Can Eating More Help You Get Toned? A Mom's Story

Ashley: My kids, they see me being strong. They see me working out all the time and trying. Just being able to have that for my daughter, to be able to set her up for success, right? I'm going to teach you how to do this now so you don't have to go through what I went through.

Nikkiey: What's going on, everybody? So today I have WarriorBabe Ashley with us. And this story that we're going to get into today isn't just about her personal transformation. It's about the fact that she also now gets to inspire others to take control of their health and build strength for their life. And she is a true... you've been in WarriorBabe for what now, like five years?

Ashley: Almost five years.

Nikkiey: Five years is crazy.

Ashley: I'm your WarriorBabe ambassador.

Nikkiey: So you're like an OG OG. We'll dive into that story too. But she's not only transformed her mindset and her physique in such incredible ways, she's also inspired the community. She's always in there sharing her transformation photos, sharing her hard work, sharing her dedication, and commenting to others that they can do it too. Ashley has a very unique story because we're going to dive into a specific program she was a part of that we don't offer anymore. But what's cool is that she's taken the education she learned, applied it herself and had such an amazing transformation. And just think about it: the education she learned, which we're talking about today, is also available to you guys if you're interested in our VIP one-on-one coaching. But anyway, Ashley, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Ashley: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Nikkiey: So just let everybody know a little bit of background: where are you from, what do you do for work, and how old are you?

Ashley: Ooh. So I am almost 40 years old. I'll be 40 in May. I currently live in Virginia, and I'm from New Jersey. I'm married with three kids: an eight, seven and five-year-old. And for work, I do hospitality recruiting and education, and then a bunch of freelance marketing and graphic design work.

Nikkiey: Awesome. So let's get into it. What was life like before joining WarriorBabe?

Ashley: So I had just had my third baby. I gave myself about four months, and it was January, and I said, okay, I'm done having babies. Let's get my body back. I played college soccer. I was an athlete my whole life. And then after college you're like, what do I do now? You have no program to follow. You have nothing to strive for, no games, nothing. So that was kind of a lost space for me. And then I started doing all these lovely 28-day fixes. I would do abs, I would do glutes. They clearly didn't work, and it was constant, constant, constant. I lost the baby weight that I needed to lose, but that really wasn't the look I was going for, right? I was trying to be toned. I was trying to be strong. So I started Googling how to gain muscle, and a WarriorBabe video popped up, and it was like, 'I'm going to teach you how to eat fucking carbs.' And I'm like, yes, I want to eat carbs. Because at that point I'm eating lettuce and broccoli and grilled chicken, super plain, what people expect to eat to get results. So I was like, yes, give me back my food. Then I dove right into the Blueprint that was available at that time and took it from there. And I said, okay, I'm going to unfollow every single person, because there are a lot of people in the fitness space. I'm focusing on Nikkiey. I will do what Nikkiey says. Here's the game plan. I'm going to give it a year, see what happens, and take it from there. So I completely cut strings with everybody and dove straight into WarriorBabe.

Nikkiey: Heck yeah. I love that. And I can't wait to expand on what you did inside the Blueprint and the results you got. And you're still maintaining to this day. If you guys are watching on video right now... can you give them a flex, Ashley? Because your shoulders... yes. Your shoulders are just popping right now. Let me bring us back to that comment you made about how the things you were trying weren't getting you where you wanted to be. What were you eating on a daily basis and how were you training back then?

Ashley: I was doing a lot of cardio. Walking, running, doing anything I could to lose weight. Lifting here and there, but probably just body weight kind of stuff. And I was eating lettuce and chicken, super boring, thinking if I eat this, I'm going to be super skinny and super toned. And I have learned that doesn't happen.

Nikkiey: Were you doing macros or calories at that point? Or were you just trying to eat healthy?

Ashley: Trying to eat healthy.

Nikkiey: And your healthy consisted of chicken...

Ashley: Lettuce. Probably little small things throughout the day, but it didn't amount to much.

Nikkiey: Which we're going to get to: the amount of food you've been able to eat. And what's really cool is Ashley's done the cut. She's done the maintenance. She's done the build. She's reversed. She's done it all again, multiple times. How many times have you done that?

Ashley: Twice. I went through the build, cut and maintenance phases twice.

Nikkiey: Nice. We're definitely going to dive into that. So before WarriorBabe, you had no idea what macros were?

Ashley: No.

Nikkiey: And you were doing minimal strength training and tons of cardio.

Ashley: Yep.

