[00:00:00] Christine: Hey friends. Welcome back to the milspouse mastermind show. I’m so glad to be back with you for another episode of this show. And today we are talking about our health and wellness routines. Do you feel like you struggle with these routines as a military spouse, perhaps you’ve set a physical fitness and a nutrition goal for yourself, but then life has gotten in the way you moved.

[00:00:23] You got pregnant, your spouse left on another deployment or a long training. And you find yourself in this place where you feel frustrated because you know that your health matters. There’s so much research. And so many things that we get told every single day about how important taking care of ourselves and our bodies are, but you’re not sure how to actually make it a priority and a habit that you can stick with long.

[00:00:53] Well, today’s conversation is with Hannah Hensley, who absolutely gets that struggle. She is a personal trainer and a mom of three littles ages four. And under, yes, she has twins. And whose husband was off on a TDY as we recorded this episode. So we have a real conversation about why your health matters and how to build sustainable wellness habits as moms with young children, how to balance the need for workouts, with our need for enough sleep, and how to combat those feelings of discouragement and the desire to quit.

[00:01:32] When another set of life circumstances seems to keep you from reaching your goals. We talk about what this has practically looked like in Hannah’s life and how she has and continues to turn her frustration and her challenges into a life with purpose. I can’t wait to share this conversation with you.

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[00:05:52] All right, let’s dive into my conversation with Hannah Hensley. Guys welcome back to the show. I am so excited to have a special guest today. Hannah Hensley is on the podcast with us today. She is a personal trainer and fun fact, an avid listener of this show. So welcome to the show. Hannah, would you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself?

[00:06:15] Hannah: Yeah, I’d love to. Um, so yeah, my name’s Hannah., I’m a military spouse. My husband Sam is in the air force. He’s been in for over eight years now. We’re stationed at Fairchild air force base in Eastern Washington. And we have three little kids, a four and a half year old and one and a half year old twins.

[00:06:36] So they keep us very busy for sure. I’m a personal trainer. Um, and I’ve done like specialization in like pregnancy and postnatal training. So that’s been a lot of, uh, you know, what I’ve focused on, especially like, uh, you know, mothers after they’ve given birth. I think that that’s been my biggest struggle.

[00:06:59] I tried to work out when I was pregnant with twins and it did not happen because I had a huge belly, like 12 weeks in and was super sick constantly. So, um, I also have a, uh, my bachelor’s degree is in public health. So I have that kind of, um, that broader health. Um, you know, background that I kind of use as a scope for how I think about working out.

[00:07:25] Um, and then I’m getting ready to go to grad school for my master’s in social work. So very busy all around.

[00:07:32] Christine: Yes. And there’s a lot of interest. So I’m curious to pull the thread on that, but would you take us all the way back and, and talk about your introduction to military life?

[00:07:44] Hannah: Yeah. So my husband and I were high school sweethearts.

[00:07:47] So we started dating when I was 15, which is crazy. Now that I’m in my late twenties to think about. And basically from day one, he was planning on joining the mil, joining the military. There was no alternative for him. So really from like our second date, I knew that if we were going to stay together longer, um, that that was gonna be what to expect.

[00:08:08] So he joined the military, the air force right out of high school. And, um, he ended up getting stationed in San Antonio. And, uh, so we’re from Illinois. He got stationed in San Antonio. And then at the same time, my family moved to Austin, Texas, which is about two hours away. So I lived in Austin, he was in San Antonio and we were, you know, still dating at the time.

[00:08:31] Um, and we did that for a couple years and then. We got married and then had our first baby. Um, and then soon after we had our first baby, he did a humanitarian mission in Panama. Um, and right before he left for Panama, he got news that he was gonna do a short tour in Korea. So he came home from Panama.

[00:08:53] Packed up his things. We moved in with family and then he went to Korea for a year. So that was kind of the first, the first couple years. And then it’s just been a whirlwind since then.

[00:09:05] Christine: It never really stops being a whirlwind. We just get better at handling all of these stuff that gets thrown at us. So talk to me about this thread of your passion. Going from this background in public health and really wanting to become a personal trainer. Talk about that journey.

[00:09:25] Hannah: Sure. So I, um, I think like a lot of moms, you know, after you have a baby, your body looks a lot different than it used to. And so you wanna start working out and I did what I saw a lot of other people doing.

