Faithful Workouts with special Guest Michelle Spadafora

Foreign.

I'm so excited that you're hanging out with me today because you know that our, like, health, our physical bodies, it is so important to me. Like, here I am, like, closing in on 60, right? And I'm like, I just want to stay healthy and vivacious and energetic, and I believe, truly believe that that's God's design for. So I want to have you on to share your expertise and what you've discovered so that the mom today who's struggling in their health, you know, maybe they're just feeling. Maybe they look in the mirror, they're like, oh, I don't like what I see. You know, maybe they're getting dressed in the morning. They're like, oh, I need to lose weight. Or maybe they're just. They're sick. You know, they're compromised in their health that way. Or maybe they're just tired. Like, let's help them out today. So share a little bit about how you got into this in your story.

Yeah, absolutely. So I've been teaching fitness classes since 1984. So long time. And I started, really because of.

Did you wear all the. Did you wear the spandex and how you know it, the headband and the.

Think of, like, the 1980s, like, what you've pictured health clubs to look like back then. 100. I was, like, in a huge facility. The lights were flashing, the people were strutting their stuff, the whole thing back then.

I can just hear the 80s music right now. Wait, did you wear leg warmers?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, girl. All right. You have my heart. You had me at leg warmers. All right, let's go, let's go.

I could send you pictures. Oh, my goodness. But this. I worked at the club, and so the year before I started there, the instructors had to wear white go go boots to walk into the room where they were going to teach before teaching, when they walked around the gym, white go go boots. And then it was replaced by leg warmer. So that's how long ago.

I think we might need to bring that back. I'm. I actually, I do have some white go go boots. I do.

Everyone should.

Everyone. Everyone is a pair of white. So if you get anything from this podcast episode today, go get yourself some white go go boots. It's a game changer. Yeah.

So anyway, yeah. Started teaching in 1984, and honestly, back then, it was all about me. I did not have any faith, and I loved being on a stage with hundreds of people in the room and me getting the attention. It was. I didn't really Even care so much about their physical health. It's kind of crazy, but it really was all about me. And that was not just in the workout room. That was a good chunk of my story back then. Life was about me and my fun and all of that. And then had three kids. And you would think at that point life would stop being about me, but in some ways it still was. It was still like, let my kids look cute so I look good. Let me continue working out so I look good. You know, the whole thing. And then this beautiful thing happened around two 2000-2003 was again three kids in three years. My husband traveled. I had my own business as well as teaching fitness classes. And I woke up one day and I was like, we should go to church. I said that to my husband and he's like, where did that come from? I had never been told about Jesus. I was 40 years old. Never been told about Jesus.

40 and you don't even know about.

In the US no one had really invited me to church. I had been at a church for, like, weddings, you know, and different things, but just now. So don't assume, you know, someone who's 40 years old who's not following Jesus and that she's been told that message. But anyway, I just woke up and I was like, we should go to church. I have no idea where that came from. But I said, I would like our kids to have better morals than we did. We lived a pretty wild life for quite a while in our downtown Chicago health club years and everything. And so off we went to church for the kids. That's how God got me there. And the crazy thing is I didn't know anyone who was Christian. I didn't look up to Christians, any of that. So it was just God came to me and we started going to church. And it was one of those crazy things, kind of one of those, like, the scales fell off my eyes. And right away I knew this was truth. And because this was truth, that I wanted to live differently. And the beautiful thing is that my husband soon after had the same experience. Like, this is real. And so within a year of us being baptized, he was working for a ministry part time called Halftime. Kind of confusing ministry is called Halftime. He worked there part time initially, then went to full time. But in that ministry was about finding your own purpose and all that. So I decide that really through all that, my purpose is in the workout room. And God whispered into my heart, take me to your fitness platform. Make me be the center of your fitness platform. Now And I was working in a secular club in an area of Colorado where it's very unchurched and just started sharing about the love Jesus. And so that's really how I got into fitness and how my whole purpose behind fitness has changed. At times, do I struggle about things being but myself?

Yeah.

But for the most part now, I've got a whole different underlying why, why I exercise, why I eat healthy, and why I do what I do. And that's a beautiful thing about Jesus is he can impact every part of our life, you know, including our health.