Nikkiey: I resonate so hard with that. Your whole story is very similar to mine, right? Post-college, post-sports, no coach to keep you accountable, no team to cheer you on, stuck in the in-between, trying all these different things. You had this vision for yourself of being where you are today, muscular and toned and looking so great and maintaining it. What emotions do you feel like you struggled with in that in-between? 'I'm going to go try this, I'm going to go try that, this is telling me it's going to get me this result, I'm going to do tons of cardio.' How did you feel when you were putting in all that work but weren't getting where you envisioned yourself?

Ashley: I think that was a really hard spot, because in the middle of all this you have that huge mom guilt on you, right? I want to work out. I want to be the best I can be. But I have these three little kids, and that was my biggest pull. We have a gym in my basement. But do I take time out of my day playing with my kids to go down and work out for an hour? 'Oh, sorry, kids, I'll be back in an hour.' That whole thing. And it just wasn't working, right? So I'm putting all this time in, I'm taking time away from my kids, and they're seeing me not eat, which is a whole other thing. They're seeing me bust my butt on cardio. And yeah, I got skinnier, but it wasn't the look I was going for. It was just frustrating, because I'm like, there's got to be something, a plan, for athletic-type people, ex-college athletes, that can keep this up but still have a family and a job and keep that life going as well.

Nikkiey: Amen to that. I know a lot of people struggle with that, especially with families and kids, like you're mentioning. I talked to another WarriorBabe about an hour ago, and she said it's a world of chaos and overwhelm, day to day. With the things we're responsible for, like family and work and things that have to get done, it's hard to put yourself first. And then trying to figure out what the right thing to do is... it's overwhelming AF. Go ahead.

Ashley: It is. My favorite word is pivot, right? I have this whole plan. I plan out my weeks. I plan out my days. This is when I'm going to go to the gym. This is what I'm going to do. And then five minutes into Monday, the nurse calls and says, 'Your kid, come pick them up.' And everything just blows up. It's a constant pivot of everything.

Nikkiey: How did you successfully do that? Because so many moms listening right now are like, 'Damn, that's me. I can't put myself first. I've got to put my kids first. The Monday phone call happens at 9 a.m. and now the rest of the day is ruined.' What's the tip and strategy you'd tell that mom right now?

Ashley: I have no problems waking up early. I can't stay up late, but I can wake up early. So for the first year, year and a half, I would get up at 4:30, work, eat, work out, and then have the entire day to do what I had to do and be with my kids. Still to this day, if we have sports all day Saturday and all day Sunday, I'll get up early, get everything done, and then be there with my kids. It's a struggle. Some days you can't, right? And you just have to know it's okay to not get your workout in today. There are some days you just can't do it. But then that's a whole other struggle, where you're like, 'I have to stay on this path,' and then you lose it and go, 'Well, I guess I'll just give up now.' That's a whole other thing, that determination and keeping up with the progress. You're not going to lose the whole thing by not working out for one day.

Nikkiey: It's also recognizing that's an all-or-nothing mentality.

Ashley: Yes, yes.

Nikkiey: If you have a day where you're not going to get a workout in, okay. If you're working out five days a week, you have two other days where you can change up your schedule to fit it in.

Ashley: Right. And it's all give and take. That's why I used to print out, every day, everything I was doing every hour. And I'd go, okay, scratch that, put it here. Constant juggling. But that's how it got done. That's how it works.

Nikkiey: I love that. And I love the give-and-take mentality: I'm going to give myself the morning hours. Maybe someone, and I'm not saying this is you, lays on the couch at night and scrolls or watches Netflix. They take away from that to make themselves a priority at the beginning of the day. What's another example of give and take?

Ashley: A lot of it is my family, right? My kids are number one. And we've made progress getting them in the gym, working out with us. Now they're in this environment of, 'Oh, we work out. Mommy's going to work out. I'm going to go with you.' Including them and making it part of our lifestyle helps so much. Because they're not like, 'What are you doing now? Why are you doing that?' They know. My five-year-old says, 'What protein are you eating today?' They're in it. And it's super helpful for them to be in that mindset. It's how we get through it. We just make them part of it, and somehow that made it easier to navigate.

Nikkiey: I love that. And earlier you mentioned that your kids used to watch you eat little to nothing, and you said that's a whole other thing we could unpack. What do you mean by that?

