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The truth about health and fitness is we either want it or we don�t. Let�s face it, many of us come up with reasons not to exercise or eat healthy. We even sound pretty convincing. Unfortunately, all the reasons in the world eventually catch up to us in the form of illness or injury.

What we fail to realize is how much our lifestyle impacts our health.The food we eat, how we move and rest our body is truly our medicine. Many of us continue to walk around in an unhealthy body and come to accept this existence. We are missing out on how good we're supposed to feel and look. Our body reflects our lifestyle. True story.

I want to believe all of us have a strong desire to be healthy people. Working in the health and fitness industry, I certainly hear this loud and clear. We talk about wanting to feel and look better, but what continues to be lacking is the action required to make this happen. More often than not, healthy living isn't a priority.

Living a life of excuses will not change our health or appearance. It only guarantees us not to feel our best most often accompanied by unhappiness. Change takes changing our daily habits. The body we have is controlled by what we do. I'm sure we can all agree on that statement. Let me clarify my reference is to the general population who have the ability to get healthy. Some medical conditions and illness are out of our control, but I have seen those who struggle to live the healthiest lives. Another true story.

Our first step to change our body for the better is owning our current lifestyle. This includes admitting we are making excuses not to eat healthy, exercise, sleep more, reduce stress and the list goes on. It's important to understand why health is not a priority.

Admitting our part in creating an unhealthy body can piss us off and it should. It's in that frustrated moment we can really be honest about our life and body. That proverbial slap in the face is often the beginning of getting serious about a healthy lifestyle becoming our medicine. Think about these things:


Being healthy and having a fit body is achievable for all of us and should be our lifetime goal. Dependence on prescribed drugs for self-imposed health conditions continues to increase and becoming an epidemic problem. Let me clarify certain medications are required for a small percentage of the populous but not for the general population who can get healthy. Many cholesterol lowering and blood pressure medications can be discontinued when weight is lost and body composition improved.

The problem is accommodating an unhealthy lifestyle justifying it with reasons that really can't be validated. A healthy lifestyle is not an occasional event and requires full-time effort. Life is the event we need to be fit for and we only get one chance to do it right.

The bottom line is results can and will happen, but the choice is up to you.

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Fitness is about progress and not perfection. Many of us struggle with a perfectionist personality to the point of interfering with our quality of life and derailing fitness attempts. When our focus becomes more realistic, not based on comparisons or the way we think fitness should be is when awesome stuff happens.

First, allowing ourselves to be a beginner is important. No one starts at the top and sometimes we even need to start over due to an injury or illness setback. I speak from experience when it comes to being knocked down from an injury and although the setback was difficult, I applied a progressive program to recover. There is nothing pretty or perfect in hard work and if you look good at the end of your workout, it certainly wasn't done correctly.

We can put so much pressure on ourselves with exercise programs doing too much too soon. Somehow we take on this belief that we should be at the same level as a seasoned athlete. This only leads to discouragement and frustration. It takes months and years to develop our fitness levels. If your goal is to run a marathon, it takes baby steps of progression and adaptation to this type of program. The same applies to muscle development. We certainly are not going to see a bicep cap after one session of resistance curls.

When we approach our fitness programs with a progressive attitude, it's more realistic and enjoyable. Progressive simply means:

  • starting where you are
  • accepting where you are
  • not comparing yourself to others
  • doing what you can
  • mastering what you are able to do
  • then moving forward to the next level





Progression is what gets us to the next level of fitness without injury and with a healthy body and mind. Let's say you struggle to perform a pull-up and hang there stuck on the bar. First, the pull-up is one of the hardest body weight exercises to perform and we have all been in this position as a newbie.

Believing your first attempt should be a successful body lift with head over that bar is unrealistic. It takes a progressive training program of slow back strength development to accomplish this challenging exercise. Those who can perform one or more pull-ups have been doing this exercise for years and have built enough back strength to perform the exercise. This is called realistic fitness progress.

