Mom Fitness Tips To Help Motivate The Busy Mom

[Explore the world of mom fitness. Discover effective fitness strategies for moms, innovative workout ideas, and inspirational tips to help you step outside your comfort zone. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to elevate your fitness journey, get everything you need to stay motivated, fit, and energized.]

Are you feeling stuck in a routine? Wishing that you could feel healthier, stronger, fitter in your body? Craving change, but unsure how to take that first step? Then buckle up because today’s episode is all about getting out of your comfort zone and embracing a new version of yourself. Today, my guest is Mary Katherine Stahl, or MK, as she’s known.

She’s a busy mom, wife, and multi-business owner of Fit Body Boot camp, and a true inspiration all who cross her path.

Her journey isn’t just about fitness for moms, crunches, and burpees. It’s about helping others move outside of their comfort zone at the gym and in all areas of life.

Join us for a conversation filled with motivation, practical tips, and a conversation that just might be the push you need to step into a bolder, healthier, happier you!

You can also listen to this conversation on iTunes, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

[Disclaimer: The information shared is from personal experiences and/or research. We’re not medical professionals. We share in hopes that it will help you tap into new insights and inspire you. Everything shared is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Always seek the guidance of a trusted health professional for your unique journey.]

Please Note: This post may contain affiliate links. This means that Soul Care Mom may receive a small commission if you click through and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. Some episodes may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. And guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to herein. We only recommend products and services that we believe in, trust, and would recommend even if we didn’t receive a commission. Please see disclaimers for more information.

Hi There, Soulful Mama.

Welcome to the Soul Care Mom podcast.

I’m Catherine Wilde. I’m a mom of three amazing kids, a Soul Care Mom Coach, and a yoga and meditation teacher. I’ve helped hundreds of women, and I’m here to help you feel calm and find your unshakable confidence as a mom. If you’re ready to stop living in survival mode and you’re ready to drop the mom guilt and overwhelm, this podcast is for you. Think of this as a lunch date with a girlfriend.

Grab a cup of tea and get cozy. It’s time to get honest and vulnerable and shift the traditional mindset around motherhood. Be sure to subscribe to be the first to know when new episodes are released.

Get ready to grow and feel empowered as a mom.

I’m here for you, mama.

Let’s get started.

Catherine Wilde

Hi, MK. I’m so happy you’re here.

Mary Katherine Stahl

Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Catherine Wilde

I am so excited to chat with you and just soak in all your wisdom about fitness. I love that you share about stepping out of your comfort zone and really helping women to just thrive. I would love to hear more about your journey and how you came to do the beautiful work that you do.

Mary Katherine Stahl

Yeah, totally. It’s a long story, so I’ll give you the condensed version. But I started as a client at a fit body boot camp location. A friend of mine invited me to the new gym in town. At the time, I was doing a lot of running. I was going to a big box gym, off and on, but I never had been to a boutique-style fitness studio where it was just a group setting. You only could go when there was a session happening. The workout was led by a trainer. They were walking around the room helping you. They would meet you where you’re at in your fitness journey, and I just loved it. I loved the energy. I loved the way I felt afterwards. I loved the community part because I was in, let’s say, my second job out of college, very young, didn’t really have new friends yet in the professional world after graduating from college, and I was newly married. And so I was trying to find my group, and I felt like I found that at boot camp. And so I became a member, Started going every day, regularly. And then about a month in, I came home to my husband, and he was a physical therapist at the time.

Mary Katherine Stahl

He still is, but he does more with the business now. I said, I’m going to open up my own Fit Body Boot camp location. And of course, he was like, Okay. And for me, in the beginning, it was more about I wanted to be more of a coach for other people. I wanted to help people discover fitness like I had and show them how it benefit their life like it had benefited mine. And so that passion that I found at Boot camp, we opened up our first location nine months later. And today, I’ve opened three locations. I’m actually working on location number four right now. And it’s been a journey, but it’s been so rewarding. And to work in an industry where it’s A, always changing, and then B, you’re always helping someone. And there’s so many people out there that need us. It is so rewarding and it never gets boring. So I absolutely love it.

Catherine Wilde

It sounds like you found something you’re so passionate about, and I love it. I can see it shine through as you speak about it. And as you come to help these people that come into your doors. As a coach myself, for women, I see so much of that mentality of, I have all these other things that I need to do.

