Transcript
Speaker: Today's episode is super special because I'm chatting with my dear friend, Maggie. Maggie is a certified personal trainer and a women's nutrition coach who is helping busy moms all over the country get fit and be well, even with lots of littles running around their feet.
Speaker: In this episode, we talk all about Maggie's journey from being given six whole months to live, to surviving toxic mold, to having three beautiful children and finding her purpose in helping women truly heal and be strong. I know this episode will encourage you the same way it encouraged me.
Speaker: We're so excited to have you here today. i have loved following your story on mold and inflammation, your journey into becoming a certified personal trainer, all of the things. And i really think that your story would be super beneficial for my audience to hear. So I'd love for you to walk us through that.
Speaker: Absolutely. Yeah. I have walked through a lot of different things, like you said, mold, inflammation, and all of those things that I have walked through through my life have, they've led me to being a certified personal trainer and a nutrition coach. And now I just got certified as a women's fitness specialist. So I have a lot of different things I can work with to really tackle the overall lifestyle. That's where I really found myself like a couple of years ago when I was speaking with you. It wasn't just one thing that was contributing to
Speaker: the start of really my entire journey. It was a combination of all these different things in my lifestyle. So that's why I am where I am, why I do what I do. um it really kind of began with, well, hang on.
Speaker: I was going to say, i actually know your story. It goes all the way back to, you had Lyme disease, correct? Yes. Yes, I did. Okay, take us all the way back. Let's start there. okay Your story is actually pretty freaking wild. So let's let it rewind all the way.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah. So back whenever i was about 12 years old, my health crumbled, like just started falling apart year by year, new things popped up. And we don't know exactly how long I was undiagnosed with Lyme disease. We're guessing about eight-ish years I was undiagnosed. um The noticeable things at that we noticed first off was i developed fibromyalgia at 12 years old. I had hives, like full body hives monthly for years. Lots and lots of different autoimmune type weird symptoms just out of the blue would pop up I'd eat an apple and then I would get covered in hives. And then a week later, I'd eat an apple and be fine. We didn't know what was going on. Of course, I'm a child.
Speaker: I just wanna live my life. And so I pushed through the best that i could. um It really kind of all came to a head when I was about 15 years old. I had debilitating stomach pains, just inability to digest food in general. and I was passing out all of the time. I ended up with a pretty significant injury. I broke my neck. And that also, that trauma led to a spiral of other things.
Speaker: And remember at this time, I didn't know I had Lyme disease, but I did. Probably starting about the age of ah somewhere between 10 and 12 is my guess. Around like 18 years old, ah my life was...
Speaker: Awful. I was in a wheelchair. i was on oxygen. I was hardly able to eat anything. And we got to a point where my neurologist and all my other doctors, my cardiologists, they were, I saw a team of doctors in Houston and they came to the conclusion that my body didn't have what it needed to survive. Right. And so their solution for me was let's do an induced coma and buy you some time. Otherwise you have six months to live or less.
Speaker: And i thought about it and I prayed about it and i didn't have peace with that. i I told them if I only have about six months to live, i don't want to be asleep.
Speaker: For that time, I want to try to find answers. And they offered me a lot of prescriptions to cover up some symptoms. And i didn't want to do that. So i I was in a lot of pain. So took a lot of pain medicine. But other than that, was like, if I don't have to have it, i don't want it. I ended up seeing a naturopath in Houston who saved my life. He diagnosed me with Lyme disease like that very first week that I saw him put me on a natural antimicrobial. And within like a month ish, I was out of my wheelchair, off of oxygen. I was walking on a treadmill. I was passing out way less because I don't know if I mentioned this. I was passing out like multiple times a day, like eight plus times a day. I was completely losing consciousness. and So I had walked through all of that.
Speaker: So whenever I got my life back, I was just thrilled. at think I was like 19 years old. I was thrilled. Right. Cause I'm like, I'm not in a wheelchair. i can drive my car without passing out. Like I I'm a whole, a whole person. And I was so excited to just be an adult. So I went straight to working full time, skipped the whole college thing. Um, was a behavior therapist, which is a very physically demanding job. Looking back, I don't know that that was the best choice. Um, for me, but I loved it.
Speaker: was very ambitious, to say the least. um And then I moved out, lived on my own. And that was that. Like, I just kind of thought, this is it. I am healed.
Speaker: But I kept having problems. I was extremely underweight. I still really struggled with fatigue. I still really couldn't eat very much. I had a lot of stomach pain. So all of that kind of bleeds into this adult journey through figuring out inflammation. it was weird. I went from extremely underweight to suddenly after my second kid, I was overweight. And it was this very strange flip-flop that I didn't know what to do with.
Speaker: It led me to meeting my husband, who funny enough, he was the crunchy one. when we met. He is why we live the way that we live.
