Love Your Reflection



So where should you be focusing your energy?




(1) Take “time off”


(2) Accomplish small goals


(3) Quicken your heartbeat


(4) Phone a friend


(5) Just dance





What does “wellness” even mean?











Bikini Body







Health Gains (not weight loss)

Today, I want to clear up a common misconception.  Weight loss is not the same thing as health gain.  By that, I mean that the number on the scale is not an indicator of health.  Weight does not equal health.  Got it?

I realize that sounds contrary to many of the public health messages you face every day.  Everyone wants to lose a pound, and we want a diet or workout plan to make us lose pounds quickly.  That simply isn’t the reality of becoming healthy.

One of the biggest difficulties I face with clients is having them stop focusing on weight loss as the index of how well they are doing.  In fact, nearly all of my clients start going up on the scale before they start going down, but if they stick to working out with me, they will find they are looking better in their clothes.  Why is that?

Muscle weighs more than fat.  It is a simple fact of life.  While my clients think they are after weight loss, they are actually after fat loss, and the two are entirely different.  To lose fat and to gain muscle is often to go up on the scale but down a pants size.

So laugh at the health slogans advertising for weight loss.  Eat well (something I’ll work on defining in other posts) and stay active.  Build muscle and burn fat.  Recognize that there are plenty of indicators of health like your BMI or even just the amount of energy you feel like you have throughout the day.

Weight is simply gravity holding you onto this planet.  It is pulling on your bones, muscles, and organs, too, not just your fat.  Re-focus your energy on what really matters: feeling great!  Your diet and exercise habits are important, but the number resulting from gravity’s force on you is not.


Do Not Disturb

Do you ever have a day where it seems like every person you’ve ever known needs something from you?  I’m talking about the kind of day where you are one vibration away from chucking your phone into the garbage and moving to a cabin in the woods.  The kind of day where every effort to respond to your Inbox is mocked by another incoming e-mail.  The kind of day where one more person saying your name just might result in you checking yourself into an asylum.

Modern technology is incredible.  With it, we can perform open heart surgery.  We can travel by air and visit anywhere on our planet with ease.  We can be present on a laptop screen from thousands of miles away at family events.  Those are the big things that we take fore-granted.  I didn’t even mention the modern convenience of indoor plumbing, light bulbs, and air conditioning.  We are surrounded by incredible feats of human kind every day, and it barely gives us pause.

As a result of us forgetting modern conveniences are not natural miracles but rather manmade creations, we seem overly zealous to use them.  There was a time when coming home from work meant just that.  Now, your boss and co-workers have access to you 24/7, and for some reason, it is rude to simply ignore them.  It’s unacceptable in our society to ignore a phone call and just be with the people you’re with.  We have created this expectation to be accessible to literally every person we’ve ever encountered, and we feel guilty not responding to a text message.

There are so many great things that have come from this technology.  Being able to send grandma a picture, monitoring our heart rates, and calling 911 in any emergency are a few examples.  At the same time, we need to stop and think.

I advocate for a healthy lifestyle, and it goes so much further than your protein intake and energy output.  It goes into your emotional and social well-being, too, and I firmly believe I am negatively impacted by technology every day.  In our society, it has become acceptable for people to send text messages at literally any time of day – even one in the morning.  I can literally not spend a night in my bed asleep without someone trying to reach me to tell me something.  My generation doesn’t see anything wrong with that, and therein lies the problem.

I cannot tell you the last time I just got to be by myself or just got to spend time with someone else.  Instead of getting to relax with my cat, I face constant incoming messages from every outlet.  Instead of spending an evening with my roommates, I spend an evening with them and their best friends and boyfriends and whoever else they happen to be texting.

I’m not innocent.  I do the same thing, but I’m trying to do better.

Here I am glued to my first smartphone, circa 2009 when Blackberry was the "it" thing.
Here I am glued to my first smartphone, circa 2009 when Blackberry was the “it” thing.

