The push, pull and fight in the fitness industry with Kim Basler

Hey there, everyone and welcome back to the work in. I'm your host Ericka and today I'd like to introduce you to the 2021 Canfitpro New Presenter of the year Kim Basler. Kim is a food freedom and mindset coach, speaker and co author of the best selling book Owning Your Choices, stories of courage from inspirational women around the world. Her global reach has allowed her to support 1000s of women with self love, finding peace with food and their bodies and igniting the fire within to go after their dreams. After sharing her passion for health and well being at Canada's largest fitness company chain, Kim shares the truth about her 30 year long battle with disordered eating, body image over exercising and burnout that required her to surrender to her inner struggles and begin to heal from the inside out. And now through her certification in eating psychology and Mind Body nutrition, as well as the hundreds of hours she's devoted to her own self development, her mission is to empower women around the world to go deeper than another diet, learn to love the woman that they see in the mirror and cultivate their intuition to take care of themselves unapologetically. So let's dive into our work in today with Kim Basler. Alright, welcome Kim Basler to the work and thanks for joining me today.

Kim and I discuss diet culture, the effect of chronic stress and body image issues on even the strongest wellness professionals, and what it takes to heal the body, mind and spirit as well as the boundaries we need to help our young fit pros set so they can have a long and fulfilling career in the fitness industry.

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It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business and so much more.

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

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Transcript

Ericka Thomas  0:00  

Hey there, everyone and welcome back to the work in. I'm your host Ericka and today I'd like to introduce you to the 2021 Canfitpro New Presenter of the year Kim Basler. Kim is a food freedom and mindset coach, speaker and co author of the best selling book Owning Your Choices, stories of courage from inspirational women around the world. Her global reach has allowed her to support 1000s of women with self love, finding peace with food and their bodies and igniting the fire within to go after their dreams. After sharing her passion for health and well being at Canada's largest fitness company chain, Kim shares the truth about her 30 year long battle with disordered eating, body image over exercising and burnout that required her to surrender to her inner struggles and begin to heal from the inside out. And now through her certification in eating psychology and Mind Body nutrition, as well as the hundreds of hours she's devoted to her own self development, her mission is to empower women around the world to go deeper than another diet, learn to love the woman that they see in the mirror and cultivate their intuition to take care of themselves unapologetically. So let's dive into our work in today with Kim Basler. Alright, welcome Kim Basler to the work and thanks for joining me today.

Kim Basler  1:35  

Thanks, Ericka. I'm so happy to be here. It's going to be a good conversation. I can feel it already.

Ericka Thomas  1:40  

I agree. I agree. Well, let's dive right in. And I'd like to start with your story because you have had a very long career in the fitness industry. And you can start as far back as you want to go but I would love to give our audience an idea of a little bit of your history and kind of what brought you to your current mission today.

Kim Basler  2:08  

Yeah, thank you for that. And yeah, it's it's a long story. I mean, so many of our stories can take us way back to our childhood, which is where mine originated from. I made a decision at a very young age at the age of 12 that I wanted to focus on trying to change my body, particularly specifically losing weight. And it's it's primarily because I grew up in a home where that was very much modeled. And I if I think back to my childhood, my body was just taller. I was bigger, bigger than my friends and I always like to say when I talk about this that none of us had anything wrong with our bodies, but truly at that young age, it's not like I had extra weight on me there was nothing like that. I just felt bigger than my friends. I saw modeling of dieting because I grew up in a home where my mom was a leader of a weight loss group. So I remember going to those weight loss groups since I was a little girl and watching women wearing you know, very light clothes and not eating until they had stood on the scale and I remember at all so it was modeled and I decided that 12 to start losing weight and that was going to be done through calorie counting through weighing my body weighing my food and very much charting my progress. So you know it wasn't unheard of for me to be eating 1200 calories a day and skipping meals if I had to. And then using the scale daily for sure daily scale daily scale use and it was at the age and I probably right around that age is where I started also exercising in my basement doing the 20 minute workout and doing all of that just to try and speed up the weight loss or also get my body to do what it didn't want to do. So it's like well, if I could just try and get more weight off then I can exercise and so forth. And then I decided to join a gym at 14 years old so at 14 I had to get my mother's signature. I paid $300 Out of my own money and bought a membership at a gym. And that was what I believed was just going to help me make my body even better. I became very body focused from a very very young age. And I always wonder like what came first the self worth issues that led to the body? Or did the body issues lead to the self worth I don't even know but it definitely was not just about my body. I always struggled with worrying about what people thought of me. Those were very normal thinking patterns for me from a young age. So joining the gym at 14 I went right into the group exercise world. And I did I loved it. And I was also you know you can picture somebody who's going to school and then she's biking to school and she's going to the gym for two hours and then she's biking home and and then managing her calorie though that stuff. It's like no 12 year old 14 year olds should be doing that. But that was life for me. And then at 16 years old. I was asked by the woman who runs the photo, the fitness program would I ever like to become an instructor so at 16 years old, I decided to go and take my certification. So I entered into the world at a very young age. And we all know that the fitness industry for the most part, especially back then, so that's 30 years ago because I'm 46 now, it was always about losing weight. It was always about changing the shape of our body. Like I have so many memories as a young girl going into the gym at 14 years old and seeing women in their 70s in the change room, sitting on crazy apparatuses that were back then to break down cellulite and I remember these memories. So I just figured that that's what everybody does. Women are here to lose weight and we'd have to be thin in order for us to be attractive.

