How Getting In the Best Shape Helped Me Get Laser Focused in Business | The Skinny Confidential

Today on the blog we have Allison Mcnamara sharing how getting in shape helped her to elevate her business.

Allison is the founder of Mara, a skincare line that is infused with a proprietary algae sourced in France and Ireland. You may have seen Mara products at Sephora: they’re gorgeous, inspired by the sea, and easy to use, meaning they focus on cleansing, treating and hydrating the skin..

If you’re a fan of double-cleansing you have to try the Chia Moringa enzyme cleansing oil. Luxurious, silky and effective. Grab the sea silk lip balm while you’re at it.

Anyway, after focusing on health and wellness, Allison realized how certain mindset shifts and audits to her personal life related heavily to her business life too, and with big results.

If you’re in need of a shift, whether it’s in business or your personal life, this post is for you.

With that, let’s welcome Allison to the blog.

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How Getting In the Best Shape Helped Me Get Laser Focused in Business

Never doubt your ability to transform your own life.

At 38 years old, I’ve lived in Paris, had three career shifts, gotten married and divorced, hosted red carpets like the Oscars and launched a now global skincare line MARA. But one thing remained steadfast as a through line through each of those rebirths – I could never seem to lose weight. 

Now before you come at me, I know that I was never considered obese and, to most, appeared to be moderately healthy. For starters, I had a BMI only slightly more than average for my age, and the scale crested around the top edge for my height. By all accounts, I was within spec. But, I was never truly happy in my own skin. I was constantly fighting the urge to consume with excessive restriction and in that process, accidentally consuming twice as much, all while putting myself through high intensity cardio workouts and sacrificing sleep for a 6am cycle class. This led to burn out at work and in life, and all in the name of losing weight without even as much as a pound dropped on the scale.  

So on the eve of my 36th birthday, I made a vow to myself to change my habits, my mindset and my relationship with food. Yes, I lost a substantial amount of weight over the course of two years, but the side effects of my transformation have been so much more impactful than dropping a few jean sizes.

My wellness journey, which I detailed on my Substack, came with an awakening that has impacted every aspect of my life including my business and my relationships. I truly had a rousing of sorts that I applied to every vertical I was feeling stuck in, and released old patterns, habits and the familiar. I came out a different person – I finally had the courage and confidence to break away from an unhealthy marriage, did the hard work of reviewing my own leadership as a boss, and accessed the friends and business relationships in my inner circle. Here are the things I learned along the way that have enabled me to double my business, streamline my work life balance, foster a healthy, new romance, and create new friendships and strengthen old ones aligned with my new journey. 

Identify the Enablers

When it came to my initial wellness journey, I had to identify what was keeping me back from reaching my goals, which we will call the “enablers” moving forward. Enablers are vices, habits or people that enable you to keep making the same mistake, without fault or accountability. And in order to identify them, you need to track your habits and make a list of what your goals are, and then cross reference. These can be seemingly small, like having ice cream on-hand when you know you’ll always eat the whole pint, or not having a prepared lunch with protein so you go to town on the office snack stash.

My easily identifiable issue was that I was intermittent fasting, but having a sugary creamer in my coffee, which spiked my glucose and put me in the hamster wheel of craving more sugar. By lunch, I wasn’t in the mood for something nutritious, I wanted to continue the sugar spike and would order sneakily un-healthy things like smoothies or have a peanut butter protein bar, and whatever office dessert was lingering in the kitchen that week.

By not consuming enough real protein throughout the day, my energy levels would drop around 3pm, making my after work exercise less impactful and leading me to binge on whatever I could get my hands on by dinner. The change was simple, but it was monumental – a splash of organic whole milk in my coffee, straight protein like steak or an egg to break my fast, and then at lunch more protein and a diversified veggie of choice. No crash, no impetus to over-consume calories, and more clarity were the immediate things I noticed. 

