How a Mom of 4 Transformed Her Health w/Andrea Simulis

00:00Real 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 for you to do is if you could 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. My husband and I have never traveled away from the children since they were born in an airplane because we're always afraid of what happens if something happened to us.

00:35So 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 crash, toured the Grand Canyon, and it ended up crashing on our way back to the airport. 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 guys are here because you're joining in on a good one.

01:08Today, 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. And I'm really excited for her to share her incredible resilience and powerful lessons that she's learned and her story. I think it's going to really inspire a lot of you guys. And she's done it through macros and strength training. And she's not only reshaped herself, but she's also become a trainer and a coach to expand upon the inspiration she had for herself so she can share it with others.

01:38So I can't wait to dive into her story. Andrea, welcome to the show. Good to be here. Good to be here. Awesome. So, Andrea, it's so inspiring to hear. Like, I've been following on social media for a little bit. And we've talked. We caught up for about, like, 30 minutes before this episode a couple weeks ago. And it's so inspiring to hear about your transformation over the past seven years. Can you share a little bit about, like, what initially sparked your journey to not only reshape your own life, but also to help others achieve their goals? Well, about seven years ago, I've always, number one, wanted to be thin, wanted to be healthy and lean.

02:15So I've always tried to include just diet into my lifestyle and healthy food. But about seven years ago, I was 35. And I felt like things were changing. I just started to end up looking kind of like a 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 thing? Like, things I wasn't doing before, which would be under eating, wasn't working anymore to look lean and thin. So that's when I wanted to change. So our gym was having a 60-day challenge.

02:45It was a fat loss challenge. And I'm like, hey, 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, right? So I was excited to do that. And I asked one of the trainers, you have to apply through a trainer. I said, hey, I want to join this challenge. He's like, why would you want to do that? You are already thin. And I took a step back. And I'm like, 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?

03:17And 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. And so I'm going to win the challenge. And I'm going to do it for me. So at that point, I just stayed in the calorie deficit. I joined a group class once a week. And I also, they required you to do like a little, 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. So in 60 days, I lost eight pounds of body fat.

03:50And I truly saw the muscle I had built since the age of 18 because that's kind of when I started exercising. And what I realized is like, I don't have that much muscle. I didn't, I had very little muscle. And 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 that I'm like, well, I can't eat 1400 calories forever. How can I change this?

04:20And really what I came to understand after the 60 days was I need to strength train more. I need to build more muscle. And in the past, I'd always be afraid of bulking. Like, 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, already feel tall and big. So I'm like, 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.

04:50And that doesn't mean I'm going to be bulky, but it's going to be my muscle is a little bit bulkier to actually see it. So I'm like, okay, define my purpose. Now, when I kind of process that in my mind is I'm not going to be bulky. My muscles just need to be bulkier. Same thing with my six-pack. My abs, if I want to see them, I have to have bigger abs. It's not, the fat's gone. How am I going to keep my abs visible? I need bigger abs. So once I came to peace with that, that's when really it set me off from that point on is I'm going to build a muscle.

05:26That's my whole focus was I'm going to build the muscle and then eat to sustain the muscle. And through that process of the year after the 60-day challenge, that's when I read a lot about macros. And it made sense because diets are so confusing, right? So there's so many different diets. It's 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'm like, I don't even know if I'm doing it right. But macros was so clear because it encompasses all diets.

05:59And it's just three simple things to understand. And then to me, that was an aha moment. You know what? If I just focus on my three main macronutrients, obviously eating nutritious foods, but that was the key for me. And that was, it made it so simple. And I'm like, I wish I would have started before 35. I wish I would have known the stuff I had known now before because within, so it was the 60-day challenge. Within two years, I had achieved my goal body. I had achieved a maintainable six-pack, the cut lean arms I'd always wanted in two years of not in a calorie deficit anymore, of eating to sustain and build muscle that entire time.

