Erin: I think it’s just about building over time, small little wins. You know, I’m a big fan of, you know, slow and steady wins, the wellness race, and you know, just kind of that old, you know, proverb of, you know, the turtle and the hare. And you know, I look at it as, you know, the hare went so fast, tried to do all this stuff, he burned himself out, but that turtle just kept, you know, slowly going along. And that’s really how I look at it, right? You know, building what works for you brick by brick. And if you are really busy or you’re going through a time in your life, really just finding little ways to weave it in.

Erin: You know, I always tell people, you know, having what I like to call pockets of self care, I’m a big believer that something is better than nothing. I mean, to me, all these different little wins can give you a little bit more harmony and you know, and really kind of just over time it gets easier to add more things in.

Stacy: Welcome. Welcome. I am really excited this week to get to talk about a topic that is a huge part of my life, but not something I spend a lot of time talking about on the podcast, which is wellness for my family. We went on a wellness journey starting a couple years back and it’s been really hard actually, but very rewarding to really revamp our entire lifestyle from the pots were cooking in, to the food that we’re eating, to how we’re taking care of ourselves and paying attention to our nervous systems and because I’ve seen such a drastic change.

Stacy: When I heard about this guest this week, I knew that I had to have her on because I want more people to know about how to integrate wellness into their lives. Especially for those of you who are really high performers. So for me, as somebody who, you know, I, I could tend toward overwork. I would be the kind of person that if I didn’t have a family, I would be working super late on the weekends. I really have to rein it in. It’s a. It’s something I have to be really mindful about and I know that a lot of our listeners are just like me. And this week’s guest will, I hope, really speak to you and help you think about wellness in a really holistic way. So let me introduce you to this week’s guest.

Stacy: Erin Clifford is a national certified counselor, certified as a holistic wellness coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. She holds the highest credential in wellness coaching as a national Board certified health and wellness coach. Erin serves as managing director at Clifford Law Offices, providing her with an understanding of the stressors that a high demanding job entails, allowing her to offer tailored solutions that address both the personal and professional demands of her clients, helping them thrive in all aspects of their lives. She is the author of Wellness Reimagined A Holistic Approach to Health, Happiness and Harmony. Erin, welcome. I’m so glad to have you on the podcast.

Erin: Thanks so much. I’m so happy to be here.

Stacy: I would love for you to share your wellness origin story. I know from your book that you grew up with exercise and wellness as part of your life, but you had an experience in your early adulthood that was really formative in how you think about wellness today. Can you share a bit of that backstory?

Erin: Sure. So growing up, I was super into wellness. Just growing up in my home. My parents were both avid exercisers. My grandmother was a cook. I mean, she just made everything from scratch. And so I really got into wellness. And then when I went to college, I, you know, started living on my own for the first time. And I was really struggling with my emotional health, which, you know, this is all in retrospect, right at the time when I was a teenager and it kind of started in high school and then went into college, I really didn’t know how to deal with my emotions, so I started using food to deal with them.

Erin: And that sort of created a vicious cycle where I ended up developing bulimia nervosa, having anxiety disorder, and I ended up taking a some time off from school, which was really difficult because, you know, all my friends were graduating and I ended up having to go to treatment. But looking back on it now, it really just saved my life. And really changed the direction of what I do all the time because I just realized how important wellnesses. And so when I first graduated from college, I ended up teaching high school and the Chicago public schools. And I noticed that a lot of my students were really struggling with their wellness and so were their families. You know, they didn’t have access to healthy foods. They didn’t really, you know, they were working so much.

Erin: A lot of the parents, they weren’t able to make a lot of time for themselves. And then when I eventually went to law school, I saw the same thing when I graduated with all of the attorneys. So, you know, totally two different, you know, groups of people that were all struggling with the same thing. And so that was what really inspired me to go back and become a health and wellness coach and then eventually go and get a master’s in mental health counseling. But I really bring something unique to my practice and that I look at wellness on different levels. It’s not just about the physical health. We really have to tap into the mental health, the emotional health and spiritual health.

Erin: So when I’m working with someone on making a program, I encompass all of those different things because I know for myself, if I don’t do that, you know, I can easily slip back into, you know, a space that I don’t want to be in.

Stacy: Yeah, I, I love the vulnerability of your story. I mean, sharing that, all that you went through and then, you know, the way that you were able to come back around and think about wellness in this holistic way. And I promise we’ll come back to the work that you do today. But I would love touch on your experience as a young adult. Because when I read that in your book about your experience developing your eating disorder, I instantly thought of my 12 year old. And you know, we in our household, as I’ve mentioned, we are so wellness focused. And I have always hoped that, you know, the way that we eat, we cook from scratch, you know, I, we make our own yogurt and kombucha. Like we do all the things and we really celebrate food as well.