I then applied this same lens to my business – what are the things that are holding me back from growth? Who or what are the enablers that are keeping me from getting to the next level? I identified a combination of sorts: people under performing in their roles, myself not giving clear direction in order to get the results I was looking for for fear of coming off like a “mean boss,” doing things myself instead of teaching others how to do them, overcommitting, and a completely inadequate 3PL that made my logistics growth a nightmare.

I also took a hard look at the relationships closest to me – do they support me in the way I support them? Are their habits self-sabotaging and lowering the frequency I want to emit? Do I feel happy, fulfilled and lighter after spending time with them? Do they enable others to continue making poor choices because the hard conversations are, well, uncomfortable? 

Focus on Whole Foods

Food is fuel, and the cleaner your diet is the better your brain will operate. I have fallen victim to every diet trend – Jenny Craig, the Special K diet, juice cleansing… It took me 36 years (along with a ~20 year stint as an unhealthy vegetarian) to realize that whole foods are always your best friend and you have to prioritize your protein for muscle building. My brain fog has completely vanished and I feel more awake and aware than ever before. When in doubt, grab the egg, apple, tuna over anything processed in a bag that you need to open. 

Control Consumption

A big principle I initially followed to be in a slight caloric deficit at the beginning was to eat 30% less. A simple concept, really, that took me so very far! You can still enjoy all of the wonderful things life has to offer, just 30% less of it. Enter: food, snacks, alcohol. Drinking was a paid actor in many of my old relationships, and while I still enjoy a fun night out with friends I’ve dramatically cut back my alcohol consumption – bosses can’t be hungover at work, it’s truly hell.

Learning that I could function with 30% less also urged me to evaluate how I was spending money on my business. “Do we really need that?” is a question I continue to ask myself. How can we operate on less and streamline efficiency, to maximize results. This is most critical to those in the CPG space, especially as rising tariffs and COGs loom amidst a volatile market. If you can work with less, do it. Spend the extra time to optimize your flows, use AI as a resource and outsource manual research to ChatGPT. Businesses and brains work best when they aren’t packed to the brim. 

Exercise For Mindset

The best exercise is the one you love to do. For me, I found Pilates and not only did it get me in the best shape of my life, I also look forward to it. For women, low impact exercise with medium to heavy weight can be truly transformative. Consistency is key, so create a schedule and stick to it! It took me almost 6 years of consistent Pilates 3-4x a week to get the results I was seeking, so note that good things take time.

Prioritizing exercise as a Founder & CEO is a non-negotiable. You will be nicer, more calm and have more energy to lead your business to success.

Manifestation Mindset

Your mind is so powerful, your thoughts create your reality. In fact, reality is only what your individual mind is perceiving, which is why your reality and the truth vary from person to person. Once you’ve released the enablers and you’re in a healthy headspace, begin envisioning yourself in your new life. Joe Dispenza has a chapter on creating “mini movies” to replay over and over again until you achieve them.

My first mini movie would be envisioning myself getting dressed for the day, loving what I saw in my reflection and putting on an outfit with ease and without insecurity. I would then move through the day, enjoying my new kitchen, appreciating the way the light flowed in from the outside, and having a loving relationship to share my space and time with.

From then I went to Sephora and would touch, feel and engage with my products on the shelf, and so forth and so on. I imagined every little detail, and then I started living my life like it was that mini movie. And you know what? After about a year I realized my life was in fact that mini movie, and so it was time to add a part 2 to set new goals – to manifest the next stage of me.

There is magic in the mind, you just have to commit to omitting the right frequency. 

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If you listen to The HIM & HER Show, you may have heard Michael say he’s “never met anyone whose entire life didn’t get better after they got in shape.” Meaning, business, family and other aspects of life improve along with your fitness and health.

We hope you loved this post from Allison. Be sure to follow her and Mara on Instagram to hear about new product drops and catch a glimpse into Allison’s life as a beauty founder.

x, The Skinny Confidential

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