Overcoming Adversity: Using Movement, Words and Laughter to Change Your Mindset

Sandy Joy Weston shares her journey from childhood dancer to groundbreaking fitness pioneer and joy advocate, revealing how simple daily practices can transform our lives. She introduces her powerful "Movement, Words, and Laughter" approach that takes just 1-3 minutes daily to shift energy and mindset.

• First female trainer for the Philadelphia Flyers in an era when women in professional sports were rare
• Growing up in difficult circumstances with a mother who spent years in mental institutions
• Finding her calling through spreading joy to patients in psychiatric facilities as a child
• Transitioning from aspiring Broadway dancer to fitness innovator
• Creating the "Movement, Words, and Laughter" framework for mental wellness
• Specific strength training and interval methods for women in midlife facing hormonal changes
• The importance of protein and resistance training for women over 50
• Practical 4-minute workout routine anyone can do at home
• How studying joyful people led to creating effective guided journals
• Finding what truly brings you joy rather than following prescribed routines
• Understanding that small, sustainable changes rewire the brain more effectively than dramatic shifts

Learn more about Sandy's books, workshops, keynote speaking, and podcasts "Let's Keep It Real" and "Hey, I Got Something to Say" 

If you enjoy listening, please support my podcast at the link below!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to No Shrinking Violet
• 8:15 First Female Trainer for Philadelphia Flyers
• 16:45 Sandy's Journey and Finding Joy
• 26:10 Movement, Words and Laughter Approach
• 32:50 Exercise and Strength Training for Women
• 40:00 Five-Minute Workout Tips
• 47:15 The Power of Daily Journaling
• 53:40 Small Changes Lead to Big Results

Transcript

Mary: 0:05

Welcome to No Shrinking Violence. I'm your host, Mary Rothwell, licensed therapist and certified integrative mental health practitioner. I've created a space where we celebrate the intuition and power of women who want to break free from limiting narratives. We'll explore all realms of wellness, what it means to take up space unapologetically, and how your essential nature is key to living life on your terms. It's time to own your space, trust your nature and flourish. Let's dive in. Hi and welcome to the show.

Mary: 0:39

I grew up with three older brothers. They and my dad loved sports. I have memories of sitting on the front porch with them and listening to baseball games in the summer. We lived in Pennsylvania and we were Philadelphia sports fans, hands down. I won't bore you with the details, except to say that I used to know the batting averages of every player on the Phillies and on the rare occasion I hear old recordings of the voices of the game announcers, harry Callis and Richie Ashburn. It takes me right back to the front porch on hot summer days. As I got older, my sport of choice to watch was ice hockey. I'm sure my high school boyfriend probably had something to do with the depth of my love for it, but even after we broke up, going to games was one of my favorite things. So when I saw that my guest today used to be a trainer for the Philadelphia Flyers, a dozen memories I had not visited in decades came back. But beyond that, she was a trainer in one of the most physically aggressive sports there is, as a female, in a time when I'm sure it was way more rare. And then when I read about all the amazing ways she has empowered women, I had to talk to her.

Mary: 1:53

Sandy Joy Weston has a master's degree and is a keynote speaker, international podcaster, three-time published author and entrepreneur who has owned and operated health and wellness companies for over 30 years. In addition to being the first female trainer for the Philadelphia Flyers, she spent many years as a media personality and is Philadelphia NBC 10's fitness expert. She created a nationally recognized Philly street line dance to help combat Philadelphia's fattest city label. For the past five years, sandy has been focusing on SJW Productions, an international company whose main mission is to highlight all the positive in the world which, especially now, we sorely need. She has written two books Train your Head and your Body Will Follow and my 30-Day Reset Journal. Through her writing and her programs and workshops, sandy's mission is to spread pure joy and inspire others to see their true power. Welcome to no Shrinking, violet Sandy.

Sandy: 2:57

Mary, I've never had an intro like that. I love it. Thank you very much.

Mary: 3:03

You are so welcome. I'm not kidding. When I saw that I just had all these memories. And then I saw that you worked with Eric Lindros and I was like, oh my God, this is like a dream come true. So we may weave more of that into our discussion today. But of course, the thing that occurs to me first is I really need to know what it was like to work for a professional hockey team, and did that job actually bring you to Philly, or were you born there?

Sandy: 3:33

So neither. How do you like that answer? Okay, so can I take you back a little bit?

Mary: 3:39

You can.

Sandy: 3:40

Just so you can understand. Like how I got to the Flyers Sure, I grew up in Jersey, ended up coming this way to go to school, right. So I got my undergrad at Westchester and then I went to Temple for my master's and during that time I was a dance major. I started out as a dance major at Montclair College because I wanted to be on Broadway and soon found out, mary, I wasn't that good. I mean, I was great in my little hometown of Phillipsburg, new Jersey, but I couldn't keep up with the rest of the girls. I just didn't have some of the things they did at the time. So I ended up taking a year off. Go to Westchester and their health and visit department is where the dance concentration was and I had to. As part of my internship I had to teach aerobic fitness classes, which back then was mostly calisthenics and being a dance major, I was going to put some flair into it. So I started teaching these amazing classes which I had a blast learning, the calisthenic part, bringing in the dance and that's where I met all these amazing people on the main line. I mean it was the who's who affiliate.