Progress includes modification to exercise to build strength. Let's take another look at the pull-up and apply realistic methods of progression. In order to build back strength over time to achieve the goal of performing a pull-up, implementing modifications is necessary and may include:

  • negative pull-ups (starting at the top and lowering yourself slowly)
  • using a spotter 
  • bench spot
  • Gravitron machine (removes a percentage of your bodyweight for easier lift)
  • TRX straps or resistance bands hooked around feet 

Consistency with modified exercise and building strength will enable you to progress and eventually perform the exercise without assistance.

Progression can also be applied to incorporating healthy foods into our nutrition.  Begin slowly by eliminating one thing like soda, and replacing it with drinking water and herbal tea. This process continued over time will enable you to adopt healthy eating as you eliminate unhealthy food choices. The goal should be to eat healthy 80 to 90% of the time without feeling deprived. Implementing eating well using progressive methods is shown to be less stressful, enjoyable and lifetime sustainable.

Life is already hard enough without making a healthy lifestyle feel like a burden with unrealistic expectations. Applying progressive methods to our workouts and daily food intake creates a positive outlook mentally and physically. It enables us to feel accomplished with our programs and feel good with each step taken toward our goals. 

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Fitness includes so much more than weight loss or achieving a personal best lift at the gym. Being a fit person involves discipline for each day, creates awareness, and instills conscious living. It means being mindful of how we treat our body, how we think, and feel.

Fitness is a lifestyle and goes way beyond the physical. Living this way starts in our minds and pushes us to live a quality life. It's not just a desire but daily actions we choose moving us closer to being healthy people. When our focus remains on health, we can truly say we are living a healthy life with our whole being.   

We put so much pressure on ourselves to squeeze into skinny jeans or tank shirts and tend to forget how being fit is supposed to feel. A fit and healthy body should feel good but instead many of us accept and accommodate pain on a daily basis. In this case, the focus isn't on health and often with a temporary goal based on outward appearance. Healthy lifestyles are meant to be enjoyed for a lifetime, not just for a few months.

A fit lifestyle includes physical exercise and not even to an extreme but effective enough to maintain a healthy body. It also means eating foods containing a high nutrient value helping us feel energized and creating an antioxidant environment protecting us from illness and disease.

Rest is also on the menu for a fit body and a very important part of the program.  Without proper rest and sleep, our bodies will not recover from the demands placed on it through workouts, stress, and the overall daily grind.

A healthy life requires a balance of work and play. We often lose sight of our inner child replacing it with busy demands of adulthood. Staying young at heart helps reduce our stress and enables us to enjoy life more. It creates a positive, happy mindset that looks forward to shutting down to recharge the mental batteries. Too many of us don't take advantage of this very important part of being healthy and happy.

The reality is we can enjoy life and live a healthy lifestyle at the same time. This is accomplished by making health a priority and being consistent with our choices. Being fit doesn't means slaving for hours in the gym and resolved to eat boiled fish and broccoli for life.This is far from what living a healthy lifestyle looks like.

When the focus is on health and improving the quality of our life, becoming fit happens naturally along the way. This also allows us to let go of the stress of unrealistic fitness goals and quick fixes. The pressure to look a certain way loses it's importance as we concentrate more on how good being healthy feels.

Our awareness of the importance of being a healthy person becomes primary in more ways than physical. We are mindful of eating right, how we move our bodies, and what we think about ourselves. Applying this healthy attitude and lifestyle creates the body we want in the way it should happen.

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Face it, we're all responsible for our health and fitness. I'm not talking about medical illness out of our control, but the everyday individual who has the ability to get healthy. This is the majority of us, right?

In this world of comparison, it appears many of us get pissed off at the accomplished fit woman or man at the gym, online, or in a magazine. Why is that? It really is a projection of what we want for our own life but not willing to put in the effort. That may have hit hard, but let's get down to the honest truth about our health and lifestyle. You may be tired of hearing "what's your excuse" but the question is somewhat relevant.  

Instead of owning the behaviors creating an unhealthy body, we tend to place blame where it doesn't belong. We blame our spouses, friends, and even media personalities for spouting unrealistic goals. Are they unrealistic or just our way of justifying the state of our health?

