Tired of fad diets, intermittent fasting, food shaming, working out to make room for cheat days and over the top workout routines that promise you’ll lose 30 pounds in 6 weeks?

Then you have to give this episode a listen! My guest today is not only an ICU registered nurse and a health fitness coach, but a nationally ranked competitive bikini bodybuilder.

Jennifer Garland believes health and fitness isn’t all about just eating healthy food and doing a bunch of cardio. No, she enjoys teaching AND motivating others to transform their health for the long haul.

You’ll hear about her own journey into the health and fitness world, how to start your health journey and client transformations beyond the gym.

Get ready to take notes as Jennifer drops one gold nugget after another in this episode!

Learn more and connect with Jennifer:

@jennngarland on Instagram

@malhamhealtaximization on Instagram

Apply for health coaching with Jennifer.

Jennifer’s passion is to motivate and teach others that they can transform their health long term by making adjustments to their everyday habits. Whether it’s nutrition, selecting good for them foods and meals, building exercise habits or a combination of all three - she wants her clients to feel their best.

By taking into consideration science and all health factors, Jennifer brings people to their most optimum health by holding them accountable, being honest and transparent about plans and structure, and educating them along the way. Her 1:1 health coaching brings a plan specific to an individual because every person is truly unique.

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TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE

Molly Connolly (00:00.75)

Hey there, lady. Welcome back to another episode of reinventing the arena. I am so thrilled that you're here. This is your first time joining. Welcome. My guest today is not only a registered nurse and a health fitness coach, but a nationally ranked competitive bikini bodybuilder. Jennifer Garling believes that health and fitness isn't all about just eating healthy food and doing a bunch of cardio. No, she enjoys teaching and motivating others to transform their health for the long haul. She brings people to their most optimum health.

by holding them accountable, being honest and transparent about plans and structure and educating them along the way. Welcome to the podcast, Jennifer. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. When I thrive in those areas of being busy and having goals to hit. And when I don't, I'm sure many people can also relate to that is when I don't have goals, it's like, I kind of can just fall even more into not doing things. It's like, eh, I only have one thing to do. Whereas,

you know, if I have 20 things to do, I'll be like, okay, let's do all of them right now. But yeah, so the spark between not having like, honestly, the body that I wanted aesthetically, but also not being challenged in my daily, you know, physicality, I saw the, at least at first, the glitz and glam of it all. And then once I got involved in it, I was like, wow, this is actually rigorous and challenging.

But I also fell in love with that because it is a way that I could push myself, especially as a female. there are a lot of females in this, area. There aren't a lot of females that. Couldn't do this though, continuously at least. So I, I love being able to challenge myself and push myself and be that person that can kind of continue to do that in this sport. that's fantastic. So how long then would you say that you've been doing it? So I started my very first bodybuilding show was in 2017. So that was my very first prep after I graduated college.

I went to a PhD program in Memphis for a year. I do not have my PhD. I did not continue that. I just wanted to preface that. But it just wasn't for me. And, you know, that was like a whole mentality shift in general. But while I was there, I did find myself like really just leaning into that fitness and health lifestyle. And I remember at one point, my director, I guess, had heard from my roommate at the time that I was working out a lot. And like, they thought that I wasn't like,

Molly Connolly (02:23.438)

paying attention to my studies enough because I was like spending time in the gym. And I was honestly very appalled. I was just absolutely shocked considering every exam that I've gotten that class was like a 99 or a hundred. Like I didn't, I always got my stuff done. I was getting 100 % grades. I was a teaching assistant at the time to teaching classes, doing research. I was doing all of these things and that was my outlet. Like that was my stress relief and that was my time. So.

I'm sorry, I didn't go straight home and hit the laptop and books, but like that was my space. And I enjoyed having that extraction from the daily stressors. And I think that is actually one thing I would love to approach today. And I know that was something that we'll probably get to, but it's just such a good stress relief. And it makes sense of why that would be your outlet. I'm also a former athlete. So like I completely...

understand not only only having maybe one thing on your plate, you're just like, well, I can get that to that sometime. But when you have 20, it's easy to start to structure your day, let alone your goals around it and like lifetime goals and still being able to pivot. Like I know how many people really realize or actually a lot of the women here probably because they're ambitious women that are listening to the podcast.

that even when you set a long -term goal, because you have worked on goals for so long, you can easily still pivot and you have the mindset to be able to do that. It does suck that you had a person in your PhD program being like, she's not focusing or whatnot. But obviously that person doesn't understand also the need to have the outlet from the studying and the teaching. But now I'm curious, like how does the bodybuilding like work for you with

being a nurse and a fitness coach or health and fitness coach. Yeah, that's kind of, it's kind of complex. I would say, what I do as a nurse does not, fall, follow suit with my specific nutrition, but it really helps me personally, like motivate myself and also motivate my clients of like, Hey, like when I'm just as an example, like when I'm at work, sometimes I literally have patients ask me, why am I here?

