Kristin of The Girl With The Butter // Wellness Women.

Hey hey hey! Happy Wednesday! I am headed to Wanderlust 108 Fest in Dallas this weekend! I am so ready to get my flow + ommm on! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done yoga (#cryface) but I can’t wait to get back into it. Chelsey Korus, the girl who leads the yoga portion of the festival, is seriously my idol. If you don’t follow her on Instagram, you need to. She has a fun, light energy but is a total badass in the gym. Like whoa…#GOALZ.

Anyway, if you are in Dallas or the surrounding areas, I would love for you to join us Saturday! Think of it as a mindful triathlon with a lot more zen and a lot less suck. (No offense to you triathletes! It’s just not my cup-o-tea. I’ll stick to horizontal running. #kthxbye)

findyourtruenorth

I went last year to the Austin event, and it was so much fun. Walk/Run 5k, 60-minute yoga flow + 30-minute guided meditation. THEN there are also lots of fun activities, shopping + food, too! My girl Brandy will be there repping her booth TOTEM, so if you’ve been eyeing some malas or need to bring smudge into your life, be sure to pop by and shop!

You can sign up for Wanderlust 108 Dallas here. Join our group Nourish & Namasté and use the code N&NTribe. Yippee!

Not attending the event, but still wanna meet-up? Hit yo’ girl up! I’d love to grab a coffee!

Alright, I’ll see you badass babes there (or not, it’s cool) — but in other news, let me introduce you to my badass friend, Kristin, of this week’s Wellness Women feature!

MEET KRISTIN

My name is Kristin Kaschak, I’m a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Holistic Lifestyle Coach, certified BirthFIT Coach and Level 2 CrossFit Cert Holder based in New Jersey. My day job for the last 8 years has been with New Jersey’s largest purveyor of craft beer, spirits, and cider. The other side of the coin that is my life is focused on Coaching at my husband’s affiliate, Long Branch CrossFit, doing all the health and food things, and trying to put things that make sense on Instagram @thegirlwiththebutter (and my blog thegirlwiththebutter.com when I get around to it).

My main thing is four-fold:

Health doesn’t have to be a struggle.
Your body isn’t the enemy.
Living a life that prioritizes health/fitness, and living one that you enjoy are not mutually exclusive.
There’s no such thing as the one thing that’s right for everyone.

Anyone, in any lifestyle, can make health a priority if they want to and it doesn’t have to be the never-ending nightmare that it’s made out to be. Me? I’ve worked at a craft beer distributor for nearly 8 years, throughout my entire lifestyle shift from beers and pizza to paleo and CrossFit. How’s that for a challenging environment? It’s all about making it work for you.

I don’t consider myself ‘Paleo’, or any Diet label. In fact, I haven’t been on a ‘Diet’ in years. I just do what I try to help others do: train and eat in the way that works best for me in my life and keeps my goals in mind.

FAVORITE FOOD, TREAT OR INDULGENCE?

I’m sorry. I simply can’t narrow it down to one thing. I flipping love food. Tacos, BBQ, SUSHI… I’m not a big sweets person, but I’m also not one to sy away from some Ice Cream.

MUST HAVE SELF-CARE ITEM?

Good face oil. I stopped using moisturizer years ago and switches to natural oils and serums. My current favorite is the Beauty Counter (no, I’m not a consultant) No. 3 Balancing Facial Oil.

WHAT TYPE OF MOVEMENT BRINGS YOU JOY?

Lifting things quickly. I love traditional CrossFit. Fast light snatches or cleans, with gymnastics like pull-ups or handstand walks. Partly because I feel like a warrior while I’m doing it, and partly because I still can’t believe that I’m doing things physically at 31 that I absolutely could not do a decade ago.

SHARE A BIT ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH JOURNEY:

My path to nutrition education, fitness and food blogging started ay back in 2009 when I joined up at a CrossFit gym. Not so much ‘joined’ as ‘ended up doing’ when my (now) husband opened his first affiliate. At the time, I was still eating whatever I wanted and drinking tons of delicious beers. My college-pizza-beer weight fell off of my newly-active body, but it didn’t take long for that to wear off and suddenly the weight was sneaking back, and I just generally felt like garbage. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. Eating like garbage. That’s what.

I found the Paleo/Ancestral diet (thanks, in large part to the Whole Life Challenge) and started to make little changes, got moving every day, and yes, ate more butter, and was sold. I had taken a nutrition class in college but it was all about low cal, old-school thinking. This was a different world. I dove in. What foods should we eat? Why does Paleo work for so many? Why was it working for me? This was the beginning of REALLY caring about food.