Stacy: Like, we love eating, we love that experience. Experience. And I’ve always kind of hoped that healthy orientation to a healthful lifestyle will carry with her when she gets into college. But, you know, when I was reading your story, I started to think about how much there’s so much beyond just the food itself and the exercise and the healthy eating and that emotional wellness that you mentioned. And I wonder, because I know we have a Lot of parents that listen to this too, or people that love, you know, young women especially, are susceptible to developing eating disorders and things like that. When you look back on that experience and it’s. And I know your parents were so intentional and so caring. Your grandma was involved.

Stacy: But obviously there was something that wasn’t in their awareness that they could have done for you, probably that would have supported you. And I’m curious if you have any insights that you can share about that with our listeners. Just to think about that whole picture for young women.

Erin: Yeah, I think one of the things that I sort of think about now is when I was a kid, I got burned out from stuff. You know, we always. Nowadays, we want to give our kids every opportunity in the entire world. And, you know, kids are involved in sports, they’re involved in, obviously their academics, all the different extracurricular activities. I, growing up, I got invol in theater. I did some professional theater in Chicago, and I was really into all of that, but to the point where I really feel like I burned myself out. And I didn’t know how to explain that to my parents, you know, because I didn’t really have that voice as a. As a teenager, as a kid.
Erin: And so, you know, I think the one thing I would say with parents when is to really just, you know, talk with your kids all the time, you know, make sure that, you know, they are getting out and enjoying things, but helping them find the things that they enjoy as opposed to expecting them to do everything. I also think with, you know, I love the one thing you said that you’re like, cooking together and doing stuff like that together, because I think, like, to really get a, you know, a healthy nutrition, it’s so good to, you know, actually take that time as your family and, you know, do those things together, but, you know, having some wiggle room, right, to have, you know, because to me, healthy food is. It’s, you know, all the whole foods, right? Fruits, vegetables.

Erin: You know, obviously we want to eat as unprocessed as we can. But it’s also, once in a while, someone might want to slice a chocolate birthday cake. And, you know, being okay with that, I think can be helpful and, you know, really just, you know, being there for each other and watching all the social media, I mean, I. I feel so blessed that growing up, like, I didn’t have all of that social media around me. But I. I know now, even when I go in, sometimes I’ll do some coaching stuff with teenagers that, you know, that’s really hard for them because, you know, you’re always constantly comparing yourself to other people.

Erin: So I just think a big thing is really having that, you know, communication, you know, allowing each child to be unique and not, you know, trying to push a lot of things on, you know, to all of your kids.

Stacy: Those are such great points. And it’s. I was just talking with a friend about this today and how much, you know, our preteens and teens are getting exposed to, you know, you can’t control everything that they’re getting exposed to. And even my 12 year old, we, she doesn’t have a smartphone, but literally everyone else does. So she’s still seeing, you know, all of this stuff and we can’t always be over her shoulders. So I love that open communication approach. We also share that. I was a high school language arts teacher, Utah High School. And so I often think about that too, with how much just remembering my teaching days, how much my students dealt with and struggled with. And yet, like blackberries were just becoming a thing when I was teaching in the Caribbean. So. Yeah, I can’t imagine navigating that today. Okay.

Stacy: I promised I would bring us back around to your current work. And one of the words that you use is harmony. And it’s interesting because when I was getting ready for this interview, it’s interesting that word came up because that is my word for the year for my family. It’s harmony. My sister even sent me this magnet that’s on my fridge now that says harmony on it, 20, 25. And so it’s a word that’s really guiding my life. It’s also guiding me at work, but it’s a real anchor for my life. So I’d love for you to talk a little bit about this concept of harmony through your lens and how that can offer a more sustainable path for professionals.

Erin: Yeah, so I work with a lot of professionals. I’m a professional. And for years I’ve been in the wellness space over a decade now. And everyone always talks about, you know, I’m going to help you have more work life, you know, work life balance. And you know, as I went through my practice and just really developed myself, I was getting busier with things I was doing. I thought, you know what? This is not, this does not work. Like, there’s actually no such thing as having that perfect work life balance. But what can we, you know, strive for? And that’s sort of where that harmony came in. Growing up, I used to sing. And so, you know, I, and I did Choir. And I love the idea of like harmonizing notes together. And so that’s sort of how I started looking at life domains.

Erin: You know, I’m not. How hard is it if you took a scale, right, to try to make, put those marbles on and make everything perfect all the time? That’s not going to happen. And so instead of thinking about, you know, balancing work and your personal life, your family, your self care, you know, your contribution to the world, all the different things that we want to do as having that perfect balance and percentage points, thinking about it as just having harmony and figure out ways to intertwine everything together. You know, if somebody, for instance, is, you know, if you’re a busy mom out there, you know, and you’re. You’ve got a job that you really love and you’re. You don’t want to give that up, but you also want to make sure you’re spending a lot of time with your family.

