If you're looking for an uplifting boost in motivation to get moving and kickstart a healthier lifestyle, look no further than Kate Redmond and her transformative journey.
Daphne Kirkwood, owner of iDaph Events and Kate Redmond, Marketing Director at Hunter Subaru sit down to talk about the year long journey that Kate has been on to get healthier and feel better.
Having been through the highs and lows of trying to achieve weight loss goals over the years, Kate found a newfound understanding of exercise that changed her life for good. She discovered how working out can not only be about losing pounds or achieving physical perfection, but also about feeling empowered, energized and confident – as well as being able to have fun doing something active! Read on to find out more about how she adopted her meaningful new attitude towards health and fitness – it’s enough motivation to get anyone up from their seat!
If you're looking for an uplifting boost in motivation to get moving and kickstart a healthier lifestyle, look no further than Kate Redmond and her transformative journey.
Daphne Kirkwood, owner of iDaph Events and Kate Redmond, Marketing Director at Hunter Subaru sit down to talk about the year long journey that Kate has been on to get healthier and feel better.
Having been through the highs and lows of trying to achieve weight loss goals over the years, Kate found a newfound understanding of exercise that changed her life for good. She discovered how working out can not only be about losing pounds or achieving physical perfection, but also about feeling empowered, energized and confident – as well as being able to have fun doing something active! Read on to find out more about how she adopted her meaningful new attitude towards health and fitness – it’s enough motivation to get anyone up from their seat!
All right. I am here today with Kate from Hunter Subaru, and Kate has been involved a lot with our events over the past few years, and I wanted to catch up with you today. Because I've been noticing that you are posting some inspiring things online. You look different. When I see you around, you look a little different. Kate and I, we, how long have we known each other? A few years now, do you think?
Kate Redmond:Probably five or so years now. Okay.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, it's been a bit, it's been a minute. Kate, tell us what's happening in your world.
Kate Redmond:So last year I started out on a health journey just to make myself feel better. I was really overweight. I had faced a health scare and at the begin this time last year actually. And when I was finally through that it was like, okay, now is the time. To lose the weight and just get healthy and feel better. Initially, I didn't have like a goal in mind. Now I do but it was, it's time to lose the weight. And I've tried so many things throughout the years and some things have worked and some things have wrecked my system, completely it just, I don't know what it is about. I think I know what it is, this year it just finally clicked. All the pieces of fell together to where it's working and sustainable.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. Tell me about the goal. What's the goal that
Kate Redmond:you. Yeah. So the goal is to get below one 90. Okay. I have a personal trainer. I've been as big as three 50. And as small as, 200. I've been above 200 pounds since fifth grade, so it's no. Ok. Ok. So I've always been bigger, but I've always been active. And so I work out with a personal trainer a couple times a week for strength training. And our goal is to get stay between 1 75 and one 90. Okay. So there's always you. Girls, weekends away, You know what I mean? Yeah. Like your body just changes, it's constantly changing. And so it, that's the range that we've of picked at. And I like that it's not a specific number cause it's not really about a specific number. As it is just about feeling good with yourself.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. And what works for your body too? I know, I've always been very thin boned and thin and that's part of my jeans and my makeup, and people are like, oh, poor you. But really, I had a hard time actually putting on weight and I would get the opposite treatment of why are you so skinny? Do you have an eating disorder? All these things. Like sometimes our body is a certain way. And yeah, even though you knew you were overweight, you might not ever. To be one 20 or one 30 and that doesn't fit with your body shape, or bone
Kate Redmond:structure Hundred percent. I'm tall, so for me to be one 20, like I, I feel at that point somebody would be like, please eat a cheeseburger. What's wrong? Exactly. And that's
Daphne Kirkwood:what people have told me. Yeah,
Kate Redmond:exactly. It's both ways. It's crazy how we all, attack each other. For looks. And, that's one thing I've struggled with my whole life has been my weight. And everyone's like, if you just eat less and you work out more, like you'll get there. And I was like, you have no idea. The lengths that I've gone to, to, to do that not work. And it
Daphne Kirkwood:sounds like such a simple solution. that's a very,
Kate Redmond:I've done problem. I've done no ca no carbs. I've done, Weight Watchers. I've done keto, I've done vegan, I've done paleo and like a whole non preservative, no artificial, just natural food. And it's natural. Sta you name it I've done it
Daphne Kirkwood:over the years. So is this the first time you've done this journey with exercise or more exercise or a
