How do you find time from the hustle and bustle of modern life to work on your mental and physical health? We all know that health and fitness are crucial for our longevity and overall well-being. But scraping a few minutes from our increasingly fast-paced and chaotic world to focus on ourselves is a whole ‘nother hurdle—which is why I welcomed Amanda Jane to our podcast today.

As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer, Mindset Coach and Group Fitness Instructor living in the busiest city in the world (i.e., Brooklyn, New York), Amanda has a few nuggets of wisdom to share with anyone looking to manage life and maintain optimal health without compromising on either.

A Few Topics we Covered:

Mindset is Key – First Believe, Then Achieve!

Amanda: If we're not in the right state of mind, then essentially, we can't really achieve any of our goals…a lot of people have limited beliefs going on in their...

No one stays as animated in their 40s+ as they were in their childhood or youth. But getting older doesn’t automatically banish you to a life of less vigor and energy. Sometimes all it takes to crank up your steam are lifestyle changes.  

Melissa Gunn joins me in today’s episode to share her tips on how men and women can invigorate their energy levels past the 40 mark. She is the founder and CEO of Pure Strength LA, a Certified SuperSlow Specialist, and a fitness and nutrition coach with decades of experience in helping people rejuvenate their health and achieve optimal well-being.  

Snippets from Our Conversation: 

We talked about what it takes to supercharge your energy after 40. As she puts it, “It really comes down to exercise, strength training, moving every day, eating nutritious (not processed) foods, cutting down on the sugar,...

Food touches every aspect of our lives, and everyone needs to eat. Because of this, your relationship to food is important, but it doesn’t need to be hard. Rather than worrying about lists of foods you can and can’t eat, today's guest on Power Up Your Performance, Claudia Wilson, encourages her clients to be mindful of why they are eating.

Claudia is a health and lifestyle coach, registered dietitian nutritionist, a board certified specialist in sports nutrition,  a Strength and Conditioning Specialist/Trainer and the author of ONE-TWO-Punch. She created ONE-TWO PUNCH after meeting with thousands of clients and creating a method that is easy, doable and sustainable.   

A few of the things we talked about:

Kim: So let's get one of the big questions out of the way at the very beginning of the show: what is the best diet?

Claudia: Everybody always wants to know. There's so many out there, all the brand name diets. What's the...

As I started looking more critically at my own habits, I noticed something: I've been slipping. When we gain weight, or lose fitness, it's easy to blame middle age, or a medication or an unfortunate turn of events. But sometimes, we need to take a look at our habits. Are we doing the things we know work for us? Or are we sliding into a behavior pattern where we are constantly making exceptions?

In this episode, I give you three areas to check on your own habits:

• Nutrition
• Sleep
• Stress

And, I give you some real world examples of how this is working in my own family. You will love these practical journaling strategies that will set you up for success. A few hints:

• Journal like you're documenting your own personal science experiment.
• Create lists of easy recipes and grocery items to have on hand at all times.
• Make lists of contingency plans. The "What if..." list. So you have already thought out some potential ways to respond when you're hangry and want to make choices that...