What it comes down to is no one but you and I can make health happen. It's an individual choice to be healthy or unhealthy. It seems like a simply stated sentence but very much accurate. No amount of misplaced blame is going to help you reach your goals. We can't put up a defensive posture because others are doing what we're not willing to do. In order to change our health and fitness, it requires owning our current health status. 

Part of owning our fitness is getting rid of the reasons and excuses so often used to not live healthily. Unfortunately, excuses have become acceptable behavior and our health is suffering the consequences. Being over fat and obese has grown to an epidemic status with over 30 percent of the American population adversely affected.

The excuse of being too busy should be null and void. We all have the same 24 hours in a day and the choice of how the time will be used. Fitting in an hour workout a few times per week isn't unreasonable and shouldn't be considered a burden. Eating healthy actually takes less time and money than dining out, but we are so hooked on fast and convenient to consider this option. The mindset about health and fitness requires re-evaluation. Don't you agree?

Nobody likes to hear, what's your excuse and it seems to ruffle feathers all over the place. Honestly, it's a question to ask yourself in front of the mirror. Forget about anyone else. Are you happy with your health and fitness? Are you owning your role in causing the problem? If not, why?

When we start accepting responsibility for our actions, stop comparing to others, and implement a fitness solution is when positive changes begin. No one but you can make the choices to move past the excuses and the feelings that keep you from getting healthy.

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We all look forward to the weekend or free days off. Enjoying a break from work and personal R&R can't come soon enough sometimes, right? The weekend actually allows us more time to work on our fitness programs, but many of us don't look at it that way.

The weekend typically includes three days (counting Friday night) of social drinking, parties, and indulgence in unhealthy foods. Many of us completely abandon our fitness goals. We somehow think what we do on the weekend doesn't impact our efforts and healthy lifestyle. This is far from the truth. Every choice made affects our fitness in a positive or negative way. Weekends seem to lean more toward the negative.

I admit to letting my hair down a bit on the weekend. However, I don't agree with living an unhealthy lifestyle for three days. How could I exemplify what living healthy means to my clients, you, myself and family? Actions speak louder than words and living the life is what maintains my fitness goals.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having a cheat meal or even day. If not done correctly and in moderation is when fitness goals can fail. Moderation is knowing how to moderate. A treat day doesn't need to turn into a cheat weekend nor should it. Those partaking in this yo-yo behavior often feel guilty for eating off track all weekend and mad at themselves for gaining a few pounds.

Enjoying a few indulgences in life is realistic, balanced and considered healthy. When done right and in moderation, a cheat meal actually helps our body burn fat more effectively and maintain our hard earned muscle. Living a healthy lifestyle includes knowing how to moderate cheat meals, not feel guilty, and getting back on track after the indulgence.

Studies show mixing up the nutrition and throwing in an occasional splurge meal benefits the body similar to how muscle confusion works performing a different exercise program. Long-term caloric restriction can deplete our body of essential nutrients and muscle glycogen. Enjoying a cheat meal or day can benefit both physiologically and psychologically. Supplying our body with additional energy from extra treat calories is shown to boost our metabolism, hydrate our muscles, and create a better physical working environment.

Regardless of where you are in your fitness program, learning how to moderate splurges will make or break the success of reaching goals. How we think about food intake and what we eat will be the primary reason we're fit or fat. Eating healthy should be a lifestyle and not looked upon as a punishment or burden. If we see eating healthy as unenjoyable, this can drive us to those unhealthy rebel weekends of mindless eating.

The weekend isn't a free pass to make unhealthy choices over a three day period. If we're truly eating well and performing regular exercise, we would feel strange not to continue over the weekend. Our fitness brain should always be on directing us to choose nutritious food, not empty calories. If you're struggling with eating right and getting off track over the weekend, it could mean taking a look at how you're preparing food. Does your healthy food taste good?