I don’t think our generation has realized this is a problem, but it’s time we start.  One of my professors told me recently that the thing she misses most about her early teaching days is the chatter in classrooms.  She admitted that at the time, it was always a little irritating to get everyone to hush so she could start to lecture, but she says she misses that now.  Instead of looking around at students becoming friends and sharing their weekend stories, she steps up to the lectern and observes a sea of cell phones.  Students speaking to the friends they have outside of the classroom and ignoring the human beings beside them.

At 21 years old, I am starting to teach myself that it’s okay for me to need time to be me.  It’s okay for me to ignore a call or text message and just be present in the moment, not engaged in a virtual conversation.  It’s okay to leave an e-mail unopened until morning.  I do not have to be accessible when I get home in the evening, and people need to start being okay with that.  When I get in bed at night, I have discovered a wonderful function called “do not disturb,” and I now use it without fail the minute I get under the covers.  Whatever your funny drunk story, your emergency, your need of me, it is just going to have to wait until an appropriate time in my life.

I will no longer be a slave to virtual communication, and I challenge you to do the same.  If you don’t set parameters in your own life, nobody else will.  You can control when you are available, and people will adjust accordingly.  Health and wellness go beyond BMI.  Evaluate your lifestyle today; there is always room for improvement.


Body “Shaming”









The Skinny-Girl Effect

The following word is an insult that people regularly mistake as a compliment: Skinny.

I despise being called skinny.  As in, “Wow, Tracy, you are just so skinny!”  I hate it.  I understand that being thin is the new it-girl look, but I want absolutely no part in perpetuating that belief.

If anyone is to blame, it’s my parents.  Genetics made me “skinny” and despite my greatest efforts, I cannot seem to escape that label.  I have tried everything.  From chicken wings to chocolate cake, it seems no food is powerful enough to make people stop calling me skinny.  Or tiny.  Or any of the other “compliment” terms they use.


Fun fact: Pageant girls can polish off a pound of wings a piece.

I guess I have more than my stellar genes to blame.  I like to workout and eat healthy most days.  I do not like to do these things for the sake of my metabolism and waist line.  I like to do these things because they make me feel good.

Let me repeat:  I do not workout or eat my veggies to impress you.  I do it for me.  I do it for the endorphins, which relieve the stress of being alive.  I do it for the increased energy, which helps me survive long days.  I do it for myself, which means I get to have me-time with no intruding voices.

Stop doing harm to women by using “skinny” as a compliment.  Try “healthy” or “beautiful” or “intelligent” or “generous” or “loving” or “kind”.  Every woman is beautiful, so do not disservice us with words about our size.  Do not make those words mean beautiful.

Women are powerful.  We have the ability to influence what young girls perceive as attractive.  If we stand together, society cannot tear us down.  So the next time someone calls you “skinny”, do not smile and thank them and tell them about your juice diet.  Do not let them label you with a word that describes your shape.  You deserve more.  We all do.

Pick your compliments with care.  Use them to build each other up, not to create painful constructs of what the female body should be.  I challenge everyone to use a compliment today that goes beneath the skin and looks at the soul, the character, the drive of the person, not the weight, width, or mass.

We don’t have to let the media tell use how to look.  We can have a positive effect on the body image of others.  It starts with you and me, but we can change the world.


Miracle Challenge 2015

Jim Ryan

September 1 – September 27 marks the days of a challenge whose causes are near and dear to my heart.  Miracle Challenge is a fundraising campaign for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals that emphasizes getting up and getting fit.  After selecting one of 5 different athletic “tracks”, you embark on a 27 day fitness challenge.  You receive e-mails every day with motivating quotes, motivating stories about children in the hospital, and a challenge from your fitness trainer.

For me, this challenge really puts things into perspective.  We all have days when we want to be lazy.  I’m guilty of having days I want to skip my workout and eat cookies instead.  The idea of this challenge is to be active for children who cannot run and play themselves.  This challenge asks you to run for kids who are stuck in hospital rooms, whose inability to get active is not laziness but circumstance.

