The Strong Mom Podcast
Moms, it’s time to take control! Hosted by 3x Olympian Lauren Regula and her husband Dave, The Strong Mom Podcast is here to help you clear the chaos, rebuild your strength, and thrive as a mom. After having three kids in three years and silently battling postpartum depression, Lauren transformed her story, creating the Strong Mom Method to support moms like you. Tune in for powerful stories and tips from experts—from athletes to Navy SEALs to everyday moms—helping you bridge the gap between fitness, fat loss, mindset, and mental health. Get ready to rewrite your story and reclaim the strongest version of yourself.
The Strong Mom Podcast
Small Wins, Big Impact: Insights from a 3x Olympian Mom
Could finding joy in your fitness journey be the secret to breaking through mental and physical plateaus? In this inspiring episode, 3x Olympian Lauren Regula and her husband, Dave, share personal stories from grueling endurance challenges like 29029 Everesting and the Tokyo Olympics to uncover the transformative power of mental resilience.
Listen as we redefine plateaus as rest stops rather than roadblocks and discuss how mindset shifts and community support can reignite your momentum. Learn how small wins—like daily habits or minor victories—can create lasting confidence and positive change.
We also explore the emotional growth that comes from tackling challenges, whether it’s conquering a cold plunge, overcoming business hurdles, or navigating the demands of motherhood. This episode is packed with actionable insights on building mental toughness, finding joy in the process, and celebrating the small steps that lead to big transformations.
Perfect for moms and anyone looking to enhance their mental and physical well-being, this conversation will leave you motivated to embrace your own journey with strength and optimism.
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Your mental fitness is arguably the most important, because that is like your starter on your car, almost.
Speaker 2:The momentum that's rolling towards you when you don't have it yourself, is the community that you're around Just focus on what's in front of you, get one workout in and feel great about it. Most people live in the gap, like all of the things that they don't have, all the things that they didn't do. Hi, I'm Lauren.
Speaker 1:I'm Dave.
Speaker 2:And this is the Strong Mom Podcast, where we essentially help moms get their shit together physically, mentally and emotionally so they can show up as the best versions of themselves for their family. And we're back. We're back, baby.
Speaker 1:We didn't go anywhere.
Speaker 2:The podcast is back. How about that? Yeah, we've been here.
Speaker 1:I think we're just going to have a great conversation today about a few things, including mental toughness, the different aspects of fitness, how to find joy in the process.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, how to find joy in the process and really how we consider fitness more than just physical. That's something that we're really big on is it's not just the physical part, it's a hundred percent a big component, but fitness has a lot of different components in it, so we're going to tackle that Also.
Speaker 1:This conversation could go off the rails at any point. So pay attention, All right.
Speaker 2:All right, let's get into it really quick. So, as I mentioned, fitness is more than just physical goals and I'm a huge believer that when we work mentally as much as physically, plateaus just don't last for as long. I guess you could say, right, we could work out and really, you know, get physically fit, but somewhere in there it's easy to plateau.
Speaker 1:I think. So Real quick on plateaus. That makes me think of something, because we hear that all the time, right, and not just in our program, but you hear that all over the place. I hit a plateau, I've plateau has gone on. I think the difference between and from all that we've coached now for I don't know what year is this 15 years plus the difference between the people who are winning long-term and that aren't, are the length of your quote. Plateaus After a while, because everyone hits points where they get stuck or they go on vacation or they choose to make different choices around their fitness and health.
Speaker 2:Where motivation wanes right.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 1:Air quotes one of my favorites yes, where motivation suddenly isn't there, whatever it is. I think the difference between the real winners in this kind of journey and game are the people, that the difference is that those people are able to really minimize those time periods that they quote plateau. Right, they could go from on one end of the spectrum or goalposts, it's, you know, falling off the wagon, and then you're just off and then that plateau just goes away and lasts forever. On the other side, like I feel like I'm kind of at a point myself and I'm sure you are you might miss a week. Like I just took the last week off of training based on some injury type things old person moving a trampoline with grace but I only took a week off and I understand how to get right back on track, and so that's when we talk about plateaus. It's really about minimizing the length of the plateau and, like you said, I want you to get into kind of the strategies around it, but how to use the other aspects of fitness to make a difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about what we consider fitness, the mental resilience so that you can continue. As you mentioned, you can look at a plateau as like a rest, which is a rest stop totally different than totally giving up and finding the joy right. A lot of times people will say to us oh, I've got to do this for the rest of my life and oh, don't you ever get bored of just doing the same thing over and over. So we have to find ways to find the joy in the actions that are going to create the results. So I'm going to share a couple from the Olympics, of tough times and kind of making it through and the lessons learned. And this past June so June of 2024, dave and I did something called 29029 Everesting and it's an event put on by Jesse Itzler and you have 36 hours to climb the equivalent feet of Everest. So we're going to share some lessons from that as well, because it's a long time to climb. You had a long time to think.
Speaker 1:It is a long time to not talk to each other. Yes, 30 hours to be exact.
Speaker 2:Oh, so good.
