speaker-0: thanks for joining my podcast today. ⁓

speaker-1: hello. ⁓

speaker-0: This is Avida. Is that how you say it? I don't like, I think you reached out to me on Instagram. Is that how I found me? Yes. And I have been working with her and her husband, Jovi for, since like November, when it comes to like nutrition and fitness and kind of health coaching. So I thought it'd be interesting to have her on because it seems like she has like a good story about like why she does what she does and. you've talked about like eating, like having disordered eating and I really like how you structured your program and it's fairly balanced ⁓ you work with people where they're at. so that was why I decided to work with you because I your guys's And, I was okay, well, if I'm going to work with somebody, I don't want someone that's going to be like harassing me or telling me I'm not doing it good enough. know, all that stuff. ⁓ Yeah. Anyways, why don't you tell who you are and a little bit about yourself. ⁓

speaker-1: Hey, I'm Evita. I'm technically a holistic nutrition coach focusing on women's hormone health, metabolism, and getting a better relationship with food while still reaching some body goals if that's what you're looking for. And love working with you, so we want to put that out there. You're awesome. me and my husband have a coaching program, like you said, that We help women with everything I said and really the goal with it, it's just to help people stop letting the diets and food control their life because that's what I been controlled by for so many years. And I really felt like it was impossible me to have a life that was not controlled by those things. And... ⁓ When I finally got to that place, I really wanted to help others, because it's a really beautiful thing to see people that shift in them and really like find that freedom in life. Yeah.

speaker-0: Yes, very true. And I feel like I kind of had come to that in my life too, like the last few years. And so I feel like it was the right time for me to work on stuff again, if that makes sense, because I learned to love myself as I was and tried not to let food control me anymore. And I feel like you guys have been encouraging me and it's been nice because I feel like I'm able to control my food better. I'm not obsessing over it and stuff. And so that's where like diet culture gets you all the time. And then we just beat ourselves up all the time because you like, know, you eat cookies for the day and then you're like, okay, well I'm fucked. Now I have to eat it for the rest of the month and I'm just going to binge and I'm never going to eat again and all that stuff. I've got a struggle. well, like what do you want to share a little bit about your, like what led you to that place and how you got.

speaker-1: ⁓ yeah. So I, as long as I can remember, what felt like I was heavier than the other girls, I a difference in myself and always had insecurities from a very young age. I think a lot of it stemmed from the way my mom talked about herself. She was always... you know, do as I say, not as I do type of individual. She was like, you girls are beautiful. I have a sister too. You girls are beautiful and you are perfect. And you know, but she spoke terribly about herself and she was always on a diet. She did all sorts of bizarre things, know, like slim fast. I remember at one point she was only eating saltines and diet coke. She was doing like NutriBolic where it was like all like like meat and butter only, like it was bizarre fad diets. and I, I got to a certain age, I was like, I want to try it. You know, I want to lose weight. And so she, I forget honestly what the first thing I did was, but you know, you get that initial feeling of like losing a few pounds and it's a dopamine hit and you want to continue with it. And it's not sustainable, you know, it's some crazy stuff. And so I did like multiple rounds of diets with her. always gained the weight back. I would, you know, try it over and over and over again. And that led me to a point that I developed a really bad binge and restrict cycle. So I was, you know, doing the diet, I would fail at it. And then I would binge like crazy and then vow to start on Monday and the cycle repeated itself for years. Then when I was probably around 16, I got really into like calorie counting where I was super obsessed with counting calories. And I ate 1200 calories, the magic number that everyone had to eat. again, I couldn't like, I went through periods of time where I was disciplined and I would lose the weight, but I would always gain it back. And not to get too far into deep of the eating disorder, but I finally got to a point that I, it became a severe issue. Like I was abusing diet pills. was attempting bulimia. was got the point that ⁓ I became full-blown anorexic. So I got down to like 90 pounds. And in my mind, I was disciplined. Like this me actually doing the right thing in my mind. But I developed, know, my hair was falling out. My periods, I started losing my period. I all I could think about was food. Like I was just all day that was all I thought about. And when I did allow myself to have a cheat it was, you know, to the I would eat until the point that I got sick because I was just so starved for food. And eventually started binging and restricting again. and that gained, I gained the weight. So I went from like 95 pounds back all the way up to in, I even know when my heaviest weight was, but regardless, the weight doesn't matter. It was the unhappy cycle I was in. And so that's where I hit rock bottom because I was like, I can't live like this. I can't live like this. so I chose to go to,

speaker-0: Anyhow.

