335: Summer Remix Series: The Dynamic Nature of Health

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Courtney Townley 0:00
Welcome to the Grace and Grit Podcast made for women who want their healthiest years to be ahead of them, not behind them. Join your host Courtney Townley right now. As she breaks down the fairy tale health story, you have been chasing all of your life, indispensable action steps and lasting change.

Courtney Townley 0:28
Hello, my friends, and welcome to the Grace & Grit Podcast. This is your host, Courtney Townley. As always I know there are a million spaces in places where you could be right now. So the fact that you’re here, it means a lot and I’m so happy that you’re here.

Courtney Townley 0:42
In case you have not been listening to the Grace & Grit Podcast for a while, or maybe you’re listening to it for the first time, I want to let you know that the Grace & Grit Podcast is going on a short break for the summer of 2023 from producing new episodes. Now that doesn’t mean there won’t be a weekly episode waiting for you here.

Courtney Townley 1:02
What we are doing to support you through the summer is we are doing a summer remix series, which means we are taking some of our most popular themes, and some of our most highly listened to episodes from the past and re dropping them. So you absolutely have a ton of content available to you and a lot of support to help get you through the summer.

Courtney Townley 1:26
That being said, if you are looking to take what you learn here to a much deeper level and really integrate it into your life if you are looking to be a part of a robust community of women who are dedicated to developing their self-leadership skills. If you are looking for coaching support, I would invite you to consider joining us inside of our Rumble & Rise community.

Courtney Townley 1:56
Rumble & Rise is an amazing incubator of support to help women lead themselves more powerfully in the health arena, and well beyond. So you can check out all the details of membership by going to graceandgrit.com/readytorumble.

Courtney Townley 2:16
Membership is only open for a few days at the end of every month. But it is an option for you if you are looking to take a deeper dive this summer. Otherwise, come back here each week and check out our summer remix series, which this episode today is absolutely a part of, I hope you enjoy it.

Courtney Townley 2:41
Now today, I’d like to talk a little bit about something that I mentioned, which is a huge guiding principle in the work that I do with my clients. And that principle is that health is dynamic. And later in the Podcast, I’m going to share the story of one of my students who exemplifies this concept so beautifully.

Courtney Townley 3:06
So what does it mean that health is dynamic? Well, it means that health is not a place that you arrive at. It’s not a destination, it is not a static thing. Health is a road you travel throughout your life. And the road is not always flat and paved and easy to travel. It has a lot of twists and turns and bumps and detours. And your ability to navigate those unforeseen obstacles has everything to do with the state of your health.

Courtney Townley 3:51
You know this, but I’m gonna say it anyway. Life is always and forever changing. You are not the same person you were five years ago. How you’re not the same person you were last week, or even five minutes ago. And if we don’t learn skill sets to navigate the constantly evolving nature of life, it is impossible to consistently nourish your health. Yes, there are certain ingredients that will always help you to support your health.

Courtney Townley 4:32
And I talk a lot about these elements in different spaces and places. But these ingredients are things like nutrient dense food and hydration and recovery and movement and mindset and relationships. These are things that will always and forever help you to nourish your health. But the dosage of those ingredients is constantly changing. The dosage that you need of those ingredients in your life right now is different than the dosage that I need.

Courtney Townley 5:11
And yet we don’t treat health as if that’s true, we treat it as if, if I always apply the same effort in the same way, I will always get the same result. And yet most of you, I would argue that all of you listening to this Podcast today have had the experience of that absolutely being not true.

Courtney Townley 5:39
Different ages and stages of life require different different levels of self care. So there will be periods of your life where you need more recovery, and less prescribed exercise. I specifically think of like motherhood, like becoming a mom is such a shift in the way you live your life the way you identify with yourself. And the body goes through a lot of physiological changes and recovery in the aftermath of a birth. So should I be exercising as aggressively after the birth of my child? Probably not. Do my dietary requirements shift? Absolutely. Do I need skill sets to manage the challenges that show up with motherhood? Absolutely.

