Finding Your Why, Living Your Values, and The Real Secret of Self-Care with Kate Galli

This is the transcript of an interview hosted on Ruth’s Feel Better. Live Free. podcast.

Ruth Soukup: Do you ever wonder if there’s a secret to success with health and weight loss that you somehow just haven’t been able to tap into quite yet? Maybe you’ve done all the things, counted all the calories, dragged yourself to the gym, tried all the diets, and yet something just isn’t clicking. Yes. Maybe it’s your hormones.

And if you’re a woman over 40, that probably does play a role. But what if there’s something more, a power inside of you that you just haven’t activated because you didn’t know how. Well, today’s episode might just unlock it for you. So let’s dive in.

Welcome to the Thinlicious blog. I’m, Ruth Soukup, and here we talk about everything from the science of weight loss to practical tips for making your health a priority in the midst of a busy life. It’s a little bit nerdy, a little bit funny, and a little bit revolutionary.

So buckle up, friend, because it’s about to get nerdy.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Ruth Soukup and I’m the founder of Thinlicious and the creator of the Thin Adapted System, as well as the New York Times bestselling author of seven books. And today we’re going to be chatting with the amazing Kate Galli, who is the owner and founder of strong body green planet and relentlessly focused on creating a happy, healthy, happy, compassionate world.

She specializes in creating the mindset that makes your best eating and exercise choices simple and sustainable. And Kate first got into fitness as a way to transform her own body and confidence. Now she has spent the last 18 years helping thousands of individuals sculpt a body and a life they love as a trainer and vegan health coach.

And while Kate and I might not totally agree on the choice to eat or not eat animals, on the podcast today we are actually going to dive into something that we do have in common. Which is making sure that your values align with your goals, especially when it comes to your health goals. It’s so vitally important, no matter what your health goals may be.

So without further ado, I am so excited to be able to introduce you to today’s interview guest, Kate Galley.

Hey, thank you so much for being here today. I’m so excited to talk to you. 

Kate Galli: Ruth it is my huge pleasure to be here with you. 

Ruth Soukup: Awesome. So let’s just start with a little background. Tell us about yourself, who you are, what you do and how you got to be doing what you are now.

Kate Galli: Thank you. So I’m a personal trainer, health coach, author, and fellow podcaster. And I help people create the mindset that makes prioritizing their health and happiness, simple, sustainable, and. fun. Personally, I joined the gym, became obsessed with the gym almost three decades ago now. And I did that as a means by which to transform, yes, my body, but also my confidence.

And I would say that’s one of the things I love most about what I do now. Still helping people, yes, change their body, but also have the self certainty and the confidence when they realize that this is a huge change, they can make it as within their control. So yeah, two decades on as a personal trainer, three decades on as someone obsessed with, with lifting weights.

That’s where I am now. 

Ruth Soukup: I love it. I love it. And I love what you said too, because I think that. Is so true. Like it is, it’s one thing to, you know, I, I’ve done a lot of businesses over the last 15 years and I’ve helped people get organized. I’ve helped people manage their time. I help people build businesses.

And this health thing is there’s nothing like it because nothing improves your confidence. Like.

And it’s, it’s amazing. It really is truly the, like the coolest thing that I’ve ever had the opportunity to do, and you’ve been doing it for a lot longer than I have. So 

Kate Galli: I have, it’s what, it’s what has kept me in the game and also the skills that you learn, the skills that those clients learn equally applicable to every other aspect of their life, what works well for them in health.

They can transfer that across to business, to relationships, to whatever they’re next looking to work on. 

Ruth Soukup: Isn’t that so true? I always say mindset is it’s like the gateway drug and it doesn’t matter where you enter it and what part of your life you enter it, it will apply to every other part. It’s like the trickle down effect.

It’s so, so amazing. So let’s talk about that a little bit more. Like, where do you start when you’re working with your clients to to help them start to make those sort of mindset shifts that are going to help them ultimately get healthy and reach whatever other goals they want to reach. 

Kate Galli: Absolutely.

So this far in, I’m very used to the fact that people want to get actionable straight away. They want to know the best foods to eat, the best exercises to work into their routine. They want all the actions fast and I’ve got that for them. However, best case scenario, what we really need to do is lay the foundation for your future ongoing success.

