Whitney and Travis, the founders of Life Addict Studio, have been in the fitness industry for nine years. They are passionate about helping people create a healthier lifestyle and have built a community-focused fitness center that prioritizes connection and family.

Summary:

In today's episode, host Sherry, a loved member of the LAS family, interviews Whitney and Travis as they celebrate the 9th anniversary of Life Addict Studio and reflect on their journey. They discuss the origins of the name Life Addicts and how it represents their mission to help people become addicted to living a healthy lifestyle. They also highlight what sets Life Addict Studio apart from other fitness centers, emphasizing the importance of atmosphere and community. The hosts share nine mission moments that have reminded them of their why, including clients achieving their fitness goals and creating a supportive environment. They express their gratitude for the past nine years and discuss their vision for the future, including expanding to a standalone building and incubating other trainers' businesses.

Key Takeaways:

Quotes:

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Are you tired of feeling sluggish and unable to focus throughout the day? In this episode of our podcast, we're taking a deep dive into the world of glucose and how sugar affects your body. As high performers, we know you're always striving to be at your best, and that starts with understanding the impact of your diet. Tune in to learn how regulating blood sugar levels can help optimize energy and focus.

Note: The information provided is for education purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. Please contact your preferred medical/health professional for support with your unique needs.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Our Take On Life, so you don't miss an episode of Our Take On Life, where we share tips & tricks to help you simplify healthy living and make it a lifestyle. 

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In this episode, Trainer Travis & Coach Whitney will dive into why you might wait until a crisis occurs in your health before taking any action.

It's common to feel panic and automatically think of the worst-case scenario when you receive a health crisis diagnosis. You may worry about how the situation will affect your family, leading to further panic. The conversation stresses the importance of being proactive about your health and well-being, instead of waiting for a crisis to occur.

The conversation explores some of the emotions and reactions you might have when you receive a doctor's report with concerning news. It's a common experience to feel a rush of stress and urgency as soon as a doctor says something like, "You have really high blood pressure." This feeling is often exacerbated if you don't have the resources to address the problem right away.

That’s why Travis & Whitney deeply emphasize the importance of connecting with and having the necessary resources to prevent/address health concerns proactively to alleviate some of that tension around feeling helpless which can further exacerbate stress levels and make it more difficult to take action in the moment.

Overall, the episode encourages you to take a proactive approach to your health and wellbeing by adopting healthy habits and seeking professional support BEFORE you need it. By doing so, you can prevent health crises from happening and improve your quality of life.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Our Take On Life, so you don't miss an episode of Our Take On Life, where we share tips & tricks to help you simplify healthy living and make it a lifestyle. 

Visit us at lifeaddictsstudio.com for more information about training services and to join our FREE Healthy High Performers email community to receive valuable tips, resources and opportunities to connect with other high performers looking to maximize well being by simplifying healthy living!

On today's podcast episode, LAS coaches Travis and Whitney chat with Duriel Cohen, a licensed clinician and member of the Life Addicts community for nearly a year and a half. Duriel shares his journey towards simplifying healthy living and offers tips and tools for prioritizing mental health. He highlights how the black community has an incomplete view of mental health and encourages individuals to seek help when needed, even if it goes against family norms.

Duriel also shares his experience of navigating health concerns while still maintaining his workout routine. He’s found Life Addicts group personal training to be a comfortable and enjoyable way to work out and appreciates the support of the community.

If you’ve struggled with seeking professional help in navigating the nuances of your own mental health, you’ll want to tune in for support in informing your perspective around the stigmas of mental health and how you can move forward in freedom.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Our Take On Life, so you don't miss an episode of Our Take On Life, where we share tips & tricks to help you simplify healthy living and make it a lifestyle. 

Visit us at lifeaddictsstudio.com for more information about training services and to join our FREE Healthy High Performers email community to receive valuable tips, resources and opportunities to connect with other high performers looking to maximize well being by simplifying healthy living!