Courtney Townley 6:43
I also think of the transition through perimenopause, I work a lot with the perimenopausal population. And one of the big frustrations I see a lot of women rumbling with at that age and stage of life is that they’re trying to use protocols and systems from their 20s and 30s. To navigate the perimenopausal years. And perimenopause, as I have said many times before is a stage of life, where two of the hormones that really help us to manage our total stress load are leaving the party. And so if we don’t honor that shift, right, the decline of estrogen and progesterone, we get ourselves into a whole lot of dis ease when it comes to our health.

Courtney Townley 7:35
Also, different ages and stages of life might require and do require more mindset work and less rigidity around diet. No amount of kale is going to fix your lack of self worth. No amount of kale is going to improve your ability to set boundaries with yourself and other people. So please, of course, don’t hear me saying that diet isn’t important. Of course, nutrition is fundamental to your health. And nutrition is going to look different throughout your life. What it means to nourish your body will look different throughout your life.

Courtney Townley 8:24
I see a lot of women, I know you do too, buying into protocols to improve their health that are so rigid in nature, that they either have zero motivation to maintain them, or they pursue them with fierce rigidity, meaning there’s absolutely no flexibility baked into their process. And so what was supposed to be nourishing, what was supposed to be a nourishing thing, something to improve their health actually becomes a very depleting thing.

Courtney Townley 9:06
So in my opinion, and I’ve talked about this in a lot of different podcasts is flexibility is a very important part of improving and maintaining health. Because flexibility in your approach helps you to honor the dynamic nature of health.

Courtney Townley 9:28
So I’ll give you some examples of this like the rigidity piece when I see women depleting themselves because of their rigidity. It comes from things like being so focused on getting in a certain amount of exercise that they sacrifice recovery. Or a woman spend so much time obsessing about meal prepping and calorie counting that they aren’t spending time checking in with themselves about why they’re doing those things in first place. So it’s not that exercise or meal prepping or even calorie counting can’t be healthy. The question to be asking is, are these the right tools for me to be using at this age and stage of my life.

Courtney Townley 10:21
So the dynamic nature of health also means that health is not binary. So we talk, I feel like our culture pushes this idea that you’re either well or you aren’t. You either have health are you don’t. And to me, this is really reflective of our all or nothing thinking. And all or nothing, thinking is always going to get you nothing. Right, living on either end of the spectrum is never a healthy thing to do. There’s a lot of possibilities in the middle of the spectrum. And that is absolutely true of health. Health is not something that you either have or you don’t have. Health is honoring this concept that life is full of dis ease.

Courtney Townley 11:13
I was recently having a conversation actually, in Puerto Rico, I went to go visit a friend of mine in Puerto Rico. And she said, you know, Courtney, I don’t really understand what you mean when you say health, because to her health simply meant the absence of disease, physical disease in the body. And it was such a great conversation that’s transpired after that, because I talked about how working with clients for so many years has really shown me that life is so full of dis ease.

Courtney Townley 11:45
Another way that I like to describe dis ease in life is that life throws us a lot of curveballs, we get injured, we get we go through illnesses. Sometimes we get diagnoses, we might go through a divorce, everyone will experience the death of a loved one. We go through family challenges, we rumble with unmet expectations. All of that is providing you with this opportunity to face dis ease over your lifetime. And how you show up in the face of those diseases will massively impact your well being.

Courtney Townley 12:36
So how you manage your thoughts, your emotions and your behaviors, in the face of those kinds of challenges. will either nourish or deplete your health. And I talked about this in the Women’s Health Reimagined class, but health is multi dimensional. So just as you don’t create a strong body, by only working out your biceps, you don’t improve your health by only focusing on your physical being focusing exclusively on one dimension of health is incredibly limiting.

Courtney Townley 13:21
I always think of I know I’ve mentioned Ido Portal many times on the Podcast. He’s a mentor of mine, incredible movement trainer. And when I first met Ido, one of the things that kind of drew me into his work was that he talked about the limitations in being a specialist of movement. For example, if you are an Olympic lifter, and you only train in the realm of Olympic lifting, so you’re only basically building skill sets that will help you to be a better lifter. You are actually limiting your capacity for movement.

