HOW BODY FAT HAS BECOME THE NEW RELIGION

Body fat has become the new “opiate of the masses.”

Or at least, the modern day opiate of the female masses. Back in Karl Marx’s day, religion was what kept people quiet and afraid. It kept them docile, malleable, and controllable. But religion doesn’t really serve that purpose anymore, and while I wish I could say that’s because we’re finally free of oppression, the truth is we’ve simply acquired new sources.

Nowadays, the thing that keeps women controllable and afraid is the feeling that their bodies aren’t good enough. Specifically, the feeling that they have too much body fat, or the wrong kind, or in the wrong place. This preoccupation with our own fat keeps many women feeling powerless, insecure, and eager to hand over their power and money to anyone who offers them a quick solution.

Diet pills and workout plans have become our modern-day “reparations.”

Read More

LIFT WEIGHTS, CHASE ETERNAL GLORY

I sat down to write about the things that feel good to me about working out. One of the messages that I’m absolutely passionate about spreading is that your choice of exercise should feel good to you. Not after, like “I’m glad I did that,” or “I like seeing the results,” but actually during your workout… the endorphins, the feeling of embracing a challange and succeeding, and the pleasure of moving your body should feel delicious.

I planned to write a list of the myriad reasons that working out feels good, but I got sidetracked by one singular idea: every workout, I am essentially chasing 3 to 5 seconds of absolute, soul-changing glory. I may work out four days a week for 45-60 minutes, but it is always in pursuit of those moments of glory, the last rep of a heavy lift, that I crave so deeply. The whole thing… the coffee, the warmup, the mobility drills, the work sets, the whole damn thing is done so that I may come alive for 1-2 “money reps,” maybe just once in each workout.

What is a “money rep?” It’s the moment at the end of your set when you’re not sure if you can do another rep but then you give it your absolute all. It also happens to be where real gains in strength and muscular development are made. I know myself and my body pretty damn well at this point, and I typically won’t attempt a rep that will fail if I don’t want to be training to failure (which I usually don’t), so I very rarely miss an attempted rep. That having been said, there is a moment sometimes during that last rep when I’m not sure I will succeed. But it is exactly that moment, as the barbell is slowing down and I’m not sure if I can make it, that holds within it the eternal glory I’m chasing.

Read More

WHY I’M GAINING FAT

“Fat,” when used as an adjective is supposed to just means that a person has too much body fat. How much is too much? That depends who you ask, but we all have to have body fat. In a healthy range, body fat is neither good nor bad. It just is.

15 months ago, when the below photos were taken, I had a very low percentage of body fat. I was light in both spirit and body; it was a playful, restful, easy, anxiety-free time in my life. My habits, shape, and size reflected that.

As you can see, my waist measurement back then was around 24.5 inches. Throughout this year, while I’ve certainly fluctuated here and there, I’ve been comfortably hovering around 27 inches. Sleep and rest and self-care got pushed to the far back burner while I was in school and building my business. It was a stressful and productive year. Again, my habits, shape, and size reflected that.

But this week I measured at almost 30 inches. I’ve been noticing my weight slowly creeping up recently based on how I look and feel, too. Other than the total 5 extra inches around my waist, I can tell I’m carrying more fat now by the way my clothes fit, the way I look naked, and the number on the scale. Here are a few photos taken in the last week or two, just for comparison.

Read More

HOW TO ABSOLUTELY CRUSH IT AT RELAXING

When most people think of relaxing, they think of quiet spa days, massages, fluffy white robes, yoga, candles, meditation, and a gentle soundtrack of nature sounds: Ahhh, the Pinterest definition of relaxation.

Not me, though. All that stuff kinda gives me anxiety. Seriously. I feel stir-crazy trying to lie perfectly still during a massage, and I’m not into all the gentle passive shit. I’d much rather deadlift to hip-hop than do sun salutations to Enya. I am, shall we say, too energetic. Driven. (Ok, maybe “aggressive.”) I like to crush it at life, and I find it impossible to just suddenly drop all that and zen out, just because there are babbling brooke sounds in the background. But that doesn’t mean I don’t value relaxation.

Knowing how to relax, in today’s overly revved-up world, is a super important skill.