In today’s episode we chat with Josie who has been a member of the Life Addicts community since 2017.

Josie shares some of her struggles before becoming a member and expresses how, like many of you, she was eager to make a change and find a way to better her overall health. By joining Life Addicts, Josie was able to connect with a supportive community and gain access to resources that have helped her in her journey.

Before joining Josie felt that she wasn’t seeing any progress on her own and wanted to find something enjoyable and interesting. After having her first child in January 2020, she found that life in general was a mess and her schedule didn’t coordinate with any of the group personal training/semi-private workout times. She was grateful to have the option to jump back in doing personal training with an LAS Trainer during which time she started feeling stronger.

When their life settled down, she was able to start attending group sessions again, which was great for her mental health being able to reconnect in community as a new mom. She found that having a supportive community was essential for her journey and for staying consistent and motivated.

Tune in to hear Josie’s full lifestyle journey!

Highlights

I just thank you guys for being there through all these different phases of my life. Way back in 2017, we didn't have kids, and I didn't feel part of my local neighborhood and community like some of my other friends or neighbors did. And you guys were a step in that direction. I know so many more people that live right around me, and I really love just being able to know that there's always an activity that somebody's going to schedule a bike ride or schedule a run or if I'm around, there's something to do with our little group, which is great.

I would say, you will push us to our potential, but you're also super in tune with the level that we're at. So you will tell us, hey, grab the lower weights to not sacrifice form. You definitely level it for us and meet us where we're at.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Our Take On Life, so you don't miss an episode of Our Take On Life, where we share tips & tricks to help you simplify healthy living and make it a lifestyle. 

Visit us at lifeaddictsstudio.com for more information about training services and to join our FREE Healthy High Performers email community to receive valuable tips, resources and opportunities to connect with other high performers looking to maximize well being by simplifying healthy living!

In today’s episode, Dr. Carrie Dennie joins us in a dialogue around the nuances of naturopathic medicine, how to access it and how it could be supremely beneficial in your holistic care practice.

Dennie explains that care depends on the state or province and the regulations, and while in Michigan they are not yet licensed, she suggests creating a holistic healthcare team.

She suggests that people look for an integrative medical doctor, a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, a naturopathic doctor, and a mental health practitioner to make sure that all of the bases are covered.

With this holistic approach, Dr. Dennie believes that people can get the best care possible. She also discusses whether a naturopathic doctor should/shouldn’t be your only provider and stresses the importance of taking charge of one's health and deciding who to talk to and how many people to talk to.

It is important to be prepared for an investment for naturopathic care depending on what avenue one wants to start with. Acupuncture is less of an investment since less time is spent talking, but more time is spent ‘poking’. Naturopathic care is a bigger investment because more time is spent together. Naturopathic care is not out of people's reach, but it does involve an investment.

Locally, at Dr. Dennie’s practice at Integrative Wellness Grand Rapids, initial appointments are two hours, and may require specialty lab tests such as stool testing. Follow-up appointments may be spread out depending on the individual's needs, and 15 minute Q&A sessions are complimentary.

Naturopathic care is cash based, but can be paid for with HSA or FSA funds, which can also be used for other medical expenses. Allergy tests can be expensive, but can be managed with a health savings account.

The conversation highlights the importance of prioritizing health and investing in naturopathic care and shines light on the need for people to truly start investing in their own health and wellness, which may require de-prioritizing less necessary expenses that don’t enhance overall quality of life and longevity.

The speakers also talk about the importance of lifestyle medicine and having a strong foundation for health. They emphasize that naturopathic care is not an expense but an investment that can help people live longer and healthier lives.

Highlights

And so that's why it's always a big part of my practice to educate people. I want you to understand what I think is going on in your body. I want you to understand why I'm recommending what I recommend so that you can, again, make a better informed decision.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Our Take On Life, so you don't miss an episode of Our Take On Life, where we share tips & tricks to help you simplify healthy living and make it a lifestyle. 

