Grace Elizabeth

Tony Winyard 0:00

habits and health Episode 23.

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 0:20

Welcome to another edition of the podcast where we give you ideas on habits you can create to improve your health. Today's episode is with my guest, Grace Elizabeth. And Grace is a personal trainer, and she helps people around body image and reframing the whole idea of why many people go to a gym, why many people diet, the whole thoughts around weight loss and many other areas around that she has some very interesting views. She's quite a unique character. So that's coming up the interview with Grace Elizabeth, hope you enjoy this week's episode. habits and health. My guest today is Grace Elizabeth, how are you doing?

Grace Elizabeth 1:05

Great. Great. How are you? I'm good. Thanks.

Tony Winyard 1:10

You were telling me just now before we started recording, you're in California in North California.

Grace Elizabeth 1:14

Yes, that's correct. I'm in Northern California right now. And luckily, this week, the weather has been a little bit more tame. Last week, it got up to like 106 degrees where I'm at. So I'm enjoying the weather this week. A lot.

Wow, we don't ever get temperatures like that.What is that you do, Grace?

I am a well, I'm a certified personal trainer. And, but more than that, I'm a wellness coach and an energy coach. And when you hear the terms and the words wellness coach, it's a very broad, so very broad field, or it could be anything, honestly. But I do have like a very specific mindset and a very specific way that I teach and coach. But first and foremost, I am a personal trainer, which I love. I love the gym. And that's really what got me into this. And then after I became a personal trainer, is what I started to realise. But I don't fully agree with a lot of the things that are going on in the fitness industry, a lot of the things that are taught and preached. So I kind of started to carve out my own little space in the fitness industry and the wellness industry that I am now inviting other humans to join me in this different way of looking at wellness. And that's what I'm doing right now. I also host a podcast. And I just started that and I'm loving it so far having a lot of awesome conversations with all different types of people on the topics of weightlifting, wellness, and witchery. Which is the fun, the fun, extra little fun additive in there. So yeah, that's what I've been up to. And that's what I'm about.

Tony Winyard 3:02

Okay, there's a few things in there we can explore. So just you mentioned, you mentioned that there were a few things you didn't agree with, when you were doing the sort of the personal training. So what what kinds of things was that you weren't agreeing with?

Grace Elizabeth 3:15

Yeah, so anyone who's even anyone who's worked with a personal trainer, anyone who's been on the internet, anyone who stepped foot in a gym knows that, for the most part, it's all centred around weight loss, or fat loss specifically, um, and weight is something that I don't like to say I've struggled with my weight because at this point, I don't consider it a struggle, but it was always from a young age, like put on me that I needed to lose weight. And, and I believed it and I tried to do it and I was successful. And then I gained weight back and then I lose weight my whole life. It was like this back and forth bottle of doing things that I hated that I didn't enjoy that made my life kind of suck in order to lose weight. And then it was never, it was never like a consistent thing, right, I'd have to do it again and have to do it again. And so after I had my son, I was of course back in that mode of like, Okay, I have to lose weight, now I have to lose the baby weight. So I started going to the gym and what I realised while I was going to the gym, and while I was working out was that I felt a lot better. But it had nothing to do with losing weight. It had everything to do with how I was using my body, how I was treating my body, how I was talking to myself and how I had opened the door to start doing more things besides just exercising or working out that really made me feel so much better just as a person as a human like making sure I was carving out time for myself to do things like reading and journaling and just learning things that I wanted to learn about and getting outside and taking a walk and it was all these other little things. I was kind of like this ripple effect that started with trying to lose weight. And I kind of just had this moment of like, I it's not about losing weight. That's not the thing that's gonna make you feel better. And I have known personally that getting to your goal weight does not solve the problems that you have. And it's also not sustainable. So if we really want to build a routine of wellness, or implement these things into our life that we're going to carry on forever, that are going to help us be more rounded human beings that are enjoying our lives, and really living life to the fullest, there has to be things that you enjoy doing, and that you continue to do for the rest of your life. So that's kind of that's kind of how I got to where I am now. And that's what I teach people who come to me whether it's just for wellness coaching, whether it's for training purposes, most of the time, by the time they get to me, they know that they're not, they're not coming for the results of weight loss. Um, we're coming to help you build a better connection with your body because you spend your entire life in your body. So yeah, that's, that's my philosophy.