[00:09:38] So I was trying 30 minute workouts, seven days a week. And, um, you know, all. All these different things. I tried going to the gym, um, and I was having a lot of, uh, pain and I soon discovered that I needed to see a physical therapist. Um, so I did that for several months. And, um, I, once again tried, you know, a normal workout plan and I was like, this is not working.

[00:10:05] These plans. Even the ones that are designed for postpartum women are taking 45 minutes or an hour or two hours. And I’m solo parenting a one year old. I don’t have a parent, a co-parent that I can hand the baby off to, to go work out. So there’s gotta be something better because I’m starting and stopping.

[00:10:26] I’m finishing one workout and then never having the motivation to do it again. And so after I had my twins, I actually took about a full year off of just taking care of myself because, you know, I was breastfeeding two babies. I had a three year old. I didn’t have any energy to expend on you. Losing baby weight or anything like that.

[00:10:50] And so I gave myself a year to just get as much sleep as possible, rest as much as possible, enjoy my babies as much as possible. And then when they were about a year old and started sleeping through the night better, I started with just five minutes a day. I thought if I can convince myself to just do five minutes before I go to bed to stretch and do some core strengthening, and then maybe introduce a little bit of strength training.

[00:11:17] Then maybe I can, you know, I can work with that and I can build off of that. So it was the idea of starting really small and starting with what, like starting where you’re at instead of. Trying to start where somewhere someone else is at. Right. Cause I didn’t my husband now, um, he’s in the field a lot. So even though he’s not deployed or he’s not on a short tour, he’s still not always home.

[00:11:43] So sometimes it is still just me. And so I have to think, am I going to get that extra sleep tonight while I’m taking care of kids by myself? Or am I going to, you know, force myself into an hour-long workout? What’s more worth it to me.

[00:12:00] Christine: It’s hard. And I remember when my kids were all really little and I’m trying to get back into working out and I’m doing one of those workout videos and, you know, they’re like, okay, go do some pushups.

[00:12:11] And like, all the kids are crawling on my back and I’m like, I am not able to actually get through this whole workout. And then you do like, you know, 10 minutes of this 30 minute video, and then you feel like, well, I didn’t even complete the workout and it makes you just feel like. Well, this is really hard.

[00:12:29] Like, can I even do this? So I really love that idea of number one, starting at your starting point. And. Looking at what other people are doing, figuring out what, where your starting point is, and then starting really small. Um, that idea of just starting with even five minutes, such a great hack for all of our young moms out here, because it, it is hard and it’s so easy to get frustrated.

[00:12:57] Um, especially when you’re like, okay, they’re saying I need to do all this stuff. And I don’t have that 45 minutes that hour to spend, to get the workout that I. Quote unquote need. So what happened? Did you just start adding more time on or how did you kind of grow your practice?

[00:13:16] Hannah: Yeah, so I started with the five minutes, um, and I did that for a couple weeks and then I would just start little by little.

[00:13:24] Um, so you know, like weeks three and four, I added one extra stretch. So that’s like about, you know, 30 seconds to a minute or I added, um, you know, one. Like one exercise with weights. Um, and I kept it really simple. So even though we have a gym in our garage, we have a barbell and a, you know, uh, a bench and everything like that.

[00:13:46] I just did. What dumbbells do I keep in the house I can do in the living room? Because I don’t have the motivation to take the extra, you know, 15 feet out into the garage and it’s, you know, wintertime it’s cold out, but I just wanna make it easy. So I started just really small and I started building off of that.

[00:14:04] Um, and eventually, uh, you know, within two to three months, I was at 30 to 45 minute workouts and it was still really doable for me.

[00:14:14] Christine: So when did you go about getting that personal training certification?

[00:14:19] Hannah: Yeah. So I actually, um, you know, I had seen, after my first baby, I had seen the personal trainer or seen the physical therapist and I had tried, um, a postpartum workout program that was designed by a physical therapist.

[00:14:34] And I tried to do that for. Probably a month or two before I was getting really frustrated with the starting and stopping and not being able to build that momentum of staying on track with the workouts because they were taking so long. And it was kind of in that moment that I was like, there’s gotta be someone else doing this.

[00:14:53] That is going to do it in a way that actually makes sense for moms because this doesn’t make sense. Most real life moms, especially not military moms who are oftentimes just all on their own. So it was right around then that I decided to get my personal training license.