Firing up the parasympathetic nervous system  is actually one of the most important aspects of the work I do with my clients. It’s truly astonishing how even small increases in deep relaxation can have such a profound impact on a person’s body fat percentage, ability to recover from workouts, confidence, self-expression, mental clarity, energy levels, and free-flowing joy.

Read More

TRAVEL WORKOUTS

It’s no secret I’m obsessed with smart and efficient workout programming.

The reason I talk about progressive overload so much is because I want you to feel empowered by knowing how to actually create physical changes in your body!

Most people work hard at ineffective workouts, and thus they conclude that there must be something wrong with their body, since it never changes. That’s the opposite of empowerment, and it sucks. By training according to the rules of science, you can not only see actual changes, you can also start to re-build trust in your body’s ability to respond appropriately to stimulus. (Hint: trust is a crucial component to learning to accept and love your body.)

The science is simple: your workouts must consistently and continually progress, aka become harder in some way, if you want to see consistent and continual changes in your body.

If you don’t want to see any changes, this rule doesn’t matter; just carry on doing whatever makes you happy.

But if you want changes of ANY kind, aesthetic or performance or otherwise, you’re gonna need progressive overload.

Read More

THE REAL REASON I’M LOSING FAT (THE ANSWER MIGHT SURPRISE YOU!)

This fall I wrote a blog post to share how and why I had been gaining body fat, and why I fully accepted and embraced it.

I was struggling with a lot of inner chaos, fear, stress, and sadness, and I trusted that I needed a little extra padding on me for protection. I knew that when I no longer needed to be protected, the fat would disappear again.

When I feel heavy on the inside I feel heavy on the outside.

This is perfectly normal and appropriate. My new belly fat wasn’t a problem, it was just a reasonable response to the emotional chaos I was working through. So I greeted it warmly, made it feel loved, and invited it to pose naked with me.

In December I did a naked photoshoot with my friend and photographer Chris. I showed up days after a breakup feeling puffy, pale, depressed, and exhausted. I told Chris to capture me exactly as I was; no smiles, no holding in my belly, no flexing, not even sitting up straight.

Read More

RELAXING: YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!

“Self-care” has recently become a buzzword, but what does it actually mean?

I often hear clients say “I know I should do more self-care,” and I ask them what they mean by self-care. Their answers usually start with “Oh umm, I don’t know…” and end with things like “maybe eating healthier,” “probably get more massages,” and “take a vacation.”

Nobody ever says self care might look like sitting in a dark room and grieving for an old version of yourself that you’re letting go of before you start a new chapter of your life.

Nobody ever says self care might look like spending an hour at the shooting range.

Nobody ever says self-care might look screaming into a pillow, or writing an angry letter, or learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

But trust me, those are all perfectly legitimate forms of self-care, depending on who you are, what you’re going through, and what you need.

Read More

About Us

We are incredibly empowering to put in the work and then actually see and feel the results in your body. We are rewarding and astonishing to realize that you are stronger and better this week than you were last week. we use fitness to encourage a strong sense of self-worth, and foster body-positivity and self-acceptance along the way.

We want to help you achieve the body you deserve, while loving the body you have.

We want to create an army of women who feel empowered through fitness to dream bigger and live triumphantly, because we believe our world needs you.

What is Remodel Fitness?

It’s a site where women can find science-based information alongside body-positive inspiration.

It is a place where you love the way your clothes fit, you stop counting calories, and you’re not afraid to keep the lights on during sex.

It is a sisterhood, an attitude, and an honest attempt to start the conversations that need to be had about how we treat our bodies in this culture.

It will teach you how to get in shape, encourage you to fall in love with moving your body, and help you to embrace both your unique DNA and your untapped force of will.

It’s a place where women stop feeling guilty about food, we stop feeling shame about our bodies, and for God’s sake, we stop wasting time on the gym floor.

I want to help you feel vibrant and alive… with a killer body, a soaring libido, and enough confidence to make Kanye feel humble.

Let’s challenge how we look at fitness, upgrade how we interact with our own bodies, and adjust our mindset to work FOR us instead of against us.

