Somewhere along the way, most of us learned to measure our progress by what we see in the mirror. But the mirror leaves out almost everything cool and interesting.

Ryann, Jess Gordon, and Nic get into why looks are so easy to nitpick, where all that pressure comes from, and how to start measuring progress by something other than your reflection. They talk about the moving goalposts of the "ideal" body, how following the wrong social media accounts can rewire how you see yourself, why the people closest to you don't keep you around for your abs, and the affirmations that actually work (hint: it's not the ones you don't believe).

Nic makes the case for neutral-at-worst self-talk, Jess breaks down building your Rolodex of things you like about yourself, and Ryann gets into performance and hobby goals that pull the focus off aesthetics entirely.

Because how you look really is the least interesting thing about you.

The scale is capable of doing exactly one thing well: telling you your relationship to gravity. It cannot tell you how much muscle you have gained, how much fat you have lost, how your sleep has improved, or why you finally stopped stress eating at 10pm. And yet most people use it as the only measure of whether any of this is working.

Ryann, Christin, and Joyce talk about what progress looks like when you stop letting the scale be the only thing that counts. They get into the non-scale wins that show up in clients who are doing everything right, why the goal weight you have in your head is probably more arbitrary than you realize, why a bigger body is not a less healthy body, and how shifting your focus to habits and deep health is what actually makes any of this sustainable long term.

I was really struggling with something recently, and after doing my check-ins with my clients that day, I realized that so many of you guys struggle with the same thing.

Taking time off from your regular workout routine for any reason can be a challenge, and it's common to worry about losing the progress you've made in your fitness journey. Whether you're recovering from an injury, dealing with a personal issue that leaves you with less time and energy, or facing any other circumstance that makes it difficult to maintain your regular workout schedule, it's normal to be worried about months or even years of training going down the drain. But how long does it take to really for deconditioning to really set in?

Usually, my blog posts are like "self-love, be kind to yourself, you're amazing..." I'm a positive person and I feel like people are WAY too hard on themselves a lot of the time. But today, I'm doling out some tough love.

In 2008, my collegiate swimming career was coming to an end. By that point in time, it was coming somewhat as a welcome. I was just coming out of some serious issues with over-training syndrome and exercise addiction. But a large part of me was concerned about what my identity would be like without swimming. Outside of that, what was I to do as far as fitness and staying in shape? For 16 years I had grown accustomed to just wearing a Speedo to swim in. But would I have the audacity to ever put one back on if I couldn't look at least decent in it again? So many concerns were going through my head with the end of such a career…