Fast to Faith: Weight Loss & Hormone Support for Women Over 35

279. How Setbacks Become God’s Training Ground with Kendra & Terri

• Dr. Tabatha • Episode 279

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What if the setback you’re fighting is the very training ground God is using to make you stronger? We invite you into a raw, hope-filled conversation where two of our coaches share how broken wrists unraveled hurry, exposed pride, and opened the door to real freedom. From the first jolt of denial to the awkward daily work of opening jars one-handed, these stories reveal how adversity shifts when you stop asking “how do I control this?” and start asking “how do I trust here?”

We explore the surprising link between spiritual surrender and functional health: stewarding your body like a temple, fueling your mitochondria with quality nutrition, and letting Scripture rewire your stress response. One coach walks us through ditching the scale and the diet mentality that kept her stuck, learning to trust the body God designed. Another offers a simple, life-giving refrain—God already knows—that turned self-pity into steady gratitude. It’s not about perfect conditions; it’s about faithful choices, repeated daily.

You’ll also hear the unexpected origin story of our Coaching Academy—born from obedience, not a business plan—and why intergenerational mentorship changes everything. Partners formed in training became lifelines during crisis, trading shallow cheerleading for prayer, challenge, and practical wisdom. If you’re juggling family, business, and faith, and you’re tired of white-knuckling your way through, this episode is a warm hand on your shoulder and a clear path forward: ask for help, slow down, choose joy, and root yourself in the Word. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help more women find hope and healing.

If you’re ready to stop trying harder and start healing smarter, your first step is Empowered by Faith — the 5-Day Reset.

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Dr. Tabatha:

I think of the crabs in the pot, and they're all just like trying to climb out of the pot together and they just keep pulling each other down. Like you need somebody outside of the pot, outside of your situation to help teach you how to climb out of there, right? Yeah, that's true. Yeah. If you're tired of doing all the right things and still feeling exhausted, stuck in your body, and disconnected from God, this podcast is for you. I'm Dr. Tabitha, triple board certified functional medicine physician, and I help women stop fighting their bodies and start healing them God's way. This isn't about another diet or quick fix. This is about restoring your energy, your confidence, and your faith through fasting, functional medicine, and biblical truth. Welcome to Fast of Faith, where you don't just lose weight and feel great. You step into who God created you to be. So let's get into it. Welcome back to the Fast of Faith podcast. Oh my goodness. Hi, Ashley. Hi. I missed you. How are you doing? It was a long weekend, um, a volleyball tournament, four states away, even though it's across the lake. It took a hot minute to get there. Yeah. Too bad the ferry's not open. I know the lake can unfreeze any day now. Oh my goodness. Well, what are we talking about today? Uh how did the volleyball tournament go? Amazing. They won their bracket, so I'm glad we stayed for the championship game. But, you know, it's hard juggling mom life and running all these businesses and having a coaching academy. I'm preaching to the choir. I know.

Ashlee :

No, I mean, it I think it's important that everyone understands that there's multi-levels to all of us. We have to give each other grace, but that's why we surround ourselves with a community that can pick up when we have to put something down. So I think that's important. So we are here today with two beautiful women. Why don't you tell everyone what we're here to talk about today?

Dr. Tabatha:

Yes. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. So speaking of a woman juggling all the things the mom life, the coaching life, the business life, we have Miss Kendra, our certified coach. Thanks for coming over to the studio. Thanks for having me. It's super exciting to be here. Yes, it's gonna be so good. And then on Zoom, we have Coach Terry. Yay, all the way from Alabama.

SPEAKER_01:

How are you? I am wonderful this morning. It's sunshiny and it's gonna be 73 degrees here before the day's over. So I'm excited about that. I'm sorry for y'all.

Dr. Tabatha:

That's all right. Yeah, we may have yelled at Terry before we started recording. Like, shut your mouth. But you know what?

Ashlee :

Four, I mean, it's like what, 39 out there today, and it feels 70 here. So we're we're happy actually.

