Redefining Health for Busy Mothers

Vanessa Flores, the powerhouse behind the Strong Fit Life program, joins us to reveal how her transformative journey from extreme dieting to balanced wellness can inspire moms in their 40s and beyond. Vanessa candidly shares her battles with body image and how she turned those challenges into a mission to empower women through fitness and self-care. Her story is one of resilience and transformation, demonstrating how a healthier approach to nutrition and fitness can lead to profound personal growth. Vanessa also sheds light on how she seamlessly integrates her fitness routine into her jam-packed life as a mother, emphasizing the importance of setting a positive example for one's children.

Explore how Vanessa's insights can help create customized fitness plans that fit into even the busiest of lifestyles. We discuss the vital roles hormones play, especially for women in their 40s, and how prioritizing sleep, managing stress, mindful eating, and consistent exercise can lead to hormonal harmony. Vanessa introduces her 16-week "Kettlebell Kickstart" program designed to bring lasting wellness changes and explains the supportive community she fosters through her free Facebook group. Discover practical tips like starting with a simple 10-minute daily walk to embark on a sustainable journey towards health and well-being.

Find Vanessa Here: https://www.facebook.com/vanessa.mugnaini/

FB Group - www.facebook.com/groups/stronghealthyparents/

Mama Mental Wellness Guide: https://www.sydneycrowe.com/mamamentalwellness589191

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, hey, mamas, welcome back to Conquering Chaos
.
A mom's guide to self-care andsanity.
I'm your host, sydney Crow, andtoday we have Vanessa Flores.
She is a fitness trainer andfounder of the Strong Fit Life,
the online program Fit ParentKettleball Kickstart.
With 12 years of trainingexperience and a mother of two
young children, she understandsthe challenges and balancing

(00:21):
family responsibilities withhealth.
She is on a mission to empowerher clients, especially those in
their 40s and beyond, to buildboth mental resilience and
physical strength for ahealthier lifestyle.
Her unique approach centers onkettlebell fitness to create
lasting, healthy habits thatseamlessly integrate with daily
life.
Vanessa's impact spansnationwide, transforming lives

(00:43):
by empowering individuals tolead healthier, more confident
lives despite the challenges ofparenthood and busy schedules.
When she's not swinging bellsor doing push-ups, she enjoys a
glass of Malbec and exploringnew restaurants with her husband
and children in Tennessee.
Welcome, thank you.
Thank you for having me here.
I'm so excited.

(01:04):
I mean you and I were just kindof chit-chatting before the
show kicked off and I feel likethere's a reason we got
connected, because I'm roundingthe bend to 40 myself, so I'd
love for you to just share withthe listeners who you are and
what you're all about and kindof why you target women in their
forties and beyond.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, absolutely so, vanessa Flores.
And my fitness journey actuallystarted a bit later in life.
Growing up, I did have all theyou know body image issues, self
, you know self esteem issues.
My mom was always on a diet.
My sister I have a sister sevenyears older than me she was
always on a diet.
So that's all I knew was likediets, right on a diet.

(01:46):
So that's all I knew was likediets right.
And when I went to college Ikind of started dabbling into
like food and kinesiology,nutrition courses and I was just
like mind blown because Ididn't learn any of that growing
up.
But I took it to the extreme.
I really restricted all myfoods, was at the gym like two
hours a day and I got to theskinny that I wanted, but funny

(02:08):
thing is it never fixed anything.
I was still insecure.
I was still you know, bodyimage issues, self esteem issues
, like all of that was stillthere.
And then when I reintroducedthose foods, I went to the other
extreme and I was binging andbinging because I wouldn't allow
myself to eat those, because Ilooked at them as bad foods.

(02:28):
And now I was, my body was likegive me all of that he wouldn't
let me have before.
And I went the other extremeand gained tons of weight really
fast, was my biggest ever, andthat led me to depression and I
got to a point where I was likeI can't be in these two extremes

(02:51):
.
You know I have to find ahealthy balance, right?
So I started learning moreabout whole foods, you know,
eating more plant based andviewing fitness more as a way to
get better, like selfimprovement, versus I just going

(03:13):
to do a workout to burncalories or to punish myself,
right?
So really changing my view onwhat food really is and what
fitness really is.
It's what really changed mylife.
And that's where kettlebellscome into play, because
kettlebells a lot of people arescared of it because they look
manly and they're like I'm goingto hurt my back.
And kettlebells is a skill andlike you really have to focus on

(03:37):
what you're doing and it givesyou that like mental resilience,
that toughness that helpedbuild to where I am today and
you could do that with littlebit of time.
You don't need hours.
You could get full body.
You know workouts it's sotechnical that you have to learn
it that your body, your wholebody, is engaged.

