The MINT Prjct

Brittany Werner with Working Against Gravity

• The MINT Prjct • Season 1 • Episode 29

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Meet Brittany Werner, who walked this journey and transformed both her personal life and professional career with Working Against Gravity (WAG). Now the director of coaching at WAG and a mom of three, Brittany joins us to share her unique insights that span the realms of nutrition, parenting, self-care, and more, all enriched by her experiences living in four different countries.

Brittany unravels the crucial role of nutrition in fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum stages, highlighting the value of a nutrition coach during these pivotal times. We also dive into her strategies for setting nutrition targets for moms and measuring progress beyond the scale. So, whether you're a mom-to-be or a veteran mom, this episode is a treasure trove of empowering insights and practical advice. Join us for this enriching conversation that promises to change your perspective on nutrition, parenting, and self-care.

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Speaker 1:

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Speaker 1:

All right, welcome back to the Mint Project podcast. We're super excited we have Brittany Werner on the podcast today. Brittany is a registered dietitian with over 17 years of experience in the field. She is also the director of coaching at Working Against Gravity. If you're not familiar, working Against Gravity is a company that specializes in nutrition coaching and an industry leader who has been in the business for nearly a decade. She is also, maybe most importantly, a mom of three girls and an avid crossfitter, and she also has her L1. So, brittany, we're super excited you're here. We've kind of, behind the scenes, been working on a little bit of collaboration with Working Against Gravity to kind of combine forces and expertise from both sides so that we can just help women from both sides of our expertise, so I would and we'll share more about that soon, but I would love to kick it off by you just telling us a little bit about yourself and then maybe a little bit more about what you do at Working Against Gravity.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, first, thank you, ladies. I'm super excited to be here. This is. We've been looking forward to this for quite some time and I know we'll get into all of that in a little bit, but this is such a fun opportunity.

Speaker 2:

I came to Working Against Gravity as a client, starting off after my third daughter was born. I had four babies in five years and or three babies in five years, I'm sorry four pregnancies, three babies in five years, really, just, you know, as a dietitian, felt like I know what I'm supposed to be doing but was really struggling with my own nutrition and there was a lot of shame internal shame in that I was like, oh, I feel like I should be able to do this, but I need help. This is a part of my life I need to outsource. Found Wag as a on Instagram and thought, oh, I want to look into this. What are these guys doing? So came to Wag as a client back after my third daughter was born, started off as a clinical dietitian right out of school, you know, got into that and really felt like I wasn't making a huge difference in people's lives. You know, just working in a hospital, maybe folks who had had cardiac issues or, unfortunately, those are folks who really need help, but I felt like I wasn't making an impact in their life. I would see them for one or two hours and send them off and never see them again. I did some work in a bariatric clinic for four or five years, love that work. Moved overseas with my ex-husband now. But my husband at the time moved overseas with him in the military, was looking for some remote work opportunities, was a client for Wag and fell in love with what we were doing, was a client for not long before I reached out and said can I work here Like this is amazing. Yeah, so it happened very organically and here we are. So it's a very long story condensed into a very short timeline.

Speaker 2:

My history with nutrition is varied, going from clinical nutrition all the way to what we do now. But starting off, I think, as a dietitian who sought help for my own nutrition is a pretty unique story. Oftentimes we don't see that and that gives me a skill set that certainly you don't have to have struggled with your weight or struggled with nutrition to help others. That's not a prerequisite, but I do think I have a unique skill set of saying, hey, I've been there, I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like to feel hopeless and what it feels like to think, oh, I have the skills and ability. But I'm not sure how to put that into play, because I have three babies under five and I'm stressed and overworked and frazzled and I'm trying to nurse and feed and take one to preschool and you know I need help. So, yeah, a WAG saved me. I'll tell anyone. That WAG saved me personally, professionally, and I love to be able to give that back to others.

Speaker 3:

I was going to say that's a huge testament to WAG too, you coming to them as a dietician. You already have that background of knowing, like you're not just going to go to any company, any one you know. You want someone who you know has sound principles and all that stuff to really help you get to where you need to be. And that's just a big testament to WAG that a dietician would go to them. And it's cool that you opened up and you were willing to be vulnerable and saying you know, this is my specialty, but I still need help here. I could still use accountability, I could still use coaching and really just maybe someone who sees you and just is like, yeah, you do have a lot going on. Let me take some of that from you. Even though you know what you're supposed to do, I can still help you with that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that was going to be one of my first questions for you, because I think, as a coach, like it's so helpful for our clients to know that we are not perfect, like we have our own struggles. So I think I read in your bio that you struggled like a little bit with your weight in your childhood and teen years and that's kind of what propelled you into this career. Can you talk a little bit more about that and like that journey of like when you kind of flipped the switch and like what was that point where you're like I need to make a change?