Dr. Tabatha:

It's perspective. Yeah. It is. We have to be grateful to God. So, yes, today you need to listen, ladies, to this conversation because we are talking about the adversities that get thrown at us. And Kendra and I were actually having a conversation, I think it was last week, and we realized that sometimes these things that we think are to make our life miserable or to throw us in the pit or create worse struggle might actually be a movement from God, right? Yeah, completely. Oh, so we're gonna talk about that today because not everything is coming from the enemy, ladies. We want to think that it is. We want to think life is supposed to be just perfect and splendor and straight paths. But the more I read the book of James and more I read just like Old Testament stories, I really see that God is doing a good work in people when He is giving us adversity and He wants to grow our character and develop us into someone stronger, someone with tenacity, someone with persistence. And I just I think back to the four of us in our group calls just a couple years ago. And we are all so much stronger. Are we for sure?

Ashlee :

Absolutely, yeah. And actually, this is crazy. Um, we always say that the spirit leads these conversations, but on my way here, I was listening to I'm doing the Bible recap, and that's what today's was about. About it's not all it doesn't always come from the devil. It sometimes is because our Lord is sovereign. And so we do sometimes get adversity because he wants us to teach us something.

Dr. Tabatha:

Right. I think about as parents, we don't let our kids just get away with stuff or take the easy road, like they don't want to clean their room, they don't want to cut the grass and do these hard things. They think we're like destroying their lives when we're asking them to go through and do stuff. And it's really like, no, we're trying to grow you up into a proper human, right? Are you feeling that, Kendra?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I hear you. And there's just no way around it that we grow the most in adversity. Like if I'm on that mountaintop and I'm staring at all the views, it's not always directly my eyes on the Lord. Often it's like, man, this is awesome. But when I'm in that valley and I'm trying to get up that mountain and I'm struggling, then I'm forced to decide like, are my eyes gonna be upward toward the Lord, or are my eyes gonna go inward and it's gonna bring me down?

Dr. Tabatha:

That's so good. Well, we chose you two to come on the show today because you both broke your wrists over the past couple months. Like, Terry, what happened?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, it it's I should come up with a much more exciting story than it is because I was getting ready to go to my fitness class one morning and I was in a hurry, like I am all too often. So slowing down might be one of those lessons I was learning. Um, but went into my closet, grabbed, you know, the bottoms, turned around to grab the top, and I was in the floor the next thing I know. I don't know, you know, what happened exactly, but my feet came out from under me and I jumped right up and put some ice on it and convinced myself that nothing was wrong. It just hurt, and I didn't go to the doctor until the next afternoon, and he came in and said, It's broken, it really is broken. And I mean, I was just in denial. No, it can't be broken. I'd never broken anything in my life, so um, yeah. So I was expecting a break to be more than I mean, for it to sh for it to swell, for it to bruise, for it to do more than what it was doing, but I was real quick to get ice on it and all that, so I probably prevented some of that. But yeah, I should come up with something a whole lot better than that because falling in your closet's not real exciting.

Ashlee :

But your break was pretty cool though. Your x-ray showed something.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I had like a little cross almost, like the break had formed almost a cross. And uh yeah, so I just took that as okay, God's with me, right? Right, and here is a whole, and I had to look at that whole situation because not only did I break my wrist, that was on December the 1st, my husband was having his first of two knee replacement surgeries on the 23rd. So we jokingly told everybody that between us we had three good arms and two good legs, and uh perhaps God was showing us that we could do a better job of working together because it was taking both of us to do the things that we had to do to just daily life, you know. I mean, when you break your wrist, you can't twist the top off of anything. No, um, you don't have a hand to hold it. You don't you can't twist with the hand that's broken either. So, I mean, really and truly, I I had to to shift my focus from oh my goodness, could this not have happened at a worse time? I'm about to be taking care of a husband that's gonna have a knee replacement to okay, God is refining us again. Um, you know, he's he he's buffing off the edges, and I'm gonna tell you, sometimes that's painful.

Dr. Tabatha:

