Lindsay Sutton

You DON’T need to stick to your program 100% of the time.

My clients know this well.

👉 We are not perfect humans and we shouldn’t be expected to live to extremes. An all or nothing mentality can create unhealthy narratives or present fears and stress around something that should be making us FEEL GOOD, that is FUN, and that we ENJOY doing.

For sure, if you want to see results you have to stay consistent and stick to your program. But I am here to tell you that maintaining 100% adherence all of the time isn’t an easy task and isn’t expected from me as your coach. Some clients do hit that, which is freaking awesome, but for most of us, including myself, it just doesn’t happen!  Life gets in the way, THAT’S OKAY, you will still see results as long as you show up and do your best.

Somethings that have come up for clients that we work through:

💤 Sh*tty sleep that affects how you show up the next day

🕑 When you are crunched for time and you have to rush your sets or miss reps

🗓 When something comes up and you have to move or miss a workout

🤕 Maybe an exercise doesn’t feel too good that day and we need to alter it

🍽 Maybe you didn’t eat enough and have lower energy to hit the prescribed weights that day

Whatever it may be, as long as you continuously focus on the small efforts and showing up, you’re doing just fine.

PROGRESS > PERFECTION, ALWAYS.

So keep killing it and don’t beat yourself up, or feel like you’ve “messed up” if things don’t go 100% as planned. You’re doing great, PROMISE!

In case you needed to hear this today 😘

A small reminder that you are indeed the conductor of your own life.

Don't let the opinions of others derail you off course.

Be bold, lean into fear and discomfort, be the badass you are and fu***ng own it.

Have a lovely day 😽

You should never feel proud of your hunger.

In the past I used to think being hungry was a good thing. I was conquering my appetite, in control, "saving" my calories.

This was an extremely damaging and harmful mentality around hunger, which affected my relationship with food and my body.

Guess what?

Hunger is NOT BAD! It's a normal part of our human physiology...hunger is a signal from our bodies, letting you know " Hey girl 👋 it's time to eat!

Walking around hungry, while your body cries out for food is a huge disservice to your body.

Being chronically hungry is not a good thing.

It's not virtuous or healthy. It's flat out dangerous.

You should never feel like you need to earn the right to eat. Or that you have to wait until you're uncomfortably hungry to have your next meal.

Hunger is not a victory over your body...it's just a simple signal letting you know it's time to be fed. We shouldn't fear our hunger, ever.

Building trust with your body is about understanding its signals, and allowing yourself to understand what hunger feels like. Hunger is actually biologically normal, predictable and consistent. We just have to listen.

So the next time you're hungry, start showing your body some love and start to listen to that wonderful, intuitive body of yours and EAT SOME FOOD. 😁

How do you view hunger? Or how have you in the past? 👇





9

Find your answers on the flip side.

Is this you?

You have been feeling inspired, killing it at work, killing it at the gym, productive, things are good. Basically killing it at life. Then, all of a sudden you get into a funk and the days start to lack direction, you lose creativity, inspiration, maybe feel your motivation dwindle? Next thing you know you feel that fire slowly start to go out.

OR,

maybe you've been in a funk for awhile. The funk of trying to figure out your life's purpose, you know the one that has you second guessing every decision you make, never knowing if you're doing the right thing, the one that keeps you trapped in the cycle of feeling stuck? Not allowing you to make the decision necessary for your growth.

These cycles can feel long, overwhelming and sometimes feel like you can't see the end of the tunnel. 🚇

On top of that, you have so many people and articles out there telling you to just "Be Positive", "Do what you love", blah, blah. Let me tell ya, that s**t can be exhausting and quite frankly its hard to see the positives when your brain feels like a clouded bundle of mush!

👉 Funks happen, overwhelm happens, loss of motivation happens, lack of direction and life happens.

My advice? What I have my clients do, is to explore what's NOT working. This is where you can find A LOT of answers.

Whats changed? What do you hate doing? What drains your energy? Who do you not want to be?

🕵️‍♀️ Ask yourself the tough stuff. Be your own inner detective. You'll find more of what you need there.

