Life is not without its obstacles and challenges. How you deal with them is what separates you from the rest. How do you overcome whatever life throws your way? Tim Westbrook is with Whitney Jones—two-time Miss Fitness Olympia, five times Pro Champ, and owner of Pro Physiques—to share with us the champion mindset, learning how to be unstoppable and roll with the punches. Together with it, Whitney also takes us across her own journey, letting us into her own share of struggles with eating disorder, depression, and workaholism. Through it all, she shows the importance of self-care, stepping outside of your comfort zone, and setting high goals. Join Whitney in this episode to find out how she stands in power in her life as the champion that she truly is.
—
Watch the episode here:
Listen to the podcast here:
[fusebox_track_player url=”https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/ilovebeingsober/ILBS_15_Whitney_Jones.mp3″ title=”The Champion Mindset With Whitney Jones” social_linkedin=”true” social_pinterest=”true” social_email=”true” ]The Champion Mindset With Whitney Jones
I’m with Whitney Jones. Health and fitness is something that is near and dear to my heart and being clean and sober. This is for anybody that is early in recovery. They want to get clean and sober. They’ve been clean and sober for a little while. Health and fitness in my experience has been the opposite of addiction, the drinking, drug use, selfishness, self-centeredness, manipulation, lies, cheating, stealing and all this stuff that went along with the drinking and the drug use. Whitney is a mom of two incredible boys, two-time Miss Fitness Olympia, and five times Pro Champ, Owner of Pro Physiques Gym, the Pros Online Training and Prep Team, and FEARless by Whitney Jones and show promoter of the NPC Whitney Jones Classic.
Whitney and I are going to talk about health and fitness, mistakes people make in injuries because you’ve had a couple of injuries. We’re going to start stepping outside of your comfort zone and setting high goals. We’re going to talk about your history with your eating disorder, along with your depression and the trials that you went through and how you were able to get through that. The champion mindset, how to be unstoppable when life keeps throwing obstacles at you, and then also stopping the all or nothing mentality and being able to roll with the punches and how you’ve been able to roll with the punches in your life.
When I hear that, I think about doing the next right thing, I think about taking it one day at a time, one hour at a time, one minute at a time. We’re also going to talk about COVID-19 a little bit. You have a little bit of experience with COVID-19. We’re going to talk a little bit about that and is it a fake pandemic? Is it a real pandemic? I don’t know. Whitney, it’s good to see you. Welcome to the show.
Thank you. I’m loving being here. We’ve got some fun stuff to talk about.
I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. We set this up a while ago. It’s good to have you here. We’ll go ahead and dive right in to your story. Tell me a little bit about you and where you came from. Let’s go with it.
I’m a Southern girl. I was born in Jackson, Mississippi, but moved here when I was young. I claim Arizona. I love it here. I can’t see myself ever leaving Arizona. I have two boys. I’m a single mom raising two boys. I’m juggling a ton of different things with the multiple businesses, but I love being active. I love being healthy. I feel like that is something with all the uncertainty in the world and all the things that we can’t control, being healthy and diving into my fitness is something I can control. I feel like in many aspects, we need something that we can control that’s a positive outlet.
I got into that years ago. Growing up as a child, I played every sport I possibly could. As an adult, I needed an outlet to get stress levels under control and have something outside of work or family that I could have as my go-to. I ended up starting to compete. I compete in the fitness division. I get to travel the world and step on some amazing stages. What I do is in the realm of bodybuilding, I don’t do bodybuilding or flexing or any of that. I do the fitness division, where you do a two-minute routine with dancing, gymnastics. You have to be in shape too. That’s part of it. That’s my background and where I came from and where I’m at now.
Let’s back up a little bit because you mentioned that you had your bouts with your eating disorder. Tell me, when did your eating disorder start?