Sandy: 4:57

I was teaching in Ballot, kenwood at the time and also at the time there really weren't that many trainers, maybe out in the West Coast, but not on the East Coast. So they asked me if I would come train them in their home. I was like, okay, and you're going to pay me? How much money? Okay, you know I was, you know, right out of college. All right, I'll do that. And it ended up flourishing into this huge training business. But what it really did is it introduced me to so many amazing people that would go on to be my friends and also my mentors. I'll tell you what you want to meet people and you want to learn all about business being a home trainer, because you will not only get paid to train them, but these people mentored me, I mean, they taught me everything they knew about business.

Sandy: 5:49

And two of my main clients one was Pat Croce I don't know if you know that name, mary, but he was the trainer of the Flyers and he owned like 21 different physical therapy clinics sports medicine, physical therapy clinics and he was the bomb and he was really high energy and motivating and he worked with the Flyers and he knew Ed Snyder, obviously, who owned the Flyers, and he introduced me to Ed. So Ed Snyder, became a very dear friend and a mentor to me, and so that's how I got to the Flyers. Because once I started training Ed, they realized, oh, sandy and I had other trainers at the time could really serve our team, because what would happen is the guys would get injured Okay, cool, cool, cool. They would go to physical therapy, but then they wouldn't keep up with their fitness and their rehab. So they brought me in and seven of my guys I just at the time there really weren't any females around, so I was the only female in the group to train the flyers, especially when they, you know, got finished rehab and to keep them going.

Sandy: 7:00

And I was appointed Eric Lindros. So that's how it happened and it was so much fun.

Mary: 7:08

Wow, what a great story. And you know, I think often when we have a path that we think we really want like you want to dance and then it couldn't happen sometimes I think people get stuck there. But isn't that often the place in life where something different opens up? And I think if you're open to going in a different direction, you can find so many rich things that come from that.

Sandy: 7:33

Well, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. It's difficult at the time because you're thinking I mean, imagine my whole life. I thought, you know, I was the bomb for like, the bomb for, you know, for dancing, and this is what I was going to do and this is how I was going to spend my whole life. And I was born with I didn't know at the time hip dysplasia, so I had no turnout, so I couldn't kick high into the side, which was really needed at the time. On Broadway, Now, you could be different types of dancers, but I couldn't do it all.

Sandy: 8:07

So I realized, even if I practiced 12 hours a day, which I did, these young girls would come in after being up all night partying and they would kick my butt. I mean, it was devastating, but I knew there had to be. I always believed okay, well, that didn't work out, there's got to be something else. So it, you know, I took off, I pumped gas, I waitressed and it just led me to find out. Ooh, there's health and phys ed. Ooh, I love studying about how the mind and body works and I can do dance, and then who.

Sandy: 8:39

I had no idea that it would take me on a path of owning and operating health clubs and working with sports teams. I thought it was going to lead me to be a dance instructor at a dance institute. I had no clue, but all the mentors them seeing something in me before I saw something in me taking me under their wing, wanting to teach me everything they knew. It just ended up turning into a private training company and then it led into health clubs. I really was beyond blessed to have these people in my life.

Mary: 9:13

Yeah, and you were open to it. And I think sometimes when you think about doing a certain thing, like if you would have just fast forwarded to, what would it be like to work with a professional hockey player, it might be really intimidating, but it seems like sort of you followed these breadcrumbs and you were open to allowing people to be those mentors to you and you sort of ended up there, which is really cool.

Sandy: 9:40

Yeah, I always thought that if your eyes and ears are open, you don't know what path is going to open up for you. And I've always been like that and I always felt that my mission was to spread joy. And even now, my new keynotes are your competitive edges. Joy Because just recently, somebody kept saying to me I don't get it, how did you survive all the big health clubs opening up? Because there was major chains that ended up opening up within a few years of me opening up my health clubs and they wanted this plan. Like, okay, this is how I did it.

Sandy: 10:20

This was a specific strategic business plan, and not that you didn't have business plans, because you did and I was really good at marketing. But I believe and it just came out of my mouth I was like, well, my competitive edge was joy. That's what my competitive edge was being able to find joy within me and others when nobody else could find it. Being able to tap into joy to see the possibilities that weren't right in front of me when things look like you're hitting a wall. Being able to tap into that joy to see all the endless possibilities. I truly believe it was my competitive edge.

Mary: 11:02

Yeah, so that's a lot of your journey. So it sounds like you had those opportunities. You sort of then kind of leverage that into health clubs. You're doing so much more. But in overall of that, when I, when you say what is your why? And it's to bring joy, but how do you do that through the work you do? How do you bring that to your clients?

