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

Your body is listening to everything you say and really it should come as no surprise that your body is going to be less-than-compliant to the changes you are trying to make, if you are trying to bully it into submission (which…let’s face it, isn’t working, has never worked, and will never work). How about extending a bit of grace to yourself? You know…kindness and compassion? It’s probably been awhile since you have granted yourself any grace, so let me help you out. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Notes: 4:00: How to focus on all that the body is rather than what it isn’t. 6:00: The language you use to talk about your body has a lot to do with the health of your body. 9:00: Gratitude changes our relationship to our bodies and our life. 12:00: Gratitude exercise. 15:30: The one question to ask to dramatically shift your relationship with your body. Looking for more Grace & Grit and this week's freebie?

There is a lot of talk these days about the importance of sustainability in regards to how we live, but we all know… talk is cheap. Our actions speak volumes and are saying something else. As consumers, far too many of us are still buying into quick, fast and easy solutions that provide little to no long term success. Many people don’t want to pay the cost in terms of time, money and energy to build a solid foundation of great health. They want to commit for brief periods of time, often through extreme measures, to create massive change that disappears nearly as quickly as it was achieved. In this week’s podcast, we discuss the secret to not only achieving health goals, but being able to sustain them for years to come! Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Notes: 3:00: The “whip cream on shit” approach to health. 5:45: The three things that will help you achieve success and sustain results. 6:50: Building a meaty

If you are deeply committed to up-leveling yourself in any way…you will mess up, fall down and fail often and much. Sorry, my friend…it will not be a paved, leisurely track all the way to your goals. Does that mean all of your progress goes out the window and you should quit when you make a mistake? Absolutely NOT! And, yet…so many women do. Which just perpetuates the madness of our diet culture. In this week’s podcast, we talk about reframing failure so you can stay consistent with your efforts and crush your goals! Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Notes: 4:30: The two secret ingredients to ANY success. 6:30: Why you shouldn’t put so much stock in how you feel moment to moment. 10:30: How taking consistent action can change how you “feel” about things you don’t like doing. 13:45: Accepting that failure is inevitable if you are living life with an ounce of boldness. 19:20: The reality of when transformation

Summer is in full swing and with it comes loads of reasons you could loose footing with the progress you have made with your health goals, or rationalizations about why you won’t start taking responsibility for your health until the fall. In this episode of the Grace & Grit Podcast, Courtney talks about how to not just survive the summer months, but how to thrive through them despite the obstacles that will surely arrive. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Notes: 2:00: Challenges that arise with summer. 4:00: The number one thing to focus on to ensure success. 6:00: The importance of a morning practice. 7:20: How to go out and get motivation. 9:00: The basics of summer self-care. 13:20: Dealing with company 16:45: How to attend parties without derailing from healthy habits. 19:45: A few notes about travel. Looking for more Grace & Grit and this week's freebie? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Traveling can be wildly disorienting when it comes to taking care of yourself; you’re away from your kitchen, your workout space and your familiar schedule. Travel demands that you become more creative and flexible to ensure you still give your body, mind and soul what they deserve…your attention. And while it isn’t always easy, with a little pre-planning, it is possible. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Notes: 3:00: What I pack when I travel. 4:00: Getting your head straight for travel. 6:45: Things to preplan for your trip. 9:30: Set the non-negotiable. 11:30: Tips for ensuring you have healthy food options at all time. 13:00: Eating out with success. 15:00: Keep Moving! 16:30: Decompress and restore. 17:30: Setting boundaries with permissions. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Return to Food is all about helping you develop a healthy relationship with food, your body and the planet. If you want to feel better, lose weight healthily, gain energy, increase mental clarity, elevate your moods (naturally) so you can fully enjoy life, in as little as 7 days, simply by returning to eating real food. In this awesome podcast interview, Sherry Strong, the author of Return to Food, gives us simple tips and tricks for navigating the path to optimal health with ease and wisdom. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Notes: 2:00: Meet Sherry Strong, hear about her journey to health and her mission get people back to REAL food. 5:00: Obesity is not a disease of abundance but rather a disease of scarcity. 9:30: The “lethal recipe” explained and why you want to avoid it at all costs. 11:30: Bringing sweetness into your life without sugar. 13:00: The importance of “relationship” in your health story. Eat