Speaker 1:All right, Give me a specific moment either Olympics 29, 029, when you felt like you kind of hit a limit or you got up to somewhere where you couldn't continue.
Speaker 2:So I will share something from training for the Tokyo Olympics where I hit a mental limit. I hit an emotional limit and I was training and I was just really struggling, really bad, and I wasn't able to show up on the field like I wanted to and like I knew I was capable of. And there was a hundred percent that moment where I thought I don't think I can do this and I also thought I don't I think everybody out here watching here doesn't think I can do this Like the belief in myself was gone. I was worried about what everybody else thought and that was a hundred percent a limit where I was bumping up against that. I knew I needed to somehow conquer or else my Olympic dream was going to be over.
Speaker 1:Give me more detail about like the moment, like what? You can't just throw that out there and then not follow it up with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally. So there was quite a few actually consecutive outings where I was pitching and it was leading up to the Olympics and I would go out and I'd be like, okay, I'm ready, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm here, I'm going to help the team, and I proceeded to just get absolutely slaughtered, like you know, first pitch, home run, walk, bases loaded, grand slam, I mean you name it just really not an ideal lead up to the Olympics. Right, we're trying to, I'm trying to get reps in, I'm trying to get my teammates to trust me, I'm trying to get myself to trust myself. And it was. It was really challenging. I mean I remember sitting in the outfield crying after multiple games.
Speaker 2:I couldn't quite put my finger on how I was going to get through this moment, to continue on, and I know a lot of people sometimes have that thought of like I don't know if I can do this. Think of a goal that's out there, whether it's a weight loss goal, whether it's a promotion goal, point, sometimes that can pop up. That's like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I put myself in a position to say I wanted to reach this goal. I don't think I can, like I bit off more than I could chew. That's really what was going through my head, and one of the things that was really helpful is my mental performance coach had said to me because he knew how bad I mean, everybody knew how bad I was struggling, so I didn't have to, you know explain it to them.
Speaker 1:It was on the internet.
Speaker 2:It was not pretty. One thing he said to me he just goes, lauren, you're not going to think your way out of this one, and that was really helpful for me to hear. I couldn't just like will myself to get to a different place. I couldn't mindset my way through. This is why I love the physical and mental together when we talk about full fitness. He goes you're going to have to do something different.
Speaker 2:So what really ultimately led me through that to the spot where I actually started to pitch a little bit better as we got closer to the Olympics. And then in the innings that I was out there during Tokyo, I was able to stay exactly where I needed to be and I did the job that I needed to do was I changed the way so it's a physical doing. I changed the way I approached my warmup. I changed the way I approached pregame, so that was something I could do. We always talk about action. You need to do something differently. So I did something differently and that's what Wade said to me like Lauren, you're not going to think your way out of this one, you got to go do something differently.
Speaker 1:So let me jump in. Essentially, the things that had gotten you up to that point weren't working for you anymore and you needed to make a shift.
Speaker 2:Yes, and the way I did that was I started doing my warmup differently, meaning like I ran longer than I normally did. I had to somehow get myself to settle down before the game started, which was really helpful. I wasn't going to think my way out of that. And then what I did is I just like we tell everybody, I just made it about one pitch? I literally was like we tell everybody, I just made it about one pitch. I literally was like I can't give up a grand slam in one pitch I mean one pitch can do it after a ball.
Speaker 2:No, but I'm saying like there was multiple pitches that got there, like I just went to the next pitch, like I can't walk the bases loaded with one pitch in that in only one pitch. I can in 20 pitches, but like I really just broke it down to Lauren, you know how to throw a curve ball, lauren, you've done this a million times. Like you can throw, you can throw one good curve ball. That's all I'm looking for.
Speaker 1:I think those two things are the, those are the things that you can take into your normal life, not that normal means like anything but the Olympics, but right, like if you get stuck, like especially like backing out to the plateaus and this long training, like if you can accept that this thing that you're doing is a lifelong pursuit, right, like fitness isn't. Again, that's one of the big issues and something that we work around in the program is like this is identity shift. It's not a program. Essentially, it's not a fixed thing that you're doing for only this amount of time. It's a lifelong pursuit to be a fit person, right, or to be a healthy person. And so, number one, accept that. Then you realize that you are going to have to make shifts along the way, like what gets you from zero to one we say this all the time doesn't get you all the time from one to two, and so you need to be ready to make shifts.
Speaker 1:That could be in your nutrition, that could be in your training, like for me, I, at this point, like you, if you train long enough, you kind of do it successfully, kind of get to a place where you're comfortable in your body, right, and that's something that we all strive for. But you get there, then what Right? And so for me, the training has to shift. It it's I try something new. I tried jujitsu, or I take a week off and then I go into a strength phase, and then I take a week off and go into something else. Do 29029, an endurance event. Always seek new challenges, but it's looking for something new, right? Don't ever get stuck because you're spinning your tires in the same gear Like you may need to change gears.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when you think of the and again, where I know we're talking to talk about mental resiliency, of just getting through those plateaus. But when you do things that are challenging, you can gather those lessons, you can gather those tools and apply it to any single aspect of your life. So, when we come up to challenges in marriage, when we come up to challenges in parenting, when we come up challenges in business, one of the things is just like, okay, what can I do? Right, maybe the way we spoke to our kids doesn't work anymore. They're older, so how can we change what we're doing? And then how can we really distill it down to just like the next best, what's the next best thing I can do? I think it's important to do things that are challenging and it's important to do things that are new, and I will say that. Can I say something about doing hard things to build, you know, any type of resilience and changing things up? I'd love it if you did oh that's nice.
Speaker 2:So I've heard this multiple times to people who are resistant and just kind of like well, just because you do hard things or just because that got you through the Olympics doesn't mean that's going to get you through life. Or you know, people are into cold plunging and people are like well, what does that have to do with me running a business Like you, being able to sit in a cold plunge and do something hard and I want to share.
Speaker 1:The names of the people that said that.
Speaker 2:Can we out them? No, but what my point, or our point? When we talk about mental resilience and when I started sharing my story about the Olympics, about what I did, the underlying thought process that got me through feeling like I was going to be sent home and making it through and actually going to the Olympics and doing the job that I needed to do that thought process can be applied to everything that we do. I can always ask myself, Lauren, what can you do differently? Every single person listening to this podcast, you have an option. You can do something differently than you normally do Everybody.
Speaker 1:And then I can also ask myself I think it's interesting that there's always an option out there. If you picture it, one of the options is always to quit, to stop, and I think that's where people get in trouble as well. They look at that as an option where, as soon as you take that off the table, like you had all these different things you could do. You could have quit and gone home, which was certainly probably the equal odds of you getting sent home. Whatever that, as soon as you take that off the table, there's always something else you can try. There's always another person that you can ask, there's always another route to take, and so, as long as you don't stop moving forward, you're good.
Speaker 1:Right, and I think that's long-term where plateaus turn into falling off the wagon, right, if you look at a plateau or look at an obstacle as a speed bump versus a roadblock, those are two totally different things. We can do speed bumps all day long. They suck and you'll bottom out and you'll get pissed off, but the road keeps going right, we're not hitting roadblocks. You can't accept, and that's a mental piece, right, that's part of, again, that's part of fitness, like we mentioned at the beginning, being more than just physical, like your mental fitness is arguably the most important your resiliency mentally, because that is like your starter on your car, almost right. If you don't have that little bit of toughness to get out of bed and go start, you could be in trouble.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a hundred percent, because that's what's going to keep you moving physically. And I think that's where people plateau is, they only focus on the physical and then at some point they burn out of doing what they need to do. They need that mental strength to keep them going.
Speaker 1:This is the interesting thing. Back to doing hard things. When people criticize oh, how does the cold plunge have to do with X, Y and Z? What is the 29-0-29? How does that translate to business?
Speaker 1:You need to train that mental toughness muscle and you need to do it in essentially a low risk environment. Right, we're not trying to go out and most of us aren't trying to go out into an environment Like if you decided you wanted to train your mental toughness by going to your first MMA class and sparring with somebody that is a veteran, like that's an environment where you can get hurt, or you don't want to go into do something with your spouse where the potential is a blowout fight, and you decide you want a tense environment. You can do these things in the cold plunge. You do them in the gym, you do them in the 29029. And once you realize that you can keep moving for 30 hours straight or you can sit in 35 degree water for 10 minutes or whatever that thing is, you have a story now and you have evidence that you can do something hard.
Speaker 2:Yep, the story and evidence. And again, regardless, whatever situation you're in, you can just go back to that thought process. What kept you in the cold plunge for 10 minutes? What did you say to yourself? Like you can use that, yeah.
Speaker 1:So give me an example. I'm curious, and this is just me being curious. Tell me about something that you think is that what requires the most mental toughness for you in your life? Like, where do you have to really like dial in and say, fuck, I have to really push through this thing? That's a great question. I didn't put that on the notes.
Speaker 2:You didn't but.
Speaker 1:I will tell you what mine is, cause this is some, and I had a conversation about this in every. This is where the hard things kind of comes in, I think, and I'm curious if people could relate to this. There's a couple examples. But like everyone thinks of hard being physical, right, when we've had this long arc of business, right, it's been amazing and then it's really hard and then it's incredible and then it's that's just how business grows incredible, and then it's that's just how business grows.
Speaker 1:And the times when it's been trying or we've had issues with the backend or the media, buying or whatever the thing is, the times of getting up and going back at it every morning and fighting that urge and I would imagine people feel this in different parts of their life. But those days when you wake up and your initial first thought is I can't win, this isn't going to work. It could be your marriage I know for a fact that people have had that thought like this isn't going to work. Those things being able to refocus into optimism and tell yourself that, okay, I've got a chance, I can do this, I've done the hard things before. To me that's like so hard because self-doubt in all of those things like doubt to me is like the worst, that's like the evil.
Speaker 2:You nailed it Like that's where, when you do hard things, those stories, I can do this like I look, you know I've overcome this, like that's where the stories come in. But yeah, I could see that that's interesting, but it's, it's true. I just because we've never really talked about this before that's the hardest thing for me in the world.
Speaker 1:I'm not.
Speaker 2:I obviously like get through it yeah, I was gonna say it's interesting to me because you do exude so much optimism all the time. You definitely don't share that.
Speaker 1:But, like you know, when you don't, let's say like you don't, you take a month off of training or you like coming out of 29 or 29. So for this event it was essentially endurance training for what seems like forever, like 90 minutes on the tread what is that thing called Stairmaster? Like 90 minutes on the tread, the? What is that thing called stair master? The stair master. Like I felt like a sorority girl in college with the sweatshirt wrapped around my waist, except I wore a 20 pound backpack and did 90 minutes at a crack when I didn't feel like it at all, in a hooded sweatshirt to make it harder because we had altitude for the actual event. Like those things were hard and I could somehow, I just pushed through them. Some people think like, yeah, that's the thing, but that was easier for me than sometimes getting up and being like, oh fuck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is why it's important. So everybody, I I challenge everybody to ask themselves the question you just asked me where do you find it to be very challenging to push through? I'm saying that because, like my time on the Stairmaster was glorious. I loved it, didn't bother me at all, I know. But the point is that everyone takes to different challenges differently and it's easy to look at the challenges that we face when it comes to and I'm specifically talking about life, when it comes to taking care of yourself, when it comes to you know well parenting, business, all of the things, but everyone has that kryptonite and it's different for everybody. So I challenge everyone listening. Can you repeat your original question?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's just really where in your life do you find it the hardest to get up and go again? I think it's just really where in your life do you find it the hardest to get up and go again? Where do you feel like mental toughness or being optimistic or believing it can happen? Where is that the hardest? Like what's your, what's your? Kryptonite, essentially.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's very interesting.
Speaker 1:Do you know what yours is?
Speaker 2:I think I I interpreted it a little bit different now with when you, when we talk about it as kryptonite versus it's not necessarily kryptonite, but where do you feel like the most resistance right?
Speaker 1:Like I said, I hated the Stairmaster thing, but that's like I could do that all day long, Like even the cold plunge, like I don't love it but I'll do it because I know it's good for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's still working, and when I'm done I like it but I'll do it because I know it's good for me and when I'm done I like it Right and so, like another place, people might. This is something I think people might find challenging, like things aren't just physically hard or right. Everyone thinks of it. This event is hard. Doing a hard thing could be apologizing to your wife or your husband, like that's for somebody that is doing the podcast with me right now probably really hard.
Speaker 2:I was going to say the same thing to the person who's talking but, yeah.
Speaker 1:You should have cut in then. No, things like that, like I heard someone else talk about I think Cal mentioned it on his podcast like calling your parents and just having a conversation telling them you love them, could be challenging and really hard for people. So, like everyone's different, right. But again, this is like you're training for strength. You're training for emotional strength and mental strength. This is what we work on. The program is why we built this whole thing. Yeah, kind of the business we're talking about is to help people train these things and they do all tie together right. The 29029 training, which call it challenging, I'll call it awful boring. Like all that stuff, it definitely helps you do other things that are tough, right, it's like at our Strong Mama Palooza, cold plunged People are like oh, I didn't think I could do that, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's definitely also a sense of pride when you get through something that's a cold plunged. People are like, oh, I didn't think I could do that, yes, yeah, yeah, there's a.
Speaker 1:There's definitely also a sense of pride, yeah, when you get through something that's hard whether it's the reason you see people at the end of these endurance events like crying and breaking down and hugging 100.
Speaker 2:I've never done an endurance event. Until we did 29, 29, I was like I get it you should have seen.
Speaker 1:Lauren apologized to me a couple days ago and she started crying and she broke down on her knees. I gave her a hug. I put a medal around her neck.
Speaker 2:It was amazing. I've gotten a lot better at apologizing, by the way you have no, honestly, you are.
Speaker 1:You're very good, normally, at apologizing. I was speaking for myself. I think it's like you don't, it's something to be honest. Like I feel like you don't train it sometimes, like you being you the royal, you right. But like if I you get in those ruts, I'm speaking 100 to myself, laying it on all of you, like it's your issue, sure, but like if you don't, uh, when the it's the believing, you're always right, or your way. Like the way you make lunch is the best way, whatever master, lunch maker, whatever that thing is. Like if you don't actively, if you're not reflective, or you don't apologize, or you don't back off repeatedly, or like I want to say, uh, you don't make a habit out of that, that behavior. It's like everything else, it goes away. And then I find myself like, oh, why is it so hard to kind of back down right now? What?
Speaker 2:am I doing? I tell moms all the time quitting is a habit or whatever insert. Whatever you're doing, it's a habit. And if you can build the muscle of having a habit of doing whatever you need to do, anyway, right, that's something we say You're going to have habits, no matter what.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're going to have habits, no matter what. Yeah, you're going to have habits no matter what. Some habits serve you, some habits don't. But quitting is a habit. We're saying, hey, this got tough, I don't want to do it anymore. Okay, it just gets easier and easier every time.
Speaker 1:Or if you're doing something that you're not enjoying but you do it anyways. That's also a habit, just that. But they don't practice it themselves.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got to follow through. We're not quitters. And then, all of a sudden, it's when you actually have a choice. Kids don't have a choice because we make them do things, but adults they have a choice. It's easier to quit.
Speaker 2:It's true. Okay, let's talk about how to make fitness, health, this journey, life, more enjoyable, right? So again that we don't. So one way that we're gonna reach goals is having that mental toughness, doing it anyways. What can you do that you don't wanna do? Like I think those are the biggest wins, like when I work out and I have no interest in working out. Those workouts count as like bonus workouts. They hold a ton of weight because when I work out, when I want to, of course I'm gonna get it done and I'm excited to do it. I get excited when it's over, when I get that workout in and I did it anyways. So mental resilience, doing hard things, putting yourself in a position that, even if you're like, well, what the hell is a cold lunch going to do for me? Just remember, it's going to build self-talk, it's going to build a story, literally is going to help shape you and how you approach other challenges. So, besides that, let's talk about finding the joy.
Speaker 1:So I think this you said it perfectly and there's two, there's two pieces, right? If you're going to get to your goal, if you're in, let's say you're I know you're big on open water, you're a big sailor.
Speaker 2:I'm not Shocking yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you'd like a cruise, but so one of the things like you have to be, you want the mental toughness and the resiliency. That's like building yourself a sturdy boat right, a boat that can take on A battleship. A battleship, whatever. Take on storms. The second piece. While on A battleship, a battleship, whatever. Take on storms. The second piece while you build this battleship to take on storms, you still want to plot a route on the sea that's going to be pretty smooth sailing. Just because you built a battleship doesn't mean you want to consistently Go right in.
Speaker 1:Go into the storm, right, and so this is resiliency, and doing hard things is building your ship, and now we're talking about finding some smooth sailing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I love it. How would you say, how do you avoid burnout in terms of doing the thing? When I that question comes up, it's like how do I avoid burning out of doing the things I know I need to do for a life that I'm trying to create, a life that I love? How do you avoid burnout, are you?
Speaker 1:going to go tactical. What are you going to do? Well, I'm asking you first Okay, that's a great question. So I think of a few things you can change up. It's just let's stick to working out. So I think you can change up the actual workout. Another thing that I like to do is change up the environment that I'm working out in, and for me, that is actually one of my favorite things. So, for example, I can work out here, I can get outside and do something. I can go to track the gym we own. I love to go to new gyms. I go this is going to sound crazy, but I have a planet fitness membership. Um, just because we talked about this on another episode, our daughter plays volleyball and our sons play soccer, so they're traveling constantly. I can sneak workouts in, drop them off at practice, go for a workout and grab them after. To me, one of my most favorite workouts I've had recently and I've been doing again. I do this forever, like forever, and I went to Planet Fitness, maybe in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2:It was Cincinnati.
Speaker 1:Saturday night my son was like I'm going to hang at the hotel, I want to see my buddies. I'm like cool, I don't know what to do. I went to Planet Fitness at 8 PM by myself and it was amazing. Like to walk into a new gym and see machines and equipment and things I've never seen before. Like this is the greatest thing ever. Right? So you change the environment. What about like talk about, like music and things?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'll share one thing that our coaches will tell talk about. I won't say tell, but we'll talk about. We need to make whatever we're doing inviting. That's like the best way I could describe it. If you have a gym and it's in a garage and it's freezing cold, that's not inviting. Of course you're going to walk in there, put a toe in there and walk out. It's not inviting. If you're in there and it's deathly silent or you're listening to music that you don't like, that's not inviting. So I look at it as how can I make whatever I need to do and we're using workouts as an example whatever I need to do and we're using workouts as an example, how can I make it as inviting as possible? Side note we have had the TV on. Just yesterday I did a workout in our gym in our basement. We have a TV in there and we put on one of, like the USA documentaries on the USA track team. That might sound weird, but to me it was super motivating, because I'm there running and doing all my weights and everything, watching them work their butt off, and I was like, oh, that gave me like just a different, like a different visual. It was inviting. I was like I want to know what's happening, so I want to stay in the gym and look at them working their ass off. I want to work my ass off. It made it more enjoyable.
Speaker 2:So, yes, of course, music. And one of the things with music is create different playlists. Don't always have the same playlist, like there are days where I'm like I want to go back to high school. Like let's go back to like. It just brings my mind into different, a different place. Sometimes I want to go back to you know college, the music I listened to to college. Sometimes I go back to country, sometimes I go back to nineties hip hop. So just change it up so it fits.
Speaker 2:What you're what you're looking for Same thing inviting. What you're looking for, same thing inviting. If you don't want to listen to music and you really want to listen to a podcast or an audible book, have it available. And the other part about being inviting is you can't decide. You're like, oh, I'd like my gym to be warm. You have to go do it and turn on a heater. Oh, I'd really like to listen to something different. You have to have it ready, because as soon as you have that resistance of, oh well, now I gotta wait 15 minutes for it to warm up. Or oh, I'm looking through podcasts. 10 minutes later I can't find one that I like If it's not queued up and ready to go. That's your 10 minutes of negotiating with yourself and it's not gonna happen. So make it as inviting as possible.
Speaker 2:Same thing with meal prep Make it inviting. Make food that you know that you're gonna wanna eat. Put music on. Make your kitchen, put a FaceTime on with a friend, or one thing Dave does. Oh sorry, I'm speaking for you. He will come tell me hey, I am insert whatever cooking cleaning. And he's like if I don't answer you, it's because I got my headphones in and you're listening to a book or a podcast. But it's something that you get your 10, 15, 20 minutes an hour to yourself to do what you need to do. You feel productive. It's inviting for you to do that. So my suggestion is whatever you're doing, just make it as inviting as possible.
Speaker 1:I like our gym more when it's clean.
Speaker 2:There, make it clean Totally. I was trying that. What was that? Like a hint.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:To me. You know, we have three kids.
Speaker 1:I was just letting you know, love, I have a question.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Talk to me about the importance of little wins. Can you tell? I just read that yeah, no.
Speaker 2:So when we're talking about continuing and enjoying what we're doing, I think it's really important to reflect on the things that are going well or the things that are wins in our day.
Speaker 1:It's one of again back to the beginning, like decreasing the length of a plateau or time off or whatever that thing is, so little wins and taking small chunks. To me that's like one of the biggest things because I have taken it's like I started to say earlier coming off of that six months of only like I'm to the backstory no one's probably watching the YouTube but lifelong like skinny kid. For me it's like hard to hold weight on. So I'm huge. I've always just wanted to lift weights. We can whole other episode about my body, dysmorphia, inadequacies from teen years. We can dig deeper later. But so if I do this 29029, I lose like 20 pounds of muscle. And then my friends are teasing me, even at the ripe old age of 48, and so for me, like I'm okay, full stop, done with 29029, and I'm like, oh shit, I have to go back to the gym and I haven't lifted in six months, which is a big mistake. Yeah, for the next one. But I'm facing, and it's like the equivalent, like we have clients that maybe they lose 20 pounds, 30 pounds, they put 10 back on and it's that same feeling of oh god, I don't know if I can do this and I've done it enough over this time period where, if you chunk down and if I chunk down to literally a week at the most, if I can just win today, like if you can just win one single day.
Speaker 1:It's so simple Just focus on what's in front of you, get one workout in and feel great about it. Right, don't look at it like as soon as you can shift out of the rear view mirror and into the windshield in this journey. Right, you forget about the fact that I just didn't lift weights for six months. And then I look at the fact that, oh, I have a fresh week. Oh, I got a workout in. I got two workouts in. Oh, I ate all my protein, and that gets fun right on my protein, and that gets fun right, and it just builds, and builds, and builds and then back to the beginning. You've done this before you can do it again. You establish the fact that you can do hard things. You can come back from putting a couple pounds on over the holidays because, in the big picture, as soon as you can manage these speed bumps and turn the roadblocks into speed bumps, you're good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's important to acknowledge the good that you did, and a lot of times, people have this plan and what they'll focus on is well, this is what I didn't do today, and that's where all the brains, your brain space, goes to all of the things you didn't do, like, yeah, well, I may have worked out, but I was really hoping to eat, you know, amazingly for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I only ate amazingly for breakfast and lunch, and now I feel like just constantly living in the negative. And so we talk about the gap and the gain. Most people live in the gap, like all of the things that they don't have, all the things that they didn't do, and I would challenge you I don't know why you're laughing.
Speaker 1:Just hearing you talk like that, like I want to come out of my chair in strangle mode, like that mentality. I know people think like that, but it's so hard. Once you make a full shift into like momentum and belief and optimism, it becomes very hard to hear like to watch someone do something positive. It's like our kids right, you're just kids, right. All of us at the end of the day, like if we can look at ourselves a little bit like that, if your kid did something amazing. It's like they come out of the game. They scored two goals, they worked their ass off, they smiled the whole time and then they got in the car and you're like how was the game? I missed that third goal. I kicked out of the game. You're going to be like bro, seriously, look at yourself that way sometimes, like you can do better, like you've done. Celebrate the good things, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we like to tell people to celebrate, like, just small wins. I think, to me personally, small wins are more impactful because they're most often overlooked and they're never even acknowledged. If you get a promotion at work and that happens once every X amount of years, like, of course it's going to be in your brain, of course you're going to think of it, of course people are going to say congratulations and it's going to be what's talked about. It's going to be like the theme of the day, maybe the week, maybe the month. I think it's really important to celebrate small wins because that's where the momentum builds. You're not going to get a promotion every day, you're not going to get one every week, you're not going to get one every month.
Speaker 2:What little things can you do that you have control over? Number one, but number two, even if you don't have 100% control over? Like, for example, our daughter said something just awesome. She had an awesome response. That's not really in my control, but I counted it as a win that, oh my gosh, instead of her getting her getting negative, she like thought of it in a positive way. It was her doing it, but to me, I counted that as a win, it was just a reinforcement of okay, just keep putting, putting the things out there. They're listening, they're listening? I don't think they're listening, but eventually.
Speaker 1:What was my response? When do you remember?
Speaker 2:Yesterday I don't.
Speaker 1:I think I literally said yep, yep, she's my daughter, I took full credit. So, speaking of these little wins, I'm curious because I think people I don't know, but I do know a little bit people look at you like, oh, olympian, all these things, like what are your? I think people would be surprised at the things that you look at as wins. Right, people would probably think, like you have to celebrate you, like your wins have to be these huge, monumental things to register with you. So, like in a week or in a day, what do you think your wins are?
Speaker 2:So a win for me is working out when I don't want to. That's a huge like when I say that's a huge win. That's probably one of my bigger wins working out even when I don't want to. A win for me is you know I know when I can lift harder and I know when I mail it in and just in like there just to check a box. A win for me is you know what I actually pushed myself. A win for me is I ate exactly what I had planned to eat, something as simple as that. Like my breakfast in the morning is two oikos is that how you say it? Yogurts, I usually have them later in the day, but like that was what I planned for and when I do it I'm like huge win. Making my bed big win Sounds silly. I went a lot of years without making my bed and I know we're all in different seasons of life.
Speaker 1:I'm not kidding.
Speaker 2:You sound like Pigpen, I know Totally.
Speaker 1:But I, just for the record, I made the beds in her absence of making the bed. Is that true?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:No In benefact.
Speaker 2:That's 100% in benefact. We can all relate as parents. There are times when we had little kids and even when we moved here and started our business and making the bed as much as I know now. I'm all about it, but it's a win, it's an absolute win for me. Apologizing when I know that I do something I shouldn't do or have said or have a way I've acted, apologizing, that's a big win for me. I think little to me. I look at the little things as big wins. Going out for a walk, actually, you know what a huge win for me is. I had 15 minutes. I didn't need to do a strength workout because I had already done one. I had 15 minutes and I kind of felt really shitty, like I just, it was just, I just blech and I could have just sat in my office and scrolled on my phone and instead I quickly went and did a 15 minute run and that, to me, is a huge win. Huge Reading before bed Big win. Listening to something, listening to certain podcasts Big win.
Speaker 1:I think sometimes not doing things is a big win, right yeah, aka social media.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Staying off of social media Big win. I'm not insinuating anything, I'm just saying in general, speaking for myself about that Big win. I'm not insinuating anything, I'm just saying in general. I'm speaking for myself about that big win I just outed myself.
Speaker 2:So those are wins. I'm curious, what advice would you give, Like we, we keep talking about taking care of yourself, how important it is. Keep doing the things that you need to do. We have multiple roles as moms. We have multiple roles dads, parents. What advice would you give someone who feels bogged down by their routine and is struggling to find joy in their journey?
Speaker 1:Join the program.
Speaker 2:I think can we normalize that a little bit.
Speaker 1:So people look at you probably and are like oh Must be easy. Never gets down, always on cloud nine, life right. You've developed all these tools where it's just Dave does not think that he knows.
Speaker 2:that's not true, you're just pooping ice cream every day.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Like I think people probably think that I've talked to people that think that it's no different. You have shitty days. I'll testify to that. Everyone does Right, and so I think, normalizing it in terms of everyone having those moments, but at the same time, we're not accepting it, we're not saying that it's okay to get bogged down in like BS Yep, right, because it's not. Everyone has moments.
Speaker 2:But not accepting it.
Speaker 1:Some people move through it and some people choose to focus energy on the on the bad times. Yeah, I love that, not accepting it. So you asked me a question what you had?
Speaker 2:some Well, yeah, what? What would you? What advice would you give someone who feels bogged down by their routine and is struggling to fight?
Speaker 1:join in the journey, one not accepted, I think not accepting it as a great answer Like yeah, it's like almost like there's steps to it, so like one okay, this is normal, I'm not crazy. Yeah, number two, but I'm not crazy, but I'm not going to sit in this.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I think number three is just make simple changes. I think always simplify, right, Like for me. You're about to talk.
Speaker 2:I am. No, this brings me back to I know that story about the Olympics probably seems so out in left field, but it brings me back. It seems so out in left field, but it brings me back. It brings me back to. That's the whole point. Do something different. We always have a choice of what we can do. If you're feeling extremely bogged down by the routine, you have the power to change it. You have the power to do something different. And then it also brings it back to the other point, like do something different and make it small. Make your next step that you know you is good for you small.
Speaker 2:Don't think of okay, fine, I'm starting all over again, and this time for the rest of my life. I'm going to do X, Y, Z. It's too much. It's too much for us to think about. So do something different. We have way more power than we give ourselves credit. We are the only like animal in the animal kingdom that has the ability to imagine multiple outcomes. You're a deer in a forest, you're looking for food and you're running away from predators. There's no like. I wonder how I would like my life to be. We don't give ourselves that credit, but we have the ability to not only imagine different outcomes. I can make a decision right now that changes the outcome of my life. I can make a different decision. So do something different, figure it out. You might have to trial and tweak I hate the words trial and error, Trial doesn't work, fine. Trial and tweak, trial and tweak, trial and tweak, and then chunk it down.
Speaker 1:I was going to say I think getting better. That's when you I think James Clear said it right you fall to the level of your systems. Yes, Like you need to. This is when having mastered the basics helps, because you can always identify the basics and get back to the foundational basic things. So, like I'm just thinking nutrition, right. Like you're shooting for specific calories, right, You've got your macros and your whole thing. Like, for me, I can kind of eyeball it at this point, but when I I like pizza as much as anybody on the planet.
Speaker 2:It's true.
Speaker 1:I can verify that A hundred percent and there are times when I definitely eat myself sick and I don't feel good about the direct like. It might turn into like a week of bad Like, if I know, like right now. Here's an example I know people can relate. Thanksgiving is coming up in a week and we have a vacation, some travel planned. I started to fall off a little bit last week and I'm like eh.
Speaker 1:I got a vacation coming up, I'll just run it through to vacation and then kickstart it after. Then I catch myself and I know that I that I can kind of back everything out to the very basics, and for me that's just getting enough protein every day, like the right sources of protein. So I'm like, all right, I'm just going to get my protein, I'm not going to worry about all the other stuff, I'm just going to do the basic thing. And for fitness it might be something different. Right, it might be okay. I'm just going to get my strength in. I'm not going to do the conditioning, I'm not going to get out and do this. That Again, for me everyone's different. When that happens in my training, it's I'm just going to get my complex lifted, I'm just going to deadlift, I'm going to press and I'm going to pull and I feel great about it. Like I don't need to do all the auxiliary stuff or the, all the extras of the, the dessert things, right, Like get the basics in.
Speaker 2:But remember doing those little things during the times you don't want to, when you do feel bogged down or you're like, oh, this is, you know, I have to do do this again. We always think of it like a link. Think of it like a chain link. The goal is just to keep the chain link going, because you're going to roll around to the spot where you do have more energy and you're excited about your lifting. Again. It's how can you bridge that gap, like we talked about? So the plateau shortens right. Like how can we keep the links going, even if it's with the most simple steps, even with those most simple, you know, parts of your day? The last thing I'd say, too, is find yourself a community.
Speaker 1:That's helpful.
Speaker 2:That's helpful, just being, you know.
Speaker 1:Yes, we take that for granted, for sure I'm going to say this in every episode.
Speaker 2:And environment is the invisible hand that shapes you. I just can't tell you. When you're around people doing the things right James Clear talks about this in his book it's. When you're around jazz lovers, you think listening to jazz every day is normal. When you're around people who are fitness-minded and taking care of themselves, that becomes your normal. When you're around people who do things even though they don't want to, but they know they should and it's good for them and it's helping them reach their goals then all of a sudden you find yourself doing it anyway because that's who you're around. So don't ever underestimate the value and the importance, and almost I think of it like the momentum that's rolling towards you when you don't have it yourself, is the community that you're around.
Speaker 1:Also, be aware of environments that are reinforcing behaviors that you know aren't healthy for you. It's very hard to sometimes pull away from those or be aware.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dig it All right. So really it's building that mental resilience and understanding that fitness is, it's physical, a hundred percent, but you also need the mental, because you're going to come to plateaus physically and you're going to have to mentally get yourself through those. And same thing, if you only work on your mental, your mental strength, like you're missing a huge component with your body and your physical strength. They play hand in hand. And when one is on, you know, say you wake up or you move a trampoline and can't move very well for a week, you still have the ability to work on your mental strength. That still allows you to grow. It's not like you're mail it in and say, okay, well, fine, I'll just, you know, pick back up on my life and and trying to feel great in a week from now, like you still have things that you can do. So they really do go hand in hand.
Speaker 1:It's like the two oars right In the rowboat. If you're only one's mental and emotional and the other oar is a physical If you're only rowing one, you're going in a circle right, you'll be moving, but you're going in a pull them both at the same time. Yeah totally the other one. Choose the right path, don't don't fly into the storm or don't sail into the storm, right, yep, enjoy.
Speaker 1:So really, you're just saying Set yourself up for success, set your environment, choose things that you that are positive and push you in the right direction, but they're also fun for you.
Speaker 2:Yep, embrace that journey we're going to be on it for a long time and find a community that supports you.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:Strong Mom. If you want to know where to find our Strong Mom community and you are a mom you can find us on Facebook. We have a private Facebook group. It's called Strong Mom Physical, mental and Emotional Mastery.
Speaker 1:Check out one of our five-day challenges as well. Follow Lauren on Instagram.
Speaker 2:At Lauren Regula and you can follow Dave on Instagram. At Lauren Regula and you can follow Dave on Instagram.
Speaker 1:At Dave Regula, I'm not as exciting on Instagram as you are.
Speaker 2:You need to be.
Speaker 1:If you want to follow somebody, that's just going to tease Lauren 100% and fool around, follow me. If you actually want to get better, follow Lauren, okay.
Speaker 2:All right, thanks for hanging with us and we'll see you next time. All right, thanks for hanging with us and we'll see you next time. All right.