni-Ann Mayembe 18:30
focused on the things that we can’t and then we’re just like, Oh, I can’t do it. I can never lose weight. And then that’s when the self sabotage and all that stuff starts to kick in. But I’m just wondering, like, what are some of the other mistakes that you’ve seen moms make when it comes to actually making a self care routine and actually starting to put themselves first?

Jennifer Nagel 18:49
Oh, this is such a great question. Thank you so much for asking. Okay, the first thing I will say is this all or nothing mentality, okay? So you have a goal and you’re like, Okay, I’m gonna cut out sugar, I’m going to work out six times a day, I’m going to stand on my head, I’m going to get 10 hours of sleep. I’m going to meditate do this yoga DVD once a week. And the reality is, that’s just impasse. It’s nearly impossible for most people. I might get some flack around this, but there is a challenge out there that I see called 75 hard and I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that. I’m sure some of your listeners are. But like for 75 days, you like come out sugar, you cut out this, you don’t do that. And I just I just want to just say no, because even if you can last those 75 days, our lives are not all or nothing and we need flexibility. So as boring as it is, I always tell people to start with just one habit. Just start with one thing and it might be like drinking water or getting that extra hour of sleep or going for a walk after lunch or whatever it is.

Jennifer Nagel 20:00
But just start with a one thing, because when you’re able to complete some one thing successfully, you’re going to breed success, you’re going to feel successful. You’d be like, yeah, girl, I did that. Yes, awesome, awesome. Look at me and you checking yourself out in the mirror.

Jennifer Nagel 20:15
But when you try to do everything, you’re setting yourself up for failure. And it’s going to feel like well, I should be able to do all this stuff. And of course, you’re gonna see you know, your neighbor from down the street. And she looks amazing. And she’s been doing this thing, and she cut out sugar, and she’s a vegan and eat kale smoothies or whatever. But it’s, it’s just not the reality for most humans. So it can’t be all or nothing.

Jennifer Nagel 20:40
Related to that really changing too many things at once. The whole concept when we talk about creating a lifestyle change is truly layering small changes on top of each other. And I know and I know, in previous episodes, you’ve talked about routines and, and those and habits, and it’s it’s same, and it’s applicable to health and fitness, too. If you were going to try to change your kid’s routine, you don’t do everything at all at once you do one thing at a time, one small thing at a time. So by the time you actually adapt these habits, they are ingrained, they’re natural, they don’t feel like work that doesn’t feel like extra. So when you’re working on your health and fitness goals, you don’t want it to feel like another job, you want it to feel like something that you’re weaving in to your regular day. So the other thing is, most women that I know have been brought up on cardiovascular exercise, particularly if people are interested in fat loss. And I love cardiovascular exercise, please don’t, you know, send me nasty grams or whatever, about cardio and said Jennifer said it was bad. I don’t think it’s bad. I think heart health is very important. But when it comes to the exercise, that’s the best bang for your buck. resistance training is 100%, where it’s at. and resistance training can be bodyweight training, you can use resistance bands, dumbbells, weights, etc. You can do it at home in the gym, you can do like yoga, or you know, like power, that kind of thing. So resistance training can look like a lot of different things, it doesn’t necessarily have to be, you know, gritting it out in the gym. But please, please, please, if you’re if you’re able to include two to three days of resistance training each week, it doesn’t even have to be long. But challenge your body because hormonally it’s going to be better for you from a building muscle and turning your body into a calorie burning machine, it’s great, you can eat a lot more food. And that’s always my goal in life.

Jennifer Nagel 22:43
You strong, stronger, you are helping with your bone density, you are helping boost testosterone, which is really great in terms of weight control. So there are just so many great benefits to weight training or resistance training. But we find that a lot of our clients just have not been exposed to that. And so you know, we default to cardio all the time. And I love walking, I love cardio, I like doing all sorts of fun cardio, but I have to anchor my routine in terms of resistance training. So those are a couple of mistakes that I have seen. So, you know, take it one thing at a time, you know, take it slow, give yourself some grace and flexibility. And please include some resistance training.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 23:27
Yes, definitely. And there is an episode that we did, I am trying to find it but cannot find it. When I do I’ll make sure to include in the show notes. But there is an episode that I did with another guest and she did talk about resistance training in the way that she helped me with. In particular, she’s talking about with weights, because she was like saying that lifting weights, you know, you’re you’re going to be burning more calories and you’re going to be toning up, versus you run on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Yeah, you may burn some calories, but the lifting weights is gonna help you out a lot more. And so she was saying how,

