Jenny (00:29)
Taking care of ourselves as flower farmers is one of the most important and overlooked facets of being a business owner. Often as business owners and farmers, and even more so as parents who are also business owners and farmers, our bodies and ourselves are the first things to get put on the back burner when life gets busy and chaotic. And today we are diving deep into it.
Two of my biggest passions meet in this episode as I sit down to chat with a fitness coach for women in agriculture named Lindsay Sherman. So like me, Lindsay graduated from college with a degree in animal science and spent years working on dairy farms as a herds person. And during that time, she faced intense burnout, neglected her body, and her mental health also suffered as a result.
I can relate to this. know that many of you listening to this can relate to this. so Lindsay took control of her situation. She actually became a certified fitness coach and that was another passion of hers. And so now she helps other women in agriculture keep doing what they love while having the support with fitness, nutrition, and mindset that she wishes she had back then. So if you're someone
who feels the aches and pains, who may have some mental health issues, or I don't wanna maybe say issues, but have some trouble with things in that kind of department, this episode is for you. So let's get to it.
Jenny (02:07)
Lindsay, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. I'm really excited to talk to you about this podcast.
Lindsey Sherman (02:15)
Yeah, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm super excited that we connected and that I get to be on today.
Jenny (02:24)
Yeah, I am looking forward to it. So we just sort of accidentally came across each other on the internet. And then turns out we live in pretty much the same town because where we are from, the small towns all blend together, right? It's such a funny coincidence. And we also both seem to have really similar backgrounds coming from the dairy industry and farming. And I actually have a background in fitness as well.
Lindsey Sherman (02:41)
Yes.
Jenny (02:54)
Which is so funny.
Lindsey Sherman (02:56)
Yeah, I didn't know. I mean, when we connected on Instagram, I, you know, saw all your flower farming stuff, so I didn't actually know that you had a background in dairy or fitness either.
Jenny (03:08)
Yeah, I grew up showing cows in 4-H my whole life. It was a very big part of my life. My dad was the herdsman for a dairy farm basically across the street from where we lived. So I grew up milking cows my whole life, throwing hay every summer. And then I also really got into fitness in college and post-college. Actually, I had a few side gigs, like side businesses.
Before my flower farm, I was a nutrition consultant. I was a cross-foot coach. I was pretty deep into that fitness industry, but it seems like another lifetime ago because I've just been so wrapped up in β flower farming and lately, moming. So it's kind of taken a back seat in my life, which
Lindsey Sherman (03:54)
Hmm.
Jenny (03:59)
I've struggled with. So I'm actually really happy to talk to you about it today, because I feel like you can help me a lot and probably a lot of people who are listening today. just give us a quick little 30-second rundown of what you do and who you help so people listening can understand.
Lindsey Sherman (04:04)
Hahaha
Yeah, so I'm a fitness and nutrition coach, β an online coach. I do everything remotely and I help women in agriculture. I help women who grow, I say food, flowers, and livestock take control back of their fitness, get their energy back, and feel confident in the gym again, working out again, and just overall take care of their bodies better because so many women in ag, we just
we neglect our bodies every single day.
Jenny (04:52)
We neglect ourselves entirely. Yes, 100%. I think farming is just this unique industry where for a lot of people, it's really long hours or it's irregular hours. Like tonight, for example, we're recording this in October and I'm going to have
Lindsey Sherman (04:53)
Yes. Yeah, I would say bodies and minds completely. Yeah.
Jenny (05:17)
a frost tonight, so I'll be like getting up at, I'll be going out to the field to turn the sprinklers on at like 10, turn them off. I'll probably have a timer on. Then I'll have to get up at like 435 to go turn them on again and check on things. And it's like most people don't have to do that. But yeah, and then there's also like these huge peaks during the year where you're working a ton and then downtime. And what we do is extremely physically demanding, like compared to most people with regular jobs who just like
Lindsey Sherman (05:29)
Yeah.
No.
Jenny (05:46)
sit behind a desk all day in chairs all day. So what's really cool about you is that you understand the unique health challenges that farmers face, right? Like, what would you say the most, the biggest challenges you see farmers when it comes to their health and fitness?
Lindsey Sherman (05:47)
Yes.
Yeah, I would say, you you talked about there's people that work at a desk all day and then farming is completely different. And I've had jobs where I had the desk job and I had the farm job. So I've been able to see both sides of things and how that relates to taking care of yourself at the end of the day. And definitely with farming, with any job in agriculture, I think the biggest challenge is you are so physically active all day.
Like if you're working a desk job, you might feel, you might be very well drained mentally, emotionally at the end of the day, but there's not that level of physical exhaustion at the end of the day that you have with ag. And I think a lot of women come to me and they're like, I'm not feeling good in my body, you know, whether they want to lose weight, lose fat, build muscle, just have more energy. But they're like,
I'm already super physical all day, so shouldn't that be enough? Like, shouldn't that be doing something for me? And that is mainly the main unique challenge that I see, as well as, like, nutrition. Like, we forget to eat. We just don't eat. So, β those two things are huge. Exactly. Yeah. So those are the two biggest things that I see most often with women in agriculture that come to me.
