How a Busy Mom of 4 Built Muscle and Got Lean With Macros

Nikkiey: Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

Andrea: My husband and I have never traveled away from the children on an airplane since they were born, because we're always afraid of what happens if something happened to us. So December 2022, the end of December, it was two days after Christmas. We went to Vegas, and within the first 36 hours, we took a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, and it ended up crashing on our way back to the airport.

Nikkiey: What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. Or if this is one of your first episodes, I'm really stoked that you're here, because you're joining in on a good one.

Today I have a friend, Andrea, who is a mom of four who made it her mission to transform her health and her strength about seven years ago. I'm really excited for her to share her incredible resilience, the powerful lessons she's learned, and her story. I think it's going to really inspire a lot of you. She's done it through macros and strength training. And she's not only reshaped herself, she's also become a trainer and a coach to expand on the inspiration she had for herself so she can share it with others.

So I can't wait to dive into her story. Andrea, welcome to the show.

Andrea: Good to be here. Good to be here.

Nikkiey: Awesome. So, Andrea, I've been following you on social media for a little bit, and we caught up for about 30 minutes before this episode a couple of weeks ago. It's so inspiring to hear about your transformation over the past seven years. Can you share a little bit about what initially sparked your journey to not only reshape your own life, but also to help others achieve their goals?

Andrea: Well, number one, I've always wanted to be thin, wanted to be healthy and lean. So I've always tried to include diet and healthy food in my lifestyle. But about seven years ago, I was 35, and I felt like things were changing. I started to look kind of skinny fat. It wasn't a toned version of myself. And I felt really stuck. I'm like, how do I get out of this? The things I was doing before, which was under-eating, weren't working anymore to look lean and thin. So that's when I wanted to change.

Our gym was having a 60-day challenge. It was a fat loss challenge. And I'm like, that would be something to inspire myself to do something different, right? Let's lose body fat to see what kind of muscle I've built over my whole life. So I was excited to do that. You had to apply through a trainer, so I asked one of the trainers. I said, I want to join this challenge. He's like, why would you want to do that? You're already thin. And I took a step back, and in my mind I'm like, who are you to tell me what I can and can't do, what I can and can't achieve?

So on my own, I'm like, you know what? I'm going to enter the challenge. The prize was $1,000 with everything included. I'm going to win the challenge, and I'm going to do it for me. So at that point I just stayed in a calorie deficit. I joined a group class once a week. They also required you to do your why and things like that during the challenge. So I tried yoga, I tried new classes. But mainly the nutrition was the biggest thing. In 60 days, I lost eight pounds of body fat.

And I truly saw the muscle I had built since the age of 18, because that's when I started exercising. What I realized is I don't have that much muscle. I had very little muscle. I did see my six-pack after 60 days. But I'm like, this isn't me. This is not going to be sustainable, because I was eating such a low, temporary calorie deficit to reach my tiny little six-pack. I can't eat 1,400 calories forever. How can I change this?

What I came to understand after the 60 days was I need to strength train more. I need to build more muscle. In the past, I'd always been afraid of bulking. I don't want to look bulky. I want to look lean. I want to look thin. And I'm 5'9", so I already feel tall and big. I don't want to look big with muscle. But I'm like, you know what? Based on what I see right now, I do like seeing my abs. I do like having toner arms. The answer is bulkier muscle.

That doesn't mean I'm going to be bulky, but my muscle is going to be a little bit bulkier so I can actually see it. So I'm like, okay, define my purpose. When I processed that in my mind: I'm not going to be bulky. My muscles just need to be bulkier. Same thing with my six-pack. If I want to see my abs, I have to have bigger abs. The fat's gone. How am I going to keep my abs visible? I need bigger abs. Once I came to peace with that, that's what set me off from that point on. I'm going to build muscle.

My whole focus was I'm going to build the muscle and then eat to sustain the muscle. And through that process, the year after the 60-day challenge, I read a lot about macros. And it made sense, because diets are so confusing, right? There are so many different diets. What to choose, what to avoid. In the beginning I was avoiding gluten and dairy and all these things, and it was really stressful, because I don't even know if I'm doing it right. But macros were so clear, because they encompass all diets.