Courtney Townley 14:05
So you might be really awesome at that one thing. But can we call you an amazing mover? I would argue no. Because movement is a bigger conversation. Right? movement isn’t just strength. It’s also flexibility and endurance, and agility and power and fluidity. So if we take that same Olympic lifter, and we introduce them to a dance class, or have them take a martial arts class, or introduce them to long distance running, they actually expand their capacity for movement.

Courtney Townley 14:51
And this is the way that I love to think about the health model. You can focus exclusively on physical health a lot If people choose to only focus on that, but you’re leaving a lot to be desired in the health equation on the table, because if you also focused on your mental emotional relationships, spiritual health, your capacity for feeling deeply well would expand beyond belief.

Courtney Townley 15:26
So I operate from a space that you don’t create a state of health by exclusively focusing on physical health. In a nutshell, health isn’t as simple as managing stress in just one area of your life. It’s really more about managing the total stress load of your life, and what affects your total stress load is very multifaceted.

Courtney Townley 15:58
Now to kind of give you an example of this, I recently had a chance to sit down with a longtime member of the Rumble & Rise community. Her name is Celeste Arambula and Celeste is a triple board certified physician and a competitive athlete. She knows a lot about physical health. And she is well aware that improving health in her own life isn’t as simple as diet and exercise. She exercises consistently, she eats really well consistently. Her challenge, in up leveling her own health model is not so much in applying more grit.

Courtney Townley 16:52
Her challenge has been learning how to extend herself more grace, the grace for more recovery when life throws her a curveball and demands more of her resources. The grace to set boundaries. The grace to be messy, in her pursuit of developing new skill sets the grace to extend herself compassion when things don’t go as well as she expected.

Courtney Townley 17:23
So I’m going to read you her official bio and then I’m going to launch into the interview that I did with her Celeste arm Buelow was born and raised in Chicago. She currently lives in San Diego with her husband and three teenage daughters and she’s lived there for over 20 years. She’s a physician who was triple boarded in internal medicine, geriatric medicine, and Hospice and Palliative medicine. In the past, she’s received the honor of being named San Diego Magazine’s Top doctor in geriatric medicine.

Courtney Townley 17:59
Competitive running has been a part of her story since she was 13 years old. She continues to compete at an elite level from the mile to the marathon at 43. She ran two hours and 52 minutes in the Carlsbad marathon, placing second overall female to a professional 24 year old runner. When she was 45, she won a gold medal in the USA Track and Field National masters half marathon at age 50. She ran a half marathon in one hour and 19 minutes, which is a six minute, three seconds per mile pace for 13.1 miles.

Courtney Townley 18:45
And when she first started listening to the Grace and Grit Podcast years ago, she knew she was in the right place. Balancing her grit with her grace has been her practice inside the Rumble & Rise community. So I am so honored to have her here today. So let’s dive in to hear a little bit about her experience. All right, so Celeste, welcome to the Grace & Grit Podcast.

Celeste Arambulo 19:12
Thanks. It’s an honor to be here.

Courtney Townley 19:14
Is this the first Podcast you’ve ever been on? It is so honored that it’s mine. I love it. So before we kind of get into your experience of Rumble & Rise, I would love for you to just tell listeners a little bit about who you are and what you’re up to these days.

Celeste Arambulo 19:30
I live in San Diego and I’m a physician here and have a very active family life. I’ve been married for a long time and I have three teenage daughters. So that keeps me hopping. And my oldest one is a freshman at Michigan State and then I have two in high school. And so balancing the profession that I really, really enjoy along with family and then I’m still very connected with my extended family in Chicago. I’m is is a lot, but then I also have a deep passion for running. That’s truly my my self care. And so I’m on a competitive team here in San Diego. And I just really enjoy that a lot. So it’s just balancing all the balls in the air and trying to get good sleep at the same time.

