Vanessa G Fitcast

Are you intrigued by this week's title?

That title is called a hook. A hook is something that gets your attention because it opens a loop in your brain, and gets you to keep reading/watching/listening until that loop is closed. Why do certain reels on Instagram get you to pause and watch them through? Because there is text or video or something that hooks you in by opening that loop in your brain.

This little-known psychological phenomenon is called the Zeigarnik effect, coined by Dr. Bluma Zeigarnik. 

This is why every episode of a good show ends in a cliffhanger. (It’s why I’m really angry with the author of the Fourth Wing series… leaving every book with a cliffhanger.)

It's also the same reason why many high-performing women find themselves overwhelmed quickly when making changes in their health and fitness.

These women are giving their all in every area, but just like your computer only has so much RAM and you can only have so many tabs open before it slows down, you can only do so many things before your executive function (the “management system” of your brain) gets taxed. Add in stress, poor sleep, anxiety (all common symptoms of hormone imbalances) and your executive function is even more limited.

The Zeigarnik effect states ''Our minds quickly forget finished tasks. However, they are programmed to continually interrupt us with reminders of unfinished tasks.”

In other words, the Zeigarnik effect causes you to have lingering thoughts about the to-do’s you haven’t done, the deliverables you have yet to finish because your brain is looking for closure.

We can hack this effect (the same way I've hacked netflix by pausing episodes in the lull instead of finishing the episode) by reducing cognitive overload.

So how do we do that when we have a million priorities?

In this episode, I'm going to share with you 4 key ways and strategies to mitigate the Zeigarnik effect that is causing you a lot of overwhelm and stress when it comes to your health and fitness goals. Let us know your biggest takeaway from this episode!

Time Stamps:

(1:15) Intrigued By This Week’s Title?

(2:27) The Concept of Hooks

(7:32) Why This Effect Exists

(15:14) #1: Top 3 Priorities

(18:06) #2: Consistency

(28:35) #3: Chucking 2 Minute Tasks

(33:27) #4: Mind Management

(37:34) You Once Prayed For These Tasks

(42:55) The Power of Breath Work

(45:25) Please Share with A Friend

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Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. 

---------------------

Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program

---------------------

Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!

---------------------

Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!

---------------------

Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!

---------------------

Check out our Youtube Channel!

---------------------

Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

At one point I cried to my doctor because I was just so frustrated….

I thought I needed to eat less, be stricter, exercise harder but none of it was working.

In fact, I found myself gaining weight, looking puffier, and feeling more exhausted the harder I tried. Does this sound familiar?

"You're just being lazy. It's all in your head" is what I kept telling myself and that only made things worse mentally.

It wasn't until I dug deeper into my hormone health and found the root cause I was able to start truly healing and getting back to myself.

In this episode, I'm going to explain the four key changes that I implemented that made all the difference for me.

We will cover why I backed off of my training, learned to nourish my adrenals with proper nutrition, cut back on caffeine which was incredibly hard at the time, and learned to rebalance my circadian rhythm.

Time Stamps:

(0:25) Team Coming Into Town

(1:32) The Adrenals

(3:05) My Hormone Healing Journey

(5:15) What To Look For With Adrenal Fatigue

(9:15) Pulling Back Intensity

(11:25) Nourishing Your Adrenals

(14:28) Magnesium Rich Foods

(16:18) Hydration and Electrolytes

(19:12) Proper Supplementation

(19:54) Cutting Back on Caffeine

(21:15) Prioritizing Sleep

(25:05) We Can’t Work With Everyone

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Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. 

---------------------

Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program

---------------------

Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!

---------------------

Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!

---------------------

Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!

---------------------

Check out our Youtube Channel!

---------------------

Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

So excited to have Coach Jodi Stonehocker on the podcast today! 

Jodi joined our team at the end of 2024, but she came to us with tremendous experience having been a nutrition coach since 2015, collecting multiple certifications across the years to grow her specialties, from CrossFit Level 1 & 2, Precision Nutrition, MMU Level 1, and even FDN-P- Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner. 

Her passion for helping women started with her own journey, growing up watching her parents experience multiple health challenges and seeing her mom in and out of doctors offices with a brain tumor... Ultimately Jodi knew she wanted to put herself on a different path of better health. 

She was always athletic, from competitive cheerleading to CrossFit, but eventually her body could no longer handle overtraining and undereating, and she developed Hashimotos, which is an autoimmune disease of the thyroid. This is what led her down the path of functional health and really diving into both how the body works on a scientific biological level as well as doing the deep work in mindset, realizing that so many women like herself need more than basic nutrition and fitness coaching. 