Tony Winyard 5:50

But I imagine that must be really for you and for your clients, because there's so much pressure and people with some expectations about weight someone should be and how someone should look and so on.

Grace Elizabeth 6:01

Yeah, absolutely. That's one of the big feedback, things that I get with clients who do go through my programmes or work with me is that they are really happy to have a coach or trainer or be in a programme that does not have the expectation of weight loss. And I know from personal experience working with a trainer, you know, every week you go in and you step on the scale, and if it went down, they're like, cool, if it went up, they're like, oh, what did you eat this week, show me your, you know, your calorie log, and it's like, then you feel like crap. And then for the whole week, you feel like crap until you can see that number go down again. And it's so like, destructive and counterproductive to wellness, right? Like, if you think about any type of wellness routine or health routine, like your goal is that you want to feel good. So doing things that tear you down, that make you feel mentally unwell and physically unwell for that matter, are not necessary, not really wellness. So I'm hoping that this kind of thinking can catch on a lot more. And I think when you are giving your body what it needs, and you're moving it every day, and you're taking care of it in a way that aligns with, with you and what you believe, then wherever your body ends up physically, as far as weight at that point is it's where it's supposed to be. And, yeah, it's hard, it's hard to embrace it. And I say even myself, like, it's, it's a constant battle to remind yourself that the images that you're shown and that's kind of forced on you and taught to you from a young age is not what you need to look like. And it's not what's going to make you happy looking like that. And so, this work is kind of, it's not like, Oh, you go through a programme and now like, you know, if you're totally done and your mind has changed, and you're never going to struggle with your body image again, because I still struggle with it sometimes too. But it's more of building these ways of thinking and building these habits and building these things that you're doing for yourself, that allow you to address those thoughts when they come up and remind yourself what what your real goal is, what your real purpose is and what you're doing. And, and, and get back to thinking in a way that that's beneficial for you and your body in the long term.

Tony Winyard 8:09

Did you are you familiar with someone called John Berardi?

Grace Elizabeth 8:17

I do not know who that is.

Tony Winyard 8:19

He, runs a company called Precision Nutrition. He's one of the founders of I think he was the founder of that company. And he's, got a podcast. And, he did a series on fat, and body image, and so on. And, he came at it from a very different angle. I've heard anyone else come at it from and it was fascinating. It was, a three part series, the podcast. But he has some real experts around body image. And he was interviewing a lot of people. And it was an absolutely fascinating episode. I'll put a link in the show notes when this goes out. And because it's um, yeah, I think I think some from some of the things that you just been saying, I think you would really like what he was talking about in this in this point.

Grace Elizabeth 9:05

I'll definitely have to go check that out. Now, I'm a podcast junkie myself. So anytime I get a suggestion, I usually, I usually head right over and listen, so I'll definitely put that on my list.

Tony Winyard 9:16

You mentioned earlier about and one of the things when I asked you, you know what it was you did? And one of the words you said was energy and energy. It can mean so many things to different people. So what?