Courtney Townley 20:19
It’s so interesting at this, I feel like age stage of life, like kind of midlife, how many layers there are to life. Right? Like we built up all these responsibilities, and we have all these things we care about. And this is really kind of the crux of the rumble for so many women, is how do I actually show up in all these spaces in places that I care about? And still take care of me?

Celeste Arambulo 20:43
Correct.

Courtney Townley 20:44
Yeah, it’s it’s, it’s, it’s so big. And it’s so real. And running is not just like a hobby for I mean, it is a hobby, I get that it’s a passion. It’s a pursuit. But this is something that you have been really intensely involved in on a competitive level, since you were like 13 years old.

Celeste Arambulo 20:59
Yes, I joined the club, I joined the cross country team in high school, because I came from the Catholic grade school and I went to the huge public high school and I knew no one. So I joined it to meet friends. It just opened the doors to a lot of great things in my life.

Courtney Townley 21:16
I love that I didn’t know that about your story. And I think that’s great, because I know you to be a very community oriented person. And you know, I think women are but I think like for you, it is a love language, right to be a part of community. It is such an important part of your life. And you’ve you’ve spoken to this many times on group coaching calls and all the things. So it’s interesting, that community is really what led you to this passion.

Celeste Arambulo 21:40
Without a doubt. Yeah. connection with others. Yes. Yeah.

Courtney Townley 21:44
Very cool. So tell listeners a little bit about like, how you stumbled into Grace, & Grit and how you came into Rumble & Rise?

Celeste Arambulo 21:53
Well, I really enjoy podcasts, I enjoy them. When I either am running or walking or driving, I like to feed my mind with positive things. And I came across your Podcast. And to be honest, I liked the name a lot, the name was very attractive to me, because I love the word grit. And that’s part of who I am. I’m a very intense and competitive individual. But I know as I’m progressing in my life, I need to incorporate more grace. And that’s really hard for me to do really hard. So I liked the title. And then of course, the content just enhanced that even more. So I was hooked from the beginning. And I’ve told a lot of friends about it. As far as just the balance. I mean, it’s Aging Gracefully. That’s always been a mission of mine.

Courtney Townley 22:43
I so appreciate that you’re bringing this up because you are such a go getter. you’re a high achiever, you’re a triple board certified physician, you’re a competitive distance runner, like these are not easy things. And I know and you share this again, and a lot of group calls and in our coaching calls over the years that that the grip does come a little bit more naturally to you like it that has been a practice for you for a really long time. But slowing down and extending yourself, the compassion and the kindness and the flexibility can be a little bit more tricky.

Celeste Arambulo 23:22
And despite the great being attractive and passionate for me, there’s also a destructive side, of course. And so that’s what I need to stay aware of, and keeping that balance. So as much as it seems that there’s a lot of great things that I have in my life and I’ve had a lot of successes. I’ve had way more failures. And so it’s how do I handle that and how do I keep moving forward?

Courtney Townley 23:49
Yeah how you handle the failures is everything because it really determines if you’re going to keep going or not. Okay, so why did you decide to join Rumble & Rise? Was it to help yourself practice more of the grace? What was it?

Celeste Arambulo 24:02
Well, it’s interesting I am I love love setting goals. I I actually met my husband 29 years ago at a goal setting seminar called Pathways to successful living and wow, yeah, it’s just kind of who I am as an individual. So achieving my goals has always created a lot of success in my life. Yet there were certain personal goals that I kept struggling to achieve. And I was just tired of my pattern of working on the same goals without gaining some traction. Yeah, so I started to read you know, how to neuroplasticity how to change a habit all that kind of stuff. And the Rumble & Rise really packaged it up well for me and put me into action.

Courtney Townley 24:50
And so how would you describe because I know a lot you know, I talk about Rumble & Rise all day long and I market it and I you know have web page Does that explain it? But it’s so interesting as I’ve been doing these interviews, how members describe the space? Because I do think it’s very unlike what most women are exposed to when it comes to health and wellness. Would you agree?

Celeste Arambulo 25:13
Absolutely.

Courtney Townley 25:14
So how would you describe the space?

