

Grace & Grit Podcast
Courtney Townley
The Grace and Grit Podcast takes the health fairy tale you've heard all your life and turns it upside down and inside out, helping women rebuild their relationship with their body once and for all. Placing the focus on love and respect, rather than the aggressive demands and unrealistic expectations that have become the norm, Courtney Townley is determined to help women mend the fabric of what is driving the female health story.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 13, 2018 • 1h 5min
Episode 134: Hormones & Metabolic Health w/ Dr. Jade Teta
The metabolism is often discussed in fitness and diet spaces as ONLY an energy equation and, while energy does matter (how much energy you are consuming vs how much you are expending), there are so many other factors that influence metabolic health, namely, HORMONES. Dr. Jade Teta has been helping women improve their metabolic function for years and his work has been especially impactful for women trying to understand the metabolic and hormonal challenges that often arise within the years between peri-menopause and post-menopause. We cover a ton of ground in this interview, including: How to better understand YOUR unique metabolism. The power “rest based living” has to positively influence women’s hormones. Why joy matters to your hormonal and metabolic health. Respecting carbohydrates as you age. Why weight training is an invaluable exercise modality, especially for women. …and so much more! Have a listen and share your thoughts! Click here to learn more and LISTEN NOW. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Oct 6, 2018 • 35min
Episode 133: Hormonal Health 101
This month we are talking all about hormonal health. Hormones basically govern your biology, so if your hormones aren’t happy…well… neither are you. In this episode of the Grace & Grit Podcast, I give a brief lesson in the primary hormones I think all women should be a bit more educated about. While I am NOT a hormonal health expert, I have invited several guests to the show this month who are, so today’s podcast helps lay the foundation for those conversations. Enjoy! Click here to learn more and LISTEN NOW! >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Sep 29, 2018 • 50min
Episode 132: STOP WAITING: Simple Actions You Can Start Taking TODAY
Stop waiting for the perfect time, Stop waiting for permission, Stop waiting until you “feel” like doing the work…to restore your health. Commit to 1 small action today and again tomorrow. Massive change IS possible when we commit to small actions repeated consistently over time. Last week on the podcast (Episode 131) I talked about why the danger of taking on too much change too fast, which I refer to as the “Hail Mary Approach”. This is the approach the diet industry sells you and yet…it doesn’t work for long-term sustainability. In today’s episode, I give you 10 simple measures you can start applying to your life immediately to improve your health. And the best part is… You don’t have to buy anything. You don’t have to follow a formula. You don’t have to carve our hours of time in your schedule. You just need to stop waiting and start doing. Listen to this episode to discover the 10 simple and seemingly insignificant things you could be doing TODAY that can significantly impact your overall health over time. Click here to learn more and LISTEN NOW. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Sep 22, 2018 • 48min
Episode 131: Building a Practice vs. Chasing Results
Everywhere you turn there seems to be a new product, formula, program, pill or system being sold to you promising RESULTS. Sadly, people buy into these promises in droves to improve their health, but these measures can often further damage their health by causing them to develop a phobia of food, disordered eating patterns, hormonal challenges…and so much more. Chasing results is not the same as improving health. In fact, I have worked with many clients over the years who were so focused on creating certain results with their physiology, that they hugely sacrificed their physiological and psychological health to do so. There is a big difference between chasing results and building a practice of better self-care (which results are typically the bi-product of…by the way). You can spend your time, money and energy chasing what I call the “Hail Mary Approaches” to results (which you will struggle to sustain) OR you can invest in learning how to build a practice of better self-care so you can remove yourself once and for all from diet dogma and extreme measures. This is the topic of today’s podcast. Listen and let me know your thoughts. Click to learn more and LISTEN NOW! >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Sep 15, 2018 • 35min
Episode 130: Why Diet & Exercise Aren’t Enough
Although there are many forms of stress that directly influence our health, in this episode of the Grace & Grit Podcast, I specifically address the power that psychological stress has to influence physiology. You could be doing everything right with your diet and exercising religiously but, if you aren’t managing what is happening in your head, you may either struggle to create the results you are looking for and/or maintain the results you create. The work that I do with my clients focuses just as much on mindset as it does diet and exercise and today I want to explain WHY learning to manage your psychological stress has EVERYTHING to do with optimizing your physiology. Click here to learn more and LISTEN NOW. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Sep 8, 2018 • 49min