(03:58):
You have to use all yourmuscles at the same time, which
is very different than justgrabbing some weights and just
going through the motions right.
And as I got older, I didn'thave kids until I was my first
kid, until I was 38.
So my daughter is six now andthen I had my son at 40.
Okay, and now it's like okay,I'm into fitness, I'm into

(04:22):
health, but how can I keep doingit with all the demands going
on?
I started my own business.
We moved so all these movingparts.
It's like how can I stillprioritize me where a lot of
people think that that's beingselfish where in reality it's
like that's how you keep yoursanity?
You know it's like In realityit's like that's how you keep
your sanity.

(04:43):
You know it's like your fewminutes for you just to focus on
you.
And in the beginning, when mykids were little, it was tough.
They wanted mommy, mommy, mommy, you know, and I wanted to work
out.
And I had to, like, change myexpectation and be like my
workout is just going to be whatmy workout is going to be.
You know, it's just about beinghealthy and being able to be

(05:06):
there for them.
And now they know, mommy,you're working out today, mommy,
when you're working out or canwe do a family workout?
You know like now they're likein it.
So a lot of times people thinkin the beginning my kids won't
let me, my kids won't let me.
But the more you do it, themore they see it, the more it
becomes a norm.

(05:26):
So that's why I really honed inon moms, because we can I mean
we put ourselves on the backburner so much to care for
everybody else and I always saythe most important person in
this world is you right.
And if you can't take care ofyourself, it's really hard to
take care of everybody else.
And being an older mom and evenwith, you know, changes in life

(05:51):
and hormones and all that andmaybe in their forties their
kids are starting to go off incollege, like we're in a
different season of life than wewere like in our twenties and
thirties and we really have totake that into account.
And I feel like a lot of peoplestill think that they need to
do what they did in theirtwenties in order to get fit now

(06:13):
in their forties and they'relike deers with, you know, in
the headlights.
They're like I can't do that.
That's too much, that's.
And I just want to redefinewhat fitness really is and you
know it can be simple, it isdoable, and I just want to
empower moms to do that forthemselves.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
That's really.
I mean, I love that so muchbecause I went through my own
journey as my kids were growingup and I remember one time I was
doing a home workout and it wascalled for squats and I
remember like just doing legpresses, like airplane, with my
kids.
Right, I was like well, it'sthe same motion and she was
having fun with it.
But I had to learn how toadjust my expectations and I

(06:52):
love that.
You highlight that Women intheir 40s obviously can be in a
wide variety of seasons.
Right, you touched on it.
Like you have younger kids, butsome moms might have their kids
going off to college.
Do you find that women in thisseason need different plans
based off of, like, what seasonthey're in?

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Absolutely, and that's the thing.
Like with any fitness program,it's not a cookie cutter, even
if someone's like I have thismagic formula blueprint.
It's like you have to take intoaccount your lifestyle.
You have to take into accountyour preferences.
You have to take into what doyou like to do?
Like maybe you do every Fridaylike to go out for pizza?

(07:31):
Fine, you don't have to takethat out.
You know, and I would nevertell anybody.
You can't go get ice cream withyour kids or say your kids turn
21.
You can't go out with your sonor daughter and have a drink.
You know.
Like, yeah, you have to knowwhere you are, what you like,
and some people are like I don'teven want to do burpees.

(07:52):
Like, don't even make me doburpees, fine, you don't have to
.
Yeah, there's plenty of otherthings.
Exactly so it is important toknow what season of life that
you're in you know.
Obviously, if your kids are offto college, you have more time.
If you have little ones like me, I'm still lack of sleep.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
You're in it.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
So I'm like you know you have to give yourself grace.
You're not going to be able todo all the things that you were
able to do before, and that'sokay.
It's about an at our point oflife.
It's about sustainability andabout health versus like
flaunting six pack abs Fair,which if you want to find,

(08:35):
totally fine, but it doesn'thave to be that, absolutely,
absolutely.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
And I think you kind of mentioned that you touched on
something, because in our 40s,I mean, hormones become a major
player again.
So how do you build a fitnessplan around that?

Speaker 2 (08:49):
So, you know there's this big buzz hormones and
hormones.
If you're doing this, this,this, it's your hormones and if
this is happening, it's yourhormones which, yes, you know
your hormones do play a role inwhat's going on.
But you also have to take alook at your quality of sleep.
You also have to look at how doyou manage your stress.

