Hi.

I'm Laura Vanderkamp.

I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist, and speaker.

And I'm Sarah Hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer, and courtse creator.

We are two working parents who love our careers and our families.

Welcome to best of both worlds.

Here we talk about how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.

From figuring out childcare to mapping out long.

Term career goals.

We want you to get the most out of life.

Welcome to best of both worlds.

This is Laura.

This episode is airing in November of twenty twenty five.

I am actually sitting here with Sarah in her hotel room in Fort Lauderdale.

Now why you may ask, does Sarah need a hotel room in Fort Lauderdale because she lives near here as people may know.

But we are here for the annual Best Laid Plans Live session.

We've been having a great time with about thirty attendees working through our plans for twenty twenty six, So just give a shout out to that.

We hope to have listeners of this maybe come in a future year.

We'll talk more about that in the future, but it's nice to say.

We are having a fabulous time and we always enjoy recording in person.

So today's episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah is going to be interviewing Andrea Lee Rogers.

She is a dancer, a pilates teacher, the founder of Extend Bar, which is how some people may have heard of her, and a super trainer and now an author as well.

I know they're going to talk about that.

So we can't wait to hear from Andrea about in particular, small rituals she has that help improve her day to day life.

So, Sarah, I know you have a lot of rituals that you do daily.

What would you say improves your daily life?

Yeah, so I will choose to.

I definitely cannot function without my daily planning ritual, which really only takes between five and ten minutes.

For me, it feels meditative.

I set up my planner page for the day with all my favorite pens and highlighters.

I make sure I process anything on the prior day so that I don't miss anything.

Or maybe I put something on my to do list and didn't get to it, and then I look at my calendar and I craft my to do list for that day, And really that is if I had to only keep one ritual in my life, it would be my daily planning ritual.

But we're gonna need to and I would say the second one that I really enjoy and feel adds a lot to my day is about ten to fifteen minutes.

Of nonfiction reading in the morning.

I do it after I plan, and it just always puts me and in good headspace for the day and allows me to accumulate a reasonable amount of nonfiction reading throughout the year when it's not really the type of material I want to pick up by my bed or other times that I tend to read.

So I really enjoy it and feel like it enhances my life.

What about it?

I love the idea of matching a ritual to the time of day when your energy is best suited to it.

So one daily ritual at.

Me during the work week that I really swear by is I make my daily to do list the afternoon before, So that means that Sunday night, I'm making Mondays to do list, Monday late afternoon I'm making Tuesdays to do list, and so on through the week.

And what this does is it forces me to look over the lay of the land tomorrow to figure out what I truly intend to do in the time available, because I also need to write in, you know, to my to do list.

Well, I have this at this time, this at this time, so various appointments and commitments, and then these are the other things I plan to do and what time of day I intend to do them.

So like I'll record my before Breakfast episodes before I have this phone call with somebody at this time, and I plan to post two of my vander Hacks things before I have another appointment at two or whatever it is.

And it makes me think through the day and then figure out if I'm going to do other things in there.

And then of course, by time tracking is a daily habit, a daily ritual that I check in about three to four times a day, just write down what I've done since the last time.

But that level of accountability for how I'm spending my time has I think, what's made a lot possible in my life.

I love both of those, and I think our listeners are going to be inspired by the rituals that I discussed with Andrea as well.

So we'll segue to the episode.

Well, I am so excited to Welcome to the show, Andrew Rogers, dancer, Pilate's teacher, founder of extend Bar, supertrainer, and now author.

Welcome Andrea to the show.

I'm so excited to be here.

Thank you so much.

Well, I came across your book and I actually didn't know your story, but I found it super super inspiring.

Listeners from a while back on this show know that I had a beach body phase.

I actually I was all into autumn, like I had the twenty one day fix.

I had my eighty day obsession.

I like got me through pandemic times and I loved it.

I did not have the pleasure of taking your classes.

