What happens when you combine movement that aligns with YOUR body, intuitive nutrition, rewiring your limiting beliefs and an understanding of universal laws ... you achieve true FITNESS and you are happier along the way! Candid discussions about what fitness really is and how we can intuitively create our OWN path. The Fitness Witch is a certified PILATES mat instructor, CrossFit L1, Law of Attraction & Manifestation coach, Silversmith & a Reiki healer.
Welcome to Fitness Anarchy, a podcast about sovereignty where I teach you how to take your power back. I'm the fitness witch, and this is my story about how I went from struggling with alcoholism and addiction, having no athletic or exercise background to becoming a holistic health coach and transformation guide. The best place is to start at the beginning. I am Sandy. I am currently 46 years old.
The Fitness Witch:I am from a small town in Upstate New York, a very rural area. You know? I'm a regular person. I've raised 3 children. I'm an entrepreneur.
The Fitness Witch:I grew up in a lot of chaos and dysfunction and trauma as I think a lot of us do. You know, our society is we are living in the most toxic time, not just food wise or pollution wise, but I believe mentally and emotionally. And trauma and dysfunction and chaos come in a lot of different flavors. So I like to keep it open ended because I think a lot of people can identify with the fact that, you know, as children, we're thrown into whatever family of origin we're thrown into, and we have to kinda make sense of things. And we tell ourselves a story, and that story gets stored in your mind, in your subconscious mind.
The Fitness Witch:And and that story dictates basically the rest of your life. And so if we aren't aware of this story, it can be really hard to change our habits, to create new ones, to create new patterns, and, you know, that's why I started this podcast because I wanna help people reach their goals quicker. I want them to be happier along the way. This should be an easy process. We have all the information, the science, the psychology, the techniques, the formula.
The Fitness Witch:We have it all here. People shouldn't have to struggle when it comes to changing and wanting to feel better. So I'm here to share my story as it relates to fitness, wellness, and healing. So, you know, I did fairly well considering, you know, the dysfunction and all the things that came along with it as a child. I attained a certain amount of success, I guess you would say.
The Fitness Witch:I went to college after high school and for massage therapy, which I figured out really quick. I'd massage was super cool, but I didn't wanna do it to strangers, but that was where I first learned about Reiki. And then I got my real estate license. I bought my first house when I was 20 years old. I went back to college for interior design.
The Fitness Witch:I started flipping houses through my early early twenties. But, you know, alcohol had been a part of my story since I was a teenager. And, I thought everybody drank and smoked pot. Like, that was just normal. And that was just kind of how I continued my life using alcohol and boys as and money.
The Fitness Witch:You know? Like, these were the things that people were doing kind of to attain happiness. Like, go to college, you get a job, you get married, you do all these things, and you're supposed to be happy. But I was not happy. I had always, struggled with self esteem, with a sense feeling safe.
The Fitness Witch:You know? I had never felt safe as a kid. I didn't have any real kind of basis for what self love was, and I struggled. I had anxiety and depression as a teen and was very you know, social things were very awkward for me. I didn't play any sports in school.
The Fitness Witch:I wasn't athletic, and I didn't have any kind of exercise or form of fitness or wellness in my life. And in fact, you know, I would say it was the opposite, drinking, smoking cigarettes, smoking pot. And I was a very sensitive person as well. I would say I was a highly sensitive person. You know, nurture or nature, I don't know.
The Fitness Witch:I think we all develop the way we develop in order to survive in the environments we're in. You know? So whether we become more this way or that way, it has a lot to do, I do believe, with genetics sometimes, but but also its environment. I think it can be both. And I struggled.
The Fitness Witch:I would say I struggled here on Earth, I feel like, until I figured out, some things about myself. So I carried on, you know, as best as I could in my twenties, while still drinking, and and it was became, you know, becoming to be a problem. I had started, like, having blackouts and things like that had happened. And people around me were, you know, getting married, and I thought, you know, maybe if I maybe if I get married, that'll slow down my drinking. You know?
The Fitness Witch:Maybe if I have kids and a family. And and it did actually slow down the progression of my alcoholism. And after my kids were a couple years old, I have I have 2 boys that are 1916. I also have, a daughter that's 6. But my boys, my first marriage, they were about 6 and 3 when that marriage ended.
The Fitness Witch:You know, I wasn't I thought I wasn't happy with the marriage. I wasn't happy with this. I wasn't happy with that. I didn't realize that I wasn't happy with myself. I had never been happy with myself.
The Fitness Witch:I didn't know how to generate my own sense of self worth or happiness. I didn't know what happiness was. You know? I had this idea of who I thought I had to be to kinda fit in with society, but I was really not being my authentic self at all. And then I got sober.
The Fitness Witch:That was 13 years ago, and that was where my real healing journey began. You know, I think I had had what people called dark nights of the soul before, as a teenager, and I had one during this period as well. You know, a spiritual awakening, whatever you wanna call it, ego death. I had a moment where I realized that alcohol was not working for me. You know?
The Fitness Witch:I saw the pattern. I saw what's happening. And when I got sober and started going to 12 step meetings, I started having these shifts in perceptions. Shifts in perception. These moments.
The Fitness Witch:They were like these white light moments, mini spiritual awakenings, whatever you wanna call them, where somebody would say something or I would read something, and something would change in my mind. And it was like a a key was unlocking a door that allowed me to think away I'd never thought before, and, man, I loved that feeling. I was like, this is cool. What is this? I want more of this.
The Fitness Witch:But I didn't understand exactly what was happening in the mind until about 13 years later. So, you know, I continued that journey of wellness and healing. Stopping drinking the alcohol was the first step. Starting to change my nutrition, was the next step as most people do. This is kind of the order.
