move
Posted on in Uncategorized, Fitness, personal growth, menopause, weight-loss

Why I Train Movement, Not Just Muscles 

A personal trainer is primarily focused on fitness. 

A movement specialist looks more closely at how a person moves. 

Instead of simply asking, “What exercise should we do?” a movement specialist asks, “How is this person moving, and why?” 

A personal trainer helps you get stronger and fitter.

A movement specialist helps you understand and improve how your body moves AND get stronger and fitter.

I don’t just prescribe exercises. I look at how you move. 

I train your body to move in more than one direction just like real life.  No one trips or reaches to catch something in a linear line.

I can recognize when an exercise isn’t serving you. 

If I see a movement creating compensation, losing quality, or exposing a joint to unnecessary stress, I can modify the movement, change the exercise, or address the underlying limitation. The goal isn’t to force your body to perform an exercise. The goal is to improve your ability to move. 

I am training you for the body you want to have years from now. 

My goal isn’t simply to get you through a workout today.

I want to help you build strength, mobility, balance, coordination, stability, and movement confidence that continue to serve you as you age. Because the goal of fitness isn’t just looking fit or completing a workout.

I train movement, not just muscles. 

I prepare you for the movements life actually demands. 

Life doesn’t move in straight lines.

You rotate. You reach. You bend. You step sideways. You change direction. You catch yourself when you lose your balance. You push, pull, carry, lift, and move around obstacles.

If you repeatedly train your body in only a few predictable movement patterns, you may become very good at those exercises without necessarily becoming better at moving through life.

My job is to give your body a broader movement vocabulary.

I pay attention to how you perform an exercise, not simply whether you can complete it. 

I don’t believe the answer to every problem is simply to get stronger. 

I’m thinking about the 70-year-old, 80-year-old, and 90-year-old version of you. 

I’m asking, “What do I need to help you maintain so you can continue doing what you love years from now?” 

A movement coach prepares you for unpredictable movement.

A workout can be completely controlled and predictable. 

Life isn’t. You trip, catch yourself, turn quickly, step sideways, reach from an awkward position, carry something unevenly, or change direction. 

Training those abilities gives you a more adaptable body. 

A movement coach doesn’t have to invent completely new movements to make someone stronger. They can take the movements a person already performs every day and teach them to perform those movements with better mechanics, better coordination, and greater strength. 

A trainer can make you stronger at an exercise.

A movement coach can help you become stronger at moving. 

Things I do as a movement coach that a personal trainer is not generally taught to do…

Individualizing an exercise instead of assuming the exercise is the answer

A movement specialist can take the same desired outcome and change the exercise based on the person’s body. Two people may both need stronger legs, but they may not need the same exercise, range of motion, stance, tempo, or progression. 

Teaching people how to feel and understand their own movement

This is a big one. A movement coach isn’t just making someone perform an exercise correctly while they’re watching, they’re teaching them to recognize what good movement feels like so they can eventually make better movement decisions themselves. 

Progressing movement complexity, not just resistance.

Traditional progression often means more weight, more reps, or more intensity. A movement specialist can progress someone by changing position, stability, coordination, range, direction, speed, balance, or complexity without necessarily adding weight. 

Using exercise to improve everyday movement rather than keeping “exercise” and “life” separate.

If someone struggles getting off the floor, carrying things, stepping over something, reaching behind themselves, getting in and out of a car, etc., those aren’t just random exercises, Those are the movements you can train. 

Knowing when NOT to progress.

This is an important specialty that gets overlooked. Sometimes the best progression isn’t heavier weight. It may be better control, better range of motion, better balance, or simply making the existing movement more efficient before adding another challenge. 

Connecting mobility and strength rather than treating them as separate goals.

Instead of saying, “You need to stretch” or “You need to get stronger,”  a movement coach can work on someone’s ability to control their body through the range of motion they have and progressively expand what they’re capable of controlling. 

Training adaptability.

A machine or highly controlled exercise teaches the body to perform that task. Movement training can teach the body to respond when the environment changes: different surfaces, different positions, different loads, different directions, unexpected movements. 

The goal is physical independence, not simply fitness.

This might ultimately be your biggest differentiator. Fitness asks, “How fit are you?” Movement specialization asks, “What can your body still do?” Those aren’t the same question. 