Speaker 2:

Certainly so. I grew up in a really small town in Southern Ohio, like right on the border of Appalachia, basically. And you know, I grew up in the late 80s, early 90s and you know, looking at what food was like then, I think is like what we thought was healthy and all the testament to my parents. I think they certainly thought they were doing what was right, you know. But we ate junk constantly and I was active-ish, you know. I participated in sports and what was available in my small town. But I grew to be a fairly large child and then, right around sixth or seventh grade I think, right as I was hitting puberty, I shut up and five ten I, you know, grew rather quickly it's top, you know Became tall rather quickly and that leveled out through high school. So I was moderate weight through high school. It was never thin, but I was moderate weight but still always struggled. I had disordered eating. I remember eating like a small bag of chips for lunch, thinking this is good, we've got it, you know. Um, and always thought in my background mind if I could figure this out, I would be happy. I remember thinking that in high school, thinking if I could figure nutrition out I would be happy and gosh. That really saddens me, raising girls, you know. It saddens me to think that I was thinking that at 14, 15, 16, that my happiness was tied to nutrition and Figuring that out. Thankfully, I think we've come a very long way, just you know, in two to three decades, of how we talked to adolescent girls and women about their body image and what health is like. Again, all the testament to my mom, because I think she really did the best she could do at the time. And so I went to call.

Speaker 2:

I went to college as an undecided science major. I thought maybe I wanted to be a nurse, maybe I wanted to go into pharmacy. I wasn't sure I. I took a nutrition course just as part of the curriculum and I just really loved it. I thought, oh, this is what a protein, a carb, a fat is. This is how it works in the body. The instructor was wonderful. She was charismatic. I felt really connected to her. The class was fun. Okay, I'll take another one as an elective and let's just see, I took another one.

Speaker 2:

Looking back, I don't even think I knew what a dietitian was. I don't think I even knew that career existed. You know, like growing up in a small town. I don't even know that. I knew what that was. So then I thought I'm gonna do this and it was for purely selfish reasons. I'm gonna make nutrition my major so I can figure this out for myself. So my sophomore year I declared nutrition as my major and the rest is history.

Speaker 2:

And I I'll admit it took until probably my senior year of college before I really clicked internally. I was Quite heavy off about college, mostly because of the college diet and lifestyle you know I was in. I was in nutrition, nutrition major, not living the nutrition major and I think what ended up happening was I. It clicked to me that if I'm gonna become employable, mm-hmm, and I want people to listen to me and we can dive into what that.

Speaker 2:

But if I because there's a lot into the psychology of that but if I want people to listen to me and think, oh, this person knows what they're talking about and I walk the walk, I Really need to do that. I need to know it's a big difference, yeah, so I started to practice what I was preaching and it, it works. Yeah, and I started to feel better about myself, started to have this confidence and I started to Realize you don't have to be perfect, your life doesn't have to be chicken and broccoli. And so it really did. It did probably take until I was 22, honestly, and started grad school and started getting out into the world and Practicing as a dietitian and the helping others before I could help myself. That's sort of how that started.

Speaker 4:

So you, your mom of three girls, which probably has its own challenges Now, like, tell us a little bit how that's changed your life and how you've seen nutrition for yourself. And then, what have been the challenges that have come out with nutrition for your kids, or just kids in general, whether you're there, is or not?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I, I love being a mom of girls, I mean, so I have one sister who is a mom of three boys, but you know, it's the only thing I know. So of course it's like. You know, we're a very girl-centric house here. I, I have learned to be very cognizant of how I talk about my body because I have as all women should be. But my girls look a lot like me and they hear often you look so much like your mom.

Speaker 2:

And the very last thing I want them to hear or see is me criticizing myself. And then they go out into public and they hear someone say, oh, you look so much like your mom. And then they come home and they hear me. They hear me saying, oh, my pants are tight, oh, look at this, oh, look at this. And then, in public, oh, you look so much like your mom. And then that correlates with them. You know my order. My oldest is 12. She's starting to have, starting to look like a woman, you know, and she's starting to have those things, and so that's the biggest impact it's had on me is I have, I need to, and I'm very aware of how I talk about my body, how I look at my body, how I Because I'm proud of how I look my body can do amazing things.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I think everyone could change something if they had to. But I grew three beautiful girls and I'm proud of what my body can do and, sure, there's always things that I could change. But you know, that's all minor. I'm healthy, I'm happy, and I want them to grow up having that confidence that I didn't have. It took me, you know, three and a half decades to get that and. I want them to grow up with that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, childhood nutrition and how we approach food in our house is very different than how I think I was raised, and it's again not anything knocking my parents, it's just we very much try to stick to. We make one meal. This is what we have. This is what's on the table. I hope you like it and we roll with it. I really try it. You know there's always an exception if we have something really off the wall, like spicy or something odd.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my girls now are 12, 10, which is almost 11, 12, 10 and getting ready to turn eight next week. So when they're babies, of course there's some difference there. But we're big advocates of you have one meal. We're not shoulder to cook. That's a big thing that I talked parents about. Like, yeah, we don't, we don't cater to this. Like we have one meal, we eat together. That's so important for families. Eat with your kids. That's when you can get kids to talk. Oh, family meal is so important.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we talked a lot about that.

