A Holistic Approach To Wellness with Jill Sanford

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 153. Today I'm sitting down with Jill Sanford and we're talking about a holistic approach to wellness. Are you ready? Let's get started. Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance in movement, package and position their products and services, and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast. What's up, coach? Thank you so much for pushing Play on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and if this is the first time you're here, welcome. Thank you so much for pushing play. I am super excited to bring to you a very special, awesome episode with Jill Sanford, who is a holistic nutrition practitioner as well as a fat loss coach and a certified personal trainer. So one of the things that I really loved about Jill's approach, which we unpack inside of this episode, is her unwavering ability to who gets to the root cause in a custom aspect for the client. And that includes sometimes the right time and the right program and the right moment to introduce more of a group collective experience. It truly is a custom approach that Jill really leans into. And inside of this episode she shares a little bit about her process, how she gets to the root cause and what some of the red flags are that she's looking for and paying attention to in regards to connecting with a client in order to go deeper and actually solve the problem. And so I'm super excited to give you this episode she shares with us. She is a dog mom, essentially. She has a almost four year old dog named Nola and she loves to spend her weekends adventuring locally, hopping on a plane. And I, she, she shared this with me in her intake about how she considers herself a coffee snob and donut lover. And I wish I had asked her what her favorite donut was and if she had ever tried some of the best donut shops in New York. But sadly I forgot. So perhaps she'll share with us in her socials. So without further ado, let's go ahead and roll that interview. What's up, Jill? Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you?

Good, thank you for having me. It's a sunny day, I can't complain.

No, I'm so jealous. It's super cloudy over Here. But for those of us who have not had the pleasure of being introduced to your work, I would love for you to share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there.

Perfect. Well, I'm Jill. I am many things. I do a little bit of everything. I always say I'm that weird coach in the health and fitness industry that kind of like dabbles in both sides. I'll coach you through fat loss. I'll coach you how to heal your hormones. I'll make a workout plan for you. I will make a meal plan for you. So I kind of dabble in all sides, but what I specifically specialize in is holistic health. So whole body health clients mostly come to me looking to problem solve. I always put it that way. So whether it be having problems with gut health or not sleeping or just feeling like something's off in their bodies, we sit down and problem solve. I'm a certified personal trainer. I'm a certified holistic nutrition coach and carry a bunch of other little certifications along the way. But I guess my career's transformed through the years. So I started fully as an in person trainer and then as we all know, Covid hit and that was not an option for me anymore. So we pivoted. During COVID I transitioned everything to virtual coaching. And that's where I've been for the last, I guess, two, two and a half years now. And I came into holistic health just because I really struggled with getting the answers I wanted from modern medicine, from going to doctors. Not to make this the entire podcast, but I have something called pulse tile tinnitus, which is basically, I hear my pulse in my ear 24 7. It never gets better, it never gets worse. It's just like a whooshing sound in my ear.

Is that from, like, from. I know you said we don't need to make the whole podcast about it, and I won't, but is that like, real? Was that like, recent? Like, you just woke up one day and you're like, why am I hearing my heartbeat? Or is that like, from forever?

No. So it's not something I was like, born with. It was definitely something that developed. Yeah. How I got into holistic is because no one can give me an answer. I've been to every specialist. I've done 4 million tests, and it's the, the classic story of, well, you don't have any neurological symptoms, you don't have anything that's really impacting your day to day life. So, like, you'll be fine, basically, is what I've been told. So. So not 100% sure how it started. I have my theories. There's been some studies done at like Harvard and things like that linking it to people who had like first round Covid whether they knew they had it or not. So that could have been a trigger for me. I was on some antibiotics that could have triggered it as well. So there's a few things that happened all at once. But it's been since like January 2020 and it has not gone away. So after getting a bunch of like, you'll be fine, we don't know you're okay from doctors that really pushed me towards alternative medicine and finding other ways because I'm sure as a woman, you know as well that's an answer we get all too often that's just like, oh, you're fine, don't worry about it. And that's just not something I wanted any of us to settle for anymore.

Okay.

So I have so many questions. Ask away.

