Latest / The Bridges and Beacons Podcast / Sustainable Health with Morgan Ekovich

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Sustainable Health with Morgan Ekovich · The Bridges and Beacons Podcast

0:39
SPEAKER_00: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Mystic Nerd Squad Podcast.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Kelly Meyerson, joined today by my very good friend Morgan Ekovich.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm most excited about for you, listener or viewer, is that by the end of this episode, you are going to feel motivated to either tackle your nutrition, your fitness, or both, especially if you are a busy woman or mother, because Morgan is an expert at helping you to tackle your fitness and nutrition goals and do so in a way that helps you feel successful, feel excited about it, and take something like exercise that I don't know about you, listener, but I personally had a bad relationship with exercise up until January 2025.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you, as a spoiler alert, Morgan has helped me heal that quite a bit.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: And I'm totally appreciative.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: So, Morgan, thank you for joining me.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to be a guest today.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: And I know it's been so much fun to work with you in a different capacity these last couple months and just see the evolution and how strength training and that was one mindset and where you are now in really such a short amount of time.
2:09
SPEAKER_01: Because what is this?
2:10
SPEAKER_01: So like February?
2:11
SPEAKER_01: So it really hasn't been that long, but you've had some awesome improvements.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: And we will tell you more about how you can work with Morgan and figure out what her magical skills are.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: But before we get to that in a little bit, I really want to start, Morgan.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, one of the things that fascinates me about you is your background and your history.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: So take me back a little bit.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: What originally inspired you to help other women with their fitness?
2:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: So I went to Central Michigan University here in Michigan and I went to college anticipating and had all this thought of I was gonna be a bi, I was gonna be a dietitian.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: And then for anybody who has kids in that realm, there's a lot of bio and a lot of chemistry involved in that.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: And I'm a kinesthetic learner, and I was like, I mean, sit there book work, trying to get through that.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: Like once we got to the hands-on portion, it would have been great, but that was just not the route that I wanted.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: So I ended up getting an exercise science degree from Central with a nutrition minor and a public health minor.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: So with the intention of working in corporate wellness, working with clients.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Awesome part is we did a 16-week internship where I worked with small group training as well as large group.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: So I really got to dip my toes into what did I want to do?
3:42
SPEAKER_01: What do I want to do on the day-to-day?
3:44
SPEAKER_01: Do I want to do the same thing with every single group back to back?
3:47
SPEAKER_01: Did I want to work one-on-one with clients and have it be a different client and experience every hour?
3:53
SPEAKER_01: Like, what did I want that to look like?
3:55
SPEAKER_01: So I ended up, I ended up not following through with a job offer I got from my internship.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: I chose a different gym in my area and I just went into personal training and I loved it because I worked with anyone from 18-year-old in college to 84-year-olds that were post-stroke to that mom or that dad, somewhere in between.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: That's just like, I need somebody to tell me what to do and kind of kick my butt.
4:24
SPEAKER_01: And it was awesome because not every hour was the same.
4:29
SPEAKER_01: And I'm somebody who's always had a multitude of jobs.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: My hands are always in a bunch of things.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: So to do the same thing every hour, I knew wasn't gonna work.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: So fast forward, I was laid off during COVID.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think I was 26 at the time, 25, 26.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: I forget what year it is.
4:48
SPEAKER_01: Um and I all of a sudden went to that's not acceptable, and which is crazy because it's not like it was in my control.
4:57
SPEAKER_01: Um, so we got the approval that if where I was working was no longer able to provide the services, I could provide the services.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: So moved my clients online, those who wanted to continue.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: And that's when I started to notice some of the gaps in training when you work with a personal trainer that I could fill by being an online coach.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: I could fill the gaps of us talking about your schedule, about meal prepping, about just having overall stress, our sleep.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: Because when I was seeing those clients one-on-one every week, training was great.
5:32
SPEAKER_01: We were excelling, but all the other areas of your our life, we were essentially having the same conversations over and over and over because there was no room for me to step in and kind of help guide them along the way, other than that one hour we were together.
5:47
SPEAKER_01: So moved to there, started get fit with me, online personal training, nutrition, and accountability coaching.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: Um, people hold people accountable, and that's what I do is yes, we have technology that helps track our data, but I'm holding you accountable.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: It's not this AI generated thing.
6:04
SPEAKER_01: And that's really what I think makes me different than a lot of coaches is I also don't mass sell my programs because I want to know the people I'm working with.