Molly Connolly (04:33.902)

And then it's like, well, honestly, but from my health perspective, obviously not everything is like this by any means. It is the body is a very complex thing and whether you have a disease or health issue, health concern is dependent on many, many factors. But then you start to say things like you ask them questions and you learn about their lives. And like the one thing I noticed as a nurse is what people order in the hospital.

Sometimes like when people are like, why am I here? And it's like, because you're ordering burgers and fries for every meal. Right. And it's like, I just obviously do my job even as a nurse. I'm like, Hey, listen, like you're here because you had a huge clot in your leg because of, you know, high cholesterol or whatever the case may be. And you probably like they're usually on a cardiac diet, which has like, you know, sodium restrictions and like fat restrictions and stuff like that. But then they're still just like.

to get this food. And I understand too, as like an adult, especially like an older adult, like it's hard to make those habit changes. But that's the thing is once a lot of this stuff is happening, especially at an older age, it is not something you can really reverse. It is something that you can kind of, you know, hold stagnant or at least improve a little bit. But like congestive heart failure is something that you pretty much like live with. Like you don't get past it. It's not like,

poison ivy where you can just take some medication and it goes away and you never get it again. Like everything that you do day after day after day, habit after habit after habit reflects what is going to happen to you at age 60, 70, 80. But even more so is I've seen 35 year olds cardiac arrest, 25 year olds. Like, I mean, my mom is 50. Even looking at her, like my mom feels younger to me. I think maybe because I'm like, my God, I'm almost 30. What? But my,

Even just my mom, I'm like, like she's still young, but I'm like, no, my mom is actually like 55 and she's a smoker and she's been a smoker a very long time. Things like that. And, you know, maybe not the best nutrition choices, but she does take advice for me and does have decent choices. But I'm just like, all of that stuff day after day is going to reflect what happens to you at 60. And with a lot of my clients now, I always try to educate that in general.

Molly Connolly (06:57.134)

So there's not really anything I can do specifically in the hospital other than just educate. I can't control what they want to eat. And honestly, once they leave the hospital, people are going to do anything that they want to do. But I always at least just try to put my two cents in. Sometimes I will say like, well, I actually am really big into like nutrition and fitness. And like, this is why I think you should probably maybe go with some of these options moving forward. So I can kind of portray my knowledge through my job sometimes, but it's just not.

I can't always be like, Hey, here, I'm a nutrition coach. Let me help you when you leave here. But like, cause I don't think that's legal, but I'm not really sure. But I always just say, yeah, like I'm really into it. I don't know why, but I maybe it's cause I don't really see myself often. Like I look in the mirror and I get ready, but like a lot of my patients are like, you work out. Don't you love that comment? I get it. They're like, your arms, like you just look buff. And I'm like,

But then like sometimes that like leads into the conversation of, you know, I used to do this. And I'm like, well, great. Like whenever you leave here for cardiac rehab or something, like they're going to be taking you through exercises and like, it'd be great if you started going on like daily walks and we, I just kind of educate them. But it's again, it's a little bit different from what I do nutrition coaching, because obviously with nutrition one -on -one, I'm educating and guiding.

weekly, sometimes daily, like my clients can literally text me anytime. I always make the joke of like my clients, if they're on a meal plan or, or something, I say, imagine, cause I've done this, you're at work and you drop your food all over the floor. What are you going to do? So just text me, be like, Hey, I went to go put my food in the microwave and I hit the edge and it all exploded on the floor. So what do I eat? And it's like, okay. Look, this is a one, this is a great learning moment. The two, this is a wonderful time.

to educate food choices, food options. Maybe your only option is to door dash some food. I work in a hospital, so I have a cafeteria. But some people that just work in an office really have to go out to eat. So I offer my clients a lot of guidance on appropriate choices when eating out and just being prepared in general. So as a nurse, especially myself, with competitive bodybuilding, that was probably my biggest thing.

Molly Connolly (09:15.63)

which I feel is kind of maybe tying this question together of like, I remember when I, my competitive season last year, I was a night shift nurse until mid October. This past year. So I did four night shifts a week too, because I was like travel nursing. So it was like 48 hours of just, which normally by the way, nurses only work 36 hours. They work three shifts. So I was working four shifts, but I was working nights and I was doing.

prep for a bodybuilding show, actually a national bodybuilding show. I did even do regionals that year because I qualified previously, but that's, you know, neither here nor there, but a lot of it is just being prepared. And I think that's what either clients when they fail, it's usually just because they weren't prepared, but I don't really like to say failing. I just like to say learning because we always learn through the things, you know, that we didn't accomplish completely or in our best effort or anything like that. So, especially when it comes to

nutrition and health. It's like every day literally is not going to be perfect, but like you learn from every single thing that you do. Like I know that if I don't have my meals prepared now, especially for my day shift, even I'm waking up at 4 30 just to go to the gym before I hit a 12 hour shift at the hospital. And if my meals aren't prepped in the fridge, I'm late for work. I'm late for my workout or I don't do it. And my whole day is thrown off.