Well nough now I kind of want to go back and try them off.

But tell us your story because you didn't like wake up one day and have.

The amazing success that you have had.

But I think giving us like a synopsis about what your career journey has looked like will be really inspiring for listening.

I'm glad that I love talking to someone who gets it, who's in that fitness industry, in that world.

So I started dancing from a very young age.

I was three years old when I first started dancing and fell in love with movement and dance and it continued with me throughout my entire life, and that segued into a career in pilates.

So I went to college, got my degree, quinci behind a desk and was like, got to get back into movement.

So after graduated from college, I decided I want to teach pilates, and so I went for a comprehensive classical certification.

Fell in love with movement in terms of the science behind pilates, and I just was like, oh, I'm getting that high again that I used to get when I was reforming with teaching.

And then that segued into building an extend bar and that happened organically.

I was teaching at the studio in South Florida, and from there I started to sprinkle in some dance moves with my private clients and they started to really resonate with the movement and say, Hey, do more of that dance stuff you did, you know last week?

And I decided to launch a class.

So we launched a bar class.

It was really trendy at the time in like New York and LA but not quite yet in Florida.

And it took off.

It just took off, and then it just grew from there, grew into a license model than a franchise model, and then Covid Hit kind of wiped out the whole brick and mortar business and we focused on digital, which is where we're at now.

So so cool and definitely some different life events kind of happened to you along the way that you talk about in the book.

I don't know, do you want to share any of that kind of your kids too, Yes.

So the book was born out of the strategies and principles and daily practices that I do on a regular basis, which don't take a lot of time.

It's not like more things you have to add to your to do list.

So if you're thinking, oh my god, seven more things I have to add, and that's not what.

This is about.

These are daily practices that become second nature.

They are just like you brush your teeth in the morning using these things, and they are my groundwork and my foundation for being able to live this life.

And a lot of them were born during a very challenging time in life.

I was going through a divorce and.

The business had its challenges specifically internationally, and everything seemed to be swirling, and I had to hold on to something and grasp into these principles and these practices that truly were my anchors and my stabilizers in life.

And you can learn even more about all the stuff that Andrea went through and rose up from in the book, because.

You tell a great job telling your story.

But I want to spend some time diving into some of these daily practices because it's enough to speak in abstracts.

But I think one really nice thing about your book is like you get there with very concrete recommendations down to how much time you recommend spending on them, which is not a lot of time per practice minutes.

And I think sometimes you just want a prescription and like that's it.

Yes, sometimes you need just like a toolkit, right, like tell me what to do, tell me what you do.

And that's why I wrote the book, because I was sharing all of these little nuggets with all of my friends and then my clients and members and everybody, and it became a workshop, and then it was on retreats, and then I'm like, okay, I got to put all this into a book.

It's exactly that they're tangible.

They are easy to execute, and the most important thing is they're sustainable.

Partly because a lot of them could be scaled up, but the basic kind of version of them is so minor.

Exactly.

Let's start, let's go through each one of them.

Okay, I think you picked a great set of things to think about.

Okay, So number one was breath work, and I'm just interested in how you got started doing that and how do you currently incorporate that in your day.

So I started with breath work, I mean without knowing it really when I was growing up dancing right, I used breath as a powerful tool to help aid my movement.

And then I used it as I was going through big auditions in my life and I started to get nervous.

I started to call myself and control my breath, and my energy kind of shifted and changed and I.

Was able to perform.

So I realized a little bit of that early on, but it wasn't until later in my life when I was going through these challenging times when I felt like the world was spinning and my ground was shaking, and I leaned into the power of breath work.

And it all started.

Because I was in a grocery store in South Florida, and I was feeling like I couldn't catch my breath, I couldn't find my balance and stability.

And I bought a smudge spray and I just started to smudge and breathe and things started to change, and from there it snowballed into just again second nature.

I do it every single morning when I wake up, every single light, befoy the bed, and then all in between, like I will just take that big breath hold at the top before exhale it out.