Grace Elizabeth 9:30

Absolutely, um, yeah, that's usually the first thing I say is like, energy is such a broad term, and it has many different meanings like not even just meanings that people have given it, but like actual textbook definitions, um, and so I really incorporate the term energy in almost all of its iterations and all of its different meanings into the work that I do. One being, I have like a very specific kind of structure to identifying different energies that all human beings work with, whether it be like your physical energy, mental energy, emotional energy, spiritual energy, motivational energy, or restorative energy, those are kind of like those six topics that I usually talk on. And really what this framework does is gives you have a way to identify how you're feeling and really get it, it's more about getting in touch with your emotions almost. And being able to identify when you're feeling, let's say, physically energised or depleted of physical energy. Same with mental emotional energy. And it gives you like a framework for sitting down with yourself and really getting to learn about yourself and understanding yourself. And I think for humans, it's a lot easier sometimes to kind of break these things up into categories and look at Okay, how does this feel for me, when I'm, you know, when I'm feeling this way? Is it my emotional energy? Is it my spiritual energy, and once you start identifying that, it's easier to kind of create routines and habits that are going to get you back on track, right, so most of what I do as far as that, and I have a like a three day workshop called an energy reset workshop. And that's where you learn all about those energies. And you take time to sit down with yourself every day and identify how you're feeling and all of these categories. Because learning about yourself, and the way that you're experiencing the world is like the very key first step to even like, to any kind of self development, right to any kind of personal development, you have to know first of all, where you stand right now. And then you have to learn what makes you feel good, and what makes you feel bad. So you can start building on those things. So that's the very first step. And outside of that, I do talk a lot about energy in the sense of more of like a metaphysical kind of magical way as well. I do have, it's really like this is where it gets like kind of woowoo, as some people might call it, but I have a very, very strong connection, just I believe with energy in the universe. And I've been able to use that as kind of a way to almost make these rituals where I can put intentions and energies into the world that are going to help me in the future that are going to help me now right almost like you know, some people would call it witchcraft, or I use the term witchery. Just because that was I sounded more fun than putting woo because I didn't want to be, I don't really want to be related to anything that's like Gwyneth Paltrow, we but uh, so I use the term witchery. But that's really just like using your, you have so much actual physical energy inside of your body, right, your body is using energy, your nervous systems using energy. Your metabolisms using energy, right to break down your food and fuel you. And so using being able to sense that energy inside your body and use it in a way where you can actually externally move forces in the universe in your favour. So that's kind of like the very top level version of that. But yeah, so energy for me, like I said, it's, you know, when you think about working out and going to the gym, and all that kind of stuff, you're thinking about wanting to have more physical energy, right. And that's awesome. Because that that makes life a lot easier to live, when you've got the energy to do things, I have a two and a half year old. So he requires quite a bit of energy. But it also, like you said, it's such a broad term with so many meanings, and it goes so much deeper than that, as well. And so I like to really explore all of the different avenues of energy and help people really get in tune with their bodies and their physical energy, and how they can translate that into a not so physical realm of the universe.

Tony Winyard 13:39

When when you're the clients that come to you what generally? Well, I'm wondering, what is the problem that most people have when they initially come to you, specifically, maybe around energy? And is there is there a specific aspect of energy that they often struggling with?

Grace Elizabeth 13:57

So people typically, one thing I've noticed is when I do start to break down, like I mentioned before, like the six different types of energies of people tend to have just like this aha moment, because a lot of time and I did this to you go through life, and you're just like, Oh, I just feel like crap today. And you don't know why you can't put your finger on it. It's just like this general feeling of blah. Sometimes that drags on for days, weeks, months, however long it may take and you really, you don't know yourself enough to know what's going on with you. So when I break it down into those energies, people always have an aha moment of like, wow, this makes it so much easier to identify the ways that I'm feeling and I think that really comes back to a lot of us just not being in touch with our emotions. And you know, for whatever reason, we go through life kind of just ignoring them trying to get by, and it can be scary to like, try to get in touch with them again, right, because emotions can be heavy, but kind of breaking it down this way. People really do get that sense of, Oh, I can take the time to learn about myself and I like actually opened my eyes to what I'm feeling and why my energy level Might be high or might be low and kind of learn that one, this isn't going to be a forever thing to, there are things I can do to bump up my energy levels in any way to strengthen myself in these different ways. So that's the big thing as far as energy goes. And I think a lot of people come to me typically women are drawn to usually, you know, they find me on Instagram, that's where I'm at the most. And it's because I'm putting out this, this vibe, and this idea that like, you can be awesome and feel awesome exactly where you're at right now. And you don't have to lose 2030 5060 100 pounds, whatever it may be, you don't have to only eat 1200 calories a day, you don't even have to go into the gym, if you hate the gym, you do not you don't have to go there, there's so many other things you can be doing. moving your body in so many other ways that are like so beneficial. And if you love it, then that's what you should be doing. You shouldn't be forcing yourself into these other boxes that society has made for you. And and so I think that a lot of women, when they do find me, they just like super excited to have someone like is going to celebrate them where they're at right now and give them a almost permission or like freedom of acceptance, where they can now start focusing on things that means so much more to them.