So first, I mean, what is powerful about this story? Just, you know, as and as we dive into that is that, you know, you are now dealing essentially with something that you have to live with 24 7. And now it's. It be. It has become this, well, how do I continue my normal life and try and get answers without this, you know, impacting like everything. Your clients go through the same thing when they're trying to uncover root causes essentially. Right. So this probably made you incredibly a relatable. Now your clients are like, okay, this person gets the struggle of it's gonna be fine. And walking around in the I'm fine coma. So I'm curious, what are, you know, what are some of the ways you've had to deal with the impact of what most people can't understand?

Yeah. So it's hard. It's just like a weird fluky thing. And usually pulsatile tinnitus is caused like usually people who work in loud environments, so mechanics, things like that develop it over time. It's not often that you just like get it one day and no one knows how it happened. It doesn't, I would say, impact too much of like my day to day life. Other than it's annoying. I don't know what other way to put. Gets louder sometimes. I literally can't hear out of my right ear sometimes. Um, that usually sinks near my cycle. So I can kind of guess when that's coming. Uh, but yeah, I mean, it's a struggle for me because there isn't really a solution. Like, all the research I've done, all the specialists I've talked to are basically just like, it'll either go away or it won't. Stay tuned to find out. So thankfully, with the work I do, I don't have to give that answer to the people who come to me. I don't have to tell them to just deal with it. We can solve the problem, and I'm sure one day I'll come up with a solution for my issues. But I think it's funny because the statement I get a lot when I tell people about it, it's like, I would have like, cut my head off by now if I heard my pulse all the time. And I'm like, well, it just kind of chills. It's just part of me at this point.

So, yeah, and then it's also funny when people say things like that because, no, you wouldn't.

Like, well, you probably wouldn't. And also, that doesn't necessarily help. It would be like saying like, oh, I have really terrible gut health. And it would be like, oh, I would hate that. I would, like, hate not being able to go up to eat. That doesn't help. It's not a helpful thing for me to hear. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Absolutely.

For sure. So now you use this word a couple of times. You know, a holistic approach. I'd love for you to just kind of unpack. Like, what specifically do you mean when you say holistic compared to traditional or. Or is that the right word?

I don't know. I actually got yelled at on Instagram once for using traditional medicine because they were basically like. That refers to, like, old, like, herbal, like way back. So we're supposed to refer to it as modern medicine.

Modern.

Thank you. That was same difference to me. So, yeah, but holistic by definition means all encompassing. So when clients come to me, I look at every single thing that impacts their health. So they always laugh because the forms they fill out for me are pretty lengthy. But it will quite literally go through vitamins you take, medications you've taken in the last five years, diets you've done, the sleep you get, food you eat, family history, basically everything that makes you you from the second you wake up all the way through to what happens when you're sleeping. So, so rather than looking at, for example, let's say like, someone came to me for fat loss rather than being like, well, what are you eating in a day? We start way back of like, what's going on internally? Is there anything we need to sort out there. How's your sleep? How's your water? How's your stress? Then we get into, like, what are you eating? What do your workouts look like? So, yeah, we look at literally everything that makes you a human being and kind of pick apart and look through what might be causing the issues we're dealing with rather than being like, oh, fat loss is your problem. Well, eat less.

That's rarely the issue. Yeah.

Exactly. And that's where I come in. I'm like, let's find what the actual problem is here.

So, you know, one of the things, too, that I've recently really started to lean into is something that I've noticed a lot for a lot of people, is that sometimes we tend to want to solve problems that people don't realize are part of the problem. Right. So what I mean by that is our clients aren't walking around going, you know, my childhood trauma is causing me to not lose weight. They're like, how many calories should I be eating? So I'm curious, in, you know, from your work, what are some of the ways that you've been able to connect with your clients on a deeper level to help them see the truth about the root causes of their problem?

Yeah, I think that's a really good question. And I think sometimes when clients first start working with me, they're a little bit thrown off because I don't give a lot of answers. And people might be like, but you're a coach. Isn't that what you're supposed to do? I ask a lot of questions, and I want you to come up with the answer yourself and kind of realize those things yourself, because no one likes being told their problems. So if I sit down with someone and I'm like, well, it's because you're high stress and you sleep like crap, they're gonna be like, no, I'm not stressed. I sleep fine. Whereas if I can kind of get you to say, well, my sleep isn't always the greatest, and, like, work is kind of stressful and money's kind of stressful, we can go from there. And that conversation flows a lot more naturally than me kind of taking that, I guess, like, authority position and being like, here's the problem. This is what you're doing wrong. I would rather have a conversation as two humans and be like, cool. So now that we've realized this, what can we do about it? So it's a lot of. A lot of getting you to give me the answers, as backwards as that might sound to some.

