Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 152 - Juli Bauer Roth (PaleOMG): Fitness, mindset, and training while pregnant

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

In this episode, we are joined by Juli Bauer Roth of PaelOMG. Juli is a fitness author, podcaster, and blogger.  We discuss her fitness journey and how she is managing life's many stressors through fitness, nutrition, and mindset.-FOLLOW JULI HEAR!-Thanks For Listening!SUPPORT THE SHOW:There is NOTHING more valuable to a podcast than leaving a written review and 5-Star Rating. Please consider taking 1-2 minutes to do that HERE.You can also leave a review on SPOTIFY!OUR PARTNERS:Legion Supplements (protein, creatine, + more!), Shop HERE!Get Your FREE LMNT Electrolytes HERE! Care for YOUR Gut, Heart and Skin with SEED Symbiotic HERE!RESOURCES/COACHING:I am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE!Want Coach Danny to Fix Your S*** (training, nutrition, lifestyle, etc) fill the form HERE for a chance to have your current approach reviewed live on the show. Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS:Sign up for the trainer mentorship HEREFollow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE!Support the Show.

All right, Julie, welcome on. How are you doing? I'm good. Day by day, taking it day by day, but it's a good day today, which I really love. I know. One of my favorite quotes is, it's always a good day to have a good day. Yes. Oh my God. I literally said that out loud today. I'm not even joking. Sometimes you have to. The reason I had you on is one, you've been somebody who for quite some time has amplified quite a bit of my content. I know that some of what I post resonates with you and I've gotten so many high quality messages and interactions from the people that are in your audience who wanted us to have a discussion,

who wanted you to come on. And I followed you for quite some time now, and I really love what you're all about. But when I work with or bring other creators on, it's always really encouraging to see somebody who has a genuine connection with their audience, whose message is resonating on a positive level. Not just, oh, I like her physique. Not just, oh, I like the content. You really have a phenomenal connection with the people who follow you. And I think it's because a lot of what you're doing is authentic. It resonates. And it always makes me want to ask what got you into this? I think many of us are former athletes, or perhaps we're people who have found fitness on our journey to health, or perhaps our journey to weight loss. but what connected you with fitness, nutrition, wellness, and got you started on the journey

you're currently on? Well, growing up, I definitely did not have a good influence when it came to food. And because of that, I was really sick as a kid. So I was in and out of the hospital constantly with a ton of gut issues, never led in the right direction, always just put on antibiotics. And I was sick of never having answers. So I started kind of dabbling with different food in high school, but it was really restrictive eating. I was like, oh, I need to start losing weight. It was really unhealthy behaviors. And then college came around and I decided I wanted to go into health and exercise science. I wanted to learn more about that.

I wanted to become more fit because I wasn't an athlete growing up. I was a person who went and got Cinnabon after school every single day or made pancakes at home. I was so unhealthy and I had no understanding of what health looked like. And so I went into health and exercise science in college and I still had really unhealthy behaviors. I hated myself. I mean, I deeply, deeply hated myself. It was so sad looking back. I mean, I remember a time I couldn't think of one thing I liked about myself and I didn't have the role models that luckily the internet has really brought out for people. We didn't have that at that age. And so I had to really find that on my own. And the first thing that I found that made a huge difference was CrossFit. I found CrossFit when I

was in college and I went to my first CrossFit competition just to watch. And these women were lifting these heavy weights and were so supportive of each other. And there was every different shape, body size, all of it. And they all were just supporting each other through every single rep and hugging each other after the competition. I was like, okay, I want to be in this. And so I started CrossFit. It changed my life. I learned about the paleo diet through CrossFit. And as soon as I started eating more paleo, which was really just getting away from processed foods and getting away from Mountain Dew and energy drinks and frappuccinos, just cleaning things up a little bit, all my stomach issues went away. It was like this light bulb moment, like, oh, wow, nutrition is so important. And so I had this

amazing support system of CrossFit. I was concentrating not on weight loss, but I was finally concentrating on the weight on the bar and my whole life just opened up. And so I, when I was competing in CrossFit, I started my blog, paleomg.com because I was creating all these recipes. Cause I didn't know how to cook. And at back then there weren't all these recipes online, especially for the paleo diet. So you'd see something really terrible out there. And I'm like, I'm not going to cook elk. Like I don't know where to get elk. And so I started cooking my own recipes, just coming up with things, failing a million times. And then I would bring them to my CrossFit gym, like peanut butter balls or whatever

the hell I was making back then. And my friends were like, you should share these recipes somewhere. So I started sharing them on the CrossFit website that I was working at, the CrossFit gym. And then once I left that, I wanted to start my blog. And my friend was like, just start a blog. And I didn't even know what a blog was. I just wanted to share somewhere. Totally.