Speaker: That's so funny. Tad is literally the exact same. He was crunchier before I was, which I feel like you don't hear that often with like husband and wives. It's usually though wives. But when Tad and I got married, he had all of these wild ideas about life and health. And here I am, you know, I'm like, Well, I'm getting a science degree. I know better. You are an idiot. i do the research. We'll do it my way. No, I was the idiot. I had to eat my words. And now he's just like, I told you so almost 10 years later. so yes, it's awesome. Okay, so he was a crunchy one. That's why y'all are living this way. Continue.
Speaker: Yes. So he was a crunchy one and I kind of rose to meet him at his level. And then I just kept rising. Right. But the cool thing is he kept going with me like he was already in that world. And so he was just cool with everything. um And once we got married, we I moved across the country to live with him. That was amazing.
Speaker: It exciting, but it was also terrifying, right? It's away from my doctors. It's away from everything I had known. And um it was really challenging on my health. and I wasn't around anyone. He worked nights and i just didn't eat.
Speaker: Like I would eat M&Ms and drink Coke. And it was that way for a long time. And then if I ate, it was like chicken breast and broccoli. I just didn't eat much. And so my health really declined. I lost a ton of weight. Like I was so severely underweight.
Speaker: We moved back to Texas and I got pregnant with our first child. It was a very, very rough pregnancy. And throughout that whole pregnancy, like I just wasn't getting help. I kept going to my doctor telling her was going on I was passing out a lot. I had severe HG until the very end. Like I was puking my guts up until she literally came out of my body, ended up being induced at 37 weeks. Um, very, very long and rough delivery. Um, postpartum was really hard, severe postpartum depression. again, undernourished, I didn't eat. And so that undernourished version of myself was very small, um, anxiety ridden.
Speaker: And then about, 10 months postpartum, I accidentally got pregnant with our second child, which ended up being the most incredible blessing.
Speaker: But after I had my first, i was like, okay, I don't want to do that again. i thought I was done having kids. And I was like, okay, we're doing this again, but not that way. So I went the midwife direction, didn't want a home birth.
Speaker: So did birth center. And I learned a lot of things about myself. They ran a lot of labs and that I had never had run before. They checked my ferritin levels. They checked all these different things that just started to kind of put some of those puzzle pieces that were missing back into my life. And as I added things in like beef liver, I really started to feel myself come a alive. five But after she was born, I went pretty heavy into the, I hate to call it pro-metabolic because it really wasn't the true pro-metabolic approach. It's what I thought it was. um a lot of bread, a lot of butter, a lot of just food and not really knowing what I was doing. And even with that
Speaker: I still struggled with inflammation. and so I really, I really vacillated with my food. I'm like, okay, I'm really hungry. I'm really tired. i need to just eat a lot of food. And so I would go like a week eating a lot of food. Then I would go, oh, I really need to lose weight. Then I would stop eating so much food. And I just vacillated back and forth. And I was so inflamed.
Speaker: Then we get pregnant with our third. And in this third pregnancy, we move into this house that I'm in now. And two weeks into it, we find mold, extensive mold. And I call a company and I'm like thinking they're going to tell me just bleach it and it's going to be fine. But I described it to them and they were like, no, like that's a big problem. So we had an inspector come out.
Speaker: And they decided that that entire area of the house needed to be ripped out. So we did that. The mold levels were extremely high. Finished that remediation. We moved back in and we're like, okay, that was really expensive. We're just going to take our time on rebuilding this. um But before we could even think about rebuilding, our health just fell apart. My kids were lethargic. They weren't sleeping. My kids went from bouncing off the wall feral little monkeys to laying on the couch all day.
Speaker: And I couldn't, like it was, it was hot outside. And of course, you know, that's going to make things worse. You don't feel well already. Then you go in the heat. And anyways, it was just a really tough combination.
Speaker: And one night my husband and I were sitting in our living room. I had been put on bed rest because I went into preterm labor at 26 weeks I When on bed rest and we're sitting there and we're sobbing and we're praying and we're asking God, what's going on?
Speaker: We have made it so far with our health. Why? What is going on? We are not okay. Lord, tell us what to do. And we both felt in our guts like we were being led to just rip up all of the floors.
Speaker: It didn't make sense, but we did it. The next day, we asked a friend to come over and he helped us pull up all the floors and we pulled up two planks on the floor and mold.
Speaker: All the floors had deadly levels of mold. I don't know... It's by the grace of God that we have recovered as well as we have because that day, obviously, we moved out. We found another place to stay. All of our stuff was ruined, but I mean, it's deadly levels of mold. We lost everything overnight, but in losing everything, we gained so much knowledge, and I feel like it empowered us so much as human beings to take charge of our bodies, to listen to our bodies. Okay, we're not crazy. Because we spent months between these remediations telling ourselves the mold is gone. but The mold is gone. This has to be in our heads. Like... this We're crazy.
Speaker: Like mold can make you feel crazy. And that's how we felt. And so it was so validating to find it, first of all, but then the majority of it was in my kids' room too. And that just made so much sense as to why they felt the way they did. um So we went through all of that.