But I always forget to pat myself on the back for the days that I am prepared because it's like my day just goes by so much more smoothly. I feel so much better. I don't have to worry about what I'm eating. I don't have to worry about the donuts in the break room and stuff like that. But even when I was night shift again, preparation was the biggest thing because I'd be getting home at eight 30 in the morning. I'd sleep until about two 30. I'd wake up. I'd go do fasted cardio, come back home, shower, pack all my food for work, go back to the gym.

do my actual like exercise routine and then go to work for the night and then just kind of repeat that cycle. So, but again, if I wasn't prepared and kind of had that mentality of like, you better get it done, then, you know, that was that. I don't necessarily coach bodybuilders for the like moment. I think that is something that I would eventually like to kind of lean towards if that was offered and if bodybuilders approached me. So I am more of like a lifestyle client at the current moment, lifestyle coach at the moment.

Molly Connolly (11:32.846)

So just a health coach in general, but just teaching gen pop, you know, normally I have a lot of nurses even that I coach just because they're like, how do you do this? You know, how do you navigate all the snacks? You're like people offering your food and you know, the doctor's buying food for the whole unit. How do you not just go eat it? And you know, there's a lot of, a lot of things that go into that, but yeah, that was kind of the whole roundabout or roundabout situation of how nursing and my coaching kind of tie together. So you brought up.

Honestly, so many good points. And I hope that the ladies that are listening really take away from this. Your daily habits today are going to affect you long -term. So if you are eating that cheeseburger and fries every single day this week, maybe you can only have it twice. Maybe you can start thinking about like, what type of lifestyle do you want to have in your 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s? and you know, just like how you're talking about your mom. my parents are a little bit older. My dad is 70 and he.

got throat cancer, got through that. And then he also was starting to do stress tests because he was at a certain age and they were like, my gosh, you need to come to the hospital now and have open heart surgery. And he's like, what you guys told me? I was probably fine. And they're like, no. And he had open heart surgery, completely changed his life, both the cancer and that to where he, this was his 10th year doing rag rye and rag rye, if people don't know is a eight.

Maybe 10 day bike across Iowa. And so you can bike anywhere from 40 to a hundred miles a day. And this year it's been, was extreme heat craziness. And my dad's like, I'm never doing it again, but he did that at 71 years old. I would only just got full body goosebumps here. But just like makes my heart feel so good. Right. Because it's like, he realized he needed to make changes. And then there's other people in my family, on my husband's side that never really have.

noticed that they might need to make some health changes and definitely had gone in for surgery, realized they needed to do another surgery for his heart and did start making those choices. The nurses had to be like, no, you can't have bacon today. And you know, then his wife brings in cheeseburger and fries. And I'm like, not thinking even about that when I was hearing about it. And now you say it. I'm like, my gosh, I didn't realize, yes, that was good comfort food for him. Something that he's craving.

Molly Connolly (13:55.662)

but it's adding to the issues that he currently has. And so once again, like even how our brain works just with how we don't really work with change very well as we get older, we get so stuck in those habits that it does make change difficult. So ladies, if there's anything that's going on right now in your life that health wise that you're like, I wish I could do X, Y, and Z, you do, you have the choice to make that change. And Jennifer just listed off all these great examples of how you can make

You know, just even by how her stories, you can, you can see that you can make changes today. That's going to impact you years in the future. So I'm glad that you brought that up as well as like how you, you know, kind of make those hints to your clients as not clients to the patients, as well as discussing those lifestyle changes with your clients. So as a health cosanna nurse, what do you see your clients like struggle with the most when it comes to their fitness and nutrition?

kind of like I just said, these kind of go hand in hand though, it's time and preparation. Okay. and there's a little bit, a few facets of that. So I think, you know, it takes time to prepare yourself to do this all the time. You have to be prepared to have all your food with you at all times or prepared to know what you're going to eat the next day so that you don't fall off plan.

or prepared to say no when somebody offers you something that you might've said yes to in the past, but you're on this journey now to being a better you. So you just need to learn to say no. Doctors, hey, we're gonna order pizza for all the nurses. No, I'm good, thank you. I brought my lunch, thank you, I appreciate the offer. I mean, it's as simple as that, because the greatest thing is you also know that you prepared your food, which also took you time to do. So don't waste your own time.

And you already have it there and you already know that's going to make you feel better. Because the thing about bad food, and I think we all know that this is how it goes. Ooh, it feels so good. It smells so good. That first bite is like, ooh, amazing. What happens in 30 minutes? God, I feel like absolute crap. That's what happens every, every time, every time. And no one can tell me otherwise. Like I know that you kind of just get used to chronically feeling like crap.

