Cheers! Celebrating with a champagne toast or kicking back after a long day with a glass of wine is commonplace in our culture. We deserve a little relaxation, right?

Sure, however, at what expense?

In this diary entry of an episode, I dive into how alcohol became normalized for me early on in life, how I learned to cope with alcohol and what my relationship looks like now as I hit my midway point in the 75Hard Challenge. From an embarrassing drunken weekend story to a scarring encounter with belligerence, I look at where to draw the line in a way that I can continue forging my path toward health and happiness.

Note: The messages in this episode reflect my experience and learned knowledge as a source of information and inspiration to achieve security and wellness in your own life. I am not a certified mental health professional. If you or someone you know is exhibiting symptoms of alcoholism, or suffering from any form of abuse, please seek professional support. 

If you are loving the episodes or have some feedback, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! Thank you so much! Leaving reviews and sharing my posts are the best way for people to find me and work alongside me as I pursue this journey!

Say hey, and let me know what’s going on with your journey on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. I would love for you to follow me and share my posts so others can join in on the conversation!

All my other episodes and some details about me can also be found on my website: IncognitoAthlete.com.

No matter what, keep working hard on your pursuit to living a life of happiness and health!

I've made it halfway through 75Hard, and boy, have I experienced some amazing changes and revelations! Yes, and I'm eager to share every single one with you. In this episode, I dive into the exact stage where I am and the mind-blowing experiences I'm having, including: 

These are not just pipe dreams; they've become part of my reality. And it's paying off in my wellness journey...big time! Tune in to find out more about what it feels like to be "in the flow" and how you can achieve it as well.

Here are some other great resources I reference in this episode:

If you are loving the episodes or have some feedback, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! Thank you so much! Leaving reviews and sharing my posts are the best way for people to find me and work alongside me as I pursue this journey!

Say hey, and let me know what’s going on with your journey on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. I would love for you to follow me and share my posts so others can join in on the conversation!

All my other episodes and some details about me can also be found on my website: IncognitoAthlete.com.

No matter what, keep working hard on your pursuit to living a life of happiness and health!

In Part 2 of my interview with Dolly Baker, we dive into the unique critical tasks she completed as part of the year-long Live Hard program. If you have not already tuned into Part 1 (Episode 27), please do so to get the full scope and impact of 75Hard and Live Hard. 

In listening to this episode, we cover:

As a newbie of the 75Hard challenge, I also kick off the episode with some interesting revelations! I actually challenge you to listen for the change in my voice, tone and words from my interview with Dolly (recorded about 6 weeks ago) to today when I produced the episode for my listeners. My revelations since then translate into advice for you, whether or not you choose to do 75Hard:

Here are some other great resources I reference in this episode:

Life is already hard. Why should we ever try to make things more difficult for ourselves? Honestly?!

Mental toughness. That's the purpose of the 75Hard Challenge, created by entrepreneur Andy Frisella. I first learned about this program a few years ago, but became more intimately aware of the intensity of its critical challenges when my friend, Dolly Baker, took it head on. Not only did she complete the 75Hard Challenge--75 days of total commitment and discipline--she also completed the year-long Live Hard program. (Yeah, she's pretty amazing.)

In the first of two episodes with Dolly, we learn about her own wellness journey, which involves ditching her old indulging habits of enjoying cake and sweets for ones that would lead her to be a bodybuilder and competitor. Today, she's in pursuit of establishing stable, lifelong wellness practices. However, after feeling stuck in a rut, she decided her mindset needed a little attention as well. She shares with us:

The second part of this interview will come next week, where she dives into all the new tasks--and revelations--she had in the final phases of Live Hard.

Not inspired yet? Well, I am. That's why I've also committed to completing the 75Hard challenge. I'm ready to level up my mental toughness, and speak to my own journey in this episode.

If you're interested in learning more about 75Hard, you can visit https://andyfrisella.com/pages/75hard-info. IT'S COMPLETELY FREE! I purchased the app for about $5 and borrowed his book to read along the way, but you do not need either to complete the challenge. All you need is to make the choice.

For information on nutrition, I encourage you to check out Laura Hamilton, RD at Empower Nutrition (as well as her FREE workshop that's coming in about a week)!

If you are loving the episodes or have some feedback, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! Thank you so much! Leaving reviews and sharing my posts are the best way for people to find me and work alongside me as I pursue this journey!

Say hey, and let me know what’s going on with your journey on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. I would love for you to follow me and share my posts so others can join in on the conversation!

All my other episodes and some details about me can also be found on my website: IncognitoAthlete.com.

No matter what, keep working hard on your pursuit to living a life of happiness and health!

I'm not the expert. That's why I seek out the pros like Laura Hamilton, RD of Empower Nutrition. Laura brings high-energy to her profession, engaging clients in her unique approach that keeps things SIMPLE. Don't believe her? Tune in! We cover two things most people avoid when pursuing weight loss, and address other critical topics like trust, discipline and throwing a party for yourself! (We'll explain in the episode.)

If you're curious to know more about Laura's approach and gain some helpful tips, sign up for her FREE Easy Wins 3-Day Weight-Loss Workshop, which starts on May 17, 2022. Here's the link to register now! https://empowernutrition.info/free-weight-loss-workshop

You can also learn more about Empower Nutrition at https://empowernutrition.info/ or by following Laura on Instagram at @laura_empower.nutrition (https://www.instagram.com/laura_empower.nutrition/). 

In addition to our great chat and Laura's successful effort to convince me that weight loss can be easy, I also share a personal story about success, a slip up and one of the most significant decisions I've made yet in this wellness journey: to complete the 75Hard Challenge. I unpack what led to that decision, what 75Hard entails and how I'm feeling about the mental toughness tasks that are going to further propel me on my mission to be a total badass.

