Grace & Grit Podcast: Helping Women Everywhere Live Happier, Healthier And More Fit Lives

What an awesome month it has been on the Grace & Grit podcast! We did a deep dive into the science behind why diets don’t work, how to bust out of diet prison and so much more. In this episode of the podcast, I summarize the ground we have covered over the past 3 weeks during the “Death of Dieting” theme and dish out some tried and true strategiesyou can implement to greatly improve your health in a sane and, most importantly, sustainable fashion. Click here to learn more and listen now! >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

This week, I am super honored to be hosting Rebecca Scritchfield, a registered dietitian nutritionist and exercise physiologist on the show, for the second time. I adore this woman’s energy, philosophy, and fierce passion for helping rescue women from “diet prison”. Rebecca appropriately refers to herself as the anti-diet dietitian. She is the author of Body Kindness, which I have gifted to MANY of my clients and she is just an all-around awesome human who is doing important work in the world in the realm of women’s health. So if you are someone who is tired of buying into fad diets and are ready for an alternative path to wellness, sit back and enjoy this interview I did with Rebecca. Click here to learn more and listen now. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

This month’s deep dive on the podcast is into the wild and seriously misinformed world of dieting. I appropriately titled the theme of this month’s podcast: The Death of Dieting. Dieting sucks and more importantly it doesn’t work for the long haul and to better help us understand why that is the case, I have invited Traci Mann to be a guest on the show. Traci is a professor of psychology, founder of the Health and Eating Lab at the University of Minnesota and author of Secrets from the Eating Lab: The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Willpower and Why You Should Never Diet Again. We cover a tremendous amount of ground in today’s interview including: Why diets don’t work. Why you should focus on living on the low end of your set weight range The Myth of willpower Strategies for what will improve your relationship with food Why “obesity will not kill you” The incredible health benefits of exercise and why weight loss should not be the primary goal of exercise Click here to learn more about Traci and listen

The theme for the month of April on the Grace & Grit Podcast is going to be: The Death of Dieting because diets make us miserable...

What an awesome month it was on the Grace & Grit Podcast! The theme for this month was Permission to Pause: The Paradox of Doing Less in Order to Accomplish More. I hosted 3 outstanding guests, including: Chinese medicine expert, Brodie Welch (Episode 103) Author of The Power of Slow, Christine Hohlbaum (Episode 104) Intellectual powerhouse and master coach, Krista Scott Dixon (Episode 105) This episode rehashes the ground we covered and the biggest takeaways from the month. Enjoy! Click here to listen now. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

I am beyond thrilled to have Krista Scott Dixon, the intellectual powerhouse behind Precision Nutrition’s curriculum, back on the show. I specifically invited Krista to come back to the show this month because the way Precision Nutrition goes about helping people return to health, in my opinion, is hugely on point with this month’s theme, “Permission to Pause”, because the PN methodology encourages people to slow down and become more aware of and self directed in their behaviors so they can better take care of themselves with more consistency. Click here to learn more and listen. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Last week, in episode 103, I had a great conversation with Brodie Welch, about our addiction to speed, hustle and always doing more and what it is costing us in terms of our health and happiness. Today’s guest, Christine Hohlbaum helps us expand that conversation by sharing a ton of great tips with us on practical things we can do to adjust the speed and overwhelm of our life and give ourselves more permission to pause. Click here to listen now. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Last week on the podcast I talked about this month’s theme with is “Permission to Pause” and I went into extensive detail about why I believe this topic is so important. If you missed that you might want to check it out. My guest today, Brodie Welch, has been on the podcast before and I value her opinion and wealth of knowledge so much that I have invited her back to the show. Brodie and I cover a lot of ground in today’s podcast, including: Addiction to speed and business and what it is costing us mentally and physically. How to grant yourself permission and space to slow down. Reworking your relationship with time. How to maintain energy integrity. Choosing to Opt-out of stressful living. Click here to listen now. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Many women I work with think that the #1 challenge they have to improve their health is with food or exercise. While eating more nutrient-rich foods and moving their body more may indeed be a part of the solution, the root of the problem is often the speed at which they are living their life. When we live our life at breakneck speed, piling more and more things on our ever growing to do list, we become mindless and very reactive, which is often what leads to misaligned relationships with food and exercise. Women MUST learn how to give themselves permission to slow down and recover in such a way that they are more conscious of the decisions that they are making, or not making, in regards to their health. Awareness is the linchpin to any kind of change we are trying to make in our lives and in this episode of the podcast, I dive deep into WHY I believe improving your health should START with considering the pace at which you live and what it is really costing you. Click here to listen now. >>Are you loving the