Training for fall recovery and not just single leg balance

Having your body automatically respond when you unexpectedly catch your toe and start to fall is a bigger win than learning to stand on one foot and balance for 30 seconds.

A movement specialist doesn’t just train you to perform movements. They train your body to respond when movement doesn’t go as planned. 

This is why my clients always FEEL so good not just strong!

They feel extremely capable and strong because our focus is MOVEMENT not just 3 sets of 10.

Christams 2023
Posted on in Fitness

Finding Strength in Transition: Life Lessons from a Single Mom

Little did I know that this was going to be our last Christmas in this house.

I had bought this Christmas ornament as a sign that I was really trying to prepare for empty nest that seemed to come earlier than expected.

Menopause had just busted down my door and physically life changed hard and fast.

The following two years would be the hardest years I’ve had in so long.  

So long that it made being a single mom of three little baby girls look EASY.

I didn’t know it but I had slipped into oblivion and had no space left for anyone. 

I was sick and tired of people paying to train with me but not caring enough to actually reach goals but yet complaining about their body.

I was sick and tired of not knowing how to deal with my last senior.

And I was surely sick and tired of this menopause body that wasn’t normal.

I thought I had prepared myself for this time of my life but I did not.

Why, you ask?

Because I never once saw myself past getting my girls to the age of 18.

That should tell you alot about my mindset.

It should tell you a lot about where I came from and how stuck I really was.

I tried so hard to visualize myself in my 50’s and 60’s and 70’s and I just couldn’t.  

I tried so hard.

Little did I know that the real reason was because I didn’t want to stop being mom.  I still don’t.

I loved being mom and caring for my kids and spending life with them. 

My real dream was to also be a perfect wife and stay at home mom.   I just couldn’t make a relationship work.

I wanted to prove I could come from the dumps and become something great.  It was just harder than I was prepared for.

I had no support for these particular years.  My poor girls suffered my lack of support for them in their new adult life.

I just didn’t have enough of me left.  I was spent. 

Just a few months after this picture, I would be told I had 90 days to vacate after 10 plus years.

I was devastated.  For two years I stayed devastated with so much going on in  my head I coudn’t see straight.

My best years, our best years, were spent in that house.  I’m grateful more than anyone will ever know.

My girls HATED that house when we first moved in.  The drive was so long!  8 minutes long!

It was so far away from town. But I loved it.  I knew it was perfect.  It was extremely roomy even for the 5 of us.

I loved the green grass rolling hills, the cows, the red barn and the birds!

I loved hopping on my bike or going for a walk or a swim in the lake.

Winters were so beautiful.  Summers were so beautiful.  Fall was gorgeous and spring was fabulous.

Every year.

I had no clue that would be our last christmas in that house.

I had not clue the next christmas would be our last as a family held at Rachael’s house.

Relationships with my children have been altered and some not so good.  

I’ve spent much too much time grieving this process.  I really thought I had pulled out of it but no, I never did.  

Not until now.  

Why God would want me to be in despair over my children I don’t know but I’m trusting the other side will be better!

I have only two choices in life…show the world what to do when we’re down and out, or show the world how to give up.

For all this time, I knew I wanted to WANT to climb out of this hole and make something of myself but the WANT wasn’t there.  I only wanted to want it.  

But I recently found my energy and my energy flipped my light switch and I FEEL the WANT now.

How did I find it? I can only say…by NOT giving up.

I’ve was stuck in a world of people I would call unbelievers of abundance.  

Now, I’m moving into a space of abundance and letting the non-believers drop away.

Let’s GO!

Posted on in activity, Fitness, Food, menopause, personal growth, weight-loss

A Belly Full of Visceral Fat

25 years ago when I first discovered Insulin Resistance (IR), it was NOT something doctors talked about.

Matter of fact, the few doctors that did were ousted as crazy (my words).  THANKFULLY for one doctor that shared what it was and how it contributes to so many other “syndromes”, I was able to reverse mine before it was deemed I’d need meds.

Back then…they didn’t pressure you to be on meds until it was pretty bad.  Today…they pressure you to be on meds before even mentioning how to fix it naturally.