And that’s where it comes down to Mindset and I’ve got six steps I’ll walk people through, but the most important. And I like to break that down into, I love acronyms. So your why is what you’re looking to achieve and how it’s going to impact your ideal life. We need to get really clear on that why and we need to build huge emotional intensity.

into that why that’s going to be compelling on those struggle street days that we all get when the motivation wears a little bit thin which is a couple of weeks in for most people probably around this time of year or so and the second next most important step is to align that why or more so the actions they need to take to achieve the why with their most important values so for listeners who haven’t yet elicited their values.

Those are the emotional states that you seek out before anywhere else. So there’s no right or wrong, good or bad. You do have to be honest with yourself. Look at where you spend your time, energy, and money. So for me, my top two are freedom. And integrity, and we need to make sure that the actions my client needs to take to achieve that compelling goal that they feel like they are congruent with or aligned with those values and not in conflict with them, because if they’re in conflict, they’re not going to do the Duke, they’re not going to make those best food choices, and they’re not going to do that exercising action.

It’s always going to be a constant struggle. Alternatively, Alternatively. And when you have that alignment, right, it’s just easy to make the right choice. The decision making process is eliminated. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that, that is so true, but like, do you find, and what do you do when people come to you and say, I don’t, I don’t know what my why is, do you think that comes down to decision fatigue or because they, there’s so many options that they can’t figure it out or that they’re not being honest with themselves?

Kate Galli: Yeah, this far on I would drill down into it a lot further and I would need a compelling why before I agreed to work with someone because otherwise they’re not going to get results and that’s going to be frustrating for everyone. And I learned like too slowly but many years ago now that I can’t care more about someone’s goal than they do.

You know, like my responsibility is my part in the relationship and their responsibility is everything that they do. The 99 percent of the time they are not with their friendly personal trainer or a health coach or whoever it might be. So we would drill down into it a lot more. We would talk about what the way that their life is right now, what it’s costing them, how it’s going to look in a month’s time, six months time, 12 months time, if nothing changes.

And actually there’s no status quo with your health. If you’re not making improvements, you’re actually not just staying the same, you’re getting worse. And so again, you’ve got to find out whether someone’s more compelled by pain or pleasure and both are really good. But I would definitely spend some time looking to get some emotional intensity around that.

Why? Because most of us don’t love the gym. You know, I love the gym, but most people don’t. Don’t, yes, that would be me, right? A hundred percent. So you need that emotional intensity that’s going to drag yourself to the gym, you know, three minimum days a week, even when you don’t feel like it. Right. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah.

Yeah. For me, it was having to get a trainer and forcing myself to have the accountability and paying for it. I think the, knowing that I had paid upfront for these training sessions and that I was going to lose it. The pain of the losing the money was the thing that kept me, kept me going, but yeah, it’s.

You’re so 

Kate Galli: right. And again, I probably learned this too slowly because it’s very unsexy, but accountability to help someone stay consistent, you know, consistency is the most important thing in, in weight loss and fitness and all of  it. You know, it’s not the best program or the tightest nutrition or the flashiest gym trainer clothes, all of that.

It’s. Boring old consistency and probably the most high value thing I can do. Again, it’s not designing the best workouts or eating strategies. It’s holding someone accountable so that they get to the gym. Very often my clients actually know what to do. Just the appointment with the trainer gets them actually in the door and makes it more, more effective, more efficient, more fun, more safe.

And so that’s what it often comes down to. 

Ruth Soukup: So it’s so true. And because I think about that with my trainer, I worked with him for four years. Now I finally moved out to the country and I created my own gym and I have enough, enough skills to do it on my own. But I, he wasn’t like a hard ass, right? He wasn’t like, he was not mean, never mean.

So like easygoing was not the like drive you kind of. Trainer. And I don’t know what style of trainer you are, but he, he wasn’t like that, but it was literally for me, just the fact that I had an appointment and I stick to my schedule. And so that was like, that was just my, that became my routine. And that was the thing that, that kept me going.

And so I think you’re so right. When you talk about. You have to figure out what motivates you. Everybody’s a little bit different. Everybody works a little bit differently, but a lot of times it’s that like one little extra step that, you know, works with your brain and the way that you work that can help be the catalyst to change.

