Kelsi front squats in the 5:30pm class. Weight lifting can help you manage stress, we call it barbell therapy:)

Cortisol it NOT the problem. 
​Chronic stress is the problem. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Cortisol isn’t the villain—it's essential for life and fitness. It’s the hormone that helps you tackle challenges, whether that’s a tough workout or life stress. However, it’s all about returning your stress response system to baseline after activation.
• Stop worrying about “spiking your cortisol.” You need cortisol to be responsive to outside stressors in order to survive. Instead, start focusing on returning your stress response system to baseline regularly through proven down-regulation strategies like meditation, leisure walks, gentle or relaxing yoga.
• Burnout isn’t caused by cortisol—it’s caused by chronic stress. Dr. Carla shares how to address what’s triggering your elevated stress rather than blaming cortisol itself.
• Why aging changes the game. Recovery gets trickier as women age due to changes in resilience and hormonal shifts, but proper recovery strategies can keep you thriving. Strength training, nutrition, and mindful recovery are more important than ever.
• The limits of hormone testing. Single snapshots from blood tests can be misleading! Dr. Carla explains why you need to focus on the bigger picture of your health.
• Under-fueling = underperforming. Under-eating can actually be a big cause of persistent internal stress and elevated cortisol levels. Nutrition fuels your body for workouts and recovery.

Today I plan to eat protein grams equal to my body weight. What about you?

What's for Dinner?

Click on the image for the recipe.

Thursdays are a rest day from the gym

Why BMI is Bullshit

The body mass index was created by a 19th-century Belgian statistician named Adolphe Quetelet. It was built as a tool to assess weight distribution across populations and was based on his idea of "the ideal man," using a small sampling of the size and measurements of white, male Scottish and French soldiers. 

Then in the 1970s, a number of prominent American doctors, tired of insurance companies setting arbitrary weight and mortality standards for insurance payments, adopted and rebranded Quetelet's index. But the BMI was never meant to measure individual health and, again, was based purely on studies of white men.

The American College of Sport Medicine sets fitness categories for body fat based on age and gender, but there is not an agreed upon target for what is considered ideal. Using the ACSM standards, most Americans could be classified in the poor fitness category, as the average body fat among adults in the U.S. is 33%.

​The U.S. military considers the optimal body fat for military fitness to be between 10% and 20% for young men and up to 25% for middle-aged men. Women typically have more body fat, with an ideal range from 15% to 30% for young women and up to 38% for middle-aged women.

MIssey and Bethanie expertly swing kettlebells in the 5:30pm class.

Female Hormones and Body Composition 

In this episode, Dr. Mike Stone and Dr. Carla DiGirolamo, board-certified Reproductive Endocrinologists who specialize in all aspects of fertility care, will be discussing a topic that is of utmost importance to many women - weight management and its relationship to female hormones.

Dr. Stone and Dr. DiGirolamo will explore the variety of roles that hormones play in female weight gain and loss. The doctors will share their insights on how decoding the menstrual cycle can point to answers on weight management and how hormone replacement therapy can be a viable option for some women. We'll also hear Dr. DiGirolamo's take on oral contraception and how it relates to weight loss and gain in women.

But it's not all about medication - lifestyle interventions can also play a key role in optimizing weight and hormone health. Dr. Stone and Dr. DiGirolamo will explore some of the options available to women who want to take control of their weight and health.