Here's the Ultimate Guide to Making Healthier Lifestyle Choices with Dr. Angie Brown

Christine Li  0:01  
Welcome back to the Make Time for Success podcast. This is episode 77. Imagine changing the patterns of your daily life so that you could know in your heart of hearts, that you were doing everything you could to live your best life. That would be wonderful when it today's guest Dr. Angie Brown is here to share with us the blueprint for doing just that in your life. She kindly shares with us the personal journey that she has been on that helped her to realize just how important prioritizing her health really was. Dr. Angie Brown is a mom, wife, entrepreneur, coach and physical therapist who's the founder of the real life runners training academy, and the real life runners podcast that she hosts alongside her husband, Kevin Brown. She loves helping busy parents run consistently and without injury, so they can have more energy, be strong, healthy and fit, and be an example of what's possible. She holds her doctorate in physical therapy, specializing in runner specific strength and conditioning, mobility and injury prevention. She also holds a certification in nutrition to help our clients integrate healthy eating to complement their training and overall health goals. This is an episode about wellness. It's filled with great facts, great information and great inspiration. Let's go listen to it now.

Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Li and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped 1000s of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they can begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn about powerful strategies for getting your mind, body and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important and accomplish the goals you want to achieve. When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy, and how you can create success on demand. Welcome to the make time for success podcast. 

Hello, my podcast listeners. This is Dr. Christine Li and today I have Dr. Angie Brown on the show. She and I have known each other for about 10 minutes. And I am so excited to get to know her with you. She is a Doctor of Physical Therapy. And she is the founder of the real life runners training academy and she is also the co host of the Real Life Runners podcast. So welcome to the show. Angie, I'm glad to get to know you today.

Dr. Angie Brown  2:52  
Thank you so much for having me. And yes, I am the co host. It's my husband and I that actually host the real life runners podcast together. And we've been doing that since we began at the end of 2017.

Christine Li  3:05  
Okay, beautiful. Yeah. So today, I think we're going to hit on a lot of different topics running health and wellness for women, for anyone who's interested in making healthier choices for themselves. And Angie has just been open and ready to go to tell us her backstory for how she became passionate about these subjects. And also we'll go into some training afterwards. So Angie, please take over.

