001: Introducing BAB Radio with Amber Brueseke

Introduction

You're listening to Biceps after Babies radio episode number 1.

Hello and welcome to Biceps after Babies radio. A podcast for moms who know that fitness is about so much more than pounds loss or PRs. It's about feeling confident in your skin and empowered in your life. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke a registered nurse, personal trainer, online fitness coach, wife and mom of four. Every week. My guests and I will excite and motivate you to take action in your own personal fitness as we talk about nutrition, exercise mindset, personal development, and executing life with conscious intention. If your goal is to look, feel, and be strong and experience transformation from the inside out, you my friend are in the right place. Thank you for tuning in. Now let's jump into today's episode.

(00:50)

Hello friends. I literally cannot believe this day has finally come and that I'm launching this thing that has really been just an idea for about a year. I remember early in 2018 I woke up one Sunday morning and as soon as I sat up in bed, I had just this thought, I'm going to start a podcast. Like it was just there. It was like this reality that was inevitable and it wasn't stressed about it, but it was just like I knew it was going to happen. So I went downstairs and my husband TJ was cooking dinner and I looked at him, I said, hey honey, I'm going to start a podcast. And bless his heart, he's kind of used to me throwing out some pretty big dreams. And he was like, awesome. And then his typical male mindset came in and he started peppering me with all these questions about what's the theme going to be? What does it that, what am I gonna call it? What are we going to talk about? And finally I was like, Babe, I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to call it. I don't know when I'm gonna launch it. I don't know what I'm gonna talk about, but I just know I'm going to start a podcast this year. And it wasn't stressed about it. I wasn't anxious about the details. I just kind of knew it was going to happen when it was the right time and that it was going to be awesome when it did. And this is it. This is the time and I am just so flipping excited about the things that I'm going to be able to share during the episodes.

Podcast Expectations: (02:03)

So here's what you can kind of expect. We're going to have weekly episodes, some Solo, some with guests, and we're going to talk about nutrition, about fitness and mindset and personal development and really getting to the point where you're executing your life with conscious intention. I have been active on my fitness, Instagram account, Biceps after Babies for almost three years, but I find as I'm trying to post in these little captions that there's so much more depth and nuances and things that I want to talk about and dive deeper into and this podcast is really going to be the place that we can do it together.

Personal Background: (02:39)

So kind of a little background on me and a little bit about my story and the creation of, of Biceps after Babies. My story really starts way, way back when I was pretty darn young and my mom was a fitness instructor. And I remember as a young child going to the YMCA, we had this tiny YMCA by us. And sitting in the childcare, there was this big window that we could look into the group fitness room. And so I remember as a young child looking through the window and watching my mom teach fitness classes. And so from a very young age I like was ingrained in that and learn that and looked up to that in, in my mother. And I was so pumped when I was finally 14 because when you're 14 you're allowed to go into the weight room at the YMCA. And so I remember after I turned 14 my mom took me into the weight room and she walked me around and she showed me all the equipments and started teaching me about weightlifting. And so during my teenage years, I didn't do anything consistent, but I, you know, I would attend my mom's classes every once in a while and I would go lift weights every once in a while. Um, and it just was something that I never questioned whether a woman should be in the weight room, um, because I saw my mom do it. And of course we always want to be like our moms.

(03:52)

Um, and so fast forward a couple of years and I went away to college. I attended BYU and I was a nursing major and ended up graduating with my bachelor's degree in nursing. And while I was there, I took an elective, a weightlifting class elective, and I learned so much more about technique and, um, how to program, uh, you know, my workout routines. And I started seeing improvements and seeing my numbers go up. And so during my time there, I would go to the gym pretty frequently and do some cardio and do some weights. Um, and then we moved to Pennsylvania for my husband to attend medical school. And that first year while he was in medical school, I was pregnant with my first child. And during that time I would go to the on-campus weight room and I remember getting lots of looks from people as I'm walking around big and pregnant lifting weights, uh, and you know, the stares that sometimes pregnant women get in the weight room is, is kinda funny. But, uh, I did, I worked out and I lifted weights all through my pregnancy. And then I had my daughter and I couldn't go back to the gym because at that gym there was no childcare. It was an on campus gym. It was really meant for the medical students and their families and it didn't have any childcare. And so I was talking to my best friend at the time and she was, she said, well, you should come join my gym, the gym that I go to and it has childcare and we can do, um, this group fitness class called Zumba, which I had never heard of. And just come do the less mills classes. And I said, okay, well, how much does it cost? And she said it was $30 and the me now would be like, okay, let's go do that, but the meat then in that situation like cheap doesn't even begin to describe me at this point in my life. I cut coupons. I would drive to three different stores to get the best prices on food. We drove old cars. I shopped at thrift stores like this was a poor time in our life and to call me cheap, even like I was cheap, doesn't even cut it. I guess kind of understating it. And I could not bring myself to spend $30 a month on a gym membership even if the childcare was included. Thank goodness my friend didn't laugh at me and she, she gently reminded me that I would be a better mom and a better woman if I would take care of myself and take time to work out. So I did it. I bit the bullet and I signed up for the gym and thank goodness I did because it caused this monumental shift in my life. I started taking group fitness classes with her and I fell in love with it all over again. I loved the energy, I loved the moves. I loved the people. I love the instructors. And so when my friend came to me a little while later and said, let's go get certified in Zumba, my heart said, yes, let's do this. I was so excited. But then again it came back down to money. Um, obviously I had this like scarcity mindset with money and I've worked through it and we can have a whole podcast episode on that. But at that point in my life, the $170 that I had to spend to get certified in Zumba just seemed like monumental. And so bless my, my friend, she seen this like battle between both sides of me wanting this but not wanting to spend the money on it. She contacted my mother in law and she got my mother in law to gift it to me for my birthday. So she gifted me the enrollment. The two of US ended up getting certified in Zumba and that was really the springboard to seven years teaching group fitness. And I continued to add formats over time. I taught Zumba, I taught body pump, body combat, CX works, belly bar, high fitness and, and I loved it. I loved that period of time teaching group fitness. I still have a really special place in my heart for group fitness and I think it's a fabulous way for people to get into the gym.