And when you're that age it's fine, right? You're sort of juggling it but eventually this obsession with me trying to control my body and you know, the scale would go up, and then the scale would go down. And I thought that and it really started to impact my I see this now you know, I'm educated now. It started to affect my emotional and my mental health. And it was in high school that I made a decision and I don't it's so long ago but I made the decision that I was going to purge my food when I had over eight in my words and in what I saw is over eating or if I just ate the foods that were not allowed in my diet. So anything that the world labels as bad if I ate it, I had to get rid of it. Those memories are very strong for me. I can remember you know, and it was shame around it. And there's strong memories because and I'm going to be cognizant of whoever's listening to this but the body doesn't forget purging food. Like it just doesn't forget those feelings. Thankfully, I managed to get my myself out of that space. My mum never knew I was doing it. My parents split when I was 14. So it was my mom and four children. And I was the only girl so I always did it upstairs in my private little bathroom that I share with my brother and nobody ever knew I was doing it. Thankfully I was able to get myself out of that space. But the obsession with exercise and very much focusing on my food became my focus. And, of course in that world, we get congratulated by our bodies. So the more lean the body gets, the more muscular the body gets, and especially being a fitness professional, and people wanting to look like you wanting to know how you got your body to look like it did it. It fed me It fed my ego it fed my my need for validation from the outside world. And that's really how it continued on. And I have to say that pre having children

and getting married. I managed it it was just a part of my life. And you know, we I think we can handle some of us can handle things a little bit more than others and if I was a type A personality, I can control myself. I could sacrifice where I needed to. And I also knew that if I'm out in public, I'll eat this way but when I'm at home I'll eat this way. So I was definitely a secret as I would call it a closet eater. I would eat certain foods when nobody else was around. So there's a lot of shame there that moved from that space. So fast forwarding to when I got married and had children. We know what that age were were our bodies are changing. We are we are having children, the responsibilities the expectations as a mother do not give us the ability to to do all the things that we used to do. I remember trying to get back to the gym to try and lose my weight from having a baby and my daughter would cluster feed breastfeeding so she would she nursed very slowly and then a half an hour later she wanted to eat again. And I could never get workouts in and I remember a lot of stress around that and running back to the nursery in the gym to feed my baby while I was sweating. Just wanting to get back out on that treadmill. So that was that it really stole from my that bond. I remember that very clearly. When I was farther along in the fitness industry, so eventually I left the group fitness world and I went into personal training that was in 2002. I'm sort of mixing a bit bit of my story up personal training and then I went into group fitness management. So I was managing a team of 75 instructors and I had five clubs and three different cities. that I that I had to do. And what I found that's where my challenges with my physical body really started to impact my mental health because on top of the body image issues and the the need to fight and keep my body the way I thought it needed to be in dealing with the shame and the guilt and the frustration with the scale. On top of that, I had a lot of people pleasing tendencies. I struggled with comparison, and I struggled with perfectionism. So that is a recipe for chaos on the body stress, etc. But I persevered. It was in 2014 2015 when my body started to basically fight me back. I started to my initial signs were sleep. I could not sleep anymore. I couldn't sound sleep through the night, waking up every 90 minutes and I literally was going to bed at maybe 11 o'clock midnight and getting up at five and all those four or five, six hours of sleep were broken. That's going to cause anybody to struggle, for sure. And then on top of that I started to develop body hives. Which I thought were about allergy. They weren't about analogy. They were also a sign of my immune system and my my body in overdrive. Where Where did it take me next and then took me into issues with my marriage. It took me into you know, not being a present loving mum than I want it to be for my children. It caused me to have terrible things happen that you know I talk about now where I would pull into my driveway rushing to get my kids somewhere because I was just overly scheduled and I hit a parked car that was literally right in front of my house with two children in the backseat of my children. Because I was I was just on pilot I autopilot. I always say that I was like the woman with the juggling balls in the air. And I was just like there was every single moment of every single day was scheduled. And if something cannot track if a child needed me if children were fighting if if something burns on the stove, it just was enough to throw me off. So finally with that space, all that pressure that I tried to continue for a period of my life there I then started to have my mental health trying to give me ways to get away from this life. If you know what I mean. I was basically seeing myself driving my car into other cars. So I always say I don't believe I would have ever done that. But that explains the amount of overwhelm