Erin: How can you sort of make those things work for you? You know, sitting at the dinner table and, you know, putting those phones away, making sure you strategically use all that, you know, PTO or vacation time that you have. And when it comes to a wellness program, I always recommend figuring out ways to intertwine it throughout your routines and throughout your day. Because a lot of times, you know, there’s a lot of strict, I think, wellness programs out there, some of which I like, but anytime I’ve tried to do them or my clients have tried to, it really becomes almost like a second job. So I’m really all about, you know, having that harmony and figuring out how can we just make things work for all of us. Because each and every person has different values, different things that are important to them.

Erin: And so you should be able to take that and make it work for you.

Stacy: I love all of what you just said. And this is also why I sometimes struggle with like, bro habit culture. Because there’s this idea that we have to do things in such a regimented way, like get up at 4 and do your ice bath and you know, do this and do that, and it’s like so regimented that it becomes, like you said, it’s like not just a job, but it’s kind of like ruling your whole life. And you mentioned the flexibility with food earlier, which, you know, I. There’s a term metabolic flexibility, which is this concept for anybody who’s not familiar that you eat healthfully most of the time. So when you do something that’s kind of outside of that healthful range, your body’s able to handle it.

Stacy: And I think about that with wellness habits as well, that like, if you have this maintenance that you’re doing on a regular basis, you’re exercising regularly, you’re normally getting sleep, when you have moments that maybe it doesn’t fit as well, like you’re traveling or things like that, you have some flexibility that you’ve built in because you do have this basis of health. One thing I’d love to dig into a little deeper because I can almost hear listeners thoughts going, oh, but I’m a single mom or I have a child with special needs or you know, I’m widowed and I have this thing going on. Like there’s so many things that somebody might be a caretaker for their parents. They may have extraordinary demands on their time and also be a high achiever.

Stacy: And really, like, personally, I gain a lot of joy out of my work and achieving in my work. And I know a lot of our listeners do too. So how would you speak to somebody who’s listening to that idea of harmony and going, aha, that sounds really cool. But how is that possible? In my life, you know, I think.

Erin: It’S just about building over time, small little wins, you know, I’m a big fan of, you know, slow and steady wins, the wellness race and you know, just kind of that old, you know, proverb of, you know, the turtle and the hare. And you know, I look at it as, you know, the hare went so fast, tried to do all this stuff, he burned himself out. But that turtle just kept, you know, slowly going along. And that’s really how I look at it, right? You know, building what works for you brick by brick. And if you are really busy or you’re going through a time in your life, you know, I have a lot of friends that are, we’re in that like sandwich generation, right?

Erin: You’re taking care of kids, you’re taking care of parents, and you’re working and you love your job and there’s all these different things that you have going on. So really just finding little ways to weave it in. You know, I always tell people, you know, having what I like to call pockets of self care. So instead of thinking like, you know what, I don’t have time to get, you know, that 150 minutes of exercise and that they tell me that I need right for my health. But you know, that doesn’t necessarily. Exercise doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to the gym and getting a formal workout.

Erin: And it might just mean I’m going to, you know, pick up the pace a little bit when I take my dog for a walk or, you know, I walk to and from the train station or I’m going to park farther in that parking lot or I’m going to just kind of shorten things. You know, I’m a big believer that something is better than nothing. You know, even if you don’t, you know, just getting up and doing some like stretching or doing a breathwork exercise for like a few minutes can be great. And even we’ve been talking a bunch about nutrition. You’re just making those extra little choices. Maybe I’m really craving that, you know, burger, but I’m going to have a salad with it instead of the fries.

Erin: I mean, to me, all these different little wins can give you a little bit more harmony and you know, and really kind of just over time it gets easier to add more things in.

Stacy: And it’s a, it’s, there’s reciprocity, I think, in these efforts because when you are integrating this in a more holistic way that’s also reasonable with your lifestyle and the stage that you’re in, you start to feel better and then that motivates you to keep those habits up. At least that’s been. Been my experience.

Erin: Yeah. And I think too, there’s a mindset thing to it. You know, I mean, some of us just go through a challenging period. You know, there might be people listening to this that are like, you know what? I’m just right now, whatever’s going on in my personal life or in my work life or both is just kind of really challenging and just, you know, giving yourself some grace and self compassion, that’s okay. If this, if at this point in your life you’re struggling to, you know, kind of add some of these different things in and just, you know, realizing that like this is a period and, you know, how can you. Is your forward, you know, moving forward and thinking about something stuff, thinking about little ways that you can support yourself.