Speaker 1:

We did like a nutrition for kids episode of couple back, but we talked a lot about you know Betsy shared how they started eating together and what a huge difference that has made. And and the one meal thing, because it can be it's it's harder to make two meals but at the same time it's also also mentally like, oh well, at least they'll eat this and I don't have to fight with them. But, like in the long term, you and I have a very similar. My upbringing was very similar with you know I the struggles and not having the best nutrition in the house and you know that's kind of what led me to nutrition as well. But I do think also, like what I took from what you just said was like our words and how we talk about ourselves are so important and we're not always aware that like hey, they're listening or they're even paying attention when I'm looking in the mirror and like Just criticizing myself without even saying anything.

Speaker 4:

Well, yeah, and that verb is just so important because I I mean, I have a boy, but even our dog is overweight and I said the other day, pose fat. And he said what is that? What does that mean? And it was just it was cute, but it was also a light bulb moment of like, wow, how do I explain that? You know, and it yeah, definitely give me pause about. Okay, let's shift to the way that we're even just looking at things ourselves.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so powerful what you said about you know how your girls look, like you and you you've realized if you talk about yourself like that, your they will connect that as you're talking about them almost like that and that, yeah, that's, that's cool, that you've made that connection. I remember when my daughter was probably one or two my oldest and I was getting ready or something. I was looking in the mirror and Annoyed and then I just looked down at her and she was just staring at me and you know, they just like absorb everything and in her eyes were so bright and happy and I'm like I want her to always have that look whenever, you know, whenever she's just thinking about herself or whatever, just to always be so happy Because she is.

Speaker 3:

She is not because she looks a certain way or something like that. And that starts with me and it starts with the people around her too. So I've even had to tell you know, like my sisters they will come over and like we'll be trying on clothes or whatever, and they'll be like I say, okay, let's, let's be really kind to ourselves right now, you know, like there's little ears listening, but also our bodies are listening and we should be kind to ourselves as Well, not just for kids, but also for us.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and, I think, encouraging our other women friends to do that. When you hear them call them out on it, say no, no, we're not gonna do that, we're gonna. Let's be kind to ourselves. I like that Burbage and I'm sure we could talk about kids nutrition all day long, like we should have. We could have multiple episodes on that alone. But on kind of to wrap up the kids topic, do you have any kind of go-to tips for parents that may be struggling with just the go run-of-the-mill challenges in their own kids nutrition patience?

Speaker 2:

and Consistency. Those are the two biggest things. Kids will not starve, and it's. I also Completely empathize. I've been there when and it is it's the easy button when it's like, oh, you've just had a really long day and you think I just want to get this dinner done on the table and out of here and you heat up Whatever they love chicken nuggets or whatever it is chicken nuggets in my house will Satisfy everyone, so that's what I always reference to it.

Speaker 2:

I, I get it, like I totally get it. But I Always like try to remind parents of the long game. Like what are we doing here? You want them to grow up with healthy habits and have a Varied palette where they want to eat things you know 20 years from now. They enjoy that's vegetables and different proteins. And if we start with a very bland palette when they're kids, it's so difficult when they're adults and I understand when it's been one heck of a day and it's like, oh, I can't think about that right now. To stay consistent they watch what you're doing, they watch what you're eating and if you stay consistent with the message of we eat together, this is one meal, they're not going to starve. They'll eat it eventually. Like, just stick with it, this is what we're doing and it won't take long. It's the same thing like when you're sleep training or you're weaning and starting solids, like you can tie it into all of these other stages of development. It's the same thing. You just have to stay consistent.

Speaker 3:

Yes, the hardest part yeah. That's awesome, that was such a good tip, so I love it. I saw that you and just mentioned in the intro that you do CrossFit and we like to ask all the amazing moms on our podcast who work out with their kids how do you do it With your three kids, with your career, with everything you've got going on? How do you prioritize that for yourself?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so the game's just finished and I'm so happy to see you. Wonderful, ariel Lohan, get third.

Speaker 3:

I know.

Speaker 2:

As a mom at the CrossFit Games. So cool, so cool.

Speaker 1:

We love her that gives me chills.

Speaker 2:

I was like, oh, I'm sorry, yes, and just seems like such a genuine person too.

Speaker 1:

She is yeah.

Speaker 2:

She is yeah, as much as you can tell from social media. It just seems like a wonderful person. So for me it boils down and I've had this has been a really hard lesson for me to learn. It takes me carving out time for myself. I have to pay myself first. I have to.