Oh my God. And uh yeah, so painful. And I think it's so interesting because Kendra kind of alluded to the same thing during our conversation last week of I was so busy, I was go, go, go. I didn't have time for this. And so that when that's when I was like, wait a second, God's just trying to get our attention because that is literally what happened to me after my failed back surgery. I tried to jump right back into my old life and be on call for five nights straight. And the third night I re-injured and couldn't move, and God had to put me on my back for seven days, you know, being carried to the bathroom, all the things of like, can I give you an idea of how to live life now? Can you stop doing it your way? Because you're destroying yourself, right? So that's what you were saying, right, Kendra?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, so mine was actually kind of a fun story because I was being super mom and took all my kids. I have married children that were visiting, and we just all went to this new outdoor ice park and went ice skating. And as soon as I got my skates on, I was like, oh, I remember. I love ice skating. And all of a sudden I felt like I was in my 20s again, instead of recognizing it had literally been over 20 years since I've had ice skates on. So I did my first lap, felt super confident, and then I saw some people backward skating and was like, oh, oh girl, you got this. So I didn't. This was your second lap? No, after the first, I didn't even make the second. Oh I was like, oh, I got this. So I like do my little spin and down I went. And I was like, oh, that hurt. But I was pretty convinced, you know, I'm still quite young. So I was like, I'm sure it's just a sprain. I got back up, I'm holding it, breathing through the pain a little bit, decided I didn't want to miss out on all this excitement. We had just gotten there. So I skated for another 45 minutes, and then my dad was there just watching. Thankfully, he was just watching. And um, we ended up going to Meyer and getting a brace, and then the next day I went to urgent care and they're like, Yeah, it's broken. And I was like, Oh, oh bummer. So, yeah, so that happened, and it really does challenge where your mind is. I mean, all of a sudden, like Terry was saying, you're forced to ask yourself, do I believe these things that I've been saying? Do I believe that God's in control? Do I believe that He has me? Do I believe that He's enough? Um and I was really excited because I I felt myself within the first 24 hours kind of spiraling, kind of getting near that self-pity, like, oh really, Lord, why me? You know, I was just trying to be fun, and and then there's this phrase that I've been saying to myself over the last year, and it's God already knows us. And so it was like this wasn't a surprise to God, but so clearly he had a plan, and I wanted to be a part of that plan, and I wanted to give thanks in all circumstances, right? Like I literally have that verse on my wall to rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for your life in Christ Jesus. Like it's so simple and until you have to do it, until you have to do it, and it's not as fun. And and so yeah, but I just made a decision, and I actually think we talked almost like a couple days after this happened. So I think it was a few weeks ago, but um I remember saying to myself, No, this is this is my opportunity, you know, this is my opportunity to put my words into action, and part of it's my fault because uh about six months ago I felt like the Lord was asking me that question, do you believe what you say? And I was like, Lord, I I want to believe what I say. And so I said, So don't change any of my circumstances because I want to be able to find your joy and find gratitude right where I'm at, not because of a circumstance. And so then when this happened, I was like, Oh, so you're just gonna add a circumstance to kind of anyway, but it was really cool to see the way your patterns go. And like Terry, I mean, the next morning I wake up and I'm the coffee maker. We have a stovetop coffee espresso maker, and I'm looking at that thing thinking, how am I gonna unscrew it so that I can make coffee? So, and I kept thinking, I know people who don't have limbs who have children. So I was like, there has to be a way. So I stuck it between my my feet and was able to turn it that way with my good hand anyway. It was just one example, right? I mean, the things you don't realize, like how am I gonna button my pants? Or, you know, just so many things, even getting shirts on, but there was always a way.

Dr. Tabatha:

So, Terry, did you go through that as well? Like you got or were you angry? Were you confused, or were you like, oh, this is just a test?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, my first inclination was okay, how am I gonna figure this out? How am I going to figure this out? Which tends to be what I like to do. I like to self-reliance. I'm a very independent woman. I've run businesses, I've taken care, you know, I am I'm I'm the decider of most things in our home and uh, you know, manage my household. I do all of that. And so how am I gonna figure out how to make this work? And you know, it comes to surrender. It just comes to surrender. And I'm it's funny that y'all brought up James because that's what we're focusing on in my uh I I have a study hall that I do with the ladies at our church, and we're focusing on James. And you know, I I don't know that I find it pure joy in all my trials.

Dr. Tabatha:

Thank you for being truthful.