Healthy foods not only taste good but are great for you. Enjoy the texture and flavor of vegetables, fruits, and raw nuts. Indulge in lean proteins on the grill like salmon and chicken breast. Learn how to cook with herbs, spices, and marinades. Eating right doesn't mean eating bland.

Eating right along with the occasional splurge meal is what will enable you to reach and maintain those fitness goals.

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I was reading my daily devotion today on the subject of intentions. I was immediately drawn to the title and felt it was speaking to me personally. Can you relate?

We all have good intentions, dream about fulfilling them, but somehow they get pushed aside and forgotten. Well, not really forgotten, because they continue to dance across the pages of our thoughts. At least this is the case for me.

Are you guilty of not following through on good intentions to make something happen? Starting that fitness program or promise to eat healthier? As I read further, I understood the importance of  writing down the intentions, to begin a plan and follow through with action.



Moving from intention to action takes a plan. This applies in most everything in life from painting the house, spending more time with family, to adopting a healthy lifestyle. It's really staying true to taking care of the important things in life.

What has helped me is setting up challenge systems where I complete three goals of intention for that day. Today I plan to get in a morning workout, help my ailing father to the doctor, and meet up with family later this evening for example.

Another goal was writing this blog and I was stumped at what to share with you at first, but enlightened after reading my devotional. It's amazing how things happen like that.

Having good intentions are great but remain thoughts until you put them into action. Goals to improve your health and fitness won't happen without effort. Follow-through is what will create better health, a fit body, and overall improved quality of life.

Those things we think about all the time must come to the forefront of our actions. Has a family member or friend been on your mind to call?  Pick up the phone. Has date night with your spouse been put off for months? Time to bring on the romance. Are the intentions to exercise four times a week not happening? Get your calendar, schedule your workouts and don't cancel. Do you want to eat better at home and reduce dining out? Write a healthy food list and head to the store.

Every active step we make is a step closer to fulfilling our goals and taking our intentions further than our minds. It's important not to get stuck in the 'thinking about it' process without any action. Good intentions only go so far and although they may sound good, living it out through our actions is what really counts.

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The scale game starts as innocent accountability for weight loss and turns into a game of just how much we can get away with cheating on our program. Who is guilty? The scenario typically looks like this...

The fitness program is going great and the weight is coming off at a healthy rate. Suddenly, we begin validating food rewards for a job well done well above what's considered moderation. 

We challenge the scale to see how far we can push those numbers because we think there's leeway. Besides, we're doing such a great job and deserve a weekend of pizza, beer, and pastries, right? Wrong. This is a risky gamble and not a definition of living a healthy lifestyle. 

The purpose of obtaining a healthy weight is not to yo-yo back and forth. It means taking our health seriously and maintaining the lifestyle. If the scale gets in the way of that, it's time to toss it, especially when the 'scale game' derails our health and fitness goals. Relying on the mirror and how our clothes fit would be a better accountability tool at this point. 

We're not hurting anyone but ourselves when we play games with our fitness efforts. There is no half-way living a healthy life. Not giving our best to achieve our fitness goals is evident in more ways than a scale measurement. Do you like what you see in the mirror? How do you feel overall? These are also great ways to know if you're being true to your fitness program. 

The scale game robs us of being able to achieve our best health and body. When the purpose of the scale is to justify eating off track or exercising less, it removes the positive benefit of keeping track of our weight. Weighing one time per week for accountability can be a healthy thing, but when it turns into an ugly game of number manipulation for a food frenzy this is the opposite of being healthy. 

Success will never come from games or lack of commitment to your goals. The results will come from consistent healthy food choices coupled with regular exercise. The scale has nothing to do with our choices and is simply a helpful tool to let us know how we're doing with our weight loss program. When it is misused, it really can be detrimental to our goals. 

If the 'scale game' is an active part of a health program then it really isn't a health program. This may be a good time to dump the scale and start applying healthy accountability methods that align with our fitness efforts. 

Remember, it's all fun and games until your jeans don't fit anymore. 
  


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What do I mean by looking like myself?  Well, I have certain genetics and a lifestyle contributing to what I look like. I'm not supposed to look like anyone else including other fitness women in magazines.

