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

“Healthy by choice, not by chance.” That is the motto of my guest, Dr. Liz Walker, who is featured as a guest on today’s episode of the Grace & Grit Podcast. I freaking love that and couldn’t agree more. Liz Walker is a chiropractor here in Missoula, MT and she is a health professional who absolutely walks her talk and understands that there are a lot of facets to the health equation. She and her husband own a very popular CrossFit facility here in Missoula, and she is also the owner and primary practitioner at Primal Practice Chiropractic. She is an athletic, healthy, hard working and an all around great gal who I am thrilled agreed to spend a bit of time with us today. To learn more about Dr. Liz Walker click here. 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. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

I have to admit that I don’t follow a ton of female trainers online because I have a beef with the message a lot of trainers and health coaches are selling to women. If you are a regular listener of this show, you are well aware that I loathe quick fix tactics, supplement pushing, radical detoxes and the like. The trainers and coaches I adore are the ones who are preaching slow and steady, sensible habit change with their clients, who don’t skirt the fact that there is a lot of work involved in any meaningful transformation; people who walk the talk. So, when I see a female health professional demonstrating those things consistently, only then do I become interested and, of course, invite her to be a guest on the Grace & Grit podcast. Which was exactly the case with my guest today, Michelle Rycroft, who owns a sweet little online coaching business called Ripped by Rycroft. Michelle herself has gone through a radical health transformation…and who doesn’t love a great transformation story…and now inspires a

It is interesting that we are living at a time when there are more exercise programs and extreme dieting tactics on the market than ever before AND obesity rates and disease are at an all time high. We have made exercise programming and the simple act of eating SO complicated, that many women have a fierce resistance to getting started. But here is the truth…. The things that are going to make you healthy are really quite simple. Today’s podcast episode focuses on 13 of the most powerful things I have used to up-level my own health, as well has the health of my clients. To download a printable copy of this tools click here. 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. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Man, I have worked with a ton of clients over the years who want to elevate the state of their health without honoring their body’s need for adequate restoration and recovery. And it simply doesn’t work…ever. Recovery should NOT be underestimated when it comes to improving the health of your body. If you are expecting more from your body (more energy, more strength, more endurance, more performance, more fat loss, more muscle) you are going to have to RESPECT the fact that your body will need MORE rest. Remember you are in a RELATIONSHIP with your body, not a dictatorship. You have to GIVE in order to GET. If you are training hard and eating well, but neglecting to give your body the downtime it needs and deserves, don’t be surprised if you are lacking in the “progress” department. Episode 57 of the Grace & Grit Podcast is all about Recovering Like a Boss, so can reap the benefits of your hard work more quickly. Click the link to listen now! Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so t

There are two things that are absolutely essential to any transformation process (yeah, I know… I talk about them a lot because I believe in them THAT MUCH): 1. Awareness 2. Consistent Action Last week, Mary O’Malley and I had a great conversation on the podcast about what it takes to stay awake in your life, so you can change habits that are not serving you into ones that do. This week’s podcast is all about the second point: consistent action. There is a lot of talk these days about changing our thoughts to change our actions, but what if taking action more consistently is what actually lead to more positive thoughts and beliefs around what is possible? Check out this episode to hear my experience with taking action around what I wanted to change in my own life despite how I felt or what I believed about those actions. 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. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.

The longer I am in the profession of helping women to improve their health, the more I am convinced that improving health boils down to awareness and consistency. Before we can change anything about our health, we must be aware of the things we are doing to either nourish or deplete our health. But honestly we are living in such a frenetic time, most women are so busy, they are reacting to life with habits that don’t serve their health rather than choosing to respond to life in a healthy fashion. We absolutely must slow down to become more aware and be able to focus. And there are lots of buzz words linked to awareness: mindfulness, consciousness, being present, staying awake. Whatever you want to call the practice of becoming more aware…awareness is the linchpin to improving our health. And to help us better understand this topic of staying more present in our lives, I have invited back to the Grace & Grit Podcast my dear friend, Mary O’Malley. Listen now and find out more about Mary here. Loving this po

I don’t know about you, but I grew up clinging to the myth that once a woman turned 40, life would be over (the black balloons at my mother’s 40th birthday made quite an impression apparently). And having turned 40 myself a week ago, I have to say my experience has taught me something quite different: Life is really stinking good at 40. Unfortunately, our media culture cultivates a lot of fear around aging for a woman. Aging gracefully and optimistically, I believe, has a lot to do with the level of respect you have for your mind, body, and soul and I am a firm believer that the earlier we can start this conversation with our daughters and granddaughters, it is likely that we will save them from a lot of unnecessary pain and frustration has they grow older. 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. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