And a blog was a whole new name. And so a couple of friends showed me how to create a website. And I started paleomg.com back in 2011. And then it's, I mean, obviously the world is so different now with online space. So it started as a website. Then I started doing Facebook, then Instagram came along. Then, you know, I, uh, I wrote three cookbooks and then podcast and all these things start to happen as the space changes throughout. But that was kind of my journey onto PaleoMG. No, and I love it. It sounds like you got into the space at kind of the intersection of where blogging kind of bled into what we now know as social media. And you're very present on all of

those things. But when I think of you, I think of you as an author, not just a content creator, because I've been familiar with your work for several years, but mostly the work that you've done with regards to cookbooks. And then I found you on social media, but you hit on something that I just want to backtrack a smidge, which was, you said that it was that community that really helped kind of, I don't want to say helped you find that self-love, but encouraged you to find a little bit more of a way to approach fitness and nutrition from a loving space than from a space of like, I hate my body. I saw a commercial the other day that said, don't ask what's wrong with your body. Focus on what's strong with your body. And I really liked that. But for anyone listening, I think it's encouraging to hear that people who have found something that works for them

at one point battled these thoughts. These are very normal thoughts. I have women that come to me all the time that say, I'm really struggling with negative self-talk. And not everybody, especially now, has the ability to find the community that they find in a gym because of the pandemic. Do you have any tips for anybody who's listening, who's on that journey to maybe getting their mind where it needs to be to really get the results they want? Because I know if your mind's not right, and you aren't coming from a place of love, it's much more challenging to get there. That is so 1000% true. My biggest thing was how I talk to myself. And I don't think we're taught this unless you have these really fantastic parents. And there's many of those out there, but we're not taught how to

talk to ourselves. And the way you talk to yourself is so important. And I love the, there's all these, you know, different tests out there of talking badly to a plant and then talking highly to a plant. And you see this plant completely grow or the water study talking negative to, I think, frozen water, talking positive to it. And the ice crystals are completely different. It's like the voice you speak into the universe and in how you speak to yourself is how you are seen to the world and how you see yourself. It is so important. So the biggest thing that I started doing, and this was much later on.

And let me preface this, that I still have negative self-talk all the time and I have to shift all the time. But the biggest thing I go back to as soon as that negative talk comes into my head, I go look at myself in the mirror and I say three positive things about myself. And so if I'm thinking like, oh, I've gained some weight because my weight goes up and down all the time. If I've gained some weight, instead of being like frustrated with it, I look in the mirror and I'm like, I am so proud of how far you've come. I am so proud of how strong you've gotten. And I say three positive things about myself. And then I just walk away. I just left it out

there in the universe. And then I forgotten what I was even saying about myself. And sometimes it takes repeating over and over and over. And I'll do that sometimes in the shower. If I'm having this bad day, I'll shower trying to just wash off the negative energy. And I'll keep repeating something like you are strong. You are capable. You are an amazing person. And I repeat it over and over, which sounds like a crazy person. But then you forget the negative stuff.

And you're like, oh, what was I, why am I even saying this? And then you're onto more positive things for your day. Yeah. I love that. The thoughts we think become a reality. Thoughts become things. And the things that we say when nobody's around really shape the world we live in. And I think hearing from somebody like you that these thoughts are normal, but that there are small, actionable ways to combat against them, I do find that this kind of dialogue is a little bit more common with women than with men. And I think that does have a lot to do with social media, how we communicate, whether it's women to women, men to women, media to women. And just knowing that there are tools as simple as repeating a couple mantras in the shower or just committing to saying kind things to yourself when those thoughts pop up, they're very actionable. And so to kind of go back to

our initial conversation, you found fitness in college. It became an entrepreneurial venture. And as an entrepreneur myself, I know how stressful that is. How have you been able to maintain your... Because from the outside looking in, you have a very healthy, for lack of a better term, relationship with exercise. You have a very healthy relationship with nutrition. It seems like it's very balanced. It's not neurotic. You do it because you love it and you share it with other people.