I don’t know where my desire for natural healing came from but for as long as I can remember I knew there were ways to heal ourselves.

I think it came from my memories growing up…

Dad ate Little Debbie Snack cakes and hot chocolate pudding over white bread and other sweets and junk like Frosted Flakes with extra sugar poured on top.

I can still feel myself grab that light blue sugar bowl with one end opening for a spoon and the other end opening for a pour.   I can (at this moment right now) feel myself open the pouring end and pour all over those already sweetened flakes until the top was covered!

And while I’m at it..why not a second bowl?  That’s about five (5) servings right there with probably ¼ to ½ cup white sugar on top.

No child needed that. BUT look at all the fortified vitamins and minerals it had.  We were feeding the children better, right?

I remember my mom liking mustard, horseradish, peppers, sauerkraut, and things of that nature.  

I also remember thinking “maybe when I’m older I’ll like mustard”.  I had no clue why it mattered but I thought my mom was cool so I hoped one day I would like mustard too.

I believe 100% I gained my coping skills regarding food from my dad.  

Just a couple weeks ago, my brother called me and while chatting he asked “hey do you remember driving us to school and doing that donut down on Tasker?  I remember, EVERY morning you eating LIttle Debbie Snack cakes on the way”.

Yep, that was my breakfast.  For over 16 years I ate like that.  That was the beginning of today’s heavily laden coping skills with cereals that we now call highly processed junk food.

But I learned that I have control over turning my genes on and off.  It’s called epigenetics.

My situation was not genetic.  It was HABITS handed down in my home.  

If you know my family, you’ll know that these were coping habits.  

I remember a train car had an accident and we were given a ton of boxes of Kellogg’s cereal and that was what we had many days for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I know I’m not the only one who grew up like that.  Some are growing up like that and worse today.

25 years ago when I was about to have my third daughter, the doctor told me then I was ONE point away from being diabetic.  

Can you believe they didn’t offer me meds then nor after the pregnancy?

I can tell you I got on top of that right away and began researching for myself.  

With an abdominal measurement at 38″ NOT pregnant I needed to make a change!

It was a lot of really hard work emotionally and mentally but I did it.

In today’s world they push meds on you with the tiniest raise in your A1c.

You CAN change your health by LIFESTYLE changes.

You can decide which genes are on and which genes are off.  You get to decide if you’re overweight or normal weight.  You get to decide how strong you want to be and how mentally alert you want to be.

You are in charge of you!

Set the example for the children in your life!

They need you.

Posted on in Fitness, menopause

Is it MENOPAUSE or bad habits?

Women in their 40s often feel like they can keep doing whatever they’ve always done, eating casually, skipping workouts, pushing through life without paying much attention to how their bodies are changing. 

But the truth is, by this stage, the body is quietly shifting.

By the time 50 rolls around, those changes show up as what many call “menopause symptoms.” 

Then, once they cross fully into menopause, many women feel completely lost, frustrated, and even miserable.

But here’s the question no one is really asking: 

Are all these symptoms truly menopause?  Or are they the accumulated effects of years of under-fueling, inactivity and overeating of junk foods in a bag and a box?

I believe a large percentage of what women label as “menopause struggles” are not solely hormonal. 

Instead, they are amplified by decades of not giving the body the right tools: enough protein, balanced carbs, strength training, and consistent movement.

Think about it:

  • A 20-year-old (male or female) can skip meals, live on coffee, and still build some muscle without much thought to nutrition.
  • But once we hit our 30s, the rules begin to change. For both men and women, muscle preservation and metabolism require more intentional fuel.
  • Estrogen does act as a protective buffer for women, especially against inflammation, but when the body has been deprived of the right nutrients for decades, the transition through menopause feels harsher than it needs to.

So, the real question is this: Should we blame menopause—or should we look at our habits leading up to it?

What if many of the symptoms women struggle with weren’t inevitable but instead preventable?

Or at least greatly reduced, with consistent nourishment and strength training before and during menopause?

I’ve had countless women come to me blaming menopause, only to discover their real breakthrough came when they fueled properly and gained more lean muscle mass.

Menopause doesn’t have to feel like the end of control. 

With the right fuel and movement, it can be a season of strength.

