TAKING ACTION: ✅Comment COMMITTED below if you’re committed to finishing STEPtember stronger than you started! Tell me your plan for getting your steps in this week! ⬇️ We’re in the final stretch, friends—and like I always say—how you finish is just as important (if not more important) than how you begin! 💯 When you finish strong, it shows that you’ve upped your game since the beginning, and it also sets you up to easily transition into the next challenge. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, however, we need to focus on finishing what we started—and STEPtember ain’t over ‘til it’s over! I encourage you to make the most of the final week of this challenge and give it your all. Even if you haven’t fully participated this month, something is always better than nothing, and I promise you won’t regret moving your body more. 👟 My challenge for you this week is to take your walks this week. No excuses. I know you can make it happen. I know you are fully capable of finishing strong. 💪 Continue with the No Background Noise CHALLENEGE this week if you want! “It’s not where you start—it’s where you finish that counts.” —Zig Ziglar

TAKING ACTION: ✅Take a picture of one of your Feast Day meals and drop it in the comments below! Feast Day has officially arrived, friends! As a reminder, you’ll aim to consume around 25% more of each nutrient today: natural carbs, healthy fat, organic protein and fiber. If you’re familiar with Feast Day, you already know that it does wonders for your mood, which ultimately helps prevent burnout—but that’s not all it does. There are many more benefits that occur when you intentionally fuel your body with more nutrients. Check out some of them below 👇 🍴 It helps keep your thyroid active and functioning. Strategically eating a little more will also raise your metabolic rate while revving up the fat-burning process. 🍴It helps prevent increased cortisol levels while keeping your hormones in check. This aids in preventing muscle breakdown. 🍴 When we restrict carbs for too long, there are negative effects such as suppression of immune function, fatigue, and mood changes. Feasting helps combat these negative effects. 🍴 It helps your body maintain levels of leptin. Leptin is the hormone that is responsible for signaling to your brain that you are full. We must keep our leptin levels healthy so we can know when we are full. 🍴 Again, it helps prevent burnout when you’ve been in a calorie/macro deficit for an extended period. ⬇️Helpful Feast Day Tips⬇️ 🍽 Break your fast a little earlier than usual today. This will give you more time to consume the extra food today, without leaving you uncomfortably full. 🍽 Eat nutrient-dense (and high-quality) meals. Consider ways to add nutrients to each meal (e.g., adding nuts or seeds). 🍽 Have an extra snack—maybe a clean protein shake! 🍽 Don’t stress over the 25% target, and don’t force yourself to eat more if you’re satisfied. Any amount more is beneficial for your metabolism. HAPPY FEASTING, friends! 🍽️

TAKING ACTION: ✅Look at your week ahead and let me know in the comments if you see any potential hiccups for Feast Day or our 24-hour fast this week. Let’s get a plan together now so you’re well-prepared and set up for success! We’re stepping into our fourth week of our STEPtember Challenge and in case you haven’t heard—it’s a big week around here! We not only have our monthly 24-hour fast coming up this week, but we also have our monthly Feast Day (which is a total fan fav, by the way) AND our No Background Noise CHALLENEGE starts TODAY and runs through Friday (no music in car, TVs OFF, etc..) and really sit in our thoughts and learn to enjoy the silence which will help with anxiety (long term), nervous system regulation + being able to form actual thoughts. I always like to touch on a mindset topic on Mondays, and today, I want to talk about reducing decision fatigue by having a plan. Decision fatigue is a real thing, and if you wait until the last minute and try to wing it with your diet and exercise, you may find yourself too mentally overwhelmed to focus on your plan this week. 💯 Today, I encourage you to look at your week ahead. What could potentially cause a hiccup on Feast Day? What about our 24-hour fast on Thursday? Note anything that might pose a problem and figure out how you’re going to navigate it. Have a plan. Again, with all of the decisions that come up in a day, waiting to create a plan until it arrives typically doesn’t turn out in your favor. If you know of anything that might cause a hiccup this week, share it with me in the comments below, and I’ll help you think through it! That’s what I’m here for, and I want to see you succeed! 🔥

TAKING ACTION: ✅We’ve talked a lot about rest days this month, but how’s your sleep been throughout this challenge? Let’s talk about it! We’re almost in the home stretch of our STEPtember Challenge! 👟 With today being a rest day, it’s a good time to talk about the difference between rest and sleep. They can overlap, but they’re not the same thing — and both are critical when it comes to building lean muscle and supporting your overall health. 💯 Rest days are the days we intentionally take off from training so our muscles can recover. You’re not tearing down muscle fibers on these days. Your brain is still active and stimulated, but your body gets a break from the stress of lifting. Sleep is a different (and equally important) piece of the puzzle. When we sleep, our bodies release muscle-building hormones that help repair and rebuild the damage from training. 👉 Bottom line: Both rest days and good sleep hygiene are both non-negotiable on your muscle-building journey. They serve different purposes. You need both. 👌 ‼️ TOMORROW STARTS OUR NO BACKGROUND NOISE CHALLENGE. Monday-Friday of this week try to sit in silence as much as possible to regulate your nervous system and form actual thoughts: no music in your car, no mindless noise, no TV watching or doom scrolling, etc. YOU CAN DO IT and you’ll be surprised at how much better you feel! Who’s doing it with me?! ⬇️

TAKING ACTION: ✅Share your weekly win in the comments below! I want to hear ‘em all, both big and small! 🎉 “Fight your brain’s negativity bias by appreciating and lingering on the tiny, positive moments you experience day-to-day.” ~Rick Hanson Take a moment to consider these questions today ⬇️ ➡️How many things can you consider as a win this week? ➡️How many things did you consider a failure this week? If I were a bettin’ woman, I’d bet that you can think of a lot more failures than wins… This is because humans are hardwired to focus on the negative. We have a negativity bias, and unfortunately, it causes us to place more emphasis on negative experiences than positive ones. This might be why some of you don’t show up every week to celebrate your weekly small wins. If science is correct, you’re far more focused on what you did wrong than what you did right—and even if you can think of something you did well, you probably brush it off as “not good enough”... Am I right or am I right? While negativity bias is something we all probably struggle with to a degree, the good news is that it’s totally changeable because your brain is neuroplastic—but it doesn’t happen without you putting in some effort. If you want to change your brain to focus on the positive, you must start focusing on the positive—and that means you should start celebrating even the smallest of wins each week. 💯