Let’s create life-long, sustainable habits that help you feel AMAZING, and make maintaining the body you want EASY.

Lets start building the body, the life, and the confidence you deserve.

Let’s remodel fitness.

Read More

WHEN “BEING A FOLLOWER” IS A GOOD THING.

 I’m a firm believer that being the proactive “leader” of your own life is the only way to freedom, self-trust, and being truly happy.

The problem with the old saying is that it implies a person might jump off a cliff blindly, without consideration of the circumstances. Following someone blindly is the exact opposite of thinking for yourself and putting your needs and desires first. Being a blind follower is dangerous and passive, because it means you disregard your own desires and intuition. Being a blind follower says: “I trust you more than I trust myself.”

That isn’t the case for me. I trust myself above all else. I trust myself so much in fact, that when I feel an occasional pang of desire to “be a part of the group,” I honor that shit full-out.

Because here’s the secret nobody will ever tell you about being an independent, highly conscious, CEO-of-your-own-destiny: It can get lonely.

Read More

I’M NOT PRETTY

I’ve created an eight week course called The Empowered Women Project, and my current group of women is absolutely blowing my mind with their insights, breakthroughs, and willingness to get vulnerable. I am frequently moved to tears by the posts in our facebook group as they share their struggles, apply my material, and arrive in powerful new places.

One of the practices I teach is how to rewrite a disempowering narrative or belief.

The idea behind this practice is that everyone has deep-seated beliefs (both conscious and unconscious!) that inform our choices and behavior. Our beliefs feel “true” to us based on our unique life experience and mindset, but in reality we can really never know the objective and universal Truth about most things. Therefore many of our beliefs are just stories we tell ourselves based on own biased interpretation of the world, and often those stories hold us back.

Re-writing your narrative is about challenging those beliefs and stories by naming them, examining them, discovering how they’ve served you, deciding that you no longer need them, and then letting them go.

Anywhere you feel stuck, struggling, or frustrated, there is probably a limiting belief or disempowering narrative standing in your way.

When I teach people how to break apart and rewrite disempowering narratives, a big part of the process is understanding that the old stories served a valuable purpose. We don’t hold onto stuff for no reason. While it may not seem that way at first, all of our limiting beliefs offered us a gift at some point.

For example, if someone believes that she’ll never find true love, she might never put herself out there, and end up feeling depressed and lonely. If she decided to examine and rewrite that story, she might acknowledge that the old belief actually protected her from trying and being rejected. What a gift that was! But now she might decide she no longer needs that protection, because she’s finally brave and strong enough to face potential rejections in service of finding true love.

Read More

HOW TO CULTIVATE A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD

HOW TO CULTIVATE A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD

Most people struggle with what to eat, and when, and how much. Many people think about it all day, calculating what they should eat next, putting food into categories of “good” and “bad,” and holding themselves to a standard that they feel they fail on a daily basis.

I’m not talking about eating disorders, although those are certainly an example of how food-obsessions can take over your life, but I’m just talking about regular people who spend an enormous amount of mental and emotional energy on their relationship with food.

You might be normal, active, and physically healthy, and you may even look exactly how you want to look… but you can’t feel feel your best if you’re constantly battling the stress of an unhealthy relationship. This applies to boyfriends, parents, toxic friends, bosses… and food.

Read More

Coaching

Coaching :

I don’t believe what’s standing between you and the body you want is a lack of willpower. I don’t believe that you’re lazy, or not trying hard enough, or that there’s something wrong with you. I believe you just need a little help knowing where to focus your attention.

Your body is meant to feel amazing. It’s meant to sleep well, wake up refreshed, run and train and work hard, and rest and soften and relax fully. It’s meant to get more beautiful the better you treat it, and you’re meant to treat it better the more you can see its beauty.

So my approach to coaching is a little different. I give you workouts that empower and energize you, focusing on getting stronger, moving better, and learning new skills. I know how to maximize your results through programming and muscle activation, and I know how transformative it is to be able to see your body getting stronger and better. I don’t do “insanity” challenges or crash plans. Your workouts will be smart, safe, and progressive. They’ll set you up for a lifetime of lifting weights and feeling awesome, because you only get one body and you’re in this for the long haul. But that isn’t enough, and any program that doesn’t deal with inner work will eventually fail.