Now she has her Hashimotos in remission and loves to teach other women how to live a balanced life with holistic health habits and a good mind/body balance. Jodi lives in Utah with her husband and 5 & 7 year old boys. They are an active family who love skiing, surfing, hiking, and anything outdoors!

In this episode, we dive into Jodi's background and why she went the functional route after her second child, finding balance with Crossfit, why she finds so much joy in 1-1 coaching, and more!

Time Stamps:

(1:12) Introducing Assistant Coach Jodi

(9:12) Choosing The Functional Route After 2nd Child

(12:32) Finding Balance with Crossfit

(17:14) The Joy of 1-1 Coaching

(19:32) Integrating A Holistic Approach

(23:38) How To Do It All As A Mom

(26:22) You Are Not Broken

(27:48) Where To Find Jodi

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Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. 

---------------------

Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program

---------------------

Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!

---------------------

Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!

---------------------

Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!

---------------------

Check out our Youtube Channel!

---------------------

Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

I woke up today feeling like today is going to be a bad day and if you've done this too you aren't alone...

Even with all the biohacking tricks in the world and dialed in morning routines, you are still human and you won't feel 100% every single day. 

This is the 50/50 of life I like to refer to. We can't have good days without the bad and in this episode, I want to share what I do on my off or "bad" days so it doesn't spiral into several days or even weeks.

One of my favorite things to do is look at my feelings wheel and gain some awareness on exactly what I'm feeling at that moment. Awareness is absolutely key here.

Then I download those thoughts onto paper, get them out, and visit some new thoughts and/or mantras that I have collected and integrated into my life over the past few years.

Then I ask myself how I can get out of my own head and into my body by changing my physical state. This works like a charm. Then I remind myself that the work just needs doing and to take action anyway.

Listen in as I dive deeper into these thoughts and let us know if this perspective shift helps you on your off days!

Time Stamps:

(1:37) Feeling Off The Past Two Weeks

(3:49) How I Got To This Point

(6:03) The Feelings Wheel

(10:32) The Reality of Owning a Business

(18:47) You Aren’t Alone

(22:52) Remembering Your Priorities

(27:12) Important Affirmations

(31:57) Going Forward After This

---------------------

Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. 

---------------------

Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program

---------------------

Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!

---------------------

Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!

---------------------

Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!

---------------------

Check out our Youtube Channel!

---------------------

Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

We receive so many questions about labs that we wanted to take this week's episode and dive deep into some of your most popular questions!

Whether you think you need you need certain lab tests drawn based on the symptoms you are experiencing or if you are just curious and thinking about your future health, we'll cover some of the most popular tests today and answer some specific questions around them.

Some questions include:

I can only invest in one right now… DUTCH test or GI Map?

When do I take a DUTCH test if I don’t have a regular cycle?

What labs can I do while on birth control?

If I’m trying to get pregnant, is a DUTCH test a good idea?

Can I do a DUTCH test while postmenopausal and on HRT?

AND

What labs should I ask my doctor for?

If you have questions beyond this episode, please DM us and let us know! 

Time Stamps:

(2:58) Investing In One Lab Test: GI Map or Dutch Test?

(8:02) Giving Clients Insight Inside of Vital Spark

(8:27) Dutch Test With An Irregular Cycle

(12:16) Finding Your Ovulation Window

(14:14) Labs On Birth Control

(17:57) Dutch Test and Pregnancy

(20:30) Dutch Test, Postmenopausal, and on HRT

(22:19) What Labs Should You Ask Your Doctor For?

(23:55) CMP Test

---------------------

Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. 

---------------------

Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program

---------------------

Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!

---------------------

Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!

---------------------

Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!

---------------------

Check out our Youtube Channel!

---------------------

Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

I’ve felt restricted around all different types of eating so I get it...

I’ve had clients who I give the same protocol to and one person says “this is too restrictive” and another person says “this is great”

One thing I’ve really learned over the years is that restriction is a feeling, not a fact.

And it comes down to our own thought patterns, which can be influenced by our beliefs and past experiences.

There are things I used to find restrictive- like not drinking alcohol, limiting caffeine- that are just part of what I do now and don’t feel restrictive at all.

This is where individualization comes in, and is a big reason why we don’t just give cookie cutter plans to people.

We often make RECOMMENDATIONS based on people’s health history, symptoms, goals, etc. and then further tailor those recommendations based on labs, but the recommendations are a starting point… some people will come back and say “is there more we can do, I want to tackle this as fast as possible and as effectively as possible, so if there’s anything else you think would help, I’m ready to do anything” in which case we might make the plan even more detailed or “intense”

For others, they might say “this feels really restrictive, I don’t know how I can do this, I’m freaking out”, in which case we simplify the plan.