It's just three simple things to understand. To me, that was an aha moment. If I just focus on my three main macronutrients, obviously eating nutritious foods, that was the key for me. It made it so simple. And I'm like, I wish I would have started before 35. I wish I would have known what I know now. Because after the 60-day challenge, within two years I had achieved my goal body. I had achieved a maintainable six-pack and the cut, lean arms I'd always wanted, in two years of not being in a calorie deficit anymore, of eating to sustain and build muscle that entire time.

Nikkiey: Okay, wow. First of all, I have a bit to unpack there, because there are so many women listening to this right now. And I know personally, at the beginning of my journey, I was skinny fat too. I had this vision in my mind of the body I wanted to have. But all the things social media and the internet were telling me to do were eat less, eat less, eat less, do more cardio. That's what I was doing, and I still wasn't getting the body I wanted. I didn't opt into a challenge, but I know there are listeners who have opted into challenges before.

But you're one of the few percent who actually come out the other side, learning the methodologies you were given, getting curious about macros, diving into that world, and following it through consistently. So I want to unpack that a little bit, and the second thing I want to dive into is the bulking aspect. But what carried you through? I'm trying to separate you from the ones who sign up for challenges that don't carry themselves through and end up gaining it all back.

What motivated you to keep going? Not only to win. You're like, I'm in it to win, I'm going to do it for me. How would you describe that mindset, and how can listeners take away from that mindset so they can sign up for a challenge? Maybe it's a new year coming up, right? And they can have the success you had. If everybody could do that, we'd all have our dream bodies in two years, right?

Andrea: Yeah. To me, it was acknowledging that the things holding me back were fear-based. The things I thought were holding me back were actually excuses. And in the end, it's: why not me? If that mom can do it, how come I can't achieve my best self? And the answer was I don't have any excuses. Not even excuses, I don't have any limitations when I look at what those limitations are, right? To me, it was I don't have time, right?

So I looked in my area and found a gym that would actually change the diapers. I had four babies at the time. They'd change my babies' diapers. I'm like, you know what? Now I have the time. I have one hour to myself because of this gym. And even on the days with my four kids, I'd have one ride their bike, one in my little strap, two in the stroller, and I'd push them. That was my cardio. And for the lifting, you just do a short lifting block. You don't need an expansive amount of time.

You figure out how to incorporate your responsibilities, like your children, and then find the dead space in your day. Because we can waste 10 minutes just looking at our phone. That's 10 minutes you could be lifting weights.

Nikkiey: Amen. To pull that out a little bit more, I know there are moms listening to this. A friend of mine commented on my reel last week, girl, moms just don't have the same 24 hours in a day as everybody else. Obviously there's some emotion behind that, because clearly we all have the same 24 hours. So what would you say to a mom who's like, we don't have the same 24 hours, we don't have enough time? You kind of just said it, but what would you actually say to that mom?

Andrea: Our 24 hours is different than someone without children. At times it was so overwhelming to have four little babies. My husband traveled full time. I had no family in the area. But in order to take care of my children better, I needed to find some way to fulfill myself, to sustain myself, even if it was 10 minutes of core or whatever, and come out of it saying, hey, I did it.

Despite the obstacles, I found 10 minutes to do abs today. I felt the success and achievement of something that was just for me. And I think that was really powerful and cool, to be like, yeah, I can do it all, right? You can find the way. So the positivity of it is you see it as a challenge. Yeah, I've got a baby and all this kind of stuff, but I'm going to do it anyway, and I'm going to be better for myself.

Nikkiey: Oh my God. We're 10 minutes into this, Andrea, and this is going to be such a powerful, good podcast. I can feel it already. And I hope when people are rewinding and listening, they hear not only your words, but the energy behind your words. You exude so much positivity toward yourself. It's also so important in the way you approach your day-to-day, showing up for yourself to say, I'm going to do the 60-day challenge.

I'm going to win. I'm going to do it for me, and I'm not going to let my fear-based excuses hold me back. That is so powerful, so I just want to celebrate you for that, and I hope other moms are soaking you up right now.

Andrea: Thank you.

