Live Joy

  Every January, we start with the best intentions. This is going to be the year. The year we finally get stronger, save the money, take the trip, start the business, change careers, get organized, prioritize ourselves, finish the project, build the habit, or finally do the thing we have been talking about doing for years. And then life happens. January becomes March. March becomes summer. Summer flies by, and suddenly we look at the calendar and realize another year is almost over. Some of those goals we were so excited about are still sitting there, untouched. Maybe we made a little progress. Maybe we completely forgot about them. Maybe somewhere along the way we decided there was always next year.   But here's what I want you to remember: 2026 isn't over. We still have approximately 16 weeks left in this year, and 16 weeks is a lot of time. That's 16 weeks of mornings, workouts, saving, writing, learning, practicing, changing, and showing up. Sixteen weeks is enoug...

  I came across this quote from Yung Pueblo, and there was one line that really stayed with me: “The magic happens after you accept that you can’t regulate other people’s emotions or experiences.” I think this is something a lot of us spend years learning. Especially if you’re someone who cares deeply about other people. You want everyone to be okay. You don’t want anyone to be upset with you. You explain yourself when you feel misunderstood. You replay conversations wondering if you said the wrong thing. You try to smooth things over, fix situations, keep the peace, and sometimes even make yourself smaller so someone else can feel more comfortable. And somewhere along the way, you can start living your life based on how other people might react to it. You Are Not Responsible for Everyone’s Reaction This might be one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned in midlife: Someone can be disappointed in your decision, and it can still be the right decision for you. Someone...

After almost 10 years of working out at home, I recently started going back to the gym. And one of the biggest things I’ve noticed is how many people are “working out”…without much of a plan. They wander from machine to machine, do a few exercises, maybe whatever they feel like that day, and then come back the next day and do something completely different. And the next week the same thing, different machines, different exercises. And listen, if your goal is simply to move your body and say, “I worked out today,” there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I spent years doing that, with Beachbody workouts and other online programs. But if you are in midlife and your goal is to actually build muscle and get stronger, you need a plan. I personally strength train five days a week (3 to 5 times a week is suggested), and I use an app that tracks every workout, every exercise, set, rep and weight. I follow the same workouts for eight weeks at a time. I just finished my first eight-week blo...

I heard a quote the other day that stopped me in my tracks: “The life you want is built on ordinary Tuesdays.” We spend so much of our lives looking forward to the big things. The vacation. The new house. The promotion. The birthday. The holiday. The milestone we’ve been working toward. And those things are wonderful. I love having something exciting on the calendar as much as anyone. But when you really think about it, those big moments make up such a small percentage of our lives. Most of life happens on a Tuesday. It’s the coffee you drink in the morning. It’s getting stronger during a workout you almost didn’t feel like doing. It’s walking the dog and noticing the weather is finally starting to change. It’s sitting around the dinner table talking about absolutely nothing important. It’s hearing a song in the car that instantly takes you back to another time in your life. It’s laughing at something stupid with your kids. It’s your favorite show at the end of a long day...

  Over the last few weeks, we've talked a lot about strength training, nutrition, protein and building a stronger body in midlife. But there's another piece of the equation that deserves just as much attention: recovery. I'll be the first to admit, this one is hard for me. I'm a former athlete and a self-diagnosed ADHD person (lol), sitting still has never exactly been my specialty. I've spent most of my life believing that if you want better results, you work harder. If you're tired, you push through. If you're not seeing progress, you add more. More workouts, more steps, more effort. Rest was something you did when everything else was finished and we all know everything is never finished. But especially after 40, I'm realizing how far that is from the truth. Our bodies don't actually get stronger during a workout. The workout creates the challenge, but recovery is when our bodies repair, adapt and get stronger. We can have the perfect strength-...

  Every year when summer ends, I think I’m going to immediately fall into the perfect back-to-school routine. Wake up at the same time. Get my workout in. Walk the dog. Get the boys off to school. Work all day. Soccer in the evening. Get everyone home, reset the house, go to bed at a reasonable time and do it all again the next day. Sounds great, right? Except that is definitely not how this school year has started. We are already a few weeks into school, and I still haven't mastered my morning routine. And surprisingly, I'm okay with that. Our Schedule Completely Changed Back-to-school always changes our routine, but this year it feels like almost everything changed at once. The boys have a new school start time, which means they need to be on the bus at 6:55 a.m. Soccer practice times seem to change daily. Then we have weeknight soccer games where we sometimes don't get home until 10:30 at night . I've also changed my own routine. Instead of working out ...