Visit us at lifeaddictsstudio.com for more information about training services and to join our FREE Healthy High Performers email community to receive valuable tips, resources and opportunities to connect with other high performers looking to maximize well being by simplifying healthy living!

Feeling like all you need is accountability to really get moving toward your goals? Hold on! Before you go asking for an accountability partner…you may want to tune in to today’s episode with our coaches Travis & Whitney as they dive into what TRUE accountability must look like in order to gain real momentum with your health.

They discuss how people generally perceive accountability as enlisting someone to tell them what to do… but in all actuality it’s so much more nuanced and doesn’t start with a dialogue but instead it starts with an honest monologue with yourself around your resistance to doing what you know you need to do. It requires you to recognize first your own leadership capacity in guiding yourself and your ability to take ownership of your own actions.

It’s a “no-holds-barred” kind of episode. You’ve been warned friend…

Timestamps

0:08:18 - Discussion on Accountability in Coaching and Training

0:11:54 - "The Importance of Self-Accountability in Achieving Fitness Goals"

0:15:08 - Topic: Self Accountability and Resilience

0:16:52 - Heading: Working Together to Achieve Health and Fitness Goals

0:18:52 - "The Need for Aggressive Contribution to Health and Fitness Goals"

0:24:47 - Conversation on Taking Responsibility for Health and Well-Being

0:27:29 - "Enjoy the Journey: How to Reach Your Health Goals"

Highlights

“But again, that takes somebody saying, okay, I'm an aggressive contributor to my journey, and I'm not just going to sit here and say, “oh, that didn't work. Let me just give up. Let me just quit.” Like you can. But if this matters to you, if life matters to you, and being able to live an active, energetic, vibrant, healthy life for a long period of time, being able to do all that you can do. And sometimes there are things that are out of our control that we can't, but a lot of times we don't do all that we can do.”

“At the end of the day, for most trainers, you're only able to be with them for about an hour at most. Then you guys are distant. So then that means in 24-hours, you have 1-hour with your trainer. 23-hours by yourself. Your trainer can give you the guidance on, “hey, when you're at this restaurant or that restaurant, choose more this option over this option because of X, Y and Z” but it's on you to actually be like, okay, he or she gave me this information now I have to put it to action”.

“And a lot of times we don't know how to do that. We know how to show up for the commitments we make externally. We know how to show up when we have a doctor's appointment because we know if we're late to that, we still don't have to pay. And insurance isn't going to cover that whole situation because we were late. So you show up. You show up to your appointments at work, right? You have an appointed time to be there because, you know, you don't show up on time, your pay is going to get docked, you may get written up, or there may be some type of repercussions, but when it comes to ourselves and taking care of ourselves and showing up for ourselves again, accountability, self accountability, we'll be like, oh, that's okay. Or that's not as important.”

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Our Take On Life, so you don't miss an episode of Our Take On Life, where we share tips & tricks to help you simplify healthy living and make it a lifestyle. 

Visit us at lifeaddictsstudio.com for more information about training services and to join our FREE Healthy High Performers email community to receive valuable tips, resources and opportunities to connect with other high performers looking to maximize well being by simplifying healthy living!

Today we’re joined by Mr. and Mrs. Wright, who are the co-owners of Glory Fitness and Eden's Table. We get to learn more about their story, why they’re so committed to this field of work and how they’re impacting the community with their businesses.

Mark is a highly credentialed coach and Wendy is a professionally trained chef. Mark has been in the fitness industry for 12 years. His passion for health and wellness began when he was in high school, playing four sports per year and wanting to be great at basketball. As a Chicago Bulls he wanted to play in the NBA. He now uses his knowledge and expertise to help others reach their goals. His passion for athletics, combined with his own experiences, led to the creation of Glory Road Fitness, a support system for people who have extreme dreams that require a complete commitment. This commitment includes not only working out, but also understanding the importance of eating right, mental health and having the right support system.