Speaker 2:

I am not a good mother, I'm not a good spouse or a partner, I'm not a good employee, I'm not a good friend, if I don't pay myself first. There are going to be times when I can't carve out that hour or 30 minutes of the day, but whenever I can, I have to pay myself first, and what that looks like for me is moving and eating. Well, that's what mental health looks like for me. I've learned that over the years. I'm lucky enough to have a wonderful garage space where over the years I've been able to collect enough things to get it done. I also have a wonderful CrossFit community here in my town where I have a 930 class that I just love my people there and I go Monday, wednesday, friday there and then on Saturday I have a beautifully wonderful, flexible job where I can scoot away and go there and have a garage space here. So I have to pay myself first.

Speaker 2:

If I don't take care of myself mentally and physically, I am crap to everyone else. I'm not a great mother, I'm not a great worker, I'm just terrible. I know that and that took time for me to figure out. We think we need to do all of these other things in life and pay everyone else first. I think that's primarily a female issue. We're givers by nature. We take care of others first, so it's like we're nurturing people, we take care of our kids, we take care of our spouse, we work, we're expected to do so much in society, and then what little time is left of the day we give to ourselves? That script has to change. We take care of ourselves first and then we can take care of others. And when you're able to change that around, that's when the light bulb really went off for me.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so you said it took you a while to figure that out. Was it figuring out that that's what you needed, or figuring out that what worked for you as well, or did you already know kind of what worked for you? It was just adding it, making it your routine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I always knew it, from the moment I started. The moment I found CrossFit, I knew I loved it. I knew I was like this is my jam. I love this. I absolutely love the community. I love the environment. When I started having kids, that was when it's like oh, how is this going to work? I'm so lucky that every gym that, when I've moved, every gym I've found, has been kid friendly. Thank goodness, it's awesome. Yeah, it's so nice. Yeah, the gym that is now in my town. Oftentimes there are as many kids there in the corner as there are members working out, which is lovely which is so cool.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's fun for your kids too, because then they look forward to going. They're going to see their friends and you don't have to watch them as much if they're with other kids.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's wonderful Like they have their own little area over there. It's great and, quite frankly, I would turn my back on a gym that wasn't kid friendly. Even now my girls are old enough where, if I'm just gone for an hour, if my 12-year-old is at home, that's OK, but I would turn my back on a gym that wasn't kid friendly because it's not the environment that I'm interested in being a part of.

Speaker 2:

And that doesn't foster the community that I want to be a part of. But for me, I always knew that CrossFit was something, that functional fitness in that community is something that lit a fire for me. But knowing that I had to do that to make myself better mentally, I think it's something that it took some years for me to figure out. I think once it started to go away and work ramped up, life ramped up. My kids got involved in travel, sports and schedules got busier. I became more stressed and anxious and I thought what's happening here and it's like, oh, my time spent working out or eating well, that has gone down. And that's when I realized, oh, we have to reprioritize here.

Speaker 3:

So you said in the beginning when you were introducing yourself that you've moved a lot. Looks like from your bio that you've lived in four different states and four different countries, which gives you a really cool background too in nutrition and different cultures and that's kind of helped you in your practice. We'd love to hear more about how learning different cultures, different experiences, has helped you in your work that you do with working against gravity.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I grew up in a really small town and never, ever did I think I would be someone who would live probably outside of Ohio, Kentucky, that little area more or less outside of the United States. So I now live in central Pennsylvania, from Ohio, moved to West Virginia, then moved to Virginia, now live in Pennsylvania. But I've lived in Belgium, germany, bosnia and, of course, the US. What on?

Speaker 4:

earth took you there. What a random city.

Speaker 2:

That's a heavy lift, yeah. So my ex-husband was in the Army, so we were with him.

Speaker 4:

That would have been my guess the military.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the military.

Speaker 2:

How long did you?

Speaker 3:

spend in each of those places.

Speaker 2:

So it was a total of nine years total overseas. So, my two oldest girls were born in Belgium. They were born in a Belgian hospital, and so my birth experience was totally cool, like oh my god. Yeah, like they all spoke English and it was very normal in that sense. But they were just so different, I think, from what my friends tell me about their American experience in mind, I think my experience maybe was more. It was very much when mother guided Like it was whatever. I wanted what I wanted to do.

Speaker 1:

As it should be right, yeah, as it should be, Absolutely.

Speaker 4:

It was not dictated by what insurance I had and how quickly the bed needed to turn over and all of those things Get us on our seat boxes.

Speaker 2:

That's a whole other conversation.

Speaker 4:

This is a different podcast.

Speaker 2:

My youngest daughter. We were living in Bosnia where the health care is not excellent, unfortunately. She was an easy birth and delivery and had we stayed, everything would have been fine. But our insurance company said hey, if you stay and there's a complication, we will not cover it because there wasn't a NICU in the entire country.

