003: How military spouses can maintain a healthy body and mind no matter where they go with Kimberly Hamilton

Jen Amos 0:00

There's no need to wait on your service member to share secondhand information anymore. Welcome to holding down the fort, a podcast show where we put military spouses and children's needs front and center so that they can make informed decisions together as a family. Because let's face it, we know who's really holding down the fort. Let's get started.

Hi, everyone, Jen Amos here with holding down the fort podcast and I am really excited I get to introduce to you military spouse, health and wellness coach who has maintained over a 50 pound weight loss. Please welcome Kimberly Hamilton. Kimberly, welcome to the show.

Kimberly Hamilton 0:54

Hi, thanks so much for having me on. I'm so excited to be here.

Jen Amos 0:57

Yes, me too. I'm very excited as well, even prior to the winner. Before we started the recording, I was like, Oh, she has a lot of energy I'm excited to. So let's start with how you heard about holding down the fort podcast and what inspired you to come on and share your story and, and some educational stuff for us today?

Kimberly Hamilton 1:19

Well, I found you guys most likely under the military spouse hashtag on Instagram, that I really liked to go to, um, you know, just to connect with other military spouses a little bit about me. I grew up in Southern California, we were stationed at Camp Pendleton before Virginia, and now we're stationed in Virginia. So I went from having a really strong base of community. You know, my whole family lives in California, to basically being moved to somewhere where I knew nobody had no idea what the area was like. And I also work from home. So I really didn't have many options as far as meeting people. So I found I like to find other military spouses on Instagram using that hashtag. And that's how I found you guys.

Jen Amos 2:03

Awesome. I love it. And I just have to say I so I was I lived in San Diego for about 20 years myself. And actually a little background on my end. You know, I I consider myself a veteran spouse because I met my husband after his service, but I was also a military brat. So there's, you know, there's my aspect of my military experience. But anyway, sort of a similar story. I just last year, like no joke. We kind of uprooted our lives from California, and had decided to go to Virginia. So I think we might be neighbors. And funny. Yeah, yeah. So we live in in Virginia Beach. Actually, we lived in Richmond for a little bit. And then just recently,

Kimberly Hamilton 2:44

yeah, yeah. And I like I live in Yorktown. So not too far.

Jen Amos 2:48

Cool. Cool. Well, maybe we can meet up one of these days.

Kimberly Hamilton 2:52

That would be awesome. I would love that.

Jen Amos 2:55

Yeah. And so I like to say that Virginia Beach is like San Diego, just with the four seasons. So really like, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, awesome. I am glad. And you know, actually, when we did our marketing, initially, with holding down the fort, that was definitely one of the hashtags we included in our marketing, because yeah, like we one thing we had found in our own business is that at the end of the day, the military spouses are the ones making the family decisions, you know, for for the service member, or the family itself. And so we're like, you know what, let's celebrate them. Let's let's feature them, because I think there are silent warriors. And, you know, if it wasn't for them, the service member wouldn't have a home to come to so. Yeah, yeah. So for everyone that's listening. And you don't know Kimberly, and we want to get to know you the first time. Why don't you tell us what a typical day if you have one looks like for you, and what keeps you excited nowadays.

Kimberly Hamilton 3:53

So a typical day for me, is I want my husband to play right now. So my typical day is probably a lot different than most people because I don't you know, live where I know a lot of people. So a typical day for me, is I get up I have a dog, his name is Bo. He is the love of my life as my husband so I take him out for a walk and then I get sort of my workday started. A big part of my job is making a health and fitness lifestyle simple. So I always start my day with that mindset. I start by journaling, some positive intention for the day, I track what I'm going to eat for the day. And then I jumped right in. So I make my practice I'm hanging out with a little bit more, I get my workout in. Occasionally, I'll add you know, my favorite workout moves of the day or a little piece of my workout to my Instagram story and I talk about, you know, my workout, how I liked it, how I'm feeling and then I do have a virtual health and fitness boot camp, if you will, that I host every single month. So then I checked in with my girls, see how they're doing, see how I can support them and then I check in with the other coaches on my team as well. I kind of just work in and out of the pockets of my day. Sometimes I'll only work half day, sometimes I'll be working until nine o'clock at night. 930 If I'm really loving when I'm working, so I just I love how flexible it is that it keeps me busy while I'm waiting for my husband to come home.

