All in mindset

On bodies: active acceptance, being born under a Libra moon, and other hippie shit. ✨

On bodies: active acceptance, being born under a Libra moon, and other hippie shit. ✨

Stephanie Ondrusek
general BAMFery, coaching, mindset

Our worth isn't wrapped up in our dietary choices, our goals, or our appearance. We're meant for more than to obsess over these things, and, for some of us, the way out is to try many methods before we arrive at what will work for us to find our freedom. In the quest for personal development, physical and otherwise, we are all sojourners navigating our stops.

I'm not sure we ever truly arrive and stay. But I am sure that it's always our duty to accept and own where we are and allow others the space to do the same.

This is How you Find your Calling. And get Great at it. (#grittyAF)

This is How you Find your Calling. And get Great at it. (#grittyAF)

Stephanie Ondrusek
general BAMFery, mindset

More than anything, success and achievement are the result of developing a passion and seeing it through. Fitness, like many things in life, but contrary to societal messages, presents boundless opportunities for expansion. We get to choose to push our limits, to realize we can set goals and smash them, to develop the competence and confidence to push through the hard, ride the waves, and come out where we set out to be. (Chatting new commitments on the biz page! Hop over.)

On Staying in Your Lane, Dropping Comparison, and Cultivating Compassion.

On Staying in Your Lane, Dropping Comparison, and Cultivating Compassion.

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset, general BAMFery

We get to stay in our lane. Which is great news, because that’s all we can control, and it’s bigger over here anyway.

We get to turn our Victim narrative into a rewritten story of power at any time we choose. We get to claim our space and claim our freedom. We get to be honest – all the way honest, highlighting where we’re playing into it too – and become a Warrior focused on growing bigger, oozing more compassion, and being better.

We get to step into our dreams, eyes wide open, full of power.

Gained Weight (When that Wasn't the Goal)? Explanations + Solutions.

Stephanie Ondrusek
FAQs + hacks, coaching, mindset

Before we continue, I’d like to point out that the scale isn’t always a measure of our progress. So many of us wrap our worth up in that number (been there), and it’s a far more fun (and lasting!) process to realize that we’re in these bodies for life. Fitness, whatever that may mean to each of us individually, is about exploration: we’re learning what movement we love, what foods serve us, how we can balance rest/relaxation/exercise/food to yield the greatest – and biggest! – possible life. Much like Mother Teresa, Wonder Woman didn’t sit around worrying about the size of her thighs; she had shit to do (and probably wanted them to be huge anyway). And so do you. So, before we go into what many of us worry about, I’d like to take a moment to pause, reflect, and get to the bottom of what we say we want: is our body change about feeling good, or about some arbitrary number we think will lead us to happiness, once we get there?

Nailing down the real reasons for our goals will help us sort out this dissonance- promise.

Knowing that I can choose be happy right this second, despite my circumstances, allows me to be grateful for all opportunities to improve. Knowing that I can choose to accept my body while still wanting it to change allows me to relax into the process and take an objective look about my methods.

Knowing that what I’m trying to do is feel more energetic, and certain foods make me feel bloated and tired, will help me to avoid those foods (dairy, nightshades, gluten, whichever potential allergen) to choose not the pizza (full of all 3, coincidentally) but a turkey burger instead. It doesn’t feel like deprivation (“I’m trying to get skinny, so I can’t have pizza” is a sad, sad statement.) but a benefit (because, “I’m trying to not feel like a beached whale every time I eat something I enjoy and would rather find something that I can enjoy and feel normal afterwards” is a much more fun mission). Hence, the exercise here: getting to the nitty gritty.

You're the architect of your life (FREE workout enclosed!). 👊❤

You're the architect of your life (FREE workout enclosed!). 👊❤

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset, FAQs + hacks, workouts

We are the architects of our lives. We get to construct what we want, every single moment of every single day. We don’t have to give our power away, believing that happiness comes when we get the perfect partner, the perfect job, the perfect home, or the perfect body. We can choose happy – we can choose to be grateful, to be joyful, to be loving – and shift the space in which we find ourselves, even if not a single circumstance has changed. The fascinating part of the Law of Attraction/the Secret/whatever you’d like to call it, is when we act as if we already have what we want, we begin to take the actions that lead us to our end goals, believing that we’re worthy of receiving them (spoiler: you are.).

So, that dream job? Dream life? Dream body? You got it, dude.

Bunless Burgers v Rice Cakes with Peanut Butter: A Lesson

Bunless Burgers v Rice Cakes with Peanut Butter: A Lesson

Stephanie Ondrusek
fooooood, FAQs + hacks, mindset

Our mindset when it comes to nutrition is vital to our success.

If we think of eating well as a chore- as many of us do, because “diet” is the worst four-letter word I know- we’re unlikely to experience success. You know the drill (so do I): we think of “getting back on the wagon,” we cut out the foods we love and opt only for the boring stuff we sorta hate, we crave sugar so jazz up a rice cake with some peanut butter and pretend to be happy, we see success for 4-10 days, then we’re face-first in ice cream, because rice cakes and peanut butter after dry chicken and loads of steamed broccoli aren’t cutting it.

What if, instead of examining this as a chore, we explored ways to serve ourselves?

What if we looked at our nutrition from the perspective of athletes who want to nourish our bodies, our minds, and our performance?

How would our attitudes change?