And then what you said too, is that it’s the consistency is so huge. We think we have to make these big, dramatic. Changes all the time. And it’s really not that big goals don’t happen like that. It’s not this big, giant step. It’s the consistency and the, the, the small steps taken consistently over time that, that make all the difference.

I love that. 

Kate Galli: 100%. And if we take it back to aligning your goals with your values, imagine the person who comes and perhaps they’re not like that compelled by their own health. Maybe their, their husband or wife has sent them to the gym or whatever it may be. If we get to the point where we find that their number one value is maybe family.

Right, maybe that’s the thing that is most important to them. Then connecting, achieving that goal to their family is going to be supremely beneficial in helping them take the exercising and eating actions they need to take. Maybe they don’t care enough about it for themselves, however they likely do for their partner, for their kids, whoever it is they love most in the world, that’s likely enough incentive for them.

Ruth Soukup: I love that. Do you think everyone has something? 

Kate Galli: I’m an optimist. I think they must, right? I don’t want to encounter the person who doesn’t care about anything. I think a lot of us probably have defenses. A lot of us have tried, tried and failed at something in the past. So we put our defenses up. Because of that fear of failure.

A lot of people with fitness specifically, you’ll know this. A lot of people, they, they don’t give it their all because then they’ve got that little get out of jail card. I didn’t try my all. So it’s always like in the future. Oh, but I can give it my everything in the future. There’s always that hope in the future.

However, right now, if you’re not where you want to be with your health and your health is. All you’ve got basically nothing else matters if you’re not healthy, even if it’s, if you’re not healthy for your loved ones, if they’re most important, you know? So I think a lot of people have these defenses, these barriers, this, you know, call it secondary gain that secret hidden benefit that you’re getting to enjoy by not giving your health your all.

So it’s up to a coach to help them break through some of these barriers. 

Ruth Soukup: I love that. I love that. That reminds me, I got this email this week from a client who was responding to an email and, and I already think my, to my podcast, we were just talking about that before we went live that I recorded a podcast earlier this month that was.

That was talking about my personal goals for the year. And she said that she kind of a few years ago went through the same sort of epiphany and her brother was diagnosed. I believe her brother was diagnosed with cancer or something, something bad. And she kind of had this moment of going. What am I like?

What am I living for? What am I doing? Right. What am I doing? And if I only had a year to live, I think he was given like a short amount of time. If I only had a year to live, am I living my life the way that I want to be living? And her first initial thought was, well, if I only had a year to live, I would eat what I want to eat and do what I want to do and not worry about, not worry about getting healthy.

And then I think her dad said to her. But what if you have a hundred years? Like, what if you live till you’re a hundred? Is this, do you want to feel like crap until you’re a hundred? And that was kind of the moment for her where she went, Oh, I am not taking care of myself. I don’t feel good. I don’t want to feel like this.

And then that sort of started to connect. Like, yes, you want to live for the moment. You want to live for now. But also you, you want to, you don’t want to set yourself up for a failure 20 years from now, because you could, because you’ll have to deal with the ramifications of that. And so it’s just a really interesting, what finally connects with people it, to, to get that, to get, find that why exactly like you were talking about to find that, why, what is the part that is emotionally going to hit you?

Enough to actually make the change and it’s different. It’s different for everyone. 

Kate Galli: Go dad. That’s a great reframe. 

Ruth Soukup: It is, isn’t it? I know. I love that. I love, love the dad and she ended up going and getting healthy. She lost a bunch of weight and now she’s doing great. And yeah, it was a, it was an awesome email.

It was so good. So let’s go back to decision fatigue. You mentioned that really briefly and I want to kind of. I’m going to unpack that a little bit. So what is decision fatigue and why do you think we struggle so much with that when it comes to health and wellness? 

Kate Galli: I mean, to start with the lives we live now are so different to what they were decades ago.

Personally, I’m like, I’m a fraction older than you. I think I just turned 48 recently. I’m so grateful that I can remember when we didn’t have mobile, mobile phones or the internet, or, you know, we had to make a decision and stick with it. There weren’t really limitless choices and the way that there is today now from basically from.

Infancy, we are being bombarded with just all these messages and advertising and nonstop choices. And I think many of us are waking up now and realizing we need to set some really firm boundaries to be able to cope for a start, but also to be able to have the. And I think it’s really important that we have the energy to put into the things that the things in the people that are most important to us and that’s part of why I related to what you shared with your personal journey because or your goals for this coming year because part of my huge focus last year was calm and clarity because I just, I I always felt so frenzied and so on and, and, you know, the things that help us are often the things that hold us back.