No, but that's the mark of a good coach. A coach doesn't tell you what to do. It shows. The coach just highlights the path, which I feel like a lot of people miss. A lot of people miss, you know.

And yeah, I'm not here to tell you what to do and what to eat and what not to eat. I want you to feel the best you can in your body and I will help you get there. But I'm not here to give you yes and no's on things. It's not my body, it's not my food. So we will do what works best for you and find the solutions that are custom to you. But doesn't actually matter what I do or what I think, because if that doesn't work for someone, then doesn't matter at all.

Yeah, I love that. So now I'm curious too. What are some of the most challenging situations or client cases that you've had to face? And how did you. What was the process in which you unpacked the situation?

Yeah. So I think a lot of, a lot of women come to me as kind of a last case scenario. So they've tried everything else under the sun. I guess I'll go see what holistic health is about. So I find a lot of women, because I work primarily with women come to me with their defenses up already. They're like, she's not going to be able to help me. She's not going to have the answer just because that is what they've known in the past. And that's no fault of their own. But they come to me very, like, guarded and almost doubtful. And I think for me, being a fire sign, my ego had to get past that at first because I was instantly like, why don't you think I can help you? And now that I've realized that it's not that they don't think I can help, they've just not gotten the help in the past. So I, um. It's hard. It's hard to believe if you've heard no a thousand times. It's hard to believe you're going to get a yes eventually. Um, so I think it's breaking down those walls at first and kind of explaining what I do, how I do it and how it's going to help. And I'm also very transparent that it might not work the first time we try something, but I will find you a different solution. And I think that's always nice to hear too, that I'm not going to be personally offended if someone Comes to me is like, jill, this isn't working. We will try something else. I think specifically the biggest challenges are, as much as I am a holistic coach, fat loss is still one of the top things people come to me for. And we definitely start from, like, root causes. And I think fat loss gets kind of a bad replacement sometimes in the health and fitness world. And I don't think it needs to be this big negative thing. So I'm always open to helping with that. I have lots of clients that work with me too, for nothing to do with fat loss. And I love that as well. But in the fat loss world specifically, or even wanting to build strength, they're just wanting to feel better. Nine out of 10 women are undereating and overstressed, and that's not something we are super quick to want to fix. If I want to lose fat, if I want to look better in my body, if I want to feel better playing with my kids, I must have to be smaller. And that's where our brains go. So it's a lot of talking out of those conversations and kind of giving the research behind why we don't need to be eating 1,000 calorie diets to get to where we want to go, and why we don't just need to be the smallest versions of ourselves to feel the best we can. And telling women they need to eat more is an instant. Like, that's not going to get me to where I want to go. So I would say that conversation is my biggest challenge. And it takes building that trust and having that natural conversation to be like, how about we just see what happens and then usually it gets easier from there.

You said something that I think is really interesting, which I think is important that everyone here, again, is you said that people think, and this is true in most in our market. And if you're in health and wellness space, you are in the fourth level of market saturation, meaning that your clients have a preconceived notion of what they think needs to happen in order to achieve the goal. So you said that they think that by feeling better, that in order to feel better, like increase energy, play with their kids, that they need to be smaller. So that's the belief. What they want is the energy, and they want to play with their kids. And they think that in order to do that, they have to be smaller, which isn't true. You can't.

We.

We can't collectively create content that's like, hey, you know, three ways to stop wanting to be smaller. If they don't know that that's what they want. So that's exactly what we have. You know, we have, that's, that's an example of a belief that we can break down, help them get what they want and then still just break down that belief.

Yeah. And if I put out a post, it's like, hey, you want to have a higher sex drive? Eat more food? People will be like, that has nothing to do with each other. So my world is a lot of connecting the two. And it's why I always say, like, my job is to reconnect you with yourself. Because with social media and all the things we see, we're so disconnected from what our bodies actually need. That, that is part of my job and guidance is to bring you back to you and kind of reconnect with like what your body actually needs, not what you think you should be doing. Because those are often two very different things.