Toni-Ann Mayembe 24:03
think of, you know, you you don’t let’s just say for me right now, my arms are just a little bit bigger than what I would like she was like, yeah, just think about your arms. If your arm is like a beach ball, like, yeah, it’s really big. But it’s not that, you know, heavy, but it’s just a lot there. But versus like softball, it’s more dense, but smaller. And so she was saying how, like, that’s how our muscles can be like, yeah, it’s not that you’re trying to gain muscle, you’re just trying to tone things up. and not have it be so, so much because the fat courses, it’s like the beach ball, and you can have a whole lot more of it. And versus you know, the muscle which is nice and tight, and in a lot more dense, but it doesn’t. It won’t be as big like how my arms are right now. So

Toni-Ann Mayembe 24:48
I love how she had brought that example. I’m so glad that you brought that back up again, because that was one thing that I really had to shift because for me when I think about lifting weights, I’m thinking about like, Oh no, I don’t want to bulk up because. Like, that’s the last thing I want to do. But I learned that that is not the case, you’re not going to bulk up, you’re going to actually tone down. So definitely, I’m glad you brought that one up.

Jennifer Nagel 25:10
Oh, yeah, I’m a meathead. I love weights. And, and I’ll let me just share this. This is my little personal anecdote, because you know, back in the day, I was like, Oh, yeah, I was a cardio Queen, put me on a treadmill, do all this stuff I could run, I could do all sorts of stuff. And I had great cardiovascular endurance, but I couldn’t figure out why my body never changed. And finally, I decided to really seriously start looking at weights, I even got a coach and all this other stuff, to really, really focus on my own personal knowledge of weight training and lifting weights. And oh, my goodness, I mean, the body fat just melted off me. And even though from a scale perspective, my body is heavier. I was so much smaller, very compact, wore lots of smaller clothes, and I felt really strong, and I could eat more. And you’ll probably hear me say that a lot. Like I like to eat. I do not believe in this, like 1200 calories, starvation stuff. I like food, I want my people to eat food. I want everybody enjoy food.

Jennifer Nagel 26:19
So anything that helps you increase your metabolism, and enjoy your life more. That’s what I want to help you do. So yeah, weight training is my favorite. Because it just it just did your your other guests was 100%. Right. And I will preach that till the end of my days.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 26:42
Yes, it definitely. Now, last one here is when we’re talking about our self care routine. I’m just wondering what are some of your big self care routines that you definitely want to encourage us moms to either consider or start implementing?

Jennifer Nagel 26:59
Okay, I’m going to go a little off schedule, not scheduled, but probably off where you probably think I’ll go, I’ll talk about some health and fitness self care routines. But one of the things that I is very important to me is doing something with my skin. And let me explain why I don’t have bad skin didn’t have bad skin, but it’s the one thing that makes me feel luxurious. So I will spend money on good skincare and good makeup. And I do think that whatever that thing is for you, you need to remember that you are an amazing woman and amazing mom, and whatever that luxury thing might be for you. Even if it takes just five minutes, it completely puts me in a different state of mind when I’m taking care of myself. And so it becomes so much easier to do the other things when I feel like I’m doing things for myself where I feel worthy. So that’s one of my routines, like I have my little you know, fruity tooty you know, skincare, you know, I making sure my skin is protected and all that other stuff. Because, you know, I’m over 40 and I, you know, I I love it. And I love the fact that, you know, people are like, Oh, you don’t look a day over, I don’t know, 32.

Jennifer Nagel 28:14
But that’s important to me. But when it comes to my health and fitness, like I said, sleep is a huge, huge thing for me. So I don’t drink a lot of caffeine anyway. But if I’m going to have a cup of coffee, I make sure it’s before noon, because I do not want that to interfere with my sleep. And when it’s time to go to bed, you know, I take off my makeup with my little makeup thing. And then I the sheets have to be a certain way I climb into bed, I kiss my husband and I have kind of a gratitude routine that I do at night. You know, be thankful for, you know, the life that I have in the little things in life that I have. And then I breathe and go to sleep. So that’s a huge one. The other big routine that I don’t function very well without and that’s I start we started this when we had all these middle school and high school kids and sports is meal prep. Because we all need to eat as a family. And before we master the meal prep routine I it was a crapshoot of what our children were going to eat one day, it might have been like stuffed peppers, and the next day it was pizza and doughnuts. And you know, we just wanted to be better than that. So my husband and I, we were not great at meal prep in the beginning. So I will say practice, practice, practice. So if you’ve tried meal prep, and it just doesn’t work, find a method that works for you. And for the past six years of our marriage. Now we are meal prepping once a week and it’s looked very different. Like when Paul and I were competing and we were bodybuilding. We had containers and now that we don’t do that, we still prep like most of our meats and proteins for the week and maybe some sides and throw them together. It’s a little bit more casual, but no matter what