06:42Okay, wow. First of all, I'll have a bitch on pack there because there's so many women probably listen to this right now. And I know personally, too, like at the beginning of my journey, I was skinny fat, too, as well. Like it was more so I wanted, I had this vision in my mind of the body that I wanted to have. But all of the things that were telling me to do on social media and like the internet were like, eat less, eat less, eat less, do more cardio. And that's what I was doing. And I still wasn't getting the body that I wanted. So like you, I mean, I didn't opt into a challenge, but I know there's listeners on here that have opted into challenges before.

07:18But you're one of the few percent that actually come out of it the other side, learning the methodologies that were given to you during it, getting curious about macros, diving into that world, following it through consistently. So to unpack that one a little bit, and the second thing I want to dive in on is like the bulking aspect. But like what carried you through? Like I'm trying to separate the ones I've signed up for challenges that don't carry themselves through and end up gaining all the way back.

07:48Like 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. So like how would you describe that mindset that you have and how can listeners also take away from that mindset so they can sign up for the challenge? Maybe it's a new year coming up, right? And they can have the success that you had because it's if everybody could do that, we'd all have our three. I'll have our bodies in two years, right? Yeah. To me, it was acknowledging that the things that were holding me back were fear based.

08:22The things that I thought were excuses or the things that I thought was holding me back were actually excuses. And in the end, it is why not me? If that mom can do it, if that mom can do it, how come I can't achieve my best self? And their answer was I don't have any excuses and I don't have any, not even excuses. I don't have any limitations when I look at what those limitations are, right? So to me, it was I don't have time, right?

08:52So I looked in my area. I found a gym that would actually change the diapers. I have four babies at the time. Change my baby's diapers. I'm like, you know what? Now I have the time. I have one hour that's to myself because of this gym. Okay. So even on the days, my four kids decide I would have one ride their bike, one on my little strap, two in the stroller, and I'd push them. And that was my cardio. And then for the lifting, you just do a short lifting block. So you don't need an expansive amount of time.

09:24You figure out how to incorporate your responsibilities like your children and then find the dead space in your day. Because we waste, I mean, we can waste 10 minutes just looking at our phone. That's 10 minutes you could be lifting weights. Amen. So to that point, to pull that out a little bit more, I know there's moms that are listening to this. They're like, oh, moms don't have – actually, somebody, a friend of mine DMed this on – or not DMed, commented on my reel last week that was like, girl, moms just don't have the same 24 hours in a day as everybody else.

09:56Obviously, there's some emotion behind that because clearly we all have the same 24 hours. So like what would you say to a mom that like is like, we don't have the same 24 hours or like we don't have enough time. Like you kind of just said it there, but like what would you actually say to that mom? We don't – 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 have no family in the area. But I – in order to take care of my children better, I needed to find some sort of way to fulfill myself, to sustain myself, even if it was for 10 minutes of core or whatever, and coming out of saying, hey, I did it.

10:41I – you know, 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 like really powerful and cool to be like, yeah, I can do it all, right? You know, you can't kind of find the way, you know? So the positivity of it is like you see it as a challenge. Like, 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. Oh, my God.

11:11I already feel like – we're 10 minutes into this, Andrea. This is going to be such a powerful, good podcast. I can feel it already, and I hope that when we're like rewinding and listening, not only to your words, but your energy behind your words. Like, you exude so much positivity towards like your – to yourself. It's also so important to the way that you approach your day-to-day in terms of like showing up for yourself to say, I'm going to do the 60-day challenge.

11:41I'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. Like, that is so powerful, so I just want to like celebrate you on that, and I hope other moms are just like soaking you up right now. Thank you. So to dive in a little bit deeper with the bulking aspects, I know so many women are so afraid. It's still like a thing that goes on on social media of like, I don't want to get too bulky, but I want to be toned, but I don't want to look like a man, and I don't want to have huge muscles. So you were at 1,400 calories, or maybe that was an example, but you used that number while you were in the 60-day challenge.