Celeste Arambulo 25:17
I would describe it as a group of powerful women who are committed to their self-leadership in order to continue to involve in their personal wellness. So we’re given tools and strategies. But more importantly, we work side by side in creating practices to progress in the change process. That’s the key for me. So not only having the tools, what do you do with those tools? You need to keep continuing to pick them up and practice. And we’re surrounded by others that are doing very similar things. Could be totally separate goals. But the process is the same.

Courtney Townley 25:58
Yeah. And the process really is, you know, at its core, that self-leadership piece, how do I keep myself focused, and on task for this thing that I keep saying is so important to me? Right. It’s almost a practice of refocusing. And yes, there’s lots of skills and strategies that kind of give you along the way to do that. But that’s really kind of the core of it. So what do you think has been the most impactful thing that you have learned along your journey in Rumble & Rise?

Celeste Arambulo 26:27
I would say for being able to redirect myself to the basics. When I get misaligned. I am the type of person that I frequently have too many goals and can be very critical of myself. So Rumble & Rise has taught me to slow down and focus on my personal Foundation, and what really matters.

Courtney Townley 26:51
And one important thing, I think, for everybody to be reminded of that the basics are where it’s at. Right? We kind of kid ourselves that we need these complex, you know, math equations, to create progress in our life. And really, I see that as being one of the biggest barriers to women making progress is they’re just making it too complicated. They’re overwhelming their brain. And when we’re overwhelmed, we do nothing. So yeah, getting back to the basics and deciding what those anchors are for you in your own life, because they are a little bit different for everybody. So what are the what do you think has been your biggest wins since joining?

Celeste Arambulo 27:33
Oh, I would say that I’ve always had a strong sense of purpose and vision. But I need, I need help to continue on that path. So my biggest win has been to minimize my self sabotage. And that’s really creating for me, it’s been creating pivot thoughts that I use to redirect my thinking, and I’m still working on myself trust that I can care for myself in all situations.

Courtney Townley 28:02
Yeah, and really, to be totally honest, that that’ll be a lifelong practice, you know that. But when you have the tools, it feels like that practice is so much more enjoyable, and so much less of a struggle, you still have to practice you still got to show up and build the, you know, self trust skills and, and there will be areas of your life that you get to experience lack of self trust in forevermore, you know, but I think when you are armed with the tools, it really it is a game changer.

Celeste Arambulo 28:30
And that’s the difference with the membership is that if I was on my own, I wouldn’t necessarily pick up that journal or pick up that book to review and resharpen those tools, but with a membership and participating and listening, I’m constantly reminded of how the process works and what I need to do for myself to get realigned.

Courtney Townley 28:55
Yeah. I love that. That’s I think, I can definitely identify with that. And I see that happening, you know, so often amongst the other women in the community. So I obviously, you are, you know a lot about health, you did not come into Rumble & Rise, like, oh, I don’t know anything about health. I mean, you are armed with a tremendous amount of information. And you have been kind of in lifelong pursuit of improving or maintaining your health. So in what ways do you think Rumble & Rise has maybe improved your health, that other maybe strategies and tactics haven’t done?

Celeste Arambulo 29:36
Tons tons of ways. It’s personalized, that’s probably the most important thing that stands out is it’s truly personalized for what I need as an individual. daily actions. Accountability. It keeps me an action of what I say is important to me. And the other thing that I find interesting is I learned some thing for everyone. Someone may be sharing something about a struggle they’re having, and it may not be my struggle at all. And I continue to listen. But it’s the mindset and the coaching and the realignment. I know exactly what they’re going through. And I can relate it to my own situation. That’s powerful. That’s really, really powerful.

Courtney Townley 30:22
Yeah, that normalizing, I think, is a big part of community, right? When we hear other women’s struggles, and we can so identify, it kind of softens the hardship we’re having on our own. Just to know that this is not, this is not just a Celeste issue. Right? This, a lot of people experienced this. And the other thing I keep hearing you speak to, which I appreciate so much is that, you know, we talk a lot between about the difference between passive and massive action. Passive is kind of knowing what to do. It’s reading the books, listening to the Podcast, printing out the worksheets, all the things, but the massive action is really rubber meets the road. What are you actually doing with the knowledge that you have? And you know, watching everyone trout travel through Rumble & Rise? I think it is such an arena of helping women to take massive action, which doesn’t mean big action, it just means action that actually moves your life in the direction you said you wanted to go.

