My cycle has been complicated for as long as I can remember, between the estrogen dominance and the inflammation that made me feel like a houseguest in my own skin. I did everything I was supposed to do. I ate the vegetables, I trained, I went and got a master’s in physiology and the certifications, and I STILL felt like garbage most days (the degree, it turns out, does not come with a functioning endocrine system, who knew).

The symptoms were hard, and the part where nobody could tell me what was happening was harder.

Get on birth control, it’ll fix the cramps. Try the progestin-only pill, that’ll sort out the estrogen dominance. It’s normal, it’s just hormones, it’s part of being a woman. Every appointment ended the same way, with a prescription, a pamphlet, and the general energy of good luck out there.

Feeling like shit in a female body is so normalized it’s almost impressive, so I did the reasonable thing and handed my trust to every single person who wasn’t me, the labs and the specialists and whatever supplement the internet was selling that week to fix the thing nobody could even name.

That’s the part I keep coming back to, because I think a lot of you are sitting in that exact fog right now, probably with a cabinet full of supplements to prove it.

What took me an embarrassing number of years to figure out is that the symptoms were real, and the thing keeping me stuck was that I’d lost all sense of control over how I felt. I’d stopped believing I got any say in it at all.

There was no magic protocol, sorry. What got me out of it was the slow, deeply unsexy work of understanding what was actually happening inside me, once I stopped trying to white-knuckle it solo (told you, unsexy). Spoiler: understanding is where the choice lives.

So I said yes to building something I’ve never built before.

I’ve coached women one-on-one for years and it’s the work I love most, but 1:1 has a ceiling, and there’s a particular kind of medicine that only kicks in when a woman finds out she’s not the only one feeling this, the exhaustion, the am-I-crazy spiral, the grief of feeling failed by your own body. I’d put money on the fact that we’ve all sat in that at least once.

It’s called Finally F*cking Normal. Bai and Savannah are the masterminds behind this program and have been clients of mine as well as they navigate their own journeys to feeling finally f*cking normal.

Savannah is a board-certified clinical nutritionist who spent years getting brushed off through her own endo diagnosis before the system finally bothered to listen. She closed her private practice with hundreds of women still on the waitlist, because one-on-one couldn’t reach them fast enough, and this program is what she built instead.

Bai has had endometriosis since she was 11. She’s a Le Cordon Bleu chef and a two-time bestselling cookbook author who has spent the last 10 years building a whole life around eating and living in a way that works with her body. She just came through another excision surgery, and she founded I Am Endometriosis so other women wouldn’t have to figure it out as alone as she did.

The three of us said yes to building it this way for one reason. Not everyone can get one-on-one support, and we’re each maxed out on what we can hold anyway. Women with endo, PCOS, adenomyosis, painful periods and perimenopause keep getting handed a prescription and sent home to manage on their own, and we wanted something real they could reach without a waitlist or a 1:1 budget.

Finally F*cking Normal is six weeks of learning your own body from the inside out.

What’s in it:

- 42 daily drops, one short email each morning telling you exactly what to focus on for food, movement and mindset, so you’re not the one doing the math at 6am

- 5 live calls with me, Bai, Sav and a pelvic floor PT, where you bring the questions you’ve been too tired to ask

- A movement program I built with Good Day, Okay Day and Rough Day tracks, so you train for the body you actually woke up in, not the one you wish showed up

- A private community of women going through it right beside you, so you stop feeling like the only one and start feeling SEEN

- Over $700 in bonuses, because three women with no impulse control got in a group chat and kept adding things

We start July 8th and run through August 12th.

You don’t need a formal diagnosis to be here. You need to be done accepting a life that runs on your symptoms.

You don’t have to keep handing your trust to everyone but yourself, you CAN choose a different way, and for once you don’t have to do it alone.

Doors close July 6th. Enroll Here🥂

Lift weights.
Eat more protein.
Stay consistent.

None of that is new information.

The frustrating part is that many women are doing those things, at least some of the time, and their body still hasn’t changed the way they expected.

That’s the stage where a lot of people begin questioning themselves. They assume they’re missing something. They start searching for a better workout plan, a better macro split, or some new strategy that will finally unlock results.

I spent a long time in that same cycle.

I would have phases where I was very disciplined. I was lifting regularly, tracking my food, and doing everything I thought someone serious about their health should be doing.

But my routine kept resetting.

A busy period at work. Travel. Stress. A break in momentum. When I came back, I was technically still working out, but I wasn’t continuing the same progression. I was starting somewhere nearby, but not where I had left off.

