Spirit of an Athlete Podcast
If you're a female athlete, parent of a female athlete, or one of the behind the scenes practitioners for female athletes, Spirit of an Athlete Podcast is for you.
I'll share inspiring stories of female athletes that have experienced an injury or illness in their athletic career that took them out of the game either for a short period of time or entirely. I also interview the practitioners that help these athletes get and stay healthy. The practitioners are sharing how they do their work while I or some of my own clients are their examples.
In these less than 30 min podcasts, my hope is to inspire as well as demonstrate alternative ways to help your athlete through an injury, illness, or game changing decision.
Let's get her back in her game and back to her passion!
Get more from Amanda at BodyWhisperHealing.com
Spirit of an Athlete Podcast
How Can Mindset, Neuroscience, and Biohacking Empower a CrossFit Athlete and Coach
In this empowering episode of *Spirit of an Athlete*, host Amanda Smith and mental performance coach Kimberly Jarman discuss their experiences with long COVID and its impact on their athletic lives. They explore the physical and psychological toll of long COVID, emphasizing the importance of mindset, resilience, and community support. Kimberly also highlights her holistic coaching approach, and they explore the transformative power of mindset, neuroscience, and biohacking in overcoming health challenges and enhancing athletic performance. Amanda discusses her powerlifting journey, while Kimberly shares her experience as a CrossFit athlete navigating post-viral health issues. They delve into how these challenges affected both their physical and mental well-being, emphasizing the importance of resilience and community support.
Kimberly reveals how she used biohacking techniques to support her recovery, combining mindset and neuroscience to optimize her mental and physical performance. With a Master’s in Counseling and expertise in human potential, Kimberly's holistic approach focuses on mental clarity, emotional regulation, and empowering women to take control of their health and performance. Don’t miss Kimberly’s free masterclass designed to help you unlock your full potential and achieve your goals.
info@kimberlyjarmancoaching.com
www.kimberlyjarmancoaching.com
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Mindset To Reach Your Full Potential: subscribepage.io/l0z2BC
In this Episode: I don’t have time stamps until the file is finished with editing
- [00:05:01] Personal stories of recovery and the impact of chronic illness on athletic performance
- [00:10:01] Physical and mental challenges faced by athletes with long COVID
- [00:15:01] Importance of mindset and resilience in the recovery process
- [00:20:01] Navigating the healthcare system and advocating for oneself
- [00:25:01] Emotional challenges and identity shifts due to chronic illness
- [00:30:01] Coping strategies and support systems for athletes
- [00:35:01] The role of community and understanding in healing
- [00:40:01] Medical perspectives on long COVID and the need for specialized care
- [00:45:01] Tools and resources for athletes to manage chronic health issues and optimize performance
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Website: Body Whisper Healing
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Take the Gutsy Chick Quiz to find out how your athletic mindset might be holding you back from healing your chronic health issue: https://gutsychickquiz.com
Ho ho ho ho ho. Welcome back to another episode of spirit of an athlete. I'm your host, Amanda Smith. And on this episode, I invite Kimberly Jarman, who is a mental performance coach and cross fitter that got long Covid and is hoping to get back to cross fitting. We all know she will because she's armed with her mindset, neuroscience and her knowledge of biochemistry. She uses these three things with her clients to help them live the life they were meant to lead. I share in this episode my journey with long Covid and what I used to get back into power lifting once again. I know Kimberly is going to take this information back, do some studying and find out if that is the right fit for her. I truly hope you enjoy this episode. Thanks for listening. Kimberly Jarman, thank you so much for saying yes to being on spirit of an athlete with me, and help us understand your journey as an athlete, as a mental performance coach and someone who has experienced an a chronic illness that changed the way you had to see yourself. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me on here, Amanda. I'm excited to be on here. I love I'm an athlete. I always will be an athlete. So to talk to other athletes like, let's go ladies. I love. It. Oh my gosh. It's honestly I'm meeting so many strong female athletes and then finding out their grit their what they've experienced. So for you, what sport were, were or are you in and what was the chronic health condition that showed up for you? So I drank all of the Kool-Aid for the CrossFit culture. Like the whole thing. The whole gallon. Um, so I still identifies a CrossFit, or I have owned a CrossFit gym. Like, I'm telling you when I say drank the Kool-Aid, like. All in all. Yeah. Yeah, I'm CrossFit athlete now. Okay. So does that mean you have have gone to the competitions as an athlete or as a viewer of the athletes? Do you know some CrossFit people like yeah. I do. So for me, I went as a participant in 2000 or not a participant as a. Wow. What do you call them as a fan. I went to watch it in 2014, 2015, I went as a volunteer employee, so I worked at the games in 2015. Yes. Have I met Greg Glassman? Have I talked? Has his sister called me personally? Yes. Do I know Annie, Thor's daughter? Yes. I love it. My niece and her husband, my nephew, are both CrossFit athletes. He's now moved on to team USA Olympic lifting, and she continues to drink the Kool-Aid as a CrossFit coach. As a CrossFit participant, she went to, um, not regionals. Or is it regionals? Uh, almost. The show, whatever the competition is, right before you get to the main show. And then, of course, they've been to all of the the competitions as fans and as vendors. Oh, so I'm I'm familiar with the CrossFit world. I'm also familiar with how the CrossFit world can be extreme. I mean, maybe it attracts that personality type. Yeah, yeah, that you know that, like, super driven. I want to be an athlete for the rest of my life kind of person. Is that how you identify? Yeah. For sure. I'm intense. That is, uh, what a synonym that is. Or not. Yeah. Whatever. A pronoun? No, not a pronoun. Whatever the word. Adjective. There we go. That is an adjective that is regularly handed to me. You're very intense. I am too, but I never got sucked into CrossFit. I went to powerlifting because I like to lift a lot of heavy things. But when it comes to CrossFit, it's really you are. You're a dynamic athlete. You have to be able to do things like gymnastics. You have to be able to do endurance, not just strength. You have to be able to do Olympic weightlifting. Am I missing any of the things that you all do? You nailed it. Yeah. You have to have that cardiovascular, too. Or you got to be able to run. Yeah, that endurance piece, which for, you know, for the bigger athletes tends to be a problem, but for the smaller athletes tends to be no problem. But then vice versa, the smaller athletes tend to struggle with the strength portion, which my niece is a whopping five foot ish. So she's tiny, but she's a little powerhouse. And when it came to doing those those bigger lifts, those Olympic weightlifting lifts, she really had to push herself to a new level because she was so tiny. Whereas her husband, he's he's six two and has zero problem moving big weight. Obviously if he's competing now with team USA for Olympic weightlifting. Yeah, I love about CrossFit, it levels the playing field. I told her I'm fine, then I'm I'm like 132. 32. I better more on the endurance and gymnastics part. Shorter, thicker athlete. Weightlifting. Then we have like, wobbles. I'm probably gonna do better in wobbles than the shorter athletes, but shorter athletes are going to eat my lunch and handstand walks or whatever, right? So I love how it just levels the playing field for all of us. It really does. And I truly, truly love that. There's this, uh, award or recognition that the fittest athlete is a cross fitter. I completely and totally agree because and ah. She's amazing. Uh, why can't I think of her name? It's tiara t. Uh, Tia Toomey. Right. Thank you for having me. Yes. Yes, she I mean and coming back after she's had a baby, I'm like sister preach. Yes. You're the fittest athlete on the planet. The end. Yeah, yeah. Because she can. Exactly. I think five. What she's won 5 or 6. Six. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely stunning as a human specimen of what a CrossFit athlete can do. And really a demonstration of their mental resolve as well. But let's go back to you. Let's go back to you. The cross fitter. Sure. And when things started to shift for you in this realm of the world, you still call yourself a cross fitter. You are still of that mentality. But something happened to you that shifted things. So I became a CrossFit athlete in August of 2012 and then, um, stayed. I was consistent, right? Like I've gone up and down with whatever injuries, but I've consistently been an athlete. And then, uh, 2020 comes around, Covid breaks out, I get Covid for the first time January 2021. Um, it takes me three months to get my taste and smell back, right? I couldn't it just it took my legs out from underneath me, cardiovascular wise. Right? I just couldn't I didn't have the capacity. Um, so I got advice from fellow CrossFit athletes because we're never going to leave the gym. Like, I've had surgery and literally showed. Murph, are you familiar with Murph? Yes. Memorial day. Right. Memorial day. We back up a little bit. Uh, this is a resiliency that I feel like we have, like I had shoulder surgery, um, two weeks, three weeks later, Murph came about. I showed up with my sling. I tighten that sucker down. I am not going to miss Murph. You