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You come back from the class, the group or the conference. You are a CHANGED WOMAN. You see it all so clearly: how things were, and how they now will be. Everything you do is infused with your new inspiration: the way you rise in the morning, how you tackle the dishes and the routine that will revolutionize the kids hitting the hay. And then, one of your kids knocks a full glass of juice to the floor. You feel a sharp pang of the old frustrated and impatient you, but in an act of the will you take it with power and poise. Then you remember that the baby is fussy, teething and nursing to no end. There is a flash of annoyance and the familiar feeling of a trap, but you feel your new power and swallow it quickly down as if it won’t add up and consume you. But then, a deeper blade: you hear in your husband’s voice some condemnation for why things aren’t in order. Things are undone or never undertaken and you’ve managed nothing of greatness on the day, much less a shower. And the unspoken word says "So, you’re a changed woman, huh? I’ve heard it all before. We both know you’ll be back to your old mess soon, so trash that fantasy that you were going to wear a cape and accomplish anything! Add so the cycle of would-be transformation plays out again and again. And each time you’re brought shocked and reeling back to your old reality… Each time you hit the end of the tether you thought you’d broken… You’re tempted to believe that maybe your true place is here in the mud after all. Maybe motherhood is just so messy that you should wallow and sulk. Something shrivels inside and the callous around you thickens. But know this: you, there in the mud isn’t proof of failure, or some indicator of your "true place in the world." You've just failed (so far) to anchor that transformation properly. You must consummate the feeling of transformation with the acts of transformation and you need true FORMATION to learn to gracefully do that. At any age and any stage you can stand on the mountain and rise up from the pit. I live it and love it and will show YOU, yes you, HOW! Get ready, Rebecca 
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Ahem... I sure hope you’re not hating. I sure hope you know by now how to hold your tongue. I sure hope you banish your nasty thoughts. I sure hope you keep your cruelty in check. What if I told you that a lot of Catholic women can’t do this yet? What!! Isn’t this crucial to being virtuous and making progress spiritually? Well, it is, but a lot of women withhold some ground in this regard as if it were to sacred to touch. That ground is YOU sister! You HATE on yourself! You don’t let your attained virtue get close enough or penetrate YOU, as if you’re somehow outside of your own system of virtue. You apply the rules of love to others, but you’re your own version of UNWORTHY. Yep, so the hater in you is gonna hate. What if there was a way to free you up from this cycle and power you forward to feelings of overwhelming gratitude and love for YOU? It all reminds me of my nephew who just visited over lunch and said he hates cherry BBQ sauce. I asked him if he loves cherries? “Yes,” he replied. I asked him if he likes BBQ sauce? “Yes,” he replied. “Then how do you know you wouldn’t like cherry BBQ sauce since you haven’t tried it?” Silence… Well, most of you haven’t tried the award-winning combination of selflessness and self-care. They do, in fact, go together! You can be both selfless and care about yourself. I work with moms everyday to help unlock the mystery of them showing up for themselves spiritually, physically and nutritionally. This has ramifications because the hate is converted to love, self-love in a right and ordered sense as derived from an all good and loving God in whose image YOU are created. I cannot tell you how powerful it is when you stop hating…on yourself! “For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.” Gal. 5:1 In His loving grip, Rebecca Dussault P.S. Book a strategy call with me NOW, so you can break the bars of the self hating bondage. You deserve better and you are better than this. Let mercy flow unto yourself…NOW!  Who me? Yes, you!