Speaker: And it was such a learning experience and it was humbling. And I'm just so thankful the Lord protected us through allt all of that because we could have easily not pulled up the floors and continue to live like that.
Speaker: And he he saved us and it's, I'm so thankful. Yeah, I think that that's something that's missing in a lot of people's journey is literally listening to the Holy Spirit, right? I think so often we explain away our intuition, but our intuition is God-given.
Speaker: This is the same with moms when it comes to their kids, when it comes to... Just choosing healthcare care providers when it comes to really anything when it comes within our health and wellness. I think that we so often explain away our intuition and we're outsourcing it to other people, right? This is honestly a really big conviction that I have is putting the power back into people's hands because I don't think God made a mistake when he gave us a conscience that he gave us intuition. And we're told that we are going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And I think the Holy Spirit really does guide us in things. And I think that your story with that is actually a perfect example. Like
Speaker: Nothing else made sense. You had nowhere else really to turn did because again, in your head, you're crazy. You just remediated mold. Surely it's not that, but isn't he so kind to to to give us what we need when we ask for it. So after that, so y'all were out of the house. You were 26 weeks pregnant when you moved out. So then tell me how did that go with being out, being pregnant, the birth, all of that?
Speaker: Yeah, so we moved back into our house. I think it was three two or three weeks before I had the baby. and We had not fully rebuilt at this point. We had the basics, but we still had huge holes in the walls. And it was we it was just a place to live. We just needed a roof over our heads. and I was planning a home birth.
Speaker: And I was like, you know what, Lord? Like, you have brought us through this. You have kept my pregnancy, right? Like, That wasn't supposed to happen. I got to carry her past her due date, which was incredible. um Just so many blessings and so many things that the Lord very specifically put into place. had the most redemptive two and a half hour home birth, delivered the baby myself, caught her. It was just so so incredible. Everything that I could have wanted in birth.
Speaker: I was given that and it just felt like a beautiful ending to that season. It's like, okay, now we can chill. Yes, the house is a mess, but we'll build it as we can. But our family feels complete. We're all here. i didn't have to worry about her anymore. And I was so worried that she wasn't going to be okay because of everything we went through and all of the stress, but she was so fine. She was my biggest baby, my happiest baby. she And she still is. She's huge and crazy and happy and but just the literal light of our family. um
Speaker: But after birth is when that trauma, I think, really started to settle in my body. i really had, i feel like, more time to mentally think back to it, trying to get back to normal life, but nothing was normal.
Speaker: And i also knew i really wanted to lose the baby weight. Let's face it, we didn't eat well when we were going through the stress and I gained a lot of weight.
Speaker: And initially, i shed that weight in the very beginning, early postpartum. I was like 10 pounds for my pre-baby weight, which was still a good 20 pounds above where I probably should have been um because so I never lost weight. the weight from my second pregnancy. But I decided a really great way to treat my body postpartum would be to do these high intensity athlete level workouts because the harder I push myself, the redder my face gets, the less I can breathe, the more calories I'm burning and I'm going to be skinny. And that's what I wanted. Deep down, i
Speaker: i was I was convincing myself I was doing it for my mental health because it was really good for me. I loved that time for myself, right? 30 minutes on my back porch in 105 degree heat. Why not?
Speaker: it was It just was good for me mentally, but I was approaching it all wrong. I wasn't well nourished. Whenever you're postpartum, I feel like the biggest push is protein. Like, are you getting enough protein? Are you hydrating? Are you getting enough protein? Are you hydrating?
Speaker: And so that's all I did was focus on protein. Yeah, I would like binge eat carbs at night, but it wasn't like, you know, beneficial. Like I wasn't using it, like I was going to sleep. And so then during the day, I'm like, oh, beef sticks and steak and chicken and like protein and milk and cheese, which is good, right? But nobody was like, hey, so like how many carbs are you eating? Like, do you have fuel? And I didn't have fuel, but I also like – Protein awesome, right? Like that's what you need to like build your muscle.
Speaker: But what I was doing wasn't, it's not exercises that build muscle, right? Like it requires a lot of fuel and my body didn't have fuel. So what did I do? I gained weight. gained a lot of weight and I gained it really quickly.
Speaker: and not only did I gain weight, but it was fluctuating like seven to 10 pounds in like 24 hours. It was insane. I would go to bed and wake up having no idea if I would be able sit my pants.
Speaker: Like the ones that I was wearing the day before wouldn't be able to zip them the next day. Like that will mess with you. And it did. and I was like, okay, seven days a week hit. Let's go. so i was like out there like kickboxing. Just ramping it up. like yeah nice as youre As you're retelling this story, I'm remembering going through this, like you going through this in real time. and I think it's bringing back all of the emotions that I was feeling as your friend, as you're doing this story.
Speaker: that's And it feels more shocking the second time around, actually. Like just knowing what we know now, how far you've come and looking back like, man, that was really dumb.
