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In today’s episode, we have a very special guest joining us. Molly McNamee, the founder of MFIT Workouts, will be sharing her expertise on exercise and endometriosis. In particular we will discuss customized fitness routines for individuals with chronic illnesses like endometriosis.
Molly has been a leading online fitness coach for over a decade, helping people create personalized wellness routines based on their unique bodies, lives, and goals.
In this conversation, we delve into the importance of tailoring exercise to individual needs, especially when dealing with pain, fatigue, and digestive issues.
Molly provides valuable insights on how to navigate fitness when faced with these challenges, offering tips on choosing suitable exercises and avoiding activities that may worsen symptoms.
The discussion also touches on the importance of starting small and finding ways to incorporate movement, even for those who have not been active before.
Our host, Alyssa Chavez, also shares her personal journey of discovering the impact of exercise on her health, leading to a shift in her own fitness routine and approach.
So get ready to learn how customizing workouts can positively impact individuals with chronic illnesses, as we dive into this enlightening and insightful conversation with Molly McNamee.
Enjoy!
Connect with Molly:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mfit.workouts/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-mcnamee-%E2%9C%A8-81718699/
Website: https://mollymcnamee.com/
Get 2-weeks of Custom Fitness Training FOR FREE: https://mollymcnamee.com/2-week-custom/
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Connect with Alyssa:
Work with Alyssa:
Learn more about Alyssa
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. This may not be the best fit for you and your personal situation. It shall not be construed as medical advice. The information and education provided here is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. Always check with your own physician or medical professional before trying or implementing any information read here.
Full transcription:
Exercise and Endometriosis: an interview with Molly McNamee
Alyssa Chavez:
Hello, and welcome back to the Endo Belly Girl podcast. I have a special episode for you guys today because we have our very first guest on the podcast. So I am excited to welcome Molly McNamee, who is the founder of MFIT Workouts. She has been doing online fitness coaching for ten years, and she helps people to create fitness routines that are custom built for their unique body, their unique life, and their unique goals. She believes that every body is different, and everyone’s wellness routine should be different, too. And we had a wonderful conversation that I’m excited to share with you all. All about how we can tailor exercise and fitness to your unique needs. Because let’s be real, trying to exercise along with all of the other struggles that we go through with Endometriosis.
Alyssa Chavez:
All of the pain and the fatigue and the digestive issues. Sometimes exercise just goes on the back burner, and we don’t even want to think about it. So I love this conversation that we had because Molly gave us some wonderful tips on how to make exercise and fitness and movement work for your body, how to figure out what kind of things you should be doing, and what kind of things may end up leaving you feeling worse. And also just where to begin, how to dig in and get started on just moving your body. If that’s something that you haven’t been able to do a lot of lately or maybe even at all in your life, and that’s okay. It’s all about making things accessible for you and your unique needs. So let’s dive in. Molly has so many wonderful nuggets to share with us today, and I can’t wait for you all to hear.
Exercise and endometriosis: welcome Molly McNamee
Alyssa Chavez:
All right, so welcome to Molly. I’m so excited to have her here with me today. We have a wonderful conversation ahead of us that I am excited to share with you guys. Molly has a lot of expertise on exercise and fitness, and so we are going to tie that in into how that relates to Endometriosis today and have a wonderful little conversation to share with you all. So welcome, Molly. Thanks.
Molly McNamee:
I’m so excited to be here and to be on this podcast. I’ve been loving your episodes as I’ve been listening, so I’m happy to be here.
Alyssa Chavez:
Great. Well, thank you. Well, why don’t we start Molly by if you can share just a little bit about yourself and kind of what your journey has been and how you have gotten to be doing what you’re doing now. I would love to hear a little bit more about that.
How Molly got into the fitness industry
Molly McNamee:
Yeah. So I’ve been working in the fitness industry for ten years. I don’t know where time has gone, but this is the ten year anniversary of my business this year, which is crazy. So I’ve been working in the industry for a while, and when I got started, I was 21, and I truly just got into fitness to help people look good naked. That was just the goal. It was all superficial. And then my first three clients were more complex than let’s just look good naked. My very first client was going through menopause.
Molly McNamee:
My second client had such a crazy back injury that we had to navigate. My third client had such bad posture, he couldn’t do any of the exercises that I was doing personally because he couldn’t physically perform them. So I instantly realized, okay, bodies are a bit more complex than let’s just look good naked. But I’m a problem solver at heart. So I instantly dove into research and getting new certifications and educating myself on how to deal with these unique bodies and this unique situation. Because obviously these clients could not just hop into any workout program and see results. They needed something hyper specific for their unique situation. So I made it my mission to give them that.