Stacy: Would you be willing to share either a personal story or a client story about somebody who was in that like, hair mentality and you were able to help them refocus and become that tortoise that was able to, you know, live a much more holistic. Well, life?

Erin: Yeah, I have several clients that are coming to mind. One of my, you know, favorite clients I’ve worked with was really kind of just at, you know, at like a weird time in her life. Her kids were all just going to college and she had taken her business to, like, a whole new level, and she was working nonstop, but it was something she loved and she was really excited about. And, you know, then she went for her yearly physical and found out she had diabetes. And she was just so overwhelmed by this because she’s like, you know what? I just finally got my business where I want it to be. I have a little bit more time to work on that because my kids are, you know, going away to school.

Erin: She had a grandkid, actually, as well on the way, and she’s like, man, like, I am just, you know, I’m feeling a little depressed. I’m trying to figure out, you know, how to make all of this work. And I felt like she had no time to really, you know, take care of herself. And so when we started working together, you know, it was really about just kind of doing a few simple things. You know, I think sometimes when anyone gets diagnosed with a medical condition, you know, if they have a good doctor, they’ll give them, like, a nice right lifestyle plan and kind of point them in the direction, and then they come home with it, and they’re like, I don’t know what to do. You know, this is. How do I make this work?

Erin: I have this huge life that I’m trying to navigate. And so what she did was she started just slowly adding stuff in. You know, she got up 20 minutes earlier, and she did a little bit of just exercise bands, or she’d go for a little bit of a walk. You know, I kind of came up with just simple little things that she could bring with her to work, to eat that were healthy. And we actually started by her just taking a little bit of a lunch. I just said, okay, if you’re going to be working 24 7, you’re working when you get home. Back at night, I’m like, can we give you, like, a half hour just so you’re going to take a lunch? And so she started just sitting and, like, having her food.

Erin: And then some days, she’d get up and go walk around the parking lot outside at her office. And that eventually turned into. She took a full hour for herself because she’s like, I need that time during the day. And then after a few months, she was like, you know what I’m going to kind of get. She found apps she liked on her phone. She started getting into a little bit more time for exercise because she was able to kind of manage her sleep better. So it really just started with these small little things. But she had that, you know, she really had A why, you know, why she wanted to do these things. She’s like, I want to be here for my kids and my family, for my grandkids, for all of my patients.

Erin: As she was growing her business and it really kind of got her going. And you know what was interesting, it was at one point she kind of backtracked a little bit and she had a bit of a hurdle and, you know, kind of was really beating herself up. And I said to her, I’m like, look, I go, the reason I said we’ve got to work together for this many months was because I knew this was going to happen. Right? This always happens for all of us. But it’s. How can we persevere and get through that hurdle and realize that again there’s, that’s where that grace and self compassion comes in, that I can just kind of lean in back into it. I mean, so I think that’s really for anybody listening who’s like, I feel like I don’t have time to do this.

Erin: I don’t know what to do. Just lean into it. You know, view it like that. I’m going to lean into having a little more harmony. I’m going to lean into having a little bit more wellness because that’s a. Just a gentle way of getting some back in that’s just going to support you.

Stacy: I love that story because I think that’s really shared by a lot of people, this experience of whether you have a health crisis or you just kind of have a moment where you’re like, I really need to make a change here. And it made me think of when I was in my 20s, I had just a bunch of gastrointestinal issues. And later I now understand it was stress related, but at the time nobody was asking me about my stress or emotional health or anything. It was just very anatomy focused. And so I went to a number of doctors. I had the endoscopy, enteroscopic, enteroscopy and colonoscopy. I did all the things, I got really expensive medication. And then I saw a naturopath also along with all of the stuff.

Stacy: And I remember he gave me this like food plan to go to the grocery store. And I remember just going to the store and like staring at this list and walking up and down the aisles and going, what am I going to eat? Like, I can’t have this and I can’t have this. And I didn’t stick with it. Like, I went home, I tried to make chicken with no anything on it because I didn’t really understand the rules. And I think that a lot of people feel like that it’s like rather than just taking it a little bit at a time and adjusting one thing and getting good at that and then making this adjustment to your point, like taking a 30 minute lunch was revolutionary for her. And that was her first time step.

Stacy: And then she was able to expand it getting up 20 minutes early earlier, that made a huge difference for her. And then once she got that habit established, she was able to make real progress. I would love, you know, I know there are listeners that are like, that’s what I want. I want to be able to make these changes and this feels way more accessible. And I would love for you to share how they could go about starting to implement some of this. I know you talk about smart goals in how you orient around wellness, so I don’t know if you’d want to start there. If there’s maybe some simple get started tips, I’ll give it to you to answer that how you wish.

