Discovering her "pink" amidst the gray days of postpartum depression wasn't easy, but it was a journey that brought her to a place of empowerment and vitality. This week on Self Care Society, Brenna Smith joins us to reveal how she helps women unearth that lost spark through dedicated self-care. We weave through stories of transformation, where the seemingly small habit changes in Brenna's clients have sparked profound shifts in health, happiness, and perspective. Embracing holistic self-care isn't just about shedding pounds; it's about nurturing our entire being to flourish in all aspects of life.
Navigating the personal side of wellness can be challenging, especially when juggling the demands of the sandwich generation. Her own serendipitous discovery of pickleball offered a refreshing outlet for community and fitness, a sentiment echoed by many seeking balance. Brenna and Kerri also touch on the delicate relationship between client and personal trainer, where emotional vulnerability meets the honor of guiding someone through their wellness journey. As we wrap up the episode, we leave our listeners with a powerful affirmation: Caring for oneself is an act of necessity, not indulgence – a mantra to carry in our hearts until we meet again.
Brenna's bio:
I am a mother of two college-aged kids and was born and raised in a small town in TN. I'm a mild-mannered accountant by day but when I'm not working my full time job, I have a passion for helping others achieve their best level of health and fitness (mental and physical). My own struggles with weight and identity as a new Mom who battled post-partum depression led me to earn certifications in Personal Training and Behavior Change Specialization among other group fitness certifications. I believe caring for your mind and body in a way that helps it excel and helps you find your best level of energy is a highly overlooked form of self-care.
https://www.facebook.com/CoachBrennaSmith/
https://mysite.coach.teambeachbody.com/?coachId=45732&locale=en_US#contact
Discovering her "pink" amidst the gray days of postpartum depression wasn't easy, but it was a journey that brought her to a place of empowerment and vitality. This week on Self Care Society, Brenna Smith joins us to reveal how she helps women unearth that lost spark through dedicated self-care. We weave through stories of transformation, where the seemingly small habit changes in Brenna's clients have sparked profound shifts in health, happiness, and perspective. Embracing holistic self-care isn't just about shedding pounds; it's about nurturing our entire being to flourish in all aspects of life.
Navigating the personal side of wellness can be challenging, especially when juggling the demands of the sandwich generation. Her own serendipitous discovery of pickleball offered a refreshing outlet for community and fitness, a sentiment echoed by many seeking balance. Brenna and Kerri also touch on the delicate relationship between client and personal trainer, where emotional vulnerability meets the honor of guiding someone through their wellness journey. As we wrap up the episode, we leave our listeners with a powerful affirmation: Caring for oneself is an act of necessity, not indulgence – a mantra to carry in our hearts until we meet again.
Brenna's bio:
I am a mother of two college-aged kids and was born and raised in a small town in TN. I'm a mild-mannered accountant by day but when I'm not working my full time job, I have a passion for helping others achieve their best level of health and fitness (mental and physical). My own struggles with weight and identity as a new Mom who battled post-partum depression led me to earn certifications in Personal Training and Behavior Change Specialization among other group fitness certifications. I believe caring for your mind and body in a way that helps it excel and helps you find your best level of energy is a highly overlooked form of self-care.
https://www.facebook.com/CoachBrennaSmith/
https://mysite.coach.teambeachbody.com/?coachId=45732&locale=en_US#contact
Welcome to the Self Care Society podcast with your hosts Celia Williamson, ashley Kutcher, louis Guardiola and Carrie Shaw, a podcast devoted to those whose job it is to help others get or remain mentally, physically and emotionally healthy, but who also need to take care of themselves.
Speaker 2:How we're going to do this? By first showing you the filtered, pretty version of success and then the real struggles, real work and raw grit it took to get there, how they took care of themselves and also achieved their goals while doing it Together.
Speaker 1:we will work with you to improve and maintain your internal health and growth, while helping you achieve your external goals and your next professional achievement in life.
Speaker 2:And we're excited to show you how to follow your own individual and unique path and achieve the dreams you have, while taking good care of yourself. So let's get started. Welcome to this week's episode of the Self Care Society podcast. I'm the host, carrie Shaw, and today I'm speaking with Brenna Smith about her journey with self care.