Kate Redmond:different type? This is the first time I've done the journey where I had. It's land exercise specifically. Like before I'd be on a diet and I'd I'm just gonna go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym, or I'm gonna walk, or I'm gonna bike ride. This is the first time where I said, okay, this is gonna be my meal plan and this is how I'm gonna do my nutrition. And then with my nutrition, this is like gonna be my workout regimen. And so it's the first time I put them both together. I can say for many years I thought I could outwork out whatever I ate. And I'd be, I'd be in a CrossFit gym. I remember for the longest time, the closest I got back to being to 200, I was in a CrossFit gym, an hour a day, six days a week, and eating like boiled chicken and steamed broccoli and just burnt myself out, in three months. not sustain. It's not sustainable. I, this time I decided to hire a personal trainer and more so for the fact of, it's not that I can't read about what I'm supposed to do, or, see how you're supposed to use equipment or how plan your workouts or use an app or something. I needed that accountability, like I needed to pay somebody so that I didn't feel guilty about. Going or not going. Yeah. Yeah. Like I know my trainer's waiting on me at six 30 every Tuesday, Thursday. And she's getting up early to meet me there cuz I'm her first client of the day. So it's, I did that more from an accountability standpoint and I worked out with her for probably. Oh, six, eight months. before I really, truly got serious about the nutrition side. Okay. And then once the nutrition got in line with what I was doing with her, it was like, all right, here we go. Let's go We're losing weight. The pounds started to come off, but it came off evenly, which is, was so amazing to see it that
Daphne Kirkwood:way. So really, it sounds like you started with the exercise component got in into that, got settled in, got your routine, and then you started adding the nutrition component to.
Kate Redmond:Yeah, I'm one of those people that are all over the place all the time. And then I normally like jump in Uhhuh but I jump into the point of like craziness sometimes. And it was like, look, I need to do this. So it becomes sustainable, right? So I'm just gonna change one behavior at a time until it becomes a habit, right? And then once it becomes a habit, then I can move on to the, and just made it And that's how I got into running. I started running last July cuz we had the the Chamber, the Apple Festival for the Chamber coming up. And we needed a team for Hunter and so I just
Daphne Kirkwood:looked at it. I remember that Was your first gonna be your first 5k? That's right. Yeah. First 5k. Yep, I remember that. So
Kate Redmond:it just became okay, I'm down 30 pounds at that point. I'm feeling better. My knee is not hurting as much. My ankle wasn't hurting as much. I was in my nutrition. So that was the next habit. Like I've always wanted to be a runner. I've always hated running relationship.
Daphne Kirkwood:You're
Kate Redmond:sandwich. And so it just became. Okay, let's see if we can make this a habit. Let's see if this is something I could enjoy because at that point I was, loving being in the gym, but I. I, I love sweating. I don't know what it is, but like coming off of a workout where you've been sweating and you're just drained, like I love that feeling. Like I know I worked hard for myself and it's also just so mentally freeing. Like I literally had somebody in the gym the other day. I was running on the treadmill. and like as soon as I was done they tapped me on the shoulder and they're like, I swear you were about to break out into a dance. Like I had my headphones in and I was in a zone running and it was one of the best things cuz I was like, I just get lost in the music. And it just, it's such a good mental clarity for me. So that's how I picked up running. Cause it was like, okay, we've got this race coming up and we sponsor so much that I was like, let's put a team together. Let's do.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. And so lemme ask you about the races because I know, you've been at Hunter Subaru for a long time. And you've been around of a lot of events and for a while honestly, it seemed like you were just not interested. You were just I wasn't so what do you feel like the shift was? Do you feel like it was because you. had that health crisis and then all of a sudden you're like maybe I'll start running. Or do you feel like just being around that environment inspired you and you're like, actually, maybe I will try. What was
Kate Redmond:it? I think there's a lot of components there. I had a serious issue with my eyes last year that they thought was gonna be a brain tumor and then they. Cancer, MS. And then diabetes. And when it was ruled out that it was not diabetes and all of those other things, Uhhuh, it was okay, I need to get serious about this. And started, chasing wellness. in general, just how do I just feel better? And, we've, and that's, that was February to May of last year. And then in May, I started the nutrition program and started to see some results. And then we do so many events that I am constantly around them, right? And I was like why can't I run? And I have our executive team here is super close and everybody. fairly physical, like we've gone hiking together as a team. We love to just go and do a team building. We go hike, four or five miles and then go have lunch. I've never been in a culture where, physical health, mental health and social health is a priority for the organization. And so I just wanted to be better for that. Like the first hike we did as a team, I was always at the back of the. Everybody was just spacing out, talking or whatever as we were hiking. But I just kept noticing that I was constantly behind. And so I was like, okay, let's get better. Let let's do this. You know what I mean? And so that's where it. it helped because like I have a team that's Hey, if you wanna go run, let's go run. Let's go run together, let's go. Where are you at with your progress and things like that. So it just, it's just part of the culture here. And I was surrounded by it, so it just made it really easy to get into it. Yeah. I was
Daphne Kirkwood:sucked you in.
