Join us as the founder and CEO of Brooke Burke Body and former co-host of Dancing with the Stars, shares that working moms may not be able to have it all, but they can have more.
Guest Bio
BROOKE BURKE is a television host, cancer survivor, entrepreneur, fitness educator, philanthropist, podcaster, and women’s health advocate who has been thriving in Hollywood for decades. The title she holds dearest, however, is that of mother to her four children.
Brooke has held numerous successful network television jobs and high‑profile brand partnerships. In 2008, Brooke became the champion of “Dancing with the Stars” (DWTS) season 7 which she later parlayed into a co-hosting job that she would hold for eight seasons. Some of her other notable credits include producing and hosting the award-winning Saturday morning educational show “Hidden Heroes,” hosting TV Land’s branded content series “I Dare You,” and, most recently, co-hosting the iHeartRadio podcast Intimate Knowledge.
Brooke is constantly seeking creative ways to engage, inspire, and motivate women and men everywhere. After successfully launching her fitness career with a Sony DVD series and several partnerships with Guthy-Renker, Brooke launched her VIP Malibu Booty BURN class as well as female transformation retreats nationwide. A born nurturer and motivator, Brooke became a certified breathwork teacher to help further her knowledge of whole-body wellness and, in 2019, created Brooke Burke Body (BB Body) — a mindful wellness app designed to Sweat Smart by working out from the comfort and safety of home. Dedicated to helping everyBODY make health and wellness a priority, BB Body is themindful digital gym. Brooke produces and choreographs all of the workouts to be done at home, without equipment, for every fitness level, and in increments of 5 to 50 minutes to fit every schedule. In just two short years, the app has grown substantially and is now available in all app stores as well as Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, Samsung Smartcast and Vizio Smartcast.
A trusted resource for women everywhere, Brooke has graced the cover of countless fitness, fashion, and lifestyle magazines including Fitness, Health, Ladies’ Home Journal, Prevention, Redbook, Shape and many more.
Brooke remains one of social media’s “moms to follow” with nearly 4 million dedicated followers. For more Brooke, visit BrookeBurke.com follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For the latest information on Brooke Burke Body, follow the brand on Instagram and TikTok.
Inside Mental Health Podcast Host
Gabe Howard is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, “Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations,” available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from the author.
Gabe makes his home in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He lives with his supportive wife, Kendall, and a Miniature Schnauzer dog that he never wanted, but now can’t imagine life without.
To book Gabe for your next event or learn more about him, please visit gabehoward.com.
Episode Transcript
Producer’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript has been computer generated and therefore may contain inaccuracies and grammar errors. Thank you.
Announcer: You’re listening to Inside Mental Health: A Psych Central Podcast where experts share experiences and the latest thinking on mental health and psychology. Here’s your host, Gabe Howard.
Gabe Howard: Welcome, everyone. I’m your host, Gabe Howard. And today we are live in studio with Brooke Burke. Brooke is a television host, cancer survivor, entrepreneur, fitness educator, philanthropist, podcaster and woman’s health advocate who has been thriving in Hollywood for decades. But the title she holds dearest is that of a mother to her four children. Brooke, welcome to the show.
Brooke Burke: Thanks for having me. You have an amazing voice, by the way.
Gabe Howard: Oh, I thank you. I appreciate that. You know, today’s topic is self-care for working mothers with a specific focus on the idea that working moms can’t have it all, but they can have more. But I got to tell you, Brooke, just from reading your bio, it sure makes it seem like you have it all.
Brooke Burke: It’s slightly exhausting to hear it said like that. I don’t know if any of us have it all, but I’m sure trying.
Gabe Howard: Well, I think that is very fair. You know, I do not have children, so I’m not even a working parent.
Brooke Burke: I have enough for both of us.
Gabe Howard: We will share custody. Share, share custody.
Brooke Burke: That would be amazing. When? When is your turn?
Gabe Howard: What is it? Every other weekend and every Wednesday. You know, I just the. I don’t have children, so I’m not even a working parent. So, I asked my sister, who is the married, working mother of a very energetic eight-year-old, what is on the top of her mind when it comes to her own self-care? And she said that she is worried about being an almond mom. Now, I’ve never heard the term almond mom, but it’s a TikTok tock phrase that basically means that parents are worried that by taking a healthy interest in their own lifestyles, better eating, exercises, etc., they will inadvertently give their kids a skinny or unhealthy body image.