Sandy: 11:28

So I'm going to take it a little bit back on the journey because I really do think it'll help you understand why I so believe that joy was my competitive edge and also my why and my mission. So what I didn't tell you is and I actually, mary, I didn't even start telling my story till a few years ago when I ended up taking this course to up my keynote over COVID, when I wasn't traveling so much Heroic Public Speaking. It was right in Lambertville, new Jersey, and man, oh man, it was not only brilliant on stage presence and writing your script, but it also was cathartic because for the first time, they're like no, we need to hear more stories. We need to hear more stories because I was always the girl who could get the party started, get you up. Wellness movement, all about fitness, but it really had none of my personal journey in it and they finally convinced me if I told a piece of my personal journey, I would have more of an impact on other people, and I've seen that happen.

Sandy: 12:31

So I grew up in the projects, which wasn't great, but that wasn't the toughest part. My mom also spent majority of her life in asylums. She had so many mental health issues she battled a lot of demons. So I would say for the majority of my life nobody was really giving me the time of day. You know, be grateful to graduate high school. You know that's great that you like to dance, but hey, this is a major accomplishment if you get through high school and I knew that was great. But there was other things I wanted to do. I just felt in every ounce of my bones and also my uncle paid for my dance lessons. I had my dance and my dance instructor, ms Leona Mae Lipke, that really believed in me and thank God for them, because the rest of the family and a lot of the teachers and advisors my family was so difficult to deal with and you know there really wasn't this parental guidance that they really weren't spending a lot of time thinking you know, how am I going to get Sandy to college? So what I do remember is that from the time I was nine now, I didn't call it this Mary, I did not call it this, but I, what I call it now is movement, words and laughter. It takes one to three minutes a day to change your life in a positive, powerful way. I've been using since a child. I did not realize that. And again, I didn't have to take a leap of faith and I didn't know the science behind it at the time. I just knew movement, words and laughter got me into that powerful mindset and the names came up just recently when I was putting together my TED Talk.

Sandy: 14:18

But to get out of hearing all the noise surrounding me in the home and drown out all the naysayers, I would put on music and dance around for a minute, just for a minute, and I would move, and it didn't matter what, but it would put me into a great headspace. And then I would the word. I would pick one word a day depending on how I felt that day, like how do I want to show up? And it could be ooh, fun, joy, ease and flow, calm, powerful. And I would think oh, how would I feel if I showed up for school feeling joyful, fun, you know, silly, and I would write the word down school, feeling joyful, fun, silly, and I would write the word down. And then the laughter. I always made light of everything, no matter how difficult the situation is, I made light of it.

Sandy: 15:09

Well, that movement, words and laughter really saved my life. I mean, it kept me going through all those years and then, in addition to that, when you're saying my mission and how I apply it to other people, well, when I was nine years old, my brother and I started visiting my mom in the mental institutions and you can imagine, I mean, the mood was not so good and I knew that I would have to change it drastically. So I would always want to go when they were getting their medicine and we quickly go to my mom's room, wheel her back out into the lobby and I'd go around. Now, keep in mind, I was a kid at the time and I would say to everyone you don't need that medicine, Just watch me, I'll bring you joy. And then I would pull out. I had my backpack. I called it my joy pack. I'd pull out my boom box, push the button, throw on my tap shoes and I would start dancing. And I saw immediately how I could shift energy. I saw, oh my goodness, these people in a split second. They were laughing and smiling and they were having a good time and I could bring them hope and I could bring me hope.

Sandy: 16:20

So it was beyond a shadow of a doubt that my mission in life I didn't know how I'm not saying I was tap dancing every day in metal institutions, but I knew my mission was to spread joy. Now, the reason I'm telling you that let's fast forward here I am. My mission is to spread joy. Now, the reason I'm telling you that let's fast forward, here I am. My mission is to spread joy to others. Well, I knew in the darkest situation that I could spread joy and maybe everyone didn't have an extreme situation like that they went through. But everybody has times in their life of heartache, pain, feeling anxious, overwhelmed, maybe even depressed, and I could shift my energy so that I could shift their energy to see all the possibilities that were out there. So I did that with every one of my clients and I'm telling you, I don't think I had a client that didn't get results. And everybody kept saying to me think I had a client that didn't get results. And everybody kept saying to me well, why is it? Well, it's because I dealt with them with the mind-body-spirit approach.

Sandy: 17:26

Back there, it wasn't just go in and work out. I wanted to find out what made them tick, what did they enjoy, what were their blocks? It was more of all the mental and the spiritual, and then the fitness was added on and then I brought that to my clubs. I wanted my clubs to be like the Disney World of health clubs. That came in and everyone had a good time and joy would be throughout the club and no matter how grumpy somebody was, I would tell my front desk those are the fun people.

Sandy: 17:57

You know the happy people. They're easy. But what's the really fun part and the challenging part is can you shift the energy of somebody? That's a real crap apple. So everything I did, joy was involved in it and it is my middle name. So I said, well, I don't know how much my mom gave me, but she gave me my middle name. So I said, well, I don't know how much my mom gave me, but she gave me my middle name. So I hope that answers your question on how I've taken that and why it means so much to me and have put it in every piece of my life.

Mary: 18:37

Wow, that is an amazing story.