Nikkiey: So to dive a little deeper into the bulking aspect. I know so many women are so afraid. It's still a thing that goes on on social media: I don't want to get too bulky, I want to be toned, but I don't want to look like a man, and I don't want huge muscles. So you were at 1,400 calories, or maybe that was an example, but you used that number for the 60-day challenge. The next year, you said you knew you had to get bigger muscles, you wanted bigger abs. From 1,400 calories, what did you go up to calorie-wise and macro-wise to make that goal happen?

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Andrea: So obviously I used Google. At the time I didn't have a trainer helping me. I didn't have anything. I'm like, I'm going to look at Google.

Nikkiey: Even more badass. What the heck, Andrea? There are people out there who will use Google and give up after two weeks. Okay.

Andrea: I really read about what lean bulking is. And lean bulking is only eating a tiny bit more than your maintenance calories. Because your metabolism does slow in a calorie deficit phase, I'm like, okay, I'm kind of maintaining on this calorie deficit. I need to do this slowly. It's not going to be an overnight thing. So it wasn't a linear thing. That first year was an experiment. Okay, I'll just add a little bit more food. And I had come to understand macros and how they help, especially over 35 with our hormones: we do better with a little bit more fat. I was scared to death of fats before the age of 35.

I never included fats. So I'm like, let me try adding this fat to help me stay full, so I don't go from 1,400 to 2,000 calories right away, because that's how you're going to gain a bunch of fat back. Muscle takes a while to grow. That's when I really opened my eyes: if I just eat normal food that has actual fat in it, like a real egg instead of just an egg white, I stay full longer. And now I can sustain the calories. So that first year was an experiment.

But I tracked my macros and calories, because I did want to learn for myself. If I can learn the tools, I'll have this forever. Yeah, it's a little bit of a headache in the beginning, but I'll know about me. And what I learned about myself is I do need the higher fats and to slowly add in calories. And because I was already lean, I had already dropped the fat, you listen to your hunger cues. If you work out more and you're eating healthy, single-ingredient food, you can eat a little bit more.

You don't need to be restrictive now, because your body's telling you it needs the calories to grow the muscle.

Nikkiey: Oh my God. I love having guests on the podcast who speak my language, because it's so powerful when you're saying similar things to what I say and the listeners can just soak it up. Oh, Nikkiey said this before. Andrea is saying the same thing. It must mean something. And I love that you immersed yourself. You didn't know about this stuff before, and you just went in and learned and gained new knowledge.

Then you tested it out and tried new experiences. You saw the results, which gave you new emotions, and now it's become who you are and what you do, your state of being. Amen. I hope everybody can achieve that. Obviously a lot of things come up in people's lives, the excuses and the fears and the narratives that hold them back. But besides that point, you dropped the body fat. You did achieve where you wanted to be. And then you recognized that more food isn't necessarily going to make me fat.

More food is going to fuel my body and my muscles to make them grow, to be more toned. Not necessarily bulky, but toned.

Andrea: Amen. And that's what I realized. If you're slowly adding in calories, you feel stronger in the gym. You're not going to see muscle right away. But you're like, okay, I'm not going to have the restrictive mindset. I'm going to have an I-want-to-be-stronger mindset. Eat smart, right? You lift weights.

And there will be days, maybe a couple of weeks after, when you can lift heavier. And that's how your muscles grow. You don't even have to see it in the mirror right away, because it does take time. But you'll feel it in the gym, and you'll feel it in the energy you gain throughout your day. To me, I felt like I was 25 again after two years, because your body is transforming on the inside too. It's not just the outside.

Nikkiey: Heck yeah. Macros and strength training don't just change our bodies physically. They give us a renewed, new sense of confidence. When you see your body changing and taking the shape you want it to, it's this whole new sense of being. Right?

Andrea: Absolutely. Yeah.

Nikkiey: It's a totally new mindset that can emerge from this. That's why I love it so much. The tip of the iceberg is what everybody sees with macros, people following the plan and doing the strength training. But it's also what happens underneath that makes the success happen: the dedication, the discipline, the willpower, the ability to break through limiting beliefs.

