Hello to all of you Hearts Rise up listeners, Thank you for tuning your heart's in for another episode of this podcast. I'm carol chapman, your host for this episode. Rising up to life's challenges is hard work, especially in today's seemingly chaotic world, all of which can pull us down if we let it, life doesn't have to be hard, we don't have to let outer circumstances or others dictate how we feel and act or define who we are now, more than ever is the time to unleash our own inner power and innate wisdom, to guide us to experience more joy and happiness in life, because true power lies within not without. And when we go within, we tap into our loving heart centered higher self, the more we attuned to our higher self, the more we elevate our state of being our life and the world around us. It's that simple.

So let's get right into today's episode. I'd like to welcome my guest today Rebecca Boskovic. Let me tell you a little bit about Rebecca. Rebecca lives a life infused by the love of and in loving her husband and four Children ages 15, 12, 8 and five. Her happiest moments are spent on picnics with her family and watching her Children grow and mature and when a client discovers they're stronger than they ever imagined, they'd be A lifelong seeker of truth. Beauty and courage. Rebecca believes that the best things in life include all three in her current endeavor to launch her personal training studio in Suwannee Georgia. She helps clients who are looking for that personal touch in achieving their fitness goals. She understands that for lasting change to take place in someone's fitness goals, we also need to tend to how we see and feel about ourselves.

Her ultimate goal for her clients is for them to see transformations at not only the physical level but the mental and emotional level as well. Rebecca is the founder and Ceo of the fittest me, a personal training and nutrition studio and digital site focused on whole body health. She also has a podcast called Strength for Life Rebecca, Welcome to the show. Thank you carol. It is wonderful to be here. I felt so honored when you asked me to come and considering I'd already listened to some of your podcasts, I knew we'd be a good fit, awesome. I'm so excited that you're here because you've got some great information that I think is really going to help our listeners and if if you would, perhaps you could just elaborate a little bit more on what I had to to say and how you got into what you're doing today. You know, my story actually begins with, I think my personality trait which is simply that I like to find solutions.

And so if you actually went through my life and saw major changes and major choices that I've taken that I've made almost always, it's because there was some problem that needed to be solved. And so what happened in terms of my fitness journey that all began, because I was, I had started working out at this new crossfit box and I looked around and there were no kids classes, but I have Children who hadn't really found a fit in traditional sports. And so I asked the owner, I said, hey, you know, you're thinking about opening some kids classes. They said no, but you could. So I thought, okay, well if I'm it, let's do it. So I went and got all my certifications simply just to run a kids program. Wow, that's amazing. So I ran a kids program and a teens program and during those two years that I was doing that, I also got pulled in to do some coaching for their regular members. And what I ended up finding is that the women in particular, that those are the ones I was gravitating to, and specifically women who weren't traditional athletes but were women who were struggling at some point in their life.

And, and this was a real reach for them to walk into a crossfit box. And uh, and so I really empathize with the fact that in a sense they didn't totally fit in and that it was really, it was a stretch. So that's where it all began, was just really trying to find solve that one problem. And then one thing led to another where I ended up leaving there and then I still had some kids who I was training and they really needed me. One was a cancer survivor and the other one dealt with anxiety and so I didn't want to drop them essentially because they didn't have any other athletic outlets. So at that point I thought, okay, well let's, you know, we did some park workouts for the summer and then somebody referred to personal training Clyde to me and I said, well I better find some space. And before you know what, I had taken everything out of my garage and put down a floor. And then I just started training her. And one thing after another over the next basically 18 months, I had Built it up too. I think at the top point was 20 for 24 clients between the kids classes, the team's classes and personal training. So it's just, it's it's funny how life does that.

It's really, it's just one ft in front of the other. No big plans. And then from that point, you know, our step from that was all in Illinois. And I ended up closing that studio, which at times still makes me very sad when I look at old photos and my client, my connection with the things that you accomplished with it. And the years of just the hard work with your clients and the relationships. Absolutely. And so I missed that. And there's definitely a longing for, you know, when you have that, that new thing, this new chapter that's going on, which is great but I still miss that part. But I did make the decision to close it so that we could move from Illinois down here to Georgia. And really the main reason for that is simply that, well not simply my husband's business was closing down and he's like I'll go get another job and you know the fact is I haven't really seen him since my kids have been born. I mean I saw him if he's listening to this you know people like what are you talking about? I was around but from my perspective there were more dinners had without him around than with so I really wanted him to be around for the kids.