We come up with so many reasons, especially as busy women and mothers, to not start that new habit today, to put off our self-care because there are so many other things on our plate. It just keeps pushing our ability to thrive and just show up as our best selves, like further and further back. I’m sure you’ve heard all the reasons and all the things. I know I’ve been there where I’m like, Oh, well, I’ll do it later.

I’d love to hear just what are some of the things that you’ve heard or come across, and how can we create a shift to a more positive and just empowering mindset around our fitness? And not only how, but why. Why do we need to create this shift?

Mary Katherine Stahl

Yeah, that’s such a great topic, and I love talking about this. I actually shared about this today on my social media that never make permanent decisions based on temporary feelings. And a lot of women It’s not necessarily permanent, but we do put it off. We have that mindset that life is busy, life is hard, and I need to just focus on everything else I have going on right now and not worry about myself.

And moms, we use the term mom guilt a lot, and we do feel guilty when life is so crazy. Our little kids need us, our older children need us, everyone needs us. Maybe you have a very demanding career, and you feel like there just isn’t time to take care of you. But then what happens is as you continue on that path, it becomes so distant. That feeling, that little bit of motivation that you had that you wanted to maybe take care of yourself. You were considering it.

You were considering joining that new gym in town. The longer you put it off, the harder it’s going to be to ever revisit that topic again. And so I guess the best advice that I would give anyone, if you’re having that mindset right now where you do feel like life is too crazy to start something new, you don’t have time to take care of yourself, is start small.

Mary Katherine Stahl

Just start super, super small. It doesn’t have to be every day. And even for me, I was talking to a client yesterday, and I’m an eater. I love to eat. I think my love for fitness actually really developed out of the fact that I realized that if I ran track, this was in sixth grade, if I ran track, then I could eat ice cream a few days a week and I would be fine. I love to eat and I love sweets.

And every day when I’m looking at my nutrition, I eat very healthy, but every day I have something that I enjoy. I do very much eat by the 80/20 rule where 80% is healthy, nutritious, and 20% is something that I really enjoy that maybe isn’t the best for me. If you navigate your life like that, it’s going to be easier to stay consistent. Going back to your initial question, it’s like, how can you just do one thing? How can we take that first step and just start super, super small.

Catherine Wilde

I love that so much.

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Catherine Wilde

It’s really just this this invitation to look and see, what does your day look like? How much of it are you spending actually nourishing yourself, actually taking care of yourself, and how do you feel?

I love, too, you mentioned when you spoke about opening your boot camp and you’re just having all of these people come together, and you’re not just walking around to this big box gym, you’re actually connecting, and there’s this community.

How have you found that it has helped people in their fitness journey and just in general? What is that community aspect?

Mary Katherine Stahl

Yeah, community is everything. So I think gyms are the new country clubs. People don’t go to country clubs like they did back in the day. I think people have replaced those with gyms because think about it, and I think that now more than ever since COVID, we are very much isolated. Even if you are working with other people in an office, you may be in your individual cubicle for hours each day, and we need connection.

Humans need connection, interaction with other people. And so at boot camp, you get a great workout, but you also may meet some new friends. Those friends are going to encourage you, and they might encourage you even outside of boot camp. Say you’re having the worst day ever and you go to a 30-minute boot camp session, you might leave there like, Oh, my gosh, my problems.

They seem so small now. Because you spent 30 minutes to take care of yourself. And maybe you had a really awesome conversation with one of your boot camp buddies. It’s like the community aspect is really what fires me up because, again, people need that connection. They need that interaction. And many of us do feel isolated in the world, especially as a mom.

Mary Katherine Stahl

This summer, my kids go to a day school part-time. This summer, I elected to take them out as a small business owner, as an entrepreneur. I said, I’m going to set my schedule where I can be with them more this summer, it’s going to be great. Well, the first month, it was great.

But then I realized I am pretty much just talking to my children all day long. I had to make a point to go to boot camp so that I could be around other adults, other women, other people that were going to make me feel uplifted and motivated so that I could enjoy myself with my kids all day long. But everybody needs that connection.

Catherine Wilde

What would you say to the mom that she’s got the littles, and it’s really hard for her to step away from that, to ask anybody for help, but she knows there’s that craving for connection there? What advice would you give her?