Episode 129: The Purpose of Health Coaching
“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for the rest of his life.” Years ago my son was learning to read and it took everything in me not to just give him the answer when he is struggling with a new word. I won’t lie, I did that at first and my husband quickly pointed out that every time our son was unsure of himself, he was getting in the habit of looking at me for the answer. I was crushing his critical thinking ability and his ability to progress towards independence. Which, in my opinion, is precisely what so many (not all) programs are promoting in the fitness, supplement and weight-loss industries. Women are being robbed of the opportunity to learn how to fish. We are being disconnected from our physiology not reconnected to it. We adopt formulas and systems that dictate to our body, rather than learning methods for how to listen to our bodies. You don’t create deep health for yourself by consuming more supplements than nutritious food, following someone’s meal plans forever, or only moving your body in the presence of a “professional”. Nope. You create deep health by trying some things on, listening to what your body needs and how it responds to your choices. You create deep health by being willing to fail a little, so you can learn how to do better, and by accepting that progress is rarely linear. You create deep health by finding ways to enjoy the journey, finding the joy in discipline and befriending the work involved in the change processThe . Good health coaches don’t give you fish, they teach you how to fish and that is what today’s episode is all about! Click here to learn more and LISTEN NOW! >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Sep 1, 2018 • 28min
Episode 128: Why You May NOT Want to Work With Me
There was a time in my career when I would have worked like a maniac to convince nearly everyone I encountered that I was the perfect person to usher them towards greater health. Now that I am older and slightly wiser, I realize: I am NOT the right person to help all people and not everyone is ready for the work that I do AND… That is perfectly ok! I invest a tremendous amount of time and energy into my clients, so it is really important that we are a good match to do great work together. I believe one of the best ways to begin that process, is to tell potential clients why they might NOT want to hire me. If after listening to this podcast today (which is also filled with great tips), you are more excited than terrified, then, of course, I encourage you to take the next step and book a FREE 1-hour kickstart coaching call with me, which you can do by going to www.graceandgrit.com/kickstart. Click here to learn more and LISTEN NOW! >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Aug 25, 2018 • 39min
Episode 127: Befriending Discomfort Along the Path to Change
Discomfort along the path to improving your life isn’t a probability, it is an inevitability. Every single day you get to decide if you want to stay in the discomfort of the way things are, or lean into the discomfort of improving your situation. Either way, you will have to face discomfort on some level. The good news is that when you lean into the discomfort that promotes growth in your life, there is tremendous strength on the other side of that. This episode of the Grace & Grit podcast introduces tips and strategies for befriending discomfort, so you can do the work that will move your life to higher ground. Click here to learn more and LISTEN NOW. >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Aug 18, 2018 • 57min
Episode 126: Truce with Food® w/ Ali Shapiro
I just adore this conversation that I had with Ali Shapiro about the process of healing, redefining health, and making a truce with food. Ali is a very bright light helping to lead women out of diet dogma and back to themselves. In this episode, Ali and I discuss: Option C, which is giving yourself permission to get to know yourself and how you relate to the world around you. Self-criticism vs Self-awareness The cost of relying on the outside world to heal you. What it means to have agency with your body … and so much more! Have a listen and let me know your thoughts! >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Aug 11, 2018 • 45min
Episode 125: Audacious Self-Care w/ Sunny Joy McMillan
Unhappy and unfulfilling relationships take a toll on our physical and psychological health. My guest on this episode of the Grace & Grit podcast, Sunny Joy McMillan, strongly believes unsticking these relationships (through improvement or dissolution) is vital to our mental, emotional, spiritual AND physical well-being. And living in alignment with our truth has very positive effects on the body. Sunny shares her journey of what she calls “audacious self-care”, which for her looked like ending her high conflict marriage and walking away from her Instagram perfect life, so she could rediscover herself and step into the life she feels she was truly meant to live. In this episode, Sunny and I also discuss: the necessity of doing your own inner work to create healthy relationships the cost of trying to fit into other people’s idea of who we should be the power of beliefs and thoughts how compassion is linked to motivation how to befriend resistance the wisdom of the body and why we should listen to it Click here to LISTEN NOW! >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com