that I was facing in my life. And I've already been starting to see a therapist by that time too. I just want to highlight that but I made the decision and it was unconscious. I always say that. I believe it came from a higher power. I believe in God, whatever you want to say. I was at my family's for Thanksgiving with my mom. And by that point in my life that was 2016 I was very numb. I was very numb to happiness to joy to laughter. That's what we do. And I've learned this a lot that if we're trying to not feel certain feelings because they're too hard or they're, you know, we built our whole identity to be something we don't feel anything we block out at all. And that was where I I broke down at that time. That was probably my third time of adrenal stress and adrenal overload. And I just at that point in time I took my I said to my husband, and he knew like, you know, my husband's very loving and he tried to be patient with me. But he was done. He was done because I because I was a people pleaser. And because I sought validation from things outside of me. I would put my family last so that I could go do the things that people would congratulate me for. And where I would get recognized for killing the hero. Oh, thank you for teaching the class. But what everybody doesn't know is that, you know, in the fitness industry, you can go and say, Oh, I'm going to sub this class. Well, it also fed my body and my eating issues, because then I could exercise more if I had to. If I had ate more than I wanted to the day before. I was always balancing exercise and food, exercise and food to manage the scale. And the scale was a huge part of my story. Because there was periods of my time where I was on that scale two or three times a day. So I would adjust my food intake you know, based on what I was eating, and there's so many parts Erica to my story, but I remember lying in my bed at night. And I used my body as a sign to know if I was maintaining its size. So my xively process when I would lie on my back is actually process that you can think about for the people that are listening right now where you would landmark for CPR and you run up the ribcage to the top. my thigh Boyd process was sunken. I had like a drop there to the bone structure. And that's how I used or the gauge whether my body was staying the size that if so these were this is this is the obsession that took over my life. And so when I took my leave of absence from my job in 2016 I I thought that it was temporary and I had no clue what I was going to be up against. Because for I would say approximately I wish I would have been doing more journaling back then but I'd say for at least 30 days I hated my home. I completely checked out of the gym. I left off the face of the earth I dropped off social media and I went into a deep depression and shame and fear and self loathing. Just because I really took it as it was my problem that I should have been able to handle this off because you know you look around at other people who do the job. And you're like well they can handle it. Why can't I handle it? Meanwhile, I had far I mean, everybody's got their own stories and everybody has their own challenges but I was secretly battling something that you know, I didn't realize had such a such an effect on me. So I had to do a lot of work and that's where I am now. So that is that was October 2016. I spent several months basically away from people. I eventually had to go back to fitness instructing. I will say that I never went back to leadership. I never went back to management. I knew that being in the thick of the fitness industry. And being in the thick of diet culture, which is very much a part of that industry and the people that are coming to the gym. I needed to be removed, I needed to be removed and I recognized very

soon that my challenges with my body. Like I always believed that. I remember saying to my therapist, if I could just lose the weight. And if I didn't battle with my body weight, I will be fine. Like that's how much focus I put on to my body. I really believed that. If I could be the size that I thought I needed to be, then I would be happy but like thinking back. I have so many pictures of myself with my little children. And I am fit. I have close to a six pack. And I remember I still wasn't happy back then.

Ericka Thomas  18:25  

So Can I just jump in because I have had that same conversation with myself. And what we're talking about right now first of all, thank you for sharing this story because I think it's a dirty little secret in the fitness industry for many many fitness professionals and maybe not to you know an extreme, but I think we all struggle with exactly what you're talking about, on some level, because we are at the front of the class and for for exactly the reasons that you talked about. People walk into that class because they see you with their eyes and they see if if if I do what she does, then I can look like her. And as much as we might say that that is not the reason that we want people to come into the class and certainly we wouldn't want them to do what we do. It's still there because we are just that we are creatures of our culture. So I just want to validate everything that you have said today so far and just it's brought up a lot a lot of questions for me if we can kind of go go into a couple of the things because I want to go back the beginning you started your career so young, like so almost before you would like it typically think of starting a career in the fitness industry. And I would say a lot of people come to group fitness especially from a lot of different angles. Like we don't all grow up thinking hey, I want to be a group fitness instructor when I grow up, or I want to be a personal trainer when I grow up. It's almost like it's a job that sometimes we sort of get sideways into kind of back our way into based on what is going on in our life. And it sounds like that's kind of how you entered to because this was just your environment. Right and it sort of blossomed from that into a fitness career. At that time, did you see anything out of place with a 16 year old becoming a group fitness instructor? Did you think that this was going to be your lifetime career as a fitness industry professional at that time in your life?