Speaker: so bad. ah ah so it's seven days a week of hit and what else ah just not eating enough and wasn't sleeping you know I have a newborn so but not sleeping my milk supply was so up and down like whenever I would binge eat like butter rolls at night I would like my milk supply would go up but then I'd be like oh so did the scale so I'm gonna cut back on the butter rolls at night and then my baby couldn't eat because I didn't have a milk so it was this constant up and down it was so stressful and then i remember one day you said something that literally changed the trajectory of
Speaker: my entire life. He said, Maggie, I really don't think you're struggling with fat. I think you're struggling with inflammation. and then we started this conversation on what is inflammation? What causes that? And I was like, oh, like this makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I remember that. And I honestly, I use your story a lot with my clients when I see them fluctuating with weight, because it's really not possible to gain seven to 10 pounds of fat in 24 hours. it's It's impossible. In fact, it's impossible to gain seven to 10 pounds of fat over the course of a week, right? And so when you look at that, and you can objectively see, makes it a lot easier to be like, okay,
Speaker: This isn't fat. So what is my body telling me? So after we had that conversation, what did you start doing? Like, what were your biggest steps? Because you saw results changes really fast after this, right? Like, it was pretty quick, if I'm remembering correctly.
Speaker: Yeah, it was very quick. Within that first month, I started seeing the scale change. The hardest part for me was trusting you and eating more. That was very, very hard for me. It was against everything that I had ever known, you know, growing up in such a severe diet culture and trim healthy mama and all these things that you're surrounded by, which aren't horrible. Don't get me started on trim healthy mama. I'm trying to be nice. but I can't be nice. You say the words and I'm automatically mean. I'm not with it.
Speaker: Yes. growing up with Trim Healthy Mama and Slim Fast and and all these things, it just didn't make sense. to eat more, but you, I saw your testimonies and you are a testimony as well. Like watching your story, i was like, okay, if I want to do this, you know, i got to eat more. So I did. And, and the thing that I noticed before the scale even changed was severe, like intense emotional release.
Speaker: Like that first week to two weeks of starting to intentionally really, i just started eating fruit. That's really what I did was I just, I ate a crap ton of fruit. And I was like, I am crying all the time. And I am not a crier. I probably went a couple years without crying.
Speaker: And everything hit, everything came out and it wasn't, there wasn't anger. it wasn't like these, this big emotional release where I was just raging and like, you know, some, some people experienced that with emotional release. And I'm like, that's, I don't think that's what we want. Um, but I was just crying all the time, crying myself to sleep. And I felt like I could finally see myself Because I felt like for a long time, everything in life just felt so fuzzy. and it was finally getting clear and I could see myself and i I was starting to see the damage that I had done. And it really grieved me that I had robbed myself and my family from the best version of myself, but then also crying in relief that it was going to get better.
Speaker: And I was also a little upset that I had so much work to do. Not going to lie. um I was like, well, dang, it works. I really have to do this thing. Yes, literally you and everyone else in the world. I think everyone that I've ever worked with comes to that point where we have the exact same conversation. They're like, I don't believe you, but I'm going to trust you with this and see where it goes. I had that with every single client that I had today. They were still kind of raising their eyebrows because we haven't quite seen weight release yet, but I know that their carbs and their potassium aren't quite where it needs to be. and
Speaker: You know, i just I just know that a couple more weeks we're going to start seeing things move. And it's just always funny to see the oh, I didn't believe you, but now I do.
Speaker: transfer yeah and honestly, like and I see this, too, with a lot of people, especially in the holistic community. Most people are eating really well. You weren't eating really bad. You were eating whole food, protein, steak, beef sticks, chicken, eggs, dairy. Like you're not eating bad. you just didn't have a great balance of protein, carbs, and fats, right? And like you said, too, I think, you know, you were talking earlier about outsourcing your intuition and then finally, like, started to trust yourself a little bit more, right? Like, you got the help that you needed, even just with the naturopath, and then just some of the decisions that y'all made, and then when it came to the mold, um when it came to,
Speaker: what you were eating after this third postpartum, right? You had, you were eating a ton of protein because that's what you thought, but also your body was literally telling you, you need carbohydrates. Like, of course you're going to binge eat carbs at night if you're not getting enough during the day, of course. Like, and that that shift in mindset of oh, I'm actually not doing anything wrong. My body is responding exactly like it should. My milk supply is low.
Speaker: I'm not getting the fuel that I need. Of course, I'm going to crave butter rolls, which you you start talking about butter rolls and I'm like, oh my God, I need to go make butter rolls right now, which maybe I'm not getting enough carbs. That sounds so good right now.
Speaker: Oh, they're good. I know, I know. I'm not great at making rolls, actually. I've made rolls well one time, and then I scarred myself two Thanksgivings ago when I tried to make sourdough rolls for Thanksgiving, and they were disgusting. They were so bad, hard as rocks. My kids loved them. That's all they ate the entire Thanksgiving, but they were so bad.