Wendy was very active as a child, playing sports like soccer, basketball, and cheerleading. A mix of culinary school, a bad breakup, her interest in helping others reach their goals and a life-changing experience being personally trained herself created the perfect environment for passion for wellness to evolve.

As a married couple they’re determined to impact the world for the better.

HIGHLIGHTS

I think the big picture is that you sit down, we sit down and we talk about, are those five those things I just mentioned hitting all cylinders? Just because if you want to be the best, say, athlete or basketball player, if you are just working on eating right & you're not working on building up your physical body, then you're not fully committed in my mind. Because you want to achieve some success, but you're not willing to do all that it takes to get to that place where you're thinking you want to go.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Our Take On Life, so you don't miss an episode of Our Take On Life, where we share tips & tricks to help you simplify healthy living and make it a lifestyle. 

Visit us at lifeaddictsstudio.com for more information about training services and to join our FREE Healthy High Performers email community to receive valuable tips, resources and opportunities to connect with other high performers looking to maximize well being by simplifying healthy living!

In this episode we get to listen in as one of our high performing members, Shannon Cohen shares her journey of becoming a healthier version of herself while experiencing real transformation beyond the scale.

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Shannon is a living testament of growth and evolution in wellness and movement here at Life Addicts Studio. Before joining the community, she was struggling to prioritize movement in her life. The team praises her personality and energy that contribute so much to the community.

An influential leader who experiences first hand the nuances of balancing what’s required to be a high performer and a healthy human, Shannon shares how she understands the importance of investing time into your business ventures, but can also understands the magnitude of importance that comes with taking care of your own health.

Prior to joining Life Addicts Studio, she had been living a sedentary lifestyle, and was moved to join our 4-week jumpstart program after seeing ads on social media that deeply resonated with her. The ads were so spot-on that she felt as if someone had opened their journal and read it out loud. That 4-week program was the push she needed to make a change, and she never looked back.

Shannon has been a member of Life Addicts now since 2021 and has seen so much progress in her healthy habits since then. Instead of using the scale to measure progress, she prefers to take pictures to capture her non-scale victories. She’s developed a sense of discipline and commitment to showing up for herself, something she hadn't been doing before.

She’s also released some life-changing LB’s without any toxic dieting and has discovered a newfound appreciation for her athletic prowess and the Life Addicts community.

She encourages others on the fence about joining Life Addicts to invest in themselves, as it is a life-changing experience for everyone no matter their age, health condition, or lived experiences.

She used to think that only intense athletes were members of Life Addicts, but she was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a come-as-you-are studio, with people of all levels of fitness working toward becoming healthier versions of themselves, wherever they’re starting from.

HIGHLIGHTS

“I was even healing from an invisible injury when I first started at Life Addict. And I just had the reflection just this week that everything that we were doing in class on Tuesday of this week, there was a point where I did modified versions of all of that, and I recognized that this week I'm doing non modified. I had this whole moment of seeing myself grow and seeing the evolution over the past several months, and that's been a beautiful thing. So if you are on the fence, take it from someone that was really in a sedentary space about wellness and movement. I used to think that only people that worked out at Life Addicts were Olympians.

Do it. You are worth the investment. One of the things that you often say Coach Whit is we can do hard things and we have to pick our hard, right? And so there may be elements of being a Life Addict that is a sacrifice. It's definitely going to be a different investment than if you go to a big box gym, but the investment into you exceeds the investment financially from you. It is truly life changing. Life Addicts has been life changing because it is an entire continuum of care approach to wellness at every level, at every stage, in every phase of life. I know people that are life addicts that are recovering from traumatic health conditions and health diagnoses, people that are everywhere from within their 20s with to their 60s. You know, it's such a mosaic of a range of people with different life needs, different lived experiences, different injuries.”

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Our Take On Life, so you don't miss an episode of Our Take On Life, where we share tips & tricks to help you simplify healthy living and make it a lifestyle. 