speaker-1: go through a nutrition like certification and I was in college to try to try to get answers for myself and once realized I was like I've been setting myself up for failure I'm literally doing I've been doing the exact opposite what I'm supposed to be doing all these years I started trying to understand you know how our body works and how weight loss actually works and how you keep it off, what a healthy lifestyle looks like. And once found that and learned that, that's when I got into the coaching space. So sorry for the long-winded answer, but that's my nutshell right there.

speaker-0: Well, I mean, that's a good answer. Like some people have to go to, you know, like an, an eating disorder, like group or home or all kinds of different stuff, you know? So some people I feel like are able to work on it themselves and some people need help. And so I feel like when I started learning about more nutrition things other stuff like that, that it did help me as well, because I think we're just taught different things growing up all the time. I saw my mom and my grandma's all. You know, eating and dieting and talking about them themselves and how beautiful you are. But, you know, if you wore that in black, black would be so slimming and, know, comparing me and my cousin and all kinds of stuff. And so it just really gets to you. think our moms probably saw their moms do that and that's why they're doing it. And then they fell trapped to the diet culture and society telling them they had to be a certain way. I know it's really hard to watch other people that still haven't like found. Like the freedom, I guess. I think once you're not afraid of food, then it really starts to help. And like, you know, you gotta love yourself before you can actually change to, you tame yourself into it. So ⁓ I that for a long time myself. well, I what did I to kind of just, if you're talking to people ⁓ and they're struggling their, their image and like, eating and never staying on track or feeling guilty. Like what are some things that you as a coach and somebody who's gone through this kind of stuff would share to other women who might not be in that place yet or understand some of this stuff.

speaker-1: I mean, a lot of times we have to take weight loss off the table for a while. And like you said, learn to love yourself, learn what the different kind of like stages of life look like as far as like building some muscle, focusing on strength and focusing on like different wins that are not the scale going down. a lot of times it's like, they have zero semblance healthy habits. And so you have to get like a foundation of healthy habits down without weight loss being the goal. And that's a really hard thing to like wrap your mind around sometimes because we have been taught that weight loss is the only, you know, goal. That's all we can do is focus on the scale going down and that's what progress is and that's what the wins are. But really, if you don't have the foundation of understanding like how to nourish your body, how to a sustainable routine, how to allow yourself the food you love in moderation, how to learn to strength train, sleep, mindset, all of that stuff. If you don't have that foundation, even if you do lose the weight, it's gonna be very, very, very hard for you to maintain your results because you're just gonna go back to what you knew previous.

speaker-0: Yeah, that's always what I've done. Like I've done different diets too. Feel like I honestly feel like right now the way I'm able to be successful and maybe that's well part of the way as I'm taking a medication, which helps with my anxiety, depression, ADHD, and addict, like pains and addictions and stuff, which is weird. And I never said I would be in that place where I would take something, but I feel like that's been calming my, my mind down in a lot of ways where I don't have that crazy loud food noise and obsession and anxiety around everything and it's it's been really nice because I feel like I can actually control something. So, you know, there's different ways for things to help with people. mean, lots of people do like the diet drugs right now, like the ozempic and stuff. And I think that's great for a lot of people. I have a lot of friends that are doing it and have lost a lot of weight, but I think that a lot of times if we don't learn how to deal with our issues and why we got there and then know how to move forward, then that's when it comes back, you know, like Absolutely. And that's the hard part. Like I'm like, we talked about earlier, I want to be able to control my food, but still enjoy my life and still enjoy food without it controlling me and obsessing all the time. So hard to do. Oh, that's all right. I like animals on here. It's all good. Um, and what are some of your foundational like principles in your coaching business that you guys kind of have?