Kim Basler  21:08  

No, absolutely not. It was more a matter of you know, Kim, you're coming to the gym every day. You're having fun. You know, I was friends with with them. And so it just made sense. Like sure, you know, and of course it's like we all know the perks right? You're going to get paid to teach a class you're going to get paid to workout you're going to get a free gym membership. You're here anyways, why don't you do it? So no, I never ever drink and what's interesting to Erica is like my whole family was not physically active. I didn't grew up in a household where there was physical activity, I was the only one doing it. So it's and that therefore to I also believe that nobody ever really understood me. So when I was being told sometimes in a nonchalant way you're exercising a lot or those types of comments. I just I remember thinking well you don't understand you don't even exercise. So don't think don't assume that I'm doing too much. Right? Right. No, I definitely did not. Plan and see this being a career. I remember, you know, having dreams of being a secretary, you know what I mean? Like I didn't I didn't grew up in that. So I just caught up kind of just happened.

Ericka Thomas  22:18  

Yeah, yeah. And so it's so fascinating to me how many people I talked to that have such stories exactly what like what you're talking about with just this kind of twisted relationship with food and their their body image, even though we're working in a health and wellness industry, and I'm just curious, how do you think that that gets that way? I mean, is this just based on your individual like that childhood trauma that comes up? Because if it if so then we are all messed up. Like all of us, every single one of us so where do you think that is coming from? Is it coming from the fitness industry itself or from us as individuals and our own individual trauma?

Kim Basler  23:16  

I think it's both. I think it's I think it's both areas. I think we've been told from a very young age that a fin is beautiful. So from from that place that is beautiful. And we're definitely told that health is related to size. So that messaging and then we don't we all and to anybody that's not familiar with diet, culture, diet, culture is a term where we are where we are basically being fed the message that thin is attractive and that to be thin is the goal and that will link to it. That is a lot of good and bad language around food. So these are the industries that sell products, services that help us to achieve these things. And obviously set us up for failure most of the time. So we're fed it for sure through our society, we're fed it through our our families, our upbringing, the media, everything that we see on television, on billboards. And then of course in the fitness industry. It's everywhere from the promotional posters, the writing that's used, you know, get your get your set your bikini body, you know, the promos, like you see it everywhere, so I I believe it's gotten obviously better, but back then. Oh, like

Ericka Thomas  24:35  

Yeah, I wanted to ask you how you thought that had changed over the years or if it has and in what ways because you know, sometimes you you do hear some things about healthy at any you know, the healthy at any size. thing and, you know, I think that there's some effort there, but it it almost feels like it's not real effort to me, and I just I wanted to hear what what you thought about that.

Kim Basler  25:08  

 I would say that there is improvement but even you have to know where to look because back in 2016 I didn't know anything about body positivity. Intuitive Eating Health at Every Size, like none of this was was known to me even back then social media, like Instagram wasn't I don't think around back then in 2016. It's not that long ago. But the point is, I didn't know that these platforms existed. I have found these platforms through the institute that I trained at which by the way, I had never heard of either that showed up in my social media feed which we can probably talk about. I believe we have a huge way to go. We we there is progress. There is I know a lot of platforms that are doing this. I know a lot of nutritionists, and dietitians who are promoting health and wellness and nutritional support through an anti diet space. So it's out there. It's just that the people that are promoting weight loss and health from a place of intentional weight loss. They are there's just so many of them. So it's kind of like you know, you got a sprinkling of the other messaging. But you know, you got to be able to find it inside of that larger base.

Ericka Thomas  26:41  

Right. Right. And you touched a little bit on this in your story. But I think another neglected piece of this is the recognition of the way our bodies change as we age and different phases of of life cycles, especially for women, and the complexity of our hormone balance or imbalance, right and how that changes how our body works in every single way. And then tag onto that. How connected our mental health is to all of our, you know, our health of our hormone balance and how we eat like, no one is really making those connections in a way that people can hear that I can see, you know, I mean, there's so much going on in the body. So what are some ways that you think that you know we can bring some more of that attention into the fitness space, whether that's in group fitness classes or personal training, health coaching, things like that.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Kim Basler  30:01  