[00:15:10] Christine: So did you do that before the twins came along?

[00:15:14] Hannah: Yeah, I did that before the twins and I actually finished it, um, right before I got pregnant with the twins, which was right around when COVID happened and everything shut down. so I, you know, I had all this intention of going out into a gym and, you know, maybe finding a job. And then I got super sick because I was unknowingly pregnant with two babies and then the world shut down and there was just no chance for that.

[00:15:38] So, and, and in that time I was still finishing my bachelor’s degree. So I was kind of doing it all at the same time. Um, and then I did the, uh, pre and postnatal specialization during my pregnancy with the twins. Um, and then it was really around, you know, the one year postpartum mark, where I started thinking, okay, what do I, you know, what do I wanna do here?

[00:16:02] Um, and so the program that I’ve started designing was just for, for me initially. Um, and now I’m, I, I know I have a lot of friends who are at the point. You know, someone else probably needs this.

[00:16:16] Christine: For sure, for sure. And I love when, when Hannah came to me and said, I have this idea to talk about wellness habits for military spouses.

[00:16:25] And I was like, this is such a great time to talk about this because I know this has been in a struggle in my own life. Whenever we have like a big change, I’m in the middle of a PCS and trying to maintain those healthy habits. And those healthy routines is really challenging when life feels out of control.

[00:16:46] So I would love for you to just talk to us about setting some tangible, practical wellness goals, and then how you go about setting a goal and then establishing the routines that help you make progress on that goal.

[00:17:02] Hannah: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it’s funny that you bring up PCSing because, uh, you know, my husband just left for a TDY and there was so much we had to do to prepare for that.

[00:17:12] Um, and. I fell out of my workout routine because I had a sinus infection or something. And so I was sick for a couple weeks and, you know, we had that and then getting ready for him to TDY and I thought, okay, I’m not working out right now. And that’s okay. I think we get caught in this thought trap of being like, oh, I fell off the wagon and I need to figure out how to get back on the wagon, but maybe you didn’t fall off.

[00:17:42] Maybe that’s just part of your. Maybe that’s just part of the journey because it’s not, you’re not always going to be in a place in life where you’re consistently ha hitting all of these wellness goals or habit. That’s just not realistic. You know, you’re gonna have times where you are sick or you’ve got a lot of changes, like moving, you know, across the world, or you’ve got a sick kid or, you know, a whole slew of things, especially as military spouses, so many changes.

[00:18:07] And I think it can really help our, our mindset and our mentality around wellness habits to think that this is not, it doesn’t have to be static. It can. There are ebbs and flows. Just like in all other parts of life. We’re not always going to hit all of these targets that we wanna. Um, but as far as setting goals and hitting them, I think being aware, you know, as far as just your calendar, what you’ve got going on, you know, if you’re like, oh, I’m moving across the world in the next couple weeks.

[00:18:40] I’m definitely going to make it to the gym five days a week between now and then that’s probably not realistic. Maybe if that’s already been part of your lifestyle for several years, and it’s a major stress reducer, and you’re thinking this is really going to help me out with this move then. Sure. Maybe you’ve got the time for it, where it makes sense for you.

[00:19:02] But I think, um, you know, going back to that starting really, really small, what’s the smallest unit. That you can measure of this wellness habit that you can begin building off of. So if you wanna drink a gallon of water a day and you currently drink one glass, can you drink a glass and a half? Right. So I think that’s starting super, super small.

[00:19:26] Like how far can we break it down is what can really make the big differe.

[00:19:31] Christine: So if somebody is sitting there and they’re saying I don’t have any good habits right now, where do you suggest they start?

[00:19:41] Hannah: Ooh, well, I think you have to look in where is the. like, where is the place that you are closest to a good habit or what’s the easiest, bad habit to break.

[00:19:53] Um, and I know a lot of times we talk about what can you add instead of taking away. So instead of, you know, let’s say I tend, I have tendencies of drinking, a lot of. Soda like a daily soda. And so instead of saying, okay, I’m going to, you know, cut out my daily soda, if you’ve been doing that for a long time, maybe add something to it.

[00:20:15] Right. Um, so that can be really helpful. And then, yeah, going back to, you know, if you’ve got, let me try to think, hold on. I gotta think about something um, let’s see.