speaker-1: Yeah, exactly. Sorry my dog's barking. So I think learning to think of food in terms of what we can add, not what we can subtract, because just learning how different food is medicine, we can still have the stuff we love in moderation that may not be the best for us internally or for our hormones. But anything's fine moderation. Alcohol is fine in moderation. Everything's fine in moderation. But really just understanding like, you know, what your body wants and needs at like a basic level, I think is such a huge game changer because then you can shift like even with like things like people tracking I such a negative relationship with calorie counting because to me it was all restriction and it was all like, I have to make sure I'm eating as little as possible. Where now ⁓ I at it as I'm making sure I'm giving my body enough. or I'm making sure I'm giving my body of each area of what it needs, because if you're under consuming fats, it's ⁓ to your hormones and your period and your menstrual cycle. If you're under consuming carbs, it's detrimental to your energy levels, your brain health. So look at it in terms of that, and I ⁓ feel we really have to shift the mindset around what this like. That's one definitely foundation that we want to focus on. Two, I was a cardio junkie, a HIIT workout junkie, and that's beautiful for heart health. It's great to do, to maintain throughout your lifetime. But if you aren't focusing on strength training and building muscle, we do ourselves a big disservice with not only our metabolism, just like longevity of life, you know what I mean? If talk to any person that's 50, 60, 70s and above, a lot of them will say, damn, I wish I focused on lifting weights earlier in life because I would be in a way better place right now with just ⁓ getting out bed or ⁓ whatever it I want people to understand you aren't going to be bulky or, you know, like that's always a fear that we hear from our female clients a lot is I don't want to be bulky. I don't want to look like a bodybuilder. And that's just not the case. I had that fear as well, where I was like, I have to lift super light weights and high reps and all this. When really reality to get those ⁓ massive gains, you have to be eating. crazy amounts of calories, crazy amount of protein. you don't get, you don't look like that by accident, let's So, you know, that was a huge game changer to me is shifting my mindset around my workout regimen and like why I'm doing what I'm doing. And so that's something we definitely teach in the program as well. It's just about losing the weight and being as small as possible. It's about feeling strong, feeling healthy, feeling

speaker-0: It's not easy to get to, that's for sure.

speaker-1: in control, you know, and so I think those would be our main foundations we work on.

speaker-0: have always liked, well, when I started to like exercise, I should say I liked hit and things like that, but I always hated regular cardio. So boring to me. I would rather die than just go run on them. So I I got into salsa dancing a lot. And so that was my cardio for a very long time. And I still do it super fun, but I like the classes because they give me like a rush of adrenaline, which is nice. Sometimes weightlifting doesn't give you that intense rush right away, but ⁓ you know, I had to realize this when I was working with you guys, I got a scan before I started. Then I another scan at my gym, kind of somewhere in the middle. And I noticed that my weight went down, but my body fat went up and my muscle mass went down. And I was like, what the hell? I was like, but I'm doing all these classes and I'm weight training, but the, you know, I was doing too many cardio things and I, goal is not to lose muscle mass. Like I want to, I like my muscles. I want to actually have muscles that you can see. I don't need to be a bulky queen, but still, like seeing the muscles on my legs and stuff. So I was like, ⁓ no. So I'm making a priority now to do ⁓ more training. could still do my classes, but I'm like lessening the ones every once in while. And then like, like maybe doing Pilates and then I go and do a weight training workout right afterwards. So it's nice to have the variety for sure. Sometimes I'm like,

speaker-1: my classes too. Like I like yoga sculpt in the heat and with the, but I think it's just about a balance. Like you said, weight more often and doing the other stuff supplementally along the way, just like with food, you know, we want to nourish ourselves 80 % of the time and that 20 % of the time treat yourself with whatever, but yeah, that's very important. And ⁓ it took me long to kind of understand that concept as well.

speaker-0: And the progress that you were talking about that's not scale, like non-scale victories are super amazing. Like I can see my progression and my weight training at different times in my life. And I'm like, ⁓ my God, I like hip thrusted, like 415 pounds one time. I was like, damn, I was strong. And then I'm trying to get back there again. And I like seeing the weights go up and then I can see that my muscle is growing. Like it's fun. And I like that. And it's a way for me to like get away and be by myself. and like rejuvenate myself for my mental health. And I have like a lot of stress in my life and I am always going and that's been my biggest problem. I think you told me you're a hairstylist before in previous life, right?

speaker-1: I was a hairstylist for 10 years. It was, I was behind the chair for like, think eight maybe. But yeah, it's a, it's a physically and mentally demanding game. So I get that completely. ⁓

speaker-0: And I see a lot of hair stylists that have been doing for a long time and new stylists. Like it's an interesting, I feel like you could just coach just hair stylists and have like a massive in so many ways.