Brooke Burke: Oh.
Gabe Howard: Yeah. In other words, our children will become obsessed with weight loss, looks, etc. Now my sister points out that our whole family does struggle with weight and body image issues and that while it’s important to be healthy, it’s also important to love your body. So, her very specific question for you, Brooke, was how does she ensure that she doesn’t pass along her body issues to her daughter?
Brooke Burke: This is a really important topic, fully loaded. You know, I haven’t heard that term either, almond mom, but I’m going to stick that in my brain right now and take that home with me. You know, the relationship with food, I think, is sometimes a fragile one. I’m raising three daughters. I have a son. My fiancé has two kids. So, there’s a whole lot of everything. Because I’m in the health and wellness industry, I have to be extra careful with the words that I choose and the way that I approach my own relationship with food. And it’s tricky. Leading by example is a great concept. Easier said than done. I have to lead by example and encourage my children and guide them, but at the same time I have to let them be children and I have to let them make their own choices and not try to necessarily instill all my views on them. It’s funny, oftentimes I asked my children to work out with me or come and take my class because I teach wellness classes and I guide people on property. And everything that mom does is slightly boring and not hard enough or not fun enough or not cool enough. So, I give them grace and that. But it really is my responsibility to stock my home with mindful things. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen with my kids. We cook together. We shop together. I love that they know how to prepare a meal, but I also have to let them be kids, you know? So, I do my best. I encourage, I prepare them with great options, and then I let them make their own choices. And I have to choose my words carefully, how I address myself, my body, my own habits. It’s tricky.
Gabe Howard: I imagine that it’s very tricky. You know, in writing questions for this podcast, one of the things that I wanted to say was how do you achieve balance? But luckily, I researched you, and I know that you do not like the term balance. Why not? What’s wrong with having balance in your life?
Brooke Burke: I mean, if we look up the definition, it’s really about a moment where everything is equal. And I don’t think that’s realistic. And I, I joke around about the concept of balance all the time because I think it’s wishful thinking. I think it’s too much pressure. I think things go wrong. I think life is hard. I like to focus more on managing the chaos and managing the days where things are imbalanced and when days are hard and everything isn’t exactly the way I wanted it to be, which is most days, to be honest. So, I’m not striving for that. I’m not striving for perfection. I’m not guiding other women to try to get everything right. And we have so many expectations. So, I’ve learned to surrender, especially as a mom, as a working woman, as a woman in and of itself. I I’ve learned to just accept a little bit more, expect a little bit less, and then strive to manage it all. I wish my life was balanced. That would be probably boring. I don’t know if that’s even realistic. I don’t know.
Gabe Howard: It sounds like you feel about balance the way a lot of people feel about happy. Like happy is a goal, right? You can be happy. But then people say, Well, I have to be happy all the time. And that’s that really sets yourself up for failure because there’s so many emotions. Is that sort of the messaging that’s out there that if you strive for this balance, you can’t be in balance 24/7. So invariably you’re going to be disappointed?
Brooke Burke: I just think it’s unrealistic. I mean, let’s look at happiness, maybe as a verb, maybe it’s a choice. Like we wake up, we get to decide. What to do with our time, how to treat our body, what our inner dialog is going to be. Mood is a little bit more complicated when you sprinkle in a little hormones in life, but I think happiness is a choice. I think balance. I just don’t know if it’s possible on most days. Learning how to deal with it, all the highs and the lows and the challenges I think is a more realistic goal.
Gabe Howard: You spoke about finding your purpose in life, but many of the working moms that I talked to, well, just that I just talked to, but that I specifically talked to in preparation of this show, they specifically stated that their purpose in life was to raise good children. And any discussion outside of that, they were like, well, what are you talking about? I’m a mom.
