The Whole Veterinarian

On Connecting with Yourself featuring Michelle Vahey

June 04, 2020 Stacey Cordivano, DVM Season 1 Episode 1
The Whole Veterinarian
On Connecting with Yourself featuring Michelle Vahey
Show Notes Transcript

Join me as I chat with health coach Michelle Vahey about everything from clean eating to mindfulness to developing a strong relationship with your kids. We cover a lot in this short interview focusing on ways to improve a veterinarian's daily plan!
...

Here is Michelle's info!
Instagram @michellewithvida
Email:michelle@vidaperformance.com
Website: www.vidaperformance.com

Michelle’s passion for fitness started at a very young age, as a gymnast and dancer she was always worried about her weight and what to eat, that led her into seeking a Culinary Degree and minor in Nutrition from Johnson and whales University.

 After dealing with her own struggles with Health and Wellness, it was clear that she wanted to help others find Joy in life and help them become a better version of themselves.  We are all born with a special gift, Michelle will make it her personal goal to help others find what ignites their soul.

Michelle is a Certified Health Coach with IIN (Integrative Institute of Nutrition in New York City), Certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners (AADP) Certified TRX Instructor, Certified Personal and Group Personal trainer with AFFA, a 200 Hr. Registered Yoga Instructor,  Certified Aqua Fitness Instructor and VBarre Instructor.

She is the co-founder and owner of VIDA Performance where she applies all of her passions (studies) in helping others achieve the life they are meant to have.

Michelle strongly believes that adding healthy foods, movement (exercise) and purpose to your life, will help you become the Best Version of Yourself.

...

Other resources that we discussed...
-Author Glennon Doyle
https://untamedbook.com
-Gabrielle Bernstein's Super Attractor book
https://gabbybernstein.com/shop/books/
-UMass Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course
https://www.umassmemorialhealthcare.org/umass-memorial-medical-center/services-treatments/center-for-mindfulness/mindfulness-programs/mbsr-8-week-online-live
-Intro to Handlettering
https://amzn.to/2B8XPqc
-TimeBloc app
https://apps.apple.com/bm/app/timebloc-daily-planner/id1476033780
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.foruslabs.timebloc&hl=en_US
-NPR's Life Kit Podcast
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/01/849181366/advice-for-dealing-with-uncertainty-from-people-whove-been-there

...

Ways to connect with The Whole Veterinarian!
Instagram: @thewholeveterinarian
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholeveterinarian/
thewholeveterinarian@gmail.com

Support the show

Connect with Stacey or find more from The Whole Veterinarian!
www.thewholeveterinarian.com
If you want to have a small part in supporting the production of the show, click here to Buy Me A Coffee!

IG @thewholeveterinarian
Listen on your favorite podcast player here
Thank you for your time and support!

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, feel, michelle, listening, life coach, podcast, realize, pick, fitness, kids, health, fear, instagram, meditation, parenting, wellness, joy

 

 

00:57

Today's guest is Michelle Vahey. Michelle is a certified health coach with the integrative Institute of nutrition and the American Association of drugless practitioners. She's also very experienced in the fitness arena with certifications in TRX, FFA personal training, 200 hour yoga instruction, Aqua fitness and V barre. She is the co-founder along with her husband Matt, of VIDA performance, a wellness studio in Kennett square, Pennsylvania and is the mother to three boys. Michelle strongly believes that adding healthy foods movement and purpose to your life will help you become the best version of yourself. That's why I'm so excited to chat with her today. Welcome, Michelle, and thanks for joining me. 

 

Hi, hi. How are you? 

 

Good. Thanks for coming. So I've been loving your Instagram Stories lately. And I heard a story on there that I was not aware of but it hit very close to home for me. So I was hoping you could tell the story of how you got into fitness and wellness.

