Restoring Hope with Deborah Bigda
Deborah is a passionate entrepreneur who is committed to igniting women with hope to live a life full of passion. She believes that every women is destined for greatness and just needs the right community to help achieve it. As a mother of 4, married for over 27 years, she has experienced both the highs and the lows of life. She knows all too well what it feels like to be thrown into a trench, through no fault of her own, and the challenges of finding the treasure when all hope seems to have disappeared. While facing years of unemployment, she and her husband also endured skin cancer, a tornado, loss of a parent and a depression so dark that no light ever seemed possible.
After climbing out of this trench, Deborah finally found relief for herself and her family through a holistic approach. As a holistic health coach, Deborah is committed to teaching women how to restore health for both themselves and their families, as well as restoring hope to those who feel like all is lost .
Join her each week as she and her guest speakers share from their hearts so that you may have your hope restored and live life to its fullest being the person that God has designed you to be.
Restoring Hope with Deborah Bigda
Finding Happiness in Your Fitness Routine
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Have you ever felt like exercise is a chore rather than a treat? Join me as we chat about our relationship with physical activity, and I'll help you find the joy in movement. Let’s turn exercise from a "ugh" to a daily delight that brings you happiness and vitality. We'll explore the ins and outs of self-inquiry to pinpoint what holds you back from lacing up those sneakers, and how to leverage your subconscious to break through those barriers as you snooze.
Struggling to fit a workout into your overflowing calendar? I've been there, and I'm sharing all my secrets to seamlessly weave physical activity into daily life. Hear about the unconventional ways I turn mundane chores into fitness opportunities and how you can too. Do you have little kids underfoot or always find yourself at their activities? No worries, I’ve got tips for you too! Plus, I'll confess my own battle with motivation and how I've turned personal setbacks into powerful comebacks, even while training for a half marathon.
Small efforts compound into transformative lifestyle changes that go beyond just physical health. This episode is an invitation to redefine your relationship with exercise, discover its hidden gifts, and embrace a commitment to movement that promises long-term rewards. You'll leave feeling empowered to make exercise your steadfast ally, excited to embark on your personal journey towards holistic health and well-being.
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Unlocking the Benefits of Exercise
Speaker 1I'm Deborah Big Day , and this is the Restoring Hope podcast , where you can come to discover that , no matter how bleak your situation may seem , you can experience true hope and ultimate health . And I'm not referring to just your physical health . I'm talking about a holistic approach to your health , including your mental , emotional , spiritual and financial health . Join me as I share inspiring stories , incredible guests and tangible actions that will transform you into the healthiest version of you , that version of you that is fully restored . And I'm sure you know that physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your body and for your health . But if you're like many people , you might be saying I know it's important , but I just can't do it . You don't know your reasons for not being able to do it , or you don't have the time , you don't have the energy . You just plain , flat out , hate exercising . Maybe you don't like to sweat , maybe you feel like , while you know it would benefit you , you're not really sure how much . And what I want to tell you is all of those thought processes are okay . Please do not judge yourself . I certainly do not judge any of my clients when I'm working with them about their feelings or thoughts . But what I want to do is take some time with you today to get curious , ask some questions to yourself and be really curious about what the answers are right . Because the truth is that moving your body , increasing your exercise , will help you in so many ways . Not only does it actually improve your mood , it helps you sleep better . It will help you lose weight , if you need to . It will help you lose inches . It will increase your ability to focus . It increases your productivity . It's just plain , flat out , makes you feel better . Right , but getting started sometimes can be really , really hard . Now , there's no magic wand . I wish there was , that I could just tell you hey , here's a magic wand , just wave it one , two , three , poof , and instantly you're going to be loving exercise . You're gonna have the time to do it .
Speaker 1But I do want to spend some time with you today to ask some questions . First of all , if you're the type that just hates exercise , I want to ask you why is that ? Be curious about that ? Now , I'm a big person about journaling , because when we're in our head , we kind of make up answers that maybe aren't the real answers . We don't get down deep . So I want to encourage you , if you're listening to this podcast and you're in a place where you can jot down some questions , jot some of these questions down and then journal on them . Actually , right , and don't worry if you kind of get stuck , just start asking yourself more questions .
Speaker 1I tell people that all the time when I'm journaling , like , if you don't know the answer , just start asking your questions like why do I hate exercise ? And just maybe you literally write I have no idea why I hate exercise . You know , could it be something that happened when I was a child ? You know , is it that I don't like to feel whatever soar ? Just start writing questions and you will be amazed . At some point the answers will start to come .
