Dopamine Diaries

I sat down with Katie, a licensed clinical social worker who's been in practice for nine years, to talk about her experience in HBA.

We get into what actually pushed her to say yes after being a lurker for so long, the self narrative she'd been carrying (I'm not a runner) that she finally challenged and ran straight through, and why she's now choosing brain zaps over a trauma training she's currently enrolled in.

We also nerd out on the lifeline feature from both a personal and professional lens. Why that instant relief moment matters so much, and what it looks like from a therapist's perspective when someone gets rewarded just for recognizing they're dysregulated in the first place.

In this one:

• The self narrative she challenged that led to running three and a half miles
• Why the lifeline feature works as a positive reinforcement loop
• What she'd say to anyone stuck in fear of disrupting their pattern

If you keep telling yourself you're not capable of something you've genuinely never tried, this one's for you.

HBA: https://www.mnmfitnessco.com/hba

I'm here with my husband, and I just told him I scheduled a color analysis appointment for tomorrow. His response: "You don't even buy yourself a winter jacket."

We get into it. The denim jacket versus a real winter coat, the concept of being "below the line" (a workplace training term he brought home that sounds a lot like nervous system states), and why I'll spend $325 on a color analysis but won't schedule the massage gift card I got for my birthday last year.

In this one:

• The denim jacket defense that makes zero sense but I'm sticking with it
• What "below the line" actually means and why it's not as binary as people think
• The negotiation over what color my next winter coat is allowed to be

If you've ever justified an impulse purchase while still avoiding the practical thing you actually need, this one's for you.

HBA: https://www.mnmfitnessco.com/hba

This year has been hard. Really hard. Childcare issues, sickness, a stalker, court, and most recently my 14-month-old going to the ER for what appeared to be seizures.

I'm continuing the conversation from last episode about self-sabotage, and why intellectualizing why you're struggling only gets you so far. 

At some point, you have to stop thinking about it and just move. I get into why it's so easy to take mindless action (scrolling, organizing the pantry) but so hard to move on the things you actually want.

In this one:

• Why perfectionism is really just procrastination and avoidance in disguise
• What one tiny action step actually does for momentum and motivation
• Why you don't need 100% momentum, you need 1%

If you're overthinking something instead of just getting up and doing one small thing about it, this one's for you.

HBA: https://www.mnmfitnessco.com/hba

Caught up with Valerie, a business owning mom of multiples that saw incredible change in Healthy B*tches Anonymous.  

She initially thought HBA was a fitness program. Spoiler: it's not, and she'll be the first to tell you.

We get into what actually pushed her to sign up (a moment of throwing a box of cereal across her kitchen and realizing she didn't want her kids growing up in that environment), the zero to a hundred pattern she'd been Googling "am I autistic" trying to explain, and what changed once she understood it as a capacity issue instead.

We also nerd out on the lifeline feature, including the very first one she used while hyperventilating in the fetal position the Sunday before HBA officially started.

In this one:

• The cereal box moment that made her sign up
• Why procrastination on things that "don't even make sense" finally started to make sense
• What her husband and four-year-old have noticed different about her
• Her advice for anyone on the fence

If you've ever Googled what's wrong with you trying to explain why small things send you from zero to a hundred, this one's for you.

HBA: https://www.mnmfitnessco.com/hba

At the end of HBA 2.0, I was riding the biggest wave of my career. And then something in my personal life almost knocked me straight off it.

I get into the life-threatening situation I've been dealing with since January, why I almost pushed HBA 3.0 back to April, and why self-sabotage doesn't happen when you don't know what to do. It happens right when you're making the most progress you've ever made.

I talk about the difference between surfing towards the fin versus staying on the wave, why I kept running School of Sabotage while facing my abuser in court, and why you don't have to deprioritize the things that matter just because everything else is hitting the fan.

In this one:

• The situation I've been navigating behind the scenes since January
• Why self-sabotage shows up right when you're closest to what you actually want
• Why you can learn to do both instead of picking one

If you've ever made real progress on something and then let one hard thing convince you to put it all on the back burner, this one's for you.

HBA: https://www.mnmfitnessco.com/hba