Sandy: 18:37

There's so many parts to that that I'm like, wow, that's so cool, wow, that's so cool. Well, I think you needed to know and to understand why do I believe so much in the power of how quickly you can shift your energy and the energy of others, and you never know what person you're going to change your entire life, even like we hear it all the time, but it's so true by saying one kind word to them or making them smile or laugh. I remember during COVID, when we weren't allowed to go out that much, they would call me the bike girl because I was always on my bike outside and I would do all these goofy things to get the neighbors to laugh as I was biking. And then you could go to Whole Foods and wear your mask or Trader Joe's or you know any local grocery store, and I would dance in line. My husband's son wouldn't want to come in with me because I was embarrassed, but I was doing anything to shift the energy because you know it was pretty gloomy.

Mary: 19:30

Yeah, you were a little ahead of your time in that and many of us still think this way that if we need to get healthy quote, get healthy that's just about our body and it's not. It's about our whole being. And somehow you instinctively recognize that because of the impact of music on you, of mindset on you, and then you were able to bring that into your work with people.

Sandy: 20:00

I truly believe as much. I call God Neil. I tell Neil we don't need to do that life again. But I wouldn't be who I am unless I went through that. Because in the darkest, most, most, I mean really desperate situation, I found this movement, words and laughter and I saw how, every day, by doing it, I mean like I didn't know what I was doing, I just came upon it, start dancing, start thinking a word I was like, ooh, I feel better, laughed about the dumbest things and, oh my goodness, I had to tell everybody, don't you know, you can do this, you can tap into it.

Sandy: 20:42

Now I truly, whatever it is someone's belief system is, I truly believed there was something bigger than me watching out for me. So, whether you tap into your heart, the universe, your higher power, god, whatever it is, I also thought at a very young age well, you might not love me, but I got the universe behind me and I also believed I had five angels and they laughed a lot. So when people would come over to the house and they'd be worried about me whether the ministers, the preachers, the therapists I say don't worry about me, I got five angels, I'm doing good. I'm more concerned with you, how are you doing? And they would be baffled. But they would look down.

Sandy: 21:23

I remember they would have, like sometimes, these glasses on. They'd look below the glasses and they'd look me in the eyes. You go. They'd say, damn girl, I really think you are going to be okay. And I said I told you I got five angels. And so add that into movement, words and laughter and my belief in a higher power watching over me and my five angels. It really, really added a whole new level of joy to my life.

Mary: 22:01

For sure, and one of the things that I think is such a gift in your approach is, when we talk about fitness, we use the word often exercise, and I think that for people that need more of that, you know that they need it because they just need to move, they need to improve their health, all of those things that one word feels so full of pressure. But it seems like you can take that idea of movement, which was really your little mantra growing up, and you sort of build it into more a way of being instead of a thing that you have to do, which I think can be such a gift to people that feel that heaviness or that dread of like, oh, I have to exercise today.

Sandy: 22:41

I truly believe that it all starts with your beliefs, the stories you tell yourself, your mindset, and not because of anything that we did wrong I'm going to emphasize you didn't do anything wrong but stories, your whole beliefs, you heard. We believe that it has to be time consuming and difficult to be in great shape, to be mentally healthy, to have a lot of things in life and it's just not true. Yes, you do have to take action, but where are you taking action from? And if you spent more time in really being honest on where you are, because you want to express all emotions and they're all your emotions, they're not good or bad, it's just are they serving you well and you realize where you are, then you can shift your mindset into an emotion that serves you well.

Sandy: 23:39

And once you're in that mindset, what kind of movement do you want to do, even just for a few minutes? You know a couple minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, and you start with that and there's got to be something. You may not love it, but you might be, I'm okay with that, whether it's walking outside, gardening, which I've been spending a lot of time doing, walking with a friend, biking, working out on your own in your home. You want to be in a mindset that you actually look forward to it and that, hopefully, a few minutes builds into a few more. Even if you got up, if you're working from home and you got up every 30 minutes or hour and you did chores up and down the steps you know, or going outside, that's movement, you know.

Sandy: 24:27

Do a pushup against your wall. It doesn't have to be like I have to go to the gym every single day for an hour, and I'm saying that as someone who owns gyms the people that went. We tried to make it as fun as possible, and I'm saying that as someone who owns gyms the people that went. We tried to make it as fun as possible and we had 20 and 30 minute classes as well as the longer classes, because we wanted you to really embrace it and find something that worked for you. Because, yes, there's no getting around it, movement is healthy for you mentally, physically and spiritually.

Mary: 24:59

And habits do start with a few minutes, right. Yeah, you build in things slowly and so I'm going to tell you. I know that there are people listening right now because I work with a lot of women in midlife who they're very frustrated with weight gain and they feel that I'm doing the same thing I've always done. Why can I not get my weight off? Why do I feel worse? Would you just apply this same thing? Would there be any differences? Like for women you work with that are in midlife fifties, maybe peri or postmenopause?

Sandy: 25:36

Absolutely, Mary. I'm so glad you asked me that because I'm actually putting together a workshop and I'm doing a presentation in a week or two, because I really, really want to address this issue with women that are especially 50 and above. Okay, so, without getting too much into it, because there are amazing scientists out there who are addressing the issues and I've been listening to so many of the podcasts, which I am thrilled with, Even orthopedic surgeons are addressing this issue and I'm like God, I've been saying this for years and now there's science behind it. So for me, Mary, there's things like you know say oh, it was innate in you. Well, why did I keep movement, words and laughter in my life? Because I saw it working. I applied it. I didn't know the science behind it and I didn't have to take a leap of faith. It worked. So all the things that I know work for men and women and how it changes during different stages of your life, it's because I've seen it work and I applied it. A lot of things. I didn't have the science behind it, Okay, so keep that in mind.