All while being an entrepreneur, while being a dog mom, and now being pregnant. How have you managed to hold that all together and do it as an entrepreneur, dog mom, and soon to be human mom? Well, I don't feel like I always have it together. That's for sure. always have it together. That's for sure. I think what's so fun about the business that I'm in is I've been able to adapt as I change and people get to change with me. So when I first started my blog, it was only about food. And then I started sharing more of my own fitness stuff. And I started sharing outfits that I was wearing. And I started sharing really personal stuff or supplements that really changed my life or whatever I was wanting to share. And that makes the creativity really fun. Yeah. But as for sticking with fitness, it's something that has brought such positive,

brought such positive, I don't want to say like vibe sounds silly, but it has brought such incredible happiness and change and joy. And it, I just love it so much. And I don't love it every day. I mean, there's not every day that I want to go into the gym. Yeah. Like going through, I was doing like hip thrust the other day. I'm like, this is so uncomfortable and painful. Like going through, I was doing like hip thrust the other day. I'm like, this is so uncomfortable and painful. Like I can't believe I do this. And it has been something that just pushes me mentally and physically. And I love that drive that it gives me because then I say, okay, I want to get to a 300 pound hip thrust and I set my goals and I work towards it every single day. And it takes me a long time to get there. But once you accomplish that, that is just the most incredible feeling.

And we don't, you know, we don't get little rewards when we're adults. We don't get little trophies for hitting something. So just that personal best is just such an incredible feeling. And as I'm getting into pregnancy and no longer hitting personal best and won't for quite a bit, just knowing that I'm caring for my body and doing something that makes me feel like my old self in a way when everything feels so outside of myself, it just, it brings so much happiness. And I know that even when I don't want to work out, I'll be happy after I do it. So I just stick with it. And I don't make a big deal about it. It doesn't have to be a perfect workout. I'm just going to move my body. And that's

taking the expectations off has been really helpful too. I love that. And I think it's important for people to hear because I have worked one-to-one in an in-person personal training setting since I got into the industry. And it's been something I refuse to give up even as my brand moves mostly into the online space. Because I just like that connection with people. And I work with a lot of women who are, let's say, between the ages of 40 and 70. And one thing I see recurrently is as they transition away from them being the focal point of their life to their family being the focal point of their life, usually when kids come into the picture, it's substantially more challenging for them to maintain these habits. And it usually starts when the pregnancy starts.

And then once the kids are around, those are the number one priority and rightfully so. And it's very challenging for people to pick up those habits again. Are you being mindful and thoughtful as you go through your pregnancy of maintaining these exercise and eating habits so that you can have them for life. How have you had to adjust beyond, like you said, making adjustments to maybe your expectations around PRs, but how are you finding this journey is going for you? Well, I hadn't definitely a couple of weeks in this first trimester, because I'm almost out of my first trimester that were really hard because you're super nauseous. Uh, my dog had to have emergency spine surgery. And so it was very stressful. And so that was a really hard time of finding food that worked. So it was, you know, gluten free toast with peanut butter and jelly was

sometimes the only thing I could get down. But as I'm exiting that nauseous point, my goal is to have a really healthy baby. And I've read so much of the importance of organ meats and leafy greens and good fats that I want to put those things into my body. And I make it a priority even when I don't want to eat it. And it grosses me out. I'm like, you're going to choke this down because that's the number one priority is this baby. That's literally what you're using to make your baby, right? Isn't that crazy? I think about that all the time. And the first, obviously I'm a guy, so it's not something I have to worry about, but the first exposure I ever had to anybody communicating that there's a tangible impact between the foods you eat and the development of the baby was Dr. Rhonda Patrick.