Jenny (07:18)
my god, yeah.
Or eat complete junk.
Yeah, I can relate to that 110%. Like I, and you know, I used to, I mean, I was, you know, in my twenties when I started my flower farm. So I had a lot more energy than I do now. and I didn't have a family, didn't have kids before that. And I would, I would feel a lot better if I did find time to work out and farm all day long. I mean, I know that when I was farming back then, I would
I'd probably walk like 10 miles a day. Cause this was before I had like my Gator or anything. I would walk everywhere around the farm instead of now I'm lazy and just drive my Gator and stuff. But, β I actually had more energy when I did work out and like make that a priority. And when I was done with work at the end of the day, I found that I still had energy to like make dinner, you know, actually.
Lindsey Sherman (08:04)
Yeah.
Jenny (08:26)
hang out with my husband or do whatever, do things outside of the farm, or I had more energy to farm. And now I feel like I don't have that because I haven't prioritized exercising and working out, mainly because moming has me super exhausted all the time. But I know that it's something that I need to change.
Lindsey Sherman (08:32)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Jenny (08:50)
What is your solution to people like me and other flower farmers that are facing that challenge? How do we find time? And what kind of workouts should we be doing?
Lindsey Sherman (08:58)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. So I think the hardest part is bridging that gap, right? So like you're starting in a place where you're already super exhausted and you know, like you said, that if you can get to a place where you are working out, taking care of yourself, that you do actually feel more energy and start to feel better. β Which sounds crazy, right? Because you're like, why, I'm just going to be more tired, right? But working out does give you more energy. So it's
getting to that place, getting from point A to point B, and that transition is the hardest. β So I always recommend starting small and starting with something that's sustainable for you. So if you're online, you're going to see all kinds of fitness programs, exercise routines, meal preps, things that you can be doing, and it's so overwhelming.
And what I always recommend to anybody coming to me, client or not, β is just looking at where you're starting and looking at the basics. So if you look at your day and you're not eating breakfast, you're not eating lunch. I mean, when I worked in dairy farming, I literally would not eat anything sometimes until two or three p.m. And that was working a physical job while that was going on. So starting to look at these things.
and just saying like, okay, noticing I'm skipping breakfast every single day. Let's start with eating breakfast, making that a routine, making that a priority, and not worrying about it being a perfect breakfast either, just starting there and starting to pick apart the holes. And when we're talking about workouts, same thing there, like don't throw yourself into a five day a week workout routine.
Don't throw yourself into HIIT workouts where you're trying to burn a bunch of calories. You're probably already at a super high activity level, right? Like you said, you're getting tons of steps every single day. So I strongly recommend strength training, mobility work so you can keep moving and not, you know, tearing muscles as you're moving bags of seed, things like that. Prioritizing those things and not just using
you know, is a way to burn calories and go all in for that reason because you're already super active.
Jenny (11:37)
Right. think one of
the mindset shifts that I've been trying to make like over the past few months is that I want to exercise because I want to do something for myself. Like we, we're always doing things for our business or for our team members or for our families. And it's like,
I don't really have that much time to myself ever at all anymore. And I'm like, I need to do something for myself to feel good about myself. And even if that's just one walk every day, which I'm proud to report I have been doing lately, I put my toddler in the stroller. like, we're going for a walk. And it's just like to feel better about myself. So sometimes I think that mindset shift can like help with it as well. But
Lindsey Sherman (12:13)
Is that?
Yeah, and like
not looking at it like, of course there's always something we want to change about our body because we're our biggest critics. Yeah, we're human, right? I'd be lying if there weren't things I wanted to change about myself and how I look. But starting to use exercise and even just a walk, things like that, it's not things that are like, I'm doing this because I want to look a certain way. Now, I always say to my clients, if you're coming to me and you have a
Jenny (12:36)
We're human. β
Lindsey Sherman (12:59)
goal of you want to be here because you want a big booty and that can be your goal. I'm cool with that too. But using it, like reframing it as I'm doing this because I want to feel good and take care of myself and maybe feeling good comes hand in hand with those physical changes too. β yeah, getting through that guilt too of
Jenny (13:02)
You
Lindsey Sherman (13:23)
you know, knowing there's other things, there's always something else you can be taken care of between the farm and kids and, and, you know, family, things like that. And just knowing like, this is my me time, I'm doing this for me. And it helps me show up better for all those other things that are always on my mind too.
Jenny (13:42)
Oh, that is so true. When you really prioritize that, even if it's just like 15 minutes a day, half an hour a day, whatever it is that you can fit in, it really does help you show up with less resentment and with more energy, more positivity, like everywhere else in your life. And it's almost like you have an obligation to do that if you want to succeed.
Lindsey Sherman (14:03)
Yeah.
Jenny (14:10)
in these other areas of your life, you have to put yourself first. I know it sounds so like cliche, but it's really, really true. And it's also the other piece of this is that because farming is such a physical activity, in order for us to be able to do this for the long haul, like to continue farming for a long time, that longevity piece won't happen if we don't take care of our bodies, right?