speaker-1: crazy. We have a lot of hairstylists. we are like, and even estheticians, we have a lot of estheticians on our program too. And I think it's just because, that high stress, high, haste environment can really throw your, you off routine wise. And even like when I worked with in the salon, like it was like, you were trying to shovel in whatever you could eat in between clients ⁓ and then after you're so exhausted that people are like, let's go get drinks, let's go get food. And so it was like almost like this like groundhog's day of doing that over and over and over again of really unhealthy habits. And so yeah, I had to learn kind of like how to make it work with the schedule and it can be done. I mean, look at like nurses and teachers, like we work with so many different women in so many different areas. moms that are crazy, crazy busy. So it can be done. It just has to be a priority for yourself.

speaker-0: I think most of the time I hear from people that they don't make it a priority and that's the hardest part. Everybody else has a priority instead of them. And that is where you have to get to also. Like I've always tried to, but I think I make work or other things more of a priority. And I'm really trying to focus on my own, just my personal health because I'm like, I just turned 40 this year. And you know, I hear people talk about how terrible it is and blah, blah, but also it's great. And I'm like, I don't have. health problems, my back's already been messed up from car accidents and doing hair. And I'm like, I need to do what I could do because I want to live and I want to be able to go hiking and go on trips and travel. And I want to live a good life and I need to be healthier for that. ⁓ eating at work is so hard sometimes. And like, I'm getting much better at it. I try to have like, you know, healthy snacks, even if they're like processed sort of, I'm like, that's what I have to do. I have to go grab some quest chips to so that I don't like. binge at the end of the night because I'm so hungry and then I eat a giant burrito and then I want to throw up because there's so much food. haven't eaten all day, but technically it's probably fine. But I feel like shit. know, I'm working on little things, protein shakes that are yummy and those things to have even in my purse because I'm trying to remember to, I'm trying to focus more on the protein and stuff too, versus just like calorie counting, but

speaker-1: sure. It's so important, especially with the the strength training. Yeah, protein is so important. Hormone health, it's important. But like you said, like you have to like kind of do things in baby steps. That's another thing that for sure is like a foundational thing in our program is that you can give yourself so much on your plate. And then it's when you inevitably are not able to handle and juggle all the balls, then you beat yourself up about it. And so learning to just kind of do what you What you realistically handle currently? Then once we get that down, let's move to the next step, the next step. And that's something I've had to learn over the course of the years, because me and my husband were both very all or nothing, black and white, extremist tendency people. And I've to unlearn that through therapy too. Therapy's such a ⁓ game changer. when you're on a journey like this, because it's almost like it takes a village. You have to learn the mental side of things. You have to unlearn have to where your traumas come from, because a lot of times the food comes from a past trauma situation. So yeah, for sure. ⁓

speaker-0: Yeah, I definitely have struggled with emotional eating and I would eat all the emotions, happy, sad, excited, angry, depressed, whatever it was. That was the only thing I had for a very long time in my life. Cause I grew up in weird cults and homeschool and toxic spiritual abuse environment. So like all I had was that and my books that I was reading about somebody else's life. So I would just shovel in food as I'm reading and I'm like, I realized I had to make different habits eventually, you know, like I can't take snacks and watch a movie. with me because I'll just eat it all right then and there. So I'm like doing little things like I will try to do for myself. And it really has helped because the little steps get you where you're at. Did ever watch what about Bob? ⁓ it's the old movie with Bill, whatever it is, Bill Murray in it. he, okay. It's like a therapy movie. It's really funny. It's old and stupid, but he has the scene where he talks about baby steps and he's like, baby steps to the door, baby steps downstairs, baby steps and it's baby steps, everything.

speaker-1: No, I haven't.

speaker-0: And it's so true, but if you can't just like decide I'm going to work out seven days a week, I'm going to eat this many things like never ever works for anybody ever. then you just jump off and you give up. So you have to give yourself grace. And I try to tell my clients a lot of times when they talk to me and we talk about stuff and I'm doing their hair and I'm like, listen, one thing at a time and then sure self grace because tomorrow's a new day. You could start over. You don't need to like, let it take over. Yeah, absolutely.