She started talking about this several years ago. But I just, I like to see it becoming more common. And you said organ meats, leafy greens, and healthy fats. What are some of the organ meats that you're finding palatable? Because not all of them are particularly palatable, especially if you're dealing with something like nausea. I know. Well, they're the worst.

They're not. Especially if you haven't dabbled in organ meats before. And then you're like, wait, I need to do this pregnant. Yes. The two that I like are both from US Wellness Meats. Okay. And it's liverwurst. So that has liver heart and

kidneys in it, I believe. And then, um, Braunschweiger, which has liver in it. So we have a ton of spices. Yeah. So you just cut it up like sausage and eat it like little rounds. Cause it comes in like a sausage tube and you don't need a ton of it. You only need a couple ounces per week. And so I just do that with an egg because eggs are so important. Bone broth is so important. So you get DHA and glycine. And so I pair those with some soluble fiber like beans and then get the leafy vegetables in there and I'll have that for breakfast.

And it's not always what I want to have, but I know it's really important. And now that I'm past the nauseous stage and every woman's journey is so completely different. But since I'm past that, it's much easier to force myself into eating the things I know are best for me. But man, yeah, the first trimester is a cluster. It's like, you don't know what the hell is going on. Yeah. And I've trained many women throughout various pregnancies, some women on different, the same woman, different pregnancies. It's not just that every woman is different, but quite literally every pregnancy is different. And I've never really talked to somebody who was so nutritionally, let's say literate with regards to

the food decisions they're making during their pregnancy. Um, other than organ meats, talk a little bit, if you wouldn't mind about some of the vegetables, some of the plant matter that you're including, and then maybe why those things are important, not just for your health during the pregnancy, but if you even, if you're, if you know, the development of the baby. Yes. So, and I could be getting this wrong. I always, I have a little sheet that I go back to. So I can look on the notes on my phone.

So I'm like, okay, what do I need to get in this meal? I know DHA is great for brain development and glycine is great for brain development. Leafy greens, from what I remember, that's going to be kale, collard greens, getting any of those dark leafy vegetables that take a little bit longer to cook. And those are going to great for preventing, um, like diff preventing different like spinal cord issues or developmental issues. So yeah, they're, they're so important. Of course they have tons of vitamins and minerals. Like you want to get all those leafy greens in as much as possible because they're just going to load you up with a bunch of vitamins, minerals that you're not going to get when you're just eating like a cucumber or like watermelon, you know, those things that are more water-based. So those are huge and bone broth, especially for brain

development. I think the glycine is great for brain development. Bone broth is so important with pregnancy. And I try to make soups as much as possible with that as well. important with pregnancy. And I try to make soups as much as possible with that as well. I like that. I have not heard that before. And I do think with the kale, it's vitamin B9 is what you're after. Because I think that spina bifida is one of the things that can affect the development of that neural tube and folate and B9 get. Yes. So yeah, I remember learning about that. But have you found that being somebody who did CrossFit competitively and at a really high level, and now being in kind of at the bridge between trimester one and trimester two, that making adjustments to your training, obviously you're probably not training the

way you did when you were at a competitive level. Are you finding that you have to prepare yourself mentally for training or make adjustments to how you approach it, not just with the actual programming, but with the self-talk, with the dialogue so that you can get in and have a productive session, even though it looks so different from how you were training years ago? even though it looks so different from how you were training years ago? I think I learned that pretty quickly because I've had really bad insomnia for the last six weeks. And so when I went into the gym, as soon as I found out I was pregnant, because what keyed me off was I had insomnia. So I'm like, something's weird. I'd never have this. And so pretty quickly, I wasn't able to push it as hard in the gym. My sleep was off.

That messes things up pretty quickly. So paired with my dog going into emergency surgery, the stress with that, and then having the nausea on top of it, it was just this implosion altogether. So I made a shift pretty quickly. Instead of working out only three times a week, because I was having really intense sessions. I said, I'm going to cut back. I'm going to work out five times a week, but these sessions are just going to be what I can physically do. So I'm doing full body sessions instead of split workouts. And it's way less about weight. It's way less about pushing it to the brink. It's just more

about challenging the muscle, still getting a little muscle breakdown in the tissue, but not worrying if something is too hard. And I'm not worrying about saying, okay, that is too much. I should not be doing that. So I was able to wrap my head around it pretty quickly. And I'll go in and I'll think I can do something. And I'm like, okay, I can't do that. That's okay. And then I just shift back a little bit and work around it. So I definitely shifted and my mindset has shifted pretty quickly with it.