 

01:56

Yes. So I guess this is about 10 years ago. My job back then was decorating cakes. I am a pastry chef by trade. That's what I went to school for Culinary Arts and I minored in nutrition, but back then I was working at a place in Wilmington, Delaware and I loved what I do. I really do. It was just decorating cakes. And I did have three little guys. I have three boys. And back then I had that nice disease to please that I think a lot of us have. Yeah, I think women in general we are just we just want to I don't know why we do this. So it's probably put somewhere inside of us for no I don't know, but we just want to please everybody and we think we can just be super woman's and do it all ignoring a lot of signs that we get because we always have those signs and we just choose to ignore them. So long story short, I was working a really long day I decided that I was going to say yes to decorating like a lot of cakes. I think it was like 10 of them rushing out of they're going to get my son at preschool. I feel like somebody just put like a fast forward. It was just moving so fast. And I find myself at a stop sign and I can't remember for a second where I'm going, Okay, it's going to come back to me. I'm just I'm just stressed out, right? So somehow I picked up my son, and I made it home. I don't remember this, by the way. So God was with me because I don't remember how I got home. I did call my husband, he got there and he knew something was just wrong. And again, long story short, they take me to the emergency room, all I want to do is go to bed. I'm like, just check out I just, I'm just tired. Again, not listening. I was in that emergency room and they were treating me for a mini stroke, which was very scary, but then it turned out to be probably the best thing that ever happened to me because it made me realize that our bodies just can't take it. It has to come out somewhere. I ended up having a ti which is caused by a migraine. I deeply in my soul think that it was just awakening, a wake up call for me. It was just a nervous breakdown and it was a different way for me to realize that things needed to change.

 

04:03

Yeah, it's so relatable. The reason that I even started thinking about this podcast was, I guess it was 2018. You know, I had two little kids also and was running a full time equine practice solo and I got Lyme disease. And then my appendix ruptured. And then a couple other things happened like right in like a four month period. And it was just, someone's telling me to stop here because this is not going well. And I am not taking care of myself. So when I heard your story, it was just very relatable. So I wanted listeners to hear that too. Because I think it's important that we, like you say, listen to the signs that we're getting.

 

04:42

you know, the signs are there, we all have a moment of awakening. Life is gonna give you a moment in time that is going to be something has to change, something has to change, and that's an awakening and that is just connecting with you. And you probably going to notice that now that you're connecting with yourself a little bit. More your business is going to be better your home life is going to be better. It's almost like when you realize and you live the life that you're meant to live and you follow the signs is pretty darn special.

 

05:17

I know I do feel like that in the past year, for sure. 

 

05:21

This is my motto now. if you're not happy and healthy nobody around you is going to be happy in the mood changes in the house when you're not in the thing as is kind of weird because we feel like if we're doing doing doing for them and for everybody else that we're heroes or I don't know, but it's not it's so nice. It's just the opposite. And I bet you that if you ask any kid if they would have rather have the mom happy or just exhausted, you know, like just they can see it my older are older now they're 2020 and 22 and 14. since I changed, my relationship with them has done a 360 completely.

 

05:55

Yeah, that's another thing I want to talk about because you have a great relationship with the Kids and you know, I'm in the throes of it with the five and two year old and it seems hard to imagine having a super close relationship with them some days. I was curious how you've cultivated that relationship with them?

 

06:14

You know? That's a great question because I think I finally realized that my nature is to fix, I want to fix things. I want to fix everybody. I know, I'm a health coach. So it's my nature. But lately, I realized that the best thing you can do for somebody is to be a good listener. And what I mean by that is, especially with my boys, tell, my 14 year old actually said, you know, a mom, you know, it's just don't listen, you listen to me. And once I realized that, okay, I constantly made the effort to listen like really just bite my tongue a lot of the times and just let them tell me what's going on or why they did what they did that I just kind of loose. Or, you know, there's usually there's a really good reason if you like that. them speak and then they kind of figured out for themselves that Oh yeah, I totally did wrong. You know, like if you just let them speak and I see with my older boys, I had the best conversations with him because I feel like he feels he doesn't feel judged by me. And trust me, Stacy, sometimes I want to like, I'm like, Oh my god, too much information. But I know that he has somebody or he feels comfortable enough to tell us anything.

 

07:28

Yeah, that's amazing.