Mary Katherine Stahl

Yeah. Oh, gosh, that’s such a good question. And honestly, I wish I would have gotten some of that advice in the beginning stages of my motherhood journey. And even today, it’s like no two days are the same. But first I would go back to that starting small. How can you maybe carve out three days a week or find a group, a mom? Maybe it’s not boot camp, maybe it’s not a gym. Maybe it’s a mom group.

Maybe it’s a… There was a group in our area, when I first had my daughter, it was the Stroller Mom’s. So you took your child on a walk in the stroller, and it was great. It was a great way to get exercise and also meet other people.

But I would tell her to find find one thing or find something that’s maybe just three times a week to just get her feet wet and get herself back out there, because it is easy as a mom to stay isolated and get really comfortable with that.

And I’ve, again, from personal experience, experienced where you do become so comfortable that then when you try to get outside of your comfort zone and be with a new group or try that new thing, it is scary.

Mary Katherine Stahl

It’s super uncomfortable. But It’s like a muscle. You have to build it. Then also, there are so many programs, especially like Fit Body Boot camp, where we offer sessions early in the morning, we offer midday sessions, and we also offer sessions in the evening.

For that stay at home mom or even a working mom, if you have a significant other that can help you out a few days a week, you might be able to do it before the kids get up or do it a few nights in the evening when your husband gets home or significant other home.

Just trying to find ways to, again, with the baby steps, just sprinkle it in here and there. Over time, it’s going to get better, it’s going to get easier to just keep going.

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Stepping Out Of Your Comfort Zone Examples

Catherine Wilde

I love that. That stepping out of your comfort zone can feel so hard for so many of us. Motherhood is this whole new thing. And then adding how to step away from them, how to ask for help, how to take care of yourself, and all those things. I love it. You’re encouraging us to start small.

Mary Katherine Stahl

Well, and sometimes it’s like for me, I would find that it’s just easier for me to do it myself. I don’t want to ask for help, or it’s like I don’t want to try to rework my schedule so that I can go to this thing this afternoon. I’m used to just being home with my babies. It is. It’s very uncomfortable. But usually when you do it, you do feel proud of yourself and you feel accomplished and you maybe gained a new friendship or you joined a It’s a gym.

Tips To Help You Find Time For Mom Fitness

Catherine Wilde

Yeah, I love that. I would just love to hear… Self-care is something that I’m really passionate about helping moms with, and I’d love to hear, working out, that’s one of yours. What are some of your other favorite ways to practice self-care, to take care of yourself?

Mary Katherine Stahl

Yeah, that’s a great question. For me, I feel like it’s always evolving. But for the last, I would say six months to a year, I’ve been pretty routine with some of self care areas, and that is I always strive to get up 30 minutes before my kids, at least 30 minutes, because I find that if my daughter, who gets up pretty early, is the one that wakes me up, I just feel flustered. I feel like I’m out of control. I like to just wake up before them when the house is quiet, make my cup of coffee, and just be with myself and my thoughts for a little bit.

And that’s the time that I use to look at my schedule, see what I have going on that day. Actually, most days, even though I have it in my calendar on my phone, I use Google calendars, I will write out for my husband exactly what I’m doing every hour during that day so that everyone knows what I’m doing. And it helps me mentally just to dump everything on a piece of paper. So I do that every day. Of course, fitness is a huge part of my life.

Mary Katherine Stahl

I’m actually training for a marathon right now. So my fitness routine has been very different than it was in the past. But I work out typically five to six days a week. Sunday is usually my rest day. And then something that I really enjoy in the evenings is we have an infrared sauna. I sit in that and I use that time to read. I try not to bring my phone in, try to use that time to relax and unplug, unwind.

I prioritize when it comes to my nutrition for self-care, I find that I notice the effects of dehydration so quickly, so I make sure I’m always hydrating. Even in the morning, I know mamas, we love our coffee, and you want to brew that cup of coffee as soon as you wake up.

But do yourself a favor and drink at least 16 ounces of water before you do that because you’re literally in this relaxed state for the last 6 to 8 hours, and then all of a sudden you’re just feeding your body the stimulant. We need to stop doing that. So I try to drink my water before I do the coffee, let’s see what else. I feel like those are my top four right now.

Catherine Wilde

I love those. Yeah, for sure. Starting with water is so important. I feel you with the dehydration. That is something I try to stay on top of my water because I know that I feel so much better when I say it. I love that. I love that you incorporate reading and that you’re really clear on what your schedule is.