Lindsey Sherman (14:15)
No, yeah.
Yeah,
yeah, definitely. Like I get this comment all the time and this question all the time that, well, if I'm already farming, I'm already doing a physical job, why isn't that enough? Like, why do I still not feel good physically? Why do I feel achy, tired? β Do I really need to be doing strength workouts, working out on top of that? And the way that I like to think about it and answer that question is, have you ever looked at a 70-year-old
dairy farmer walking around the farm that, you know, didn't work out, didn't take care of their body, farmed their whole life. How do they look walking around the farm? You're probably picturing like that old man, he's kind of hunched over, he's just getting around, but it's, yeah, it's thinking about that and, β you know, doing the physical work is not always building you up. It's often kind of tearing you down and you need that
little bit of extra care to build yourself up for what you do.
Jenny (15:40)
Yeah, I think just like a little strength training routine and throwing in like some yoga and stretching in there can go like a really long way. And I think it also helps you farm better too. Like I know back when I was in really good shape, which I'm not so much anymore. mean, I'm okay shape, but I just feel like when I was farming with other people, I
could do a better job because I was stronger, because I was more flexible. Like I could squat down and transplant for a longer amount of time without feeling that fatigue. could, you know, carry really heavy things around the farm that other people couldn't and not that that's like, you should probably put those heavy things in like a tractor bucket or a wheelbarrow, but it really helped me to farm better. And I think it was
Lindsey Sherman (16:22)
Mm-hmm.
you
Jenny (16:40)
Yeah, like you said, it sort of like built me up to be better prepared for it. And so I think using the winter time is also really helpful to like get it into a routine. Like probably when we publish this, we're probably going to be in those winter months. This is probably like a good, yeah, but it's going to be probably a good time for farmers to think about how they can start incorporating this into their routine and try to find a way to keep it going.
Lindsey Sherman (16:42)
Yeah
Yeah, it's gonna frost tomorrow.
Jenny (17:10)
when the busy season comes, right?
Lindsey Sherman (17:12)
Yeah, and that's another thing that I really work on a lot with the women in my program is we actually have β some tools that we use to create a busy season routine and a slow season routine.
Jenny (17:27)
I love
that.
Lindsey Sherman (17:27)
And
yeah, because I think a lot of us are like, well, if I can't do whatever it is, five workouts a week every single week, then I'm failing, right? But if you know, like, okay, during the winter, I can do X amount, but I know that spring planting season is coming, we can prepare ahead of time and say, during planting season, I'm going down to, I don't know, three workouts a week if you were at five or whatever it is. And
preparing that ahead of time so that you feel like you're in control. It's still gonna work for you. You're still gonna see results and you won't get to planning season and then all of a sudden you can't keep up with your routine and you feel like a failure, right? So we actually work on, you know, what's kind of our busy season? What's our slow season? What are our like core?
things that we do, you know, making sure we're getting enough water, making sure we're eating breakfast, lunch, dinner, simple things like that that sound silly, but we usually neglect during busy season. And then maybe we amp up the workouts and maybe we're trying to hit a new goal when it's a little bit of a slower season, things like that.
Jenny (18:45)
Yeah, I think that's really important. I love that you do that because I think it's just unrealistic to expect your routines and your habits to stay exactly the same between the winter, you know, your busy season, your slow season. It's just unrealistic. So I love that you do that. That's really great. β What about
Lindsey Sherman (19:01)
Yeah, totally. Yeah.
Jenny (19:06)
Like I've seen other farms do this. I've never done this, but I have seen other farms make it a part of their routine with their teams, like their employees and stuff to do like yoga at lunchtime, or they do like a group stretching routines while they're having their morning meetings or anything like that. It's never something that I've done, but I feel like I should have. But do you ever see people implement something like that? Just to sort of, I mean, I know it's probably not going to be like earth shattering change, but
Lindsey Sherman (19:23)
No.
Jenny (19:36)
just to incorporate some of that movement, like what am I trying to say, mindful movement into their routines every day. Like surely that should be helpful.
Lindsey Sherman (19:43)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I think there's not really a negative side of doing anything like that. I actually haven't seen a lot of farms that are doing that, so I would love to see that. β I know it's just the little things, too. When I worked in dairy farming, I mean, it wasn't necessarily a standard. And I hate to say this, but farming is different than every other industry. Like, you know you're supposed to eat lunch at work. You know, that's...
You're supposed to do those things. You're supposed to have time set aside. But there were so many days that it was just, we skipped lunch. You know, we worked through lunch and β it was nothing against the people I was working for or anything like that. That's just how it's been every farm that I've worked on in agriculture is, you know, sometimes we're just skipping lunch. And I think encouraging your team to sit down and
You know, it might not be at the same time every day. Maybe there's something special going on on Mondays or, you know, the vet's coming if you're in animal agriculture. But like, I just wish that would have been encouraged a little bit more. And it wasn't like, today's special because I get to sit down for half an hour and eat lunch, you know?