6:14
SPEAKER_01: I want to build that relationship before we sit down and say, hey, do you want to work together?
6:19
SPEAKER_01: Like I think we would, I think I can help you here, but I want to build that relationship.
6:23
SPEAKER_01: I want to know about your family, I want to know about your animals, I want to know everything so that you feel like you are being cared for and taken care of.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: And I think that is so important.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: So I love that you did the the COVID pivot, which so many women entrepreneurs were able to do.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: And it's so interesting because um I feel like so many of us really survived during COVID that we took the opportunity to experience things in a different way, to be curious about well, how could I do this and how can I capitalize on this?
7:05
SPEAKER_00: And where are the positives for that?
7:07
SPEAKER_00: So I love that you found the positives looking at that whole picture of a person.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, I know that was one of the things when we started working together, and um, I said, listen, Morgan, we've been talking for a while.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: I feel like you could help me with my fitness goals.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: And one of the first questions you asked me was Um, what I like to do.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: How did I like to move my body?
7:35
SPEAKER_00: And what are the biggest struggles that you're experiencing with fitness now?
7:40
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, I was like, well, I love hiking, I love getting out in the woods.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And you said, Well, wouldn't it be great to be able to do more challenging trails to feel like you could move through a really challenging pathway and feel like your body could handle it?
7:59
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yeah, that would be cool.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: That'd be really cool.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: So I love that you found that individualized piece that really tied into one, what would be motivating for me, and two, how I could look at fitness in a different way and not like exercise like it's gym class, you have to fulfill the requirements and pass to be able to graduate high school, right?
8:26
SPEAKER_01: We're not there anymore, and that was a wild act for us, but I feel like I was still mentally stuck there and to get stuck there, and it's easy because we we all get trapped into social media and it all is right now the biggest craze is I'm a huge promoter of strength training, but it's going and lifting really heavy barbells.
8:51
SPEAKER_01: But if that's not where you're at, it can be intimidating to take that first step of I need to first start lifting the fur the one to two pounders.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: I need to start being able to just do a bodyweight squat.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: So there's so much that just comes at us, whether it's TV or social media or on our computers, that it's really hard to be like, Well, I'm not there, I can't be there.
9:13
SPEAKER_01: I have a client who just started doing cardio drumming and she absolutely loves it.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: She's like, I'm doing it twice a week.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: Next time they have another session, she goes, It's great because yeah, I'm still doing my strength training, but I'm with people.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: Like, people want to be with people now.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: So if we can find a way for you to build strength on your own, so that when you go and do these community activities like hiking or cardio drumming or going mall walking, a lot of people mall walk here in Michigan because it is so cold this time of the year.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: That like, can we pair those together so something doesn't seem so terrible?
9:49
SPEAKER_01: Because fitness is just about moving your body in a way that you enjoy.
9:53
SPEAKER_01: That, yeah, it doesn't in the in the beginning, I don't want to do it.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: But at the end, there's so many benefits that eat once you get going for five minutes.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: If you can convince yourself to do that one round, it changes everything.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: You're like, okay, I'll do two more.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: I got this.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Like, it's just crazy what exercise does for our brains and our bodies.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: Totally agreed.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: And you also changed my mind about feeling like I just have zero idea where this is gonna fit in.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't feel when we were talking about it that you you were like gonna try and trick me somehow.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Like be like, no, no, no, you can work out five times a week for 30 minutes a day.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna figure this out for you.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: You were like, how about like two 15-minute sessions a week, one strength training and one some type of cardio?
10:45
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I never thought about doing that.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: Like, I think I was stuck in the mindset of like, if I do this, like I gotta I I've tried like the boot camp classes and stuff, and like 45 minutes of like intense exercise when you're not somebody who has been doing that, you don't feel great doing it or after.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't get all that release of endorphins.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: I felt like I think I'm gonna be ill.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is just too much for me.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: But the idea of being able to capitalize on what I already had in place, which I think is another piece that was very effective for me.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: And knowing, like, I already have a rowing machine, I have some weights, we have some adjustable weights, I have a mat.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, if I can just start with what I already have, the investment is just a fraction of time.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can do that.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: What feels possible, you know?
11:39
SPEAKER_00: And I and I'm so appreciative of you of taking that approach.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: So, where do you learn that approach?
11:46
SPEAKER_00: Is that something that you came up with on your own?
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Is this like experimenting time over time?
