GGS Spotlight: Lynette Phillips

https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/

Name: Lynette Phillips
Age: 29
Location: Colorado

How did you find out about Girls Gone Strong?
My mom, Brenda Reid, was in the Strongest You Coaching program and she fell in love. I saw her strength and confidence soar and I had to experience it for myself.

What does being a Girl Gone Strong mean to you?
It means defying the stereotype that women can’t be strong. Truly, some of the strongest people I know are women — both physically and mentally. It means that I am a part of a family of women who empower me to be my best self and don’t judge what that best self is.

What do you do?
I work for a small educational management company, and like any small business employee, I wear a lot of different hats: I process payroll, handle general HR tasks, maintain our social media presence and marketing needs, as well as develop and manage our curriculum to ensure we’re supporting our students in the best ways possible for their learning.

What else do you do?
Truly anything with my family is my favorite way to spend my time — it doesn’t matter if it’s my husband, my children, our furbaby, my parents, my brother and his fiancée, my grandma… even cousin time. All of it makes my heart soar.

Walking is one of my favorite pastimes, outdoors preferably, and I love dancing to the credits of the movie we’ve just watched with my two young daughters every Friday night. I also volunteer with my mom for a wonderful organization close to both our hearts, Hope House of Colorado.

How were you introduced to strength training, and how long have you been training?
Various friends and family kept making comments and posting photos that drew my attention. Again, when my mom began the journey, I decided I needed to see what the hype was about. I was a newbie when I joined SYC so I’ve only been actively strength training since January 2017, though I would argue that having two babies who loved (and demanded) to be carried and held as frequently as possible, means I’ve basically been strength training since 2012.

Favorite lift:
Not sure I have one, but I can say that I was absolutely ecstatic the day I achieved one full crisp push-up from the floor!

Top 3 things you must have with you at the gym or in your gym bag:
Full water bottle, amazing tunes, and a sassy workout top.

Do you prefer to train alone or with others? Why?
Alone. I get lost in my music and my training — and I prefer it that way. I enjoy the “me time” and I also think I do a better job staying focused on my form when I am alone and can take things at my pace.

Best compliment you’ve received lately:
I was at work, on a phone call with a parent of an ex-employee who was struggling with her mental health, and at the end of the conversation the mom said to me “You should really be a counselor, you are so inspiring and genuinely supportive.”

Most recent compliment you gave someone else:
I told my husband how sexy he looked while doing the dishes, haha! But really, I love complimenting people and try to do it a lot — it’s great to see smiles.

Favorite way to treat yourself:
Yoga, hands down. I have my yoga mat in my bedroom with a beautiful view of the open space behind us and lots of natural daylight — it’s pure bliss.

Favorite quote:
Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

Three words that best describe you:
Driven. Embracive. Dedicated.

Favorite book:
Absolutely way too many to list (I am a bookworm). Currently I am enjoying reading Judy Blume’s Wifey for my playful reading, and Tiffany Dufu’s Drop the Ball for my mindful reading.

What inspires and motivates you?
My mom inspires me. She’s such an incredible woman, words can’t express how inspirational she is to me on a daily basis. From her humble spirit to her unwavering drive to better others’ lives, she’s just amazing. I’m so blessed to have her as my mom.

My girls motivate me. The laughter and love they have for life is a constant motivation to slow down and notice the details, to see the world through their inquisitive eyes and open hearts.

Describe a typical day in your life, from waking up to bedtime:
I’m greeted in the mornings by two sleepy-headed blondies climbing into bed with me to give hugs and kisses before taking off for their morning cartoons. I know, I have quite possibly the best alarm clock ever!

From there it’s getting all three of us prepared for the day and out the door at a reasonable hour, aka before school starts. I then drop them off at their school and embark on my day. After my workday is over, most days I’m lucky enough to get in some me time while waiting for my hubby to get home so we can go get the girls together. My me time is balanced out with yoga and strength training. Some weeks it’s more training and less yoga, others it’s way more yoga and less training — it truly just depends on what my body is telling me it needs that week or that day.

After we pick up the girls from school it’s home to do homework with the 5 year old and faux-work with the 2 year old (because being like her big sister is really all she cares about these days, and it’s absolutely adorable). The husband is our chef most nights — he’s quite good at it! Then it’s clean-up and family time until we start the bedtime routine.

Some nights, family time will consist of games, some nights it’s TV snuggles, my favorite nights are the nights it’s Kid Yoga. The girls watch a YouTube channel that’s dedicated for kids, Cosmic Kids Yoga, and they follow their instructor as she tells a story and has them flex into different positions. They really get into it (and sometimes I do too!)

When did you join Strongest You Coaching? Why did you decide to join and what helped you make the decision to join?
I joined SYC in January of this year. I decided to join after my mom had gone through the program — I actually hadn’t even heard of GGS until she introduced me! Now I sport my GGS hoodie and tell all my girl acquaintances about the program!

What has been your biggest challenge in the Strongest You Coaching program?
Definitely my post-baby abs. After having my second daughter in 2015, I struggled to regain that core strength, but wasn’t really aware of how much I’d lost. In my first training set, I found out exactly how weak my core was through the beloved dead bugs.

What has been your biggest success in the Strongest You Coaching program?
In connection with my biggest challenge, my biggest success was the moment I executed a full dead bug session, correctly.

It was the moment I realized just how physically strong I’d made my body and gave me such a boost of confidence that I was indeed doing what was needed for me.

What do you like best about the Strongest You Coaching community?
The support, of course! Between having a fabulous coach (Jen Comas) who gives you tools to succeed and having co-SYC team members in the same world as you, it’s like having your own personal cheering squad and being a part of one for the other girls. I love it!

What is the habit you’re currently working on most?
Definitely the mindful eating. I don’t think it’s a habit I’ll ever not work on, honestly. It’s important to really slow down and listen to your body to hear it when it tells you what it needs and when it’s done.

How has Strongest You Coaching changed your life?

Being a part of this program helped give me back the one thing I’d lost unintentionally — my confidence.

It has taught me that I am stronger than I think, and, that I also need to change that “weak” “can’t do” mindset when it creeps in (because let’s be real, it’s a societal mindset that comes to haunt us more than we’d like to admit).

What would you tell a woman who’s nervous about joining Strongest You Coaching?
Do it. Jump in with both feet and don’t look back. There’s quite literally nothing it will hurt (though I would say that Jen’s training managed to make my glutes sing soreness tunes occasionally…haha!) But in all seriousness, do it.

Strongest You Coaching is truly about weight loss, but probably not in the manner that you’d think of. The SYC program helps women lose mental and emotional weight through teaching and guiding them to accept themselves as they are and as they are striving to be. It’s an all-inclusive program. They don’t just solely focus on the physical aspects of being strong — they focus on all of it. They make your soul stronger.

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