Brooke Burke: This a loaded question. But let’s see. Let’s see where we go with this. I think that well, first of all, the word good. Like I have a little bit of an issue with that, right? Like, I want to raise children that have character. I want to raise children to be who they’re supposed to be. I’m not trying to raise them to be who I wanted them to be. I got to give birth to them and give them life. But now I get to guide them through life. Right? So good is. That’s a lot of pressure. I have good ones and strong ones and defiant ones and kids with care. I mean, I have my kids are full of a little bit of everything, but I think a lot of women lose their self, their sense of self. They sort of become the woman behind the scenes. They forgot who they were before they became a woman. And that’s always fascinating to me. And I’ve really been diving deep in these most recent years in that concept. Why do we lose our sense of self and how do we get back to that and how do we allow ourselves to be equally important? My children are for sure my priority, but I remember who I was before I had children, the evolution of who I am today. And I allow myself to be equally important. And I think a lot of women. Build their whole life around motherhood. Amazing. Dangerous. And we’re so many other things besides just mothers. Right. And that’s a complicated concept. And I like working with women in that space. And I think we’re worthy of that. I think we’re worthy of being a lot of things besides being a mother, even though that’s like my favorite, my favorite role. But I’m a lot of things besides that, if that makes sense.
Gabe Howard: It does make sense. You would mention jumping back in time and I on one hand, I cringe when podcasters ask questions like this. What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self? I can already hear my head hitting the table, but.
Brooke Burke: I’ve been asked that so many times.
Gabe Howard: I know, I know. So, I’m going to word it slightly differently, but between us it’s the exact same question. But what was your biggest mistake as a working mom? So, for example, if you could go back all the way to when your kids were little, what would you tell yourself? What would you try to head off and not, not, not redo?
Brooke Burke: Yeah, gosh, gosh, don’t we wish we had a redo opportunity? And this is just a big dress rehearsal. I didn’t have much of a social life, but that was a choice because I really wanted to be able to work and accomplish my career goals and be the most involved mother that I could be. And I missed a lot of things because I have four children and that’s a lot. That feels like ten on some days. I gave myself grace and I didn’t feel guilty about that in hindsight, but in the moments of it, it was always like, Oh, there’s another mother that’s at everything. And I’m always that mom that’s rushing around, and I wish I would have maybe communicated a little bit more with my children. I think I made my best effort as a seasoned mom with my third and fourth child. I was very strong and very free and do you like this whole life? We get to have this whole life because Mommy is doing X, Y, and Z. I know that I came from a working mother. And so, I really had, I think, pride in the reality that I was leading by example for my children and showing them healthy boundaries and showing them what life work, what life looks like when you have goals and when you allow yourself freedom to really accomplish those goals. As a younger mom, I was just like, Oh gosh, I wish I was at that meeting. I can’t believe I have to miss that parent meeting. But we were able to divide and conquer as a family. We just don’t know what we’re in when we’re in it, when we’re younger. And then a lot of women are just drowning in guilt. And I don’t like that. I want people to learn to not do guilt and allow themselves room to do it all. There are so many women that we admire that were career women and mothers. When we’re in it, we don’t give ourselves grace of the reality that we can’t do it all.
Gabe Howard: When it comes to self-care, we need to prioritize it. And I have a question from a working mom who writes as a mom with two kids, two dogs, a spouse, a house and a really stressful career, I have prioritized self-care for my own sanity. My issue is the shaming from other parents. The Oh, it must be nice or the Well, I don’t have time for that because I’m an involved parent. She says that she tries to ignore them, but it does get to her.
Brooke Burke: Ouch.
Gabe Howard: What advice do you have for her? Because it sounds like she’s doing it right.
Brooke Burke: Right. When you introduced her, I was like, now you’re talking to my people. I really don’t engage in that. So, my boundaries are pretty strong in that I’m owning and I’m fully responsible for the choices that I make for myself and my family. Hard period. Nobody knows how to run my family the way I do. No one knows what works for me or my children. I wish that women would find their own strength and take ownership of the choices that they’re making. There’s always going to be another mother out there doing it better. That is for sure. There’s always going to be somebody out there doing a little bit more than you do. I just don’t engage in that. I mean, it’s the same thing with social media. I love to have a 360 conversation. I love the online community. I think it’s super important, especially for the type of business that we’re in. But the negative chatter and the person that doesn’t understand the dynamics of your family, that feels so free to chime in. I just don’t have any room for that.
Gabe Howard: It’s great to give advice when you have half the story.
Brooke Burke: I mean, people love to criticize and people love to tell me what I need to be doing, but I’m always curious about their background and expertise and just the audacity of that of that freedom. It’s weird to me. I don’t do that.