I think that helps me a lot as well, knowing this is my time for this, because I think it’s really easy, especially when it’s things for us, to say, Well, I’ll do it later. And so saying, This is my block of time for this, just like you wouldn’t be like, Oh, well, I can go to that dentist appointment later. You’re going to say yes and prioritize that. So I love that tip.

Mary Katherine Stahl

Yeah, I actually block out what I’m going to work out every single day. So for me, my job now with my locations that I own, and then I also work for the Fit Body Boot camp brand. We have over 250 locations nationwide, and I do marketing with them.

People can book me. They can book me to be on their podcast, or we can chat about marketing, or we can or we can chat about franchise ownership. If I don’t block off when I’m going to work out, when I have all these things coming up, then somebody might book me and I’ll be like, “Oh, well, I never factored when I’m going to work out or do this that day.”

It really is great for me if I just literally block out everything in my Google calendar. And that would be a tip for people who are busy entrepreneurs like me. If you feel like, Oh, gosh, I never have the time to get that 30-minute walk in or even take the dog for a walk, put it in your calendar, then nobody can book you.

Catherine Wilde

Yes, that is such a great tip. Yes, I love this so much. So if you’ve been on this journey, the mom journey, the entrepreneurial journey. If you could go back in time to any point and just share a little bit of wisdom or give yourself advice, what would you tell the past you?

Mary Katherine Stahl

Yeah, that’s a great question. I would say, don’t be so quick to give up. Don’t be so quick to throw in the towel. Because, again, back to the, don’t make permanent decisions on temporary feelings. There are so many temporary phases of motherhood, and there’s also temporary phases of entrepreneurship, where times are going to be very challenging, and you’re going to question why you even got into this and why you made this decision.

And I had an experience where I did throw in the towel in one area of my entrepreneurial journey, and then I regret it. And it was because it was after I had two kids. Life was crazy. I felt I was out of control. But that’s how everyone feels when they have two small children under the age of three.

And in that moment, in those feelings, I felt like I was the only one. And most of the time, you’re not the only one. You’re not the only one dealing with that feeling. You might feel like you’re alone, but you’re not. And you’re going to get to the other side. You’re going to get through it. It’s just you really have to put the work in.

Catherine Wilde

You have to give it time, and you have to have faith. And I do see entrepreneurs that are moms. We get so overwhelmed, we feel burnout, and we want to just give up. And sometimes there might be another way to accomplish what you were on that journey to accomplish, or maybe it is time to start something new.

Maybe that truly is time to start something new and fresh. But just remember that all of these challenges, they’re temporary, and you can likely get through this. That’s what I would tell myself a few years ago when I was in the midst of everything.

Catherine Wilde

And even now, I’ve been learning more about just my cycle. As a woman, there’s different times of month where we need more support and we just need more downtime versus when we’re more productive, we have more energy. And yeah, and depending on what’s going on with our kids, all of that.

I love that, just remembering that and leaning into that so we can get the support we need and so we can get through that, period. So, yeah, I can keep going. I love that so much. Something that I think so many of us can… That’s so beautiful to hear for a lot of us. Thank you for sharing. Can you share where we can find you online? Where can we connect with you?

Mary Katherine Stahl

Yes. So you can find me, Mary Katherine Stahl on Instagram. And then I have a website, marykatherinestahl.com. And then also, if you want to learn more about the Fit Body Boot camp franchise, just go to fitbodybootcamp.com. You can type in your zip code to see if there’s a location nearby.

Catherine Wilde

Awesome. Thank you. I’ll add this in the show notes so everybody can connect with you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. I’m feeling definitely very inspired.

Mary Katherine Stahl

Well, thank you so much for having me. This was fun.

Catherine Wilde

Yeah. Thank you.

Catherine Wilde

Thanks for joining me, mama. I’m over here smiling from ear to ear and giving you a big virtual hug. I love spending this time with you. You are amazing for showing up and carving out this space to nourish your soul. If you are loving the Soul Care Mom podcast, be sure to subscribe and leave a review.

And if you are ready to start your mornings feeling calm and energized, get the Kickstart Your Calm Morning Guide, a self-care morning ritual for moms as a free gift when you join the Soul Care Mom community. Head over to soulcaremom.com/kickstart and enter your email address to get your free gift and start feeling like a calm mom today.

Sending you so much love, Mama!

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