Ashley: If I knew in high school or college what I know now, I would have had such a different experience with food, with working out, with everything. And just being able to have that for my daughter, to set her up for success, right? I'm going to teach you how to do this now so you don't have to go through what I went through for all those years. So it was them seeing me eat salad and not eating, compared to today, when I'm like, 'All right, eggs and bacon, who wants it?' handing out everything, packing my son's lunch with egg whites in it, my daughter asking for meat sticks. Them seeing food as fuel has made all the difference. And they're like, 'Mommy eats more than Dad.' My husband is very jacked, very large. So combined, they have a very good environment, but they're like, 'Mommy eats more than you do.' Just seeing that interaction, I feel like we have a very good family relationship with food. This is what we do. And my boys wrestle, so food is very important to wrestling. Sometimes they cut weight, and they're very fortunate that I know how to do that, right? The education I've learned, I'm now passing on to my children. I'm like, 'All right, guys, we're not going to have fruit snacks today.' It's not big things, but little changes in their tiny bodies over a few days make all the difference. So they're like, 'Okay, I'm going to eat this. Okay, I'm going to chug water today.' And tomorrow we're going to eat chicken and egg whites and stuff. They know what it takes. They do not complain. They don't say, 'Oh, I don't want to do that.' Their strength in that is crazy, that they're that mentally tough already. And I think that's their environment, right? That's the environment my husband and I have laid out: you can do hard things. That's the greatest part about learning everything and getting the education behind it: passing it on to them.

Nikkiey: Amen to that. That's part of our WarriorBabe creed.

Nikkiey: Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, WarriorBabe is here for you. At WarriorBabe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results, and results that last. Don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com/apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com/apply. All right, let's get back to the show.

Nikkiey: ...cementing the foundation of lasting health for our families and those around us.

Ashley: Absolutely.

Nikkiey: That's exactly what you're doing. And thank you for taking the education and knowledge you've gained and passing it on. You're passing it on for generations. You're the start of it. You're the first. And now it's going to your daughter, to your sons. They're going to carry that because they're learning it. It's being embedded in their subconscious at their age.

Ashley: Absolutely.

Nikkiey: Which is freaking amazing. You mentioned having a jacked household. I've got to ask: how much do your groceries cost you guys? Because I know somebody's going to say, 'That's got to be so expensive. Eating healthy is so expensive.' It just popped into my brain. All right, here we go. Ashley lives in a very fit household. Her husband is also jacked. Y'all are eating a ton of food. What does that bill look like?

Ashley: Well, on top of that, I'm in this phase of: we don't eat white eggs, we don't eat bad meat. We're top quality. My husband's like, 'We don't need pasture-raised eggs.' And I'm like, 'Yes, we do.'

Nikkiey: We're going to unpack that story for you guys, what Ashley's been up to in the last year.

Ashley: So yeah, we go hard. With everybody, we probably push 60 eggs a week.

Nikkiey: Wait, what happened with the swine flu or whatever the heck that was? Did you guys have...

Ashley: Oh no, that wasn't in Virginia.

Nikkiey: It wasn't there? It didn't happen there? Bro, I went two, three weeks without eggs. You know how bad it was? I was like, where are my eggs? This is terrible.

Ashley: My neighbor has chickens. So I'd go over with an empty carton like, 'Please.'

Nikkiey: Damn. I need to move to Virginia. Anyway, side note. All right, so what does the bill look like? You're pushing 60 eggs a week.

Ashley: Yeah, with everybody. Easy, 60 eggs a week. And then the meat on top of that.

Nikkiey: So how much do you guys pay for your grocery bill?

Ashley: I would say we're pushing easily $500 a week.

Nikkiey: Okay, let's break that down really quick for all the listeners right now. And you have five people?

Ashley: Yeah.

Nikkiey: Five heads to feed. So $500 divided by seven days a week is $71 a day. Divided by, let's say... how many of you? The kids don't eat that much...

Ashley: I'd say between the three of us. Give the kids one...

Nikkiey: One meal? Or...

Ashley: Wait, what do you mean? Oh, yeah, I guess three.

Nikkiey: Regardless, we'll divide by three. So that's $23 a day. And you're paying top tier for all your groceries. You're eating tons of food, your husband's eating tons of food, you've got three little kiddos. $23 a day. That's what somebody spends at Starbucks or on one meal out.

Ashley: Yeah.

Nikkiey: Which is insane, right? When you break it down, it's worth it.

Ashley: Right. You can get high-quality stuff, and you taste the difference. Going to a restaurant now, I'm like, it's good, but I'd rather just stay home and cook my own food.

Nikkiey: All right, so let's bring it to you finding WarriorBabe. You mentioned carbs, that you heard me say that. Was that initially what drew you to the program, carbs and eating more food?

Ashley: Yes. Give me more food.

Nikkiey: And you got more food. So share your experience in the first few months with WarriorBabe.

Ashley: I started in July, and I jumped straight into a build. A full-year build.

Nikkiey: Why?

Ashley: I think you said eight to twelve months was the time frame for a complete build. And I was going for a year anyway, so I was like, let me just dive straight into a build and see what happens. And the more I learned about it, I just kept going.

