Meredith Atwood - The Year Of No Nonsense - a podcast by Anthony Trucks

Meredith Atwood joins us for today’s episode. She is a former attorney, author, podcaster, speaker, and coach.  Her book, Triathlon for the Every Woman: You Can Be a Triathlete. Yes achieved a must-read status for beginner triathletes. Today, she shares with us her journey o how she turned her life around from being in the darkest point in her life. Join us as she shares her experiences and how you too can be healthy, fit, and change your life for the better.

Why should we listen to you?

[7:26]

Because I have been probably in the darkest that anyone has been and I have been in the serious lows. I drank like a fish for 20 years and I've been severely overweight, out of shape, and just suffering. And that's such a word that people don't want to admit.

[7:58]

I think that my relatability is because I've been in the trenches and figured out a way to climb out. I fall back in sometimes and climb back out but it's that rebound effect.  I've learned the art of the rebound like when you fall down, you get right back up so that's where my audience I think has come and followed me.

Being real and sharing the truth

[10:05]

We're too busy in this avoidance culture or the numbing culture to just pretend things are okay and act like we have it all together. For me, I think I do disarm people by just shooting straight and telling my story about being suicidal or telling my story about being a drunk.

[10:39]

There's always a sense of realness when you're sharing your truth. Look in the mirror, what people are struggling with, and understand that everyone is struggling on some level.

What people find in her Work

[15:04]

One of the biggest takeaways people have with my book is identifying their people-pleasing. And this is a really big thing, especially for women. We're trying to make everyone else happy  at our own cost and just becoming aware of that. That’s the biggest thing I think people take away is to start to meet yourself with the truth, that it's gonna hurt, it's gonna stink and then you're free.

Knowing why

[16:06]

Figure out your “why”... why you want these things, and the truth about why you're doing it.

[16:18]

I think if you start trying to fix something, or change your habits without knowing why, and without knowing the extent of the damage, you don't get anywhere because you haven't seen the extent of it,

The Truth Onion

[17:26]

In my book, I talk about the truth onion that we all have a presenting problem. That is our onion. 

[17:51]

When you start to peel that away, you go okay but why? Why do why am I overweight? Why do I eat too much? Why don't I exercise? Why don't I take care of myself? Where does this come from? And you start to ask, and you will get to the center that is the reason which stinks and you probably cried along the way to get there. It's an onion, you're peeling to the core of the truth.

[18:23]

If you haven't done your own work, you can't help others but if you can see their onion, and you see their presenting problem, you can help them peel it.

Finding strength in what you do

20:05

If you're in a place where you know who you are and why you're doing it, it won't matter so much what other people say. The goal is to figure out your why and to be rooted in it and to find strength in it.

[20:58]

Being strong in who you are. In the beginning, you don't know who you are, when you're really trying to dig yourself out of some stuff. You don't know so if you can just go back to that, why? Why am I doing this? That's enough. You just got to keep that dream in focus.

Taking time to accomplish

[23:03]

It doesn't matter how long it takes to accomplish anything, the time is passing and you're missing out on every day, you don't show up to your dream every day, that you don't do what you say that you want. And you don't put that into motion, you are missing out.

Looking back into the Past

[24:26]

If you can look back to where you came from where a lot of the habits we've created, the nonsense that we've created, it started then, it came out of names and numbers and nicknames and events that started when we were young. That's where we were shaped.

[24:47]

I think it's very informative to look back to where you came from and to see where the habits that you started when you were younger that no longer serve you now who has goals. That's the important chapter because that's where our beliefs were formed.

The Concept you turn in to your clients

[26:28]

The beautiful thing is, the more you're exposed to information and just talking about it, it's still movement forward. Anytime you're putting your skin in the game, there's this huge pressure to jump in, change your life, and fix it all. Life is not linear. It's not a linear process . We just have to embrace that and just accept that we got to go through whatever the process is.

What promise did God make to the world when He created you?

[28:06]

There would always be a sense of humor to come along with the hard stuff.

 

Key Quotes:

[8:34-8:38] “You can be in the depths and find a way out that there's always a light.”

[13:47-13:51] “If you lead with a joke even though it's your truth, that's a way to connect.”

[20:36-20:42] “Don't accept criticism from someone you would not accept advice from.”

[22:04-22:09] “Never give up on a dream, because at the time it takes to accomplish it, the time is gonna pass anyway.”

 

Follow Meredith Atwood on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwimBikeMom/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/swimbikemom

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swimbikemom/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/mnatwood

Website: https://swimbikemom.com/

Follow her podcast The Same 24 Hours on:

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-same-24-hours/id775943089?itsct=podcast_box&itscg=30200

Further episodes of Aww Shift

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