If you are loving the episodes or have some feedback, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! Leaving reviews and sharing my posts are the best way for people to find me and work alongside me as I pursue this journey! Thank you so much! 

Say hey, and let me know what’s going on with your journey on Instagram and Facebook. I would love for you to follow me and share my posts so others can join in on the conversation!

All my other episodes and some details about me can also be found on my website: IncognitoAthlete.com.

No matter what, keep working hard on your pursuit of living a life of happiness and health!

In the wake of demolished chocolate bunnies and jelly beans, we are sometimes left with nothing but guilt. That's what I used to do to myself, play the blame game of what I coulda shoulda done instead.

Instead of being a source of negativity, I evaluate my current mindset and move forward in my weight loss journey. 

In this episode, I encourage you to do the same, finding the balance between offering yourself some grace while maintaining your grit. Then, with summer events knocking at our doorstep, I outline six wellness and weight loss tips to game plan your actions the next time the pressure of picnicking arises.

If you are loving the episodes or have some feedback, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! Thank you so much! Leaving reviews and sharing my posts are the best way for people to find me and work alongside me as I pursue this journey!

Say hey, and let me know what’s going on with your journey on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. I would love for you to follow me and share my posts so others can join in on the conversation!

All my other episodes and some details about me can also be found on my website: IncognitoAthlete.com.

No matter what, keep working hard on your pursuit to living a life of happiness and health!

The will. The grit. The energy. Whatever you want to call it, I lost it...for about a week. What the heck happened? A lot, actually. In the episode, I outline some of the latest happenings in my life, but more importantly, I discuss the ultimate awareness about these "things"....

They are simply distractions--situations, instances and responsibilities--that were given way more attention than necessary to the point that they took over. I let them take over. 

When "things happen" in our life, we have two choices: to give them our attention or not. In the past, I always gave happenstances my undivided attention, even when it wasn't my issue. I'd involve myself and my emotions to the point of upset and sometimes exhaustion. In short, I was in survival mode, flailing around from one thing to the next based on how I was feeling and not what actually served me well.

That's what happened recently. I traded in my grit in a moment of weakness and went into survival mode, grabbing every piece of chocolate I could get my hands on. Oh yeah.

The important thing to remember when our survival skills kick in is that we are in control. We can acknowledge these thoughts and feelings, yet engage our self-awareness to make the better choice that's not going to reverse all the hard work we've put in to be healthier and happier.

By tuning in, you'll get to hear a three-step exercise to check in with yourself and maintain your grit through even the most trying of times. If nothing else, I hope you'll feel solace in knowing you're not alone, no one is perfect and it's never too late to get back on track.

If you are loving the episodes or have some feedback, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! Thank you so much! Leaving reviews and sharing my posts are the best way for people to find me and work alongside me as I pursue this journey!

Say hey, and let me know what’s going on with your journey on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. I would love for you to follow me and share my posts so others can join in on the conversation!

All my other episodes and some details about me can also be found on my website: IncognitoAthlete.com.

No matter what, keep working hard on your pursuit to living a life of happiness and health!

If there's one thing I'm sure of at this point in my weight loss journey, it's that self-awareness is critical. What is self-awareness? It's the ability to recognize our thoughts and feelings. Once we can achieve that, we can manage our thoughts and feelings, shifting them away from the negativity that often leads to self-sabotaging behavior like binge eating or chastising yourself for not keeping your wellness commitments.

Life Coach Lindsey Lang spoke to this topic in Episode 22 as well as "Attacking Self-Sabotage with Affirmations" in Episode 23. These episodes are rich with tips and to-do's to get you started. 

This bonus episode is a meditation to help you develop your self-awareness. It is recommended that you integrate the meditation into your morning when you're free of any distractions. (No multi-tasking allowed!) The meditation itself is only about 6 minutes, which is doable even for the busiest individual.

The meditation is Lindsey's adaptation of a meditation from Heart Inspired Presentations. The sound track "Healing Light" is by Jordan Jessup's album, Ambient Worlds II.

If you are loving the episodes or have some feedback, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! Thank you so much! Leaving reviews and sharing my posts are the best way for people to find me and work alongside me as I pursue this journey!

Say hey, and let me know what’s going on with your journey on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. I would love for you to follow me and share my posts so others can join in on the conversation!

All my other episodes and some details about me can also be found on my website: IncognitoAthlete.com.

No matter what, keep working hard on your pursuit to living a life of happiness and health!

In this episode, Life Coach Lindsey Lang and I continue our conversation on the importance of self-awareness to applying affirmations as part of combating self-sabotaging behaviors. There's nothing like a two-parter! (Listen to Episode 22 now to make sure you're not missing anything by following this link: https://www.incognitoathlete.com/podcast/episode/2d73f6e3/beat-the-cravings-with-this-quick-trick.)

Do you suddenly taste granola in your mouth? When I used to hear about affirmations, I did too. You're not alone. Part of the reason is because the affirmations I tried to use didn't feel genuine to me. Then, I started writing my own. That's when my whole perception changed.

In this episode, Lindsey and I describe affirmations from a place of common sense and customization so you can also test their use against self-sabotage like binge eating, extraneous cheat meals and people pleasing in social settings. We cover:

We also address some other stellar resources you may want to check out:

If you are loving the episodes or have some feedback, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! Thank you so much! Leaving reviews and sharing my posts are the best way for people to find me and work alongside me as I pursue this journey!

Say hey, and let me know what’s going on with your journey on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. I would love for you to follow me and share my posts so others can join in on the conversation!

All my other episodes and some details about me can also be found on my website: IncognitoAthlete.com.

No matter what, keep working hard on your pursuit to living a life of happiness and health!