are. I'm at the crap. Out of that. I just ran my mile with my sling, and then I did my air squats. And then I did one arm push ups. And then I like the GHD sit ups for my pull ups because you can't. Yeah, there's no one arm pull up. Like I just. I'm I'm not resilient. But after Covid I just like couldn't like I couldn't make that comeback. And there was CrossFit athletes because I was back in the gym were telling me like, dude, you better go like at least 80% for like six months because like, this is going to take you a while. So I did dialed it down. Um, I wasn't recovering very well. Then I got Covid again in December of 21. Um, took some time off a little bit, probably like a month. Came back and it was even worse this time. Like, I would do a workout and I would be sick for like a whole week. Um, and then I've realized that any time I push my heart rate over 160, like, that's when I was getting sick. So then I stayed at the CrossFit gym, but I started doing my own programming where I just focused on strength to cut out the intensity. And that became too much where I wasn't. I couldn't do it, I wasn't recovering, and then I was getting viral infections every month around like it correlated with my period. Um, but I would get a new viral infection. So then I just finally I just I had to leave at that point. So I left CrossFit. And what would that have been? October of 2022? Um, I have not been able to work out since. Um, because every time I do, I get like, it's. How do I describe it? Um, what it ends up doing is it pushes my heart rate. Anytime I get above 160, my body goes into that stress state. So I'm I already have a lot of, um, cytokines going on because of this virus. But then if you're doing strength stuff, you're releasing cytokines. Yep. Um, so then that pushes me in a state to where I'm dumping cortisol and adrenaline basically 24 over seven. And so I can't sleep and I'm inflamed. My resting heart rate won't drop. Um, basically I develop a migraine as well. Um, and just feel like those flu like symptoms for 4 to 5 days. After a workout. Mhm. Yeah. And that's still going on to this day. Yes. I get to walk now. Hey. Yeah yeah. That's what kind of athlete I am now is a walker. Yeah. Isn't it fascinating how you have to. You have to shift. So I had long. We call this long haulers, right. We've got a name for it. They came up with it probably about a year after Covid was, uh, officially on board here in the United States. And, uh, there was a lot of research that came out around people who were complaining about it lasting longer than the typical round of Covid, even though we weren't we weren't going to the hospital. We weren't dying. Yeah, we were experiencing unexplainable. Yep, issues. And, uh, for me, I had no taste and I had taste, but I had no smell. And what ended up happening is my taste buds changed because they're so closely related in the nervous system that they didn't have a choice. But I didn't have smell for three years. Wow. Yeah. So 2023, I finally got my smell back. And the time that that time frame, most of the time I was smelling burning flesh and oranges. I've heard that. That's not. Yeah. Not pleasant, not pleasant. And there were inklings of in moments of me being able to smell things. And I remember celebrating. I could smell chocolate, thank God. Hallelujah. And there's this, this level of sadness around smell. Because you don't enjoy food anymore. You just consume it literally to that because you know you need to. And developing that love for food. Again, I was a foodie before that. Developing your love for food again. Take some time when you have been in this chronic state for so long. Okay, I don't normally do this on a podcast, but I'm going to do this because it's I'm I'm getting the messages that I need to, um, do you give me permission to read your body, your energy body and, and tap into some of the stuff that's showing up? Because I can feel your heart and it's like, that was the the one thing. And I like spirits like, yo, woman, you need to check in with her and talk to her about what's going on in in your heart because it's it's something we can we can change. We can reverse. I work with a lot of people who have had long haulers, because I've been there and because I was the one telling my doctor, hey, please look into artemisinin. This is one of the undercover remedies. And it There are plenty of papers out now about using artemisinin, not only for long haulers Covid, but also for COPD, for other chronic health issues when it comes to the lungs and the immune system and the tie between the two. When I told my doctor that this was one of the the options because she was aware of course, setting and how that helps and um, but she wasn't seeing magnificent shifts. And I told her about artemisinin. She started studying it, looking into papers for for me because, you know, she's a doctor. And and what showed up was. Yes. Let's try it. Tell me, you know, give me the feedback, tell me what's going on. And I'm going to put a couple of other people on this trial as well. And so I told her, you