12:17From there, from the – like next year, you said that you knew that you had to get bigger muscles, you wanted bigger abs. From the 4,400 calories, what was the number that you went up to calorie-wise, macro-wise to, you know, make that goal happen? 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, Warrior Babe is here for you.

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13:24That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. So obviously I use Google. You know, at the time I didn't have a trainer helping me. I didn't have anything. I'm like, you know, I'm going to look at Google. Even more badass. What the heck, Andrea? Like there's people out there that will use Google and they'll give up after two weeks. Like, okay. I read, I really read about what is lean bulking. And lean bulking is only eating a tiny bit more than your maintenance calories.

13:59So I'm like, because your metabolism does slow in a calorie deficit phase, I'm like, okay, you know what? 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 that was experiment. Like, okay, I'll just add a little bit more food. And because I had like understood macros and how macros help, and especially when over 35 with their hormones, they do better with a little bit more fats. I was scared to death of fats before the age of 35.

14:30I never included fats. So I'm like, you know what? Let me try to add 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. You know, muscle takes a while to grow. So that's when I really opened my eyes to like, hey, 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 thing.

15:00But what I did realize was with the macros and I tracked my calories because I did want to learn for myself. I'm like, if I can learn the tools, I'll have this forever. So, yeah, it's a little bit of headache in the beginning, but I'll know about me. And that's what I learned about myself is I do need the higher fats and just slowly adding in calories. And because I was already lean, I already dropped the fat. You listen to your hunger cues. So if you work out more and you're eating healthy food, single ingredient food, you can eat a little bit more.

15:33You don't need to be restrictive now because your body's telling you it needs the calories to grow the muscle. Oh, my God. I love having guests on the podcast that speak my language because it's so powerful when you are saying similar things that I say and the listeners can just soak it up. Be like, oh, Nikki said this before. Andrew is saying the same thing. Ah, it must mean something. Because the goal here, it's so true what you're saying. And the goal is, and I love that you immersed yourself and you didn't know about this stuff before. And you said that you were like, I just went in and I learned and I gained new knowledge.

16:05And then you tested it out and tried new experiences. And you saw the results, which gave you new emotions. And basically now has entered into who you are and what you do in your state of being. And that is amen. And I hope everybody could achieve that. But there's obviously a lot of things that come up in people's lives and the excuses and the fears that are holding back in the narratives. But anyway, besides that point, what you said is like you dropped the body fat. So you kind of already achieved. You did achieve where you want it to be. And then you recognize that more food isn't necessarily going to make me fat.

16:38More food is going to fuel my body and my muscles to make them grow more to be more toned. Not necessarily bulky, but toned. Amen. And that's what I realized is like if you're slowly adding in calories and you feel stronger in the gym. So 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 a I want to be stronger mindset. Eat smart, right? You lift weights.

17:08And there will be days like maybe a couple weeks after. You can lift happier. And that's how your muscles grow because 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 that you're gaining throughout your day. Like 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. Heck yeah. Macros and strength training. They don't just change our bodies physically. They totally give us a renewed, like a new sense of confidence.

17:40And when you see your body changing and you see it taking the shape that you want it to, it's like it's just this whole new sense of being essentially. Right? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like totally new mindset that can emerge from this aspect. That's why I love so much. It's like, it's not necessarily like the tip of the iceberg, what everybody sees with macros and people following the plan and people like doing the strength training. But it's also what happens underneath that makes the success happen. It's like the dedication, the discipline, the willpower, the ability to break through limiting beliefs.

18:11The success comes from that. And when that makes a whole new embodied like mentality, which is just game changing. What just macros and strength training can do for someone. So, okay, we cleared up pretty much like there's tons of hesitation around strength training, especially with moms that are over 40. There's misconceptions. I think we pretty much like the bulky aspect. Is there any other misconceptions that you would want to help clear up around what strength training will, will, could do for a body?