From the outside, it still looked like effort.

From a training perspective, nothing was compounding.

Once I understood what was actually happening physiologically, my approach became much simpler.

Your body responds to patterns.

When you repeat the same strength stimulus over time and gradually increase the demand, your body adapts. Muscle tissue develops so the work becomes easier. Strength increases. Your metabolism becomes more supportive of the process because muscle requires energy to maintain.

But that only happens when the signal repeats consistently enough.

When the pattern keeps changing, your body maintains its current baseline. It has no reason to build new tissue or shift how it allocates energy.

This is why many women feel like they’ve been “trying for years” without seeing the physical changes they expected. They’ve been active, but their effort has never stayed inside one progression long enough for the adaptation to become visible.

Once I understood that, I stopped chasing new plans and focused on a few simple principles.

If I were starting again today and wanted to begin changing my body, I would focus on three things.

First, I would lift three times per week and keep the core movements stable.

Squats, hinges, presses, and rows would stay in my program for several weeks at a time. Instead of constantly rotating exercises, I would track the weights and gradually increase them.

Strength progression is one of the clearest signals you can give your body that it needs to adapt.

Second, I would prioritize protein at every meal.

Use the table below to determine how much you need. Most protein formulas use body weight, but that can be inaccurate because body weight doesn’t tell us how much of that weight is muscle. Someone with more body fat may end up with a target that’s unnecessarily high, while someone lean and muscular may end up under-eating protein. I prefer starting with height and then adjusting from there based on how much muscle someone has.

Protein supports muscle repair and development, which is what allows your body to respond to the training you’re doing. Many women underestimate how much they need once they start lifting consistently.

A simple place to begin is making sure each meal contains a meaningful source of protein rather than treating it as an afterthought.

Third, I would stop restarting every time life interrupted my routine.

Life will interrupt your routine. That part is unavoidable.

What matters is whether you return to the same progression when things settle down, or whether you reset everything and begin again.

Body transformation doesn’t come from occasional bursts of effort. It comes from continuation.

Once your body receives the same signal long enough, the changes start to compound. Strength improves. Muscles become more defined. Your body begins reflecting the way you train.

Over the next few emails, I’m going to walk through the framework that allows that continuation to happen.

You’ll see how training progresses week to week, how nutrition supports muscle development, and how to recognize when your body is beginning to respond.

On March 22nd, I’ll be opening the Becoming Her: Body Transformation + Self Trust Challenge for subscribers.

This will be a guided 30-day progression where your workouts build week to week and your effort finally has a place to compound.

If you want to be inside that when it opens, you can subscribe below.

xx

Megann

Subscribe now

They’ve lifted before. They’ve followed programs. They know what to do. They care about their health, and they’re willing to work for it.

They’ve also had phases where they were extremely consistent. Weeks where they didn’t miss workouts. Periods where they felt stronger, more disciplined, more like themselves.

And then something interrupted it.

Work became more demanding. Life shifted. Their routine loosened. They missed a week, then another. When they came back, they weren’t continuing what they had built. They were starting over again.

This happens more times than they expected it would.

From the outside, they still look like someone who works out.

But internally, nothing is building.

Their body hasn’t had the chance to fully change, because the signal has never stayed consistent long enough.

Your body responds to what you repeat.

When you lift regularly and gradually increase what you ask of your muscles, your body adapts. You get stronger. Muscle develops. Your shape changes. Your metabolism becomes more supportive instead of resistant.

But when the pattern keeps resetting, your body stays where it is.

Not because it can’t change. Because it hasn’t been given a clear reason to.

Over time, this affects more than your physique.

It affects how you see yourself.

You start to hesitate before committing fully. You question whether this time will actually last. You stop expecting your effort to lead somewhere.

This is the point where many women quietly lower their standards, even if they don’t say it out loud.

Becoming Her means returning to those standards.

Her is the version of you who follows through. The version of you whose body reflects the way she lives. The version of you who trusts her own consistency because she has evidence of it.

Her workouts are not random. Her nutrition supports her goals. Her routine is stable enough that her body can respond.

She is not constantly starting over.

She is continuing.

That is what this space exists to help you build.

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be sharing the structure I use with clients when their goal is visible body recomposition and lasting consistency. You’ll see how training progresses, how nutrition supports muscle development, and what to expect as your body begins to respond.

On March 15th, I’ll be opening the guided Becoming Her: Body Transformation + Self Trust Challenge here for subscribers.