Very, very different thing. So true. And this is true. Like we're talking about the human condition. Right. Our brain is always looking for ways to automate and simplify things. So if there's any evidence that something. Your brain will personalize it. Your brain personalizes everything. So if it's like, oh, nope, that didn't work. That means that because we're just meaning making machines. So it's, you know, it's really like all of our work as coaches, whether you're building a business or building you client relationships is almost unlearning everything.

Yeah. And that's, that was a hard part. Again, like, it's a big, a big ego hit to be like, I actually know nothing. And that took me a long time to come into client calls that way. And again, you might be like, but you're educated. I am, but I know nothing about you specifically in your situation. So when I meet with a client, I rebuild from ground zero, taking what I know and making a plan. But if I come in being like, well, this is what we're going to do, this is how we're going to do it. If that doesn't work for you, I'm starting from ground zero anyways. So a big part of my coaching is the education is the explaining is the why. Because that's going to be more tangible for you anyways rather than me sitting down and being like, here's your plan, go do it. Talk to me in eight weeks. If you don't know why you're doing it or what it's going to do, it's not going to stick anyways.

Yeah, that's so true, so true, so good. And you know, it's funny because it was the masters that said that it was the masters that became masters when they said I know nothing. Right. It's something that one of my mentors does all the time, which is we have to live on the razor's edge of caring about everything and nothing at the same time.

Yeah. And I think it's big of separating that personal and business of like, this is what I do for business. But I'm not personally offended if you don't like it or it doesn't work or whatever it may be because our egos don't like to admit when we're wrong. But I have worked really hard to be like, I don't know the answer, but let me go find it for you. And that's a hard, hard thing to say. Sometimes when you're supposed to be the.

Professional, it can be for sure. But it also deepens that connection and deepens the trust because then someone says, oh, this person is responsible enough to say, I need help, I need support. And it's this weird thing that we do as human beings, myself included, which is this. I can't, you know, that somehow it's weak or somehow we're not, we're less than if we ask for help, that we can't figure it out on our own. But I can't point to a single million dollar business. I can't point to a single person who's living their best life that didn't have help or a support system along the way.

Yeah. And it's funny because it took me, business wise, a long time to admit that I needed help. I was a one man show until the last six months. And then I cried like three times in one week. And my boyfriend was like, do you think we could maybe solve this problem and like get you some help? And I was like, yeah, maybe. And that's the point my clients get to when they come to me. So we all get to that point eventually of like, oh my God, I cannot do this alone anymore. And um. But it just depends how long it takes for us to get there sometimes.

Yes, true. Right. When the pain, when the pain of staying in the same place is worse than the pain of change is really when people will make the first move.

Yeah. And it's hard in our world because modern medicine lets you get to that point. And then they're like, oh, let's fix the problem. Where my goal, and I'm sure lots of health professionals goals, is like, let's Prevent you from getting to that point in the first place. But I would say nine out of 10 women that come to me are already at that point where they're past their limits. It's not often that women come to me and they're like, I foresee this being a problem a few years down the road. Can we get ahead of it? But I think we're starting to transition that way, which is good to see. It is.

It's also one of those things that, you know, as human beings, we tend to be a little bit more reactive than we do proactive. And so we always think that we have time when the truth is we don't even have the next five minutes. Who knows what's going to happen? Right. So we always push things off until. I don't want to say it's too late, because it's never too late, but until it becomes urgent.

Yeah. And it's usually that breaking point of. With gut health, I always get the. Well, I stopped eating dairy, I stopped eating gluten, I stopped eating out. And now the foods I eat in my house that I cook myself bother me. Vegetables bother me, fruits bother me. So I get digestion problems at that point versus dairy started bothering me. Can we sort things out? It's usually like, and then I tried this and that and another thing, and now I'm 10 steps deeper than I could have been. Which, like you said, it's never too late to go back and support those things. But if we as a society started when the first thing went wrong, it wouldn't be quite as much work to sort everything out.

I mean, for everything.

Yeah.

