This week’s episode features someone who I know you will love! Our guest is Dr. Michelle Peris, ND! This amazing FitMama has 2 kiddos of her own and is changing the narrative for how we approach our health.    Dr. Michelle Peris is the founder of a women’s community health initiative called  The Wild Collective. This community medicine initiative involves women coming together as sisters in self-care! They discuss topics like their menstrual cycles, digestion, detoxification, mental health and so much more in a community setting where they hold each other accountable and share their ups and downs. Dr. Michelle is a huge believer that having a community like this in health care is the missing puzzle piece when it comes to adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors over time.   Dr. Michelle shares her education, experience, and wisdom on simplifying her patients as well as her own health and routine, harnessing her menstrual cycle to empower her with energy, and she shares things she has experienced in her own life that will certainly inspire you on your FitMama journey.   You can find Dr. Michelle on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, her website, and Podcast. To learn more about The Wild Collective check here for more info.   Time Stamp: 1:00 - All About Wild Creative 4:00 - Impact of Social Support 8:00 - People Implementing her Recommendations 12:00 - Power of our Menstrual Cycle 16:00 - Intuitive Messaging 20:00 - FitMama AD - Dr. Michelle Peris 22:30 - Apps for Health and Fitness 24:00 - Working with Post-Partum Mom 28:00 - Managing Time of Being a Mother 32:00 - Simplifying Medicine 36:00 - Fasting 39:00 - Her Own Pleasure and Play 43:00 - Conclusion

This episode is loaded with nuggets of wisdom for women at all stages of motherhood and for those who don’t have children but still have a vagina! Join Kate Roddy and I as we chat Vaginal Self-Care and all the mind-body aspects of taking care of your own vagina. Kate Roddy is a veteran orthopedic and pelvic floor physiotherapist and creator of The Kegel Release Curve. Kate is the mama to two of her own and has much experience and wisdom she is imparting in this episode.   Kate believes that blood flow is vital for achieving orgasm and healing our vaginas after giving childbirth. She also gives us the real scoop on what sex is like after giving birth. Our bodies have changed and are healing for 6-8 weeks. But generally, doctors do not go into depth on what sex is like after we’ve delivered and our healing process is taking place. Kate has some amazing tips for us FitMamas so tune in closely today!   Kate is a believer in you being the first one to explore your body after having a baby. What do your vulva and vagina look like? How is it feeling? She also shares in detail the benefits of perineal massage before and after birth. Kate created The Kegel Release Curve after her own pregnancy and this pelvic wand has some great features that others on the market don’t have.   You can find Kate on her website and Instagram! To learn more about her amazing Kegel Release Curve you can visit the website or Instagram. It was such a treat having Kate with us! I hope you enjoyed our chat as much as I did! Let us know what you think on FitMama Podcast Instagram!   Kate Roddy Episode Time Stamp: 1:00 - Kate Roddy's Work 3:00 - Results on Orgasms Research 6:00 - Achieving Orgasms 10:00 - Doing Pelvic Floor Contractions 13:00 - Touch and Confidence 16:00 - Stereotypes becoming a Reality 18:00 - Protecting Pelvic Floor Health 21:00 - Unclenched 23:35 - FitMama Way Ad 27:30 - Orgasm is a Way of Self-Love 29:30 - Post-Partum Orgasm 32:30 - Sex Positions 36:00 - Vaginal Care 38:00 - Power Back into Women's Hands 41:00 - Biofeedback 43:00 - Conclusion

Hi, Fit Mama our guest on the podcast episode is Dr. Katie Thomson Aitken, ND, author of Create Calm: The Professionals Guide to Overcoming Anxiety.   For Dr. Aitken, anxiety is not a fact but a response or reaction that occurs naturally to help and protect us. It should not be a permanent state, but a transient state. There are some things that people are anxious about that don’t go away which may give rise to a recurring anxiety state. We tend to get caught with our anxiety when we personalize the experience, such as saying “I have anxiety” rather than saying “This situation makes me feel anxious right now.”    To help create calm and attain peace, she discussed several concepts of her Tranquil Minds Method, such as living and building a conscious life, setting boundaries, practicing mindfulness, and the catch-and-release method.   Creating a conscious life- When we own the values we like for ourselves to have, determine for ourselves where we want to be at rather than looking at someone else’s standard, make that commitment to ourselves and work on the follow-through contribute a lot to our happiness and help ease with our levels of anxiety.   Setting boundaries- By asking ourselves “What do I want to get out of this?”, “How do I want this to go?”, “What stops it from happening that way?” or “What do I need to put into place to make this easier for me?” are some questions that can help us set our boundaries.   Practicing mindfulness- We can deal with stress and anxiety better. The first step to mindfulness is prioritizing ourselves and putting ourselves on the top of our very own list.     Catch-and-release method- For times we feel overwhelmed. The catch is when we look underneath that overwhelm to discover the abundance of emotions that are hanging out underneath and around this feeling of overwhelming. Next is to do the release. We would want to let go or process the situation.   We can do this by sharing it with somebody important to you or perform an intense physical activity. These things don’t change the situation and the feeling but they help in losing the intensity so that we can later on go back into the problem and solve it with a much clearer head.   Dr. Katie Thomson Aitken is a Naturopathic Doctor and founder of the Tranquil Minds Anxiety Program for Professionals with Anxiety. Having overcome Generalized Anxiety Disorder herself, she uses her education and experience to help her patients reclaim their mental health and their life.   Her new book, Create Calm The Professionals Guide to Overcoming Anxiety makes the Tranquil Minds Method available to everyone. She believes you can create your own calm, from the inside out.     You can connect with Jen almost anywhere online through the social media links on her website or email her.   Timestamp: 1:00 - Professional's Guide to Overcome Anxiety Book 4:00 - Transition State 7:00 - Coping Mechanism 9:00 - Taking Responsibility instead of Blaming 13:30 - Powerful Statements to the Universe 15:30 - Concept of Conscious Life 17:00 - How People Define Value 19:00 - Idea of Resonance and Boundaries 22:00 - FitMama ADS 26:00 - Mindfulness 27:00 - Teach our own Ways on our List 31:00 - Easing Our Levels of Anxiety as a Whole 33:00 - Recommendations to get that first Domino 36:00 - We Need Support 38:30 - The Feeling of Overwhelm 42:00 - Catch and Release 44:30 - Conclusion

Jenn Sadai is a Canadian author and advocate using her talents and life experiences to inspire and empower women.   Jenn discusses her book about self-love and body image entitled the Cottage Cheese Thighs. She shared her long struggles with body weight, eating disorders, and self-esteem. For her, the scale played too much factor in how she was living her life until she finally let go obsessing with it. It changed her mentally, which was freeing even if it did not change her body. She accepted herself that she is indeed flawed but fit and fabulous, that it is okay to not fit into the mold of who she was trying to be, and that to be healthy is enough.   Jenn also talks about her upcoming book, which will be out in 2022, which will be about women who want sex. She wants to disprove the notion that women don’t need or crave for sex the way men do. According to her, women can be whoever and do whatever and not feel there's an image that they have to live up to. She’s looking to breaking the stereotypes that are being held for women.   She ended up the podcast with messages of self-love. For Jenn, everything comes down to self-esteem and how you handle a situation comes from how you feel about yourself. Your successful life becomes how you feel about yourself. So, love yourself and be good to yourself.   You can connect with Jenn almost anywhere online through the social media links on her website or email her.   Time Stamp: 1:00 - Her books that give inspiration to many 3:00 - Overcoming Fear in Releasing her book 4:30 - Challenges she faced 7:00 - Her Journey of loving her body 9:40 - Journey of Self-Acceptance 11:00 - Conversation of Feeling Something Good 13:00 - Disappointment 14:00 - Running 15:00 - Reprogram her Thoughts about her Body 15:43 - FitMama Way AD 19:00 - Book Publishing 21:00 - Keep Yourself Active 23:00 - Women Who Want Sex Book 24:00 - Normalizing Conversation of Sex to Women 27:00 - She Wants to talk about Race 28:00 - Learn from the people with Experience 30:00 - Love Yourself 31:00 - Conclusion

Let’s talk about sex FitMama! Get ready for this interview with one of my faves!   Alexa Martinez is a sex, love, and relationship by design coach and sex coach business mentor on a mission to reform sex education and sexuality expression across the globe. She helps liberate people when it comes to their sexual expression and helps them discover what their sexual desires are and achieve these and their other desires in life as a whole.   Alexa helps a wide range of people and uses multiple modalities and Alexa also can help you understand why you are not in the mood for sex. It might be because there are just so many other things going on in your life but the reasons can be much deeper for you not wanting to access and feel okay with experiencing pleasure. Because understanding what’s at play allows you to take control over how things progress so you can control the outcome.   One of the techniques that Alexa teaches is breathwork, which can help alleviate trauma by over-oxygenating the brain and body. She also shared that guided breathwork can also be incorporated in sex so that you can enjoy sex in a more tantric, more mindful, and more present way.   Alexa shares what got her into being a sex coach and how she believes that sex should not be on the bottom of one’s list because sex is a gateway and helps you access more who you are so you can be a better mother, wife, or anybody that you are, fully expressed, connected with herself and regulated in one’s own system.   One of my favorite resources (get your copy!) that Alexa shares are her Will, Want, Won’t List for couples or individuals to explore, which is a compilation of 300 items that you and your partner answer separately to crack each other’s desires. It helps a couple understand what each other wants to happen during foreplay, the sex itself, and the aftercare. The Want list includes what you desire to be done to you. The Will list includes what you will do for your partner in case your partner wants it, while the Won’t list is the hard limit and non-negotiable aspect of the list, wherein the boundary lies and it’s something you “won’t” do.   Alexa also holds the Sex and Love Academy, a 6-Week Transformational Program that will expand your sexual knowledge, improve your communication skills, and create the sex and love life you've always desired. Subscribe to join the SLA waitlist and to stay informed on when the doors will open!    You can follow Alexa Martinez on Instagram @thatsexchick and on Facebook and join That Sex Group to stay in touch!

Kim Anami, a sex and relationship coach and vaginal weightlifter, discusses the true power of sex and the benefits that come with being A Well-Fu*ked Woman.   According to Kim, there is an epidemic of sexually unfulfilled females in modern times. These women express this as feelings of anger, frustration, depression, and behaviors like overeating.   Sex is the greatest resource for rejuvenation and vitality. It improves one’s energy levels and mood. A woman’s marriage, relationship with her partner, and overall physical health can benefit from having regular sex (with a partner and/or herself). Moreover, partners who are active in sex can become a superpower couple as they become each other’s power source, and consequently, this impacts their relationship, family, and other aspects of their life in a positive way.   Kim also shared that a woman does not need a husband, boyfriend, or any sexual partner to be well-fu*ked. Just by pleasuring oneself thru meditation, masturbation or creation can make her sexually fulfilled and well-fu*ked.   Kim concluded that sex can be seen as a powerful tool, if not THE most powerful tool, in a woman’s personal growth toolbox, just the way we treat exercise, meditation, and diet.   Be sure to check out Kim’s blog and podcast page. More lessons about what sex really is, what we have not been told and other topics that discuss sex in greater, more meaningful depths can be found there, along with loads of her online programs available throughout the year, such as The Well-Fucked Woman, Sexual Mastery for Men, Vaginal Kung-fu, Sexy Mama Salon (for Holistic Pregnancy and Blissful Birth), G- Spot Ecstasy, and Coming Together (for couples).

Be prepared to get excited in this episode (I did!)   Today I talk about edging yourself towards orgasms and the many benefits to doing so. Not only the orgasm itself but also all the “foreplay” that can go into it, solo or with others. In this episode, I talk a lot about body image and some new ways to look at the things we see in the mirror. Some new thought patterns and habit patterns can take you to new places with unconditionally accepting your body, loving it from the inside out, and outside in and honoring yourself and your needs daily.   Each of us deserves to feel pleasure and to prioritize it in our days.   Our intimacy with ourselves plays a big role in connecting with partners and plays a big role in all other relationships we’re in. Role modeling sex positivity and body positivity for our children is an opportunity we all have that will benefit each of us greatly.   Schedule in some time for pleasure, play, self-pleasure, and mirror gazing. Stare at your beautiful naked self in a mirror or take a few naked pictures of yourself and begin admiring yourself. Even closes ups of your vulva (yoni), especially at different stages of arousal and post orgasm. See the beauty and love what you see. This will enhance your pleasure!   While there are many benefits to orgasms, the best ones come not from forcing them. Don’t make sex or sexy playtime all focused on achieving orgasms because the anticipation and the buildup to the actual release feel oh so good as well.   Please share this episode with a friend today!   Reach out to me on social media to let me know how things are going for you or book in a call and let’s chat about it!

This episode with Marni Wasserman will inspire you and encourage you to dream big for your birth experience and stay the course when things aren’t going according to plan. Marni takes us through her the end of her pregnancy and shares her home childbirth experience and the unexpected ways that things panned out just as she had hoped for.   It’s natural for us as moms to give our power over to the doctors, nurses or midwives when it comes to crunch time in our birthing journey, but Marni shares candidly how tuning into her intuition, trusting her body and staying focused on her dream home birth kept her going when things looked like that dream wasn’t going to come true.   In this episode, Marni gives us the details on all different things that she did at the end of her pregnancy to get her baby to move into the birth canal for her big debut.   Marni gives us the real talk on how she almost had to birth in the hospital, why that was, what she did about it, and then what happened once she got the birthing show on the road.   Marni shares some essentials in her birthing kit, she shares her mindset and perspectives going into the birth, her support system and the birth team that allowed her to stay confident in her choices, how she got through almost 2 days straight of labor to deliver her babe in the comfort of her own home and what she has been up to the last few months as a new mom.   Marni is a role model for so many as she shares so honestly and in detail the ins and outs of her journey on her blog, Instagram and, I have her on the podcast for the first time when she’s pregnant a few months ago and she shares so much detail in that episode you will love it.   For more details around her pregnancy, birth prep, life as a new mom and more go to her new The Ultimate Baby Podcast and her also on her website and her IGTV

Dr. Jordan Robertson had 3 miscarriages before she got was able to carry her first baby to full term and it was devastating, to say the least.   She saw countless others go through similar experiences and as she started learning more about miscarriage and hormones she got clarity and started finding solutions for herself and her patients. As a Naturopathic doctor and clinician who is focused on synthesizing the research that is available in women’s health and implementing it with those who need it most.   She sees gaps in our conventional medical system that isn’t addressing or preventing the very hormonal issues that are causing incredible amounts of pain and suffering for women.   Dr. Jordan describes what happens as we struggle to be and do all the things society wants for us and points out that it’s common that we burn out en route to reaching goals that we never really even decided we desired, but instead were “assigned goals”    Tune in today as Dr. Jordan describes this “urban woman bad behavior” cycle that we can fall victim to, which wreaks havoc on our hormones and leaves us struggling physically, emotionally, and mentally.   If you are struggling with PMS or have had miscarriages and don’t know why to tune in today and get the help you need and share this episode with someone you love. Find Dr. Jordan on Instagram and join her Facebook group today!

Episode 105: What’s a Doula with Christa Ardelean   This week’s episode will leave you feeling empowered about birthing. Pregnant women are consistently bombarded with fear messaging about the pain and suffering they are about to embark upon through labor, delivery, and raising children.   Christa Ardelean is a birth, sibling, and postpartum Doula and a childbirth educator. She is an advocate of empowered birth planning. Christa differentiates between the pain vs. the suffering we can experience on our journeys to becoming moms.   We talk a lot about the fear that surrounds birthing in our culture and Christa shares what she does in her role as a doula and explains what a doula can do to bring about a more comfortable birthing experience.   We go deeply into comfort measures and the research shows that oxytocin is released as a result of the mother feeling comfortable. We dive into some of these measures that can make birthing that much more of a delightful experience.   I am always encouraging moms to journal about the good, the bad, and everything about their birth experience.   Christa encourages this and goes on to say it’s normal and okay to mourn your birth if things didn’t go as planned and you still birthed a healthy baby. Let yourself be sad she says, I agree and know that processing these emotions is vital to mind-body health.   Please subscribe to the FitMama Podcast and please share this episode with 2 or 3 friends.   Thank you so much.   Find Christa on Instagram and Facebook and reach out to her with any questions!