We are now a full month into 2017 and I am curious how you are doing with your intentions to take better care of yourself this year? I know many women charged into the New Year vowing to themselves that this year would be different; this year they will put their self-care at the top of their to-do list. A few weeks in many of these same women are recognizing that making themselves a priority is not as easy as it sounds. It means you have to make time and room in your schedule for yourself. And… Making time and making room in our schedule is no small task for most of us, life is really stinking full. So where do we start? How do we simplify and organize, so we can dedicate more time and energy to the things we say matter the most to us? To help us confront these questions head-on, I have invited back to the Grace & Grit podcast, Evan Zislis, professional organizer extraordinaire to help us out. Find out more about Evan here. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit

Last week on the podcast I told you about the 1 thing you can remove from your diet to radically improve your health and happiness levels. That thing? Refined sugar. This week on the podcast I talk about the 1 thing to ADD to your diet to dramatically improve your overall wellbeing. That thing? More vegetables. If you don’t eat many veggies (a lot of people say they do, but they don’t) and you are looking for some inspiration, tips and tricks to eat more, check out this week’s podcast which is all about Veggie Power. 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. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com  

This is the time of year people are looking for the quick fixes that can unravel the damage they did over the past few months. And we are being honest about it, people are really looking for the quick fixes that will unravel not just a few months but years (even decades) of neglecting their health. If you know anything about the message and mission of Grace & Grit, you know I can’t stand the notion of quick fixes, mainly because habit change takes time (and quick fixes are short on time). That being said, the body is an amazing organism and will respond quite quickly when shown a bit of TLC. When you purge from your diet the things that deplete you and replace those things with more of the stuff that nourishes you, you feel better, you look better, and you are motivated to keep doing better. So in today’s podcast, I talk about the one thing that is toxic to everyone’s health and how to get it out of your diet for good. That thing is refined sugar. Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a revie

A New Year is dawning, which for many women is a popular time to set or recommit to goals. Unfortunately, when it comes to health goals, many women are thinking too small…literally. Far too many health goals are based on aesthetics alone specifically, ones revolving around weight loss, which doesn’t create a ton of traction in the motivation department (at least not traction that extends beyond a few weeks). In this week’s podcast, I dish out some “food for thought” when it comes to establishing health goals that are weighty enough to carry you all the way home to sublime health. (As mentioned in the podcast, here is the Bit by Bit link.) 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. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

It may sound strange but a common thread I have witnessed (and personally experienced) with women who are trying to reclaim their health, is that they often struggle to allow happiness to enter fully into their life. Women seem to be really good at sabotaging the “feel good” in their life in one of two ways: They are more focused on doing than being; often maintaining schedules that are so busy, they simply do not have the time or awareness to feel happiness. They have limiting beliefs around how much happiness they deserve, what is possible for their life, or even the belief that life must always be hard (and so it is). Many women are especially good at robbing themselves of the joy of food when it comes to their efforts to improve their health. This episode explores some strategies to help women to embrace the joy of healthy food and to help them build a tolerance for happiness in their lives in general.   Loving this podcast? Head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread

Many women have a tremendous amount of resistance around exercising regularly, and I think there are two primary reasons for this: #1: The diet and fitness culture has made exercise VERY difficult to navigate #2: Many women solely exercise as a way to maintain or lose weight. What if you started viewing exercise as a way of respecting your body’s nutritional needs rather than as a way to force your body into submission? This episode of the podcast introduces the reasons we should really be giving our body a healthy dose of movement nutrition every single day and offers strategies for conquering the resistance you may have around it. 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. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

I am currently in the throws of teaching a new program this year that is really geared towards helping women maintain a high level of self-care during the holidays, and it is really something I should have started years ago. I was compelled to start this program because, every year during the holidays, I see women struggling more than any other time of the year to maintain their health standards. They start putting their own self-care on the back burner to keep up with the demands of the season. They allow boundaries to be crossed and far too many compromises around their own health to be made. They do it all by rationalizing that they will do better come Jan 1. But … January 1 comes and women are exhausted and sick (literally), because of all of the negotiating they did around they holidays, so they fail to do better. It is a painful cycle to watch, and I have had to watch it for too many years. Every year I joke that I am going to take February off because people are so crabby and bitter and sick, and I rea