SPEAKER_01:

Like we need to be real as women, like this is not easy. Well, I'm gonna tell you that joy is not the first emotion that happens for me uh in anything like that. You know, it the first thing is like Kendra said, why? Why is this happening to me? I mean, I'm the one here. We are three weeks before Christmas. Uh Christmas is at my house. I didn't have any decorations this year. I had no tree, I had no nothing, but it was fine. It was absolutely fine. And I feel like that was God saying, you know, just let the Holy Spirit work. You don't need all of that, you don't need all of that. Unclutter it, enjoy, and I'm gonna tell you, it was one of the best Christmases we have ever had because I was not stressed out to the max. I was allowing, here's another thing. I don't like to ask for help. Do y'all? I don't like I don't like to ask for help. I I you know, somewhere in my mind that I look at that as a weakness and all of that kind of stuff. So I had to humble myself and ask for help. Um, not just from the people around me, but from God. And uh, you know, help me figure out what I can do to, okay, now I've got to figure out how to help take care of my husband as well. So, you know, God was telling me, I believe, that hey, it's not all up to you, it's up to me. And what Kendra was sharing about, you know, it's easy to praise God when you're on the mountaintop and it's harder to praise him in the valley. Um, it truly is. And those trials, those, you know, it's a testing. I I if I'm a firm believer that God gives us the test, then he gives us the lesson. And if we don't learn the lesson, we get the test again. Amen. And I didn't want another broken wrist. So I was trying to learn my lesson. My lesson of my husband and I probably need to work better together. I need to rely more on God, I need to find what it is he's trying to teach me. I want to learn the lesson fast so that the testing can be done. And um, you know, fully relying on him. It's hard, I don't typically fully rely on him when I'm at the mountaintop and celebrating. I may be praising him, but I'm not as reliant on him as I am through the trials. So my my cure for that is to learn to be reliant in every season, in every whether I'm ascending or descending.

Dr. Tabatha:

We really need to up-level how we're taking care of our temple. I used to treat mine like a garbage can, I will just be honest. And I'm not okay with that anymore. So, this is one of the most important things to me, is that I'm taking high-quality supplements that are actually doing what they say they're doing, and I'm getting my money's worth, and I'm not making my body worse by putting the wrong stuff in it. So, let's talk about Hormone Tame Essential Multivitamin, because even though it gives you all the vitamins and minerals you need, there's extra goodness in there, isn't there? I think you have a bottle sitting next to you. I do. Tell us about Hormone Tame.

SPEAKER_00:

Hormone Tame is five products in one. Um, if you listen to the the other episode, one of the things that we talked about is oftentimes, you know, women are just people were taking a lot of supplements, and the nice thing about a lot of the um supplements that we have here at Fast of Faith is that they're just so consolidated, where you could take this and you are basically taking five products. So, yes, this is gonna be a multivitamin, but there is so much more. We actually kind of refer to it as a multivitamin on um steroids. One of the key things that this is gonna be helping is your mitochondria. All you need to know is that they are responsible for so many systems and processes in your body. The reason that we need supplements is because we're just supplementing areas that we just can't really kind of get with our food. So we're filling in those gaps. And so Hormone Tame is inviting the body to just fill in all of those gaps. So you gotta fill those gaps, and hormone tame it will help to do that.

Dr. Tabatha:

Yeah, and that's a daily practice, it really is. And when I listen to you all speak, and even when I speak, like I hear the words from the Bible in our talk, in our sentences, they're just woven into what we think, who we are at this point in our life. And that is such a beautiful gift. But we actually had to deliberately get in the word and read it every day and listen to it and and say it out loud and repeat it to to get that into our brain, you know, to create new neural pathways in there. And that is that is all I want at this point, you know. When Terry was talking, I just kept thinking, God gives and he takes away. It's everything under the sun is owned by him. Like we think we're making things and owning things and creating things, and and we can do it on our own fruition. And God is like, no, girl, you get to do it because I allow you to do it. I give you the grace and the ability to do it. And it's like, oh dang. So I think we all need to be broken of this self-reliance, and it's hard because humans have failed us. We're moms, we're business owners, we're all the things, and so we're we have this mindset of like, yeah, we have to do it. And I'm grateful because I'm trying to learn lessons from you ladies. I'm not trying to go through this again, you know, and through my past experience. Um, how are you feeling about all this?

Ashlee :

Yeah, I'm thinking about, so I'd like to take it all the way back to when we started the coaching academy because um Terry and Kendra were in our very first cohort. Oh, yeah, and they were partners. And so I look back. So I look back and I see God had this planned all along. So they were comfortable, they got comfortable with each other then. Because they were partners, and you guys, I'll let you guys share that story. But then it Kendra obviously reached out to Terry as soon as she broke her wrist, because that's what we all said to do in our community. Because Kendra broke her wrist and we instantly went to, well, Terry just went through this, you got to reach out. But they had such a connection from before. So if I would have reached out to Kendra, we wouldn't have had that close relationship before. So it would have been different. But because they could talk about things that no one else understood, because they had they had already built a relationship. So I see it as God knew this years ago. I'm so sorry, girls, that this happened. But it did. So why don't you guys talk a little bit about the coaching academy and what it brought to you and that aspect from your guys' relationship?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, well, I think I saw Terry out because I was like, she looks fun. And I think I need her in my life.