Speaker 1Now I did . I was speaking with one person the other day and she was telling me that she hates exercise , and so I got curious . I started asking some questions and when it came down to it , she realized that she hated exercise because she was , like one of the youngest in a large family and she always had to do whatever her older siblings did . Now there's no judgment on her mother , right ? For those of us that have multiple children , we all know that sometimes running around from one activity to the next can be really challenging , and so sometimes we do say , hey , whatever Johnny's in baseball , let's have all the kids be in baseball right . Or whatever Suzie's doing soccer , let's all do soccer right . And it might not be an activity that you like .
Speaker 1So it could literally be that you hate exercise because for so many years maybe you had to do something that was not enjoyable to you , and so you have these thoughts or stories that you've been telling yourself about exercise . But I want to tell you to go ahead and release some of those journal about them and then release and ask yourself you know , if it's the fact that you hate exercise , ask yourself like , what type of exercise or movement or activity could I do that I might enjoy ? And if you don't know , just ask yourself things like if I did know , what might it be ? I know that seems like such a silly question , but you'll be amazed at what will happen if you'll start asking yourself Ask your brain , if I did know what type of exercise I'd like , what might that be ? Okay , say that to yourself as you're going to bed . Our brains are constantly working and it's solving problems while we're sleeping . So ask yourself that Now if it's a matter of time . I don't have time , I'm too busy . Again , I want you to get curious about this . Okay , I am all about asking questions with curiosity and excitement , as my friend Melissa Wiggins likes to talk about in her book . And follow right . Ask questions with excitement , Ask questions with curiosity
Time and Motivation for Physical Activity
Speaker 1.
Speaker 1So ask yourself how could I make time in my schedule ? If I could find time in my schedule , where might it be ? Now , many of us this is not a judgment statement , but many of us do tend to have pockets of time here and there where we're not being very intentional . I know for myself . Personally , I used to go grocery shopping multiple times a week and like shopping for the toiletries and stuff like that , and I found that when I finally committed to only shopping once a week and it was hard in the beginning , trust me we went a while , sometimes without having certain types of food or certain items toiletries , items If it was absolutely critical , I would go . But really I stuck to my gun and I was like , if it's on the list , I'm getting it . If it wasn't on the list , well , put it on the list , I'll get it the next time I go . I found that I probably gained back five or six hours a week by doing this .
Speaker 1So where is it in your schedule that you might be able to find some time ? It might be that you tend to scroll social media a little bit more than you'd like to admit . It might be that you watch TV as your way to kind of decompress or bench . It might be that you know you're spending a lot of time cleaning the house and maybe you could get others involved in that . So I want you to encourage you to look at your schedule . Another big thing might be you just don't feel like it . This one can be maybe a little bit tougher if we just don't feel motivated . But again , I want you to be curious why is it that you don't feel motivated ? Is it because it hurts ? Is it because you sweat and you don't like that ? Is it because you feel foolish doing it ? Is it because you've tried before and , let's face , it failed ? Right , because if you were successful , you probably wouldn't be sitting here wondering how it is that you could add some physical activity into your schedule , right ? But I want you to journal on some of those and be asking yourselves these questions .
Speaker 1I'm going to give you some suggestions on things that you can do to slowly increase the physical activity . First , make it a family thing . If you're somebody , especially with younger kids , it's okay to have them be around . Exercising does not have to be perfect looking . Turn on some fun music , do some exercises , get your kids involved . They'll probably be like oh mom , I want to do what you're doing . Right , try some push-ups . There's all sorts of apps out there with lots of different videos . I do want to encourage you to do some weight-bearing exercises , so if you're interested in what that is , pop me a message . I'm happy to share that with you . I do have an app that I absolutely love . It gives great suggestions for weight-bearing exercises that you can do at home without needing any equipment . Okay , because that's what it's all about . Right , making this super simple .
Speaker 1So , one , you could make it a family thing . Two , if you are a mom , like I was for so many years , where , well , I'm still a mom , but for so many years , I would have to be taking my kids to this activity or that activity , and many times I would say my kids are getting in all the physical activity and I'm just sitting here . I'm sitting here watching them , whatever do their dance . I'm sitting here watching my boys play baseball . I'm sitting here watching my kids swim and swim team and I'm just sitting here and while it was great because I was chatting with the moms and that sort of thing I wasn't getting my physical activity in . So consider doing something while they're doing that .