If you are serious about optimizing your health and the health of your family, you must familiarize yourself with the very real and destructive power of chronic inflammation. In this week’s episode of the podcast, health coach Jenny Carr gives us the lowdown on chronic inflammation, as well as tips and strategies for helping to minimize inflammation that may be coming from our diet. Jenny also dishes out loads of advice for helping parents raise children with strong appetites for healthy foods. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 02:45: Hear more about Jenny’s journey, passion and mission. 14:00: Inflammation 101 18:40: The one thing Jenny recommends for FAST change. 22:30: Top five inflammatory foods. 28:40: How to help our kids develop an appetite fo

Far too often, when I start coaching a client on improving their food choices, they will say to me, “Just tell me what to eat.” Let me be clear, I don’t ever tell clients exactly what they should eat on any given day. That is not what I do, that is what diets do. I don’t do diets and neither should you. The work I do teaches you how to nourish your best life and, of course, what you are fueling your life with has a profound effect on the “quality” of your life. So what do I do as a health coach? I educate you about food: what is in your food, how your body responds to food, and how to improve your food choices. What I don’t do is choose your food for you, ever. Why not? Because, ultimately, it disempowers you, and greatly reduces your chance of success in the long run. That being said, we all have days that we get bored with our food and we just wish someone would give us an idea or ten about how to shake things up. In light of this, I have some ideas for you to make tomorrow a little easier. Loving this

Maintaining a social life, while trying to get healthier can certainly pose some challenges due to the fact that most social events are based on less than stellar food and lots of alcohol. If you are really committed to your health, you are going to have be ok with creating some parameters for yourself when you do go out for social occasions. In this episode, Courtney introduces tried and true strategies for navigating your social life while maintaining the standards you have set for your health. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 3:00: What toddler-like rationalization sounds like. 6:00: Defining your why. 8:00: Pre-deciding what success looks like in a social setting. 10:00: Eat before you go 11:55: Don’t show up empty handed. 13:50: How to avoid th

In this episode, Doctor of Physical Therapy Kat Ingalls helps us to better understand some of the most common injuries women experience when working to up-level their health. We discuss the dangers of pushing your body too hard too fast and why a foundation of basic strength, combined with smart exercise progression, is so important. Kat also dishes out tips and tricks for quicker recovery when an injury does occur. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 2:53: Meet Kat Ingalls. 4:20: How the physical therapy industry is changing. 5:30: Top 3 physical challenges among women. 8:40: Understanding the “core”. 10:00: Simple ways to start engaging the “core”. 12:15: Relieving neck tension. 16:20: Understanding the functionality of the hips. 19:50: Understanding

The female hormonal system is complex, to say the least and it can make a woman a hot frustrated mess (literally) when it comes to improving health. In this episode, Dr. Jen Hawes helps us to better understand some of the most common hormonal, thyroid and adrenal issues women face and how we can best protect ourselves against hormonal warfare. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 4:15: Hormones and the endocrine system defined. 6:10: The three most common hormonal “categories” among women. 9:00: Testing hormones, adrenals and thyroid issues. 11:30: The scoop on adrenal fatigue. 14:25: The challenge of healing the adrenals glands. 16:45: Hormonal disruptions that may cause weight gain and make it really challenging to lose weight 20:15: Perimenopause and

When it comes to optimizing your health, sleep is a really big deal. You can eat a clean diet and move your body daily, but if you are neglecting your recovery and dream time, your body will struggle to absorb and deliver the nutrition you are feeding it and your muscles will be unable to repair and rebuild. Your immune system will be compromised and your cognitive function will go out the window. And this is just a short list of negative consequences you will experience! Do you feel like you are doing everything you can to lead a happier, healthier and more fit life, but still don’t feel stellar? Sleep much? Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 2:25: The magic of health happens when we sleep. 4:40: A special note to mothers about sleep. 6:45: How lack

The fitness industry has made exercise very, very complicated. So complicated, in fact, that many women I coach have fierce resistance to it, even though they understand the importance of it. What if the secret to feeling better fast physically, emotionally and mentally wasn’t about the latest and greatest exercise system that the fitness industry has conjured up but rather about moving your body more consistently throughout the day? Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 2:00: What children have to teach us about movement. 5:25: How we moved away from movement and into the exercise box. 7:30: Exercise is very small part of the movement landscape. 10:40: How the age of convenience is destroying our physicality. 12:00: Excerpt from Pedram Shojai’s, The Urb

It is always the little things we take for granted, eh? And yet, it seems to be practicing the little things consistently that lead to BIG gains. In the age of complex exercise systems and hard to understand dieting tactics, it is easy to lose sight of the easy stuff you can do to gain massive benefit when it comes to your health. One of the simplest…drink more water! Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 2:00: Water is a BIG player in the health story. 5:00: Body composition in terms of water. 6:30: Water and brainpower. 7:00: Asthma and allergies. 7:40: How water affects blood pressure. 8:15: How dehydration affects our ability to detoxify. 9:00: Water and digestive health. 11:30: Water and weight loss. 12:40: How to improve water intake. 19:00: A few

You, and nearly every other human being on the planet, are on decision overload. No kidding…you are making around 35,000 decisions daily which means by lunch time you are probably already in a state of decision fatigue! You need to be sure you are making the best decisions for your health at a time when you are thinking clearly and have your VALUES governing your decisions NOT hunger, fatigue or someone else’s crisis. Improving your health should be based on a process and an effective process is NOT a spur of the moment decision or something that is slapped together at 11pm the night before. It is something you PLAN for in advance when your head is clear and your vision is strong. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 2:30: Decision free living defined.

The benefits of superfoods are being sold to us at every turn. And while I am all for eating the foods that super-charge health, there are some incredibly potent character traits that have the potential to nourish us just as deeply, if not more than, the foods we are hearing so much about. Absolutely, EAT superfoods, but don’t focus so much on what you are eating that you lose focus on how you are living (or should I say NOT living). Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 3:30: The character traits that will supercharge your health 8:20: How boundaries support integrity. 10:10: How discipline can be an act of self-love. 12:30: Why consistency matters and how to build more. 13.50: How staying curiosity can help you feel good about your health journey. 18:0

Women are hearing a lot these days about the importance of detoxing and cleansing their bodies to optimize health. Unfortunately, many programs are selling aggressive tactics and pushing a lot unnecessary supplements to aid these natural processes. In this episode nutritionist Sara Bradford and I help women better understand your body’s natural detoxing ability and simple measures you can take today to help keep your detoxing systems running efficiently. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 1:20: Meet Sara Bradford: nutritionist, mother and badass online entrepreneur 3:00: What is cleansing? 5:30: Simple measures for helping your body detoxify more efficiently. 11:30: Weight loss and cleansing. 13:00: Sara’s Community Dump Program 19:30: Most damaging s

Most women don’t consider that calorie cutting and exercise are forms of stress. They are great stressors in a system that can handle them, but to be honest, most women who are experiencing some form of physiological breakdown are not in the best position to be dealing with MORE stress, they need to unload their stress. In other words, women need to heal their systems BEFORE they add stressors like calorie cutting and cardio. Just as an athlete has to fortify their system to be able to handle the demands of competition, you need to heal your system to be able to handle the demands of things like calorie restriction and aggressive workouts. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 3:00: Addressing a few things that are broken in the diet & fitness cultur

The scale evokes intense emotion in most women and it isn’t even a living thing! It is a hunk of metal that is judged, blamed and booted all for giving women a number that simply reflects their relationship to gravity. Contrary to popular belief, the scale is not telling you about the state of your health, your abilities or your worthiness as a human being. Nope. The scale gives you a very small sliver of insight into your greater health story and, if you are anything like the millions of women who loathe the scale, you try to extract your entire health story (and your worthiness and your possibility) from that tiny bit of information. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 2:00: The scale is not the problem but your misinterpretation of the data it gives

In today’s fast and furious world, staying mindful in the present moment is no small task. And, yet, awareness is the key ingredient to making choices that consistently serve the life you said you wanted to live. Mindlessness, on the other hand, truly is the quickest and most powerful way to unravel your health. Check out this podcast for more insight on what a mindfulness practice is and how to get started developing your own today. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Writing a review will enter you in a drawing to win free access to the Grace & Grit 21-Day Challenge. Drawings will be held at the end of every month. Notes: 2:00: Meet Mary O’Malley 4:00: Mindfulness defined. 7:40: Dispelling myths about mindfulness. 9:30: How mindfulness is beneficial to health. 13:30: What a mindfulness practice looks like. 16:00: How Mary developed her own mindfulness practice. 22:00: How to meet challenges with passion.