11:53
SPEAKER_01: That's a great question.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: So I think a lot of it's been experimental for me.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: I in high school, I did the go to the gym before school, go to the gym after school.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: As soon as I stopped playing team sports, I eventually got tired of the politics involved in team sports.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I want to find something that I enjoy.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: So me and a few of my girlfriends ran our first 25K.
12:15
SPEAKER_01: We ran a half marathon, um, and we got into running.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: But I also started to know that just because you run doesn't mean you're strong, that you would need and running is a forward motion.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: There's so many other angles that we need to build strength on.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: And I noticed when I started strength training, I was getting stronger, but I couldn't find that balance between what was too much, what wasn't enough.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: And then you go to college and nobody wants the freshman 15.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: I bought my first Fitbit and I just focused on steps and I started to really like micromanage my food because I was trying to control what I could.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, I did the My FitnessPal.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: I've done just about everything when it comes to the exercise and the diet realm.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: And then I learned like none of that is sustainable.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: And like my just because this semester looks this way doesn't mean summer or the following semester is going to look the same way.
13:08
SPEAKER_01: So essentially I'm having to rebuild the system every 16 weeks, which if you have all the time in the world and you have the brain power, great.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't, it's really goes back to the foundation of what are we currently doing?
13:24
SPEAKER_01: So creating a baseline of because a lot of times we like to convince ourselves we're not doing anything.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: It's not true.
13:30
SPEAKER_01: We we are drinking some water.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: I can guarantee you're having a sip of water.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: It may not be what you should be having, but you're drinking some quantity.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: We start there and we build on it.
13:40
SPEAKER_01: I like to call it microhabits.
13:42
SPEAKER_01: So we build microhabits in your life.
13:45
SPEAKER_01: And just like we're doing with your exercise is okay, what do we have?
13:50
SPEAKER_01: What time in this stage or season do you actually have available?
13:55
SPEAKER_01: And you've got older, you have an older son now instead of a baby when he was young, totally different.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: On you may not even you may have one time for 10 minutes is all you have.
14:09
SPEAKER_01: Whereas now you have a little bit more flexibility.
14:12
SPEAKER_01: So really being aware of where you are in your stage and focusing on the basics and knowing that even if it's not your main focus, you're still doing it, you're still moving.
14:25
SPEAKER_01: Just because you're not going and walking on the treadmill doesn't mean you're walking around your house maybe a little bit more.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: Is acknowledge where you're at.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I love that.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: I I have a favorite quote that I say, and it's meet yourself where you are.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: So when we get so hard on ourselves and we're like, I I should be, I should be doing this.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, we should on ourselves, should be doing this, it should be, I should have figured this out by now.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: 48 years old, and I still can't figure out how to fit exercise into my very busy life, you know.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: Instead of that, recognizing, but here's where I'm already getting it right.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: And here are the, like you said, the habits that are already working for me.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: And this is just one little piece of the puzzle.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: So I think that also made me acknowledge like you're actually doing a great job.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: We're just looking to refine this.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: And I also think my mindset is different.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: When I was younger, unfortunately, I'm from very much the generation of like skinny equals healthy.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I so wish that a lot of the mindsets that are around now were around when I was younger because working out was about staying thin versus being strong.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: And now that I'm 48, I'm like, as I get older, like being strong is a priority.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: I want to keep moving and doing and being able to have a physically active life into my 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be someone who becomes sedentary not by choice, but by design.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: So I think that was also a great mindset shift with you looking at longevity and strength.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: And this is a different approach than I felt like fitness has been for, you know, the past four decades of my life.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: And I'd agree with that.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: When I was in school, it was the track my fitness pal, eat as least amount of calories as possible.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't until I started, and also it's you got to remember it's who we surround ourselves with.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't until I started surrounding myself with the people who went who the the bodybuilders.
16:48
SPEAKER_01: Yes, the bodybuilders were getting small, but it was pure muscle.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: Once you start surrounding, once I started surrounding myself with different people, not because who I was was a bad group of people, we just have different mindsets around wait, how we were grow, how, how we've grown up and what was our priority to them.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: I had friends who priority was going out on Tuesday night.
17:11
SPEAKER_01: I had priorities, such as myself, towards the end, that was like, I work in the morning, we are going to bed at nine o'clock.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Like base, we just have to look at our priorities in the stages of life.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: And the I love the quote that says, the best time to plant a tree was yesterday.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: The next best time is today.