Nikkiey: Why did you choose a build? A lot of people come in saying, 'I want to cut. I want to lose weight.'

Ashley: In the previous six months, I had cut down so much. I was just doing cardio. I wasn't weight lifting. And I had lost the baby weight I needed to lose. And I was like, no, I just want more muscle. How do I get more muscle? Reading all the descriptions, I was like, clearly I need to build. And that's adding more weight to you. Adding fat, adding stuff.

Nikkiey: How did that make you feel?

Ashley: Trust the process. It's hard, right? Even through summer, because you're like, I want to get toned, I want to get big, and then you're fluffy the whole first summer. It's not fun to go through. But it's part of the process. That's what you said to do. So I'm listening to Nikkiey. I went full force and trusted the process.

Nikkiey: Dude. I've probably done seven or eight of these interviews in the last couple of weeks. And the ones who've had the awesome success, the main thing, the trend they keep saying, is 'I was just all in. I was 100% determined. I knew before the sales call that I was going to buy into the program.' That's the mindset you have to have going into this program.

Ashley: And it's hard. You build, you gain all this fat, and I think the biggest problem is when you start cutting. There's a whole program, right? You build, then you cut, then you maintain. And I feel like everybody's like, 'I'm getting too big, I'm getting too big,' and they start scaling down. Then they make it to the cut, and it doesn't immediately give them this body, and they're like, 'I'm out. This doesn't work.' So for me, it was that year of diving in: I'm going to follow this thing. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If it does, I'm going to have the best body ever. So being fluffy, and then giving the cut four months to really kick in... and it works. Clearly it works. It's just getting over those humps and continuing to keep going. That's the hardest part.

Nikkiey: Amen to that. That is the hardest part. It's all about the mental and what you're telling yourself, staying locked in on the vision you want, which isn't in front of you at the moment. How much food did you get to eat in that build?

Ashley: I got to 500 grams of carbs.

Nikkiey: I know I've heard this story before, but it kills me every time. It's great. That's like, what, 10 bagels a day?

Ashley: Literally. I didn't eat 10 bagels, but like 10 bagels a day in carbs. And I was like, bring on the food. And I wasn't super fluffy. My body was just processing it. My body clearly needed it.

Nikkiey: Your body was like, thank you. What was the calorie range you got up to?

Ashley: It was over 3,000.

Nikkiey: That's insane. And you were, what, 34, 35 when you joined the program?

Ashley: I was 34, I think, when I joined.

Nikkiey: Talk to us about the training, because I think that played a huge role too. I don't want to say it, you say it. I know how you train.

Ashley: That was one of the biggest things with WarriorBabe. You gave us what I needed. You laid it out: this is what you're going to do the first week, this is what you're going to do next. Focus on going slow, or focus on the pause, or focus on adding more weight, any of those little tips. And it's 5 a.m. and I'm trying to lift all this heavy weight, and at some point you're like, am I going hard enough? I'm in my house. Nobody's looking at me. Nobody's clapping for me. It's 5 a.m. It's silent. I'm trying to put my weights down quietly so the babies don't start screaming. And I truly think it was more the consistency of what I was doing than actually lifting heavy. I wasn't lifting that heavy. I still don't lift that heavy. We both have messed-up knees, right? I have ACL tears all over the place. I went to the doctor at 34, and he said, 'Do not lift heavy ever again, and do not run ever again. Your knees are bone on bone. Don't do it ever again.' So I was like, I won't run, because who wants to run? But I'll try to lift heavy. So I wasn't going crazy. I wasn't PRing on deadlifts. I feel like it was the consistency of doing it every day that really made such a big impact on my body.

Nikkiey: Absolutely, 100%. You have such a solid mentality in terms of accepting going into a build, first and foremost, and accepting, 'Okay, this is going to be uncomfortable, but this is what I've been told to do. I'm just going to do it.' I love that mindset. You were an impeccable student. You just followed the plan, no questions asked. Back in the Blueprint, we were able to talk about once a week in the community or on the Q&A calls. You'd ask questions, go 'Okay, cool,' and then go implement. That's an amazing student. So it was your consistency and the effort you put in. You knew the goal you were going for, and you weren't looking for results to happen in a week or two weeks. You were committed to the long game, which is exactly what it is. And what's so cool is that you've been able to maintain these results for this long.

Nikkiey: Hey, I just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you're enjoying it, and there's so much more to come. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons, and it would also help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show.

Nikkiey: So I want to talk about this last year too. But quickly take us through the build, the cut, the maintenance, and then your second go at it. When you came into the cut, what were your results, and what made you decide to come out of it and go into another maintenance and build?