[00:20:29] Christine: Let me ask you this. What would you say makes a really good wellness goal?

[00:20:37] Hannah: Well, I think a really good wellness goal is gonna be based in your lifestyle.

[00:20:44] So it’s gonna be what makes the most sense for your life to be well? And when we think about wellness, we have to think. Um, not just our health, but it’s also, you know, our mental health, it’s our social environment. So there’s a lot of aspects of wellness. And that’s why I really like thinking about exercise in terms of our personal wellness instead of just our physical health, because there’s so many other aspects of it.

[00:21:11] Um, you know, I think if you’re making a wellness goal and let’s say you are a stay at home mom and your military spouse and your spouse is in and out a lot. It doesn’t probably make a lot of sense to make a wellness goal of I’m going to get to the gym five days a week for two hours. Maybe if there’s some, I’m not saying that’s not a valid goal, if you have sound reasoning behind it.

[00:21:38] But I think a lot of times we have these wellness or physical exercise goals that we just think should be our goal, but they don’t actually. Benefit it benefit us at all. Um, and so as much as I love the gym environment, I know that working out at home is gonna be a lot easier for me. I’ve got three little kids and I don’t have anyone to hand them off to, to run to the gym unless you’re gonna pay extra.

[00:22:04] And, you know, military families don’t have a lot of extra money right now. Um, I think you have to think about in the context of your own life. I want to work out because I want to be able to run around with my kids and I wanna be able to keep up with them as they get older. Um, we like some things like hiking, um, and you know, running to the park, stuff like that.

[00:22:27] Um, but maybe. There’s some type of, um, you know, physical activity that you really like, and you wanna train towards that. If you really like rock climbing, maybe you need to train towards that goal. Or if you wanna run a half marathon, you know, train towards that. I don’t wanna run a half marathon, so I don’t need to train for that.  Does that make sense?

[00:22:46] Christine: Yes. I love two things that really stood out to me. And that was number one, really connecting with the why you want that goal. So it’s not just about setting a goal, it’s really connecting. Why does that goal matter and keeping that in mind as you pursue the goal. And the second thing is really thinking outside the box, like, what do we do as a family already?

[00:23:10] Or what do I enjoy doing and how can I make that more? A. Of my life. Um, so I really like that now. Let’s say I am a mom have young kids at. My spouse is TDY. You can relate. So you want to start a physical fitness routine. You wanna be able to work out more, but you don’t already have that habit built up.

[00:23:35] And when you go look around at a lot of these work from home workout videos, they’re all based around this 30, 45 minute session in your, and that feels overwhelming. Like, how do you get. Where you are today to being able to do that video, what do you, if you don’t already have the exercises or you don’t know what to do, but you need something that you can do in five to 10 minutes a day, where would you suggest that person starts?

[00:24:05] Hannah: That’s really great. Um, so I think, I think if you can think of like, what is the most basic. You know, level of exercise that you have an understanding of what exercises do you know, do you know, squats? You know, do you know what also, what equipment do you have? Do you have dumbbells? Cause that if you have dumbbells, you can kind of get a good, uh, head start.

[00:24:27] But think about what exercises let’s go to the basics. So squat, um, you know, some sort of press and pull upper body. Um, so like an overhead press, um, uh, deadlift, those are all very basic movements that we need to be able to perform. Um, just in our day act, uh, we call it activities of daily living. Um, so those are all things that we need just to do basic functions, like picking up our kids.

[00:24:55] You know, carrying them to the car, stuff like that. Um, so I’d say, start with the basics. Um, write out a plan for you to, you know, for you to follow. Uh, I started with a lot of stretching because I had two little babies that I was carrying around. So I tried to focus, uh, on different stretching, different parts of my body.

[00:25:15] Um, so I would stretch my back a lot. Um, my hips, I had a lot of hip pain, um, after, you know, having two babies. And then for moms, especially, I think core strengthening is really not acknowledged as much in moms, whether you have had a C-section or had a vaginal delivery, if you carried a baby inside of your body, your core needs probably some love.

[00:25:41] Um, and you don’t have to start with crunches because that can do more damage. Then it can help. Um, so what I did, literally, I just laid on the ground and did what we call pelvic floor activations, um, and core breathing. And I started there. So, and it felt silly to start, you know, just lay on the floor for five minutes and stretch a little bit and do some good breathing, but you need that basis, that foundation, in order to build off of it, you really can’t jump into a, you know, 45 minute workout routine, trying to.

