This is a small episode. In it, you will find: My new social media policy What I believe in What do YOU believe in? AND A HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT NEXT WEEK’S EPISODE THAT I'M FREAKING OUT ABOUT, SO DON’T MISS THE END!!

nfertility. This is a difficult episode to introduce. I can’t speak to this, personally, but I’ve watched 4 of my close friends go through it. I was sitting, trying to find the right words to express what I THINK it must feel like for these women, trying each month, and hoping! And then getting punched in the gut with a period or a negative or FALSE POSITIVE test that seems to rub in their face the fact that they are not pregnant, and I just can’t type it. I just don’t get it. It is bigger than me. It is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I do know there is pain; I do know there is heartbreak. I see the frustration and sometimes exasperation and repressed bitterness as they try to carry on with their lives, supporting others, working their jobs, cleaning the house, counting the days. I do know that every infertility journey is different, and so today we’ll hear about one woman’s story. I’ve brought Lindsey Brady here today to talk to us about her journey with secondary infertility, and how she works to love her body through it all.

No, there is no magic way to suddenly love your pregnant body. If there were, I would make boat loads of money selling it to insecure women just like me. And no, these methods are not for women who just want to complain about how hard it is to get used to their new bodies (also previously me), without actually doing the mental work required to make the mindset shift. Being pregnant is not for weaklings, and neither is learning to love your pregnant body. But you are not weak! You are strong! You’re carrying a baby, and it’s time to be at peace about what you look like in the process.

We tie our worth up in so many different things: our accomplishments, our looks, our friends, our number of followers… but relying on this EXTERNAL validation is so exhausting. Do we really need to wait for others to make us feel worthy? In my mind, there is only one place I should go for validation, and that is to my Heavenly Father. But I’m not perfect at this. How can I feel His love for me when I don’t feel it for myself? What does His love even feel like? How can I use personal revelation to access His love and feel my true worth? Today I have Renee Alberts on the podcast talking about her journey to feeling self-love, and how personal revelation has played a key role in her life.

Have you ever felt like there was a huge invisible wall between you and your Heavenly Father? That you were trying to shout through it, but you never got a reply? Or have you ever doubted that anyone COULD hear you through that wall? I’m here to tell you: Heavenly Father hears you. He will speak to you. But the few times in your past that you’ve felt like you’ve received answers to your prayers are just a taste of what is to come. Those were little mercies, let’s call them freebies- they took little work and little patience. But, in my study and small experience, that’s not how most of Heavenly Father’s communication works. And I know that feeling the Spirit and understanding promptings is such a personal thing, but there are a few common, basic needs one has to meet before starting to feel that the wall has doors, and the heavens ARE open. We just have to find them.

I LOVE Holiday eating: family and friends gathered around, shovelling in the classic comfort foods from our past. Eating brings people together in the best way. But I realize that, for some, there is also a dark side to food. With it can come guilt, shame, and terrible inner struggle. I believe we shouldn’t have to go through any of that, ever. Especially at such a special time of year. Brenna O’Malley doesn’t think you need to deal with any of this during the holidays, either. She is a Registered Dietitian with a mouthful to say on this subject. I started following her on Instagram because of her body-positive take on eating. She is the champion of the spin off “WHY I ate Wednesdays,” empowering women to give all the practical, silly, and REAL reasons for WHY they chose to nourish their body that day. And I think that’s amazing. Brenna is here today to talk us through the basics of how she teaches clients to approach “healthy” holiday eating (which has more to do with your mindset, than the fat content) and how we can STILL love our bodies, even when we over eat.

Happy Holidays! In this episode, you’ll learn why and how to combat the “food guilt” around the holidays, why holiday eating is our FRIEND, and how to set reasonable expectations so that you don’t feel like a failure going into the new year. You ready? Ok so I’m not here to tell you to never diet ever, that’s an episode for another time. But come on! You spend hours daydreaming about and preparing food, and then you feel like you “shouldn’t” eat it, or “shouldn’t” eat so much of it. What does that feeling of unmet expectations do for you? Can you guilt yourself into eating less? Since when has that ever worked? NO! You made your favorite foods, your family is coming together this year, you are going to sit down and enjoy yourself and eat whatever you want.

As wives and stay-at-home-moms, it is SO EASY to put our needs on the back burner. With so many things that NEED our attention like kids and dishes and bills and birthdays, often our own well-being is cast to the side as a “non-priority.” And then one day we wake up and realize we’re about to lose our marbles and plunge ourselves into some “me time” to salvage what we can of our sanity. But then, what about our husbands? There they are, diligently, silently working in the background, so strong and independent: “We don’t really need a date night every week, right? We get along great! Thinking about doing special things for him seems like a HUGE extra burden on an already stressed schedule. So what do we do? Is it possible to find the balance between prioritizing ourselves AND our marriages?

When you pour your heart and soul into your kids, it is so easy to lose yourself along the way. But I shouldn’t say “lose” yourself: you can never really “lose yourself,” because, obviously, here you are, listening to this podcast. You’re here, you’re you. But we can FORGET who we were or FORGET what we used to love. When we stop cultivating our interests, we forget them. And yes, maybe we don’t have as much time for our favorite hobby as we used to, but does that mean we should give it up completely? Does that mean we can’t replace it with something else? In this episode, you’ll learn how to REMEMBER who you are, how to make time for you, and how to not feel guilty about it.

Dating is the worst, am I right? It’s filled with so many highs and lows, it can feel like you are in constant turmoil. I was only in the dating scene for a few years, but I was already sick of it when I got married. Because dating takes serious guts: you have to be willing to put yourself out there, to get your heart broken, to navigate difficult situations. It’s definitely not a picnic. (Well maybe you go on a picnic for a date, but still, it’s not easy.) And while there be many good times and happy experiences we appreciate from dating, it can be hard to keep the optimism if it feels like dating is the only stage of life you’ll ever be stuck in. But there is hope! My strong, smart and beautiful SIL, Samantha Clyde is popping in on this podcast to share her thoughts about how to stay optimistic while dating.