It's the end of one season and the beginning of another for me. Today's paddle (and video above) marks a huge shift for me. It had been 2 years since I was able to do something I loved (paddleboard).

Some seasons suck. But remember, winter doesn’t last forever. Neither does spring, summer, fall, or any other season you can think of. 

So, no matter what season you find yourself in (season of injury, season of love, season of grief, season of pregnancy, season of fill in the blank), you have to honor the season that you are in, no matter how shitty or wonderful it may be.

Lots of love to you and your season!

-Abby

Ok, I'm keeping it real in today's Tuesday at 2 TBP Talk, simply because it's a topic that makes my blood boil!  Me and the conventional western medical "system" don't really get along, but THIS irks the heck out of me.  Listen in to this week's talk as I tell you about one of my clients who went for TWO YEARS before her doctor agreed to get her an MRI for a knee issue, which ended up being a torn meniscus.  

I also talk about how my daughters' pediatrician(s) never once mentioned to us that she has food intolerances!  It took ME digging deep and continuing to get referrals to finally figure things out for myself.  

The main lesson in all of this: NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR HEALTH AS MUCH AS YOU EVER WILL.  YOU HAVE TO BE THE "PUSHY B**CH" AND LISTEN TO YOUR INTUITION UNTIL "THEY" FINALLY LISTEN TO YOU!

In the middle of my daughter's swim lesson, I began to think about how often I want to put her in classes so she can learn.  Kids learn things at such a fast speed, mostly because their brains are growing exponentially fast. (Way faster than adult brains).  Learning shouldn't stop when we become adults.  In fact, we should dive in even deeper when we become adults.

Check out my good friend (and fellow TBPer) Tami Hackbarth's podcast on Lifelong Learning.

Now, here's the sad truth about myself.  I haven't taken a class FOR MYSELF in a loooooong time! Even though I know the importance of learning new things, I haven't been heeding my own advice.  

So my lesson in this week's Tuesday @ 2 Talk, was to start learning again by taking a class!  Don't know where to start? Think about what you love to do, or something you wish you could do better.  Before having my daughter, I took a kickboxing class.  I loved it. But it's been...

Lesson 1: No matter how much planning I do, things WILL change, and I have to be ok with that.  Always have a plan A, B, C, and D!  "Detours" are inevitable.  Just plan to expect the unexpected.

Lesson 2: New experiences are always a good idea!  Some of my favorite memories from past well-weekends have been new adventures! Like our treetop adventure in Lake Tahoe, or rafting in Yosemite. 

Lesson 3: Trailhead parking can suck. Always plan ahead and arrive early, especially when you have 2-4 cars that need to find space.  It doesn't hurt to pray to the "parking gods" either! 

Lesson 4: Always set an intention to attract the right people to the retreats.  Sometimes it's not about what you do on the retreat, but WHO you do it with.  We have always had amazing groups of women on each and every retreat!  I sure am lucky to attract a strong, powerful, amazing tribe of women!

Lesson 5: Stop losing money!  The first 6-7 well-weekends I...

If you've ever tried to lose weight (and I assume that almost everyone has), then you've probably experienced a weight loss plateau (or a stall in weight loss) at some point.  Weight loss plateaus can be a seriously frustrating experience, so let me tell you why I think weight loss plateaus are a GOOD thing, and why you need to honor them. 

Every body has a set point weight. The set point is your "happy weight," or the weight that your body fluctuates around give or take 4-5lbs.  Now, when you're trying to lose weight, you need to train your body to reset your set point to a new, lower one, and sometimes that happens during a plateau. 

Let's say you're 200lbs, trying to reach 150.  You get to 175, and all of a sudden, the weight loss stops.  What are you doing wrong? Nothing!  Some folks want to know every tip and trick to bypass a plateau like this and continue pressing on toward the end goal, but I caution you to not blow right past it, and...

"I ONLY ran a half marathon."  

I hear this all the time from newbie runners as well as marathon vets.   I mean, why bother running at all if it's "only" a half?  It's as if the value of 13.1 is "less than." 

In fact, I'm guilty of this myself. Having run 13 full marathons, I've said, oh it's no big deal, I'm "only" running a half.   Or walking around at race expos, hearing first time runners saying, I'm "only" running the half, as if they are less than or embarrassed, or scared of being judged for running 13.1 instead of 26.2 miles. 

I call BS on not only myself for saying this, but on everyone else who says it, and anyone who judges another person.  13.1 is not easy, I don't care how conditioned you are.  It's still a long ass time to be running.

Never say "I only" did or received ANYTHING!  Whether it's a race, a workout, a project, a class, an income, number of pounds lost, or anything at all, when you say "I...

Focus on the weight you lift.

Not the weight you lose.

"When I drop 10lbs, I will finally be happy."

"When I get an A on that test, I will treat myself to a pedicure."

"When I get that new job or promotion, I will go shopping for new clothes." 

"When I fit into those jeans, I will go out and celebrate."

Have you ever said any of those sentences (or something similar) to yourself? Today, my goal is to send you a little "mindset shift" to help you understand and realize that it's not about rewarding results. It's about rewarding BEHAVIORS.  

Often in life, we can't control results. In fact, we can only control as far as our fingertips can reach. Anything beyond our physical reach is simply out of our control. All we can do is influence it via our behavior. 

Want to lose 10lbs? How can you reframe that goal to focus on behaviors vs. the result of losing 10lbs?  Start by asking yourself what behaviors someone would need to perform, in order to accomplish...

When I first launched the Trainer In Your Back Pocket® (TBP) back in 2011, building your own membership website wasn't really a "thing."  In fact, one of the reasons that I created the TBP was because there wasn't anything on the internet, available that offered virtual training programs the way I wanted to offer them to my clients. So, I dreamed it, imagined it, and created it myself.  And along the way, I've learned that persistence is everything. Without it, the TBP would not be here today.

I will never forget the days I spent learning and remembering HTML coding from that one class in college that I slept through.  I literally built the first TBP website with my own HTML coding.  Don't ask me how I did it, but it worked! It wasn't anything fancy. In fact, I think all I knew how to do was bold words, create paragraph breaks, and link a word to another webpage.  It really was the basics.  

Fast forward 8 years, it seems like everyone...

This past month in the Trainer In Your Back Pocket®, we talked all about eating organ meats and the benefits of doing so.  Liver was our starting point, because it's the most common to make a pate out of that actually tastes good!  So, I challenged all TBPers to make a liver recipe during the month.

There are so many benefits to eating organ meats, most of which is that you're getting all of the "good stuff" that is needed to heal your own organs.  So, eating liver is great for your liver. Eating heart is great for your heart. Eating adrenal is great for your...adrenals!  

Now, I am by no means telling you that I cook and eat cow adrenal gland, BUT, watch my video below and learn how I actually get the same nutrition into my body. 

Also, here's another great article to give you some more insight into eating organ meats.  

Here is where I get my organ meat, and all of my grassfed meats and bone broths!*

*Note this is my affiliate...