Molly McNamee:
And then that’s been my mission ever since. So now my goal is, yes, I’ll help you look good naked, but let’s help you find a way to move your body in a way that works for your life because that is different for everyone. And in 2020, I moved my business entirely online. So now I am doing that with people all over the place and helping them find ways to move their body that work for them. And it’s what I’m passionate about and it’s what I love to do.
Alyssa Chavez:
Nice. I love that. And I really love what you said about just finding a need and realizing there was a need for that, more personalized and more unique support for each person because it’s so true. I think that’s where a lot of people really struggle with fitness and exercise and working out and maybe even get a little bit of a negative vibe around that is just because it feels not fit for them. You’re putting in a workout? Well, I guess we don’t put in videos anymore. It’s 2023. But I just aged myself a little bit on that. Go on YouTube and look up a video or however it works now and don’t feel great because maybe that workout just wasn’t meant for them and their unique body.
Alyssa Chavez:
So I love that that’s kind of the road that you ended up going down and that you found a way to help these people rather than like, oh, I’m not going to take on these clients because they’re way too hard.
Reversing a negative experience with exercise and endometriosis
Molly McNamee:
Exactly. No, it’s completely true. Almost everyone that comes to me has a negative experience with exercise because they’ve either tried something that didn’t work or tried something that hurt them or tried something once and it worked and then tried to go back to it and it didn’t work a second time. Exercise has kind of a negative reputation because a lot of people do see it as it needs to look like this and be like this. And if I can’t physically do that, then it means I can’t move.
Alyssa Chavez:
Yeah, that’s so true. Which is sad.
Molly McNamee:
So I’m trying to reflect fitness in a more positive light because I’ve had my ups and downs with fitness. Like, I’ve tried things that I’ve loved and hated, I’ve had positive and negative relationships with my body and we need to find a way to move that just isn’t overwhelming and is a positive experience.
Alyssa Chavez:
Right?
Molly McNamee:
Yeah. And I love that.
How to make exercise and endometriosis work for your body
Alyssa Chavez:
And that’s so important, especially for my audience, of course, is struggling with endometriosis, which is a chronic illness, and finding ways to work out that actually work for your body is so important and make you feel good in your body because there’s so much trauma and heartache and all the things that come along with having a chronic illness that make that really challenging. So I think that’s a very important point for somebody who is just thinking about diving into exercise and fitness maybe hasn’t done a lot of that before. Can you touch a little bit on just why it’s important to incorporate into your life why it should be a part of contributing to an overall healthy lifestyle?
Molly McNamee:
Yeah. So movement impacts so many areas of your life that you don’t even realize how you move impacts everything. I’ll give you one, just like simple example. Everyone’s tired. Yes, we’re all just sleepy all the time. And a lot of that is because we’re slouched over our computers all day and we blame the computer, which is partially to blame. Our eyes get tired from staring at a computer, but we’re slouched. So we’re constricting our lungs a little bit and we’re never getting a proper breath.
Molly McNamee:
We’re not breathing properly to give us the energy that we need. If you exercised and you strengthen your core muscles and your back muscles and started to get better posture, you’re going to start breathing better, you’re going to feel more energized, you’re going to be more productive. It’s just going to influence all aspects of your life. I mean, that lower back pain that you feel can be solved through movement. All of these little nagging things that we think are just because we’re getting old or just because of our health conditions, some of these things can be solved or improved through movement. So if you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle, movement has got to be there. And again, it doesn’t have to look crazy like what you are thinking fitness has to look like. But moving your body is going to help you feel more energized.
Molly McNamee:
Help with digestion, help with sleep, help with mood. It’s going to help with all of those things in those little ways that you probably don’t even realize it’s affecting you.
Alyssa Chavez:
Yeah, I love that and that’s so true. That’s something that I actually talk to my clients about frequently because yeah, I work with nutrition and gut health and all the things, but it’s also really a matter of looking at your body as a whole. It’s the holistic perspective. And movement is absolutely a huge part of that. It’s something that I talk to my clients about a lot because it impacts everything else that we’re working on. Your movement absolutely impacts things like that, your core strength and being able to just sit well and breathe well, which can be really important for your health. It also impacts which we’ll dive into this even more a little bit later, but it also impacts even your digestive health and it impacts your Lymphatic system and it has so many downstream effects in your body. And like you said, it doesn’t necessarily when we think exercise and fitness, I think a lot of us tend to think of that as being, oh, you have to go into a gym and be surrounded by all these bodybuilders and feel uncomfortable and not know what to do with all those machines in the gym.
Alyssa Chavez:
I know, that was my experience. I would walk into a gym and look around and be like, I don’t even know what to do with these machines. I’m just going to get on that elliptical over there because that’s the only one I know what to do with.
Molly McNamee:
You’re not alone.
Alyssa Chavez:
Yeah, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that. But I think that’s a key piece of it is, again, finding what works for you, but also even getting into that mindset of it’s movement. It doesn’t necessarily have to be full blown big workouts exercise, but just moving your body. And that can be an excellent place to start and make it feel a little more doable for you if you’re just starting out.