Gabe Howard: I have certainly seen online where people have critiqued you. Yeah. And they’ve critiqued your mothering, your parenting, just everything. And I always think, okay, well, one, you know nothing about Brooke, because you haven’t met her. You’ve just seen her online. But the second thing, especially when they’re criticizing parenting, I think, okay, well, at the most you’ve met the parents, you’ve met Brooke, you’ve met mom. You haven’t met her child. Do you feel this is something that parents need to remember when they’re being criticized? Because a lot of times the people who are criticizing them may know them well, but they really don’t know their children as well.
Brooke Burke: It’s a great point. There’s a really cheeky quote, and I’ve used it so many times that someone else’s opinion is really none of my business. And I really love that quote. And I use that a lot for my own children because everybody has an opinion. And does it really matter to me in the loving boundaries of my own family? Does it matter to my children? And does anybody really know the intricacies of how we run our lives? So, we have to be careful today because it’s such a loud conversation and there are so many people chiming in. Most often people without a bio or a name or a face in their social media platform. I love parts of that because I get to correct things that are incorrect. I get to tell my own story, I get to narrate my own story, and then my story changes when I decide to change the way I tell it, right? So, I feel very empowered and very in control of that. And I have great strength and not letting other people chime in to that. And I deal with a lot of women that are fighting with that, struggling with that and feel grossly criticized. And I don’t. I really don’t.
Gabe Howard: It sounds like a solid self-care is tuning out that noise, setting that boundary and focusing on the things that you can control and not the people who are standing around criticizing it.
Brooke Burke: You know, that’s right. And I, I kind of skated over your mention of self-care. I think it’s our life vest. I think it’s imperative. I think it’s the only way that we can be great mothers and accomplish amazing things in our lives. We have to give ourself freedom to put ourselves on top of the to-do list. We deserve it. We’re worthy of it. I spend a lot of time changing inner dialog, self-talk, quieting down that voice, that voice of shame, that voice of guilt, that voice that gets in your own way. We have to take those moments and know that self-care allows us to navigate better. Moments of stillness, moments to create energy, moments to rest and recover and recharge and reboot. All of those things for me, really define this very big concept of wellness. So, fitness used to be the category, right about self-care. I think we’ve exceeded that now. And wellness, wellbeing, however you want to phrase it is such a big picture from how we treat ourselves, how we meet ourselves, how we see ourselves, how we care for our bodies, what we put in our body. You know, Brooke Burke Body, it used to be mind, body, spirit. Now it’s sort of mind, body, nutrition. How do we create fuel and energy and self-confidence and all of these things that are so important to our overall well-being, how we maneuver through this world right now where we have so much pressure. It goes back to what you said about body image and self-confidence, self-care, like criticism, all of these things. We have to learn how to love ourselves a little bit more. I think especially as women, especially at my age, there’s so many things that get in the way. These are real things, you know.
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Gabe Howard: And we’re back with Brooke Burke talking about self-care for working mothers. Brooke, so we’ve talked about self-care in the 30,000-foot view. But let’s talk about specifics. What is your favorite self-care time?
Brooke Burke: The shift in the world right now gave us some time. I used to say time slows for no one and then boom, like all of a sudden it did, which I thought would never happen. I really believe in the power of stillness, of slowing down. Time to listen, time to rest, time to check-in. We don’t always do that. I’m guilty of that myself. I was always grinding, moving so fast as a businesswoman, as a mother, raising a blended family. I never had moments to slow down. And now I make those moments like I’m in control of my time, even though it’s moving quite fast. Self-care, a big part of it, is checking in with yourself, and in order to do that, you got to slow down. And usually, we don’t slow down until there’s a breakdown, a physical breakdown, a mental breakdown, an event that happens in life that forces us to slow down. Against our own, like free choice. Right?
Gabe Howard: Right.
Brooke Burke: To do that. Maybe it’s a medical issue or a mental issue or whatever that may be. So, I think if we shift our lifestyle and our commitments a little bit and learn how to take better care of ourselves, I think that road to longevity is much easier. I think we have to do that.
Gabe Howard: Let’s talk directly to those working moms who are listening. They’re like, Look, I don’t have time. I just I don’t have time.
Brooke Burke: The biggest excuse.
Gabe Howard: Yeah. Okay. So, talk on that for a minute. You use the words, well, they’re making an excuse, but they don’t think they are. They think that all of their time is spoken for.