Dr. Angie Brown  3:34  
Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So um, yes, we essentially I work with runners and we coach runners, my husband and I have our company together, which is called Real Life runners. And we coach anybody that wants to have a healthier lifestyle essentially, is what, what we're going for here through the vehicle of running. Okay, so basically, my backstory is that I was an athlete growing up, and I was on the path to medical school. So I actually, you know, was on on the road to MD and I just was taking a bunch of different classes in college. And I took one in particular that really influenced the way that I was looking at the state of the American healthcare system, and just how broken in my opinion it is and was at the time, and how we tend to treat illness and symptoms versus getting to the root cause of things. And so that's what really made me question that path of medical school and I ultimately ended up deciding to get my doctorate in physical therapy instead because I wanted more time with clients and I wanted to be able to work more closely with them to help them address root causes, you know, through exercise and through healthy lifestyle choices. And that's, you know, my background as an athlete growing up in team sports and things like that, but I just understood, and it's like there was kind of this moment, a couple years into To my physical therapy practice, where I essentially realized that almost all chronic conditions could basically be prevented by food and exercise choices, and just the way that we choose to live our lives. And so, at that point, I decided, you know, I really wanted to help educate people more in the importance of healthy lifestyle choices for both of them and their families. And so I did that for a while in private practice, you know, I've been practicing physical therapy for 15 years now. And really, you know, with all of my patients really focused on the education portion of it, you know, really wanting to teach them about not just rehabbing their injury, but also like how their sleep affected their health and their nutrition choices, and all of those things, how all of it plays a role in how our body responds to any given stress in our life, right, because a lot of times people would come in with back pain or neck pain, and, you know, have these chronic conditions, and they wouldn't understand what was going on. Or maybe they would get better, you know, while they were in physical therapy, they would do the exercises, and they would get better, and then we would discharge them. And then we would see them six months later with the same problem, right? Because they didn't continue on with those lifestyle choices. And so that's what kind of got me thinking about how I can help other people outside of just treating acute patients, and how can I make a greater impact and try to educate people on a greater scale, so that they don't need physical therapy, right? Like, I didn't want them to be stuck in the cycle of like, needing to come and see me I want people to like change their lifestyle, change their health, go out and live the life you want, and not have to come see me three times. As much as I, I would tell my patients, I'm like, I love you, you know, you can come visit anytime you want. But like, I don't want you to need me, you know, I rather give you the tools to do this on your own. So, you know, like I said, I did that for a while in private practice. And then I became a mom. All right. And this is kind of where my story shifts a little bit and starts to get us into more of like the real life runners side of things. So I became a mom and I learned firsthand at this point, the struggles right of really prioritizing health and fitness, especially when baby number two came along. Okay, so I was like healthy, I was fit, I was eating all the right things. And then you know, baby number one came in, we kind of got right back into it, my husband and I were both runners. And I actually did my first half marathon when she was two years old. And then I was like, Oh, this is this was amazing, I felt so good. I would like have my next one planned three months later. And then a week later, I found out I was pregnant with number two. And so after number two, that's when like, everything kind of went off the rails, I became super inconsistent, not motivated, mom guilt was so real, like, I felt so guilty for taking time away from my kids to you know, go out and run or take care of myself. And that was for three and a half, almost three and a half years, it was over three years that I was just very inconsistent with my training. And then I hurt my back. And it was at this point, that things really changed for me because here I was like feeling guilty not prioritizing my health and fitness. And because I wanted to be a good mom. And then all of a sudden, my body caught up to me. And I realized that I couldn't be the mom that I wanted to be I couldn't bend over and pick up my children. I couldn't sit on the floor and play with them because I hurt my back so bad. And so it was at that point that I was like, This is not okay. And not only do I understand the struggles of parenting, I also understand, you know, all of the demands on our time. And that's why like, we're really passionate about helping especially busy parents right now to really prioritize their health and fitness and their running and find something that works for them. So it was at this point that I overhauled everything, I decided that I needed to commit to myself, so I rehab my back. And I decided that my health had to be my first priority. Because it affected how I showed up in every other area of my life, including being a mom that was like, to me one of the most important callings of my life. And so, to take it on to like kind of a deeper level, it was like, you know, if I am not prioritizing my health and fitness, like What kind of mother am I actually being, you know, how am I showing up? Am I showing up tired? Am I showing up cranky all the time, you know, if I'm not strong enough to pick up my kids and carry them around when they're tired, you know, that's not who I want it to be. And so that's really when we decided to create a program to help other people do the same thing. And so I kind of talked to my husband about it and was like, Hey, you want to start a company with me?

Okay, and so we that's how we decided to work with runners because I'm a physical therapist, both of us are runners ourselves. And my husband's actually been a running coach for about 15 years as well, like he coaches the high school cross country to interact team. He's a teacher. And so it was just kind of a natural fit that we wanted to work with runners, and especially, like I said, busy parents that also want to prioritize their running and their health and fitness and how to kind of make all of that work together to help them not only be better runners, but also just have a more healthy and fulfilling life. Because, you know, we saw that what was happening, like runners obviously care about their health, right, but what happens is that we saw them making so many mistakes, and suffering from that inconsistency and injury. So it's like this thing that they wanted to be doing the running, they weren't able to do, right, because they were inconsistent, whether it was it's a lack of motivation, or, you know, prioritizing their families or whatever it might be, or they go out there, and they don't train with a plan, and they push too hard, and they get injured, and then they get in that vicious cycle of injury. So, you know, with my background as a physical therapist, and then obviously, Kevin's background as a running coach. And then I started coaching as well with him, about seven years ago, six or seven years ago, it just was kind of this natural progression that we wanted to really create a program to help busy parents, you know, transform from that struggling, inconsistent, inconsistent, like injured runner into the strong, healthy and fit runners that they want to be. So that they can not only be like an amazing example for their kids, but also achieve amazing things in their running and in the rest of their lives. So that's a long winded backstory. But that's that's kind of how I got to where we are today.