The success comes from that. And it creates a whole new embodied mentality, which is just game-changing. That's what macros and strength training can do for someone. So, okay, there's tons of hesitation around strength training, especially with moms over 40. There are misconceptions. I think we've pretty much cleared up the bulky aspect. Are there any other misconceptions you'd want to help clear up around what strength training could do for a body?

Andrea: A lot of women, especially over 40, think it's too late, or they think it's going to be so much harder. But I tell my clients to do it in phases. Either focus on the fat loss, buckle down, do a 12-week fat loss, and then focus on really growing and building muscle from there. People always want to do everything all at once. But let's burn some of the body fat off, see what muscle you have as your base, and then build it up from there.

Because if you're under-eating constantly, it's very difficult to build any muscle. And a lot of women over 40 never feel hungry. They're always under-eating and in a deficit. They're lifting like crazy. They're exercising and doing cardio like crazy. And then they're like, I can't build any muscle, I never look toned. And it's like, well, you're not eating to sustain the muscle. You're burning your muscle by fasting and drinking coffee and then exercising for two hours.

Nikkiey: Amen. Say it louder for the ones in the back, Andrea. So I want to give a little context, if you're comfortable, for the people listening. You're a mom of four. Can you share how old you are?

Andrea: I'm 42. I'll be 43 next month.

Nikkiey: Okay, awesome. So you have four kids. How old is the oldest?

Andrea: He is 18 now. And then I have a 15-year-old, a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old.

Nikkiey: Amazing. So they were already well into their ages when you decided to make this focus on yourself, right? Seven years ago?

Andrea: So with the strength-based change: before the age of 35, my mindset was eat as little as possible to stay thin. I'm from Wisconsin. I have morbidly obese relatives. My grandparents had diabetes and things like that. So it was ingrained in me: I don't want to have all those health conditions, I need to stay thin. But it's very hard to eat 1,500 calories your whole life.

Nikkiey: Yeah.

Andrea: You know what I mean? And exercise. So really the transformation, and my daughter was five when I started lifting, was like, yay for me, I know how to under-eat. How do I reverse this so I don't always have to be stressed out about food? Always worried at parties, like, I'm going to gain weight, I'm going to gain fat. I don't want to have this mentality anymore. I want to feel strong and more confident in my food choices, to relieve that mental pressure you put on yourself to always be skinny.

Nikkiey: Yeah. Wow. So freaking powerful.

Nikkiey: Quick break. If you're finding this episode helpful so far, it would mean a lot if you could hit pause for just a second, leave a quick rating or review, or share it with someone who could benefit from it. Your support helps more women discover these tools to build muscle, lose fat and feel confident. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me.

Nikkiey: Okay. Let's dive into a challenge that happened. Can you share a little bit about what happened to you? I'm going to let you take it, because it's your story.

Andrea: So let's go back to seven years ago. In two years, I had achieved more muscle. I kept building muscle from there, and I wanted to run more at the same time. So I wanted to build muscle and I wanted to run. I figured out a way to improve not only my endurance but my strength level. So two years ago, I was, to me, at my peak physique.

I could run 75-mile weeks. I ran three half marathons in a week. That was my best, coolest thing, with all the muscle I had. I'm like, I've done it. I've got it.

Nikkiey: I've got to come in here and say, guys, once you start following Andrea on Instagram, you will see she looks freaking incredible. So to hear all of that, to have the muscle you have but also run, I'm giving you a high five.

Andrea: So December 2022, the end of December, it was two days after Christmas. My husband and I had never traveled away from the children on an airplane since they were born, because we're always afraid of what happens if something happened to us. How would our kids be? They're older now, so we're like, we're going to go to Vegas. We'll only go for a few days, and we'll come back before the new year. So we went to Vegas, and within the first 36 hours, we took a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, and it ended up crashing on our way back to the airport.

So you're going from the top of your physique, you did it, to the worst, most painful, and it's going to be two years next month, the worst, most painful two years of my entire life. I was in the hospital for two weeks. I had a tibial plateau fracture in my leg. My spleen was ruptured, tibia break, ankle issues, back issues, things like that. My husband has permanent blindness in one eye. So you're in this hospital and everything stops. Everything stops.

