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Episode 90: How Your WORKOUT CHANGES FAR MORE Than JUST Your Body with HOLLY PERKINS

Holly Perkins is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with a degree in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition. She is the author of Lift to Get Lean (Rodale, 2015) and the leader of Women’s Strength Nation. Holly is a contributing writer and expert for Women’s Health, SELF, Fitness, Shape, Prevention, Men’s Health and LIVESTRONG. Holly’s mission is to empower women on a personal and spiritual level by leading them into the weight room on a journey of physical strength. Shape magazine named Holly as one of the “Top Trainers to Follow” in 2015.

Raised in a small town in Pennsylvania, Holly’s mom was pressing to make sure she chose a career path and was adamant that she pursued whatever she dreamt. With that being said, around the time Holly was in high school, she had no choice but to start to think about her future.

“I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I loved fitness!”

Following her bliss, as she calls it, she eventually graduated with a degree in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition, beginning her career as a personal trainer at a high-end, celebrity focused gym in New York.

Although her work life couldn’t have gone better, Holly hit a low point in her personal life, escalating her passion even more, for fitness and strength training.

“During that phase, the only thing that got me through was my practice and commitment to strength training.”

Fast forwarding to present day, her main message is now to help specifically women, cultivate their personal strength thru strength training!

She really hits home as she gets deeper into the “WHAT’S.” What’s really stopping you from loosing the weight? What’s the real reason you wont put on that bikini? She stated it perfectly….

“If it was as simple as just getting into those skinny jeans, you would have already done it. We all have the knowledge and the information out there to do it, it’s actually not that hard. Its all of the other aspects of your motivation and your happiness…what really drives you.”

Getting in shape is just the icing on the cake, it is sorting thru the deep rooted issues and reasons and coming out on the other/better end, that will keep these results long-lasting and meaningful!

“You have to expose your body to a challenge, in order for it to overcome and get stronger.”

These challenges she speaks of, are most likely the ones that you think are “the end,” but let me tell you now…they are really jus the beginning! The job loss, the break up, the pay cut, the loss of a loved one, list the goes on.

Let’s try to turn the “Why is this happening to me?” into “What will I learn from this?”

Holly’s amazing advice is guaranteed to turn your frown upside down, dust the cobwebs off your inner strength and allow your Super Woman to SHINE! It’s about time!

In This Episode You Will Learn About:

  • Strength Training
  • Conditioning
  • Fitness
  • Health
  • Wellness
  • Women
  • Personal strength
  • Challenge
  • Leaps of faith
  • Super power

Resources:

Follow Holly on her most active channel, Instagram @Hollyperkins or find her on the web at HollyPerkins.com.

Follow me on social media @LoriHarder on Instagram and Lori Harder on Facebook.

Please tell me what you thought below and, if you liked what you heard, please click the SHARE button! Thanks!

Episode 88: Cravings, Boundaries, Play, and Pleasure with Alexandra Jamieson

Growing up outside of Portland, Alexandra describes her childhood as “growing up with hippies.” Always eating healthy, straight out of a garden to be exact, Alex as a young child always craved sugar.

“When I found out that the church down the street served cookies and kool-aid every weekend, I started going to church…by myself, just to have the cookies!”

jamieson-a-photo-hi9508d9By the age of 15, like most teenagers, Alexandra finally got to decide her own diet and what she chose to eat, especially now that she had a job and was making her own money. This continued for about 10 years, until she began to get extremely sick in her mid 20’s.

“I had migraine headaches about 3-4 days a week and put on about 20 lbs. even after the extra college weight.”

The first doctor she visited, wrote her a prescription for a cocktail of different meds, but it wasn’t until her second (and different) doctor visit, that they actually found the core of the issues.

“He asked what I had been eating, and gave me a list of foods to eat and a list of foods to avoid. I wanted to cry! The list to avoid was everything I loved.”

It may have been a bottom-point for Alexandra during that time of pain and disappointment, but it turned into a love and passion for food, molding her into what we would call a “Food Junkie!”

She attended culinary school at The Natural Gourmet Institute and began diving headfirst into nutritional research, specifically geared towards healing foods.

Flashing forward to present day and the (thankfully) healthier Alexandra, she shares the story of how she met her husband, Morgan, and the film they produced together, that not only changed their lives, but the lives of the millions viewers who have ever watched “Super Size Me.” (And if you haven’t, I HIGHLY recommend it!)