know, these this is the milligrams that I use, and this is when I'm using it. And knowing like you use it like a probiotic. Take it late at night so that your body can absorb it, and you don't have food interfering with it, so that it actually has an opportunity to make it into the gut and then out into the rest of the system. And what it does is it pushes Covid back into your system so that your immune system can actually fight it. So it's pushing it off the spike protein. Is that what you're correct. Correct. Yes. And so because you your body is now healthy enough to be able to allow your immune system to fight back without it trying to shut down, this would actually be something that would work for you. And as soon as I brought it up like this, this heart pain that I'm feeling. It it it waffled on. Its the intensity. It went away, and then it came back, and then it went away, and then it came back walking spiked my heart rate to right around 165 is where I was hanging out, and my resting heart rate before Covid was anywhere between 55 and 65. So that was my resting heart rate, my resting heart rate during long Covid, during the five months of intensity that I had, my resting heart rate was right around 85 to 95. Yeah. Which for for most people, that's a walking heart rate. Okay, so I was always walking and I, I know we talked about this in your, your, uh, pre-interview. You went to a heart doctor and they actually listened because you had a boatload of data to back it up. Um. I went to a heart doctor, and he laughed me out of the room. He was like, you're a healthy human. I don't know why you're here. Wasting my time literally told me that. And I, you know, I was just asking him to monitor, give me give me some monitoring so that I can see what is going on. Because I knew nothing was right. I would, you know, I was a climber and a power lifter and all of those things had to shift for me as well, because anytime I'd put my hands on a wall and think about moving two steps up, my heart rate would skyrocket to 190. Yep. If I tried to lift weights at all, I was hovering in the 175 range. And that was that was, you know, lifting my warm up set. So. Yeah. Noticing for you that it it was affected by your period tells me that it really wanted to attack your endocrine system. The hormone specifically tied to your period. Um. Estrogen especially. We're seeing that that's super common that it wants to go after estrogen. Yeah. And when we're on our period, estrogen drops. So it gives Covid an opportunity to push into the system more because it doesn't have that estrogen to attach to. Yeah. The protective layer of it. Exactly. I was in a summit and they were talking about the MT HFR gene. Right. And how the Mthfr gene, um, in fact impacts the HPA axis. Right. And the HPA axis is in charge of what? Hormones, fertility, uh, our immune system and neurotransmitters, our mental health. Right. And if you have, like if you're positive for the H or the MTF for gene, you're more susceptible to long Covid. So it makes sense like the correlation with all this, right. Because in my story, in my journey. Right. Like there's I'm infertile. I've never been able to get pregnant. Um, I have struggled with mental health, with depression and anxiety since I got my first period. Um, and then my immune system. I've been an athlete my entire life, Amanda. Like, I played basketball, played softball. I ran cross-country in college, but yet just chronically tired. Yep. And, like, I'm pretty sure I probably picked up mono somewhere in college and just didn't know it. And then I've never been able to clear it. Mhm. Like I have. Epstein-Barr that version of mono. So I a a really great person to and this still cracks me up to this day because I don't, I don't believe everything that he puts out. But the medical medium has some really phenomenal protocols when it comes to Epstein Barr and how Epstein Barr affects the body. And I was turned on to that, uh, in 2021 and read read what he knows. You know, that download that he got and it makes sense. And the protocols that he has put out for that makes sense. And it makes sense how the liver is affected. And the liver is really the seat of hormones. That's one of the centers that sends the signal to the rest of the body. Hey, we need this hormone right now. Yeah. It just it that correlation. Yeah. Pretty high. I had Epstein Barr in my junior year of high school. Mhm. And the, the havoc that it wrecked on me during that time I lost a ton of weight. People were like oh you're, you're anorexic now. And I was like no, I'm, I'm, I just have Epstein-Barr, I have mono or just eat more. It didn't matter how much I ate, my body wasn't using that energy. It didn't recognize that energy. And that was also one of the times when when a lot of my gut issues showed up. And, you know, the brain got access is a phenomenal axis to wreak havoc on your mental game as well. And in college, I was running cross-country and I was like, I've I mean, you know, we're all athletes, right? Like we're we're majority eating healthy, we're drinking the water, we're