Jennifer Nagel 30:00
We have to have our meals prepped, because we know throughout the chaos of our day, the most important thing is to make sure we are properly fueled and not eating junk. Because once we start eating junk, we get exhausted, we get crabby, we get cranky, and we’re not taking care of our bodies, we don’t sleep well. So the food and meal prep is a important part. And then finally,

Jennifer Nagel 30:24
regular exercise. And that has changed a lot for me over the years. But the one constant is that I still need to move, I feel so much better when I’m active. And some days, especially during the, you know, when a pandemic first hit, nobody’s gym was open and all this other stuff, I loved my morning walk because it was a stress reliever, I could move my body, then you know, gyms open back up, I love getting back in the gym, throwing around some weights. And now kind of back to that middle ground where it’s like, I like my walk, I like my weights, you know, I’m doing all of those. I’m still doing resistance training. It just looks very different than it may have maybe six years ago when I was competing. And the great thing is that I want people to recognize as that as your life changes as your kids change and age as your demands on your time change your exercise routine, your food meal prep routine might look different, but just have one so that you’re consistently taking care of yourself. Yes, yes, I love all of those that you gave. And you know, it’s so funny. He’s talking about skincare Earth, I just went and I spent, for me, it’s like a lot of money. I spent like $100 because I got $100 gift cards at Ulta for some new skincare. And the one the most expensive thing I bought was this serum. It was like nose over $100. But anyways, this was like $98. And at first I was like No, don’t do it. Don’t do it. And I was like, No, you know what, I’m getting this. I want to do this for myself. So I’m glad that you, you made me feel even better about that luxury.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 32:03
Thank you. Thank you.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 32:06
Thank you

Toni-Ann Mayembe 32:08
You have so many great tips for this. I could keep you on a for so much longer. But I know that I have to let you go, even though I don’t want to. But I was just wondering before we signed off if you have any words of encouragement or motivational quote, first Real Happy Mom.

Jennifer Nagel 32:23
Well, I will. The first thing is my little quote is ditch your deadline and just really enjoy the process of health and fitness because it’s not a punishment. If you’re doing it right you’ll find a routine that feels really, really good. That makes you you know, a better version of you right now. So we don’t want to change you. We want you to be you but like energetic and, you know, healthy and feel good. And that’s how you show up for your family. So if you have some sort of crazy deadline or AI or beating yourself up, I know a lot of us including me have gained weight with COVID. So what you know what, let’s just focus on getting back to really good routines that take care of our minds, our bodies and allow us to show up as the best person we can be. So ditch that deadline and just focus on what can I do today? What can I do regularly? That will help me or put me one step closer to that ideal health and fitness lifestyle change that I’d like? Yes, yes. Now, Jennifer, if we want to connect with you learn more about you. Where can we find you online? Yes, well, please hit me up on my Instagram at the real Jennifer Nagel. And I know that you’ve included some fun stuff. I’ve given a free masterclass in the notes. But at the real Jennifer navel. I love DMS. I love notes. I love comments. So please, please hit me up there. Yes, and I’ll be sure to include those links in the show notes. And for the master class if you head over to Real Happy Mom comm slash Jennifer, you will be able to access the masterclass that she was talking about there. So yes, I will have all that for you, Jennifer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming on. You have been such a pleasure. I’ve been learning so much from you and I truly appreciate you. Thank you Toni-Ann and I had such a great time and I’m so glad we finally made this happen. Yes, definitely.

Toni-Ann Mayembe 34:30
Now that does it for this episode of the Real Happy Mom podcast. To find the links in show notes mentioned in this episode head on over to Real Happy Mom comm slash 160 and don’t forget to go back and listen to Episode 94. That was the episode that I was trying to get to when I was talking about the resistance and weight training. That episode is how to get and stay fit for good with

Toni-Ann Mayembe 34:59
Michelle Marie Diaz and also check out Episode 75. That is episode that I did with my friend Shawna. And she talks a lot about the all or nothing mentality, and how to get ourselves out of that. Now that all or nothing mentality is something that Jennifer touched on in this episode. And I really want to make sure that you are definitely tackling this because I know this is something that I struggle with at times. So that’s Episode 94 in Episode 118, if you’re looking for another episode to check out, now, if you have found this podcast episode helpful, please do me a huge favor by leaving me a five star rating review in Apple podcast. This helps me out so so much, I’d be super grateful. And it would help to get the message out to other moms that this is a great podcast to listen to. And if you’re like, you know what, I don’t really listen to this podcast on Apple podcasts. That is totally fine. Do me a favor by taking a screenshot of you listening to this episode and post it in your Insta stories or your Facebook stories. And again, that will get the message out to more moms to go ahead and check out this podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I honestly do all of this for you and have you in mind. So thank you. Thank you for listening and with lots of love.

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