Celeste Arambulo 31:19
Correct.

Courtney Townley 31:20
So how do you think Rumble & Rise has impacted your life beyond just physical health? Beyond mental health?

Celeste Arambulo 31:28
I would say the key thing, it’s strengthened my mental game, which means every other area of my life has improved if I have a strong mental game, and I have positive affirmations that are running through my mind, my life is limitless. I can do anything, and really anything. So it’s mental. It’s the mental aspect. It’s the emotional balance that has made the hugest difference for me.

Courtney Townley 31:59
I love it. I have so many, you know, friends who are coaches and other industries, finances, relationships, you name it. And it’s so interesting when I get together with them and hear about what they’re teaching. And it’s all it’s really the same kind of tools, right? Everyone is focusing on that mindset piece. Now, the tools and the strategies might be a little bit different. But my point is that when we develop in one area, we can carry those tools and strategies over into everything. It’s hard for it not to lose over into all the other realms of our life. So I love that you’re speaking to that. So what would you say to a woman who is thinking about joining Rumble & Rise, or better yet, the woman who has been listening to the Podcast for five, six years, and, you know, kind of has the itch to join, but just haven’t?

Celeste Arambulo 32:49
I would say that I am one of the harshest critics out there. I’m value conscious. I’m a very savvy shopper and frugal. I’m a skeptic, I’m evidence results oriented. So I do my homework. It’s just who I am. That’s just how it works. And this is by far the most powerful program that I have come across to make the changes that I need to strengthen my resiliency. And I find it interesting that when you first open the membership site, I signed up, I was I was on that first first group that signed up. And I temporarily suspended my membership. And thank goodness who was temporary. And at the time, my thought process was, I’m too busy. I can’t keep up.

Celeste Arambulo 33:42
And I thought Who am I keeping up with? I mean, his assignment I have to come prepared, I’m going to be for every single call. And then luckily, I was able to redirect myself and said, No, I think I need to keep this knowledge and this inspiration in my mind on a more regular basis. So I make better choices in my life. And thankfully, I rejoined and last year was one of the more challenging years I’ve had. And it’s actually had nothing to do with COVID Shockingly, but it had to do with my personal life. It had to do with the decline and eventual death of my father. It had to do with some challenges with some of my children. So it was extremely busy, extremely stressful.

Celeste Arambulo 34:30
But being in the membership site and connecting with you and the other women allowed me to create the time and results that I needed to to care for myself so I can continue to care for other people that I loved about that I loved. Yeah, that was mind blowing to me that it was I was making time for it but it was actually giving me more time back to show up for myself and be there for others.

Courtney Townley 35:00
I remember so many conversations about, you know, just me kind of directing the question to you, do you like how you’re showing up? How do you want to show up? Right? And that even just goes to the bare bones of like joining the membership, there is no right way to be in it. It’s like, it’s just coming back to yourself and asking, Do I like how I’m showing up here? And if you do, awesome, keep doing what you’re doing? And if you don’t, let’s work on that. And I think last year, knowing the difficult year you had, I know you did keep asking yourself that question because I knew there were spaces in places because you shared it, that you wanted to show up differently. And you called yourself out on that, and you did the work to realign yourself. And so eventually, you moved into a space where you did feel good about how you were showing up? Which is everything.

Celeste Arambulo 35:48
It is. No regrets, no regrets. So no duels in life. I mean, you can you can improve yourself, but you can’t go back in time

Courtney Townley 35:57
No, we cannot go back in time. So true. Absolutely. Is there anything else you want to share before we wrap this up?