Fitness isn’t enough :

Have you ever been on a roll, feeling healthy and great, when you suddenly found yourself performing a spectacular act of self-sabotage?

Of course you have. Why? Because very often we are trying to force ourselves into behaviors that aren’t sustainable. In those moments, I help you figure out how to either alter your behaviors, shift your mindset, or break through the blocks that are holding you back. For example, if you want to lose weight but don’t feel deserving of the life you would have if you got the body of your dreams, then no diet or workout plan is going to ever help you get it. You will always, always, always find a way to avoid losing the weight, until you find a way of believing you deserve it.

That’s why I don’t just write workout programs. I take clients, and I guide them through the process of change. It’s not easy to unlearn habits and beliefs that you’ve been carrying for a lifetime. It takes courage, patience, and a lot of practice.

You deserve a relationship with your body that is easy, compassionate, vibrant, and full of joy. That relationship is waiting for you. If you are ready for it… then I am ready for you.

Read More

10 INSANELY AMAZING THINGS YOUR BODY CAN DO (OTHER THAN LOOK GOOD!)

10 INSANELY AMAZING THINGS YOUR BODY CAN DO (OTHER THAN LOOK GOOD!)

Looking good naked is fun, and striving to change your body with healthy habits can be super empowering. But our culture puts so much friggin pressure on how your body looks from the outside that we miss out on tons of opportunities to experience gratitude and joy from within. The truth is, there is so much happening inside your body at all times; stuff you can’t see, and often stuff you can’t even feel! Think about when you start a new workout routine. Whether or not you lose weight, you might be improving your bone density, insulin sensitivity, cholesterol levels, mobility, blood pressure, aerobic threshold, hormone balance, and resting heart rate. Those are all awesome markers of success that you would completely miss if you considered only the aesthetic results!

Read More

6 WAYS TO CHANNEL YOUR INSPIRATION

                          I consider myself an “inspirationalist.”

Basically what this means is that I easily get swept away by the rush of energy and good feelings that accompany any random new idea or thing that strikes my fancy. It also means that my fancy gets struck pretty damn often, which is both super amazing and super annoying. On the one hand, I get extraordinary pleasure from small things, and on the other hand I struggle to get anything done.

Getting swept away is a trait handed down to me by my dad, who I’ve seen dive with complete abandon throughout my life into such seemingly random hobbies as Bonsai trees, magic, pottery, and violin. Some people could call it obsessive, but I call it passionate.

Passion runs in my blood, and it’s one of the things that most defines me.

Before I learned to consciously harness my wild inspiration, I couldn’t seem to resist the rush of good feelings that accompanied every random new idea, and I struggled with consistency and follow-through, which made me feel like a super loser a lot of the time. I also had a really hard time knowing what I “wanted to do with my life,” since I couldn’t choose between the thirty eight million things that I loved to think about doing.

Every time I saw something shiny (think: I tried a new hobby, sport, skill, or lifestyle choice) I felt sure that this shiny new thing was important, and I pursued it full-on with everything I had. Inevitably within a few days or weeks however, the rush of inspiration waned, and the shiny new thing got left in the dust. Following each shiny-to-dust cycle, I always experienced a period of absolute desolation, grieving the loss of the new thing’s importance in my life, and cursing my stupid inspiration-addicted self for not knowing better.

Read More

A NOMADIC, OPEN-HEARTED YES: MY 2016 IN REVIEW

I’d spent the first 17 years of my life feeling lost and depressed. I was pursuing my dreams full-time, on my own terms, and making an impact. Shouldn’t that be enough to be happy?? Ugh.

A few months before, I’d made some big, bold (terrifying) choices.  I had moved out of NYC, given up my (insanely lucrative) training career to focus on building my business online despite not knowing a single thing about business. I figured after that everything would just… I don’t know, fall perfectly into place?

So, fast forward. Crying to mom while my old friends Depression and Confusion hover nearby, and deciding to book a ticket somewhere warm and beautiful because leave it.

