Brooke Simonson

Tony Winyard 0:00

habits and health episode 47.

Jingle 0:03

Welcome to the habits and health podcast, where we believe creating healthy habits should be easy. Brought to you by an educator and coach for anyone who wants to create a healthier life. Here's your host, Tony Winyard.

Tony Winyard 0:19

Welcome to another edition of the podcast where we give you ideas for ways you can improve your health by incorporating some healthy habits. Today's guest is Brooke Simonson. She is a certified nutrition coach and weight loss expert on a mission to help as many people as possible to lose those pounds for the last time without giving up carbs and counting every calorie drinking meal replacement shakes and other unsustainable extremes. She has a company called their health investment. And we're gonna hear a lot more from Brooke coming up right now. habits and health my guest today Brooke Simonsson. How you doing, Brooke?

Brooke Simonson 1:00

I'm doing well. How are you?

Tony Winyard 1:01

I'm pretty good. And you're we're quite far from each other. Certainly in terms of time. I mean, it's it's early evening for me and it's early morning for you.

Brooke Simonson 1:10

It is yeah, I know I woke up this a little while before coming on here. So quite literally, we're speaking across the world. But so cool that podcasting and technology allows for that to happen.

Tony Winyard 1:21

Yeah. And you're in California. Yes,

Brooke Simonson 1:24

northern California. So sometimes they say California people picture Los Angeles and beaches and palm trees a little different up here. But it still makes the weather weather's pretty great in California.

Tony Winyard 1:38

So how is it and and a moment in where you are?

Brooke Simonson 1:41

Yeah, so it's gotten a bit colder, like more of a drastic difference in the day to night temperature. But still, I mean, it's usually pretty sunny and 60s 70s every day. So you know, you can't complain?

Tony Winyard 1:59

Yeah, well, we don't have any temperatures like that over.

Brooke Simonson 2:05

Well, I used to live in New York City. And I personally loved it. I loved the seasons and having snow and you know, people complain about the winters there. I enjoyed it. I also always lived in apartment buildings, and I never had to shovel snow. So I think that made a difference. But it's funny, because now sometimes I'll talk about hear how I missed the snow and just more of the seasons. And people look at me like you're not allowed to complain when it's 65 and sunny every day.

Tony Winyard 2:35

And I mean, obviously we're here to talk about, you know, the show is called habits and health. And I know, you know, I mean, I asked you some questions beforehand, and you were talking about atomic habits and nutrition and various other things. So let's start from the beginning. What is your story? Why? What is it that you do know? How do you help people?

Brooke Simonson 2:55

Of course, yeah. So I as you said, I'm Brooke Simonsson. I'm a certified nutrition coach. And people primarily come to me wanting help with weight loss, also just kind of eating healthier and maintaining a healthy eating pattern long term. And I got into this actually, I used to be a high school English teacher for 12 years when I lived on the east coast. It's kind of another life out there a whole other career and climate as I was saying. But after college, I started that career at 22. And didn't feel my best in my 20s ended up gaining quite a bit of weight was always trying to figure out what would work. I did what a lot of people do. I think when you gain weight, I started exercising more, I tried eating better, which I thought was what I should be eating, but I didn't exactly know, I would try different juice cleanses. I really tried it all I thought I had terrible willpower or self control. I couldn't crack the code, if you will. And so this went on for several years. Eventually, I got really into kind of the biohacking idea behind it. And once I discovered that word and thought, Okay, can I kind of hack my own body can I figure this out. And I dove into a bunch of podcasts, I started reading a lot of books, I got my hands on scholarly research article. And it really became kind of a hobby, if you will, on nights and weekends when I wasn't teaching. Sometimes when I was teaching, I'd have that free period when I was supposed to grade papers and I would be more interested in all this other stuff. And eventually I enrolled in an institute called the Institute of transformational nutrition to get my hands on even more information. And that's how I ended up becoming certified as nutrition coach at the time, just planning again to learn for myself and kind of have this certification in my back pocket if I ever wanted to do it in addition to teaching but Through all of this research, I would say probably two to three years, I did eventually kind of discovered the magic pill, if you will, and the magic pill being how to not only lose weight in the short term, but to keep it off long term, how to still enjoy all of my favourite foods, wine and life in the process. I don't restrict any one food group or, you know, do anything crazy, as we see out there on the internet of people trying more of these extreme measures. And I just now feel like I'm able to show up as my healthiest, happiest, most energised, most confident, best self, and make the most out of life. And I don't like I said, do anything extreme. And it's become my mission to help other people do the same. So when my husband and I moved from New York to California, instead of starting a new teaching career, I thought, Okay, I'm going to put this certification to good use, and I'm going to start my own business as a nutrition coach. So that's what I do now full time I coach clients one on one, I have a group programme as well. And I also have a podcast.