Back in my competitive days, I do admit to more than admiring fitness competitors and felt I needed to look like them to win. I struggled with my body not responding the same way as another competitor. It was an unrealistic way of thinking. The girls in the magazines don't even look like the girls in the magazine. Straight up the fitness truth.

 I'm so happy to have learned through that insecure journey. I have come full circle with knowledge, age, and wisdom. I embrace who I am and what I look like. I strive to be my best me and not anyone else. It would be such a stressful life to constantly compare myself to all the beautiful women out there. Life is too short to think unrealistic thoughts or goals.

 Did you know all images in magazines are photoshopped? The pictures are smoothed, cropped and colored for marketing appeal. The purpose is to create unreal images of women and men representing something they're not. Many of these models may be in great shape with a normal healthy body. What's missing is their natural lines, bumps, blemishes, rolls, bootie, and hips revised with a few strokes of a computer. Anyone can get a photoshopped 6-pack now and this isn't a joke. I'm not anti-photoshop, but if I need to go to the image credits just to recognize the person, that is simply not right. 

Some of my older modeling pictures are slightly photoshopped. I have to say it's an art of knowing just how much to shop an image and loved when some softness was needed. Overall, I prefer my untouched edgy images showing the real me.

I prefer taking self-portraits not selfies without filters and in the middle of working out. I display those daily along with food intake on my Instagram. I represent the real me, over 50, no makeup and unscripted. This is a true fitness lifestyle exemplified as it should be. I'm a 'messy hair don't care' trainer where sweat and a smile are my best accessories. 

It's important for me to want to look like myself and not someone else. This tells me that I accept, embrace, and honor who I am completely as a woman, wife, mother, trainer, writer, daughter, sister, and friend. How could I even walk the talk of helping people get healthy if I didn't live this philosophy?

Our goal should not be to look like someone else but working towards becoming the best version of yourself. As long as we do our best regardless of age, fitness level, or circumstance to reach our fitness goals is all that matters. Achieving good health is a journey and never a destination and age is not a definition of our fitness.

I embrace my fine lines earned from laughs, smiles, and a few frowns along the way. I believe aging is a privilege and an honor. Although there is no such thing as the fountain of youth, I feel fitness is darn close. It is possible to keep our body and mind young living a healthy life.

Consistent exercise, healthy foods, plenty of rest, and balance of work and play are essential components of a healthy lifestyle. This enables us to feel youthful and reduces our risk of disease and illness.

I want to do my best to live a good long life. When it comes down to me and the mirror, there is acceptance. How about you?

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Most of us have the goal of wanting a fit and healthy body. Sadly, not all of us follow through with the action to make it happen. All too often something gets in the way of doing what needs to be done to make the wish a reality.

It doesn't matter how much web surfing, article reading, or fit people watching is happening. If what you're doing isn't motivating you to take action, it's nothing but wasted time. In fact, all that time surfing the web could be time used to complete a workout or meal prep.

I even have to limit myself and implement a certain amount of time for social media work. My life requires excellent time management to run my personal training business, writing obligations and maintain a healthy lifestyle. That means shutting down my computer and making the choice to exercise and prepare healthy meals for the week. 

It's fun to dream about reaching our fitness goals. I am the first to applaud and be motivated by a fit body because I know the effort it takes and the lifestyle required. Wishing and wanting can turn ugly when the doing is not taking place. Somehow feelings of resentment and bitterness can appear toward self and others even when no action to fix anything is occurring.

We are adults responsible for our daily choices. We decide our day to day happiness, outward behaviors toward self and others, and ultimately taking care of our bodies. If the choice is not to do what it takes to get healthy, then all the wishing and wanting are merely thoughts.

Putting our thoughts into action is how you will achieve a fit and healthy body. What we do determines the lifestyle we maintain. Limited time isn't a reason not to exercise for example. If twenty minutes is all you have, give it all you got with no excuses. Every step toward improving our health regardless of the time is positive progress. 