Ashley: In the first build, I think I only gained 8 to 10 pounds after a whole year of all that. Then I cut for about four months, and I was like, this is great, this is working, this is what I want. But now I want more, right? Now I know my body can do it. I know I can do it mentally. I know what's coming. So I was like, let's do this again. And I thought about the timing. Let's maybe end before summer instead of at the end of summer, when I'm just fluffy everywhere, and escape that whole thing. So I did another whole year and then cut again, and it ended near summertime, before summer. Then I was like, okay, now I need maintenance to really kick in and figure out how to keep this. I think on one of your podcasts we talked about how to keep the cut look in maintenance. And I haven't been able to do it. I feel like I finally have a grasp on it now, but it's mentally so hard. Because this is what I want to look like. I'm fluffy, and then I cut and I look awesome, but then I go into maintenance and I don't look like that anymore. So I'm like, how am I supposed to keep the look I want, yet eat all the food and keep doing everything I'm supposed to do? It's such a mind-blowing experience trying to keep everything... it's just hard to go through. But the community is so huge, and everybody's gone through it. 'You're going to do it. Just keep going. Give it two more months.' It's a nice community where everybody's going through the same thing, and they're so supportive. I think that's had such a huge impact through all the cuts and builds and everything we've gone through.

Nikkiey: It's a pretty badass community that we have. I think it's super dope for everyone to be able to come to one place, share their experiences and feel supported. Not many people know what a cut, a maintenance and a build is. People even call it a bulk, and I chose 'build' because bulk is scary for women. So it's nice to have a safe space where people can share their journey. When you did the build and cut, then went back into maintenance and a build again, did you end up coming back down into a cut after that?

Ashley: Yeah.

Nikkiey: At what point did you start seeing it? Because you went from skinny fat, no tone, to having the arms you have now. At what point was that?

Ashley: After my first build, I could see the muscle starting. At that point I was like, all right, this is working.

Nikkiey: Weird. When you eat, your body grows.

Ashley: And I feel like that has just kept going. I was like, I need this again, let's do this again. And now I feel like I'm at a position where I can keep it and hold it, still look slightly cut, and eat a ton. It's just trial and error, the whole juggling thing of trying to keep it and still not be in a cut.

Nikkiey: But look the way you want to look.

Ashley: Yeah.

Nikkiey: Honestly though, the work you've put in over the last five years... it takes that time. You have such a great mentality toward it. A lot of people come in wanting quick results, in 90 days, or X, Y and Z in one year. But in order to sustain what you have, you had to put in that work and that effort to be where you're at now. I know you mentioned when we were talking earlier that you don't really track anymore. It's probably become somewhat intuitive when you look at food, which is super cool, and I want to dive into that. But before we do: I can resonate with you. You're five years in, I'm nine, ten years in. We just keep going. It's part of our identity now. What motivates you every single day to keep going?

Ashley: I would say my kids. That's the biggest. They see me being strong. They see me working out all the time and trying. I just want to give them the same upbringing, to see hard work. And they're doing it. Very few people on their wrestling team can cut weight. They're eight and seven years old. It's not like they're cutting a lot, and it's not like I'm making my kids starve. But the fact that mentally they can do it... My husband and I say all the time: I don't care what you do on the mat. I don't care if you lose every single match. You cut weight. You made weight. You told your team you were going to be 53 pounds, and you were 53 pounds. I don't care what you do. You already won. That's like going through a build, going through a cut. That's your end goal: I told someone I was going to do this, and I'm going to do it. That's the mental toughness. They've got it, at eight and seven years old. I'm like, let's go, boys. Let's see what we can do.

Nikkiey: Eight and seven. Man, that's huge. You should be so proud of yourself for gaining all that information and knowledge and passing it on to them. They're going to carry it on for the rest of their lives, and that's because of you and your husband starting that. It's so cool.

Ashley: When I first started, my oldest was in half-day preschool, and they go to school about a half hour from us. So I would drive one to school and drop him off, and for the other two it was nap time. So I'd do this huge loop around the area and drive for two hours while they slept and the other one was in school, and all I did was listen to all the modules the entire time. So I think it's ingrained in there. As they're sleeping, it's Nikkiey Stott talking in there.

Nikkiey: You reprogrammed your mind, one thousand percent. That's so cool. I didn't know that.

Ashley: Yeah, that's all I listened to, for a solid two years. That was the only thing we had on.

Nikkiey: Oh wow, that's so cool. So take us up to what's been happening with you in the last year and where you've been at.