Jen Amos 5:14

Yeah, I It sounds like you really have a lot of ways to keep yourself busy. And I think that's awesome. One thing I cannot do whenever I choose to get back into taking care of my health, and eating well is keeping track of what I'm eating, I don't do that. So I think it's really awesome that you do that, it's definitely a great way to keep people accountable if they're trying to, you know, live a healthier lifestyle. So speaking of which, let's go ahead and dive into our educational topic of today. And it sounds like what you're going to speak about today has a lot to do with the life that you currently live with holding down the fort podcast, the reason why it was created is because we wanted to be able to provide education and resources to military spouses and families that they otherwise wouldn't get from the military or just, you know, get easy access to. And so today, we wanted to talk about using health and fitness to improve your mindset, self confidence and relationship with your spouse. So the first question I have for you, Kimberly, is do you feel like the military provides that type of education for you?

Kimberly Hamilton 6:22

No, I wouldn't say as far as the education, I don't think there are many resources, if anything at all, as far as providing education, I mean, sure, most faces I would say have you know, a gym where you can go with your spouse, or you know, a loan, of course. But the big problem for me, my entire life was even at one point, I had a free gym membership. But I had no idea what to do once I got there. And I had no idea what I should be eating. So even though I guess the facility is, you know, provided by the military, usually, if you're lucky and not a good base. You know, once you're there, it's like, well, where do you go from here. And you know, if there are resources there usually through you know, insurance, things like that. And so they're just not easily accessible, which I think really prevents a lot of people from getting healthy is if it's not something they can easily access that just as a sort of a layer to the process of this is already difficult enough. And now it's being made more difficult by having to go through all these different channels to even figure out what in the world I should be doing.

Jen Amos 7:24

Yeah, absolutely. You were saying part of your daily, your your day is to track your food and you know, do your fitness. And so obviously, this is something that you implement in your own life. And it's something that you advocate for, and and you even have a group for that as well. And can you elaborate a little bit more of why this is extremely important for you to do and even educate and coach on?

Kimberly Hamilton 7:49

Oh my gosh, yes. So this is like my favorite thing to talk about. Because I wouldn't be the person that I was today without incorporating health and fitness into my lifestyle. Before this, I ate nothing but fastest constantly. I never moved my body, I was about 50 pounds overweight. And I also have a very mild disability called cerebral palsy. So for me personally, to be at an unhealthy weight is very dangerous. My balance gets really bad, my mobility gets really bad. So just all around for me, personally, it's extremely important to live a healthy lifestyle. And then once my husband and I got married, I had kind of found myself regaining some weight, because what I was doing was not sustainable. I had a gym membership, but we were in the middle of the move. So I had to, you know, cancel my gym memberships. So I was kind of in between things. And I just really needed to find a solution that worked with our lifestyle and, you know, never knowing what we're going to be long term. And also having the flexibility to not have to tell my husband, oh, I have to go spend two hours in the gym tonight when I know you're only going to be home for those two hours a day. So I just think overall to for my mindset. I also have anxiety. So you know, I'm sure other people listening can relate that sometimes being a military spouse and having anxiety is extremely difficult, especially if you're a worrywart like me. So just having something where I can just just focus on myself for just those 30 minutes an hour a day on just something that's positive and sort of get my mind right before the day starts. It's just it's everything to me.

Jen Amos 9:27

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Kimberly Hamilton: 12:37

Oh, yeah, absolutely. So my workouts that I do are done completely at home, I really don't think for me personally, I could stay consistent with a workout routine if I couldn't do it from home. And this is gonna sound ridiculous, but especially since I got my dog, it's so hard. The fact that I'm, you know, allowing this to happen at home. Even the fact that you know, I don't have to leave my house. To get this done, I could work out in my pajamas, in my living room, if I want to snowshoes. So it really is about finding what is the easiest for you to commit to long term. And that kind of scares people, when I say long term, but if you think about it, you know, if you want long term results, if you want a healthy body and a healthy mind for the rest of your life, unfortunately, we can just work out one time, you know, unexpected back to sick. So my best advice is just to find something that is simple enough for you to do every single day, even if that just means that you start by walking around your your block, you know, a couple of times every single morning or every single evening, or you know, going outside and playing with your kids find something small that you can commit to every single day and then, you know, move on from there.