Christine Li  11:48  
And see, that's amazing. I think you've just taught everyone Lesson number one, which is that you really can have everything together, you really can have vibrant life, vibrant body, and spirit and be good in your life good, with your time good with your children and partners. And I think that's Lesson number one, because I think the reason why I'm gonna guess just from listening to your story, that the reason why when you have children, and you start D prioritizing yourself, it's from the belief that it can't all fit in somehow. And that's where the inconsistency comes in. And that's where the injury introduces itself because the body is so amazing that it will indicate to us that we need something to be fixed. So thank you for sharing your great backstory with us, I am curious was the back injury from running?

Dr. Angie Brown  12:45  
No, I was literally sitting at my kitchen table one night and holding my daughter in my lap, she was about a year and a half at the time. And I just went to stand up and I felt like someone had took a knife and just jabbed it right into my lower back. And I just was like, take the child take the child and I sat back down and I was like, Oh my God, what just happened? And obviously, I'm a PT, so I can pretty quickly diagnose myself, thank goodness. Right. And so I never went got a confirmed on an MRI, but I think I herniated a disc at that time, you know, based on the symptoms in the way that I was presenting. So why did that happen? I think it was a combination of lots of things, you know, but after pregnancy, or ligaments or looser our muscles like I told you, you know, I was not being consistent at that time. So my muscles were not strong, my they were not supporting me the way that they could and I was constantly holding a kid and, you know, imbalance, like a kid on one side and making dinner, you know, with the other hand or those kinds of things. So that creates imbalance in the body. And whenever you have muscular imbalances like that it can be kind of one of those things like a straw that breaks the camel's back, you know, like it wasn't a severe incident that caused this injury. It was just kind of things that were adding up over time. And and I believe that it was a lot because I wasn't exercising consistently. I wasn't maintaining that strong body to support me.

Christine Li  14:12  
Gotcha. Thank you for explaining that. Because I was really wondering, how do you hurt your back with the running?

Unknown Speaker  14:17  
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing that's so crazy is that it doesn't have to be like this big traumatic thing. You know, people think back injuries are traumatic, most of the time. It's like one little thing that just like, you turn the wrong way you twist the wrong way. And it's just the the problem has kind of been building under the surface. And there's just that last movement that kind of tips it over the edge and that's how most back injuries actually occur.

Christine Li  14:44  
Can you explain to us from the body's perspective what the body is trying to signal to us with stress strain injury, what your perspective on that is?

Dr. Angie Brown  14:56  
Yeah, so I think our body sends us all sorts of signals. And I kind of like to think of it as our body God, the higher power the universe, however you like to believe, starts off with like, a drop of rain, you know, or a little pebble or a little feather, right. And there's like, if you don't pay attention, the signals keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger until you get a boulder dropped on top of you, right. And so I think that as humans, especially as runners, like with the people that I work with, you know, we tend to be more type A types of personalities and really motivated and, you know, wanting to do all the things and wanting to push hard, no pain, no game, that kind of mentality. And I think that that's a way that a lot of us are conditioned, especially in our culture, and our society today is that we need to be doing all the time, we need to be working harder and pushing more. And when we don't take time for rest and recovery, and actually taking the time to listen to our bodies. That's when most problems occur. So I think that our body is very, very good at giving us those signals ahead of time. Most of the time, we just ignore them until it becomes a little too late, especially in the in the running population, because most running injuries are result of overuse, chronic overuse, it's not, you know, the acute running injury, like a pulled hamstring or something like that, where you see like a sprinter in the Olympics. That's not typically who we deal with, you know, that's we deal with mostly distance runners in distance runners are prone to those chronic repetitive overuse injuries. And so that's essentially, they're a result of weakness in the body that hasn't been addressed, that just kind of starts to build up until it breaks.

Christine Li  16:45  
Okay. Okay, wow, it's so I'm thinking on all the different levels, when thinking about the story you told us and one of them is, how come we prioritize feeling guilty and imbalance when it comes to parenting and other life issues? Over health? And fitness? Yeah, because from your story, you just have to stop everything and say, Okay, we're gonna flip everything around and make health a priority. And then it made me wonder, why isn't that just the standard that every mother or every adult starts with?