🌟 FRONT SQUAT FORM 🌟

OHHHHHH YESSSS.

Form posts coming back full swing my friends, with the gyms now re-opening!

This is and easy Swipe and Save post for you to help understand some basics of the front squat!

Tag someone below who could benefit from this post!

Soooo lemme know, do you ever Front Sauat in your training? How do they feel? 👇👇👇 Comment below!

It starts from the ground up!

The foot tripod, this can make the difference between a feel good, well connected and executed movement (ex. Squat) vs. a not feeling to hawt, not so stable, disconnectioned movement.

Whenever I'm cueing a client, with any movement that feet a planted, we start from the bottom and work our way up.

The feet are our first points of contact in most movements, thus, proper connection is EXTREMELY important. Problem is, for many, you're not paying attention to your feet and wonder why your movements just don't feel very good!

Seriously, the impact of having your big toes off the floor vs. On the floor is MAJOR.

Check out the slides to understand all you need to know about the full- foot approach!

Sooooo, I wanna know, shoes or barefoot? Whats your preference?!

Two beliefs I overcame, that really changed my life.

I strongly believe that in order to "be happy" on the outside, you have to "make peace" on the inside.

This is why I focus on mindset, just as much as I do fitness & nutrition with my 1 on 1 clients.

We all have years of deeply wounded scars from our past. Which get in the way of us developing new habits and allowing ourselves to finally move forward & grow in the many facets of our lives and health journeys.

Our negative beliefs are like anchors, holding us down, not allowing us to sail. It may take time to drag that anchor up to the surface, because it has sat down there for so long. But I promise you, with the proper care, you will reach the top soon enough.

I used to believe that achieving my "ideal" body would make me a happier person. Guess what, the process of getting there sunk my anchor down even further. I had suffered from body Dismorphia and binge eating and that really didn't go away as I got fitter, it worsened my need for control over my body.

I also believed that I had to live with my back pain forever. I went to a Chiro x2 a week from age 12- 19. That was my life and I was going to be limited to the things I could do and just had to live with my pain.

It took me years to overcome these beliefs, but I got there. I am at a place in my life where I don't fear food, I eat what I want and know how to take care of my needs. I also love my body throughout every season of change.

I don't live with pain in my body anymore. I learned how I needed to MOVE for MY body. How to understand it, connect with it and show myself care.

I'm hear to tell you, that every single one of us should experience the gift of movement. You can learn to work with & understand your pain and find your own way to move freely.

You also deserve to love your body now, yesterday and tomorrow all the same.

Here's to slowing and gently dragging up those anchors and letting you sail.

INTENT BUILDS PURPOSE.

As a coach, one of the most important skills I try to teach my clients is their ability to focus on intentional movement.

Behind the main purpose of a program and the specific exercises they perform within it, the intent has to be there first, in order to achieve the desired goal or outcome.

I can create a program that will get you the desired results, but if the intent behind each movement isn’t there, the process of getting there may be slower, more confusing and really less enjoyable. One thing I don’t want, is someone mindlessly working through each exercise with a lack of focus, understanding and connection with the mind and body.

Really UNDERSTANDING what you’re doing, the FEELING you’re trying to create, building CONFIDENCE around how to perform each movement independently and really being able to FOCUS in the MOMENT, are keys to building client self-efficacy within a training program.

Above I have broken down key areas of focus when it comes to intentional movement.

So FAM, are these things you focus on in your training?? Let me know!

Stop. Don’t make this mistake.

For most of my life, I was working with this fixed mindset. It impacted so many decisions I made from things I wanted to do, to my body and food I ate.

I was on this mission if life to better myself. Become the best I could, the healthiest, strongest, most successful.

But why, so often, would these milestones I achieved, leave me feeling so drained, unfulfilled and underappreciated?

Ouuuuu, sweet gal, because you were doing them for all the wrong reasons...

Because of the hurt and pain I had once felt in the past, I built up these BIG ASS walls, this giant army within and we were on a damn mission out in this world to PROVE to everyone we could do it. To prove I could be happy, that I am now healthy, to prove I could be successful and make it.

But sweet sweet girl, you’ve got that all mixed up.

What an unfulfilling, energy-sucking road that will take you on.

I realized I had to flip the script. Who the hell are you doing all this for? Who is the “THEY” you are always speaking about in your head? The “THEM” that you need to prove it to?

If you want to develop a growth mindset, you need to flip the script to one where you are trying to IMPROVE yourself.

When you invite that mindset in, you can lean into fear, acknowledge your mistakes and learn from them for next time.

When you’re coming from a place of trying to improve, you already KNOW you are constantly learning and growing. You’re not worried about all the little things in between, or what others are doing, because you’re focused on YOU.

It took the pressure off. It brought me more clarity, understanding, trust, patience, compassion and growth.

So, if you’re working your ass off right now in some way that is completely DRAINING you, I invite you to ask yourself, WHO and WHY are you doing this all for? Where do you ACTUALLY want to spend your time? What is most important to you?

Take the pressure off yourself. Know you’re always improving and getting better, do it for you and no one else.

Trust me, it’s a much more pleasant road when you do

Are you doing more harm than good?

We are cooped up right now, stuck inside with our thoughts going wild.

Maybe you have worried about not having a job? Feeling the stress of not having the same income. Worried about your friends and family?

Maybe old fears and beliefs are creeping back in about your body.

This is why it is so important at this time to develop a strong understanding of how the body deals with these emotions and stress.

Letting these thoughts/stressors in, is SO harmful to your body. Therfore making sure we practice compassion and also develop the right strategies to overcome these anxieties are so important.

Take a look at the above slides, to understand how stress can be triggered in the body and the methods you can try for overcoming it.

You are not alone in this time. If ever need support or someone to talk to I'm here ❤

Can you sit in silence?

One belief I have personally struggled with during this quarantine and have been working on, is the belief that I need to be busy all of the time. When I am taking time to rest I would often start to feel anxious, lazy and like I should be doing something. I am sharing this because I know many others feel the same.

In the fast-paced society we live in, people feel like they HAVE to always be doing something. It’s their choice, they want to feel productive, its a must.

But what does being busy really mean? And why do we feel the need to be busy all of the time?

We have to ask ourselves, are my intentions and actions of being busy ACTUALLY helping me? Or is it going to drain me overtime?

So today, I want you to challenge that belief in yourself. ❤

If you don’t start to challenge that belief, you won’t get to know who you really are. For most of us, now being in this quartine, we are forced to confront that belief.

It’s okay to value your existence. To set the intentions to sit with yourself and take that time to connect within. Are you truly being heard?

I know it can be hard to “listen” and sit with yourself. But invite yourself in with love, compassion, understanding and the willingness to learn and grow.

So take that time today, to sit with yourself and reconnect.

I used to never ask for help.

I remember years ago when I signed up for my first gym membership, what a foreign territory it felt like.

I would download all of the newest free programs online and would follow them religiously.

I figured hey I've got this, I'm forsure doing it right.

I did start to see a some results, newly found muscle definition but things didn't feel quite right and I kept hitting plateaus.

Squats hurt my back, my knees hurt in my lunges and quite often after training upper body I'd gave extremely sore traps. I actually really disliked training legs at one point 😵 crazy to think looking back now!

A few months later I met a new friend who was a fitness coach. He helped que me through different movements and they actually started to feel as they should. Instead of feel back pain, I felt my glutes!!

For the years to follow, I did a bodybuilding comp, got certified as a personal trainer, got in to powerlifting and had the opportunity to be taught by many brilliant minds.

I realized just how many separate factors it takes to execute movements properly, how important it is to understand our own bodies physical needs/history in order to progress safely & effectively, how different styles of training benifit people in different ways, that it's okay not to know everything and it's also okay to ask for help so you may continue to learn and understand how to move for YOUR body.

I share this with you, because like you, I have been in a place where movement was foreign to me, my body felt foreign to me and a simply didn't know how to meet its needs.

Next week I am opening spots for Online Coaching! If you are someone looking to be educated and have a program built for your body and need some accountability and support, I invite you to reach out by DM or apply though the link in the bio ❤
@ Ottawa, Ontario