You know. So are you primarily dealing, like I know you said in holistic health, you're looking at the whole picture. Are you primarily dealing with food or are you also dealing with movement? Is it a combination? Can you walk us through your process a little bit?

Yeah. So all my plans are very custom. So I meet the client, where they're at, we go from there. That could mean you want a meal plan and five workouts a week. That could mean you want ideas for breakfast because you don't eat breakfast right now and you want someone to support you going for a walk every day. So really, like, the range of what you get from me can be anything you need as a personal trainer first. Movement is always something that's really important to me and then was reinforced when I did my holistic certification. So movement is something we definitely talk about and touch on. What we do with that information kind of depends on the person So I do have like an app that I use with my clients where I can program custom workouts for them. Some people are just like, hey, Joe, I need you to hold me accountable to go for a walk three times a week. So that, that's a pretty big like range of things. And then yeah, nutrition is, I would say every client I have right now is doing some form of nutrition with me. Custom gym workouts is kind of person dependent. I would say.

So. I love, I love the custom component. Would you say that, you know, the people that you work with, they've, they've tried like that, the semi custom or the group or the cookie cutter approach. Right. The one size fits all approach. Does that tend to hurt more than help?

I would say it depends how transparent the coach is with onboarding people into that type of coaching. So I've done group coaching in the past. I've done like challenges, things like that. And I would say it's always person dependent. We always joke on the podcast I host. Our people's least favorite statement is probably like, it depends. But everything depends. I think if you're transparent and like, if I was to set up a six week group coaching and be like, this is a gym based workout including X, Y and Z, you're most likely going to attract the right people. And as long as you spend the time to make sure you're bringing the right people into that type of coaching, I don't necessarily see the problem with it. Where it gets problematic, I find is when it's like, oh, it's a six week program made for anyone of any level doing anything, because that's just not, it's not possible. So I filter through every single client that works with me. We do a consultation call, we do an initial call. So if I don't think it's going to be the right fit for you, I will happily send you elsewhere to my network of people. I do think like general programming can work for a certain group of people, but you have to be very careful of who that is.

Yeah. Looking at the whole person and not just the surface level.

And when I was primarily a personal trainer, some of those like group programs did work really well because a lot of women that followed me were honestly looking for the same three results. I want a flatter stomach, I want to grow a butt, I want to lean out. There's a lot of exercises in the world, but those specific things, if you're somebody who eats enough and is moderate stress and hasn't fad dieted in the past, you can all do the same program. It's making sure there's not any of those underlying things going on first.

Yeah, it's true. So true. And what I loved is that you talked about attracting the right person. It's not about, it's not about trying to pick the perfect, the right, the best way to do it. It's about putting the best program in front of the right person at the right time. And lots of things can work. It just really depends on who the person is.

Yeah. Because you don't need anything crazy to build a butt and lean out a little. I don't need to be the smartest person in the world to build a workout program for that. But if you have 4 million other things going on and you're eating is low and your stress is high, doesn't matter how great I am at programming a workout.

I mean, not to mention the fact that, you know, how long is the workout, what is the accessibility components? You know, there's just so many, there's so many contributing factors that, that it's easy to look at in the social media world and be like, well, they've got it figured out. They're in that four hour work week, you know, whatever it is. And it's, there's always more to the story than what is presented.

Yeah. And I do get clients come to me and I'll be like, you can book a consultation call. And they're like, well, I'm just ready to start. But as a coach, that's not how I operate. I am not comfortable bringing you on into my world if I'm not confident it's the right fit for you. So I, a PSA I always give is like be, be wary of the coaches who are just like, this is for anyone. Everyone can do it. You can just click the link and sign yourself up. Because we don't exactly know what that's going to include and if it even is going to work for you at all.

Yeah, that's fair. So I love, you know, can you, when you are looking at your. I was going to ask you to unpack a little bit of your process, but then I paused because I realized, well, it really does depend on who's.

In front of you.

Like a way really depends on your, on the approach. So can you share with us a little bit of like, what are some of the, the questions that you use to begin unpacking and uncovering root causes?