speaker-1: Yeah, I think that's so important just looking at the big of the cycles we repeat and the universe, God, whatever you want to believe in is going to keep giving you the same lesson and packaged up in a different way over and over and over and over again until you break the cycle and understand what you're doing. And that was me with the yo-yo dieting and the stopping and the starting. And that's most of our clients, you know, where They do keep doing the crazy, crazy fast-fixed diets and over and ⁓ over again and expecting different results. And you just have to rip the band-aid off and start fresh.

speaker-0: for real. Like were talking earlier, you have to prioritize yourself. Well, for me, that was like changing my schedule and not working as many long hours so that I can actually get up and go to the gym and workout and have some time for myself in the morning. Like I don't work till 12 now on a lot of days and I'm trying to do like eight hours. Shocking. As a hairstylist, that's a short day. That's cool. Like I feel like a new person and I never want to do 10 hours or more again because I want to die. And I'm like, I feel like death and I hurt in the morning. Like I have to prioritize those things for myself. And since I've been doing that and making sure that I bring food and I'm trying to drink water, like all these things are changing. So it really is about a little bit about the habits. And that's what I appreciate about you guys. When you do your little check-ins of like a forum, I have to fill out talking about like your wins and maybe things you didn't do well that you want to do better at or whatever. And you guys are always very like encouraging and supportive of everything, which is really nice. And, ⁓ I know I work well with accountability, is why I was like, need to work with people for a little bit to just to kind of like help myself because I think we all know how to lose weight, right? I mean, it's not super hard. We all know how it's done, but, listened to your phone call the other day or your monthly call the other day on reverse dieting. And I was like, see, this is what I need to help with. Because once you to kind of like more where you want to be, then you're like, okay, cool. I'm here. And then you just. Either give up or to same thing forever. And that's not where you're supposed to go. So I think for me, I want to learn more about the reverse dieting part, which is basically like eating more calories and all those things that you were talking about, which is hard. And you have to get over that in your mind because you're like, ⁓ but I'm eating more. My scale might be changing. But I mean, I think that's probably where most people go wrong is because. And so, I don't know, maybe you can talk about that just a little bit.

speaker-1: Stop. Yeah, and that's something I'm like crazy passionate about is that side of the spectrum is learning kind of how to maintain your results after getting to the goal or some people come to us and because of the fact that they've been under ⁓ or restricting for so long, their metabolism is running at a snail's pace because the body it's, you know, physiological defense mechanism to keep you alive. So it will get used to the fact that you've been barely eating and it will slow down its in order to keep you alive. And ⁓ then aren't losing doing what they used to be doing, you know? And so they're like, I don't understand. I used to be able to do this, this, and this, and I would lose weight so fast. It doesn't work for me any ⁓ longer. And a lot of times they'll attribute that to age. ⁓ well, I'm getting older, so my metabolism must be slowing down. When in reality, it's typically our lifestyle choices that slows our metabolism down because again, it's years and years of yo-yo dieting, years and years of restricting. So ⁓ reverse dieting process has like different, let's say ⁓ reasons we would use a reverse diet. So one be you ended, a fat loss phase, you lost weight, you want to keep that weight off. you essentially do what's a reverse diet, basically going up calories over the course of time, slowly but surely. and then decreasing your, workouts, ⁓ because at the end of a, of a fat loss phase, you're going to be ⁓ eating less and working out more because that's what got you to the goal, but we can't keep that up forever. That's just not how it works. slowly but surely decreasing activity and increasing the calorie consumption work in the opposite direction where your metabolism will get used to you eating more, but you're not gaining weight because of how slowly we're doing it. So it's a really like nuanced process and ⁓ We love it and it's something that's really fun to teach people, but it is a mental game sometimes because people are like, what do mean? I need to eat more. Like I'm gonna gain weight. I'm gonna this, that, and the other. there's a lot of mental reframing on that journey. So yeah.

speaker-0: Yeah, I think that's why I'm most excited about learning. I mean, I've taken nutrition classes and I've done lots of stuff and I know things, but not, I'm not good at making a plan, which is why I didn't survive as a personal trainer. Cause I was like, this is boring and I don't want to think this hard. I like, like working out. liked group fitness, teaching group fitness more, but like the whole plan and like all that is so much work. Like even for me meal plan planning for the week. I'm like, Oh, hate this so much. and I still struggle at it. So, you know, I'm working on it, but.