Sandy: 26:41

For women, yes, there are going to be changes. We know that your metabolism is going to slow down and there are hormonal issues and it affects women differently. So I definitely am someone that says you know, go see your family doctor, you know, know what's going on underneath the hood, because there might be things that you want to address. But in addition to that, most women don't eat enough protein and they don't do enough strength training. So for a woman, especially as she gets older, even if it was just for health reasons and not to lose weight, you need to do some type of resistance training, even if it's your body weight. And I'm not talking going in there, you know, and really putting on, you know, heavy, heavy, heavy pounds. I'm talking that whatever you do now they're saying even four to six reps works you don't have.

Sandy: 27:38

Don't go in and do like, you know, oh, lift the light weights 10 to 15 times. Now I've been doing this forever. I'm really into. First of all, I don't have that attention span, but I don't do a lot of reps, you know. I'm like four to six reps, last two, it's exhausting in great form, and now I'm listening to the science behind why that's important to do. So for me.

Sandy: 28:03

Go in, work with someone, find a coach, find a trainer, find something that's right for your body, Even if you don't have to use them full time. Just get a program. But no, it doesn't have to be time consuming. But what you want to remember is, even if you go into the four to eight range or 10, don't lift in a way that, okay, I lifted 10 to 15 times and the last two weren't really challenging. You really want, in great form, for those last two reps to be extremely challenging for you in great form and in addition to your cardio work. Those are the two main things that I see happen all the time. They do too many reps or they're just doing cardio and they're not doing weight bearing and they're not doing any resistance training, and it's so, so, so important for so many reasons.

Sandy: 29:02

Now, another thing is that really is beneficial to everyone is change it up. Change it up, your body gets acclimated. So if you go in and do the same routine, you might be healthy, you'll be strong, but you're not going to lose as much weight. They just did a study recently which I can attest to that if you don't even know what's coming up, your brain has to shift to go oh, what's this? You will actually burn even more calories, which is why, with some of my clients that I still do.

Sandy: 29:36

I call out an exercise and they don't know what's coming, and I do interval training with them and that way they're shaken up even more than okay, they're changing their workout. So that's the ultimate if you don't even know what's coming next, but if you don't have someone you're working with, even just constantly changing your workout routine. And then the last thing, because I don't want to confuse them too much, is interval work is really great for losing weight, Meaning as going all out, just even three times with your cardio for 30 seconds and slow it down will really shake up your metabolism and help you lose weight. It doesn't have to be like running like you know all out for you know, like somebody else would, but for you that you're doing all out for 30 seconds, and even if you just did that three times, it would really speed up your metabolism and help you lose weight.

Mary: 30:32

Those are really good suggestions because I think we do need to change the way we do things, especially as we get older. So that argument that you've probably heard a lot from women I don't want to use heavy weights, I don't want to bulk up, it doesn't work that way and what's 30 seconds going to do? But I know, you know, as our hormones shift as older women, we don't manage cortisol as well and cortisol is our stress hormone and that comes into play when we do prolonged endurance sort of training, right. So our body is much more able to manage it when we do that intense kind of exertion in shorter spurts, it works better for our bodies at this age.

Sandy: 31:18

And we're not saying to do it every workout. You know, maybe just add some in once or twice a week. Where are you? You could even do speed walking, you know it's not a matter of oh my God, you know I'm going to have to run, you know, a six minute mile. It's not about that, it's you. And I also would talk to a professional, because most family practitioners and nutritionists or physical therapists or whatever they have to even guide them just to get them in the right program for them, can make a huge difference. You don't have to work with somebody full time if you can't, but at least put you on the right program for your body type.

Mary: 31:59

Yeah, and the strength training is really about keeping our bones strong, which I don't know that everybody makes that connection. It's about having the muscle mass, certainly, but that keeps our bones, which are much more at risk as we get older as women. That helps that. So I think, putting it in a context of why am I doing this, it can sometimes help also. Okay, so I'm going to give you a little challenge. Those were wonderful action steps. So I can hear one of my clients saying I don't have time to find a trainer, I don't have time to do this. I haven't exercised consistently in six months. Give them three to five things they can start with, just where they are.

Sandy: 32:41

I'm going to call your client Sally Bell. We'll name him Sally Bell. Okay, sally Bell, I get you know how much time and you say you don't want to find a trainer Cool. But there are so many freaking YouTube fitness workouts for 40 plus, 50 plus, 60 plus, that you could plug in anything and say I would like a five minute strength training workout for a woman in her 50s and something is going to pop up. And that's important because so many people need visuals, because so many people need visuals. But if, without knowing them, if I and I don't know, if you know what their injuries are, if they keep you know they're prone to, you know, gaining weight, losing weight.