I started having the traits of an eating disorder in high school. It had nothing to do with how I wanted to look, physical appearance or anything, which is very rare from everything I’ve learned. Obviously as part of this, I got worse through college. I had to go through rehab, but it started because I’m an athlete and I’m competitive and attractive. I did not feel well before my track meet. I felt sick like I was going to throw up, ended up throwing up, making myself throw up because it felt awful. I had the best time ever in my hurdle race. I thought that was a reason it happened. Long story short, that’s how my eating disorder started. It had nothing to do with the normal reasons why eating disorders start. As I graduated high school and got into college, that became my go-to in regards to how to control how I can look and body dysmorphia and unhealthy eating habits. It dove me into this horrible place, very depressed. I have depression that runs in my family. My parents noticed and they started catching on to some of the things or bad habits I was doing. They had approached me on three different occasions. It was less than about three years.
Would you say that alcoholism and drug addiction is a progressive disease? Would you say the same thing about your eating disorder?
Absolutely.
[bctt tweet=”With all the uncertainty in the world, being healthy and diving into fitness is something you can control.” via=”no”]It’s like if you have your first drink and you go, “That was nice. That was fun.” Next thing you know, you’re drinking a case a day and you’re blacking out. For you, you purged one time before the race. You had your best time ever. You felt pretty good after that. I can only imagine before a test, when you’re studying, going out to dinner, going out on a date, or whatever it is that you’re doing, the purging and then you can also eat whatever you want to eat.
That’s a thing I hate to say it, but in high school this wasn’t a normal thing. I’m making myself throw up for an athletic event, but then you start seeing it in magazine and start reading stuff online. This is a great way to be skinny and not gain weight and eat whatever you want. I went through this eating disorder process, totally opposite of what most people do, but then it became a way of controlling how I looked and felt, which doesn’t ever work. Let’s be honest, any type of addiction, you’re not getting what you’re hoping to get out of it, but it started this slippery slope where I got into an eating disorder where I was starving myself for days. If I did eat something, I felt guilty and had to purge. I was having major health issues.
My heart was significantly affected. By the third time that my parents tried to get me into rehab and talking with people, I finally was receptive. I had hit a point where I was like, “I don’t want to live like this anymore.” I didn’t want to be healed of an eating disorder. I wanted to stop the pain, the depression, that feeling like I was out of control. I agreed to go into rehab and try to give it my best bet this time. It worked, it helped me pull out of it. It was a long process. It was literally probably about a year where I felt like I could control and overcome it. It was a very dark time in my life, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Some of the lessons that I learned during that time have helped propel me as a person with integrity that I knew I could overcome things that I thought never were possible, that I was way stronger and capable of more. Experiencing that helped me become the adult that I am now, trying to work and achieve things that seem impossible. At that point in my life, I thought there’s no way I’m ever going to get out of this.
I thought this is a joke and I’m constantly going to relapse, but it was having an open mind to say, “No. There are plenty of people in the world who overcome addiction. Why can’t I be one of those?” Finally, in my down moments, it was, be the ones that do break through, succeed, and overcome this. You’re either going to roll one or two ways. You’re either going to overcome it or you’re going to keep staying in this pit. I took it as a challenge. Challenge yourself, see what you can do, be one of those people who succeed and get through all these horrible times.
All addictions are tough. Eating disorders are very difficult to overcome. You have to eat. There’s no way getting around not eating. You went to rehab for 30 days or something like that, approximately?
I did that a lot of the outpatient for a good solid year, year and a half.
How old were you?
I was twenty.
Did you do any twelve-step work?
Yes and no. The program was a little bit different. It was almost like I started that process, but it wasn’t the standard or traditional that I know about now.
After you went to rehab, did you ever relapse?
Champion Mindset: You’re either going to roll one or two ways. You’re either going to overcome obstacles or, you’re going to keep staying in this pit.
The third time, no. The first two times, it was more going into counseling and open settings. The first few times were more like my outpatient process after I went through rehab. I relapsed those two times. I’m doing this because my parents are forcing me to, whereas the third time I was like, “I’m over it. Maybe there is hope.” I didn’t relapse after that because once I made significant strides, I knew I don’t ever want to go back. I realize happiness. Finally, I was getting back to my old self and this is something I have to control. I can daily, hourly, minute by minute, focus on staying on my path to recovery because I saw that dark side.