18:43A lot of women, especially over 40, think it's too late or they think it's going to be so much harder. But you have to, I tell my clients to do it in phases, either focus on the fat loss, like buckle down, do a 12 week fat loss, and then focus on really growing and building muscle from there. Because it's kind of, people always want to do everything all at once. But hey, let's burn some of the body fat off, kind of see what muscle you have as your base, and then build it up from there.

19:13Because 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 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 tone. And it's like, well, you're not eating to sustain the muscle. You know what I mean? You're burning your muscle by fasting and drinking coffee and then exercising for two hours. Amen. Stay louder for the one who's back, Andrea. Yeah.

19:45So I want to give a little context if you're comfortable for the people that are listening to this. You're a mom of four. Can you share how old you are? I am 40. Oh, I'll be 43 next month. Okay. Awesome. So you have four kids. So how old is the oldest? He is 18 now. And then I have a 15-year-old, a 13-year-old, and an 11-year-old. Amazing. So these guys are already born when you started, like pretty much like not born. That sounds like they were like well into their age.

20:16But when you decided to make this focus on yourself, right? Seven years ago? So the strength-based challenge. So before it was my mindset before the age of 35 was eat as little as possible to stay thin. So I'm from Wisconsin. I have morbidly obese relatives. My grandparents had diabetes and things like that. So to me, it was ingrained in like I don't want to have all those health conditions. I need to stay thin. But that's very hard to your whole life eat 1,500 calories.

20:48Yeah. You know what I mean? Like an exercise. So really the transformation, my daughter was five when I started doing the lifting, was like, hey, 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, you know, like 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 feel more confident in my food choices to relieve that, you know, mental pressure you put on yourself to always be skinny.

21:18Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So freaking powerful. So 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 a 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. Okay. Let's dive into a challenge that happened. Can you share a little bit about what happened to you?

21:51And like, is this just, yeah, I'm going to let you take it because it's a story. So after two years, so let's go back seven years ago. In two years, I had kind of achieved more muscle. I kept building muscle from there and I had achieved and I wanted to run more at the same time. So I wanted to build muscle and I want to run. So I kind of figured out a way to not only improve my endurance, but my strength level. So two years ago, I was, to me, I was at my peak physique.

22:21I had, I could run 75 mile weeks. I ran three half marathons in a week. That was like my best, coolest thing. Like all the muscle I had. I'm like, I've done it. I've done it. I got it. I got it. I got to come in there and say, guys, once you start following Andrea on Instagram, like you will see, she looks freaking incredible. So like to hear all of that and to have the muscle that you have, but to run, like I'm giving you a high five to that. So December, 2022, the end of December, it was two days after.

22:54Christmas. My husband and I have never traveled away from the children since they were born in an airplane because we're always afraid of what happens if something happened to us. Well, how would our kids? So they're older now. So we're like, Hey, we're going to go to Vegas. We'll only go for a few days. And, you know, we'll just come back before the new year. So we went to Vegas. And within the first 36 hours, we took a helicopter crash, touring the Grand Canyon, and it ended up crashing on our way back to the airport.

23:25So you're going from the top of your, the top of your physique. You did it to the worst, most painful. It's going to be two years. This is like next month. So the worst, most painful kind of two years of my entire life where I was in the hospital for two weeks and my leg, I had a tibia plateau fracture. My spleen was ruptured, tibia break, ankle issues, back issues, things like that. My husband has permanent blindness in one eye. Um, so you're just in this hospital and everything stops, everything stops.

23:59And you realize what is important. It's like, I'm still alive, right? That's what, so it pulls you back from whatever you thought was important before I'm still alive. And, um, so I was spent two weeks in the hospital there. There was complications to where 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. Um, and so through all this, it's like, I had the strength and the discipline from the

24:33years of building myself up to now pull myself from the lowest part of my entire life. Like we're talking wheelchair and crawling up the stairs. I had to be non-weight bearing for 16 weeks. Um, during that, you know what I mean? During that time. And I didn't, you know, my mom had to live with me. I could, I couldn't take care of the kids anymore. I was on 12 medications. Um, and then, and I, and then in my mind, so you think of the positive, right? Okay. It's my leg, right? I still have my arms. I could, I can just lift to feel positive.