So we decided you know what why don't you be Mr mom and I'll go open a business. But the one thing was for me to open a business beyond this garage gym at the time in order for me to do that. I really needed to move somewhere where there was more sunshine and that was the biggest reason that we moved is because in Illinois is very dreary and here Georgia even though it's not the sunniest place in the U. S. It's a great balance and it still has I think almost three times as many sunny days as that we do in Illinois which because I deal with seasonal depression every fall would come around and it didn't matter how much I love my clients how much I wanted to give, how much I knew it didn't matter as soon as that day hit when I woke up with that depression, all of a sudden everything got muted, everything was just dull. And I mean, even my kids, you know, and so because of all that, we decided, you know what, let's move and Georgia seemed like a great place and, and now I'm here and it really feels very, I feel very called to be here, not just to do what I'm doing, but I really feel like I'm here for a reason.

Absolutely. And I'm glad that we have you here in Georgia. Thank you. I'm glad you moved down. Tell tell me a little bit about your philosophy around fitness and whole body health. Yes, that's a, that's a great question because there's, there's a lot there I wanna want to share. So let's see my philosophy. I think if I were to, you know, without going into the whole story, which we can get into too, but if I were to sum it up, my philosophy with fitness is that for somebody to become fit, they really need to work on not only what their goals are, but where they are today, because so too often I see people who set these goals for themselves and, you know, they throw themselves into some kind of program, you know, a six week program. Yeah, that's great. If it's a jump start. But if you think that's it, it's, you know, you're gonna, there's gonna be some uh disappointments, let's put it that way. So having the mindset that this is, this is long term, and I'm gonna try to I'm going to work towards my goals, but at the same time as you're working towards who you want to become, it's really important to focus on who you are today, because what can happen is people, if they're all in the pursuit of the goal without also tending to learning to love who they are today, in a sense, they get to that point at the goal.

And I think what happens why people don't continue to succeed and why people fall off their diets and they fall off their exercise programs is because when we look at, so I'm gonna back up a little bit, if we look at somebody who we think has achieved, say optimal health, you know, maybe they've got a, you know, a certain muscle tone and they've got a certain brightness to them and confidence and whatever it is that attracts you to them, there's something in that that attracts you, and I believe it's not what they look like, We think it's what we look like because we're visual creatures, so we think, oh, it's because they've got this body and they, and so they think it's all the physical, what really they want is what that person feels like, right, right? And so what happens is if somebody is just trying to achieve the physical, once they arrived there, if they have not tended to their soul, if they have not tended to, how they think about themselves and how they feel about themselves. Once they get there, they're disappointed. And they're like, wait, this is, this is, wait, I've got the muscle tone, I've got, the measurements are just right.

My body fat is down to 14% or 20% or whatever her goal was but my life is exactly the same. I still feel the same about myself. And so I think that that's fundamentally a problem with any uh, fitness aspiration if if you're just going for the goal, if you are not, I mean, if you actually have a lot of internal self, good self talk and but if you do, you probably wouldn't have gotten where you have gotten. So usually if you've gotten to the point where you feel like you really need a big turnaround, there's a reason for it. And that means because your, your heart, your mind, your soul still needs to be tended to. So I very much with any of my clients who come to me, we're not only talking about fitness and exercise and nutrition, but we're also talking about how you feeling today, what's going on in your life, how do you sleep? And you know, how did that feel? It didn't feel, right, let's try this, let's try that. And so it's a constant, I feel like my job is to not only train them but also to teach themselves talk so that when they're in with me, they're listening to their bodies, they're listening to what works and what doesn't work.