Menopause doesn’t get the final say in your health. Your habits, your choices, and your fuel do.

Even one small shift like prioritizing protein at your next meal, can begin changing the way your body responds. The power is still in your hands.

Follow me on Facebook for more! CLICK HERE

Posted on in Fitness

HOW HEAVY IS THIS GLASS?

A professor once held up a glass of water in class and asked, “How heavy is this glass?” 

The answer, of course, wasn’t about the weight itself, it was about how long you hold it. 

A minute feels easy. An hour becomes painful. 

A day feels impossible. 

His point was simple: worry, stress, and burdens get heavier the longer we hold on to them.

That story has always stuck with me. 

And recently, I thought of it in a new way. 

Over the years, I’ve built such a strong foundation in my body that I can hold eight ounces of water with my arm fully extended for over six minutes.

Now, this isn’t a story about muscle. 

It’s a story about strength, the kind that prepares you for what life throws your way. 

Because here’s the truth: life will bring stress, setbacks, and hard moments. 

And if we run from them, delay them, or excuse them away, we only weaken our foundation.

But when we face challenges head-on, when we practice leaning into the discomfort instead of running from it…we grow.

Strength isn’t built in comfort. 

Strength is built in resistance.

And just like holding that glass, the more we practice, the stronger we become not just in body, but in character, in courage, and in life!

That’s how we build the foundation to carry what once felt impossible…and to become the person we were meant to be.

Posted on in Fitness

I Have Healed

Almost a year ago, I caught myself saying over and over, “I’m healing my hip.” Every time someone asked how I was doing, that’s what I said. Until one day, I stopped and asked myself out loud, “When will I actually know I’ve healed? When can I stop calling myself ‘in healing’ and start calling myself healed?”

That question changed everything.

Because our words matter. What we tell ourselves becomes our truth. If I only ever say “I’m healing my hip,” then in my mind I’m always healing, never healed. So I decided to set a milestone. I told my ladies, “When I can teach and perform a full Pump Class again, that will be the day I can finally say: I’ve healed.”

This past Wednesday, that day arrived.

I performed half a Pump class at full capacity. For the first time in years, lunges didn’t feel like a battle. I could move with strength and stability instead of fear and caution. My hip socket felt solid. My muscles worked hard my right quad, hamstring, hip but I didn’t end up sidelined for days afterward. It felt like a glimpse of my old self again, but stronger.

I chose to believe healing was possible. I only needed to find one person who had done it before me — and I did. I found a doctor who understood adhesions and nerve entrapments. Together, we worked to release years of scar tissue from multiple C-sections that had left deep adhesions in my lumbar spine, hip flexors, right groin, quadriceps, hamstring, calf, and even my foot.

Most people don’t realize how adhesions can restrict movement and set off a chain reaction of pain and joint damage. So many of us push through pain, unaware of the damage building up, until surgery seems like the only answer. But sometimes not always, but sometimes there’s another path.

I’m proud to say I’m the most healed I’ve been in three years. My hip pain had caused knee, calf, and ankle issues, but step by step, I’ve regained strength and hope.

Here’s what has been most important in my healing journey:

  • Relentless curiosity. I researched everything about healing tendons, ligaments, and cartilage. I asked questions and sought out people who had gotten better.
  • A doctor who wanted to prevent surgery. I followed his plan and trusted the process.
  • Nourishing from the inside out. I was diligent about collagen peptides loaded with amino acids twice a day, and almost daily I added 2 oz of liver.
  • Smart loading and recovery. I worked my hip flexor, tendons, and ligaments with the right amount of load not too much and gave them time to recover.
  • Perfecting my form in everyday life. From sitting on the toilet to standing up, riding my bike slowly, breathing better, and eliminating inflammation through food.
  • Prioritizing what I could do. While my lower body healed, I built my upper body stronger than ever. Today my upper body can push, pull, and lift more than it ever has  even on chest presses.

Most importantly, I placed my health and movement as the highest priority in my life.

I’m not done yet. I’ll keep seeing my doctor periodically. I’ll keep strengthening my lower body until both sides are balanced again. But today, I can say this with my whole heart:

I have healed.