Yeah. Yeah. So, like, you've always been kind of the health person. Yeah. So do you help people with, like, who are new to this, who. Maybe their health hasn't been important to them, maybe they've let their health go. You know, I mean, health has always been super important to me, but I've seen a lot of moms, like, sometimes we just get so overwhelmed as a mom, the last thing we have time for is ourselves. And so even people who, you know, maybe before they were a mom, they were healthy, they. They exercise or they ate healthy, maybe not. But there's just something about the mom brain that's like, you know what? I'm going to sacrifice everything for my children. And then we end up like, my mom. She literally, like her. All of her kids were first on the youngest of five. She put all the kids first. She put my dad first. And as the mom brain does. Right. But her health, she suffered with depression and anxiety, obesity, and. And I just, I remember, like, I don't want this for my life. Like, she gave me that gift, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

Of helping me understand, like, I. I can still be healthy. Like, I might need to make some different decisions and.

Good for you. You know, so often our family of origin impacts the way that we treat our body. And some people grew in a home like yours and have rationalized that that's just the way things are. This is just how I'm going to do this. And this is what it means to be a good mom is to do everything over here. And you did the opposite. You looked at and said, okay, I'm. I'm appreciating that this is what I had because it's helping me to know what I don't want. I don't want that for my life, and I don't want my children to see that. My upbringing was the pretty much the opposite of what you just said. My mom, for a good chunk of a single mom, she. My dad died when I was three. She's from Austria and didn't have any family here, but she always made health a priority. She was active in everything you can imagine. Like super, like, you know, if there's a tennis tournament, she won it. Golf, she won it. We were going to go tobogganing and cross country skiing. And she was very much about having her own life in addition to making me feel like the most loved person. My mom just died recently, so. But at 95 and she finished well. She, she, she was a, she's a, she was a hero to a lot of people, really.

Just that's the goal. I love that you said 95. She finished well. Like, we want our lives to be that glorious finish, you know, And I think that, I mean, we're all going to die, but it's how we live that really matters. And if you have. That's why I like when, when anyone comes into our university, the first thing we work on is, is their mind, right? And then their relationship with God. But then the very first thing physically work on is their health. We don't, we don't focus on their marriage, their mothering, their home, their money. We get the health because if you don't feel good, you can't engage with your kids, you can't like clean up your home, you can't manage your money effectively. If you feel bad, it just takes up so much real estate. And so that's, we're like you, we have to get this health thing dialed in. Especially as, as you know, kingdom people, faith people, we want to represent what a life well lived looks like.

That is so good that you start with that because you know what? One of the biggest reasons that people feel shame in their life and feel unworthy and feel like they could not possibly be used by God or they can't be a good mom is because of their body. The way that they are treating their body impacts them in such huge ways. And it's not that at all. We have to get a perfect looking body, but we have to know that we're doing what's right when it comes to caring for the body. I love in Romans, I think it's 6, 13. Use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God. And when we can, as a mom, make this shift that taking care of my health is not selfish. It doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be full of pride and vanity and ego. It can literally be one of the most selfless things you do. Because if you want to show up for your kids the best you can. It involves taking care of your health. It involves taking care of your body. I like you, I'm just, I'm at 63 now and I still have as much strength and energy as I did in my twenties. Last night my son called late. He's like, any chance you'd be willing to drive down and meet me for dinner? I'm like, absolutely, I'll jump in the car. Because you know what? I have that energy. I can do that. And so I just think that the mind is where you start when it comes to your health. Finding those thoughts or limiting beliefs that are holding you back, believing that you're not worthy of taking care of it. What is your motivation? Knowing your why, you know, and of course you want to be your best mom now when your kids are young, but I guarantee you, you want to be your best mom when your kids are older. And I've told my kids and they know it, I said, I'm doing all that I can so that as we age together, we're going to be able to have fun, we're going to be able to travel, we're going to be able to do this. No guarantees I could get tomorrow, I could be better and. But at least you and I are going to know in my heart that my mom did what she could so that we could, you know, enjoy life together.

I love that.

Because really got to be more than just the moment. It's more than the upcoming wedding, birthday, whatever you're trying to look good for. It's really this like long term life strategy which starts in the mind, knowing your vision for life, knowing what's important. And then I think it's really asking Jesus into every part of it. It's that Romans 12:1 that I love. You know, I kind of add a couple words in, but it's, you know, take your everyday, ordinary life. You're coming, you're going, you're eating, you're sleeping, you're exercising, you're eating. And give it all as a, you know, for God to God, here I am. What do you want me to do today? How do you want me to move? How do you want me to exercise and, and show up my best for my kids?