This day in age, there is no shortage of studies showing us how powerful strength training is for optimizing human health and performance. And, yet, many women still have fierce resistance to making it a regular part of their life. I get it. It can be overwhelming, intimidating and even a bit scary to step into an arena that you may not be all that familiar with or have had a bad experience in. If you are a woman who understands the importance of strength training but has some fear or resistance that is preventing you from engaging with it consistently, today’s episode of the Grace & Grit podcast is for YOU. *Disclaimer: I cover a lot of ground in this episode but there will likely be a part II because I didn’t want this podcast to be absurdly long. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com  

Today I am celebrating and I’d love you to join me! I may not know you personally, but I am pretty certain that you have achieved a few things in your life that required focus, hard work, and a hefty dose of GRIT. Today the Grace & Grit Podcast is celebrating its 2 year anniversary AND the 100th episode! And, to be honest, what it took to make that happen is the exact same stuff to create ANY kind of success. Listen in to today’s episode and I will tell you more about how I dealt with doubt, failure, and frustration over the past couple of years to make this day possible. Click here to listen now! >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

As someone who has dedicated her life to helping women up-level their health, I am always on the lookout for people who understand female physiology and the unique training challenges that women face. Women, after all, are NOT little men, as my guest on the show today, Stacy Sims, PhD, so perfectly states. Stacy Sims, a nutrition scientist and exercise physiologist, understands female chemistry in a way that very few people do. Her book, “ROAR: How to match your food and fitness to your female physiology for optimum performance, great health and a strong lean body for life” is chock full of research and education to help women and anyone who trains women, optimize performance and recovery. I cannot emphasize how much I appreciate this book. It validates so many things I have long wrestled with as a female athlete and a health coach who works solely with women. This podcast is RICH with insight and tips to help optimize female physiology. Have a listen. You will not be disappointed that you did.  Click here to

Human biology is an amazing thing in that it is equipped to deal with stress in small doses. The problem is, we are dumping way too much stress on our poor little bodies in this day and age, largely due to lifestyle choices. The Grace & Grit podcast is fast approaching the 100th episode and while we have discussed mental, emotional and physical stress intensely, I have only had a few guests on the show to dish out tips on managing environmental and chemical stress. So, I am thrilled to have Tonya Harris on the show today. Tonya Harris is Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition® and graduated from Hawthorn University with a Master of Science in Holistic Nutrition. Today one of the primary focuses of Tonya’s work is to educate people (parents in particular) on how easy it can be to have a safer, more non-toxic home through safer brands to buy, how to read product labels for hidden toxins, and how to do it on a budget. She does this through working with clients both individually and through the online program

A LOT of women come to work with me because they want to lose weight, and weight loss can be a powerful initial motivator but it often isn’t weighty enough to carry people into long-term health. So I ask my clients, WHY do you want to lose weight, and what lies underneath is typically something that speaks to them wanting to live a bigger life. They want more confidence, they want to move more freely, they want more self-respect etc. So you can see that just having a goal of becoming smaller can feel at odds with living bigger. Well, my guest today, Kourtney Thomas, whose mantra is “Big Arms, Big Life” has a knack for helping women reconcile this type of conflict. In prepping for this interview, I read the following excerpt on Kourtney’s website, which made me all the more excited to interview her today: “I played small, I stayed small. Eventually, I experimented with embracing bigness physically, and that led to the ability to create a bigger life than I ever imagined. While I did work through what it felt l