Speaker 1Get up and go walk . Ask one of the other moms hey , do you want to go walk with me ? Depending upon what type of activity it is , if it's outside , you might be able to walk laps around the field that your kids are playing on . If it's an indoor thing , you still might be able to get outside and go walk because most of the times your kids are safe . Right , you can leave the building because they're safe with the teachers . Get outside and walk . If it's not area that's conducive to walking , just walk the parking lot . It may not be a lot of fun , but you can put activity in there , and even if you just walked for five to 10 minutes , that would be awesome .
Speaker 1Another suggestion is you could actually do weight-bearing exercises While you're walking . You could stop and do some lunges . Right , you could stop and do a few push-ups , so you could squeeze in a little bit of weight-bearing exercises in here as well . Another great way to do it is after you eat . Just make a habit of I'm just going to get up and I'm going to go walk for five minutes . Okay , five to 10 minutes after you eat . It helps incredibly with digestion In the very , very beginning .
Speaker 1If you have not done any physical activity and it just seems really hard . Set a timer in every 55 minutes . I want you to get up and go walk . Walk to your mailbox . If you're in a building , like you're at work , take a couple laps around . If you're at your house maybe . Walk to your mailbox , walk up and down the street just every 55 minutes . Get up and move your body for five minutes . What you will start to notice is when you come back to your desk or whatever activity is that you're getting ready to do . You will feel more focused . You will feel more energized . Find an accountability partner . There is nothing like having an accountability partner . That will help increase your physical movement .
Speaker 1I am training for a half marathon . I was doing great for a while and I'm going to be totally honest with you I fell off the bin wagon and I started beating myself up . Have you ever done that ? Have you ever started something that fell off the bandwagon and then just start self-sabotaging I'm terrible at this . Oh , why did I think I could do this ? I knew this would happen . That sort of thing . I'm here to tell you stop it . There's no benefit to self-sabotaging . Just say , hey , you know what , I fell off the bandwagon . That doesn't mean I can't get back on . But the neat thing is is I had decided with girl that I committed to running a half marathon with . I was like you know what ? I'm going to text you each week what I'm doing , and so it was so fun . When I was running this morning , I was like I'm going to text her . I'm going to tell her , irene , today . So find yourself an accountability partner . It is so great to be able to encourage one another , because you're going to have your days where you're doing incredible and they're not , and they need you to cheer them on , and then , vice versa , you're going to be having days where you're just not feeling it , but your accountability partner is going to poke you . Why aren't you ? Why didn't you walk today ? Did you lift any weights today ? So find your accountability partner . It is so incredible to have that .
Speaker 1I'm also going to tell you you need to get your sleep . If you're not sleeping , it's really hard to feel motivated to get some exercise . Now you'll hear me talk all the time about working towards eight hours of sleep . I never used to do this and I was quite proud of myself for being able to operate on four or five hours of sleep , because I that meant I was up for a long time being , really quote , unquote productive right . No , let me tell you , I get more done now with getting eight hours of sleep than I ever got when I was getting only four hours of sleep . And the other thing , too , is I am so much more focused and motivated and just happy when I actually exercise , even if it takes time out of my day . I find that it's more than made up by the fact that I am very
The Power of Consistent Physical Activity
Speaker 1focused .
Speaker 1I would just want you guys to trust me on this . It's so hard to believe this in the beginning , when you're running the rat race right , and you're going from one place to the next and there is no time in your schedule and you're like Deb , ain't got no time to exercise , ain't got no time to be sleeping eight hours . But I want to encourage you try it , try it and then let me know how you feel . I promise you it will get better and you will notice a difference . Now I am going to say this little caveat right Day one probably not going to feel better . You might actually feel kind of sore . If you do feel sore , let me know . I have something up my sleeve that I use to help with my muscle recovery . I'd love to be able to share that with you . Day two , day three , even week one , even week two , you might still be feeling sore , but I heard something the other day that I thought was so fascinating and I want to share it with you because it can tie right into physical activity , and that is this If you take a penny and you double a penny now , you might have heard this before , but hang in there with me If you take a penny and you double it every single day for 30 days , what do you think it's worth ?