Jenny (21:08)
yeah, no,
definitely, everyone eats lunch here on my farm. That's not, that's like a non-negotiable. I'm like, you guys have to take a break. And I, I feel like I have worked on farms before we took lunch breaks and I've also worked on farms when we didn't. And I've also worked on farms where it's like,
Lindsey Sherman (21:16)
Yeah, I love that. Mm-hmm.
Jenny (21:30)
you know, during planting season or during harvest season, it's a go, go, go nonstop. And like, I understand that there's like times and stuff, whatever, skipping meals has been like a huge problem that I have had. Like I like you when I started my business, I was working a full-time job off the farm and I was working for, I know.
Lindsey Sherman (21:41)
Thank
Mm-hmm.
Jenny (21:57)
starting up my flower farm. And so I was working two full-time jobs, even more than that, really. And I never eat breakfast, never eat lunch. I wouldn't eat until like four o'clock. then I like, and I honestly thought that that was like normal. And I was like, I feel fine. I feel fine. But no, this whole like,
Lindsey Sherman (22:08)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah, you probably weren't starving, because your body was used to it.
Jenny (22:22)
What's the trendy intermittent fasting? I was like, I'm healthy, I'm intermittent fasting. And I have since then, since really just in the last few years, have really routinely started eating β breakfast. And it's a total game changer because it's not just fueling your body, it's fueling your brain. I've found that
Lindsey Sherman (22:25)
Yeah. Yup.
Mm-hmm.
Jenny (22:49)
by prioritizing not skipping meals and actually eating throughout the day, my brain works better. Like I can think more clearly, I can make decisions better. I'm not overwhelmed as easily when like big things come up where people ask me questions. Like it's really good for your brain too.
Lindsey Sherman (23:07)
Yeah,
like I've noticed, you know, I'm in a really good routine now of, you know, eating lunch, eating breakfast every day. And then I add in a mid-morning snack too, because what I noticed was, okay, like, you know, around 10 a.m. I start to feel a little foggy. Like, I just feel like I can't think as well. And then I started eating a snack and I'm like, oh, like I can function again. Yeah, so like starting to recognize.
Jenny (23:33)
Mm-hmm.
Lindsey Sherman (23:36)
how you're feeling. And it's like that Snickers commercial, right? Like, you know, she gets angry, she needs Snickers, or you know, things like that. It's the same exact thing.
Jenny (23:48)
Yes, yeah. I love thinking about food in a different way, that it's fuel and it's really like not a luxury, it's a necessity. And I know that it's so hard. And so actually, I'll share that recently, I signed up for a meal service for lunchtime because this was my biggest, I was still skipping lunches up until like, quite honestly, like a month ago.
I hate to admit that, but it's very true. I would get up, eat breakfast with my family in the morning. We'd all go to work. And I would just work through lunchtime every day because I just felt like I had so much to do. I didn't want to stop working, whatever. And it kind of came down to just making lunch or it just wasn't convenient for me. And so I just wasn't doing it. And so I started paying for this like,
Lindsey Sherman (24:27)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Jenny (24:45)
meal delivery service and I get four lunches a week for like the work week. They show up at my door and it's pricey but I eat them because I'm like, well, I paid for it, damn it. And I'm not gonna just throw this expensive food out. And so that's actually been really, really helpful for me. And I had a lot of guilt around it at first, cause I was like, I don't wanna be spending all this money on like a meal service or whatever, but you know what? It's actually been so, so great.
Lindsey Sherman (24:57)
Yes.
Yeah.
Jenny (25:15)
And I would just recommend to farmers to try something like that out if they are finding that it's tough to eat. Um, I also used to keep like, I know a protein bar is like not a real meal, but I would just keep them like in the cooler at the farm. Because if I was like finding that I was getting foggy, like you were saying, I would just grab one real quick, like super like quick, easy, like apples, like, I don't know. Are there any like good
Lindsey Sherman (25:29)
you
Thank you.
Jenny (25:43)
quick, convenient snacks you would recommend for farmers to just keep on hand.
Lindsey Sherman (25:48)
Yeah, so like, like I said, like I wouldn't worry about being perfect right off the bat. So like if you are not eating like anything throughout the day, you're not eating any snacks, don't worry about like what's the best protein bar I should eat. Like, you know, what's the best possible snack I need to eat? Like just start eating snacks. Like just start, just eat something and you can fine tune as you go. But yeah, like I found when I
Jenny (26:09)
Just eat something. β
Lindsey Sherman (26:17)
β when I worked on the farm, and it's probably similar to flower farming. I mean, I was in dairy farming, but my hands were always dirty, you know? So things, yeah, things in wrappers, things, you know, even if you make a snack that you can put in a baggie and you can just like, you know, like eat out of the baggie, dump it in your mouth, something like that, you know, those are really helpful to have around.
Jenny (26:25)
β yes, always wet, always dirty.
What other
industry would that be a tip for a different industry? Only in plumbing and septic, right?
