Have you been bombarded with messages encouraging you to buy into the next greatest supplement, wellness hack, or fitness routine? Do you get exhausted from wrestling with contradictory information when it comes to wellness advice? If you’re like me, it’s easy to get confused when it comes to making the right personal choices on the ever-changing wellness journey. Today, I’m very excited to bring you a wealth of simple wisdom from a top-notch nutrition educator, Jenn Trepeck. Jenn is a health coach and author who offers straightforward, can-do steps for uncomplicating wellness. Topics discussed include wellness, mental health, physical health, exercise, habit formation, habit change, resolutions, eating, exercise, healthy eating, weight loss, weight gain, nutrition, willpower, and longevity.

Please note that this episode may contain sensitive material; listener discretion is advised.

Emergency Assistance Note: If you or someone you know needs immediate support, please call your emergency services. In the US, 24/7 help is available by calling “911” or “988” (Suicide and Crisis Hotline). As applicable, additional resources may be provided in the show notes.

Non-Emergency Online Mental Health Information:

https://www.nami.org/support-education/nami-helpline/

https://odphp.health.gov/myhealthfinder/healthy-living/mental-health-and-relationships

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: No expert is offering medical or psychological direction or advice; the content is purely informational in nature. Please consult your physician or healthcare provider before undertaking any new regimen or procedure.

https://www.nami.org/support-education/nami-helpline/

Connect with Dr. Carla Manly:

Website: https://www.drcarlamanly.com

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Books by Dr. Carla Manly:

Joy From Fear: Create the Life of Your Dreams by Making Fear Your Friend 

Date Smart: Transform Your Relationships and Love Fearlessly

Aging Joyfully: A Woman’s Guide to Optimal Health, Relationships, and Fulfillment for Her 50s and Beyond

The Joy of Imperfect Love: The Art of Creating Healthy, Securely Attached Relationships

Imperfect Love Relationship & Oracle Card Deck by Dr. Carla Manly:

Etsy

Amazon

Connect with Jenn Trepeck:

Website: https://asaladwithasideoffries.com/

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifertrepeck

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Uncomplicating Wellness: Simple Tips for Boosting Your Body and Mind!

Top Tips for Boosting Wellness All Year Long

Have you been bombarded with messages encouraging you to buy into the next greatest supplement, wellness hack, or fitness routine? Do you get exhausted from wrestling with contradictory advice when it comes to your wellness and health? If you are like me, it’s easy to get confused when it comes to making the right personal choices on the ever-changing wellness journey. I’m very excited to bring you a wealth of wisdom from a top-notch Nutrition Educator, Health Coach, and Author who offers straightforward can-do steps for uncomplicating wellness.

In this episode, we’ll focus on this real-life question. “I’m really upset with myself because I can’t get my physical or mental health on track. I made a few solid New Year’s resolutions that I already ditched. I wanted to eat less, take vitamins, and exercise every day. I guess I just don’t have the willpower and it sucks. I spent a lot of money on gym memberships and expensive supplements, so I’ve wasted money already. I feel pretty depressed about it. Do you have any suggestions?”

That issue is the focus of this episode. Please note, as this episode may contain sensitive information, reader discretion is advised. I am joined by an amazing special guest, Jenn Trepeck. Jenn is a Wellness Expert and Author who is bringing us a wonderful book entitled Uncomplicating Wellness: Ditch the Rules, Quiet the Noise, Reclaim Your Life.

Welcome to the show, Jenn. It’s such a delight to have you with us.

Thank you. I’m excited to be here again. What a treat.

Why We Do Not Know How To Take Care Of Ourselves

Yes, I rarely have repeat guests and you are one of the few because you have so much to offer us. Before we launch into this really big question that’s easy to identify with and learn from, of course, could you tell our readers who might not have read your first really great episode, what makes you, you?

It’s a combination of the lived experience. I come to all of this wellness work from my own saga of trying to figure it out. I remember at times feeling like I would breathe and gain weight and just feeling like I’m doing everything. Why am I not getting where I’m supposed to be getting? It’s the combination of that lived experience with the information that changed everything. I’ve been told my superpower is taking the science and biology and explaining it to all of us in a way that it just makes sense. I think part of that is the compassion of living it and experiencing it and being in it and also now being on the other side and in this space of helping other people and paying it forward.