Yeah, because they need you. Like, I love that you said it's one of the most selfless things we can do because we can show up so much better for everything that God has for us to do. And something about like, you know, Satan always wants to come against our assignment all the time. And I've seen so often that moms today, because they carry shame, are punishing their bodies subconsciously. They don't even realize why they're eating, what they're eating or why they're treating their bodies the way they treat their bodies. But I love to give people, like, practical ways to understand what's going on in your mind. And when you are standing naked in front of the mirror, the thoughts that are going through your mind, those are telling you, those thoughts are telling you what the messages you're sending your body. And your body's only going to respond. Like, your body's always eavesdropping on your thoughts and your words, and it's just going to respond to whatever you believe about your body. So if you believe you don't deserve energy or a healthy body or, you know, if you think, oh, I'm failing, I'm not showing up, I'm not enough. I, my kids deserve a better mom. All these take root, and it shows up in punishing yourself. You know, shame has a way of, like, getting into all the different areas of your life, finances, your marriage, your. Everything but the body. It shows up on the outside. It's like I'm carrying shame. And shame is heavy, and shame is tired, and shame is hard, and shame is resistant. And I truly believe that shame is one of the areas that when we overcome that and we understand, there is no condemnation, there's no judgment. Now we can love our bodies because you can't get a positive change from a negative space. So we can learn to love our bodies where they are right now, not when they reach a certain level. But if we can love our bodies and how it's showing up right now. My heart didn't have to beat today. My lungs didn't have to breathe today. My muscles didn't have to move, but they did. And how loving that is that my body's trying its best to support me. Am I supporting my body when we can change that dialogue? I think that's the first step to having radiant, supernatural energy and health.

Oh, my. You and I are like, so, like on the way. I mean, this is exactly what I so believe. It's like, there's one woman who told me, you know, I used to exercise because I hated my body. Now I exercise because I love my body. At that mind switch. It's, it's, it's up here. It's like, I don't have to go on a diet. I'm so grateful that I have access to healthy food. I'm, you know, it's changing those thoughts that are holding us back. And you know, so many people will say, you know, I can do anything for a couple weeks and then I always fail. And I'm like, can you just not say that ever again? That's not who you are. Let's refer. There's one woman in particular. I'm a five week person. Every time I hit five weeks, I quit. I'm like, what do you think is going to happen in five weeks? With a confirmation bias. It's our brain wanting to like, find things to agree with what it believes. So if you believe you're someone who quits, I'm in five weeks. I'm not worthy any of that. You're going to look for things to back that up. And so that's why we have to capture those thoughts and replace them with no, that's not who I got. Did not create me to be someone who's a five week person.

No, no. That's so good.

I think we have also this level of like, almost like if we're going to move forward on this health journey, there's going to be this level of perfection. I need to do like, I need to work out every day. I need to eat so, you know, so like perfectly. And I'm like, hey guys, I got an 80, 20 rule. 80% of the time I eat pretty healthy. 20% of the time kind of do. If I have a beer and a burger, do I feel bad? No. Is it my everyday meal? No. You know, it's that kind of thing. It's also like, if I can work out for 15 minutes in a day, I'll grab those 15 minutes and I'm not going to beat myself up that I didn't get a 45 minute. It's like, what is, what's going to work with your lifestyle? Make a plan. Because plans are important. But make a plan plan that is loving and graceful and holds you accountable.

Yes.

And that's do that's power on earth.

That will pull me away from a burger and french fries. I'm sorry. Yes, I know. Not gonna happen. And when we like, I think though, I think we've been suckered into this belief through influencers, like health influencers. And, and we think, well, I don't have the perfect apps or I'm not doing like, look at this person. They like planned out all their meals and they pre packed them for them and their children for an entire week. Oh, I need to do that, girl. Come on. Like, there is reality and there is a fictional Reality. And when we're believing everything we see, then we hold up the standard to ourselves, and then we get into perfection paralysis. My. One of my mantras that I teach moms as soon as they get into our university. Sloppy success beats perfect failure.

Hunter. Yes.

Sloppy success. You know what I mean. The bed. Don't look too closely because that flat sheet is all wrinkled underneath. But I pulled up the duvet cover. I threw a couple of pillows on top.

Like, you're ahead of the game for.

Better than me, Right? Actually, you know what? I'm going to strike that, because that's a lie. My husband made up the. Okay, I'm just being honest here. My husband made up the bed, but.

I don't make beds. That's my honesty.

I don't do everything in life. We can be like, oh, it has. My pantry has to be organized like this. Or this is how I have to eat, or this is how I have to dress. And it just becomes too much. We lose our grasp on what really matters.

Yeah. And we get overwhelmed, and so we feel like we can't do it perfectly, so we do nothing. And that is just a story over and over again. I love this one quote, and I think it's Mary Pickford, but it just says, falling's not failure, is not the falling down, it's the staying down. And it's like, hey, you're going to make mistakes. I make mistakes all the time. And it's like when I make that mistake, I can sit there and beat myself up and say, that's who you are. Often I have to chuckle because it's something pretty silly that I've done or, you know, whatever. And then you start again. And that's a beautiful thing. Jesus says every day we've. You know, we've got a fresh start every day. And we cannot let our history be our destiny. We've got to realize that every day we have a fresh start. You make a mistake. If you need to apologize to someone, do it. If you need to forgive yourself, do it. If you need to ask for forgiveness, do it and move on. You know, don't let that hold you back, because that is what Satan wants. And I don't want to win. I don't want him to win.