Erin: Sure. I mean, so I think if you’re getting started, the first thing I would say, you know, think of, be really specific. You know, if you have a certain goal, you’re making sure you’re specific about it. And I always recommend, you know, just starting with something small, you know, that’s attainable. So like, maybe, you know, we’ve talked obviously about nutrition a bunch, so maybe you’re like, I want to improve my nutrition a little bit, you know, and I would think about, you know, what do you want to do? You know, perhaps you’re like, you know what my main goal is? I just want to add in 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Right. That’s like a simple little way to crowd in some more healthy things. And why do you want to do that? Right.

Erin: What is the real reason you want to do this? Maybe it’s because you want to feel better and perform better. Is it, you know, because you feel like you’ve got some kind of health crisis going on? You know, is it like a confidence thing, you’re trying to get in some shape, you know, and what’s underneath that too, you know, just like with my client, she’s like, man, I want to be here for my family. That’s a huge why. And so if you can figure out why you want to do something when you have those moments where you’re like, I just want to grab the potato chips and not have. Right. The vegetables, it can kind of help you through them or no big deal if you do grab the potato chips. But you’re able to get yourself back on track.

Erin: So you want to find a why you want to find a way to track it. So if I’m going to have five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, I want to make sure I’m getting those in. So am I taking like a little habit tracker on a piece of paper and checking it off? I’ve had, I had a really fun CEO client once that he loved as a kid. He had like these star stickers you would put on chores when he got them done. So we created that for him around his habits. I love, I’m all about, like, let’s have some fun with this. Right? Wellness should be like a positive thing. So however you want to track stuff and then you want to have an action plan, like, how are you going to make this happen?

Erin: So if I want to have 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, maybe I’m going to build out some other habits here. So I’m going to make sure that on the weekends, I either go to the grocery store, I go to the farmer’s market, get things delivered. Whatever it is you do to get your groceries that you’re going to make that happen, I’m going to also on that day, I’m going to spend some time, you know, cleaning and cutting everything up and putting it in maybe containers so you’ve got it easily available to you. And then I’m going to make sure I pack it with me every day when I go to the office. Right. Those are three different things that I’ve got going on for me. So I have that stuff available during the week. Week.
Erin: So you really need to kind of build out that action plan. And I’m also going to, when I build that action plan, think about any hurdles, what might get in the way of this. It’s probably going to happen. We’re all humans. And so just knowing that when it does happen, you’ll be like, okay, I knew that was going to happen. I can move past that, right? Maybe it’s. I’m too lazy on the weekends and I don’t want to go shopping and then I start my week off and I don’t have access to things or I’m really stressed out and I might not eat that stuff that I brought with me to the office. Right. So you want to just kind of prepare for that stuff and you want to make sure whatever you plan is realistic. Right.

Erin: Is this something that I have the finances to do right now that I have the time to do. Because if you feel like, you know what, I don’t know if that’s achievable, then pick something else. Right? We want to set ourselves up for success. When we start off, right off the bat, you know, I see that a lot too around like exercise, you know, sometimes people will have like this huge exercise plan and then they’re like, is this achievable? And I’m like, they’re like, well, maybe I should start a little smaller. That’s fine. Right? Because we build our goals over time. And so then when you figure all of that out, you want to give yourself that time allotment. I’m going to try this for a month, I’m going to try this for three months, six months, whatever it is. And then you reevaluate.
Erin: Is this working for me? And you’re like, you know what? This has been working great the last three months. I’ve gotten all these different, you know, almost every day. I’ve had like my servings of fruits and vegetables. I’m feeling great. That’s the time you want to add another habit in, right? We want to set another goal. So it’s just really being, you know, consistent with everything and planning it out. And if after like a month, six months, three months, whatever it is, you’re like, you know, I don’t think this worked. Figuring out why it didn’t work, you know, non judgmentally. Right. Even myself sometimes I will get off track with my wellness programs or my wellness plans or something I want to do. I just doesn’t work for me.
Erin: And I just, instead of beating myself up, which is what I used to do when I was younger, I just kind of reevaluate and start from there.

Stacy: I like that. I mean that self compassion, which is a phrase you’ve mentioned a couple of times, I think is so important. And as you stack all these habits over time, eventually it becomes a lifestyle. And I know when we got started with our nutri, so were already very exercise focused family. It’s been part of my husband’s, I mean my husband and I have been together for a very long time now. We’ve, you know, our kids and our family life is very outdoorsy and exercise focused and were like kind of with the food stuff, but not really fully. And it was really hard at first. Like it was so hard. And it required a whole different like culture change in our family to really adopt this new lifestyle for us. There was A medical need that was associated with it. So I think.