Subscribe now

This is a 30-day progression designed to help you rebuild momentum and stay inside it long enough to see real physical change.

You’ll know exactly what to focus on each week. Your training will build on itself. Your effort will have direction.

More importantly, you’ll experience yourself as someone who follows through.

Between now and then, I’ll be publishing the foundation so you can begin stepping into that version of yourself now.

And remember:

But before you decide if this is for you, let me tell you a story

For most of my twenties, I had this really simple belief about fitness: if it didn’t feel brutally hard, it wasn’t working.

The only time I ever actually liked my body was when I was sprinting my ass off and spending at least an hour a day on some cardio machine. Five days a week. Sometimes more.

So that became my rule, you know? That’s just what I thought you had to do. That was the price of admission for abs, for losing your love handles, for looking athletic instead of just... average.

And because I believed that, I kept putting the gym off.

Not because I was lazy. I just genuinely thought it required this level of suffering I really didn’t want to sign up for again.

It was all or nothing in my head. Either I was that girl grinding out hour-long cardio sessions five days a week, or I just didn’t bother at all.

For a while, I convinced myself it was fine. I was busy. I had other stuff going on. I’d deal with it later.

But there was always this quiet, annoying voice: You don’t feel like yourself right now. You know you’re capable of more. Why is it so damn hard to just start?

Here’s what I realized though…I wasn’t actually avoiding fitness. I was avoiding the version of fitness I thought was the only option.

Then something small happened that kind of broke my brain.

I watched a friend get incredible results doing the complete opposite of everything I’d always done.

She wasn’t grinding away on cardio machines. She wasn’t destroying herself with HIIT every day. She was just lifting a few times a week. Eating real meals. Living a totally normal life.

And she looked strong. Athletic. Like it was effortless.

If I’m being honest…it pissed me off a little. Because if that worked, then maybe my whole “this is the only way” story was complete bullshit.

So I made myself a deal. I wasn’t going to overhaul my entire life or become some hardcore gym person. I just thought, screw it, I’ll try it her way for a bit and see what happens.

Three to four strength sessions a week. No unnecessary cardio. Real meals with actual carbs. Bread, pasta, rice, all the stuff I’d spent years being weird about.

And slowly, things started clicking.

My body started changing. My energy came back. My workouts felt focused instead of frantic. I started looking like someone who actually lifted, not someone just trying to sweat their problems away.

Now I train three to four days a week. Maybe three to four total hours in the gym. No endless cardio. No HIIT torture sessions. No living off salads and pretending I’m fine.

I eat carbs. I eat bread. And I feel strong, capable, and completely at home in my body.

The part that still gets me is that for years, I avoided going back to the gym because I thought the only path there was through misery.

Turns out, I just needed a different map.

Look…there’s a better way. And if you’re over 30 and cardio has stopped working for you, this might be the turning point you’ve been waiting for.

If you’re here, it’s probably because…

• You’re doing more cardio than ever and your body still won’t budge

• You’re eating 1,200–1,500 calories and feel exhausted all the time

• You’re scared to eat more because every diet told you carbs were the enemy

• You want to look strong, lean, and athletic… not just smaller

• You’re tired of the restrict-binge cycle and starting over every Monday

At a certain point, it’s not about more discipline.

It’s about a better system.

Here’s what we do instead

We stop trying to force fat loss with punishment.

We build muscle.
We increase food strategically.
We fix the stress-low-food-high-cardio loop that keeps your body stuck.
We use phases so you always know what you’re doing and why.

The invitation

I’m taking 5 clients this month for my 6-Month Transformation Program.

After that, enrollment closes until April.

This is for women who:

→ Have tried everything (keto, IF, macro tracking, challenges) and keep gaining the weight back
→ Are eating very low calories and STILL can’t lose weight
→ Know they need to eat more and build muscle but don’t trust themselves to do it alone
→ Are done with the restrict-binge cycle
→ Want to drop 15–20 pounds of fat and actually maintain it

What happens over 6 months

Months 1–2: Restore + rebuild
You eat more, build muscle, fix sleep and stress patterns.
The scale might stall or bump up slightly.
You learn to trust the process instead of panic-dieting.

Months 3–4: Strategic fat loss
Now your body is responsive.
We create a smart deficit and you lose steadily while still living your life.

Months 5–6: Reverse + maintenance
Calories come back up.
Results lock in.
You leave knowing exactly how to maintain your body without constant dieting.