And my hope is that that will then infuse other parts of your life where all of a sudden there in this relationship or they had a friend that they always thought was a great friend, and all of a sudden they realized that they're always putting them down there thinking why am I still friends with this person? So I think once you start to develop better self talk then allows you to make better decisions in your life and I have a feeling that you have a lot of personal experience with that, and that is why you, you you believe so fervently about um how, how you help people the process that that you and how you approach it, because you have your own story that you've you have, there's lessons learned, Are there one or two lessons that you've learned along the way that you could share with others. I do want to share some stories and let me dive right into those. Um thinking about what I've learned over the last, So I'm 46 okay, at this 460.46 I remember the first time I started being self aware and self conscious, really, was that adolescents, right?

And I think that's a common time for all of us. I think it is because I, I definitely recall myself going through that. Yeah, it's like our our world goes from playtime and four square and all of a sudden we noticed boys and so it's a, it's a and all of a sudden everything's heightened, right, where the experience of being noticed and who notices and who doesn't and what they say and what they do, everything gets conditioning, it's a conditioning. Yes. And it's continually reinforced in our society today. Absolutely. And I think that it's one of those things that I think it's formative for everyone and I think the way that I have processed starting especially at that time is that for whatever reason, I've always been very aware of how I feel so now how I process my feelings, that's something I've had to learn and I've had to learn how to really live in tune in a positive way in my life.

But for some reason I have memories even as early as five years old, being very aware of my own thinking and so I think there's what I have from that, that is a gift I want to share with people because I think a lot of times people go through things and they don't notice that something's hurting physically or emotionally and they just think it's just how it is. And so that's why I was talking about the self talk for example. I feel like I need to teach people because that is something that self talk itself is something that I remember having for most of my life, and we all have it, right? We do, and every single person, I mean we're constantly thinking constantly, and for most of us it's the negative self talk is a spiraling, you know, getting down on ourselves being, you know, being critical and we don't need to do that to ourselves. No. Exactly. And so anything that can help any of us to raise our awareness of how we're thinking about ourselves, this is a big deal.

And to go back to your point about the story, can get into maybe a few details about my story. Okay, so my I want to talk because for me, what a lot of this is pointing to is what to me is very important is the feeling of beauty. And like you, like you said at the beginning, you know, I believe in truth and beauty and courage, and I know a lot of times people think beauty is a very outside external Exactly, like it's a superficial thing, and I'm not talking about, and we all know that, you know, you know, the old adage beauty's in the eye of beholder and it's also part of how you feel about yourself, but for the most part it is an external exercise, right? That's how we're trained to see it. Exactly, And I just and I think it's an error in our thinking because I think there's a level of attractiveness that's part of the external world. Like if you see a picture in a magazine, there's like an attractiveness, but I don't think it's beauty. To me, Beauty is the sunrise beauty is, oh, I love that things that, you know, nature that moves.

I mean like being in a forest and listening to the leaves. I mean that is beautiful. So to me, beauty is something that's dynamic. It's not something that's static. That's a great way of putting it. Whereas, you know, if you're looking, if we're talking like traditional or not traditional, the societal, beautiful magazine pictures of models that have been airbrushed, which is silly to begin with. But if we're talking about that, I mean, that part of the reason why it's not beautiful is because it's it's just it's too perfect. It's too perfect because and we know it's there's imperfection and there's beauty and imperfection, right? Exactly. Because it might catch our attention, It might go, that's interesting, but it's gone. It does, it's not sustaining, it's not it doesn't last. And that's what most people don't realize because they're after something external and they don't realize that they've got to feel what they feel inside and bring that into the world, feel it and bring it out into the world. Absolutely. And my earliest memory of feeling beauty in my life was actually at the age of five, being outside and playing.

And and I feel very fortunate that I've had that, I think a lot of people have that childhood association with some kind of free freedom feeling. And so that I think has been always been a guide of like, I know that that's possible. It can't possibly be the kind of thing that only five year olds experience. We can carry that through our lives. So, as far as my story goes, it really began at the age of five when it comes to understanding that beauty is is if you can appreciate beauty on the outside of the, you know, like looking out into the world, then that's a reflection of what you feel inside. But it's also something you can hone. So if you're spending all your time thinking about me, me, me, and how I look and that kind of beautification and then you forget to look out into the world for what beauty is out there. I think you've become kind of disconnected from it. So, if you want beauty in your life, you also have to see it in the world. You have to find it. You have to seek it out. You have to forge it and create it in your life. So, I think that is that's important, all this being said.

