Strong & Simple Podcast

Tis the season to be jolly and merry and super busy! During this magical time of year between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, we especially want our movement routine to enhance our life, not add more stress to it.  In this mini-sode Michelle breaks down her top 5 tips for consistency with workouts during this busy and often stressful time year and provides some examples of how she applies th...

In a special non-minisode on a Tuesday, Michelle and Marissa look ahead to the Thanksgiving holiday and the seemingly inevitable diet talk that tends to come with it. Whether it's comments about food that you find triggering or comments about your body, Michelle and Marissa share some strategies and responses that can help you navigate these tricky situations. 

The road to recovery after pregnancy including returning to athletics and working out is never linear and is unique to each person, but much of the information pushed and marketed to pregnant and post-partum folks is about aesthetics and paints a picture that folks can just "bounce back" with the right program.  In this week's episode, Rhonda Chamberlain discusses a different way to support p...

You know the drill: you go the doctors and they check you in and then tell you to jump on the scale and take your blood pressure.  For many folks, knowing they are going to be told to jump on the scale causes much anxiety and nervousness - so much so that folks might avoid scheduling or attending medical visits.  But do you have to be weighed at your appointments?   In this mini-sid...

We are living in a revolutionary time when it comes to recovery and sobriety. The old approaches to substance abuse and addiction are being questioned and often replaced with new approaches, such as harm reduction. Kiola Raines joins Michelle and Marissa in this episode to discuss her work, her journey, and this movement. They discuss ways in which the more traditional models of abstinence come up...

Powdered greens supplements have been super popular over the past several years. They may be a helpful option for some folks but they come with their fair share of potential risks to be considered. Marissa parses out all that you need to know about greens supplements in this minisode. 

It's that time of the year: cleanse season! TV, social media, magazines, everywhere they are advertising cleanses and detoxes to help you "recover" or "bounce back" or "reset" from the most recent holiday. But are theses products and programs worth it? Michelle and Marissa expose what is really going on with these cleanses and what you need to know about them. 

After episode 71, Smash or Pass: Supplement Edition , in this episode, Michelle dives in a bit deeper into the one supplement Marisa and Michelle enthusiastically smashed: Creatine. What is creatine? What does creatine do? Why might someone want to supplement with creatine? Is this a good supplement for women? How do you take creatine? What are the side effects of creatine supplementation? If this...

Let's play a game of smash or pass and review some common, popularly marketed fitness and nutrition supplements! The wellness and diet industry is a $72 billion dollar a year grift with much of this revenue generated through supplement sales.  Which supplements are worth your time and energy and which can you just pass on? If you missed our mini-side about the Mass Center for Native American...

Not sure how to handle your stress cravings? Feeling exhausted when you're stressed? Skipping meals? Marissa talks about some common misconceptions and pitfalls people encounter when it comes to stress and food and shares some tips on how you can support your body and mind through those stressful times by. making sure you are properly nourished and avoiding common mistakes. 

Bodi is the "new" rebranding of the company formally  known as Beachbody - but are they actually turning the corner to be leaders in the nondiet fitness world or are they simply co-opting the body positivity and nondiet movements to attempt to repair the bottom line? In this episode Michelle and Marissa chat with Coach Jen Borruso, a former Beachbody "coach" turned non-diet, weight neutral, s...

A few weeks ago, Michelle shared a newsletter with her Strong Sunday newsletter subscribers describing how a typical Sunday used to look like when she was stuck in the vicious diet cycle versus now and shared 6 tips for when transitioning from a life of constant dieting to breaking up with diets for good.   In this episode Michelle shares this special newsletter with all of you, our incredibl...

Halloween isn't always just a scary time because of the ghosts and ghouls. It can also be a scary time for many folks who are stressed out about the presence of sugary treats. In this episode, Michelle and Marissa break down some strategies for letting go of that fear, building confidence in yourself, and taking your power back from food so you can enjoy the treats as well as the Halloween fun thi...

In this episode, Marissa covers the risks of taking unregulated supplements, the scare tactics many companies and distributors use to convince you to buy their supplements, and why you should be particularly careful about giving those supplements to children. Disclaimer: Nothing is this episode is to be construed as medical advice or commentary on any specific condition or supplement. The views ex...

Michelle and Marissa are joined by Betsy Foster to discuss the needs that new personal trainers have when they first start their careers. We talk about mentorship, common mistakes, resiliency, and more! Find Betsy on Instagram: @foster_strength Check out the Coach's Chat podcast: Coachschat.buzzsprout.com Sign up for Betsy's Free Webinar: www. Bfosterstrong.com/secretseven  About Betsy: Betsy...

If you follow us on the gram , you will see a fundraiser posted to our page for the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness.  In this episode, Michelle discusses why we have a land acknowledgment with every episode and why we are are raising funds for for MCNAA this month (and beyond). The mission of the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness is "to preserve Native Amer...

What does healthy aging look and feel like?  How does movement and fitness and physical therapy fit in with our health goals as we age? During this episode we discuss and answer: 1. What does physical therapy look like for aging populations?  What is the priority for patient care and who can benefit? 2. Digging into the impact of muscle loss (sarcopenia) and bone density loss (osteoporos...

Marissa breaks down the diet myth that fruit is bad for you and explains what you need to know about fruit, sugar, fruit juice, and dried fruit - from nutrient content, to your overall diet, to your energy needs. 

Amanda Goedde sits down with Michelle and Marissa to discuss cybersecurity and fitness apps. What happens to the data you enter into these apps? What risks are there in using wearables and tracking apps? What protections do we have against cyber threats with these apps? Amanda answers your questions and provides important information to maintaining your cyber safety. Find Amanda on Instagram: http...

Any time we are making time for an activity we want to do or have to do, there is something else that will shift in order to make space for those activities.  Despite what social media and capitalism will have us believing, we do not in fact all have the same 24 hours in a day and in different times of our lives, from week to week and month to month, sometimes will take a back seat to other t...

In the world of advertising, language and how it makes you feel and want to feel, is everything.  And the diet and wellness industry has really honed in on this to entice you into purchasing products and programs that may be legit or may be snake oil.  So how can you determine if what you reading on a website or in an email is the real deal? In this episode, Michelle and Marissa break do...

This week's minisode focuses on those days when you feel like you just can't eat enough. What are some of the things that could be causing us to feel this hungry? Hormones? Stress? Physical activity? And, maybe most importantly, what should you do when you feel this way?

This week's episode comes from a listener request: what to do when you want to support your friend but they are on a diet you know to be super restrictive, unhealthy, and unsustainable? This can be a tricky situation but Michelle and Marissa share some helpful tips on how you can be supportive of your friend without supporting the diet and be there for them when/if it doesn't work out.

Raise your hand if you have heard the almost cult like saying that 10,000 steps a day = optimal health! "We need 10,000 steps a day for optimal health!"  But what does this really mean? Where did this 10,000 step magic number come from? In this episode Michelle discusses where the idea of 10,000 steps comes from, ways to incorporate more movement into our lives and how to set challenging but...

Michelle and Marissa talk about 2 situations that can be frustrating in your fitness undertakings: performance plateaus and rough days. They discuss the different reasons why your workout might not feel as good one day as it did before and how to address those different factors. They also chat about performance plateaus, getting "stuck" in your progress, and what some of those contributing factors...