By now you’ve heard of the 5 Love Languages. You might be able to list them nice and neat or better yet, live them total and complete! You see, all of us have some hardwiring which makes the list line up more perfectly in our person and it’s very telling to figure out what speaks love to you, and which ways you give love in return. Words of Affirmation- actually speaking life into another. Acts of Service- thought, time and effort put into service. Physical Touch- security through this human connection. Quality Time- time given without distraction, just action. Receiving Gifts- the “stuff" that objectively shows you care. Just yesterday my children and I tackled one tough workout as a team. I was shocked when everyone decided they wanted to join me. After I clicked a few more helmets onto kids, we were off and running away from the house to hit the dirt road through the surrounding hills. Well, one good attitude lead to another before I knew it, we’d committed ourselves to an 8 mile hilly dirt loop. No worries! Just me with a 2mo. old and 3 year old in the jogging stroller and a 6, 8, and 12 year old on mountain bikes. What could possibly go wrong…or right? The connection we felt as we completed this feat together was awesome, and just in case you think this is our normal and that my kids are highly conditioned for efforts like this all the time, they’re not! It was a big deal to get us all our running and rolling for that duration, but worth it. I pumped up their efforts with heartfelt Words of Affirmation: "you can do it, you’re such a power peddler, you really cruise, Jesus would be proud of your attitude!” They Received the Gift of helping to craft the adventure according to pace, route and purpose. We went substantially further than planned and they took ownership in that effort too. The Physical Touch at our minimal pit stops came in the form of a quick high 5 or hug, a chance to sit on my lap upon a roadside stump a quick cuddle during one breastfeeding. Pushing the stroller while running steep hills and joyfully aiding my 6 year old daughter with lots of pushes and sustained assistance certainly exhibited Acts of Service to her. All the kids achieved something significant and celebrated this incredible dip into Quality Time with each other. It felt like “family-ing” at its best! (Always thinking ahead of a possible meltdown or coup, I did secretly text their Papa at one point and tell him to bike around the mountains to surprise them from the other direction with oranges and salami, but he didn’t and yet we survived and didn’t fade. Phew!!) I, therefore, cannot tell you how important a tool physical exercise should be in your life! Life is spoken into you and out from you by these efforts. Don’t box up your need for physical efforts together so small that you always toss it off the table of things you’ll do today. Make it big, keep it prominent and go out and live the life you imagined, one lived in LOVE! Every efforts is more than no effort at all. To God be heaps of glory and praise eternal, Rebecca P.S. Chat with me to get you moving again physically, spiritually or nutritionally. It’s time MOMMA!  When you have the blinders on you don’t know where you’re going. I feel this in the case of a woman I recently spoke to. She was raised as a Sedevacantist. For those learning a new word up me writing this, Sedevacantism is the position, held by some traditionalist Catholics, that the present occupier of the Holy See is not truly pope due to the mainstream church's espousal of what they see as the heresy of modernism and that, for lack of a valid pope, the See has been vacant since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. Without diving into the whole pool of mess regarding the above statement, let us examine one powerful lie she was expected to live, “I was expected to live in a perpetual state of suffering. The more miserable I was the better off I was spiritually.” Whoa! Can you stand the thought of it? We all know the merit of self-denial for being chosen and freely enacted by an individual. It’s the going without, the avoidance of something for holiness’ sake. Take this one step further and it wades into self-mortification, which is also meritorious, but a more extreme wherein, one willingly and knowingly chastises their own flesh to different degrees to subdue it. This external good is only as such, if it conforms with a simultaneous internal mortification. It is certainly true that "those who belong to Christ have crucified nature, with all its passions, all its impulses.” We ought to all be working on it and according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “[t]he way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification…” Well, when you have a woman fully accepting that her misery is normalcy, that breeds contempt of the flesh, of her vocation and of life itself. Can she not desire a healthy body? Is she wrong to work on becoming fit in the flesh? Is she sinning to create strength and stamina through intentional exercise? This is a rough sketch of the lie she was expected to live. We then worked out together and it blew her away to uncover a true Catholic perspective with my help, one which honors the body, achieves the purposes for which it’s made, offers its actions for others, and dare I say, glorifies God by care of the flesh. We happily felt our muscles searing with a burn during high intensity intervals for legs and offered it up for the Holy Souls in Purgatory among other intentions. …and in that her mind went…POOF! “I never thought to offer the pain of a workout as a prayer,” she stated. Well, ladies, let’s feel the burn here, and offer it here, before its the eternal burn of Hell. I see it as doing the next right thing and the next hard thing as an offering, truly a subduing of the flesh and as a building block for accepting what holiness demands. How do you see it? If you have a perspective needing massively shifted, call me. I chat for free with any woman who books a call and I help her personally FIND HER FORWARD. Is that you? Glorify the Lord with me, Rebecca Dussault “Better is a poor man who is sound, and strong of constitution, than a rich man who is weak and afflicted with evils. Health of the soul in holiness of justice, is better than all gold and silver: and a sound body, then immense revenues. There is no riches above the riches of the health of the body: and there is no pleasure above the joy of the heart.” Sirach 30:14-16  Can you spot the man who photo bombed me? Look for him!