Stacy: And it was for one of my children. So if it had been for me, I’m not sure I would have. You know, that was very motivating. That was my. Why. But what’s interesting is that now we’re, you know, we kind of started all this about four years ago and then we took a different approach about two years ago. That was much more intense. And it was very intense at first and it’s still a lot of work. But it’s so integrated into our lifestyle that like, it’s our choice, like we prefer it now. And it really is like, I couldn’t even imagine going back to the way that we did things before, but I would have never believed that probably in the beginning because I was like, oh, my God, this is so much work. It’s so hard. But it’s like also the time.

Stacy: I think that’s the thing I’m hearing from you too. We get into certain situations in our professional lives, in our personal lives, in our health over a long period of time. And if you just jump in and you’re trying to fix everything in a week or a month, you’re going to be that hair, you’re going to like burn out and quit the race. I’m sure that many of your clients have tried that in the past and that has not worked for them. And so I love that you have this kind of slower approach and maybe for somebody that, you know in the middle of this and kind of hitting those bumps, what are some of the things that you might offer them as they’re like, trying to continue their path of wellness?

Erin: Yeah, I just think, you know, kind of just reevaluating and just realizing that there’s, you know, little wins really do count. I mean, I work with like a lot of like, high level professionals and they, you know, they always want to do, you know, and I get it because I can be very type A too. You don’t want, you want to do more, you know, and sometimes, you know, we do actually in my family’s law firm, I do some wellness coaching and we always do different, like, habit challenges. And when I first started doing this, you know, some of the attorneys would, you know, they were supposed to pick one habit, right, for a couple of months that they wanted to work on. Some of them would pick like four.

Stacy: And then knew where this was going. Yep, a bunch of attorneys, these were.

Erin: The people that did it, were not successful. Right at the end of like the, you know, six Week, period. And they’re like, I don’t know. And I’m like, I told you to pick one, right? And so I’m like, everyone who picked one, you know, did a pretty good job. And like, some of them had like an off couple days or an off week, but were able to get back on track. So I think part of it is just, don’t overwhelm yourself, you know, I mean, like, you know, even you, Stacy, you said, like, we didn’t start off doing all of these things. You know, when people look at me, they’re like, man, you do like a lot. You got all this stuff, like, in your life that you do for your wellness. I didn’t have all of this stuff 10 years ago.

Erin: You know, it was sort of like, you know, and some of it’s trial and error, like, what works for me, what works for my body, what works for my time at this point in my life. And I just started slowly building upon things. I mean, so that’s what I would say. Don’t try to do too much. And like, if you feel like things aren’t working, I would take a step back and be like, am I trying to do too much? Like, even if it’s just I’m trying to work on my exercise, are you trying to like do five or six days a week? Or can we start with two or three? You know, I mean, because maybe eventually you can get to that five or six days a week, if that’s what you want. But if you start there, you’re gonna have.

Erin: You’re either gonna burn yourself out or you’re gonna have weeks where it’s not possible, and then you’re not gonna know what to do. And it can be hard when you get in those moments to then get back on track.

Stacy: It’s so true. And I also think it’s how you orient to the journey as well. I like that you focus on keeping that why in view. The other thing I was thinking about is that, and you made this point, you touched on this earlier, that, you know, exercise doesn’t have to look a certain way. Even before this conversation. I try to take a two hour lunch every day. This is just like how I kind of split my day in half so that I’m really refreshed for the second half. And before this conversation, I went on a hike with a friend. That’s how we caught up. Instead of, you know, sitting and having coffee for that period, we. We went and hiked out in the sunshine. So there’s so many Ways that you can integrate it.

Stacy: That doesn’t have to look like, get up at 5 o’ clock in the morning and go to the gym. It can be really integrated into your lifestyle as well.
Erin: Yeah. And you can split it up, you know, if you have to. You know, I sometimes go get. Just get my cardio and by just walking my dog Daisy, I have a golden retriever. And you know, my favorite thing to do for that is, you know, for cardio is really just to take her, you know, for some walks. And I do have, like, for me, like, I have some orthopedic issues now with my knees, so I can’t go as far as I used to. So, you know, my PT guy was like, well, just do it. Because it was really frustrating when he’s like, just do smaller walks. So now we kind of break them up.

Erin: I might do, you know, 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes, you know, when I get back from the office, which is a great way for me to transition, you know. And then I just work on getting a little Pilates, a little strength training, and, you know, and those things I go to the studio for. But some weeks I can’t get it all in. And you know what I do those weeks, I go downstairs and I maybe take my exercise bands, which, you know, I got really cheaply on Amazon, and I do like 20 minutes of that strength training. So I just try to kind of integrate how I get stuff in.