Sandy: 33:27

But in general, if you just did what I call like a HIIT workout at home, it would be amazing. Even one cycle cycle, I call them giant sets. So let's just say you moved in place for 45 seconds to a minute jumping jacks, dance around, whatever you want to do, right? Just move around for a little bit, get the blood flowing, any type of aerobic activity and that. Then you went and you did squats. Now, that's the thing. A lot of people don't do them right, but they could do squats. They can do chair squats, whatever feels good to them, sitting back in their butt. They do squats and they do again for 45 seconds, giving themselves 15 second break. Right, then they go to the floor and then you do the same thing in good form. Now the last two have to be difficult. So it's not 45 seconds. You could just do it until you feel like, oh, now, those last two were challenging. Let me switch to the next one.

Sandy: 34:28

And they did pushups. I don't care if you do them on your stomach, on your knees, military, you could start in military, drop down to knees. You could stay on your knees, do a set of pushups to exhaustion and then flip over and and do one of your favorite ab exercises, even if it's with your feet up on the sofa, making sure you don't pull your neck area, because you want to make sure that you're really hitting your lower abs. That's one set. Now look what happened. You got your heart rate up, right, you did cardio. You hit lower body, but squats also speeds up your metabolism. Then you got your upper body Pushups are so amazing for your entire body and then you flipped over and you did a core exercise.

Sandy: 35:13

That's it, let's say. You said okay, I have four minutes. Well, there you go. That was a four minute routine. Oh, today I have more. I'm going to repeat that cycle. Oh, today I have more. I'm going to repeat that cycle. But I would suggest, mary, that you look up how to do a proper squat or a pushup or an ab exercise, because you don't want to get it wrong and it's not time consuming because there's so so many videos out there. Does that help?

Mary: 35:39

Absolutely, and that idea I think we've been maybe given when we were younger.

Mary: 35:46

You have to do a lot for it to have an impact.

Mary: 35:50

You don't and I love that you're saying that, because people could think what's four minutes going to do, and I think part of that. Let's be honest, it's an excuse because you can do those things and you make it, first of all, youtube great because there is so much good content and I do truly believe you be some instructors that will be very clear in exactly how you're breathing, the little minute positioning of your body, and I find when I have those instructors and I make those small changes, it totally feels different. So being able to look at somebody, how they're doing it and take it I mean start slow If anything doesn't feel comfortable and you do make the point if you really haven't moved, then you might want to check with your doctor. But yes, it does not have to be this big elaborate thing. So if you have five minutes to go outside and walk around your house or walk down the block and back, you're getting sun, you're breathing air. I think it's the things that are also around the movement that are helpful too.

Sandy: 37:16

Well, I used to do this years ago and now it's not so crazy where I would walk or run and then I would do push-ups you pushups on a bench or against a tree, and then I'd walk or run again, and then I'd do tricep dips and I would make it fun because I loved being outside. And, like I said before, I get bored easily, so I would break it up and I wouldn't run or speed walk the whole time and it was so much fun. Like, oh, what obstacle can I do something off? Now? It makes me happy, it brings me joy. And even when they're saying, as far as time, like there's a financial, I get you know, like you don't want to hire someone.

Sandy: 37:56

But I specifically will design a workout for my client because I know how they're built, I know what their needs are, I know what their strengths and their weaknesses are. But besides that, like you said, you can find so many like workouts. It could be yoga, it could be Pilates, it could be a dance, it could be calisthenics. They're going to find something that they like and that they're drawn to, which will bring them back, and a lot of times they're done in small increments. So you could go okay, I'm done, I'm going to just do five minutes.

Sandy: 38:29

Oh, guess what, before you know it, which a lot of people do, mary, you know this? Next thing they know 20 minutes has passed. It's just that it's also the habit. When are you doing it? A lot of people to create the habit, they want to do it the same time every day. If it's not first thing in the morning or afternoon, night, whatever it is, you tell yourself okay, no matter what, I'm going to do it just for a few minutes. And then I know it sounds silly, but even putting your shoes or your workout bag right by the door, you're more likely to do it. Oh, there's my sneakers.

Mary: 39:03

Okay, I can fit five minutes of a walk in, yeah, and knowing what you're not going to do. I mean, for me, I used to love going to the gym, but then I moved and I after work, this is when I would typically go. Now I had to go out of my way to get to the gym. I hated it. And so I think being also without making an excuse, but being you know, really knowing what your preferences are that if you really hate doing some specific thing, find a different way, absolutely yeah. The other thing that's a little tip is wear a weighted vest when you walk, that's another one.

Sandy: 39:46

Yeah, I see people out there with dumbbells too, weights, I mean so many. You want to make it fun for you. And again, if somebody says, oh, you know you've got to do this, you're going to lose weight and you hate it, no, no, no, no, no. There's so many ways, trust me. There's so many ways, trust me, there's so many ways to work out that you will find something that resonates with you. Do not do something that feels awkward, do not do something that feels painful, and do not do something that you hate because you won't stay with it right, and the more you do it once you find your thing, the more you will do it because you're going to start to feel better.