Tony Winyard 6:11

Cool. So how long have you been coaching people?

Brooke Simonson 6:14

I've been coaching now for about two and a half years.

Tony Winyard 6:17

And how and so that So you started not long before the whole kind of lockdown pandemics?

Brooke Simonson 6:23

Yeah, that is true. I will my husband I moved down here. It was August of 2019. So then the lockdown happened march out here, at least March of 2020. So we I already had been kind of thrown into this working from home environment, working by myself for myself without any co workers. So it was already kind of strange. And he was going to an office and then march 2020 hit and then he was home too. So we had a lot to navigate in those new months of living in California. But we've adjusted now it's good. I think we've all kind of adjusted but it is very different from teaching to work by myself in the tiny little reminder and every day, but I love it. I I think my dad was a business owner, he owned a car dealership, and my mom was a teacher. So I grew up kind of seeing both. And I did the teaching thing. And that was great for a while but kind of lost my passion for that. And now, I just love starting my own business and being an entrepreneur, it just, I can't imagine doing anything else now.

Tony Winyard 7:29

So working as a nutrition coach, what has there been any element of it that surprised you that maybe you wouldn't have expected before you sort of started learning about all of this.

Brooke Simonson 7:40

I think what surprised me most is what actually works is so very simple. It's kind of going back to if you'll think about what our great grandparents and great great grandparents did. And it's so distracting now all of the things that we see in Facebook ads and on newspaper headlines, and even that our friends are trying and there's just so much extremism in the nutrition and health space, when really, it doesn't have to be that way. And I just I find it very frustrating. But most people gravitate to that with their best intentions. I mean, they're, they're wanting to get healthy and lose weight and feel better, whatever it is. And so they're just really like I was doing taking shots in the dark. Like, why I haven't tried this thing or, you know, it's been a couple years since I've done the no carb thing or whatever it is. And so people are getting short term results. And following this yo yo pattern, just feeling really out of control and what work is really just getting back to the basics. And it's just so much happier to live in that middle ground. Without all kind of the craziness. You know, I think if something comes with a big promise or a label even it's like let's stay away from those things and just get back to eating more real Whole Foods and, and not following me crazy, you know, lose 10 pounds and seven days, whatever it is, it's probably not going to be sustainable.

Tony Winyard 9:18

So do you find do your clients find it? Maybe surprising that it's easier than they expected once they got personal guidance, guidance that's suitable for them rather than kind of generally what

Brooke Simonson 9:31

they do and it's, I mean, it's kind of this banging your head against the wall thing once you realise it of this is it I could be doing this all these years and getting these amazing results and still enjoying the holidays and still having a glass of wine. And it's, you know, it doesn't have to be so restrictive and miserable. I think a lot of people attach some negative words To the process of losing weight or eating healthy of whether it doesn't taste as good, or it's just going to be kind of horrible. So they'll try to wait, burn. And in between time, like I don't want to do it right now, because it's the holidays. And I want to have fun. And I don't want to do it over the summer because I want to enjoy my vacation. But really, when you find what works for you, it's going to be able to work all the time, not just in week spurts, here and there. So it's okay to start now I'd have a client who just signed up last week, and she's already starting to take small gradual actions, and she's feeling better already. And you know, Christmas is coming up soon as we're recording this. So I was really impressed by her that she signed up even in the midst of the holiday season, because this is not usually a busy time for me, usually January.