Plans are never black and white, they are a spectrum of grey, and we need to find each person’s ideal spot of grey where they are able to move the needle and follow the plan.

At the end of the day, restriction is a feeling, and it is one that we can approach like any other feeling that comes up.

In this episode, we'll tackle the concept of restriction and hopefully give you a different lens to view it in route to your health and nutrition goals.

Time Stamps:

(1:26) Feeling Restrictive

(5:27) Changing The Plan or How We Think About It

(11:02) The Personalized Process

(13:47) Asking Yourself Questions Around Restriction

(17:32) Verbal Abuse Example

(21:17) How To Challenge Your Thoughts

---------------------

Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. 

---------------------

Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program

---------------------

Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!

---------------------

Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!

---------------------

Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!

---------------------

Check out our Youtube Channel!

---------------------

Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

We lost a sweet family dog very unexpectedly this past week and it got me thinking a lot about life and how perceive our expectations...

A lot of tears, frustrations, and other emotions throughout that morning and a lot of my thoughts came back to the expectations or misexpectations we put on life circumstances.

Although Stella was older, we always forgot just how old she was because of how young and spry she always SEEMED. And in comparison, the other family dog, Levi—who is 2 years older than her— APPEARED old in every way. We have been expecting his “time” to come for about 2 years now… preparing mentally for it to happen at a moments’ notice.

For Stella, none of us were expecting she would go first, and none of us were expecting her to go like this. Playful and energetic right until the very end. If anyone had any concerns about it, some of my siblings and I would’ve made more of an effort to be with her in the last week. 

One sibling beating herself up over the fact that this dog was originally hers as a puppy, and she ALMOST came home to my parent's house last night, but had a change of plans, and for that reason didn’t get to see her one more time or be there when it happened.

How often do we have strong emotions come up in day to day life that wouldn’t be as strong if our expectations had just been aligned with the reality?

If we had expected to lose a dog in her older age today, after living a beautiful life, we probably would feel peaceful instead of distraught.

A tangible example for day to day life… how often do you go into the week thinking “I’m going to eat healthy, hit my macros, and go to the gym X times” but then work gets busy, you forget to track, you miss a workout, and then you think “this sucks” and feel upset? What if you spent some time going into the week planning as best you can for what you KNOW is on your plate— or even just being real with yourself if you have a career that can ramp up or down in busyness in a moment’s notice— and set really realistic expectations for the week, even if it’s not what you WANT the week to look like? 

Would you feel a lot better if you missed the gym? Probably. And just feeling slightly better can be the difference between you adjusting the plan and continuing to move forward vs. giving up on the plan and “starting over next week.”

I even felt this with a vacation recently… where I had labeled it as a “vacation” because we were going to Cancun, Mexico, and I had expectations of coming home feeling refreshed and relaxed because that’s what usually happens on beach vacations. But the reality is that this was not a vacation, but a time spent working remotely while also being with friends in Mexico outside of working. 

This led to resentment and frustration when working, feeling more physically run down because I wasn’t resting, and coming home with thoughts like “maybe I just shouldn’t have even gone”… yet if I had gone in with the right expectations, I still might’ve felt tired coming home, but I would’ve had thoughts like “it’s worth it because that was so fun, and how cool that I have a job where I can work remotely in beautiful places?!”

At the end of the day, if you’re not happy with the reality… it didn’t/isn’t matching your expectations… then you can either change your expectations or change your reality. But don’t sit between the middle indulging in really negative emotions when you are in control of the way you think about your situation. I’m not saying to just NOT feel negative emotions (trust me, I’m feeling them today), but I do think we can also choose to look at the “bright side.”

Listen in as we talk through this thought process together and RIP Stella. While I wish I could’ve hugged you one more time, I’m happy to know that it was quick, that a family member was home, and that you did live such a great life right up to the end.

Time Stamps:

(3:32) Losing A Family Pet

(6:52) Expectations and Our Feelings

(8:29) Your Expectations and Your Fitness Goals

(12:02) Managing Expectations and Reality

(19:42) The Power of Awareness

(23:22) Our Team at Vital Spark

(26:29) Working On Your Expectations

---------------------

Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. 

---------------------

Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program

---------------------

Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!

---------------------

Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!

---------------------

Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!

---------------------

Check out our Youtube Channel!

---------------------

Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

You are bombarded by fitness and health information every single day but there are only a few truths you need to focus on...

It can be extremely overwhelming in today's society with ads and content everywhere talking about what you should be worried about when it comes to your health and fitness and we know that pain too.

As a health and nutrition company ourselves, we understand it can be a lot so in today's episode, I want to focus on three fitness truths that I believe every woman needs to hear.