Brooke Burke: There’s never going to be enough time. There is always going to be excuse not to take better care of yourself. I’ve made them, those excuses myself. And it’s the biggest complaint. It’s the number one complaint that I hear. So, we have to have time. We don’t have time to not take care of ourselves. And I’m pretty tough. I give people a lot of tough love and my philosophies there. We don’t have time to not take care of ourselves, period. And you can make time. And it doesn’t have to be an hour and you don’t have to drive to a class. You can do it at home. You can find free content, can work out with me online. You get on YouTube, there’s so many different ways to do it. You can create a digital space at home. You can figure out how to knock out a meal in less than 5 minutes. I don’t think that economy and time anymore are our big issues in, in overall well-being. It’s just a matter of understanding how to shift and how to organize your life and how to get it done. If I only have 10 minutes, I’m going to do something really valuable for myself in those 10 minutes to shift myself into a healthier space of feel good. And I don’t compromise. I don’t. I, I steal those moments. Those are my moments that I need.
Gabe Howard: It’s interesting to hear you talk about it in terms of moments, which is a very short amount of time. And I believe you actually said these are my 10 minutes. I think people believe that self-care is an afternoon, is several hours, is you invested thousands of dollars in a hobby or a class, but you’ve described it as moments. And the only time limit you gave was 10 minutes. What are some self-care techniques that only take a moment or 10 minutes?
Brooke Burke: Maybe moments are easier for us to wrap our head around, right? Maybe I’m going to do a DIY, really inexpensive homemade spa in my own room and my own bath with some Epsom salt and a great playlist and a candle and some of my favorite fragrances. Maybe I spent $5 on that and I took 10 minutes to just reset my whole mood and my time, and I locked the door and I told the kids, Don’t you dare come in here. This is my moment of me time. Maybe it’s finishing that cup of tea, maybe it’s a walk, maybe it’s a ten-minute little bite sized burn that I’ve choreographed on my app. I used to laugh at that. I used to think we needed an hour. I used to think 10 minutes wasn’t good enough. I actually have five-minute morning moments that we’ve designed on the app for you to stay in bed for five more minutes in the morning and set yourself up for success. However, you spend that time, meditating, praying, laying there, chilling, listening to mindful meditations, affirmations, whatever really fuels your soul. I really believe in the value of that. And I hadn’t said it like that before, So I’m glad you mentioned that, moments. Moments are easier to wrap our head around than carving out a whole day, an hour, an afternoon. Not that that’s a bad idea.
Gabe Howard: I’m a firm believer in taking time for yourself, but I can certainly see where if you have three children, four children or an energetic eight-year-old like my sister, that giving up an entire afternoon is impossible. But I think that many people can give up a moment if they just think about how to give up those moments. I think so. I really like your idea of stackable, right? Like you have to take a shower. So, you just add a little. You zhuzh it, right? You make it a little bit better.
Brooke Burke: Yeah. Create your rest nest at home. Make your room like one place where you love being. Make your kitchen a conference room like a nucleus for your family. Spend time together. Like I love our time shared in the kitchen. I love cooking together. We make our ride to school. That could be miserable because my children and I are and we’re not morning people. We are not great morning people. But we make that ride to school now meaningful. But it’s purposeful. It’s on purpose. So, I’m really big on that with my children. Let’s do this on purpose. And then suddenly, you know, we shift it. We put our phones away in dinnertime. I make them put the phones away on the ride to school when I can. So, all those things, I think, really matter.
Gabe Howard: You know, Brooke, you speak a lot about exercise and nutrition, which are both very, very important. But, you know, since it’s a mental health podcast, I figured I should throw in a mental health question at least.
Brooke Burke: Aren’t they all? Aren’t they all woven in together?
Gabe Howard: Well, they’re supposed to be. But for some reason, mental health and physical health are often separated. So, I like that you said that. They should absolutely be connected. But I do want to ask about mental health and mental wellness. Is it being as important as the other two?
Brooke Burke: I think they go together. If I don’t care for myself and allow myself to be worthy of self-care, I’m not going to feel good. I connect those dots mind, body, spirit, the mind, the mental, the physical part of it. It’s all connected. How I talk to myself, how I treat myself, how I feel psychologically, not necessarily physically how my body looks, but how my body feels and how I approach that. So, I don’t really understand the disconnect between the two. And I think we have to marry those. It’s for our overall well-being.