And you realize what is important. I'm still alive, right? It pulls you back from whatever you thought was important before. I'm still alive. So I spent two weeks in the hospital there. There were complications when I got home. I had a muscle and bone infection, had to have all the plates and screws removed, had an external fixator on for seven months, and just got that taken off a year ago. And through all this, I had the strength and the discipline from the years of building myself up to now pull myself from the lowest part of my entire life.

We're talking wheelchair and crawling up the stairs. I had to be non-weight bearing for 16 weeks during that time. My mom had to live with me. I couldn't take care of the kids anymore. I was on 12 medications. And then in my mind, you think of the positive, right? Okay, it's my leg. I still have my arms. I can just lift to feel positive.

Nikkiey: You have such a beautiful outlook. When you say that, it's like, I have two arms and it's just my leg, but I was just in a helicopter crash. To have that kind of outlook is so powerful. How did you feel motivated during that time?

Andrea: So the power was, two weeks after the crash, I decided I would share my journey on social media. Because I had influencers I looked up to in the beginning who were in crashes, and they'd say something happened, but they would not show anything until they came back perfect and beautiful. And I'm like, you know what? I think I can do this. I think I can show the real thing and how hard this is. It was very difficult to see myself. Because of the bone and muscle infection, I ended up having a PICC line in my arm, so I couldn't use my arms either. I lost eight pounds of muscle very, very rapidly. It was very aggressive. This is awful.

So I would show on social media the best version of me and now the worst, what was happening to me. Not for sympathy, but this is the reality. This is what I'm facing. We're going to get through it. We're going to look at each day positively. So I was just sharing my story and the day-to-day in my stories. I really made more of an effort to show, hey, this is me trying to fold laundry, or crawl down the stairs during the day, and doing it. Because you've got to keep going. You don't have time to stop once you're a mom.

And sharing with others and then hearing other people's stories, people with similar traumatic experiences around the same time, you now build this community of: this is the reality, this is where we're at right now, and let's get through this. So it didn't become about me anymore. If I'm emotionally okay, I will share what I'm experiencing today.

The doctor told me I would never run again. So feeling that emotion and getting on social media, on my story, and sharing how depressing and how horrible that is. I made a reel about it too. It was so overwhelming to think that this is never going to happen again. And you don't know the ending, right? I didn't know I'd end up having six surgeries. You're thinking, get the one surgery. So every single day, where can I find positivity? And during that time, because it's so dire, it's not about, oh, I'm going to move or whatever.

It's, I need to find positivity anywhere. Joy in my children, or watching a show, things like that. So to me, you have to have more in your basket than just your looks and your movement. Some people put all their joy in movement and all their joy in their looks, but that can be taken away in an instant. And that's what I experienced. It's all gone. What do you have? It's the relationships you've built with your family, with your husband, being thankful that you have a home and you have insurance. In the hospital, those little things are huge. It's about balance, but it's about making sure you have more in that basket you can rely on if something you love is taken away.

Nikkiey: That's incredible. That is so inspiring. One, I'm glad that you and your husband, and the pilot too, everybody survived that crash.

Andrea: Right. Yeah.

Nikkiey: And then, unfortunately, fortunately, you were alive. It was like, I'm alive, okay, here we go. I'm going to go on a journey and do the best I can. And then to share your recovery and your setbacks on social media, the transparency to do that is so inspiring. We talked before about how your followers found so much ease in following your journey and knowing they're not alone. And you also found you're not alone by following others who had been in your shoes. That's the power of social media. That's the way you do social media right. So that's really inspiring.

What's so cool is when you follow Andrea on social media, it doesn't even look like any of that happened, from the leg to the Bosu to the TRX to the way you manage and move. Talk about resilient, and the way you went on your recovery journey. What role did fitness and nutrition play? Obviously you went through all the surgeries and recovery and you were non-weight bearing, so maybe more nutrition. How did that help you stay grounded and strong, both physically and emotionally, during this demanding experience?

Andrea: So your whole world's changing. You're not moving anymore for 16 weeks. I watched my step count and it was hilarious. I'd get like 50 steps a day, and that was hard, right? You're scooting in your walker. So from the beginning of the challenge, in the years prior, I knew if I'm not burning all these calories through movement, I can't eat as much. I was eating 2,400 calories before the crash because I was doing so much exercise.