Maybe it’s your current weight, your appetite for aggression, your unbreakable addiction to “that” food or the need to have people praise you, and it’s not as it should be. Will you win the war or raise your pitiable white flag of surrender and just settle? That doesn’t work! It doesn’t work for you, and therefore, it doesn’t work for Him. Seriously! You may think you cannot change… You may have tried and failed… You may be scared to try at all… Fine. That’s fine. It is real, so very real, and tempting. Come with me and understand what Our Lord thinks when we just settle and play along with lukewarmness because, after all, it's hard to do the right thing if it's not fixed by a pill. Sacred Scripture offers these convicting words: “So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” Revelation speaks to people such as those who just settle and throw in their proverbial towel on progress. You see! Progress takes us from what we are to what we can be. Who doesn’t need that? I do! Sign me up! Show me the dotted line! We all must keep progressing spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally. It’s the way of the Saints. So, it’s time to get it right. We need to be “cutting edge” for our ver selves lest we settle and watch our body from behind bars with a stagnant spirit and mastitis of the mind. Find your forward, Rebecca Dussault P.S. I help women around the world everyday just like you to break free of the sensation of being totally stalled out and settling. If you are stuck, stuck, stuck, and you know who you are, then what’s stopping you from getting help? I want to meet you on one powerful phone call soon to help you find your forward once and for all. You are one phone call away from all new MOMentum! www.fitcatholicmom.com/talk It’s time to get you going forward in faith and fitness!  It's my game face. What's yours?
Well, tell us what it is! What does every Catholic mom want? I’ll tell you, but first let me tell you of a few mothers who remember their own mothers on an only-lettuce-for-lunch diet, dealing with the drag down effects of ongoing depression, or giving in to the all too common personal fatigue from large family life. Each of these moms recounts the story of her own mother, mentor and friend and sees that it didn’t have to be that way. Her mother didn’t have to be the victim of self made circumstances and she aims to change and do better than her mother did. Yeah, it’s formative to see how our mothers have managed to care for themselves body and soul, or not. It does lend itself to our framework to which we cling or which desperately want to separate from. I remember my own mother struggling as she raised three kids as a single parent while she finished college and worked full-time. She was super stressed, out of shape and resentful. She didn’t have a minute to herself until she finally made a minute! At 30 years old, as the first college graduate in her family, while raising three kids as a single parent, my mom took her health back. Was it selfish for her to begin riding a mountain bike in her few spare moments? NO. Was it wasteful of her time and resources as we started traveling to races so she could compete? NO. This ended up saving her in a lot of ways. She had an outlet to deal with stress, a reason to rise above her life’s serious relationship rut and encounter herself and others at a new level. She has truly never been the same and I haven’t either as a result of her choices! Her new enthusiasm and pursuit of better health and happiness made an indelible mark on my person. From this she also learned the importance of holiness. I can clearly remember this new devotion to health bringing her whole being into better focus. I craved the discipline and direction she had and imitated her, eventually becoming an Olympian and World Champion. What then do we learn from these mothers who are making changes? A whole lot! They win and so do their families! These are women who have just as much life happening as you, but they decided that as Catholic mothers they still deserved to have: Energy Prayer time Enthusiasm Libido Restful spirits Strong bodies Shaped wills …and more! How are they achieving these results? They are taking part daily in formation and accountability in the W.I.S.E. Gals (women improving sport and spiritual endurance) 8-week Intensity Course by Fit Catholic Mom. Here’s what one of them has to say: Erin in CO writes in her daily training log which keeps her accountable to me: “I also wanted to share how great it is to have my children see me making my fitness a priority and see me including prayer while I do it! I have had each of them join me, at their desire, in different workouts and have been humbled at the opportunity to set this example for them... thank you for what do!” If you're stumped on how you will move yourself forward to feeling whole and healthy then reach out to me for a free coaching chat so we can get to the real problem and find you a real solution, one acceptable to a Catholic mom. Cheers, not fears! Rebecca  Someone loves her training to be a good mommy!