We really need to move past the wishing and wanting, and into the doing. Taking action is what makes results happen. When we become proactive, we feel accomplished, more confident, and overall in much better health.

Achieving the fit body we want and think about all the time takes responsibility, time, and effort on a consistent basis. This is true for all things in life: our jobs, education, relationships, and spiritual life for example. Sitting around thinking that things are just going to fall into our laps without effort is unrealistic. Some people really do believe that life works this way, are unmotivated, and feel they are owed a free ride. The truth is there are no free rides to fitness.

Life has never promised easy, and often we make fitness much more complicated than it needs to be. This is no reason to fall into a wish and wants pity party when the action has never been attempted. Time to wake-up and smell the coffee and honestly ask ourselves why we're not doing what it takes to get healthy. Daily choices and action is the only way to fitness success and to create a healthy lifestyle.

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I absolutely love organic peanut butter and eat it almost daily. I'm even guilty of eating a tablespoon straight from the jar. Peanut butter just so happens to be one of the best sports nutrition superfoods. It's a rich source of healthy fat and quality plant protein. Did I mention it tastes amazing!


I can be very creative with peanut butter adding it to oatmeal or mixing with protein powder. Eating healthy fats like peanut butter is one of the ways I obtain essential nutrients that maintain my fitness.

Did you know good fats help boost your metabolism to more effectively burn body fat? Unfortunately eating fat has received lots of bad press and blamed for making us fat. Not true. There's a difference between fats that help keep us healthy and fats contributing to being unhealthy. Compare a donut to a handful of raw nuts for example.

 Healthy fats like peanut butter and other nut butter are shown to promote good health. Another thing to keep in mind when enjoying peanut butter is portion size. I don't sit around with a spoon in my jar until it's gone, although tempting. We can enjoy our good fats but just like with all macro nutrients, eating the right amount to maintain our fitness is essential.

Good fats have numerous health benefits and studies show can help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, joint pain, and boost our immunities. The nutrients contained in peanut butter provide our body with protection from many illnesses including certain cancers and neurological disease. It's also shown to reduce our total cholesterol, specifically LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff) and triglycerides.

 My love affair with peanut butter began with 'PB and Js' and still remains to this day. Mom wasn't far off with the importance of eating this healthy fat. It has helped me maintain my physical fitness over decades. I use peanut butter toast prior to and even following my workouts. I also enjoy a tablespoon when craving something before bed. If I want to create my own peanut butter cup, I toss a few dark chocolate chips on the spoon for an awesome treat.

I realize some have peanut sensitivity and allergies and therefore can't consume peanut butter. However, there are a wide variety of other kinds of nut butter just as nutritious and satisfying. Peanut butter works for me and my healthy lifestyle and probably the easiest healthy snack I eat daily. 

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Keeping a food journal can be your best friend and accountability partner when learning how to implement a healthy nutrition program. It can also feel like a burden depending on your commitment level. 

 I have heard it all when it comes to food journals and the love/hate relationship caused when keeping track of every morsel. The problem is really not the food journal, but the issue of not wanting to be honest with ourselves. When life is going great and our program is on track, we gladly write down every healthy bite and proudly share eating habits producing positive results.  

On the other side of the spectrum is feeling guilty eating off track and not wanting to write it down. We even convince ourselves somehow not writing it down means it didn't really happen. We tend to have moments of forgetfulness when we stop being mindful of our eating behavior. 

 The truth is regardless of what we want to include in our food journal, our body keeps an accurate record. You can run but your body will not hide the consequences of unhealthy choices. 

 Our food journal wants to know all the hidden secrets causing us to get off track. Are there food triggers? What's going emotionally and how is it affecting your day? These are important facts that could help figure out why we're eating unhealthy. Using the food journal as an emotional outlet helps resolve potential behaviors that may occur, and allows us to get back on track sooner than later.

Giving our food journal the stink eye for poor food choices is not where the blame should be placed. We are responsible for living a healthy or unhealthy life. If our fitness program is off track, we should be grown up enough to own it, plus the consequences of those choices. Keeping secrets from our food journal does nothing to help in a positive way. In fact, being dishonest with ourselves will prevent us from reaching our health and fitness goals. 