I do feel like I'm jumping all over, but I want to kind of tie into my story, which is back to adolescence, what I want to say about adolescence is I think adolescence is scary. I think it is a scary time of life. And even if it's exciting, you know, it's also very scary when you think it's all about holding hands and maybe a kiss on the cheek. But the reality is that I know a lot of girls who have had much more happen at that stage of their life. And it's scary when you think one thing is going to happen and something else happens. And I start here because I had a fair amount of experiences like that when I was going through adolescence because I had girlfriends, I go to their houses and they had older brothers. So to me, at a very young age, I felt that the world of men and the world of boys could be very predatory and it could be very scary because you just didn't know what was behind a corner in a sense. And so what I think this is really important is that it really creates the question in your mind, like is this really what I want?

You know? And so I start with that because that's a question, anybody who really wants to say, lose weight or become attractive or more beautiful or whatever it is that they're seeking also points to your own self image and how you how you feel about yourself. Absolute. Well, exactly. And that's the thing, it's like, say for example, let's say you're somebody who's £250 and you want to be 150 and you've got these weight loss goals. And the thing is that what's preventing you from losing that weight? You could say, well, I just need to diet. Usually there's something else that has to go on, which to me is asking yourself the question, do you really want this? Because with that question, you are essentially acknowledging that once you start losing weight, once you start getting closer to your goal, what's going to happen? What's going to happen is you're going to start getting more attention, You're gonna start having people comment all of a sudden you're like wearing clothes that show off your shape more and you're not hiding as much.

And you know, I think if you go into a blindly and just say, I want to be this, I want to look like Jillian Michaels or whatever your goal is. But if you don't think about it, I think it's a bit off putting when you get closer and closer and all of a sudden you're like, wait, why is everyone paying attention to me? And it could be very daunting as to how you deal with that, right? Exactly. Which of course, for me personally, if people work with me, I like, I like helping them work through that, you know, as far as if they come up against that, hey, what's going on? How is that scary? You know, you know, I'm not a therapist by any means, but I'm an empathetic listener, so at least just even being able to acknowledge it and you see it, you know, you know it when you see it in clients and and people in general that you have conversations with. So you're very aware of it, you're aware of it because you have experienced it and at a very early age, um you have a little bit of a different view on things that at five you could actually see beauty outside and and other things and at the same time you, you over time you started to question, question yourself and and and the reinforcement of things externally when you really needed to be looking inward as to what was what's important to you in your life, which exactly which actually leads me to the next sort of part of my story, which is really that throughout high school I ended up spending a lot of time just worried about what other people thought about me.

You know, I think the majority of people go through life, the good news is that you've, you've figured it out. You know, you've figured it out. But there's a lot of people out there, bless them that they're still on that still on the track. They are absolutely. And so I feel very blessed in that, that being said and in high school I hadn't quite realized that yet, that being said, you know, I was still, I was still, I was still seeking approval, let's put it out. I was seeking approval and on the, and the thing is that what I did experience in high school is my first bout of depression and I think that part of it was because of the fact that in, well, internally I felt very disconnected from my world because everything was from the outside in and so from the outside other people's perspective, I had it going on, you know, like I had the, I had a boyfriend when it came to prom, you know, I had the um, you know, I had good grades, whatever, I had cute hairstyle or whatever, you know?

And so from the outside and that was generally a happy person, no matter what, even when I'm depressed, I'm still like probably still more positive than some people. But so from the outside it looked like I was going, everything is fine. But internally I didn't feel close to anyone. There was no intimacy, struggling. Yes, I was totally struggling and I didn't feel any intimacy. Like I have good friends, good friends in quotes, they're good friends because they were good friends to me, but I didn't, I didn't embrace them. So at what point did you have a big aha, right, so, and that really was after high school when I went into college, so I kept up this pony show for another year and a half really of trying to, trying to appease the world trying and but what what happens then if you're living in that space is that you start having all these other issues because, you know, you're, you're more likely to become a victim because you're just, you know, you're not thinking about how you feel, you're thinking about how everyone else feels and and you start, you lose track of how to, how to stand up for yourself and what you think.