[00:26:15] You know, 75 pounds. It’s just not gonna work. You really have to start from, from the basics.

[00:26:24] Christine: That’s so good. I, I think especially for young moms, there’s not enough information out there about where to start. Well, Let’s just start with, there’s not enough information about working out while you’re pregnant and right after you have a baby.

[00:26:40] Um, I remember with my oldest, um, I tried to do a workout video when I was pregnant with her. And I felt like all of my joints were shifting and I was like, this is not supposed to happen. And I don’t know how to work out around this. And so I kind of was. Giving up because I didn’t know how to do it well while pregnant and then trying to recover after a baby is also difficult because your body is not back to normal.

[00:27:08] Everything, all of the muscles have been pulled and tugged in all the wrong directions and it just takes a long time to get yourself back. My, my last. I actually saw a pelvic flora therapist for a while, and that was huge help to getting my body back to where the foundation it needed to be. So I could build off of that.

[00:27:31] I would love for you to speak a little bit about what happens when we are pursuing this goal. And then we kind of have something happen and we get. Knocked off of our game. We, we get out of our routine. How do you suggest we go about getting back into that habit?

[00:27:53] Hannah: Yeah. So that’s kind of what I’m, I’m going through right now.

[00:27:56] Um, because I’m just now, you know, my husband just left a week ago and I kind of gave myself that first week and now I’m like, okay, I’m ready to give myself that time to take care of myself. I enjoy working out. So it, it, it does feel like self care to me. Um, and so I think, you know, look at your progression and then figure out.

[00:28:18] What is a sweet spot that you can kind of move back into. And it doesn’t feel like a, um, like a giant task, like, like you’re biting off more than you can chew. Um, so if you were doing say 30 minute workouts and. Let’s say, you know, life got the best of you and it’s been three or four months, maybe go back to 10 minutes, you know, what can you accomplish in that time and follow that same framework, but you don’t, even, if you feel like you get to the 10 minute mark and you’re like, oh, I can really, I feel like I can keep going.

[00:28:51] If your body’s been deconditioned over that past couple months, you’ll benefit from kind of giving yourself a stopping. I know that I can go harder. I can go further, but right now I need to stop here so that I can go a longer distance. Because if you go try to jump right back into it, into those, you know, 30 minute workouts, you might find that you’re a lot more sore and it takes you a lot longer to recover and continue that habit.

[00:29:18] And I think it’s really, what’s most important if you’re trying to develop a wellness habit, is that. You begin something that you can continue for the long run. If you try to jump right into an hour long workout and you complete it, you go look at me. That was great. You know, I did it, but it takes you two weeks before you feel like you have the energy to work out again, or your body’s not so sore that you can work out again.

[00:29:47] You’re you’re not really moving the needle at all. It, it really is something. Where you say, okay, I wanna be able to work out three times a week for 30 minutes. Each time you have to start really small because it’s, you have to be willing to let it take a long time to get to that point, because you are not just trying to reach the 30 minute workout.

[00:30:10] You wanna do the 30 minute workout for however long until your goals change.

[00:30:16] Christine: And I know in my own life, it’s really been about learning to enjoy the process and, and make it enjoyable because I don’t wanna do something that I hate and that I dread doing. I want it to be something that fuels me and fills me with life.

[00:30:34] And so. Paying attention to, am I able to enjoy this? It may not feel fun at the time, but is it something that’s sustainable and that I can enjoy over the long run versus this just, you know, I I’m dreading waking up and doing that every day. So trying to make that more fun. The last thing I would be curious to hear your perspective on is.

[00:31:02] These feelings of discouragement that we face. So whether it’s because you were really good at something, and then you had a baby and now your body is just not the way that it was, or you’ve worked up to a certain skill level. and then you have an injury or a major life event that happens or whatever it is.

[00:31:25] And you have to start back at, you know, a much smaller pace at a much shorter distance or whatever it is. And you feel that discouragement that you’re not where you used to be. And, and even if you’re making progress, it feels very slow. What would you say for combating those feelings of discouragement?