Speaker: So ever since then, I've been kind of scarred to try and make rolls again. That's so funny. Rolls are one of my favorite things to make. i During this time of inflammation, i ran a micro sourdough bakery out of my house. Because why not? Because not? says why not i That was another thing is coming out of this season is, yes, processing the old stressors that we had gone through that I hadn't processed. But then also the new stressors of, okay, we're still recovering financially from this. Like there were constant moving pieces that we needed to figure out. And we quite frankly didn't have the money to do any of it.
Speaker: And so I was a week postpartum driving Instacart with three kids in my car, just trying to make an extra buck. And then I was like, i am really good at sourdough. What am i doing? I can stay home and sell sourdough. So I did. And it was so fun. But I always had rolls and rolls are not bad. I'm not trying to say that they are. But when that's like your only source of like carbs and it's at night and you're eating like five of them at a time, it was probably not the best. You probably should like eat that during the day. Yes. And honestly, i just love I love this part of your story, too, because it just goes to show how scrappy you are and how.
Speaker: important I think that is for most people because I think people get locked up in their head thinking oh well I can't I can't do this I can't eat well because we don't have the money right or i can't do this because it's that and the other I think financial issues are the biggest block for people but even having that mindset of okay how can I make this work right I'm Yeah, I've got three kids. Yeah, running a micro bakery at a week postpartum or driving DoorDash whatever it is with three little kids. That's probably going to be really stressful. Maybe it's not the best, but also life is always going to have this balance, right? It can't be all or nothing. There are seasons where
Speaker: We are working just insanely just to make ends meet, right? And it's, especially when you work for yourself, it's just always up and down. There's never like a you just know what to expect all of the time.
Speaker: But it just goes to show if you, this is going to sound so cliche, but if you put your mind to it, you can make anything happen.
Speaker: It's true though. Yeah. Yes. Like, but I'm so glad, I'm so glad to hear that. Cause I think, especially in the world of social media, people get caught up in seeing the perfect pristine,
Speaker: picture of life and then we forget, oh, actually there are real people out there that are being scrappy and gritty and doing the work to build build the bodies that they want, to build the health that they want, to build the life that they want, even without endless amount of finances, right? Most normal people are not going to be insanely rich, right? Like most of us are just doing what we can. We're driving beat up cars and work inside hustles and doing whatever we can to prioritize what we know is important. So anyways, I just, i love that. So you started seeing changes. What was the jump that first month? Cause I feel like you had a big jump and then you started to slowly see the fat loss after that initial inflammation leveling out. So what was that like?
Speaker: The first 20 pounds came off real easy, really easy. And then after that, it started to slow down. I hit a plateau for a little while and then i hit changed up a few things, right? And then kept going. Now, through all of this, I didn't cut out working out.
Speaker: I didn't stop moving my body. But what I did do was I started walking more and getting more steps and i got heavier dumbbells. I didn't pay for a gym membership. I went and bought one heavier set of dumbbells and focused on using that for everything. And then when that got easy, I went and bought another set.
Speaker: So that's how I've been able to sustainably go through my fitness journey. It wasn't... Oh, I need to go get this gym membership. No, you can do it from home. You can literally... I saw a dumbbell at Goodwill. It was like 25-pound dumbbell. already had 25-pound dumbbells. But I was like, you know what?
Speaker: If that's all someone could get, let me show them how they can use it. So I did like a workout video of how like if that is all you have, use that. Like you can strength train with what you have. I was working with a a gal a little while ago and she used potatoes, bags of potatoes and water bottles full of water. and like, if you want it, you will find a way financially or with resources. It doesn't matter. You will find a way financially.
Speaker: to make it happen. So that's kind of where I was at with, you know, the, the weight start, it came off really easy and then it stopped and I got a little frustrated and I, I there for a little while was a little down about, well, I can't afford a gym membership. Where do I go from here? And my weights are too light for me. It's like, okay, then I need to sell a little bit more bread to be able to get these dumbbells. So then I did and I bought the dumbbells. And then that helped me progress even further into my weight loss because at that point we were dealing with fat loss. It wasn't just inflammation. We're dealing with fat loss and having proper nutrition. Obviously you want to maintain that. I wasn't going to cut my grocery bill to go buy some dumbbells. I think that's dumb.
Speaker: You don't You don't need to do that. Nutrition first and then the strength training. But it really was just being steady and having a good rhythm.
Speaker: And I think... Something that I've seen a lot in women that really made me passionate about this whole thing, about even the idea of becoming a personal trainer, was I see so many women, they like panic about the state that their body is in. And they're like, okay, on Monday, I'm going to get up and I'm going to hit 15,000 steps and I'm going to weight train in the morning. And then I'm going to do a HIIT workout in the evening. And ah And cut calories and they start doing all these really crazy things all at one time and then it doesn't last. Or they do all the crazy things and it lasts for like two months and they lose a bunch of weight and then it's not sustainable. And then when they stop doing it, they gain all the weight back.
