5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Wellness in the New Year with Allison Jackson

Allison Jackson

[00:00:00] Zach: New year, new you, right? Nah, it's a new year, but it's the same you with the same issues you've had before you flip the calendar. But right now you have the motivation and the drive to do something different, something better.

[00:00:13] Jeremy: Today, we'll help you set and reach your goals for 2022 with help from Alison Jackson. She is the NASM certified personal trainer, precision nutrition, certified coach and pro masters figure competitor.

[00:00:25] Alison is also the host of the fit to lead pod. Stick around to hear five simple ways to improve your wellness in the new year, 

[00:00:32] Zach: Welcome to the fitness. Thanks for listening while you're doing whatever it is that you're doing right now. I'm Zach, he's Jeremy together. We're two vulnerable guys helping you overcome struggles to achieve your mental and physical wellness goals. We're talking about what many of you are going through right now, building healthier habits, finding the motivation to keep going and how to not fall back into old patterns that haven't served you.

[00:01:18] Jeremy: I'm right there with you. I don't do new year's resolutions typically. , but calendars do start over every year and this is a good time to sort of reflect on your life. What's working, what isn't and who you want to be when the calendar turns over again next year, , personally, I'm starting small something.

[00:01:32] I've, I've got a long list, Zack of things that I want to do, things that I know have worked for me in the past and rather than doing what I would normally. And just trying to do all of them on January 1st and hang on to as many of them as I can until, , February 8th, when they've all fallen off the list, this time I'm going backwards, I'm starting with just one.

[00:01:50] I'm just tracking my calories and my macros every day to try and just feel better. Because for the last few weeks I've been waking up and just not feeling great. And I know it has a lot to do with what I'm eating. So I'm just tracking that I've, I've set the numbers that I want to hit every day. And that's my goal.

[00:02:04] And from the. As that becomes habit. I'll add more. I'll add in the breath work and the yoga and the running and all of the things that are on my giant list that I want to add this year. But by starting small, I know from history, from my past that starting small is the way that I'm going to be successful in whatever goals I take on, , to improve my wellness this year.

[00:02:24] Zach: I tend to go the other way myself. I, I pick, , , eight. 173 things that I'm going to try new that day. And I'm going to do them all that day, , with the occasional one or two things that's like once a week. But, that's my shore pattern for failures to add too many things.

[00:02:41] So I'm with you on that. And, , I'm actually just adding one thing to my list in addition to, , my normal healthy routines. , and that's really just mindfulness and meditation. I am not good at it, which is not really the point of meditation and that's not the important part, but I'm very uncomfortable doing it. So my resolution is to just spend five minutes every. Quietly meditating, whether I'm good at it or not, and just do it for 30 days and make it a habit. And then I'll move on from there.

[00:03:13] But that's just the one thing I'm adding this month.

[00:03:15] Jeremy: That's my goal too. It's just, I'm going to do this one thing for the month of January. I'm just tracking calories and macros every day. Okay. It's funny. I've already had a couple of days where I'm like, what's the point you've done this before and you're going to give up and 10 days, it's going to be pointless.

[00:03:29] You're going to take a day off and then you're going to backslide and you won't get back on the horse. And every time I have that feeling, now I just have to say to myself, you don't have to worry about doing it for 30 days. You just have to do it today. You don't have to worry about how you're going to do it on Saturday when your routine is broken and things right.

[00:03:46] You just have to do it today and come January 30th first or whatever. If I missed a day or two. Okay. I missed a day or two. I just have to keep it in my mind that I just have to do it today because the more I think about God, can I really keep this up? What's going to be the point. How am I going to benefit it?

[00:04:03] Just, it just spirals into a big monster that shuts itself down. And I don't reach those goals because I overthink.

[00:04:11] Zach: well, that's a, that's a really good way of, of looking at it just today. , and I do want to say , when you do have that, thought of , what's the point it's not going to stick around you're right. It might not stick around, but I think you're a Testament to it. I'm a Testament to it, doing these kinds of things, even if you only do it for 30 days, and then you go back to an old way of eating.