speaker-1: And I like, you I always tell people any goal is kind of, have to do the same repetitive stuff over and over and over and over to get to the goal. Like look at anything like building business with being a hairstylist. Like you have to go to work day in and day out, do clients, build a clientele. Like it takes time and repetition to get to where you've been to, or, you know, getting a college degree. going to classes, taking tests, long nights studying. It's always boring, annoying stuff we don't want to be doing to get to the goal. Same thing with nutrition and fitness. We have to used to the mundane and it just has to become part of our lifestyle. We just do it because we know that's what we have to do. You know what I mean? But then on the opposite side ⁓ of spectrum, you can still include the things you love. So like you said, doing the classes here and there, if that's what you really enjoy or yoga or Pilates. And then on the food side of the spectrum, really, I was not someone that could cook previous to this journey. Like ⁓ husband cannot believe that that's the case because now I'm so, I love cooking and it's such a huge passion for me that like I had to literally call my mom and be like, mom, tell him I literally didn't even know how to boil water. Like I knew nothing. Like I was calling her, like asking her like, okay, well how many minutes do I have to put the water on the stove? Like nothing. And so I learned this from scratch. And what I really just decided to do was like romanticize the process. Like I was like, you know what? I'm gonna learn how to make whatever it was that I was craving at home maybe better ingredients or whatever. And I the process of learning how to cook. And now I enjoy it where it's like something I look forward to and it's like a love language for me where it's like, you know, do ⁓ taco night and have it with all the bells and whistles and make it like really cute. And I just like became really love with the process. And I think that's something that's fun too with all areas of this journey is kind of like learning to like it, like fall in love with it. Yeah.

speaker-0: I think I need to get back to that point. Or I know if I've ever been to the point where I

speaker-1: Yeah, it could be done. telling you, girl, I was not, I was not a chef. Believe me.

speaker-0: I think if I did it, have to like have my life can't be still all over the place and I can't be cooking dinner at 8 p.m. and like be excited. You know what mean? So I'm still like not in the perfect place to it. But I tried. I love my breakfast. Like breakfast is my favorite. I always love cooking that. I'm trying to have more fun recipes and try different stuff. But like you fell in love with cooking. I had to fall in love with exercise too because I did not grow up with that at all. I didn't my brothers did sports and stuff, but you know, girls didn't really need to. So what was the point of that? And then all I did was just eat and then. just sounded terrible. And everyone would talk about it. And my friend was like, why do you come to this new place with me? And cause she was always on a journey and working out and she lost a bunch of weight and she was ⁓ healthy and all this stuff. So she invited me to go to orange theory fitness when they opened over here. And was like, ⁓ I want to do this. I'm so mad about it. ⁓ And then I went and I was like, I think what I like is competition with myself, is funny to me. because that's why I decided to salsa dance. like, I'm going to get good at this. And I was like, I'm going to fucking do that. And then I was like, I'm going to like, I think I'm going to compete for myself to be better each time. And I don't know why, but that worked. And I fell in love with exercise and like, I know some other coaches that are like more body positive, like big trainer, bigger trainers, and they talk about joyful movement all the time. which I think is really important. try to like tell my clients that struggle with exercise too and they hate it or that I don't like the gym and blah, blah, blah. And like, listen, I didn't like it either. And it doesn't have to be that, but like, if you like dancing, go learn how to dance and like start that journey or like you like to go take walks, go take walks. Like you got to find something that brings you joy. And then you also have to realize I'm should be grateful that I get to have this opportunity to move. can move. So like there's all those little like internal changes that you have to work on before you can get any sort of like food freedom or exercise freedom, whatever you want to call it. But you have to like how to like it and love it, guess, because it's a punishment. I feel like it's been a punishment for most people. Like food is either a reward or a punishment. And then exercise tends to be a punishment because you too many cookies or ⁓ I know, but ⁓ like Especially women, think that's hard for us.