And you know, there's all these things that fall away when you, when you give up who you are for other people. And so I really just came to this point where it's almost like a pitched cacophony of this is all outside my control. And I literally like drop my classes. I in a sense, dropped out of college. Not fully, but just for about a month I gave up that quarter called chopped them all up to incomplete. You needed time, you needed time to step away from it. I just had to regroup. And yeah, regroup. You know, go to the, to the inner and get a better understanding of what you really wanted in life basically. At that point, just dropped it off. I said, nope. And I switched classes, two classes I wanted to take, not what I thought other people wanted me to take. And then really for you. Right? Exactly. Yeah. And one of the things that probably the hard moment was actually so, I was under I was seeing a therapist at the time, a psychiatrist, actually.

And he asked me a question that I didn't have the answer to, that I didn't know or really what the question was. He said, how do you know what other people think of you? That's a great question, isn't it? Yeah. And I had to think about it, you know? I always thought, well, she thinks this, he thinks that she thinks this. I mean, he's like, wait, wait, whoa, how do you know? How do you know what other people think of you? But I didn't and I realized I didn't know what anybody thought of me. And it was so eye opening. And so it's almost like it almost felt like putting on a coat because it created this just this nice barrier between me and the world that I had never felt or I hadn't felt since I was five. It was one of these things where I all of a sudden knew who I was and all of a sudden I knew who other people were. Whereas before it was just this huge, messy and meshed, entangled. Who's what were once I had no clue what was going on. There's just this veil that's lifted and you have this clarity, huge things.

Yes, that's a big that was a big and one of the great benefits of it was simply that I looked at myself in the mirror for the first time. It felt beautiful. I love that. So that brings me to another point based on the experience and the story you've just shared about your own aha moment around beauty. Um and seeing yourself in the mirror for the first time and feeling beautiful that you have a certain philosophy around what beauty is and what the achievement of beauty means. Absolutely. Uh so the way I think about beauty is that like I already mentioned, I do believe beauty is something that's dynamic. It's not something that you can pin down, you know, it's something that's living and breathing. You know, there's that, that quality to that slightly imperfect and you know, it kind of strikes us because it's not what we expect.

You know, that's all part of, I think that beautiful experience, but also that it is is how we feel about ourselves that creates the beauty. So, um which kind of speaks a little bit to what I was saying before that if you're just trying to achieve a goal, but you're not tending to yourself and then you get there, there's nothing to substantiate and to sort of lift you up, right? And there's not much substance to it. Right? Exactly. Actually the analogy I often think of, you know, the sort of that story of the secret garden, you know, that you go in and it's just magical, right? So to me exercising for just the sake of the physical without also taking care of some of the other stuff is like getting keys to the to the secret garden and going in and finding its barren, you get there, you think it's gonna be great, this is gonna be awesome. And then you get there and there's nothing there, if there's nothing there, you'd think that somebody was selling you false goods and you leave leave and be like, why am I why am I subjecting myself to this exercise and this eating and all this stuff and and that's what I get a barren garden.

I don't want that. And so people ditch it because it's not worth it. But if along the way, they're also actually working on it and getting stronger through it, then by the time they get there, they've accomplished something and so they get there, they open the gate and it's amazing because they've achieved it. And so to that point, you know, before he was talking about the truth, courage and beauty and that's what I stand for. And it's true because the thing is if you're trying to take shortcuts to get to your beauty and say you're going to be disappointed, right? You're gonna be disappointed. Yes, if you're just trying to get there whatever the quick fix way is and we don't have to get into what all those are. But if you try to go the quick fix away, you're going to get there and your garden is going to be barren because you didn't also build up your strength, physical strength and emotional strength, and the same thing with courage. If you're if you're going trying to achieve your goals without courage, what you're doing is essentially you're cheating or you're lying. I mean, that's what happens. And so then you're still going to get to the garden and there's gonna be nothing there because it has to feel substantial for you to feel the awe and the amazement of it.