Lindsey Sherman (26:52)
Right. Yeah, I literally, I made
a post not too long ago and it was like, snacks you can eat while you're milking cows because like, that's literally if you're milking cows for six hours, β you know, you're in the parlor or you're running to get a new pen of cows and you never know, like you could be eating a protein bar and one of them could kick manure up at you and you know, it's just, yeah, it's such a different industry.
Jenny (27:21)
Dude, I have eaten people don't get grossed out. People will get grossed out by this, but I have probably eaten so much manure in my life. It's disgusting. But like when you're in that industry, it's just everywhere all the time. And the people who I used to work for at one place who I love dearly, they're very close. It's very special people to me. β One of the owners would bring me ice cream sandwiches all the time when I was
Lindsey Sherman (27:30)
Yep.
Jenny (27:49)
milking and she would make me like cookies and stuff. It was great. But I would be like chomping on them while I'm like, you know, hooking the machine up and then a cow just like, you know, kicks it up at you and you're like, well, I'm not going to waste this cookie. Like wipe it off. And people are probably getting so grossed out right now, but like.
Lindsey Sherman (27:59)
Yeah.
Right, I'm hungry. Yeah.
Yeah, if you're
not, if you're from Ag, you probably get it. Yeah, I used to make like these, I still make them, these like oatmeal like protein balls, like energy balls. And yeah, you would literally like, like just hold the baggie and like eat it out of the baggie, like without trying to touch it. And it doesn't look pretty, but you know, it gets some fuel into you. Yeah, exactly.
Jenny (28:11)
Yeah.
I love those.
Gets the job done. Yeah.
Yeah. So if you're somebody that's listening and you are, you know, a meal skipper or, you know, you're in this situation we're talking about right now. I want to tell a quick story because I remember hearing from another flower farmer when I very first started farming or when I very first started flower farming, I should say not farming because I've been farming my whole life, but she
said that she was a chronic meal skipper and she ended up getting β stomach ulcers because between like the stress of her business and not eating her like stomach acid literally burned holes in her stomach and had to like, she had all these health issues from it. And so like, this can be really serious if you don't take care of yourself, gotta take care of yourself.
Lindsey Sherman (29:19)
Yeah. Yeah,
and I think like what you said about like having the meals, β even if it's, it feels like kind of a luxury paying for that. Like when, when I was on the farm, we weren't ever told like you can't eat lunch. Like we were always told by the boss is, you know, you can eat lunch, but it was more like myself being like, well, I'm busy. I don't have anything good to eat. I don't have anything convenient. β
you know, not having those things. same with like grocery shopping. Like I recommend to people all the time. Like you can splurge on like getting your groceries delivered to your house, having them just shop for you and you pick it up at the store just to save you that time. Like I know it costs a little extra, but if you are not making yourself lunch because you
didn't have time to get to the grocery store because you just don't have anything to make. β You know, just checking that off your list and maybe splurging a little bit more on that. β And most of time it's fairly reasonable too β because you can't start to make yourself breakfast and lunch if you don't have food in your house to do that. So starting at the very beginning.
Jenny (30:41)
Yeah, I love that tip. that's when we had our son, we started doing the grocery pickup where we just like order our groceries online and you literally just like pull up to the door and they bring them out to you. And it's so funny because I used to, my sister-in-law used to do that before I started doing it. And I was like, what kind of person doesn't even just like do their own grocery shopping? And now I'm like, this is the best thing ever, ever because
Lindsey Sherman (31:10)
I said the same
thing about someone in my family. I was like, how lazy are you? And then, and then I figured it out.
Jenny (31:14)
Right?
Yeah, exactly. And it's just like when my son goes to bed at night, just like am on the couch on my computer. It takes me like five minutes to order groceries. And then like a lot of times my husband will just pick him up on his way home from work. And it's like we are saving literally hours every week that you get back for whatever, for more work if you want, or relaxing on the couch, which a lot of people probably don't even do.
Lindsey Sherman (31:33)
Yeah.
Jenny (31:46)
And it's like for that tiny bit of extra money, like I don't, it's probably like not even 10 % more, five percent. I don't even know. I should look it up. But for that.
Lindsey Sherman (31:54)
Yeah, it's usually,
it's more, but it's not an extravagant amount. Yeah.
Jenny (31:58)
Right, exactly.
It's worth it to get hours of your time back every week, hours maybe to do a workout.
Lindsey Sherman (32:06)
Exactly.
I mean, and you don't have to do it every week either. Like I've planned, like I know, I remember when we were moving into our house, I just had our groceries delivered like the night we were moving in, because I was like, we're going to be busy, we're going to need something to eat, and I'm just going to have groceries dropped off. And I don't do it all the time, but like you just know during busier seasons, maybe that's something that you, you want to do.
Jenny (32:10)
Right.
Yeah, yeah. And it could totally be like a busy season thing. Like I know some farmers like do like laundry service only during busy season or they have a house cleaner come like once a month only during busy season because yeah, you need help. You need support and it's a good way to do it.