And I’m really good at doing focus and head down, tail up, 

Ruth Soukup: but you don’t 

Kate Galli: need to like, sometimes you just need to relax that focus a little bit, right? Yeah. So it was funny. I would start, I started journaling last year and I started each page each day with calm and clarity. And those two words, because I was seeking what would get me calm and clarity.

And funny, here’s, here’s a surprise. The journal was what brought me calm and clarity, right? That time out, that writing down. So I think to answer your question more, it’s a matter for other people of finding the things, the boundaries that they can set in place to protect their clear thoughts. Most of us, you know, we, we don’t have just thinking time, you know, where we’re not doing, we’re contemplating the person that we want to be.

Again, that’s the goal for me this year, to focus more on the person I am being rather than all the frenzied doing, right? We need both. Maybe it’s a fine line. Maybe we’ll both find it this year. Who knows? But I, I, I do think it comes back to boundaries. I also speak a lot about self care. So it comes back to these self care habits that we implement before we need them proactively that are kind of non negotiables.

But it’s working out what works for you and, you know, being pretty militant with it, I would say, because this is important. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Well, so what are you, some of your healthcare habits that you have established in your life? 

Kate Galli: Yeah so for fun, because as I shared, I I, I love an acronym and I have a little self care acronym and we don’t have to go through all of it, but the first one in the acronym is S is for self talk, right?

The only person that you get to spend 24 seven with. Is yourself and your unconscious mind is listening to everything you say and think, and so your self talk, the way that you speak to yourself is incredibly important. And you can consciously change this, which I did maybe 15 years ago, I noticed how judgmental I was towards other people and also towards myself, and it’s amazing how judgment, like so many things.

I reflected back at you. And so I started consciously changing my self talk and now it is so much better. You know, it’s really, really good. So that’s, that’s number one. Number two, we’ll go through at least the first three cause they’re great. A is for elicit your values. So we’ve covered that. I lead. And that’s our first step.

So what we’re going to do now is, we’re going to put in an item and we’re going to put it in a place where the client can choose to put it in. We’re going to put it in the space, that we have an option to put it in and we’re So we’re going to put, we’re going to put two bags of Adidas shoes, and we’re going to put our or more than one bag.

What that bag does is that it places an additional Layer of clothes in the bag that has an additional

And then the last one is when you’re doing things that are not aligned with your values. So when you’re saying yes to things that just don’t align with your values, something that’s very freeing and energy giving is when you’re clear, you have absolute clarity on what’s most important to you and the person you want to be, and you make decisions accordingly.

Ruth Soukup: I love that. How is that? Oh, true. And so hard. It’s so hard to do when you’re in the frenzy of life, right? Just trying to keep up, trying to do all the things, trying to be all the, be all the places and, and you don’t ever stop and say, what am I doing? What am I doing? 

Kate Galli: You know, even if you create like 10 minutes, start, you know, start really manageable.

I remember I used to aim for my hour of power and I had this hour like perfectly blocked out with all the things I was going to do in that hour that were super beneficial. And then like that’s daunting for most people, right? Most people can find 10 minutes, the clear thought, meditation, journaling, whatever it is to quiet the noise and get clear on the person that they’re looking to be.

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. It’s so true. It’s so true. Okay. So that’s your E. What’s your L? 

Kate Galli: That’s my E. L is the, L is the more common one, right? From, from personal trainer girl, L is lock and load the big rocks that keep you happy and healthy. Happy slipped out first. It probably should be hurt first. The many years, the first couple of, you know, the first decade of my personal training career, I was all about the healthy, the exercise, the nutrition, the.

Forced meditation to just tick that box. Right. And healthy, super important, maybe most important. However, also you need to be happy. So you need to be clear on what makes you happy. So those big rocks that you lock and load into your week before the other small pebbles, so to speak, those urgent, you know, less important little tasks, clutter your week, you lock and load them as a non negotiable appointment with yourself.

So. Exercise, food prep, time in nature, time with loved ones, whatever it may be, that is super vital. 

Ruth Soukup: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 100%. Yes. As a time management expert. I 100 percent agree with that one. 