Speaker 3:

So even though you were, wasn't your insurance through the military, though, and you were there for the military, but they wouldn't cover it yeah they wouldn't cover it, so it doesn't seem to make sense.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's something where to go wrong.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

There's not a NICU, so it's like, you know, taking a really large risk. You know and thought, well, we should go. So we went to Germany, so she was born in Germany a military base there and so that was an American hospital, but still in Germany. So she was born in Germany on a military base, and that experience was also wonderful. Yeah, so all three of my girls were born outside of the United States. They're all American citizens, so cool for them?

Speaker 3:

Do they have dual citizenship? How does that work? Or does that not because you guys were in the military when you did that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because they were born to Americans who were on diplomatic status overseas. They have American passports and American citizenship. It's just in their passport it says you know place of birth is Belgium or Germany. Yeah, OK.

Speaker 4:

That's awesome. Last question on your country is what's your favorite place?

Speaker 2:

Oh gosh, I really loved living in Belgium. I loved life there. It was so fun. The food is amazing, People are great, the beer is great, Like it's just life is. They really know how to balance work and pleasure. You know people don't work 50 hours a week there. You know, it's like they get their work done, they relax, they take a month off in the summer. They there's none of this like I'm out of office, but contact me if you need me. It's like I'm gone.

Speaker 4:

I'm absolutely gone, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, yeah, it's cool and I just loved life there. It was great. But, with that being said, this is home, you know, yeah, but you know so there's nothing that will ever compare to home, and that's why we're here, right Like we came back, because of that. So, yeah, it's great.

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

So on the nutrition side, it's the way we eat and consume, and just even think about acquiring our food. It's just so different. For example, in Germany, every little German village has their own supermarket and the idea that you would go and acquire all your food for a week because that's sort of how we do it here. I think most people, even though I have a high school, go to Costco or Sam's Club and like bulk up for a month on some things. That doesn't happen there. They have their own little market where they go and they'll just get what they need for a day or two and bring it back, because they'll walk down there and just get everything fresh and bring it back. That model is just lovely, because they have the time.

Speaker 2:

The pace of life is just so much slower and they wake up, think about OK, what am I going to have, what am I going to make today? Go down there, get their fresh bread, their fresh meat from the butcher. Go to the grocery store, get what they need and come back for the day. Everything is so much fresh, it's from a local farmer, it's locally sourced and this whole mass produced shelf staple a whole lot of chemicals, a whole lot of it. It's just so many things that are banned in Europe Additives, red dye, number five, a lot of things, especially veteran kids food. We have an abundance here and that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 2:

As far as food, activity is drastically different. They walk everywhere, they bike everywhere and that's a lot of infrastructure set up here. We are just so remote compared to them. Unfortunately. We just don't have a lot of towns, don't even have sidewalks, a lot of it we can't do much about. But just the way that they acquire their food is just so different. Their houses just aren't set up with these giant fridges and freezers. It's a daily tour for them to go get what they're going to eat, and I think we could learn a lot from that. Think about our food daily instead of planning for a week, and then the week comes and goes and we have a lot of leftover and it just gets trashed because it's in the back of the fridge and the salad goes bad and we throw it out.

Speaker 4:

I love that intuitive approach too, and I think with moms that, especially if you've come from a background of fitness and or tracking your food, if you've done that for a long time and then you become a mom, intuitive eating makes a lot more sense, but if you've got that education behind you. So we've heard or we've seen in your bio that you love working with postpartum moms. What do you love about that? What's the approach you take? How'd you get into that?

Speaker 2:

I love that time Because it is I think it's how can I define that? Maybe it's like the first nine months. Afterwards We'll take the first nine months. I love it because it is the best of times and it's the worst of times. I love it because you can take.

Speaker 2:

I remember right after all three of my girls were born, I was so excited just to do things that I hadn't been able to do for the last nine plus months. I was excited to be able to go to the gym and just move. I didn't want to lift a heavy barbell or I mean that was coming, but I just wanted to move. I wanted to sleep on my stomach. I was excited to do small things.

Speaker 2:

That excitement then gets crashed and burned, with waking up every hour to two hours and your boobs hurting terribly and all of the other things it is.

Speaker 2:

Your heart is going bonkers and it really is the best of times and the worst of times.

Speaker 2:

And hopefully, whoever the woman is I'm working with is surrounded by a wonderful support system and most of the times that's the case and it really is such a time of growth for a woman because she has this new lovely little person in her life that she's caring for, but also learning to care for herself and learning to love this new body of hers and learning how it works again and learning how to fuel it properly.

Speaker 2:

Even if she's choosing to breastfeed or not, she's learning how to fuel her body properly, either to feed her baby or just to get herself enough energy to get through the day while taking care of this newborn. And that's a skill whether you're a new mom or a seasoned mom, and we know it's not easy and you don't always feel like waking up and making food for yourself. And I love when it clicks for a woman, when they're like I've got this, I feel like I can do this, I've got the baby ready, I've got myself ready. We left the house today and we did something and I feel accomplished. I remember that first time when, like, I went solo out with one baby, two babies, three babies, and I thought I got this, I can do it.