Thank you for the work you do because it is such a confusing world. Whether you’re going to the doctor and when I’m working with clients, they’ll say, “I go to my doctor, they give me ten minutes. I don’t get an answer to my problem, I’m still gaining weight or I’m still feeling really bloated all the time, and the doctor just tells me to eat more fiber. Eat more fiber and exercise, and I told them I’m already eating fiber and exercise. I bought the supplements, I’ve done the this.”

It’s not only an expensive journey, but because it really can, by the time you buy all the supplements that you’re supposedly supposed to be taking and you find they don’t work or they make you feel worse or whatever it is and you’re exercising, it might not be what the right protocol is for your unique body. No fault to doctors, it’s more the system. There isn’t sufficient time often to really give personal information and we are all unique, so we need and deserve personal information.

I think it goes even further because we go to our doctors with the assumption that they know this. It’s not what they’re taught. Even now, I’ve been having these conversations with clients for many years and a lifetime with my own doctors and in this space and we assume they know this. It’s not part of what they’re taught.

Even with everything we now know about the importance of our lifestyle choices, the standard of care in Western medicine in the United States, the standard of care for anything weight-related is a pharmaceutical, is a GLP-1 medication. Over and over, what we see is that the system, as you point out, is designed to make things easier on the physician versus answering our questions and giving us the tools to make choices that work for us. I think really the blessing and the curse is that it’s on us. It’s on us to find the resources, to find the practitioners who do have this education or are the better fit for us in how we want to approach our health.

It’s so true. If I had this little orchestra of clapping hands, they would be clapping for you. I’m not trying to be really critical of the doctors, but I agree with you wholeheartedly. As much training as they get, many of them don’t continue with really advanced training.

There were doctors I was working with where those who had a lot in the nutrition space, it was still one four-hour lecture in all of medical school. It’s not that that’s really the focus of their education. It’s not even blaming them. Of course, they give you the tools that are part of their toolbelt. We just expect that they have a different toolbelt sometimes than they do.

I don’t think that we, as consumers, are wrong in expecting that. When we go into an auto mechanic, we expect them to have the tools that are current, we expect them to have the current knowledge of the current cars, why can we not expect that from our physicians who are taking care of our bodies? Anyway, that little rant aside, I do agree with you wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, as you’re saying, it puts the consumer, the patient in the driving seat of a car that they’re not familiar with. It’s their own car but they’re not familiar with it. They don’t know how to maintain it.

By that token, and to your reader’s question, we are given these bodies and we’re expected to just know how to fuel them, how to take care of them. We learn from our parents and yet, how did they learn? I say it all the time. What I do with my clients to me is the nutrition education we’re all supposed to know and no one ever taught us.

We’re all expected to know how to take care of our bodies, but have we ever really learned? Even if we go back to like what I learned about in seventh-grade health class, it was not about what happens when we sleep and why certain things are so important and really where our immune system is. We didn’t learn these things.

Absolutely not. We learned about the food pyramid, which now we know better. Eat all the food on your plate, and eat three square meals a day. That was about it. I remember years ago, when I was working with juveniles on probation and yes, I did fit in nutrition, and when I was talking to them about their diet and they were saying, “I do get my vegetables. I have ketchup with my fries.”

Why You Do Not Have To Blame Your Body

They thought that ketchup, because it’s made from tomatoes, was considered a vegetable and that the fries were another vegetable and not really what we want when we’re talking about fresh fruits and vegetables. Yet people end up blaming themselves for not knowing when, as you say, it is the education. Let’s dive into trying to answer the question, which, to be honest, I think we can all benefit from a roadmap.

When we look at getting a roadmap for simple ways for this reader who’s being very clear, they are really struggling with trying to do the New Year’s resolutions, which often go by the wayside, so that’s sadly normal. People end up blaming themselves and getting depressed thinking they’re broken when they’re not broken, they just don’t have the right tools. Help us navigate. Help us uncomplicate wellness, please.

There are a few pieces in this that I think we really need as the starting point before we even get into a tactical play with this thing. One thing is the willpower piece, which I’ll come back to in a second. I think there’s an overpowering sense of failure, frustration that like, “I’ve wasted the money,” like the energy behind that. I almost want to start there because why was it a waste?