And I did that multiple times a day.

And what I love about the breath work and what we say in the book is we really talk about the science behind it and why it's so powerful.

But I think more people need to understand that you have this unbelievable tool that is built within your body.

It doesn't require you to download an app, don't have to take a pill, you don't have to do anything, but just give yourself a few minutes to learn about it and then try it and do it consistently, and you will see the transformation that occurs.

I think there's also something so beautiful about being like I'm going to start my day with this tiny, intentional action that involves no screen it's not hard to check off.

It puts you in a frame of mind and then you're like, wow, I started my day doing what I wanted to do, and then we can go from there.

And then you provide some really interesting ideas of how you might kind of add on that or or vary that with time.

So that's awesome.

All right.

Number two was stretching, And this is super interesting because I am like not a stretcher.

You and everybody else.

Girl.

I used to be a runner and I would like go into twenty mile run with no nothing, no warm up, no stretching.

No.

It's like it wasn't appealing.

It's like why do it?

But I have reformed myself a little bit in recent times.

And then I also look at my daughter who's thirteen and can do like an oversplit, and I'm like, okay, wow, you really can only keep this movement of your body if you do it.

So that's interesting.

That's it's not crazy where stretching comes in when you recommend doing it, And like why why should people who aren't dancers, Like why does stretching belong in their routine?

Right?

Like why does it matter if your goal is not the splits, then why do you want to stretch.

That's what most people think, like, well, I don't need to be flexible.

But what we don't realize is strength and flexibility are of equal importance, and as you age, you want to be mobile as mobile as you can be.

I was just talking with an individual, a weightlifter, who I was doing a podcast with, and he was talking about how he recently came into this understanding of how powerful stretching was for him because he was in the same mindset like lifting not stretching, didn't think it mattered.

And then he would start to do things around the house like pick up something off the floor or try to move a pouch, which we had the strength to do, but he didn't have the flexibility to do.

And he was pulling muscles and hurting his back and doing all these things.

And he realized with time, like, oh wow, I actually have to give myself the time to work on my mobility and flexibility and it will aid your muscular strength.

And so the two go hand on hand.

You want a body that is fluid, that is mobile.

And one thing we learned in pilates is what Joseph Pilotti preached you are only as healthy as your spine.

So the more you can work to get to the place where you understand this isn't about being flexible.

This isn't about kicking your leg, dear Sky, this isn't.

About doing the splits.

This is about aging and longevity and just overall wellness.

Now, I also like to combine stretching.

I kind of use stretching awareness stretching meditation because I'm not someone who can sit still.

I don't medicate very well in a quiet sitting position, so I focus on my mindset while I'm moving my body stretching while I'm breathing, so I get multiple things going on there while I'm stretching.

I will not get into bed or out of bed without stretching every morning, every single morning, and it takes like two seconds.

I wake up, I reach forward towards my toes, I do lateral flexion side to side reaches, and I do the same thing after I stand up.

I ford full touch towards my toes, take a full breath, stand up, and do some lateral side to side stretches.

And I've just like you said, with the breathwork.

I just took a few moments of doing something good for my body, and the likelihood that I'm going to make another good choice to do something good for my mind and body is going to be high.

Yes, it's that intentionality piece, and it's so so quick, and you'll be proud because now I'm going to pilateus.

So you know, now I'm the iced to do more stretching.

But I love the idea of adding into my morning routine, and I probably wouldn't have thought of that without your books, So I love that.

All Right, we're gonna take a quick break and then we're gonna get into the next couple of rituals.

All Right, we are back, and we've talked about breathwork and stretching.

And then the third segment or the third habit that you talk about is movement, and you.

Coined the term just press play.

How did you come up with that?

Yes, because once you've got to stop thinking, you got to stop worrying about the excuses, and you just have to start moving.

So just press play is like enough of the dialogue, stop thinking about every reason you should not be moving your body, and just do it.