Erin: But that’s a, you know, that’s a really something for me that took a long time, you know, because when I had my eating disorder, I also really kind of had an exercise, you know, disorder around it too. I was over exercising. And even when I got healthy with my food stuff, I kept that going for a long time. So for me now I really just try to remember, you know, you got to take care of yourself. Like in some days, if I’m really sore or my knees are bothering me, I might just go stretch and then go in the sauna or take a bath. You know, that’s part of wellness too. You know, there might be some weeks where even if you have the time, pushing yourself to do certain things is not something you want to do.

Stacy: That intuition and listening to your own body and I think also trusting your body and what it’s telling you. For me, I’ve had to learn that also with food and, you know, there’s. It’s. It’s interesting because I notice as the month, and I’m sure it’s connected also to my menstrual cycle that, you know, there’s certain times that I’m like craving a food like chocolate for example, and I can eat that chocolate and feel good and my body wants that. But then other times if I have doesn’t sit well, like maybe I get a headache from the sugar or something like that. And I think it’s the same with exercise. Like I’m a runner and there’s certain days that I’m like, I don’t feel like that run’s gonna feel good today.

Stacy: And then other days where I’m like, I don’t feel like running, but I know I need it today. And just, I think when you have integrated that more holistically into your lifestyle, you start to learn and trust what your body needs. And then there’s absolutely no guilt or shame attached to what would maybe be perceived as like slipping with your habits. Because actually you’re just honoring and trusting what your body needs in that moment or in that day.

Erin: Yeah, exactly. And, and that, you know, that’s one of those things that you just develop over time, you know, and you know, just like anything. So I mean, I think it’s really about, you know, starting off with that, you know, intention of. I really do want to have more harmony in my life. I do want to work on my self care, my wellness, here’s why. And then just slowly integrating those things and being, and really being aware of them and you know, realizing you’re going to be in a totally different place if you start now than you are a year from now and two years from now. And even sometimes that may include some setbacks because stuff happens in life, right? We go through different challenges.

Erin: But as long as you stay kind of on that path and really just listen to what you need. Because while this isn’t just about right, as I said at the beginning, that physical stuff, I mean, I think if we can really look at our emotion, our mental being mindful about it can really transform us.

Stacy: I love this topic. And it also reminded me of. I just had this memory of this yoga class that I went to. And so I’m 39 and this, the woman that came in was probably in her like mid-20s, something like that. And she, and we had a male yoga teacher and she came in, she walked right up to him and she said, I’m having really bad menstrual cramps today, so I may not participate fully in the class. And I was like, dang girl, I love that you just walked in and just said that. And you’re like this next generation. I love you. And I hope that we have more of this. Just kind of like, honoring of what our body needs, not pushing ourselves because we’re in a space where we feel like we need to. So, anyway, I loved. I loved that moment.

Erin: I was like, that’s great, because, you know, we really need to, like, you know, whether it’s like, going into that exercise room or if you’re with your doctor, like, question them. Right. Like, ask questions. And don’t be afraid to be like, you know what? That’s not working for me. And, you know, taking more ownership over those things. You know, I know there’s all these, like, I think sometimes we come in, whether it’s the trainer or the doctor, the nutritionist, and we think they know everything. And while they are experts at what they don’t know our bodies like we know our bodies.

Stacy: Yeah, it’s so true. It’s so true. Okay, I do want to switch gears slightly, although we’re still on the same topic, because it’s about your book, but because we have so many authors and aspiring authors that listen to this podcast, I have to ask you about your writing experience. Experience and this process of writing your book. I know it’s such a huge undertaking. It’s such a big effort and such a huge accomplishment. Most people that want to write a book and haven’t yet gotten into that world have no idea how much is involved in the whole journey of writing, publishing, marketing. And in my view, it’s a really beautiful process, but it is a lot. There is a lot involved in it.

Stacy: And I would love to know, through this process of writing your book and sharing your book, if you had any insights or, you know, any awareness or moments of clarity that you found through the process of bringing all of your, you knowledge or a lot of your knowledge in and. And packaging that up and offering it out into the world.

Erin: Yeah, like, the writing process, like, I loved it. You know, I mean, this probably goes back to me being an English teacher. You know, I love to write. I actually like to do research. And so. But I think the. One of the biggest insights I noticed because people asked me how long it took me, and so I’d been telling people, you know, two years, because that’s when I actually started, actually physically, like, okay, here’s the book. I’m going to start writing everything. And then there was the editing and publishing process. But I. It really took me 10 years to write this, you know, because the stuff that’s in this book is something I developed over the past 10 years when I was coaching, when I went back to school.

Erin: Like a lot of the research in this book, I actually, when I was in school working on my master’s for mental health counseling, I started realizing I really want to write a book. And so when I could, I would do a research project on some, a topic in the lifestyle space with mental health. So I was able to kind of use that and translate that into, you know, parts of my book. Like I did my capstone project, which is my thesis on what do you need to eat to help, you know, boost your mood and manage anxiety? Because that was just something I was really interested in. But I also knew that’s going to end up in the book. So for me it was really, I think like a decade long journey.

Erin: But then when I sat down and wrote it, I realized like how fun like the process was. I wrote it by. It probably took me about six months just to kind of put everything down into paper. But then at that point I was like, okay, I still need to build some stuff out. Like, I felt like I needed some direction. So I ended up hiring an editor that helped me and we did, went on a really fun journey because she said to me, she’s like, Erin, I could just take this, but I think you have more books than you, which I think I do too. So I, she said what? I’d like to just go through each chapter, I’ll give you notes and then kind of just rewrite it. And so that was a whole nother process. But that was like just so rewarding.

Erin: Like it didn’t even seem like work to me. And, and then my wonderful husband, he’s a really good editor. He helped me in school about my research paper. So I would have him editing it before I was sending it back to her for like grammar and stuff like, and so all of that, you know, then you. I went into, found, got an independent publisher and then, you know, kind of went through that whole process again. But the experience was really great. I think for me the hardest part of it was kind of towards the end when were getting towards like the end of the edits that had to go in and you know, trying to figure out how to like promote it and things like that. Because I’m expending so much energy now.

Erin: But I’m so excited about it because I love the product so much.

Stacy: I love that you share that excitement with listeners because this is the thing that I find with My coaching clients, my own experience writing books is that it is a huge. It is a huge effort, but it also can and should be really joyful, and it should let you discover new things through the process. It’s. It’s very much a discovery, clarifying process. And, you know, that experience of real introspection and than pushing yourself to create something other people can understand and use, that comes out of your own brain. I mean, it’s kind of magic, isn’t it?

Erin: Yeah. And it was interesting because, you know, as you know from writing, like, you edit different things so much, like, separately, like, I hadn’t actually read the thing together for a long time. So when I went and recorded the audiobook a few months ago, I was, like, in the middle of it, I just started crying because I was like, oh, my goodness. Like, I love. Not only do I love this, but there’s so much of me in it in every chapter, and I feel like people get to really know me, which I thought was really special because I tried to do that, but I couldn’t tell till I put it all together.

Stacy: Yeah. And you integrate a lot of storytelling into your book, which I can see that feeling of going, oh, wow, I was able to really capture that. Oh, I love it. Erin, I’ll end with our last question. Well, I will invite you also to tell us a little bit more about where to find you. But first, I’ll ask you the question that we ask all of our. All of our amazing guests, and that is, if you could recommend one book to listeners, one that has profoundly impacted your life, what would it be?

Erin: So I’m going to go back to my English roots. The one book when I was a child that really transformed me was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. And the reason I picked this book is because it really taught me the whole concept of empathy, which I think has just really helped me navigate the world. You know, when Atticus tells Scout, you know, sometimes you kind of have to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and walk around a little bit. That concept, I just never forgot that. And that really helped me when I was going through challenging times. It really helps me navigate people when I work with them on a daily basis. And I just really. There was something about that just really resonated with me.

Erin: And I am just a fan of all of that old American classics, so I love it.

Stacy: I remember that book being very impactful for me as well. When I read it was very emotionally charged. So great recommendation. Well, Erin, please tell our Listeners, our viewers on YouTube, where to find you, where to follow you, where to get your book.

Erin: Yeah, so my book is available Wellness Reimagined on Amazon and, you know, all the other major retailers too. You can also. I, I really love putting stuff out on Instagram, Erin Wellness. I also have that page on Facebook and LinkedIn. But you know, one of my favorite things to do is just share small little tips because I like little nuggets of things that you can do. So I would love it if people would join the community.

Stacy: Lovely. Well, we’ll be sure to include all of the links to places you mentioned in our show notes so listeners can really easily find you and follow along. Get your book. Erin, thank you so much for joining me today.

Erin: Thank you so much for having me.

Stacy: And thank you to you, our listener, our viewers, for hanging out with us. I hope this was really inspiring for you. And if you are on a wellness journey or you want to be on a wellness journey, I hope that it has given you some practical tips and also hopefully some motivation to lean into whatever that next step is for you to get well, to feel good, and to live a more holistically well life. Thank you as always to Rita Dominguez for her production of this fine podcast. She truly makes it possible to get this out to you. I just show up and record and she does all of the other hard work around it and I am so grateful. If you’re still listening, that means you must really like this podcast.

Stacy: So will you please take a moment to rate and review the show? It makes a huge difference in helping me reach more listeners with the message of listening, living a life that’s not just better, but beyond better. And I will be back with you before you know it.