Hey there. I hear a lot of conversations about protecting your peace, setting boundaries, and learning how to say no. All of that matters. What I think often gets missed is the other side of the equation, the moments when you say yes.
Read MoreHey there. I have been thinking a lot about how we decide what we are worth.
For most of my life I tied my value to something external. Something measurable. Something visible. In fitness that was the scale. Body weight. Progress photos. How fast results showed up. If things were moving forward I felt good about myself. If they stalled or went backward I questioned everything. Not just the plan but me.
Read MoreHey there. I want to talk about momentum and what actually creates it over the long haul. Not the hype version. Not the version that feels good for a week and then disappears when life gets busy. I am talking about the kind of momentum that quietly compounds because you keep showing up even when the effort feels small.
Read MoreHey there. I think about my life as a story. We all start in the same place and we all eventually reach the same ending, and everything that happens in between becomes the book we leave behind. As I get closer to forty four I have been feeling just how fast time moves. The last couple of decades flew by. All the things I used to obsess over, especially the fitness and weight loss stuff or the worries about building YLF, felt huge at the time. They kept me up at night. They felt like everything. Now most of those things do not matter at all.
Read MoreHey there. I have been thinking a lot about the people we choose to keep close. When you are on any long term journey, especially something like weight loss or building a forever active lifestyle, you notice quickly how much support matters. It is hard to show up day after day. It is hard to push through setbacks. It is hard to stay grounded when progress moves forward, then sideways, then backward, then forward again. Having people in your life who encourage you without judgment makes all of that more manageable.
Read MoreHey there. I have been thinking a lot about how much data we have access to now. Steps, calories, heart rate, sleep cycles, recovery scores, weight trends, macro breakdowns, you name it. If you have been on a weight loss journey for years you probably track at least some of this stuff, and honestly, the fact that it is all so affordable and available blows my mind. When I started working on my own fitness in the late nineties and early two thousands none of this existed. We were guessing most of the time, hoping our effort was paying off, and waiting for the scale or our clothes to change before we believed we were making progress.
Read MoreHey there. I have been thinking a lot about how we talk about mental and emotional health, especially in the fitness space. For so many years I believed this was supposed to be an either or situation. Either I changed my body or I fixed my mind. Either I exercised or I worked through my emotions. Either I pushed harder or I paused long enough to look at what was really going on. What I know now is that this is an and situation. All of it matters. All of it works together. And all of it is part of the inside/out process that has shaped the way I live.
Read MoreHey there. I have been thinking a lot about how we share our experiences and why they matter. Not the polished versions. Not the 60 second summaries that get pushed around social media. I mean the real stories. The ones that come from actually living through something and taking the time to understand what those moments meant.
Read MoreHey there. I have spent a lot of years watching how the fitness industry talks to people. Once you see the patterns, you cannot unsee them. So much of the marketing is built around the idea that you are not enough as you are. Your body is not enough. Your willpower is not enough. Your routine is not enough. And the only way to fix it is to buy whatever solution they are pushing at the moment. What I have learned through my own process is that none of that messaging holds up when you build your life from the inside/out.
Read MoreHey there. I used to look at exercise as something I needed to master immediately. I wanted the perfect routine, the ideal split, the exact formula that would fix everything. But over the years, especially after being on my own fitness and weight loss journey for decades, I realized that what matters most is how willing I am to meet myself where I am. Not where I think I should be. Not where I used to be. Not where I hope to be five years from now. Right here. Right now.
Read MoreHey there. I spent much of my young adult years thinking that changing my body would finally make me feel good enough. If I lost the weight, built the routine, and hit the goals that everyone else said mattered, then maybe I would feel lighter in my own mind. What I eventually learned is that none of that matters if I am tearing myself down from the inside. Loving and appreciating the body I have at every stage is the foundation of everything. That truth applies to fitness, work, relationships, creativity, and the way I move through the world as a whole.
Read MoreHey there. I have been thinking a lot lately about what sits beneath the surface of the things we do. In fitness, in work, in how we show up online and offline, there is always more going on than the actions people see. Most of the time, the things we chase on the outside are only the tip of the iceberg. They look impressive, they look disciplined, and they often get attention. But when you go deeper, you start to realize that your why is what drives everything. And if that why is built on not liking who you are or how you look, nothing on the outside will ever feel like enough.
Read MoreHey there. I used to think my why was supposed to sound inspiring. I thought it needed to be tied to other people or to a version of my future that looked good on paper. I would say things like I am doing this for my health or I am doing this to be a better example for others. Those things mattered, but they were not the real reason I took action. They were not the reason I stayed consistent with my fitness. They were not the reason I kept coming back to something even when life got messy.
Read MoreHey there. I think a lot about what people pick up from my content. Not just the things I say directly, but the subtle things that show up over time. We all absorb more than we realize. When you follow someone or a brand or a message, you naturally gravitate toward certain things. Some are obvious. Others are quieter but end up having the biggest impact. That is what I want to talk about in this post. What you are getting from me. What I hope you are taking with you. And what I hope sticks long after you close the app.
Read MoreHey there. I have been thinking a lot about accountability and access lately. Not accountability in the way most people talk about it where you lean on someone else to keep you in line. I am talking about being accountable to yourself. Being able to look yourself in the eye and trust that you follow through because of who you are, not because someone else is watching.
Read MoreHey there. I want you to be proud of who you are because I want the same thing for myself. Not the version of you that you think you are supposed to be. Not the version shaped by expectations or pressures or past labels. I mean the real you. The one you sometimes lose track of while trying to hold everything together. The one who deserves your time, your attention, and your appreciation.
Read MoreHey there. I talk a lot about standards these days. Not the kind of standards that come from comparison or pressure or trying to keep up with what everyone else is doing. I am talking about the standards you set for yourself. The ones that help you grow from the inside/out and build the life you actually want to live.
Read MoreHey there. I have spent a lot of time around fitness, food, and marketing, and one thing I have learned is that most people never stop to ask who actually benefits from the way they track their food. For years I thought I was benefiting the most when I tracked calories or macros. It felt like I was in control. It felt like I finally had something predictable to hold on to. But the more time I spent working in marketing and watching how the food industry works, the more I realized that the biggest winner in all of this was not me. It was them.
Read MoreHey there. I have a question for you, and this is not one I want you to answer out loud. Who or what offends you? I am not asking because I want the details. I am asking because I want you to pay attention to what lights you up inside. I have learned that when something offends me, there is almost always a deeper reason beneath the surface. It is rarely just about the moment that is in front of me. It usually connects to a part of myself that I have not fully let go of yet.
Read MoreHey there. I talk a lot about peace these days. Not surface level peace. Not the kind you chase from one distraction to the next. I mean the kind of internal calm that starts to show up when you stop trying to prove your worth to everyone else and finally start trusting yourself. This is something I have been working through, and if you are like me, you might have spent most of your life feeling more familiar with chaos than calm.
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