Kick With Kat: Leg Day Zumba Style

Fun fact: I taught Zumba for almost 10 years. Try this leg day song for when you need to do legs, but don’t wanna do legs 

Kick With Kat - Hip Mobility

Join Kat Muto for some Hip Mobility Drills to Keep Your Hip Joints Happy!

Dark Chocolate Nut Butter Balls

Chomp with Kat! Try this recipe for a grain free, guilt free, and totally delicious snack!

By Kat Muto

#recipe #gluten free #dairy free #dessert #snack #kat muto

Kick with Kat Circuits

If you need a quick workout to get your body moving on the first day of 2022, Kat has two ten minute circuits that are perfect for getting your heart rate and energy up!

Animal Flow 2

Come get your muscle and cardio burn with these animal-inspired bodyweight movements!

By Kat Muto

Animal Flow 1

Let’s move! Body weight animal inspired movements for some fun, silly, feel good strength and cardio

By Kat Muto

#bird #bird medicine #kat muto

Kick with Kat: Cardio

Join Kat Muto for a kickboxing cardio class!

#cardio #kick with kat #kickboxing

CBT vs ACT - When To Think vs When To Feel

“Sorry I haven’t texted you back. It’s just that everything overwhelms me all the time” - me to literally everyone right now.
 
I have been in a period of flux. A time of transition. A state of change. A time of growth and transformation that I legitimately and naïvely thought would only take me a couple of weeks to get through. How very wrong I was.
 
I broke my ankle. I left a job that I had been at for six years. I moved states. I lived in four places in my first 30 days in this new life. I left behind my partner and my friends. I’ve been learning a new job. Ankle is still broken. I have been alone a lot. I have been missing my partner and my friends a lot. I am out of my routine. I am ungrounded. I have been missing my old gym. I have been incredibly busy learning very cool things. I have been incredibly busy managing my imposter syndrome and insecurities. I’ve been reconnecting with old friends. I bought a house. Auntie Grief made a surprise and completely debilitating visit. I have been unable to help my partner close out our life we grew out of because of geography. I have been getting spun around by the Tornado Triplets because of it. I have been trying to build this new life on my own, and somehow, my stupid human brain thought I could do all of that in two weeks. I kept saying, “Just give me the month of August.” HA.
 
I have forced myself to journal daily. To write down my gratitude. I write my positive affirmations like a child writing lines in school. I’ve tried several gyms, and even found one I now train at. I do yoga. I’ve actually been using my mindfulness app. I am drinking so much goddamn tea. I started reading books and listening to podcasts to help me learn my new role in leadership at my job. I bought some groceries. I am constantly reminding myself that things are objectively good.
 
And the groceries went bad. Every time I do my gratitude journal I want to throw it across the room. I am frustrated 4.5 seconds into my mindfulness exercises. I’m annoyed all these herbs I’m drinking that are meant to promote calmness and grounding aren’t fucking working. I am sarcastic and flippant when I challenge my thoughts to identify things that are more realistic and helpful.
 
Because at the end of the day I am ungrounded, out of my element, in a state of unyielding transition, and I’m homesick. And there is no amount of gratitude writing, exercise, mindfulness or even herbs that can make me feel more whole.
 
Oh, and I’m really mad at myself that I am all of those things. Super helpful and rational…
 
Naturally, I did what what any sane person would do: I turned to dumplings, poke bowls, homemade boozey butter beer to have alongside the Harry Potter marathon on repeat, and a metric ton of peanut m&ms.
 
Newsflash, that didn’t make me feel more whole either.
 
Then, as I was reading and deleting the 900th version of this particular blog post, I stumbled across an old one with some typical Therapist-Kat advice: sometimes the only way to get through the swamp, is to go through the swamp.
 
I never find myself more annoying than when I’m reading advice I give to others that I actually need to receive.
 
So I down shifted gears and said out loud all the things I am: I am ungrounded, I am out of my routine, I am homesick, and I am actually okay even though everything feels harder than it “should” be.
 
I can be struggling and okay - those two things can coexist and be true at the same time.
 
Did a magical weight get lifted off my shoulders? No. But I was able to breathe a little easier without the push to have more adaptive thoughts, and high pressure to think my way through it.
 
Cognitive based therapy (is what I’m thinking realistic? Is what I’m thinking helpful? All about thinking about your thoughts) is an incredibly effective tool to have to challenge dysfunctional thinking and maintain a cerebral perspective. But we cannot always think our way through our feelings. Sometimes we have to feel them
 
Welcome to the place of acceptance and commitment therapy techniques, where we acknowledge ambivalence and stop trying to grab the steering wheel. Instead we jump in the passenger seat, buckle up, and go for a ride. How long will I cry? Dunno, but I know it can’t be forever and I can cry and be fine so here we go! When will I feel like I have roots again? No idea, but roots take time to grow and so we can grow and be pissed that it’s taking so long. I accept that I have feelings, and I commit to not judging them or trying to change them.
 
If you’re thinking this sounds a lot like self compassion, my friend, get yourself a gold star. Yes, acceptance of self and commitment to acceptance of self are at the core of self compassion. And holy moly I have been learning those lessons (again…) in a very forceful way these last two months.
 
Both these techniques are super useful and effective. How will you know which one is more useful for you?
 
Well, if you’re anxious brain needs help remembering that the sky is indeed not falling because of the evidence that it is still up in the sky where it belongs, that’s a cognitive based technique. If you’re throwing your gratitude journal across the room because practicing gratitude isn’t changing the distress you feel, you may be in need of feeling your feels through acceptance and commitment.
 
Give yourself and your feels some grace to simply exist without a need to change or be fearful of them. It’s okay to cry. It’s okay to be mad. It’s okay to feel lost and overwhelmed and it’s okay to not like any of it. So breathe, accept that you have feels, and commit to being present with them.

By Kat Muto

#mental health #musings #therapy

Kick with Kat: 30 minute burnout

Join Kat for a quick 30 min workout to get the burn going this weekend!

Click here for more from Kat Muto!

Back Grab Over Arms Self Defense

One possible solution to getting away if an attacker grabs you from behind over your arms.  Be nice to you training partner, but practice good technique and proper placement.