Hi, Lisa (co-founder of The Green Door Life) here 👋  I have a really important story to share because I KNOW you've been there too, and you may be in the same position right now. I hope this email gives you an action plan with the right information. 

I gained 10 pounds starting in October until I made some changes this February. And it wasn't muscle mass. This is very noticeable on my 5'5" (on a good day) frame, but more importantly, I felt awful.

[Side note: I've since lost all 10 pounds over the span of 2 weeks. Most of it was inflammation and water weight. I'll share later on how I pivoted.]

The most frustrating part of all was that nothing about my diet or exercise changed during this time:

• I wasn't still drinking alcohol or over-eating
• I was tracking my food and staying within my macronutrient and calorie goals, especially protein
• I was strength training three times a week + metabolic conditioning (a form of HIIT) twice a week
• I was running (okay let's be real... jogging) a couple times a week +  walking ~8,000 steps a day 
• I was maintaining this routine even through the holidays, crazy cold weather, and the kids being home from school

By the start of the new year, I knew it was time to reassess because nothing I was physically doing was making a difference.

Upon deeper reflection, here's what did change during this time... 

What changed at WORK during this time:

• In a matter of months, our team grew from 3 coaches to over 15! We had to train everyone FAST, set up new systems and processes, and didn't have time to consider how we could make it sustainable long-term 😅 
• I started working from 6:00 a.m. until midnight many nights with small breaks only to eat, exercise, and feed my kids. 
• My emotions were all over the place. It wasn't just right before that time of the month; I was breaking down and then pushing through every single day.
• I was wavering between "this too shall pass, you are strong AF and you can do it!" and "I am not OK. This isn't working Nothing is worth feeling like this."
• Shannon and I both have the tendency to do more, faster, better, longer... and thus it's challenging for us at times to pause and reassess. It's not always clear to me when I need to push and when I need to slow down, as my default is to just keep going.

What changed at HOME during this time:

• At the same time, my husband started a new, very demanding sales job that had him working around the clock from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., no joke.
• Family dinners were replaced with "quick, let's just feed the kids so we can get back to work" and more TV time than I want to admit. Cringe.
• The house became disorganized (disaster of epic proportions for this double-Virgo couple!). Dishes sat a little longer, cluttered spaces, dirty pots and pans left on the stove...
• I lost momentum with meal prepping, especially for my kids' breakfasts and lunches. This cost me immensely and increased my daily stress in the mornings getting everyone out the door.
• The kids (and then, us parents) were sick off and on for 3 weeks with the strangest illness at the time. It was like 2 days of high fever, then nothing, then a random cough, then 100% back, then a fever, and so on.
• And y'all know I fell down and injured myself bad during a run (New here? You can find all our past newsletters here on our blog)
• I wasn't tired and wired... I was just WIRED. I kept going and going, pushing harder and harder, working myself into an absolute mess. I was getting the same hours of sleep, but my sleep quality was much worse. 
• I always know it's bad when I stop putting music on during the day and when I stop dancing. Neither of those were happening.

Long story short, my stress was through the roof, and I was CONSUMED by work. I even f*cking worked on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I justified it all. I wore that badge of busy like a decorated veteran.  

Here's how I pulled through and got my body back in alignment...

How I found balance:

• I cleaned house with home life: my husband and I took a few days (and lots of tears and hugging) to thoroughly discuss what home life we wanted, what we could adjust to make it work financially, and what our non-negotiables were. Ultimately, my husband left his job... and joined our company as the head of sales. Even though financially it might not make sense on paper, it makes all the sense in our hearts. We now have family dinners again, quality time carved out with the kids before and after school + weekends, and we are just 100% more present and enjoying life. We can see the change in our kids most of all which is gut-wrenching to think about how hard it must have been on them but rewarding to know that we made the right decisions.
• I cleaned house with my work life: Shannon and I spent an entire day reviewing systems, processes, and personnel. We put the right people in place to offload 75% of the work consuming us. We simplified. We set boundaries. We identified our biggest time sucks that didn't provide any ROI and/or spark any joy. We had to make hard decisions, like no longer taking 1:1 clients at all. With this new time, we quickly came up with even better solutions, such as giving our entire community access to us 1.5 hours a week on our group call and mapping out our company goals for the rest of the year.
• I cleaned house with my body: one of the first things I had to do was reduce my workouts. Seems counterintuitive, right? But when pre-menopausal women in particular are experiencing high, chronic stress in multiple areas of life, the body cannot endure additional stressors like exercise. Yes, all exercise is a stressor! This is a good thing when overall stress is low but not when the body is already operating at max capacity. Additionally, food is often converted to fat instead of used up for energy in this state. I used less heavy weights, dropped my runs, and reduced / eliminated HIIT. Finally, my stress came way down, my body re-balanced, and the weight started dropping.

If you're a female reading this now and feeling a light bulb go off... know that you are NOT alone. Weight loss and weight management for women can be so complicated due to our hormones. When those get out of whack from stress, everything is counter-intuitive. Less food and more exercise is not always the answer. If this is you - you're doing all the right things, not seeing results - click here to apply for Awaken Your Nutrition. 

We've heard from our community members that they have been experiencing very similar changes in all areas of life with a strong pull to re-create a sustainable lifestyle. 

What changes have you made at work and home? Click reply and let us know - we read every single email you send and we love hearing from you!

If this email found you in a similarly challenging time, we hope this gave you a little light at the end of the tunnel and some inspiration to take a pause (however small) to reassess. Sometimes we really do need to slow down in order to speed up and get back into that flow state 💚

Shannon Morse & Lisa Kirby | Creators of Awaken Your Nutrition @thegreendoor.life  |  thegreendoorlife.com

P.S. We are working on a NEW program just for MOMS, kicking off in mid-April and finishing before 4th of July! Click reply to this email if you'd like to be first on the waiting list to join!

P.S. Looking for more nutrition, health, and training support? Here are 2 ways we can help you:  

(1) WATCH OUR FREE MASTERCLASS → Learn exactly what's holding you back in terms of nutrition and exercise. Click here to register and view immediately.

(2) BOOK A FREE CALL → Talk to a team member about which program is the best fit for you based on your goals, lifestyle, budget and more. Click here to reserve your spot (first come, first serve).

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