25:04Right. You have such a beautiful, like outlook. Like when you say that it's like, I have two arms and my leg, but I just, I was just in a helicopter crash. Like to have that kind of outlook is so powerful. How did you feel motivated during that time? Um, so the power was, um, I decided after it was two weeks after the crash, I decided that I would share my journey on social media. Cause I had influencers that I looked up to in the beginning that were in crashes, but

25:35then 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. Like because of the, the, um, the bone muscle infection, I ended up having a pick line in my arms. So I couldn't use my arms either. Um, so seeing, I lost eight pounds of muscle very, very rapidly. It was very aggressive. Like this is awful.

26:07And so I would show on social media, the best version of me and now the worst, what was happening to me, not, 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 positive, you know? So, um, just kind of sharing like my story and just the day to day on my, my stories. I really took more, uh, an effort to like show like, Hey, this is me trying to fold laundry yet crawl down the stairs during the day, you know, and do it. Cause you gotta, you gotta keep going on.

26:38You don't have time to stop once you're a mom, you know? Um, and to me sharing with others and then hearing other people's stories that have similar, you know, trauma, traumatic experiences around the same time, you kind of now build this community of this is the real where we're at right now. And let's, let's get through this. Um, so it didn't become about me anymore. It was, is, am I, if I'm emotionally, okay, I will share what I'm experiencing today, you know, getting on there.

27:09The doctor told me I would never run again. And so, you know, feeling that emotion and just getting on social media on my, my story and just sharing how depressing and how horrible that, that thing is like how, like you can't even, I made a reel with it too. It was just like, so overwhelming to think that this is never, you know? Um, and you don't know the, you know, you don't know the ending, right? I didn't know I had to have six surgeries at the end, right? You're thinking get the one surgery. So it's just, Hey, every single day, what can I find positivity? And during that time, cause it's so dire, it's, it's not about my, Oh, I'm going to move

27:44or whatever. It's just like, Hey, I need to find positivity anywhere. You know, joy in my children or watch a show or things like that. So to me, it's like, you have to have more in your basket than just your looks and just your movement. Because some people put all their joy now in a movement and all their joy in their looks, but that can be taken away in an instant. And that's what I experienced is it's, it's all gone. What do you have? And it's the relationships you've built with your family, with your husband, being thankful

28:15that you have a home and you have insurance, you know, in the hospital, those little things are huge. And so you have to, it's about balance, but it's about making sure that you have more in that basket of what you can rely on. If something that you love is taken away. That's incredible. That is so inspiring. One, like, I'm glad that you, both you and your husband and the pilot too, like everybody survived that crash. Right. Yeah. And then you just came, I mean, like, unfortunately, fortunately, like, again, like, yeah, you were

28:48alive. Like that was like the, it was like, I'm alive. Okay, here we go. I'm just going to go on a journey and I'm going to, you know, do the best that I can. And then to share it on social media, like your recovery, your setbacks, like the transparency to do that is so inspiring. And I know that you're following, um, we talked before just found so much ease in following your journey and know that they're not alone. And also you found the fact that you're not alone by following others have been in your shoes. It's just like, that's the power of social media. That's the way you do it right on social media. So that's really inspiring during this time.

29:19Like what's so cool is when you do follow Andrea on social media, like it doesn't even look like you weren't like from your, from the leg to the bounce to the TRX to like the way you manage and move, like talk about resilient and the way that you went on your, um, recovery journey. What role did, um, like the, like fitness and nutrition play? Obviously you went through all the surgeries and recovery and you were non-weight bearing, but like maybe more nutrition. Like how did that help you stay grounded and strong both physically and emotionally during