Kate Redmond:Yeah. Some weight down. I'm already gonna be there. I still have to be there for the whole that I have to work. I might as well. Yeah. And so I thought about, I was like, let's try with the chamber. the chamber is so great and he's always busted my chops about not being there for it. Yeah. And so I was like, we'll try it. We'll just try it. Okay. And now this year I have a goal to run a 5K a month, which is crazy, but I was like, so thinking like this time last year, running wasn't even on my radar. Yeah. 55 plus pounds heavier.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. Don't you think two with five Ks especially. It's so cool to see. In the numbers, like just the gradual improvement. It's it might be 14 seconds that you shaved off of the last month's 5k and it's oh
Kate Redmond:yeah. So I haven't seen it months to month, but, so I did the 5k labor Day Uhhuh and then I signed up for the Turkey trot. For Thanksgiving. Yep. And that's when I really got into really working on timing. Like I was like, okay, I did my first one, I finished, I didn't finish last, so I was very happy. I was not last Yep. I ran, the whole thing except for the cemetery cuz that was a climb And then I was like, how do I drop my time? And so I started working with my trainer. and we'd just put together, I used one of those apps right. Interval running apps get myself there. And so I started working backwards through the app again, just to work on speed through the intervals, yeah, to get my breathing down. And I ran the Turkey trot seven minutes faster than the Labor Day race. That's unbelievable. And I was, I,
Daphne Kirkwood:that was, what is this two months? Two months difference?
Kate Redmond:Two months different, yes, two months different. And then that was pretty much the same time for ugly sweater and then a little faster for New Year's. So we'll see next week.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. Frostbite. Yeah. Yeah. So now that you're doing this journey, Bet. I would bet that you have started to realize that, hey, I don't like. This feeling if I don't exercise Yeah. So what happens to you now when you don't run or you don't eat healthy? What do, what are you noticing?
Kate Redmond:It totally gets to me. You mentioned earlier I love to travel, I travel for work a bunch. The last several weeks have been heavy travel for me for work. And some of the things like, I was like, okay, I only. I don't really drink red wine right now. That's not a focus of mine cuz I'm trying to stay off sugar. And this past weekend I was at a dinner with a bunch of colleagues and I ended up having a couple glasses of wine, but I woke up the next morning, I was like, I have to go run. Like I have to get this outta my system. Or I had a bad day yesterday. Like I was just in a bad mood and I just needed to get out of it and was like, I need to go to the gym. I know I can go to the gym and get back to my happy place. So if I go too many. Days without working out. It's I need, I'm not Right. Or like I Oh yeah I got back into town, I think it was 10 o'clock Tuesday night and Weds last night. I was like, I gotta go to the gym. Yeah. I had my packed at 7:00 AM on my way to work to go to the gym that night. Cause I was like, I need to get back in it.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. Yeah. It's so easy to get disrupted from. Those things, and I've been running now for 20 years, so I started as an adult. I didn't run in school or anything like that. I found it as an adult. And I went on a trip a couple weeks ago and while I was super active on the trip, I was doing cross-country skiing, which was terrifying cause I'd never done that before. I didn't run, I didn't do my normal running or biking, yoga routine. And it got me off kilter. And I used to struggle big time with panic attacks and anxiety. And when I first started running 20 years ago, I noticed when I ran I didn't feel that anxiety, I didn't feel that panic like it was the magic drug. It was amazing. And it's interesting. And going on that trip, those thing, those anxiety feelings that I have not had in so long came back, the panic attacks came back and I was like, what is going on with me? And as I was traveling home, I was like, what? What in the world? I'm like, I'm off kilter. Yeah. Like I'm not doing, I'm off my regular routine. And even though I was moving my body, it just, it wasn't what I needed mentally because the cross-country skiing was so stressful, it wasn't stress to me because I was learning it and trying to figure it out. And so I think, there's such a mental health component to exercise and, yes, the physical part's there too, but it's like you get this. Craving an addiction just to feel that you're talking about after you're sweating and just that release, and I think, for anybody who's listening or watching like that is the reason that I exercise every day is to have that so that I don't have to go and take that anti-anxiety medicine, And so I, I think that, it's so cool that you are finding that correlation, yeah. And how things are interwoven and it's, it, I'm sure you can feel the difference when you drink versus not drinking and your exercise and how that's influenced the next day. And you're like, oh, yeah,