Tony Winyard 16:14

You talked about emotions there. And I'm wondering, you said you mostly work with women, but sets the lessons. Yes, sometimes women, I'm guessing it must be a lot harder, working with men around emotions. And if you Well, if you are then I was gonna say misfortune is probably not the correct term. If you have the misfortune to work with any British men, it will be even harder because emotions over here. I don't know. There's this stereotypes about different countries. I think when it comes to emotions, and men in this country can often the stereotype stereotype there's a reason for

Grace Elizabeth 16:49

Oh, yeah, I mean, it's definitely the same here, I'm gonna be perfectly honest, I have not worked with any men on energy stuff. Um, they're probably not drawn. Much. Right, um, for a lot of the reasons that you just mentioned, for one. But I do say I work with mostly women, because I do end up working with, you know, some non binary people and people who identify as other genders as well. So I'm, and I'm open to working with anyone, right? If a man did come to me and was like, I really like what you're doing. And I'd like some coaching from you, I'd be totally open to it. And I do think that it would be a different experience. And it might be a lot harder. But I think one of the cool things about the way that I break it down is that you can look at it from a logical aspect, right? It's in these compartments, and it's and you can, you still have to sit down with yourself and identify how you're feeling and make that time for yourself, which again, I don't think men are as encouraged to do just in general. Um, and then on top of that, you know, who would be willing to do necessarily, so that's, I think, if somebody if a man came to me, and he was already at the point of wanting help in that area, it's going to be it's going to be a lot easier, right? Then Then taking a man off the street and being like, Hey, get in touch with your emotions, usually doesn't go very well. So yeah, well, a lot of what I do is, is most people who do find me, and by the time that they come to me, and they see what I'm doing, it's something where they see it, and they're like, Oh, I want that I need that I you know, I want to work with you. I think that you can help me, I, you know, I really want to help in these certain areas, or I just want to like be around you and talk to you and things like that. So, I do think that most people who come to me, I think the universe sends them to me when they're right at the at the moment that they need me.

Jingle 18:32

We hope you're enjoying this episode of the habits and health Podcast, where we believe that creating healthy habits should be easy. If you know a friend or a loved one who might be interested in learning simple habits to improve their health, then please share this podcast with them. We also invite you to subscribe and to leave us a review on your favourite podcast app. Now,

Tony Winyard 18:53

back to the show. took a couple of times about you mentioned habits. So I get the impression habits is quite an important part of what you do.