Yeah. So a big part of that is the forms clients fill out for me. But a lot of it is Honestly, natural conversation. We most of the time know what our own issues and problems are, whether we realize it or not. So basically, when a client comes on with me, they fill out the forms. I go through them before our initial assessment, and I kind of put little flags on anything that I'm like, there's more to it than this. A big red flag for me is talking about stress levels. So when a client comes to me, I'm like, what would you put your stress out of ten? And if they're like, ah, it's probably like a six, let's say. And then I'll ask where that comes from. And it's work and family and money and their kids and their siblings, it's probably actually higher than a six. So I think we downplay a lot of our things as well. So a lot of my questions are like, cool, can you tell me a little bit more about what's going on there? I just had a consultation call with a client this morning, actually, and my first question is, always, tell me about you and what's going on. And then I kind of pick up on what get said. My client this morning was pretty straightforward. She's just looking for some strength training support with her endurance training. So that one was pretty straightforward. But I'll get clients often that are like, well, I'm this old. I've been dealing with digestive issues since I was 18. It got worse when I was like, 22. And for me, that flags. Okay, what happened when you were 22? Because we just kind of operate through life of like, well, I know when it got worse, but I don't really know what caused it. So a lot of my questioning is trying to pinpoint at that time where you say things got worse, what was going on? Was there life changes? Was there stress changes? Did you have a kid? Did you go through breakup? What happened in that moment? And it's a lot of storytelling, which my clients will often be like, I feel like, you know, my whole life story, but as a whole body coach, I need to know all the things that happened. And obviously if they're not comfortable talking about it, that's fine. But those things are important to figure out, like, why did your body make this shift to cause what we have now?

Do you ever find as you're going through this process that people will unpack things that you might not necessarily be equipped to handle, like big T trauma or even little T trauma, like some kinds of things that, you know, come up for people that have been dormant, that they don't realize is even part of it.

Yeah. And I definitely always disclaim like, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. If I do get things that are not within my scope, I'll always be like, do you have someone else you talk to about these things? Because I can help. From a health nutrition standpoint, I'm not certified to help deal with what's going on in your brain. And like you said, some of those more traumatic things. So I definitely make sure my clients have outside support other than me. I used to always joke when I was an in person trainer that I was half a trainer, half a therapist.

Because, oh, there's no joke about that for sure.

You get more than you need to know sometimes. And that always is something I take very seriously. And I appreciate that my clients trust me with that. But it's also part of my job to be like, you have someone other than your nutrition coach too talk to about this. Correct. And if they don't, I'm more than happy to point them in the right direction. But a lot of the women I work with are just frustrated. So I get a lot of tears. I get a lot of like, I just don't know what to do. So that's definitely a common thing.

Oh, yeah. I mean, for sure. And I think too, for a lot of new coaches, it's very challenging. Like, I know for me, I'll speak for me, that I wanted to be everything to everybody. It almost was this sense of like, if I delegate, then it's going to seem, I'm going to be. Seem less credible.

Right.

Which is just like the opposite. It has the opposite effect is if you really help someone get the full support that they need.

Yeah. And if we could all do everything, there would be far less of us in careers. So I even say that about traders specifically. If I could do everything and train you for competing and Olympic lifting and being able to run around with your kids, there would be 10 trainers and health coaches out there. But we all do different things for different reasons. We are an expert in what we are an expert in. And it's okay to be like, listen, this isn't my wheelhouse, but I know someone who can help you with it.

Yeah. And I think that this is also a really good reiteration of why you're the, the desires of your heart are your safe guidance. Because I have zero, absolutely zero interest in helping someone work through their traumatic experiences. Like, I know that that needs to be dealt with. I know my own stuff has had to be dealt with. But if I'm just. I am not that person. I will never be that person. It doesn't matter how powerful your messaging is. I'm never going to school to be a therapist. Never. Not in a million.

Yeah. And I. It's just like, not. I don't know. It's a lot of work to do everything. And I. I know when I was a new coach in the industry similar to you, I came in being like, I can do it all. And then my muscles were so tight I couldn't move, and I had headaches every day. And my massage therapist was like, what is happening? Because I was like, your problems, my problems. I'll fix them for you. And that is not the way I operate anymore, thankfully.

Me too. I used to be like that too. I mean, client concerns used to keep. I mean, still. They still will keep me up at night. Like, if I'm like, really in it. Right. It'll keep me up. Because I personally think it comes from caring. That's part of what makes you good at your job, is because you care and you want to help them. Nobody gets in a job. Nobody with, like, without the intent to help.

