Vanessa G Fitcast

I was baby-sitting a 5-year-old girl (NOT my perfect little niece from this video) when I found myself shocked into silence… ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣My goal to get her to take a shower suddenly felt unimportant as I watched her stand in front of the mirror, put her hands on her cute little 5-year-old belly, and say ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣“I’m fat.”⁣⁣⁣⁣No idea how to respond (I was 16 at the time), I defaulted to “don’t say that!”⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣Of course, considering I was talking to a 5 year old, this just prompted a “why?”⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I too thought “why?”⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣WHY is a FIVE year old girl picking apart her body?⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I was very familiar with the struggles of comparing my body to other girls in high school, ⁣⁣finding myself wearing looser shirts and positioning myself in photos to hide the parts of my body I was ashamed of… ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣But this was when I first realized just how much diet culture and negative body talk affect us.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣When women say “I can’t eat that” or “I’m on a diet”… girls hear that too.⁣⁣⁣This has always been a deep driver for me as a coach…⁣⁣⁣⁣Despite the 1000+ women my team and I have coached over the last 5 years, I was NOT put on this earth to help women lose weight.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I was put on this earth to help women LOVE their bodies by HEALING them. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣Is weight loss often a part of that journey toward health? For sure!⁣⁣ And our girls are dang proud of the external transformations they achieve. ⁣⁣But these transformations come from a place of LOVE and wanting to give ourselves the gift of consistent energy, regular PMS-free cycles, freedom to eat foods without fear of GI issues… not from a place of self-hate or shame.⁣ In this episode, we'll discuss how to pull yourselves toward your goals in a positive way rather than being pushed by ego or in negative ways. This is a powerful mindset shift to head into the new year with and we hope you start adopting it today!  Time Stamps:  (0:42) Shared A Recent Story On Instagram (5:45) Pulling Ourselves Into The Positive (8:45) Imagine You Are Talking To A 5 Year Old (15:55) Our Individualized Approach---------------------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!

Would you believe me if I said the majority of our clients at Vital Spark consume 2000+ calories?  Many even higher! In order to understand this, you need to understand BMR. You have actual BMR, potential BMR, actual TDEE, and potential TDEE. Getting to potential TDEE will create a metabolism that is more forgiving to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle. For those who don't know, BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate and TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure (we'll explain what these mean in the episode).  So how do we get to potential BMR and potential TDEE? BMR: Improve metabolic processes by working systems of the body: Adrenals, Thyroid, Liver, Gut, Sex hormones, and Insulin. TDEE: Increase NEAT: Work on habits and behaviors to increase activity levels, Increase energy by feeding up, Increase desire to get out and move by improving internal health (you’re less inclined to play with your kids or do active adventures with friends when your PMS is terrible or your gut is irritated),  Optimize NEAT: Strength train > cardio, More calorie burn POST workout, Work smarter not harder, Make it shorter and more effective, which makes you more consistent with workouts. Optimize TEF: Work on food quality without unnecessarily removing foods and creating restriction. ADD don’t subtract mindset This is why you’ll see me share so many quotes or testimonial videos from clients saying how they’re eating foods they used to restrict, and have LOST weight! Listen in as we go in detail about all of this and more!  Time Stamps:  (1:46) Quick Story You May Relate To (4:10) What Is BMR? (6:21) What Burns Calories (8:04) Diving Deeper Into BMR (10:02) Potential vs Actual TDEE (15:37) Our Process (18:32) The Calories Out Portion (20:08) Actions We Have Our Clients Work On (22:32) Food Quality---------------------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 officially hit 200 episodes! We appreciate all of you that have listened to one, all (DM us if you have) or anything in between! Last episode we talked about how optimizing insulin and blood sugar is really the hidden gem for a lot of people’s hormone healing and weight loss journeys, we chatted about how to know if you are insulin resistant or on the path toward insulin resistance, and we walked through the science of how these things actually work in the body so you can UNDERSTAND WHY this impacts your weight. This week let’s chat about how to actually balance blood sugar from a nutrition, movement, and lifestyle perspective! First, I want to share a story about a woman named Susie who also listens to the Vanessa G Fitcast.  Susie just started her own business and is busier than ever. She sleeps 5-7 hours at best and often forgets to eat, leading to some binge eating at night and/or on the weekends. She has always carried a bit more weight than she would like so she has had a history of yo-yo diets in the past to try and lose the weight.  Nowadays she eats overall healthy, but truthfully her health isn’t as much of a priority as it once was, as she is at her desk most of the day and doesn’t have time for much activity. She listened to Episode 199 and starts to put the puzzle pieces together of how blood sugar could be playing a role in keeping her stuck. If you resonate with Susie, I have 6 foundational blood sugar balancing strategies that you can start using today that we've seen make a tremendous difference in the lives of our clients.  Let us know which ones you'll be incorporating soon!  Time Stamps: (1:12) Episode 200!!! (2:48) Last Week’s Episode (4:15) Story Time (9:32) Insulin Surge (15:44) Consistent Meal Timing (18:50) Managing Fiber Intake (20:17) Awareness of Macros (24:12) Naked Carbs (29:37) Low Intensity Movement and Strength Training (31:57) Supplementation When Needed (33:42) Support From Specialists---------------------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!

Optimizing insulin and blood sugar is really the hidden gem for a lot of people’s hormone healing and weight loss journeys. After consuming food, especially carbs, blood sugar levels rise. The pancreas detects this increase and releases insulin. Insulin facilitates the update of glucose by cells, promoting conversion into energy or storage as glycogen in the liver and muscles. In periods of low blood sugar (fasting, between meals, or during physical activity), the pancreas releases glucagon to stimulate the liver to convert stored glycogen into glucose, releasing it into the bloodstream to raise blood glucose levels. Blood glucose levels are constantly changing within the body, and feedback mechanisms adjust insulin and glucagon release accordingly. Over time, insulin insensitivity can occur when blood sugars are consistently high, and the pancreas keeps on secreting big dumps of insulin, and the cells start to become resistant to it. Meaning that the message is sent, but it’s never delivered or read.  To compensate, the pancreas will then secrete more insulin in order to push that message through. This can eventually lead to high levels of insulin and blood sugar at the same time! Insulin resistance can result in: Excess storage of fat, especially in the midsection (apple shape!) Reduced energy production. Less ability to burn calories and tap into fat stores. Poor blood sugar regulation. Muscle loss. Systemic inflammation and immune system issues. Other hormonal imbalances. It may also contribute to high triglyceride levels, low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, and propel you toward metabolic syndrome, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. In this episode, we want to take a deep dive into all things insulin and insulin resistance so you understand what your body is doing from a hormonal level and what you can do to counteract these potential consequences.  Everyone is different though so make sure you seek out those trained to handle more complex cases like us here at Vital Spark! Time Stamps: (2:14) Insulin Resistance (3:52) What Is Insulin? (6:20) Storage Forms of Glucose (8:29) What Happens When Blood Sugar Gets Low? (12:57) Omar’s Honest Thoughts Where He’s At (19:16) Common Signs of Insulin Resistance (24:44) Fasted Blood Insulin Marker (27:44) Normal vs Optimal (30:12) Tracking Blood Sugar---------------------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!