Tony Winyard 10:55

And so a lot of it sounds like a lot of your clients are relieved, it's not what they see nowhere near as oppressive as they expected it to be.

Brooke Simonson 11:05

Exactly. And the majority of people who come to me have been on this roller coaster for years trying all the different things. So it's really just kind of quieting all that noise, I say, I give you the awareness of what actually works. And I teach you principles, there's not a prescription, because we can't all follow this exact same dietary pattern, we can't all do the exact same habits, because we all are unique. We wouldn't think in any other area of life that we should all be doing the exact same thing, right, there has to be nuance and difference. And so that's something tricky to describe to people of, you know, I'm not going to give you a laundry list of everything you can and can't eat. And I'm not going to give you a list of all these rules that you have to follow. It's more, let me teach you kind of the science behind the habits that work when it comes to nutrition and sleep and stress and movement. And then how can we make those principles work for your lifestyle, so that you're able, again, to sustain your success. Even when life gets busy, even when there's holidays and vacations and you know, your kids are going crazy. I mean, you've got to figure out habits that work for your lifestyle. So it doesn't, it is shocking to people I would say at first. But it really works. And it's exciting when it does.

Tony Winyard 12:31

So in a lot of people, they really struggle with the they often do know what they should be doing. But for whatever reason, they just struggled to be able to do it. So how, why do you think that is? Why do people struggle so much? And how do you how are you able to kind of help them pass that?

Brooke Simonson 12:50

Yeah, so 100% a lot of people know, banana is going to be healthier than a cupcake, right? I mean, these are things that we all know or, you know, if I'm drinking water, that's going to be healthier, and so that we all have a general idea of what we should be doing. I say it really comes down to three A's. I call this my three a approach. And this is what helps people sustain their success long term. So the first day I touched on a little bit the awareness piece, people have a rudimentary idea of, you know, good or bad or healthy or not healthy. But when it comes down to more of the nuance, like a lot of clients who come to work with me haven't been eating enough protein, for example, and proteins, the most filling of the three macronutrients. So just upping protein intake kind of building, every meal around protein can be such a game changer. So that's, you know, something that you may have awareness of protein is something I should be eating, but you may not know how much. So the awareness piece is critical. People do have a general idea of what to do. But then when we get more into the science, and you learn why you're eating different things, and why you're getting 30 or so grammes of protein at breakfast, and how that can affect your energy throughout the rest of the day. That is critical. So one of the first critical aids then is awareness. The second one is attitude. And a lot of people don't go into kind of the weight loss space or eating healthy long term with the right mindset. A lot of people because these diets and juice cleanses they usually have a timeframe. So it'll be a 30 day plan or a three month plan. And then they don't think beyond that. So it's really working on reshaping your mindset and there's going to be a change that you're going to make forever and ever, which is why it's important that it works for your lifestyle. So there's so many critical pieces with the attitude part. progress, not perfection. You know, if you have a cookie, we're not gonna say diet starts Monday, you didn't fall off the waggon, you just had a cookie, let's move on with life. So be a is very critical the attitude part, we have awareness attitude. And then finally, accountability. Research suggests that your odds of success can improve by up to 95% with more accountability. So that would be through like working with a coach like myself, or even getting a partner on board, maybe your sister or brother is down to make changes with you just kind of getting somebody in your corner when you're making habit changes, because it's not always going to be easy. And sometimes you're going to be doing stuff that kind of countercultural or against the grain. And it's, again, not going to be something crazy, but it's still nice to have somebody kind of checking in or if you say you're going to go for a walk, and somebody else in your life that they were going to go for a walk Can you text each other and say I did my walk Did you. But the accountability piece is often overlooked. So those three A's the awareness, attitude and accountability really get people the long term success.