Kate Galli: Yeah. You had a daily plan of business for 10 years, right? Yeah. 

Ruth Soukup: Yep. I sure did. In fact, I was, I still had one left and so I was filling it out yesterday, getting all my stuff locked and loaded.

Yes. I love it. Okay. I got an, I, I can’t not have. The rest of the acronym. I love an acronym. Okay. 

Kate Galli: Alright. Amazing. So F is for filter the people you spend time with. And yes, this is for filtering out those energy vampires as much as we can. You know, we’ve all heard of that. The people that absolutely suck the joy and energy out of your day.

Be they friends, family, clients. Filter them out to the best of your ability. Also, filter in those people who when you spend time with, you just feel replenished and full of joy and hopefully we’ve all got someone like that in our life and actively look to filter more of that person into your life as a form of self care.

Ruth Soukup: I love that. 

Kate Galli: C is for create a not to do list. So maybe I’m filling our listeners minds with all the things that they should be doing, those vital tasks. We need to start first by buying some time and a not to do list is how you do that. So make that list of all the things that perhaps you resent or you know, they’re not as effective as they used to be.

Those habits that we still sometimes cling to, or they’re just plain not working and not fun and not effective. That not to do list is Bye, so. 

Ruth Soukup: So what’s on your not to do list? 

Kate Galli: It has, I’ve nailed it finally this year. I had a reoccurring no email, no social media in bed, which is just appalling and so embarrassing that I admit that I used to check those things in bed.

That’s ridiculous, right? 

Ruth Soukup: No comment.

Kate Galli: So that has been super impactful to reinstate that as a fact. Not to do on my list. I’m also pretty precious with my Sunday. My main goal Sunday is to start the week, like fresh and energized and excited for the week to come. So I’m pretty firm with what I’ll say no to even, so definitely, you know, like work stuff, but absolutely social arrangements that I’m not super pumped for.

I’ll say no to on a Sunday because I just want to be on from four a. m. Monday morning. I don’t like, I need to be fresh. So those are a couple. 

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. I love that. I love that. Okay. So we’re up to 

Kate Galli: A. Yeah. A is for did I’ve just re implemented this and it is amazing. A is for a 24 hour digital detox. I did this years ago.

I banged on about how amazing it was. And then I just. Skipped it for years and I started it again a couple of weeks ago and it’s just picked 24 hours. Mine’s from about lunchtime on a Saturday to lunch on a Sunday where zero email, zero social media. Maybe you listen to some of those podcasts that you love and you still text your friends, but you’re not doing that mindless scrolling and checking for 24 hours.

The freedom. 

Ruth Soukup: It is amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I will. I can concur with that. So I just am coming back from my Christmas vacation and I, you know, I spent a lot of time on Instagram. That’s where I am, you know, very active and it’s amazing how. Much scrolling you end up doing when you’re supposedly working and, but I pre scheduled all of my posts for three weeks and didn’t really have to get on at all.

And it is, it’s so amazingly freeing that, you know, things could just keep going and, and now my, my latest is with my church, we’re doing 21 days of prayer and fasting and I’m fat, I just. I wasn’t even planning to really do it. And I’m doing dry January anyway. So I’m like, that’s probably counts, right.

For as my fasting and fasting fasting from alcohol already. But then I just, I had this moment when I was sitting in church, listening to the sermon, like, I think I need to fast the news because that’s for me is, you know, keeping up on. All the news, what’s going on and have all my news sites that I’m con and it becomes this just mindless scroll.

And here, before you know it, it’s three hours later and you’re still reading all the news and it’s just negative energy coming in. Cause it’s all like, so yeah, it’s been, I think five days without it and it feels. Amazing. 

Kate Galli: Good on you. I completely agree. The thing is to consider how you feel after these actions.

And if you feel rubbish, then, you know, eliminate them pretty much. 

Ruth Soukup: I love it. I love it. Okay. Second 

Kate Galli: to last is one of my, probably my favorites, right? R is the realistic expectations of yourself and the people you love. And so with any big lifestyle change, big health change, you know, we put a heap of pressure on ourselves and also often we put a lot of pressure on the people.

surrounding us to, to support us. And they absolutely should support us. However, too much pressure, unrealistic expectations, you know, it really just can create angst and even conflict. And so for me, that is a huge one to just lower the bar a little bit, to raise your chance of success and super effective.