Speaker 2:

And then I remember, yeah, and then I remember when it didn't go bad and there was like a blowout in the car seat and all of that happened.

Speaker 4:

But still like you survived. You remember that you survived.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and just it always. There's always positives that come out of it, because that it isn't always the case when you work with other populations, but when I'm working with post-partum moms at the end of our journey whether we work together for a month or we work together for years it's always positive at the end because a baby is growing up, a mom is growing up right, because they're learning skills, and I think that's why maybe it's a selfish thing, because at the end there's always a positive outcome. But I just love that time in a woman's life because it's transformative for her, it's transformative for me as a coach, because I can watch her grow and really learn to take care of herself while taking care of her child. And I think there's it's primal as well, and I just love it.

Speaker 2:

I love that time and being able to pay that forward in a sense, where I didn't have that. I didn't even know that I needed it. I think, looking back, but man, I would have loved it, and there's nothing more special than seeing that in a woman, when she can say hey, I've got this. I feel confident that I'm giving myself what I need and I can fly solo now. I'm like all right, girl, go for it, let's go.

Speaker 1:

I love it. So I know from well personal experience and then working with the moms that we work with as well, like postpartum can be such a challenging time, both from body image and then also the nutrition side of things. I think so many, not only because of social media but even like internally, it's like I'm itching to lose this weight I've gained. I'm itching to feel like myself again and like feel good in my clothes. But there's also this period, like you said, we need to be fueling ourselves. We're kind of rebuilding. We need to be making sure we're getting enough fuel to survive the day and maybe support our activity. How do you approach that with moms who are early on who might be itching to lose the baby weight, but maybe we know we need to do some other things first? How do you approach that and kind of keep help their mindset in that chapter?

Speaker 2:

It's so hard. It really is, because I hear it and I understand it. I've been there my second pregnancy. I retained a ton of fluid and I gained almost 70 pounds. My other two I gained a pretty normal amount 40-ish pounds. I've been there.

Speaker 2:

I know that feeling where you think I need the scale to go down, like this is urgent, and then my sensible coach dietitian brain is trying to tell them otherwise and what I really try to do is say, okay, we have the same goal, our timelines are just a little different, and telling them I hear you and where we want to go is the same. I just want to take a different path than you want to take. And what I never want to do is to tell a woman what you want is wrong. Now, on the other, the only kind of outlier there is that someone saying I want to cut really hard and I want to do this and I'm nursing, and then I would come in and say that this is not beneficial to you or your child, but that's a very rare situation that that's ever happened. But to really, when you lay it out from a woman and tell her hey, we're going to get there. You grew this human being. We are going to get there. It's going to take time and really lay out. Hey, here's why I have some of our moms want to track macros, some of them don't. It all is very dependent on kind of where their headspace is and some moms are very type A and analytical and they have. They want to do that or not, but I like to give them targets either way, just so they can kind of have those numbers in their mind that they look at a label and kind of see how it lays out. But I'll say, hey, this is why I've put targets where they are. I lay the science out and say this is why we're doing this. We're in a deficit of this tiny amount because you're nursing and I have fats here to support milk production. If you're not nursing, I have targets here to lose body fat. These goals are set to get you where you want to go. But we can't go too fast because we have to give you energy, because you're waking up every two hours or you're doing you lay it out. Like when you lay it out like that, normally it clicks and they go.

Speaker 2:

Oh, and what I also like to do is make sure they're taking some sort of measures of progress outside of the scale, like let's, let's take body measurements, let's take photos because, as we know, your body is going to change really quickly postpartum. You know it, we all look pregnant for quite a few weeks or months. Afterwards. It takes time for your body to continue to change. So once we see those photos, keep morphine and those inches keep going down. That's so impactful. And if a mom is nursing, the scale is not always reliable. Right depends on when you nurse. When you pump, you know it's five to ten pounds sometimes depending on a woman's breast size, like that is. Sometimes I tell women we don't even bother with that scale.

Speaker 2:

If you're nursing like that's, don't even mess with that, but it's. I always want women to feel heard and you know when they say I really want to lose this weight, I want you to. We're going to get there, but we just need to make sure we're doing it in a healthy, sustainable way that makes you feel your best and that you can take care of your child as well.

Speaker 3:

I love that. That's a great. It's a really great approach. So important to not dismiss what your client wants and their goals, but to I love that you're just helping them get there in a different way. It's really cool, yeah, so let's go back a little bit. Just tell us more about working against gravity. What's your philosophy there around nutrition? And then you know for a prospective client, how do you work with clients? What could a client expect? All that stuff?