Molly Connolly (16:16.302)

Like that is just kind of how you walk around and then you don't realize like how good that you feel when you finally start doing those things and making better choices for yourself. So I do see that a lot. it's just making sure that you're prepared because then when you fall off, people are like, well, I kind of felt like crap. Or a lot of the times is when you aren't prepared, say like, okay. Well, Friday, I didn't bring all my food. What happens is you screwed up all day on Friday, but then it's the weekend and you had some plans and you want to have a little bit of fun. So then you screwed up Saturday and Sunday too.

that's 30, 40 % of your week right there that you just completely blew out of the water. So just being prepared and taking that time to prepare yourself to make better choices throughout the entire week, taking the time to go to the grocery store, especially as a busy working person, trust me, I get it. Like my days when I leave my house, I'm gone for 14 or 15 hours at a time. So I totally understand.

But there's lots of options and I have a lot of things that I educate my clients on, on just how to, you know, be more efficient with your time, how to prepare food in different ways, how you like it, et cetera, et cetera. But then even just not only the time of preparation, but the time it's actually going to take. I think the way of the world right now is a lot of people are promoting like here, do my six week program and lose 30 pounds. And it's like, yeah, but to be honest, the person that lost 30 pounds was also probably a morbidly obese.

client, exactly. Had that weight to lose. Like I lost 40 pounds for my bodybuilding show last year. I walk around at like one 45, one 40. So it's like, and that's muscle too, ladies. That's being ripped. Yeah. And it's like, so I was like, one five, one seven was kind of like the lowest I got, but keep in mind that took me 10 and a half months to hit. And that was with zero free meals out.

Zero alcohol, only following my meal plan, being in the gym every single day. And I don't, again, I don't have my, I don't have bodybuilding clients. If you want to be a bodybuilder, I know everything about it. So you can hit me up. But for the average lifestyle client, I would never make somebody do what I had to do to get like that because I don't expect my clients to look like that. And honestly, a lot of people that come to me, they just want to look better. They want to feel better. They want to lose some weight, you know, feel more comfortable in their skin.

Molly Connolly (18:34.126)

have a flatter stomach, have less flabby arms or legs, a little less cellulite, et cetera. But like that takes time. And like, I wish I could tell you, I will, I will never lie to my clients. I will never say like, absolutely. They're like, how I want to lose 20 pounds. How long is it going to take? I don't know. I don't know what your daily habits are right now. I don't know how you have been eating. I don't know any health conditions that you might have. The thing that we also happen. I do have some male clients, by the way. I do have some male clients that are doing wonderful too, but I do love, especially in women.

and advocating for women just to feel better because we have so many underlying things that happened to us. We're just so different. I feel like, you know, I don't want to say stereotypically cause it's really not always like this, but men they eat more, they get the gain muscle. The moment you pull food, they usually lose weight. Women aren't like that. We have estrogen and progesterone and thyroids that are just way more crazy. We also usually have gut issues that are just out of this world, you know, and a lot of times we just don't know we're dealing with it. So.

Typically I get a lot of women and I know everyone is not like this. So again, I'm not stereotyping or judging, but a lot of women I get are the women that have coffee for breakfast. And then they might have a protein bar or some grapes and a cheese stick for lunch. And then they don't eat until eight o 'clock at night. And then they go ravenous on, they might have some chicken and rice for dinner, but then they eat half a sleeve of Oreos and half a pint of ice cream because they're literally just starving. Right.

want to say, I love saying let's not eat like a five -year -old anymore. Like you're not a toddler. Like we are not a toddler. We do not just need a snack on some grapes and cheese sticks for a lunch. but what happens is that drives down our thyroid that drives down our hunger signaling, but also not eating all day and then eating a bunch of processed stuff at night because you're so hungry and you have it in your house builds up bad bacteria in your gut, which also can cause.

A lot of other things can happen with that too. Stress is a huge cause, but a lot of things that you eat, again, we love having those processed snacks around the house. So with my clients, I teach them and educate them on how to structure meals, how to space out your meals so you're not feeling absolutely starving at the end of the night. But once you eat healthier fats, you eat good whole foods that keep you full throughout the day and don't keep you starving all the time.

Molly Connolly (21:00.206)

You just feel so much more satiated. You have so much more energy. You know, you feel like you can sleep better at night. Once you eat all the processed stuff that's full of sugar, your sleep is out of whack. But I know I'm kind of like all over the place, but there's so many, like it's such a spectrum of just levels of like all of this stuff that plays into your whole health journey. You know, like I said, that's why I said that in my intro is it's not just, okay, eat better and exercise a little bit more.

It is not about that. It is 2023. We know so much more about the gut. We know so much more about hormones. We know so much more about hunger signaling and like what it takes. And I actually just had two clients come to me. They're a married couple, but they were literally eating almost absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing like somewhat keto kind of. Wow. Many carbs, four meals a day.