Ruth Soukup: I love that. I love that. And it, man, I wish I could shout that from the rooftops, honestly, because I think, and you probably see this too with your clients that this, that the unrealistic expectations that we put on ourselves. And especially in terms of health and weight loss of how fast it’s supposed to go and what we’re supposed to be able to accomplish and that you can actually control exactly how it happens.

Like. It just, you just can’t write like your body has to heal and everybody’s body heals at a different rate in a different way. And, and it’s not all the same exactly. And it’s going to happen if you’re doing the things. And if you’re taking the steps consistently, you have to trust the process that it will happen, that it’s the consistency, but it’s not on a certain timeframe and man letting go of those unrealistic expectations.

That is, that is probably the kindest thing that you could ever. Ever do for yourself. I just, I can’t even, I want to give you all the applause for that one. 

Kate Galli: Love it. A hundred percent. I completely agree. It lets you avoid that stop start that guarantees zero results, right? Just lower your expectations. Be consistent.

As you said, it will get you there. Likely not in the timeframe that you would love. However, it will get you there. Yeah, so it’s good. Last one is E is the easy five minute fixes. You know, someone’s might be listening. They’re like, Hey, self care is important. I get you. You’re listing off all these heavy lifts, you know, there’s a lot of work involved in eliciting my values and using them as a.

It’s a filter for my daily decision making. Sometimes you just want an easy five minute quick fix. You know, those five beautiful SMSs you send out to people dear to you and, and wait at some point for those responses to come back. Five minutes of sitting in the sun, walking around the block, patting your companion animal, whatever it may be.

Something really easy, cheap and fast and easy wherever you are is an easy five minute quick fix. 

Ruth Soukup: I love that. I love that. What a great way to end. So good. And I mean, I just, I think about like we, how important it is to, to implement that. Level of self love in your life, right? Like just care, like caring for yourself.

Everything, every single thing you mentioned, I can picture how impactful that would be on your life. So thank you for sharing all of that. And I love, I love an acronym. I love a great acronym. 

Kate Galli: Yeah. You gotta make it fun. 

Ruth Soukup: You gotta, you gotta make it fun. And just the aligning the values too is such a, such an important piece of, of all of this.

It’s so core and so central, but how, like, how do you, how do you even start the process of identifying those values? 

Kate Galli: I would get, I’m a big fan of a huge sheet of paper and you literally, you start with listing out as many values. Maybe you need to look at a list. There are so many lists online, right? Just Google values.

What are some values? And there are literally hundreds from freedom, integrity, passion. They’re my top three, but other people might be along the lines of love, connection, family, trust, whatever, fun, whatever it may be, no right or wrong. If they’re not flooding into your mind, Google a list and see what resonates and jot down as many as resonate with you and then narrow it down to your top three.

And you can go further and, and kind of prioritize them to find out what’s number one. And you would do that by saying, you know, what’s more important to me, freedom or family. Again, no right or wrong, but which one comes first, and we can work both in, of course. But that is how I would recommend that someone who isn’t kind of, who, if the values thing are all a bit new, your life is operating in accordance with your values right now, either effectively or not but that clarity will let you ensure that it becomes effective and easier.

Ruth Soukup: Yeah. I love that. So what do you say to the perfectionists out there? Cause I know, I know they exist. It’s the top fear archetype is that perfectionist procrastinator archetype who is so afraid of getting it wrong or making the wrong choice or even going through that exercise feels like. Compelled to pick the right answer rather than what’s truly aligned with their values.

How do you get over that part? 

Kate Galli: First off the right answer. That’s not aligned is not going to be effective. It’s not going to work. You’re, you’re wasting your time. Basically in relation to the perfectionist, you know, perfectionism is the perfect excuse to do nothing. And so it’s really, it’s not really high standards.

It’s really low. So if you’re not taking the steps that will get you the result. And, you know, back like decades ago when I loved art, I was probably a bit of a perfectionist with my art. I wasn’t happy. It didn’t give me joy. That’s why I went to fine arts college and became a personal trainer, you know, because it didn’t give me joy.

It. It sucked all the joy out, really. It wasn’t going to get me results. And I was that perfectionist. And I think probably it helps to fail a few times, you know, to try hard enough that, that you fail, which I absolutely have. And to learn that, you know, again, you’re just learning from that failure. It’s not fatal.