Gabe Howard: I like that the trend is heading that way. And prominent fitness experts and health advocates like you are starting to realize that we have to, you know, combine the verticals because we used to have like diet experts and fitness experts, and now we have diet and fitness experts. We don’t even call it diet anymore. We’ve really rebranded.
Brooke Burke: I know. I don’t like that word either. Take the diet out of that concept.
Gabe Howard: Exactly. Exactly. So, I do see it trending to if you don’t pay attention to your mental health, then what you eat really isn’t going to matter. I don’t know anybody who is suffering from depression, but eating well who is having a great day.
Brooke Burke: It’s so interesting and how you I tell women all the time it goes back to balance and days when you don’t have balance, embrace that. On days when you fall out of a pose, embrace that. It means you need to focus a little bit more in balance and connect the dots between the mind and the body. So, I don’t I don’t have a disconnection at all there. We have to work harder to improve that mental well-being through body work. Breathwork, body work, mental well-being. It’s all intertwined and that’s the big picture I think here also for your audience.
Gabe Howard: Brooke, I do have to ask, don’t we hate the word balance?
Brooke Burke: We hate the word balance.
Gabe Howard: [Laughter]
Brooke Burke: I have to stop saying that because it’s following me around. What I really said was balance is bullshit. That’s where it all started.
Gabe Howard: I love it.
Brooke Burke: I didn’t say BS, but that was the headline. I’m like, Well, it is. Why don’t we just strive for perfection? Like, can’t we be perfectly imperfect? Can’t life be a little bit messy? Can we be okay with that? If I posted a picture of my smoothie spilled in the car, that would get more attention than anything else I do. Right. But that’s the reality of it. When I decided to open up my family life and talk about everything, that’s when I created a relationship with women around the world because it’s just going to go wrong. We’re going to get it wrong. Why is that not okay? I get it wrong all the time. And then I learn. I take those moments. I try to do it a little better. Not maybe right, but a little bit better. And then I grow, like as a human being, a woman, a mother. So, I don’t know. I like messy. Not too messy.
Gabe Howard: Not too messy. But it is fascinating to me that when families get together, when you get together with your friends and you laugh and you really think about like those moments that you experienced with your friends, you’re sharing the stories of when everything went wrong.
Brooke Burke: Yeah.
Gabe Howard: That’s where the greatness comes from. Yet in the moment when the thing was going wrong, you’re like, Well, I failed. It was awful. But it’s got this like silver lining, which is in ten years, this is going to be hilarious.
Brooke Burke: I think so. Well, it’s so true that you said that because we look like we go, Oh, my God, I was so stressed out about that. But it’s true. And I think that’s how we connect with other people. Doesn’t it make you feel a little bit better when you know that somebody else went through the same thing and gosh, it was okay? Like these are everything’s going to be okay.
Gabe Howard: Brooke, you’re a big believer in the importance of fuel in your body, so much so that you invented your own superfood.
Brooke Burke: Yeah, well, I wish I invented it, but it was actually a collaboration between a lot of people. But thank you for that. I would have invented it if Forever Brands didn’t do it first. Super foods is something we hear a lot about. A lot of people don’t know what superfoods are. Longevity is a superfood powder. It’s a blend of a bunch of amazing things that we need, like maca and cacao and goji berries and yerba mate and matcha like natural ingredients, high integrity ingredients that really fuel our body, help us to focus and recover, and it has natural protein in it. Personally, I’m not a big protein powder person, but I basically can take two scoops of this and put it in my shake in the morning. I trust it enough that I give it to my children. I put a lot of other really yummy things in there, like frozen fruit and nut milk and cinnamon and sense of the season, flavors of the season. But I feel like in one smoothie that I can get like a couple scoops of love and energy and power. And I’m really proud of this blend because I use it every day and it gives me what I need and satisfies me.
Gabe Howard: I am not a nutritionist. I want to just make that very, very clear. I know nothing about nutrition or really, I know a lot about eating.
Brooke Burke: But you know how you feel.