Exercise and endometriosis: starting small
Molly McNamee:
Absolutely. It’s the only way to start out. I mean, you won’t ever be motivated to exercise until you start moving your body some. So you have to just start standing up taller, walk a little bit more, gradually start moving a little bit more, and build up to exercise because yeah, your body is never going to be like let’s do it now, until you just start moving a little bit.
Alyssa Chavez:
Yeah, I so agree. So you work in the fitness industry. But the one thing I love and what I wanted to really bring you on here to talk about is the piece where you really focus on customizing your workouts to each individual’s needs, which I think is amazing. So like we mentioned a little bit ago, when you have a chronic illness like endometriosis, that can be really important because over exercising can end up kind of contributing to that internal stress in your body and the inflammation that’s going on, all the things that are already kind of creating havoc in your body. But it doesn’t mean that movement isn’t still beneficial. It’s just a matter of figuring out what really works. So can you tell us a little bit more about how you would work with clients who may have some specific health concerns like that and how fitness can actually end up being a piece of the puzzle in a positive way for them.
Molly McNamee:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, basically any health concern a doctor is going to tell you it’d be good to start moving your body more. That’s general advice that you’ll hear for almost everything. I’m sure there are exceptions where it’s like, maybe don’t move your body, but for most things, movement is going to be healing. However, certain types of movement can actually be worse for your body. And that is again, where people start to then have a negative experience where they’re like, well, this made me feel worse. So it must not be right for me to be exercising. You just have to really pick the right types of exercise.
Molly McNamee:
And that’s what I do love to do with my clients, is they come to me with a problem and they’re like, I can’t exercise because of this. And I’m like, let’s find a way to help you move to help with that and not aggravate your symptoms. So I’ll even use myself as an example. I’m someone who deals with a lot of anxiety and when I was doing high intensity, high impact workouts every few days, my anxiety was really bad and I was extremely Bloated and I thought that that was just, I was going through a bad spell with my anxiety or something and my Bloating was out of whack. I thought nothing of it. And then on a whole separate occasion, I got an injury and I had to change how I started moving and I started doing low impact workouts and I realized, oh, my anxiety is better and I’m not as Bloated. This is interesting. And that was kind of a big shift in my own fitness routine and in my business where I realized movement can really help solve a lot of these internal issues or movement can make it worse.
Molly McNamee:
So that’s why it is so important to be choosing the right types of workouts for your body because it can make it worse, it can make it better. So for someone who is dealing with something like endometriosis, you have a lot of inflammation in your body, right? So you want to stay away from workouts that are going to make that worse for you because movement is never going to cure you, but it can help reduce inflammation and improve your mood and improve your digestion and strengthen your pelvic floor. You just have to be choosing the right things. So if someone came to me with endometriosis, I would instantly say, let’s avoid high impact exercise. So jumping, running, anything where you’re leaving the ground, hitting it with some sort of impact, because those types of workouts are going to spike your nervous system, cause more inflammation in your body than you really want. They can make any sort of joint pain, aches and pains that you’re experiencing worse. Those types of workouts will make you extremely tired after because of what’s going on in your body as you’re doing them. So you’d want to stay away from those things.
Getting started with exercise and endometriosis
Molly McNamee:
So if someone came to me saying, I have endometriosis workouts make me really tired, I’d say, let’s cut out the high impact. Let’s swap to a low impact method. Let’s make sure we’re strengthening your posture, muscles, your core. Let’s start with some body weight strength. Let’s introduce some resistance bands. And that’s where I would start.
Alyssa Chavez:
Yeah, I love that. And I’d like to touch on a couple of those things that you said because there are a couple of little gold nuggets in there that I want to really point out. So first of all, I really love how you were talking about how everything was interconnected for you. You were experiencing anxiety, you were experiencing that extreme Bloating, and you were also doing these high impact workouts, and you started to kind of put those puzzle pieces together and realize, oh my gosh, when I scale back on the workout, some of this other stuff starts to get better. And it’s so true. And that’s something that I talk about a lot on the podcast and with my clients and everything, is that you can’t think of your body as being all these separate pieces or your experiences being all these separate pieces. It’s not like, oh, my workouts are one thing and my digestive issues like Bloating are a separate thing, and my mental health is a separate thing. Everything ties together.
Alyssa Chavez:
So when we’re working towards living in a healthier body, that’s one of the key elements there is figuring out how all of the pieces of your lifestyle and your diet and the internal workings of your body, both mentally and physically and all the things how they actually relate to each other and how working from one perspective can help from the other perspectives. I love that.
Molly McNamee:
Absolutely. It is all connected. And yeah, I’m guilty of separating them. Everyone I’ve met has at one point been like, oh, well, that’s a separate thing. But it is true. Your digestive health, your internal health, your mental health, your physical health, that you have to look at them in the same box if you want to be overall.