Result:
You don’t just lose weight.
You build a body and metabolism you can actually live with.

What’s included

• Custom nutrition targets based on your goals + lifestyle

• Comprehensive lab reviews (hormones, blood sugar, etc.)

• Progressive strength training program (home or gym)

• Weekly check-ins and progress tracking

• Unlimited messaging support

• Monthly coaching calls

• Private community access

This is NOT for you if:

✗ You want quick results
✗ You won’t commit to strength training
✗ You refuse to eat more during the rebuild phase
✗ You want a rigid meal plan to follow blindly
✗ You’re just looking for the cheapest option

How to apply

Reply to this email and say:

READY

I’ll send you a link to book a call so we can talk through the details and make sure it’s a good fit.

Spots available: 5
Deadline: Friday, February 14th at 11:59 PM

That’s it.

Megann

Subscribe now

Like many women, she carried the weight of everyone else’s needs. Her health came last. Work came first. Family came first. Everyone else’s schedule, everyone else’s comfort, everyone else’s expectations.

She was already working out consistently. She was active. She was eating clean. She wasn’t skipping workouts or binge eating on the couch.

But her body wasn’t changing.

And more importantly, she felt stuck in that space of “I’m doing a lot… so why doesn’t it look or feel like it’s working?”

The effort was there. The discipline was there. But the results…not what she was hoping for.

We Didn’t Just Shift Her Workouts. We Shifted Her Mindset.

Keep in mind that she is not someone that had a lot of body fat to lose, so context is important (always). And if we were to go off of what most of use women were taught about losing fat and “toning” she probably wasn’t doing enough and needed to do more cardio, work harder, eat less…but in a case like this that just doesn’t work nor would it have been sustainable.

Instead, we got strategic and aligned her plan with her life.​

We moved her to three intentional strength training days per week, where the goal was actually getting stronger. Top sets. Cluster sets. Progressive overload, especially for her lower body, because that’s where she wanted to see the most change.

The other days were for lower-intensity movement. Walking. Recovery. Letting her nervous system actually calm down instead of always pushing, always grinding, always proving something.

At the same time, we worked on her gut health. Because eating “clean” doesn’t always mean your body is actually absorbing and using what you’re giving it. If your digestion isn’t working properly, all that effort with food isn’t translating the way it should.

That combination changed everything.

Her body composition shifted. You can see the strength she’s built in her physique. Her energy improved. Her steps went up naturally, without forcing it or wearing herself down trying to hit some arbitrary number.

Subscribe now

But the biggest shift wasn’t just physical.

This Isn’t Something She’s Squeezing In Anymore. It’s How She Lives.

At the beginning, prioritizing herself felt heavy. There was guilt around taking time and energy for herself. Guilt around doing something that was just for her when there were so many other people and things demanding her attention.

Taking an hour to train felt selfish. Meal prepping felt indulgent. Saying no to things that drained her energy felt impossible.

After taking that first step and choosing support, it set off a chain reaction of deciding to choose herself in small ways each day. This isn’t something she’s squeezing in between everything else. This is how she takes care of herself. It’s non-negotiable, and it doesn’t come with guilt anymore.

She’s not just stronger. She trusts herself now.

She trusts that she’ll show up for herself. She trusts her body to respond when she gives it what it needs. She trusts that prioritizing her health doesn’t make her selfish.

She’s training for her first half marathon now, and doing it from a place of confidence and trust in her body. From a place of “I want to see what I’m capable of” instead of “I need to earn my worth through suffering.”

What a profound transformation inside and out.

What This Actually Looked Like

Below is where I break down the exact framework we used, the training split that built her strength without burning her out, and the mindset shifts that made it sustainable.

Read more

I don’t think I’ve ever shared this story in full, at least not with this much context. But it feels like the right time to tell you why this work exists, and why I care so deeply about helping women rebuild trust with themselves, not just their bodies.

december 2022

the rooftop

In December of 2022, I was sitting on a rooftop in Austin with a few close friends. Someone asked a simple question:

“What are your intentions for 2023?”

I remember going blank.

From the outside, my life looked fine. I had a 9–5 that paid more than I’d ever made before, even though I dreaded it. I lived in Austin. I had friends. I was functioning.

Inside, I felt stuck in a way I didn’t yet have language for.

I didn’t feel good in my body.
I was trying to get back into home workouts, but nothing stuck.
Most nights ended with a glass of wine, sometimes two.
My mental health was fragile. Low confidence. Low self-worth. No real trust in myself.