Grace Elizabeth 19:04

I at one point I actually wrote like a little ebook right about all about habits. Um, and I've kind of gotten away from teaching habits. I do teach habits but I don't call them habits I don't really like I'm not super specific about habits because I do talk about building routines, right and routines are essentially a set of habits that you're creating. Um, for some reason for me personally, the word habits just sounds too rigid and like I'm bad at habits I think. I do have like one big story around habits which kind of like, got me into the whole habit thing to begin with. I like throughout my life childhood I was very athletic. But then when I was about 16, I started smoking cigarettes, and I smoked cigarettes from the time I was 16 until I was about 22 I think or 23. And of course I have tried to quit many times. Before then, and it was always because I was quitting for, you know, like a boyfriend or somebody else who wanted to quit, too, you know what I mean? And so it was always somebody else's idea. And I actually didn't want to quit. Um, I just didn't like it wasn't bothering me that I smoked cigarettes, it wasn't affecting my life in a negative way that I had noticed, you know what I mean, I was not at the point where it was a habit, I wanted to ditch. But then when I was around, I can't remember if I was 22, or 23. I was in like, the lowest part of my life, I was working this job that was I had to be so stressed out. And it was a very high level position. And I up until that point, had not learned at all how to take care of myself in any way or get in touch with my emotions, or anything like that. So of course, everything I was doing to kind of relieve the stress or get away from that was detrimental to me mentally, physically, everything. And finally, I was like, You know what, I'm smoking like, a pack of cigarettes a day. And I was like, I need one. The my main thing was like, This is taking up too much time at work, and I can't get things done. And it's making me more stressed out. So that was literally I was like, I'm gonna quit smoking, just like and have more time in my day, which is like not really a reason people usually quit smoking, right? It wasn't for health, it wasn't for any other reason. I was just like, I need that time back. So the first thing that I decided to do was like, you got to take baby steps. I'm not like a, I knew that if I was like, I'm never smoking again, that would never happen. So I my first step was I'm gonna stop buying cigarettes, like, I'm gonna stop buying them. If I, you know, bump, smoke up somebody here and there, whatever, but I'm not buying them. Then the second step was, you know, when my co workers would ask me, Hey, you want to go out for a smoke break, which is like the biggest thing for me, right? So that's what I was doing just smoking all day at work, I would, I would have to say no, but I instead I would go into walk around the office building. So it was giving myself still a reason to take a break. But it's given me something to do, and also allowed me to get away from all the smokers and avoid the smoker section. So I just start tracking my steps and just walking in circles around the office. And that kind of was just like, this catalyst where I started building and building on top of that, until I got to the point where I mean, it took Well, at one point I got pregnant so that I had to quit, quit right away. But luckily, I had already put in place all of these things where I was already getting away from it. And then after I had the baby, of course, there was still a time where I was like, Am I gonna pick up the cigarettes again. And by that time, I had built a life for myself were like, cigarettes just didn't even fit in. I had, I had one point where I had a cigarette in my house at a stressful day. And I ended up buying one from somebody I had in my hand and I was like, trying to decide what I was going to smoke it. Like, you know, I'm not gonna smoke it in the car, not gonna smoke before I work out, because it's gonna be really hard to do, like, I'm gonna not be able to breathe. And then I'm not gonna feel good after I workout, because that's just sounds disgusting. So then I was like, wait, I don't even want this cigarette, I just threw it away. And I was like, You know what, like, I felt free. I was like, I'm free from cigarettes, they don't fit into my life, I don't want them. They're not getting me any closer to the person that I want to be. And the only thing that made that possible was really taking these tiny steps and building smaller and smaller habits or smaller habits that were building on top of each other, until I essentially had this entire life that I wanted, you know, and not one where it was the life I was living, because that's what I had to do. That was the only option I had. So yeah, sorry, that's kind of a long story. But it was really specific when it comes to habits. So from there, I did write, like a little ebook about how I did that. Because, you know, everyone wants to know how you quit smoking cigarettes, right? That's pretty big. And then I you know, that can be applied in so many areas of your life as well. And then like I said, I kind of got out of that. I feel like habits are like

I don't know if there's like there's like a definitely a specific like habit niche in the world, right, like the atomic habits and, and all these things were like people are really big into habits. So it's something that I do teach, but it's not something that I kind of use in my language or in forward with, and I am a bit more relaxed about how I talk about habits and how I incorporate them. So yeah, let's see, you mentioned so you like we prefer to use a phrase like routines more? So are you helping your your clients maybe weave routines to help them do whatever it is that they're trying to achieve? Yes, absolutely. So one of my major things is working with clients to build a wellness routine that's essentially built by them and specifically for them, right? Because wellness is so personal. It should be different for every single individual. But there are kind of like key pillars and key aspects to these routines that I happen to know from, you know, on my profession and going through these things myself where it's like, Hey, you can start here with a, b, and c. And you can start to define what these things look like in your life. So one of the things is movement, right? You want to have movement, but whatever that movement looks like is completely determined by what you like doing right. You want to have things like where you're sitting down and getting in touch with yourself. So whether that's journaling or just checking in on your body every day and how you're feeling every day. And there's a few other things that go into it as well. So my job in in building these routines with my clients is that I'm giving you a framework, and I'm giving you kind of some direction to go in, and I'm going to sit down and help you figure out what it is that you want in your routine, what it is that works for you and what what stuff can you stop doing or let go of, because that can be scary to us that actually aren't making you feel good. And it's really helpful to have someone like a coach or someone like me, who is helping you with this, because sometimes it's hard to see, as a human who is stuck in their own ways, or who hasn't taken a lot of time to sit with themselves, like where do you even start? And so that's a lot of what I do is it's just guiding and giving these frameworks to people to help them really personalise their wellness routine and get to know themselves on a much deeper level