Lindsey Sherman (32:42)
β
It's a good idea.
Yeah, we can add that to
the busy season fitness plan. Just add the meal deliveries and house cleaning right on there.
Jenny (32:54)
Yeah.
Exactly.
And I used to think that, I used to think these things were like, which they are luxuries, don't get me wrong. But I was like, β I really can't afford that. really can't afford that. But then when I actually looked up some of the services, was like, β like you can actually find really affordable rates. Depending on the area you're in, obviously, and everybody's situation is different, but.
I wouldn't just immediately dismiss it. Really do some research and look into how much it would actually cost you. And it's like, I like to think about it if I have another employee. I'm like, if I'm paying somebody $20 an hour and I hire a house cleaner to come or whatever, you just think about it kind of the same way. You need to get your return on investment.
Lindsey Sherman (33:47)
Yeah.
Yeah, like if you think about it, I think women today, you know, we're almost in 2026 now, are just doing so much more than we ever have in the past. If you think about, you know, years ago, you know, a lot of women still stay home. But that was your job to manage the home and the kids. And that is a full time job in itself. And then if you are working, farming,
everything on top of that, it kind of makes sense why you might need an extra hand every now and then.
Jenny (34:26)
Yeah, I think we all need extra hands all the time.
Lindsey Sherman (34:29)
Yeah, like even just
being online, like I talk to so many people a day just through Instagram that it's like years ago you would never have even been expected to interact with this many people in one day, you know? It's just more overload than we've ever had.
Jenny (34:47)
Yes, and especially being a business owner. Like a lot of people listening to this are business owners. They own farms and they're juggling so many different things, wearing all the different hats, and they're trying to respond to like all these customer emails and messages all the time. And it's mentally draining. But I think prioritizing health and fitness can really help you like be better equipped to handle that.
I also think that like mindfulness practices or like mental resets, which I think health and fitness can do for you, can also go a really long ways towards like self care.
Lindsey Sherman (35:25)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and I like to always use this kind of funny example, but if you catch me on a day where I've been super overwhelmed, super busy, I haven't gotten my workout in, and I walk into the kitchen and see, you know, a kitchen full of dirty dishes, it's a much different version of me than if I've had time to get my workout in, and like I walk in after my workout and I see a kitchen full of dirty dishes, and it's like, it's so weird. My mind is like,
I can handle that. Like, that's no big deal. Like, it's a... it completely shifts your mentality.
Jenny (36:06)
Yeah, I could use that for sure sometimes. I walk into my house the other day and I saw a mess that somebody left and I was like, rage. And I did not get a workout in that day. So it makes sense now.
Lindsey Sherman (36:09)
Yeah, like I...
Yeah, I
always say like I am a better wife when I have taken time to get my workout in during the day and like I'm just a little less crappy about things like dishes or laundry and maybe I do a little bit of dishes but I'm not completely overwhelmed by getting everything done. Like everything just seems so much more manageable in a way.
Jenny (36:46)
Yeah, for sure. I think I have definitely felt that before too. It's almost like you're, when you do something hard physically, not saying that your workout needs to be like, you know, super intense or anything like that, but I think your body must like recognize that like I can do like hard things or like handle hard things. And then when trivial stuff comes up, it's almost like subconsciously you're like this. Yeah.
Whatever, it's not that big of a deal. I don't know.
Lindsey Sherman (37:17)
Yeah,
versus like if you've had a bad day, you haven't gotten your workout in, then you see like a sink full of dishes and you're like, this is the end of the world. The world is ending. I'm done. I can't handle anything else, you know? But if you've got your workout in, you're like, yeah, I'm on a roll. Like I'm good. I can do it today. I can do it tomorrow. Like maybe you have more energy to do it today even. It sounds so backwards because you think you just have less energy if you're working out, but it's crazy how that works.
Jenny (37:26)
Yes.
It does. I
used to say that it made me feel invincible. Like when I was routinely getting really good workouts in all the time, I really felt really good about myself. felt, yeah, I was like, I feel invincible. I could do anything. And I actually think it really helped me grow my business, which sounds like it would be completely unrelated. you know, farmers, I was going to say business owners, but it's really farmers.
We deal with these catastrophes on a regular basis for lack of a better word between weather and pests and changes in the market and whatever. working out made me just feel more confident and I think I was better equipped to handle a lot of the challenges that come with business ownership and entrepreneurship. And I genuinely think it really helped me make my business more successful.
Lindsey Sherman (38:45)
Yeah, because I think in any business really, but especially in agriculture, sometimes it feels like you're reacting to, like things are happening to you. You know, if it's been raining all week or you've had a drought or you're reacting to...
Jenny (38:55)
Hmm.
Lindsey Sherman (39:03)
what's happening to you and then having that kind of control in your fitness journey just, I don't know, I think it gives you more confidence that you can handle what comes your way and also show up as a better leader for your team also.
Jenny (39:19)
β 100%. Something you just said was control. I think that's it. It's like you have control over this one little piece of something in your life that gives you like a little bit more empowerment because I think a lot of times we feel like so much is out of our control. Maybe that's the key here.