Ashlee :

So Terry is fun.

SPEAKER_05:

I remember when you said, okay, partner up, and we didn't know anybody.

Ashlee :

Yep.

SPEAKER_05:

So it's a little awkward. But when we were forced to actually do it, I think, is that right, Terry? Did I reach out to you first? You did.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

And I was like, girl, will you be mine?

SPEAKER_01:

And I was so happy with that somebody picked me. I mean, I was like, because I was like, I don't even know who to ask. I don't know what to do. You know, and so Ken, I'm like, yes, absolutely.

Ashlee :

That's so wild because I would see that flipped because I feel like now you're super outgoing and you've grown so much. But I would have seen Terry you asking before that.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a cool opportunity. I mean, she was looking to put me on the spot. Okay. And yes, I was, and I was thrilled because I thought, okay, I'm the old woman in the whole bunch. Nobody's gonna want nobody's gonna want to do this with me.

Ashlee :

Oh no, but you're wise. You're so wise.

SPEAKER_05:

And that is something that I feel like as a culture, like we're feeling in is the intergenerational. So my mom passed away like seven years ago, and I really miss having somebody in a different season. We it's so easy for us to connect with people in similar seasons, but it's harder for us to grow and to learn when everyone's experiencing the same thing. So I was like, Terry, I want to learn from you.

Dr. Tabatha:

Oh my gosh. I think of the crabs in the pot, and they're all just like trying to climb out of the pot together, and they just keep pulling each other down. Like you need somebody outside of the pot, outside of your situation to help teach you how to climb out of there, right?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

That put that makes me think about Titus too, and what the design was for us, for us to be spiritual mothers to those who are coming behind us, yeah, and to be the spiritual daughters of those who have gone before us. So learning how to be discipled as well as how to disciple the next ones coming. And uh it is so important. And it is, you know, like Kendra said, I think that we have in as a society, we've compartmentalized people and said, okay, you stay with this group. I mean, you know, if you think about it, it starts in school.

SPEAKER_05:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

We're we're with the people who are our age, and that's all we're with. And we need we need to have direction from those who have experience in what we're trying to achieve. And then we need to be willing to share our experience with someone else and be transparent about it, not just the, hey, look, this is it's all wonderful and everything. So that's one of the things I really strive hard to do is to be authentic and to share. When I'm struggling, I'm struggling with this and I need your help. I need your prayers. So just reaching out into the community and asking for prayers is one of the, oh, I think it's just so powerful.

Ashlee :

Yeah, I do too. And I I feel sad when women start to kind of back away and you can see they're getting silent and they're not showing up, and you're like, where are they? And so that's when I think it's important for us to reach out, which we do. But I I think one of the unique things about our community is we are all different shapes, sizes, walks of life, different ages, where a lot of times these communities are built, like you're saying, like we're all in seventh grade together. But that's not what this is. We're not all busy moms right now. And it's nice to be able to reach out to someone who's almost done being a busy mom and say, like, how did you do this? and have those connections and reach out to Terry, who is at a totally different stage than we are. And so I think that's what's really unique about our sisterhood, not only our coaching sisterhood, but also our fast of faith sisterhood as well.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I really agree with that. And just to like give you an idea of the depth that was created by this simple like homework assignment when we were doing the coaching academy, is last year, about this time, I was really struggling in my marriage, and I wanted someone that I could go to that was not gonna be like, oh yeah, poor you, Kendra, but was gonna be like, you know what? You got this, and these are the action steps that you need to do. And so without even thinking, I just reached out to Terry again. So here's Terry, just a fellow coach, but has now become like a marriage counselor for me. So I'm just so thankful for the way that you guys have really encouraged and initiated and helped us go deeper in the relationships as coaches, because you're right, it builds our confidence. Like now I don't have to be the person, I know the people. Oh it's so different.

Dr. Tabatha:

Yeah, I love that, and you never outgrow the need for a coach or a mentor. Like, I promise you, I still have people guiding me all the time. So does Ashley, and that is just I think that is how God created us to be.

Ashlee :

Yeah, and it's for me, and I know for you too, it means so much hearing you guys say that because we I know we struggle because we want to be everything for all of you, but we can't. Like we just we don't have the capacity, the time. And so I love that. And I I hope if you are one of our coaches and you're listening, reach out to your partner because that is a homework assignment, like you said. So reach back out to that partner, even if it's been 18 months, two years. And if you're not part of our community, maybe you need to consider it because we have partners inside of here that can help you, and we have a whole sisterhood willing to help you. There's several different ways you can get inside of our community. So I think, yeah, right.

Dr. Tabatha:

And like the reason women join is because they want to get their health back and they want to feel good in their body again. But what happens is God starts fixing your whole life. Yeah, it's so true.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you you nourish your soul and the rest follows, you know, it balances out. And I love the fact that there is such an emphasis on relationship. I had a pastor who used to say, you know, it's not about religion, it's about relationship. And that's how you bring other people to Christ is by first building that relationship with them and them gaining your trust and letting them in and letting them see that I'm not perfect just because I'm a Christian. Here's my mess. And I'm in I'm gonna invite you into it so you can see that I walk through this mess every day. I have to surrender my will to God every day and listen for Him to give me direction in order for a message to come out of the mess. 100%.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's so good. And it makes me think of when I first heard from Ashley that you guys were gonna do a coaching certification course, and I had actually checked into a different program and just couldn't follow through because I couldn't imagine doing this without Christ being the center. And so I just kind of pulled back and just was like, it's not the time, and then it just appears. And even with that, I'm like second guessing myself because you have these pictures of what a coach should look like. And I remember Ashley being like, Girl, you just gotta do this. And I was like, I do like Ashley. So anyway, I did it, but I was not in a place that you would look at me and think, oh, she should add something to her plate right now. Yeah. And it actually was really hard for me to go through it, but that's where my transformation went to a new level. And it was actually, I mean, the material that we were learning, but for me, it was mindset. It really was mindset. I had chased for literally decades the whole health journey and what foods are good, what's the right movement, how much sleep do you need? I felt like I could coach anyone through all of those. But for me, my mindset just had me stuck. And so as that started changing, I was thinking about it. And a year ago, I was in a pretty bad place. And in in that matter of time, I was able to release you know, 10 plus pounds. But it's not even about the pounds, it's what those pounds represented. And those pounds for me, they represented me carrying things that were not mine to carry. And as a result, I would go to food or I would, you know, kind of get um depressed and become paralyzed. And all the while God's saying, That's not yours, honey. That's mine. And so I just think back and I'm like, I really think I would be the client, but really it was the coaching certification that actually helped me break that wall. And I just it's changed my life forever. Wow.

Dr. Tabatha:

Yeah, we've heard that quite a few times, actually. It's like you you don't think you're ready, yeah, but you're not supposed to be ready.

Ashlee :

Right. No one can relate to someone that's perfect. So if you wait and you feel perfect, you're actually too late. You've missed the mark. Like, I'm serious. Yeah, we have never launched anything that's been perfect, we've never done anything that's been perfect because when we do, we that's a lie. We probably have, and then it's been too late, and we've both been like, well, that was silly. We wasted our time. So yeah, you just do it messy because you're gonna learn something.

Dr. Tabatha:

Yeah, my mentor always says, take messy action, like consistency creates change. And I just want to share with listeners who maybe don't even know the story of how the coaching academy was founded because God is doing incredible work, ladies. Like this was not our idea at all. I had won a trip to this wine cave in California with one of my mentors, and uh I was at the season where I wasn't drinking at all. And so I kept saying, like, why do I want to go to a wine cave for three days when I'm not drinking? This sounds stupid. And my mentor kept saying, You just need to go, you just need to show up. And it's across the country, it's a big deal, and I had no idea why I was going, and I went back and forth with God. I didn't book the flights, and finally he made it clear like, you just need to go. I've set this up for you, you're supposed to go. And the first day I got there, I met a woman who helped us create the coaching academy, Cynthia Garcia, and she looked at me and she said, You are sitting on a movement, you have something huge that you're about to create and do for the women in your life. And I was like, What are you talking about? Who are you? What is going on? And she just spoke life over me, and this is not a Christian woman. God used her anyway. That is what I love. Like, don't discount things because they don't look and you know, aren't planned out the way you would think. And so I said, Okay, God, what should I do? And he said, be open, listen, and see what I have planned for you. And by the time I left California, I knew I was going to start a coaching academy. And I texted Ashley and she was like, Okay, let's go, girl.

Ashlee :

Yeah, well, but then let's back up. So that was like February of that year, and then in January of that year, that was when I was really struggling. So I had been about a year since leaving school, and I was really struggling with still being a beach body coach. And so I was running on the treadmill one morning and I was like, whatever you need, like I just need you to take it away because I was really considering giving up my coaching, but giving it up meant giving up a lot of income that I had worked really hard at a lot of residual income. So it was going to impact my family. I was gonna need to bring that back. And so I was literally running on the treadmill and I was obsessed with energize at the time. And um, I like was I'm pretty adamant with my hands and I was like talking to the Lord and I literally hit the energize out of the treadmill, which if you guys know energize at all, it's this yellow product. It was a disaster. We had just had our house painted, so my whole basement was like splattered in the seal, it was all over my treadmill, and I was like, okay, I'm gonna quit. I literally went and got my computer and I resigned from Beachbody that moment because I was like, if I don't do this now, I'm not gonna do this, but I know what, I know what's happening. And I haven't had a drink of Energize since that day either, because I felt like he's taking that away and I didn't want that mess. And so I never even told Tabitha that I left Beachbody at the time because I was like, I gotta figure out how we're gonna like make this income up or whatever. And so then when she texts me that, I was it it took a while. Like she, I was like, I remember being like, okay, like what is happening here? And so, but it took a while for me to put together, like, remember you left a coaching and like you have a reason to do this. And so that's how the coaching academy was birthed. And we, it was quick and like we moved, but something that we did was everything that bugged me about coaching, and everything that bugged her about different things we have put together in this business in a box, essentially. And so we've fixed kind of all the problems um that we see inside of these coaching groups.

Dr. Tabatha:

Yeah, so I just I wanted to highlight the fact that this is God's work and God's plan, and we're all just finally surrendering and being obedient. And look at how beautifully it's coming together because I truly don't think I could have gotten through the past five years without this group of women and without God. And it sounds like you two ladies would have not had the same kind of year if you hadn't been in this group, right? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely, absolutely. I want to go back to something that Kendra said when she was talking about it being so much about the mindset because that was the same experience I had. And I had done some of the same things Kendra was talking about. I mean, I had been, I'd been deep in rabbit holes with functional health for quite some time through some of my own health challenges. And uh, you know, I had the mindset that it was about control. If I could control everything about my health, if I could control my activity, if I could control all my macros, my calories, my weight. I was an obsessive wear. I mean, weighing several times a day because the number might change and might affect me in a different way. And, you know, it never mattered what the number was, it was not satisfying. And um I, you know, I just had this idea if I track it all, I track my sleep, I track my activity, I track this, I can control exactly what's going on. And I couldn't what I had to do was surrender. I had to surrender it all to the Lord. And I had such, I call it diet brain, diet mentality, whatever. It needed to be starved. I mean, it needed to be starved so that I could bury it, get rid of it out of my life, and not have that, those thoughts anymore. And that took me throwing away my scale. I very clearly had God say to me, you have got to trust your body to work the way I designed it, as long as you supply it with the things I've given you. And if you don't trust your body, you don't trust me. That hurt. That was a little testing there, wasn't it? And so I it was June the 8th when that was revealed to me. My birthday was September the 8th, so basically 90 days, and I said, okay, I'm giving it up for 90 days. Giving it up for 90 days, and let me tell you, it was hard. I had to hide it because I was so used to going in and stepping on it. I had to put it up out of sight. And I thought, okay, well, I'll weigh on my birthday. And my birthday came and I felt so good not allowing a number to define how I was gonna feel about myself that day, that I was like, I I'm not doing this. I I may never weigh again. And I had to go to the doctor for an annual checkup last week, and they, oh, you need to go back there and step on the scale. And I just looked at her and I said, You do not need to say anything when I step on the scale. I don't care what the number is, I do not want to hear it. I am trying not to let things cloud my mind that don't need to. And she was like, Whoa, that's good. That's been so freedom. Yes, yeah, yes, and God wants us to live in that freedom.

Ashlee :

Oh, you're giving me goosebumps. Yeah, so good. All right, ladies, why don't you tell the audience listening, what is one piece of advice that you wish you would have had when you both broke your wrist?

Dr. Tabatha:

Or that you were so glad that you got being a coach that you implemented. Like what what was the biggest thing that got you through?

SPEAKER_05:

Well, I mean, no, you go, you go.

SPEAKER_01:

Probably learning that it was okay for me, or knowing that it was okay for me to ask for help. Um and asking for help did not mean I was weak. It meant that I was smart.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Rather than trying to do things that I shouldn't be trying to do in order for my my hand to heal. Um, my hand's real important to me, and I wanted it to work the right way. So I did, I was cautioned against falling again. So I was very careful. Um, but but so you know, asking my husband to do things for me. I mean, girls, I'm gonna tell you, I think that he ought to be able to read my mind and just know when I need something and do it. But learning to ask because he doesn't know he's a man, he's made different than I am. He doesn't know that I need the face cleanser opened when I have to clean my face.

Dr. Tabatha:

Even though you've been married to him for a hundred years, he doesn't know it's fine.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I mean, you know, so I'm interested to hear this today.

Ashlee :

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Understanding that it's really hard for my needs to be met if someone doesn't know what my needs are, which is not just bringing those needs to my husband, but bringing those needs to my father. And I mean, he already knows my needs. But me humbling myself to tell him what those needs are and with full expectation that he will fill them. That is what I wish I already knew before I broke my wrist. And maybe I wouldn't have had to break my wrist to find out, right?

SPEAKER_05:

So good. Yeah, I feel like just in general, I've learned and I would tell others to trust the process and remember that God already knew. Because as soon as I changed that mindset, like Terry, I was like, huh, maybe he does want me to ask for help a little bit more, and maybe my oldest daughter could cook a little bit more in my house than because maybe he's working on her and she's loved it. And I I mean, what did I miss? I missed chopping vegetables and I missed journaling. Those were like the things I missed. And um but as soon as I made that mindset shift that he already knew this, that he's doing something, and I'm not gonna lie, perspective is huge. So when I left urgent care, I had a cast from my armpit to my fingers. Gosh. And I thought, oh Lord, like there's not a single piece of clothing that I would be able to wear. And so I was breathing through that and like, okay, this is where we're gonna go. And then when I showed up at the orthopedics and I was like, please tell me this is a little dramatic. And she was like, I can do a lot better. So when you walk out with a little brace, so perspective, right? Like it's huge, but yes, it's been wonderful to have to ask for help. I realize it just taps in. This is not new, this is something that's been revealed to me over this last year, but just pride. Yeah, pride is behind that. I don't want my daughter to open that jar. I can open that jar, you know, and now I can't. So it's been it's been really good, but I really think that breaking your wrist is the same as getting sick is the same as like anything that is unexpected and unplanned that reminds us that we're not actually in control, that's our opportunity to choose. We can choose joy and gratitude, or we can choose self-pity and anger. And it's like, I don't know, I don't want to live down here. Yep, exactly.

Dr. Tabatha:

You said it, you made a choice, and that is what we are called to do. We can't be double-minded, we have to just trust God and say, okay, I'm gonna lean into you, you are in control. And I was looking for a scripture today, thinking about like a scripture that says, I trust you, Lord. And I came up with Jeremiah 17, 7 and 8. I'm gonna read it. But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, its leaves are always green, it has no worries in a year of drought, and it never fails to bear fruit. So that is what I aspire to be like is this little tree by the stream. Yes.

Ashlee :

Oh my gosh. Thank you, ladies, so much. This was awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

It was. It's so good to be with you all. Yeah, you too.

Dr. Tabatha:

Yeah, I love it. God is so good. Go out and be Christ's hands to serve. And if you want to be a part of our sisterhood, we want to have you. If you are feeling that nudge, that is from the Holy Spirit. And I would really urge you just to start obeying and surrendering because it is such a gift, and there's so much freedom on the other side of obedience, which doesn't make any sense to me. I'm still trying to fathom that, but it's true, right, ladies? Yes, yeah, right. Awesome. Yay, see you next week. See ya.

SPEAKER_03:

Bye.