Celeste Arambulo 36:08
No, I just, I’m just so grateful. And I do want to share that earlier in this year, I was saying multiple times, I’m doing all the things, I’m doing all the things and I feel like I’m not getting the results. And I feel I felt stuck in a lot of different ways. And I was reminded about, you know, being compassionate and gentle with myself. And then something changed in March. And I was able things started coming together and I just needed to be more patient. And it’s amazing. Don’t stop doing the work.

Celeste Arambulo 36:47
But you just have to believe in something that you may not be able to, to see or even realize. And it’s fun when it comes together. I love it. I love competition. I love winning. But in that process, I also know that there’s a lot of hard work behind that.

Celeste Arambulo 36:47
And one of my wins, which we had talked about before is pull ups. So I’ve talked about a lot of mindset wins. But then of course, I have some physical goals, too. And so I remember I was working with my pull up vans that my husband got for me. And of course I try I thought it was making progress. And I tried to do an unassisted pull up, which is my goal. And then you said why don’t you just go to the next band, I just immediately got rid of the bands, and it barely moved to centimeter. And so I’ve been making good progress on that getting down with weaker bands. And then I our gym finally opened up. So I went to the gym. And I was able to, you know, do the assisted pull up on the lightest weight I have ever done in my whole entire life. And I know when I said I’m getting stronger, it’s work.

Celeste Arambulo 37:55
So what I, you, you just got to, you got to stay in the trenches. But in order for me to stay in the trenches, I gotta have a little bit of fun. And I haven’t have to have a little bit of reward along the way. And that’s what I love about this group is you have fun, and we look at the rewards along the way.

Courtney Townley 38:12
Yeah, I love that. Because it’s, it’s just that pull up. Example is such a good, it’s such a great example of being in the rumble, right? Like, you’re not just going to do pull ups for a week, and then practice them for a week and then have them perfectly by the end of the week. It takes weeks and months and sometimes even years to build the capacity to do a pull up.

Courtney Townley 38:32
And the same is true with moments in our life where it’s like we have a deadline on the rumble. Like I’m only willing to rumble for a week or a month. And if it’s not fixed by them, something’s wrong. And it’s like sometimes that Rumble is it’s it’s building a resilience and a strength in us that we never would have had otherwise.

Courtney Townley 38:49
And so I think you’re so right, like when we find the right communities of support. And when we have the right mindset, and we have the skills to manage ourselves, we’re able to stay in those trenches without so much suffering, because suffering is really not necessary. It’s hard. Right? It can be tough, definitely a lot of days. But I feel like there are so many people out there who are unnecessarily suffering, because they just don’t have the skill sets.

Celeste Arambulo 39:17
And they’re doing it alone. And they’re doing it alone. And that’s not a pretty place because I’ve been there.

Courtney Townley 39:22
Yeah. And when we’re alone, we tell ourselves some really interesting stories, right? It’s only me, I’m the only person in the world who’s struggling with this. Something’s wrong with me. And I that’s just such dangerous thinking because it just takes us into that rabbit hole further and it doesn’t really help us get out.

Courtney Townley 39:41
So I love everything you’re saying. I agree with you so much. I am so honored to have you a part of the community at you have been a big time supporter of the Podcast Rumble & Rise of my mission and message in general. And I just want you to know that just does not go unnoticed. I so appreciate it immensely. So I want to know both I’m just kind of to wrap this up. What’s next for you? Like, what are you leaning into now?

Celeste Arambulo 40:07
Now you’re gonna ask me to be vulnerable.

Courtney Townley 40:11
Funny how I do that, huh?

Celeste Arambulo 40:13
Yeah, I have all these. I call them I joke with my teammates, the secret goals. I’m like, don’t tell anyone I’m doing this, but and so for this for this particular group, and it’s something I’ve struggled with for a while. So it’s not going to be any surprise to you is creating safety around sugar, that still is a trigger for me. And I’ve made significant improvements. And I know that I can’t get there immediately. But it’s a mindset thing. It’s a mindset thing to feel safe around sugar. And so that’s something that’s going to be the next step. But before I get there, I’m working on all my thought downloads and my mindset and my mantras and everything. So I’m making some good progress there. And with that, I think that’s going to strengthen my resiliency to make some good goals about my relationship with sugar. Because yeah, that’s been a distorted one for quite some time.