There has to be effort, Right? And so, like, for example, like to kind of, you know, I can talk very in my head, but like to bring it to the listeners, like, so that they know what I'm talking about. So say, for example, Let me go back to the example of someone who's £250 and she wants to be £150. So you see this journey ahead of you and you know, it's going to take time and you know, you could take the shortcut, which is sort of like skirting the courage thing, You could you know, just taking the easy way out, You can skirt the honesty thing, the truth and again, you're it's not going to be successful, but in order to get there and find that the secret garden is actually beautiful, what you expected you the first thing you do is you do have to be truthful with yourself. And that part of that truth is kind of what I was saying before about asking yourself is this something you really want. So it's asking yourself those questions not asking what you want, but it's also acknowledging what has happened. Like if you're feeling awful in your skin and you just you don't even recognize yourself, you just have to own it.

Just label it like I just am not happy in my body anymore and you know the fact is I've made a few poor choices but I'm not gonna beat myself up about it. You just have to be very kind of open and loving, you know in terms of just you know be kind with yourself, it's kind of like acceptance except what is but it doesn't mean it has to be forever right? Exactly, but you can't go down that road and stay in denial, right? You have to there has to be some acknowledgment of that. And so that's the truth component. The truth component is just seeing yourself truthfully as much as you can. I know it's hard when we got into a bad place to really be like, you know, you don't have to you don't have to hit yourself over the head with it but you just need to acknowledge it. That's the truth component. But the next part is the courage and what that is is you actually have to walk through that door. So you see the truth, you see, you've gained more weight than you ever thought you would, you see yourself in the mirror, you don't like what you see you, you acknowledge that maybe there's been some poor choices. That's the truth part.

Now you have to do something about it and that's the courage. How do you, how do you help your clients? I love this, this concept of the truth and the courage. How do you help your clients? Um get over that, that hump beyond just the goal. Right? So I just had a client yesterday. I think it was, she came to me and she has been doing an amazing job. She had started a certain sort of eating regimen before she came to me. So I haven't helped her at all with that just with the exercise part. But she came to me and I'll always ask her how's your eating going? You know, and she was very disappointed because the scale hadn't moved for actually the third week in a row. So it was very, she was just trying to sort of fight back the tears in the sense. And so you know what I am pointing out to her is okay, well let's look at some other things. Let's look at the non scale goals. You know, it's so easy to get fixated on the number. So in that case we talked about, okay, well is going back to the way you were eating before.

An option? Well, no, okay, so it's not like that's really gonna solve anything. So going back and just ditching the whole thing that's not going to help. So what has changed besides the weight loss that you've already lost like £33. So it's amazing. But what else? And do you feel more energy? Oh yeah, absolutely. You know, are you were you were you were identifying all the positives? Yes. Right. In that case, exactly. That they weren't didn't even think of, right, because they were in this little box of what wasn't working, but they weren't seeing what was working, right? Right. Exactly. And you know, she was saying how now she can sleep, she can like all these things are happening. She's having a better relationship with her husband, a better relationship with her daughter. So, you know, and you probably made her day just with that, you know, conversation helping her to be more aware of all the positive change. Exactly. And that is my job as a coach. And it's not like I'm I'm not, you know, I'm not giving her a bunch of just very positive things that we're talking about the truth, like and she's the one saying the truth, not even me, I'm just asking her the questions, you know, so she's coming to the realization, oh wow, like I was there and now I'm here and maybe that's not all going the way I want and and when we ended up sitting down and talking and I said, you know, the fact is your body will take care of itself.

It just will, it's hard to believe when you're in the process, but it will take care of itself. You just have to take care of everything else. You just keep showing up at your right. Just keep showing up, keep doing what you're doing with the eating because it's not going to, you only have your moving forward, which is what you need to do as far as everything else. You just need to keep thinking about the positive stuff because the fact is when you get to a certain weight and you're holding on to this part of the thing is there's like there's memories in there. There's there's pain, there's suffering in there and that's what people are going through. Yes. Everyone has it. Yes. And you have to you have to face your truth. Yes. Exactly. There's there's 1 um statement on your, your site that I'd love for you to share a little bit more insight into, um, and it's part of what you've learned and providing others a few pointers, but one statement was Leading one pointer is leading with kindness and all of your self care gives you better results.