A, you could choose to start taking them now. Okay, a resolution for the new year. Last I checked, it’s still this year. We can call it whatever we want. What I often see is that finding reasons to beat ourselves up like this is. We’re beating ourselves up for the resolution that maybe hasn’t started yet. We’re beating ourselves up for the things we bought and haven’t used, like the gym membership or the supplements. I’m going to say haven’t used yet, maybe haven’t started yet, but finding reasons to beat ourselves up is often a tool that we’re using to motivate ourselves. I would invite you to say maybe that’s not our best way to move in our desired direction.

Jenn, I want to jump in there because that’s profoundly true. Many of us grew up in environments where people were punitive and so instead of reinforcing positive behavior, there were a lot of negative talk, negative consequences, and research shows it’s simply not as helpful. What is really helpful in the long-term is the positive reinforcement. Yes, sure, notice what didn’t go well but then pick up, move forward, you’re not bad, you’re not broken, you’re not unimprovable.

It’s a journey. That’s we’re at that heart about why I’m not fond of New Year’s resolutions because most people’s New Year’s resolutions fail in the first two weeks, and not through them being faulty or lacking willpower. It’s that change takes time. Change takes grace. Change takes falling off that balance beam and getting on again and trying.

There are a few pieces to that. The willpower thing. Part of the question was, “I guess I just don’t have the willpower,” or something to that effect. I would argue and there’s a lot in this book Uncomplicating Wellness about willpower because we fundamentally misunderstand it. It’s not that you don’t have it, it’s that you’re using it in other places. If we can just recognize that there were other things happening that are using up this finite resource, and without us intentionally doing things to replenish that resource, of course, we have nothing left.

Where Is Willpower And How To Replenish It

Jenn, give me an example, please. I love looking at willpower as a resource. That’s beautiful. Give us an example of someone, maybe this reader, who’s she feels like she has no willpower maybe just to get to the gym. Maybe to refrain from eating a dozen cookies, who knows what it is. Where might she be using her willpower?

Anytime we make any decision, anytime we delay gratification, anytime we use higher-order thinking, that thinking in the front of the brain, anytime we exhibit self-control, we are using that willpower. I think of it like a refillable cup. These are all things that drink from that cup. Having low blood sugar because we’re eating less drinks from that cup. Maybe you’re using it getting dressed in the morning, trying on seventeen outfits to find something that makes you feel good.

Maybe you’re using it at work because your role is to make decisions. Maybe you’re using it with your kids because not only can they be so frustrating, saying mom all the time or there’s a million and 55 logistics that have to be figured out to run your household. All of those things are using this willpower cup. We get to the end of the day and we go, “I’m supposed to do what now? I don’t know, hand me the chips.” Of course, we don’t have this resource. All of these things and there’s more than that too. Drink from this cup of willpower. Not sleeping. We’re starting with a diminished cup of willpower. What can replenish it?

There’s a whole host of things, but some of my favorites, movement. This one is really funny because we were talking about the gym. It’s a little counterintuitive because we think we have to have willpower to get to the gym. We think we have to have energy to move our bodies. The reality is moving our bodies will give us more energy and willpower.

Absolutely, and I love this point as well because for every person, that will look different. I’m seeing your use of willpower as something like, as you’re saying, a cup that runs dry, it’s almost a cousin to resilience. We want to stress and strain anxiety, holding your temper when you want to scream at something, all of these things, having too much put on your plate, it’s going to deplete this.

As you’re coming home and you’re in that more quiet space, let’s hope it’s a little more quiet or the one way that you might feel like you have some freedom is to eat the cookies or whatever it is, ice cream, French fries and hamburgers every night, whatever it be. The idea that you’re giving us is really coming back to noticing that willpower is a cup that can run dry and that now moving to your part of what we can do to replenish that cup so that we’re not trying to suck from a cup that’s just there’s nothing in it, it’s not that we’re broken there’s just nothing in that cup.

Moving specifically to the part about movement as you say everyone is going to have a particular time of day where filling that cup with some movement is going to feel right. For me, it’s like early in the morning, 6:00 AM going for a walk or at sunset, depending upon the time of year. For other people, it might be a lunch break. It might be ten minutes that they carve out during a break at work, whatever it might be but realizing it doesn’t have to be a huge space of time. For some people, they have the luxury of an hour or two. If you have young kiddos and you’re working and all sorts of things, you may need to find 2 spots of 15 minutes.

Right, or less. There are a million things and we can talk about strategies for getting more movement in our day but movement in general, any kind, helps replenish or refill that willpower cup. Eating. I mentioned low blood sugar diminishes our willpower. Eating, having stable blood sugar helps replenish our willpower.