And one of them was only eating once a day and it was just a huge meal at night and then doing like an hour and a half or two hours of cardio. And they were like, yeah, we want to lose weight. And I was like, I'm going to tell you right now, if I were to have you lose weight, it would be very unhealthy for many reasons because you're only eating maybe a thousand calories right now. my God. Take you down to like six or 700 calories, which is going to completely plummet your testosterone, completely plummet your, you know, it's going to.

your cortisol, your thyroid or aldosterone, like all of these things. And I know I'm kind of using some, you know, medical or scientific. But this is helpful for women to hear us. So, so impactful. And so what we did was actually reverse them out. I added a bunch of food. I completely like took away so much of their cardio last wave because their body was just so stressed out and so starving. And you just get so used to feeling that way that you don't know it's okay. Like, yes, you know, you're like,

Like that's not sustainable to just starve yourself all day. It's not sustainable to binge eat at night and it doesn't make you feel good. So I love to just to teach people how to structure their food, how to structure their meals, how to structure their day. And they feel so much better. I have clients who sleep so much better. I have clients that actually I do have a, I have a male who is morbidly obese, but he's already lost 85 pounds since January off all blood pressure medication off all.

Molly Connolly (23:17.838)

Type one diabetes is almost or type two, I'm sorry, is almost like completely reversed. He's off all of that diabetic medication too, just because every single day, you know, he listened to what I said, took the information and practices it every day. And that was the biggest thing, which also kind of takes into why in nursing, it's just very motivating.

because when I see people want to do better for themselves, like I literally physically hear them say, like, I want to be able to go outside and play with my kids without getting winded, just walking out there. I want to be able to squat down without my knees hurting because of inflammation and et cetera, et cetera. I want to feel like I can go out to eat and make a good choice and not feel like I'm bloated just from drinking water in the morning because that is a problem, especially with women. We were like, yeah.

we look so good in the morning. Like our stomach so flat sips a little water. Why, why do I look pregnant? Like I've totally been there. I have been there myself and it's just learning the process of how to do better by yourself. And that is the one thing I love educating on. So. Yeah. You hit on so many good things again. I loved how you brought up not only like some client transformations, but the, where they were at before you. And it's so fascinating. So.

I have polycystic ovarian syndrome. So I have a lot of that stress issues, hormone issues. It mimics diabetes. I need to be gluten -free, dairy -free, soy -free, sugar -free. And do I get it perfect? No, but it's really like, there's two things that I really have to watch and that's gluten -free and dairy -free really helps. But it wasn't until I started food prepping and making myself smaller meals, not smaller meals, healthier meals, less processed.

watching my fats, like having good fats, like avocado toast in the morning so that I would get the carb that would help break down the protein, which a lot of women were like, no more carbs. I'm like, no, you need carbs to help break down the protein you eat. And then, you know, having almonds as a snack, but not like a whole bag, but just a little bit to help keep me held over to lunch. Like these smaller things, retaking out pop, any carbonated beverages. I now reduce alcohol and the amount of things, not only like your body gets to have, but like you said, sleep.

Molly Connolly (25:30.062)

Your brain functions so much better. So if you're like groggy at work all day, try eating better, try working out. It's going to affect your sleep in a good way. And it's also going to help your mind where you're at. And you're going to be more present with your kids. You're going to be more present with your partner, all those sorts of things. And when I first dating, sorry, what'd you say? I was just saying, I was agreeing. Exactly. So like when I first met my husband, I met him four months before the world shut down and, he was doing intermittent fasting.

And I convinced him when we moved to St. Louis to stop doing that. And he decided he wanted to be a triathlete, like just like the sprint. And so in order for him to do that, he had to learn how to swim. And I'm, since I'm a previous winner, I was like, yeah, you're going to have to start doing this. And that means you're going to be eating more. And it did, it could completely change his hunger. Well, because of that and shifting out of the intermittent fasting and focusing on healthy foods. I think he has like four mini meals a day and has.

you know, healthy snacks, Traxxas protein macros, all those things. He actually is in better shape in his entire life at 45 years old. Yeah. And he never thought he would ever feel this good. He never thought that he would be this ripped. And he's like intermittent fasting was supposed to be the thing. And I'm like, a lot of people think it's the thing. I love how we both just did quotes. Nobody can see this yet, but that we're going to probably put that on Instagram.

But all these like fad diets are literally not helping people. And it really is being consistent in your habits, being prepared, knowing the nutrition and working with someone like Jennifer, because you help hold your clients accountable. And that's another thing is that they are able to have a support network. You get to be the first one and then they get to also be around other people. And what I do also love about this is that your clients set the example for other people in their life.

of what it could be like, the transformations. And so it's still like a ripple effect. It really is. And I know that was, I think that was another one of your questions was like just how it impacts their relationship with themselves and just everyone else. And I feel like I kind of touched on that a little bit, but if we even want to just dive into it, I think the biggest thing is like socially eating like this is not normal because we have conditioned ourselves into eating out all the time or whatever. Like I'll be at work. If I'm eating,

Molly Connolly (27:53.07)

a burger and fries, no one's asking me what's on my plate. But the moment I opened a Tupperware container and there's clearly chicken and green beans in there. Like, you know what chicken and green beans looks like. They're like, Ooh, that's healthy. What are you eating? Well, well, aren't you just Ms. Health Queen over here? And it's like, why are we health shaming? Why are we, you know, that's not normal, but that makes people not feel good. Like, I'll be honest, like when I go in my break room and I eat lunch, I don't want people talking to me about what I'm eating. yeah.