Yes, it is true that many of us reading this still need what looks and feels like 5 wardrobes. It’s extreme…I know. You might even read this headline and think, what a shame! How materialistic! Who does this? Well, just ask any mother if her body has been fit, flabby, newly pregnant, very pregnant or postpartum and then you’ll see the need, even a very simple 5 is 5, no less. Oh, and did I forget that most of us live where we need several different seasons of clothes depending on the climate? Yeah, that too. What does this have to do with you and me Catholic mother? Everything. We think about our flesh too much. We attach a lot of our worth to what we look like too often. We build an identity upon our physique too readily. We thing we’re right and justified, when we’re all too wrong. Because… Our thigh size isn’t our measure of worth. Our cup size says nothing of our impact. Our thrift store clothing doesn’t tell our life’s accomplishments. Thank goodness this all goes deeper than the skin just like the truth. However, working with women for over 10 years has taught me that the flesh matters. It is important, really important, but most often we haven’t correctly sorted the facts from the lies. You can be doing the same exercises from one woman to the next and one will be building virtue while the other is feeding vanity. It’s my express interest to retrain moms on how to properly view their flesh and to leverage it for their sanctity! You may want a flat stomach. Fine. Who doesn’t? Hold it… There are way too many ways to get there incorrectly! You might live in great deprivation through dieting, exercise excessively, get scrupulous with food to the point it become your God, take a drug(s) or even eat “normal” but eliminate that effect with bulimia. Plain to see how WRONG all these modes are to bring down your weight and get that firm flat frontside. On the other hand, if you were to eat what foods work with your system, know when to eat what so you can enjoy control and eat to heal at every meal, exercise at a proper and enjoyable amount and rise to your higher nature as a disciplined person, then you’ll strike gold…and maybe even a broiler plate for a belly. The honest answer is that sport can and should be used as a school of moral excellence, and if that’s not on the top of your mind while working on your body, you may be twisting it out of true context and negating real development of your person. Let your food, your faith and your fitness fuel you to life eternal and let me be your guide. Book a free call with me today to figure out your fuel! What makes you tick and what makes you sick? In sincerity, Rebecca Dussault My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:2  HAPPY FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH!
 St. Edith Stein said, “emotions occupy the center of a woman’s soul.” "Women are set apart and endowed with unique graces that," as Venerable Fulton Sheen once said, "determine the level of our society." We must not neglect ourselves when we nurture others! Often, too often, in fact, we knowingly neglect ourselves. We pour out, pour out, pour out…until we’re out. This service, which women are particularly great at, is met with some resistance however. In my many years of coaching mommas it’s clear to see that they get trapped on the wheel of service, but it is not with joy. The sparks of resentment, exhaustion, and depletion constantly threaten to flare into an uncontrolled fire within them. They speak of the outlets they let others enjoy, the cost absorbed so others may be active and engaged, but they themselves are battening on spoil. One of the greatest servants, St. Mother Theresa, stated that the busier she and her sisters are in their care for the poor, the more they pray. When more people need them, how dare they take more time for themselves! Was that your thought? Rolling along here with me, I can hear you thinking that it is laying down our lives for others that is heroic. YES! In hating one’s life you’ll find it, while loving one’s life causes the loss of it. YES. I am not here to twist Scripture. Even Jesus would go and take time up, out and away before entering more deeply into his preaching, ministry and ultimately death. Mom’s need a slot, a piece of the pie. They likely need it worse than anyone else preciously because they are literally the servants of all. If they DO NOT STOP off to drink deeply at the fonts of prayer, bodily movement and of optimized nutrition then they miss the mark…and they know it. I was just speaking with a mother of 8 who regularly attended a gym to take in a series of classes and as the one class ended the male trainer yelled across the the gym asking her in a hyped voice, “who’d you do this for?” She responded, “I did it for my 8 kids!” He roared back, “No, you did it for you!” To understand how right she was…and how wrong he was. The world will not sift this the same way, but you know that taking care of yourself ultimately makes you better available to take care of others. Your center then, your emotions in the soul, will clearly and brilliantly speak truth. Give yourself time for formation so you can gift yourself to others…fully and vulnerably. Dedicatedly, Rebecca Dussault P.S. I form women in how to find this balance of efforts. There is a balance and you MUST find it to thrive. Hop on a call with me at www.fitcatholicmom.com/talk to see what needs done to help tweak your lifestyle into greatness that glorifies Him. Spots are limited due to caring for myself and my crew so grab yours NOW!  