Dr. Angie Brown  17:28  
You know, that is such a good point. And I think that there's a lot of layers to this. I think it's a lot of cultural conditioning, especially for us as women that we should be self sacrificing, and that we should be devoting ourselves to help other people and kind of putting ourselves last and I see a shift happening in in today's culture, and I'm very, very grateful of that. And I want to be on the forefront of that for sure. You know, helping people understand how important it is to take care of yourself first, in order for you to show up better for other people in your life. And, you know, that's really one of the things that I wanted to really hit home with here. We know in talking to you about it of like, why it's so important, you know, because I do think that we are just taught for some reason to put everybody else's needs before our own. And then people think, Okay, well, in order for me to get in shape, in order for me to be healthier, it's going to take all of this time, right, I have to dedicate time for my workouts, I have to dedicate time to go shopping for healthy food, I have to make time for cooking healthy food, I have to do all of these things. And it becomes so overwhelming, that it's just easier not to do anything. Right. It's just easier to be like, You know what, I don't have to do it. So I think that it's a shame that it has, you know that that is kind of what it has been. But like I said, I do see this shifting more today, which I which I think is a really important thing for us to talk about.

Christine Li  19:00  
Well, thank you for being part of that shift. It's so important.

Dr. Angie Brown  19:03  
We're all doing our best. Right?

Christine Li  19:05  
We are we are. So let's talk about making time. Yes. For these shifts and making health and healthy eating and sleeping well and exercising possible. Yeah. What are your best suggestions there?

Dr. Angie Brown  19:22  
Yeah, so I definitely have some suggestions on that. But like before we jump into the how I would love to talk about why it's so important, right to like, because maybe people are listening right now. And they're like, Okay, like her story is fine or whatever. But like, how does that apply to me and this, I will tell you guys, this is something that will apply not only to busy parents out there or people that you know, listen to them make time for success, like you clearly want to be successful in something in your life, whether that's in business, whether it's as a parent or a family member, or whatever it might be right you're trying to find success and so Why is you know your health so important for this number one, when you make time for your health and fitness, you have more energy. Okay? Working out exercising actually gives you more energy that people think it's going to make you more tired, it's the opposite, right? Because of the hormones that are released in the body. Because of when you build lean muscle mass, you actually have a faster metabolism, you're you process energy more efficiently in the body, you have more energy. Same thing goes with like eating healthy and hydrating, okay, and obviously, I focus on all of these areas. But number one, it gives you more energy. Number two, it will help you to practice commitment and dedication, which you need to be successful in any area of your life, if you can commit to a running program, or a workout program, or a healthy eating plan, or whatever it might be, when you start to it's like their little building blocks, right, you start to kind of build little successes in certain areas, and those same skills you can use to apply to other areas, right. So I always kind of, I've heard other people say that health and fitness as a gateway drug into entrepreneurship, you know, like some of my mentors in online business, because I never thought I would own an online business. But here I am, you know, and it's so true, right? Because it's like, you start to take care of yourself, you start to see the importance of commitment and dedication. And that takes me to like, my next point is like, it teaches you how to show up for yourself, right, and like, you have to show up for yourself in your life if you want to be successful at anything. Another reason it's so important is that your physical health can improve your mental health. Okay, there's been multiple, like so many research studies done on the effects of exercise, lots of research study studies, specifically on running as well. But even more if you just kind of make it exercise in general, you know, you exercise shows, has been shown to increase focus and concentration, it has been shown to decrease anxiety and depression, it's been shown to improve your self confidence and sense of self efficacy in your life. It's shown to improve your sense of purpose, like all of these amazing mental health benefits, all from exercise, all from taking care of your physical health. Another you know, thing that's coming more to light in today's society is the importance of mental health, right? And the importance of being aware of our mental health. And so how great is it that you can essentially like you know, feed two birds with the same seed like you can improve your physical health and your mental health at the same time, by running or by participating in a regular exercise program. And then finally, I always like to say, like I use this term with my clients all the time is put on your own oxygen mask first, right? Like, I think that this is such an important thing for us to remember is that we have to help ourselves first, in order for us to help other people in the best way possible. Like we cannot serve others, if we are constantly pulling from an empty cup, we have to take care of ourselves so that we can fill our cups right, fill our cup with more energy, more vibrancy, more confidence, more focus, and dedication and commitment that will allow us to show up for other people in our lives in a much better way.

