Inspired by The Sunshine

Welcome back to the Be Inspired blog where our goal is to inspire, inform, and include you. I’m Kati Whitledge, the founder of Be Inspired Salon. I am so happy to be here with you today. When I was thinking about what blog topic would be inspiring this week, I thought—how about Wisconsin weather? Yes! LOL.

Do you feel more positive and hopeful this time of year, and especially this year? Spring is on its way and the sun is shining more often. It feels like a new beginning. A new season. More warmth, sun, and growth all around us. More opportunities to get outside and more opportunities to be with others.

What are the things you’re looking forward to this Spring?

For me it’s the simple things. I’m excited to go for walks, take our son to the park, have BBQs, bonfires, and patio chats with our neighbors. There’s something invigorating about breathing in the fresh air—except now we now live in Waunakee, so the fresh air seems to always have a hint of cow manure here —but we’ll get used to it. Haha!

At Be Inspired Salon, we are looking forward to seeing more guests who are starting to venture out more often. We are excited to see new faces as well. We’re already experiencing more phone calls, interest, and appointment reservations. We are very thankful for this!

Three Spring Tips

In an effort to provide valuable information in this blog, I’ll share my top three tips for a healthy, happy Spring season.

1.       Continue taking Vitamin D

Though we are going to get more sunshine, I’ve learned that we never have enough vitamin D—especially in Wisconsin. Here’s an informative video on why Vitamin D is one of the most important supplements we can take. And if you’re in need of a highly effective and trustworthy supplement source, I highly recommend our friend and neighbor, The Healthy Place! Tell them we Be Inspired Salon sent you and you’ll receive 15% savings at your first visit!)

2.       Remember your Sunscreen

I’ve not been the poster child for sunscreen. I always thought that since I wasn’t out in the sun for long periods of time, or actually sunbathing, that I didn’t need to worry about it. I always wore sunscreen if we were at the beach or at an outdoor event for an extended period, but I never thought it was that big of a deal to skip it on a regular basis. That was until the owner of Aneu Med Spa, Amie Neumaier, handed my rear-end to me. What actually happened is, she told me that my injections and dermaplaning investments were worthless if I didn’t wear sunscreen. It was the worse bad-skin-habit I could make. It was an intense conversation and education—and I loved it! From that day forward I started wearing sunscreen a couple times. LOL. Kidding—I wear it regularly in the Spring and Summer now. Hey! It’s a start.

3.       Breath In, Sweat Out

I’m thrilled that our friends at Dragonfly Hot Yoga have reopened! This is their slogan—breath in, sweat out. I learned the importance of breathing after beginning my yoga practice at Dragonfly. We all tend to breath too shallow and fail to experience the substantial benefits that deep breathing does for our health! And I don’t’ know if you’re like me in that I need to attend the class to do the thing. Meaning, I’m not faithful to taking time to focus on breathing everyday unless I’m in a class and they prompt me to do it. Whether I’m in one of their on-demand virtual classes or in-person. I feel incredible and revived after breathing through a yoga class!

The movement is also so good for our long-term mobility. I once heard a quote that you’re as young as your spine is flexible. I’m not a great Yogi in the sense of looking super flexible or super fly while doing yoga, but I feel awesome—and that’s what it’s all about 😊

Let the Sunshine In

I hope the sunshine inspires you this Spring! Here’s to a bright, healthy, and inspired week, and season ahead.

Until next time.

Stay strong!

Welcome to the Be Inspired Blog

Hello everyone! I’m Kati Whitledge, the founder of Be Inspired Salon. We may or may not have met, but I want you to know I am grateful you are here! I’m beginning an initiative to share inspiration and at times, motivation, because we are all heavily distracted so what’s one more thing to pay attention to? LOL. But, for real, we have many negative distractions and I wanted to have a proactive hand in something positive to lean into, share, and think about. Do you ever just take time to think?