Imagine: we’re out to eat, and, while we know that no situation will be perfect, we’re aware of what “ideal” looks like for us. We know we need to prioritize protein for muscles, a few starchy carbs for energy, and a lot of fibrous, watery veggies to feel full and get our vitamins. We don’t have to skip a meal with our friends, because we know that the FOMO will lead to a regret-fueled, “I deserve this, because I sacrificed my social time” potato chip binge, so we navigate the middle, go out, have a glass of wine, a salad, a bunless burger, and maybe a French fry or two. We come home and feel satisfied, neither bloated nor deprived, we take the dogs for a short walk, and go to bed to wake up feeling rested and refreshed.

On Summertime Distractions: Let's Stop Playing Small and Get Back to Crushing.

On Summertime Distractions: Let's Stop Playing Small and Get Back to Crushing.

Stephanie Ondrusek
general BAMFery, mindset

Listen, we’ve all yo-yoed, we’ve all slashed carbs, we’ve all freaked out at the prospect of wearing fewer clothes, because we meant to make this year the year we buckled down and became the magazine-edition of ourselves.

I’d challenge that by saying…we already are. :)  So take that cover-edition body and get under a barbell (or to a class, or in the yoga studio, or outside on a walk, or up a mountain, or wherever) and treat it like the #queenshit it is.

When we change our minds that we’re moving because we deserve to – that however much space we take up, it’s ours, and we get to do with it as we please – movement and nutrition instantly become more fun. They become thoughtful pursuits of strength (holla Juggernaut), dedicated expeditions to test our limits, mindful explorations of our joys. What sets our soul on fire is what makes us feel most confident, so let’s find it, crush it, and keep moving on the road to expansion

"Muscles are the best accessory."

"Muscles are the best accessory."

Stephanie Ondrusek
general BAMFery, mindset

When we realize that we’ve put in a ton of work – we’ve done hard shit to get these quads; we’ve done the detective work to find what way of eating works for us and eaten well; we’ve made ourselves a priority in a world that’s telling us to do everything but – we realize that the next challenge at work, the next tense relationship discussion, the next snag in a friendship, the next financial setback, is really NBD. We’ve figured out challenges before, and have the physical mass (because, hello, muscles take up space, and that’s OURS. Own it.) to prove it, so we can do it again. And again. And again. No matter how many times life asks us to, we have tangible evidence that we can get down and dirty – get gritty and get in the mud and fight it out.

Make the choice to do the hard things- that's where the fruit is.

Make the choice to do the hard things- that's where the fruit is.

Stephanie Ondrusek
ballgnorance, general BAMFery, mindset, coaching

To train for physical strength is to train for mental strength. The iron is a proving ground, and it never lies to us: we can either lift the weight or we can’t. And when we discover that we can – and that we can do more than we imagined we could – we begin to discover that we can do other hard things too.

Every moment of every day presents a choice. We get to see it for what it is whenever we want to, and there’s no judgment: at every challenge, do we embrace our new #WonderWomanLoading mentality and expand, or do we stay small and safe? The time is right for either; we just have to choose. If we choose small one day, that’s okay, because we know that a new choice is right around the corner, and we’ve chosen big – and succeeded! – before, so we can do it again.

We can learn new skills. We can smash PRs. We can get to know who we really are and what we really want. We can deepen our intimacy and trust in relationships. We can pursue our passions. It’s all available to us; the door is wide open. We have to cultivate the courage and create the space to step through it.

How to hip hinge and move into powerful deadlifts

How to hip hinge and move into powerful deadlifts

Stephanie Ondrusek
coaching, general BAMFery, mindset

There’s literally nothing I love more than the camaraderie amongst true fitness people in the gym. I’m not talking about the meatheads that slam things around (although I do my fair share of that) and bicep curl all day (in the squat rack…that’s not what it’s for, bro) and grunt and slam NO-Xplode and rub orange self-tanner all over the bench you wanted to use.

Not to knock them, because, do your thing, but my people are the ones who strive to improve every day. Who see the gym as a training ground for life, and who are there to motivate themselves and celebrate the accomplishments of others. They’re there – I promise! I know, because I’m one of them. And I have a few people that come at my same time of day, and every time we’re there together, we ask how the program is, how the goal is, how work is, how life is…everything.

And when one of them hits a new PR? Or has a business success? Or proposes to his girlfriend? FIREWORKS, MAN. We’re on this Earth to cheer each other on in this relentless pursuit of expansion. We’re all trying to do better, have better, and be better, so it’s important to find the ones who support our mission and push us to keep on loading, reminding us every time we stop or burn or almost quit that we are powerful and worthy of growth.

Few lifts will prove this as thoroughly as the deadlift.

Embrace the suck (you've heard it before, and I'm here to tell you again) (+ a workout!)

Embrace the suck (you've heard it before, and I'm here to tell you again) (+ a workout!)

Stephanie Ondrusek
coaching, FAQs + hacks, general BAMFery, mindset, workouts

The bench press has taught me what God has been showing me basically my entire life: the dreamers, the doers, the problem solvers, the hippies – we aren’t meant for a life of mundane. We aren’t meant to uphold the status quo, to go with the flow, or do what someone tells us to do just for the sake of doing it. We’re meant to change the world, one step at a time, and to do that, we’ve gotta get in the mud and find out where the pain is and why it hurts. Embracing the suck means more than just acknowledging that it’s shitty; it’s loving every second of it, knowing that it’s useful.

Ultimately, our lives are up to us. We get to choose to be glad for even the things we hate, and we get to choose to make them better, if that’s how we’re so called. The iron can teach us that, and, if we look, so will the rest of life.

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