Christine Li  23:31  
Thank you so much for doing the why first, I think it's so important to understand. Yeah,

Dr. Angie Brown  23:36  
I mean, until you understand that deeper why? And that kind of is it work, like it works in nicely with like, the tips that I have for your audience on how to actually put this into play? Because that's really number one, right? Like, number one is that you have to understand your why. Alright, so um, do you want me to just jump in now? Or did you have any other follow ups?

Christine Li  23:59  
No, please don't.

Dr. Angie Brown  24:00  
Okay. So when we talk about like, how, right how to start to establish a health and fitness routine, especially something that is sustainable, because, you know, in January in the new year, everybody's got goals. Everybody's got resolutions. And unfortunately, 80% of those New Year's resolutions fail, right? But there's always that 20% that succeed. And that's the part that I like to really focus on. Why do those succeed? And the key is sustainability, okay, you have to find something that is sustainable for you in your life. But you also need to make it a priority. So my number one thing is, you have to first when you think about a health or a fitness routine, or starting something new or committing to something, you have to first make a decision on who you want to be and the life that you want to live. Right. Like who do I want to be like if you could have a magic wand I'll tell People sometimes if you could have a magic wand, and you could just wave this magic wand and you would have the life, the health, the fitness that would make you the happiest, what would it look like? Right? What would it be? And that really gets to that underlying why, you know, why are you doing this? Like, it's more than losing 10 pounds, it's more than looking good in a bikini, it's more than all of that, right? Like, so for you in your life? You know, what is your why and your why when you were 16, or 25 is going to be different than you know, me at 40. Right, or 50? Or whatever age, you are currently in your life. So is your WHY better health? Right? Is it physical health? Is it mental health? Is it more energy? Do you want to have improved strength for daily tasks? You know, this is one of the beautiful things that I love hearing from our clients is, you know, they get on our running program. And our running program is very holistic, you know, we give them their runs, we give them their strength training, and all the things that they need to incorporate to run without injury successfully. But I get these messages from them, you know, about how going into the attic to get the Christmas decorations was way easier this year, and I didn't have knee pain, climbing up the stairs to get the decorations out of the attic. And little things like that, you know, I was on the floor playing with my grandkids and was able to get up without a problem. And you know, that's really why we're doing so much of this right is because it allows us to live the lifestyle and be the person that we want to be. And that goes back to my story. You know, I when I hurt my back, I was not able to be the mom, the strong mom that I wanted to be. And now you know, like that's always in the forefront of my mind. Like I my daughters now are nine and 12. And I can still pick both of them up without a problem. And I love that, you know, I love that feeling of strength in my body. So that's a big why for me, you know, but maybe for some other people, it's to decrease risk of chronic illness, right? Like maybe they had family members that suffered from chronic disease or chronic illness, and they don't want to go down the same path. Like those kinds of things, I think are very, very important for us to be very clear and aware of like, and if you're not sure what you want, think about what you don't want, right? Think about the people maybe that have been in your life, you're like, oh God, like, you know, there's so many people I will tell, you know, you can either make time now to get healthier, or you can make time later to go to doctor's appointments all the time, you know, so many of my patients when I was practicing physical therapy, their entire week was going to this doctor or that doctor or physical therapy, and I'm like, God, I don't want to be doing that when I'm at, you know, like, I want to be like out on the golf course, or playing tennis or running or doing other things like I don't want to be traveling between doctors to like manage my chronic condition. That's not the lifestyle that I wanted for myself, you know, so, you know, along those lines, it's like when you make that decision on who you want to be in the life that you want to live, you know, what do you want your life to look like? How do you want to feel? Right? Like, I think it's always important for us to tap in, like, how do I want to feel, you know, like, one of my big words is strong, like, I just, I want to feel strong, you know, I want to feel unlimited. Like I want to feel like if I want to go for a 10 mile hike on vacation, I can do that if I want to go on a two mile kayak trip with my family, I'm gonna be able to do that too, you know, I want to be able to just be strong so that I don't feel physically limited by what I can or cannot do in my life. So that would be step number one is just making that decision on who you want to be and the life that you want to live. Step number two is setting a goal, okay, you have to set a goal, like there has to be a big goal, right. And again, that goes back to that bigger vision. And that's why I think it's really important to always start with like, What is the vision that I have for myself, and setting that bigger goal. So for you know, a lot of our clients, it's a half marathon, or it's a marathon or, you know, they have like a specific race that they want to run. And then once you set that goal, that big goal, then you can kind of reverse engineer it and set smaller goals along the way. So that you know that you're on track to towards that bigger goal, okay? So decide the life you want. Number two, set a goal. Number three is make a plan, okay? If you want to achieve your goal, you have to have a plan. And this can look like I like we like to work in 90 day increments in our membership program in our training plans. So like, for example, if someone comes to us and says, you know, I want to run a marathon next year, or like great, okay, that's that cycle, then we work backwards, right? And we've kind of figure out where they need to be in a year or in nine months or whatever it is, and then work backwards to figure out where they need to start. So it's important to set that big goal and then the smaller goals along the way, and then create a plan in order to get to those separate checkpoints. And if you're not sure what to do, in this point, get help. You know, like this is like a lot of times, this is what stops people in their tracks, they can, they can get on board with, like the vision they can get on board with setting a goal, but then they're like, well, but then what do I do? You know, and it's like, there are so many amazing resources out there, right, like, so do some research, right? There are tons of free resources. So you can make one yourself, you can make a plan, there's, I mean, information all over the internet that will teach you how to do this kind of thing. Or you can hire a coach, and you know, have the work done for you, you can hire a coach that can make you a plan that can give you the steps along the way that has worked with hundreds or 1000s of athletes, or just people in general to help them get healthier, if you're not sure. And you're kind of that person that like tends to question yourself all the time. This is where a coach can be really, really helpful. Right? So if you are not sure on how to make a plan, get help. There's plenty of amazing people out there that love helping and like you know, I feel like the world of coaching nowadays, like you know, your procrastination coach, you know, like, there's coaches for everything now. And it's amazing. Like, I think that every human on the planet needs a coach, you know, for something. If you want to be successful in any area in your life, a coach is like the fast track, you know, whether it's running or you know, being more successful in your life, or being a better parent, like there's coaches for everything nowadays. So if you're not sure where to go get help.