I think that's encouraging to hear. I find not just for myself, but for a lot of people that changing gears and having to make adjustments is hard because we're not always at a place where our trainability is going to be super high. Maybe it's because you're dealing with reduced sleep. Maybe it's because you're in the first trimester. Maybe it's because you're stressed because your dog is in the hospital. Maybe it's all three. because you're stressed, because your dog is in the hospital. Maybe it's all three, but being able to pivot and maintain those commitments to oneself and be like, listen, I can't train intense, but I still want to move my body. It's important for me to move my body. I might not be able to stomach some of the foods that I normally eat, but I'm still going to get creative and find ways that I can nourish my body. And I think that hearing that is really valuable because a lot of people think once they have to make any adjustment or sacrifice or pivot at all, they tend to just

throw it away, give up. I'm just going to stop. And a little bit of adversity and friction really derails people. Are those as kind of some of the resilience and the adversity and being able to overcome that and push through it while being an entrepreneur, while being a dog mom, while being pregnant? Is that something that you have picked up from life? Is that something that may be a resilience that you developed in childhood? Where did that come from? Because it is unique and it is atypical and it's something worth highlighting because I think a lot of people could really learn and grow through some of the resilience that you've shown. Honestly, I think CrossFit taught me so much of that because it was you have to keep going through a workout when it feels like your body is breaking down.

You can't take another step. You can't lift the bar again. You can. and it taught me so much of resilience when it comes to the mind and the body really. But CrossFit taught me so much of that. You're only gonna get out what you put in. And I went through different injuries. I went through where I didn't wanna do CrossFit anymore

and shifting into new types of workouts. And I just learned to adjust and shift and adapt. And I think it's so easy to just throw in the towel when something happens, instead of saying, how can I do this? So I've had, when my dog has gone through something in the past, and I had to be in a different city and not at home, not able to do the things I normally do. I found a gym there and I worked out there or I went on a long walk. And so I just got outside to free my brain a little bit. You just find different ways to move your body. And I want to teach that with my own child.

Moving their body is so important and just taking care of your body. And so I think it's my expectation and hope I can work out my entire pregnancy. But I expect myself to stick with that because I want to teach that with my child. And I just have a high expectation of myself. I don't have too high that I'm like, oh, I'm going to push it and I'm going to push it. No, I just expect myself to do that because I made a commitment to myself. I don't have, you know, too high that I'm like, Oh, I'm going to push it. And I'm going to push it. No, I just expect myself to do that because I made a commitment to myself and the health of my body and the health of my child. And I really learned a ton of that from CrossFit big time. Hey guys, just wanted to take a quick second to say, thanks so much for listening

to the podcast. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me if you would share it on your social media. Simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. I think that's beautiful. And it's a nice segue. It's something I think about often, you know, me and my girlfriend talk about potentially starting a family and what that would look like. And, you know, what we've seen from our families that we do like, what we've seen from our families that we don't like, what we might want to model from a behavioral standpoint. What are you thinking about now?

I know you're heading into trimester two, so you still have plenty of time to plan, but what are you thinking about with regards to modeling? You hit on it beautifully. You say, I want this to be something I do for my whole pregnancy, but also I want this to be something that my child sees. And we live in a world where, I was looking through the CDC's most recent data, but we're approaching an obesity rate of 50%. I think it was 49.6. And that was in 2018. So that data was grabbed most recently before the pandemic. And our overweight here in America. The overweight is now 70% of the population. So that has become the new normal. And what are you looking to model for your child, regardless of their sex? What are you looking and hoping to model as you bring a human being into this world,

knowing all the things you know about health and wellness? What are you excited about sharing with them? What are you concerned about protecting them from? I'm, for one, as somebody who's thinking about potentially having a family, I'm terrified of, oh my gosh, I'm going to have a child in the age of social media. What is that going to be like? I think hearing what you're looking out for and what you're looking to model would be really valuable for the moms and soon to be moms out there. The biggest thing I want to teach right away is the positive self-talk. So giving those affirmations to yourself, I want them to start that early, how you look at yourself in the mirror, how you talk to yourself, telling yourself that you're strong,

you are capable, all those different things. I can't wait for that. And I really want to teach my child compassion and the understanding, especially with social media, that when someone comes at you from a place of hate, it's just a mirror of themselves. They're going through something really hard. They're struggling. And if they're a young person, their parents could be going through a divorce. They could have some sort of abuse in their family. They could be a really unhappy person and having compassion for that person instead of just talking more shit and spreading that hate in the world. So I really hope to teach that because I didn't have an understanding of that growing up. And then I cannot wait to cook. I can't, I keep picturing a toddler who can start using their

hands and start, you know, pouring things into bowls and seeing how things are made from scratch. Because when we talk about the obesity issue in the U S it is because there's so much processed foods and packaged foods and nobody knows how to cook anymore. It's just not passed down. And so I don't have this crazy knowledge of food preparation, but I know enough to help teach them like, here are some vegetables, here's some protein, here's fat. We're going to mix this together. We're going to make muffins. We're going to make steak. We're going to make vegetables and show the importance of spices and different herbs and all that stuff that is so important. Those skills are just going to move on with them as they age. And even if they

let go of it for a little bit, you know, maybe they're in college or whatever's going on, they'll always be able to come back to that. And third, I can't wait to walk to help them learn to move, move their body. I plan to have, you know, the little, I can't wait to help them learn to move, move their body. I plan to have the little, I don't even know, like baby stuff at all. I'm like the little cart that you put them in. I think they can- Yeah, stroller, I don't know. I know.

I don't know anything. I'm like, yeah, I'm learning. But put them in the gym while I'm working out and they're a baby and they're just seeing things. And then as they become toddler, you can have a little tiny plastic weight set over there for them or they're jumping around and you can make a little obstacle course. I just want them to learn to move their body and the importance and why it's important to eat well and move your body and be kind to others and be compassionate in the world and

caring. Those are the things I hope to teach my little one. It makes me like a little emotional thinking about it. No, I think, well, it's a good thing, right? I think it's beautiful. And I think we want to do that for our children because we see where we're at right now societally. We see the holes, we see the gaps, we see where we've maybe misstepped. And you only get one chance to really model these things. And children are so plastic. They're so, so malleable that when you introduce these things early, they really do have a tendency to stick. And I think we all want to protect the people we bring into the world from some of the perils of illness, obesity, and to do it through things like movement and teaching our children how to

cook and sharing the things we love with them is beautiful. And I think there's a lot of... I know for a fact, there's a lot of moms who listen to this and might be encouraged to... If they do have children who are young enough or old enough at this point to get into the kitchen to get moving, it's something that I think is really, really valuable. And one of the things that I talk to a lot of my clients who occupy that matriarchal role in their family, whether they're the mom or they're the grandma, it tends to be that they are the glue that holds it all together, is you need to be healthy for everybody in your family to be healthy. You need to take care of yourself. You need to make sure that you're coming from a good place because so many women I find will forfeit their own wellbeing for the wellbeing of everyone around them. It's just that fundamental

desire to nurture that's so typical with women. It's one of the most beautiful things. It's what makes us so unique. Certainly there are men who behave this way and certainly there are women who do not. But in working with so many women, I find that they just have such the ability to put themselves last. And somebody who's busy like yourself, who is pregnant, who's taking care of a dog, who's running a business, what are some things that you have to do that you have to think about to continue to put yourself first, your wellness first? Do you have any self-care tips, any things that you do to make sure that you're taking care

of yourself with all the hectic stuff going on in your life? One of the biggest things that I didn't think I would do when I got pregnant, but I quickly found out really helped was tracking my food. And I didn't think I would do that because I'm like, why would I track my food? I'm not trying to get into a deficit, but tracking my food to make sure that I was ready for the next day. Okay. Do I have leafy greens in there? Do I have some sort of protein? Do I have, am I hitting enough calories or am I going up to above and beyond? It's easy for me to get that direction because I love food so much. And it's crazy. As I'm pregnant, I'm like, food tastes so good. And I always think food tastes good,

but it's like, I don't want to stop. I'm like loving food so much, but tracking food has really helped me because since I'm not sleeping, it's really easy for your diet to get off when you have that insomnia going on. And your appetite just gets all over the place. And it's helped me so much with my mood, knowing what food I'm putting into my body. It keeps my mood more level than having these little spikes in my blood sugar. And it's kept me healthier when it comes to workouts as well and recovering from those workouts and feeling better in those workouts, even though I'm not sleeping.