We can come up with all kinds of reasons not to journal: too hard, waste of time, it�s not working, controls me too much, refuse to feel micromanaged, and the list goes on. Keeping a journal is truly a personal choice but can't be blamed when poor decisions are made. When it doesn't work, it's about the dishonesty occurring when we cheat on our journal. 

 Studies have shown increased health and fitness improvement when food and fitness journals are maintained. This is great news but they won't work if we're unwilling to use them correctly. Cheating on our food journal takes away it's ability to be used as a learning tool to help us correct unhealthy eating patterns. 



We have the choice to view the food journal as friend or foe. If we view the food journal as a friend, our chances for improved health and fitness would significantly increase. Good friends help keep us accountable even when it's difficult to hear the truth. It may be hard to see our poor eating habits on paper but it's necessary to stand in our truth so we can make healthy changes. Friends should be able to offer constructive criticism and have it be accepted in a positive way without defensiveness. 

 The food journal is there to do that very thing: show you what has gone wrong, where you can improve, and ultimately help you make better choices for living a healthy lifestyle. 

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For those who believe lifting weights will make you lose feminine curves, I am here to say it's a myth. We simply don't have enough testosterone naturally to produce extreme muscle mass. 

We can create a firm, tone body with the help of weight resistance training. A small part of how we are built is also based on genetics. Every woman is different with the look weight training provides. This is called life and normal. As long as we maintain our lifting program along with healthy eating, we can enjoy a well-sculpted physique for life. 

We may see over-developed women bodybuilders who appear manly but this is often times created using illegal drugs, steroids, and male sex hormones. For us regular gals not on the bodybuilding circuit and just hitting it hard in the gym, this is not our norm. We may create some muscle, but nothing to the degree of lean mass enhanced with steroids. This is a whole other level of muscle development not applicable to active women in the gym. Unfortunately, seeing overly muscled women has caused many gals to fear lifting heavy. 

Applying a regular weight training program can create noticeably shapely arms, butt, legs, and an overall beautiful fit look. The other benefits include feeling great, boosted confidence, wearing anything you want and it's nice to receive compliments for your healthy lifestyle. 



I have been lifting weights for thirty years, have muscular curves but definitely not bulky. What allows my muscle to show more is maintaining a lower body fat percentage year round. However, I keep that within a healthy range to not screw around with my hormones. 

As a woman in menopause, I understand the importance and health benefits of weight bearing exercise. I enjoy how my body looks, but more important, focus on my bones remaining dense and strong as my estrogen levels continue to decline. Weight training is prescribed to all women going through this phase to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and/or osteopenia. 

I am genetically lean thanks to my Dad and my body has also responded well to weight training. I actually used resistance training to put on muscle weight and provide more curves. Being naturally thin also comes with challenges. I am a hard gainer so work even harder in the gym for the muscle I have.

Some may think I look bulky, but if you met me in person, you would have a whole different opinion. Can I flex it up in images? Yes and especially after an intense lifting session when the muscles are full and vascular. When I'm dressed in jeans and t-shirts, you might say I look like a woman who takes care of herself. 

The health benefits of weight training go beyond what is visible. Lifting weights helps improve bone and joint function, bone density, and increased muscle, tendon and ligament strength.  The more lean mass we have, the more efficient our bodies become with burning energy stores and maintaining a healthy weight. We become healthier overall, and our confidence is boosted when we feel our healthy best. 

The look obtained from weight training is one that exemplifies a healthy lifestyle. It's not a "she-man" body that seems to be running around in everyone�s mind. The media has successfully distorted the truth in all areas of fitness. The use of photoshop, airbrushing, and claims of weight lifting for females equals turning into a man. Nonsense!

This is far from the truth and laughable. I believe in being our own health and fitness advocates. It's important to research health and fitness subjects including weight training and applying what is best for our bodies to become a healthier person. Our female hormones which do include a small amount of testosterone naturally will allow for some muscle increase and a sculpted look. 