I pulled it back down to 1,700. So it was enough. It's over my BMR. It's enough to recover my bones. And I changed the patterns of what I ate too, to make sure the macros were still good, but with smaller portions. That was really hard, because I was used to the habit of moving and running and eating all this food. You have to be honest with yourself. I can't do that now. Yes, I'm suffering, but I cannot emotionally turn to food, because it will catch up to me.

I don't want to gain a bunch of excess weight and also have to rehab my leg and learn to walk again. That's too much. So let me eat healthy now. And it wasn't strict. It wasn't like I was so stressed out about it. It was just facing the reality I was in. Especially losing all that eight pounds of muscle, it took a long time to rebuild my calories and metabolism back up. Now I'm eating 2,300 again to maintain, but it's not going to be fast.

It's going to be a long process.

Nikkiey: Amen. Regardless of whether it's a recovery from what you went through or just changing your body composition. So, okay, is this where you fell in love with TRX?

Andrea: So I had used TRX before. I was at a transition point where I did a lot of resistance training with dumbbells and machines and things like that. I had built the muscle I wanted before this crash. But I realized TRX was my saving grace when the crash happened, because I couldn't even bodyweight squat. It was so painful to even bend my knee. But I realized I can use 80% of my upper body to support my lower body to get into the squat movement. So the day the external fixator was put on, you are fully weight bearing. And a couple of days later, I'm on that TRX, and I have it on social media, holding on for dear life and bending as slowly as I can into the squat.

And I tell people, this is 80% my upper body, but I'm using my legs in a less resistant way to get that strength. What I realized is that with the movements you can do on TRX, because you're using your upper body, you can control the movement. You can rebuild your legs with that. So I started adding stability and mobility with Bosu and TRX and showing that a lot. You have to step on the ball, and that's unstable, but you can hold onto the TRX straps and get the mobility. That's why I was able to move so much faster and better, because I spent so much time with TRX and Bosu.

And it was fun, because I had to do PT, right? If you're used to running and things like that, you do PT and they're like, lift up your leg, put down your leg. You don't want to, right? You have to do this to recover, but you don't want to. But this incorporated PT-type movements into something that was fun and challenging for me, in a format I loved, with TRX. Before this crash, I loved dancing on TRX, and that was taken away.

I couldn't do that. So I'm like, you know what? I'm going to learn to hop and jump, because that's what I want to do again. And I built the strength over seven months, from not walking at all to hopping with the fixator on, because I had built my quad and calf strength again. It's simply building the muscle size. And I never ate in a calorie deficit. I was eating to support the muscle growth. So you see it as a challenge, right? It is horrible, but how am I going to get through this?

And any type of movement you can do counts. I don't really like Pilates or ballet moves, but when you're not weight bearing, you know what? These are effective. Lying on the ground and lifting my leg was effective for me right then. I can get back to CrossFit-type stuff in the future, but every movement is beneficial given your circumstances. So it's good to know those moves. Even people who are super fit are like, oh, I'm not going to do yoga or whatever, but those moves will come back and help you in your time of need.

Nikkiey: A hundred percent. I totally agree with that. You have such an incredible mindset, especially in the way you've endured this journey. You've overcome some incredible challenges and you've achieved so much. I love that mentality: you did the 60-day challenge and you achieved your dream body in two years. That is huge. So throughout this whole podcast, you've really spoken to the best version of who you are, and I can feel that in your energy. What does it personally mean to you to become the best version of yourself? And how do you guide others to define and achieve their own version of that in a way that feels authentic to them?

Andrea: You have to really look inside yourself and be honest with yourself. What would you regret at the end of your life? What is something that, in the back of your mind, you've always thought, oh, I wish I could do X, I wish I could do that? And then some sort of fear comes up and blocks you from doing it.

Nikkiey: Said by somebody who had a near-death experience. That's really powerfully said.

Andrea: Because when it comes down to it, we don't have that much time, right? If you're in good health, if you're not injured, get the strength now. Using a walker, thank goodness for my tricep strength, because I was using a walker everywhere, all the time.