Visit us at lifeaddictsstudio.com for more information about training services and to join our FREE Healthy High Performers email community to receive valuable tips, resources and opportunities to connect with other high performers looking to maximize well being by simplifying healthy living!

In this episode Dr. Carrie Dennie discusses the personal path that led her to the field of Naturopathic Medicine, its benefits and the value in collaborative healthcare.

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Dr. Dennie is a doctor of Naturopathic Medicine, Acupuncturist, and Certified Nutrition Specialist who graduated summa cum laude. She is from Kalamazoo, Michigan and has been living and practicing in Grand Rapids for four years. Carrie has always wanted to be a doctor, initially wanting to pursue dermatology, but while in undergrad at Michigan State University she realized that something wasn't right with her health and she didn't enjoy taking medication. This led her to pursue naturopathic medicine and acupuncture to help her and others reestablish the foundation for health, and achieve their health goals.

Dr. Dennie did not set out to go into the field at first. After graduating from college, she found herself feeling unfulfilled and prayed for guidance. Surprisingly, God pointed her towards naturopathic medicine, something she’d previously dismissed. She enrolled in a school in Chicago, and the doctoral program was an intense experience with classes running from 8 a.m. in the morning until 10 p.m. every day. Despite the rigorous schedule, she felt she knew this was where she was supposed to be and felt comfortable in the whole process.

She shared how having a plan doesn't mean that you're perfect or always motivated and it requires discipline and consistency to see it through. Taking the traditional medicine path wasn't necessarily the ideal route for her and so she pursued a different plan of educating herself to not only advocate for her own healthing but to help others on their journey as well.

TIMESTAMPS

0:00:16   Dr. Carrie Dennie’s Personal Journey

0:08:19   Exploring Naturopathic Medicine: A Discussion on Principles, Therapeutic Order, and Treatment Options

0:14:13   Collaborative Care: Integrating Naturopathic and Traditional Medicine

0:15:47   Conversation on the Benefits of Collaboration and Empowerment in Healthcare

0:17:26   Optimizing Health Through Moderation and Consistent Effort

0:22:23   Conversation on Setting a Pace and Learning About Naturopathic Medicine

HIGHLIGHTS

“It's beautiful in my practice, too, because we have two medical doctors that work with us. One is an integrative cardiologist, one is more an independent primary care doctor, so she doesn't accept insurance, but we actually collaborate on our cases and on our treatment plans and whatnot. And if I have questions, I can ask her, or if she has questions, she can ask me. And this is what I think medicine should do.”

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“A big misconception is you literally just come and instead of taking drugs, you take supplements. And that is not the case. That's not how I practice. There are some people that do so, like, there'll be people that come from a different holistic doctor and they'll say, oh, excuse me, I'm on 152 supplements. And I'm just like, you know what I mean? I've got this long list of supplements that I take every day, and I'm like, Aren't you tired?”

We do functional lab testing. Because I'm an acupuncturist, I also use that as an adjunctive therapy. But there are just so many different avenues that we can go or we can use to, again, to help people optimize their health and their wellness. And so that's another thing that I love. And like I mentioned, if there is a situation when the person needs pharmaceutical drugs, then that's where we go. But that's also not to say that we still can't be doing other things lower on the therapeutic order, because those pharmaceutical drugs are really high up to, again, support the foundation.”

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“I like to tell people I have this huge toolkit of tools or therapies that I use. And so I'm always doing lifestyle and dietary counseling across the board, no matter who is coming in, no matter what. But then we can use things like supplements, which we're very much known for, right? I'm also a big fan of hydrotherapy, which is a therapy to use water.”

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, Our Take On Life, so you don't miss an episode of Our Take On Life, where we share tips & tricks to help you simplify healthy living and make it a lifestyle. 

Visit us at lifeaddictsstudio.com for more information about training services and to join our FREE Healthy High Performers email community to receive valuable tips, resources and opportunities to connect with other high performers looking to maximize well being by simplifying healthy living!