These truths contradict a lot of what you'll conventionally hear and we think that's a good thing. We'll cover why you don't need to spend as much time in the gym as you think you do, why building bigger muscles is the goal and not getting "toned",  and why effective isn't the same as intense.

Let us know which one surprised you the most and if this was helpful!

Time Stamps:

(1:22) Coming Back From Travel

(1:52) Recent Viral Post

(8:02) #1: You Don’t Need To Spend A Ton of Time In The Gym

(14:02) #2: Building Bigger Muscles

(19:20) #3: Effective Is Not The Same As Intense

(27:57) Please Rate and Review

---------------------

Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. 

---------------------

Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program

---------------------

Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!

---------------------

Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!

---------------------

Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!

---------------------

Check out our Youtube Channel!

---------------------

Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

We're so excited to share another incredible coach here at Vital Spark with you Coach Whitney!

Coach Whitney joined our team last summer and she came to us with a ton of experience as a coach with 2 years of online coaching and 4 years of in-person training experience. 

She’s helped hundreds of women transform their bodies. As a pre and postnatal specialist and women's coaching specialist, along with experience working with a lot of perimenopausal clients, she has an impressive resume.⁣

⁣But she isn’t just a powerhouse coach, she has been in the shoes of so many of you!⁣ After sadly losing her mom to breast cancer at a young age, Whit turned her pain into purpose and fell in love with understanding women’s health holistically.⁣ Then once she found herself postpartum and with a hypothyroidism diagnosis, she found herself diving even deeper into her own health to prove first-hand that no diagnosis or circumstance has to hold you back from reaching your goals! ⁣

She lost 20lbs and regained her energy, and is now thriving as a mom to 2-year-old Emma and baby Brooklyn, living with her husband and dogs outside of Asheville, NC.⁣

I’m so excited to finally have Whit joining us on the podcast so you all can hear a bit about her story, learn from her experiences, and see why she is such an impressive and loved coach here at Vital Spark. 

I personally think that Whit is simultaneously one of the sweetest and mentally toughest people I know. In the time that I’ve known her I’ve watched her overcome hardships personally, and always doing so with a smile on her face, ready to share what she is grateful for and still show up and give her clients her all.

Time Stamps:

(1:13) Welcome Coach Whitney!

(3:58) Body Image Issues in High School

(7:20) Testing TSH Levels and Coming Back “Normal”

(14:07) Imposter Syndrome

(16:36) The Postpartum Journey

(20:12) Full Blown Panic Mode With Second Pregnancy

(27:37) Facing Adversity

(32:31) Ideal Takeaway For You

(33:52) Where To Find Coach Whit

---------------------

Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. 

---------------------

Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program

---------------------

Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!

---------------------

Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!

---------------------

Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!

---------------------

Check out our Youtube Channel!

---------------------

Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!

It’s normal to say that you have weird cravings when you’re pregnant and experiencing all those hormonal changes… 

Why is it not more normal to talk about how our day to day cravings could relate back to hormonal changes?

You know those times where you are craving those salty pretzels or something savory and you're not really sure why?

In this episode we’re going to cover some of the most common cravings we experience, and how they could actually be your body communicating with you about your hormones or nutrient status.

Many of these explanations are not reasons for us to justify having the thing, but for us to be kinder to ourselves when we struggle with wanting these things or overconsuming these things.

Rather than treating the craving by giving the body what it’s craving, let’s understand WHY we’re craving it, and address the root issue.

We will cover 5 of the most prominent cravings including salt, sugar and carb, fat, caffeine, and chocolate cravings and why they might be coming up for you. 

Time Stamps:

(2:05) Increased Cravings This Cycle

(4:52) Specific Cravings

(7:37) #1: Salt Cravings

(15:24) #2: Sugar and Carb Cravings

(22:12) #3: Fat Cravings

(24:52) #4: Caffeine Cravings

(27:54) Insulin Resistance

(28:37) #5: Chocolate Cravings

---------------------

Follow @vanessagfitness on Instagram for daily fitness tips & motivation. 

---------------------

Download Our FREE Metabolism-Boosting Workout Program

---------------------

Join the Women’s Metabolism Secrets Facebook Community for 25+ videos teaching you how to start losing fat without hating your life!

---------------------

Click here to send me a message on Facebook and we’ll see how I can help or what best free resources I can share!

---------------------

Interested in 1-on-1 Coaching with my team of Metabolism & Hormone Experts? Apply Here!

---------------------

Check out our Youtube Channel!

---------------------

Enjoyed the podcast? Let us know what you think and leave a 5⭐️ rating and review on iTunes!