And this chapter makes it acceptible.

As I talked about, everything here is accessible it's easy to implement.

So all I'm asking for is ten minutes a day of movement.

And I make it even more simple because I recorded ten minute workouts to go along with its book.

So if you buy the book, you get access to the workouts for free.

Don't get pay anything.

You just get the ten minute workouts and you press play, and you just press play every single day.

Ten minutes, every single day, non negotiable, no excuses.

We all have ten minutes to move our body.

And the power of moving your body every single day.

When you can become that person that exercises even ten minutes every single day, you will see the transformation that occurs in all other areas of your life.

And I'm always preaching move your body, move your life.

I love it.

I mean, we were designed to move, and I think changing the question to from like will I exercise to like what kind of exercise will I do today?

Is kind of life changing.

But once you get in that groove, and I've definitely been in that groove for many years as well, it's like, yeah, it's just nice.

You just don't question it.

It's like what will I do exactly?

I love that.

That's a great mindset.

All right, Well, your next one is super interesting and very up my alley, so very into goal setting and different techniques, and everybody has their own takes on to do list and all that kind of stuff, and here this was kind of interesting.

So talk about your method of the six items and where that started from.

And I especially think our listeners would probably be interested in that last item that you add to list.

That's a little bit you can.

Yes, So this is called do the thing.

And it was boring during a time in twenty nineteen, I just moved to New York City with my two daughters.

I was recently separated, going through a very challenging divorce, and found myself living in this tiny little apartment surrounded by boxes and an endless, endless to do list, and I remember reaching for the list.

I'm like, oh my god, this is crazy.

This is like an out of control I can't keep up.

And so I'm like, I'm done.

I'm done with this damn list.

I'm done.

Going to just think about three things today that I need to do.

Just three things that I'm doing today.

Those are my priorities.

Those I'm going to get clearer with my intentions, clearer with my priorities, and I'm going to do these three things, and I'm not just going to write down the first three things that come to mind right or like, I'm going to actually sit with this for a minute, be intentional and strategic with where I'm giving my time and energy too, write like what am I doing with the time and energy.

I wanted to make sure that when I put my hat on the pillow at night, I thought.

Okay, that was good, Andrew, like, you did it.

You did something good today, You moved the needle, You felt productive.

It wasn't just another night of going, oh why didn't I do that?

And why did I do this?

Instead of that like I needed to get this done.

So it just basically is an opportunity for you to have a moment to think about what is important on that day and what you can get done and actually not having.

Any excuses to do it.

And then if you get through those three things, you're winning amazing.

That's great.

You don't need to do anymore.

But if you feel like you can, there's two bonus items.

You add two more things, right, and maybe those are a little less important but still help you to move the needle.

And then lastly on that list, the sixth item.

But again you can only only have to do the three.

But if you can get to that bonus, it's a signature move and it's for you.

It's something that gives back to you.

And I think we have to also understand what that means, because self care is a word that is thrown around like crazy, and it's very different for everybody.

It doesn't mean you have to spend a day at the spot.

It could sip.

For me, set my self care every morning is I make my macha.

And when I make my macha, I focus on my breath, I do some stretching, and I just enjoy it, like I love the ritual.

Of making my macha.

It's just me.

Nobody's up yet, the dogs sleep and everybody's quiet.

It's dark, and that is my me time.

And I acknowledge that that's me time, you know.

I don't just like do it and then rush to my next task.

I think about it.

I'm like, oh, this is so lovely, and I look forward to it.

Every night I go to bed, I'm like, I get to make my matcha on them, ready to sip that first sip and sprinkle with cinnamon, and it sounds silly, but it's really something that gives back to me, just that little tiny two minutes and thirty five seconds that I'm doing making it on my microwave, and it's my ritual and it's great.

It's been wonderful, So you can reassess what self care means to you.

That's a great opportunity to add that little item in.

There, to make sure that one of the items on your list is for you and is fun and just gives back.