Ashley: I feel like 2024 was my reset. I took a step back. I wasn't doing five days a week, let's go. I was doing three or four days a week of lifting. Not that I was lazy, but I wanted to see what my body could do without going so hard. And then I was having gut issues and skin issues, and it all culminated, and I'm like, I've got to figure this out. That's why the lifting took a back seat. I went to functional medicine doctors to clean it out and figure out what was going on. I did all the blood work, and this doctor went over my chart, and it said I could not process protein. I'm eating 200 grams of protein a day, and I could not process protein.

Nikkiey: Wow.

Ashley: So I would eat and look six months pregnant every time. And I'm like, something is going on. Clearly I'm not pregnant, but something is making me do this. So I cut out gluten. Then I was like, maybe it's all the pesticides they're spraying on our fruit, so I cut that out. I'm washing everything. I'm super diving into everything we're eating and making sure everything's clean. And with the reset, I'm taking super enzymes, and in a month, a total 180.

Nikkiey: No way.

Ashley: My skin's completely clear. My body's not bloated at all. Crazy. And especially turning 40 in May, heading into menopause, that's what I'm so grateful for: that I have this education. I'm going to set myself up so when I hit this stage that all my friends are in now, I know what to do. It'll erase years of trying to figure it all out.

Nikkiey: That gave me the chills. You're in the prime seat for navigating that part of your life.

Ashley: And that's why I'm so grateful I found it when I did. One, it took me out of this mommy pregnancy slump and brought me back to my time. And it set me up so I'm now successfully going through my 40s and beyond. When my body goes into all these hormonal changes, it won't be 'I don't know what to do.' The education behind it is so powerful.

Nikkiey: That's awesome. And because you're so healthy now and so active and structured, with your composition and your muscle mass, you'll probably go into late menopause, like your mid-50s probably.

Ashley: Yeah. And I see all these videos saying the one thing people in their 70s and 80s need to do is lift. And I'm like, if I can just keep this, I'll be good.

Nikkiey: That's what keeps me motivated, because I don't have kids yet. That will for sure be my motivation when I do. But I don't want to look back when I'm 80 years old... First of all, I don't want to get big and fat and lose everything I just built. I feel like it's a total identity.

Ashley: Can you imagine? I can't even imagine. And I get it, some people go through it. But I can't imagine just being like, 'Oh, F this, I'm just going to eat whatever I want.' It's such a mindset thing now. There's no way.

Nikkiey: It's our identity. It's our identity.

Ashley: Absolutely.

Nikkiey: You went from sports to 'I'm just going to get fit and be this fit mom that goes through life.' Heck yeah, I love that. So you're five years in, as we keep saying. You've gone through all the education, all the modules. You have such a wealth of education under your belt. For somebody listening who thinks they have to track macros for the rest of their life, or thinks they can't do this because they don't want to, but they aspire to have the results you have, what would you tell that person?

Ashley: In the beginning, when I was learning about macros and trying to figure it out, it's overwhelming. It's a lot. Now that we're five years in, the apps are much more intuitive. You can scan food now and it tells you the macros in it, close enough. For the first probably three years, I was so on it. Nothing went in my mouth that wasn't tracked in this phone. The bites, licks and tastes. Nothing.

Nikkiey: No BLTs coming off of your plate?

Ashley: Nothing. No one shares. We have a rule in this house: nobody takes anybody's food.

Nikkiey: Oh, that's a great rule. Don't touch my food.

Ashley: You know those families that are like, 'Let's share everything'? I'm like, uh-uh. This is tracked. This is portioned out. No one's touching my food. So it took three years of super strict macro counting. And then as I slowly undid everything, I'm like, I can still hit my numbers and get to my goals without being so strict. I know eyeballing. I know how much stuff is now, right? I know how much protein I need at every meal. I know the quantity of food. So eventually it gets a little intuitive and you feel more comfortable with it. Could I track in the future? Probably, if I fall off and figure out, okay, I need to get back on this. But I think I'm eating so clean now and so strict. We don't eat out a lot. I'm not going into the pantry and getting chips. It's just not in my diet. It's whole foods, and that's it. So it's much easier to just intuitively eat.

Nikkiey: I love that. You had to put in the work, three years tracking diligently, right? To get success, you have to work hard. That's just facts.

Ashley: But it pays off.

Nikkiey: And you don't have to track macros for the rest of your life. I stopped tracking diligently about a year ago. But in order for me to stop, I was on and off with it. It was a little bit of a battle mentally. I don't know if you experienced that too. At one point I was like, 'Nikkiey, just trust yourself. You know this inside and out, like the back of your hand.' And when I fully trusted myself, that I could do this, now it's more about being consciously aware of the decisions I'm making. Like you're saying: whole foods, no chips. And if I want something, it's in moderation.

