Everyone gets a better version of me

When Amber signed up for my boot camp in April 2025, she didn't spend much time thinking about it.

She saw my post about a 6 a.m. workout, paid immediately and figured she'd give it a try.

She had three kids. She'd had a baby about eight months earlier. And she was looking for something she could actually fit into her life.

Working out at night meant leaving her family, and that was hard to justify.

6 a.m.? That worked.

The first few weeks were an adjustment.

She was sore. She was tired. Her body was getting used to something new.

But somewhere along the way, something changed.

“I feel sad if I miss boot camp,” she told me when I sat down with her last fall. “I feel like my day's not off to a good start if I miss camp.”

She had more energy. Her chronic lower back pain was gone. Her mood and confidence improved. She was making better food choices and experiencing more mental clarity.

And she was getting stronger.

Seven months in, more than 40 pounds had come off. She'd lost more than 10 inches.

But the numbers that stuck with me weren't 40 or 10.

It was two.
Two minutes.

That's how long Amber could hold a plank.

Months earlier, a two-minute plank was out of the question. It was something she never thought her body could do.

And that's the part of fitness I wish more people talked about.

Not just the weight you lose. Not just the inches. Not even the way your clothes fit.

It's the moment you realize your body can do something you never, ever thought it could.

You experience something you thought was out of reach and, suddenly, the edges of what you believe is possible start to move.

You stop seeing your body as something with a fixed set of limits and start seeing it as something with possibility.

There is no finish line. There is no final version of strong.

There's just the next thing you haven't done yet.

For Amber, it was a two-minute plank.

And then there were push-ups.

“I can do a push-up on my toes. I could never do that.”

And I think that's where the real transformation happens.

Because once you experience your body doing something you were certain it couldn't do, it becomes a little harder to believe that other things are out of reach.

The boundaries start to feel less like boundaries and more like places you just haven't explored yet.

Maybe you approach a challenge at work differently. Maybe you have a little more confidence speaking up. Maybe you take on something you've put off. Maybe you simply start asking yourself, “What else can I do?”

That's the part of fitness that can't be measured in pounds or inches.

You start to see possibility differently.

And Amber told me that's exactly what happened for her.

She started boot camp because she wanted to do something for herself.

But the stronger, more energetic, more confident version of herself didn't stay at boot camp.

She took it home.

“Everyone gets a better version of me,” she told me.

She told me about taking her five-year-old to an amusement park and carrying her on her back all day. Not because she had to, but because she could.

Her family gets the healthier, more energetic, more capable version of her.

And that, to me, is what putting yourself first can look like.

But there was one part of boot camp Amber hadn't expected when she signed up.

Community.

“I didn't think about how important it would be to have other women supporting you and being there every morning,” she said. “It's great to wake up and know that you're going to see people that you see all the time and you're going to get a really good workout in and it's consistent.”

Fitness, like the rest of life, isn't meant to be a solo journey.

It's a different, and equally important, kind of strength to show up in a room full of other people and work out together. Everyone is starting at a different place. It requires vulnerability.

But when one woman does something she never thought possible, it sets off a reaction: excitement, celebration and encouragement from everyone around her.

That's one of my favorite things about coaching women: watching the changes that can't be captured by a measurement.

The confidence that comes from doing something you once thought was impossible.

The decision to keep showing up for yourself. 

That's a decision Amber is still making today. Since that conversation last fall, she's continued her journey and has now lost more than 60 pounds and 12+ inches. And holds a plank longer than two minutes.

And she's not done.

She's still discovering what her body can do. Still pushing the edges of what's possible. Still getting stronger.

And every time she does, everyone gets a little more of that version of her.