What I would say, and what I promote is that this is where it's interesting because a lot of people will feel, well what's wrong with wanting to change my body. There's nothing wrong with wanting to change your body. But when we're taught that in order for us to become healthier, or to make our bodies better, or to make us better become the best version of ourselves. If that means that I have to shrink my body, that's where the messaging is wrong, because all of our bodies are designed to look different. You could have two people who exercise the same way who eat the same way and they will not be able to achieve the same results. So within the fitness industry, within personal training with your clients, what I believe is we need to promote how exercise movements which is I what I often refer to it as, which is an easier place for people because exercise leaves a lot of bad taste, especially for people who are dealing with exercise recovery, over exercising recovery, but also just recognizing how does it make us feel? How do these foods make me feel? How does this movement makes me make me feel? Because if we focus on how it makes us feel as opposed to how it makes us look, we're not going to be shaming every anyone. We're also going to have inclusivity in our environments and in our gyms and in our spaces. Because if someone doesn't feel like their body belongs or I can't go to the gym until I lose 50 pounds so that I can look closer to the people that go if we're missing or missing people. So to me, it's all about how we feel in our bodies, and recognizing that our health is only one physical body is only one piece of our health. There is our emotional, mental and spiritual health and that our bodies are holistically fed and supported that way. And if it were up to me Ericka, I would be getting rid of scales in the gyms I would be getting rid of body fat and composition and all of this stuff because it's no different than when my kids are in high school. And as part of the phys ed program, they are giving it as an option to weigh yourself as part of your goal setting. And I went to the school and I said why do we need to be doing that? And of course, they said what they said about composition and I said well, you have you have what you have to understand is it's causing more problems than it's worth. We don't mean that our bodies are changing. As you mentioned, our bodies are changing at all stages of our life. Especially with hormones or or just different things like if I look back with my when my parents split at 14 food was playing a role for me in my life. There was a lot of confusion. There was a lot of stuff going on what I should have been taught, and learning about with my emotions and what I needed. Instead of feeling like I've you know, the food was playing a role for me in my life at that point, but I wasn't taught that so instead of learning about my emotions, I was instead just told, you know, trying to, I shouldn't say told my mother never ever put me on a diet, but I believed that my weight needed to be controlled. So I those are places that I believe the gym needs to start.

Ericka Thomas  33:07  

Yeah, there's so much truth in what you just said. And it's interesting. It's one of the things that I love about Ayurveda and and as a you know, Sister science to yoga is they talk about people's different constitutions, like we are made differently, and it doesn't matter how hard I work out. I am never going to be stick thin. I'm never going to have an hourglass figure because I genetically don't have one. So it doesn't matter what I do. I will not look like that. And what you were saying earlier about, you know looking back at past photographs of yourself thinking that oh, if I can just look like this, then everything will be okay. I have the same experience on past photographs. I'll look back at photographs and I'll be like, I don't remember looking like that. Because in that moment I couldn't see what was in front of me. When and to this day. It's still a little bit like that. I will say I still struggle with that that kind of false perception of reality to this day, standing in front of a mirror and not being able to see what is really there. Like I there's a filter over that. I don't know if that's true for every one. I hope not. If it's not true for everyone, but it's um it's it's really an interesting phenomenon for women, I think. And I wish we could shed it I wish we could, you know, fix that in some way or corrected or make it okay to look however you want to look and or however you do look and just be happy in your own skin. Ultimately, ultimately that is really the goal, right to feel comfortable in your own skin. Because if that was true, then there wouldn't be this desire to change our body, right to make us feel better on the inside. So Kim, what happened in 2016 that caused that, that break for you? And when you took that leave of absence from your career, was that something that was voluntary? Did you say yes, something has to change and I'm going to pull back and take care of myself? Or was that something that was kind of taken out of your hands in that moment like it was just done?

Kim Basler  35:49  

So at that point when I made the decision, it was what I call it surrender, like, and surrender in the most positive way. It was a realization that I needed help. I had I had been in the push pole and the fight for so long. I know that if I if I just let this go. I will get pulled right back in until the next time. So that was the final draft for me. I was exhausted. I was falling apart and like I said I was trying to find ways to change my life. So I did make the decision. It wasn't done for me. I did it. But at the same point in time I I know with 100% certainty that there was a higher energy that was helping me make that decision. Because I was a fresher. Yeah, I wrapped it my whole life in this career, right. I have a family. I'm walking away from my career and walking away from my salary. Like this was like this was like a big decision for my family. Right and it's needed

Ericka Thomas  36:58  

and it's it's got to be gut wrenching. Because this is something you've done since you were 1416 years old. This is your whole identity is wrapped up. And now to just stop. It's yeah, it's got to be right now like, right,

Kim Basler 3 7:17  

who am I? Now if I'm not a fitness professional if I quote unquote, failed at this, who am I now? That's big. Right? Yeah. 21 years old, starting over at 41 years old. If you can't make it as a fitness professional, because I believe that to be a fitness professional. I had to look a certain way. And I had realized that I couldn't keep up this anymore. It was making me sick. So yeah, no, it was it was a it was a big decision. Yeah. And yeah.