[00:31:49] Hannah: Yeah, it is really hard, um, because you know what your body is capable of, you know, and you know, that you’ve put in the work. And I would say that the work you put in before, you know, whatever happened that made you have to take a break, that work is not gone. That work is still there. It’s still inside of you, you know?

[00:32:09] The work that you put in. Um, and I think reframing again, reframing your mindset, I think is a big part of it. I think recognizing that these, you know, these periods of time where we’re going to kind of. Go off of the tracks that we had were on. Um, I think that’s just part of life. That’s part of our journey.

[00:32:33] And I think accepting that, you know, accepting that those are going to happen and we’re not always going to be constantly moving forward. I think, especially when you are working out consistently for a long time, especially if you’re doing something like weightlifting, um, you know, people who weightlift do weightlift for a long time, they get to a point.

[00:32:54] You’re going to slow down, even if you’re still working out consistently, um, you know, it’s going to take you longer to hit your next goal. And so I think recognizing that even in people who are professional athletes or professional weightlifters will have plateaus and they’ll have setbacks, it’s just, it’s not, it’s not a, you know, straight, upward trajectory.

[00:33:16] Sometimes we are going to. Those ups and downs, you know, and I think recognizing that and accepting that in ourselves that we don’t have to do it perfectly. I think that’s a big part of working out for me. I get really discouraged, especially before I became a personal trainer and I can’t do this workout exactly how it was designed and that perfectionism really plays into that and that into that discouragement.

[00:33:43] So I think, um, you know, if you can kind of let go of that perfectionism or at least recognize what it is inside of you, um, that can help you, you know, continue making those small improvements over time.

[00:33:59] Christine: Well, and what I love about what you said is that it doesn’t just apply to our physical health or our wellness.

[00:34:06] That’s really all of our life, all of life is this journey where it’s not a straight line from point a to point B. And recognizing that those set setbacks in whatever area of life it is, that’s all a part of our journey that we’re not always making. These big leaps of progress. It’s, it’s about sustainment on the journey of life.

[00:34:34] And so I love how that applies to both our wellness routines and to everything that we do in life. Chasing a goal, chasing a big dream, living into our purpose. All of that just is a part of our journey and learning to enjoy this journey of life.

[00:34:53] Hannah: Right. Um, I think I’ve thought about this a lot is that, you know, a big part of establishing, establishing, or, you know, um, setting and achieving wellness habits and goals, is that developing that resilience, which you talk a lot about.

[00:35:07] And I, you know, I think thinking about it in terms of. What can I do to develop a resilient wellness habit, not just a goal that I’m going to hit one time, but something that I can sustain and come back to over and over again, even when parts of life are, you know, keeping me back or holding me down. Um, you know, when the, when I’m ready, my body’s ready and my life is ready to move back into this.

[00:35:33] You know, what have I developed that is resilient, that I can come back to.

[00:35:37] ChristineIt’s really what keeps us going. I was observing in my own life just how I’ve changed over the last couple years. And when we were PCSing two years ago and the stress that I was not handling well and how I’ve grown in this time and knowing these.

[00:35:56] Little habits that really help me to process my stress. That the more that we do that, the more we build that resilient habit so that we just automatically respond in that way. So when I know I have my packers coming, I know what do I need to do? I need to at least go outside and take a 10 minute walk and move my body.

[00:36:19] And I respond. So differently the rest of the day, if I will just take that 10 minutes and go outside and take a short walk. Um, so the more that we build these resilient habits, the more that it helps us navigate life, build resiliency, be able to process all of the incoming stress because there’s no way to avoid stress.

[00:36:40] We’re going to have stress in our life. It’s really how we process and are able to move through those stressful situations. As we start to wrap up today, I would love for you to talk a little bit about how you went from this journey of, okay. I’m, I’m becoming a personal trainer, I’m doing these things that are helping me.

[00:37:00] And then where, how did that go about, okay. I’m gonna create a course and a program to help others as well.

[00:37:09] Hannah: Yeah. So I’m still on that journey. Um, the program is, yeah, it’s probably. I guess there’s a lot of parts that I don’t know. And I think the business aspects are what have held me back. But yeah, I mean, I think that was kind of the goal from the beginning.

[00:37:24] Um, you know, when I had this idea to become a personal trainer, it was like, I know that there are other people out there that are like me that need something different. Um, you know, other moms that need something that is going to be a really. Small easy win, um, and be able to build up and be able to fit a more flexible lifestyle that military spouses have.

[00:37:48] And so that was kind of always the basis for going into personal training.

[00:37:55] Christine: I love that because it’s, it’s not just about focusing on what you need, but then how you can use it for others and really build a business and, you know, do something that impacts others, that blesses others through you, stepping into your story.

[00:38:13] So I know it’s a journey, but I love sharing your story. Not because you’re at the end of the journey that you have it all figured out that it’s all completed. , but it’s a work in progress. It’s, it’s going to be something that develops into it. And I think so much of the time we focus on people that have the end result already, but it’s important to focus on the process as well.

[00:38:35] And that we’re each taking that next step. On our journey. So thank you for coming on here today for sharing your story. I would love for you to let people know how they can connect with you.

[00:38:49] Hannah: Yeah, so I’m mostly, mostly on Instagram. Um, and my Instagram handle is Hannah D. Hensley the. Just my name. Um, and yeah, that’s where I am.

[00:38:59] Most of the time I go, I go through phases where I post a lot of Instagram stories and I’m sure I get a little annoying. Um, and then, you know, lately with my husband getting ready to go, I’ve been. Not, I haven’t had a whole lot of free time, so, but yeah, I try to post informative reels that are a little bit funny sometimes.

[00:39:18] So I don’t, I think they’re funny anyway.

[00:39:22] Christine: I love it. Well, as we wrap up to date, is there anything that you would like to say to speak life into other military spouses?

[00:39:32] Hannah: Well, I think especially in light of. The last, you know, week of, since my husband left, I will say that I know it’s like an age old saying that, like, it doesn’t get easier, you just get a little bit stronger, but I think that’s really true.

[00:39:53] And I think that your message of developing and building that resilience has made a huge difference in my life. As a military spouse, I went from having. A really tough time with my husband being in and out and having a lot of, you know, pent up frustration with the military. And I still have that, but I think I recover a lot faster.

[00:40:18] Um, and I think you are a lot more capable than you think you are and all you, I think the biggest tip that I’ve held onto since having children. Especially with having my twins has been to kind of establish what is most important to you and be willing to be flexible and let go of the rest. So we have the TV on a lot and, um, you know, I don’t have a home cooked meal every single night, but I have dinner on the table.

[00:40:49] That’s what matters to me that we have dinner. It doesn’t so much matter, you know, what all is on the plate. Um, so I, I think. You can let go of a lot of frustration and anger and really embrace where you are in life. When you let go of the parts that you can’t control and the parts that just don’t matter as much to you.

[00:41:14] Christine: That’s so wonderful just to hear that that message has impacted you. And I know hearing it from somebody other than my mouth, um, is going to help somebody else. So thank you for coming on here. Thank you for sharing your story and hopefully we will hear more from you in the future. Thank

[00:41:33] Hannah: you. Thanks so much.

[00:41:34] Christine: I hope that Hannah’s story resonated with you. Yes. There are challenges to pursuing any goal or dream as a military spouse, but it is so vital that we develop these sustainable rhythms that we care for our health and fitness. That’s a part of what helps us develop the resilience. We need to navigate this life and craft a life with purpose.

[00:42:00] So I hope that this episode leaves you feeling empowered. That it helps, you know, that success is not working out for 45 minutes, five days a week. It’s about the small steps of action in the right direction that lead us towards sustainable wellness routines, caring for ourselves so that we can show up.

[00:42:21] For those we care about in our life and pursue the things that light our hearts on fire. Please go over to Instagram. Follow Hannah. I will have her links in the show notes below. If you are struggling with your health and fitness, if you need tips for how to develop sustainable health and fitness routines, please go follow Hannah on Instagram and.

[00:42:44] Every person has a next step today. We’re on this journey together. And the question each of us has to ask is what’s my next step. So let me ask you, what’s your next. Step, maybe yours is getting your routines dialed in, or maybe it’s getting clarity on what your purpose is. Maybe it’s figuring out how to turn your purpose, the thing on your heart, into an actual business, whatever it is, there’s a next.

[00:43:16] Step for you. So what I would love you to do right now is go over and jump inside of our Facebook community and share what your biggest takeaway from today’s episode was and what your next. Step is I hope you have an amazing week friend. And until next time may you live filled, fueled, and full of joy.