Tony Winyard 25:55

clients you've been working with, and you know, because you've got a few different approaches that the you know, the way you try to help people. Can you think of a situation? Or can you think of an example where a client had a major breakthrough, where they just thought something completely different from how you were helping them?

Grace Elizabeth 26:12

Yeah, um, so I had one client, and she actually, I think, is the only person who just like, found me on Instagram, I had never talked to her before I was promoting my complete Body connection programme. And she didn't even know what she wanted. Like, she just knew that she wanted to start moving her body again. And so she found me on instagram literally through I think the hashtag was like plus size personal trainer or something. And so people come to me and they're like, Okay, this is a workout programme. But what they don't know is that part of her workout programme is also this 12 week, soul work journal that I made. And so some people do come into it. Like I said, I'm here for the physical stuff, and then they get kind of slapped in the face with this journal that like actually makes you get really introspective. And as far as a breakthrough, I think that for her, it was mostly just realising that that wasn't what she was looking for at the time, but it was actually what she really needed. And so she comes like the door was open to her because there was the workout programme, but then you get to the workout programme, and it's like, oh, there's this whole other emotional energetic kind of self discovery Avenue in it as well. And not everyone is looking for that. But then when it's put in front of them, and they start reading the journal, it really opens their eyes to how much personal work that they can do that is, it does go hand in hand with the movement part. So that was kind of like the biggest like, aha, that I'd heard from somebody. Most of the people I do work with by the end of it, they're just like, so happy to be rid of whatever ideas that they had before like just finally given permission to be yourself now. And a lot of it is just releasing the idea of weight loss. It's, it's being able to have a fitness routine and have a wellness routine that does not revolve itself around weight loss. So

Tony Winyard 28:02

what is the different things that you do in a coaching that you do? And when you're working with clients? What aspects of what you do? Do you enjoy the most?

Grace Elizabeth 28:12

Oh, that's a good question. Um, I do really love helping people with their wellness routine. And so like actually building these, you know, going through these coaching sessions, and helping other people identify, you know, what they've been forcing themselves into, that they can let go of, because that is like such a great feeling when you finally discover that you don't believe that, like these ideas that I have been placed on you, and you don't need to continue doing things that that you don't believe in, and then helping them really start to get connected with their energy, their internal energy and their physical energy. And like sometimes doing like crazy stuff like building energy balls with your hands, and like all this weird stuff that really, even if you don't believe in all the like medical, metaphysical stuff, it's just cool to get in touch with your human body, your very real, very present physical body that does have energy running through it at all time. So whenever I get someone who's down to like, explore those avenues with me, that's always really exciting.

Tony Winyard 29:15

And so is it always one to one you're working with people or do you do kind of group programmes as well.

Grace Elizabeth 29:21

I've done group programmes. So I kind of do it all just depends on what I'm doing. At the moment. I have like an online programme where you just go you do it, you know, your one on one, there's the videos and the journal and you can just do it at any time. I ran a couple like I ran that same programme, but I did it twice as like a live programme with a group and that was such a blast. I loved having a group of people. We like that was so great. We were all on a Slack channel together. So we're all talking every day and it was really awesome to build those relationships. And then I do also have like one on one coaching options as well.

Tony Winyard 29:56

This might be a very difficult question to answer. In five years time, where do you think you might be, how do you see things going?