Speaker 2:

yeah, so we are. I think we have some of the worst marketing ever because we are not this like sexy marketing of like 30-day body challenge. If you can get in quick, yeah, it comes to us right. It's very much a sustainable approach that will help you build habits for a lifetime. And I'll tell you that it's hard. It's hard to tell the market because people, yeah, okay, it's not sexy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what works is not actually sexy, so it's not at all but what we pride ourselves in is helping an individual find a nutrition plan that works for them, rooted in science but tailored to you. There is this idea that there's a wide brushstroke that works for everyone. Now there is because the science is a science. But what works for me, you know, might not work exactly for Jess and might not work exactly for Betsy, because we live different lives. We're, you know, we're different ages, we have different activity levels. You know our genetics are different. It has to be tailored to the person and that's where this individual approach comes in. So when a client signs up, everything is extremely manual and that's something I'm very proud of. That we are not going to get rid of that. We keep that. So a client signs up, there's a fairly detailed questionnaire that we want clients to sit down, take their time, fill it out, just ask about your background, previous diet, history, your current activity. We have clients that are super, super active, professional athletes, all the way down to just maybe you don't work out at all, you have a sedentary job and you're not active. That's fine, that's things that we need to know medical history, all of these things. We do ask for photos, but if someone's not comfortable with photos. That's cool too. Whatever, we'll take it either way, all of that info comes in and it comes to me. I'm the one who delegates things out when that information comes in. We actually have an option where someone can choose their own coach or they can let me delegate out who would match up best for them. So that's a nice feature. You can look on our website and say, oh, I really match up with Tara as one of our coaches. Tara's bio looks great to me. I would like to work with Tara. So they click that. Or I would like to work with Brittany, I'll click with her. So if someone says there would like wag to choose, I then read over everything and pair them up with the coach. When that happens, the coach reaches out to them and then it all gets. The magic starts.

Speaker 2:

We have two different tiers of one-on-one coaching. One tier is all text-based, where there isn't any video component. We have clients who really like that and then we have clients who want the video component. The text-based tier all happens to our coaching app, where you have unlimited messaging and you have one weekly like beefy check-in, where you're sending all your measurements, all of your food logs and everything back and forth the other tier. You have a monthly video call plus all of that other stuff where you have unlimited messaging and sending your measurements in your food and everything back and forth. All of our coaches do both of those tiers, so it's up to can pick whatever coach you want and you can go back and forth between them, which is nice as well if you think I want video to start, but maybe once you get going you don't need the video anymore.

Speaker 2:

I think the video is great to get to know a person in the beginning, to know your coach, and then our nutrition coaching starts off, where you can get macros. You can get hard protein, carbs and fats to work for every day, to work towards, or if you're someone who you think oh, that seems like a lot to me. I'm not into tracking my food like that. I've never done that before. That's okay too. We can work on habits, the plate method, just incorporating more vegetables into your day. That's all things that our coaches will talk to our clients about and just get to know what your goals are, and sometimes that ebbs and flows through the coaching process, right, our goals change as they go yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 3:

I feel like someone was kind of looking into you guys. They would know from that explanation exactly what they could expect and it really I love what you said rooted in science but really tailored to every single person after that, yeah, so, yeah, that's awesome, so and really quick. We're I mean, we're obviously a pregnancy and postpartum based company, so what would be the benefits for a mom? I know we talked about this a little bit, but what are the benefits of working with a coach while pregnant, or postpartum.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, so this is. I can come at it from two sides as someone who never had any nutrition guidance when I was pregnant, think my OB was like then, eat some protein, have some vegetables, you know. Now we're working with pregnant and postpartum moms. The benefit is how it's too cold. It is an emotional support and then also the actual nutrition guidance that that you can get. The emotional support while pregnant.

Speaker 2:

Oftentimes we, as we know, there's so much going on in our bodies and If you are someone who maybe has restricted your eating before or Someone who really felt like, okay, when I get pregnant, I'm maybe on the verge of Overdoing it or feeling like I'm eating for two, all those things that we've been told by society leading up to getting pregnant, having that person to bounce things off of. These are what nutrition guidelines look like for pregnancy, because actually, especially Leading up to about 30 weeks, you don't really need that much extra food. It's for most women. It's shocking the extra calories. It's. It's not a lot. The amount of extra nutrition actually comes on the back end if you're nursing. That's when your calorie needs skyrocket, or in the third trimester, when it's really difficult to eat because space is so limited the first and second trimester. The calorie needs don't increase that much. And Having that knowledge, most women, I don't think, have that knowledge.

Speaker 3:

I.

Speaker 2:

I don't even know that I had that much depth in that knowledge. And I'm a dietician because society tells us Through subliminal and direct marketing that, oh, you're pregnant and you know friends and family, go ahead, you can have that, you need that you know and and before you know it you're you're 60 pounds heavier, you know, yeah, so having that support is it's vital.