Alyssa Chavez:
Well, yes, to be overall. Well, I love that. Yeah. And I know even from my own experience, so you probably don’t know this, Molly, and probably most of my audience doesn’t either. It’s not something I’ve talked about a whole lot, but I actually came from a background of being a professional classical ballet dancer. Actually, I think we had talked about this a little bit before because you are a dancer too. Exactly. Now it’s coming back to me.
How over-exercising can impact your body
Alyssa Chavez:
Yeah. And so I was used to very high intensity type exercise. I mean, not only was I dancing many hours a day, but I also was working out in addition to that, because that’s what you do as a dancer. I was doing Pilates, I was doing cardio workouts. I was probably moving, exercising my body eight or more hours a day. And I didn’t know I had endometriosis at the time. I stopped dancing years before I ever received a diagnosis. But I definitely did notice that I was having a really hard time with energy, for sure.
Alyssa Chavez:
It was like fatigue central. And I was young. I mean, I stopped dancing in my early 20s due to some injuries and things like that. So my career wasn’t very long lived, but even at that young age, I was starting to notice impacts on my body and injuries were starting to come up and things like that. I started same with you, putting these puzzle pieces together and realizing, wow, I don’t know if doing that much exercise is good for my body anymore. And it was hard to walk away from. And I don’t know if you had a similar experience where when you’re used to going full out all the time, you’re trained to just go like you become a little machine. Scaling back can be really hard.
Alyssa Chavez:
And I know I had to do a lot of mental work on myself, a lot of mindset shifting to bring myself to a place of understanding that sometimes just like going on a walk and doing some yoga, that can be my movement. It doesn’t need to be going to a gym or doing a hardcore Pilates workout or doing and I’ll still mix some of the stuff in at times. Like sometimes I really like to go a little bit more into a core routine. I also am at a point in my healing journey where I feel like I can handle a little bit more of that. If you would have gone back a few years or so in history, that would not have been the case. So it’s a matter of where you are at that particular moment in your journey too, I think.
Molly McNamee:
Yeah, you have to go with the seasons. I had the same journey as you where I was over exercising beyond belief when I was dancing as well. And I work with a lot of people who had that same experience, or maybe they did a sport in their teens, and then they think that exercise always needs to look like that amount of movement. But it’s absolutely true, and you do have to find what works for you at different times in your life. So I like to say that high impact movements aren’t bad for everyone, but if you currently have a level of inflammation and anxiety or certain things in your body, then you don’t want to make it worse. But yes, you may find at times certain workouts work for your body, certain workouts don’t work for your body. And it could be the same exact workout three years later that works and doesn’t work. And it is tough to mentally wrap your head around that being like, well, I used to be able to do this, so now something’s wrong with me now.
Molly McNamee:
But nothing’s wrong with you. It just means it’s not working for you at this exact time. But the good news is there’s lots of other things that you can do and that is a big thing to have to wrap your head around. If you are someone who is a past athlete or an overachiever or just someone who really wants your body to feel a certain way and it’s not feeling that way and you’re a bit disappointed, it’s just finding what works for you in the current season of your life.
How bloating, exercise and endometriosis go together
Alyssa Chavez:
Yeah, I love that. That’s very well said. Now I wanted to go back to you were talking a little bit about how when you changed kind of the level of intensity in your workouts that you started noticing a difference in your Bloating. And that was something that really piqued my attention because this is called the endobelly Girl podcast and so Endo Belly is a big part of that. And what that really refers to is that extreme bloating that a lot of women experience, which is so common both with endometriosis and I think just in general amongst the population, I’m going to speak to women in particular, just because I think that’s primarily who listens to this podcast. But I certainly know a lot of men who are bloated as well. It’s just such a common thing. And so I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about that, just even your personal experience on how changing your fitness routine helped with your Bloating and just what is even the connection between Bloating and how you’re working out.
Alyssa Chavez:
How do those things go together?
Molly McNamee:
Yeah, I mean, bodies are weird. I will always say bodies are weird. Weird things happen in the body. But yeah, for me it’s the nervous system. Workouts that were spiking my nervous system were causing extreme inflammation in my gut. And that is the case with a lot of people with a lot of different health concerns, whether it be endometriosis, other chronic illnesses, anxiety, there are a few there that kind of I treat the same as far as what I prescribe for movement. Because if you have inflammation in your body, if you have a heightened nervous system, certain workouts are going to spike that and make it all worse for you. So again, workouts for different seasons, if you’re someone who doesn’t have any inflammation, I know you’re not listening to this podcast, but you exist in the world, you can do those types of workouts and you’ll be fine.