17:31
SPEAKER_01: So I have a client, she's 86, she's post-stroke, um, 12, 13 years.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: Um, she just had a fall.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: She's been in rehab because she broke her arm.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: Um, just random.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: She just like turned the wrong way.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: But she goes, I didn't try to catch myself.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: Whereas if I would have tried to catch myself, I would have probably done more damage.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: Like I literally just turned to move the washer to the dryer and I slipped.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, if I wouldn't have been doing strength training, I wouldn't have been able to kind of give myself a pause.
18:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay, can I get myself up?
18:07
SPEAKER_01: No.
18:08
SPEAKER_01: Okay, hit the life alert.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: Now, when they do come, I know how to use my legs so that people don't have to, because that's the hard part is as we age, we tend to become just dead weights in our body when we become immobile.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: And that's not that's not good for the people supporting us, and that's also not good for our bodies.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: So you may be listening and you may be 80 year old, 80 years old thinking, oh, I haven't been straight.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: Start now.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: Like the most do sit to stands out of your chair.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: Do walk up and down the stairs if you're comfortable, like do some bicep curls with cans of soup.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: Like use what you have.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to go buy weights.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: You a lot of the things like we can we can make shift anything.
20:12
SPEAKER_01: I COVID, I used wine bottles and laundry detergent.
20:16
SPEAKER_01: Like you used what you had.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's phenomenal.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: I I think and it really speaks to a difference of um, I guess sort of the the cultural norms of like like if you haven't done it by now, it's over.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Like you you miss the window in your 20s and 30s, and like it's all done.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: It's all it's done.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: You're you're done now.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: Not true, not true.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think that's that's phenomenal.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: And I think too, the the capability to understand how your body moves.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: And so when something goes wrong.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: So I was telling you I had like a little bit of a uh an issue with a muscle behind my shoulder blade.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking to myself, okay, well, this is the time when you need to use those ab muscles and quads you've been working on and put them to work and not push down and get yourself up, but really use your core muscles and your lower body to stand up so that you're giving your upper body a break.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: And I think that and listen, people, I've been doing exercise twice a week for a month or so, and I already notice a difference.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, I notice a difference in my energy levels, my um, my mindset, and my ability to to flex and pivot.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, like when something goes wrong, like there's a lot less of that, like, oh, you know, stuck in that, like I can't move forward place, meaning like, all right, take a deep breath, stand up and go, move, like physically move and change.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: So I think there's so much of a tie-in to your mental health with your physical health.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: Is that something I'm sure that's something that you've studied and experienced as well?
22:20
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
22:20
SPEAKER_01: The mental health aspect is nobody so personal training, nutrition, accountability, and mindset.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: Those are the four.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: Nobody has ever come to me and said, So when I work with clients, I say, what area do you want to start with?
22:37
SPEAKER_01: Do you want to start with fitness or do you want to start with nutrition?
22:39
SPEAKER_01: Because some people have don't start me exercising or don't tell me what not to eat.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm not that, but that's the stories we tell in our head.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: So I always give people the choice.
22:51
SPEAKER_01: Never once has somebody come to me and said, Morgan, change my mindset.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: No, because nobody that just happens through movement.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: It happens through how we fuel our body, it happens through our sleep, it happens through us managing our stress.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: It just happens.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: And yes, we have tools like meditation and we have tools when you get stuck.
23:15
SPEAKER_01: Like I love the book, The Gap and the Ga.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it is fantastic.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: It's really great about reminding you to look backwards at how far you've come instead of I'm still not at that weight loss goal.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm still not at that weight loss goal.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: I'm still not as strong as I'm I was planning to be.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: Turn around.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you didn't lose 50 pounds, but you've already lost five.
23:35
SPEAKER_01: Or yeah, you're not deadlifting 100 pounds like you had hoped, but like you're deadlifting 25 more pounds than when you started.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: Like turning around and looking back, and that right there, just getting in the practice of daily gratitude, really tracking and not like tracking where it consumes you, but tracking to be like, where did I start?
23:57
SPEAKER_01: How did I?
23:58
SPEAKER_01: Feel physically, mentally, emotionally.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: Like when we started, we did an intake form.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: And the I asked you how you felt physically, mentally, emotionally, if you had any injuries.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: And then at the bottom, optional was your weight and measurements, because I don't think measurements define us.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: And we see so many more differences in all areas of our life that that scale may never change.
24:21
SPEAKER_01: But that scale may never change, but you may feel a thousand times better.
24:25
SPEAKER_01: You may no longer be on blood pressure meds.