Mary: 40:23

Yeah, so, and I, I trick myself too, because I do not like the word exercise and I know I've found a lot of my clients don't, so I just use the word movement I have to move today. It feels better than saying you have to exercise today. So, yeah, you can kind of use those little tricks. So I know that one of your books is about journaling, so we haven't really talked about that. Why do you find journaling important?

Sandy: 40:47

Yeah, and, by the way, mary, you just reminded me early that I have to update some of my bios. I guess I didn't change it. I wrote a third one, I think it was at 2020, called Recess to Reset, and it was for kids. It was a journaling for kids eight to 12. But what happened is all my adult clients loved it. So now my adult men and women use Recess to Reset and it's becoming so popular with adults that my publisher, which was Skyhorse Publishing, we're not going to rebrand it very similar so that it's for adults too, because they're like I like this way better, I'm like, okay, whatever one that works.

Sandy: 41:33

But to answer your question, I wanted again to have people see that it didn't take a lot of time and it wasn't time consuming and that the most important thing is how they chose to show up every day. And back in the days where people like, eh, not many people were journaling, I introduced the idea that, hey, what if we could make a guided journal so that people didn't think that, oh, I don't know what to write, I don't know what to do, and it was just a guide for them to put them in that powerful mindset. So in order for me to do that. I decided I was going to study and interview people, mary, that I felt exuded pure joy. So I took a year and I bribed people that were at my gym with either memberships or training and I said, can I study you and interview you? And I was fortunate, and you know there's thousands of people that were members of the gym. So I was able to get all walks of life, like everything, from students to CEOs, to CFOs, to moms to dads. You know the gamut and the common thread that they had.

Sandy: 42:56

I felt they exuded so much pure joy and I wanted to say see if there was a way that we could teach others. Is this transferable or not? Were they born like this or was there a habit or skill that we could teach others? And I studied them for almost a year and I couldn't find anything, mary, I couldn't find one thing. I'm like, oh God, what are we going to do? These people are just this way.

Sandy: 43:25

And then finally, right near the end I don't even know it was me or one of my assistants that saw it there was a common thread they all had. Every single one of them did something every single day to get into that positive, powerful mindset, and it was all different. And it didn't matter if it was a few minutes or a few hours. There was nothing more important than how they chose to show up in the world. They didn't want to get banged around like a ping pong ball yeah, life happens but they wanted to be more in control of how they were going to react to all the stuff going on in the world. So there are people that spend a few minutes, a few hours, and it was everything from playing music to singing, to walking their dog, to playing with their cat, to working out, to journaling, to making muffins, I mean, to making lists. I mean it was all different. So when I saw this, I'm like list. I mean it was all different. So when I saw this, I'm like, oh my God, it can be transferred, it can be taught, maybe not the whole entire thing, because these people also believed they were deserving, they were worthy of having what they wanted out of life, but they had this habit.

Sandy: 44:41

So then I decided okay, that's what I'm going to create a journal, a guidebook to help people get into that mindset if they already didn't have their system. So I was very fortunate. One of my health clubs was right downtown on 19th and Market, and all so many many colleges were right there. So I was able to what I call the powers to be draw on a lot of amazing humans to help me, because I wanted to have the science behind journaling. So I had neuroscientists, sports psychologists, positive psychologists, exercise physiologists, nutritionists, spiritual leaders and gurus and they came together in one of my offices to help me create this guidebook and also the science behind how the mind and body work together. And it took us a while because there was a lot of debating, I know, for this one page and how we were going to put it out, but finally we put together a five minute journal and then again I sent it out to different people a hundred people and I said I need you to do this and we're going to watch you for a year and I want you to pick one area of your life that you want to take up a lot notch. Now keep in mind, mary, these are highly motivated people. All these people I knew from the gym, so they were already motivated people. And I said pick an area of your life that is not going so well. So if your body health is doing well, then pick love, relationship and if that's going well, pick money, career. But pick one of those areas that you want to take up a notch. And after a year, mary, only one person did it, one person. It failed flat on its freaking face and I was devastated. I'm like, oh my God.

Sandy: 46:29

So I go back and I meet with one of my professors at Temple, dr Kendrick, and I'll never forget this. He goes well, of course they're not going to do it. I go what do you mean? He goes well, no one's going to spend five minutes a day to improve their life, unless they already have that belief system. I go okay. Well, it would have been good if you mentioned that a year ago. And he said I think it was more important for you to find it out, trial and error and experimenting. So I said okay. So he said, yeah, they're not going to waste their time because they think five minutes, this is ridiculous, this is not going to make a difference in my life. Make it a minute to three minutes and they'll do it, because now, if they're on the edge, they're not sure it might, it might not. They'll take 30 days and they'll do that minute to three minutes and then, once they see results, they keep going. So that's why I came up with all it takes is one to three minutes was my tagline, and I put it back out there and then it was successful and they saw results and they saw the power of writing it down.

Sandy: 47:36

And the main thing is, yeah, there are people that journal, they write a lot, they write to clear their head, they write to you know, be creative, and that's all well and good, but I was trying to get get the habit. If you had no habit of getting you in that powerful mindset before you started the day, that would not be time consuming. So the guidebook was all about you creating what you wanted to accomplish, not what anybody else wanted you to accomplish, like, what were your goals for that the next 30 days? And then what is the word that you could write down, your power statement. And it's a way for you, every single day, mary, for you to remind yourself of what you said you want to achieve, and you could switch your mind up.