I knew it was so easy to get back there if I don’t take control of this. I was very fortunate the third time I didn’t, but I can attribute it to having an open mind. I didn’t have a bad attitude going into it. I truly personally wanted help. I wasn’t sold. I wasn’t like, “Yes, take me in.” I had that, “Maybe I could get help.” I tried to keep an open mind and then through weeks, it was like, “I can do this. I’m going to get out of this slump and this depressive dark hole.” I want to have my life back and I kept going with it.
What I’m hearing is that you were open to suggestions?
Yes.
You were open to doing the work. You realized your best thinking got you where you were.
I was ready to do the hard work. I was ready for the challenge. I knew it was going to be hard, but I was like, “Let’s do this. Let’s try it now.” I didn’t want to keep repeating this cycle of, “Let’s get healthy.” I want to do it now. I’m willing to put in the work.
After you graduated from college, you got into corporate sales or something like that.
I was in marketing. I worked for an ad agency and huge corporation.
That had to have been stressful.
It was very stressful.
You worked a lot of hours. What brought you back to the health and fitness focus and what you’re doing now?
[bctt tweet=”Embrace the whole step out of your comfort zone and try to do something that you think is absolutely crazy.” via=”no”]I was working for a corporate business. I was working myself to the bone. There was no time for even trying to get in any exercise, social life, whatever. I realized this is taking me down a different path. Through my rehab and after college, I did use exercise as an outlet, again for stress relief, whatever it was. At this job, I was working so much that I started becoming unhealthy. Unhealthy in my mental state, unhealthy physically so I’m like, “I need to change this.” I tried to change at working in the industry I was in. It wasn’t working out for me. I still wasn’t able to allocate the time. I shifted and got into the health and fitness industry.
When I worked at the ad agency, I was training clients out of my house for fun, but I wasn’t even training myself. I love trying to keep people healthy, but again, everything was devoted to everyone else. I was like, “I’m going to do this full-time because I loved it.” It’s like, “Let’s see where it goes. I’ll train people for free. Why don’t I try to make a business out of it?” That’s where I propelled into the health and fitness industry. I’m like, “How fun would it be to exercise all day and help other people exercise and keep them motivated?” A lot of the stuff too, the cheerleading from rehab and having these people who support you and encourage you. I wanted to do that back to others. Through coaching and getting into the fitness industry, it was allowing me to give back and help other people. I found that super fulfilling and I haven’t left this industry sentence.
It’s like doing your corporate job, which drains you versus helping people and focusing on health and fitness, which you’re passionate about that energized you. I can imagine that your life is much happier as a result of the choice to continue helping people on their own journey.
That’s what lights my fire.
You talk about stepping out of your comfort zone and setting high goals. What does that mean to you? Give me an example of a goal that you set that was so high and it caused you to step outside of your own.
Embrace the whole step out of your comfort zone and try to do something that you think is absolutely crazy through the whole rehab experience. When I was in that mindset, I thought there is no way I’ll ever be happy again. I could never see the light at the end of this channel. Through that whole experience, I realized I can. I can be like all these normal people I see walking around, living life, being happy and laughing. I learned at that stage in my life, stepping out of your comfort zone is the way you level up. When I started getting into the whole health and fitness realm, I understood some of these athletes who are competing and doing these competitions and it intrigued me. I thought, “I’ll try it.” I loved it. I did my first little fitness competition.
It was like, “Maybe one day I’ll keep doing well and pursuing it. Maybe I’ll turn pro.” In our sport, you can turn pro. It’s like baseball where you’re playing in the minor leagues then you go pro. You are now in the majors. That’s how our sport works. I set these goals like, “I’m going to do these competitions. I’m going to turn pro. I want to step on the Olympia stage, step on the Arnold Schwarzenegger’s stage and meet him,” all these crazy things. Sometimes when you create these goals that are so insane that people think you’re crazy, to me, that’s when I know I’m on to something. You work towards it.
I liked that where it’s not an all or nothing mentality for me. I’m not going to view myself as a failure if I don’t get there. Again, these are goals that seem ridiculous, but I want to shoot for it because I never want to live in that should have, would have, could have. It’s like, I don’t want that what if. “What if I would have tried that?” We’re not getting younger so you might as well try. For me, I set a goal to be number one in the world. As an amateur in this whole sport, it’s like, “You’re nuts. That is rare.” People achieve that who have been in this fitness industry since they were little kids. That was not my case. I got started in this industry when I was 32 years old, which is a lot older than the average person would ever get into it.
I was like, “I’m going to do it.” Long story short, I achieved that. I’ve been two-time Ms. Fitness Olympia, which is number one in the world. It was an incredible ride to get there. The thing was, I had gratitude. I was grateful for every opportunity that I was able to complete. I was proud of my accomplishments through the journey, getting to the show. I wasn’t worried about the outcome. I can step off stage and say, “I did everything I was supposed to. I nailed my performance. I hit all my skills, base plan on a bathtub, then I’m winning. I took all the pressure off. I attribute that to being how I was able to get to the top because I was enjoying the ride and I was grateful and thankful. I was proud of all the little things and never focused on the result and on the outcome because that’s out of my control.
It’s a subjective sport. The judges could like me or they could not. They could hate my performance, they could love it. All I can control is what I bring to the table, the performance I put on and as long as I’m happy then I’ve won. It was a very fulfilling experience because either way, I was winning in my mind, granted winning the title is a cool thing. That’s the biggest thing that I said, “I’m going to achieve this,” and thought this is crazy.
You were Miss Fitness Olympia 2018, 2019 and third place here in 2020, which is no small feat. That’s such an amazing accomplishment. I listened to an interview with Tim Ferriss and Jim Loehr on mental toughness and energy management. He talked about an ice skater. I forgot his name, but this was the guy that was the best speed skater of all time. He didn’t have an Olympic medal. He hated the 1,000 meters. Jim Loehr talked to him about journaling and saying, “I love the 1,000 meters. The 1,000 meters is my favorite.” He said, “I know you hate the 1,000 meters, but let’s change your mindset.” That’s along the same lines as what you’re saying. It’s like set goals that are so high that are ridiculous. It doesn’t matter what the outcome is. It doesn’t matter if you achieved the goal or not as long as you do your very best, then you can feel good about the effort that you put forth. If you win, it’s awesome.
Champion Mindset: If you’re constantly focused on the opportunity, the positive aspects, and the things you can do, you’re setting yourself up to succeed versus setting yourself up to fail.
If you don’t, you should still be proud if you’ve done the work to get there.
There’s another interview I was listening to. It was with Tom Brady. Tom Brady’s attitude has never been, “I’ve got to win or else I’m a failure.” It’s not the all or nothing to your point. It’s, “Let’s do the very best that I can. Let’s set these goals that are high.” If you don’t set those goals high, we’re going to be able to do what we believe we can do.
The mind is powerful that it has helped me as an athlete and as a business person. Your confidence comes from what you’re saying and repetitively going about in your head. If you’re constantly focused on your doubts and fears and the negativity or what could go wrong, that’s what’s going to happen. If you flip it and you’re constantly focused on the opportunity, the positive aspects and the things that you can do, then you’re setting yourself up to succeed versus setting yourself up to fail. Your mind controls it all, but we get to control our mind. You’ve got to be able to connect those two. It’s not that difficult, but yet you can’t say it’s easy, especially if you’re not in the right headspace or if you’re struggling with stuff.
That’s where I feel like you need people who can surround you and help you believe in yourself. Once you get to that point, now you can conquer it but you can’t all of a sudden tell someone, “Go believe you can be X, Y and Z, and be the CEO of your company.” They’re like, “Really? Okay.” You’ve got to help. That’s where I feel like for me, I love giving back. I love to help people discover potential they may not even realize they have or give them that support and the encouragement. Inspire them to push, work hard and achieve what they want. Sometimes you need those cheerleaders around you to help you stay focused and believe that you can achieve it to build up your confidence.
It’s like you’ve got to surround yourself with the right people. You’ve got to surround yourself with people that are going to support you and support the things that you want in your life. We have 60,000 thoughts a day and 90% of them are repetitive. I think those are the numbers, I maybe off a little bit, but it’s something along those lines. How do you change your mindset or how do you change your thoughts? I’m sure you have negative thoughts that go through your mind. What do you do when you have a negative thought that goes through your mind?
I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t, but I try to live a positive life every single day and find the silver lining. Granted, there are moments, there are days where I’m like, “Can everything stop coming at me? It can’t get any worse.” In those moments where I feel like things are spinning and things keep getting worse. The day keeps diving down. I literally have to take a step back and take some moments to breathe. As silly as it sounds literally stepping away, getting some silence, taking some deep breaths and then I focus on what is working. There’s always positive. You can always find some good, but when things are going bad, when you’re having a down day, I know for me, that’s because all I’m focusing on is the negative, what I’m not getting, what I’m not having, or what’s not going right in the day.
That will for me, 100%, always continue to make things worse. For example, we’re getting ready for this. My webcam was not working. It was like, “It’s frustrating. The webcam is not working. My mic is not working. I’m trying to plug in my AirPods.” I’m lucky that I have that. I’m lucky that I have a laptop that’s working. I have backup plans. You can easily flip your mindset to say, “Who cares? The webcam is not working.” Don’t let it rattle you. Don’t let it frustrate you. There’s another option. Focus on what’s working, focus on the good that you have. For me, that always helps. It’s like take a step back and find something good that is working. That’s positive. I woke up and I’m healthy. They’re the simplest things that you can find.
For me that helps flip my mindset. Whenever I feel those moments coming on where I notice it, I can recognize the voices in my head. It’s like, “Take control of the situation. Take control of the day, bring yourself back into that positive mindset, positive mind frame. Everything starts working out.” Our days are filled with negative crap that’s thrown at us, but how you respond to it, how you deal with it is what’s going to dictate how everything pans out in the end. If you can laugh about it, if you can joke, if you can be like, “It’s crazy,” even better. It’s all in how you perceive it and how you respond to whatever is thrown at you in your environment.
I think that speaks to being in gratitude. It’s being grateful for everything in my life. I’ve realized that I have to get to a place where I’m grateful for everything, whether it’s perceived as negative or positive or whatever. If I perceive something as negative, like, “I had to go to rehab. I got COVID-19. You got COVID-19 too.” I can feel sorry for myself. I can be a victim or I can say, “I’m grateful that I’ve gotten it. I’m healthy. I don’t have to go to the hospital. I’m still breathing on my own. I feel good. I can still eat food although I can’t taste it.” Let’s talk about how do you deal with obstacles when they’re thrown at you?
It goes back to the same thing. You’ve got to focus on how you respond to it. For me, as an athlete, I’ve experienced many injuries. I had sixteen surgeries. I’ve broken almost every bone in my body. As an athlete competing and traveling the world, injuries can totally kill your career. They can make you completely be obsolete in the industry depending on the severity of it. It’s always scary. I’ve had some pretty good ones. I’ve broke my neck. I have a twelve-piece metal cage that had to surgically be implanted to put my neck back together. I’ve turned my rotator cuff labrum twice over here, twice over here, ACL, MCL, broken many things. With every setback, it forced me to focus on the positive. When I blew out my ACL and my MCL, I still had my upper body that I could use to function and continue to do exercise, workouts and even my fitness routine.
The only time I ever skipped a show, a competition was when I had broken my neck. Otherwise, I almost always competed with something broken. I competed on one of the largest stages of our industry with a torn ACL and a full leg brace. I’ve competed with broken elbows, broken wrists, broken hands. I don’t know what it’s like to step on a huge stage or the biggest show of the year being healthy. There was always something I could focus on. Focus on the body parts that work. Be as creative as you can and come up with a fitness routine where you can’t jump. For example, my ACL, kid you much, but I was able to create a routine that was dynamic, that was impressive enough and could trick my leg into doing certain things. It forces you to think out of the box.
[bctt tweet=”Stepping out of your comfort zone is the way you level up.” via=”no”]Again, it’s because I was able to flip it and focus on the positive to focus on the things that were working in my favor rather than dwelling on what wasn’t. I don’t like the whole pity party mentality. If you’re having a hard time, I would notice then it’s like, “Poor me.” No, screw that. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Do something about it. You may get someone sympathy for 30 minutes that you’re talking to them and then they’re over it. What good does it do you to sit in that pity party mentality and try to get sympathy, try to get people to feel sorry for you? Who cares? Isn’t there a better side on the opposite end of the spectrum? Go show people that none of this stuff is going to take you down. That’s more impressive. That’s more powerful.
Don’t get sympathy, but get praise from people going, “I can’t believe you did that.” You could have sat there and been like, “Poor me. I hurt myself. I can’t do anything.” Use every excuse in the book, but I didn’t like that mentality. I wanted to be able to be the one who proved everyone wrong saying, “You thought my career was over. You thought it was down and out. I’ll show you.” That’s where overcoming adversity, but it’s all in how you approach it. It’s your perspective. It’s being grateful for the opportunities that you have. It’s finding the positive in a horrible situation. For me, I’ve experienced it a lot. I love to talk to athletes about this. Even a ton of my regular clients, they may sprain their ankle.
If you are ready to go and get your health back on track, then you injure yourself, that will derail people from their goals for all of 2021. I love helping clients realize, “This is a temporary setback.” Do not lose sight of all the goals you set for yourself in 2021 to get yourself on track, to get yourself healthy, focus on this being a temporary setback, but there’s still stuff you can do. Depending on your injury, you can still focus on nutrition. You can take stuff to a pool and get some cardio in if you can’t have impact. There’s always a way to keep moving forward. You have to be willing to do it.
Let’s talk about COVID-19. We’re in the middle of this supposed pandemic. You’ve had COVID-19, I’ve had it. I can tell you about my opinion and my experience with it. You tell me about your experience with it.
The first time I had it, it was awful. I was the sickest I’ve ever been. It was 104 fever for four straight days. They tested me. It looks like a flu, but it’s not a flu. This was back in the beginning of 2020 before COVID was the thing. I lost my sense of taste and smell. It progressed badly. I was sick for nine weeks straight and it turned to pneumonia. I was on an inhaler, but I didn’t know COVID at that time. I assumed it was a bad cold, the flu. I had it again in June. In June, it wasn’t near as bad. I probably would have never even stayed home from work if it wasn’t for COVID.
I had a slight fever. It never even went above 100, but I lost my sense of taste and smell and all that again. I got the test and sure enough it’s COVID. I do believe COVID is a thing. Do I think it’s the end all be all, all these shutdowns, and this craziness is warranted? No. That’s my opinion. It’s like a sickness. I don’t know if it’s that much different than a cold. Granted I have had some issues with my lungs as a result of it because it did get bad in the first place, but I’ve also had pneumonia before and that’s not good. We’re not shutting down the whole country because people are getting pneumonia. I battle with it as a business owner. I’ve been highly affected by all the restrictions and the shutdowns.
That’s where I think for me, it’s being taken to an extreme. I know people are dying from it. By all means, I could walk out right now and be hit by a car. There are risks with everything. There’s a lot that’s going on. I think it’s a shame how many people are being distanced from their family. You can’t see loved ones in the hospital that are dying. Not even COVID-related, businesses that are going under, people who are losing their entire life savings because their businesses have been affected by it. That’s where I struggle with what is happening with the whole COVID pandemic.
I’ve talked with lots of people about this and it’s a respiratory virus and it does not pose a major health risk. That’s my understanding. The recovery rate, the last I heard was 99.97% or something like that. It’s very high and it’s real. I was sick. I had a fever for one night and then my body was achy. I had a headache and then my sense of taste and smell, I didn’t think I had it. Two and a half days in, I lost my sense of taste and smell. I was like, “I got it.”
If we weren’t in this COVID-19 environment, then once I started feeling better, I would have gone out into the world. I would have been careful and not expose other people to my sickness because I didn’t want to get them sick. Because of this, we have to quarantine for fourteen days. I waited until I got a clean test back and so forth. I thought it was excessive. What is the result in terms of mental health addiction, isolation, social distancing, all of those things are having a massive impact on society? Let’s focus on being healthy, taking care of ourselves, getting enough sleep, ice bath, red light therapy, eating the right foods and all of the other things that we can do to take care of ourselves. This leads me to my next question, how do you take care of yourself?
I love the whole self-care movement that’s become popular because it’s important. My outlet is exercise, whether it’s each morning I get up and I have some cardio equipment at home. I do some walking in the morning, getting myself mentally ready for the day. I also then work out later in the day. That’s my outlet. That’s how I take care of myself mentally. It’s having some downtime with my boys at the end of the day, trying to sit and watch some TV and reading. I love massages. Having that relaxation where you can take your mind, or for me, it’s away from work. There are always eight million things I need to do. Being able to pause my life from my phone blowing up nonstop with all these things and my boys needing mom, I need to have a little bit of quiet space for me. For me, it’s something I try to implement at least once a day, some days I’m luckier and can get some more time in, but it’s super important. Mentally it’s great because you have to protect your own mindset, your own sanity. If you’re having a rough time, I think that’s the cue. That’s your indication that you need to take more time to do some self-care for yourself.
You talked about your morning routine. What is your normal morning routine?
Champion Mindset: You have to protect your own mindset. If you’re having a rough time, that’s the cue that you need to take more time to do some self-care for yourself.
I get up usually at 4:30 every day and I go downstairs. I do some cardio to get my heart pumping and go through and start planning my day. I sit down, then at my laptop, I hammer out at about an hour to an hour and a half of work. I’ve got to get my boys up and dress to school. I head into work. I work at my gym and I run all my other businesses out of that. I worked at the gym focusing on my apparel line, working on my annual event, my huge fitness competition, and training clients. I train a lot of clients online all over the world. I do their updates. I’m chatting with them, doing their check-ins, modifying their programs. My boys are busy. After school, one of them every night has at least a practice or a game for baseball and football and then for homework, dinner, relaxation. I always do a little work before bed as well. That’s a standard day for me.
I wake up early as well. I don’t know about you, but it’s the best. It’s the best because my phone is not ringing. People aren’t texting me, nobody’s calling me. That’s my time. When I get to be alone, journal, read, I do my red light. I do a little workout. I’m similar. That time in the morning is what I need to get my day started off. For anybody reading this, if they want to get into health and fitness and anything that you do, how can they find you? Tell me a little bit about the services you provide.
I do coaching. The main thing I do is helping anyone and everyone. There’s no limitation. I do coach athletes who do fitness competitions, but a large part of what I do is helping people achieve their highest potential in getting healthy and being at their best. Some people it’s, “I need to drop 20 pounds.” Others it’s, “I need to put on some muscle because I’m breaking bones and I’m withering away.” It could be a couple who want to do a little challenge together and get their quality of life back. People who are on all these medications for diabetes, blood pressure, anything like that. It’s honestly helping people get back on track with their health. I do a lot of the online training because I’m in Arizona, but not everyone in Arizona. I have a huge software portal system. It’s all communication. Clients check in weekly and they upload their photos.
I modify their diets, whether they want a custom like meal plan. If they want to follow macros, I do workout programs that are updated every couple of weeks, nutrition plans, cardio plans, supplement plans. It’s all of that. It’s an overall comprehensive approach to health. A lot of that involves a lot of the mindset coaching. If they’re struggling and they’re having a hard time getting motivated, what are things that they can do to get up and going? It’s coaching, not just to say, “Eat this, do this for your workouts. Good luck.” It’s very in depth. It’s helping all of my clients understand what works for their body. For example, some people can eat a ton of carbs and they never gain weight and other people can eat tons of fat. Some people do great with a little bit of cardio in the morning versus post-workout.
It’s helping all of my clients troubleshoot to find out what is the best thing for them? How can they be efficient with their workouts? How do they get in workouts when they are traveling all over the country for their jobs, or they have kids at home? There are always obstacles in regards to preventing you from getting into your healthy mindset and having the healthiest lifestyle. When you can have someone who helps you overcome those hurdles, that’s where it’s beneficial. That’s what I do. If you’re in Arizona, I have a gym to train clients. I have a full staff and they help train clients in person. Anyone that has any questions or is interested can email me at FitWhitJones@Gmail.com. I’d be happy to send information on my programs, pricing and give you a rundown of what it is that I do.
Your website is FitWhitJones.com. Whitney, it’s awesome getting to chat with you. I did learn a lot. Thank you so much for being here. I will see you soon.
Thanks so much for having me. I hope you guys all are having an amazing week. Make sure you kick off that 2021 on the right foot.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Important Links:
About Whitney Jones