I would go out with my husband, because I'm like, I'm not going to stay in the house for 16 months. So I would dress up with my walker, but that was all triceps. You have the opportunity now to build the strength for whatever you face in the future. Do not let that chance go to waste. We don't have time, because you don't know. You only have today.

Nikkiey: That's so true. There are many women listening to this who don't even know where to begin, or who feel very paralyzed by the idea of making any type of big change. Maybe they have what you said at the beginning, some fears holding them back. We're going into the new year, and some people are going to be entering the gym for the first time, but some of them are so scared. I don't even know where to start. What advice would you give someone who feels stuck in this way? How can they take that first step toward a positive change for themselves?

Andrea: I would say keep it simple. Don't keep looking online for the hack or the easiest way. Keep it very simple. If you're like, you know what, that group class looks awesome, it doesn't matter what the group class's end game is, or whether it's the best class in the world. Just start there and build that passion and consistency for movement. I hear people all the time dog on Orangetheory, right? Oh, Orangetheory, it's not enough resistance training. You know what? Orangetheory can change your life. In the future, if you want to do something different, you can pick a different way to train later. But just start with literally anything consistently and you'll see the change.

That mini band, consistently, whatever it is. And make it very, very clear in your mind, especially with the diet aspect. If you learn about macros, or hire a coach, and just learn how simple macros are, it makes a lot of sense. No, you don't have to plug everything into an app. If you plan ahead of time on a Sunday, what am I going to eat all week? It's way more simple than you think.

And I think that's why I get so excited talking about nutrition. When I saw how simple it is, I'm like, hold up. I'm not going to be going online looking for the hack or tip anymore. I've learned it now. And I'm going to continue doing those same habits and routines, because they work.

Nikkiey: Absolutely. Totally. It can feel daunting in the beginning. You said that a little earlier. It's a little overwhelming in terms of all the things: okay, I need to track my protein, fats and carbs, or I need to meal prep all these meals. But like you said, the more you actually do it, the easier it gets over time. It may take you a little bit of time at the beginning, but it's well worth it to keep doing it consistently, because at week three or week four or week six or week eight, you're going to be doing it that much faster than at the beginning.

Andrea: And it's not about being perfect either, right? A lot of women overthink it. I'm going to make this elaborate, organic meal for every single thing I eat. And then they get overwhelmed with all the extra stuff they don't need to do. You can always do that in the future, right? Just keep it very simple, lose the fat, and then build upon what you've learned.

Nikkiey: Amen. Yes. Andrea, so many good takeaways from this podcast. You shared not only your incredible story, but also insights and understanding, and to be patient, really, and to have a good mindset. I loved your mindset around everything you shared today.

Have a good mindset and the ability to approach how you want to navigate your results, rather than letting fear take over, or not doing something you would regret, or X, Y and Z. We have this one life to live. We have one body to live in. Go do your best and stay positive about it. As we wrap up today, what would be the biggest takeaway or piece of advice you'd want the audience to leave with?

Andrea: You can achieve more than you think. And you don't even have to believe you can get there. You just need to start where you are and say, I'm going to do the best for today. How can I impact my health and fitness just for today? And if you're so overwhelmed and busy, and all you have is five minutes to walk outside, that is a win for you. And you celebrate that win. I did it today. Because when you celebrate yourself and your wins each week, no matter how small they are, they compound upon themselves. You have to be your own cheerleader. You are the driver of your own life.

You have to do that for yourself.

Nikkiey: Heck yeah. Andrea, where can everybody find you?

Andrea: I'm on Instagram. My name, Andreafit, and the number four, @Andreafit4, because I have four kids. But also, Andrea fit, and then the question is, what are you fit for? And I want to be fit for life. So I always ask people that question: what are you fit for?

Nikkiey: Oh, I love that. That's so good. I'll link all of your information in the description below this podcast so everyone can go find you. And I highly recommend you guys check out her social media. Super cool. She has some good workouts you can do. Andrea, thank you so much for being here, sharing your insight and your story, and inspiring all the listeners today.

Andrea: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

Nikkiey: Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all the difference, helping more women discover the tools they need to transform their fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much.