All in mindset

You Deserve to Feel Powerful in Your Body.

You Deserve to Feel Powerful in Your Body.

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset, general BAMFery

When we're sold an ideal based in the physical, we're never enough. We can always find a lump, a stretch mark, a muscle that's too big or too small (as the case may be), a too-long nose, or a rough patch of skin. We spend hours in the mirror or glancing at car windows on a walk, examining our angles and how our clothes lie on our bodies and, if a bra strap is pinching or a shirt isn't skimming lightly over a belly, we measure it against how we've eaten recently. Thoughts of failure come rushing in, and we rush out to buy into the next solution.

We deserve so much more.

We Can Take Our Power Back.

We Can Take Our Power Back.

Stephanie Ondrusek
offers, mindset

We can reject the voices dripping with condescension. We can abandon the 12-week plans in favor of finding ways to move, eat, and live that light us up, call us into our freedom, and remind us that we’re mystical, magical, fiery women worthy of our own time and attention. We can remind the world that one donut isn’t lazy and three stalks of celery aren’t virtuous.

We can take our power back, one rep, one good-enough meal, one rewritten story at a time.

Want to learn how?
 

Divorce Dogma. Cultivate Curiosity.

Divorce Dogma. Cultivate Curiosity.

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset, coaching

If you've been around here for a while, you know I'm big into exploration.

Experimentation.

Using fitness as a means of empowerment: for getting honest about who you are, for getting clear on what you want, and, ultimately, for getting to know yourself.

We’re urged toward dogma. Ads and commercials and authority figures scream that there is one path to success and one best way to go about it, and theirs reigns supreme. We believe what we’re told, constructing a timeline, molding our lives around it, rubbing our noses raw on the grindstone.

When was the last time you looked up?

What Do Your Workouts Show You?

What Do Your Workouts Show You?

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset, workouts

Exploring the limits of our physical bodies pushes them a bit further out every time, but, more than that, the act of discovering our edges introduces us to our deepest truths. Fitness has shown me that I'm more intelligent than I've been in the past, that I'm more durable than I've believed myself to be, and that I'm more powerful than I've thought myself.

There's nothing like looking at a workout and thinking, "dang, can I do that?" rather than, "oh, I could never do that." It's a subtle shift that oozes its way into our minds over time, and, once it takes place, there's no going back. It seeps through our lives, starting in the gym, and moving out until its grubby fingerprints are all over our walls.

When we're in a spot where all we can think about is what's directly in front of us, the stories we tell ourselves become irrelevant. We're focused on the task at hand and what parts of ourselves need to show up to get it done, excuses be damned.

And it's magic.

Give Yourself Permission to Run.

Give Yourself Permission to Run.

Stephanie Ondrusek
coaching, mindset

Embracing the idea that we will get it wrong comes with the freedom TO get it wrong. When we sit with the idea that we won't hit a home run on our first (or second, or even third) at-bat, we come to see that the attempt is where the magic is, and the results are nothing more than data.

We're encouraged to take a step forward on the scraggly, winding path to change, as opposed to lacing up our boots and consulting the map for the zillionth time at the outset (and never actually moving). We know it won't be perfect, but it will be motion that produces some sort of result. We know we will know more after an effort, even if we don't succeed, than we would if we stayed stuck. We learn to trust ourselves to course correct along the way.

You Can Put It All Down.

You Can Put It All Down.

Stephanie Ondrusek
fooooood, FAQs + hacks, mindset

The process by which each woman comes to a place of peace with food looks different for almost everyone, but it begins with knowing that we have so much more to do than worry about how many minutes of cardio we did, how many grams of fat, and how many rolls we let show this week.

Fitness and nutrition are important because they show us that we can do hard things: that we can work toward a goal, find a process that lights us up and makes us more alive, and discover layers of ourselves as yet unintroduced.

A lot of times, that looks like trying a few things out before we get there. The part we often forget to talk about, though, is that it often also looks like disconnecting, going inward, and trusting ourselves to figure the shit out. You don’t have to be (or have ever been) a bikini competitor or varsity letter athlete to get started; you can start right where you are. You’re the expert on you, and I’m here to guide you along the way.
 

Why Hide?

Why Hide?

Stephanie Ondrusek
coaching, mindset

What's so wrong with wanting to get big? Why can't we take care of ourselves because we're worth being loved on? Why can't we agree with a compliment? Are we not allowed to feel our damn selves?

We put in work. We show up. We come through. We do our best. We make magic.

Why hide it?

How Do We Become Empowered?

How Do We Become Empowered?

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset

What if we remembered that each and every moment contains a choice:

one to play the victim, to give away our agency and be at the mercy of others, to be drained by our circumstances, and to stay stuck;

which stands right alongside the one to step into our role as a warrior, to hold ourselves responsible for our actions and reactions, to know that each moment is designed for our growth, to be compassionate, and to be the light, impenetrable by darkness?

We Get to Build What We Want.

We Get to Build What We Want.

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset

We get to say what matters. We get to choose movements, careers, partners, and lives for ourselves, regardless of how others respond. We get to find those who resonate with us. We get to choose. We get to build what we want.

And it can all start with a pair of legs.

Read This Before You Get to Work on Your Next Goal.

Read This Before You Get to Work on Your Next Goal.

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset, coaching

Is that what you genuinely want? Do you want the jean size, or do you want the ease and freedom that comes with not worrying about your body? Are you measuring your worth by your inherent power, or is your worth wrapped up in your appearance?

Are you chasing something you really want and a lifestyle that would accentuate and nurture your magic?
Or are you buying into a path our culture says is the key to happiness, without realizing that it's already in you?

Old Habits Die Hard. Here's How to Change Them {the tides, they are a'changin'.}.

Old Habits Die Hard. Here's How to Change Them {the tides, they are a'changin'.}.

Stephanie Ondrusek
coaching, FAQs + hacks, mindset

So let's have a moment of compassion for Old You, who's fighting super hard for her last breath. She finds her worth in her appearance and truly believes that the answer is restricting, thinking that the accompanying binging is a personality and willpower flaw, rather than a natural rebellion against a plan not meant for her. She's fighting to stay alive, because she's afraid of a new possibility: one in which she can explore, and where there's no way to truly mess up. We're exploring and finding the best system for you.

Let's also acknowledge that Old You will be interwoven into You 2.0, because Old You has important, valuable lessons to teach.

Not the least of which is, she gets overwhelmed and scared sometimes (like we all do) and doesn't like feeling that way (because, who tf does?).

Old You is like a rescue puppy who is kind of a jerk and wants to pee on everything just because she's never known what it's like to be safe and loved and cared for, but actually means well and is trying really hard (analogy stolen from Elizabeth Gilbert, whose post on compassion for self is worth a read or ten.).

We want to change. We're on board with not denying our past selves. But we don't know anything other than self-deprecation, self-flagellation, and adopting plans that have nothing to do with us.

SO WHAT DO WE DO??

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