A lot of women this time of year are starting to think about how they are going to address their health concerns in 2017. Get ready because everywhere you look for the next several weeks, you are going to see ads for diets and exercise programs promising to help you reach your goals in the quickest way possible with the least amount of effort. Wouldn't it be nice if getting healthy was as simple as just addressing food and exercise? But it's not. Food and exercise are slivers of the health pie, but they do not, by any means, complete it. Sometimes the very thing that is standing in the way of a woman doing what needs to be done to reclaim her health and happiness is the very thing she is most terrified of addressing: A broken marriage A job she has hated for 20 years. An unanswered calling on her life. Beliefs that no longer serve the life she wants to live. These are often the mountains standing in the way of true health, and none of these mountains can be conquered with clean food and a better strength pr

When was the last time you were grateful for the miracle that is your body? Most women I work with are at war with their body, and I think in large part that is a direct result of the way they are talking to themselves about their body. You have heard me say this before: RESPECT BREEDS HEALTH. And when you go out of your way to be grateful for all of the things your body is doing right, you are a heck of a lot more likely to treat your body in a loving and respectful way. Along these same lines, women are often telling themselves how hard it is to get healthy, rather than focusing on what a privilege it is to care for themselves in a healthy way. What a luxury that you are able to choose high-quality foods, make time to exercise and drink clean water. For many people in the world, these things are simply not an option. You are living at a time when you have a choice in the level of care you administer to your body. How awesome is that? What a privilege that truly is! If you want to improve your health, start

I have been talking about inflammation with clients for more than a decade: what causes it, how to reduce it and how to prevent being in a chronic state of it. Many women I work with tend not to believe in the power of inflammation until they clean up their diet enough and reduce other stressors in their life enough, that when they do something that insults the inside of their body, they feel the effects of inflammation in a very powerful way. The reality is a healthy body will be loud and clear about what is working for it and what isn’t. Unfortunately, most people are walking around in a chronic state of inflammation, so they have practically become de-sensitized to the messages that their body is trying to send them. There is no arguing that the body is an incredible vessel that does some pretty remarkable things to keep you alive and healthy. Cut your finger…your immune system rushes to the site to heal the wound and prevent infection Get food poisoning? Your digestive track will do everything it can to h

Let’s face it ladies, there are an awful lot of things that can go wrong with our lady parts. Nearly every single woman I have worked with over the course of the past 20 years has experienced some kind of challenge with pelvic health: be it pelvic pain, incontinence, prolapse, or a host of other “not so fun” conditions. If we are interested in expanding the conversation of what it really takes to be a health/fit woman, we cannot ignore the very important topic of pelvic health. Health will not be found by avoiding the things that make us healthy. We need to find solutions to the problems including an open and honest conversation around pelvic health. And who better to include in this conversation, than someone who has been studying the issue for well over a decade? Alison Gray is a registered physiotherapist with over 17 years experience, residing in Stratford, Ontario. Although she treats all musculoskeletal problems, she has focused on pelvic pain and dysfunction over the last 12 years. If you are a woman,

Most women will postpone taking action with improving their health, not because they are lazy or lack drive, but because they feel they need to be perfect in their efforts and they are OVERWHELMED by the amount of information coming at them from the diet and fitness industry. Hear this, sweet sister… Improving your health isn’t about perfection or the latest “quick fix” strategy, it is about having awareness about the choices you are making in regards to your health, and making some different choices more consistently to create a better outcome. What if I told you that there are a few things simple strategies you could start practicing today, to get started down the path to better health, that were simple to implement, sensible and sustainable? Would you want to know what they were? Today’s podcast is all about why I created the FREE 7-day reboot program and why it is different from most challenges you will find when it comes to improving women’s health. Have a listen OR if you know you are ready to register

Living life in line with our values (the things we SAY are important to us) is going to first require subtracting things in our life that are underserving us, so we actually have the mental capacity & clarity to focus and give our best to the things we deem MOST important. And that is precisely why I have invited, Evan Zislis, to be a guest on the show today. Evan is doing remarkable work in the world through his organization, Intentional Solutions, helping households, businesses, teachers and people in life transition to simplify and organize their life so they can focus on the things that matter most. He is way more than a professional organizer, Evan helps people connect the dots between their stuff and the impact those things have on not just a personal but on a global scale. Evan believes we have a responsibility to one another and the sustainability of life on this planet, by becoming more mindful of how we behave as consumers. That starts with needing less, buying quality, becoming innovative in ho