The Fitness Witch:Right? And I got certified to teach Pilates math. That was about 10 years ago. I've been teaching for about 10 years that, and, you know, I didn't have any kind of exercise, foundation. So that was really freeing.
The Fitness Witch:And then I I took a CrossFit class, which if anybody knows about CrossFit, it is serious. And I am an introvert, and I am highly sensitive. And it was a really challenging scenario for me to go into, but I'm really grateful for it because I learned a foundation of fitness, and it was really, like, one of the missing links that really helped with change because, like like I've said, it's never it's never one thing. Right? It's like a series of things that kinda lead us to this spiritual awakening, this this point of consciousness, this point of, you know, becoming.
The Fitness Witch:I ended up getting remarried and, having my daughter, and I can't tell you the level of fitness I was able to maintain through that pregnancy versus, you know, my first two. I was doing CrossFit, like, up 3 days before I had my 3rd c section. And I've been able to maintain, you know, my my health and my wellness through exercise, through diet, through mindset, and it's just been such a gift. But there was still a missing piece of the puzzle that I wasn't seeing, and that was, understanding that I had been raised in generational narcissism, and that had carried on to my romantic relationships as well. And, you know, I repeated that behavior.
The Fitness Witch:There's this quote, like, what is repeating the same behavior over and over again and expecting different results? It's insanity. That's what insanity is. And I was repeating the same behavior over and over, and I didn't understand the core wound. I didn't understand the subconscious programming.
The Fitness Witch:I didn't understand a lot at this point. And so I ended up getting divorced again, and and this is when I had the spiritual awakening of all spiritual awakenings, the darkness of the soul. I don't know what's happening exactly. I'll tell you, and then you can maybe share with me your thoughts on that. So what happened was that I saw the patterns.
The Fitness Witch:I saw the behavior. I read this book. It's called Getting the Love You Want, and it's all about how we are constantly trying to heal the wounds of our childhood within the relationships and how we pick the same kind of person. And I started to understand more about myself, and I started taking courses to learn about myself. And I started healing these core wounds and understanding the patterns of what was occurring.
The Fitness Witch:And I was able to see these things from a higher perspective, like, not from Sandy's perspective, like, from a higher consciousness where I was able to see these patterns in a way that kind of released me from feeling any emotional attachment to them because I was able to understand that we're all just, you know, doing the best that we can. Obviously, I feel really feel that we all are, at any given time, always doing the best that we can, but we're operating from these subconscious patterns, from these core wounds that we don't know, and that was just like so crazy to me. You know, because all of this really ties back to 12 stop stuff, without really putting a name on it. And so I started to understand what those moments were, You know, the first time I recognized it was I had started doing all this manifestation work in July of 2023. I became a law of attraction and manifestation coach.
The Fitness Witch:I started learning about the psychology behind manifestation and quantum physics and neuroplasticity and, epigenetics and all of these things, and I started manifesting. And I had all these techniques I was using, and I had this realization that I wasn't able to relax when I should be able to, like, in scenarios where I had free time, I was doing something, but I was, you know, worrying about doing something else, and I I realized that I was a human doing, not a human being. That my subconscious program was that my worth was tied to my production, to what I could create, to the amount of money, you know, to how pretty I was, to how fit I was. And it's interesting because I think this happens quite a lot as we start to get older, we realize, you know, that being super skinny and super fit and having a nice house and and having all the things are not what makes you happy. And I saw the program.
The Fitness Witch:I saw what was happening, and I changed it. And I was like, wow. This is powerful. I can identify and see limiting beliefs, and then I can change them. And I had always wanted to get pull ups.
The Fitness Witch:They're big thing in CrossFit, and I just I wanted to be able to have consistent pull ups. And so I was like, I wonder if the reason I haven't been able to get pull ups is because of the limiting belief. So I it's like a week. Like, I started doing this writing and I was like, I changed my you know, I had a belief that pull ups are hard. It's harder for women to gain upper upper body muscle mass, whatever these things are, and I started doing, like, these simple little, like, exercises.
The Fitness Witch:And again, it was just a week and I ended up busting out a couple pull ups. And that was not an increase in muscle mass or ability, that was a complete change in mindset, and it just blew me out of the water. It's like when the mom who has the child that's trapped under the car lifts the car up, you know, it's because in that moment, she believed that she could. She had to save her child, and so her body routed the adrenaline to her muscles which allowed her to lift the car because she believed that it was possible. Once I believed I could do pull ups, I was doing them and just everything started to click together and I realized that this was what had been happening when I quit drinking and I started having those moments.
The Fitness Witch:I was having those shifts in perception. Those were me reprogramming these thoughts, these beliefs that I had had, that I had grown up with, you know, that we all have about our bodies, about exercise, about nutrition, about so many things. They say that about 60% of the programs in our subconscious mind are dysfunctional, and I bet that mine were even more than that. And it just seemed like a miracle to me that, you know, there was this simple kind of way that you could go in, analyze your beliefs, your subconscious mind, go in there, change the thoughts, and and be this other person kind of instantly. I mean, I could see the change in me in a day when I started analyzing these beliefs, when I started realizing that I couldn't relax.
The Fitness Witch:Like, once I identified the belief, it was so much easier to then change the habit. Right? Like, I started working with clients who with nutrition, with fitness, and I started using these concepts to help cut away their blocks, and I saw the shifts in them, drastic overnight shifts that allowed them to change and see where they'd been holding themselves back from reaching their goals. Change is possible, and I am here to share with you all the pertinent information that I feel has helped me along the way on my journey. I do have courses available on my website, and I do deep dives 1 on 1.
The Fitness Witch:I love working 1 on 1 with clients. I also have a mentorship program. So you can find me at thejeweljezebel.com or email me at thejeweledjezebel@gmail.com.