Just because in my head, everyone asks me all the time what I'm eating, but it's just so crazy. If you pay attention that when you're just eating normal stuff, like when you see a burger and fries, nobody's like, what's that? They're not going to question you because that's normal. That's normal. Right. But that shouldn't, that just should not be normal. We should just, we should really transform how to take care of ourselves. But like, once people do start to make those changes, first off, yes, I think the biggest thing is they realize like,

they typically just realize how much better they feel. Like, does it kind of suck maybe not doing that? Yes. But what I typically do when I have my clients is I bring them on and we do a meal plan for the first two weeks. So then that way I can make sure that they learn how to cook their food, learn how to prepare it, learn how to stay prepared throughout the day, measure it out, bring it with them, eat it. You know, it's more like accountability, structuring, all of that. So the first two weeks, that's typically what we do. And then

Not like most of my clients, I do offer a free meal. So they do get that opportunity to kind of go out once a week or do whatever they want. within means, right? Like we don't need to blow our calories out of the water, which we educate and guy onto, but like that does kind of allow some flexibility. But what typically happens is a lot of my clients go and have that meal and they're like, yeah, I just had like a burger and fries and some ice cream. And I feel like absolute trash. I'm like, yeah. And that's how you were feeling every day. It was just masked.

so then they're like, yeah, I'm never doing that again. So now I have clients that are like, man, I just went and had some sushi and I didn't have anything fried, which is fine. If you want to go have sushi with it. I love shrimp tempura. Don't get me wrong. and crab rangoon shout out, but like, it's just, you start to realize the things that like make you feel better. Like I'll be honest, I'm in prep right now. I just started and

Molly Connolly (30:16.526)

I really don't have cravings. Like that's actually something that has kind of like left the building because I just don't eat that stuff anymore. And if you're like, I crave like dark chocolate, like, wow, I'm so spontaneous and crazy. But like, it's like little things. Like, do I want like a burger and fries? Sometimes yes, but it just doesn't feel good. But like, I just want a Caesar salad and a steak. Like that just sounds amazing. I don't know why you're making me hungry. I know your mentality just like shifts. It is almost lunchtime too.

But that's like the biggest thing that I see is just like a lot of clients relationships with themselves and food just gets so much better. And they realize how much stuff doesn't feel, or they realize they don't need to eat so much of all of that stuff. Like they might be like, I really want a burger, but you know, I had a few slip ups this week. So maybe I'll do the burger, but instead of fries with it, because again, that's a typical pairing. I'll do a salad instead and kind of save it since I made a few mistakes throughout the week.

So I don't think that we should like shame ourselves on choices or like, I know some people typically like if they eat something bad that they shouldn't have to go and do more cardio to like make up for it. I don't really believe in that. I think everything is again, just a learning opportunity and you just kind of learn how to make shift. Again, we don't need to eat a whole sleeve of Oreos but if you have a couple that is perfectly fine. So it's more of just control and learning and processing. But I also think one of the biggest things is

Even when I first started my relationship with some people teetered for a little while because a lot of those, I used to actually work in bottle service in downtown St. Louis. And so, but I never really drank like drinking was not my thing really even before bodybuilding. Definitely not. So now because yeah, I'll be honest. I have a couple of drinks, you know, a couple of times a year, but like, all really just is not good for you. you know, a lot of my friends like were in the bar industry. And so it would be like.

drinking on the job and then after work it's four in the morning. So we'd either go get White Castle or Taco Bell or Jimmy John. It's like, you know, typical college stuff, but like the, that those relationships with the people that I actually wanted to keep with, I'm like, Hey, like, I'm just letting you know, like, this is kind of what I do. And I appreciate your support, but I won't be, you know, I just want to let you know, I'm not going to be drinking at this event or I'm going to eat before I come, but I would love to still sit with you or.

Molly Connolly (32:41.326)

When I go to places, again, since I am bodybuilding and it's a lot different, but like for my clients, I would suggest like, absolutely. Like if you want to go out, like your friends go out to eat a couple of times a week, that is fine. It is okay to still go out to eat with your friends, but learning how to make better choices. So you shouldn't like your relationship with how you want to make yourself feel better should not ruin your friendships, but there are some times that it does. And that really is unfortunate, but usually what I see.