Ashley: Correct. And that's a big thing too, right? I don't eat pizza, but if you like pizza, you can still have it. That's the best part of macros: fit it in. If you want to do a cheat meal, go ahead. You don't have to fall off the wagon. It's one meal. And you get to a point... my husband says my inner determination is like I'm on another planet. I'm just clear: I'm not going to eat that. Why would I ever want that? We'll pass something and he's like, 'Oh, I would crush that right now,' and I'm like, what? There's nothing where I'm like, 'Oh, I want that so bad and I can't have it.' If I want it, I eat it.

Nikkiey: Amen.

Ashley: And my taste buds now just aren't craving the crap.

Nikkiey: Amen.

Ashley: It's like, give me a steak, give me fresh fruit.

Nikkiey: And you get to a point where that happens intuitively, and you have to put in the work to get there. And when you do have something that's a little off, you can feel the difference in your body.

Ashley: So gross.

Nikkiey: Sugar or something like that. Especially around my period, sometimes I go for Sour Patch Kids or something. Then I'm three or four in and I'm like...

Ashley: You can feel it hit. Immediately.

Nikkiey: You're so in tune with your body. You've done the work to understand it and feed it healthy food. Your taste buds are drastically different. The way your body responds is drastically different.

Ashley: Absolutely.

Nikkiey: So what do you think are some of the top achievements you've accomplished with WarriorBabe?

Ashley: Definitely following the plan, going through complete cycles of the build, the cut and the maintenance, and really figuring out how to do maintenance. That was my big one. There's no end goal, right? There's no finish line. There's no age where I'm going to say, 'Well, I have my body, so I guess I'll stop now.' Mentally getting through that no-finish-line aspect was huge for me, because it's just something you have to accept. It's never going to stop. And I enjoy it. I enjoy working out every day. I enjoy eating the way I eat. It's the mentality of doing that. Going through all those phases was super hard in the beginning. It's a lot. It would be so much easier to be a mom sitting on the couch. Do I spend butt loads of hours figuring out what I'm eating, when I'm eating it, and when I'm going to work out? Yes. And it's super stressful. But the other side of that is not being there for my kids, and not showing my kids what to eat, how to eat it, how to excel at sports. That aspect, and all the education behind it that I've received, has been such a huge instrument in my success.

Nikkiey: And the body you have, the muscles you have, the shoulders you have, and the mind you have. Those are some badass gains. I love all of that. How does it feel to look back and see how far you've come?

Ashley: It's crazy. I took pictures on January 1st of, I guess it was 2020, when I first started, and at the beginning of my build. I would take all the pictures and send them to you to look at, and I was like, I've got nothing. My butt was completely flat.

Nikkiey: You got a booty transformation.

Ashley: I got a physique. But yeah, I got a butt in this.

Nikkiey: You got a big butt.

Ashley: And it's hard, it's muscle. My husband's like, 'Jesus, where'd you get that from?' I'm like, 'Do some squats. You'll find it.'

Nikkiey: Your transformations, I'm sure the team will put them in the edits. Your transitions are so cool.

Ashley: Crazy. Even just taking a four-month cut, just to see the water intake, when you increase that, what it does. And the stupid scale is just not a good tool. Through all of this, I've learned not to go on the scale. When I was doing the build, it was like, this is for Nikkiey. These are numbers for Nikkiey. It has nothing to do with me. Let me just show her what it is and get it out of my head. It's so hard to get over that. That's a huge hurdle for people, because you're brought up being asked, 'How much do you weigh? Why don't you lose some weight?' And then you think it's not working because you only lost one pound. From January 1st to right now, I've lost almost three pounds. Not even three pounds. And I am cut.

Nikkiey: Your muscles, your pictures... if you were to take side-by-sides, you can tell there's a drastic change.

Ashley: Yes. Just from small changes. The scale didn't move, and that's okay. That's super hard for people to get over. It's a hard struggle, because it's what you were brought up with, right?

Nikkiey: So many people literally justify their emotions based on the number on the scale. If they step on it and it's down, they're elated and the rest of the day is awesome. If they step on it and it's up, it's the end of the world. But they forget to look at the comparisons side by side, because pictures tell it all.

Ashley: And that's the best part of the community. You post them side by side and you're like, 'Guys, I see nothing. What is going on?' And they're like, 'Hello. Look at this part, and then look at this part. Look at your cheeks. Look at your thighs. Your whole face is different.' Just that validation of other people saying, 'Yeah, look.' The pictures are just so much better.