And if you’re reading this while in pain or feeling like your body has betrayed you, please know this: Healing isn’t always linear, and it’s rarely quick, but it is possible. Your body is capable of more than you can imagine. Sometimes you just need the right knowledge, the right support, and the right patience to see it through.

Posted on in Fitness

MENOPAUSE at 51

2018 I stood right in this corner next to my little fridge and wondered WHY am I struggling to lose this weight I gained that I “thought” was from a traumatic event in my life!

I had participated in several Tough Mudders, ran a few 5k races and STILL it wasn’t coming off!

All the way through 2019 when I started having real symptoms that I couldn’t explain.  Doctor performed many tests to see what was going on.  

She thought it sounded like autoimmune issues, diabetes, low this low that.  

Every single test came back  negative.  I was HEALTHY!

EXTREME thirst, dehydration, frustration, irritation, weight gain not getting worse but not getting better in spite of my exercise.

I must not be trying HARD enough!

Not any of that!  

I had only had 1-2 periods in that span of time but we (my doctor was younger than me) had no clue that MENOPAUSE was entering my home!

In 2020, when things weren’t better and I had researched the HELL OUT OF EVERYTHING I asked her about this menopause thing.  

I had no clue!  Never studied it, never watched my mom go through it!  I’d heard women COMPLAIN and that was it!

Doctor ordered some blood tests and sure enough I was considered POSTMENOPAUSAL!

Ok, so I IMMEDIATELY take a course from Dr. Stacy Sims on menopause and athletes.

Learned a TON!

Although I was doing what was mostly right, I wasn’t doing them “enough” and “in the right order”.

2021 I had an accident that began the hardest healing journey for me yet!

Not knowing that from 2018-2020 I was so low on estrogen and had stopped major strength training during covid, I actually helped my body get MORE FRAIL!

I had never once in my life imagined myself weak.  But here I was losing muscle mass like crazy in my legs.

Now I’m injured and losing it faster!

The loss of ESTROGEN threw me for a loop and I had NO clue!

I know better now, have my own program helping other women make better choices and I’m healing myself WITHOUT surgeries!

If you want to know what I started with you can CLICK HERE to get started!

Posted on in Fitness, personal growth

Writing on my soul

I NEVER realized how deep I wrote on my soul that my happiness would depend on my relationship with my adult children. 

I know this comes from a specific time in my childhood that I desperately needed it and couldn’t get it.  

I blame no one. 

We are all here to heal.  

It’s beginning to make sense that I so deeply waiting years, days, minutes, and even seconds to have a wonderful empty nest life that was still ao filled with my adult children that I would feel like a queen sitting atop my accomplishments of a wonderful family.

But for over two years now that is not how it is.

And I struggle to make sense of why I’m here if not for my children even in adulthood.

How did I get to this point?

How did I get to this thinking pattern that is just making its true presence known?

I was in a Facebook group for empty nesters and had to leave because it was so depressing watching grown women not want to live if their children wanted nothing to do with them.

Let alone Mother’s who jsut couldn’t seem to let the child grow up.

I was prepared for my children to go off and do great things. I really was.

I was excited for them to do better than me!

To grab life and go for a ride.

I couldn’t grow watching so many other women stay in their pool of sadness.

Ugh

I have actively worked through all these feelings looking for a way to be excited about life all by myself.

It doesn’t feel as exciting.

But I don’t want to be that mom that can’t move on.

I even convinced myself that my children have alwyas watched my behaviors so I need to keep making my behaviors strong and growing.

Because they may be in this mode someday and I need to give them something to hold on to.

If mom was able to do it, so can I!

But wow.

I did start working on this early.

I can’t imagine had I not bothered.

I can’t imagine being slapped with this feeling out of nowhere.

The best I have to go on is making sure they value themselves as a human.

If I can’t do that then I give them nothing.

So while it still hurts daily I will continue to move forward with the mindset of I need to be an example.

Being a mom was truly the best.

But what if not all my kids get to be a mom or dad.

Don’t o want them to value themselves anyway?

Ugh

I do. But I am struggling to value myself while feeling so alone.

But I will make it.

Like all other struggles in my life I have learned to take it one day at a time.

Wake up. Find a purpose in this day alone.

And pretty soon the hurt doesn’t hurt so bad.

Mom

I have loved being mom

I need to find me.