Gabe Howard: I know how I feel. And that’s really the genesis of my question. I know that when I’m busy, Gabe Howard is busy and I swing through the drive-thru. I go into the gas station and I get that food. I feel bad when I eat it and I know that a lot of working moms, they’re dropping their children off and then they’re running to the next thing. Or they have that 20 minutes to kill. So, they go to the gas station, the fast-food restaurant, because they’re just killing time.
Brooke Burke: And you know, there’s that funny term, hangry. Like I don’t want to pick up hangry kids and my kids don’t want hangry mom to pick them up either. So, I’m pretty organized, on like my prep days and meal days. But I’m the mom that will show up with food for my kids because if they’re running low or they’re a little bit grumpy, I know that I can manipulate that with proper nutrition. And I understand that that quick drive to the drive-thru or that gas station desperation because your sugar is dropping and your mood is dropping and you’re hungry. That’s when we make poor choices. And not everybody’s really comfortable in the kitchen or doesn’t have time to get organized. These are really simple options. I think we need it for our family. I think we need it for our brain, for our energy. Certainly for our body. And superfoods are things that are just really good for us on many levels and it tastes great. So, you’re going to enjoy it. So, you’re going to do it. And it’s really easy.
Gabe Howard: And Brooke, obviously, as a health and wellness expert, even if they don’t want to buy Longevity, self-care is pre-planning, putting something in your body that’s healthier, whether it’s making better decisions when you run through that drive-through, which can be which can be done. It can be. It’s difficult, but it can be done or doing some preplanning ahead of time to make sure that you have those options. All of these things are part of self-care, and I don’t think people really think that they are. They’re just like, well, I threw a healthy snack in my purse. How is that self-care? Well, ask me again at 2:30.
Brooke Burke: It’s so true. Look, I’m looking for energy. I’m looking for energy all day long. We know that exercise creates dopamine and adrenaline and it gives you energy. We know on days when we don’t feel like doing it because it’s really easy to skip it. We know that the other side of making a physical commitment makes you feel really good. So those are facts. But I also think getting organized is really key here. Whether you, whether you prep on the weekend, whether you write it out. We don’t miss our kids’ appointments, you know that. It’s really fascinating. We don’t miss doctor’s appointments, physicals, dentist. We schedule everything for our kids and we show up and we don’t compromise. But when it comes to taking care of ourselves, we don’t necessarily have those same boundaries. So, yes, get organized. Is it really difficult? No. Does it take a commitment and the willingness to try something new? That’s what it takes. Do you have to spend an hour taking care of your body? No. Can you work out and shift your body in 15 minutes? Yeah, I can show you how. Find me. I’ll show you exactly what to do. And can we knock out a mindful meal in the kitchen without a lot of experience? 100%. So, all of these possibilities are really giving people the gift of health and wellness. They’re there, they’re available, they’re easy, they’re affordable. Like all of these things are available right now. If people have to make the choice.
Gabe Howard: Brooke, I love that. Thank you so much for being here. Where can folks find you online and tell folks about your app?
Brooke Burke: Thank you. I’m easy to find. It’s Brooke Burke all the way across the board. BrookeBurke.com is probably easy. My app is Brooke Burke Body. And I have an amazing community of support. I have new content. It’s for everyone. Longevity at Brooke Burke also has great recipes and all kinds of information about how to take care of yourself and from a nutritional standpoint. But I’d love to hear from your audience. I’d love to connect and really the app is for everyone. And I take that very seriously and create content for all of us. So, thanks for having me. I love this conversation. This is such an important conversation and it really is about harmony and it’s a big picture and we have to connect those dots. So, thanks for letting me, letting me chat about it and chime in.
Gabe Howard: Oh, you’re very welcome, Brooke. And I want to give a big thank you to all of our listeners as well. My name is Gabe Howard and I am the author of “Mental Illness Is an Asshole and Other Observations,” as well as an award-winning public speaker who could be available for your next event. My book is on Amazon because, well, everything is, but you can grab a signed copy with free show swag or learn more about me just by heading over to gabehoward.com. Wherever you downloaded this podcast, please follow or subscribe to the show. It is absolutely free. And hey, can you do me a favor? Share the show with the people in your life, whether in person, social media, or hell, send a text. You sharing the show is how we grow. I will see everybody next time on Inside Mental Health.
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Originally Published https://psychcentral.com/blog/podcast-working-moms-and-self-care-with-brooke-burke