Speaker 2:Brenna Smith is a mother of two college aged kids and was born and raised in a small town in Tennessee. She is a mild mannered accountant by day, but when she's not working her full time job, brenna has a passion for helping others achieve their best level of health and fitness, with mental and physical. Her own struggles with weight and identity as a new mom who battled postpartum depression led her to earn certifications in personal training and behavior change specialization, among other group fitness certifications. Brenna believes caring for your mind and body in a way that helps it excel and helps you find your best level of energy is a highly overlooked form of self care. Brenna, welcome to Self Care Society. Thank you for having me. We're going to learn about the real versus real, brenna Smith today, and I'm excited about this conversation. Can you share a little bit about the R-E-E-L, brenna Smith, the highlight?
Speaker 3:reel yeah, absolutely, and you touched on some of those points where I've taught fitness classes and been a personal trainer now for well over a decade, well over 12 years now and I love and have a passion for helping women, especially, find their pink again. We kind of discussed this beforehand, but there's this adage that the mother flamingo loses her pink because of what she contributes to her babies. And I feel like, as women especially, we can easily lose our pink and have a hard time finding it again, and I love helping women find that again, and sometimes that's with weight loss. But the weight loss is often a byproduct of habit changes and so I have friends that you know. I work with clients I call them friends now that I help them to change their habits and it changes their life and I absolutely adore that. I absolutely adore helping other people find their joy and their spark again.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's fantastic. Do you happen to have any special stories or any highlights or successes that you feel comfortable sharing with the audience?
Speaker 3:I do, I do and of course, I keep everything very general. But I do have one of my most recent friends, slash clients. She came on board wanting to lose some weight and this happens, and I tell this with everybody that I work with. Anytime you're getting ready to make a positive life change, everything in the world will come at you. I mean everything in the world will come at you. It has been completely true for every client I've had, and this single mom of two kids this is a good friend of mine actually came to me and she's like I would love to work with you. She's always been a great supporter in the things that I've done and she said I really want to make some life changes, so let's do this Immediately.
Speaker 3:One of her child, one of her daughters, actually broke her arm. She herself got shingles. She had to have surgery and so all this time she's worrying about wanting to fit in the workouts and things that we had worked planned for her, but instead she wasn't able to do those things. She focused on just habits and doing like little habits and just being more mindful of what she was eating and taking care of herself, and one of the things that we talked about is giving yourself permission to rest because your body is demanding it. You can't hop up from shingles and do a workout, and she doesn't work that way, but even in the 12 weeks that we worked together, she lost 12 pounds, and maybe only four weeks of that was she ever able to get workouts in. And just in such a the small habits that require you to take care of yourself. The way you take care of yourself is weight loss becomes a byproduct.
Speaker 3:So, it's less the focus.
Speaker 2:it's less the focus, but it's more about thinking about the behavior changes, the behavior changes.
Speaker 3:It's the little things, it's the simple things. I feel like we have so many things coming at us in every direction of here's how to lose 15 pounds in two weeks, which is, first off, unhealthy, in seconds just not possible that we forget as women. It's not just about weight loss. It's about learning how to take care of ourselves and just small behavior changes. And sometimes those behavior changes are about just slowing down and not worrying about demanding crazy workouts, but taking care of ourselves, nurturing ourselves with the right foods and that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:So she's one of the ones I'm both about, because I'm just so proud of her and it's not my accomplishment, it's hers and another friend has had similar things happen, but she's shown up for herself every day.
Speaker 3:She's a new mom and she has shown up for herself, and we do personalized habits for each person that I work with, and so we created habits specifically for her and she shows up every day and it has made a difference in how she mothers. It's made a difference in how she shows up as a wife, because she's taking time to take care of herself and she has met her weight loss goal in the 12 weeks that we've worked together. So I love that. I love when someone starts with I just really wanna lose weight, but instead just makes changes in their behaviors and shows up for themselves. Because as mothers or as spouses or as friends, we put everybody else first, and sometimes it's a matter of slowing down and preparing our food and taking care of ourselves. It's still selfish sometimes. So I'm proud of these ladies and all the ones that I'm working with that are taking time to care for themselves a little bit more.