Lindsey Sherman (39:38)
Yeah.
Yeah, and a lot of the time, like, a lot of women that I talk to often feel like they don't have any control of their fitness journeys because they're so exhausted at the end of the day already and they're like, I just don't know how I could fit it in. Like, I don't have any control over getting workouts in, you know, if I miss a meal. And then taking back that control, you know, when you start to get in a routine that's
really working for you that's really sustainable. It's just huge. It's a huge deal.
Jenny (40:12)
Yeah, when I used to work on a vegetable farm, we have the world's most nutritious, most amazing, freshest organic produce at my fingertips every day. And I would go home so exhausted. was like, and I can't even eat it because I'm too tired to even cook or to even make anything. And I remember just being like, well, this feels like kind of pointless.
Lindsey Sherman (40:33)
Yeah.
Jenny (40:41)
To do all this work, to create all these beautiful things, this amazing produce. And then like, I don't even really get to enjoy it because I don't have the energy to make it. And I was wondering if you had some examples of like situations where you've helped people actually fit this into their routine or examples of how people can find the time. Because I guarantee there's some people listening to this right now. We're like,
Well, yeah, I know I need to make it a priority and I know it's important, but like actually how, like how.
Lindsey Sherman (41:16)
Yeah,
yeah, I think like one example of something I used to do was, again, a lot of us think like we have to have this perfect like fitness schedule. Like if I'm gonna work out three days a week, it needs to be like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or it needs to be like this perfect setup. I actually used to work out at like when I was...
I say when I was in the best shape of my life, because I'm currently 6 months pregnant, so I would say if not, now. Thank you. I've been staying in shape, but not in the best shape of my life, right? So at that time, I was actually working out, like, I think it was like a Thursday, Saturday, Sunday workout schedule. And I was like, I don't know if this is right, I'm missing a lot of days during the week, but
Jenny (41:45)
Congratulations! β
Lindsey Sherman (42:10)
That was when I had days off and time that I could get a workout in and I was seeing results, right? So kind of going against like the conventional, what you think it needs to look like, you could get your workouts in, you know, it doesn't need to be a perfect β spread like that. And β yeah, again, starting small, β you know, a lot of my clients were starting with
you know, half hour workouts. And we're looking at where we can kind of cut the fat. Like, can we work out at home? Can we save time driving to the gym? I used to drive to my gym almost every day. It was a half hour away. So I was spending an hour driving to the gym and, you know, maybe half hour to an hour working out. Well, there goes two hours of my day. So home workouts, shorter workouts, you know, maybe an unconventional.
Jenny (43:01)
Mm-hmm.
Lindsey Sherman (43:07)
tight fitness schedule, things like that. Kind of really doing what works for your schedule specifically and what you're doing on a day-to-day basis and not trying to necessarily fit a mold of what everyone else is doing that looks perfect.
Jenny (43:26)
Yeah, I love that. I think just starting small has got to be the key. I know I really struggled to get back into shape. Not like I'm really in shape right now, but after I had my son, I had a really traumatic experience and I had an extremely long recovery. just like a lot, there's a lot of things going on. And I was like, just.
couldn't seem to find the energy to even just do like a home workout or just like go for a walk. And it was like cold outside. So I didn't want to really like go outside to do anything. I didn't even want to go outside to like drive anywhere. And obviously this was in the winter. But I had a kettlebell. if, no, if you guys listening don't know what that is, it's like a little weight, but it has like a little handle on the top. If you just Google search kettlebell,
Lindsey Sherman (44:03)
Mm-hmm.
Jenny (44:23)
But I just started doing kettlebell swings. And then I found this challenge online. was like the 100, I forget what it was called, like 100 swings a day for 100 days. And I was like, I could do that. And so every day, sometimes it was like first thing in the morning. Sometimes it was in the middle of the afternoon. Sometimes it was at night after my son went to bed. It was just like whenever I could fit it in. It took me like five or 10 minutes.
Lindsey Sherman (44:35)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Jenny (44:47)
And like, that's all I did to get started, to get like back into the swing of things. It was just so simple and easy. And I think if I'm just using that as an example of something that someone else could take inspiration from.
Lindsey Sherman (45:02)
Yeah, and I think it's a lot of it's starting, starting somewhere and not expecting, like so many of us have that all or nothing approach, especially women in ag. I feel like we tend to just want to overachieve constantly. you know, starting just somewhere to build that momentum. And what I often find is that once we get started, like all of a sudden you start to do a little bit more than you think you can, like
Jenny (45:06)
Mm.
Lindsey Sherman (45:33)
Originally you might say like, well, I don't have 30 minutes during my day to get a workout in. So you start with something super small, like maybe you're stretching for 10 minutes in front of TV. And then all of sudden you're like, yeah, actually I do have 30 minutes. I just wasn't really like allocating my time properly. And maybe you start to realize like, am I spending like time at night, like thinking about work, extra, like do I need to have a cutoff? Like what am I?
doing. β You know, I've had times where I'm just like scrolling on Instagram when I've, you know, been trying to do business things and I'm like just scrolling on Instagram like trying to get inspiration and then it's like if I know I have to get a workout in, I just start to be more intentional with the rest of my time and you start to like notice things that pop up and notice how you can start to work things in.
