In a recent episode of the TaskHuman Talks podcast, host and provider Jamie Carroll sat down with health coach and yoga instructor Emily Kulas to discuss Emily’s exercise and wellness beliefs.
Emily believes that the small changes we make lead to big results. We use each success to build another, and we eventually achieve the result we want.
TaskHuman providers excel at helping consumers “identify what they need to do or what steps they need to take to achieve the changes that they want,” she says.
Here are the highlights of their conversation:
When people want to lose weight, they often try to do too much at once. Emily believes people have better success when they go at a gradual pace: implement a change and allow it to become a habit before adding something else.
If you don’t and try to rush things, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Then, because you feel so much pressure, you give up and feel defeated.
“Take it easy,” Emily says. “Take it slow. One step at a time, so it’s more sustainable.”
She also finds her clients have the most success when they avoid processed foods and eat a lot of vegetables. Again, though, she wants you to make small changes and include variety in your diet, so you don’t get cravings or feel like you’re depriving yourself.
Diet and exercise take the majority of the attention when people want to improve their wellness. Emily thinks hormones are more important. She sees them as the starting point for your overall health and wellness.
“Hormones are kind of a gateway,” she says.
Once your hormones are regulated, then you can focus on your food and fitness. If you ignore your hormones, you could have a great food and fitness routine and still not feel like your best self.
You can work to change your balance in whatever direction you want, Emily thinks. You already have a baseline, no matter what it is initially.
“It’s what we come back to when we’re not thinking,” she says
What you do naturally is your current balance. If you go to work, come home, eat a quick dinner, then watch tv for the night – that’s your balance. It just might not be the healthiest one.
You can change your baseline by slowly bringing in new habits. As you build them, you change your balance.
“Including more self-care habits throughout the week or day slowly changes the baseline,” Emily says.
To help you stay focused, Emily encourages journaling. For her, there’s something about seeing your commitments in your own handwriting that makes them more powerful. It’s also important to know why you want to change.
“We need to know the ‘why’ because it’s going to help us on the days we don’t feel like it,” she says.
We all have seasons of overburdened schedules or overwhelmed minds. When time feels scarce and you can’t get everything you want into your day, make sure you prioritize your self-care for the one habit that will recharge you the most.
We know we need to prioritize our relationships. We make the effort to stay in touch with our loved-ones who live farther away. But when we’re alone, we spend hours on our phones scrolling mindlessly through our social channels.
Emily wants you to put your phone down. Instead, spend that time with yourself. Get to know yourself better.
“When we stop consuming everything from the outside, that’s when we learn what we need from the inside,” she says.
She encourages you to be in silence with yourself, so you can discover what you really need.
Even communication with our favorite people could be getting more difficult right now. While travel remains more difficult for some, creativity in fostering connections is necessary. Emily encourages you to try different things: ask friends to play an online game or cook a meal together.
To build your creativity, try including more life in your home and reduce the clutter.
“It’s a matter of addition and subtraction,” Emily says.
By adding greenery or rearranging the room, you shift the energy and make your space more positive and light.
In the Instagram age, yogis seem to fit a type: long, lean, and super-bendy. Emily is quick to assure you that all people and bodies can benefit from yoga.
“Yoga is not exclusive in any way,” she says.
If you’ve never tried yoga before, Emily thinks starting with asanas (poses) is a great introduction. The poses prepare your body for the breath, which deepens the practice.
Because yoga is seen as slower than other types of exercise, it can be difficult for people who are constantly on the go to feel comfortable with the slower pace. It’s an important lesson to learn.
“Rest is productive,” Emily reminds us.
Even taking the time during the day to take one deep, conscious breath is restful and healing.
When Emily is practicing good self-care, she makes sure she has quiet time every day. Her alone time is important for her mind to process and settle down. It allows her to hear herself and reconnect to her inner wisdom.
And, of course, movement is important too.
“It’s really important to me,” she says. “It helps me feel good in my body.”
Emily also makes sure she is hydrated. In the colder months, she drinks a lot of herbal teas, and in the warmer months she consumes a lot of water. This, of course, is something that should be implemented year-round for a healthy routine.
Finally, breathwork is part of Emily’s regular self-care routine.
She leads us through a brief exercise to show how to use breathwork to cool and warm the body and mind as needed.
Wherever you are in your wellness journey, having a coach who can help guide you through the highs and lows, can mean the difference between struggling in place (and feeling stuck) or moving forward and progressing toward your goals. Emily encourages you to find someone you connect with, and who aligns with your goals and mindset, for support.
“Whatever you’re trying to do, there’s someone out there that can help you do it,” she says.
Listen to the full podcast here. If you’re interested in getting to know Emily a little better and learning how she can help support your health and wellness goals, reach out to her for a 1 -on-1 LIVE video chat today.