Speaker 1One penny , just one cent , one cup or penny , and you double it every day for 30 days , what is it worth at the end , at the end of one week , believe it's worth about 64 cents , not a lot . And so you might say this experiment is not worth doing . I'm going to quit . Right , could be the same thing for your physical health . Right , you do it for seven days . You're like , oh my gosh , every part of my body aches , I'm sweating , I smell , I don't like this . I look ridiculous . I haven't noticed any difference and in fact , all I notice is that my schedule feels more crammed , my body is hurting and this is not working and I'm ready to call it quits .
Speaker 1Okay , after 14 days , that penny would be worth about believe it's $81 , if I remember correctly off the top of my head , and you might be like ugh , anyone bucks Really not a lot , especially these days with prices . Right , Can't even fill up my gas tank with anyone bucks anymore . So you might want to quit . And the same thing might happen after two weeks of exercising . You're just like , oh my gosh , like I hurt even more . I didn't know that was possible . My feelings kind of getting irritated because maybe things are not happening , maybe my house is not quite as clean as it used to be , because now I'm trying to exercise for 30 minutes to have this idea really stunk . I'm so unhappy that I've listened to you , I'm quitting . But here's where the magic happens . That penny , when doubled every day after 30 days , is worth over $2.6 million .
Speaker 1Let that sink in $2.6 million and what I'm going to tell you is pretty much the same thing will happen with your physical activity . If you will just keep persevering and make it to that end of that first month , you will notice , huh , my body doesn't ache so much now when I exercise . Huh , I notice that productivity that Deb keeps talking about . I'm kind of starting to notice it . I'm feeling a little bit happier after I exercise , but it does take a month to probably really start to notice that . So when you're doing this and it's day five , day six , day 13 , day 14 , day 16 , and you're ready to quit , I want you to think about that . Penny Now , I wish I could offer you the $2.6 million at the end of 30 days of physical activity .
Speaker 1I can't quite do that , but what I can tell you is you will start to feel amazing and the more you do it , the easier it gets . The easier it gets , the more fun it is . The more fun it is , the more you do it . And guess what ? There's like this massive snowball effect of you're going to be happier to be around with your family . You're going to notice that the productivity increases . You're going to notice that you're just going to feel like I'm incredible right , because your body's going to start to feel better , you're going to start to feel a little stronger , you're going to not be as winded walking upstairs and the people around you are going to start to notice it . It will become contagious . So I want you to take this next week to ask yourself these questions that I talked about in the beginning .
Speaker 1Right , get curious about it and find an activity to do . There are so many activities out there and I want you to know that it does not have to be hardcore running . It could be walking , it could be swimming , it could be turning on some fun music and just dancing like a wild child to some fun music . I promise you , if you turn on some fun music and you start dancing like a wild child , you will be amazed at the cardio workout that you have and you're having fun while you're doing it . Dance while you're mopping the floors . Dance while you're dusting by the way , I don't know what the floor said often , so if I actually only did it while I was mopping the floors , that would not happen very often . But dance with your kids . Dance to the mailbox . Have fun .
Speaker 1Exercise does not have to be super structured , it does not have to be at the gym , it does not have to be for a long period of time . Put it in your day and let me know what it is you've noticed . I love to hear from you guys , so please tell me what it is that you've noticed . I want to encourage you to love yourself enough to take care of your body , to increase your physical activity so you will see monumental changes Again . It won't happen instantly , but I promise you you will see improvements , please . I'm sure you know somebody in your life that could use encouragement to get their physical activity in .
Speaker 1Share this podcast with them . It would mean the world to me , because the more people I can get moving and feeling more productive and just feeling happier and being more present with the family oh my goodness , it fills my heart . I thank you guys for taking the time to listen and join me today , because I know you're busy and there are so many other podcasts that you could listen to , so thank you for choosing mine . Share it like it , subscribe to it . Drop me some comments . You guys have an amazing day .
Restoring Hope Podcast
Speaker 1Thank you for joining us today on the Restoring Hope podcast with your host me , deborah Bigdown . It would mean the world to me if you'd like and subscribe to this podcast . Share it with your family and friends and those that you think might benefit from what it is that we've shared today . Follow me on Instagram and Facebook . Check out my website . The link is listed below . My prayer for you , my friends , is that you are able to lean into the person that God has truly designed you to be , restoring hope for both yourself and all of those around you . Until next week , have an amazing day . Love you all . Can't wait to chat next week .