especially nowadays since it's been so much more like, you know, forward in media and life in the world is it's a lot of my clients, their habits are transitioning onto those other people. So a lot of the times I have clients and they're like, Hey, my wife actually wants to work with you or my husband actually wants to work with you too. Or my neighbors saw that I lost 30 pounds and they want to do this with you too. And it's like, so a lot of people are like, wow, this is

they're really changing themselves. Like this is what they're doing. They talk about what they're doing and it just trickles into it. Even some of my clients like stopped feeding their kids crappy food because they just don't keep the crappy food. So it's like, that's awesome. Eating chicken and rice for dinner. Why is your child eating cheese? It's and string cheese. Like that just doesn't, I get it. Yeah. Their children totally understand. Yeah. But some of them have changed like

well, my kid actually took a bite of my beef and rice and they actually loved it. I'm like, yeah, like you can still feed your kids wonderful food. And so, and that's even smaller kids, but even some of the bigger kids, like, they have some, you know, seven to 14 year olds or something like that. I have a client who goes on walks every evening and their kids started joining them, like just starting those small habits. I'm like, I love that. Like they get that time together, but then they also are like,

bettering themselves, you know, and they're saying like, mom, I see you look so much smaller. Like people love hearing, people love hearing, like people think good things about them, right? Right. When it comes to something that has probably made so many women feel so insecure in their bodies, their whole life to not only see it themselves, but have others see it and tell them all the time. It's like, wow, this feels really, really good.

Molly Connolly (35:03.79)

And it just makes you overall be when you feel so much better in yourself and so much more secure and happier with what you are and how you just present yourself so much better, you're more productive. You, you just move more, you move better. You are more successful in your life just when you feel more happier with yourself. And I notice a lot of people are just like, I look at a promotion and I'm not saying like, I didn't get you that promotion, but you lost weight. You felt better. You were more confident.

I even just had one of my friends say, I just took my shirt off for the first time in the gym in years because I was so hot. And usually I would just let myself just sweat to death because I was just too embarrassed. And to be honest, everyone at the gym does not care. Half of us are looking at ourselves in the mirror, just picking our own selves apart. Like it's not anyone else staring at us and judging us. It's just us looking at ourselves. And so.

she could have taken her shirt off this whole time in two years. And I guarantee you, no one ever would have looked at her and would have been like, Ooh, she should keep her shirt on. No one would do that. No one would care. And if you are, you're a very shallow person, but 99 .9999 % of the time, no one else cares but you. But it's literally just the fact that we were only, we've only been working together for four weeks and she's lost six pounds, I think. And she's like,

Yeah, I just stripped it off. I felt so good. And she's like, I'm just in my sports bra on the stair master. I'm like, yes. Like she just feels so much better herself. she just had like a one -year -old last year. Yeah. So she's one and a half. my gosh. Like the postpartum stage two was just, just feeling like she was a foreign person in her own body for so long, just because it's not what it was. I don't have kids. So I don't know what it feels like, but I can only imagine, but just seeing their relationship with themself blossom.

and just becoming so much more confident in themselves. And then it's like, she's like, yeah, I'm doing all of these other things now. And it's kind of like that being productive produces more productivity. It's like, okay, I feel good. So now I feel better doing all of these things because when we feel bad, we don't want to do things because we think we're just going to fail at it. But it's just so cool to see the relationship internally change. And then relationships in general too, I think.

Molly Connolly (37:25.934)

relationships with husbands, relationships with kids, relationships with family. I think I even re I bring like healthier things to my family gatherings now and people don't even notice, or they think it's really good. like I started making chicken salad with Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise and go to town on it. They don't even know. And I'm like, wow, I'm just saving you your entire day's worth of fat in two servings of chicken salad because I did Greek yogurt and said, and you're welcome because there's some protein in there that you're probably short onto.

But yeah, it's little things like that. Or in the hospital even, I've been bringing in these spice muffins that are made with protein powder, pumpkin puree, coconut flour, like things that are all whole food ingredients, honey, but instead of like cupcakes and donuts and like things like that. But it's all about self -belief too. Just believing that you're worthy of making those changes and making those choices day after day. But with my coaching, we also get weekly calls.

So we do a weekly check -in accountability where this is an opportunity for me to educate my clients, but also listen to my clients on what has happened throughout their week. What was a positive? What was a negative? What did you learn? What can I help you learn based off of something you might not have known this week or you made a mistake on, or you weren't sure about? Where can I place my efforts a little bit more to help you along on this journey? And so I just, I think sometimes I...

or I think I'm like, I could do so much better. I can do all of this. And then when my clients kind of like, almost like imposter syndrome, like I'm still not good enough. I'm not a good enough coach, but then they come back and they're like, like the amount of times, not even to just gas my own self up, but the amount of times I have my clients text me and they're like, you are literally changing my life. Thank you. Or I feel so good. Thank you so much. I literally, I'm like getting teary kind of right now actually, because it's just, you're like,

I'm sitting here thinking I'm not doing enough for these people. And they're like, I cannot believe all of these things that you have done for me and taught me. And I'm like, okay, wow. Like maybe this is actually working. But it's to see their relationship and half the time, most people wouldn't even be comfortable saying like, I can't believe I changed my life because people don't believe they can because they just don't know how. And so I love being able to be that person to just even show them. I don't know everything. There's millions of articles and education and

Molly Connolly (39:46.862)

research on so many things, but like health changes all throughout your life. And the biggest thing is I have to learn what people need from me. And then I have to teach them what they can do and make them believe that they can do it. And then when that happens, they just have so much more self -confidence, their relationships thrive, their work thrives. Honestly, I have some people even that just love going to work now because they actually find that everybody notices a difference in them.