The inward and outward benefits of lifting are not only beautiful but we as women should embrace weight training as a very important part of our health programs. 

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The only stimulant I use to improve my workouts is coffee. Unregulated supplements come with too many health risks and who knows what's really in the stuff. Coffee contains caffeine, tastes amazing, full of beneficial antioxidants and a natural stimulant to boost my workouts.

Chronic studies have provided positive findings for caffeinated coffee improving athletic performance and other health benefits. It is said to increase our metabolism, reduce induced exercise muscle pain, improve mental focus, increase fat burning, and reduce the risk of disease.

The thing is you don't need that much coffee for effective results. More is not better and one to no more than 2 cups of black coffee is what's recommended according to research. I thoroughly enjoy my large mug every morning and admit to adding a small amount of creamer. I haven't been able to develop a taste for straight up black coffee.

I happen to be one of those people who is caffeine sensitive so drink half-calf and that works for me. Any more would have me bouncing off the walls. Call me a lightweight and I am just fine with that. I only indulge in the morning before a workout otherwise I would have a problem getting to sleep.

I love the natural edge up coffee provides as I prepare to hit the gym. Within 30 minutes, I feel more energetic and ready for an intense workout. It really prepares me mentally and physically. I don't have health issues like hypertension or diagnosed heart problems where coffee would be contraindicated so I do partake in moderation. The other health benefits from antioxidants are an added bonus.


Drinking coffee is one of my secret weapons for maintaining a fit body. Studies show the fat burning effects last up to 3 hours after having caffeine so I create that window for my workout. I would not venture into an unsafe stimulant scenario and don't support unhealthy ways to maintain my body. Coffee, on the other hand, is one of the best natural effective stimulants and my pre-workout drink of choice.

It's very important to check with your doctor before adding coffee to your nutrition and be aware of how your body responds to caffeine.

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Adopting a healthy lifestyle and achieving fitness goals can provide a feeling of accomplishment in the beginning. We plug into our fitness apps, fit bits, eating right and motivated to exercise. We are in fitness euphoria and experiencing self-motivation at its peak. We are determined and feel nothing will get in the way of reaching our goals, right?

This is awesome but the struggle is usually not in starting but in the maintaining. We all need to start the process of getting healthy but even more important is being able to continue the lifestyle.

As we progress in our fitness journey, things often become less important. Our determined mental game starts to soften.

Week three of the start may not feel as good or exciting anymore. Other things take priority and somehow being too busy to exercise or eat right dampen our motivation.

Week four seems to be filled with obligations that become more important than the promise we made to ourselves to get healthy.

Week five may involve a long vacation where fitness is set aside and anything goes with food that will surely expand the waistline. Exercise is also put on the back burner. I mean who wants to be active on vacation is the typical feedback.

In a short time, our goal to get healthy has taken a back seat and old patterns have returned. The struggle is real for many out there.

Processed foods have replaced the good carbohydrates consumed just a month ago. The menu has returned to pizza and burgers instead of lean proteins and healthy fats. Water intake is also not what it should be for optimal fitness. What happened?

Believe it or not, choices and behaviors like this happen all the time. It can cause feelings of failure, discouragement and many of us give up. None of us are immune to returning to poor eating habits and reasons not to exercise. We somehow think once we reach our goals, we can start slacking. We miss the point of getting in shape is staying in shape.

Lasting results happen when fitness becomes our lifestyle. This means being mindful of how we eat, staying active and getting plenty of rest. It also means taking responsibility for the choices causing us to return to unhealthy patterns. This will require getting back that motivation felt so strongly upon starting our fitness program.

If you are unable to do it alone, hire a qualified personal trainer or find a workout partner. If you are sabotaged at home, start creating two separate meals to ensure that you're eating healthy. If too busy seems to be a problem, it's time to review your priorities.

Achieving your fitness goals is a great accomplishment. Learning how to maintain them is truly what it means to live a healthy lifestyle.

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