Modern Body Modern Life
This podcast is for women who want to lose weight for the very last time.
If you know what you should eat, but you can't get yourself to eat it, this podcast will help. If have dieted, lost weight, only to gain it back, this podcast will help.
This is the podcast for women who want to lose weight permanently by learning the mindset & strategy necessary to eat what they know they should eat, and feel in control around food. What you put in your mouth all starts with your mind, and once you learn how to manage it, living in a body you love the look and feel of is so much easier.
Modern Body Modern Life is about so much more than weight loss. It's about learning to calm the war that goes on in your head when you are constantly thinking about your body and food.
I will be talking about the importance of up leveling your self concept, listening to your body, feeling your emotions instead of turning to food. I will teach you how hunger is not an emergency, and although food is meant to be enjoyed sometimes, it doesn't always have to be a party in your mouth.
Most importantly, the theme of this podcast supports the belief that you can lose weight permanently and be in your best shape at any age.
~Courtney
Modern Body Modern Life
End of Summer Vacation, the Beginning of Your Next Chapter
Enrollment is NOW OPEN for my September Ready for Change Experience: https://mailchi.mp/32d8807b092b/rfcseptember.
As summer wraps up, it’s easy to slip into old habits or push yourself with perfectionist “all-or-nothing” thinking.
In this episode, Courtney shares how she shifted from shame-based resets to creating a loving, sustainable mindset that makes coming back from vacation—and starting your next chapter—so much easier. Learn how to return to your “normal” with balance, kindness, and renewed energy for what’s ahead.
Enjoy!
Interested in speaking with me about how we can work together? Click here to head to my website: https://www.modernbodymodernlife.com/ and schedule a free consultation with me.
Sarah, welcome to modern body, modern life, the podcast for women who want to feel powerful, healthy, strong and confident, inside and out at every age. On this podcast, we talk about becoming a woman who is fully in control of her eating and movement, so weight loss, strength and energy become permanent. We also talk about something bigger, becoming the woman who takes her deepest desire seriously and goes after more in every area of her life. I'm body and life coach Courtney Gray, and I believe you can get in the best shape of your life at any age, and when you do, it becomes a catalyst for everything else, your relationships, your confidence, your joy, because when you feel like you and your body, all of life gets better. Let's get started. Welcome to the Podcast, episode 95 the end of summer vacation, the beginning of your next chapter. First of all, I can't believe I'm at episode 95 I'm already starting to think about something really fun. I want to do for episode 100 I don't know what that's going to be, but it just I'm so proud that I've done a podcast every single week, and I'm almost at 100 it's so cool. I have a lot for you on this podcast. I just got back today from camping. We go camping about an hour and a half away every Labor Day with a bunch of our friends, and it's one of my favorite places. I love me camping. I love me some camping. I love me also a five star hotel. So I love both. And I wanted to talk specifically in this podcast about how to come back from either vacationing in general over the summer, or just even from a vacation, and get back to your normal, your normal way of moving, your normal way of living, your normal way of eating. And I know I did a podcast a few weeks ago about getting back on track faster, but this is going to be different, because I really want to talk about what I used to do. I'm going to talk about what I used to do, where it when I would get back on track, it would be from a lot of shame, and I would be try to be perfect, and why that didn't work. And then I'm going to talk about how my mindset is so much better these days, and how it really helps me get back to my normal, but from a place of love, from a place of gratitude for such a beautiful vacation, and not from a place of problem, right? I you, so I'll get into that in a moment. I have so much to share with you. Last week, I delivered a webinar. I love webinars. I love teaching. I love finding new ways to teach all of this mindset and healthy living type of teachings that I do, and it was called your next chapter. And I really talked about, there are different types of chapter. There are society imposed chapters. You know, I talked about, when you think of becoming an empty nester, when you think of hitting a milestone birthday, whether that's 30 or 50 or 70 or 80, whatever it is, those are like imposed from society, right? Society kind of dictates that that's a big deal. We can think of also divorce or a new house, or getting a new animal, or losing a parent, like whether they're positive or negative, or hard or fun, it's it is a new chapter that you're experiencing, and those are all imposed from our culture, also our society. But then I also talked about how at any moment, we can decide that we are ready to start a new chapter. It literally could be a random Tuesday afternoon and you're like, okay, because I have to believe, if you're like me, there are things you kind of have been telling yourself, I really want this, but yet you're not making it happen. I really want this, but yet, oh, it's not the right time. I really want this, but I've tried before. I really want this. But isn't that really important? The way I think about it is, if it keeps coming up for you, it's something that matters to you. Everyone who signed up for that webinar and watched the replay and join me live got to hear me talk about how I'm very excited to announce I am doing my ready for change, four week program in September. So they heard about it first, you're hearing about it second. I did a group in June, and it was amazing. It's a group I called ready for change. It is a four week program where you get to work with me in a group coaching setting with a bunch of other women over zoom, and you get to decide to make a massive change in your life. And I'm going to help you, guide you through how to make that decision, how to actually, every single day, recommit to that decision, and how to get yourself to show up for yourself, doing something that maybe you haven't been successful at doing in the past. It's also going to give you a taste of what working with me looks like. Every week, you're going to get a workbook that is beautifully designed and is going to walk you through every single day, recommitting to a change that you want to make. That's all I'm going to say about it for now, because I'm actually going to record a podcast this weekend. A bonus podcast that's going to be coming out on Saturday that's going to give you all the details. It's going to not only give you all the details of what you can expect to, like, leave the four week program with, like, a new up leveled mindset, new tools, but it's also going to talk to you about all the details. Because I'm actually doing two groups this time, I have a morning group and an evening group, just to really help everyone all over the world find a time that works for them. So look out for that bonus podcast on Saturday, I'm going to really dive into everything you get with the ready for change program. So if you're interested, that is going to be there for you. So I just got back from a labor day camping trip, and I had such a wonderful time, and I was actually thinking about you, my beautiful podcast listener, while I was there, because I was spending a lot of time noticing my brain and really the two parts of me in every moment, right there's the part of me that wants to live my best body and Life, that wants to be healthy and make strong decisions and feel empowered and feel loved and connected all that. And then there's the part of me that just wants to eat s'mores and sit all day and not wear sunscreen and drink all the alcohol. There's both of me at all times, and I was noticing the interplay of these two parts of my brain, and I was thinking of you, and I was thinking about how at every moment in our life, we're going to have two of us, right? One of the things I really wanted to do this camping trip is I wanted to be in that lake. I wanted to be swimming. I wanted to be floating. I wanted to be doing egg beaters, just trying to get movement in, and doing all those things. But there was also the other part of me, that more primitive brain part of me, that was, like, it's too cold. Like, what does it even matter? You should just enjoy yourself. You don't. Shouldn't push yourself to go in the lake and have to be cold for a few minutes and and what does it matter if you do egg beaters? What if is, what does it matter if you do, you know, swim around the boats a little bit, it doesn't matter. There was a part of me that wanted to walk and wanted to get as many steps as possible out in nature and just move my body. And then there was the part of me that was like, what does it matter? You should just hang out with your kids. You should just sit around. You should just read your book. You need rest, right? There was the both parts of me. There was a time when I actually walked with all of my girlfriends, and we came home and I thought, You know what? I want to walk again by myself. I want to just talk to myself and think about my life and and there. But there was a part of me that didn't want to. So I was really very aware of the different parts of me. There was a part of me that wanted to allow my kids to be adults and not micro manage their lives, because, you know, we've been camping for years, and for so long, we would go up there and I'd be like, You can't do this. You can't do that. You can't eat this. You have to have dinner first. You can't do and I there's a part of me that still wanted to try to manage my kids, because there's a part of me that that thinks that I know what's best for them. Don't smoke a cigar. Don't drink. It's too early to start drinking. Don't do that. Be careful on the boat. But then there was another part of me that's like, let them live. You've done enough. You've done enough. So at every moment, I found that there was the primitive brain and the prefrontal cortex. Courtney and I did a really good job, I'm happy to say, of really connecting to the part of me that wanted to be aligned with what I truly desired. I wanted to swim, I wanted to walk and move. I wanted to eat healthy. I also wanted to enjoy myself. I wanted to support my kids and let my kids be young adults. So I really did a good job. I'm very proud of myself, and this podcast is going to help you do that. If you're feeling like, yeah, I could use a little bit more connection and alignment with my prefrontal cortex, then this podcast is going to help you do that. And so now that I'm back and I'm excited to get back into my groove, into my normal, my normal way of eating, my normal way of living, my normal way of moving, because I like my normal, I'm in a good place. Maybe for you right now, you're like, I want to get to a place that I like that's normal, right? I've gone on some vacations and I'm back and my normal, I want to go farther than my normal. That's a beautiful thing, too. So this podcast will help you with that. So let me first describe what I used to do after a vacation with no shame. This is just how I used to live. The problem of my vacations and the way I functioned on my vacations really started before my vacation, my plan used to be that I was going to go on whatever vacation I was going on, whether it be camping or to a hotel, and I was going to be perfect. I thought to myself, I'm not going to eat anything bad, I'm not going to drink I'm going to use it as a reset. Sometimes I would actually convince myself that I was going to use the vacation like. As a healthy eating reset, which now just doesn't seem like the greatest idea, but in that moment, for years, I would tell myself, you are going to eat perfectly. We are going to move our body perfectly, all of that. And I was going to get up and run in the morning before anyone else got up, I was going to not drink. I was going to journal every day I was going to eat really well, no chips, no sugar. I had this, these grand plans. And maybe you don't do this. Maybe when you you're sitting there thinking, that sounds crazy, Courtney, I don't do this. Maybe you just think, you know I'm gonna go on my vacation, and I'm just not gonna worry about any of it. You're just like, it's vacation. Let me. Let me just say, trust me, my friend, my intention, as I used to go into a vacation was I was going to be perfect. But then, because of this unrealistic perfection, I very quickly, very quickly slipped into like, this is vacation. I'm just going to enjoy myself. And I kind of got the fuck it's with everything I went from I'm going to do this perfectly. And then I realized that just does not even sound fun, that doesn't sound realistic, it's too much. And so then I would go to the complete opposite, where I'd be like, It's vacation. I shouldn't worry about any of this. I should just enjoy myself, and I'll worry about all of this when I get home. And from that space, I didn't make any kind of plans, I didn't set any intentions, and I just went rogue on any attempting of being the healthy person that I wanted to be. The problem is I had was way too perfectionistic going into it. And then I would get the fuck it's 20 minutes into the vacation, and I'd go off the rails, and then I would go home, and again, I'll now I have to be perfect. I've just been a mess for a week, or however long I was on vacation, and so now in order to kind of punish myself, I'm gonna go no sugar for a week, or I'm gonna go no sugar for two weeks, and I'm gonna work out and do the peloton. On top of it, very like, just like, kind of obsessive and shameful and like mentally whipping of Courtney. That's what used to happen. I was completely not in control of my mindset. I was not connected to myself. I was not connected to any kind of source, God, any like, any power that actually really loves me, that was not a those were not decisions made from any kind of connection at all. And it was very all or none. And when I went on vacation, camping, for instance, from this type of place, I couldn't get myself to do things like, Okay, I'm gonna walk into that cold water, because I know I'm gonna be so glad when I start swimming. I couldn't even let myself be a little bit uncomfortable in that moment, because I was so not in control of my mindset. I couldn't get myself to go on an extra walk because I was not in my in control of my mindset. I couldn't allow myself to have a treat without going all in on the treats because I was so out of control in my mindset, then I would be on the way home and like there is a subconscious feeling of shame, and again, I'm not going to eat sugar for a week. I'm going to, I'm going to, I would tell myself that, okay, we're going to get home by 11, and I'm going to go to the gym right after I clean up, and I'm going to eat perfect tonight. I'm going to food prep tonight. So then again, back to this perfectionistic, unrealistic thinking about how I'm going to do my day getting home from camping. Because you know how this is all you moms out there, women out there, we get home from a vacation and we are tired. It's almost like we need a vacation from our vacation. But I wouldn't allow myself that in my head on the way home, because I wasn't happy with the way I was living and the choices I made on vacation. So I had to mentally whip myself. I would come home and I would be so mentally exhausted from mentally whipping myself that then I would actually say, You know what, screw this. I'm gonna just start tomorrow, and I would continue the eating into that night. I would continue saying, oh my god, what does it matter? I've been eating like crap for four days, and so now I'm just gonna keep eating like crap tomorrow. It was just such an unhealthy mindset which led to an unhealthy way of living. That was the me long time ago. That was when I wasn't happy in my body. That was when I felt very you can hear the out of control. I mean, even delivering this, this story, feels out of control. It all is just so out of control. So now let's talk about the beautiful mindset shift that I am now and just also knowing that I am constantly working on my mindset. I'm constantly messing up and redirecting and trying to get better and better, but I definitely have an up leveled mindset shift that I would love to share with you, and if you resonate with any of my story, maybe not all of it, but maybe. Be a part of it. I want you to implement some of this better mindset to help you get home from a vacation, or get home from summer break and summer break and really be able to take care of yourself and go to your next chapter, your next level, or get back to a new normal, from a place of love and from a place of like preparedness to be realistic enough to actually follow through. So now I treat myself the way I would treat my kids. I treat myself the way you would say, God would treat you, or source would treat you, or universal energy would treat you. I create a plan. I have a plan for my vacation. And it is not a perfect plan. I plan to have some treats. I plan one night to have a delicious s'more, Vivi you make an amazing s'more. It was so worth it, so delicious. So I plan on these things. I plan to move my body without trying to tell myself I'm gonna wake up early and go for a run when I know that that's not really what I want to do. I plan to move my body in a way that feels good. I plan to have some treats, but I plan to not go overboard on the treats. I pack and plan meals for myself that support not only having a fun vacation, but support my fitness goals. One of the things my husband I did is they, they've brought back the protein boxes at Starbucks. Have you heard? I don't know if there was, like an egg short, I think maybe there was an egg shortage, and that's why they got rid of the protein boxes. But they're back, baby, and my husband and I picked up a few for the trip, so as a snack for like, a mid, mid mid breakfast, mid lunch. If we needed a little snack, we had these protein boxes. So I really planned on, how can I eat healthy, but how can I also do what I like? I love those protein boxes. So I wanted to bring one a day for me to be able to have one. I bought myself berries and fruit to mash up in my club soda because I didn't want to drink alcohol, but I wanted to be festive. I made sure there was healthy food to choose from. I made sure I brought some of the things my kids like, but things that I necessarily wasn't going to be eating, and that was okay. And I really focused while I was there on thinking about what really mattered with this trip, and it was the people, and it was nature, and it was time for me to rest, move my body, but also rest from any heavy lifting, any sprinting, any of those things I have been doing, I really decided that I needed to rest, and I did that. And so I supported myself beautifully. Had I would not do any of the vacation differently, which is such a great place to be from. So again, instead of telling myself in the past, when I would tell myself, you're going to be perfect, and then I couldn't handle the perfection, so then I would go all the way to the other end of the continuum and just eat my face off. This time I say, Hey, we're going to bring some snacks, but we're going to we're gonna we're gonna bring some treats. We're gonna bring some snacks, but we're gonna eat balance. We're gonna move our body in a way that feels good. We're not gonna push ourselves too hard. And then I did that because I wasn't being so damn perfect. Then when I was on my way home, instead of telling myself, Okay, well now you have to go no sugar for a week, starting right when you get home. When you get home, you have to go to the gym right after you unpack your clothes. I was like, none of that has to happen because we're not mad at ourselves. We're not mentally whipping ourselves. We're not telling ourselves we are we did a bad job, and so we don't need to punish ourselves. And I now know when I get home from a vacation, I always feel tired. I feel like I need a vacation for my vacation, so I'm supporting myself today. I'm not making dinner. I'm not going to the grocery store. I had this podcast. I have all of my laundry and and unpacking to do. I had a call with one of my clients. Then I'm going to edit this podcast. We're ordering in a healthy dinner That sounds amazing. And then I'm going to lay I don't have shame for the way I vacationed, and I don't have any unrealistic plans that I'm going to tell myself I'm going to do, and then I'm going to get off track. My energy is not it's time to start being good. Courtney, you're a mess. It's let's get back on how I usually eat. Let's get back on track with our normal weights. Let's get back on track with doing some sprints, doing some things like that, understanding that today I'm going to be tired, so tomorrow is probably a better time to do all of that. From this energy and this mindset, I ate better the whole weekend. I didn't force myself to do any crazy workouts. I didn't put so much pressure on myself to do the vacation a certain way, and I'm not putting so much pressure on myself. Us to get back on track so quickly that I'm exhausting myself. It turns out, my friend, that when we are nice to ourselves, when we treat us the way we would treat our children, when we treat ourselves as if we love ourselves, we can reach our goals, and it can be so much easier. And it doesn't have to be so hard. It doesn't have to be so restrictive, so exhausting. And then what happens is, if you do decide, when you get back from a vacation, that you want a kick start, that you want to do a cleanse, or you do want to do a reset, you want to say, You know what, I really feel like, I need to kind of get the sugar out of my system, or maybe I want to get the alcohol out of my system. Whatever it is, you do it from a place of love, not from a place of shame on you you're bad, because that really is the subconscious message that I was working with for a very long time, and it just wasn't working for me. So now it's how can I support myself? How can I get back to my normal? How can I keep going with getting healthier and stronger and living a more aligned life? I think you'll actually find that when you treat yourself nicer, when you are more kind and loving to yourself, you actually end up going farther in terms of your development. You end up actually achieving at a higher level. So I hope you will give that a try. End of summer, beginning of fall, is a really great time to kick start your next chapter, to decide that you really are ready to go all in on you, but not from a place of perfection, not from a place of, I can't believe you've let yourself get here. Not from a place of, we just need to go on a diet for 30 days, but from a place of, how can we actually start a new chapter where we love ourselves and get into the best shape of our lives? It's so possible. It can be so fun and empowering, and I'm glad you're here, if that's what you want to do, because I'm the perfect person to help you do this. I'm doing it over and over and over again in my life, I feel like I am constantly thinking, what's next for me? I feel better about this, what's next? What is my next level? What is my next healthy venture. What is next for my life? I would love to have you join my ready for change program. We start mid September. If you head to modern body, modern life.com there will be a link there that takes you to the information and sign up page, and also look out for that bonus podcast that is going to be hitting this Saturday morning with all the fun details. Have a great Tuesday for information on how we can work together. Head to modern body, modern life.com. To schedule a consultation with me. I'm currently coaching women privately, and I offer group coaching programs you.