I was also emotionally tangled up with an ex I had been trying to leave and holding onto for almost two years. It was draining. It was familiar. It wasn’t healthy.
(Yes, Adam knew. Yes, he deserves credit. That story if for another time you nosey hoes haha jk)

So when it was my turn to answer, I didn’t offer anything lofty or dramatic.

I didn’t say I wanted to reinvent my life.

I said,
“I want to get back in the gym.”

That was it.

I look happy, and in that moment I was- but pictures never tell the full story do they…

january 2023

one small decision

A few days into the new year, I joined a gym near my house. My thinking was simple: if I could feel stronger in my body, maybe I’d have more capacity to deal with the things I’d been avoiding. My job. My relationship patterns. My relationship with alcohol.

This is actually why I am pro New Year’s resolutions, with one big caveat.

They have to be anchored to an action, not a result. “I’m going to transform my body this year” is vague and heavy and intimidating.

“Join a gym.”
“Lift three times a week.”
“Eat breakfast consistently.”
Those are doable. Those create momentum.

The gym wasn’t about aesthetics yet. I needed somewhere to go. Something solid. Something that didn’t require overthinking.

Lifting weights gave me a way back into my body when my mind felt noisy and unresolved. It gave my nervous system something steady to hold onto.

I started going consistently. For a while, that alone felt like enough.

january 2023, early gym days, first progress photos

when showing up started to matter

After a few weeks, something shifted.

Not dramatically. I didn’t feel transformed. I just felt more present. More grounded. And once that happened, I started caring differently.

I realized I didn’t just want to show up anymore. I wanted my effort to lead somewhere. I wanted to see what could happen if I actually committed instead of hovering in limbo.

That’s when it became clear that training alone wasn’t enough. I was lifting consistently and enjoying it, but I was guessing with nutrition. I knew enough to know that guessing would keep me exactly where I was.

Could I have figured it out eventually? Probably. But I didn’t want another year of “eventually.”

A friend had worked with a coach and spoke highly of the experience, so I reached out. I committed to three months. Not as a lifetime decision. Just long enough to stop doubting every move I made.

three months that changed more than my body

Physically, the changes were noticeable. Muscle showed up. My clothes fit differently. I carried myself differently. I remember looking at progress photos and feeling surprised, like my body was responding in ways I hadn’t expected.

But the quieter shifts mattered just as much.

The nightly wine habit faded without a formal decision or declaration. It just stopped being necessary.

I set a real no-contact boundary with my ex. Not dramatically. Just cleanly, from a place that felt calm and self-respecting.

I showed up in my relationship with Adam with more honesty and less emotional static.

And somewhere along the way, a thought I’d ignored for years started surfacing:

I think I could help other women do this.

doing it before i felt ready

At the time, I was still working my 9–5. I didn’t feel fully prepared. I didn’t feel especially confident. But I also couldn’t ignore that what was happening in my life wasn’t random.

So I started coaching quietly. Early mornings. Lunch breaks. Evenings. In the margins of my life.

A few women said yes. Some of them are still here.

Every time I helped someone show up for themselves, my own trust deepened. The work felt real in a way nothing else had.

the trust fall

In November of that year, I was let go from my job.

It felt destabilizing at the time. My nervous system had opinions. But looking back, it was the push I wasn’t quite ready to give myself.

I went all in on this work. On this business. On the version of myself that had been forming all year.

living inside it

Since then, I’ve slowed down in the best way.

I’ve gone through muscle-building phases. Multiple mini cuts. Periods of pushing. Periods of pulling back. Learned how to work with my body instead of trying to override it. I’ve stopped chasing chaos and started choosing steadiness.

And now I’m here.

Not finished. Not “done.”

The plan moving forward is a longer, intentional 16-week cut, followed by another building phase going into winter. Not because I’m chasing smaller, but because I think in longer timelines now.

I’m sharing all of this because none of it started with a grand plan.

It started with joining a gym because I was stuck and needed something to shift.

Everything else followed because I kept making small, reasonable commitments and honoring them. Again and again. Even when they felt unimpressive.

That’s where Reinvention lives.
Not in declarations.
In quiet follow-through.

And that’s the work I care about most.

For me, carbs were never neutral. They were something to manage. To offset. To control.

I didn’t trust them, and if I’m honest, I didn’t trust myself around them either.

And yet, somehow, I was supposed to just intuitively know the right amount every day.

Spoiler: that didn’t work.