Speaker 2:I so appreciate that, Brennan, because I think, as being especially in that time of being a new mom, we do feel like we are giving, giving, giving all the time and so getting that message that it's okay to take that time for yourself and that you're gonna be better as showing up for other people when you do that.
Speaker 2:And that's really such an important message. So I'm curious, brennan, about how you got to this place yourself. Who is the R-E-A-L, brennan, and how did you arrive at this kind of really, really neat way of helping the women in your life?
Speaker 3:Well, I'll tell you that I can remember being uncomfortable in my skin from like my freshman year in high school. I've always felt like there was a part of me that didn't quite fit if I wasn't skinny or if I wasn't looking a certain way, or something like that. And then we always battle those things when we're in high school, middle school, high school. When I was in college and my original degree was in communications, my dad, who was a wonderful man, was in advertising and I was talking to him about things, about things I might want to do down the road, and he said well, you know, if you're going to be on screen, you might have to lose weight. And I thought, oh no, does that mean I'm big? And that's not what he was trying to say at all. That's not what he was trying to say at all. He was trying to say there's, there's at that point in time, especially in the early 90s, or yeah, that there was this specific aesthetic. That may or may not be true now. And so I was then even more hyper, aware of, oh my gosh, I've got to be a certain thing. And it was about that time that I started exercising in college as well. It wasn't because of what he said, necessarily it was. It was we're just right about the same time, and so I found that that actually made me feel good. It wasn't about weight loss, I just felt good, you know.
Speaker 3:And then I got married and with my first child, I had that severe postpartum depression. And we didn't talk about that in those days, 20 something years ago, and I thought I was losing my mind. I thought I was a horrible human being and struggled tremendously, not only with my identity as a new mom, but now, then the weight came back, you know, because I just had a baby and so there's a whole lot of things that were going on in there. When I was pregnant with my second one, I thought I don't want to feel that way. What do I need to do? So I got the courage to talk to my doctor about okay, this is what I experienced after my first child. I don't want to feel this way again. So I was on the end of the presence and that really wasn't doing the trick either.
Speaker 3:And so I found a friend, introduced me to a workout program and I started with it and I fell in love with lifting weights. So I had gone from exercising when I was in college and I meant exercising after having my first one to now lifting weights at home, which was perfect for me as a mom now of two littles. I was doing workouts at home and it just made me feel strong. I fell in love with the feeling of being strong. My habits there changed quite a bit. My husband at the time we're divorced now, unfortunately but he was very much into health and fitness himself and so it was great just to feel strong. And so that led to becoming a personal trainer. And I realized in personal training they would become counseling sessions more than exercise sessions and I thought, well, how can I help people better? So I got that behavior change certification. What's been interesting and what's a kind of vulnerable spot is during our divorce. Right after our divorce I was probably at my smallest, and in the past two years hormonal changes have been an unwelcome guest.
Speaker 2:I'm right there with you, Brenna.
Speaker 3:So unwelcome. And so you know we talked about and you talk about on your podcast quite a bit about how those that help others care for themselves. Well, here I was now wanting to launch this fitness business. I was at the smallest quote, unquote, smallest version of myself, but starting to have these hormonal changes that was drastically taking me the other way and I felt like a failure. And there are times still that I struggle with that because those hormonal changes that again, only just now, are we talking about publicly the old one prepared me for what this was going to be like and what kind of hell this was going to inflict on my body, so that I those struggles, I think, helped me reach other people.
Speaker 2:Well, but you can relate to them. Brenna, Is that what you mean?
Speaker 3:I think so Obviously I can't relate to what everybody's gone through, but I can certainly relate to women in general going through this phase in our life where the same things that we've done before to feel good for our self care that made us feel good, don't work anymore because our body response so completely different than it used to. And I really advocate now for because of what I'm currently experiencing for women to get their hormones checked to get, you know, all of that seen to, because nobody talks about it. And I have. I have the same struggles that everybody else has. You know, the weights crept on in just a matter of months.