I put feelers out on facebook and glommed onto a vague plan to maybe meet up with some internet friends in Costa Rica, later in January. I booked an AirBnB treehouse in a random town, and I arrived on New Year’s Day with no idea how to get anywhere, or what as gonna do when I got there.

After a series of appropriate mishaps (aka it was New Year’s Day so none of the buses were running and no cabbies were out), I finally arrived at my treehouse. It was late at night and I could hear the ocean.  I was surprised. Am I by the ocean?

The apartment was adorable though, the weather was deliciously warm, and I was starving. I put on a pretty dress and started walking toward the lights nearby, hoping that lights meant food, and that I was somewhere with menus printed in English. As I sat there that first night, eating pizza of all things (it was the only thing they had left) and watching the people around me, I was filled with a sense of yes-ness. This was where I was supposed to have come. Good things were going to happen here.

I was right. The next morning I discovered that I was indeed about a 60 second walk from the beach, and that this was (shockingly) a surf town. Literally everyone was there for the sick waves, bro.

How did I not realize this? Easy: when I booked my trip, I did exactly zero research. I wasn’t interested in being prepared, I was interested in being gone.

Read More

7 POTENTIALLY LEGITIMATE REASONS WHY YOU MIGHT MISS YOUR WORKOUT TODAY (AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM)

7 POTENTIALLY LEGITIMATE REASONS WHY YOU MIGHT MISS YOUR WORKOUT TODAY (AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM)

Despite your good intentions, every once in a while something comes up that pushes your workout aside.

Here is a list of 7 potentially legitimate reasons that could keep you from achieving your fitness goals today, and how to deal with them. Good luck

Read More

THE IMPORTANCE OF LOVING YOUR “UNLOVABLE” PARTS

LOVING YOUR BODY; LOVING YOUR SELF

Learning to love and accept your body is important. In our culture, women are often so preoccupied by what’s wrong with our bodies that we live in a perpetual state of distraction and disembodiment, thus never getting to do the important work we were put here on earth to do.

As a body image coach, it’s my job to help women learn how to love and accept their bodies. The thing is though, it’s never just about your body. Body image issues are always about something deeper, and until you deal with the deeper stuff, you’ll never be able to make peace with your physical body.

Hating your body is always a representation of something about you that feels inherently unlovable. So for the rest of this article, I’ll be discussing the inner stuff instead of the outer stuff. That having been said, if you struggle with a negative body image, this stuff all still undoubtedly applies.

Read More

WHY BODY IMAGE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOW YOUR BODY LOOKS

Beauty is contextual, meaning you might find beauty or ugliness depending on the context you view it in. Even more importantly, the way we perceive a subject’s beauty is totally dependent on how we feel about that subject in other ways.

In short, our brains perceive our loved ones (like our newborn babies, and our lovers after amazing sex) to be significantly more beautiful than other people’s loved ones. Why? Because we love them! Beauty isn’t just in the eye of the beholder, it’s often in the eye of someone who feels positive emotions and associations with the subject.

The same is true for everything, including both non-significant objects like my earrings, and the way we view our own bodies.

Even if you don’t personify your jewelry with the same gusto that I do, can you recognize how some stuff feels special and beautiful while other stuff is just a total turn-off, even if visually they seem about on par?

What we find beautiful is entirely dependent on how we feel about the subject itself, and what that subject means to us.

Read More

I LIKE BIG BUTTS AND I CANNOT LIE: MY PERSONAL JOURNEY TO BODY APPRECIATION

I LIKE BIG BUTTS AND I CANNOT LIE: MY PERSONAL JOURNEY TO BODY APPRECIATION

Since embracing strength training, my body has completely changed. I have much more muscle definition, and much less fat. (Sadly, a good amount of that fat came from my boobs, but that’s a topic for another post.) I’d say I now look “athletic.”  One of the biggest differences between my body pre-strength-training and my body now is… my new, big, glorious butt. I liked being soft, and I liked how I looked before, but I am very, VERY proud of my new bum. As I was starting to lift weights and see results, I always dreamed of a nice round butt. In fact, when I first started to lose a little fat from my boobs and hips, I thought: noooo! I’d never wanted to look like Gwenyth Paltrow: I had something more along the lines of Salma Hayek or Sofia Vergara in mind.

Read More