I didn’t sign up to live lopsided and neither did YOU. I also didn’t sign up to exist on fumes wishing things were different…though I embrace learning to "die to self" in every form. Any of us can really get into a rut and run the risk of operating lopsided whether for a few days, weeks or even years as I encounter in lots of moms. Eventually we either pause long enough to criticize and correct ourselves back onto course or become resentful, impatient and full of self made blockages. This isn’t what’s really in it for you or me! We were made for more. You've bought a lie if you can't plainly see that this isn't right or good. We pour ourselves out every single day, but also must get the fuel we need! In fact, I like to think of lots of different little fonts to stop off at and get refueled for the greatness God certainly intends. I, too, am just rising out of a rut of my own making these last few weeks! I am a busy mom, wife, athlete, entrepreneur, farmer, homeschooler and parish volunteer just to categorize a few of my time expenses. Well, it has been a rough up-start as I introduced my 17 year old to the world of taking all his classes through an online charter school in condensed fashion with 18 week semesters boiled into 6 week courses! Yikes. I had no idea I’d spend this part of my year, albeit a small portion, returning to a rhythm of being in high school for several hours a day. This is the effort it has taken and while it is an amazing opportunity for him, I had no idea it would rob me of a very significant portion of my time. My prayer life got crowded and overly condensed. My workouts started to slip. My rest was quite compromised. My overall ability to keep to my homeostasis or better yet, continue to live in a “holy tension” as I call it, was off-kilter! Self made cycles of living lopsided! We all have time for what we make time for and I just carved myself back into the picture and how much happier, healthier and holier I feel for it. Thank you most Sacred Heart of Jesus. This isn’t just for me. It’s for YOU too. I’d love to come alongside you for a time of formation and keep you accountable to the woman you want be, living the life you imagined…with energy and infectious JOY. Now is the time! Glorify the Lord by your very busy life and go ahead and give a call to me for a free chat. What would you loose by spending around an hour on the phone with me to see where you’re at and chart the path to where you need to go? Inspired by Him, Rebecca Dussault  You’re making the world wait... You’re making the world wait for your greater gift of self while you say things like, “once the kids are raised, when I finally get the time or if I had more money…” With this tactic you end up stalling out on dreams and purposes which far exceed just putting another so-so meal on the table today or punching the clock at the job you disdain all week long. Did you ever think it was novel to be a life long learner at some point? Did you think you’d keep developing in character, stamina and grace? Did you ever hear yourself say that you would always learn to love to learn? Well? What are you doing to learn more about yourself and the unique gift of just who you are? When will all the things line up for you to finally push that gas pedal on your mission, ministry or master piece? I’m here to tell you that it won’t line up! No. It’s a hard and dangerous uphill route to where you’re going and you’re not prepared. If you’re not feeding the daily muscles you need to finish this race and keep this faith then you’ll not have a part in what’s to come and… If you’re getting to the end of each day with a longer list of what you didn’t do than what you really did do then you’re stalled out and waiting because you’re keeping that gift of yourself safely wrapped up and stashed out of sight. You’re in bare minimum mode and that’s just surviving, not thriving. "Everyday I understand better what a Grace it is to be Catholics. Poor unlucky those who don’t have Faith: to live without a Faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for the Truth, is not living but existing. We must never exist (vivacchiare) but live." (Pier Giorgio Frassati, Letters to his Friends and Family, pg. 214). Believe me when I say, I don’t find it convenient to be quite pregnant again, homeschool all my kids, keep up with our new farm and hold the balance of our family finances together through self-directed entrepreneurial efforts here at Fit Catholic Mom. It’s totally inconvenient. It’s hard. It’s almost pure uphill. But, it’s necessary. We’ve got our sanity and our sanctity on the line! I do know what it takes out of me and YOU, and to that end, I know what must be put into me and YOU to accomplish this. I must be hitting my daily pillars of faith, fitness and food. I also must do this in a very sustainable and Catholic fashion so that it sticks and imbibes me with the truth behind what I’m doing and who I am. I can’t do it sick, run down or in the cloud and funk of anxiety or depression. I have to do and be the best wife, mother and coach I can be by getting my fill at certain fonts and then spilling that over for others. There is no more significant work I could put my hand to the plow on. I would love to help you feel this mission beneath your feet and beating from the heart in your chest too. Give me a shout on a free call and I’ll help you see clearly where you’re at, where you must get to and how to achieve it while keeping the perfect balance and perspective as a Catholic mom. Uncover that gift and spend it! THIS, you’ll never regret, Rebecca Dussault  |
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March 2020
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