29:50this demanding, like experience that you were having? So your whole world's changing. You're not moving anymore for 16 weeks. You're basically like, I, I watched my clock and it was hilarious. I get like 50 steps a day and that was like hard, right? You're screwing in your walker. So you know what? From the challenge beginning, so the seven, you know, the years prior, it's like, if I'm not burning all these calories through movement, I can't eat as much. So I was used to this habit of, I had built, I was eating 2,400 calories before the crash

30:22because I was doing so much exercise. I pulled it back down to 1700. So it was enough. It's over my BMR. It's enough to, you know, recover my bones, but it's changing. I changed the patterns of what I ate too, to make sure the macros are still good, but there are less portions in those things. And that was really hard because I was used to the habit of moving and running and eating all this food. It was like, 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.

30:55Like, I don't want to lose a bunch of excess weight and have to rehab my leg and learn to walk again. That's too much. So let me eat healthy now. And it wasn't very, it wasn't strict. You know, it wasn't like I was like, so stressed out about it, but it's just facing that. This is the reality I was in. Especially losing all that eight pounds of muscle. It, it took a long time to rebuild my calories, metabolism back up to now I'm eating 2300 again to maintain, you know, but it's not going to be fast.

31:27It's going to be a long process. Amen. Again, sit. I will not even regardless if it's a recovery from what you went through or even just changing your body composition. So, okay. So is this where you fell in love with TRX? So I had used TRX before. I was in the transition point where I did a lot of resistance, resistance training with dumbbells and machines and things like that. I had built enough muscle I'd wanted before this crash, but I realized, I realized TRX was

31:59my saving grace and understanding TRX when the crash happened because I couldn't even bodyweight squat. It's very, it was so painful to even bend my knee, but I realized that I can use 80% of my upper body to support my lower body to get in the squat movement. So the day I put the external fixator on, you are fully weight bearing. And like 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 slow as I can in the squat.

32:30And I tell people, Hey, this is 80% of my body, but I'm, I'm using my legs in a less resistant way to get that strength. And what I realized is that 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, mobility with Bosu and TRX and showing that a lot because you have to step on the ball, but that's, you know, unstable, but you can hold onto the TRX straps and get the mobility. And so that's why I was able to move so much faster or better is because I spent so much

33:06time with a TRX and Bosu, but it was fun because I had to do PT, right? So if you're used to running and things like that, you do PT and they're like, lift up your leg, lift down your leg. You don't want to, right? You know what? You all have to do this to recover. You don't want to, but this incorporated PT type movements in something that was fun and challenging for me and a kind of format I loved with TRX. So before this crash, I love dancing on TRX and that was taken away.

33:38I couldn't do that. So I'm like, you know what? I'm going to learn to hop and jump and that's what I want to do again. And so 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 just simply building the muscle size and I never ate in a calorie deficit. You know, I was eating to support the muscle growth. So once, you know, that was kind of like, you see it as a challenge, right? It is horrible, but how am I going to get through this?

34:09And any type of movement you can do, I don't really like Pilates or, you know, ballet moves, but when you're, when you're not weight bearing, Hey, you know what? These are effective laying on the ground and lifting your leg. That is effective for me right now. And I can get back to like CrossFit type of stuff in the future, but every movement is beneficial given your circumstances. So it's good to know those moves. Like even, you know, people that are super fit, they're like, Oh, I'm not going to do, you know, yoga or whatever, but those moves will come back and help you in your time of

34:42need. A hundred percent. I totally agree with that, man. You have such an incredible mindset, especially like the way that you've endured this journey that you've been on. So you've, I mean, you've overcome some incredible challenges and you've achieved so much on your journey. I mean, even the first, like, I love that mentality. You have the 60 day challenge and you achieved your dream body in two years. Like that is huge. So you pretty much along this whole podcast have really like spoke to the best version of

35:13who you are. And I can, I can feel that in your energy. What do you, 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? You have to like really look inside yourself, be honest with yourself. What is, what would be something that you would regret at the end of your life? What is something that you've just always in the best of your mind, like, Oh, I wish

35:44I could do X or I wish, I wish I could do that. And then some sort of fear thing comes up and blocks you from doing that. Said by somebody who near had a near death experience. Like that's really fully said. Cause we don't, 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 because using a walker, thank goodness for my tricep strength. Cause that was using a walker all everywhere, all the time.

