Let’s Talk About Anxiety

Happy Saturday evening all! Let’s dive right into it!

So, I listen to a podcast (pretty much religiously) called My Favorite Murder every week. Ironically, as someone with anxiety, I’ve been a full blown murderino forever, and I’m proud of it. One of the main reasons I love this podcast so much is because Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff talk very openly about their own mental health and their struggles.

Open discourse about mental health is something that is definitely lacking – not just in this country, but in modern society as a whole. Depression and anxiety have a connotation of being shameful, and something we “just don’t talk about”. Bipolar disorder is now a celebrity fad (believe me, having lived with an older sibling with diagnosed bipolar disorder, it is anything and everything but a fun time), and schizophrenia is largely misunderstood by the public. PTSD and RTS are marginalized, and characterized as something “weak” people get, or as an altogether fabrication by the person diagnosed with it. However, as a culture, we need to understand that these are all very real, very serious things that have real affects on peoples’ lives, personalities, and families.

So, in order to help work towards that (and with the understanding that I cannot change the entire problem), I am going to have a casual discussion about how I deal with my anxiety on a daily basis. I don’t take any medications – if you think you may need medications for your own anxiety, you should contact a therapist for an appointment and discuss it with them. The first way I learned to deal with anxiety – mostly stemming from some abusive relationships, among other things – was to bake. I love baking, and no matter what, baking turned out right. As you can imagine, this wasn’t great for my waistline, but it did help me find a passion and start my first business in undergrad – I baked cupcakes and delivered them to different events or to other students.

After finishing undergrad – which included being at an insanely stressful school, having a breakup of someone I had thought I might marry at one point in time, who was also very manipulative and verbally abusive, and joining an amazing sorority which helped me to find my voice, my passions, and my ability to lead, I wanted to get into better shape. One of my sorority sisters and advisers was (and still is!) a beachbody coach, and I got started with Insanity. It’s still one of my favorite workouts, and I found that I had less anxiety about myself, my body, and overall worrying after doing very hard workouts every day. I instantly became hooked! Yes, exercise is very addicting, but for good reasons! As my favorite movie lawyer says “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy.” And, I think Marc appreciates that I’m happy and therefore, won’t shoot him hahahahahaha (jk, I’d never do that I promise!). I eventually became a coach myself, and have continued my fitness journey and helped others to start theirs! One thing that helps my social anxiety is actually knowing I am making a difference for someone else. Working out daily has also done wonders for my PCOS

I have also developed some hobbies – reading, shooting, cooking healthy foods, and most recently knitting and brush pen lettering! I practice just about every day, and I’m excited to see what I can do with these newer hobbies! I also use my reading hobby to learn more – I switch between fiction and non fiction :). I’ve also been getting really into makeup, which has also helped my self esteem a lot.

So, what are some of the ways you combat your own anxiety or other mental health issues? What do you do when you have a breakdown? Let me know – I’d love to start conversations with others about their own methods for dealing with anxiety, stress, and mental illness!

How Coaching and 21 Day Fix Extreme Changed My Life

Well, it has been a very leisurely hiatus – but I’m working on publishing posts again! I will do a major update one, probably tomorrow or Wednesday, but be prepared because it’s coming! I’m getting into the swing of things (this has been the craziest semester!) and decided that a good way to break the hiatus from posting was to talk about my other job – the one that has nothing to do with schoolwork haha. I also thought it would be a good one to share while people are worrying about their holiday weight gain and struggling to keep on track and motivated! So, here goes nothing: this is the basic breakdown of how being a Beachbody Coach and doing 21 Day Fix Extreme in August changed my life.

I started my Beachbody obsession (let’s just call it what it is, right people?) with Insanity two summers ago – right after I graduated William & Mary and before moving down here to Alabama. I LOVED IT! And it really gave me awesome results. So a little later that year – around Christmas time, I tried PiYo in another challenge group, and also tried Shakeology shakes. PiYo gave me very different results than Insanity (OBVIOUSLY, because they’re very different programs), but they were still great, and the shakes made me feel so much better in the mornings – I am definitely not a morning person haha. I kept up with the shakes for awhile, but let it slide a bit and eventually cancelled the monthly order until this summer.

As y’all all know, this summer was a bit of a bad one for me. A relationship I thought was really solid ended fairly badly (at the time – we’re friends now and I’m in an amazing relationship and things are going really well now, so no worries about the sad stuff), I was worried about potentially not having funding – which thankfully didn’t happen, I ended up with full funding!! Because UA is an awesome place and the Anthro dept is great – and found myself with three dogs, two of which are fairly substantial in size, when I had only had one about 8 months before. I was depressed, in a very big funk, and extremely stressed studying for comps and worrying about everything else – basic every day life stuff for most people my age, especially in grad school. Cue my coach, Amanda, messaging me about potentially becoming a coach myself. I hadn’t thought about that at all, but I had nothing else to do besides read books about physical anthropology and worry, so I thought I’d take a shot at it.

As it turns out, coaching is amazing. I love helping people find their perfect program, workout a plan, and reach the results and goals that they want. I love organizing and running challenge groups, and the extra money has helped out A TON. It’s bought my dogs’ food for the past 4 months, left me some extra to put in my savings account, and gives me a little room to buy really silly things for myself every once in awhile – mostly a ps4 haha. My next step, or goal really, for the business is to start working on building a coaching team! I’m so excited to see just what Beachbody coaching can help me accomplish!

Now – what does 21 Day Fix Extreme have to do with all of this? That is the program I chose for the first challenge group I led, back in August. Not only did it give me some amazing results – I lost 9 lbs in a month – but it changed the way I eat! I’m not sticking COMPLETELY to the 21 DF plan – mostly because I don’t have time for meal prep and eating that much all the time (That’s something I’m going to work on for next semester!) – but I base the meals and snacks I eat on the color containers and I’ve actually started craving salads and healthier foods rather than junk! Not only have I continued losing weight (I AM DOWN 30 LBS SINCE JUNE AND I FREAKING LOVE IT), but I’ve maintained the new milestones I reach and kept from gaining any back or going on crazy junk food binges. I’m more confident in myself and my ability to talk to people – which led to me meeting and starting a relationship with my wonderful boyfriend, Marc. Things are not always super easy and peachy of course – especially as a grad student, with a research job, a teaching job, and this coaching job, and three crazy pups. But coaching, working out, and the support I have from Marc, my friends, my family, and the awesome people I’ve met through Beachbody make everything not only easier to deal with and handle, but also more enjoyable!

Basically – things right now are great, and Beachbody is a huge reason for that. 😀

Alright – that’s all I’ve got for now, expect a huge update post soon!!