Imagine being a child living in a hospital for weeks on end.  You cannot go on a bike ride in the sunshine with your sibling.  Maybe you can go on a stroll to the hospital’s decorative fish tank if you’re feeling well, but if it’s a bad day, you might not get to leave bed at all.  Instead of the rough and tumble days we imagine for most children, your days are spent with quiet artistic expressions and the comfort of a favorite movie.  Your parents have created this new construct of childhood and are doing the best they can to provide you with fulfilling experiences each day, but you know you are missing out on the fun your classmates get to have.

Being a child in a hospital is hard, but the kids you meet there are inspiring.  They face challenge after challenge with courage, but they need our help.  Please support my participation in Miracle Challenge today by going to
and donating $1.  Every dollar goes directly to CMN and impacts a child’s life.  My goal is to raise $100 during Miracle Challenge because that is the cost associated with a pair of hanging basketball hoops.  These hoops would provide children in the hospital with their own means of staying active, and I want to help provide kids with a normal athletic activity that makes some of their time in the hospital seem like just a day as a kid.

James MasonA special shout out to my friend, James Mason, who is going in for surgery this morning.  He is on my mind and in my prayers a little extra today.  I know his mom and I would appreciate you lifting him up in your own prayers.

Thank you for reading this message.  If you want to get involved in the Miracle Challenge, it’s not too late!  Go to and register today.  FTK All Ways, Always.

Worth It

I have the best job of all time.  Working as a personal trainer means clients lay it all out for me.  They tell me what their fears and weaknesses are, and they entrust me with their goals.  I not only get to know their weight, their body fat index, and every other quantifiable measure of their health, I also get to know mentally where they are at.

My clients come to me with their own goal, and it’s usually to lose X number of pounds in X number of days.  I get that.  I always start by explaining it’s not as much about the scale as it is about your overall fat percentage, and we go from there.  I want to help them achieve their goals.  I know feeling in charge of their body will give them confidence in their life, and I also know losing the fat is going to improve their health in the long run by taking pressure off their joints and strain off their cardiovascular system and so much more.

At the same time, I have my own goals when I meet a new client.  I do not believe the number on a scale is as important as the client’s outlook on fitness following a package of sessions with me.  I have three goals with my clients:

  1. Meet the client’s goals (if they are reasonable).
  2. Educate the client on what is healthy.
  3. Give the client the confidence to continue workouts long after their sessions are over.

I recently received a Facebook message from one of my favorite clients, and it warmed my heart to hear about her progress.  While we worked together, she did start to drop pants sizes and meet her goal.  After her sessions with me ended, I continued to impact her life through what I had taught her.

That’s “great” not “fear” – iPhone problems.  Messages like this are why what I do means so much to me.  The number on the scale may be a quick and easy assessment, but it is not the best indicator of real health.  By teaching people what health should really look like – from the food choices down to the active minutes in their day – I have a lasting effect on my clients that goes far beyond the sessions they pay for.

I want my clients to know what a healthy lifestyle should be, and I want them to leave me feeling comfortable in a gym.  I may not get feedback from all of them, but I am so proud of those who have stayed in touch.


If you answered “yes” in the above poll, reach out at your local gym.  I’m sure there are staff members and trainers who would absolutely love to educate you on the equipment.  They will work with you to come up with a workout plan that makes you comfortable.  It’s their job, and I promise you won’t be the first person.  If you answered “I use to” in the above poll, I would love for you to comment and explain how you overcame the discomfort.  Everyone should be able to feel at home in the gym; it should be a safe, judgment free zone.

“Healthy” is a lifestyle.  To be healthy, you have to make decisions about your daily living, and you have to stay committed.  #APerfectFit

No Rest for the Wicked

I found the perfect place for a scenic run here in the ATL today! Even on vacation, it’s important to get up and stay active. If you want to make real progress and stay dedicated to a healthy life, you have to work for it! A huge thanks to my daddy for always being willing and ready to join in on a workout – he certainly inspired me to live life the way I do! #APerfectFit #thisBEAUTYisaBEAST