Exactly. And that's really what I was just speaking to. Exactly, because being hard on ourselves being angry or you know, holding on to that stuff. It just, it can only make us make bad choices. You have to be kind to yourself. You just do. And there's another statement that you made and this is a quote, I believe that each one of us was born with their own unique power potential. Talk about that a little bit, right? Yeah. I do believe that we are we are all on this earth with a greater purpose, you know, regardless of what your actual thoughts on our and spirituality. However you hold it. I believe that we all are meant to serve each other and how are we meant to serve each other to to some degree. I know it sounds kind of funny, but you know, it's putting us next to ants isn't maybe the best analogy, but you know, even in an ant colony, everybody has a job, right? And you all work together. And so to some degree, I feel like we're all we are all part of a greater human body and we all have roles and just imagine if we're not taking care of our role, what shuts down in the in the world, right?

We have we have something that we have to offer. And I think one of our greatest life gifts and challenges is to figure out what that is. And I do believe that the only way or the best way, let's put it that way, the best way to figure out what that is, is by taking care of yourself and feeling good because then we actually have enough energy, healthy mood, our cognitive function is high and then we have something to offer, right? Because it does start with the physical because you've got to be you've got to eat well and you've got to exercise, but it's not just that alone because you've got the mental and the emotional and you've got to have, you know, good sleep, but you know, a good diet, not just the exercise, it's a whole combination of things. Absolutely. That contribute to our overall well being and how we, how we perceive the world and ourselves in it. Absolutely. And I know for one I you know my I haven't gotten into this part of story and that's maybe for another time, but you know, big probably the biggest reason I exercises for my mental health and I guess I talked about my depression a little bit, but for me if I don't exercise, I'm not a great mom, I'm not a great wife, I'm not a great friend, I need to exercise to function in the world.

So I don't know you could call that a blessing or a curse. I guess I'll call it a blessing. But there have been times when, you know, other people are out having fun, I'm like, you know, I got to get up and exercise because I know I have to Yeah, I know that there's a there was a point in our conversation, one of our conversations that you have said that movement is the key. Just get up and move that, you know, if you're lacking motivation, just get up and move, take a walk, yep. Exactly. Very, very key. Very key. Yes, because especially for any listeners who might deal with depression, anxiety, any kind of motivation issues, like I just don't feel motivated. Okay, well then that's fine, Get up and move and then think about it, but don't just sit there going, what am I going to wait until, you know? Don't just wait for motivation to happen. Right analysis, paralysis. When is the motivation going to kick in? Because, you know, once you get yourself, if you're preoccupied with it, you know, you're not going to get motivated so, you know, get your mind off of it. Absolutely, I love that once you start moving, I mean it's pretty hard to go for a walk and it's really hard to feel bad, you know, I'll do that periodically throughout the day because if I don't um I feel like I get in a rut, you know, so I need to kind of shake things up a little bit.

Absolutely, what I'd like to do right now is to get into the lightning round, we've got, you know, just a several questions and just you know, just respond based on what, you know, comes to mind first. So what's your favorite pastime? I love playing with my kids. I do. It's my favorite pastime, play with my Children, lovely, I love that. You've got four beautiful young Children. That's amazing. I don't know how you do it. What lifts you up? Mm hmm. The sound of a creek or a brook? Oh, I knew it was gonna be something in nature And five year old memories. five year old memories. They're imprinted forever. What helps you feel grounded and centered? My husband. Oh, wow, that's terrific. That's that speaks a lot. That really speaks a lot. That's awesome. He must be a terrific. He's my rock. Yeah, I love it. What's your favorite book? Or go to Resource? My favorite book right now is called messy, messy.

And it's the, what is, let's see, The subtitle is the it's basically is talking about how the benefits of a certain amount of chaos in your life actually creating order. So it's kind of one of those things, It's basically like how, how the benefit. I've messed that whole thing up. But if we could look it up, if that would help, we'll find, we'll find out, okay. And we'll put in our show notes for our listeners and we'll put a little bit more info on why. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, I guess the one thing I'll say about the book that I just, that is it gave me permission to not have to have everything in order before proceeding. And that was just something that I have a brother who is four years older, Waiting Forever, right? And it feels perfect to me. And I'm always like measuring myself against him. Well, I don't have it's not you know, all this linear stuff and I don't work linearly. So to give me permission to be a little bit disordered. You know, like not everything is in order. And yet I can still take steps and still believe that, you know what If I set a deadline, it's going to be achieved.