It’s not game over. You pick yourself up and get going again. And you learn that you just make a start. And you iterate with the information that you’re getting. None of us are ever going to get it perfect from the get go. It’s just, it’s absolutely not possible. I think my favorite artist back to art, Salvador Dali, who was like an absolute master used to say, don’t fear perfection.

You’ll never attain it. And his work was as perfect as anyone I’ve ever seen. However, no one is going to get there really. 

Ruth Soukup: Right. So what do you say to the person who’s been listening to this whole episode, right? We’re talking about self care. We’re talking about mindset. We’re talking about values and aligning your values and understanding your why and how important that is in order to get what you want.

And that the person who’s listening right now thinking. This is just a load of woo woo, right? Like this is, Oh, woo woo, give me the tips, right? Tell me what I need to do. Once the practical step by step, what do you say? What do you say to that? 

Kate Galli: Well, it depends tough love Kate and I respond well to this would say, how’s your current strategy working for you?

Because if they’re happy. With their results. They don’t even need to listen to me, you know, like what they’re doing right now is working for them. However, if it’s not, then, you know, worst case scenario, what like, what is it going to cost you if you give this strategy a whirl and it’s yet another thing that doesn’t work for you, however.

If this could be the free game changing strategy that does make health and fitness simple, sustainable, and fun. And that is what I am all about, right? I am a bit like, we’re in this body for life, you know? I want my clients to get to a fit, strong, confident body that they can rock around in forever because that is freedom.

And that’s my number one value, you know, so there’s no harm in giving it a whirl. And if you do give it a whirl, like give it your best effort as well. Don’t hold back. If you’re a perfectionist or you have a fear of failure, holding back is already like not doing is already failure. Like, so just give it a try.

Ruth Soukup: I love it. I love it. Great answer. Okay. So if you had to name one health tip that aligns with values and simplifies life, what would it be? 

Kate Galli: Ooh, I’ve never had that before. I guess what just came to mind is the way I speak to myself and my client is you and my clients, you and your body are a team. Right.

So it’s not, you’re not fighting each other. Every decision I make in relation to my nutrition and my exercise, it’s not about restriction with food and discipline with exercise. It’s about abundance with food. And it’s about, I get to with exercise. If we have the time, the physical capacity, the, you know, the money potentially to exercise, that’s precious me time.

And that’s a privilege. And so I would say just, Whatever your current focus is right now, think of you and your body as a team and be kind to your body. It’s the only one you’ve got. 

Ruth Soukup: I love it. I love it. Great, great way to end. So what are you working on now that has you excited and fired up? 

Kate Galli: I’m so excited by everything I do.

We’ve spoken about personal training mostly. However, the online side of the business is my heart. even more. I have a podcast, Healthification 900 episodes deep. So I speak to passionate and compassionate actors, authors, activists, entrepreneurs, doctors, and that’s my heart. I love Healthification. It’s yes, health facing, however, also very vegan plant based, which is my heart.

Beyond that, I’ve got the plant positive journal. So it’s like a daily planner that Also helps you adopt a healthy plant based lifestyle, one step at a time. It’s geared, so I’m, you haven’t seen it today. However, I’m the mad panic, like mad passionate vegan animal rights activist, right? That’s me, that’s my heart.

The journal is geared towards the plant curious individual. It’s a lot calmer than me. I think I’ve been calm today. But it’s got deliciousness. It’s got motivation. It’s got self care. And it’s also a daily planner with beautiful art. So those two things are probably my heart right now. 

Ruth Soukup: Awesome. I love it.

And we will make sure we link to all of those in the show notes and Kate, I just thank you so much for being here today. It was so awesome to talk to you. Such amazing, amazing advice and, and wisdom that you shared today. 

Kate Galli: Ruth. It has been a huge pleasure. Thank you so much for your insightful questions and for having me on your show.

Ruth Soukup: You’re welcome. All right, guys, that about does it for this episode. Remember that you will find the link to Kate’s website as well as her podcast and planner in the show notes, so be sure to check that out. And if you know anyone else who might be interested in this episode, please be sure to send it their way and then be sure to hit the subscribe button for this podcast to be notified of future episodes.

And I will see you back here for another new episode very soon.