Gratitude is another one that helps with willpower. Gamification, accountability, distraction is an interesting one that can help us refill that cup of willpower. We want to build our days such that throughout the day, we’re adding little nuggets or bites of these willpower replenishers so that we’re balancing all of the things that drink from it with the things that replenish it.

One of the things in all of the research on willpower, it comes back to the people who use willpower most effectively use it what I call upstream or to create the habits. We can end up with more of our days being habitual and then we have that willpower left over for that really tempting dessert or whatever the thing is that makes you feel like you have no willpower. We have some left in the cup for those moments.

How Distraction And Generosity Can Fill Our Willpower Cup

That’s so beautifully said. Use the willpower to create the habit almost like the foundation of a house. You use it so you have that foundation and now, the really hard part is creating that foundation. As you’re saying, I want to repeat just a few of them. Beyond the exercise, it is also eating so keeping your blood sugar level not letting it go into the dips. The other one I liked that I’d like you to explain more of and of course when we’re talking eating, we’re talking healthy eating.

Quality nutrition, yes.

Quality nutrition which we can create habits that allow us to have quality nutrition accessible because if it’s not accessible, we’re going to reach for the accessible thing which is the cookie or the high-sugar granola bar or whatever it is or the candy bar instead of going for the low-salt nuts. Going for fresh celery, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, whatever it might be. I’d like for you to explain to me, please, how is distraction going to fill up a willpower cup?

The classic study on this is one that many of us have probably heard of. It’s the one where they put like a marshmallow in front of kids and they said, “If you don’t eat it for 10 minutes, you can have 2.” Maybe it was 15 minutes, whatever, but it was like if you don’t eat it for a while, you can have two. The kids who were able to wait out the time are the ones who distracted themselves. They played with their shoelaces, they counted ceiling tiles. They did other things to distract themselves from the marshmallow that was sitting in front of them.

It’s so true because it’s that idea of the watched pot never boils.

Think about we’re at a holiday meal and there’s the appetizers out. If we’re standing next to the table of all of the appetizers, they have a voice. They’re calling our name. What happens if we walk into the other room and end up in a conversation with someone? That voice is a little quieter. The distraction helped improve our “willpower” in that moment.

Absolutely and sometimes, you can use distraction to complement another one of the habits like exercise. If you’re feeling, “I want that bag of potato chips,” or whatever it might be. Let’s see how I feel after I try ten pushups. Let’s see how I feel if I really want that bag after I do 30 squats in my living room, whatever it is.

Let’s see how I feel about those chips or the cookie after I eat the apple and the nuts.

I love that and thank you for highlighting it. Of the ones you listed, what is another one of your personal favorites for creating a habit that’s going to fill this willpower cup and benefit health at the same time?

I love gratitude and, really, generosity more than gratitude, but generosity. It’s an interesting one because a lot of us don’t connect it to willpower. The way it works is on a very primal subconscious level. When we have low willpower, our default takes the wheel. When our willpower’s low, when our blood sugar’s low, everything is about how can we maintain the status quo, how can we get to safety? Safety is status quo.

Safety, for a lot of us, might be old habits and behaviors, especially old food habits. Generosity, by definition, requires that we are thinking about someone else. If we are capable of thinking about someone or something else, then it inherently sends a signal of safety to our subconscious because if our safety is in danger, like if we’re not safe, that is number one top priority. If we can be generous, it inherently sends safety signals because that wouldn’t even be in our awareness if we were unsafe. Does that make sense?

It makes perfect sense. It’s just a reframe of what you’re saying. It takes us outside of I want, I need, and into that space of, “I really want to give. I really want to do for others,” and not at one’s own expense like being a doormat but from that authentic place of, “I really want to share my extra apples with this person or I really want to give some of my time to this person.”

Even think about holding the door open for the person behind you or paying for the coffee of the person behind you. Little things. Complimenting someone.

Absolutely and we were in the grocery store and there were kiddos behind me buying these organic frozen pops of some sort and I thought that’s really cute. They’re buying organic ones. Good for them. When it was my turn to go through, and that’s all they had, I told the cashier, “Just ring those up on my tab.” He did, and the kids were so delighted when they realized what happened. They were like, “You made our day,” and then I saw them out in the parking lot and they were on their scooters.