Jen Amos: 13:52

Yeah, I think that's excellent advice. And I think people I think a lot of people tend to get overwhelmed when they when they think about exercise and fitness and and eating well, I'm sure there's so much advice around that, that it could be overwhelming. And and when I think when people think about fitness, they think, Oh, I have to be a fitness model. It's like, No, you know, what you could do is simple things like you said, other things that I had learned to do in the last year is you know, get a standing desk or you know, sit on an exercise ball or just like what you said get up and just walk around the neighborhood for a little bit. So I think I think that's really awesome. And I think that can cut out any excuse for anyone that feels like they have you know, no, no way or option to work out and there's so much you can do. Really so much you can do at home. And I know that there's a lot of Instagram accounts out there as well that provide advice on how to work out at home, how to use a chair to work out how to use your bed to work out there's just a ton of ways and if you want it they say I think there's a saying that says if you're ready to learn the teacher will appear and I think in this case it's Instagram health coaches such as yourself, and so, so I love that I appreciate that advice, any other tips that you wanted to share for today.

Kimberly Hamilton: 15:10

Other than that, I would say don't get get discouraged if it's hard at first, when I first started working out when I was over 50 pounds heavier than I am now, moving at all, for me, you know, I'm embarrassed to say, was really difficult. I could hardly walk on the treadmill without getting like intense pain and my ankles, and then my feet and things like that. So even though it was hard at first, I literally just started with walking. And I know that so many people say that, but it's true. If you just start with something small, even if it's just walking, even if it's just taking the stairs, instead of taking the elevator at work, even just the smallest things can add up. And when you feel overwhelmed, just start with something, just start by walking 10 minutes on the treadmill, just start with changing out a vegetable for you know, one of your carbs for the day, you know, even just the smallest changes really amount to such a huge thing.

Jen Amos: 16:03

There's a saying that goes the small things are really the big things. And I love how you say that. Like yeah, switch out that bread with a bell pepper or like I I've switched from even just eating apples because it's you know, natural sugar. I would switch apples from actually bell peppers because I still get that same crunchy experience.

Kimberly Hamilton: 16:25

That yeah, just you know, getting a lettuce wrap on your burger instead of getting a button. It's just really the small things that totally add up.

Jen Amos: 16:34

Yeah, I completely agree. Well, Kimberly, I think you had provided some incredible, incredible information today. Even even if it's just a short conversation, it was a lot that I think people can implement immediately. In case anyone is interested in getting a hold of you and learning more about what you do. I know you have a coaching group that you do, how do people get ahold of you?

Kimberly Hamilton: 17:00

So you guys can find me on Instagram. My Instagram is Kim Hamilton dot fit. And I always try to respond to all of my DMs all my comments. If you ever have a question or just need a tip, feel free to reach out.

Jen Amos: 17:13

Awesome, I love it. And if you did not catch that, we will have Kimberly's contact information in the show notes. Kimberly, I've had such a pleasure speaking with you for the time that we had today. Do you have any closing thoughts for our listeners?

Kimberly Hamilton: 17:28

My only closing thought is just this if you are a military spouse and you're struggling with any sort of journey that you're on, whether it's health and fitness, your mental health, anything like that, just reach out and find yourself a community. That's really the main reason why I started coaching was just for the coaching community and even, you know, moving miles across country, from all of my family and friends, I've been able to find a community in there that helps keep me going not only with, you know, my health and fitness journey, but just you know, with life.

Jen Amos: 17:58

Absolutely, selfishly, for me, the reason why I had started this podcast is to create a community for myself as well. Yeah, yeah. Cuz I, you know, I work from home with my husband and being new and Virginia. It's only so, you know, it's only so easy to try to make local friends. But thank God for social media and that it's free. Because if we didn't have it would be really hard to both community, you know?

Kimberly Hamilton: 18:25

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely appreciate the choir.

Jen Amos: 18:29

Yeah. Well, Kimberly, thank you. Thank you so much for your time. And as I mentioned, if you all want to get a hold of her, you can check out our show notes. And also if this episode had resonated with you in any way, feel free to visit our show notes to learn how to leave a message. Maybe you want to say something to Kimberly. And who knows, maybe we will bring her back on the show. All right, Kimberly, thank you so much. And I will see you on Instagram.

Kimberly Hamilton: 18:55

Be honest, Instagram. Thank you.

Jen Amos: 18:57

You're welcome. Take care. Thank you so much for listening to the holding down the fort podcast show. To leave us a message. Please visit our show notes to learn how or you can email us at holding down the fort podcast@gmail.com Until next time,