Jingle 16:17

We hope you're enjoying this episode of the habits and health podcast where we believe creating healthy habits should be easy. If you're looking for the fastest and most effective way to transform your energy and wellbeing, we invite you to join Tony for an upcoming habits and health workshop. This five week group workshop will empower you the tools to disrupt unwanted habits and make positive changes easy. You'll enjoy sound asleep, better energy, less stress, and a happier mood Workshops begin on the first week of every month. And you can sign up now at Tony winyard.com. Now back to the show.

Tony Winyard 17:00

And how the font Oh, do you find any of your clients really struggle when it comes to things like snacking and so on.

Brooke Simonson 17:08

They do often when they come to me that's one of their biggest issues. And it's funny because they use the term snacky. So I use that now I shall say I just feel snacky all the time. So one of the changes I mentioned getting more protein, you know, eating meals that are actually filling, also getting a bunch of fibre through whole grains and fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats, maybe through avocado, extra virgin olive oil, nuts, seeds, once you start building a plate that's actually very filling and satisfying. And you're more conscious of what you're putting on your plate and why you're kind of structuring it in that way. It's incredible that a lot of the snack Enos kind of melts away, and you don't have that ravenous feeling at 4pm. Before dinner, you feel like you can actually make it from one meal to the next. And that's a great way to be in a moderate calorie deficit by cutting out some of the snacks the mindless snacking in between meals without needing to count anything like calories. If you're just setting up your plate in a way where you actually feel full, you're cutting out some of the snacks, you may end up consuming three to 500 calories less per day, which would then cause you to start losing a pound or two. Or I don't what do you you wouldn't say pounds, right?

Tony Winyard 18:35

We say kilogrammes, but a lot of people are used to pounds as well. Oh,

Brooke Simonson 18:38

good. Okay, because I was on another podcast of somebody in the UK and then they were translating everything I was saying kilogramme. Same thing though, you start losing weight at a at a steady pace. When you are more conscious of what actually works again for feeling full and setting up your plate.

Tony Winyard 18:59

So how do you approach when, when you've alluded to centre earlier, there are a lot of there's a lot of extreme extremes when it comes to various ways of eating. So someone comes to you and they're convinced that keto is the way to go or being a vegan is the way to go or high carbs or whatever extreme it is. How would you how do you sort of cope with that?

Brooke Simonson 19:23

I would say the majority of people come to me because they don't want to do the extremes anymore. So if they're coming to me, it's because they tried all those things, and they've only been successful, short term. So they have lost weight. I mean, people will come to me and say I lost 30 pounds like keto. And then I'll say okay, cool. Tell me more about that. And then they'll say, Well, I gained I lost 30 But then I gained 40. Right, the second I stop. So most of the time people aren't coming to me really attached to one way of eating. That being said, I have worked with people who have had On autoimmune conditions, or celiac, for example, and they're avoiding all gluten, or vegetarians, and it does, we just talk about, you know, I mentioned protein, it can be more difficult to get your protein, your daily protein intake, if you're following, let's say, a vegetarian diet, but it's not impossible. And it just requires being more mindful and maybe more prepared. And kind of scoping out different protein sources, maybe you haven't even tried before. So it's definitely possible. But the majority of people I work with are 100% interested in leaving all the extreme eating patterns in the past and having more of a healthy balance?

Tony Winyard 20:47

And what I mean people up, do you find any of your clients are quite surprised that they may be initially they've come with, the main goal is to lose weight. And they've actually ended up not only they've, they've they've become healthier, and they've lost weight, but then they've maybe not required so much medication on and so on.