That feeling I didn’t intend for, it’s a nothing, why not be kind? It just made their day. The hope then is that they go and carry that forward and make somebody else’s day. Whether they do or not, just the joy on their faces that somebody saw them and cared, it took me out. I was already having a good day, but it took me out of me for a minute and going home and making dinner. It took me to a place of it feels so good to give.

We don’t often connect that to this willpower thing. It’s one of my favorites because it’s surprising.

Why You Should Eat Less And Move More

I wouldn’t have made that connection but now I really get it because it does take you. That’s why I shared that little tidbit. It took me totally out of me and into this space of, “Look at those faces, they’re so joyful over something a little.” Excellent. Now we took a really good look at willpower not as a failing but as a resource that can get depleted.

We want to keep that resource filled up as much as possible and your book gives really good tips on specifically on how to do that. I’d like to switch gears for the next piece into in your work with nutrition and individuals, what do you find is one of the most complicated disempowering messages that people get that take them away from their journey? That’s a packed question, isn’t it?

Yes, and I’m trying to relate it back to the question because there’s just so much there. There’s so many things. Part of what’s running through my head is even the idea of resolutions or eat less move more or that everybody else has the answer.

Let’s go with eat less, move more and then everyone else has the answer because I think it’s fabulous that you said that. I pick up that undertone in her question. Thank you. Eat less move more, let’s dive into that.

Fundamentally, eat less move more is not how the body works. The eating less piece assumes that all calories are created equal. We know that this isn’t the case. Without any degree in anything, you know that not all calories are the same because here’s why. You already know this because you would not recommend to your child to eat Skittles all day. Full stop, without anything else, you know that not all calories are the same.

My question for you is if this reader going to put something in their fridge or cabinet that is going to maximize their journey, I have a sense from having read your book that it might have something to do with protein and fiber, please tell us what they might do that’s going to help them build this good foundation.

I think the other piece of eat less move more is typically the assumption that weight is what we’re trying to change. In the book, I talk about food as fuel, so regardless of what your goal is, food is fuel for anything that we want to do in our lives. The weight piece is the side effect. We are holding on to weight that we don’t need for some reason.

When we fuel ourselves, the phrase that I say all the time, I probably said it last time I was here, protein and fiber at every meal makes moving fat no big deal. Protein is clean, lean protein. Chicken, fish, tofu, could be beans and legumes, could be a really high-quality red meat, but clean-lean protein. Fiber is vegetables, fresh vegetables. They could be cooked, but fresh vegetables, whole vegetables, and sometimes fruit. A meal is really meals and snacks, frankly, anytime we eat. The only difference between a meal and a snack is how much food we have at a time and then therefore how long it’s going to last us until we need to fuel again.

Why You Cannot Outrun Your Fork

We have the protein and the fiber at every meal. You gave really good examples of that. Thank you for that. Now, when we look at the moving the part where eat less, move more where you’re really asking the reader, if this is something that feels difficult for you, just look at it as it’s not about eating less it’s about paying attention to the quality of your fuel. The quality of your food.

Inherently in the eat less, move more phrase is the idea that the two things are connected, that we’re going to undo our food with our movement. As I also always say, you can’t outrun your fork. Especially as we start to think about the mentality around beating ourselves up, around nutrition, around movement. It is incredibly important that we untangle those two things.

Eat less, move more inherently ties them together. When it comes to movement, the human body was meant to move. We have a sitting epidemic. Just as unhuman as it is to sit all day, it is also just as unhuman to sit all day and go berserk for an hour. It is most human for us to have little bits of movement throughout the day. With our movement, what is critical for health is not just yes, we want steps.

By the way, the 10,000 steps is nonsense. The research actually shows us it’s about 7,000 to 7,500 steps that make the difference. We really want to build muscle. Not only does muscle dictate metabolism but muscle is longevity. Muscle is getting up off the toilet when we are older. Muscle is living independently. Muscle is being able to open a jar. Muscle is critical for our health. Just like not all calories are the same, not all movement is the same. All of it can be valuable but different movement does different things.

Thank you for focusing on this because it is so true. I thought this way for a long time, that if I did my morning walk run that that was good enough. When the pandemic came and I stopped teaching yoga for a while and I stopped doing yoga as much, I really saw a difference in how my body felt. I didn’t notice it at the time but it was because my muscles were changing. I had these really buff muscles from doing yoga all the time and teaching.