Ericka Thomas  37:47  

So how long did it take for you to start to feel better?

Kim Basler  37:52  

I guess it just depends on how we the burden of feeling the feeling of exhaustion and isolation. I would say a few months, a few months. I have to say that because I removed myself completely. That was that was as much as it was hard. It was needed. I needed to have a removal of the environment that was triggering to me. So as much as it was hard for me to live in shame and isolation and darkness here in my home. I wasn't being constantly challenged with messaging around me and bodies and comparison and all of the issues that I had in my head with negative self talk from my eating disorder days, like all of that was a part of it. So I had removed it. So a few months for that. And it was in December of 2016 where I was back at the gym teaching by this point. I had removed myself from the management so I'm maybe literally teaching maybe four or five classes a week. That's all I'm doing. And I was back on Facebook and I found an ad come across my Facebook feed for the Institute for the psychology of eating which is in Colorado. And I looked at it and it talked about body image issues. It talks about chronic dieting. It talks about emotional eating and and food relationship challenges. So this was not like a health course this was a healing. This was a healing that had a spiritual component to it. And so I began researching that. And again, I had never heard of it before. And I began researching it and calling around and talking with people who were certified through the institute because it was a big investment. Picture me walking away from my career. I have two small children and it's going to cost me $12,000 To do my training is going to be no different than when somebody comes to me for help. You know or any type of coach or therapist like in your investing money and you're like I failed at all these other things. How many how much money have I spent on dieting and personal trainers and supplementation and reset programs and now I'm going to spend more money on another program that's supposed to help me but I did it. So I studied to their remotely for the for the year of 2017. And that was that was a lot of work. So on top of the learning about our relationships with food, I was also doing a lot of like self development work. A lot of it was really looking at self worth and mindset and belief systems and inner child healing and all of that beautiful, beautiful work really recognizing, like unpacking myself and looking deep to the root of the core issue. The core issue being that I didn't feel like I was good enough. So I just I you know, I always say because it's been shared with me like our food issues, our body exercise, like all those challenges that are wrapped up in that. We don't fix it by finding another diet. We don't fix it by finding another trainer. We have to go to the core root because those are symptoms. We don't fix them by just addressing that I have to get to what's underneath it. So that's what I have been doing a lot of.

Ericka Thomas  41:47  

Yeah, so you mentioned some of your physical symptoms that came up in the body. Can we talk a little bit about those because of course kind of transitions right into like symptoms. of chronic toxic levels of stress. And, and I think for a lot of people exercise seems like the answer to stress right. And for people who work and play in the fitness industry more of that is not always better. So let's let's start where where you were and see what we can learn. Yeah,

Kim Basler  42:28  

yeah. Well, that's very interesting because when we exercise that increases our cortisol, that is a stress hormone. Okay, it's, it's great, it's fine. But for somebody who is already living in a chronic state of stress, which I was, and then on top of it, a you're doing intense exercise, and b You're doing too much of it is just going to continue to elevate your cortisol. So it started for me with sleep. You know, I got diagnosed in a sleep lab spent a night in a sleep lab but diagnosed with Restless Leg. That was because my body did not know how to rest. I was always on alert. I was always on what do I need to do. So it started for me from from that sleep angle and we all know the the foundation and the importance of sleep. It is like the be all end all of our health. If we don't have our sleep, everything else starts to you know starts to go from there. I remember when my body hive started to show up, they didn't show up as hives at first they showed up as red blotchy skin that would just show up randomly. I would be teaching and I could feel heat penetrating certain parts of my body. And I'm very transparent person. So I will say that the hives went everywhere on my body. So in the most ideal places, they would show up there and they would show up there for it could be as little as two to five minutes or they could last for 30 minutes and they were red blotchy skin. And then it was burning and it was itchy. And so as I would go to scratch it, it would leave like the fingernail marks and the skin was angry and then it would start to hive I'd have all these little baby tiny little hives that would show up and the more I scratched it the bigger the area group. It would show up in my scalp. It showed up in the middle of the night. And I should tell you to I think this is very interesting. My daughter who's 18 years old, who also has many aspects that are similar to me. She started with the same symptoms when she was 15 years old. I recognize them in her so there is something that has been passed through, you know, or at least in our family, that high level of stress and overwhelm showed up in her symptoms too. I just thought I'd add that in because I found that very interesting.

Ericka Thomas  44:55  

It is it is a fascinating connection. I'm sure somebody out there has more expertise in the nervous system and the way that is passed genetically or epigenetically. From generation to generation. I mean that that that has been shown to be the case that we can especially mother to daughter because if while you were pregnant, you were under these higher levels of stress, then the child is being exposed to all of that chemical cocktail of cortisol and and so it makes sense that perhaps without anyone purposefully or intentionally doing anything, we can pass that kind of thing on to our kids, not just through our environment but you know the physical environment when that when those babies are born. So that is fascinating, actually really, really interesting. So, so hives body hives are that's an autoimmune response that has all kinds of connections to you know, the vagus nerve, the gut, your gut health, all of these things, they kind of just your immune system in general. So, what did you do with that? How did how did you respond to that?

Kim Basler  46:25  

I lived off of Benadryl. That's what I was told to do from my doctor. I very soon when it when it was lasting for so many months, I asked her to see an allergist because I had, you know, done some diet elimination type stuff. And so of course that's a long way to get into an allergist here in Canada too. So that was a about a 1213 month wait. So I lived like that. Taking taking Benadryl and I went and had myself tested and of course everything I think I had the most minute allergy to trees. And I was like you know when you know when you want some of them tell you what's wrong with you and they have nothing to tell you. I said well then what is it and he said that he said it's your auto immune system. So what did I do with that? By the time I got I'm just thinking this through by the time I got my allergy testing. I was already I had already left the full time career. So just to put that into perspective. So I had already removed myself. I can tell you that I left my career in October 2016 And I had my last my last bout of hives in September of the following year. It took that long for my body to recover and to come back to more normal levels of stress that came part and parcel with my fleetville you see as my sleep as I removed my stress levels as I worked on my mindfulness as I as I took care of myself and and stopped pushing my body with exercise, and I did more loving movement for my body. My body healed from the inside. And slowly over time I had less attacks that the attacks were shorter. They were not as often until they finally left. I can say though I feel like I had a couple of little triggers tripling effects of it shortly thereafter. I feel like my body that would be like a barometer for me. So I feel like if if those stress levels go high again, I have a funny feeling my body will speak to me again through those body hives. So I see that as a gift, you know that it tells me how I'm doing but I so far more issues that the

Ericka Thomas  48:54  

body has. Yeah, that's good. That's good. What would you tell younger fitness professionals coming into the industry today? How can they avoid the burnout issues the over exercise that the the toxic levels of stress that you experienced? What kinds of boundaries do we need to be teaching these fit pros to set?

Kim Basler  49:27  

I love this question. I would say because it depends on what angle I take it from in terms of someone who doesn't have any history with body issues. Like you know trying to you know, they're not over exercising to shrink their body. Just someone who loves to teach fitness. Just know that there is too much of a good thing and you have to listen to your body. And I believe as fitness professionals we always need to bring our best self onto the stage. And if we are pushing our bodies to the extreme, we run the risk of injury, burnout etc or even losing actually joy in it. I've heard that happen to say I have to be just don't want to teach anymore. So look at your people pleasing tendencies. I hear this a lot when I was in management that people feel like they have to say yes, they have to say yes to their boss. They have to say yes to the fellow instructors. Because that person has subbed for me so I need to repay the favor, that type of thing. But we most importantly have to say yes to the members who are we don't want the members to go without an instructor. And I'm just saying that you have one body and you need to take care of it. And you have to be able to decide what that looks like for you. Especially if you only teach one discipline. And you're going to teach like so many classes and you taught a cycling class and you're going to teach nine to 10 cycling classes a week like that's a lot of repetitiveness on one area of the body in one movement. But if you teach multiple disciplines like look for something that is you know, a little bit of strength, a little bit of cardio, get the stretch in there, go to classes for yourself so that you can bring down your your stress levels that are just naturally elevated in your body. And that for sure is a gift that I would suggest. If the individual has their own challenges like I had, like you and I spoke about today. I would encourage them to really do some work on themselves and do some whatever healing that needs to look like for them. Because exercise for punishment, an exercise that is done in unsafe ways, is never coming from a good place. And it was never intended to be that way. And and I think we just have to allow ourselves that conversation and I've had several people come forward since I've shared my story and share their stories with me. And as you said there's more people out there that are struggling than we know. And and we we can get help. So to give yourself that permission and find the courage to do that.

Ericka Thomas  52:13  

And we know that the room is filled with students who are in the same boat. They are coming at this from the same kinds of places too, it isn't unique. What about fitness industry, management or administration? What kinds of structures or scheduling can we build in from the top down to help our our instructors?

