Thanks for joining me today on Take it Personally! Today’s guest on the podcast is Melissa Eich, of ME Fitness and Nutrition. I met Melissa when she hired me for a branding session! By the time we were done with the session, I knew that I wanted to work with her in some capacity. A few months later, I hired her as a nutritionist. I had been working out pretty consistently but wasn’t seeing much results, and I knew my nutrition was probably playing a part in it. I started working with Melissa, and it has been amazing! Melissa knows so much when it comes to fitness and nutrition and setting goals, but also being realistic with yourself. I am excited to have her on the podcast today!
I know a majority of the Take it Personally audience are busy women – whether you are a mom, a wife, single, work inside or outside the home, whatever it might be. As women, we constantly have 37 balls if the air we are juggling, and we are always doing so much. Also, we have a tendency to put ourselves last. Melissa makes a great point in this episode that if we don’t have our health, we don’t have anything. This is so true, and that is why I am so excited to have Melissa on the show to share a few tips to help bring that focus back to ourselves and our health (plus, she has an awesome freebie for you all!).
Meet Melissa
Melissa is a registered nurse by day and runs an online fitness and nutrition business. She spends her time with her 3 kids and husband and also competes in the NPC as a hobby.
Melissa shared that she got married young and had a baby right away and ended up having postpartum depression and anxiety. She would go to the gym and found that she could deal with her anxiety levels if she was working out. Melissa had the fitness part down for a while but not the nutrition aspect. She experienced losing and gaining weight, yo-yo dieting, choosing quick fixes, etc. She also experienced her mom passing away from breast cancer about 7 years ago, which led her to make the decision to figure how to take the best care of herself that she could, and she did that through nutrition. Melissa believes that the gateway to health and being happy is through your nutrition. It’s not necessarily how many times you exercise a week, but it’s the food that you are putting into your body every day.
Melissa went to school for nursing and still loves being a nurse everyday. She also attributes that to giving her some base knowledge she needed to step out into fitness and nutrition. Melissa has always worked in women’s health, which ties to her fitness and nutrition business where she mostly serves women. That background has helped her gain a lot of experience and understand women and what their daily lives may look like.
Common Struggles
I asked Melissa what common struggles she sees women having related to their health and fitness. She shared that throughout the year there are different things that come with her clients, but during this time of year she sees a lot of “all-or-nothing” mindsets. For example: “The holidays are coming up; I can’t stick to a diet or plan well, so I am just going to eat everything I see.” Basically it boils down to women thinking that if they can’t do it right now, they can’t do anything right now, which Melissa believes is not true. That mindset doesn’t make us a well-rounded, healthy individual. The ups and downs throughout the day/week/year are what create health problems and inconsistency, leading to making us think that we can’t do it, which is what Melissa sees frequently with clients.
You Need Your Health
“If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.” Melissa shared that that is something she strongly believes. Sooner or later, something will catch up to you. You can either take care of your health now while you are healthy, or wait until it collapses. Having that base of good health will flow into your other areas of life too. Your mind can’t grow if your body is stuck or if you aren’t fueling it properly. It goes back to basic physiology – if your cells aren’t working properly then your brain won’t work properly, and it goes from there.
Tips for Busy Women
When life gets busy, taking care of ourselves often becomes a last priority. We are working to balance all of the things and life just gets kind of crazy. But that doesn’t mean our health has to go with it. We can focus on ourselves and our health, even amongst the chaos of life. Melissa shared 3 tips to specifically help busy women!
1. Plan Ahead
If you think good choices are just going to come and sit on your lap, you are wrong. Look at your schedule honestly. What can you do to get 30 minutes of movement in? It doesn’t have to be a crazy workout; get outside and go for a walk. Consider cutting out social media time to make room. Plan for things that may come up or get in the way to stop you from moving. Look what can be moved to make it happen.
Also plan your nutrition. Rain or shine, traveling or not traveling. Consider meal prepping for your week. Figure out when you are cooking what so that when Sunday night rolls around, you are prepared for the week. Melissa personally does meal prep on Sunday and then again on Wednesday (she finds that doing it all on Sunday leads to leftover food you are sick of by Friday).
2. Track Your Food Intake
Many studies support this, as does Melissa. As women, we should know what we are putting in our bodies. Examining our nutrition and what is in our food helps create that accountability and educates us on the nutritional content of our food and what our bodies need. It’s not a secret and there shouldn’t be guilt with it, but Melissa suggests that it’s time to be honest with ourselves on what we are eating.
3. Pay Attention to What Time you are Eating
Melissa suggests working to pay attention to when you are eating and work to maintain a consistent schedule. She also suggests not eating for 3 hours before you go to bed because it isn’t utilized as well late at night as it would be earlier in the day when exposed to daylight. Also during the day we are moving more and using more energy. Giving your body time to heal at night is important.
What’s Getting Melissa Excited
Melissa is done competing for a while so she is excited about getting back into the normal lifestyle and sharing that with others – what a normal diet looks like, what you should be eating, how you can fuel your body, etc. She currently offers one-on-one coaching but is looking into other options to offer. Melissa also has a freebie available to be downloaded.
Connect with Melissa
Thanks to Melissa for sharing some great, practical tips we can work to implement in our lives. Being healthy doesn’t have to be hard; it just takes some action. You can connect with Melissa online @mefitnessandnutrition, and her website is mefitnessandnutrition.com.
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