So that was one of the biggest things that I didn't think I would do. And it's made a huge difference because I feel so much better when I'm eating healthy versus going for that donut or going for that sandwich or whatever it is,

if I'm making sure I'm getting all those must haves in my diet on a daily basis. So I think that's been the biggest thing and making fitness a priority. And there's no expectations on it. Like I said before, I just go into the gym and I have an amazing supportive husband who we both support each other and getting into the gym. We have a basement gym and we'll both be like, Oh, I don't want to do it. And we're like, go, go now, get it done. And so I just go downstairs and I say, okay, I'm going to do three sets of this with three movements, three sets of this with three movements. And I'm good. I'm not going crazy with my heart rate. I'm not worrying about the weight on the bar. I'm just doing good movements that I know are going to make a difference in my overall health. So food and exercise, that's the biggest self-care for me

always. I love that. And obviously those are good for your physical health as well as your mental health. Do you have any practices, any habits, any behaviors that you have either been implementing recently, or you've been implementing for a while to maintain your mental wellbeing? Yes. I'm so glad you asked that because that has been something I was doing all the time. I was meditating every day and I was journaling every day. And then once the shit storm of my dog having emergency surgery and being crazy nauseous, I even had this herb garden in my house. And it's literally all you have to do is add water.

And I was like, I can't even handle that responsibility right now. I just got to keep this dog alive and myself alive. And so I really let go of doing those practices. And I finally am in a place where I'm like, okay, you can do this. You can get this back in order. So I just set a five minutes meditation just to get back into it, the swing of things. Cause I'd usually do 15 to 20 minutes and I save five minutes of meditation and then journaling. And so I've been doing meditation at night, five to 10 minutes and I save five minutes of meditation and then journaling. And so I've been doing meditation at night, five to 10 minutes. Cause that's all I feel like I can do right now

and not set too many, um, too much. I just don't want to put too much on my plate and make it feel stressful. And then as soon as I wake up, I don't look at my phone. I just go journal. I journal all my thoughts that's going on, whether this morning, our dog last night, he threw up, he shit, and then he pissed on the floor. And it was a complete mess. My husband stepped in it. We're both not sleeping. So we both woke up feeling really stressed. And I sat down and journaled and I wrote everything I'm so grateful to have. We get to find out the sex this week. We get to start the nursery. We have a dog who's still really healthy and continues to heal. And so the journaling is huge. And I think more people should learn to journal. And a lot of us did that maybe as a kid, and then we let go of it.

And it makes such a huge difference just writing out your thoughts of the day what you'll what you're grateful for what you're struggling with what's really exciting whatever it is and then you get to look back and remember that everything is temporary so the struggle you went through the breakup you went through the cancer you experienced whatever it is everything is is temporary. And remember that. And even though that struggle was so awful and so miserable, you learn so many lessons through that. And that's why we're thrown these wrenches in our life. And I think that's really important to have that journal throughout your life to get to see those moments, those up and down moments you have

throughout. I love that you bookend the end of your day with a mindfulness practice. And then you begin your day with a mindfulness practice. You calm your mind before bed with a five to 10 minute meditation, which is great. I think that's amazing. I am a perpetual meditation avoider. You know, I am the king of, I can't do it. I have ADHD. It's just not my thing.