Sandy: 48:26

But I wanted it to be something that you would see and go oh yeah, am I on track? Is that where I'm spending my time, or did I get off so that you would get back on track quicker for what you wanted to achieve as well as. Hmm, I'm not feeling powerful. What could I do to reset myself, to feel more powerful today? Now let's go fast forward. And now it's pretty mainstream. There are a lot of people that have so many journals out there and so many people know that it works. I'm not saying they're doing it or not. I'm all about don't make it complicated. Yes, there's amazing journals out there and if they work, great. But start with something. And now they do know that you're more likely to reach 40% of your goal if you write it down and you can see.

Mary: 49:23

That makes a lot of sense and I use that. I don't really prescribe journaling in my therapy work because I think some people are like I don't have time for that, especially more nowadays. So I just do one good thing like what's one good thing, and that's not so much like you're saying about what's your goal, but it's the mindset which is, you know, you might have, might have had a great coffee that day and that might have been the best thing of the day, but you're still focusing on the good things because our brains are wired to focus often on the negative because we're protecting ourselves. So, yeah, that intentionality is so important. Well, there have been so many good takeaways today and I think the biggest is that change doesn't have to be one day you're doing this and the next day you're doing this big, monumental change, because it doesn't work that way that this one to three minutes is really key and you are doing something, you're building something by using that amount of time.

Sandy: 50:27

Yeah, and remember, like you said about the brain, we do get a lot of negative thoughts roam around in there it doesn't matter where they came from, right, and also social media, and then there's naysayers, I mean, they sneak in there. And so, the more that you reset your brain every single day, it's like picking weeds. You don't just pick weeds once and you're done. So, little by little, you're resetting your brain every day to serve you. Well, that's it. And the rewiring is gradual because the brain goes wait a minute, mayday, mayday. It likes the devil they know versus the devil they don't. I mean, even if it's not serving you well, your brain does not want change and so it will buck you, especially when it's dramatic, because you can't sustain it. But little by little, you change it and you shift it and your brain goes oh okay, we're safe, we can do that. Let's do a little more. Okay, we're safe, we can do that. And boom, it builds, it builds, it builds and it builds.

Mary: 51:30

Yeah, yeah, that's very powerful. So you obviously have amazing energy that comes through very clearly and you have a lot of good things that you do to help people, which is it's really amazing. I think anybody that is has been in your orbit has you know. It's really amazing. I think anybody that is has been in your orbit has you know, really gotten a gift. So I know that you mentioned some things that you offer and I will put your website in my show notes. So there you have three books, that which we've talked about. I can put them in the show notes. And you mentioned that you're working on a talk for women in midlife. Is there anything else that is happening that you want to share before we end?

Sandy: 52:10

So everything I do, like we talked about at the beginning, my mission is to spread joy and my biggest part of my career. I owned and operated health and wellness centers and I sold them, mary Mary, though in 2019. So I sold them right before. I did not know, but I got it, but I made my side gig my main gig. So what I do right now is I do keynote speaking engagements, which my topic is joy is your competitive edge and I'm speaking right now in the country, but I was speaking out of country and I want to go back to doing that and just traveling all over the world because I freaking love it and doing different types of keynote speaking engagements. I also teach workshops to women and then I also, you know, teach entrepreneurship to men and women and also underprivileged high school kids, and I love that too. I coach five clients at a time. Usually it's a six month program. I also I host two different podcasts. Mary, do you believe it? I've been doing podcasting for fricking 15 years. It's crazy.

Mary: 53:21

You were in on the ground floor. I love it. It was like radio show.

Sandy: 53:25

I started it because I wanted to get to people who are making a powerful difference in the world, who I wouldn't be able to get them to pick up the phone, so that's why I started. And then it turned into podcasting. And the one is called it's a deep dive. It's called let's Keep it Real, where I highlight men and women making a huge difference in the world, whatever their backgrounds are. And then I also have another one, a shorter one, that's for just women around the world who are over 35. And it's called hey, I Got Something to Say. And I started it because a lot of different women when I was traveling kept saying I don't feel heard after a certain age and that's why I got hey, I got something to say. And I do that every week and I highlight a different woman who's making amazing difference in the world, and I love it.

Mary: 54:15

And I love that you do that, because we have to keep adding to those voices, because it's very important for women to take up their space in the world. So thank you for taking the time to be here, sandy, I appreciate it.

Sandy: 54:27

Mary, thank you for reaching out. I loved it. It was so much fun.

Mary: 54:31

And thank you everyone for listening. One of the best things about this podcast is the listeners and the community that we are creating. If you have someone in your life that you think would benefit from the information that Sandy and I talked about today, please forward this episode to them and, if you love listening, consider joining the Growing Garden of Violets and support the show using the heart button or the link at the bottom of the show notes, depending where you're streaming from. And until next time, go out into the world and be the amazing, resilient, vibrant violet that you are.