speaker-1: Absolutely. You're so, right about that. And I was the same way. I knew nothing about working out. So think, I think that's too, a lot of times why my clients can resonate with me because I was them to the fullest extent. Like I did not grow up working out. I up on processed food. I grew up on crazy diets and I had to learn all this from scratch. So ⁓ same with me as far as workouts, like The extent of what I knew about working out is my mom did like some aerobics tapes that were literally nineties or eight or whatever. It was like Denise ⁓ ⁓ so ⁓ would, that was all I knew is seeing her do that occasionally. But outside of that, like I did some sports ⁓ I swam when I was in middle school and then in high school I did,

speaker-0: ⁓ yeah.

speaker-1: I got into partying and I went down that road. of the, you know, sports stuff went out the window. So, and that's something else that I learned in therapy, just the same way that I, use food a coping mechanism. did the same thing with, you know, drinking and things like that, because it was just like a way to numb numb my life, you know, because I wouldn't want to face myself in the mirror. but with, with fitness, my husband, is the person that introduced me to fitness. And I learned everything from scratch from him. And then he learned everything about nutrition from me. so it was kind of funny because we both taught each other kind of sides of the spectrum. And it's crazy now to this day that I'm so and know what I know with fitness because if you told this 10 years ago, I wouldn't have believed you.

speaker-0: I people think that they can't do it. I'm like, yes, you can. know people that have started CrossFit at 45 years old and got into it. You know, like it doesn't matter. You just have to find your thing. And like, I really started with group fitness classes and that was where I really liked it. And I also saw trainers at some of the gym that were like normal people, not, and some of them were bigger bodied people and some were more normal and they weren't all tiny little skinny people. And so I felt comfortable. like, If they can do it, I can do it. so like actually seeing representation out there of people eating and working out and stuff like that is really helpful. Also encouragement, which is why I decided to do personal training and group fitness for a while. Cause it's like, I need to show people that I can be like a bigger person and still do all this stuff. so can.

speaker-1: that's something I learned how to learn on this journey is your smallest self is not your healthiest self. In every single case, that may not be true, but for the most part, your smallest self is typically not your healthiest self. When I was at my smallest, I was at my unhealthiest. So the of you and how you look has nothing to do with your health. So that's super, super important to differentiate the two.

speaker-0: definitely. Do you have anything for people that are just starting on their journey that might help? Just some tips. think I kind of already asked you, but maybe five things that could help. Yeah. We'll start just, I don't know, prioritizing themselves in this fitness health journey.

speaker-1: For sure. So I would say the basics, like just starting off from scratch is eat a protein rich breakfast. You know, so many women don't eat breakfast and not only does it set you up for like a energy crash midday because your blood sugar plummets make sure it's a protein rich breakfast. Because it's going to help you one it gets your metabolism flowing in the beginning It's going to help with your energy levels to it's going to help with satiation. So like you said with You know not going Going long periods without eating you're going to be more inclined to eat a lot in one sitting and usually it's not You're to go for what you're craving, which is not the most healthy So that be number one is eat a protein-rich breakfast Number two would be try to have like a protein, carbon, fat in each meal. And it doesn't, you don't need to set any parameters for yourself or count any calories or have a protein goal, but just making sure like you have some form of protein than you enjoy and a healthy fat or a fiber or a carb in each meal really helps to kind of, again, help with. energy levels, your hunger levels, all of that. Number I'm going to think of five.

speaker-0: I was just a random number, sorry.

speaker-1: is walking. So before you even think about getting into the gym, I would set for yourself a goal for walking and whether that's using your cell phone and seeing what your step count is and adding one or 2000 on top of that. So usually a good rule of thumb to start out with is like 6,000 steps a day, 7,000 steps a day. So maybe you... you know, walk your dog a couple extra times a day. Maybe you park your car a little bit farther from ⁓ and, you know, walk farther. you take the stairs instead of the elevator. Just increasing your steps is a huge game changer, excuse me, only for your mental health, but your heart health, just so many different things. Walking is so important. That's three. Number... ⁓ Or would say hydration. So try to start some more water. And that's something that I still, for some reason, is something I struggle with. I'm not going to lie to you. I don't know why. But what me is to have a big, whatever you want Stanley. I ⁓ got a Stanley on Amazon because I don't really care. But some ⁓ type of two or water thing, you can make it So sometimes I'll do like just lemon and some like stevia drops. And so it tastes like lemonade. And I drink that throughout the day. And just having like the physical reminder in my face helps me. But that's for sure. People are almost always dehydrated. And ⁓ we sometimes think hungry, but a of times we need water first. So that's big one. Yeah. And then the last one would be setting for yourself routine or and ⁓ evening So whatever that looks like for you. if that's up 30 minutes earlier than you normally do to have like some quiet time. So you're not just like jumping out of bed straight into your day and getting chaotic. Or maybe you gratitude journal. We talked about gratitude about just What are we grateful for? Just jot down three things I'm grateful for and things that today would make today great, you know? And you could do the same thing before bed. What are ⁓ things that were really amazing today? You know, and it could just be like, I, you know, got out of bed. It could be something that basic. Cause sometimes the day's horrible. But when you start like, racking your brain to find something good, you'll find it. So I think that really helps. then just for yourself little rituals helps with morning and night. So those would be ⁓ my