Speaker 2:

Also, if you're, we work with a lot of women who are active and take a lot of pride in their activity. I'm by no means a competitive cross-fitter. I've been doing it long enough that I'm really proud of the work that I've put in and I'm proud of the things I can do in the gym and through my pregnancies I was really proud of what I could sustain and Having my nutrition dialed in and a lot of the women we work with whether they're runners, their cyclists, their weekend warriors Keeping that going through their pregnancy is important and having your nutrition dialed in is important and that plays a huge role in mental health postpartum, when you give birth and you know we talked a little bit about I wanted this. I despise this term, but getting your body back, you know that is after pregnancy, when you're able to have a healthy, strong delivery and a lot of that is staying active through pregnancy and You're able to return to some of your normal activities.

Speaker 2:

A lot of that has to do with maintaining a healthy weight through pregnancy and having proper nutrition through that, through your pregnancy ties into that and Anything that we can do to help it only aids in that positive Mental health afterwards, and that's. We could go through a whole another podcast about, you know, postpartum depression and how important exercise is there, but that's some of the benefits. I was a really long answer, though, but that's a but. You don't really think about nutrition playing a role and postpartum mental health.

Speaker 1:

You don't think about that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I love that you brought that up.

Speaker 1:

I even encourage women who are even thinking about getting pregnant to and, if they don't have an understanding of a nutrition, to, start looking for a coach before they're even pregnant, because Nutrition plays a role in fertility. And then when you get to your pregnancy, like, absolutely continue working with that coach, but at least you have a foundation of knowledge of, like, what does a balance plate look like? And then when my coach tells me, hey, we got to increase our calories a little bit with some more nutrients Well, I don't even know how many calories I was. You know, you have that solid foundation. So it's not like this whole new Chapter of nutrition. You have that and then the coach can kind of just guide you along. So, yeah, I mean, if you're, if you're already pregnant, I mean still look, but, like, if you're thinking about it, think about looking for a coach to guide you if you're a little unsure at all about your nutrition.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and we work with quite a few women who are going through IVF or IUI like we have a few women who are going through that and you know I, while I don't have a personal experience in that, in that area I do have quite a few clients who are, have gone through or are going through that.

Speaker 2:

We have several coaches who have gone through that personally and I can tell you that we've had success stories with and I know that nutrition plays a role. Protein and take plays a role. Having a Healthy diet, having enough protein, having your enough heme, iron, having all sorts of your nutrients balance, makes such a difference in overall health. So I'm glad you brought up Pre. You know, having a nutrition dialed in before you even get to that stage, because just having that knowledge and not adding additional stress During pregnancy, it's huge. We're already stressed out when we're bringing a new life into the world, but the last thing we need to do is add more stress, thinking what in the world is, you know, net carbs, whole carbs, what are we doing here? It's the last thing we need is to add more stress awesome.

Speaker 1:

Well, brittany, this was awesome. So much good information To like final questions anything else that you would add, thinking about the fact that we have a lot of moms, pregnancy, postpartum moms, anything else that you would add? And then also, where can people find you and working against gravity, if they are interested in next steps.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I think for moms and this kind of this goes for everyone. But when it comes to nutrition, you don't have to be perfect. This is the biggest I think this will be the battle of my career that and carbs are not making you fat. You do not have to be perfect, it is you wake up every day and make the best decisions you can in the environment that you're in, and something is better than nothing and you do not have to be perfect.

Speaker 2:

So many times, and for good reason, we set out to do these really hard challenges and these things that we are going to eliminate everything and eat super clean and and Go hard. You don't have to do that. You just make the best decisions you can, and sometimes that is eliminating small things and that's no balls into getting better and better. But give yourself grace and just do the best you can, and I promise that's enough, especially For pregnant and postpartum women. If there's ever a time in life to give yourself grace, that's it right. Really, women like look at yourself in the mirror and say I'm doing the best I can and just make the best decisions possible and pay yourself first. That's a big thing like that pay your son yeah, definitely yeah for Me.

Speaker 2:

And why. You can find us at working against gravity comm. You can find all the information about wag there, how to join. We have tons of resources, free resources, there. If you're not in a position now for a coach, we have tons of resources that can help you Postpartum. If you're looking to get pregnant, there's resources there about prenatal nutrition as well. You can find me on Instagram at Brittany BRI TT, a NY RDN, so you can find me there, and then also on Instagram. It's at working against gravity Anything. Follow us as well. We are always putting out free resources there too.

Speaker 1:

Great, we will share it. Yeah, we'll share all of that in the show notes and I think by the time this airs we might have a discount code for our audience. So we will drop that in the show notes as well. But yeah, thanks again, Brittany.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

Hey Mitt mamas and trainers, if you enjoyed our information, you will love our programs and resources. We have a pregnancy fitness program, postpartum program, along with guides on movement modifications and nutrition, all designed to help you safely and effectively stay active through pregnancy and return to exercise postpartum. You can even bundle our programs and save so that your whole journey is covered. You can find all of these resources at the mitt project comm.