Molly McNamee:
But if you have a level of inflammation in your body and you do a workout that really causes inflammation in your body, it’s going to be so much worse for you. So it kind of depends where your starting point is. So if no one in the world exists but if your body is just neutral and you have no problems, you can do anything under the sun and feel fine. But if you have those little things where there’s already an alarm in your body going off about something, and you do something to make that alarm ring louder, then your symptoms are going to be far worse. So with Bloating, things that are high impact and high intensity, so even like think power lifting where you’re lifting crazy amounts of weights, it’s doing the same thing in your body as jumping does, where it’s really spiking your heart rate, which spikes your nervous system, really causes inflammation in your body. Those types of workouts are going to make your symptoms worse. So things that are high impact, whether it be jumping or things that are high impact, meaning it really spikes your heart rate in a crazy way, those are going to make your inflammation and your nervous system go crazy in your body and your gut is going to be the first thing that responds to that, unfortunately.
Stress, exercise and endometriosis
Alyssa Chavez:
And that’s so true. I know I see that a lot in my clients as well. I’d like to even dig a little more into that connection with stress because a lot of people don’t realize that exercise is stress on your body and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. We want to stress our bodies in a positive way when you’re working out. That’s how we build muscle and bone density. That’s how we get stronger. So you need to have some level of that. But if you already have a high level of stress in your body, which can come from a lot of that internal inflammation and the things that we have going on, adding too much of that external stress is what ends up leaving us feeling worse, being maybe more in pain, having more fatigue and all of that stuff.
Alyssa Chavez:
And especially when it comes to the digestion piece, there’s a huge connection. And this is something that this is one of the first things that I work on when I have a new client is that we talk about how your mental state impacts your digestion. So if you’re having a lot of struggles with bloating or constipation or abdominal pain and all of those fun little symptoms that we have coming up, one of the first things we talk about is bringing yourself into a calm state. When you’re eating a meal, sitting down, taking some deep breaths, chewing your food thoroughly, just those little things. But absolutely the way that you’re moving your body can impact that. Because if you are doing these crazy intense workouts and then expecting your body to be able to calm down enough to be able to then digest well, because your body digests in a rested state, that’s a phrase that I use a lot, is rest to digest. So there’s huge connection there between those things, between the movement, the stress, the digestive health like those pieces all end up fitting together. It’s just a matter of, like you said, figuring out how those pieces fit together for your unique body.
Finding what works best for your body for exercise and endometriosis
Molly McNamee:
Yeah. And it’ll be different person to person as well. Like, this girl has endometriosis. This girl has endometriosis. How they move, how long they wait to eat after they move, what they choose to eat after they move. That may have to look different. That’s another kind of frustrating thing for a lot of people is they see advice for their specific person and like, well, that’s not even working for me either. And then they get frustrated.
Molly McNamee:
But absolutely, if you’re spiking the nervous system, your gut will respond. You won’t be able to digest. You’re going to feel crazy.
Alyssa Chavez:
You’re going to feel crazy. Nobody needs that in their life. No. I also would like to meet these people who have no inflammation. And where are they? Because I have not found yet in my life. I’m sure they’re out there. It’s probably all the young people who haven’t experienced life.
Molly McNamee:
I always say people come to me and they’re like, I guess I’m just old now because I’m experiencing all of this stuff. And I’m just like, you’ve just lived a lot of life now. It’s not necessarily your age. It’s everything that’s happened to your body. I mean oh, yeah. People who are trying to lose weight, for example, even how you’ve exercised in the past influences what results you get right now. So even something as simple as I went on a diet when I was 25 can affect how you’re able to lose weight on this very day. So bodies are so incredibly complex.
Molly McNamee:
So, yeah, these people who feel totally fine, they may not really understand oh, I was going to say that you may not understand what’s going on in your body. So you were mentioning how most people experience this bloating, and they don’t register that maybe they’re also a little stressed, maybe they’re not sleeping well. And all of that is playing a part to how their body is feeling. So a lot of people will notice one symptom for many, it’s I’m bloated or I’m tired. That makes them investigate what’s going on with their body. But then you realize there’s so many other things going on as well.
Alyssa Chavez:
Oh, my gosh, yes. I’ve gone down rabbit holes on that for sure. Even when I first received my endometriosis diagnosis, i, like, so many people thought, oh, well, that’s my period pain. That’s where that’s coming from. Okay, cool. And did not even realize that it was also related to the fatigue I was experiencing and the mental health struggles and the bloating and the bowel symptoms and all these other pieces that I started to realize, like, oh, this is all kind of connecting back to that same thing. That’s crazy.
Molly McNamee:
Exactly. Especially women. But everyone just kind of writes off how we’re feeling a lot of the time. Like. Well, everyone’s tired. Everyone’s a little bloated at the end of the day. Right. I mean, everyone feels this way.
Molly McNamee:
It’s not unique to me. But then you try something that makes all of those symptoms less, you start to realize, oh, this is what’s actually going on in my body. And you can feel great. So you don’t have to just accept, this is how I’m always going to feel. There are things you can do to feel better, and there are usually answers or like, there’s a reason for why you’re feeling these things. It’s not just, this is how everyone is and it’s whatever.
How to find how much exercise is best for you
Alyssa Chavez:
It’s whatever. Yeah, absolutely. I so agree with that. And let’s even dig into that idea that we were talking about a little bit more because we touched base a little bit on that. How people sometimes go into workouts are left feeling worse at the end of it because maybe they overdid it. How do you help your clients to balance working out, to help you feel good and feel your best and get the benefits from it without overdoing it and making you feel worse? Where do you find kind of that tipping point and balancing point and how do you know where that is for you?
Molly McNamee:
Yeah, so for all of the clients that start working with me, I make everyone start out really small. So first it’s, let’s just move your body a bit more. Let’s work on posture and stretching. And then it’s, let’s do this five minute workout. Let’s do this ten minute workout. Let’s work out one day a week. Let’s add a second workout. So I just gradually build until we’ve found that sweet spot.
Molly McNamee:
This is good because then you can find where your ideal sort of routine is, but it also eases you into movement. Because we touched on this before, but a lot of people feel too tired to even start moving. Like, the idea of that is crazy to them. So if we’re starting with just here’s, a five minute workout I want you to do once this week, that’s like a very easy, yes, I can do that. I’ll do that. You do that for a week. We add a little bit more. We add a little bit more.
Molly McNamee:
And throughout that process, three months later, now you’ve built your routine that’s really perfect for your life. It matches the energy that you need. We can easily tweak it if your symptoms change, if your energy changes. It’s about that slow build. So again, everyone I work with comes to me and is like, I feel like I should be working out every day. I feel like that’d be good for my body. And I’m like, guess what? I’m not going to let you do that. We’re going to start with 5 minutes twice a week, and then we’ll make it 10 minutes twice a week.
Molly McNamee:
And it will usually build to three to four days. 30 minutes is usually where I get people to stop because there’s really no need for anything more than that. Unless you are a professional athlete, there’s no need for more than that. So it’s the slow build, stopping when we find that sweet spot, finding that acceptance of being like, it’s okay if I’m not actually moving that much, this is a win that I’m doing anything consistently. So yeah, the slow build is how I discover what is actually right for each of my clients individually. And that also helps people ease into exercise in a way that feels sustainable and not like, oh, I’m going from not moving at all to suddenly working out for 30 minutes, which can feel crazy.
Creating new healthy habits with exercise and endometriosis
Alyssa Chavez:
Yeah, I love that. I think that’s perfect. And honestly, it’s very similar to how I work with clients. It’s a matter of meeting people where they are like if you’re working with them, but also if you’re listening to this and you’re wanting to even just try movement on your own. I think that’s a wonderful piece of advice is just start very small. I don’t know if you’ve ever read the book Atomic Habits because that principle is something that they talk about a lot in that book. It’s all about building health, not necessarily healthy habits, just habits in general. But that’s one of the things that they mentioned that I really liked, and I have applied in my business with my clients too, is that sometimes building a new habit is starting out like way smaller than what you think you can handle or should be handling.
Alyssa Chavez:
Like, for example, if I have a client who doesn’t currently drink any water, maybe they’re only drinking coffee and soda. We don’t need to start cutting everything out and only drinking water. That may end up being the end result, but maybe for starting out, we just drink one glass of water a day. That’s it. Make it simple so that your brain doesn’t get overwhelmed, your body doesn’t get overwhelmed in the case of exercise. And I think that’s perfect. So if you’re somebody who’s sitting at home and going, yeah, I haven’t moved or exercised or worked out in years and I’m afraid to even start and I know I’m going to feel terrible if I do a workout, maybe just do 5 minutes exactly how you feel. Yeah, I love that.
Alyssa Chavez:
I think that’s a wonderful approach and can really help people to kind of navigate and figure out where your own personal limitations are and what might be a good stopping point for you. And also just to build on it over time because maybe you start with the 5 minutes and you find that you feel good and you can do more. Okay, well, I’m going to do that more times a week or I’m going to add a little bit more time to that workout and you start to build up your strength and your stamina and your ability to do all of that and for your body to feel okay and safe doing those type of workouts. And I think that’s really important too.
Starting small
Molly McNamee:
Exactly. And you increase faster than you realize as well, because it is the catalyst. You do 5 minutes, you’re like, I was able to do that. You do 5 minutes the next week, you’re like, okay, I’m in a routine now. You can increase it to 10 minutes, and it really doesn’t feel that different. But I always tell my clients that your first goal with exercise should be the easiest win of all time. It should be a no brainer. I can definitely do this.
Molly McNamee:
If your first goal is, I’m going to go to the gym and work out for an hour. It may take you months to be able to finally get that win because you’re fighting against it. You may never get that win. You may be fighting against it so hard that it seems impossible to do. Something’s going to keep coming up, oh, my kids. XYZ work. This happened. I wasn’t able to go.
Molly McNamee:
So make it the easiest win possible, even if it’s march in place for a minute today. And that’s all your win is. That is a gigantic win. And then you build on that and it’s a catalyst and it’s a great place to start to get you started, but it’s also a great place to start so that you can start to find out what is the right amount of movement for your body.
Alyssa Chavez:
I love that. That is some wonderful advice. And I know also that one thing I hear from my audience that they struggle with sometimes is just getting the motivation or the energy to work out in the first place, or maybe just don’t even know where to begin. And we talked about that a little bit already. Just starting small and the small increments of time and working up from there. But just speaking to somebody who is that person who’s trying to go from the couch to becoming somebody who exercises, what would be your words of advice to somebody who is wanting to build that new, healthy habit and begin their fitness journey? Like, where would you tell them to begin?
Finding the motivation for exercise and endometriosis
Molly McNamee:
Yeah. So there is some unfortunate news where you’ll never feel motivated until you start, which hurts to hear. You’re never going to wake up one morning and be like, you know what? I’m excited to work out today. I’m going to make it happen today. I’m super motivated. That simply doesn’t exist. And I am sorry to say that. But that is why the best place to start is just move a little.
Molly McNamee:
So what I actually like to do but I’m a big music person and an ex dancer, I like to just play my favorite song and just move a little to it. Just dance a little, and I’ll do that. That’s a great place to start. Just have a one three minute dance party and let that be your catalyst. You have to start moving to feel a spark of motivation. So do something that you really like doing that gets your body moving some, and let that be your catalyst. So for me, it’s a dance party. For you, it may be like, okay, you may have to force yourself to do it.
Molly McNamee:
You may be like, okay, I’m microwaving food right now. It’s got a minute. You know what I’m going to do? I’m just going to step side to side. I’m going to do a little step tap for this minute. Just start moving your body a little bit, and I truly do mean a little bit. And let that your body will start to be like, oh, right, we’re moving again. This is starting to feel normal. I feel like I can do a little more.
Molly McNamee:
And then you do a five minute workout and that doesn’t feel crazy. It’s just start really small. And sometimes you do a little bit, have to make yourself do it. I always use this example, but it is so real. When we were children, our parents had to force us to brush our teeth. They had to say, you’re brushing your teeth tonight. I don’t care what you say, you’re brushing your teeth. And you had to be reminded.
Molly McNamee:
And you had to be reminded. But now it’s just a part of your life, right? It feels so normal to brush your teeth. It’d be weird if you didn’t. And we want movement to become like that. So you’re going to have to be like, okay, let’s get up and let’s do that dance party. Let’s make it happen. And you do that, and then it starts to feel normal. And then it just starts to become a part of your life where you don’t even think about it.
Make exercise and endometriosis fun!
Alyssa Chavez:
Yeah, I love that. That’s great advice. And I really like the piece you were saying about make it fun. I personally am a big dance party fan, too, so I think maybe even particularly for me, because I was a classical ballet dancer, which is so structured, that for me, and I would not call myself any sort of adept dancer as far as just grooving to think I remind myself of. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the episode of Seinfeld when Elaine is dancing, if anybody is familiar with that. I feel like I’m a little more in that vibe, but I don’t care. I’m in my own living room by myself. If my husband sees me dancing around, don’t care.
Alyssa Chavez:
He’s seen that and it’s just fun. Just put on some music. I like to put on music anyway. Like, I love having music on when I take a shower, while I’m cooking dinner, things like that. Just to have something to listen to. And sometimes I’ll do that. I’ll just dance around the kitchen while I’m cooking or while I’m cleaning, especially when I’m cleaning. I like, to add dance while I’m cleaning.
Alyssa Chavez:
It just makes it more fun.
Molly McNamee:
Exactly. I also like when you’re trying to think, well, what’s fun for me? What did you enjoy when you were a kid? I mean, I grew up with brothers, and we would, like, fight this sounds horrible, but we would watch American Gladiators, and then we would pretend we were in the American Gladiators show. Maybe that’s your vibe. Maybe you grab a pillow and you swing it around and you pretend you’re in some sort of competition. Maybe you’re watching a football game and you’re like, I’m just going to pretend I’m playing this game with them. Just find some way to move that may be fun for you. And if you’re struggling to figure out what that is, think back to, well, what did I enjoy when I was a kid? When I did recess? What did I do? Maybe go to the park and swing on a swing set. Maybe that’s your vibe.
Molly McNamee:
Like, just find something easy to do or adopt a dog, and then you have to take that dog for a walk, and there’s your simple solution. Love that.
Alyssa Chavez:
Yeah. I have three dogs, so I can attest to that. They will let you know if it’s time to go outside and they need to go on a walk. So they definitely are a great accountability partner if you need that.
Molly McNamee:
Let’s just all adopt animals.
Alyssa Chavez:
There you go. There’s plenty that need homes, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Molly McNamee:
Just find something that’s fun. And the best way to think what’s fun is, what did I used to enjoy? And try it again, and that may spark something for you, and that will be the catalyst to get your body moving, because, like I said, you won’t wake up feeling motivated to do the workout if you’re not currently moving.
Alyssa Chavez:
Love it. Yeah, that’s perfect. All right, Molly. Well, that has been some wonderful little nuggets in there. Is there anything else that you would like to share before we finish up.
Molly McNamee:
For I just I always like to say people think that fitness needs to look a certain way. It doesn’t. Find a way that works for your body. And don’t get discouraged if you try something and it doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t mean anything’s wrong with you. It just means you didn’t find the right thing. I feel like it’s so easy to get upset with our bodies for not doing what we want it to do, but we’ve said it many times. So find what works for you, and then you have your answer, and it’s easier said than done.
Molly McNamee:
I know, but that’s why, again, don’t be afraid to ask for help. I mean, reach out to people. Reach out to people who are speaking in a way that makes sense to you. Don’t just sign up for any random program and imagine that’s your way of asking for help. Find someone who can really help you and find what works for you. And don’t be upset with your body.
Don’t be upset with your body
Alyssa Chavez:
Don’t be upset with your body. That is a wonderful piece of advice right there. Yeah, I love it. Well, this has been a wonderful conversation, Molly, and I think this will be very enlightening for a lot of people and maybe even help people. I hope to help people feel more empowered on being able to just start somewhere and be okay with whatever that means for you today, even if it’s the smallest step ever. I think that just thinking about that gives me a lot of relief. Like, okay, it doesn’t have to be this huge workout. You don’t have to spend an hour at the gym if that doesn’t feel good to your body, but just start somewhere.
Alyssa Chavez:
Maybe put an alarm on your phone. That okay. Tomorrow at this time, I’m going to spend 5 minutes doing something and see what happens from there. I love that.
Molly McNamee:
Keep it simple and don’t get frustrated if it feels like you’re not doing enough. If you’re doing something, then that’s amazing.
Where to find Molly McNamee to learn more about exercise and endometriosis
Alyssa Chavez:
I love that. That’s perfect. Now, Molly, I know that you work with people. You said you have a virtual I say practice because that’s what I have. Would you call it a practice?
Molly McNamee:
Sure, it can be a practice.
Alyssa Chavez:
Why not?
Molly McNamee:
I call it, like, my own little online gym.
Alyssa Chavez:
I love that. An online gym. And you work with people both in a group setting and a one on one setting, right?
Molly McNamee:
Yes. Okay.
Alyssa Chavez:
Can you tell us a little bit more about that, like, how you work with people? Because I’m sure now that people have heard you, they’ll want to come and have some one on one help or even in a group setting and figure out what actually works for their body so they can have some guidance on that. So can you just tell us a little bit more about what you do, how you work with people, and where we can find you?
Molly McNamee:
Yeah. So every single one of my programs comes with some guidance from me. I have three ways you can work with me. I have an on demand workout library, and I’ll meet with you once before you tackle that on demand library to help you design a workout schedule. That’s a good starting point for you. I have a group coaching program where we work out live together on Zoom. We do group coaching calls, and then I have custom programming where we work really intimately, one on one, where I help you for three months to design a program in the way that I described, where we start small. We build up to a routine that you can realistically do forever.
Molly McNamee:
So if you’re looking for that one on one guidance, I would love to offer your listeners two weeks free of that custom coaching. So if you’re interested in that, there will be a link somewhere. I’m sure yeah, I’ll put the links.
Alyssa Chavez:
In the show notes. Absolutely awesome.
Molly McNamee:
So you can find me on my website, Mollymcnamee.com. I am also on all the social medias, but you can find me on Instagram under my Business MFIT period workouts. And those are the best places to reach me. And I’m always open to just have conversations with people. Again, I’m a problem solver in my core, so if you have a problem, I would like to solve it. And I’d love to love to chat with could. You can find me on Instagram, on my website, on all the places. But if you are looking for some one on one help, I would love to let you try that for free, because I know it’s a big step reaching out to some random person online.
Alyssa Chavez:
Well, thank you, Molly. I’m sure everyone will so appreciate that and hopefully they’ll be able to come and get some guidance and some help and figure things. So this was so fun. Yeah, that was a great conversation, Molly. I’m so excited to share this and thank you so much for being here today.
Molly McNamee:
Thank you for having me.