Christine Li  31:37  
Yeah, I think what, if I may insert I used to the whole missing piece for so many is that consistency piece Angie has right that you could find a plan within 10 minutes of googling the plan for x, right? But how are you going to stay consistent. And she's absolutely right, that coaching can help you stay connected to your goals and your why and her plan. A community is also another great way to be connected with people who think like you do who have the same approach, who might have the same issues, who might have the same roadblocks, as you and you just partner with each other to make sure that you don't let yourselves down. In this most important way, these are not small goals, they we can chunk them down so that they're small and doable. But these are your most important life activities. That's why the Angie is, is so so wonderful at conveying that we really need to prioritize the beauty and the health that we've been given in our lives. So let's put our resources and our intentions and if need be our money and time into making ourselves more consistent and more intentional with our lives.

Dr. Angie Brown  33:04  
100% Yeah, 100%. You know, I heard a saying once that you can tell your priorities by looking at your bank statement and your calendar, right, like, where are you spending your time? And where are you spending your money? There are a lot of people that say that they prioritize their health. But if you look at their calendar, you don't see it. And if you look at what they're spending their money on, you don't see it. Right. So is that thing, you know, you want to want it to be a priority, but are you actually making it a priority? And I think that's so, so important, right? And like you said, Christine, like, we spend money on the things that we see valuable, right. So if you think that your health is important, you're going to spend money on higher quality food, right? You're going to try to, you know, spend money on a gym membership, or a coach or better running shoes or better running clothes, you know, like, and runners love spending money on that stuff, you know, but it's like, as soon as it comes to coaching, they're like, oh, no, no, I can figure it out myself, you know, and that's fine. You know, like, there's tons, but you're either going to do one or the other, you're going to spend more time trying to figure it out on your own. Or you're gonna spend money on you know, hiring people that know what they're doing, and they can guide you essentially. And I always say number two's always my favorite option and I you know, I have coaches for myself and in business and health and running like all sorts of stuff. Because why do it the hard way if you don't have to, you know, why? put yourself at risk for injury, right? Like if you start Yes, you can download a training plan on the internet, right? But if you start, you know, trying to train in that way, and maybe that plan is like a little above where you should be. You're setting yourself up for injury, right? Like maybe you're not exactly ready to start that plan but you're not sure about that because you're just like, Oh, it's a half marathon plan. Okay, all I have to go out and run three miles today. I have to go out and run five miles today and people don't I understand that they need to be at a certain baseline before they start that plan to be successful at it, right? Same thing with anything. But yeah, so I completely agree you're going to, you know, either spend time or spend money, it's one or the other. And in a lot of times both, you really want to prioritize it in your life. So, after you make that plan, step number four is schedule it into your calendar, okay? Like actually put it in your calendar, if it's a workout, if it's a run, whatever it is, figure out how much time you need for that activity and put it into your calendar and give it the same importance as any other appointment in your life. Right. Like, if you had a doctor's appointment, if you had a therapy appointment, if you had a dental appointment, whatever it was, right, you're going to show up and you're going to be on time. And you should treat your health and your workout the same way. Because it's you showing up for yourself here. Right? If you can do it at the same time every day, that is ideal, right? If you can make it the same time every day that will help it to turn into a habit. And when you can turn things into habits, you're gonna have greater chances of success by doing them. And then the other thing, the other little tip here, mini tip, when you schedule things into your calendar, I always tell people if you can do it first thing in the morning, okay, this was a big shift that I had to make. Because before I had kids, and even when we had our first kid, I