Kate Redmond:oh yeah. It's funny cuz so because I do travel so much, it's weird that now when I'm looking for hotels, I'm looking at pictures of the gym before I book a hotel. What appointment do they have? Yeah, cause I was in Dallas a couple weeks ago for work and I knew I was gonna be there for. five days, and I was like, it's, I'm not running outside. It's too cold. I'm one of those I, if it's raining, I'm not running outside. If it's wind, like if it's dark, I'm not running outside. And so I started to figure out how to, running on a treadmill. I don't, but we're still working on it, but it's okay, I need a hotel with a good gym. So I knew I was gonna be gone for five days. I knew I wasn't gonna be on my eating plan like a hundred percent just because of the, it was a convention. So you're, you have no idea and you've no control over food. And so now I chase like that gym and I had a hotel this week in Florida and I was like, I don't like this gym at all. But I was like, luckily it was warm. So I ran, went and running on the beach and I was like, this is great. Yeah. So it is cool to run in cities now. because I've fallen in love with running outside. And so I was in the west back in October, and I ran from our condo to the buoy, which is like the southernmost point of the United States. Yeah. And it was five miles, but I came back from vacation. They're like, what was your most epic part? And I was like, I watched the sunrise over the water, but I ran there and then I ran back. So it's yeah, it feels
Daphne Kirkwood:epic. It's like you, it does win a little adventure, and things that you don't see in a car when you're running, tell me about the Apple Festival race, which was your first 5k. Yeah, I know you, Ugh, I will never forget seeing you there at the race and finishing. Everybody was so proud of you and just so excited for you to reach that milestone. Think back to that finish line feeling. What did that feel like for you?
Kate Redmond:It was crazy cuz I I was coming up that last hill and you don't think that hill is that steep coming up that turn like before you turn back into the parking lot. And I was like, what? Why is this hill still here? oh, I know I have to be close. I have to be close. And like I said I get really lost in my music and I was like, I know it's coming. And so I had slipped one air, AirPod out or whatever and put it in my pocket. As I was coming across and all I remember is like hearing you like yell my name into the microphone and I was just like, I did it. Like it was just like this. I don't know if it was a weight off my shoulders or like an just an overwhelming like feeling of I did it and I can do it and I can do it again. And then my niece was there and she ran the one mile and she just attacked me and she came running up and she's I'm so happy for you. She was so cute. And so it was just such a great feeling and I've never experienced that before.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. It's unlike anything that ever happens.
Kate Redmond:Yeah, now I chase it. I kind of chase that, that finish line.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, it's just, so many people over the years, when I say, I put on races, they're like, oh, I would never run unless somebody's chasing me. Like how many times have I heard that? And it's I feel like there's something for everybody. I'm sure as you've seen at races, it's like there's every shape, every ability. you're not even last, and it's that's
Kate Redmond:the really cool thing, the whole thing yeah. The really cool thing about races that I love is like, you're only against yourself. Like it doesn't matter, who's passing you or not passing you or what, what your pace is like. It's just your own game. Yeah, it's for you. You're surrounded by people who are just like genuinely hyped and excited to be doing it. Ugly sweater was like, So different than any of the other races that I did because everybody was just like so excited it was not raining. So I think there was like a whole new level of excitement. Cause everybody thought we would be like soaked, uhhuh, right? But it's just like this natural energy that you're like, where does even come from? And then as you like randomly see people throughout the course and they're like, keep going. And it was ah, I
Daphne Kirkwood:love it. Yeah. I can't wait to keep following you through this journey. It sounds like you've established these routines and habits and you just
Kate Redmond:keep at'em, keep going. That's the hardest part. I think you get overwhelmed cuz you, it's so different from the life I used to live again, not even a year ago. Yeah. And I think you just have to give yourself grace. Hey, I'm not perfect. I'm not gonna be perfect every day. But just know okay, yeah, let's get back
Daphne Kirkwood:after it. Yeah. And sometimes I find too, and I found with my journey that it steers you down a different path. And sometimes that means it's not the same friendships. might not be the same environments that you've gone to. You might not go to, drinking at bars with your friends anymore because you gotta get up in the morning and go for a run, but it's like you're constantly having to make those choices and decisions, and it can be super difficult and challenging,
Kate Redmond:oh, absolutely. I've made a lot of those. Made a lot.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. Congrats. I'm so happy for you and excited. Thanks for your time today and Absolutely. I know that you're inspiring this entire community and we're all rooting for you and cheering you on,
Kate Redmond:so thank you so much. Yeah,
Daphne Kirkwood:so great to be part of it. Thanks, Kate. We'll see you soon, All right. Bye. Bye.