#wegotgoals

[Content warning: The bulk of this episode talks about the concept of sexual assault. If you’re not ready to hear that, we get it. Next week, Kristen will be back with a less triggering episode.]You’ve probably heard some version of these stats, but every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. And according to RAINN, 54 percent of those people are between the ages of 18-34. And depending on the source, 10-20 percent of men will experience sexual violence in their life.So chances are, you or someone you love has been impacted by this issue. And for me, it's personal. I’m a survivor of sexual assault. For a while I just didn’t talk about it because talking about it hadn’t gone super well in the past. I was 16 when it happened, so I didn’t want to go to therapy and I just wanted it to go away. But that’s not how trauma works. Brene Brown said, “Shame needs three things to grow exponentially in our lives: secrecy, silence, and judgment." And friends, did I have those things in droves.But when I’d realize

[Content warning: on this week’s episode, we’re going to talk about mental illness and there will be brief mentions of other potentially triggering things like sexual violence and the end of life. If you’re not ready to listen to that, skip ahead to the next one.]It’s 2022, and therapy is trending. We’re living in a time when people are putting things like, “therapy is sexy on sweatshirts.” And still, Forbes reported in February of 2021 that 47% of Americans believe that seeking therapy is a sign of weakness. How can that possibly be?If you’ve ever been the first person you know to deal with something, you get it. It’s hard to talk about something before you have the language to do it. And add the fear of sharing the thing you’re going through and being met with silence. That’s what living in stigma feels like, but what does being stigmatized do to you?According to Psychiatry.org, stigma is the idea that a person with a mental illness is dangerous, incompetent, to blame for their mental illness. And if you’re

[Content warning: We’re going to be speaking about trauma of all sorts this week on the podcast, including mentions of domestic violence and sexual violence. If that’s not something you want to read/hear, skip this one and come back next week.]Trauma - we’ve heard the word a lot over the past two years. It’s one of those feelings that you kind of know it when it happens - some part of you - big or small - is changed by it.And we can quote the platitudes people post in instagram comments here: like what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Or everything happens for a reason. Or they’re in a better place. Or pressure makes diamonds. But honestly, Kelly Clarkson song or not, trauma is hard and we need time to honor the suck of it all.We’re continuing our deep dive into mental health on our podcast #WeGotGoals with an expert in trauma, Candyce "Ce" Anderson, M.S., L.P.C., author and licensed therapist serving Alabama, Georgia, Washington, D.C. and Ohio. She’s the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the private

[Content warning: On this episode, you’ll hear me mention sexual assault briefly - if you’re not ready to hear that. Skip this one and come back next week.]Captain understatement here: It’s been two challenging years to be alive on planet earth. And so this shared trauma led to more and more people experiencing reemerging, worsened or totally new mental health issues.Personally, I had just started seeing a new therapist right before the lockdowns. I remember our last in-person session before the screens came between us, I didn’t think I’d continue - I remember saying it would be just two weeks. I remember our sessions in April, May, and June of 2020. I’d talk about the stress over the shifts we had to make so quickly as a business. I’d cry about the first fund of the PPP drying up. I’d work through the stress I felt around keeping my team together. I cried in therapy so that I could keep it together the rest of the time. I’m so grateful that I started therapy before COVID.We know that it’s harder to feel like

Find this episode with Anthony Vennare on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you enjoyed our conversation, you know what to do – rate and review!If you asked 1999 Kristen what the future of fitness looked like, she would have shamelessly stolen tropes from Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. Workouts led by a holographic fitness instructor, pick-up games of anti-gravity basketball, and silver scrunchies holding our hair in space buns were all BOUND to be in place by 2049. And if we got to do our fitness from an international space station, all the better.Well, we’re about halfway between the point where Zenon came out, in 1999, and when it takes place in 2049. Seems like a great time to check in on the future of fitness, right?In our final episode on our deep dive on the history of fitness, we bring on Anthony Vennare, CEO and co-founder of Fitt and an active investor in the fitness space. As the curator of the Fitt Insider newsletter, Anthony spends a significant amount of time exploring

In this special bonus episode of #WeGotGoals, Jason Kelly of Bloomberg returns to discuss Peloton’s recent roller coaster in-depth. We talk exclusively about the Peloton rollercoaster, whether that’s a sign of real trouble for the at-home fitness industry, a potential Peloton sale, the continued saga of the mysterious Peloton Rower, and why we still believe in the brand. Links: Jason on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonkellynewsJason on Bloomberg’s QuickTake series: https://www.bloomberg.com/qtJason’s book, Sweat Equity: Inside the New Economy of Mind and Body: https://amzn.to/3H3qKYNResources and Articles Mentioned:From Margins: Peloton Valuations and Innovationhttps://www.readmargins.com/p/peloton-valuations-and-innovation?r=2f1rFrom Vox: Peloton’s problems aren’t just Peloton’shttps://www.vox.com/recode/22925513/peloton-recall-gyms-nordictrack-mirrorThe Blackwells Group powerpoint presentation:https://twitter.com/LiamKillingstad/status/1491154905595215877From the New York Times: Peloton’s future is uncert

Let’s start this episode off with a few numbers, courtesy of the excellent and meticulous Nicholas Rizzo at the website RunRepeat.com. In 2019, the fitness industry was valued at $159 billion - yes, billion with a B. Which, at the time, was the most it had ever been valued at. When the pandemic hit in 2020, the industry then experienced a 32% decline - not surprising, but still a painful number. Now, as I write this on February 16, 2022, the fitness industry’s valuation seems to be almost back to pre-pandemic levels. Online/digital fitness, fitness apps, fitness equipment, and fitness trackers all experienced significant growth in the pandemic. By 2028, the online/digital fitness industry is projected to have the highest growth rate of 33.10% per year. The classic brick and mortar gym, on the other hand, is predicted to grow much more slowly, at a rate of around 7% per year.Now, let’s dig into what aSweatLife’s own research has shown over the past few years. (And as a side note, I highly recommend diving into

Who’s the first female fitness figure you vividly remember? For me, it’s Mia Hamm. I was 10 years old in 1999, when Mia and the U.S. women won the World Cup in an epic shootout. And yes, that was the one with the Brandi Chastain sports bra moment. By the time I was participating in sports, TItle IX had been around for nearly 20 years. The 90s felt like women were really stepping into their athletic power through sports. But long before I was born, women had been quietly - and then loudly- crusading for the physical benefits of exercise, talking about why women both needed and deserved to work out. It all starts with a dynamic young woman named Bonnie Prudden. Her report to President Eisenhower on how America’s children were physically unfit led to the formation of the President’s Council on Youth Fitness and yes, that dreaded test you might have taken in elementary school. But before she was shaking hands with the president, Bonnie was an expert rock climber, a mountaineer, and the owner of an old elementary

Before I moved to Chicago in 2011, my concept of fitness was split into two dichotomies: sports, which I had retired from upon graduating high school, and the elliptical at my university’s tiny, carpeted gym. That is to say, working out to stay skinny. But my arrival in Chicago gave me what happiness researcher Gretchen Rubin calls the “fresh start effect” - the chance to rebuild my relationship with fitness anew. And unbeknownst to me, I moved to this major metropolis right on as two major fitness trends were becoming mainstream: running and boutique group fitness classes.Running, I reasoned, would be a good way for me to exercise because it was largely free and I lived a mile from the lakefront, which was a novelty to me at the time. And after a couple of years, I moved from downtown to Lincoln Park, right as Nike opened a Nike Training Club studio above their Armitage shop and began offering free - yes, free - classes every single day of the week (real ones, remember?). Quickly, fitness became a landmark i

Content warning: In this episode, we’re going to be discussing eating disorders and diets. There’s also a brief mention of sexual assault. If those aren’t topics you’re ready to listen to, skip this one and come back.Speaker, lawyer and writer Savala Nolan was put on her first diet at four years old. That means someone who thought they were protecting her from the world instead taught her that the world would not be friendly to her body. That's an idea that so many human beings internalize early in life - kids are smart and they're always watching.She shared a look at some of the ways she tried to change her her body and shame her body into submission in an early version of an essay that ended up in her book Don't Let It Get You Down.We're wrapping up our month-long deep dive into diet culture on our podcast #WeGotGoals with a conversation featuring Savala Nolan. In her book, she shares perspectives on intersectionality as a woman who has a mixed-race identity, who came from poverty, but also experienced weal

Content warning: on this episode in in this post we’re going to be discussing eating disorders, eating disorder recovery, and diets. If those aren’t topics you’re ready to listen to, skip this one and come back.This is our third week of our deep dive into the topic on diet culture on our podcast #WeGotGoals and we're getting to the question that started it all with Dr. Alexis Conason: what should we do instead of diet (more on the flaw in that question shortly).But first, Dr. Conason is a clinical psychologist and certified eating disorder specialist in private practice in New York City. She’s a sought-after speaker, a researcher who has published in peer-reviewed journals, and is widely viewed as an expert on the topics of mindful eating, body image, and diet culture in the media. She’s also the founder of The Anti-Diet Plan, a weight-inclusive online mindful eating program and is the author of The Diet-Free Revolution: 10 Steps to Free Yourself from the Diet-Cycle with Mindful Eating and Radical Self-Accept

Just a quick content warning: on this episode and in this post, we’re going to be discussing eating disorders and diets. If that’s not a topic you’re ready to listen to, skip this one and come back. We get it.We're in our second week of our deep dive into diet culture on our podcast, #WeGotGoals. And this week, we're speaking to Judith Matz, LCSW, ACSW. In terms of our deep dive, think of this episode as an intro to what diet culture is and a 101 on how to get out of it.Judith Matz is a therapist and nationally recognized speaker on the topics of diet culture, binge eating, emotional eating, body image, and weight stigma. She has her own journey with dieting and she shares on the episode how she inevitably broke up with her scale and made a professional choice to dedicate her professional life to undoing what diets have done to human beings.Matz is the co-author of the books The Diet Survivor’s Handbook and Beyond a Shadow of a Diet. She also co-created two card decks that are meant to make an anti-diet and b

[Content warning: In this post and the podcast episode, we're going to discuss THC. If you're not yet 21 years old, your brain isn't fully developed - wait for that and then try THC responsibly if you feel like it. If you don't want to hear us talk about THC, just skip to the next episode.] When I was in high school, my entry point to cannabis - like anyone who graduated from high school in the early aughts - was strictly illicit. There was a guy named Sky who always had really strong weed - what one who may not know better would call "good." I was pretty straight laced in high school, but I would have done anything for him to notice me. So, one night I smoked his very strong weed and spiraled into a brain tornado of my parents being disappointed in me. I mean, we also finally made out that night, but you weight the good against the bad, and I'd say this was still a net-negative. Until recreational cannabis was legalized in Illinois, that was my framework: THC turns your brain into your worst anxieties

Have you ever had a conversation with your mother or your grandmother about her experiences with menopause? Chances are, if you're identify as a man or if you haven't neared menopause yet, the answer is "no." I had my first conversation with my mom about menopause after aSweatLife hosted a panel on women's health featuring fertility, women's health and birth control specialists. I learned an incredible amount about her health - and according to Dr. Roohi Jeelani who spoke at that panel - my own future."The clearest indication of when you'll reach menopause is when your mom and her mom did." I had absolutely no idea when that had happened.And that quiet we-don't-talk-about-this-here attitude led to the dearth of products and knowledge being shared as Sally Mueller entered menopause. She went to a doctor at the Mayo Clinic - she lives nearby in Minnesota - who recommended products that looked and felt sterile, medical and boring.She'd spent her career creating products that fit into holes in the market and she

"If we have children, we risk pay cuts from our sponsors during pregnancy and afterward. It’s one example of a sports industry where the rules are still mostly made for and by men." - Allyson Felix.   In the 250 episodes of our podcast, #WeGotGoals, we've had some really interesting goal-getters on the airwaves. We interview wellness entrepreneurs, athletes, and authors who fit in aSweatLife's view of wellness. We're focused on the things that add to your life and happiness, by the way, not the things that make you fixate on becoming less. And among those high achievers that we've interviewed, Allyson Felix was our 33rd episode. The episode aired in December of 2017, which she later revealed in a New York Times opinion piece was the beginning of an incredibly tumultuous time for her career. Her contract with Nike was up and she was in the process of negotiating a new contract. She'd also decided to have a family - a challenging decision for any human being, let alone a working mom, let alone working mom in on

If you follow us on Instagram (you really should follow us on Instagram), we've been sharing the stories of ambassadors from all over as they set and achieve their goals. And as we close the ambassador application today (at the time of publication), we wanted to celebrate some of the stories of our ambassadors. The program focuses on goals because we believe that seeing other humans say the things they want to achieve and celebrating each other along the way is incredibly powerful for your own belief that you can do big things. It also makes for a really incredible community that has your back. Oh and by-the-by, you can apply until the end of the day today. You should definitely apply. On this episode, you'll hear people who set and achieved goals to move, to launch creative projects, to build their families, and to change careers. And we love hearing how different each one of these goal-getters looked at her goals and how she went about achieving them. You'll also hear how the pandemic changed career goals a

Think back to the most stressful time in your life. What were your coping strategies? What good habits were the first to go as you struggled to stay afloat? Did your evening reading take a backseat to Below Deck reruns, or maybe you shut yourself off from your friends instead of seeking their support? It all sounds familiar, right? (And maybe, just maybe, those examples are from my own personal life.) In times of stress, our reactions are probably to crawl inward, to take the easiest way out, and to avoid anything that feels like extra work. But what if that's the exact opposite of what we should be doing? That's what Dr. Samantha Boardman and I talked about in today's podcast episode. In her new book, Everyday Vitality: How to Turn Stress Into Strength, Dr. Boardman shares science-backed strategies for building resilience and vitality—that sense of aliveness and energy that makes you feel like a human being. According to Dr. Boardman, that vitality comes from connection with others, engaging in challenging e

Content Warning: this post and the associated podcast audio mention the concept of sexual violence and human trafficking. You'll also hear themes of substance abuse in the episode. If you or anyone you know were impacted by any of these things, there are resources for you below, but we understand if you want to skip this episode.   If you were at #SweatworkingWeek with us in Chicago, Shandi Nichols was there, gigantic smile across her face at her Boss Gloss table. If you had a chance to speak to her about the business, you may have caught a glimpse of the purpose that's driving her business. At the early stages of building Boss Gloss, a scalp and hair-thickening treatment that's "kitchen sink product for your hair that does everything" she knew she wanted to work with and hire survivors of human trafficking. But the more she talked to these survivors, the more she realized her own healing journey of surviving sexual assault was still very much in-progress. We spend a lot of this episode talking about that - h

As Stephen Lease, CEO/Co-Founder of goodr, notes, he's a high achiever at this point in his life—but by all accounts, it wasn't a linear journey. After surviving high school and founding five failed companies, he's now the merry leader of goodr, our favorite makers of affordable, functional, and fun sunglasses. His lightbulb moment came when he was going for a run and realized that all the sunglasses out there were overengineered and still totally ugly (not acceptable for a guy as fashion-forward as Stephen, as you'll see in the YouTube version of this podcast). But beyond sunglasses, goodr is known for their company culture, which Stephen and I dive into as well. Goodr grew a ton during the pandemic (remember, everyone was running all the time, and we needed cheap sunglasses). Stephen explains how he evolved goodr's strong company culture and scrappy mentality as they scaled, plus the role deck and feedback loops he wisely built into the company's structure right from the beginning. And as for Stephen's goal

We've had our eyes on The Sill since someone on the team who's younger and cooler than I am described this Warby-Parker-for-plants to the team and insisted that it be listed on our gift guide. Eliza Blank, founder and CEO of The Sill, felt the call to make nature more accessible to everyone through beautiful potted plants - even someone who isn't horticulturally inclined in the slightest. And through small moments with nature, she knew that she could give people the feel-good benefits of caring for something green, like reduced stress, better indoor air, and improved focus. Yes, plants can do all of that. And on this episode of #WeGotGoals, you'll hear Eliza explain how moving from a lush, green area, where she could literally ground herself by putting her feet in the grass, to a series of concrete rectangles when she was enrolled at NYU, made her truly appreciate what plants did for her. So, that lack of green and the way she sought it out in the city led to the seed of the idea that would become The Sill a