Listen in as Alexandra shares the science behind cravings, the power of healing foods and her extensive amount of nutritional knowledge, that I believe is vital for a healthier happier YOU!

“You cant just take away sugar, you cant just take away the foods that give you that dopamine hit. You have to also add in fun and play and pleasure in equal amounts.”

Going off of what Alexandra said, it’s about taking away AND adding in…it’s called a balanced life!

In This Episode You Will Learn About:

  • Sugar addiction
  • Eating healthy
  • Food awareness
  • Diet
  • Wellness
  • Self care
  • Cravings

Resources:

See more from the lovely Alexandra at alexandrajamieson.com and make sure you download her AMAZING & FREE meditations, through the link above!

Follow me on social media @LoriHarder on Instagram and Lori Harder on Facebook.

You can also see more at my website: LoriHarder.com

Please tell me what you thought below and, if you liked what you heard, please click the SHARE button! Thanks!

Episode 78: End Your BODY and FOOD BATTLES with Samantha Skelly

Samantha Skelly is Canada’s leading emotional eating expert and the founder of Hungry For Happiness, a movement to support women around the world who are suffering from disordered eating and body image issues. She is a award winning, sought out international speaker who delivers inspirational presentations to empower those who struggle with the relationship they have to food and their bodies.

samantha-skelleySamantha has appeared on Global TV, Shaw, NBC and CBC to share her mission on an international platform. Hungry For Happiness creates online accessible and affordable recovery resources to those who are suffering in silence. Samantha was awarded ‘Top 24 under 24’ in September 2013, In 2014 she was a finalist as the ‘Best Emerging Entrepreneur’ by Small Business BC.

Samantha aims to create a disruptive company in the eating disorder recovery space. Her vision is to create the largest and most impactful online resource to support those who’s lives are negatively affected by issues with food and their bodies.

For the majority of her childhood, Samantha was a stunt-double, dancer and child actress.

“If I wasn’t on stage, I was in front of the camera.”

Everyone at school looked at Samantha like she had the coolest life, but to her it was normalcy.

At the age of 14, Samantha auditioned and was chosen for a stunt-double role on the well known show, “Smallville.” But it was by age 18, that she wasn’t even too sure of who the REAL Samantha was…

“I hit this wall where I didn’t even know who I was besides a dancer and an actress.”

It was in that moment, where she decided that her future education wouldn’t be determined through a degree, but more from real life instances and traveling. Lucky for Samantha, her supportive parents were all for it.

Moving to Australia, by herself, it was time to start the search for the real Samantha. Knowing no one and not even sure where to begin to “find herself,” she became obsessive with her body image and dieting. Being in a foreign land, it seemed to be the only thing she had any control over.

“I become so obsessive, that I found myself in the hospital after depriving myself of food and only eating about 4 tablespoons of yogurt a day.”

Not having found what she set out for, Samantha’s next move was England. Becoming a personal trainer there, she found it ironic that she enjoyed helping people get healthy, but behind the scenes she was slowly killing herself.

“I would weigh myself up to 20 times a day.”

Whether it be over eating or not eating enough or even just not completely and wholly loving the person in the mirror when we walk by, I feel like every one of us can somehow relate to where Samantha speaks from.

“Connecting our worthiness to our bodies can be really intense.”

Seeking a help coach and learning that it is okay to spend some time on your own, Samantha began to find healing through meditation.

“The most confronting thing I ever had to do, was close my eyes and really get into my own body.”

Samantha teaches us that waking up each day with a new mindset is the first and best habit to get into, no matter the issue! Pretending that we are already “there,” that we are already at our goal, will teach our bodies to feeling and live those positive side effects.

In This Episode You Will Learn About:

  • Finding yourself
  • Life journeys
  • Obsessive tendencies
  • Dieting
  • Binge Eating
  • Body dysmorphia
  • Shifting your thoughts
  • Self love

Resources:

You can find Samantha floating all over the internet at www.hungryforhappiness.com, Facebook: hungryforhappines, Instagram @hungryforhappiness and even on YouTube!

Follow me on social media @LoriHarder on Instagram and Lori Harder on Facebook.

You can also see more at my website: LoriHarder.com

Please tell me what you thought below and, if you liked what you heard, please click the SHARE button! Thanks!