exercising. We're not the humans that are stopping at McDonald's every day for dinner. Right. Like that's just not like who we are. And I was a cross-country athlete and I'm like, dude, like, I'm exercising, I'm eating healthy and drinking the water. And I am so tired. So I go to the doctor and he's like, you just need some more vitamin D and some zinc. Didn't test me for anything. Just was like, yeah, you need some more zinc, some more vitamin D, and then off I go. I'm sure the other piece of that puzzle was. You just need to rest more. Thanks. That's what my, uh. When I got Covid and I had to go to a rheumatologist, that was her answer to me. Well, it's people, like, literally quoting her. It's people like you that just exercise too much and don't know when to stop that. Like this stuff happens to. And you guys need to learn how to rest. What? So now when I roll into a doctor's office, my first question is do you exercise because it's like we are not going to connect if you are not a non exerciser, I am not going to stand here and take your judgment. Yeah. That's I'm sorry you experience that. But that's part of our, our medical system. And the fact that they don't have it, they don't have time. They don't have enough time in their schedules to really dive into what their patients are experiencing. And it's unfortunate education background. Like if we look at preventative medicine and we look at like supporting the body for optimal health, they don't have the education back that they're taught. Acute care, symptom management usually. Mostly. Yeah. It puts them in an awkward situation where like I won't use the analogy, they're standing there with their dick in their hand like I don't I don't know what to tell you. And that feels really uncomfortable. Yeah. I've, I, I shied away from Western medicine for that very reason because they wanted to treat the problem and not prevent further problems. And it was very defensive and not offensive. And it became offensive that that's how we were doing things. So I definitely shied away. We're seeing a trend now where doctors are starting to educate themselves on how we can be more into the preventative medicine, which I'm loving. Seeing that trend were, you know, five steps behind where we need to be, especially post-Covid. Yeah, right. Because now everybody's back to, oh my gosh, we have to react to what's going on with Covid. Yeah, I want to share with you all I think, but I went back. To go over my echocardiogram and my stress test that I requested. Mhm. And I know that I'm fortunate that my business partner is a licensed naturopathic doctor. Um, and we went into my appointment and he was like it looks good. Like your echo looks good. Your stress test looks good. Like you look healthy. Um, you know, and like. And I was like, part of that is because I haven't worked out, like, in three months. Like, I've attempted zero exercise. Like, that's part of the life back Now. And, um, I was like, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay with my heart because there's a correlation between Covid and heart fire, because I don't want to keep exercising or create more damage. And he was like, no, you're good. You're good to go back to working out. You're healthy. But I can give you a beta blocker if that would make you feel better. And I'm like, why do I need a beta blocker? Well, just like for peace of mind, so you can just feel better. And Carmen is looking at me like beta blockers make athletes sick. Yes. Right. So then we get out of the office and she's looking over my echo and my stress test, and she goes, well, in your echo there's. And she's always looking for optimal health. Right. So she's going to be nitpicky. She's like, well your mitral valve has a little bit of calcification on it. That's probably from a prior viral infection. We can address that. And by the way, you have, um, a pericardium that goes around our heart. It's supposed to feel like a glove. She's like, well, you have inflammation in a little bit of fluid around that. And then if I look at your stress test, once you hit 170 to 180 on that Kim, um, I can't remember the acronym. You might know Amanda. Um, my heart is when it's beating, it then gets the signal to beat again immediately so it never fully relaxes. So it has that to beat. Then maybe relax. Right. Which is creating that, like tightness in my chest and like a panic. Like I feel like I'm gonna have a panic attack. Yes. Um, yes. And then it stirs the mental side of things, too. It's that that it's it's us responding to what's going on and then constantly being in a state of of, oh my God, I feel like I'm going to die. And I'm not the human I used to be. Yeah, but if I listen to him, I was good. We're good to go now. Ah, so to tell your. Audience like you guys, if you're athletes, most of you know your body and like for the longest time over this journey of Covid, for me, I have felt like a hypochondriac. Yes, what I've learned is I am not a I'm just really in tune with my body and I know that something is not right, and it's my responsibility to never take no as an answer. I am just going to continue to, like, be relentless until I get the answers and I get the solutions I want so I can go back to CrossFit. Um, so I just want to encourage all the people listening to this, like, you know, your body, keep demanding test reports, and keep changing doctors until you find one that's going to give you the answers you want. Um. So I have a quiz coming out called the Gutsy Chick Quiz, and you are definitely my brain stir. So there's four archetypes. There's the bruiser, which you kind of hover in that area to. There's the brain stir the chili stir. And the one I always forget. The stickler. And you are definitely the brain stir you're going to do. You're going to do due diligence to make sure that you're getting the answers that that you feel you need. Yeah. It's. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Uh, I love that that is you. Because there's these other people who are the the the Bruiser is going to just bully her way through. She's just going to keep pushing. She's just going to keep going and try again. Try again, try again. Right. And then the chili stir. They're just going to hurry up and wait for it to change. They just chill. Yeah. And then there's the stickler who's going to listen to every doctor and every diagnosis that the doctors give them and go, yes. Yes, ma'am, yes, sir. I'm going to do that thing. And if if you were the stickler in this particular situation, you would have been back to working out and ignoring the fact that things weren't feeling completely kosher in your body. Ah. I think, uh, you're definitely still experiencing the swelling around the heart. Uh, this was the thing that I brought up to the cardiologist that I went to, and he just looked at me and goes, you're fine. And I was like, you haven't done any tests other than take my pulse. And he was like, you're fine. And I was like, wow. Okay. So the pain that I'm feeling, can you explain that? Yeah, it's it's called muscle soreness. Oh my gosh. And I was like, yes, my heart is a muscle and it's sore. But there are no nerve endings around my heart where I should be able to feel my heart. So how come I'm feeling in my heart? And he was like, it's probably intercostal and it's probably your pectoral muscles. And I was like, I know what pectoral soreness feels like. I know what my inner costales feel like. That's that. The area between your ribs. Right? It's not that. But that was. That was me getting dismissed from the Western model and me getting in my car and crying and saying, they don't want to listen to me, they don't want to help me. I'm going to have to do this myself. And me totally being okay with that because I'm a brainstem slash bruiser. I am both of those on my archetypes are so I. I went and did the research and started digging in, and artemisinin was the thing that that I fell upon. And thank God I did, because it's the thing that I use now to prevent it. It's the thing that I use now to help people who have long Covid get out of it. And it's it's will be my recommendation over and over again, unless you have certain things like you're on high blood pressure medicine because you have high blood pressure. You have high blood sugar. We don't use artemisinin for those types of people, but everybody else can use it. And there's always that inner testing and knowing to see, okay, is this going to work for you? I had Covid, I've had Covid now. Uh, gosh, six times, six times. Three sixes. Wow. And it's because the immune system's broken down and we're it's it's more we're more susceptible. That's truly where it lands. And it was funny because I could I could actually go through and recognize, okay, I had the original version. That was the one that gave me long Covid. Then I had Delta, then I had Omicron. Why didn't we call it Omega? Uh, and then I had the, the next, the 2023 version that we didn't put a label on, we just called it. It's the 2023. So now it's Covid 2023 and I had that twice. And those were basically like back to back rounds of it and uh, to two different variants where one of them was more, um, like a head cold and the other one was more like the flu, where I felt sick to my stomach as well as all the other things. And it was it was interesting to be able to go through and categorize and know, okay, well, I've got I've got that version and I don't watch the news. So it wasn't like something that I was digging around trying to find that information on. It was more, okay, what are you experiencing, what are you experiencing and what are you experiencing and gathering the data from from the populace of people who were experiencing Covid throughout this, this time frame. And luckily, it's decreased immensely in 2024 so that we don't hear all of these fun cases and the news coming out and saying, oh, we've got another variant. We need to be paying attention to things like that. That, of course, create stress and also make us think that we're hypochondriacs. Yeah, yeah. And then especially be in this situation where it's like creating stress and we're like feeling like hypochondriacs. And my primary coping mechanism was exercising. And now now you can't. Right. So how do you navigate this when you're dealing with the stress and fear of this. And coping mechanism has now been just stripped away from you, and part of your identity has been taken away, you know? So that was also just like such a hard part of this journey. Yes. So you became a walker? I do not. Identify as a walker. I do, I do now because I know that that's one thing. I can do it. But she's chronically warming up on these walks until I can get back to CrossFit. That yeah, that was my perspective as well. Uh, I was I was a walker, which I like. I, I'm, I'm not the type of person who likes cardio. I'll do it because I know I need to do it to warm up, or I do it because I know that I need to build my cardiovascular strength. But I'm a power sport person. I've always been a power sport person, so my tendency is always to go toward the power sports. And I know that my nervous system loves heavy loads, which is why I'm a powerlifter, also a yoga instructor, so a Yogi at the same time. But I didn't get the loading that I needed in yoga unless I was upside down. Then I could I could load my shoulders and I was thrilled about that. But there's there's definitely this, like, I want to get back to that and this constant. I want to get back to that thing that I was doing. I'm I'm going to use that as my carrot. Mhm. And then finding out. So I started working with a strength and conditioning coach Barrett Smith who's been on the podcast. He helped me understand how to unwind my nervous system and get me to a place where my nervous system could finally say, yes, you can go and lift heavy again. And it took six months of just focusing on little tasks to unwind my nervous system. And one of the apps that I recommend to people is, uh, neuro fit because it's all about nervous system regulation. You you do it for eight weeks, they give you a, um, membership for 12 weeks. But the goal is that you're consistent through the eight weeks and you really start to see a difference with it at five weeks. And with Barrett, We were seeing a difference the day that I was working with him. It was it was absolutely immediate and I loved seeing that. So I can't stress enough for you since I'm hanging out in your body right now. Find someone to help you unwind your nervous system before you really get back to the CrossFit. But you definitely you've still got some lingering Covid in your system that needs to be kicked out. Yeah for sure. And I would say do do a round of artemisinin. And if you're interested in how to do that, I am more than willing to share that with you off air. But doing a round of artemisinin, talk to your functional medicine doctor about it and and move your body through that. And then start to work on the nervous system piece because your nervous system has been through the wringer. Um, for. Years. We're on year four. Yeah. For years. Like, that's what I learned on this journey. Um, to be vulnerable is like. I'm living. Yeah. From the past or like. Back. From, uh, from Covid. That the working out has been able to kind of manage. To the top. So it's like it became this like culmination of like me being sick. All the trauma from the decades coming out to the top with no mechanism to deal with it. Right. Um. Nervous system. Realizing that my nervous system has been dysregulated the majority of my life like I've lived in fight or flight. And it became normal, right? Um, and so then that's what this last year of work, 2023 was like, I hired my coach. Trauma coaching. Right. Just to to work on that piece of it. And then, uh, a bodywork guy who does, um, it's really hard to describe what Cody does. Um, he does like lymphatic drainage. And then he uses be activated to, like, reset the nervous system. So I go see him every week. Um, so it's just been like this multi-layered approach. So I know now when I go back to CrossFit, because I will ask. You, will I agree? Uh. I think it's going to be a fun experience. It was always fun, but there was always that drive behind it to, like, prove myself, to prove my worth, to prove my enoughness. Right? Yes. Um. And I just think that component I've done such a much better job of, like, tending to and healing. So then it just gets to be like. It just gets to be fun. Yay! Oh. That's how it's supposed to be. That's I, I was the exact same way. I was saying to myself, I'm gonna get back to power lifting. It's going to happen. I'm going to compete again. And right now I'm working towards an August competition, and we're at the end of June. So I'm I'm diving into my power lifting cycle at this point. And oh, it's nice to be back. But at the same time there's this, this mental resolve that you have to get into when you're doing these kinds of, of sports because you're lifting heavy weights and one critical move And that that could be, you know, a showstopper for you. And it's the same with CrossFit. Exactly the same. These are more extreme sports, which cracks me up because I had more injuries as a softball player than I have as powerlifter. But I also did it longer. So yeah, but you're going to get back to it. It's it's definitely still there. And I can't wait to see what that looks like for you and how that shows up. Because as a mental performance coach, Holy cow. That has got to be a all of these lessons that you're gaining, I am certain you use with the work that you do. So tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah. So I like I told you before, like we dive into like most of us want to reach our full potential, but we get in our own way. So like I dove into like, what is actually required to be in place for us. To reach. Our goal, we have to have a regulated nervous system, right? We have to, um, have that performance mindset, that success growth mindset. We have to be rejection and failure resilient. We have to have self-confidence, and we have to be neuro chemically and hormonally balanced. Yes, yes. So that's what I built my practice on taking all these components. And and I only help women so I only coach women. Um, we address all these things. So then they can like, optimize their ability to think clearly, their ability to think at a higher level and use that prefrontal cortex, their ability to regulate their emotions. People want to feel it and be able to negative emotions have. The ability to face failure and rejection and not completely dysregulated nervous system and not nervous system Some jackass and the. Only functioning in our local brain. Right. And then then Doctor Herman and I test our ladies neurotransmitters, their hormones, and they're able to optimize that through food or supplement just so these women can, like, take control and power back in their lives and be able to show up how they want to and lives. I love this. Yes. Thank you for doing that kind of work. Thank you for supporting women in that level of really fully understanding themselves, not just from like, here's a couple of mental tools, but really understanding it from all the all the different angles that you work from. Thank you. Yeah. You're so welcome. Yeah. So let's talk about, uh, some of your offerings so people know where they won, where they can find you, but also to what are some of the things that you share with people? Yeah, so I have a free masterclass and it's less than 30 minutes. I think it's like 28 minutes, which is good for me because I'm fairly long winded. Um, and it's how to develop a mindset to reach your full potential. So I dive into each of these ones and like how actually like the tool to develop a mindset. It's not one of those master classes where I'm like teasing you and then give you nothing because it was driving me insane. Right? Um, so I actually give you the tool that I use to coach through mindset and like how to, like, manage our mind, um, in that free webinar. So you just have to jump on, uh, any of my socials. So, Kimberly, jump on, on Instagram. The link is in the bio you can find me on. Thanks. Those will all be in the show notes, you guys, so you can check those out as well as the mind mindset to reach your full potential master class. I love that you you specifically state that this isn't a teaser. This is. A I'm. Yes, exactly. I'm going to give you the damn tool so that you're not wasting your time and then getting pitched for something else. That's the worst. That's how I feel when I'm doing those kinds of things too. I'm going to give you ways to succeed. And then of course, I'm going to share, like, hey, here's how you can work with me further if this really resonated with you, and if this is all you needed, then I'm happy that I could help affect your life in a positive way. That's how I always see it. Absolutely. The time and I'm kind of a little spicy. Obviously. I just like every time I watch those webinars and like they just do the teaser. I literally want to email them back and be like, you fucking wasted my time. I cannot get this 30 minutes of my life back due to you. Yep yep yep. I you know, it's funny, as what I've started doing with those is going and checking reviews and checking to see what other people are saying about it so that I know whether I'm going to waste my time. But then I think about it and I'm like, oh, well, I'm just I'm spending time researching whether it's worth it for me to watch this thing. Obviously don't do it. That's so awesome. That's where I've gotten to in life is it's just not worth it anymore. I don't have time. Ah, unless it's really something I know that is going to to play a phenomenal role in helping me move forward. And that's what I love about my podcast. I'm inviting women on and sometimes men, but mostly women on the podcast to share their magic because I know they are like me in integrity, and they're going to share how to move forward in life and make your life better in some way, shape or form as an athlete. So, Kimberly, thank you for being one of those people and sharing that with us and giving us an opportunity to see what's going on in your world as an athlete, but also how you help athletes better their world. Yeah. Thank you so. Much, Amanda, I appreciate it. Yeah.