 

07:29

Because, you know, they're great. And they have good stories to tell and and just listening and it's not always easy to be a good listener now, because as parents, we don't want them to feel pain or, you know, we want to protect them. Glennon Doyle is really an author that I like, and she says something is like, it's not our job as parents to take the pain away from our kids. And I think that is brilliant is through the pain that they learn and through the struggle, right, being a good listener will be a good thing. way to start.

 

08:01

That's great advice. So as far as the health coaching goes, I have to admit, when I look at like your website, for example, the first thing I think to myself is, I can do all these things. I can shop clean, I can find exercises, but then I take another second and I think, but I'm not doing those things very well. So can you explain a little bit about what a health coach does and why for a lot of people? It's very helpful.

 

08:28

Yes, I feel like a health coach is somebody that can hold you accountable. And the way I do and this is just something I do personally, I feel like I have to attach a feeling to everything I do. A lot of people think health coaching is just geared with nutrition and I am not a nutritionist by no means the health coach can guide you to give you the right choices, but I can I'm not going to give you a menu like says okay, eight ounces of protein, you know, that's the difference. And what I love about being a health coach is secondary foods are foods that we eat primary foods, our relationships. actuality, your creativity. How do you do? How is your business life or your work life, you know, all those other elements that I feel if we are not aligned with a lot of those things, the food you can eat healthy and all you want, but if your mind, if that's not right, nothing else is going to feel right. I guarantee you that most of the times we're eating bad or when we when we crave the bad stuff is because we're not feeling good. For me great and strong. You're not going to go open that bag of Cheetos and a bottle of wine. Not narrowly, you might have a bottle of wine or a glass of wine to celebrate. There's nothing wrong with that, but you're not going to pinch when you're when you feel aligned when you feel good. And I tell people they like the exercise, find something that makes you feel joy by what I mean by that is, it might not be taking a fitness class, it might be running. Notice how that makes you feel when you're done with that activity. It could be a hike in the woods. It could be or some people might love to take a fitness class and I just went And you have to connect with the activity. You cannot just go to the gym and get on a treadmill just because you're supposed to, it's not going to work movement has to be something that connects with you. And that bottom line. 

Yeah, definitely.

 

 if nothing changes, nothing changes. I keep saying that to people. If you want to see a change in your life, you have to change your habits. You have to change the way you do things, tiny little bits at a time, they will make a big difference throughout your life. 

 

Yeah, and I can see that's where having a coach to kind of hold you accountable would help. 

 

Exactly. The thing is, that's how we do it. Because somebody seeing it from the outside, it's easier than when you're in it, or when somebody else is thought of this. How about this? They're like, Oh, yeah, I think about that, that works. That's where I help coaches so important. I have a health coach. They take you out of your comfortable ness and the excuses and all you know all that chatter in your head and they make you realize that there's another option.

 

11:00

So are there some kind of easy takeaways you can share with listeners? I mean, I realized that you kind of need to come up with a strategic plan. But is there something easy for people to start with?

 

11:12

Yes, I think there's three things you can do when I say eat clean, we all know how to eat guys, we do you clean and if you want to have that chocolate cake or that cookie, do it but just do it. Well, you know, in moderation. So that's one eat clean move with purpose. What I mean by that move with purpose, find something that really makes you feel good when you do it. It could just be a brisk walk, just something just moving and then get still be still. It doesn't have to be meditation, it just to be quiet time, take time, take five minutes to 10 minutes a day to go within to be like, okay, how's my day going? What do I want to change? How do I want to feel? Connect with yourself we everything that we need to know everything that we To be successful in life is within us. I truly believe that we just have to pay attention. Get quiet enough, get still enough to just let them come up. I love the same as simplicity brings you clarity. When you simplify your life, clarity just comes, get away from the chaos and the drama and just simplify your life. I think clarity will come.

 

12:24

That's great. I recently did a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course through UMass and I had never meditated, but it is amazing. I mean, I wouldn't have the space for the creativity of this podcast project without having taken some of that.

 

12:40

It's all about the stillness. Oh, I cannot tell people enough. And they said well, what I can quiet my mind the whole meditation and you don't understand it. You don't have to just sit quiet. It's just just you can do I tell people meditation can be doing a puzzle. It could be drawing coloring, like walking but just an effort to just go within

 

12:58

when I was laid up from The appendectomy surgery. I started doing hand lettering, you know, like the fancy cute lettering. And I thought I was just doing it to be creative because I hadn't been creative in a long time. But then I started calling it my meditative practice, because you're just focusing on that. And so you're not thinking about all the other things. I still struggle to find that time especially now, pandemic and the childcare situation completely thrown off. But I can imagine people listening might say, Oh, I don't even have five minutes in my day. And I think a little bit that comes down to just making it a priority, even if you just literally wake up 10 minutes early, right? 

 

13:42

You nailed it right there. You have five minutes. Trust me, you do. I made a commitment that I wake up. So now I'm up to almost an hour before the time that I normally wake up but I started with five minutes. And that's when so much creativity came up because I was myself space and time to think one of my daily routines that daily Things that I do is I pick a card and Gabby Bernstein has a few nice Mozart from her book, super attractor, which I recommend is amazing. And so every morning before my meditation again let's pick one I'm gonna pick one for all of us today. They speak to me every time All right, here we go. I'm gonna pick one for us. Oh, this is pretty cool because I just picked this one this morning. Yeah, the same one, the same one came back. That's Wow. Okay. So it says, when I make joy a priority, brilliant ideas will come naturally supportable surround around me and movements will form. 

 

Wow. 

 

So if you make joy up a priority, if you live in hope and positive thoughts, things just line up. The universe has our back.

 

14:50

I wanted to ask what is one small thing that has brought you joy this week.

 

14:56

My son when he called me when he was done his last final in college, that was for joy, whether it was joy with sadness and but it just it made my heart sing.

 

15:08

Oh my gosh, I love that. That's amazing. 

You also mentioned on your Instagram story kind of leaning into fear. I was curious if you could elaborate on that.

 

15:18

Oh, yeah. Okay, there's something that is inside you that you want to do. Maybe like, I don't know if you felt it with your podcast. It was in there that podcast was in your mind in your head, but you're starting to say who am I? Why so many other people doing their data that that shatter in our mind that keeps us from doing the thing that we want to do. That's all fear based. And it paralyzes us. Fear paralyzes us, and it's just an excuse, and we live so many of us live on fear based thoughts. The quicker you can realize that that's a fear and you turn it into something positive. Just Just take the next positive thought takes you out. do that because again, fear and hope cannot be in the same space in your mind. It just can't. So pick one. And I'm not saying that you're ever not going to have fear based boss, but the quicker we can realize that it's a it's coming from fear, the quicker we can just turn it into something positive.

 

16:17

Awesome. Good advice. You mentioned apps. Do you have any that you love or anything that everyone should have?

 

16:23

Oh, my God. Yeah. Time block is great time block. That's the one that I used to just block your time. And it's amazing how much stuff we're going to get done. Because it's on the list and then you're okay. I want to be done my day by six o'clock. And you're done. You know, we have all this stuff. And but we don't organize it. Yeah, I tell people pick two things that you have to get done that day, from your big list of pick the two things that have to be done and get them done first, is pretty powerful. When you pick two things and you get them done. It feels awesome.

 

16:57

And then I guess the other thing that would be good is that you feel You could theoretically get all these things done. But if then you actually time blocked it, you could see like, there's actually no way that all these things could fit into the day. 

 

17:11

Another thing is like, we try to multitask as moms, we try to do everything. Because what happens is chaos starts when the kids are pulling you in every million directions, right? Yeah. And then just organizing your day thinking, Okay, I'm going to take this 2530 minutes and I'm going to play with my kids. I'm going to play with my kids and make a conscious effort that that's the time that you're not going to have dinner on the stove, playing with the kids writing an email, organize your day, and I think that doing that helps even the kids to realize okay, mom, this is mommy's work time. So we need to, you know, they have to have an activity that they're doing, but just giving yourself time, right? I mean, when the kids are tiny, tiny, that might be hard, but like when they start to understand telling them hey, listen, Mommy needs 10 minutes. You're going to play do this or mommy's just going to sit quiet for 10 minutes.

 

17:57

I agree. And I also totally agree that It's very helpful to just be mindful about what you're doing at that moment. So, like you said, this is the time to play with the kids not multitask, because you're just not doing either one well, or either 18 things well, when you're multitasking.

 

18:16

A lesson I learned. I was a multitasker and I was proud of. That's what we think that you should supposed to be doing. And then once I realized that, it's just not you don't get anything done.

 

18:26

I just found this podcast from NPR called Life kit and they were talking about how to deal with you know, the uncertainty of our current pandemic times. And someone said, Don't should on yourself, you know, like, a play on words a little bit. Don't should on yourself. And I was like, Oh, that's really good. All these things we think we should get done. Just don't do it.

 

18:48

I tell people, just treat yourself like you would treat your best friend. We're so hard on ourselves. So hard, like just just pat yourself in the back. I mean, there's some days, that time block is not going to get done and that's okay. Yeah, yeah, I did say the story. I was feeling really, really overwhelmed by the amount of social media like I'm like, Oh my God, because being a health coach and so I'm like, Holy moly, I should be creating my new program. I should be doing this and this and then I was getting, I felt like it was almost like I felt frozen or probably as moms. There's so many moms out there, and you see them in Instagram, doing all these activities with the kids and they make it look so easy. And you're like, I am really failing at this. I myself I'm giving myself permission to just be

 

19:32

Yeah, that's great. With everything going on right now. Are you taking clients virtually for health coaching, I assume that in the past you had done that in the studio, but what's available to people now?

 

19:46

I was just doing it on the studio. I was doing it face to face of course and we meet usually my programs are a few different ones. But we meet a couple times a month and we go over things you know, we meet face to face but nowadays that we've been Discover all this virtual stuff. Heck, go wherever you are doesn't matter. You don't have to be here. One of the beautiful things about quarantine!

 

20:09

Yes, there are a couple of upsides to this whole thing.

 

20:13

I have launched a 10 days to wellness. And it's going to be 10 days of just again, eating claim, being still and moving with purpose and I'm going to guide you through it for 10 days. And I think we just all need a little start a little Kickstart to feel it because once you start feeling how it feels to be in that space of eating plain and moving and being still Yeah, it's kind of like addicting. So it makes me want to stay in that space. 

 

That's awesome. Is that going to be on Instagram or.. 

 

I will be launching that on my on my Instagram Of course and that's going to be also on our website via performance comm for all the details of what it you know, it's going to include so I'm very, very excited. So is going to be a PDF and is going to be everything that you need for 10 days. Whenever you Want to start it? Usually I've done a challenge. It's a 21 day challenge that we start from one day to the next day. But this one is going to be a program that you can just purchase and you can do anytime.

 

21:09

Perfect, perfect. So what is your Instagram so that people can find you there?

 

21:14

Yes, my Instagram is @michellewithVIDA. And that's v as in Victor Ida because vida means life in Spanish. I am Spanish, I'm from Guatemala. So that's where that came from. 

 

Awesome. And then the website one more time. 

 

And the website is Viva performance.com.

 

21:31

Great, and I'll definitely link all that stuff in the show notes. Ah, thank you so much, Michelle. I have had fun!

 

21:37

I mean, this is so fun. I'm just so excited for you. Welcome. Thank you.

 

21:45

Guys, you made it through my first episode. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed it and learned a little bit and now it's time for a giveaway. Michelle mentioned that she loves the super attractor cards developed by Gabby Bernstein with are a deck of cards with daily mantras that you can pick to elevate your day. So I'm going to give away a pack. It's super easy to enter this giveaway, all you have to do is leave a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts and then send me an email or a direct message on Instagram saying that you left a review and I'll have the kids pick a random winner should be super fun, and I really appreciate you listening and playing along. And I'd also love to hear any other thoughts or suggestions for the podcast or topics. Every time you hit subscribe or leave a review, it definitely helps to spread the word to more people about this podcast. So I really appreciate all the help. Talk to you soon.