I’m sure we’ve all had plenty of thinking time in the last year, haven’t we? I don’t know about you, but I tend to get paralysis by analysis. I found myself so overwhelmed that I didn’t know what to do or where to start. I lived a reactionary lifestyle and as a result I found myself aged and worn down. But this is not a victim’s blog. This is a blog to rebound ourselves and find the victory we either once had or need to take hold of now.

To live victoriously, we have to choose taking ownership over excuses. Responsibility over denial. And accountability over shifting blame. Only then will we reap abundantly the positive things we sow. Or to put it plainly, we will get what we want in life!

Back to the Basics

I recently met with a friend to catch up and share how things have been going this new year. I’m grateful to share that this year is off to a fabulous start. It hasn’t been without bumps or bruises, but it’s new, it’s refreshing, and it has the potential to be whatever I believe it can be. What do you believe is possible this year?

Meeting for coffee seems so subtle and yet what an impact it is to have face-to-face human connection, especially with someone who knows you—like the real you—and still loves you. When you are with someone who genuinely cares for you and wants to see you win at life, you’re able to gain perspective that you may not otherwise see. Think of it as a thirty-foot view of your life. How often are you taking time to look from that vantage point?

The beauty of our friendship is, we do this for one another. We share our hopes, fears, and challenges with one another and then give each other feedback—never dressed up or down—always raw and honest. My friend has seen me at my best and my worst. Who’s the friend in your life like this?

To give you a backdrop here, there was once upon a time when I had shed over 95lbs of weight. I was a fitness machine and working machine. I was growing Be Inspired Salon while simultaneously starting a software-as-a-service company, and an industry business podcast. I felt unstoppable. That was, until we got pregnant. That was a curveball I hadn’t prepared for. What I mean is, I wasn’t prepared for pregnancy to be a trigger for food. Lots and lots of food. We were thankful to start a family, but I was not ready to respond to the temptation of hiding behind a belly bump. Long story short, I’ve not bounced back from the baby weight and my baby starts 4k next year—so that’s embarrassing.

Fast forward to 2019 and I had trimmed up a bit. I was definitely more active and starting to feel pretty darn good about myself again. But then—Covid. Another debilitating trigger that caused me to spiral down like a kid on twisting park slide. Down and down I went. Or should I say, up and up the scale went.

So here I am at coffee with my friend, not living my best life, and ashamed of the defeat against myself. I shared with her that with all the struggles that presented themselves in the last year, what I’m most upset about is, my self-sabotaging behaviors. And deep down I desperately want to get back to the real me that’s somewhere inside this oversized shell. Do you have behaviors you’d like to eradicate this year?

In such a simple way, as it often is, my friend asked me, “what did you do the first time you changed your life in a significant way?”  Boom! This is what we refer to as a blinding flash of the obvious. Just because we are living in a new season of life doesn’t mean that there’s some new magic process to achieving goals you’ve achieved in the past. Or new goals for that matter! The lightbulb went off.

I shared with her that what I did before was I started reading The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy. I started writing down everything I ate, every workout I did, and I joined a support group. She listened and lovingly said, “it sounds like you just need to go back to the basics.” And she was right.

I hurried home and opened my Audible app, downloaded The Compound Effect, and started listening. I got out an unused notebook and marked off pages with dates to track food and workouts. I started a little competition with my brother-in-law that if I miss my goal of five workouts per week, I will pay him five dollars per day that I miss. He’s doing the same for his goal of waking up at 5am every day. There was no significant meaning of the number five here, just happens to be a similar trend.

When I started listening to this book again it was a divine reminder of all the most important things I had forgotten about. And having new experiences and years under my belt, it was also like hearing it for the first time. Isn’t it funny how perfectly timed things can be? It has all reinforced my mission. Timing matters. And the time is now.  

Is it time for you to go back to the basics? What one or two positive habits would you love to see compounded over the next twenty-four months? Who can you reach out to that will genuinely support you and hold you accountable?  And again, what do you believe is possible for your life?

Let’s do it!

Until next time,

Stay strong.