(07:42)

So fast forward though, into January, January of 2016 and I had been teaching classes for about six years and I had this realization that even though I was teaching five, six, seven classes a week, like nothing ever really changed. It wasn't like my weights were going up a ton. It wasn't like my body was changing, like it just was always kind of the same. And so I set this crazy goal for my new year's resolution. I wanted to get abs and I wanted to challenge myself and kind of, you know, see the progress that I had knew that was under there. I knew there was muscle under there, but I wanted to like see it. And so I heard about this thing called IIFYM or If It Fits Your Macros and it really fit with my idea about moderation with food and not restricting or cutting out food groups and, and the scientific background that I had in my nursing degree. And so I said I was going to give it a shot and I set my macros and I tracked my food. And over the course of about eight weeks, I dropped 10 pounds and amazingly there was my six pack. And so it was during this period of time when I had set this goal for myself that I started my Instagram account. I remember very vividly, I was scrolling through Instagram one day and I was looking at some fitness accounts that I followed and I had this thought like I do all these things that they're talking about. I could totally, I could totally do this, I could totally create my own page. And so I was like, I'm going to do it, I'm going to create this page. But I had to come up with a name and that was kind of where I was stuck. And as I was mulling it over in the car one day, cause I spend a lot of my time in the car driving around four children and I was sitting in the car and I don't really remember why I was sitting in the driveway, but I remember sitting in the driveway and I just had this like thought come to me Biceps after Babies and that was the name and just like popped into my head and I was like boom, that's it. That's the name that like embodies what I want to communicate. This idea that just because you have kids or just because you're a mom or just because you aren't 20 anymore, doesn't mean that your fitness days are behind you. I believe and I know that as moms we can kick a whole bunch of trash and find our fitness and find our muscles and find our abs and find our whatever and be awesome mothers and wives and sisters and friends. So that's how Biceps after Babies got started. And my fitness journey hasn't stopped with just getting abs. That was almost three years ago and I've had quite the journey over the past three years, which I'm sure I'll talk about in future episodes with different goals and different passions and different focuses. But at the heart of everything that I do is this passion and this love for fitness and nutrition and teaching and helping women who want to improve in those areas be able to do so.

Wrap-Up: (10:24)

So that's me and that's Biceps after Babies and Biceps after Babies radio is really just the next step in sharing my passion and sharing my vision in teaching and educating and inspiring other mamas to continue to progress and to live these intentional lives. So I'm really excited for this journey and I hope that you will join me on it. It definitely is intimidating to start something new and start from ground zero and try to build some momentum. So if you're excited about this podcast, the best way that you can help me is to leave a review and you can do it right on your phone. It takes less than five minutes to do. And it really helps with the iTunes rankings, which is how people find brand new podcasts like this. And to incentivize or to basically bribe you, I'm going to do a giveaway. So if you go and leave me a review, you will be entered to win free enrollment into my 12 week Ditch the Diet self study course. And this is a course that walks you through the mindset shifts as well as the nutrition and exercise knowledge that you need to have to be able to hit your next goal, whether that's weight loss or building confidence with food or trying to fuel your body better for performance goals. Um, so if you go and leave me a review before November 22nd which is Thanksgiving. So before Thanksgiving you go, leave me a review, tell me what you think, tell me what you're excited about and what you want to hear more of. And I will enter you into the raffle and I will select one person to win that. So thank you so much for joining me. As I launched this new podcasts, there are a couple episodes already uploaded for you to listen so you can kind of binge listen to them all. But I want you to go and listen and I would love, love, love to know what you think. So thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I'm Amber. Now go be strong because remember my friend, you can do anything.

Outro:

Hold up, sister, friend. Do you love Biceps after Babies radio? If so, the best way to say thank you is to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes. I know every podcaster wants you to leave a review, but it's because those reviews help the podcast to reach more people and I do truly want to know what you think. If this particular episode resonated with you, will you also please share it? Either send the link to someone who would find it valuable or take a screenshot and post it to your social media and tell your friends and family why they should listen. Make sure you tag me @biceps.after.babies so I can hear your feedback and give you a little love. And you know, if you aren't already following me on Instagram or Facebook, that's the perfect time to hit that follow button. Thank you for being here and listening to Biceps after Babies radio.