would always work out in the evenings. Because it was easy. Like I didn't have to I did not like waking up early, I always considered myself a night owl. But I knew with Kid number two, like life just was never the same. And so if I was going to make my health and fitness a priority, I needed to do it first thing in the morning, before life could get in the way before, you know, because I knew as a busy working mom, there, everyone was going to have demands on my time. So I needed to carve out and protect portions of my time that were for me, and that were you know, really was my workouts in the morning. So that would be really, really important. And this is a step I think a lot of people skip, you know, actually scheduling it in, they're like, Oh, I'll find time for it, I'll find time for it. And in reality, we never do, right. Like, if we just kind of let it be a lower priority. It's hard to, quote, find time for it, you have to make time for it. Like just like your podcast, right? You have to make time. And I love that that's what you know, the name of your podcast is, you know, you, we make time for the things in our lives that are important to us. And so your health and fitness really should be, you know, a top priority in your life, which means you have to choose, we all have the same 24 hours in a day, right? We get to choose how we use our time. So find that time and schedule it ahead of time. And then step number five is just follow through, right follow through, set it up, make a plan, get a plan, put it on the calendar, and then once on the calendar, you just have to do it, you know, and there's always going to be those days, where we don't feel like doing it, where we don't think we're motivated. And the all the things that it's like, you know, this is the time in this follow through period where we get to build integrity with ourselves, right? We say that we're going to do something and then we do it. Plain and simple. Like even when we don't feel like it. Right like because there's always going to be those days. And people think that like something's gone wrong, and that they need to find motivation. And I always tell people nothing's gone wrong here. Like, there are going to be days that you feel motivated. And there's gonna be days you don't feel motivated. Because motivation is a feeling. And like any feeling that comes and goes you know, there are some times you feel happy. There are some times you feel sad, there are some times you feel motivated. And there are some times you don't, right, like, that's just life, but when it's on the calendar, and you show up for yourself, then you're building that relationship with yourself, you're building integrity, and you're showing yourself that you can have your own back, like you don't need motivation to keep going, you know, you can just keep going because that's what's on your plan, you know, and that's what you that's what you have to do in order to get the results that you want in your life. And like another thing here too, in the follow through process to help make yourself Self successful with the follow through is to make sure that you're also celebrating small wins along the way, you know, when you when you can celebrate small wins along the way and build in rewards and acknowledge yourself for every single step that you take along the journey. That's what matters like a lot of times I think that we look to other people for validation or to tell us that we did a good job but like when you can start doing that for yourself and acknowledging. You know what, I was tired. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and I still got out of bed, put on my running shoes and I got out the door and you know what If I had a 45 minute run on my calendar, I could only do 30. But at least I did something right. Like, you don't have to be perfect either. You know, I think that it's important to remember that we're human beings with real life. You know, that's why we call our company real life runners, because it's like, how can we integrate running and healthy lifestyle into our real life like it that's important like to say, you know, it's okay, if you miss a run every now and then. But then get back at it the next day, you know, but, you know, celebrating those small wins along the way, are really, really important. Because when you can, you know, find those little things along the way, it's going to allow you to stay long enough to get the desired results, right. Because sometimes, when there's a really big goal out there, it's hard to like, feel that, you know, if it's too far away, or if it's too big. So when you celebrate those little things, and you keep you in the game, you know, so that you keep at it, and then that will allow you to get the results that you want.