24:27
SPEAKER_01: You may no longer be on cholesterol meds, but that scale on the that number on the scale may be exactly the same.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: It's it's crazy.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: So our mindset plays into keeping us going, and it also plays into us, into holding us back really easily.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: So we have to remember that our brain, our brain likes to trick us.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: Our brain has this default of falling into all the negative that we have to work 10 times harder to create that new path of the positive, to move forward past that bad habit.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: And I always go quotations because I don't think there's ever a habit that's necessarily bad.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: There's a few we could probably name off that I would never recommend because they seem terrible.
25:17
SPEAKER_01: But um like I don't recommend hard drugs.
25:21
SPEAKER_01: I think that could be a bad habit.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, but like smoking cigarettes.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: You've already decided, not good.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like bad habits.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: But like you going out to girls tonight and having a few glasses of wine, I don't think that's a bad habit.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: Like, no, that's a choice you are choosing your lifestyle, and that's okay.
25:41
SPEAKER_01: There's balance in all of it.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: And our mind will sometimes tell us, oh, you're bad.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: Don't eat anymore because you're gonna go have drinks.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: No, please eat.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: Please fuel your body with the things it needs because it's gonna make those drinks actually process better in our body, and we're gonna sleep better, and all these things are gonna happen instead of drinking on an empty stomach, like we probably all did once in once or twice in college.
26:05
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: Yes, maybe.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: I went to college in the 90s when there was no social media yet, so that it's always it's a mystery.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: Who knows what happened during that time?
26:17
SPEAKER_00: There's probably roles of undeveloped film, but I love it.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: But but those are just those don't necessarily capture all of all of the amazing times that we're had.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I always I always enjoy talking about that because uh I feel very fortunate to have gone to college in the 90s.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: Um I I want to shift and pivot a little bit in the conversation.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: Um one of the times that you and I got a chance to chat, you were sharing some of your passions in terms of the populations that you like to support and work with.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I would love for you to talk about that because I thought it was such a cool approach, a cool population that you in particular have a passion to serve.
27:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:11
SPEAKER_01: So my day-to-day people that I work with are busy moms, busy women.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: I have a special place in my heart for the geriatric population because, and I think it stems from the dairy industry.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: So the dairy and ag industry is the industry that Kelly is referring to.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: Um both my both my parents grew up as dairy farmers.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: My mom grew up on a dairy farm, my dad grew up on a dairy farm, mom's side of the family.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: We no longer have the farm.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: My dad's side, family members still run it.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: It's a very large farm in Indiana.
27:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I I had horses.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: I've always been kind of that farm girl in a sense of like, let's get outside, let's go do things.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: And I watched as I've watched through my own family, but I've also watched farms in general, the generations as as we get older, you've still got grandma and grandpa working on the farm.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: You've got aunts and uncles that are nearing 70 or 80, still out there doing things that really they shouldn't be, but the younger generations are not taking over like they used to.
28:22
SPEAKER_01: So generational farms are starting to um, I don't want to use the word die.
28:29
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I was looking for.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: I was like just like they're they're starting to go away.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: I was yeah, I was trying to find a less like morbid term there, but they are starting to go away.
28:40
SPEAKER_01: And so many, so much of our food doesn't actually come from the US.
28:46
SPEAKER_01: And the more farms we lose in the US, the more we'll have to outsource to other places.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if you guys have seen an influx.
28:54
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm part of a lot of local Facebook pages, and there's a lot of local farms right now, small, that are doing you want to buy a quarter cow, a half cow.
29:02
SPEAKER_01: Do you want to buy chicken eggs?
29:04
SPEAKER_01: They're doing a lot of that homesteading, which I love.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: And I we just got a quarter cow from my uncle.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: And the dairy industry has always held a very special part in my life.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't realize until I started working with a company called PDP out in Wisconsin, um, professional dairy producers.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: They create educational um courses, seminars, events, um, travel the entire world, essentially teaching those in the ag industry how to be how to stay up to date on what's happening, how to run their farms a little bit more efficiently.
29:42
SPEAKER_01: And I'm in March, I'm speaking at a conference out there.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: It's my third time speaking.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: This year I'm doing two breakout rooms, a normal session, and then I'm also leading a woman's panel to help with the balance between farm life and family and all of the other moving parts.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: And started, got connected with them.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: I've started speaking out there.
30:07
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I absolutely love about that conference is it's your traditional meat and potatoes, one vegetable, food on the go, oatmeal for breakfast, like that very, like what you would think that like that traditional older style like meals look like, that's what it is.