Yeah. And you should care about what you do. It's. For me, it was. To what extent is it worth my personal health to be like, oh, my God, you broke up with your boyfriend. Well, that is now my personal issue. So it was learning to disconnect. Yeah. I will help you within my scope of what I can help with. You're not eating because you went through a breakup. I can help with that. You're not sleeping at night because you're crying. We need someone else to talk to.

Yes. Yes. For sure. So I would. You know, one of the things too, you started to talk about. Can you expand on the red flags? What are some of the red flags that you see in your intake form that usually cause you pause?

So a lot of it is to do with like, stress and digestion. So those are like the top two I look for. And I unconsciously just pointed to my head and my stomach because there is a huge connection between our brain gut access. So what happens in our stomach impacts what happens in our brain. What happens in our brain impacts what happens in our stomach. So those are the first two instantly that I'm like, where's stress at? Where's digestive health at? So anything that's like, I have. I talk a lot about bowel movements, which women are always uncomfortable. I'm like, how many times do you poop a day. And they're kind of like, why are you asking me this question? But that's important for me to know. It could be like red flag. Could be like, I go once every three days or I go six times a day because that tells me something's not connecting there, something's misfiring, we have an imbalance somewhere. Same thing with super high stress levels. Because whether we realize it or not, we are not meant to live on 9 out of 10 stress. Even though we are very conditioned to live that way and everything needs to happen right now and it was due yesterday and we should have been ahead of it. We're very conditioned to live in that like go, go, go environment. But our bodies are not conditioned to live that way. So stress levels, gut health are the first two. And then the next one I always look at is sleep. So whether you're having trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, you're waking up throughout the night, or a big one is I sleep at night, but I don't wake up feeling rested. That's a big red flag for me as well because that means your body's not actually resting at night and we have some work to do in those areas. So I would say those are like the biggest three I look at first.

What do you do with parents?

So a big question I ask parents is, is your sleep disrupted because of you or because of your children? Because I can help with one of those things and I can, I can, I can offer you support in terms of like what we could maybe like incorporate into your kids lives to get them sleeping better. But unfortunately I cannot be that like magician that's like, and now your kid sleeps eight hours a night. So a big focus for me in the sleep world and a lot of clients, like when I word it this way, is let's focus on the quality of sleep in the hours we are getting versus just more sleep. Because yes, ideally we would all sleep eight to nine hours a night and fall asleep quick and stay asleep and wake up feeling rested. But whether you do shift work or you have kids, it's probably not happening. So if we're getting, especially in the beginning, if you're getting four hours of undisrupted sleep, let's make sure those four hours count and then hopefully eventually we can work on increasing the amount of sleep we get.

What are the ways that you monitor sleep?

So a lot of it is like journaling, reflecting those first couple minutes when we wake up are some of the most important ones. Where is our brain? Do we wake up and we're like, I'm so tired. I don't want to do this today. Do we wake up stressed? What's happening when we wake up? So that's a big one. What are our thoughts when we wake up? Because that can play a big role too. Even if we slept enough, if we're waking up being like, oh my God, I don't want to go to work today, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that. Our body's like, we don't want to do any of it. I'm just going to make you tired and maybe you won't do any of it. So looking at what those thoughts are first thing in the morning is a big one. And always sounds a little like woo woo and weird to people. But I'm like, if you tell yourself you're tired the second your eyeballs open, congratulations, you are now tired today.

The brain says yes.

And yeah, so a lot of that, a lot of like looking at sleep habits and then a question all my clients get with their check ins is how's energy throughout the day and the week? Do we have fluctuations? Is it sleep stable? Is it low all the time? And encouraging my clients to take that time in the morning or at night or both to be like, how is my day? Is there anything I can do tomorrow to make it a little bit more successful for myself? Is there anything that's not working? So we don't often give ourselves time to actually like sit and reflect and process.

Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. Or we just live in the I'm fine coma of like, I'm not tired because we don't know any better and we don't know how good it can be. Or your clients definitely don't know how.