Speaker: It's a crazy cycle. that I really, i saw myself even knowing what I know and even having you and our friendship as a resource wanting to do that because I wanted the quick fix. And I am so glad that I did not do the quick fix.
Speaker: It took a while But you know what? My cycles are better. My inflammation is gone. I feel better. I'm nicer to my husband and my children, which praise God.
Speaker: And that's the thing that most people forget. And I love what you said. You said the word steady. And that is the kicker. That is the, where the metabolic money is for honestly everyone, right? Because it's when we have those major swings, like you talked about a couple of minutes ago, would work really, really hard and, you know, not, or eat a bunch of calories, but then the scale would go up. So then you would stop eating as many calories. And then you were just going back and forth, uh, kind of yo-yoing between diets. And then same with like, working out, right? I see this a lot in people too, where it's like, oh, things aren't, you know, moving fast enough. Well, I'm going to just do harder, right? I'm going to drink a gallon of water every day and I'm i'm going to cut carbs and I'm going to 15,000 steps, all of things when really ah i love, i love again, your story because it's such a perfect picture of slowly implementing habit change, right? I think the, okay, I'm going to just work out with these heavier dumbbells until they are easy for me. And then I'm going to buy another heavier set of dumbbells. I think that mentality right there is amazing because honestly, even I would get tripped up with that. I wouldn't even have thought to think that way because in my head, I'm like, oh, well, if I can't afford a full set of dumbbells, I'm just not going to buy them.
Speaker: Such a good mentality of, I'm going to work until this is easy. Right. And that's this whole idea of progressive overload. You're you work with a heavy set of weights until it starts to get easy and then you increase the weight. And that's how we build muscle. And that's a slow and steady process. And people don't want to do the unsexy work of. a steady, rhythmic, habitual change, right? We want to see things change quickly. But even like I lost 50 pounds after my last pregnancy, that didn't happen overnight. I was not, I am not someone that loses weight immediately after giving birth. I remember after my third was born,
Speaker: She was like nine pounds. I only lost eight after she was born. i stepped on the scale and I was eight pounds less, but she was a nine freaking pound baby. I'm like, that doesn't even make sense. Like she weighed more than what I lost. And I'm sure the placenta weighed some, and I'm sure I should have lost water. Like I'm not someone that loses the weight immediately, which is so annoying, right? Cause you want that like boost of, oh yeah, I just lost 50 pounds overnight. No, that does not happen for me. But it was just a slow and steady process. And over a year, maybe 15 months is when you start to see it release. Back in, i think March, I hit kind of a plateau with my weight, which like I wasn't super concerned about because I was seeing my body composition change. i I had steadily lost weight and then I stayed about the same. And I was just a little bit off from where I was before I got pregnant with her.
Speaker: and then i just you know just kept doing what I'm doing and then why don't you know my pants are down another size and actually for whatever reason I felt prompted to start measuring like taking my measurements around like my waist my hips and my bust because I wasn't seeing any changes on the scale so I was like you know what I'm just gonna do my measurements and see And i was seeing inches fall off progressively over the next few weeks. And I literally didn't change anything. And I think that little wins like that, whether it's with your cycle, with your body composition, with your weight, with your energy, your mood, your sleep, your libido, your digestion, all of these things, we want to look at the whole picture because if we're just focusing on weight,
Speaker: It's not a great, you know, I've said this before on social media. Weight is not a great biomarker, right? I think it's good to want to release weight because it really is hard on your joints. It's hard on your bones to be overweight. it's It's not healthy. We should desire and work towards being a healthy weight because it's going to significantly impact our aging, it's going to significantly impact how we're able to parent and grandparent and all of that. It is important and I want to make that clear because I think people in my line of work, I think sometimes people can think I don't think that weight is important. But it is. It's just not the most important. We should be looking at these other things. You should have energy. Your cycle should be regular. You shouldn't be fluctuating 10-ish pounds every 24 hours. i just, I love the picture that you painted of just that steady energy. progressive change because it really is those teeny tiny habits that get you to the health that you want, the body that you want. And it's, it's so unsexy. It's so unsexy to say, well, I'm just going to work out with a set of dumbbells in my garage and I'm going to eat right. And I'm going to go on walks. And that's going to be that because that doesn't get results immediately overnight. It's slow progress.
Speaker: Who gets results overnight? The people who cut carbs and they stop eating. Like, of course you're going to lose weight. Like when you starve yourself, of course you're going to lose weight. I'm not really as impressed by that. I'm impressed if you can do that, sustain it for years to come. And also not be a crappy person. Yep.
Speaker: I yeahp have to filter my words because this is going to be a public podcast. But I mean, really, like truly the people who are undernourished, who are not eating enough carbs, they're the meanest people i have ever met in my entire life. And yes I don't want to be like that. So, you know.