Christine Li  40:58  
Well, thank you, Angie, for all of these life lessons. This isn't just about making time for success, I think it really was a great summary of the essential steps for making sure you get what you want to happen to happen. And that involves how you see yourself that involves showing up that involves having goals and plans and schedules in place, and also very much celebrating every single piece of a win that you can see. And again, that's why coaches can be super helpful.

Dr. Angie Brown  41:33  
For sure. And I think that that's, you know, one of the things that I wanted to make sure people understand too is that like, your health and fitness goals are no different than like any other goals you have in your life, like the same principles apply, you know, what I just told you can apply to your running in your health and your fitness or it can apply to building a business or, you know, any other goal that you have in your life, the same principles apply here. And I think that like, you know, a lot of times when you exercise, there's like some physical discomfort involved, right when your body is getting stronger. And again, like we have to get used to overcoming that discomfort, right? The same thing, you know, when we'd rather sit on the couch and watch Netflix, but we have a run schedule in our calendar. Sometimes you have to do the uncomfortable thing, right? Sometimes you just have to get out there and do that. Because that's what's going to lead you to the results that you want in your life. Yeah,

Christine Li  42:21  
and just jokingly, I was thinking, once you establish these basic steps, you will then start a new business and a new podcast.

Dr. Angie Brown  42:29  
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Like, yeah, health and fitness is the is the gateway drug. Yes.

Christine Li  42:35  
Yeah, I agree. So thank you, Dr. Angie Brown, for being such a great leader, and innovator in this space of health and wellness and fitting it into your life and making it make sense in real life. I think this is beautiful. I think you're an amazing speaker and teacher and guide. And I can't wait to have our listeners, join forces with you. Can you please tell people how they can get in touch with you and learn from you?

Dr. Angie Brown  43:04  
Well, sure, yeah, I would love to. And thank you for having me. This was super fun today. I know I did most of the talking. But, you know, I just always love to connect with other like minded individuals that are trying to help people live the best life that they can live, because that's really what my goal and mission in life is, is like, and I do that through running, you know, I use running as a vehicle. But it's essentially about allowing us to live the best life that we can live, you know. But yeah, so I would love it if, if anybody wants to connect with me, I am at real life runners on all platforms. So that's Instagram, Facebook, our website is also real life runners.com, you can find out we've got lots of free resources over there for runners. So if you are currently a runner that wants to improve or are looking to start a running routine, we've got free resources. And then we also have our coaching program over there as well, which is like a monthly membership program. But I would love for your listeners to come find me on Instagram and shoot me a DM. And just let me know that you listened on the podcast and just say hello, I would love that.

Christine Li  44:06  
That is great. Please take Dr. Angie up on her beautiful offer there. And it was my pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us today.

Dr. Angie Brown  44:17  
My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Christine Li  44:19  
All right, everyone. I'm going to see you again next week on the Make Time for Success show. Thank you so much for being here today. Bye! 

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Make Time for Success podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com for past episodes, show notes and all the resources we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name procrastination coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to. And let me You know any topics that you might like me to talk about on the show I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success. We'll talk to you soon!

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