Brooke Simonson 21:06

Yeah, that 100%, I would say, when people come to me, the first thing always is typically the weight loss, their second thing is usually having more energy. And usually third is something like eating healthier, being a better role model for my kids, or maybe it's getting off some of my medication, if possible. So I am not a doctor. So I never make any type of promise or say, go off your meds, right, or I always say, you know, continue to work closely with your doctor and make sure they know the different habit changes you're making. But it is incredible, when clients will go back to the doctor, and then they'll send me a text of wow, I got my blood work back, my doctor still impressed. And, you know, maybe they reduced this medication a little bit, maybe I could even kind of wean off of that eventually. But nutrition can be extremely powerful. So Can something like sleep movement, just managing our stress, it's amazing how the body can kind of readapt and get so much healthier overall, just by making these habit changes. And obviously, there's still sometimes a need for medication. I think that's another extreme that some people will say, of, you know, you can do all these healthy things in terms of food and whatever, you'll never need a medication again, and you may be able to go off some of them. But I think, you know, there's always a healthy balance. So that's what I'm all about is kind of where can we find the healthy centre?

Tony Winyard 22:46

So a lot of what you're helping people with is, is changing their mindset. And they need to change their mindset in some way to make these changes. What what is the hardest part of that for, for people? Do you think

Brooke Simonson 22:58

one of my favourite mindset shifts is change requires change. And it's so simple, but it's something I say to myself frequently. And it's something I say, you know, write down on a post it or keep it on your phone or set a phone alarm to remind you of that. Because change is tough. And a lot of the people I'm working with are in their 40s 50s 60s. And they've gotten used to doing things a certain way. And that's why having somebody in your corner, some type of accountability, some type of coach guidance, that can be super helpful, because habit change is tough. So I would say, you know, I'm not having people make the habit changes that are, we've used the word, multiple times extremes that they've done in the past. So these may be easier, in a sense, because they're going from A to B, not A to Z. It's not overhauling your entire lifestyle overnight. But it is it is still tricky to make habit changes for sure. I would say another really critical mindset shift is just patience. And probably in the past with different things they've done, they've gotten quicker results, because they changed 40 different things at once. And we're working on a couple small tweaks each week that they'll be able to stick with them long term. But then that means you're probably not going to lose 30 pounds in a month or whatever happened in the past, you're going to be able to keep the weight off long term, which is going to be amazing, but it's going to take longer to get there. So it really requires coming from a mindset of I need to be patient. You know, slow, gradual change will eventually lead to awesome results, but it's not going to happen overnight.

Tony Winyard 24:51

And you talked about there about taking it slow but sometimes people just get when they decide they want to make the changes. They just want to make loads of changes that it's Same time, and it's so that can make things very difficult content.

Brooke Simonson 25:04

It can Yeah, it makes me think of a client that I have. She the first week she was making changes, we had decided we always co create short term action steps to take. So I had said, you know, let's try getting more protein. Let's try to get 20 to 30 ish grammes of protein at one meal. Which one do you want to start with? So she said, breakfast? So we were just working on breakfast, I was talking with her, you know, what do you currently eat? How can we add more protein to that, or here's some new ideas. And so she was all ready to do breakfast. And she started doing that. And then she started feeling amazing. She said, Oh, my gosh, I have never had this much energy. After breakfast until lunch. I'm not eating the snacks before lunch. I want to do this now for lunch and dinner. She said, can you send me stuff for lunch and dinner, I want to start that right now. I said, we got to kind of pump the brakes here. Because you know, you don't want to go in too hard too soon. Because then again, that's probably not going to be sustainable. And it's going to be too much all at once. So let's take it slow. But I get that I mean, it gets exciting when you're seeing awesome teams, you want more and more and more. And you will get that eventually. But it is really important to take it slow.

Tony Winyard 26:21

You mentioned in you know, before the conversation we were having before we're recording that you're you were quite influenced by the book atomic habits.

Brooke Simonson 26:31

Yeah. Love that book. Have you read it?

Tony Winyard 26:35

I have? Yeah. Yeah. What was it you particularly liked about that?