[00:04:31] Some of it does. When I feel like I'm eating bad today, compared to eating bad 10 years ago, two vastly different things. Right? Because some little things have stuck. So even if you only do it for 30 days, and then you go back to your old ways, there's going to be a couple of things that change.

[00:04:51] You're going to be a little bit.

[00:04:52] Jeremy: That's something that you're always really good about reminding me is that no matter how crappy I feel about the way I'm living my life, you're always like, dude, were you doing this 10 years ago? No, you're right. When better living better. 

[00:05:02] Zach: you where you want to be today? Maybe not, but you're

[00:05:06] Jeremy: but that's the thing , I don't know that there will ever be a day that I'll be like, oh, I'm good. I got, I got this dialed that like, I'm always going to be striving for something. , like feeling better in some way, looking better in some way. , I don't know. , if there will ever come a day in my life when I'll just wake up and go, ha I got it, man.

[00:05:25] Zach: no, I hear ya. I hear ya. But I get really frustrated too, looking forward at the road ahead of where I want to get to. And then I feel like a failure because I'm not there yet.

[00:05:35] Jeremy: Yup.

[00:05:36] Zach: And it's always those moments where it's really important to take a look backwards at the road that you did travel and look at how much progress you did make.

[00:05:43] And remind yourself that you're going to continue to grow and you're going to get there. It'll just take a little bit of time.

[00:05:49] Jeremy: And remind yourself. I think one of the first things we said on our first episode is that you're exactly perfect, right? Where you are right now, because if you weren't, you wouldn't be where you are right now. You'd be somewhere else.

[00:06:00] Zach: Exactly.

[00:06:01] Jeremy: Well, that's a look at some of the things that we're trying to do better in 2022, but our guest today has a lot of great ideas to keep you motivated and moving toward your goals. Her name is Alison Jackson, among many other accomplishments. She's the host of the fit to lead podcast. We started by asking her about where her passion for fitness came from, 

[00:06:18] Allison: So I've always been into fitness.

[00:06:20] I played field hockey in high school and college. I used to read my dad's muscle fitness magazines. I used to lift in our grungy unfinished basement and always dreamed of being like those, those people on the cover, right? Like the Cory ever said, I'm totally dating myself in the eighties of being able to transform your body through nutrition and weight training.

[00:06:39] Fast forward. I, I struggled with my weight throughout my teenage years and college, I gained the college. 15, got married, had kids gained 40 pounds of each kid. So I always battled my weight, but I was always into fitness. I did marathons triathlons, but in the back of my mind, I really always wanted to do a bodybuilding competition.

[00:06:55] So lo and behold, in 2012, I found a trainer and I prepped for my first show and I thought it would be a one and done. Type of thing, but I got hooked. So I've been doing figure competitions every year, since then. I just finished my last one in August. And throughout that time, people kept asking me like, what are you doing?

[00:07:11] I would drop like 15, 20 pounds over a year. What are you doing to get ready? Like, what are you eating? How are you working out? In 2016, I started coaching people. Or helping friends and family, which grew into, social media and all of a sudden, I, I launched this business. I always say my business found me.

[00:07:26] Yeah. 

[00:07:27] Zach: So your business though, is Alison Jackson fitness, right? Yes. All right. And do you primarily help women or do you help manage. 

[00:07:36] Allison: So my target audience is working women and their mid forties, fifties women that are just getting coming up upon, perimenopause menopause. That's not to say I will help the occasional guy.

[00:07:47] Cause I do have my, my dad bod friends that are like, please help me. Like, what do I need to do? But my target audience is a working women. 

[00:07:54] Zach: Yeah. I, I just in my experience, men and women, some things in the fitness. World apply to both, but in some cases it's very different advice that you'd have to give to from one to the other.

[00:08:07] Allison: Right. And it's mainly around like hormonal issues. Like obviously men don't have a cycle so it's a lot of that and that plays a huge role. I feel like men can typically lose weight fairly quickly just making minor adjustments, whereas women really. Yeah, 

[00:08:23] Zach: I can, I can testify to that.

[00:08:24] My wife and I, whenever we do something together just eating a little bit differently for the month. It's a. I try and keep my success quiet because it usually doesn't. Yeah, I try to, but it doesn't always work out that way. So I was looking at the blog on your website.

[00:08:43] And one thing that really struck me was, you were doing fitness competitions. So in my mind, I think exercise, lifting weights, building those muscles. But the articles that I saw. There was very few of them that were actually about exercise. There was more, all this talk about what you eat and your mindset and supplements and things like that.

[00:09:06] And I, I really just want to get to the gym and do my hour and be done, but that's not all there is to it is there. 

[00:09:14] Allison: Oh. And I learned that the hard way it took a good 20 years But especially when I was doing triathlons and marathons, I was like, oh, I'm running like 20, 30 miles a week. I like to eat whatever I want, but my body never really changed.

[00:09:26] It really wasn't until I focused on eating the right proportion of protein carbs. That completely transformed my body. And I learned quickly, you cannot train a bad diet. You cannot fool your body. And the nutrition is 90% of where your transformation and changes are going to come from that the exercise, the lifting, the cardio is going to help you along.

[00:09:47] But the nutrition is really the core. 

[00:09:49] Zach: So if somebody is, just jumping into this right now, and they've, they've been maybe working out or, or lifting weights, but they haven't really taken a look at their diet. Where, where should somebody start to look? What are some of the common things that people have?

[00:10:04] Looking at it with 

[00:10:04] Allison: their diet. Yeah. So I tell everyone right off the bat download the free app. My fitness pal, just start tracking what you eat. Don't change anything, just get a week under your belt and just take a look at what you're eating and take a look at the proportion of carbohydrates, fat and protein, as well as my fitness pal.

[00:10:21] The beautiful thing is that it also shows you your fiber, your sodium, your sugar and you want to make sure that you have. The, the percentages we call them bodybuilder percentages, 40% protein, 40% carbs, 20% fat. So there's a moderately high protein, low fat diet. That's going to get you where you need to go.

[00:10:39] And in addition, don't let my fitness pal set your calories. If your, you say your goal is to lose weight, they will automatically set you at 1200 calories. Whether you are a 200 pounds. Or at 150 pound woman. So like my 14 year old daughter needs more than 1200 calories. So don't let my fitness pal do that.

[00:10:56] There's a site called T D E calculator.net, which will tell you how many calories you need to maintain, lose and gain. 

[00:11:04] Zach: Yeah, I know at the first time I used my fitness pallet told me that it was like 1200 calories and. I was like, okay, so I can, I can eat like a piece of toast like that. That's not enough.

[00:11:16] And then I went and figured out what my actual calories were and for me to lose with my activity level it was like closer to 2300 calories to lose weight. And. That's just really bad advice. Go eat 12 that's, half the nutrition I need that would have been detrimental to me, right? 

[00:11:34] Allison: Yes. Yes. And that is one of the things that I know it sounds counterintuitive, but you really only need a slight deficit to lose weight.

[00:11:43] And the, the diet culture, the workout culture is torture, starve yourself. Whatever the quick fix is, whether it's keto whole 30. But it's not it's you can eat. There's no bad foods. Nothing's off limits. It's just a moderate density. That you need to eat, but you need to eat. So of the metabolism is like a burning fire.

[00:11:59] You need to add wood to a fire to get it roaring. Same with the metabolism. You need to feed your body in order to get that the energy to be able to lose weight. 

[00:12:08] Zach: Yeah. So does, does it change though? So as you, as you start to feed the fire appropriately, does that number of calories that you need to maintain or lose weight?

[00:12:18] Does that change as your metabolism starts burning fat? 

[00:12:23] Allison: Yes. So as you, as your body starts to change, so once you start to drop 10, 15, 20 pounds, you want to redo your numbers, right? You want to see what, what, where do you need? Cause you're, you're going to get more efficient at burning calories. So yeah, you're going to, you might need to increase your deficit by a little bit.

[00:12:38] But the key is, and I know the guys know this about lifting weights, but lifting weights is like money in the bank. Muscle at restaurants, calories fat is not. So the more muscle you build, the better your metabolism is going to be the more calories you could take in. But again, to build muscle, you need to eat, like to build a house.

[00:12:54] You need wood. So I'm preaching to the choir here. Yeah. 

[00:12:59] Zach: I, I will say that that was the one thing I was eating less than I needed to when I was lifting weights and was wondering why I was so sore for so long and. Like my belt wasn't changing much, but the weight was dropping. So it like, it was all, it all seemed wrong.

[00:13:19] And then I, I really dialed in like the diet and all of a sudden the weight stayed the same belt, started getting looser and I just felt better. , anything that was sore was sore for a couple of days, but then it was mostly gone. I will say over and over again, diet like literally dialed in, but let's go back one more step on that, right.

[00:13:41] Because I know for me, when I think I want to get fitter, I want to get healthier. I want to lose weight. I want to do these things. I set these goals and I have this faith in my future self that it's going to carry it. All of the intentions that I sat in that present moment. And then I get to that state and my future self goes.

[00:14:02] I dunno about that. So what about mindset? It seems like before your thinking about your diet before you're thinking about your. You really got to think about your mindset. What's your take on that? 

[00:14:14] Allison: Yeah. So mindset is so critical. That is the one thing I always tell my clients. Like I can't, I can't give you the motivation.

[00:14:21] Like you need to dial in your mindset. And some key ways to do that is through mindfulness. Meditation, those two things together, they're going to help improve your mindset. So how does that work? So when you're more mindful, when you're paying attention, you're, you're being present. You're in the moment.

[00:14:37] That's going to help you focus. It's going to help you stay where you need to stay and not get stressed out and get that monkey mind meditation as a practical practice in mindfulness. So sitting in silence or with a mantra, or you're counting your. For five or 10 minutes a day does a world of good.

[00:14:54] And then on top of that, so you have your mindfulness, your meditation, although all impacts your mindset, your it's important to have a growth mindset don't see things as an obstacle. An opportunity. What do I learn from this? What do I get from this? And that includes your diet and workouts.

[00:15:08] Not every day is going to be rainbows and sunshine. And it's important to, how do you get out of that? How do you get out of that rut? That dark place? I had a cookie, oh, crap. Now I had a piece of cake that, and then all of a sudden you're going down this rabbit hole. And one way to kind of stop it in its tracks.

[00:15:22] So meditation is a gratitude, make a list, just drop every that make a list, 10 things I'm grateful for. It could be everything to my electricity. My electricity's on my kids are healthy down to, I, I got, I woke up and got out of bed today. Like it could be as little as that, but I think that is a great way to kind of keep those mindfulness mindset.

[00:15:41] The whole thing kind of in check. 

[00:15:43] Zach: Yeah. I, I, I say it all the time and I do mean it when people say, how are you? My answer is I woke up. Everything else is gravy. Th the gratitude and that is that I will say gratitude has changed me considerably that that's love it when people, when people say that I, so mindset getting yourself in the right, in the right space.

[00:16:07] I know, again, for me, like getting to the gym is 95% of the battle for me. But that, that means building habits. you know, and any habit is uncomfortable at first and it's not fun, what's your take on habits and how to build habits. I'd love to hear, , what you tell people.

[00:16:26] And, and how they work through that to build these things. 

[00:16:29] Allison: Yeah. I love that. And so what I try to tell people, if you haven't read, read atomic habits by James, Claire, amazing book, what you want to do is set triggers to instill those habits. And a great example I'll use is so I coach my mom and she loves to sit on her iPad and just play games in the morning.

[00:16:45] And I was like, you gotta get, you gotta get your work at it. And you gotta, I was like, and she's like, oh, but I just like to just relax a cup of coffee, play my game. So after it go take a three-mile walk and your reward is to play your game. After you walk, you can not play the game until you walk. So it was looking for ways to reward yourself, looking for triggers.

[00:17:03] Like I hate cardio and I, I just, I despise it and I do the minimal minimal amount. But if I know I could read a book while I'm walking on the treadmill or listen to a podcast I'm on. Then that's incentive for me and I look forward to it cause I'm like, okay, that's the treat I get. And that's the important thing too, is I always tell people you're not a dog, don't treat yourself to food.

[00:17:20] Don't reward yourself with food. Cause you went to the gym. So it's tying rewards, tying triggers to the things that you want to do. So you look forward to doing it. If you dread it and you hate it, you're not going to do it. Yeah, 

[00:17:34] Zach: absolutely, I know for me, I dreaded going and working out for a long time.

[00:17:39] I, at one point in my life, I was right around 300 pounds. And when I was in that, that mode it was just, it was really hard for me to build those habits because it was a struggle and it was really hard. And, any growth that you do, whether it's your mindset, losing weight, getting fitter, none of it happens overnight.

[00:18:03] Allison: No, no. 

[00:18:05] Zach: So yeah. Tell me, tell me about that. I 

[00:18:08] Allison: was going to say it, not to, not to bring in like the fitness metaphor, but it's about sets and reps. It's about, it's about doing it over and over. It's about getting outside of your comfort zone and pushing through the things that might not feel comfortable because it, it, once you get past that and you'll find that if you do stick with it, it becomes.

[00:18:24] Second nature is brushing your teeth, right? Like how many people are like, oh, I can't think of the thought of going through the day without brushing my teeth. That's how I feel about working out every morning. Like I have to do something or I feel like bluh throughout the day. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:18:38] Zach: And I'm with you.

[00:18:38] I I've gotten myself to that point. I used to work out in the afternoon and I've now switched it to the morning. And now it's just, if I start my day without my work. Something's wrong. Yeah, but it took me so long to get there. Like it really does take a while. You have to be persistent 

[00:18:54] Allison: with it, right?

[00:18:55] Yeah. It definitely does take a while. And, and you can't overthink it. You can't like lay in bed and say, ah, I don't want to work out. Like you just have to get out and just start moving, just start going towards whatever it is. Cause once you start thinking and you get in your head, it's done. 

[00:19:09] Zach: Yes. It doesn't take much either.

[00:19:11] Like just the snooze button is so. 

[00:19:15] Allison: Yes, very easy. And, and even I struggle with that one. Sometimes I wake up and I start to thinking I'm like, no, don't think just get out of bed and go, don't do that. Don't get, don't think how warm and comfortable the bed is. Yep. 

[00:19:26] Zach: That's I think that's what my biggest struggling point is just getting out of bed and I will say I'm on my phone.

[00:19:32] There's an option to remove the snooze button and that made the biggest difference. Ever if there's no snooze button, you can't hit it 

[00:19:41] Allison: right. Producing the barrier. Right. It's like, well, whatever's going to, you know, kind of whatever struggle you're going to have, if you could remove it. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:19:49] Zach: It's unfortunately I need to put those barriers in place a lot.

[00:19:56] So you work with a lot of people. I would love to hear, what are some common things that you see. That people want when they're looking to get healthier or fitter. And what are some of the more common obstacles that people run into? 

[00:20:12] Allison: Yeah. So everyone especially I think in this day and age with social media and Instagram vacation, everybody wants it fast.

[00:20:18] They want the magic bullet. They want it instantly and they want it right after they've eaten really well for one or two days. Well, why is it the scale moving? You know, your weight is like a roller coaster. It goes up and down every day, everything from the, the moon to the, your sodium level, to your water, everything changes the scale.

[00:20:33] And specifically for women, I obviously, I don't know if men deal with the daily ups and downs of the scale. But I know women's struggle. It's a trigger for a lot of them. And what I typically say is it's just a point in time to either look at it as a weekly average, take your weight every two weeks, focus on your measurements.

[00:20:50] But when it comes to changes, you could make to really affect making a change in your body. It's looking at your sodium, a lot of processed foods, a lot of deli meats and stuff, briefed jerky. A lot of it has sodium. So you just have to be careful because it's going to make you retain water and, and make the scale go up.

[00:21:06] And then prioritize. So I would say protein first. I think calories, you want to hit those two. Those are most important because you can find carbs and fat and everything, that's super easy to hit, but if you build your meals and your pro your meals and your snacks around protein and protein builds, muscle keeps you full it'll.

[00:21:23] It will keep you from overeating. I don't know anybody who overeats grilled chicken. So that that's always what I tell people. And then make sure you drink a lot of water. You gotta stay high and you can't lose weight unless you have. 

[00:21:33] Zach: But there's, there's there's water and coffee, right? That counts, right?

[00:21:37] Yeah. 

[00:21:39] Allison: I like to cat it. I'm like, why drink way too much coffee 

[00:21:42] Zach: alone. I know me too, too much. So you mentioned the scale, how important is the scale? 

[00:21:50] Allison: It's really not as important as you think it is. And it's taken me a long time to learn that the scale is just a number it's like I said, a moment in time, but here's the thing.

[00:21:57] So the scale is just a metric you want to know, are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? A good solid seven, eight hours of quality sleep. Are you getting enough to drink or are you getting movement? Are you getting, and that just doesn't mean get your third-year ma 30 or 60 minute. Wait. Formal workout in.

[00:22:13] Are you moving throughout the day? Cause if you sit on your ass all day, but you've gotten a 30 minute workout in, well, it's like the, the non-exercise activity thermogenesis meet the movement all day, the fidgeting walking in the mail that burns that more percentage of calories than your workout does.

[00:22:28] So the more you move throughout the day, that's just going to help you. So it's all those things, all those things. The scale is just one, but one little metric in the whole. Scheme of things you really want to look at holistically at your whole, like, how is everything your energy level? Are you crushing it and feel strong in the gym?

[00:22:46] All those things matter more than, than that number does. 

[00:22:49] Zach: Yeah. I think I mentioned earlier. I noticed when I changed my eating and I really wasn't counting calories, I was just eating to fuel the workout. my belt changed, my pants started fitting differently and the weight didn't change at all.

[00:23:06] Like it was the exact same number. , and I knew what was happening, but. I hadn't known that I would've gotten really discouraged and really upset that, that number wasn't moving. Do people fall into that trap? Yes. 

[00:23:18] Allison: Yes. All the time. And I, I tried to explain to them like that that's beautiful and that's body, recomposition where you're replacing fat with muscle.

[00:23:25] That is why you're shrinking and muscle weight, is heavier than fat. So that is why the scale won't change. So to your point, it's like, I always say to women, I'm like, if you feel fabulous, Why do you care what the number says, especially these women that just, I just wanna lose five pounds, just five pounds.

[00:23:40] It goes five pounds really gonna make or break you. Is that a dress size? Is that really gonna make a huge difference in your life? But Mike, why don't you just focus on feeling good? And they're like, yeah, you're right. You know, if you could have wine and pizza and just eat healthy and I'm like, well, who cares about the five pounds?

[00:23:58] So even even competing, they don't care what you want. They don't care. Nobody cares. They care how clean you are. 

[00:24:04] Zach: Right. Right. So I want to ask about eating because I, I have my own theories on eating, but, you mentioned earlier that, anything goes so long as you're within, you're fueling your body properly and you're within the calorie content.

[00:24:17] The calorie counts that your, That's right for you. Yep. So does that mean, so if I, if I was eating 1200 calories, I could eat just pint of ice cream every day. 

[00:24:28] Allison: Well, it's funny, it's funny you say that because I used to follow weight Watchers back in the day after I had my kids. And that was one of the things I absolutely hated about it was I was like, can you give me these points?

[00:24:36] And I can eat cake all day. And I'm fine because I hit my points. So with macros and tracking macros, and really you're, you're approaching your carbs, your. You have to hit those numbers. So you're not going to hit your protein number. If you're eating a pine nut ice cream is one of your meals. The other point in that too, is I always say it's the 80 20 rule.

[00:24:54] So you want to eat 80% lean protein, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, your healthy foods. And then 20%. I mean it's Friday night, maybe you have a slice of pizza and a glass of wine with a salad. Like it doesn't mean go off the rails. There's no cheat meal. there's no bad foods, but it's really just give and take.

[00:25:11] If you know, you're going to have a nice dinner out, you're going to eat a little bit later throughout the day. It's like a game of Tetris. It's a matter of fitting it in, but it does that doesn't mean you can have a pint of ice cream for every meal. 

[00:25:22] Zach: I know for me doing all of this by myself is killing.

[00:25:28] Difficult. And I'm a big, I'm a big fan of people getting a coach. I suspect you might be as well. 

[00:25:35] Allison: Yes, I am a huge proponent. And what's funny is so like I said, for my first competition, I found the competition coach, no matter what your goal is, if it's weight loss, running weightlifting, power lifting, there is a coach for everything, business coaches, career coaches, I mean you name parent coaches, you name it, whatever your goal.

[00:25:53] If you have a coach, they're going to fast track your success. They have a framework and a methodology methodology. It's going to get you there faster than if you tried to do it right. 

[00:26:02] Zach: So if somebody was looking for a coach, you may know one, right.

[00:26:10] So tell me about your, tell me about your coaching business then. 

[00:26:13] Allison: So Alison Jackson fitness, I started it like I said, after, after competing. And what I'd love to do is help women reach their health goals. And it's funny, cause it used to be, I used to be really focused on, weight loss. We want to lose.

[00:26:25] My focus has changed, especially since the pandemic. So I really help women prioritize self care so they could be at their best, and that usually involves losing weight, but it also involves making sure that they take time for themselves, that they take care of themselves, whether that's meditation, whether that's just carving out time.

[00:26:43] And not feeling guilty about it. There's that mom guilt, especially for a lot of working women that you can't fill up anyone else's cup, if yours isn't full. So I help them in both one-on-one and in small groups, I usually launch my groups like three times a year to just really help that. Just embrace the scale.

[00:27:01] First of all, that you're not a number. And then to help them understand how to eat, both eating out on vacation meal, prepping, getting your whole family to eat healthy, that you're not creating separate meals for, for, for you and your kids and your husband. So it's been, it's been wonderful just to help people in that way.

[00:27:18] And then I also most recently partnered with a hypnotherapist because we talked about mindset and how critical that is. And so that's another aspect and that's been hugely successful. Like the clients we work with. It's just amazing. How powerful hypnotherapy. 

[00:27:33] Zach: Oh, say more about that. I want to hear what are you using it for and how does that work?

[00:27:38] Allison: Yeah Jason, who I worked with ages ago, so he is an expert hypnotherapist. And what we do is we partner he does coaching sessions focused strictly on hypnotherapy and any kind of. Issues obstacles blocks. And it's funny, cause I was not familiar with hypnotherapy. I'm like, I don't know, what is this?

[00:27:55] Are you going to make us like, a bark, like a dog you hear all these things, but it's cause I said, I was like, is it meditation? And he, he actually did some hypnotherapy on me. It's amazing. It puts you in this relaxed state where you get, suggestions on different things that you might be struggling.

[00:28:11] And helping you with almost like affirmations and keeping a focus on what your goal is and getting there. So I'm highly recommend if anyone has struggled with, maybe there's just some, deep seated issues that you're struggling with. Have no therapy is a great 

[00:28:28] Zach: option, but sounds intriguing.

[00:28:30] I've heard about it a couple of times and. I'm I'm nervous about trying that because like you, like you said, like, am I going to bark like a dog or, or what are, what are the suggestions that are going to be fed to me during the session, but that's really, it's really quite safe, right? Yeah. 

[00:28:47] Allison: This is a very safe, it's very, it's almost like it's almost like a guided meditation or visualizing.

[00:28:54] Zach: Interesting. I'll have to do a little bit more research on that. if people are really looking to make a change in their lives and they haven't done anything, , what would you say? Suggestion of one easy thing they could do right now to start moving 

[00:29:07] Allison: in that direction? For sure. It would definitely be the downloading, the, my fitness pal app, download that, start tracking your food, that combined with.

[00:29:15] If you set a baseline, if you look at how many steps you get, I know everyone has, either apple watches, Fitbits, whatever it is. If you're currently at 5,000 steps, make it 7,000. If you're at 7,000, make it 10, but get that movement throughout the day, because that is a critical part as well to really kind of help you get on the right track.

[00:29:32] Zach: But I work all day. I sit at a desk. 

[00:29:35] Allison: Me too. You got to carve out, even if it's five minutes. I mean, you have to get up to go to the bathroom at some point, take an extra lap around the house, run downstairs, throw a lot of load of laundry and just make, make those steps will add up throughout the day. If you do a little bit every day.

[00:29:50] Yeah. 

[00:29:51] Zach: I actually drink a lot of water every day for that reason, because the more water I'm drinking, the more I have to go to the bathroom. So I'm constantly and my, my house. If I go to the bathroom, I have to fill my water cup up. So it's a vicious cycle all day. 

[00:30:09] Yeah, 

[00:30:10] Zach: it works pretty well. All right. Well, we are just about out of time.

[00:30:14] So, I'd love to ask you, you have a podcast and a book. Can you tell me a little bit about those? 

[00:30:19] Allison: So I have the fit to lead podcast, and I typically like to bring people on their experts that can help people prioritize their self-care. We have a ton of different experts that talk about everything from meditation.

[00:30:31] Two workouts to nutrition, to I've had Jason on there that the therapist and then I also have a book it's called flat to fab at eight weeks. And it's essentially my coaching program in a book. So if you want to just try it out on your own there's recipes, there's all different things in there.

[00:30:48] Meal prep, workouts, all kinds of stuff. And you could get that on Amazon. All 

[00:30:52] Zach: right. And if somebody wants to work with you directly, where can they find you? Yeah, 

[00:30:56] Allison: it's just come visit me at www dot Alison Jackson, fitness.com. Or you can follow me on social media at Alison Jackson fitness. 

[00:31:05] Zach: All right, well, thank you so much.

[00:31:07] We'll have links to all of that on the show notes. Thank you so much for coming on. This was great. Thank you for having me. 

[00:31:14] Jeremy: All right. Great interview. There are thanks to Alison Jackson. You can learn more about her and her services at Alison Jackson, fitness.com.

[00:31:21] Zach: You know, I really like it when I get to do an interview by myself because I really asked very personal questions, , of the guests of like things that I'm experiencing, that I know a lot of other people are experiencing, but, I really liked this one because we went over a bunch of stuff, , like habit stacking, starting small, , something to build a better mindset and that, , the scale really isn't as important as everyone makes it out to be.

[00:31:45] Jeremy: and on the point about building a better mindset, as she mentioned, , the thing that you are taking on at least this month, hopefully longer meditation and mindfulness, like really being aware, really being in the moment. That's what I'm relying on , for my own goal. That's going to be a really powerful tool to make sure that you stay focused

[00:32:01] on the goals you're trying to reach no matter what they are, whether it's physical fitness or meditation or whatever it is that you're taking on, you've got to have the right mindset. You've got to just decide, this is the thing that I'm doing now. And not let things get in the way, 

[00:32:13] Zach: so whether you're a new year's resolution person or not, we'd love to hear your thoughts about today's episode and the goals that you've got for the year ahead. So head on over to the fitness podcast community on Facebook, and just let us know, you can find it in the show notes or by going straight to facebook.com/fitness guys, we'd also love it. If you could head over to apple podcasts and give us a review, we prefer five stars. Actually, we, we, we would, that's the only

[00:32:36] Jeremy: we require it. Yeah. I don't think it even works. If you click anything less than, than 5 cents, I wouldn't

[00:32:41] Zach: definitely, definitely just hit the five stars and , tell everyone why you love us.

[00:32:46] Jeremy: And as always, all the details from today's episode can be found on our website, the fitness.com. Don't forget to subscribe on whatever podcast player you're using and join us next week. We will talk with Barton, Brian from the mindset forge podcast. We're going to sort of dive a little deeper on the idea of building a winning mindset and really staying focused on your goals.

[00:33:03] Great conversation with him. That's going to do it for today. Thanks so much for listening. We will talk to you next week@thefitness.com.