What I saw in myself and now see with the women I coach is that this fear rarely comes from one source. It’s death by a thousand messages. Low-carb diets framed as “clean.” Rest days treated like something dangerous. The idea that if you’re not training hard, you should probably eat less, just to be safe.

What finally changed things for me wasn’t cutting carbs or eating more carbs. It was context.

Enter what I now call Carb Coding.
A simple traffic-light system that matches how you eat to how you’re actually training.

No moral hierarchy.
No “earning” food.

Just precision. And honestly, relief. Relief from the freedom to actually eat bread, or pasta and not feel shame.

Why Carbs Matter More Than People Want to Admit

Here’s the boring but important truth.

Carbohydrates are your body’s preferred fuel source for higher-intensity work. When you eat carbs, they’re stored as glycogen in your muscles and liver. That glycogen is what powers heavy lifts, longer sessions, harder efforts, and mental focus during training.

When those stores are low, everything feels harder. Strength dips. Recovery drags. You feel “off” in ways that are easy to blame on hormones, stress, or motivation, when the issue is simply fuel.

Most women don’t experience this as a clean cause-and-effect. They just notice that some days they feel strong and capable, and other days everything feels heavier than it should.

So they start pulling carbs back “just in case,” especially on days they aren’t training as hard.

Which makes the problem worse.

So instead of asking “are carbs good or bad?” the better question is:

What am I actually asking my body to do today?

The Traffic Light System

Every training day gets a color.
This is based on the demand your asking from your body that day

🔴 Red Days | Low Demand

2–3g carbs per kg of bodyweight

These are rest days, recovery days, light movement days. You’re not trying to perform. You’re maintaining.

Your plate leans toward:
• protein for repair
• vegetables for micronutrients
• fibrous carbs in smaller amounts

🟡 Yellow Days | Moderate Demand

3–5g carbs per kg of bodyweight

These are your “normal” training days. Up to an hour of moderate to high effort.

Your plate looks balanced:
• protein stays consistent
• carbs increase slightly
• timing carbs around training for optimization

Enough fuel to train well without overdoing it.

🟢 Green Days | High Demand

5–8g carbs per kg of bodyweight

Long sessions. Heavy days. Competition. Hard conditioning.

This is not the day to be carb-avoidant.

Carbs show up front and center:
• half your plate pre and post training
• lower fat and fiber close to workouts
• easy-to-digest carb sources

The Performance Meal Wheel

How I Build Plates Without Overthinking

Every meal has three jobs.

From here on, this gets practical.

I outline exact carb ranges, sample plates, and training-day timing so you can implement Carb Coding without second-guessing yourself or swinging between under-fueling and overcorrecting.

If you want the structure without the stress, the rest of this post is for paid subscribers.

Read more

I didn’t get into lifting because I wanted to micromanage my hormones.

I started lifting because it made me feel grounded in my body in a way nothing else ever had. Strong. Capable. Less in my head. Plus I was in a really stuck place in my life and needed to take action on something. I chose the gym and actually physical movement.

So when cycle syncing started popping up everywhere, I was open to it. Curious, even. The idea of working with your body in this way sounded great in theory.

In practice… it got weird fast.

Cycle syncing suddenly meant something more like this, where we were told to do completely different workouts every week. It sounds cute and fun, but unfortunately this makes it REALLY hard to see progress if your goal is to lose fat and build muscle.

When Cycle Syncing Turned Into Rules

Suddenly there were rules, and it was another thing I felt I was failing at executing.
Rules about when I should push.
Rules about when I should pull back.
Rules about when it was “unsafe” to lift heavy.

And the unspoken message underneath all of it was this quiet suggestion that our bodies were kind of unreliable (perhaps fragile even??). That strength had an expiration date every month. That consistency was optional depending on where we were in our cycle.

That didn’t sit right with me.

Because that wasn’t my experience. And it definitely wasn’t what I was seeing with most of the women I coach.

What I Did Instead

So instead of following anyone’s cycle syncing blueprint, I did something very unsexy.

I tracked my cycle.
And I didn’t change anything else.

I lifted like I normally did. I ate the way I normally ate. I lived my life. And I just paid attention.

Some days I felt amazing.
Some days I didn’t.
Some weeks I wanted to push.
Some weeks I naturally backed off.

But what didn’t happen was this dramatic drop in strength or motivation I’d been warned about.

I didn’t suddenly fall apart during luteal.
I didn’t lose all my power before my period.
I didn’t need to disappear from the gym for two weeks every month.

And when I started having my clients do the same thing, I noticed the same pattern.

Most Women Who Lift Aren’t Fragile

Now, this is the part where nuance matters.

Because cycle syncing can be incredibly helpful. Just not in the way it’s usually sold.

When Cycle Syncing Actually Helped

One of my clients has endometriosis. Real pain. Real inflammation. Real symptoms.

For her, ignoring her cycle wasn’t an option, she needed a way to work with the inevitable ebbs and flows she was experiencing every month.

So we rather than stopping everything cold turkey during her harder weeks, we adjusted before flare-ups. Volume came down slightly. Intensity shifted. Recovery became non-negotiable.

And the results were that everything got easier. She trained more consistently, recovered better, and started to see progress toward changing her body composition for the first time in a long time.

That’s when cycle syncing finally made sense to me.

What Cycle Syncing Actually Is

Here’s what I actually believe now.

If you lift and you want to optimize your training, cycle syncing can help.
If you lift and deal with hormonal imbalances, endo, PCOS, or inflammatory symptoms, it can help even more.
If you lift and just want to stop overriding your body or babying it, it can help there too.

But if cycle syncing turns into skipping instead of adapting, assuming weakness before it shows up, or another reason to distrust yourself… it’s missing the point.

Your cycle isn’t a limitation.
It’s just context. And I am going to teach you how to autoregulate your workouts and nutrition within that context.

If You’re Not a Paid Subscriber

Here’s honestly all I want you to do right now:

Track your cycle.
Lift like you normally do.
Notice patterns without trying to fix them.
Give it at least two cycles.

That alone puts you ahead of most advice on the internet.

For Paid Subscribers

I’ll break down exactly how I structure training and nutrition across the cycle for women who lift, including how this changes if you have hormonal symptoms, irregular cycles, or no cycle at all.

Not to do less.
But to lift smarter, longer, and with more self-trust.

That’s the whole point.

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So if you’re in a re-alignment season, you’re not alone. And honestly, what a gift to get clear before the year starts.

When it comes to fitness and nutrition this time of year, this is usually when people catch a case of what I lovingly call the fuck its. A swing toward indulgence, paired with the promise that January will be the reset button. Part of this comes from misaligned expectations.

There’s this underlying thought of, “Well, I won’t be losing weight with all these treats and drinks around, so why even try?” And suddenly effort feels pointless. January arrives, and instead of momentum, you’re dealing with inflammation, low motivation, and a disconnect from your body that feels harder to come back from.

But there is a way to move through this season without checking out.

Maintaining is a win. Full stop.
And this is also a really effective time to focus on building muscle.

That can look like sticking to your bare minimums, gently increasing daily movement, timing carbs around workouts, and lifting heavy enough to actually stimulate change. This is exactly why I’m running a step challenge with my 1:1 clients right now, not to burn calories into oblivion, but to support consistency and energy.

If you’re starting from zero, that’s okay too. One small change now goes a long way toward entering the new year with momentum instead of regret.

Soft girl strength lives in follow-through. It’s built by keeping promises to yourself, across your body, your mind, and the way you show up for your life.

Soft girl strength is all about keeping promises to yourself and becoming the best version of yourself physically, mentally, spiritually.

My Bare Minimums This Week

This is what consistency looks like for me right now. Not optimal. Not perfect. Just honest

• Lift 4 times this week

• Walk daily, and hit my step goal 6/7 days

• Anchor meals around protein

• Get to bed before 11pm

These are the promises I’m keeping. Everything else is a bonus.

Things I Did This Week for My Physical Health

One of those promises looked like feeding myself meals that actually support training and satisfaction.

I made this killer juicy chicken bean burrito wrap. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, you can swap the chicken for tempeh or tofu, or leave it out entirely and increase the beans or rice.

This is one of those meals that feels grounding and hearty without being complicated or precious.

Juicy Chicken Bean Burrito Wrap

Prep time: ~15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup uncooked rice

• 4 oz chicken tenders

• Salt, a pinch

• Pepper, a pinch

• Chili flakes, a pinch

• A dash of oil (olive, avocado, whatever’s nearby)

• 1 large tortilla

• 1/2 avocado

• Lemon juice, to taste

• 1/4 clove garlic, finely chopped

• A handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped

• Romaine lettuce, chopped

• 3.5 oz kidney beans or black beans, drained and rinsed

Instructions

1. Cook the rice
   Prepare according to package instructions and set aside.

2. Cook the chicken
   Heat a pan over medium heat with a dash of oil. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and chili flakes. Cook about 3–4 minutes per side until fully done. Slice into strips.

3. Warm the tortilla
   Toast in a dry pan for about 10 seconds per side until warm and pliable.

4. Make the avocado mash
   Mash avocado with lemon juice, garlic, and cherry tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, and chili flakes.

5. Assemble
   Layer lettuce, rice, beans, avocado mash, and chicken. Fold like a burrito and enjoy.

Below is where I zoom out and connect the dots between food, training, and body composition. And share the exact macro breakdowns for this recipe, a killer lower body workout, and mindset resources

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If you’re a woman between 30 and 60, the fitness industry has been misleading you for decades. They’ve sold you on the idea that you can “tone” muscles with pink dumbbells, that you should fear getting “bulky,” and that you can change your body by starving yourself on 1,200 calories indefinitely.

Lets cut to the chase: physiology is about cold hard facts- math and hormones. And for women in this age bracket – whether you’re menstruating regularly, in perimenopause, or post-menopausal – the rules are different from those for 20-year-old men (we are not just small men) and even our 20 year old selves.

Here’s the 6-month roadmap for an actual transformation, based on human physiology rather than Instagram marketing.

The Ideal Audience: Who is this for?

This is for the Category 2 Female Trainee.

• Body Fat: You’re likely cruising between 24% and 35%. You’re not obese, but you’re not “lean” either.

• Experience: You have some training experience but feel you look “soft.”

• Goal: You want to see muscle definition, which requires having muscle and low enough body fat to show it.

The “Why”: P-Ratio and The Estrogen Edge

Why not just build muscle and lose fat at the same time? Because unless you’re a complete beginner, it’s inefficient.

We need to manipulate your P-Ratio (Partitioning Ratio), which represents the proportion of weight you gain that is muscle vs. fat.

• The Fat Loss First Rule: If you’re over 24-26% body fat, don’t “bulk.” You’re already insulin resistant relative to your lean self. If you eat in a surplus now, you’ll gain mostly fat.

• The Leanness Target: We need to get you down to roughly 20–22% body fat. At this range, your body is primed to partition nutrients into muscle tissue rather than fat cells.

• The Hormone Reality: Estrogen is actually good for muscle repair and insulin sensitivity. If you’re in your 30s or 40s, use it while you have it. If you’re post-menopausal, you’ve lost this protection, which makes the “get lean first” rule even more critical because your margin for error with insulin sensitivity is smaller.

The Factors That Actually Matter

Before we map the phases, we must address the three factors that ruin progress for women.

1. The Scale is a Liar: Men have a 24-hour hormonal cycle; women have a 28-day cycle. Your weight can fluctuate 3-5 lbs purely from water retention during ovulation or the luteal phase (the week before your period). Rule: Don’t compare your weight this week to last week. Compare your weight during Week 1 of this cycle to Week 1 of last month’s cycle.

2. The “Bulky” Myth: You lack the testosterone to get bulky by accident. It takes years of dedicated effort for a woman to gain 10 lbs of muscle. You won’t turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger by lifting heavy weights for 6 months. You’ll just get smaller and firmer.

3. Bone Density: If you’re over 40, lifting heavy is not optional. It’s the only thing standing between you and osteopenia.

The 6-Month Arc

Phase 1: The Dig Out (Weeks 1–12)

Goal: Aggressive Fat Loss & Metabolic Repair

The Reality: Women mobilize upper body fat easily, but lower body fat (hips/thighs) is stubborn due to alpha-2 adrenergic receptors. It takes time.

• The Deficit: A 20% deficit is standard. Don’t do generic 1200-calorie diets; calculate 20% below your maintenance. You can do this by tracking your normal eating for 7 days and taking the average calories per day. OR you can go here and find your estimated maintenance: https://www.megafitcoaching.com/macrocalculator

• Protein: High. 1.0 to 1.2g per pound of Lean Body Mass (not total weight). If you weigh 160 lbs at 30% body fat, your lean mass is roughly 112 lbs. Eat ~120-130g of protein daily. This is non-negotiable for satiety and muscle sparing.

• Training: Heavy compound lifting (Squats, Deadlifts, Presses) in the 5-10 rep range. Keep the weight on the bar high to signal to your body that muscle tissue is necessary for survival.

• Cardio: Low-intensity steady state (walking) is superior to HIIT for women in a deficit. High-intensity cardio spikes cortisol, which causes water retention and can mask fat loss.

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