And I'll own it. Here I am talking to a woman dealing with insomnia, heading into the second trimester of pregnancy, nursing a dog back to health, but she can find five minutes to meditate. So what's my damn excuse? You only really need that five minutes. And then I think starting your day with gratitude journaling or any kind of journaling, anything that's going to prime your mindset for that day to be more grateful, to be more aware, just to be more in touch with the positive element of our lives instead of getting on your phone, diving right into social media, diving right into the comparison trap. Those are really healthy and

actionable tips. And we actually talked off air a little bit about something you're working on to promote the right kind of mindset, the right kind of mindfulness. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? Because that was pretty intriguing and we didn't finish that up. Yeah. Yeah. So I just recently... It just launched around Thanksgiving this past year. I launched the Good Day Journal and then the Good Day Affirmation past year. I launched the Good Day Journal and then the Good Day Affirmation Cards. And so the Good Day Journal, it has every day, you can write down three things you're grateful for, three things you love about yourself, what your priorities are for that day. Have you worked out that day? Have you meditated?

All these different things to help you just remind yourself of what is amazing in your day. Set your day up for success. And then the affirmation cards. I wrote out 50 cards myself. So you pull an affirmation card and it's just these little reminders. And they're very much in my voice. So I'm like, the next time someone flips you off in traffic, remember that they're not just a fucking asshole. No, this person is probably really struggling in their day and they need some sort of grace. And I just write

out this little reminder. And so you can pull a card and maybe it'll really resonate with something what you're going through that day. Or maybe it's just a great reminder of how to set your day up for success. But the good day journal and affirmation cards are just all about mindset. And that shift in mindset is so freaking important. And I've been so reminded of that because I'll have these really bad nights where I'm up all night and I wake up. And the first thing I think is today is going to be a terrible day. And I think that because I'm just so exhausted and I have to make sure I don't get nauseous. And then I stop and I say, no, today is a good day to have a good day. Today is a great day to have a great day. And I saw this quote by Blake Lively the other day that says, there's no reason that today can't be the best day of my life. And I keep repeating that to myself every morning. So today when we're cleaning up shit and cleaning up, throw up, and there's poop on the floor, I get Jackson in the bathtub and I'm cleaning them up. And I said out loud, there's no reason why today can't be an amazing day. And the best day of my life, who freaking knows. And when you set your mindset like that, things are going to be thrown at you through the day that try to pull you back down. You know, maybe your boss is terrible or you get in a car accident.

But if you continue to set your mindset up for success every single day, oh, my God, not only your workouts can be better, your diet's going to be better, your relationship with your spouse or your partner is going to be better. So much can open up in your universe when you change your mindset. So that's what the Good Day Journal and affirmation cards are all about. I love that. partner is going to be better. So much can open up in your universe when you change your mindset. So that's what the Good Day Journal and Affirmation Cards are all about. I love that. And I think that's a nice place to segue into kind of the rest of your work and to close up here. For anybody looking to find the journal and the cards or your books or any of the other stuff that you're working on, or they just like the vibe of our conversation, where can they find your things, your podcast, your written work, all of it? Yes. If you want to check out my Instagram, that's where I am all the

time. I do a ton of stories all throughout the day. It's just paleomg. So it's think pale. Oh my God. But it's all about the paleo diet. So paleomg. You can find me on paleomg.com. So paleomg, you can find me on paleomg.com. And then I have cookbooks. If you search Julie Bauer, B-A-U-E-R on Amazon, I have three different cookbooks to choose from that I wrote years back. And I also, on my website, I have different fitness programs.

I have 11 different types of fitness programs now that I've written over the years and created. And we have a really amazing online private forum where people can communicate with each other in the program and can bounce ideas off each other and get support from each other. And it's a really cool place. But if you want to find me and get to know my vibe

and figure me out and see if you actually want to dive into any of my stuff more, you can just check me out on Instagram. Oh, that's wonderful, Julie. Thanks so much for coming on and for sharing your story. I think these are very actionable discussions that people can learn from, they can grow from, and it's always encouraging to talk to somebody who I look up to, you know, who I think is doing a really good job in this space. So thank you so much for your time and I can't wait to have you back. Oh, thanks, Danny. I feel the exact same

way about you. I don't know how I found you on Instagram, but I'm so glad I did because I, as you know, I've shared 4 billion of your quotes. I was like, okay, I'm kind of being creepy at this point. He's like, who is this chick? But I love everything you're spreading out there. I told my husband about you today that you're just, you're spreading what needs to be put out into the fitness and the nutrition world. And I appreciate you so much for having me on your podcast. Thanks a bunch for coming on. And thanks for the kind words.