My metabolism shifted and I didn’t put it all together at first. When we realize, as you’re saying, that our ancestors, going way back, they were moving throughout the day. They were naturally moving, naturally lifting and they weren’t going to a gym, as you say, and doing it all in an hour. They were doing it throughout the day and throughout their lives. Thank you for focusing on that. It almost sounds like it’s you’re recommending exercise snacks throughout the day.

Sure. Whatever works. One of my favorites, I call DWDS, Drink Water Do Squats. We’re going to drink more water. Hydration is about more than just water, but we’re going to drink more water. Naturally, we’re going to have to go use the bathroom. Every time we go to the bathroom, hold onto the sink, do 10 squats or stand up and sit down from the toilet 10 times after you go. Think about it. Let’s say you even go to the bathroom 4 times in a day, 40 squats a day. That’s movement. That’s going to move the needle.

Jenn, I love this .my husband will not know what’s going on when I start doing squats in the bathroom but here we go. It’s a perfect advice.

By the way, it’s going to take 45 seconds, maybe. It doesn’t have to be a ton of time. You’re not going to get sweaty, you don’t have to change your clothes.

If somebody is at work, you’re going in and you’re doing squats by the sink, fine. You’re actually being a great role model. Really great pieces of information for this question, the question of the day that can help this person going back to where you started. It doesn’t matter the date of the resolution. The resolution is about creating new practices, trying them and continuing and you’ve given us some great kernels already. Seriously, the one just about the squats. Hey every time you go to the bathroom if you can fit in ten squats and just make that part of your routine. Easy peasy.

Do Not Overwhelm Yourself With Getting Healthier

If you can’t do 10, do 5. You’ll get to 10. We’ll get there. The other thing that I want to go back to with the question before we run out of time is the things that they wanted to do. They wanted to eat less. They wanted to go to the gym. They wanted to do the supplements. They wanted to do all of these things.

What I see over and over with people is that we create this plan in our head for this textbook perfect day that doesn’t exist in reality. When it doesn’t play out, even wanting to go to the gym every day or whatever it was, when it doesn’t play out that way, we think we failed. What if you didn’t fail? What if the plan failed because the plan wasn’t designed for you and your life?

That’s beautiful reframe, Jenn. Absolutely.

What if instead of doing all of the things, what if for the next month we focused only on the nutrition thing or only on the sleep thing? Pick your battles. We’re going to eventually get to the things, but the more we try to do it once, the more overwhelming it can feel and we throw everything up in the air because we feel like we can’t do it all.

What if on the food thing we focused on breakfast? What if we just focused on water for the week? We can take it down and focus on one thing and figure out what that looks like for your life. If we go to the movement piece, maybe the drink water do squats is the piece of movement you can do. You have this gym membership. It turns out that Monday to Friday, it feels like climbing Mount Everest naked and barefoot to get there during the week. Don’t make that part of the plan. Let’s start with the plan being Saturday. Not even Saturday and Sunday. Let’s just start with Saturday for the next month and see how we feel.

I think it’s one of the biggest issues when people are trying to make habit changes. They understandably go big and going big is really hard. Research shows that one plan with some supporting baby steps underneath it and doing the baby steps and then you mess up a day or two days. It’s okay, just continue with the baby steps. You don’t do it one day, it’s not an excuse to quit forever. It doesn’t mean you’re flawed.

This week, it’s not Saturday. Maybe becomes Sunday. I was interviewed for the Mayo Clinic’s nutrition podcast, all about habits. The question was like what’s the secret to creating habits? I often just answer with what comes to me in the moment. In that moment, what came to me was flexibility. Habits aren’t about copiers and the exact same copy every single day. What makes something a habit is that it happens all the time, it just doesn’t necessarily look exactly the same all the time.

Jenn, that’s a key piece for mental health almost universally. When we are overly rigid with ourselves or with other people, overly rigid, it has to be this way or I wasn’t successful. It’s the idea. We’re imperfect. We love imperfectly, we live imperfectly, we are imperfect. That’s really cool. We just need to lean into it and say there are days that it’ll look like this and days that it’ll look like that but I’m trending forward. That’s what we want to watch for is the trend forward and be kind and gracious to ourselves on this. The really silly part to me is that once we seem like we got there, we got the routine, our bodies change. Something has to happen.

Even before, I think that’s the magical thing too. It starts to respond and that can then be part of what propels us forward but it also doesn’t necessarily respond in the way we expect. Often, people expect the scale or the scale is their only metric of their body responding. We need more tools than that because the scale is usually the last thing to catch up to the things that we’re doing every day.