Speaker 3:I went from being my smallest to my largest, without anything in my life changing. Yeah, as far as my habits go, and so that part I don't always share, but I try to let women know okay, well, I've been where you are, but it's hard. It's hard to take care of yourself and try to reach out to other people in a way that doesn't make them feel like you're trying to monopolize on their, on their situation, because it's just hard. People don't understand what it's like. Women don't understand until you reach this point. So, like you said that you've it's. It's a whole different world.
Speaker 2:It is like I woke up in my body isn't mine anymore. Yes, I can really relate to this and didn't expect to talk about this today.
Speaker 3:I'm really bad about that, but that is, that is definitely the real side of me. That where the hormone changes and everything that you know, the guy, my, my guy, my that I'm seeing, you know we talk about all the things and even that, because just no one understands can how much that sidetracks everything. So yeah, but that's, that's definitely the real side of me, for sure.
Speaker 2:So I oh, I lost my question, brenna, sorry, I took it from the script. No, no, this is a good trip. Yeah, I mean I think I self care. Like part of that is that self care does change as we get older and as our bodies change and that, you know, I find myself really I've never, ever wanted to really play in like I'm not an athlete, I don't see myself as an athlete, but there's this pickleball phenomenon that, like I enjoy it so much and never, ever expected it and I like found that it meets my social needs, whereas like it's so hard at this age when we're part of the sandwich generation of like taking care of people on both ends. You know, I'm taking my caregiver for my dad and I also have a 13 year old, and so self care.
Speaker 2:I've spent a lot of social time and I find that pickleball is social and it's physical, physical activity for me. So it's been a really kind of like surprise discovery that, oh, this is fun and I'm making friends and so just, yeah, like I really it's not just my body that's changing, but also the things that I'm interested in, it seems like are also changing. Yeah, so I wonder, I'm a little. I was going to ask you about being a coach or being being this kind of mentor, as you're accompanying people on this journey. Well, I mean, that is that sacred. I feel like it's a real honor to do that work with people and I just I'm curious if I'm just losing my questions. Hang on, it's okay. Okay, brenna, so sorry about that. I just had one of those almost 50-year-old brain doesn't work moment, which is also very real.
Speaker 2:So I am curious about the relationships that you have with people that you're working with. You know this being a really secret journey with them and what that's been like for you. Yeah, just kind of how is that dynamic? I think for a lot of people when I think about a person having a personal trainer, that scares the bejesus out of me, like it's really intimidating to think like somebody's gonna know how weak I am or how I haven't taken care of my body, or you know they're gonna see the side of me that I maybe guard and protect and have some shame around.
Speaker 3:It is. It's hard to. It's that whole difficulty asking for help in general, and I find that when women come to me and they are ready, they are usually at a point where they are on an emotional side of it because they're hurting. Typically, by the time that someone comes to me, they're either in a hurting place or they're just over it and gung-ho already. It's usually one of those two. Sometimes there's a little middle and I just feel very honored because it is.
Speaker 3:It is a very precious thing when someone trusts you with their physical health and with all of the emotions and all of the all of the parts that they lent you into their inner world. I'm not finding my words right now either. It's a very precious thing and I don't take that for granted. And it's interesting how people respond differently to different stimulus in this. So if they're in a very emotional state, sometimes we have to, I have to change how I communicate. Or if someone's like I just don't think I can do this, I'm gonna need you to be difficult, hard with me. I'm not a hard person typically, but they need that and so I'll have to be like okay, you haven't seen the results, let's talk about have you done the things, you know, and that's a really difficult conversation for both of us. I consider myself an empathetic person and sometimes that's hard to carry Other people's hurt and frustration even with themselves, but I want to do that in order to help them reach their goals, and sometimes I really have to do that.
Speaker 3:I find that one person was extremely emotional when she first got started, and she was emotional because she had been in an emotionally abusive relationship that made her feel worthless and she didn't feel like she was worth the time and effort and energy and resources to go into this, and so there were times that I could see her slipping into that and that's why she wasn't reaching into the or filling out my clients.