Brooke Simonson 26:40

Everything. I think just when I was reading it, it was before this new iPhone update where you can, and maybe you've seen in the camera, you can take a picture of a page. And then you can actually it'll hold the page on your phone, and then you can highlight right there on your phone. And so it's really a great way to take notes if you're reading a book, but I was reading it before that feature. So I was literally had the book had my computer. And I feel like I was just typing out the entire book, as I was reading it into a Google document because I just wanted to share so many of James Claire's nuggets of wisdom with my clients. But I things I even said, I mean, I may have gotten the change or fires change snippet from him. I know a lot of the things I say now in my day to day and in conversations with clients come from him and that book. And I think if somebody hasn't read it, it doesn't just pertain to nutrition or health. I mean, it could be for business. The tips he gives are just absolutely incredible.

Tony Winyard 27:50

I mean, can you recall any changes you made in your own life after reading that?

Brooke Simonson 27:55

I think I was. Well, I said I would say the change requires change saying to myself often. But I became much more forgiving, I think of myself when it comes to willpower and motivation. I think he really illustrates that. Those are both finite resources, the majority of us aren't going to feel motivated to exercise every single time. And you know, it's not a lack of willpower. If you have a craving, there's all these different ways you can structure your life or he calls it creating a disciplined environment, I believe so he says the more disciplined your environment, the less disciplined you need to be. And therefore the less willpower you'll need to have the less motivation. So for example, if I know I want to exercise and I have a few meetings first, and I don't have to look any certain way i'll go ahead and just put my whole outfit on and take away that tiny little piece of putting the gym clothes on after the meeting because we all can rationalise why we shouldn't exercise and Oh, I'm tired and oh, that meeting didn't go as I thought. And so it's any tiny little change you can make to make the thing you want to do the habit you want to do easier, or creating a disciplined environment in your kitchen. You know, if you're buying a bunch of things, you're you're likely going to eat those or someone in your house is so just really filling your home with all the nutrients and things you want to eat most of the time and then planning to enjoy treats scoop of ice cream, whatever your favourite treat is outside of your home when you're at that cute ice cream shop or when you're on vacation. But just thinking you know the more disciplined Your kitchen is, the less disciplined you're going to need to be the less you're going to be constantly trying to have self control and willpower and it just allows you really to feel kind of more relaxed and free. And yeah, that was probably one of the biggest ones for me too. And that works for my clients as well. going hand in hand with a mindset shift that it's not that you're restricting these things, it's not that you can never have a scoop of ice cream, it's just is there's always your freezers filled with ice cream, it's going to be that much tougher not to eat it every day, because ice cream delicious.

Tony Winyard 30:32

Are there any things that you think people may misunderstand about working with nutrition? Coach?

Brooke Simonson 30:40

Oh, that's a really good question. I think maybe that I'm gonna come in and tell you what to do. Really, coaching is more of a process. I said the term earlier and co creation. So I'm going to ask a lot of questions and get to know what your life's like, what your time constraints are, like, what foods do you enjoy? What foods do you hate? Clients will come to me and say, or actually verbatim, one client came to me and said, I hate kale. But I know you're gonna make me eat it. And I said, No, no, I'm not gonna make you eat it. There's tonnes of things you can eat, that are just as good for you as kale. So I think that could be a misconception that you show up to work with me. And then I just give you more of the prescriptive menu of things you can and can't eat, or the list of things you can and can't do. And that's not how it goes at all. I mean, I have some clients right now who eat breakfast, some who don't, because they don't love breakfast, and they like to skip it. And then I have some clients who are eating kale and some who weren't, you know, there's just so many ways to get to the end goal. And so it's really figuring out together, what's going to work for you.

Tony Winyard 31:59

And you've got on your own podcast, haven't you? What, what is it that you are exploring on your on your podcast? What do you do?