Jenny (46:28)
Yeah. You just made me think of something else that I have found some success with in the past and something I do now is I read about this in a book somewhere. don't remember. It was some kind of like habits book, but it was pairing a habit or like something that you love with something that you don't like. And I think the example I read about was like listening to
Or it's like listening to rock music or watching like trashy TV when you fold the laundry to like make an unenjoyable task more enjoyable. And I basically do that with my workouts. Now I listen to, β business podcasts that I really, I actually really want to listen to them, but I don't have time really anywhere else in my life. β while I'm working out and it's like, if you could do something like that.
that will help motivate you to find the time, I think that could be helpful too.
Lindsey Sherman (47:25)
Yeah, one thing that I've done before is like, I have a bunch of YouTubers that I enjoy watching that I don't always have time to watch. So like, I have a walking pad at home and I'm like, okay, when I'm on the walking pad, this is my time to like, catch up on all my YouTube and like, I'll watch like, book reviews and just, you know, whatever I want to watch. And that's like, I look forward to doing it because I get to catch up on that stuff.
Jenny (47:51)
Yeah, I love that, awesome. So one other thing that I just been thinking about while we've been talking is that I actually find that when I prioritize purposeful movement, like purposefully lifting weights and stretching and getting that movement in that's not just working, I actually find that I have less aches and pains
And I don't know why, I don't know, it doesn't really seem to make sense, but is that a common thing for people?
Lindsey Sherman (48:26)
Yeah, definitely and I think that goes along with what I kind of mentioned earlier of We think when we're working on the farm like we're building our bodies up But often we're kind of tearing them down throughout the day like it sounds terrible to say But then when you do your workouts you kind of think like β I'm just gonna tear my body down I'm gonna be tired, but it does the opposite it builds you up so you have less of those aches and pains because one if you're building more muscle and
then certain other muscles aren't compensating and maybe you're not gonna pull something or strain something, right? Your muscles are working as they should and the mobility is huge β that helps get rid of the aches and pains. Things from crouching down on the ground, like you said, to standing back up, just practicing those and strengthening the muscles that you use to do those types of things.
Yeah, definitely, you have a ton less of aches and pains for sure.
Jenny (49:30)
Yeah. Every time my back hurts, I'm like, I guess I should start doing my strength training again.
Lindsey Sherman (49:36)
Yup.
Yeah, because if your back is weak, then other things are going to start to compensate, which we don't really want to happen.
Jenny (49:44)
Yeah, exactly. Well, Lindsey, I think that you are an absolute gem to the fitness industry. Is there any last, β like a big piece of advice or anything that you want to share with people before we wrap up today?
Lindsey Sherman (50:00)
β yeah, what I would say was, or what I would say is that I, you know, I got into fitness coaching and specifically coaching women in agriculture because I came out of school and I went into what I thought was my, my dream job being a Hertz, Hertz person on a dairy farm. And what I didn't realize was that I was going to burn myself out doing that, doing something that
I did love that I thought was my dream job and that's why I do what I do now because I want to empower other women to keep doing what they love and for this not to happen to other women. And now I now know that this is what I'm what I meant to do and that's why I went down that path. So I don't have any regrets and I'm thankful for the journey I've been on. But that's my whole mission is to teach you how to
prioritize yourself and take care of yourself so that you don't go down that path where you know I mean I was you know I was trying to get miserable every day I was coming home from work I was just in tears just because I was tired and I I wasn't eating right it wasn't taking care of myself and that led into other things you know I couldn't enjoy time with family β you know free time always felt I always felt guilty because maybe I wasn't getting enough work done things like that
So β if there's one thing I hope you take away, it's that prioritizing time for you is not selfish and it helps you keep doing what you love. And that's why I do what I do and help other women so that you can keep doing this.
Jenny (51:44)
β I love that. Lindsay, thank you for being here for farmers. need more people here to support farmers of all kinds. And, β I'm just so glad that we have you as a resource. So tell everyone where they can learn more about you, follow you online and maybe even work with you.
Lindsey Sherman (52:01)
Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram at Lindsey Sherman underscore fitness. My website is lindsey Sherman fit.com and I'm on Facebook too. Same thing, just search up Lindsey Sherman fitness and you'll find me there. So yeah, I'm on Instagram pretty much daily. So if you want to send a DM, we can talk, we can connect. I would love to hear from you too.
Jenny (52:26)
Awesome. Well, thank you. will link all of those in the show notes for anyone listening. If you want to just go quick, click on over so you can go find Lindsay. yeah, β moral of story today, guys, take care of your bodies. So thank you, Lindsay, so much for being here today. And we'll see everyone next time in the next episode of the Six Figure Flower Farming Podcast.