Onto the health shiz. I was diagnosed with a hypoactive thyroid in 2009. While I am still on some low dose medication, I’ve seen my symptoms go down in spades from what I was initially dealing with. While some of that does have to do with my dietary changes, a lot has to do with advocating for my health and finding a doctor who listened to me.

IF YOU ARE IN THE HEALTH REALM, PLEASE SHARE MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU DO!

Nutrition, CrossFit, and by default, Mindset. Because you have to.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO CONVEY TO OTHER WOMEN SEEKING OPTIMAL HEALTH?

I have two sides. On one hand, I want to say freaking relax. Stop looking and worrying about everyone else and focus on what YOU are doing. If you FEEL good, capable, and like you’re LIVING…who cares about the other stuff? Who gives a crap if you’ve got a roll on your belly or some dimples on your ass? We all have something. That can’t be forever the quest. We cannot live our entire lives in pursuit of a body because here’s the thing: YOU HAVE MORE TO OFFER THE WORLD THAN YOUR BODY.

On the other, more tough-love, hand; I want to be honest about what some goals really require. I don’t do well with whining combined with inaction. I want to shake women out of this mentality that we tend to have when it comes to our health or fitness that it’s everything else’s ‘fault’ and not our own. Yes, there are health concerns that change things. But we need to not only say what we WANT, but we have to be honest about what we’re WILLING to do to get it and then readjust accordingly. Accountability and being honest about my situation and my goals and being OK with all of that was a huge piece of the puzzle that made my life SO much easier.

IF YOU COULD GIVE ONE TIP TO SOMEONE JUST STARTING OUT ON THEIR HEALTH JOURNEY, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Chill and fully take in this one truth: this stuff takes time and you don’t have the right to be pissed about it until you’ve got some TIME in. It’s like when we see people in the gym, they’ve been snatching for two months, and they get ‘mad’ that they’re not good at it yet. Bruh, people spend literally their entire LIVES dedicated to this lift and you’re mad that you’re not good yet after two months?! Who do you think you are?

We’re SO used to instant gratification and that gets in the way of long-term progress BIG TIME. We want it now. We run a mile into the woods in 10 minutes, and then get pissed and quit when we don’t get back out in 3. Appreciating the process is the key. If you don’t learn to love the process, every tedious step…it’s not going to happen.

the girl with the butter kristin

SHARE YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE OR SOURCE OF INSPIRATION.

I’ve had a few people in my life whose lives were suddenly cut short. My mom died suddenly at 49, my best friends fiance in an accident at 27, my Uncle of a heart attack at 59, and my husband’s father (also of a heart attack) at 56.

Now, I’m not saying that these losses made me ‘appreciate every second because tomorrow isn’t promised’, or anything so cliche. I complain about stupid crap. I waste full days watching Netflix. I fight with my husband over nothing and go to bed angry.

Over time, though, what the unpredictability and finality of life being present in mine has slowly taught me is this: there is no point in doing things that don’t ultimately make you happy. I don’t mean only do fun stuff and eat junk food. What I mean is that I’ve learned to get the work done, and keep my time MY time.

I recently had the opportunity for a promotion. It was for a job that yes, paid more, but I didn’t want. I didn’t want the hours. I didn’t want the responsibilities that it entailed. I would have hated it. So, instead I figured out where I could be valuable and do the things that I DO enjoy and am good at. I did the math and showed my boss why it made sense…and I created my own promotion.

I stand up for myself. I don’t answer work calls after 5. I spend time with my family. I don’t freak out if I decide I want to eat ice cream or miss a training day. I don’t worry if people don’t like me (or at least I try not to). I take days off, I go on vacations. I am working on cultivating a life that I truly love. Being active, and able, and FIT, and healthy, and WELL…THIS IS ESSENTIAL for that life!

HOW CAN SOMEONE REACH OUT TO CONNECT WITH YOU?

WEBSITE: thegirlwiththebutter.com

INSTAGRAM: @thegirlwiththebutter

IF YOU COULD PICK TWO WORDS TO REPRESENT YOUR PERSONAL MANTRA, WHAT WOULD THEY BE AND WHY?

You’re good. When I’m in a workout and it sucks but I know that I’m getting fitter and I’m going to feel like a goddamn superhero when it’s over? I tell myself, ‘you’re good‘. When I’m freaking out about a project at work that I need to get done like, yesterday…I remind myself that if I just shut up and start that it’ll be fine and yeah…‘you’re good’. When I do something awesome and someone compliments me? I used to say something self-deprecating or dismissive of the quality that they’re praising. Now, I just thank them and tell myself, “Yeah…you ARE pretty good.”

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Thank you for sharing with us, Kristin!

Tune in next week to see the next #WellnessWomen feature, and if you or someone you know should be featured, email us and tell us a little more about you! 😉