Brooke Simonson 32:08

Yeah, so in my coaching practice, it's, like I said, primarily helping people with nutrition and weight loss. And so my podcast, and my whole brand in business is called the Health investment. But the podcast, I take a broader view of health. So we talked about nutrition and weight loss topics, but also I've had financial planners on talk about financial health breathwork experts, you know, founders of more health promoting food companies, lots of topics related to health mindset shifts. I've had women talking about the postpartum period, and how to make that kind of easier on both parents. So yeah, lots lots of different topics. There's exciting and, you know, I think running a podcast, you know, yourself. It's a lot, but it's also really cool.

Tony Winyard 33:00

And if people want to find out more about the podcast, and you're too happy to book you, and social media, and so on, where were the best places to go?

Brooke Simonson 33:10

Very simple. It's a streamline the health investment everywhere. So my website is the health investment, calm, and super active on Instagram. That's just at the Health investment. And I would say those are both the best places to find me the website being the home base, you'll see places to click if you're interested in group coaching, my VIP one on one coaching programme or the podcasts, it's all right there.

Tony Winyard 33:35

I mean, we touched upon atomic habits is there and I can't remember what your answer was. Because I know you've already given the answer. But is there a book that's really moved? Yeah.

Brooke Simonson 33:44

I said atomic habits was the book. Another really interesting book that kind of got me more into the research behind different nutritional choices and kind of living in the middle ground not being so extreme is called genius foods by Max blue beer. That was one of the first books I read that really affected me and made me see the science behind different things and get really into all the research articles. And I guess I didn't realise that, as a lay person, I can access all this research and read straight from the source. But I don't have to just trust what any media headline is telling me I can actually dive into these research articles. And that's been really cool.

Tony Winyard 34:34

Is there's a couple of podcasts that are similar to what you're just saying. I don't know if you're familiar with Huberman Andrew Huberman, and Oh, yeah. And then also, don't Peter to Dr. Peter Thiel, I find those two quite useful for that kind of approach as well.

Brooke Simonson 34:49

Yeah, they do a tonne of diving into research for sure. Yeah.

Tony Winyard 34:54

Well, just before we finish, is there a Do you have a quotation that you particularly like

Brooke Simonson 35:01

One that I also use with my clients that I tell myself a lot is progress, not perfection. Again, I like these kind of simple short quotes. But that serves me when I'm editing my own podcast, or when I am building my business or when I'm working with clients as well just, I think a lot of us myself, especially as being very type A want things to be perfect, and beat ourselves up, or especially with food clients will have that cookie. And in their past mindset, they think, Oh, I've ruined the diet, and I have to start over. And really, that's never going to serve you long term, that mindset of perfection. We always have to allow for treats and indulgences, we're always going to have weddings and birthday parties and celebrations and I always say I don't I don't want to live a life where I feel guilty if I have a cookie, my mom bakes right or you know, all of these little simple pleasures that can certainly fit in a healthy eating pattern. So that's that's one that my clients like a lot as well but giving them permission to be constantly making progress and working towards your goals but not needing to be perfect.

Tony Winyard 36:16

So great, great attitude. I think it helps people with so much more fun. It's been a been a real pleasure. So thank you for your time.

Brooke Simonson 36:23

Thank you so much for having me.

Tony Winyard 36:25

Thank you. Next week, episode 48, which is with Emily Bland. Emily is She's a clinical exercise physiologist treating patients with POTS, chronic fatigue syndrome, persistent pain, fibromyalgia and many other areas. But she says don't be fooled by the term exercise in her title because she specialises in education and energy management for patients with these health conditions. In order to help them stabilise and manage their symptoms. We have quite a good chat around many of the areas that that she specialises in such as chronic fatigue syndrome and so on. So that's next week. Emily Bland on episode 48. If you know anyone who would get some real value from some of the information that Brooke Simonson shared with us, please do share the episode with them. And hope you have a great week.

Jingle 37:20

Thanks for tuning in to the habits and health podcast where we believe creating healthy habits should be easy. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast app. Sign up for email updates and learn about coaching and workshop opportunities at Tonywinyard.com See you next time on the habits and health podcast.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai