Stephanie Lueras, How She Lost 200 Pounds with Balanced Nutrition and Movement; Resilience in Life and Leadership Episode 048

Stephanie, meet Stephanie! Stephanie had a fabulous conversation with body positive personal trainer, Stephanie Lueras!

Stephanie Lueras, Heart and Sole Fitness & Wellness LCC; Body Positive ACE Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Fitness Nutrition Specialist, International Best-Selling Author, and Speaker

After coming to a point in life where she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” needed some changes.  Through small actions and goal setting, Stephanie has lost over 200 pounds through balanced nutrition and movement, without the use of restrictive dieting, commercial weight loss plans, or supplements.  She has gained a love of endurance sports, running marathons, and is currently training for Ironman-distance races.  She uses this same holistic goal setting model in working with clients in groups and individually to empower people to break down the everyday barriers that exist so they can achieve what they are working towards for their best personal wellness.

Stephanie specializes in beginner and adaptive fitness, aiding those of all sizes, age, condition/illness, and ability to consistency with their personal movement and nutrition goals.  She enjoys incorporating bodyweight resistance training into workouts, so many workouts require no or minimal equipment.  She is also a TRX Suspension System Instructor and a SilverSneakers Instructor.

Everyone has resilience, but what does that mean and how to we use it in life and leadership? Join Stephanie Olson, expert in resiliency and trauma, every week as she talks to other experts living lives of resilience. Stephanie also shares her own stories of addictions, disordered eating, domestic and sexual violence, abandonment, and trauma; and shares the everyday struggles and joys of everyday life. As a wife, mom, and CEO she gives commentaries, and, sometimes a few rants, to shed light on what makes a person resilient. So, if you have experienced adversity in life in any way, and you want to learn how to better lead your family, your workplace, and, well, your life, this podcast is for you!

https://stephanieolson.com

INSPIRE your team to LEAD WITH SUCCESS and MOTIVATE others with Stephanie bringing 20+ years of speaking experience. If you need to EMPOWER, ENGAGE, and EDUCATE your people-Book Stephanie as your speaker today!

https://www.stephanieolson.com/ask-stephanie-to-speak

Everyone has resilience, but what does that mean, and how do we use it in life and leadership? Join Stephanie Olson, an expert in resiliency and trauma, every week as she talks to other experts living lives of resilience. Stephanie also shares her own stories of addictions, disordered eating, domestic and sexual violence, abandonment, and trauma, and shares the everyday struggles and joys of everyday life. As a wife, mom, and CEO she gives commentaries and, sometimes, a few rants to shed light on what makes a person resilient. So, if you have experienced adversity in life in any way and want to learn how to better lead your family, your workplace, and, well, your life, this podcast is for you!

https://stephanieolson.com
https://outlawstreamers.com/

Transcript

Stephanie Olson: 0:00

Hi, thank you for listening. Please share with anyone you think will benefit from this podcast. Hello and welcome to resilience in life and leadership. I am honored to introduce you to Stephanie Lueras. After coming to a point in life where she was sick and tired of being sick and tired, Stephanie needed some changes. Through small actions and goal setting. Stephanie has lost over 200 pounds through balanced nutrition and movement. Without the use of restrictive dieting, commercial weight loss plans or supplements. She has gained a love of endurance sports, running marathons and is currently training for Ironman distance races. She uses this same holistic goal setting model in working with clients in groups and individually to empower people to break down the everyday barriers that exist so they can achieve what they are working towards for their personal best wellness. Stephanie specializes in beginner and adaptive fitness ating those of all sizes, ages, conditions and illness, and ability to consume consistently train with their personal motivate movement and nutrition goals. Welcome, Stephanie. Hello, and welcome to resilience and life and leadership. And welcome Stephanie Lueras, how are you doing?

Stephanie Lueras: 1:18

I'm great. It's so wonderful to be here with you today.

Stephanie Olson: 1:21

Yes, your name is amazing. And spelled correctly. So I appreciate that about you. Well, the Stephanie's are here. So I want to hear your story. You've got some amazing stuff going on. You've done some incredible things. And I just kind of want to dig into it because i i personally come from a background with a lot of eating disorders. And I I've, I've always and I think you'll appreciate this but I've always weirdly loved to work out. And so a lot of my my friends do not understand my love for just being active and working out but I do I love it. So yeah, I so tell me about your journey you have lost 200 pounds. And now you are this long distance marathon triathlon training. Amazing, fabulous person. So talk to me about your journey.

Stephanie Lueras: 2:31

Well, I first I will start out by I am have not always enjoy exercise until I found the movement. Yeah, I enjoyed that.

Stephanie Olson: 2:45

Well, and that is the key to exercise. I think so many people are like, Oh, I've got to exercise I've got to exercise. And it really is just about loving movement. That's that's all it is and finding that movement that you enjoy doing.

Stephanie Lueras: 2:59

Yeah. And you know, for me, I actually, in in where I am today did not set out to say I'm going to lose 200 pounds. That was never my goal. That was never the benchmark that I was striving for. I'm a person that's been overweight, my entire life have been on every diet on the planet, you name it, I've tried it, I've gained and lost hundreds and hundreds of pounds in my life. So I came to this place where I'm like, I'm done. I'm done with the diets. But something has to change. Because I don't feel good. I'm unhappy. And I'm making everybody else around me miserable, too. So I'm, I'm this driven person is goal oriented. You know, that's just how my mind works. So, in my mind, I'm like, What is something I can do? What what is that going to be? The first thing I did was drink water. Like I didn't even have the habit of hydrating myself properly in place. Yeah. But instead of going out and getting that like giant, you know, water jug and doing these crazy water challenges you see on social media was a six ounce cup of water and a kitchen timer. And every time the obnoxious timer went off, I go to the other end of the office where the water cooler was filling up and just repeat that cycle over and over of drinking water. And then it's like okay, got this What can I do now? Instead of going through the drive thru twice a day to feed my husband and myself. I'm gonna cook at home doesn't matter what I'm going to cook right I'm gonna cook get home habit. Yeah, and then it became Okay, well let's start to experiment with recipes in the end. gradients and how are these foods making us feel? And just through those small changes, I naturally had started to let go of some weight, I was feeling a little bit better. And so in my mind, I'm like, Okay, well now's probably wear exercise is supposed to come into this. And, but at the body size I was at, I was pretty close to losing my mobility. So in my mind, the only thing possible that I was going to be able to do was walk. And so I go out, I walk to the end of the street and back, and I'm gonna die. And I do this and flip flops, because Oh, getting on shoes would just have been much worse. Yeah, yeah. But that walk up and down the street then becomes around the block around the neighborhood. And further and further. Then one day, I get the idea. I'm like, I wonder if I can run. I don't know where this came from, again, girls basic in gym class, this is a foreign concept. So I rented this stop sign, like 50 yards down the road. And again, it's this I want to die. But at this in that moment, something about movement lit up inside me that I had never experienced before. And I'm like, I'm gonna have to figure this out. So I go home and like, we're gonna figure out this fat girl running thing and do all the research. I'm such a nerd, like, I've got to figure it all out. But then it becomes, again, building it up. And then five K's 10 K's half marathons, marathons, jumping over into triathlon, and building up the distances there. So from going to, from drinking this cup of water, to training for Ironman distance, triathlons, all these little habits build on each other. I'm also working on my emotional health, cleaning up all that cleaning up my spiritual life and growing in that. And without focusing on the weight itself without saying I'm gonna, you know, check off all this weight, my body let go, I lost the 200 pounds without intentionally dieting, it was everything I was doing that contributed to just bringing my body to where it wanted to be.

Stephanie Olson: 7:40

And probably and you know, you said not focusing on the weight, but also not focusing on the food, I would guess that we we tend to, with this diet mentality, we tend to just really focus on food, and then it does literally the opposite that we want to what to do or think we need to do or whatever the case may be. Yeah,

Stephanie Lueras: 8:07

absolutely. And for me coming from a background with eating disorders and all this other wonderful stuff, on top of years and years of yo yo dieting. I know it's not about the food, right? Like, you know, we know what to eat. We've we've learned this along the line somewhere in life, we generally have an idea of what good nutrition is, but it's taking in it that next step further to how does food make me feel? Because just as there are as many people that walk this planet, there is many different eating styles that that are out there. Right? So it's really coming to that place where we're open to experiment with food, how does it make me feel what works what doesn't work timing of it and in really getting back to how we were created. And that that innate ability to sense hunger to sense fullness and know that okay, I'm good. Yeah,

Stephanie Olson: 9:23

it's, I think that especially in America we have confused that so much. And although yes, I think intuitively we know what to eat we know how to eat and things like that. But boy, that whole diet culture and the fitness movement, it has made some of that so confusing to the average person like okay, wait are carbs good or carbs bad as protein? What do I you know, what am I supposed to do? Should I eat meat? Should I not eat meat? No. It's become this, this remarkably confusing thing. And I love what you say because it really everybody has a different reaction to different foods, different timing of eating, and it is different for everybody.

Stephanie Lueras: 10:18

It is. And it's, a lot of times when we talk to people about the ability to let go of the food rules, let go of the restriction and kind of play around with it be your own scientist experiment with food, and how things make you feel, right. It's a very foreign concept. And it's it's almost revolutionary to some people, they the idea of intuitive eating the idea of mindful eating, because we're so programmed that this is the little box I have to live in. And if I stray one way or the other, it's it's not okay, exactly. But I liken it to look at a toddler. They know what they like and what they don't like, yep, they can eat an entire plate of food in front of them and want more, or they can eat three bites, and they're good. And nobody has told them that's good or bad. Nobody has has changed that, that intuition in them to know I've got what I need. Right? Come back for more later. And, you know, if we can just all revert back to that, I think as as a people, we'd feel a whole heck of a lot better. Yeah,

Stephanie Olson: 11:44

I agree. And I think that the key to intuitive eating. Because the concept is exactly what we're supposed to do. We know, when we're hungry. We know when we're satisfied. We we know intuitively to stop and to start, but until your body gets back to where it needs to be. I mean, you know, there have been times in my life where intuitively my body would say, Eat that entire box of Oreos, and don't stop because that's where, and so it does take some time to really get that intuitive getting our bodies back to where they can. Intuitively

Stephanie Lueras: 12:34

it does Intuitive Eating is not an overnight thing. Because once we can let go of those food rules, let go of the restriction. That is the number one fear, right that if I take the rules off the table, all I'm going to eat as chocolate and candy bars all day. Right? Right. And you you actually might Yeah, you might do that for a while because you had some type of rule or construct around why this was good or bad for so long. That giving yourself that permission, giving yourself that freedom. You might eat it in abundance for a while. But you are going to come to a point and you know, you can't put a timeline on it. But you're going to come to the point where your body's gonna say, Okay, now we're ready for something else. Right? And then you're really coming back around to, you know, what does a balanced diet look like? For me? What are those foods that serve me? What am I craving? And how do I satisfy that in a way that serves me best? Right?

Stephanie Olson: 13:44

Absolutely. So now you were actually doing some training and coaching. Correct? Is that? Okay? So talk to me about that. What? What does, you know, body positive body neutrality, fitness look like? What does that coaching look like?

Stephanie Lueras: 14:05

Well, the reality is not everyone's goal is weight loss. There's a lot of reasons that people want to move, that they want to look at their relationship with food, the food that they're eating. And so it's coming to a place where the focus is not the scale, the focus is not a body mass index. It's not these, which is a bunch of crap. Most racist thing ever let's just lay it out there straight, but it is it's a statistic. It's not even a health marker. Right, right. Yeah. And, you know, we take these arbitrary things off the table, and look at what is it that you really want to accomplish? Like I never want to discount someone's feelings, someone might come to me and very well say I want to lose X number of pounds. And I'm not going to hand you some random diet plan and exercise plan and say, Here you go go forth and be married. My next question is why? Yeah. Why do you want to lose weight? What? What will losing weight accomplish for you? And when we ask that question, why a few times, we don't just even take the first answer. But we keep asking it, we get to that vulnerable place of things like, I want to feel good, my clothes, I want to look good, totally a valid reason, I want to be able to get up in the morning and not feel stiff, want to get up off the floor, if I fall down independently, or keep up with my kids or my grandkids, we start to get really specific areas that we can break down that look at things like nutrition, cardiovascular endurance, strength, stability, balance, so much more. Those are the specific things that then those things we work on. Right, that's what we change, you're going to find the transformation, you're going to feel how you want to feel, you're going to you're going to satisfy that underlying why the scale may or may not change. But in the end, that really becomes inconsequential to most people, right? When they found okay, I've actually met what I what I really want.

Stephanie Olson: 16:46

Right, right. Oh, that's good. Well, and you know, in my case, one of the, so I am 53. So as we get older, our muscle mass decreases. And so one of my goals is to really increase muscles. And so that totally messes up the scale. You know, like, if that's your, if that's your bottom line, or BMI. I mean, it just completely messes with that, that traditional whatever it might be for the medical world. So I have a very controversial question for you. On both spectrums, because I have been very involved in both in different times of my life, both the body positivity movement, and both the fitness movement, and things like that. So what would you say? Are the I haven't? This isn't the controversial question yet. What would you say are the pros and cons of each movement? So body positivity versus the you know, the fitness movement?

Stephanie Lueras: 18:05

Well, you know, just like everything on the planet, there's good and bad about both. And, you know, when we look at body positivity, I almost, I almost don't like using that term sometimes. Because we get this idea in our mind, like, oh, it's all about you loving yourself. It's self love. It's this great positivity thing. I almost err more on the side of body neutrality, like, are you okay with yourself? Can you accept yourself? Are you living in your body in the present moment? Or are you living in some future imaginary image or what you used to be, instead of this is who I am right now, and be okay with it. And that sometimes it takes a little work to get to that place of being okay with who we are, as we are now. And a lot of times, that's where fitness and this idea of body positivity, body neutrality collide, because with the fitness industry, we have, sometimes the aesthetic, that there's an idea of, unless you look a certain way, or act a certain way, perform a certain way, then you're not a fit person, right? You're not achieving whatever the magic benchmark is, but it's changing our idea and our perception of what fitness is, right? You is is fitness something that that you are engaging in because you're trying to look a certain way or is it because you understand the benefit of mu MIT for whatever it is that that you want to be or who you are,

Stephanie Olson: 20:05

that's so good. Because I think that, and I may or may not ask you a controversial question, because I think what you just said is fantastic. I think the extremes of both messed my mind, I mean, really mess me up. And I think definitely with the fitness movement, this altra. You know, this is the look, this is what you have to be this is what, and that is something that you just can't necessarily or shouldn't want to aspire to be if that's just what you're trying to aspire to be. And on the same token, the body positivity movement, I followed that for for quite a while. And I found that I started to some of the forums that you can get on on both of those can be just attacking and horrifying. But I found that the body positivity movement really messed with my head, because it was this mentality of if you want to lose weight, you are wrong. And there was this weird thing going on and on. And then on the fitness, if you don't want to lose weight, you are wrong. And it was just this, where is where is the middle ground. So I love the body neutrality. That that is an important piece because it really is about, you know, being comfortable in your skin, right where you are. And that doesn't even mean you want to. You want to be status quo. But it's it's just a very different. I love that. So yeah, thank you. Because I think there really are extremes on both ends.

Stephanie Lueras: 22:00

And I think when we look at the extremes of both movements, we move more towards exclusivity, yes, that we were really somewhere towards the middle, when we're focusing on individual movement, when we're focusing on that presence in who we are, in this moment, away from the edge from the edges, I think that's where we start to really open up to the conversations that we can talk about the inclusivity that we can talk about adaptive fitness, that we can talk about accessibility, that we can talk about the different people in sizes, and what ever that exists on every plane within fitness within sports. And then it's not just an archetype, it's not just a gender, it's not just an age right there. It's not just an ability, we can take all of those things out of the conversation.

Stephanie Olson: 23:14

Yeah, exactly. And, you know, it's so interesting, because you you said drinking water, and then I started walking. And I think that sometimes we negate one of the best forms of movement in the world that is walking I mean, it's, it's, I'm just walking Well, that is great. That is a positive thing. And that that I and I walk I love walking with my dog gets upset with me if I don't, and I'm kind of a worse Walker, I only walk in nice weather outside. So I gotta admit, but walking is some of the that's when I feel the best about myself. Because I'm outside, I'm enjoying the air. I'm enjoying, you know, creation, and just all of the things and it it just changes my entire mindset. So yeah.

Stephanie Lueras: 24:10

And even along that same wine, you know, it not even so much what we're doing. But the quantity Yeah, I hear so often. People say, Well, I can't do 30 minutes, four minutes, 60 minutes. So what it does, it doesn't count. Don't count for what, right, you know, that we discount sometimes this whole cumulative effect that we're actually providing ourselves that go out for five minutes, six times a week. Well, there you go. You've now had 30 minutes you've benefited your body with that mentioned, right? That's right. It doesn't have to be in one single pop. There is actual scientific evidence. You don't have to do it. All at once you can really break it into the little tiny parts, right will have great benefit from it. That's right.

Stephanie Olson: 25:06

In fact, a lot of times there is a huge benefit in quality over quantity. So it is, that's, that's a huge thing. I love it. So what did you do then? Were you primarily when, when you were, you know, just finding what worked for you as far as fitness and as far as movement and eating? Did you need some sort of accountability? Or was there something about it that just really, this is just what is feeling good.

Stephanie Lueras: 25:51

You know, there I am, like the world's biggest proponent of accountability, it's like one of my favorite words. And I think it is essential. And it's something that I've always had, on some level. At the beginning, I didn't need a whole lot to to be drinking water and cooking at home, you know, a few cookbooks and we're good to go. But you know, as as things got beyond the scope of what I could do, and what what I could read in a book, then it was okay, like, now I need a coach. Now I need a sports dietitian. You know, now as as I'm going through all these changes, let's go back to therapy and deal with all the crap that I've put aside. It's bringing in those people in those systems and those resources that help us to continue to grow because we can only go so far on our own. But when we realize, okay, now I've hit this plateau and need a little bit more. That's where we bring in that extra help to keep moving forward.

Stephanie Olson: 27:01

Right? Oh, that's good. Well, can you talk at all to eating disorders and, and anybody who has experience any eating disorders, I personally have struggled with anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder. So try try to hit them all, you know, I am a type A person, that's what I do. So if I can, if I can hit them all, I'm gonna do it. That's what I'm going to do. I don't want to do anything halfway. So what what would you just say to anyone who's struggling with eating disorders?

Stephanie Lueras: 27:37

You know, I, myself have have two diagnosed eating disorders. And that's not to say that you need an actual diagnosis to struggle with food. There's a whole spectrum of disordered eating to eating disorders. Yeah. And we all fall there probably somewhere I have yet to meet someone that has a perfect relationship with food. And sometimes, what we think is okay, probably is maybe isn't. And it's, it's been a open to having conversations, to, to really be honest with someone else, because it's really easy for us to stay in our own heads about our relationship with food. Oh, that's not a problem. I don't do this. This isn't. But when other people may or may not see what we're doing. And then we start to talk about this habit or that habit. That's, that sounds a little a little off a little interesting. And they start seeing red flags. It's it. First of all, who in your circle? Can you lean on for support? Right, who's there for you. And we need to have some kind of support. And it may not be friends, it may not be family because sometimes that those aren't the healthiest people to lean on. When we are struggling in this area. It might be seeking out a coach seeking out a nutritionist seeking out a registered dietician looking at therapy specifically with somebody that is trained around disordered eating and eating disorders. And for me, I didn't understand the root of my eating disorders, until I dealt with really the acute phase of my PTSD and the trauma that I had gone through, right. I didn't know Stan I, it had just magnified. Right? All of my issues with food that I had from a very young age. Absolutely. Absolutely. And like, you know, we, we don't think Oh, okay. I, you know, this stuff is manifesting in my relationship with food. Yeah. Because we eat every day. In theory. Well, that's the problem, we don't always pick up on what might be actually problematic.

Stephanie Olson: 30:29

Yeah, you know, that's a really excellent point. Because, as I said, I don't do moderation well, so I am also recovering alcoholic, and they have all of the addictions and smoking, alcohol. And those were so much easier, not easy, but so much easier to conquer. Because I could literally give them up. And with food, you have to eat every day. And you have to find a way to do that without aggravating any sort of disordered eating. Yeah.

Stephanie Lueras: 31:13

And you it's something that no matter how much therapy you've had, no matter how much coaching you've gone through, it's still an intentional work, right? Every single day, whether we're conscious of it or not, like even today, I had the realization Oh, crap, I gotta go and alter things again. Because life is changing a little bit, not only to my clients and my group classes that I do, but now I've added group classes that are in the pool. So now I'm super hungry. Yeah, totally thrown off kind of the, the way I eat and how that works through the day. And I'm like, oh, no, I've actually got to go to go to the store and figure out what are the snacks gonna look like? And how, how do I navigate this? Right? And like, this is years out now, like, in my mind, I'm like, I should have this figured out. But it still comes with that trepidation of I know, I don't want to engage in these behaviors. But I want to care for myself in the best way possible.

Stephanie Olson: 32:30

Absolutely. And what if you don't have a support system around you, that understands, I think there's, there's so many people and that in that old diet mentality mindset. So this food is really bad, this food is really good. And you know, that, that you need to look a certain way in order to be approved? I don't know, whatever. How do you deal with things like that? Or what do you tell your clients, when they are struggling with people who they don't, who they have around them who are such a negative support,

Stephanie Lueras: 33:14

you know, this, this is something that I have family members that are like this, that that are still stuck on the, you know, you you lose weight to look like this, you have to eat this way and, and continually, even after the years that I've put into this and have come to this place where I'm a completely different person, not only physically but mentally, you know, just happier in not like, you know, the roaring which every day clear clearly

Stephanie Olson: 33:51

has to go away.

Stephanie Lueras: 33:55

Every day, let's Okay, okay, good. But it's, it's I have those people in my life. And, you know, do I do I really want to cut cut out my family? Not Not really. I understand that. Yeah, some people have to go to that extreme. Yeah, but it's, it's exercising the boundaries of what we will and will not accept in our lives. If we've reached the point where we can be vocal about it to put into words why something is acceptable or unacceptable, having the conversations, but sometimes it is removing ourselves from a conversation, removing ourselves physically from the room and just, you know, we're changing the subject. Yes,

Stephanie Olson: 34:46

yeah. And that can be so challenging. I will. How do I say this without calling me? I will never forget. A very important thing. You're in my children's lives. who, when they were young, and I have two girls and a boy, and so it was specifically the girls, and talking about, oh, you're getting a little fat here? Oh, you need to? And I would just constantly No, we don't say that. We don't talk like that. And it was just such a struggle, because it was just, I mean, it wasn't even a thought it this is just how they communicated. Yeah, that's hard. Oh, good. I think that those boundaries are so important. They're hard to put in place.

Stephanie Lueras: 35:38

They are. It's definitely a practice, just, you know, just like that, that intentional action every day. Boundaries are attentional?

Stephanie Olson: 35:50

Yeah, they are. And I just spoke to someone today who was talking about, you know, we were talking about forgiveness, and we were talking about healthy relationships. And, and they made a comment that, you know, that everybody that that it takes two parties to, to heal a relationship that's broken. And but I added, yes, that's true. But sometimes we don't, those are not relationships, we even should attempt to heal. Not that. Not that we don't forgive those people and let that go. But not all relationships should be in our lives. Right? Yeah.

Stephanie Lueras: 36:33

And it's it's having the discernment of, you know, is Is this worth it? Is this worth the effort? Is this worth the heartache Is this worth continually putting myself into a situation like this over and over again,

Stephanie Olson: 36:51

right? I love it. So tell me, if you can tell me like one of the most significant transformations that you saw in an individual.

Stephanie Lueras: 37:07

One of my favorites is, I do some group fitness classes, and one of them is mostly older adults. And I had one I had one woman in her early 80s, that had had been convinced that I'm never going to get any stronger. That I am only here to just move my body continue to maintain what I have today, I will never get stronger. This was the mindset she came in with. And she continues to show up faithfully do the things love it, because we have this wonderful community around it where you know, that's half the thing with group fitness, you build the community. And for her, she actually have this piece of equipment in her living room, that she always talked about never being able to lift, and she'd have to have her son come over and move it so that she could vacuum. And after a period of time, she realized one day that she was vacuuming and all of a sudden just picked it up. Wow. moved on with wife. And she stood there shocked. Because she's like, I couldn't have done this before. I didn't think it was possible to build this strength. Because in our minds, there's only one way to build strength. Usually it's lifting weights or bodybuilding or something like that. Not something like the class she's in where we don't use any equipment. It's all bodyweight resistance, right? It's using that motion that our bodies go through every day, push, pull, bend, twist all those things, to build strain for life. She was living life and realizing oh, I can do so much more than I could do before.

Stephanie Olson: 39:07

Oh, I love that. That's amazing. And that just goes to show you know, that it's it's just consistency. It's just, you know, that that every day getting back to you know, movement taking care of ourselves and that doesn't have to necessarily look like a specific thing. And and I think that's so important that I just love what you're doing. Stephanie this is just so fantastic. Anything else that you would want to tell somebody who doesn't know how to get started in this journey, whatever that looks like or jeez, I know I need to do something but I don't know what I don't know where to begin. I'm so confused. What would you tell that person is so easy

Stephanie Lueras: 39:56

to overwhelm ourselves, especially with all the noise Yeah. that's out there, media, social media, all the things it, we can very quickly overwhelm ourselves. The best thing that we can ever do is just pick one thing. What's the one thing that you can do today? Like, for me, it was the water, right? You know what it might be something like putting shoes by the door or laying out clothes, or even looking up a phone number of a support group or nutritionist or someone that you feel is can be a support because you don't know what the next step is. But it is one thing that you can take action on right now. Because then that one action leads to the next action, eventually, you're gonna put the shoes on, eventually, you're gonna pick up the phone, we keep taking all those tiny actions and building on each other. That's where the change comes.

Stephanie Olson: 41:05

That's fantastic. I love it. Okay, final question. What does resilience mean to you?

Stephanie Lueras: 41:14

Resilience mean to me, keep showing up. You know, life, life is hard. Life will kick us in the teeth. Yeah. There's no nice way. But you might, my business coach phrases it best when even when something's not working. We keep showing up and doing the thing. And I think that's probably the best compact way to look at resilience is it doesn't matter what's going on around us life can be happening, but we keep showing up to do the

Stephanie Olson: 41:58

thing. And you are clearly an amazing human being of resilience. And I love that and I love that you're using what you've learned to influence and help other people. And it's just incredible. So when is your next triathlon or marathon or all the all the thoughts? When is your next one?

Stephanie Lueras: 42:21

You know, living the pandemic lifestyle. You know, I've now got my 2020 races that have now all come up to 2020. Yes. So this summer, it's the beginning of August. I have a half Ironman, and Colorado.

Stephanie Olson: 42:42

Very cool. We're in Colorado, Boulder. Okay. Oh, beautiful. That will be wonderful little hilly.

Stephanie Lueras: 42:49

Yeah, it is I have to I have to go do a little little bit of elevation training on that. Yes. As far away to do that, because I'm at sea level but okay, right.

Stephanie Olson: 43:00

Yeah, it does. It does make a difference. Yes, I used to live in Colorado, it's great place to live. But when you're out of that non flat land for a while, it does require some additional training. Yes. I love I love all that you're doing. And thank you for being an inspiration and just for, for helping others through a really difficult journey for so many people. And, and I think that journey, sometimes and I speak for myself, like it comes with so much shame. And I love that you really are are using what you've learned and what you've done in your healing and your health, to just really remove that shame from people and I think that's beautiful. So absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for doing what you're doing. And thank you for listening to resilience in life and leadership and we will see you next time. All right, let me thank you for listening. Please share with anyone you think will benefit from this podcast.