And that's it.

Yes, I like that because everybody makes to do lists, and I agree with you there's often not enough thought about prioritization, which is why we end up with fifteen things on our list.

And we know we can't do fifteen things, especially if.

We never feel like we did it right, you know.

Yeah, And I think rarely do people put things on their lists that are like for yourself.

That's a fun thing that can bread all right.

The next section, and speaking of Macha, do you talk about mindful eating and specifically starting your day with a meal that has no screen involvement at all.

So tell us what does this thing real ritual kind of look like these days?

And what would you say to that mom who's like, but I'm juggling ten kids getting them off the ball.

Maybe not ten kids, but like multiple kids getting to school, and.

I'm rushed in the morning, et cetera.

I'm right there with you, and trust me, I get it.

Like my days are crazy, and it's not like I'm sitting down and having Kumbaya on moments during the morning, like it's just not there.

I'm doing a million things at once.

So we get it.

But I'm asking for you to there's a lot in this chapter.

Okay, but we'll just talk about this one section, but there's a lot of.

Amazing nuggets and pieces of.

Gold to help you craft what nutrition means to you and how to live a really healthy life that's nourishing.

But one of the things that I do is I start every meal of the day that first meal of the day.

I should say every day, the first meal of the day, no phone.

So first meal of the day, no phone, no matter what.

Okay, And I'm telling you, my days are crazy.

I've got a million meetings, I've got all this stuff going.

But I put my phone away and I acknowledge the meal.

Okay, I taste it, I feel the textures.

I enjoy it.

The satisfaction is there.

There's a lot of signs behind why you digest your food better, So I'll let you jump into that in the book.

But your posture, you're aware of everything.

And then I also allow my mind to wander.

I let myself think without being overstimulated, without someone telling me what to think or telling me what to judge.

I just have a moment to just think, and I get a lot of great ideas.

During that downtime.

And it's beautiful that it's the first meal of the day because it allows me to kind of shift maybe my direction, or prioritize things in a different way, or just acknowledge things with the moment of calm before I go into the rest of the day.

And I can imagine that probably for me, I'd have to do the to do list part first, because otherwise I'd spend that whole ten minutes being like what should I to do?

But if I'm already at peace with like this is my plan, then I could see being more present.

I'm wired this same way, which is why on this it's funny you said that because we were debating like practice four or five could be interchangeable, and I'm like, I need to do my thing lists first because otherwise I'll be thinking about that and I want to write it down and not have that piece.

So I'm worried the same way.

Totally makes sense and then getting a little silly.

But you talk about having like a meal and like a backup meal.

I was like, what does Andrea eat?

Yes, what is your two or one current favorite that you go to in addition to your mata.

I'm so repetitive with ni nutrition and I think that has been key for me to be maintaining my health and wellness because I know how my body reacts to specific food and I'm not afraid to repeat.

So Number one, do not think you have to create a gormmey meal every single night.

Has to be something different and unique.

Lean into what you really feel nourished by, like what makes you feel good and for me sometimes like I love Brussels sprouts, my body does not love Brussels sprouts, Like my stomach is like no.

No, no, no.

So you have to listen to what works for you.

Doesn't mean just because it's healthy, it's going to be good food for you in terms of your digestion.

But I am my meals, okay, Like every single first meal is this.

It's so boring, girl, I'm so boring.

I'm like scrambled eggs and some type of protein on the side.

So either it's like a protein I had from the night before or it's a turkey sausage.

It is boring, but that's what I do every single day.

Sometimes I get crazy and sprinkle a little everything seasoning on there, you know.

But yeah, I'm pretty.

I mean, my girls will laugh, but we are.

I have the same recipes.

My rice Cristy chicken recipe is on rotation every week.

Like I have the same thing.

But it works for us.

It just works for us.

If you like it and you know it works, and.

I like it, you know it works.

It's easy, and I like, you know, the way I food prep is a little different, and I.