36:15You know, I would go out with my husband cause I'm like, I'm not going to stay in the house for 16 months. So I would dress up with my walker and, you know, but that was all triceps. And you have the opportunity now to build the strength for whatever you face in the future. Do not let that, that chance go to waste. You know, don't, I mean, we don't have time, you know, cause you don't know. You only have today. That's so true. There's many women that are listening to this that don't even know where to begin or like kind of feel very paralyzed by the idea of making any type of big change or, you know,

36:48maybe they have what you said at the beginning, some fears that are holding them back. And we're kind of, we're, we are 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. So what would be some advice that you would give someone who feels stuck in this way? And how can they take that first step to making a positive change for themselves? I would say to keep it simple. Don't keep looking online for the hack or the easiest way.

37:19Keep it very simple. So if you're like, you know what, that group class looks awesome. It doesn't matter what the group class like end game is. If that's the best class in the world, just start there and build that passion for movement and consistency for movement. I hear people all the time, like dog orange theory, right? Oh, orange theory, it's not enough resistance training. You know what? Orange theory can change your life. And 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.

37:54That mini band consistently, whatever it is. And make it very, very clear in your mind, especially with the diet aspect to just pick, if you learn about macros or take any, hire a coach and just learn how simple macros are, it makes a lot of sense. Because if you can plan some meals, no, you don't have to plug everything in an app. If you plan ahead of time on a Sunday, you know, and plan some, what am I going to eat all week? No, it's, it's way more simple than you think.

38:25And I think that's why I get so excited about talking about nutrition is because when I saw how simple it is, I'm like, hold up. You know what I mean? 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 to do those same habits and routines because they work. Absolutely. Totally. It can feel daunting in the beginning. I know you said that a little bit earlier. It's totally like a little bit overwhelming in terms of all the things that in terms of like, okay, I need to track my protein, fast and carbs, or I need to meal prep all of this,

38:56these meals. But like you said, the more that you actually do it, the easier it gets over time. It's like, 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 you were doing at the beginning. So, and it's not about being, it's not about being perfect either. Right. So a lot of women overthink, like, I'm going to make this elaborate, you know, organic meal for every single thing I eat.

39:26And then they get overwhelmed with all the stuff, the extra stuff they don't need to do. So you can always do like that in the future, right? Just keep it very simple, lose the fat and then add, you know, build upon what you've learned. Amen. Yes. Andrea, so many good takeaways here from this podcast. You shared some incredible, not only your story, but also insights and understanding and to be patient really, and to just like have a good mindset. I loved your mindset around everything that you shared today.

39:57It's like have a good mindset and the ability to approach how you want to navigate your results rather than letting fear take you over or not doing something that you would regret or X, Y, and Z. Like, it's like, we have this one life to live. We have one body to live in. Go do your best and stay positive about it. So as we wrap up today, what would be like the biggest takeaway or piece of advice that you'd want the audience to leave with? You can achieve more than you think, you know, and you don't even have to believe that you

40:29can get there. You'd 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, how do you how small they are? They compound upon themselves because you have to be your own cheerleader. You are the driver of your own life.

41:01You have to do that for yourself. Heck yeah. Andrew, where can everybody find you? I'm on Instagram. My name, Andrea fit and the number four, 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 that question to people is, what are you fit for? You know? Oh, I love that. That's so good. Well, I'll link all of your information in the comment section or description below this podcast.

41:31Everyone can go find you. And I highly recommend you guys do her social media. Super cool. She has some good, good old workouts to be able to do. Andrea, thank you so much for being here and sharing your insight and your story and inspiring all the listeners that are listening to it today. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. 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 of the difference, helping more women discover the tools they

42:03need to transform the 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.

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