Like maybe it might be a little shallow because they're like, yeah, I love going to work because everybody gases me up. But like, Hey, that works. Exactly. So much better moving throughout their day. So I think that's just, it's just so rewarding as from my perspective to see that they feel so much better in their own lives period. But then just to see how it's working for them as well throughout their entire like day when they talk to me. Cause, typically coaches do.

just like video recordings, which is an option if we want that. But we, on my coaching team, we do weekly phone call check -ins. So then that way we can actually talk to you and see how it went. Because the check -in questions that we typically have, it's just like, how was your stress this week? Somebody could just say, good. Exactly. Okay. But then whenever you talk to them on the phone, you're like, okay. So I always say like, how was your week? Well, work was a little crazy this week. Okay. So maybe your stress wasn't good.

Maybe this is really stressful or you forgot all your food and work was a horrible day. So you ate out or something and it wasn't good food because you were stressed. Okay. Well, then your stress wasn't good. So let's talk about how we can manage that a little bit more. Why weren't you prepared? What happened at work? How can I help you? So we say like health coaching, but this really is life coaching because again, the way that you think about yourself, how happy or sad you are one day.

how good you feel, how stressed you feel, all of that affects whether you wanna go to the gym, whether you wanna eat good. So we've gotta kind of learn how to balance that too. I love how you talked about everything. Like you're just dropping so many gold nuggets every time. Even just bringing up like how some of this just ripple effects even to the children aspect. So for any of the moms that are listening, like I'm even thinking about...

Molly Connolly (42:06.286)

my nephew and I'm also thinking about my cousin. She's now 26 and she didn't eat anything other than chicken nuggets and fries until she was after 10 because the parents, like they got divorced and everything, they didn't bother to try to have her learn new foods. My nephew is about to turn four. He eats salmon, green beans, he eats healthy, but he'll also be like, ooh, yogurt to him is a treat.

You know, like he's, he already is eating healthy and expanding his palette to know what good food tastes like. And it's not always healthy, healthy, but at the same time, like that's a thing that he always has is a healthy option. He's addicted to blueberries. That's his new thing. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And then I also loved how you brought up, like, even as you're transitioning through this situation of like making a healthier choices for yourself, that it is completely normal that other people are going to

food shame you because you're making healthier choices. And if anyone has listened to podcasts like from way long ago, I have a podcast talking about mirroring. And so when someone's doing that to you, what they're really doing is shaming themselves, but they're trying to pretend they're not. Like they don't, or maybe they subconsciously don't know. So it's a good defense mechanism for themselves to like not feel the shame by calling it out on someone else.

I know that I experienced that when I was like starting to bring my own healthy food to work, because you're right at anybody's job, you're going to run into the donuts. You're going to run into the treats, someone's birthday and having that self control is something you have to work on and it takes time. And then even as, you know, being a coach, the reward is not the dollar. It's not the time. It's not.

any of that, it's what our clients get to experience as well as what they tell us. Like I have a few clients that have done that to me where like if they send me an email or a text, like I have cried and I'm a person that doesn't like, I don't cry. so when it happens, it's so not only motivating and satisfying, but it's like, wow, I'm really making a difference in someone's life. And you get to see the ripple effects even more because it's the, you get to see the physical changes.

Molly Connolly (44:22.862)

my gosh. So can you please tell everyone where they can find you learn more about you? Yeah. So, I, my main Instagram page is Jen Garland, but it has three ends because Instagram, JP in, in, in Garland, like the Christmas tree stuff. so that's like my main account personally. And then we also have a coaching account and it's.

Malam Health Maximization, Malam spelled -A -L -H -A So those are the two things. And on both of our Instagrams, we have a little link that you can click if you wanna inquire about coaching in the link in our bio. So it's really just like your name, your email and your phone number and we'll reach out to kind of hop on a phone for scheduling any coaching. But with that too, we always hop on a call. We always discuss if this is something for you, what we offer, what we can do.

But I do just like to say, again, even just as a bodybuilder, health coaching is a huge array of so many factors that you can take in. And there's so many different ways to reach the goals that you need to reach. So what works for me does not work for you, does not work for her, does not work for him. And it's all just very different. So when you do inquire about health coaching, which honestly, I'll probably have an accountability and coach my whole life because it's so easy just to fall off on your own.

it's just very easy to look at yourself and be like, yeah, I look the same or, and I'm not changing, just taking in for what it is. And there's multiple ways that you can get to where you want to be. And so it's just going to take time for a coach to learn you, learn your background, learn what you're, where you're from, like what works for you, what doesn't work for you. That might require lab work. It might require a lot of different things, but once you find like what actually works for you, with a professional that knows how to help you get there, it's just so rewarding. So.

Well, thank you so much, Jennifer. I will put actually all those links in the show notes for everyone to find you. And yes, thank you so much for coming. This was great.