Talk about that in the book.

But I make it simple.

I just make it simple and like everybody can grab what they want.

And we're all busy.

We have things after school, Like we don't time to have that sit down moments without having this prep work done totally.

All right, We're going to take another break and then we're going to get into one of my favorite chapters about the affirmations.

All right, So the last two sections, and I think especially the Affirmations one had some things in it that I have never done and maybe since on the wu Wu side.

And I'm super intrigued because, especially because the rest of the book is so concrete and clearly these things have been awesome for you.

So sell us, like, tell us about how you develop these affirmation practice, how you recommend doing them, and how someone who might be a tiny bit skeptical about them.

Although you did very specifically say we are not manifesting.

Which you know what.

I am not a wu Wu girl.

I'm not a crystal shock work kind of girl.

If you are, I completely love that for you.

I have so many friends and colleagues in the industry that are, and I believe that that works for you.

That is what works for you.

I just never have been that type.

Okay, But when I was going through this very hard time in my life, I don't even remember.

I was trying to think back.

When I was writing this, like how did I come upon this app But I'm assuming I was sitting down just looking for support because I knew I had to get my mind in a better place.

I was not in a good mental place, Okay.

I was going through a lot, and I was like, I have to mind up.

And if I don't mind up, I'm not going to move.

I'm not gonna move.

I'm gonna stay right here in the spot.

And I don't want to stay here.

So I found this app called Think Up and download it now you haven't already think up.

And what it does essentially is it ships your perspective of mindset and you record your own voice, you record your five six two one affirmations, whatever works for you.

And you record it.

I record it as if it already happens.

Okay, so I record.

I am a national best selling author, I am speaking on stages.

To thousands of people, and I.

Am happily in love and with a man that is the man of my dreams.

And like all these things that I wanted to have happen and woo are not silly or not.

What it does is it well, there's signs behind it which we talk in the book.

But what it does is essentially gets you out of your funk.

Okay.

It gets you out of that mindset, and it helps you to focus on who you want to be, and when you think about that person in the future, like I think about, Okay, that's the ANDER want to be.

I start to think about it, I close my eyes.

I listened to it, and I hate listening to my own voice.

Oh my god, I hate it.

This is like I felt so stupid the first three times I did this, and then I was like, forget it.

I don't care if it's ridiculous.

It's working for me and it works for a lot of people.

And I just started to shift.

And after I listened to that, I was in a different mindset.

I was like, Okay, I just thought about the person I want to be and all the roles I'm going to have.

Now what do I need to do to do that?

Like I'm not going to then go sit on the couch, like I'm not going to then go have a good cry.

I'm gonna sit there and go, Okay, yeah, that's.

What you're capable of.

You are capable of being that individual.

Now let's go get it.

And that's what it did.

It helped me to go get it.

I love that.

And also your journaling method with like the left hand side of the page and the right hand side of the page.

Yes, I am tempted to try this, so tell tell our listeners about that as well.

Very similar to what I just said in terms of the think Up app So I would at night, right down on the left side of the page where I was grateful for in the present moment, you know what happened that day I was grateful for, And on the right side of the page, I'd write what I was grateful for as if it had already happened.

So again I'm grateful, I'm the best selling author.

And again, just going to bed at night after you write that, or after you do your affirmation for think Up, you just mind up, you just do you just you cannot fight it.

You just are in a better mindset, in a better place.

And that's what it's about.

And it makes sense.

You're not selling magic here, like oh and then the powers.

It's more like, no, now, my frame of mind will be in the place to think of what actually I can do to make that happen, and I may very.

Well do it.

And you can't fit on the college and be like I just had my moment of dreaming and wishing and visualizing and now.

Come to me.

No, no, no, no, no, ma'am, that is not going to happen.

You have to Actually, it just shifts your perspective, get you in the right mindset, and honestly just motivates you.

It motivates you to make the next move.

I love it.