speaker-0: That was great. like those. Those are all very good ones. So do you want to like share what exactly you guys offer in your coaching program and just kind of like, if somebody's curious, maybe you can just yourself out a little advertisement for you guys.

speaker-1: You can follow us both on Instagram or I actually got hacked on TikTok. I'm so sad about it. been growing it for like a couple of years now I'm like, man, but I hacked on my TikTok. So that's currently unavailable, but my Instagram's at evitaeats, E-V-I-T-A eats. And then my husband is jovhufffitness, J-O-V-I-H-O-U-G-H fitness.

speaker-0: I know, saw that.

speaker-1: on Instagram and TikTok. But if you're interested in joining our program, we do consultation calls. So free consult calls, we'll get to know you, we'll get to know what you're looking for and let you know exactly how we work. But a little short synopsis would be we offer one-on-one and we do everything we basically talked nutrition, fitness and mindset. And we also have an option to do functional lab testing or coaching without labs. So there's like a little bit of a difference in price there, but with the labs, we're able to order hormone tests for you to see if there's any specific imbalances. And if so, we can help kind of set holistic protocols to help heal those things holistically. And then we also have outside of one-on-one coaching, a monthly subscription to our app with custom workouts every six weeks, and then custom nutrition targets. ⁓ that's a month-to-month app subscription for people that may not need the accountability handholding of a one-on-one.

speaker-0: Okay. Yeah. Well, I have to shout out your husband, Jovi, because when I talked to you guys on my consultation call, I was like, ⁓ this guy's looks tough with all his tattoos. And then as soon as I started talking, I'm like, ⁓ this is one of those guys. It's just tatted up. It's like super sweet teddy bear kind of vibes. yeah. ⁓ then like, he's so encouraging when he does all these check-ins with stuff. And I really appreciate all his positive encouraging feedback. So, yeah, you guys are both just really sweet and nice and

speaker-1: No.

speaker-0: I found, I found a couple of awesome people on Instagram because they hit me up. Like I had a personal trainer for a while. That was a really sweet guy. Hit me up and I'm, you I go follow and I go look and I see what kind, what are you about? And you guys really felt, you know, just where I was at, like balanced and nice sweet and stuff. So.

speaker-1: And we, you know, we definitely come from a place of empathy because we've been there, we've been in the shoes. And built a community, you know, that's like, feels like a family and it's great because then, you know, a lot of our company's based on referrals, which is a beautiful thing because it's like, you know, a big happy family of people that know each other and they're like, ⁓ my God, you're on this program. it's, yeah. referral program too. So for our clients that are on our program, if you refer someone, we give you a free month of coaching. So we love to pay it forward. ⁓

speaker-0: Okay, so guys sign up because I need some more free months. That would be great. Well, thank you for coming on and sharing a little bit about who you are. appreciate it. It's been really nice.

speaker-1: It was really nice talking to you.

speaker-0: Thank you. I'm going to all your information in the notes where to find you ⁓ and probably your website too, which is. ⁓

speaker-1: Yeah, we have a website, Jovita Lifestyle.com. So our company name is Jovita Lifestyle. Jovi and Avita merged together is Jovi. So yeah, Jovita Lifestyle.com has more info on all of our programs and a link to book a console call.

speaker-0: name. Okay, cool. Well, thank you guys or you. Thank you for coming on with my show. right. Well, I will sign off and I will talk to you later. Okay. Bye.

speaker-1: Listen in the wind and rain.