It just I just don't know how I'm gonna get there. Well, that's a great practice. And you're following what is natural for you. You know what You're wired, How you're wired. And that's the natural flow of things. The natural state. When we when we've go with the flow with how we are wired. Beautiful things happen in our lives and we're happy. Yes. And we are happier. What is the best advice you've received from someone to value my time? Oh, yes. I love that. We all have to value our time. Don't always follow it. But it's definitely the advice I need to keep hearing in my mind. And any advice that you have for others to rise up to their best self be the tortoise. Oh, tell me more about that. Be the tortoise. The tortoise. Just meaning. You just got to stay in the race. That's all okay. Stay in the race. All you have to do is just show up every day. Just show up to your life every day. You don't have to be the rabbit. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be the first to show up and guess what?

You know what if you do that and you're true to yourself and you reach the truth, encourage you will achieve what you're out for. Yeah, it's about just sticking with it, you know, stay the course. And lastly if you were to leave this earth and be reborn again, what would you like to come back as I want to be an ox know why it's the first word that came to my mind. It's the sign of strength. It must be the strength. I don't think it's funny because my favorite animal is like an otter and they're playful and all this stuff. And yet when you asked me that question, because I haven't really thought about it. But the first word that came to me and I'll have to look up to symbolism. Exactly. I wonder if it's well, I've got a few to row cards and things like that. Tell me what I just revealed about myself. Yeah. Right. Exactly. And lastly, where can people find you learn more about you Sure if you go to my website which is www, which somebody just informed me I don't have to actually say, but it's the fittest.

The fittest me dot net. The fittest me dot net dot net. Yes. That sounds like you. I can see why you came up with that and our tagline is strength for life. Strength for life, awesome. Well Rebecca, thank you so much for being on our show. You have just added some just wonderful tips and strategies and I think just things for people to think about in their life and I'm so glad that you're doing what you're doing, that you're helping the people um in your client base to really look at themselves and see the beauty within them and and not look outside, look at their own truth and have the courage. Absolutely. And you know, thank you so much for having me on the show. You've made this very comfortable for me and I really appreciate that. And and one thing about what you just said, I want to add is as far as following your own truth and the reason why it's important not to be thinking about what other people think is because you were born perfect and your values and what's important to you and your integrity that comes from the inside.

So really it doesn't really matter what anybody else thinks. It really doesn't. Besides the fact that all of us to think about ourselves all the time. So they're not thinking about you anyway. But also I could call our studio traditional fitness studio or I could also call it a confidence studio because the fact is that confidence makes beauty can often times it goes the other way beautiful, people look confident. But if you want to feel more beautiful in your life, build your confidence, build your strength and go forward into the world courageously. And that brings its own light with it. Oh, I love that. And with that said, I will encourage our listeners to go to your website again, it's the fittest me dot net and also to listen into your podcast, strength for life, which will soon be up on Itunes, but it's on your website. We already have about four episodes up on my website and then it will be published to Itunes probably in the next week, awesome because I've listened to the third episode and I loved it.

Great! Thank you. It's chock full of just lots of information. Great information. Alright, well, thank you so much and I'm going to thank you listeners for being with us today. Hey, there before you go. We hope today's show helped you bring a little more joy and happiness into your heart. We hope it inspires you to unleash your own inner power and rise up to your best self, your loving heart centered higher self. Just a few things before we go would be so grateful if you'd leave us a review on Itunes because you know, those reviews are important to our show and we'd love for you to subscribe to our podcast and share the show with others and finally, let us know what tips and strategies you use to rise up to your highest self By reaching out to us at Hart's Rise up dot com. Or you can email us at hello at Hart's Rise up dot com. Well, that's it for now. Until next time. Keep rising up and may love and happiness always be in your heart.

Bye for now, mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm.