FULL TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to another episode of the exEXPERTS DIVORCE etc… Podcast where we give you all kinds of information and tips on everything divorce. Why? We’ve lived it, so we get it! We’re T.H. & Jessica. 

Jessica: Welcome to today’s Divorce etc podcast. I’m super psyched to have on today, our guest, Kristie Barker. So, Kristie Barker, I found, during the pandemic, randomly online. She has a workout program and numerous workout programs under the brand Girl Hustle. I have just always been trying to do different programs and do things to try to make a difference with my abdomen. I mean, I feel like that’s always been the bane of my existence. And no matter what programs I’ve ever started and tried, I can’t really seem to stick with them. I don’t know that I’ve ever really seen the full results that I’ve been looking for. And so I tried Kristie’s program, and I totally saw the results, and I felt like we needed to have her on. You’ll hear why when we start talking to her. But her program is amazing. I’m a huge advocate and a success story, I will say. So Kristie, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today.

Kristie: Thank you, I’m excited to be here. This is a great opportunity when you reached out for this. I learned a lot more about what you guys do. It’s such a beautiful cause, and I’m really excited to be here today, so thank you.

T.H.: Thank you for joining us. I’m all about a good chat about fitness so I feel like I’m not like the only ‘crazy’ one out there. I feel healthy crazy. But you have a really great story of how you started Girl Hustle, so give us a little glimpse into that.

Kristie: Yeah, for sure. I’ve always loved health and fitness.

When I originally went to college, my degree was in sign language, and I really wanted to be a signing interpreter. I was doing the gym thing on the side, and I decided mid-degree to switch my degree to kinesiology because I just had such a passion for it. I loved the nutrition aspect, and I just fell in love with the transformation part. I fell in love with the work. All the knowledge that I accumulated, I just was like, every woman out there needs to know this stuff because if I can feel this good, everybody should be able to feel this good, because we are designed to feel good. And so I really dived into my degree. I had a very, very small side hustle of personal training, I worked for the gym, and I did a little bit of group coaching. But my actual company, Girl Hustle, was started as I was getting a divorce. I knew that I needed my own income and so I started this program, and the name Girl Hustle was born from the divorce specifically. When I decided that it was time to end things, I remember I was walking my dog, and I turned to her and I was like, girl, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to have to hustle. When I founded Girl Hustle, the full name is Girl Hustle Mind and Muscle, because a huge part of a transformation is your mindset. I firmly believe when it comes to transforming fully, it 100% starts inside. The mind achieves what the mind believes, and so that is the whole foundation of my program. Yes, it is about the physical transformation, but Girl Hustle goes so beyond just working out. It is truly you’re hustling for your happiness and all the things that life has to offer.

T.H.: I love that. I love that philosophy.

Jessica: Also that part of it, which was such a great part of the story, was when you told your ex that you wanted to get divorced, and you were planning on leaving. His response to you was something along the lines of you’ll never be able to make it doing what you do, and part of your mindset and inspiration to create Girl Hustle was to almost prove him wrong.

Kristie: Yeah, yeah. I mean, he had for the majority of our time together kept me pretty boxed in and kept me feeling very stuck. He used to call me a dumb girl. He made me not feel very smart. He always told me that–he was very supportive of me getting a degree and getting into fitness, but he had always told me that I would never make money with my degree, and that I was never business savvy, that I would never be able to make it on my own doing what I do. He always told me that if I ever divorced, I’d have to marry rich.

Jessica: And look at you now, you could be someone’s sugar mama.

T.H.: But let’s just stop for one second, because that resonates a lot with me, how words hurt, and how they hurt you inside. And so when you’re talking about healing inside for transformation first, that kind of language was used towards me so, so, so many times. It’s like you shut it down so you don’t hear it, but the truth is your body hears it, and you feel it, and you’re triggered by things. So really working on that stuff and that hurt, not everybody can get past that so easily and grow from it until you face it. You realize I’m going to be a success for me, not to prove him wrong. I’m going to prove myself right. I am going to prove that I can be better than this for me. Because proving for him, he doesn’t give a shit. In the end, does he care? Does he not care? I’m not sure, but it has a way bigger impact on you, your success, than it will on anybody else–

Jessica: Totally. But I will say that a lot of times in the beginning when you’re in that place, you need that fire in your belly to almost prove to somebody else. That sometimes is often the first–

T.H.: Like the knee-jerk reaction.

Jessica: Yeah, well, it’s the impetus to get started. Ultimately, at the end of the day, your success overall is like, okay, now it’s really for me, and look what I’ve done with it. But sometimes it is kind of like, I’ll show you.

T.H.: Right. That’s right, Barbara Corcoran talks about that. She was with a man for a long time. They had started a real estate business and were very successful and then he was cheating and doing all this other stuff. She wanted out and he was, well, you’re never going to be successful. And meanwhile, look at her now. So you’re right, it is definitely like a kick in the ass. But the process you have to go through to get to where you are now, Kristie, is all you. It’s all you.

Kristie: Yeah. Yeah, definitely, thank you. Thank you so much. It definitely didn’t happen overnight. I had an incredible support system. But when I did leave, it’s so crazy to me when I–because we’ve been divorced for three years, and I’m a very different person today than I was when I originally left. I mean, I used to start my sentences with I’m not very smart, but this is what I think.

Jessica: Oh my god!

Kristie: Yeah, because that was the place that–that’s what he always told me. So anytime I wanted to speak up in a crowd, or I wanted to share my thoughts or my knowledge, I always put myself down first. I always cut myself short before I would give my opinion because I trusted him and I believed his opinion. And that in turn was the opinion that I had of myself. And so over these past few years, going back to the story of building it, I knew one thing I was really good at. I’m really good at listening, and I’m really good at wanting other people to succeed. I threw myself into service because I knew that in that circumstance that I was in, I had to serve others to keep myself distracted.

Even though I was struggling on the inside if I could just put my energy towards helping other women have confidence. That’s a big part of why I always say you are never stuck. There are always options. And so I just wanted to be that support for other women regardless of what they were going through because I knew if I could share my health and my fitness knowledge, that’s all that mattered to me at that point. That is what got me through a lot of it. And I firmly, firmly believe that when you have control of your physical self, everything else falls into place, and you have control of everything else. And so even though life is chaotic when you have confidence in what you’re doing, and you feel good, and you’re confident in what you’re putting into your body, it radiates. That’s why I always say it’s not selfish taking care of yourself. It’s actually selfless because if you can show up for yourself first, you’re going to be able to show up for everybody else to the best you can.

T.H.: Right, in a healthy way, totally.

Kristie: Yep.

Jessica: I was going to say, so you’re talking a little bit about, obviously, the creation of the program and that your intention is to help women succeed and to get to where they want to be in terms of control over their own bodies and minds and image. Post-divorce, I mean, that is a crucial issue I would venture to say for 98% of the people coming out of divorce, right? I mean, it doesn’t matter if you initiate it or not, there’s always that element of am I pretty enough? Will I find someone else? If that’s what you want. And so, it’s also, let’s be honest, the perfect opportunity for so many people out there, this is going to be I’m going to get in the best shape of my life now. Sometimes it’s the revenge body mindset, but sometimes it’s this is my chance to do something for me and have what I have been wanting to have in terms of body image, or what I used to have that kind of fell off over the years. I want to talk about your programs specifically. I mean, I’ve only tried one of them. I know there are like ten of them. I want to talk about why I love it and why I feel like it was something that we should talk about on Divorce etc. The main reason is that you have created this support group, this community Facebook group around it that people are able to join if they are part of the program. That in and of itself is not necessarily a novel idea, and I know I’ve done other programs that also have Facebook groups, but what I was really impressed with and taken by in the Facebook group, and what really got me super motivated was the engagement in your group and the women actually sharing their stories and their photographs, their before pictures, their midway pictures, and their after pictures. The program that I’ve been doing is Abs Accelerator. It’s a 28-day program, although now I’m many months in. I’ve gone through the cycle several times. I felt like I’m looking at these pictures of women–I’m fairly fit, I mean, I’m not starting completely from scratch. I felt like I was looking at these pictures of women with real bodies with real stories, no matter what age they are, and the other women that were encouraging them and seeing all of their progress. I felt like, well, if they can do it, I can do it. I think it’s so often we don’t realize other people are thinking the same thing about us. That’s part of our intention, T.H. and I, with exEXPERTS, someone looking at us and thinking, well, if they got divorced, and they could make it through to the other side, then I can too. I felt like that group and that motivation and the fact that your program is totally realistic and you’re not lying about what it’s going to be. I’ve tried the five minutes a day abs program, or the things that are kind of quick fixes, and you’re like, it’s 30 minutes a day. You may not finish the program in 30 minutes a day so set your timer for 30 minutes and do what you can. You can do supersets of the exercises together. I mean, can you tell us a little bit about it, because when I opened it up, I’m like, this is totally doable. It’s regular abs exercises, but it’s the variety of the ways that you do it each day that makes it as anybody can do it.

T.H.: Well, before you answer that, I think the key thing that Jessica is saying here is that the people in your group, as well as you yourself, are relatable. So Jessica and I try to be relatable to our audience. If we don’t resonate, then you know what, Kristie your story might resonate with someone else or somebody else who’s lived it in a different way. But you have apparently built a community and a support group and a cheerleading squad of people who don’t care about the bullshit.

Just like you said, you feel good watching others succeed. You are spreading that mantra and that mission almost to other people.

The truth is when you pay stuff forward, and you donate, or you help someone, or you say hello–I just spoke to this woman in the doctor’s office for 25 minutes. I don’t even know what she was talking about, this older woman, but she just kept complaining. I put my phone down – she has no one to talk to. But just doing those little things is why I believe that Jessica is so drawn to you because she is like a serial checker outer like, I like this program, I like that program, I like this food, I like that restaurant. The fact that she has stuck with you is huge. So now you can answer Jessica.

Kristie: Well, I just want to say I really appreciate that feedback. I love hearing from women who have done the programs because it just really helps me. It just reinforces and affirms that my entire goal is being achieved. When I first got started into fitness, social media was fairly new, but I did have my fitness. I always thought it’s not attainable for me. I mean, look how amazing she is. I mean, I was into sports, but I didn’t have the defined muscle tone that I wanted. I think the biggest thing is that there’s so much confusion out there. I wanted to create something that was straightforward, realistic, but the biggest thing is that I’m all about education, because I feel if you don’t understand the why and the how you’re not going to be able to stick to it. And so I feel it’s very important for somebody in a position that I’m in that I’m like, hey, listen, this is going to take work. The quick fixes don’t happen. Again, it comes back to your mindset of you need to understand it will take work. It will be hard, but hey, guess what, you can do hard things. This is what it’s going to take. That’s why on my own podcast I always say all the strength that you see in others is also inside you. That is such an important thing because just like you were saying about wanting to look to people that are relatable and everything like that, I needed that too, where I was just like, oh, just because she did it doesn’t mean I can’t. If she can do it, I can do it. And so I think that that’s like the whole part of the Facebook group that I wanted. You know, originally, I didn’t want to start that Facebook group because I’m such an introvert. I just want to hide under a rock and just not speak to anybody. It’s hard for me to be out there and put myself out there. It really is. Starting a business, I had to get over that really, really quickly. But always, my natural instincts are to just like, I don’t want to say anything. I’m just going to stand in the corner.

Jessica: That group is everything for the program though, I will say. Because I mean, it was keeping me–when I was first starting the program, I felt one of the first things I was doing in the morning was looking in the group. Like, did anybody new put in their before and after pictures today? People talking about which parts of the program are kicking their ass today. I don’t know why, but it totally kept me going. Yeah, it’s huge. 

Kristie: Yeah, I always say that just like you were saying how that lady in the office, she was just talking your ear off and that type of stuff. There’s so much noise in the online world, and there’s so much noise in your own life. The majority of people, I feel like they just want to be heard. They just want to be heard. They just want to be validated that what they’re going through is normal, and they’re not crazy. That’s a huge aspect of my Facebook group.

Yeah, I’m in it, I’m there for you to ask questions. I don’t want you to be confused. I don’t want you to have any sort of self-doubt. Because as soon as you have self-doubt, you’re going to doubt everything that you’re doing, and then you’re not going to do it. And so I wanted to position this group to be a very, very safe place where there is no judgment, there is no bullying, there is no selling in that group. That group is solely there to be a positive corner. That’s what I always say. I’m like in a boxing ring, hey, I’m in your corner. So whenever you need me, come back here, and I’m here. That’s what that community of women is all about. I mean, we’re all over the world, but we’re all in one place as well. And so it’s been very humbling, like super cool. When I first started this business, I had no idea it was going to reach the women it’s reached. We’ve got members in South America, in Australia, in Europe, like all over the world. I’m just like, this is so– it’s amazing. It really, really is. It’s so humbling.

Jessica: Can you tell a little bit, a brief little bit about what the program looks like because I think people listening now are probably like, what’s so great about this program? So you don’t have to go through everything, but what a snapshot of a day looks like, or a week or something like that?

Kristie: For Abs Accelerator?

Jessica: Yes.

Kristie: So Abs Accelerator, I originally designed it to be more than just a physical transformation. It’s a test of your will and your discipline. A lot of people join challenges, and they opt out because they get bored, or they get distracted, or whatever. And so it is 28 days, and it is 28 different days so it’s not like a workout on repeat. The first two weeks is to–and I do have an after babies program that you can start too if you do have diastasis rectus. We need to heal your gap first, and so I had that program included if you’re–

Jessica: Yes, I know and I actually loved that you did. I had my kids a while ago and I didn’t have that problem, but I found that fascinating that when I opened it up if you did have that with any pregnancy–

T.H.: Explain what that is. Explain what that is.

Kristie: Yeah, so after you have a baby, your ab wall separates, and it doesn’t always come back together naturally. If you have more than a two-finger gap, you have it, and you need to close it. So a lot of women after they have babies, have a little pooch at the bottom or like a cone shape. That typically is the sign that you do have DR. You can heal it just with exercises, they’re called vacuums. And so I always tell women, that’s one of the biggest things I always get is, what if I have DR? Can I still do this? I’m like, okay, well, you need to start with this until your gap is healed. You want to do it safely. And so after you’ve achieved less than a two-finger gap, then you can begin the program. And like Jessica said, it is 30 minutes a day. I’ve got a list of exercises with quick snapshots and a demo. I’m somebody who does not like instructor-led workouts. I like to be able to do it at my own pace and not feel like–I think that’s also–you get one of two people, they like to follow instruction, or they get really demotivated because they can’t keep up. It’s too hard. And so I designed it this way so anybody at any training level can do it. So if you’re advanced, you can do it. And if you’re a beginner, you can do it because you’re going at your own pace. So I have you set a timer for 30 minutes, and you do all you can for 30 minutes. My goal for you is to every day show up. I mean, what do they say about habits? How many does it take to start a habit? My goal with it is that when you start showing up for yourself, you’re naturally going to want to start eating better. You’re naturally going to want to start doing more positive things because you’re showing up for yourself. You’re feeling it. You’ll feel it within like the first few days because it’s just you dive right into it. And once you start seeing the results at that one-week mark, two-week mark, you want to keep going. The problem with most fitness programs is that people start and they feel good, and it’s a week on repeat, they get bored. And so I wanted to design this so it’s a–

Jessica: That’s okay. Okay, you wanted to design it so it’s not on repeat so each day is a totally different pattern?

Kristie: Yes, yes. I am so sorry. I don’t know where we…

Jessica: No, that was exactly where we left off. And what it is, look, there are a lot of days where you may be doing lemon squeezers, or a lot of days that you’re doing traditional crunches or–

Kristie: Russian twists–

T.H.: I love those.

Kristie: So the goal of it is it’s designed in phases, and it levels you up week by week as you go. And so you start with building your base with basic exercises, and then we level you up as you go. So by the time you’re done with the 28 days, you take a before picture on day one, and on day 28, if you did it, you will have results.

Jessica: Yes. I mean, what I also love though is you’re encouraging people to also take pictures within the first week, and then also within the second week. Because I don’t know if you wait for 28, I’m sure you’d see the results, but you feel like you’re not seeing them on a daily basis. By having people in there that are sharing their results, you actually take a picture week later, you’re like, wow, you know what, that does look a little bit different. But also, you’re starting off in the beginning, you might be doing 40 Russian twists on a day in the first week, and by the end, you’re doing 120, and you’re doing five reps of 120. It’s crazy–

Kristie: Five sets, yep.

Jessica: Five sets. It’s crazy how you yourself are starting to–you’re like, wow, I could barely get through the 40 in the beginning, and now I can do five sets of 120.

T.H.: And look at you now.

Jessica: Yeah, it’s amazing.

Kristie: Yeah, that’s a cool thing as well because it’s more than just a physical transformation. You’re seeing your strength building. It’s really cool to see the confidence. That’s the thing at the end of the day is confidence. Because when you have confidence, it’s going to radiate in every part of your life. It’s going to radiate at work, in your relationships, in especially how you treat yourself because if you feel good and you feel confident, you’re going to treat yourself well. And that at the end of the day is what it’s all about, feeling good, being happy. So then my whole thing is that once you achieve a certain level, hey, it’s your turn to go help somebody else.

T.H.: So how do you even start? You’re coming through your divorce, you need to change, and you need some healthy direction in your life. And you also, I mean, for me, fitness was always a place to block everything else out because I had to get through the workout. I really don’t have room in my brain to deal with all the bullshit that was spiraling around me. So what are your three tips to really get started? Because like you said, it’s baby steps. Transformation is baby steps. We all know that the after picture, they’ve always got a huge smile on their face. And the before picture, they’re like, hmm. It’s always like that for anything. So what are the three things that you would give as advice to our community? Like, this is how you can get started in the simplest way.

Kristie: Absolutely. I personally feel when you have chaos in your life you can only focus on what you can control. Drink water, stretch, try to sleep as best you can. It’s all about going back to the basics.

Everybody tries to make it very, very complicated. Everybody over thinks and they doubt themselves. They think that they need to do shakes, or bars, or supplements, or whatever. No, no, no, it comes down to the basics. So that’s honestly what I recommend. I always tell my girls, when you are really trying to build habits, I call it ‘win the day’. So write down three to five goals every day that you absolutely know you can accomplish. And as you start checking them off, it gets easier. So if you can’t work out that day, don’t put it on your goal list. You only want to put down things that you can absolutely control. So if you can drink a gallon of water, you write that down. If you can stretch for 10 minutes, you write that down. And so those are the tips that I have is write down three to five goals that you can do every single day, and make sure that they are basics, nothing complicated. So even if it’s, I’m not going to eat past 8 pm, or whatever you feel you need to do to make you feel your best, that’s what I recommend. But it all starts with the basic habits, and I recommend goal writing and that type of stuff. That’s what I think to get started.

T.H.: Too many goals. Because I used to have a to-do list that would scare me. I forgot if it was Hal Elrod or James Clear, but basically said, no more than one task a day that you can achieve. And then when you’ve achieved your one task for four days, then add another task, and then you do two tasks. Because the worst thing is to look at this list and be like shit, I didn’t even cross anything off.

Kristie: Yeah, no, absolutely.

T.H.: Because they weren’t achievable in a day. They weren’t realistic. So I would also add to your list to take deep breaths because there’s so much stress. I’m not a meditation person, I am not a yogi, but I’ve got to tell you, I never use the Lamaze breathing during my pregnancies and births, but I have used it a hell of a lot since then. Just focus on the third eye and breathe through it. It has helped me through so much beyond childbirth.

Jessica: But all of that too, just whatever you have on your list and getting through what you can, I also feel for me, when I was doing your program, Kristie, you open it up and the first two weeks, I think at least there are five exercises a day, and you’re doing five sets of each. And then as you get into maybe two and a half weeks in, then all of a sudden one day, you have the sixth exercise in there. Now you’re doing five sets of everything, but it is six exercises instead of five. But the idea from the very beginning was not like, okay, well you have to be able to complete everything in this day. It was like, how much can you do in 30 minutes? I remember when I was starting out, I would go a little longer than 30 minutes because I felt like I could probably finish in not that much more time after 30. But I remember I would be sweating my ass off just doing these basic exercises and stuff, and it would take me probably closer to 40 minutes in the beginning. And as the 28 days went on, I would start realizing I could get through all of the exercises that I was supposed to do that day by doing the supersets, but I would get through them in 30 minutes or less. It really became like–it was that gratifying part of my day where I felt I was really productive in 30 minutes because especially after the first week or two, I really started seeing results. It just was really something that helped me as I was going through my second divorce. Even though I was already someone who was exercising and already someone who was fairly fitness-minded, your program resonated with me on a level to which I just don’t think other ones have. This was again the impetus for us reaching out because I really want to overemphasize to anyone listening, this is a program for anyone. This is not a program where you have to already be in great shape, or you have to have the cutest workout outfit to do it, or if you can’t keep up–it’s all like celebrity-based or whatever. It’s real women just like us who are going through all different kinds of issues and situations in their life that we don’t even know about behind the scenes just all kinds of banding together. I feel if they can do it, we can do it too. Everybody when they’re getting divorced, I think needs to be able to think about their bodies and think about their fitness and their physical health.

T.H.: Yeah, it’s your overall well-being, and if fitness works into it, great. Kristie, I don’t know anything except the Ab Accelerator because that’s all Jessica talks about. But for people like me who aren’t familiar with the program, is it just abs? Do you have cardio in there? What are the programs that you offer, in the last few minutes of this?

Kristie: Yeah, absolutely. So Abs Accelerator is just an ab-isolated program. I always say you’re going to be recruiting your arms and your legs because a lot of the moves do have your full body in it. A lot of questions that I get they’re like, which program should I do to get started? I’m like, hey, if you just want a challenge and just start working, Abs Accelerator is a great one, to begin with. I offer a variety of programs. I have an upper body isolated one. I’ve got a HIT full-body cardio isolator one. The majority of my programs I designed during the pandemic, so you can do them at home or you can do them at the gym with minimal equipment. My Girl Hustle membership is the biggest educational program that I do offer where you get full macro education. I update the workouts for the home gym every month. All of my mindset training, I designed it for you to be your own personal trainer in that again, going back to education, that is the program that I very, very first started with because I just felt like I was so confused in the beginning. I didn’t know where to start, and I just wanted an education. I craved education. Once I figured it out, I was like I have to teach other women how they can do it because you can do it yourself. You can absolutely figure out your own body yourself. So that’s what I designed my main membership to be. I do offer one on one coaching, and then I do offer just one-off macro meal plans. Everybody’s different. I wanted to be able to cater to everybody designed on the level of accountability they needed because some people like to work self-paced on their own, and some people need their hands a little bit more held. And so I wanted to be able to provide a service that will serve anyone depending on what their personal needs are because everybody’s unique and situations are unique. That’s essentially what I have.

Jessica: I definitely want to have a conversation–

T.H.: I’m looking forward to giving it a shot. I really stick with what works. I’ve been with my trainer now for almost 14 years, and it never gets easy. He sees strength in me that I don’t. I’m a big kettlebell girl and I’m like, oh, this is good. He’s like, no, this one’s better. And so the fact that you see strength in these women and the community by adding something on after a certain number of days, that for me that’s my big, I’m like holy shit, I swung 45 lbs today. I didn’t think I could do that. I didn’t even know what it felt like.

Kristie: It’s all about leveling up and that’s–

T.H.: So believing in your group. I’m looking forward to doing it. My abs can never be firm enough and now I feel like my youngest is 17, am I too late for the stomach–

Kristie: Nope, not at all.

T.H.: –put together exercises.

Jessica: The diastasis rectus.

T.H.: I thought that was totally something else.

Jessica: How long does that take to heal?

Kristie: It depends on how severe the gap is and how consistent you are with the workouts. For some girls, it can take a couple of weeks, and for some girls, it can take a couple of months. It just really depends on which person–

T.H.: I’m totally doing that. Maybe that’s my missing piece.

Kristie: You can always tell if you do like a little crunch if the bottom part cones upwards–

T.H.: Oh, mine doesn’t cone, but I do have–yeah, I’ve got a little…I got a little–

Kristie: It doesn’t hurt to start with it. Vacuums are something that I do all the time because it helps. You know how your mom always said like stand up straight, stuck in.

T.H.: Yes, suck in your stomach.

Kristie: Yeah, so when you do vacuum exercises, you have your six-pack on the front or your four-pack right?

Jessica: Oh yeah, my six-pack.

Kristie: Behind it–

T.H.: Underneath! It’s in there. It’s in there.

Kristie: Behind that wall, it’s another layer of muscle. When you do vacuums, it strengthens that and your pelvic floor muscles. And so you naturally you don’t sit with your stomach hanging out so you do this naturally–

T.H.: So you’re lifting from your bottom-up and in?

Kristie: Yeah.

T.H.: Right, I can do that.

Kristie: Yeah. And so it helps with posture. It helps with so much. I mean, you have to think like your abs are the center of your entire body.

T.H.: And supports your lower back too.

Kristie: Yeah, exactly. I’ve had a lot of girls that have said that their lower back pain has gone away because you’re strengthening your ab muscles, which is such a huge part of your entire–your running will get better. You’ll see so much improvement when you can take care of the core of your body.

T.H.: Because that’s your form for everything. That’s your form. Alright, this is so good. I love talking about fitness and all that good stuff. This is my favorite thing in the world.

Jessica: And there’s still so much we haven’t even hit. Because I was saying even before we started, I definitely want to do an episode–from Kristie and her program I started learning about counting macros, which I know a lot of people out there don’t really even know what that is. So we’re going to have Kristie back to talk all about that because that really can be the missing piece. I did it. I will admit I fell off the wagon. I did it for a week, it made a huge difference. So we’re going to talk more about that next time. But Kristie, thank you so much for sharing your story, your own personal story of divorce, and how that inspired you to start this Girl Hustle business and program and community that has had such an impact on my life, and that I hope to inspire other women to try it. I know that it’ll have an impact on their lives as well. So thank you so much.

T.H.: Kudos to you. Great, great, great job.

Kristie: Yeah, thank you so much for letting me be here. It’s everything that I’ve always wanted to do. Just knowing that it’s even changed the life of one person, that’s enough for me. So I appreciate that.

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