(09:11):
You also have to look at whatyou're eating.
You know what are you puttinginto your bodies and what are
you doing for fitness?
Because if you're doing alllike hit type workouts, if
you're eating all these foodsthat are, you know, like inflame
, or you know, all processedfoods those are, that's all
going to affect your hormones,right?

(09:33):
So I always say, say let's startat the basics.
You know, let's start at thebasic, let's build a foundation
and then from there you can divedeeper.
Feel like a lot of people wantto start at the top.
It's my hormones.
I'm going to blame my hormones.
I need to fix my hormones whereit's like let's take a little
step back, we'll get there, butlet's build the foundations

(09:55):
before we even, you know, touchthat Okay.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
So when you talk about building foundation, do
you kind of start all yourclients off on the same plan and
then like customize it aroundthat, or what does that look
like?

Speaker 2 (10:08):
So I usually have a lifestyle and habits evaluation
like a pretty deep form whenthey come in, because I kind of
want I want to know what a dayin the life of their life looks
like, Cause everybody'sdifferent.
You know, everyone says we allhave the same 24 hours.
There's the number, yes, butwithin it everyone has different

(10:29):
things that they have to getdone throughout their day.
So we start with where are youright now?
And it's like what's one changewe can make to get you to where
you want to be?
So, and everybody has adifferent weakness.
So I can't be like everyone'sgonna start with this Right, and

(10:50):
they're like but I got that,why do I?
Got to start there, yeah, youknow.
So figuring out whereeverybody's kind of struggling
with and and we've hugelyfocused on taking step by step
and make small changes at a time.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Perfect, Now how long is your program?

Speaker 2 (11:10):
My program is 16 weeks because and we call it a
kettlebell kickstart because itis kind of a kickstart you know
a lot of people want to seehumongous change in four, in
four months or 16 weeks, butthat really is kind of a
kickstart of finding out, evenyou discovering.
You know things that you like,you don't like, and but by the

(11:33):
end of the 16 weeks it's amazingwhere people are mentally from
where they started to where theyend.
And our whole goal is we wantyou to be able to do what you
learned in our program fiveyears from now, 10 years from
now.
It's not like a 30 daychallenge and then it's
something you can't keep up with.
So that's why we do 16 weeks.

(11:54):
So it is at a point whereyou're like, okay, this was, I'm
at a good point right now.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Wow, I love it so much and I know that you
mentioned you have a freeFacebook group for people where
they can come and kind of seewhat your program's all about,
get some tips and tricks.
Do you want to tell thelisteners about that?

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, so we have a free Facebook group.
It's a strong, healthy parentsand in there in our group you
get all our free resources, allour free trainings tons of tons
of value, because we I was ateacher for 13 years so I always
want to teach and I want you tolearn, because that's the like

(12:33):
people do Weight Watchers,people do, you know all these
other programs but the thing isthat they don't do is they don't
learn the skill of planning, ofprepping, of what help make
them feel good.
So I really want you knowpeople to really understand what
works best for them.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
I love that so much.
If there's one tip or piece ofadvice that you'd love to give
the moms out there, what wouldit be?

Speaker 2 (13:00):
My one biggest tip if you're struggling even just to
get started, start with a 10minute walk.
If you do that over and overagain, you're going to see
results.
You just have to be patient,right, but find just a few
minutes in your day.
It could be.
Maybe while you're waiting inthe pickup line you take a walk

(13:23):
a little bit around the schoolfor 10 minutes, or maybe you
have a 10 minute break beforeyour meetings.
Go for a quick walk.
Not only will that help you toget results, it'll help build
consistency, it'll help youclear your mind, it'll help you
boost your energy and your mood.
It's like just that small, youdon't have to go.

(13:44):
You know all or nothing.
White knuckle.
If it's not an hour, it's notworth it.
It's like just find 10 minutesand and if walking is where you
start, perfect Start there.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
I love that so much.
Well, thank you so much forbeing here today and sharing
your expertise with thelisteners.
I know, as I round the bend to40 myself, these are really
helpful tips for me toincorporate into my daily habits
.
So you guys will make sure toinclude the Facebook group in
the show notes so that you guyswill be able to connect with
Vanessa and if you guys have anyquestions, you guys can, you

(14:19):
know, drop those in her Facebookgroup.
Go and get those free tips andtricks.
And thank you guys for tuninginto today's episode where we
help you conquer the chaos oneday at a time.