30:27
SPEAKER_01: So I'm stepping in to essentially help them find how can we find some better quality snacks that you can pack when you're in the tractor for 16 hours a day?
30:36
SPEAKER_01: What can you do when you get out of the tractor or you're on the farm to just do a few stretches because they're so active or they're so sedentary, depending on what role and what season they're in, whether it's farming season, planting season, harvesting, or are they just out with the cattle?
30:54
SPEAKER_01: So being able to help them move their bodies and stay healthy as long as possible, because it's kind of like a business owner in the sense of if grandpa, if something happens and he runs the farm, who's gonna step in?
31:09
SPEAKER_01: Just like with our business, if we don't take care of ourselves and I can't work, I've got assistance, but I'm the one who does the like the business doesn't succeed unless we take care of ourselves.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: So one of my goals is to help reach as many of those in the ag industry to help them continue to be able to have their farms because farmland, farms, all of that, over time it's gonna keep going away if we don't, if we don't continue to grow those or people don't start them up again.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times we're not starting, people don't start them from scratch.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: They take them on from a family member or they buy them from somebody else because it's hard to start a farm from scratch.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can't even, I can't even imagine.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, so for the un uneducated in terms of farm life, ag means agriculture, right?
32:06
SPEAKER_00: So when you're talking about dairy and agriculture, so I find this incredibly fascinating because uh I grew up in New Jersey.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: So we do actually have farms in New Jersey.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: We are the garden state, so um, but not, I'm sure, to the extent that you're gonna find in the middle of the country because we just don't have the same vast space.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: But um I find it fascinating because when I was growing up, my grandfather and his two brothers had a business together and a carpet business, and they shared ownership in a 200-acre farm and they had beef cows, chickens, horses.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, it was just like a really, really cool and fun place to grow up as a kid because it was just so big and expansive, going from being like in the New Jersey suburbs where you have like maybe an acre of land to 200 acres where you can just kind of go and go and explore.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: Like it was just amazing and fun in a big old old old farmhouse.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: So I also think about like this is a way of life that is so drastically different from individuals who are in like corporate settings or school settings, or you'll you don't leave the work, the work is always there, and you have to generate the energy to do the work.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: Um I really love that this is something that you're so passionate about.
33:47
SPEAKER_01: It's it's awesome.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: And I love this conference that I speak at because you have everyone from the corporate office jobs who buy the milk all the way to the farmers actually doing the milking.
33:59
SPEAKER_01: So anywhere in the process of something being produced in agriculture, you get those varieties.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: But really, how we talk about exercise and movement is not any different than when I talk to a busy mom or a busy woman or a busy dad or just another human in general.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: It's what are we currently doing?
34:22
SPEAKER_01: What do we want to be able to do for the rest of our life?
34:25
SPEAKER_01: Your why may be the farm.
34:27
SPEAKER_01: The other person's why may be, I want to be able to get on the ground ground with my grandkids.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: Somebody else may say, I want to be able to continue to cycle.
34:36
SPEAKER_01: Like we all have a different why, but figuring out what that why is and saying nutritionally, we all need to be doing better.
34:45
SPEAKER_01: We need to be eating more fruits and vegetables.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: We need to be eating more protein.
34:48
SPEAKER_01: We need to be eating less of those.
34:52
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna, I'm gonna say pasta and rices, but I'm not saying eliminate them.
34:57
SPEAKER_01: But like we want to make sure we've got a good balance.
34:59
SPEAKER_01: So often we're just not eating enough fruits and vegetables.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: It's as simple as that.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: I talk to people, they're like, I have a vegetable once a week.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, we're gonna go for twice a week.
35:08
SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna go three times a week and we're gonna build up to once a day.
35:12
SPEAKER_01: And like that is a huge shift for people.
35:14
SPEAKER_01: Just like a lot of people aren't dairy people.
35:17
SPEAKER_01: Dairy has a ton of protein in it, it's a really good source of protein.
35:21
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, oh, I just, I just never like we never had it growing up.
35:25
SPEAKER_01: And that I'm like flabbergasted by that.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: Because I like, if I could have cheese at every meal and that could be my sole source of everything, I would.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: Cheese in any form.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: Yes, understood.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I think that's so tremendous.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: And I love that your your approach is really a little more gentle and extending more possibility.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: If you're eating a vegetable once a week, how about twice a week?
35:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, and not trying to, you know, eat the whole cow at once, you know, so to speak.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Like just trying to like take on like my new identity is I eat 13 fruits and vegetables a day, because it just feels like such a crazy departure from where you are today that your mind is like, yeah, that's not happening.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm so sorry.
36:19
unknown: Yeah.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: And that's why most New Year's resolutions don't work, is where we go so zero to a hundred, is we're gonna go seven days a week.
36:27
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do all the things.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna not gonna eat any out.
36:30
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: Let's be honest.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: If you're eating out five days a week, are you really gonna go from five days to zero days and not and like have a plan in place?
36:39
SPEAKER_01: There is like a very small, like one percentage of the population that falls into that category that can be successful at zero to a hundred.
36:46
SPEAKER_01: Like, other than that, we need steps.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: We need baby steps.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: We need to treat ourselves like we are like we are raising a kid.
36:55
SPEAKER_01: We have routines.
36:57
SPEAKER_01: Okay, are we doing the things?
36:59
SPEAKER_01: Are we in the habit of doing this?
37:00
SPEAKER_01: Do we have the checklist?
37:01
SPEAKER_01: Like it sounds funny to say, but a lot of times, like when people just are asking for advice and like, how would you track something?
37:08
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you have kids?
37:09
SPEAKER_01: They're like, Yeah, I'm like, make yourself a calendar, get some fun stickers, put a sticker on every day you do the thing.
37:16
SPEAKER_01: Make it a fun potty chart, but for your own thing.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: Like, make it fun.
37:20
SPEAKER_01: Track your progress.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: Because once again, our brain likes to tell us you're doing all the things or you're not doing any of the things when really we're somewhere in the middle.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: We're doing a lot of the things most of the time, but just maybe not as consistent as we think we are.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: No, I think I think that that is such a a huge shift, being able to say, like to your mind, like, actually, I'm successful.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: I've got my little, you know, and and Morgan works with a fantastic app.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: So you literally go in day by day and it tells you your little things that you've already agreed upon that you're gonna do, and you click those little buttons, it's very rewarding.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: A little dopamine hit every time you're like, I did that, I did that, I did that, you know, and and you can pick as many or as few as you want, which I think is really cool because you know, if you're somebody who likes being able to mark all the things, love a checklist, love a checklist that I can like just throw my little I I like adding stuff to checklists.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: I already did this, but I'm gonna write it anyway.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: I know there's listener, you do this too.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: Be honest.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: But it really does, it really does help to form habits.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: And I think that is one of your strengths as I've experienced, Morgan, is understanding the formation of habits, how to support it, and how to create early versions of success for something like you said, that might be completely new to someone.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: So uh I really applaud you for that because it does work quite well.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: And I try to remind people of it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle change.
39:06
SPEAKER_01: The end is the end of life.
39:09
SPEAKER_01: So if you are happy being on and off the hamster wheel of a new diet, a new trend, a new worrying about your stress levels all the time, being sleep deprived, if that makes you really happy, more power to you.
39:23
SPEAKER_01: But if that, if you're exhausted just thinking about how exhausting it is to keep life going, then like we got to look back at your habits and figure out how can we just make life sustainable?
39:36
SPEAKER_01: How can we do little things daily that make our body and our mind happy?
39:40
SPEAKER_01: And some days we're gonna do 30 minutes, some days we're gonna eat all the fruits and vegetables, other days we're gonna hit that bare minimum because it's been a crappy, snowy Michigan day and we're a little a little seasonal depression is sneaking in.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: I get you.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: Other days you're like, yeah, sun is shining, let's go do it.
39:58
SPEAKER_01: Like that's life.
39:59
SPEAKER_01: We're not the same every day.
40:01
SPEAKER_01: And when we fall into something so strict and rigid and not give ourselves the flexibility, we just set ourselves up for failure.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: So, so true.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: I would love to give you a couple minutes to share with the listener and the viewer how they can work with you, where they can find you.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, because I really I can't stress enough how phenomenal Morgan is at what she does, and how great it feels to have somebody behind you supporting you and setting you up for success.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: So, Morgan, tell us where do we find you?
40:48
SPEAKER_00: How can we work with you?
40:49
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
40:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I've got a Facebook page, get fit with me LLC, and then I've also got an Instagram page.
40:57
SPEAKER_01: I've got personal and business.
40:58
SPEAKER_01: I do most of my posting on the business at Morgan Ekovich.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I do have a website, which is super awesome.
41:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's very long and lengthy.
41:07
SPEAKER_01: If you are looking to become a business owner, keep it short and sweet.
41:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's really hard to change down the road once you've built a brand for yourself.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: So, like be in tech, take a little bit more time to think about it.
41:18
SPEAKER_01: But it's get fitwithme dash morganekovich.com.
41:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, you can find all the types of packages that I offer.
41:26
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to talk pricing or you just kind of want to figure out like, this is where I'm at, what does that look like?
41:31
SPEAKER_01: There is an inquiry form on there.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: And then I do have a podcast called Empower Her, all one word, wellness, um, by Morgan Ekovich.
41:40
SPEAKER_01: And on that episode, on that show, we talked, Kelly's been on, and she's gonna be on again in a few months.
41:46
SPEAKER_01: She's gonna do a two-part series for us on sleep, which I'm really excited about.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: We talk about all things women's health and wellness, anything from nutrition to stress to meditation, to I just actually had a travel agent record an episode with us to talk about how women can feel confident while traveling.
42:03
SPEAKER_01: Like anything that I can do, I reached out to um an athletic um, a nutrition, a dietitian for student athletes, because so many of my clients are moms and they're like, my kids are doing sports, I need help fueling them.
42:20
SPEAKER_01: Like, so I'm trying to get people on there that are going to help you feel more empowered as a parent or as an individual for yourself or for your family.
42:30
SPEAKER_01: Because so often I think we get lost and I don't want to ask the question.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: I don't, I don't want to ask the question.
42:38
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Google's giving me 45 answers.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: What's the right one?
42:41
SPEAKER_01: I want to bring you the answers.
42:43
SPEAKER_01: I want to bring you the answers in small doses where you can just take action and show up and call your shot and ask for help.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: Call your shot.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be sure to put everything, all the ways you can connect with Morgan in the show notes.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any parting wisdom for the listener and the viewer?
43:04
SPEAKER_00: Anything that you'd like to say to kind of just give them that last little boost of confidence?
43:11
SPEAKER_01: Um remember, you're not alone in the journey of feeling like you're starting over.
43:17
SPEAKER_01: Like it's okay.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: We are all at a different stage.
43:20
SPEAKER_01: And just because six months ago you were on cloud nine and you were doing amazing and you're not now doesn't mean you don't have the chance to start over in an hour the next day.
43:32
SPEAKER_01: Then the more you can just remember each day is a new day and gonna show up for yourself with intention.
43:39
SPEAKER_01: That's what matters.
43:40
SPEAKER_01: Every day, pick what you're gonna focus on.
43:42
SPEAKER_01: My intention is I'm gonna show up for myself.
43:44
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna drink the water.
43:46
SPEAKER_01: It's the only thing I'm gonna focus on today.
43:47
SPEAKER_01: Everything else is gonna just fly by the seat of my pants.
43:50
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna drink my water.
43:51
SPEAKER_01: Keep it simple.
43:53
SPEAKER_01: It the more simple you make it, the easier it is for our brains, our bodies, and our life to actually kind of grasp it and take on.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: You are truly a genius at this.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: And I I love that you are empowering women, helping them to be healthier, to be happier, and to have felt success with simplicity.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: I think that is such a key.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: I want to thank you for being a phenomenal guest.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: I would love for you to come back and talk more.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: We didn't really get a chance to touch on your take on nutrition, um, but I think this overview was beautiful.
44:36
SPEAKER_00: And um, I love the work that you're doing to partner with people in dairy and agriculture and help to sustain some of these long-existing farms and the people who run them in the United States.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for that work.
44:53
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
44:53
SPEAKER_01: I would love to come back on again.
44:55
SPEAKER_01: This was awesome.
44:56
SPEAKER_01: I loved, I loved getting to share.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: I don't on my, we were talking about this.
45:00
SPEAKER_01: I don't get to share my story like this when you interview yourself.
45:05
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for allowing me to chance, allowing me the chance to share my story.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: It was it was really fun to be able to share it.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: And um, if you happen to meet up with Morgan, you can find out more about her story and what inspires her.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, and you can find all the ways to connect with her in the show notes.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: I want to thank you for being with us, for listening, for tuning in and being here to witness these fabulous stories.
45:36
SPEAKER_00: I love doing this podcast.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: I love getting a chance to shine the light on amazing everyday heroes who are lifting humanity with their work.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, and Morgan, for sure, is one of those shining stars in the world today.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: So thank you everyone.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.