And then finally, our last section has to do with the pre sleep ritual and somebod who just like falls asleep very easily.

So I was like, Eh, but I think I need to teach my husband your pre sleeper to talk a little bit about that.

What you do right before bed.

Well, if you're a parent, you know how important ritual is before bed, right, Like we live and die by like the go to bed ritual for our kids, Right, we get the best.

Then we've got the book, and we've got the right lotions and the smells and the lighting and everything follows that specific order to go to bed, because we know that is training our children in order to fall asleep.

Then we become adults and we're.

Like, let's scroll on our phone, let's stimulate our brain.

Let's watch a scary show that makes us overworry and think, and like let's overthink and overthink and then overthing and then oh, book bedtime and most people are not like you.

They can't turn it off, they can't just go to bed easily.

And this book really tells you how to lean into the power of creating a routine that works for you, not what works for me, but what works for you.

Setting the stage showing up for sleep like you would the most important meeting of your day.

Right Like if you were showing up for meeting and it was the most important, meaning you locked it in you are so excited you did not show up like with not having the presentation ready or having your notes or feeling prepared.

And yet sleep is one of the most important things you can do to present yourself in the best way and to be the best version of yourself.

And yet we just expect it to happen and we give no preparation to it.

So what I do is I walk through some strategies in order to optimize your routine, simple things which includes breathing, and really focus on how you can let go of the worries before they attack you in the middle of the night.

That was a big one for me, that changed the game for me when I started these strategies because I was always going to bed overthinking and waking up with all these thoughts and it just completely changed the way I sleep awesome.

So taken altogether, we have seven things which you actually broke down the amount of time that you recommended for like the sort of like lowest level of each of them, and they only added up the thirty minutes, which is kind of amazing.

Yes, it is easy.

This is not another thing to add to your list, guys.

This is just stuff that you're going to end up doing it not even realize you're doing it, but then when you don't do it, you will realize you're not doing it.

Totally makes sense.

Well, Andrea, we always end our show with a love of the week, and I'm going to start talking myself to give you time because I don't think we warned you about love of the week.

But it can be anything.

It can be a nail polished color, being outside, it can be like literally anything from your life.

And since you practice a lot of gratitude, I have a feeling you will have no problem coming.

Up with something.

Yes, but I already know I will.

Share mine, which is a big one.

I'm gonna do a big one this week, which is that I love girls' trips like I'm so excited.

I'm headed out to one in a couple of days from when I'm recording this and amazing, I'm going to Canada.

I'm going to Nova Scotia, so I'm going to get some.

That's on my list.

It's going to be yes, right.

And you're a Florida girl, you understand the absolute need to leave right now.

You bet.

Girl.

First of all, I'm from Michigan, so I love that you're going to have the best time.

Oh my god, I love that for you.

So that's mine.

Okay, there's gonna be like tiny, it could be anything.

No, mine's actually similar.

Mine's New York City.

I'm heading to New York City tomorrow and my girls and I'm coming back the next day.

But then we all go.

My girls and I are all going to New York City on Saturday for this whole book tour launch and we're good to spend the city three days, just the three of us in the city that we love, exploring and just being together.

So that is like, I'm just so grateful for that time coming.

Up, so so fun and so cool for your girls to see you at bookstores.

And sharing your wisdom with everyone like that is you should be so proud.

That's awesome.

Thank you.

I appreciate that so much.

My gosh, well, thank you so much for coming on.

This has been a pleasure.

Tell everybody where they can find you and the full name of your book and everything.

Yes, Small Moves, Big Life dot Com is where you can find me.

All the retailers are linked.

There also this section which is called the Moves.

If you click on the move section on the website you'll see how to access all of the free workouts.

Awesome, Thank you so much, Andrea, have.

A great day.

Thank you.

Well, we are back.

That was a fabulous interview Sarah did with Andrea Rogers, learning a lot about daily rituals as well as her career in the fitness industry.

So our question today is related.