Speaker: All that to say, i love i love everything that you said. So you got through all of this. You started releasing weight. What was the total weight loss that you had after you moved through the fat loss phase?
Speaker: And we made it through inflammation. Made it through inflammation. That was about 20 pounds and then 20 more pounds. So 40. Amazing. Incredible. And how long did that take you? Nine months.
Speaker: Incredible. Which I still think is pretty quick. That's very quick. That's really, that's a pound or two a week, right? That's really fast. I i was talking with another practitioner friend about this, how people underestimate what can happen in a year. Oh, it's it's when I shared a couple months ago that I had lost 50 pounds in a year after giving birth. And she was like, people underestimate what you can do in a year, but that's a pound a week. And you're not doing anything crazy, but you just continue, you know, doing the things that you know, we're going to nourish your body, build muscle, soul help regulate your nervous system. And you look up in nine months and your body is completely different.
Speaker: Now you're serving women and you're working as a personal trainer. You just recently became a nutritional coach as well. So you can offer that. Tell us about that. How, how is that work? To me, these certifications, they're a tool for me to combine together. It's not a thing that I want to separate to any degree at all. I don't want to just work on nutrition here, just work on, you know, someone's physique over here. Like there's so interconnected and that's what I've learned so much is that It's important to, you know, focus on the things that they you enjoy. And I want to help people enjoy fitness. But there is an element of, you know, you you can't just focus on that. You need the nutrition to go with it. And like you've said, that's not sexy. It's not fun. I can make your workouts really, really fun. But I can't promise you that dinner is is going to be super fun.
Speaker: I can't promise that it's going to be a sexy lunch and that you're going to be stoked about eating the same breakfast every day. But I can tell you that if you do the things that you know to do, the logical things that will actually fuel your body, it will make your fun workouts even more fun because you're going to feel good after it too. And that's the thing that I've seen with a lot of people is they invest a lot of money in like let's say burn bootcamp, for example, and they go in there. It's very high intensity. I love a high intensity workout. i mean, I was addicted to it. You get such a high off of it, right? But without the strength part of it, you're more susceptible to injury.
Speaker: Hit workouts, they're easy to fly through it and be really sloppy with it. You cannot be sloppy with strength training. So people will go and spend a lot of money on these super snazzy, sexy workouts and And they won't spend the money on nutrition. What I want to do is connect the two I want to make them, you know, whatever they they love most, food or fitness, whatever there they find enjoyment in, right? Like I want to make that so exciting for them that they have no choice but to do the other hard thing that goes along with it. Does that make sense?
Speaker: Yes. And I love that because honestly, it's it's kind of like working with your child. And i I don't mean this in a bad way, but you know, with kids, like, they're not going to do something that's not fun, right? Like if I tell my kids to pick up their toys, my daughter, that my six-year-old the other day, was was like, okay, you need it's time to clean up the toy room. She's like, no, I'm not going to clean up the toy room. I'm like, okay.
Speaker: you know that chores don't have to be boring. Chores can be fun. And she was like, what? i was like, yeah, we can play a game when we do chores. Mommy can put on fun music and we can have a dance party while we do chores. And her little brain was like, oh my God, chores are the best thing in the entire world, all because we made it fun. and I think that it can be the same as adults. I don't think in our heart of hearts, I don't think that we are much different, right? I think that we want things to be fun. We want things to be delicious. We want our food to be delicious. We want our workouts to be fun. I'm with you. I love, love a high intensity workout. I love how I feel after going for a run. I didn't run for a long time until I figured out my carbs and all of those things because I used to run all the time and it it tanked, tanked my metabolic markers. But then once I got things back to where, you know, they were in a good place, started running again. And you know what? I felt great and everything looked great. And so I think combining the two, is honestly, you're speaking my love language because it really is so important. And it's so stupid to me. i make this joke all the time because I spent $70,000 on a degree in exercise physiology. And i got one hour of nutrition science in the entire degree and And everything else that I was taught in the entire four years when it came to nourishment and building muscle and all of that was you just need to be in a calorie deficit. That's it.
Speaker: I was given nothing else and everything else I had to learn on my own. And wouldn't you know? When you start eating well and you actually nourish your body, it makes it easier to lose weight and build muscle, right? Because your muscles require fuel, right? We know that carbs are your muscles' preferred source of energy when they're active. And then we know that at rest, your muscles' preferred source of energy...
Speaker: It's fat. When we are resting, the more muscle that we have, the more fat we will burn literally while we sleep. And I think that that's honestly so encouraging to me because I am someone who likes to be the most efficient as possible. I want to be doing something while I'm doing something. And so the fact that I can be like, yeah, I'm burning fat while I sleep, that just makes me feel really good.