Courtney Townley 41:14
Yeah. And it’s, it’s interesting, because I think that the most difficult relationships in our life are the ones that we have the most resistance to addressing. And I see this all the time, I see people come into Rumble & Rise, and they start with the easier stuff. Not saying it’s easy stuff, but it’s easier. Right? Like so a woman, you know, she, she wants to work out. But that feels so daunting to her. And she hasn’t done it in years. So she starts with drinking water. Right, we make winning easy.

Courtney Townley 41:44
But there comes a point in your process where it’s like peeling the layers of the onion, where it’s like, eventually, you get to stand in the arena face to face with the really big challenges. And you’re right, it’s all mindset work, right, because you have a story in your head about your relationship with sugar, which gives sugar a tremendous amount of power. So I love that this is next for you, because of all that you’ve been through and all that you’ve worked through and all that you’ve accomplished. It’s time. It’s it’s time and it will be easy. And it will be fun, because you will choose to think that at least I hope you will. From all you’ve learned right

Celeste Arambulo 42:23
And I still have all my birthday and Christmas gifts, chocolate gifts, because everyone knows I love chocolate, they’re all still successfully in the freezer, which is in the garage. So they are secured in the garage.

Courtney Townley 42:35
Which is no small thing. Even having them in the garage. Like for a lot of people that would be so tempting. So the fact that it’s even in the vicinity and you have not gone headfirst into that freezer. I mean, that tells me a lot in terms of the progress you’ve made. So I’ll be really interested to see like how we want to go deeper with this and what your commitments around this really are, I still appreciate you doing this. I know listeners always benefit from hearing from firsthand experiences. So thank you so much for your time, and your energy and your heart and all of it.

Celeste Arambulo 43:10
You’re welcome. You’re welcome. I love the space, I love being here with you. The other ladies are amazing. And it’s been a big support, whether I physically show my face, or I listen to the replays last week, I was having a down week and I listened to a replay. And it was able to reset my thinking process because I was really down and didn’t know what was happening. And I said, Oh my gosh, I think I didn’t get enough rest this week. And I think I’m really tired, I went through some stressful things. I think this is exactly what my body needs right now. It’s just sort of right. And then it was fine the next day. But it wasn’t until I heard the stories and the messages from the other women being graceful with themselves that I was able to do that for my own self.

Courtney Townley 43:57
Yeah, and you’ve got you and you’ve nailed something on the head. Because I’ve actually heard this in a few conversations recently, that it’s really difficult to do the thought management work and to manage your thoughts and emotions when we’re chemically disrupted. And they really kind of gotten you to go side by side, because you do need to manage your thoughts to some degree to make better choices with food and sleep and all the things. But if you’re not taking care of your chemistry, you can’t really go too deep with a thought work.

Courtney Townley 44:26
So I just it’s so important to recognize and honor that chemistry is a big deal. We definitely have to take care of it to do the bigger work of our lives, right to show up for your family when they’re in periods of strife and to show up, you know, at your job and be able to give your best and rumble with the challenges that show up there. We have to be chemically balanced to do that. And we talked about all of that inside the space.

Courtney Townley 44:50
So you’re amazing. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings you. And again, thank you so much for your time.

Celeste Arambulo 44:56
Thanks, Courtney.

Courtney Townley 45:01
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the Grace and Grit Podcast. I hope there was something in here that allows you to travel forward with a little bit more ease and grace. And again, if you’re looking for a higher level of support, I would really encourage you to check out our Rumble & Rise membership community.

Courtney Townley 45:21
Once again, you can check out that community and all that it entails by heading on over to graceandgrit.com/readytorumble.

Courtney Townley 45:31
Have a wonderful week and I hope I’ll see you again next time. Take care.

Courtney Townley 45:41
Thank you for listening to the Grace and Grit Podcast. It is time to mend the fabric of the female health story. And it starts with you taking radical responsibility for your own self care. You are worth the effort and with a little grace and grit anything is possible.