Our listener writes it, I want to incorporate exercise into my life regularly, but I struggle with it.

Part of me feels like I need to plan it in very regimented and part of me feels like I don't want to do that.

I rebel against that idea.

So I'm curious how you guys do it?

Do you plan your workouts ahead of time?

Sarah?

What do you do?

Yes?

I do plan my workouts ahead of time.

I don't do it super ahead of time.

It's part of my weekly planning, and I will sit there on Sunday and fill up my weekly spread with what I'm going to do each day.

I do have to schedule any workout classes that I do a little farther in advance, just because I'm currently going to the studio and you have to sign up reasonably in advance for that.

But so I'll look ensure that I have my usual Monday and Thursday at Pilatateas, and then I'll decide, okay, you know, looking at I usually actually the Peloton Hardcore on the Floor calendar, which I learned about.

It's free.

You can go to the site and like download it and it just gives you suggested classes for different days of like upper body and lower body workouts.

So I just like using that because it has enough variety, but I don't have to think about it.

So then I will like plug in different days for the week, and then I know exactly what my workouts look like.

I pretty much work out the same time.

I'm very boring, so my workouts pretty much always start around like five fifty or six am, so I don't have to do a lot of planning because it's more like a default for me.

Yeah, I mean, I would say it's not strictly planned ahead for me.

It's kind of a hybrid version of it.

So in my weekly planning, I tend to write run one two three, like one, two and three, which I will then cross off when I have run a first time, a second time, and a third time, and then I do strength one two and then I cross off each each time I've done a strength workout.

When they happen is a bit more variable.

The only one that is set is that I work out with a trainer virtually.

That tends to happen on Mondays at a set time each week, although you know, if he or I have to move it that that happens.

And then the runs I tend to decide each day looking at the day as I've set my to do list the night before for the next day, am I going to run that day?

And if so, roughly, where can it go?

Often that's like a mid afternoon thing, though I've been experimenting with later in the afternoon as that becomes more possible with older kids and the like, and you know, on the weekends as well.

I tend to have to set if I'm going for a longer run because Michael will want to do his run as well and have to do that.

But I certainly don't say, like, Okay, I have to run four miles today and I have to do it at this pace.

No, absolutely not.

I just say I'm going to go for a run, and then I kind of look at the time available or run the amount of time I feel like running.

I don't even say necessarily where I'm going to go, though, if it's a beautiful fall day, I might have tried to go somewhere interesting to run on.

But yeah, it's more what I feel like in the moment, which is probably why Sarah is in better shape than I am.

But I think no, I actually what you have to say is super valuable, which is that like people assume that maybe you have to structure it a certain way, but actually I think you'd be less successful if you kept forcing yourself to follow a training plan because you really don't.

Like, I don't want to follow a training plan.

Yes, you don't have to.

I don't have to still exercising, and my gut feeling is actually, if you wanted to exercise.

More, you would.

Yeah, you're at the level you're want to be.

So that's great, that's the goal.

That's the goal.

So I think it's kind of a question.

You need to know yourself.

Are you going to respond better to seeing on the weekly plan?

Okay, this is where it's going to happen, because that's going to be protected time, Like, I will follow this calendar.

If other people in my life can see it on my calendar, then they will, you will respect it.

And I also need to know because I'm not going to want to do it in the moment, so I need to know exactly what I'm going to need to do in order to motivate myself for it.

You know that about yourself, great if you know that.

For you, it's about like what's going to feel right in the moment.

As long as it happens in the course of the day, and you have a little bit more flexibility in your schedule, then I think you can be a bit more free form.

Yes, no one right way, No one right way?

All right?

Well, this has been best of both worlds.

Sarah has been interviewing Angrea Lee Rodgers of Extend Bar.

We will be back next week with more on making work and life fit together.

Thanks for listening.

You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you.

Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

This has been the best of both worlds podcasts.

Please join us next time for more on making work and life work together.