Speaker: Yes. So i love the combination. and honestly, it's so needed, right? I was working with a client actually this morning. She started personal training at her gym and she goes multiple times a week. She hasn't lost any weight and she hasn't really seen any progress. And her personal trainer is like, well, you should be seeing progress right now and hasn't given her any help. And we really, we had to break it down today. I'm like, well, your carbs are still really, really low. Your potassium is still really, really low. There are a couple of things that that we needed to tweak. Even you mentioned this a couple minutes ago too, her overall daily movement is really low. And so, you know, we need to actually be moving throughout the day. We can't just expect one hour workout a few times a week and then to sit on our butt all day long for that to really make any progress.
Speaker: Right. yeah, I just, i love how simple you make it with, this is just a part of your life. And i mean, you have three kids, right? You have three kids, your husband works long hours and you're working out in your garage. If you can do it, literally anyone can.
Speaker: You are such a great example for the people in our community. And I'm so glad that you offer these services to people now because you have such a story that can help so many people, such a story of redemption and hope. I think that a lot of people that would have been given the diagnosis that you've had over their lifetime probably would have just sat in that and accept that as their fate. And the fact that you went from being in a wheelchair and given a six month life diet lifespan, right? Like you have six months to live to now you have three beautiful children and a full life and you're running this awesome business serving women, helping people become stronger. Like what a beautiful full circle. So tell me how can people find you?
Speaker: How can they work with you? You offer services online, correct? How does that work? I do offer services online. It's at movewellmama.com. My brand is Move Well Mama. So everything that I do online is Move Well Mama. Instagram is movewellmama underscore. TikTok is movewellmama.cpt. Hopefully that will be movewellmama underscore soon, but I'll send you the link. You can put it below.
Speaker: um And then, yeah my website is movewellmama.com. And I have lots of different services that I offer one on one coaching, some courses, and coming soon, some free resources to help people kind of get their foot in the door with a sustainable fitness lifestyle. Because that's the thing is it it has to be sustainable for it to be a lifestyle. It needs to be sustainable to be beneficial. It needs to be a lifestyle to be beneficial.
Speaker: In the long run, my main thing is helping with lifestyle. So if you want help changing your entire entire lifestyle, I'm your girl. Because I truly believe squashing those excuses is the first step to not even needing motivation.
Speaker: Like you shouldn't need motivation to do the thing that's going to help you be a better grandma, a better mom, live longer, not develop osteoporosis, you know? Not rage at your husband. Yes, not lose all of your teeth. That's like my biggest fear is to lose all of my teeth. That's why I drink so much milk. That's why I eat so much. Because...
Speaker: Number one, all of my family has bad teeth. But number two, I'm just like mortified of losing my teeth. And I've heard so many horror stories of like women who've had lots of kids lose their teeth. So yes in my head, if I have all of my teeth and a big booty, I'm like set in life. That's like Amen.
Speaker: amen That's all I need to do well. Which did you know, and this is one of my favorite tidbits, but did you know that glute size is one of the number one indicators of longevity in human beings? The size and strength your glutes. It is one of the best indicators of how well you are going to age is your glute muscles. So the ladies that want a dumpy...
Speaker: That's actually not just for aesthetics. That is actually, it will protect you against osteoporosis, against different issues with your spine. It'll protect against so many age-related declines if you have a big booty. So that's just my favorite. Did you know, did you know that your thigh muscles, like your your leg, upper leg muscles are directly related to your cognitive function as you age?
Speaker: I didn't, but I believe it. And honestly, it makes sense because I have thunder thighs and I think I'm really smart. So, you know. Why? Hey, maybe that's why I have thunder thighs. Maybe that's why. It's the thunder thighs, right? Like my thighs match my brain. And you know what?
Speaker: i'm I'm here for it. Yes. Glute day, leg day, all day. All day. I could do leg day literally every day. It's my favorite day. I will tell. Maybe it's because I was a dancer, but I will – Hell it. Love it.
Speaker: Big booty, big thighs. You know what? We're going to be smart and sexy as we grow old. Go for it. Well, Maggie, thank you so much for getting on with me today. i am really excited for my audience to get this episode. I think your story is really encouraging for a lot of people. I think a lot of people will see themselves in your story and see hope in your story. And so i will put in the show notes where people can find you. So movewellmama.com, movewellmama dot com movewell mama underscore for Instagram, and then movewellmama.cpt for TikTok. Okay. Awesome. yeah And we'll put it all below so people can find it because truly i think that this is a need that a lot of people have. They need the strength training help, right? even Even me, I have a degree in this and it's still helpful for me to get help like building workouts because sometimes you just need someone to give you something easy to follow. I've got three kids. I run a big business.
Speaker: Even though I have all of the knowledge, sometimes it's hard for me to be like, oh, I need to... build a workout and figure it out and stick to it. Yeah. So I think that this is beneficial for literally everyone. Thank you so much again. And thank you everyone for listening.
Speaker: If you found this podcast helpful, I'd love for you to take literally two seconds, hit the subscribe button and leave a review. Doing so helps to get this podcast seen by more people who need to hear it. Thank you so much again for listening and we'll see you next week.