Speaker 3:I have them on a specified calendar, so they open up their app every day. They check off the things that they do. A lot of it's more mindset than even physical, and I could tell where she hadn't gone in and done even the small things, and so I could tell that she was in that state of I'm just. It's not worth it, I'm not worth putting this effort in. So it's really about learning each person and feel like cookie cutter programs aren't successful for a reason Because you have to meet people where they are, and sometimes it's not about those work, those workouts it's about it's just about believing in that they're worth the time and effort and energy and resources that they're putting into the program, If that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. But we can't parse out the physical wellness from the emotional wellness, so they are really intertwined they are.
Speaker 3:They really are. And what I love one of my favorite things I've spoken so much about the personal training side that I do the class leading and I've done boot camps that I've styled myself. I'm teaching kickboxing classes now and I love love when I see somebody come into a class and they either have had a really difficult day or they believe they can't do it and to watch the process go through their, their face, watching their facial expressions when they get started and kind of hesitant, and then, when they find it, they find the strength to lift that heavier weight or they find the strength to just knock out whatever it is on the bag. That's. That's the moment where I'm like this is why. Because you can just see that emotional and physical come together and it just all kind of explodes and really. So, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:In that one yeah, in that one instant you can watch somebody get over something, whether it's a fear of I can't do this or a frustration that they've had to deal with that they haven't let out. Seeing that come across, oh, it's a beautiful thing and it's, and it is married. It's a marriage of emotion and physicality. Success and white losses relate to some of understanding how they meet.
Speaker 2:I feel like yeah, the psychology behind it, bob, this is fabulous and I hope that listening to this helps people maybe, like myself, be less intimidated. By reaching out to a personal trainer or a coach or just even a friend to be their accountability partner can really help sometimes.
Speaker 3:Well, and I love that you tried. You're talking about the pickleball and so I wanted to get this. I won't take too much time, but I love that you tried. I want to try pickleball first off, so I'm very insanely envious.
Speaker 3:Secondly, I feel like we've lost joy in movement Movement just for this sheer joy of it, because remember we were kids like we would run around and we'd ride our bicycles and we would do Court wheels and we would do all these fun things because they were fun to do. Yeah, it's somewhere along the way we lose that, and I don't know if it's just being self-conscious, I'm not sure what it is, but I love that you did that and I love when I see other women stepping out or people in general trying to find some, something that brings them joy and movement at the same time. And I feel like the people that help others if they can find something like that, like the pickleball or something along those lines. Gosh, that's such a great thing to a great release. You know, just joy in something that's active you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:We make all of it so difficult. Sometimes it's just the simple things. That's my program is called simplified habits, because it's just the simple things. It's the simple joys, it's the simple slowing down, just taking care of yourself.
Speaker 2:So yeah, thank you, prana. Yeah, like finding finding our inner child again in our bodies and our, yeah, just remembering how to play. It's huge. Yeah, absolutely Well, prana, as we wind, wind down, is there anything that you would like to share? Any final words of wisdom or lessons learned along your journey?
Speaker 3:I think that the biggest lesson I really want to share with anybody is just make things simple. How can I make things simple? You know it's. If it's a food thing, if it's nutrition thing, I feel like a lot of people that's where they struggle with their nutrition, whether that's for weight loss or just self care in general. Just keep it simple. How can I add more protein to this? Or how can I? How can I add more water into my day? How can I get a little bit more movement in a way that's fun for me?
Speaker 3:I would just encourage anybody that's starting something new and those are the ways I actually start people on that, because I start them getting more steps in throughout the day in a way that they enjoy Getting more water in, getting more protein into their diet and just doing the simple habits. I think a lot of times we overwhelm ourselves with I've got to eat right every single day and I've got to exercise hard every single day and that's not working and it's not sustainable, especially if you're beginning, just beginning. So I would just like to encourage people just to keep things simple. Start with simple habits and then build on those. You can always add more, you know, but start simple. I love that. Thank you, brenna.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for letting me share this. I appreciate that, me too this has been a great conversation and good luck with you and your journey and with all everyone that you're helping, and so everyone who's listening. This is Brenna Smith. I'm Keri Shaw, the host this week of Self Care Society. Remember, it's not selfish, it's self care. Absolutely. Thank you all, thank you. Thank you. That concludes this week's episode. And remember it's not selfish, it's self care. It's not selfish, it's self care.