I am entering launch mode for my Signature Program, which basically means, according to online entrepreneurial standards, I should be selling myself and telling you all of the reasons WHY you should invest in working with me. The truth is, however, as much as I want people to be interested in the work that I do, I also want to be sure the people I invest in for the next year of my life are a good match for the level of work that I teach. There was a time in my career, I would have worked like a maniac to convince nearly everyone I encountered that I was the perfect person to usher them towards greater health. Now that I am older and slightly wiser, I realize, I am NOT the right person to help all people and not everyone is ready for the work I do AND… That is ok! I invest a tremendous amount of time and energy into my clients, so it is really important that we are a good match for doing great work together. I believe one of the best ways to begin that process, is to tell potential clients why they might NOT w

It is all too easy to lose traction with our health around the holidays. Often women are doing more on less sleep and compromising their own self-care to bring everyone else holiday joy. It is no mystery why so many women tumble into the New Year a hot frustrated mess. If you want to get through the holidays this year without sacrificing your health (or your sanity), give this podcast a listen. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

I have been a fan of Nia Shank’s for a very long time and she has been a champion among an army of women who’s message inspires the work that I do as a health coach, trainer and host of this podcast. If you go to Nia’s website, and I strongly suggest you do, you will see that she introduces herself as a coach and a writer who shares health and fitness information that doesn’t suck. Not only does the information she deliver not suck, it is helpful, real and goes against the grain of what the mainstream diet and fitness industry are feeding women. And frankly, I think we need a lot more of the type of information that Nia delivers in the world. Click here to learn more about Nia and LISTEN. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com  

Life is full of uncertainties, but a few things you can be certain you will face in your lifetime, and one of them is adversity. No one gets through life without facing challenges, and HOW we choose to face those challenges has everything to do with the quality of life we will live. Adversity shapes us, for better or for worse. My guest on the Grace & Grit podcast today, Alexandra Franzen, just authored an entire book on the subject of adversity and how to rise above the disappointment of things not playing out in the way that we expected. Alexandra and I covered a lot of ground in this interview, including: how to persevere, why awareness & honesty are so necessary for success, how to stay focused while living in a world of distraction, the power of morning routines and how self-care feeds creativity. This is an episode not to be missed. Click here to listen now. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit

Now, typically when I schedule podcast interviews, I schedule them based on when my schedule aligns with the schedules of the guest I want to host. There is really no method behind how the podcasts are organized, which makes it extra special when I am able to host a guest like Jenny Carr to discuss inflammation and then immediately host my guest today, Kristen Boehmer, who has an incredible story of triumph in managing a serious disease via diet and lifestyle after medications and surgeries failed her. Kristen Boehmer is the founder and creator of Living Loving Paleo, and from her own experience, is a true believer that food can be a powerful medicine. Tune into this episode for a serious hit of inspiration. Click here to listen now. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Halloween is now over (I am sure I am not the only mother out there whispering “thank god” under her breath). I love a lot of the traditions of Halloween but the sheer volume of candy involved in the holiday drives me crazy! I went trick-or-treating for all of 25 minutes with my son and, in that short time; he must have collected several pounds of candy. Ugh! Sugar makes things taste good, but as far as good qualities sugar provides, it ends there. I really try hard not to label foods “bad” but in the case of sugar it is really hard not to, because of all of the inflammation it creates in the human body. Chronic inflammation has been linked to nearly EVERY dis-ease known to man. Our bodies have a lot of stressors to contend with on any given day; there are lots of reasons for our system to get inflamed outside of the food choices we are making. So, we aren’t doing our body any favors when we ingest things that cause even MORE inflammation. Inflammation is a very important topic that I have addressed on this p