No, no, he's one. He's won too many battles. Like, no, it's time for us to be victorious. And I truly believe that victory is going to happen in the home, is going to happen with mom. Because we are the most powerful shaping force on this planet. That's why the enemy always goes after us because we have the, we have the power of generational impact because what we're doing as moms. And so that's why he's, he wants you to have no energy. He wants your body to be tired. He, he wants you to not be like, to be so riddled with anxiety and overwhelm and self hate that you can't even engage with your family. That's. So who are you going to let win? So let's bring this home. What could a mom do today? She's like, I have put myself last. I know I could be healthier. Or maybe it's the opposite. I focus too much on what's perfect and not just the whole picture of health and joy and freedom. What is the first thing that this mom would do?

Yeah, and I'm not saying this to sound like Christiany, you know, but I'm saying it because I believe it to be true. You know, I would say ask God for help. You know, there's quickly these ABCs that I have when it comes to fitness. Ask God for help. How many of us who are followers of Jesus do not ask him for help? When it comes to our physical health, which is one of the most important things. I mean, our physical health, he cares about it. First Peter 5, 7. If you worry or care about your health, so does he. So he's there to help you guys. But you have to. The second part of that ABC is B, you have to believe that God can help you. That with him you can do all things. Nothing's impossible with him. So you have to believe. Ask me. You have to believe and then see us. Check your motives. He knows our motives. He cares about our motives. Now this can be even something you're asking him to help you with because your motives are wrong. And just say, God, I want to change my motives. I want to be able to do this because I want to be your hands and feet. I want to give you glory. But right now I'm not actually there.

Yeah.

And then after that, now to get a little bit more practical, start small. Something happens in our brains when we do wins. When we have a, when we exercise, we said we're gonna do it for five minutes and we do it. It's a win. It does something for your brain to go, you know, yeah, let's do it again. And so start small, doing what it is you can. Often the hardest part with exercise is to get started that day. Tell yourself you're gonna do one song put, you know, whether it's a video that I have or somebody has or you're just putting on a song and then most likely once you start, you'll go a little bit longer.

Yeah.

The other thing I'd say is to put it into your calendar. Even if it's like I said, five minutes when we put it into our calendar and I even have alarms that go off. As my reminder, go exercise. Ask someone to maybe join you in this process, whether they're local or distant, but someone to say, hey, I'm trying to start exercising. How do you feel? It doesn't mean that they have to start exercising, but would you be someone I could check in with? Having someone who's going to check in with you increases your chance of doing it by like 95% when it comes to fitness. So it's a big thing. So that would be my first thing is just, you know, start small, get some wins, have a plan and if possible ask someone to help you on this journey.

I love that because I think we need accountability and I, I always think this, that if I have a problem, there's already a solution for it. Whether it's my health, my business, my, you know, whatever. If there's a problem, there's already a solution that exists simultaneously with the problem. So my job doesn't become to, does it? It's not like how do I fix the problem, it becomes how do I get in the room? Where the answer is yeah, yeah. And so I think like for example, when I wanted to grow a seven figure business, I had to pay for proximity, get into a room, get into a Mastermind with other 7, 8, 9 figure earner so I could understand the solution. Same thing with health. If there is a problem, there's already a solution. Get in the room with other people who are already there who just vibrate with that healthy mentality would, who are loving life. Don't just look at the abs, look at the attitude, look at how they're living life. Or is it something you want to model and, and get with those people? Because here's what happens and I'm just going to tell every mom, this is what's going to happen. As soon as you start your health journey. The people who were most comfortable with you in that unhealthy state will now you're a challenge. Now you're, now it's, you're a risk. Now you're not comfortable to be with because you're challenging them. If you can do it, they could do it. They don't want to do it. So now it's easier to tear people down instead of lifting them up.

Yeah.

That's why sometimes I, I, and I know this sounds rude, but it's like, you know, when I had a client one time who was on her way to losing. I mean, to this day, she's lost over £300. Right. I said, the first thing you're gonna find is you gotta let go of some of those fat friends. Not, not fat physically, fat mentally.

Yeah, right. They can try to very subtly sabotage your efforts. And it could be something as simple as saying, hey, do you want to meet for coffee? And then you go for coffee and they get the cookie or the thing and they're going to buy. Come on, you can have a bite.

And then you have to defend yourself. And then you have to hold firmly to, like, the principles already got you started. It's easier to get into the room with the people who are like, hey, you want to meet? We're going hiking this weekend. Like, come on and come with us. Like, that kind of energy. So first of all, don't be, it's not, it's not your friend's fault. It's just, you can't blame. It's kind of scary for them. So that's how people react when you change. They don't like it. They're uncomfortable.

And there could be times that God's calling you to go back into that friend group and maybe with love and kindness to help them when you get grounded and stabilized in your own journey. In an issue. Sometimes it's our mess that he wants to go and use as a message to help others. But, you know, at first you got to set yourself up for success and know the things that have pulled you away in the past and avoid those things. And it might be people. And it's hard because sometimes those people are living in your home and sometimes you're married to them and, you know.

All right, God, you and I are doing this. You got my back. So, yeah, so let's make this happen. But I love all about living that healthy life for the purpose of a life well lived. Not always for how we show up on the outside, but how we're living on the inside. We forget that we're always going to be in our bodies. You don't have, like, you can't exchange it. Yeah, you're always going to be in your body. So let's make this the most wonderful journey. So where can I love this? We could talk all day about health and energy, and I just love this conversation. But for the mom who's like, I've been in this situation too long. I, I really want to live like what would that feel like to just love being in my body, love that healthy life. Where would she get started today?

You know, one thing is, I mean I keep saying, but see your thought but just know that it's doable, guys. And I know you might feel like, you know, you don't know my story. You don't know how many times I've tried. It is doable for you to get to a place where you feel good in your body. You look in the mirror and you can see the imperfections and just be like, that's all right. Nobody's meant to be perfect. You know, we all got stuff we could look at. And then I mean we on our at Faithful workouts is one option. You know, we have, our website's completely free and we have meal plans and workout plans and over 500 exercise videos and we have them from all different lengths, all the fitness levels, all different fitness styles. And so for a lot of people I recommend getting where it's a struck a little bit more structured when you're first starting. And so we have like a 31 day fitness calendar you could choose and every day you go there, depending four different levels, you can choose which workout you want to do. We have meal plans and I'm about to. When it comes to kitchen, I'm not about like spending hours and hours in the kitchen. I'm like, I took this dinner, I mean this is true story. Yesterday I had, I made salmon for dinner. Next day I took it and I put on top of a salad, added some stuff, had it for lunch. That's a lot of how my meal plans are. Make extra and cook. So it's, it's not going to take a ton of time. But we do have some great, you know, some menu suggestions as well there. But you could also just turn on some music and just commit to dancing for five minutes.

I love it. I love about health, it's like, you know, I just move your body and enjoy it.

Yeah, yeah. And be, just be, you know, grateful for every, every move you can do. And one of the things that if you're also thinking like I want to be the, you know, do this, I want to be the best mom I can. Just two things again after having my kids is one, my three kids now are 30, 29, 27. They all exercise consistently and they all eat fairly healthy. Like, like I do like, you know, pretty healthy. And that is I think because they saw it was lifestyle. It wasn't like, I was like, hey, I lose ten pounds or, you know, whatever. So that's one thing. And then the other thing, when my youngest went to college, you know, you can always kind of go, did I do things right as a mom? And here's the words that I have used over and over and over in my own life, because God whispered them into my heart. And, you know, did you do the best you could given what you had? And to look at that with everything and every day, like, did I do the best I could given what I had today? Yeah. Showing. Did I show up 100% in that workout? Yeah. Given what I had today, that was the 100% I could offer today. And. And to stop, like, beating yourself up and just be. I did okay. I did pretty good today. And that's all right.

Love it. Basically, you're talking about getting back to that place where we can love ourselves.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And it's okay. It's not prideful to love yourself. To say, I love the beauty that God's put in me. I love that he's made me unique and different.

I love that. Okay, so where can people go to find out more about you?

It's faithful workouts.com is one of the best places we can. You can also go to the any your app store and search faithful workouts. If you happen to have the Nicole Bible, youversion plans and all the different. If you know that we're. We're in there, you can search there on different plans. And then on DirecTV, you can find us on the channel 378. We have a cooking show and an exercise show. So lots of different places.

Yeah. Fantastic. Michelle, thank you so much for hanging out with me.

Yeah. So fun. I wish you lived in ever where I am. You could hang out.

I know, right? All right, guys, make sure you check out the show notes. We got all the links there. And today, just move your body, love your life. Give yourself that freedom that God wants you to have. Thank you so much. Thank you. Later.

Yeah.