Ms. Fit Farmer Britney Zondlak

Meet Britney

Britney got a very non-traditional start into agriculture, she grew up in the country but it wasn’t until she started babysitting for a young couple in their community that she got her first taste of farming. After the couple had their third child the wife decided to stay home but rather than letting her go altogether the husband hired her to help on the farm. She picked rocks out of fields, loaded hay wagons, the low end of the totem pole jobs, but she loved it. Most people, even herself for a brief moment, assumed that she would grow out of her love of agriculture. She spent her first year of college three years away studying to be a lawyer thinking the transition would come naturally but to her surprise she missed it and decided to transfer to a college closer to home.

During the transition she lost most of her scholarships so she worked at the same farm full-time to pay her way through college, despite the long hours of getting up early for work and staying up late for her schooling she never lost her passion. She decided to pursue a degree in agriculture, became part of the dairy judging team and dairy club. She even had an internship on a farm in the Netherlands. Fifteen years later she’s still loving the farm life.

In this episoode you’ll learn:

• What a day in the life of Britney looks like
• Her tips for meeting your fitness goals
• The overlooked tool of transforming your life

Challenges She Has Faced

Since her start in agriculture was non-traditional she had to persist through plenty of roadblocks along the way. She said that the biggest thing was the mental challenge of it all, that whenever she encountered a roadblock she had to understand that it was going to take persistence to keep up the forward momentum.

One of the ways she manages through difficult times is to look for support. She feels that as women we often times get it in our heads that we have to do everything ourselves and that’s simply not the case. She relies on her support system to help her through the hard times in her life or when she doesn’t want to keep pursuing whatever it is in her life that is becoming difficult. It’s the moments when she wants to quit that the support system that she’s cultivated pushes her on.

Best advice she’s received

The best advice she’s received is to take care of herself. She completely understands the culture we live in where the woman gives so much of herself to others, but the one thing she teaches to the women in her community is that they must take care of themselves in order to care for others.

She strongly believes that when we care for ourselves and stop putting our health on the back burner that we’re able to give more to those who need us and not less. The better health we’re in the more energy we have for our little ones, the more productive we are in our careers, and we exude more confidence which attracts the kind of opportunities we want for our life. She firmly believes that when you take care of yourself you can watch the other things in your life fall into place. Even if it’s only 15 minutes that is a big, positive impact on your life.

How Britney became Ms. Fit Farmer

As is the case for most freshman in college the change in lifestyle from working on the farm to sitting in class day in and day out she put on about 30lbs in that first year of college. She didn’t feel like herself but for the next 8 years with school and work she put health and fitness on the back burner, promising herself that once things settle down she’ll do something about it. A few years later she got so involved with fitness that it took up her entire day. She would spend two hours in the gym, had a semblance of a six pack, and it became the sole focus but she knew there needed to be a happy medium in order for it to be sustainable.

She studied to be a certified personal trainer and now she works as an online fitness coach where she helps busy women turn healthy living into a sustainable lifestyle. She feels like she understands both sides, of not putting her health first and it also taking over her life. So now she helps women find that middle ground where health and happiness live in harmony.

Her Advice for Those Who Fall Off the Bandwagon

She sees it all the time where we have a perfectionist mentality when it comes to health and fitness. We have to implement this perfect plan and if we don’t then we’ve failed. Like we’ll have a donut at breakfast and think “Well I just ruined the whole day so I might as well eat junk the rest of the day and start over tomorrow.” When that just isn’t the case, we need to change our thinking to “We just had a small setback, let me start again.” She says we need to ditch the idea of perfect and just be alright with taking imperfect action and understand that imperfect action will build consistency. Then understand that consistency is going to build momentum and when you build momentum the whole fitness thing becomes easier.

Her Thoughts on Diets

She tells her clients to focus on feeling good first and then the looking good will follow. When you choose nutritious foods that make you feel good it’s going to positively impact your body. You can’t expect your body to run on empty, just like you don’t expect your phone to work if it’s not charged or your remote to work without batteries. We need fuel in order to be healthy. She doesn’t promote any one diet, she wants her clients to focus on how they’re feeling overall.

What Does the Future Look Like

Her biggest goal this year is to focus on being more present and intentional with her time. She is spending less time on her phone and watching TV and more time visiting coffee shops that inspire her creativity. She’s spending more time being happy in the moment.

Best Tool or Resource She Uses to Find Fulfillment

As she spent the last couple of years in her late twenties she felt a little lost, uninspired, and that she may have lost a bit of that passion and spark. 2018 was the year that helped her find her way back to that. She spent a lot of time reading and it really helped shift her mindset. She commited to reading to 10 pages a day and it transformed her life. If she had to choose one book for our audience it is “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. The lesson she walked away with from that book was that if you work to improve 1% of your day that could really cause your life to do a 180. It’s a message she’s really taken to heart.

What Do Ms. Fit Farmer’s Meals Look Like

Britney spends the majority of her time on the farm and/or working so the last thing she wants to do is come home and stand in the kitchen to cook so she utilizes her crockpot quite a bit. HEr favorite go to is salsa chicken. She puts a jar of mango salsa in with chicken and let it cook all day, come home, and have that over rice. It’s healthy with the feeling of being comfort food.

What Does a Day in Britney’s Life Look Like

Britney’s day starts at 4:30, 5:00 at the latest where she heads out to the barn to milk cows, feed calves, and do the numerous chores that are involved when running a dairy farm. She has hired help but during the school year that can get pretty scarce and there days when she isn’t finished with the barn chores until 2:30-3:00pm. Most nights she takes the nights off from the barn and she switches focus to her blog and online fitness business. She normally puts in about 5 hours of work once she’s back to the house. That’s everything from her business, to her workouts, and crossfit classes. However she’s working on being very strict with her bedtime which is between 9:30-10pm in order to get a full night’s rest before the next full day. So much of her days are the same and different all at once. An ideal night out for Britney consists of hanging out with fellow women in ag, over dinner, having great conversation.

Britney’s Parting Wisdom

Say yes. Give yourself permission to dump the excuses, make a commitment, and make it happen. Whether that’s dreams you want to pursue, fitness goals you want to reach, whatever it is, say yes and figure out the rest later. All of our limitations are self imposed and/or we talk ourselves out of what we want to pursue.

How to Connect with Britney

Instagram at Ms.Fit.Farmer

MsFitFarmer.com

Britney’s 21 Books That Radically Transformed Her Life

---