It is a very a very inferior method because if you’re eating saltier foods or sometimes eating a lot more fiber, whatever’s going on, it can fluctuate. If somebody’s relying solely on that scale they can get really depressed by it, by the fluctuation. You’ve given us so many beautiful things to start with and this reader, I hope, is able to see that it’s a process that you feeling a bit depressed makes sense if you’re being really rigid and hard on yourself.

Make these tiny goals. See how they work for you. That, again, going back to where we started in the beginning, trust that you’re not alone if you’re feeling like there aren’t resources specifically tailored to your needs. I’m not being paid to promote Jenn in any way. That’s why reaching out to someone, someone who has more than ten minutes of time for you. Someone who can look you in the eyes and say, “Tell me about your routine, your daily routine. What are you eating, what’s working, what’s not working,” and help you create something in your life that feels workable.

That feels like you have a little bit of latitude you’re not too rigid with yourself and that you can fill this cup that is so important this willpower cup that really serves you in many ways when it is full. I really love the work you do, Jenn, because it comes from that space of you having known frustration. You having known how difficult the journey is. Saying, “I’m going to bring this to the world and help people live wellness-filled lives without feeling frustrated and it being so complicated.” It doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to be personalized.

Yeah, and most of the time, simplified.

Thank you. I knew I was personalized and simplified, absolutely, and that’s what this book of yours is all about, making it simple, making it doable, making it actionable. Thank you for the work you do.

Thank you and likewise. I appreciate it.

Get In Touch With Jenn

Thank you. I love the work that you do. It makes me so happy. Where can our readers find you?

You can find my podcast, Salad with a Side of Fries. The book Uncomplicating Wellness is available wherever books are sold, Amazon, Bookshop.org, whatever makes you happy in all of those book retailers. My website is ASaladWithASideOfFries.com. All of the things are there and of course, all social media, I’m @JennTrepeck. I will just say, I love hearing from you so please send a message. It is my favorite. It might take me a minute to get back to you but I promise I will. Send me a message, please.

Thank you, Jenn. It’s always a joy to have you with us. You’re so fresh and so insightful and I like how you make things simple and actionable.

Thank you and I appreciate your time and all of the work that you do. It’s magical, so thank you.

Thank you, Jenn. To our readers, thank you for being part of the journey. You inspire us to do the work we do to help you live a better life from the inside out. This is Imperfect Love.

Important Links

• Jenn Trepeck
• Uncomplicating Wellness: Ditch the Rules, Quiet the Noise, Reclaim Your Life
• Salad with a Side of Fries
• Bookshop.org
• Jenn Trepeck on Instagram
• Salad With A Side of Fries Podcast on Instagram
• Salad With A Side of Fries Podcast on Facebook
• Jenn Trepeck on Facebook
• Jenn Trepeck on TikTok
• Jenn Trepeck on LinkedIn
• NAMI Helpline
• Mental Health and Relationships
• Dr. Carla Manly’s Website
• Dr. Carla Manly on Instagram
• Dr. Carla Manly on X
• Dr. Carla Manly on Facebook
• Dr. Carla Manly on LinkedIn
• Dr. Carla Manly on YouTube
• Dr. Carla Manly on TikTok

About Jenn Trepeck

Jenn Trepeck has been described as a “force of nature” in the wellness space. She’s been recognized as one of Podcast Magazine’s 40 under 40, nominated for the 2022 International Women’s Podcast Award for Visionary Leadership, and won Ear Worthy’s first Independent Podcast Award for Best Health Podcast and Best Independent Podcast in 2024. She is an Optimal Health Coach, Podcaster and Business Consultant. After graduating from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, Jenn founded Better Life Now LLC while working full time in hedge funds.

After over a decade of coaching clients, Jenn started Salad with a Side of Fries Podcast to help pay it forward and reach a larger audience to teach the nutrition education we are all supposed to know but no one ever taught us. In addition to coaching clients individually or in small groups, Jenn implements revenue generating wellness programs in doctors’ offices, salons and spas to further expand impact and help change the state of healthcare as a Certified GoTrim Lifestyle Coach and Consultant with nutraMetrix Custom Health Solutions. Jenn is typically working out at Physique57, discovering hidden gem restaurants in NYC or traveling to spend time with friends and family.