Good it can be. Yeah, they're just like, I'm supposed to be tired and hungry and sore because I have three kids. But we don't have to be all those things at once every single day. We can get some relief at some point.

I'm laughing because I've got two kids. I've got a. My oldest is turning seven and my youngest is turning five and it's been seven years of amazing sleep. Like I've never had better sleep. That's what I mean. That is what I tell myself every morning.

Yeah. Meanwhile I'm in my mid-20s with a dog and I'm like, nobody bothered me at night, so.

Oh my gosh. Okay, so one. So speaking of that, and I do want to be mindful of your time. So, you know, for the coaches that are listening and they're like, listen. And they are listening to their clients language, you know, when. What are some of the. Because I asked you about red flags. Right? Like for example, some people don't know that going to the bathroom is, is a red flag. Like the clients are like, well, that's normal. That's just part of my life. They're in the I'm fine coma.

Right.

So what are some of the baseline things as a coach that we want to be? And of course this is not a one size fit all, but what are some of your baseline metrics that you're usually looking for?

Yeah, so big one with digestion is like, what do our bowel movements look like? Are they consistent for us? Because that's going to look different person to person. But are they consistent day to day? And I actually have a post on my Instagram that probably need to like recycle back up there and reformat. But it basically said like, if our bowel movements are not consistent, frequent and painless, we have work to do. So bowel movements are a big sign of what's going on in the rest of our bodies because it is literally things leaving us. So it has gone through all of us and now it's leaving. What does it look like? So if that means you're consistently painlessly going once a day, perfect. You go twice a day, perfect. I don't have like a hard set number, but it needs to be consistent, regular, painless for you. And what's common is not always normal. So I always try to like correct that language. Working with clients too. Well, it's normal for me to be tired all the time. It's not normal. It's common. But we're not born to be tired all day long. So bowel movements are a big one. Obviously stress levels and doing more than just telling people to like, oh well, be less stressed, meditate, do some yoga, have some actual like tangible things you can help your clients through. So whether it's like, okay, so you're stressed, what are the big stressors in our life and is there anything we can do to make it a little bit less stressful? So for me, mornings are a really stressful moment. And I'm sure for a lot of people, kids are not. We sleep in, we're rushed, we're grabbing our coffee and our bagel as we're walking out the door to get in our car and drive. That does not create a peaceful day in any way. So is There something so small that we can do, even waking up five minutes earlier, is that something we can implement? So trying to work through, okay, you're stressed, what's causing the stress? Is there little things we can do? And I'm big on making things very manageable. We can always make things bigger. We can always do more. But we need to start somewhere first. So, yeah, I guess, like looking at that and then obviously, like daily movement has a million benefits. It could be the gym, it could be going for a walk. I don't really care. Move your body in some way for some amount of time every day. And then looking at food, are we actually eating enough? Do we have enough protein? And that goes more into the macro side of my coaching. But whether you want to track your food or not, those are baseline points that need to be hit. So we talk a lot about those things.

Amazing. Jill, I want to be mindful of your time, so thank you so much for hanging out with me today. For those of you who want to go deeper with you and connect with you, what are some of the best places that I I can send them?

So my Instagram is at Jill Underscore April Fitness. I'm on the rebrand journey. I was literally laying in bed last night being like, what's a better Instagram handle? So you will see it change eventually. But for now that's where we're at. And then my TikTok is at Jill April. So pretty similar. I hang out a lot on TikTok, so I'm on both frequently. But yeah, I have free consultation calls. My DMs are not the best place to chat with me. I'll give a free disclaimer for that. So if you want to get in contact with me, use my consultation calls and I would be more than happy to chat about you working with me or if you just have questions for me. But my DMs are not the place for big conversations. And yeah, you can always reach me. My email is Jill sanforda Fitness.

Love it. And we'll make sure that we link all of that up.

Perfect. Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you. So good. Thank you for listening to the PT Profit podcast. If you like this episode, chances are your friends will too. So it would be a huge service to us if you would please leave us a review and share with your friends on your social media channels. When you leave us a review, be sure to take a screenshot of it and email that screenshot to my team atinfo simpson fitness.com and we'll send you a very special Instagram podcast that will show you how to create compelling content so that your ideal clients come to you and you go from wanting clients to a wait list of clients ready for your services. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.