Kim Basler  52:47  

I would say just certainly make sure you have enough of them. And this is this is a this is a tricky spot right because we all know that instruct. It takes a lot to especially like I taught pre choreographed quartet like classes, you're the end. And you don't want to just teach one tech class a week because it takes so much to learn that choreography. So instructors want classes, they want multiple classes, but if you have an instructor that goes down, gets injured has to take a leave of absence. You then are now I remember many times with my scheduling, you know being without instructors and having to deal and ask people to do things so so constantly be looking at your instructors bring education and I believe to like if you can How amazing would it be if we could bring education and for the instructors on how to take care of their bodies to to feed their bodies nutrition that supports them to focus on all the other aspects of health. That would be amazing. Absolutely. I'm going to say also pay your instructors what they're worth. Let's talk about that.

Ericka Thomas  53:48  

Let's talk about that. That might be that might be another podcast. We could get into the money the money side for

Kim Basler  53:57  

sure. That's a big piece right. So many instructors are teaching multiple classes because they need the money. Yes. Yeah. And that's because we're not getting paid a lot. Yeah,

Ericka Thomas  54:08  

yeah. Yeah. And there's only so many hours in the day right? I mean, you can only you physically you can only do so much in a day. And yeah, it's it's a limiting factor. For sure. Yeah. I love those. That's That's fantastic. Great, great tips there. So much wisdom in this today. But I have been asking all my guests can a similar question lately and that is what have you been doing recently for your own work in something that brings you joy and balance?

Kim Basler  54:50  

Yes, for me it's walking. And walking has been an interesting thing because my body has changed since I've started the story. So that takes time and patience and compassion as the body's healing and we all know that walking for many of us is a lot of fitness, especially if our fitness levels are high. But walking was needed for me walking was needed for me to continue my inner work to do the work inside of me the the spiritual work that I've needed to do inside of me, the walking created the space for me to do that. So walking in metod in the forest, and continuing journaling and meditation and time with myself. For me most importantly, I'm very aware of my thoughts. I'm very aware of where I get triggered because I still get triggered or I've been shared the word activated, which I really liked that word as well. So when I get activated and some of those core limiting beliefs start to stir up in me. I don't just push them down again like I do, I do. bring awareness to them and I pick them apart in a loving way and go where did this come from? Is this mine? Is this a belief that I want to continue to have in my life as I do that work on a regular basis. So I've changed my focus of my exercise 100% and and then most importantly, doing all of these other pieces that have allowed me to to do the inner healing that I needed.

Ericka Thomas 56:28  

Yeah, that is so important because you're illustrating perfectly the need for opposite to create balance in your life. So if you're someone who is a go, go go highly activated person to undo that to balance that we need to back way off. And a simple walk can be moving meditation, where you're very, very quiet so that you can hear those thoughts in your head. I love that. That's great. Really, really.

Kim Basler  57:06  

And I think it's important to say that anybody who is highly, highly on guard, go, go go, you're going to feel lazy. You're going to feel like it's not enough. You're going to feel like you should have done more. It is part of it. It is part of the rewiring that we get to do to change to to know that we're doing this for the betterment of ourselves. So just just know that that's that's part of it because most of us are highly wound way tighter than the rest of the world. And we're going to feel very lazy, but more realistically, we're coming more into balance.

Ericka Thomas  57:43  

Thank you for saying that. Because I think I needed to hear that today. I think there's probably more than one of us that needed to hear today. So Kim, where can people find you? And how can they get in touch with you to work with you? Do you have anything going on that people can be involved in? What's going on with

Kim Basler  58:10  

Kim Basler? Yeah, yeah, so I'm working as a food freedom and mindset coach so I'm an online coach where I supporting women primarily but I do have some male clients with their relationships with food healing, and anybody who has you know is using food from a place of coping or numbing or avoiding or just unhealthy relationships there. And then the exercise and self worth like I'm this whole, this whole part and parcel is is what I love to coach on. So I do that and anybody could certainly feel like they could reach out to me. I offer discovery calls. I do one on one coaching. I do group coaching. I also speak obviously on these topics as well. So if anything that I've shared today resonates with the listeners here, feel free to reach out to me Come find me on Facebook. My Instagram handle is Kim Basler_foodfreedom. And I'm sure the rest of my contact info will be in your show. Notes. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, that works perfectly. I love creating community and I love helping women heal from their shame stories, the ones that we're we're not talking about. 

Ericka Thomas  59:18  

That's beautiful. Yes, all of those links to contact cam will be in the show notes. And anything else that we talked about that I can link to I try to put those links in there as well. So, Kim, I am so grateful to you for coming on the work in I think this is such an important conversation to have and you just represent what the industry should be. So well, so beautifully. So thank you so much for being here.

Kim Basler  59:51  

Thank you, Ericka so much. I really enjoyed our conversation. 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai