Latest / The Bridges and Beacons Podcast / Women's Health and Empowerment with Stephanie White

Transcript

Women's Health and Empowerment with Stephanie White · The Bridges and Beacons Podcast

• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Mystic Nerd Squad podcast.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: You guys, I'm so excited.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm laughing because just before coming live, um my guest dog in the background, who we were discussing is quite needy, um, is letting it be known that he is feeling needy at the moment and his mom is not paying attention to him.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Very unhappy.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: He's very unhappy.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: So what I said was this is real life.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: This is like real people, real lives.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: If you're tuning in and you have a real life and real life things happening in your background, you're in the right place.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: So today, everybody, I am I'm so excited.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: Today on my show, I have one of my favorite people in the whole world.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: Her name is Stephanie Marsden White.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: We grew up together.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: We happened to have parents who were, as we call them, the womb mates.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Her mom and my dad are twins.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: So we are cousins.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: We have grown up together.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I was thinking about this before coming on.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: We had sort of had like the idyllic childhood where like literally weekends over weekends, together as cousins, six of us like just grew up together, spent a lot of time together.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: So having you on my show today is like it's like we're playing with the Fisher Price um little tape recorder and recording, except we're in our 40s now.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: We're almost 40 for Stephanie.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: And will there be choreographed dances for this?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: Or absolutely not so backyard.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're watching this, uh look forward to our choreographed dance at the very end of the show.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: So Stephanie hope I sign up for that.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: Stephanie, welcome.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for coming on the show with me.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you so much for having me, Kelly.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's an honor to be here and just to be able to talk to you.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, to everyone else.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: And to everyone else.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: So this is a first for Stephanie.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I told her, I said, I promise by the end you're gonna be so excited, love this, and want to do it all over again.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but for those of you who uh don't know, uh Stephanie is very into women's health and empowerment.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's why we called this episode that.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I really wanted to talk to her and wanted her to share her personal health journey.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: I am so inspired by her.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: The the challenges that she's overcome and the commitment that she's made to her health and well-being in the face of all the other things going on in life has always impressed me.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so I would love for you to start and just share a little bit about your health journey.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: That was very sweet.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so my health journey really started back in 2015.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: My son was born in 2014, and I had never really been a health person.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I was, you know, before having my son and in college and as a younger person, I thought I was healthy.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of ate what I thought was healthy, um, worked out here and there with friends, but was never really someone that loved being in the gym, loved working out.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: I just kind of did it because I thought that I had to or that I should do it.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I never had that intrinsic motivation to just go to the gym and do it for myself.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: So after my son was born, I went on a vacation and I felt horrible the whole time.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew right then that I needed to make a change because I couldn't, I didn't want to go on another family vacation and feel awful.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: And it's I feel kind of cliche now because I feel like we see this so much in the health and wellness world, you know, the story of the person that looks in that one photo or is sick of seeing themselves in those photos, and that's when they change.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: But that really is truly part of my story.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and at that time, Beach Body, I feel like was kind of really out there, really on Facebook, and I saw it a lot in my feed.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I had kind of noticed it, and I have a few had a few friends that were doing a program that looked interesting.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I got home from that trip, I just said, you know what, I'm gonna buy it and I'm gonna do it.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I at that time was staying at home with my son.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I started doing a program called the 21-day fix, and it was the perfect for me starter for my journey because it was 30-minute workouts, seven days a week, and it was a mixture of everything from weightlifting to cardio to yoga and Pilates.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it really, if there was one workout you didn't like, you just kind of could get through it knowing that maybe the next day you would like it a little bit more, and it was quick enough that even if you were hating every minute of it, you knew that you could just do it for 30 minutes.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the trainer was so motivating, and that's she would constantly say that you can do anything for a half an hour, you can do anything for 60 seconds, let's go.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the great thing about that program is it also helped put you on a path with nutrition and really taught you about portion control and cleaner eating, and so that really kicked off my journey.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: And the whole kind of um goal of that program, it's only three weeks long, and so you see results really quickly, and it motivated me to keep going.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that, like I said, was in 2015, and I lost do I did that program and I lost 30 pounds.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um probably in the span of three or four months doing that, and then just have continued from there.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I've tried different things along the way.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And one of my main goals for myself is to never get bored.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm constantly trying new programs, and then the past year I've tried new classes and getting back out in the group fitness world, which I've never done before.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: Hmm.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: So that's awesome.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: I I love that you were so honest about the fact that like it wasn't like you were like, I'd want to get fit and feel good, but you were like, I do not like the way I'm looking.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's so relatable.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's how so many of us feel.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I think there's sort of either the like all the focus on how you look or none of the focus on how you look, and it's just about the fitness.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that's such an important part of the journey because what really happens is you don't recognize yourself, right?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, who is this person?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I I know I our our sons also happen to be just a couple months apart, so it's very funny.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: So we were pregnant at the same time.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I know I just felt like not like myself for such a long time after having a baby.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know if part of that is the high pressure from society and from ourselves to be perfect moms, and it just doesn't exist, you know.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's hard for me because you definitely, as a mom, you I I definitely felt that I lost myself um trying to find my way, not only as a young, you know, a new mom, I was still fairly newly married at that time too.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So still finding my way as a wife.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I I feel like even though I was in my early 30s, I was still trying to figure out who I was just me.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I don't even know that I had that figured out.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm not saying I still do, but I'm like even I'm about to turn 40 next month, I'm still evolving as a person.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I feel more okay with that now, and knowing that my evolution is continuing and I'm continuing to grow.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: I actually love that part.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and knowing that I have I'm not the same person that I was last year or 10 years ago.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I I feel like that's a great asset.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that to me, um, I think my fitness journey really inspired that because I saw that not only can I grow as an athlete and uh push my and push my body to places that I never thought, I'm also doing it with my mind as well.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And like it became this holistic practice that I never would have thought, you know, if I go back to myself in 2015 and you had told me that I never would have thought that that's where I would end up.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, it really was that finding myself and it really has come through fitness in a lot of ways.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I never I never would have called myself an athlete even a year ago.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: And now I can say that I do feel closer to that athlete title.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: And like it just, you know, I'm like I said, I'm almost 40.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: I never thought I would be doing some of the things that I can do now.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's yeah, it's finding that identity after motherhood and all the pressures that come with that, like you said.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's especially in such a social media fueled world, I feel like, and in parenting in a pandemic, we have so many different pressures that weren't on moms, you know, 20, 30 years ago when we were kids.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: We were running around with the Fisher Price microphone in the backyard.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I I think too, you know, to that point, when we were when we were kids, we had these big family support systems and you know, happened to be close to each other.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: So our parents had each other.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: Not, you know, I I thought they thought that it was nice for us to play together, but I think it was that they had each other, they had each other's like support to be raising families together so much easier than doing it in isolation.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: So considering that, how how did you stay on your health journey in the midst of a pandemic, trying to work and be home and do all the things?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna be really upfront and honest that my my fitness journey has never been a straight line.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I am not one of those people and I'm still not, you know, I'm I'm the fittest I've ever been, but I don't have six-pack abs.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, all these things that you might think like, oh, when somebody's been working out for seven years and they eat healthy and you know, they're into fitness and they now are running, you know, I I am not that person.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: My fitness journey has, like I said, it's not been a straight line.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: I have days that I eat really healthy, and then I've had months where my coach from Beach Body was texting me and I'm down in goldfish, you know, like so during the pandemic, you know, the stress obviously played in, but I was lucky enough that at that point in my journey, I was already on a consistent path.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I've always said, and what I've said when um if people ask me, you know, what's the key to getting into working out, it's it really is that discipline, the consistency and getting in the habit of daily or a couple of times a week, whatever is gonna fit for you, then the discipline overrides everything else.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's just it becomes a part of who, you know, who you are and what you do.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, at least it did for me.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: So during the pandemic, um, you know, I was lucky enough to have Beachbody, um, which is a home whole home workouts, and I had all my weights and everything I already needed.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I was very lucky in that because I know during the pandemic a lot of people couldn't get weights because I was trying to get different at that point, and they were non-existent.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but Beachbody was great because it's it's the they call it the Netflix of home workouts, and you just go to your TV and push play, and there's a plethora of different workout programs.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: And at that time, they had just released one that was um a hundred days long, and I decided to do that during the pandemic.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I did it, I ended up doing it twice in the um pandemic year.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but again, it was 30 minutes a day and you know, very doable.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then it made it easier to just get it in either in the morning or if I had a lunch break, and luckily, you know, I would either have Gavin, my son, work out with me or um he would be doing his schoolwork and I'd get it in that way.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I know I always I say the thing like people say ask me, like, how do you get it in?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I say the thing that people don't want to hear.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: I get up really early, yeah, most of the time.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now back in quote unquote normal life, um I get up at 4 30 sometimes, 5 a.m.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: to get a morning workout in if that's what I need to do.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, and it's not fun.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: I get made like a lot of my friends will call me at 9 30 and they wonder why I don't answer the phone or sleeping.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Already sleep, sorry.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that though.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I I think it's really impressive that you know, so many parts of being in a pandemic and being locked down, being stuck home gave us the out and excuses to fall back on patterns that were less healthy.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: And you said, instead, I'm gonna give myself a hundred-day challenge.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I really love that.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: But I think another piece to that is mindset, and that's something else that you've been really working on for yourself.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: So tell me about your mindset journey, you know, because that's a nice other piece to the physical journey and physically becoming healthy and well.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: But how did you change your mindset?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: So the mindset piece for me, like you said, that really only started, I think it's trickled in, it's been there all along, but it really has been something that I've tried to focus on in the last year, especially.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that was one of the great things about that you get encouraged to do through um the fitness community that I was in.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: They encourage a lot of self-development, um, personal development reading.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I started doing that.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that was kind of the gateway to it.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, reading a lot of books.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like I remember I read You Are a Badass, and that one really helped me change my mindset, really helped me to go from that place of, you know, this is happening to me, and I can't control it, but I can control myself and how I'm reacting to it and the stress that I allow it to cause me.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because before I, you know, and I still have this tendency, but I can get very stressed out and let it overwhelm me.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I do try to constantly remind myself that I'm I'm the one in control of how I'm reacting.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: I may not be able to control what's happening around me, but I can control what I'm doing.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: I can make the choice of what I'm gonna do with whatever is happening.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that shifted into the last year I started really getting into meditation.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: And meditation was something, again, I kind of kind of like my fitness journey, I dabbled in it in college.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: I had taken a Tai Chi class in college during my senior year, and the professor taught us how to meditate.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it's something I've known how to do all along and kind of again had the conscious of like I should meditate every day.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: This looks good for me, but never made it a priority until this last year.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: And um it really has changed my not only the way I'm able to stay calm or calm myself down in moments of extreme stress, um, but I really do when I'm meditating a lot, and I experienced this this last year because I was making a change at work and really trying to focus on getting a new job, and I was listening to affirmations and doing a meditation as well.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I I started really hearing things through the universe, but also through myself.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: I also acknowledge that a lot of the times it's me telling myself these things, well, even though it feels like it's coming from somewhere else, it's things I'm now able to really hear, whereas I think before everything else was blocking them out.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I've again I the it's gonna sound like a plug for Beach Body, but it really isn't Beach Body.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: They it's just great because they've now also gone in gotten into the meditation space.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: So they had a whole program release that's 21 days of meditation, 10 minutes at a time.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I was using those, and then I found a different app called Insight Timer that I use to meditate.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um so just making again making that a priority and that again same thing people probably don't want to hear, but I get up when I get up, the first thing I do is I put in my headphones.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even get out of bed, I put in my headphones and I try to do at least a five to ten minute meditation before my feet even hit the floor.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I can tell now on days that I don't do that, I I feel it.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: So again, it's that discipline kicking in, knowing that I'm gonna feel better if I do this, and my day is gonna feel calmer if I do this.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I totally relate.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's a huge difference in the way that my days turn out if I've given myself that time and if I hadn't.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, that's really it's really impressive to me that you were able to make that shift.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, for some people, jumping in, taking on the discipline right away.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've known you your whole life.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I think you've always been really good at discipline, and like that's probably a strength that you have, like, I'm gonna do this and I do it, you know.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: And some people it's not as easy a process as that.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: But it's really impressive the way that you've stuck with it and allowed it to expand your mind.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: I really resonate with what you said about you know, using affirmations, using meditation, and then in times of stress, all of a sudden this voice comes in, and like you said, it's me or it's the universe, I don't know, but it's it's a positive voice instead of the noise that would have been there in the past.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right, absolutely.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think the most empowering thing, you know, for for women, it's it's really taking control, especially right now with what's going on with the Supreme Court decision and everything that recently happened, and that's why I wore my descent collar.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um I love that you showed up with a descent collar.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I gotta bring Ruth in.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Bring her in.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, it's one of the most empowering things to me that you can do as a woman in this time is take control of your health and whatever that looks like for you.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, my journey doesn't I'm I'm in the middle of my journey.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, no, I don't want anybody to compare themselves if they're just thinking about starting out, like you're at the beginning.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Let's like, let's talk about what that looked like for me back then, and then we can figure out what's gonna look that's gonna look like for you.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I have people come up to me and ask how to get started.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: One of the first things I ask is, are you drinking enough water?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: What's your sleep like?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start there.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: How much sugar are you eating?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe think think about those three things and take one or two if you feel like that's manageable.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if you do a week or two of that, then let's talk about what else we can add in.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: It is some people it could be overwhelming to do the nutrition, the exercise, the water, the meditation, all of it.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's overwhelming for me sometimes.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Again, like my I'm not perfect.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: There are days that I don't get my meditations in, you know.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's um but so it's picking those things that you feel like might be manageable in your own life at this moment, still in like, you know, all of these things going on in you know, your own personal life, I'm sure, in the country that might be upsetting you, you have to pick something that you feel is gonna be manageable for you.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that's more water, getting trying to get a half hour more of sleep a night, you know, these little steps, even though they you may not see huge progress at first, they're gonna, they could be the gateway for you, like Beach Body was for me in 2015.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I I think what I'm hearing from you is that these are the different pieces that you picked, but your your overall health and well-being, your mental health has improved your sense of comfort within your own skin, your ability to have the messages happening in your mind be overall positive versus ones that are making you feel less about yourself.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: So it's the it's the accumulation of.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: Time and I I also love that you're talking about the beginner's journey and that you know we can get so judgmental of ourselves and compare ourselves, like you said to people, you're you're in year seven, you know, so somebody's day one is gonna look different from your year seven.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's that's okay.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I definitely second the motion of like drink the water, get the sleep.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: People are people are like plants with more complicated emotions, like you have to feed and you know give sunlight, those kinds of things.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I I I think not comparing yourself, you know, comparison is the thief of joy, as they say, which is so true, but not comparing your journey to anybody else's and not comparing, you know, your body to somebody else, you know, bodies are different.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's gonna look different on different stages of their journey.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, age can be a factor.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: So all of these things have to, you have to take them into consideration.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and but making that choice for you is where you should start.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's about you and what you feel like is gonna be manageable for you.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and being kind to yourself on the journey.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, because like you said, it's impossible to be perfect, right?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's impossible.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's always about progress over perfection for me.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's been a motto of mine from the from day one.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's I'm never gonna be perfect and I don't want to be.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna continue to learn and seek knowledge where I feel like I need to seek it and try new things and listen to my body along the way as best I can.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I know you've become really good at that, you know, and giving yourself rest when you need to.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to say too, I think that part of what's made you so successful is you've been always really good at reinventing yourself.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: So so I I was thinking just earlier, like you've done everything from marine studies to recreational therapy.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you're like the the ever-in-school woman, which is wonderful because I'm I'm like a lifelong learner myself.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: So where has your journey with reinventing yourself, where have you found yourself now?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: So now I'm on, I don't know what career number this is, but 5,621.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's call it maybe three major career.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I was a rec therapist.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: I went to Clemson and got my master's in rec therapy.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I worked as a rec therapist for nine years, six years, six years, nine years, I can't remember.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, at the Shepherd Center here in Atlanta, working with people with traumatic brain injuries.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I've always wanted to work with people in different special population groups.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's always been a calling of mine.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's so funny because you bring up marine therapy.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's easy to forget all these things that I've done.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was talking to my mom and her boyfriend the other day about scuba diving, and I was like, oh yeah, I did that like feels like a lifetime ago.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was advanced open water certified.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: I've forgotten about that.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um but so I've I did many years ago an internship with um a place called Island Dolphin Care, and they do dolphin assisted therapy for children that have different special needs, and that really opened me up to the world of autism.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: That was the first time I had ever worked with a child with autism before, and this was back in 2005.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and six years ago, I had the opportunity to transition into the public school, and I worked as a pair pro for six years, and this year, starting this coming Monday, I am now gonna be a lead teacher in an autism classroom.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: So starting again a new career at 40.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um slightly terrifying, but also exciting.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm trying to give myself credit for, like you said, that that reinvention, because I think just like everything else, it's really easy to get complacent and get stuck and stay where you're comfortable.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I I'm lucky that I get to kind of stay where I'm comfortable because I'm still at my same school that I've been at for six years, and um I get that comfort advantage, um, but I'm still pushing myself as far as you know, becoming the lead and being the one in charge of teaching these young minds and um these beautiful people that have these neurodivergent minds.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I feel very lucky to have the opportunity and trying not to let the fear get in too much.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, don't let the fear get in.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: One thing I have um one thing I wrote a mantra recently with um I'm also a big advocate because I have a degree in psychology.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a big advocate of therapy, so I've been in therapy for a while.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and my therapist, you know, she asked me, she said, Why are you so scared?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: You deserve this.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: You worked hard.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Look at all these things you've done.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Look at all the hard things you've already done.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: You got this.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Okay, you're right.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I need to remember that I've already done a lot of hard things, and I can continue to do hard things.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I wrote a mantra for myself that has I'm trying to make it a daily affirmation that I say to myself in my meditation somewhere.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that's another thing that I've tried to incorporate to help that mindset.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you really get that in your brain, so it's what your brain remembers and hangs on to that you are a capable, empowered, powerful person.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: And you are.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, you are so much so.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're only scratching the surface of the challenges and the things that you've been through in your recent health journey, let alone your life, your career.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um, I'm continuously impressed by the challenges that you've overcome and just risen so beautifully above.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I think this is just gonna be another area in which you shine.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I believe the children that you're gonna be working with and their families are just so lucky to have someone who truly cares and is excited to be working with a neurodivergent population.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely got goosebumps when you said neurodivergent because I am also, you know, um so in support of helping um neurodivergent populations um succeed and have a full and very joyful life despite any of the challenges coming their way.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's one of the things I said in a meeting I was in yesterday.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's just um it's always been frustrated, frustrating to me that you know, unfortunately, these people and children get treated like they're less capable of having full lives and they're completely capable of having them, and they just need the right support and the right people to have their back.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that's my hope and my goal is to be that first for them more than anything else.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think anybody can have independence and find joy, and it might just look different from you know, somebody else, and that's okay.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, back to the fitness journey.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: And it's people's journeys are different, and that's okay.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: But we can all find that common thread that is gonna bring us together and that we can share and help each other and have each other's backs.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's again, you know, what's unfortunately been missing for a while in the in this country and what we need to get back to.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's that village and having the support of your community and the people around you.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, I'm I'm rallying right behind you.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm marching with my sign right behind you because whatever you're into, Stephanie, I'm supporting you because that sounds amazing and so positive and so wonderful.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, we are lucky enough to have our small village, although we're not in the same area, not within an hour's drive like when we were growing up.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but the time that we do have together and growing our families together and you know, learning how to be great parents and great individuals at the same time is just it's really special.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it so much.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: So if you have enjoyed hearing any small part of Stephanie's story, and I told you it is it is more amazing than she's letting it on to be, um, we will have in the show notes the ways which you can follow more of Stephanie's journey and connect with her on social media.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um and she has graciously agreed that if you are struggling in your fitness journey and you're looking for some sort of inspiration or help, she is your woman and she would love to talk to you.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: You can send her a message, connect with her on social media.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I will vouch for her that she is an incredibly supportive and wonderful person.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I've known her her whole life, so who knows better.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: So, oh my gosh.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: Any final words of wisdom for the listeners and viewers, Steph?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um just I think it's all about our choices.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Should we connect, allow people to connect with my dog too?
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's continued to work with us.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's Willis.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: He's he doesn't have a social media, but maybe I should start one.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um totally made me lose my train of thought now.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think it's just it's if you're in that place where you're uncomfortable, whether it's in your own head, in your body, in your skin, whatever it may look like, remember that it's your choice.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you it everything is hard right now.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is hard.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, work may feel hard, parenting may feel hard, just life feels hard with everything going on.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you gotta choose your heart.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to be not uncomfortable in your skin.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to be that stressed out person all the time.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's really hard.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe choose the other hard and start there.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's all have that great choice.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: Every day is a choice.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, it's it's all about your ability to make that choice and knowing that you can do hard things.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: We all can do hard things, and we've been doing them.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we can.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just choosing your choose your hard.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: Choose your hard.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: I like it.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: I like it.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: So on that note, I'm gonna thank Stephanie for her time and uh friendship and sisterhood.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, I hope that you all go check out what she's up to and definitely check out her travel picks and videos because she travels like no other.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: All right, my friends, thank you for joining us.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: And if you have a topic of interest you would like to hear about on the show, please feel free to reach out to me.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and stay tuned for more exciting news coming soon for the Mystic Nerd Squad podcast.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: Take care, everybody.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Kelly.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: You're welcome.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: Bye.