Nikkiey: I'm so happy you brought that up, because there are tons of pictures inside the community where people do say that. We're our own worst enemy. We get in our heads, we look at pictures and go, 'Eh, whatever.' There are WarriorBabe VIPs whose coaches have to send them their own pictures and say, 'This is what I'm seeing.' A lot of women, and maybe this was you at the beginning, take their pictures and don't even look at them. That's what you were just saying: 'This is for Nikkiey.' But don't rely on the scale. Look at that picture, as uncomfortable as it is. It'll give you more motivation to keep going.

Ashley: Absolutely. You see the difference and you're like, oh, it is doing something. Even if the scale's not moving, I have another measure of success. And slowly you start getting rid of the scale, doing it less and less, and then you just go by feel.

Nikkiey: Totally. We're going to wrap this up in a couple more questions. Is there anything I didn't ask you today that you'd want the listeners to know?

Ashley: I think a big aspect of this is the nutrition side. For me it was a lot of trial and error. Some things didn't work for my body. Some things did. And the things that worked at 34 are not working at 39. So yes, you're going through all these changes, working out and doing everything correctly, but maybe the foods you're eating aren't in tune with your specific body. So it has to be continual trial and error, because you're going to get older and hit different hormonal stages. What sweet potatoes did to me two years ago is not what sweet potatoes do to me now. It's being aware of that and knowledgeable enough to go through those changes, and bringing it to your attention: 'Why does my body feel weird now?' And then being able to look back and say, 'Okay, this is what I'm eating. This is why I feel weird.' Keep that at the forefront of your nutrition: make sure you're hitting everything, but also know that the quality of the food you're eating might need to change. Keeping that open and flowing has really helped me a lot.

Nikkiey: Totally. That's such great advice. Thank you for sharing that. What would you say to somebody watching this right now who's unsure about taking the next step? I talked to a couple of WarriorBabes who were like, 'I saw your ad, put it on my revisit page, and didn't come back to it for a year and a half.' There was another one who said she sat on it for a month. What would you tell someone who's unsure, in terms of how WarriorBabe can impact them and the impact it can have on their life?

Ashley: One, do it. But two, you need to align your values, your goals and your family values. Make sure they're all in line, and it works itself out. My biggest thing was, how is this going to fit in? And I jumped into it immediately, went straight into a build. I was just all in. I was like, she said exactly what I want. I want more food. I want less cardio. And it works. You have to follow the game plan, exactly what it is. And you guys have a coach who's leading you, which is like a whole other Nikkiey. I can't even imagine having a better Nikkiey next to me.

Nikkiey: Thank you, Ashley. They're better though. They're way better.

Ashley: It's such an empowering environment, unlike anything I've ever tried or experienced. And the community... I have Christmas card friends in the community. I have women at my gym we talk to. There's one whose kids go to my kids' school, so we catch up for coffee every few months. I went to Hawaii to visit my brother, and I called one and said, 'Hey, I'm going to be here. You want to work out?' And we worked out together. This is going to make me cry. It's just hard to find such a unique community of women who get it, who work hard and get it.

Nikkiey: I love that. There are tears in my eyes, because that's literally everything. From the point that you, as a human, dove into the program, took it seriously and listened, you were the best student, down to the impact it's made for you to reach out and make friends and create an ecosystem, a support system of people who get the lifestyle you live and embody. All the way to cementing the foundations of lasting health for your family and your kids.

Ashley: Absolutely.

Nikkiey: You embody what a WarriorBabe is.

Ashley: Oh, thank you.

Nikkiey: You're welcome. And thank you for showing up, for being consistent, for leading by example. That's exactly what you're doing. I can't thank you enough for sharing your story on this platform, because it's going to help somebody understand that they can do this too. They can develop their confidence, self-belief, and an understanding and education around nutrition and exercise. You're different from all the interviews I've had because you've been at it for five years. You're on the other end. You're intuitively eating now. You've done the macro game for a while. You understand the education. You've lived the lifestyle. It's literally just part of who you are now.

Ashley: Absolutely.

Nikkiey: And that is incredible. So thank you for sharing your story and for being here and hanging out.

Ashley: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. And thank you for building this amazing community. Watching the company evolve and change, the target market, what you're doing day to day, it's super impactful. It's amazing to sit back and watch everybody come in. It's really exciting. I'm really happy for you and excited for the future of where you're going.

Nikkiey: Thank you, Ashley. That means so much. I appreciate you.

Nikkiey: Real quick: if this episode resonated with you or gave you the push you needed, I'd love for you to pay it forward. Drop a quick rating and review, share the podcast with someone who might need it, and help me keep spreading the word. Your feedback not only helps the show grow, but it might just be the nudge someone else needs to kickstart their transformation. Thank you so, so much for your support.