Grace Elizabeth 30:04

Oh, that's a good? That's a good question. Um, I kind of go back and forth, because I do have this idea of like, having my own little training gym, you know, and running my programmes out of this really cool gym. That's unlike anything that's out there right now. And then other times, I'm like, do I really want a physical location? Or do I just want to one I'm really loving my podcast. And so I'm really hoping to go far with that and hoping that it gains a lot of traction. I think I could do that forever, honestly. So the I see getting, you know, bigger and definitely more sophisticated with that podcast, as well as just continuing to grow my coaching, I do hope to have a couple more just like online programmes that people can buy it in time, as well as maybe some type of membership as well. So I honestly don't know what the next five years holds. For me, I know that I will be in San Diego. And so I'll be super happy about that. And I'll have my eyes open to any opportunities that are coming my way. Because anytime there's a big life change like this, you really, you're opening, opening yourself up to a lot of change and possibilities. So I always try to stay really open to things that I wasn't expecting

Tony Winyard 31:13

you to fix my problem podcast. So what, what direction and what kind of people are you interviewing? And what? What is it that you're hoping people will get from listening to your podcast?

Grace Elizabeth 31:25

my podcast is it's essentially a wellness podcast where we talk about, I mean, it could be any any wellness topic, any I put weights in there, because I love the gym, I love weightlifting. So I do love talking to people who do that professionally. And like bodybuilders and stuff like that, which, in a sense, it's like, I love talking to them, because I love to talk about the things that they actually due to maintain those their bodies that way and what it actually looks like and how it sucks and how it's hard and how it's not something they maintain year round. Because I think it's really important to see that you know, the fitness people and Instagram and all that like, when they're not on the camera like they're, they're struggling through, you know, their diets, and they're, they're not having fun, but they're doing it for whatever reason, you know, and if that's something that you want personally, and you really truly do believe that like that makes you happy, and you just enjoy that kind of stuff, then, you know, I'm all for it. But I do like to talk about what that actually looks like and the actual process behind it. As well as just weightlifting routines and being safe in the gym and things like that. And then with wellness, like I said, it could be any topic, I really am just taking a very laid back non judgmental approach to wellness and kind of trying to show everyone that there is you can have a wellness routine that is specific to you, no matter what that is like wellness is for everybody. Not everyone is going to be able to have a perfect bill of health in their life, right? Like there's things that you cannot control. There's things that you're born with, there's things that happened to you. So like pushing this idea that like you need to be healthy, and you need to do all these things to be healthy, is just incorrect, essentially, but with my podcasts, I'm hoping to like really open everybody's eyes up to all the different avenues to all the things where you can really start to learn that you get to choose what Lama says for you. And yeah, so that's it. And then and then the witchery is where I kind of incorporate my energetic stuff and anything that's a little more not so physical, right. So I have my first witchery episode airing soon. And I interviewed a medium and she's actually a friend of mine. So she has some really great stories about speaking with spirits and things like that. And I think that it's spirituality is a big piece of your wellness as well. Whether it's something you believe that there's you know, you actually believe in a higher power, whether you believe that, you know, there's like some unlocked power in your human mind, which I believe there is whether you believe in the universe or whatever is your own personal power, just having that extra level of like, there's something out there that's more than what you see right now. That's more than what you're experiencing right now. That gives you kind of the sense of wonder and exploration in the universe and also the sense of like, there's something bigger than you right? Because when you're really down and you're like what is the point of everything just knowing that there's something more out there, I think is a really big help to me personally and my wellness as well. So that's kind of how it all ties in together.

Tony Winyard 34:23

You mentioned before that you're a bit of a podcast junkie what what are your favourite podcasts?

Grace Elizabeth 34:28

So I listened to so there's one as far as like business podcasts go there's fully free by Taylor Lee and she's a coach for business coaches and I just like I vibe with her so much everything she says like I feel like her and I are on the same level so I love listening to her. I um I have like my guilty pleasure is true crime podcast so I listened to crime junkie and morbid and I go back and forth on if that's good for me or not, but I do I do love listening to those. They're always really well. Done, and very informative. So I love listening to those. And there's another one that is a newer one I started listening to called the maintenance phase. And that one is actually written by Henri Gordon or hosted by Aubrey Horton, and she wrote a book. I think it's called what we don't talk about when we talk about fat or something like that. She's your fat friend on Instagram, she is freaking amazing. And they do such a great job on that podcast of really exposing like, all the hypocrisy and all the things that we've been told were scientifically facts and true that absolutely are not when it comes to diet and weight loss and wellness and all these things. So I really love that podcast as well. Um,

Tony Winyard 35:41

do you read much Grace?

Grace Elizabeth 35:44

I do. Right now. What am I reading I have like a book on witchcraft that I'm reading in a book on Reiki that I started reading recently. And I try to read I do a lot of like, I'll listen to audiobooks if I can't find the time to read. Reading is something that was one of the things that I started doing. When I first started trying to break out of the terrible hole I found myself in like, right around the same time I started smoking cigarettes, I needed to have that like, outward input into my brain, right, I needed to give myself something to do. And the first book, The first self help book that I ever read was The subtle art of not giving an F. That's a really popular one. And it's popular for a reason. It's a very, like, great entry level book to self self development. I am honestly at this point, like that was so many years ago that I can't even remember all of the specifics in that book, I just remember being like, dang, this guy's right. That light literally gave me the courage to quit my job and change my entire life turning my BMW like, really start to focus on things that I actually cared about. And and like because I was headed down a path that was not gonna be good. Even if even if I maintained it, I was gonna be miserable for my whole life. So that book really just opened my eyes to like, Hey, this is your life, and you get to live it however you want. And literally, it does not matter what other people think about it. So. So that's the book I would recommend to people if they have not read it yet. And they do want any kind of even small awakening. It's a great first step. So

Tony Winyard 37:19

great. If people want to find out more about you, where is the best place to look? Or what places to know?

Grace Elizabeth 37:25

Yeah, so two places one is going to be Instagram, I'm always on Instagram. So my Instagram handle is total wellness with grace. That's the name of my coaching company. So also my website www dot Total Wellness with grace calm super easy. Like I said, Follow me on Instagram, send me a DM I love connecting with new people. And also you could listen to me on the podcast plates wellness or witchery so that's where you can connect with me.

Tony Winyard 37:52

Okay, well we put all those links in the show notes and so just before we finish gross is there like music? Are you particularly into music? Oh yeah, I love music. Definitely. When you're Do you play music when you're working out?

Grace Elizabeth 38:08

Yes. And honestly it's either like death metal or pop music I like if it's the if it's the you know, heavy lifting day then it's gonna be it's gonna be some metal and if it's a little bit of a lighter day, you know, it might be some Beyonce it might be some I don't know, whatever whatever's on the radio right now. So I'm all over the board with music. But yeah, and I definitely do music is a great like mood booster and mood changer just really easy thing to go to when you need something. So yeah, I definitely my playlists are all over the

Tony Winyard 38:44

place. What's the song if you're feeling maybe not so great. What is the song that always really picks you up?

Grace Elizabeth 38:52

Any any post malone song? I still know why. I love post malone. And his songs are just so fun to me. So if I'm feeling down, I just put the music on in my car or whatever, and just start singing and yeah, I feel better. It's it's not very profound, but it's one of those things where like the beat just makes you happy. You know?

Tony Winyard 39:14

If it makes you feel good, it doesn't need to be profound.

Grace Elizabeth 39:17

That's very true. So true.

Tony Winyard 39:20

Well, Grace, it's been a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you for your time.

Grace Elizabeth 39:24

Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

Tony Winyard 39:30

Next week, Episode 24. Is Giancarlo Torres or most people just call him Gianco. And Gianco he talks a lot about the immune system. And this all stems from his mother was very ill A few years ago, and she had been a very active woman and she she was doing a lot of volunteer work and she was an entrepreneur, and she can began to get chronic fatigue and pain and they couldn't work out out what was going on and they tried lots of different things and they eventually figured out the problem was with her immune system, and Gianco managed to help his mom. So we're going to find out a lot more about what it was he managed to do how he managed to do that. So that's next week's episode with Giancarlo Torres. Hope you enjoyed this week's show. Please do share it with anyone who you feel would get some real benefit from it. And hope you have a great week.

Jingle 40:28

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