Not Losing Weight With Barre and Walking After 50?

Melissa: I couldn't even get the benefits of the exercise because I was trying to work through arthritis in my hands and my forearms, and it just hurt to even hold the weights. I was like, oh my God, what am I doing? I can't do that. But one workout at a time, it got better, it got better, it got better. And I can remember the first time I felt sore in my pecs after I did a chest workout. For the first time, I was like, praise God, because I couldn't get there. So again, if it took all that to get me here, then I'm fine with it. But I didn't see that at the time. I didn't see that going from here to there, I had to overcome all this stuff.

Nikkiey: What's going on, everybody? Today I've got another WarriorBabe here with us, WarriorBabe Melissa, who, before finding us, spent years doing everything quote-unquote right. She was walking daily, she was eating clean, she was staying disciplined, yet nothing was changing. How many of you guys have been there? And many women have done this: she avoided mirrors, she relied on shapewear, and she didn't feel at home in her body. What she didn't realize, though, was that the real transformation had to start from within. And today, she's stronger, she's more aware, and she's finally in control of her mindset and her health.

Today she's here to share that journey with us: how she quieted the noise, how she built strength, how she finally showed up for herself. Melissa, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Melissa: Thank you for having me.

Nikkiey: So let the listeners know where you are located in the U.S., what you do for work, and how old you are.

Melissa: I live in San Pedro, California. It's near Long Beach, California, in L.A. County. I'm 58 years old, 58 years young. And I'm a corrosion specialist. Technically, I retired from Chevron about 10 years ago as an API 510 inspector. So I literally am the person who climbs into the equipment to find the corrosion and the damage and to make sure that it's fit for continued service. And now I consult, and I go to refineries, and I help other people be better at managing their equipment.

Nikkiey: Dude, that's so cool.

Melissa: It's a fantastic job. I'm ridiculously blessed.

Nikkiey: Wow, that's so cool. I've never heard of that before. It's really cool. All right, let's get into talking about your health and fitness journey. Where were you before you found WarriorBabe? What was your situation like?

Melissa: I have three kids. I was empty nesting. Two are in college, and one is adulting; he just wants to work. And I was tired of feeling tired. I was tired of being in a mom body. I was tired of talking about it and having people go, "Oh, you're crazy, you look so good." And it's bullshit. No, I didn't look good. I didn't feel good. Stop lying to me.

So I Googled, because back in the day, in my 20s and 30s, I was an avid weightlifter. I even considered doing a bodybuilding competition, but I don't know why I didn't. And I remembered how I felt and how my body felt when I used to do that. Because I remember when I stopped doing it, when I got my first job out of college, my body composition changed. Not overnight. I was still working out, but I wasn't weight training. But I went from a size 3 to a size 8, and I just stayed there.

And going through this process, I was like, I need to get back to weight training. So I Googled "weight workout for women over 50," and you came up in the feed. And I watched your video, and the minute I heard you drop the F-bomb, I'm like, oh, I'm so going to her website.

Nikkiey: Oh, that's what it was. Let's go.

Melissa: You were so passionate, and you weren't bullshitting me. I could tell you were like, look, do it or don't do it. It works. Whatever. Go back to doing shapewear or Ozempic or whatever you feel like you're doing. So that's how I felt. And if I look like shit, or if I'm being bad, or if I'm not doing things right, and I tell this to Kayla, just tell me. My feelings won't be hurt.

Nikkiey: Amen.

Melissa: I need to hear it.

Nikkiey: Amen. My type of woman. Love that.

Melissa: That's what I liked about you. I was like, okay, if I walked up to her and said, I feel like shit, she would be like, yeah, you look like you feel like shit.

Nikkiey: Yeah, I would tell you on the spot. I love that. So bring us back, though, to before finding us on the internet. You said you were walking daily and you were doing Pure Barre or something like that?

Melissa: Yeah. I'd been doing Pure Barre for three years, and I'm talking walk to Pure Barre, do Pure Barre, walk home. That was probably five miles there and back, then the class. And I felt change. But for three years.

Nikkiey: What was the most frustrating part about that? Not seeing the results after doing it?

Melissa: Not seeing results, and looking at pictures and people going, "Oh, so is Pure Barre working?" I've been fucking doing it for three years. You tell me if it's working. It wasn't working, because they didn't go, "Oh, wow, you look great." So I was like, okay, I need to find something else.

Nikkiey: How were you feeling about your body at that time?

Melissa: Oh, mad. I can tell you the moment I was like, I'm done with Pure Barre, because I got so mad in class. Because I was one of the strongest people in class. The teacher would go, "If you don't know how to do the move, watch Melissa." I could do everything. I just wasn't feeling good. I didn't feel good about how I looked. They always take promotional pictures when you do 250 classes, 500 classes, and I hated taking the pictures. I'm like, I don't want to take the picture. No, don't publish the picture. So no, I was mad, and I did not feel good about myself.

Nikkiey: You mentioned avoiding mirrors and stuff like that, too. How did that impact your confidence on a daily basis? And what were the thoughts running through your mind when you'd see yourself in photos or mirrors?

Melissa: I would delete them. At my youngest son's graduation, I looked at myself and I was like, oh. Because my arms were soft. My midsection, that's where I feel it, because my torso is short and my legs are long. So when I gain weight in my midsection, you can see it. And in my face. So it's those two sections. And I was just like, I can't keep looking like this. I don't like it. Because I've never been a person that had to worry about my weight. Never.

Nikkiey: Yeah, I can hear that. That would be frustrating, especially doing three years of something and not getting the results you thought you were going to get and wanted. That can make you feel super mad. Your time is valuable, and you want to feel good in your skin.

And you're not alone either, Melissa. We were kind of talking about that beforehand. There are so many women out there who experience these same thoughts and these same patterns. And there's going to be a woman listening to this going, dang, I'm in Melissa's shoes. I feel the same way right now. How about the noise you mentioned? There was a lot of noise in your mind that was holding you back. Can you share a little bit about that and how you started to quiet it down?

Melissa: Oh yeah. The thing that kept going through my head, because I know how hard weight training is. And I know that it's something you have to dedicate a minimum of about three days to, of concentrated muscle-group weight training. And in my head, I would talk to myself. I'd say, you know what, are you going to be able to sustain this? Are you going to stick with it? Are you going to do it and stop doing it because it got hard or your schedule got messed up, and then not go back to it?

And the noise in my head was, something has to change. This is not working. Whatever's happening right now is not working. It doesn't matter how little you eat or how healthy you eat. There's something that's not clicking here. You've got to find the leak. Where's the leak that's not helping you get to where you need to be? That's what it was. I knew it was something; I just needed to put my finger on it. I couldn't figure it out on my own. That's kind of where I was at.

Nikkiey: Not alone there either. You mentioned really quick eating healthy and eating less. Is that what it looked like? Talk to us about what your nutrition looked like while you were doing the Pure Barre and walking and all that.

Melissa: Oh, I was eating very well. A lot of salads, which I'm finding now aren't the healthiest thing to eat. But I wasn't eating bread and fries and things like that. I did drink wine, which I'm now understanding is not the greatest thing in the world, so I don't do that now. But no, my eating was healthy, and I'm guessing I was taking in maybe 1,200 to 1,500 calories, maybe.

And even my daughter would go, "Mom, are you eating today?" And I'd go, "Nope, I'm awful." It was a joke, but kind of not a joke. She's like, "I'm kind of afraid you're not taking in enough calories." Because we would eat, but I wouldn't eat like they eat. I'd cook meals, but I wouldn't eat as much.

Nikkiey: Gotcha. Do you know what your protein intake was like beforehand?

Melissa: No, not anything close to what... even when I first started with Kayla, because she's got me up to 1,900, which almost sent me to a therapist. But when I first started with Kayla and she gave me my macros...

Nikkiey: Hold on, don't go into it yet, because I want to get there. I want to hear that when we get to that part. Curious. So with the salads, you just mentioned you're finding out they're not that healthy. What do you mean by that?

Melissa: Just the dressing. And if you're not putting enough protein in, and you're just having the lettuce and croutons. I mean, what nutritional value do croutons have? None.

Nikkiey: Yeah, none. That makes sense. And to clarify, to help me with the calorie intake you were consuming, how tall are you?

Melissa: I'm about five-six.

Nikkiey: Okay. And how long ago was this?

Melissa: This was September of last year. That's when I had my first meeting with Shannon Parker.

Nikkiey: Okay, gotcha. Oh, Parker. We call her Sparkler.

Melissa: She's amazing. I loved her.

Nikkiey: Love that. Okay, so that intake was pretty low, knowing where you were at and what you were doing. So let's talk about it. You heard me say the F-bomb. Where'd you hear me say that?

Melissa: In your story. You just were like, "And I was just so fucking tired." And I was like, oh my gosh, I love her.

Nikkiey: Do you remember exactly what I was talking about that resonated with you the most?

Melissa: I think you said you were just fucking tired of your yo-yo, going up and down 30 pounds, losing 30 pounds, putting 30 pounds on. You did your competition, you did this, you liked your candy. You were just fucking done with it. And it was like, okay.

And then I went to the website and started looking more. And then I started listening to your podcast, and that's when I clicked on the VIP and signed up for a consult, and Shannon called me. And I literally wanted to cry, because I didn't feel like, until I talked to her, that anybody heard me or could hear what I was saying. Because it wasn't a vanity thing. It was an "I don't feel good" thing. It's like talking to your doctor and saying, no, that's not where it hurts. This is not working. And I'm resilient. I'm a data-driven person. I know how to go find it. I can solve problems. But I just couldn't solve this one.

Nikkiey: So what was it specifically that you and Shannon were talking about on the phone that made you go, okay, I'm in, I need to take the leap?

Melissa: When I told her I wasn't comfortable in my skin, I said, I don't know if you know what this feels like. I'm tired of wearing shapewear because I don't like the way my midsection looks. And I want to feel comfortable in my skin, because intellectually and from a career standpoint, I am a very confident person. I can walk into a room and tell the general manager bad news. And if he says, "Listen, that just can't be right," well, I'm sorry, it is right. That's exactly right. I don't have any problem doing that. But I couldn't get control over my health.

And I didn't realize that you guys didn't take every person. Shannon said, "You are a good candidate for this program." Because I was like, oh crap, I might not even be a good candidate for this program. She told me how much it was, and I was like, I don't care. I can't keep feeling like this.

Nikkiey: So on the spot you were like, all right, I'm in, let's do it.

Melissa: Yeah.

Nikkiey: Wow. So talk to us about your first thoughts when you first joined the program and met Kayla and then moved on to having your programming, and bring us on the journey of you getting to the 1,900 calories.

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. Look, 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.

Melissa: Okay, so I met Kayla, and obviously I'm embarrassed to share things with her because I don't know her. So we don't just go, "I'm going to feed you this and I'm going to feed you this." The first thing she did was we talked about my goals. We talked about where I am. I had just had a blood test, so I was able to send that and front-load her on it. So she had my stats for where I was in my blood work, which was helpful.

But I'm not going to lie, I was freaked out about the food. The food freaked me out. It was so much food. I was like, how am I going to eat all this food? I'm just going to keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And I was like, okay, look, I paid for it. I've got to trust this lady. She knows what she's doing. She says this is going to work. I'm going to make it work, whatever.

And I fluctuated. I struggled with getting those macros, for whatever reason. I would weigh things, and it was a learning curve, figuring out what works for me. I was trying to prep and I was trying to do everything and I was trying to lift the weights. But in the beginning I struggled with the macros. Macros are just a science that I didn't get. It didn't make sense to me. It does now, because I've listened to episode 35 of The WarriorBabe Show about 37 times. I listened to it every week because, number one, I think it's hilarious, the way that you and, I think it's Paula...

Nikkiey: Oh, Paula. Yeah.

Melissa: The way you guys go back and forth. I crack up when Paula says, "I say to myself, if I drink this whole bottle of wine, is that going to serve the person that I want to be?" I always start laughing on that one. Then you're like, yeah, you've got to throw the wine in the back of the counter, throw the fucking keys out. So for probably four months, I had to listen to that one twice a week, because I always got something new, something I didn't hear the last time, or I could take in more.

Nikkiey: Heck yeah. I love that you did that. I want everyone to hear that type of strategy that you implemented for yourself, because you'll hear things, and then you'll go back and hear something different, and it'll resonate with you differently. Or maybe those words sink in, and then the following week it's like, oh shit, I didn't hear that part. Now that really resonates with me. Love that strategy. I applaud you for that big time.

Melissa: Well, and then Paula said, "Look, if you're doing the macros and you're not getting the results, then I know you're not doing the macros, because it works." And it was like, fuck.

Nikkiey: I really love the straight-shooter talk. I love that, Melissa.

Melissa: Yeah. And the brutal honesty. There have been several of your podcasts where you talk about how, if you're not being honest with your coach, you're shorting yourself. You're not doing yourself justice, because your coach can't help you if she doesn't have all the information.

Nikkiey: Yep. Totally.

Melissa: So those kinds of things, because again, I don't open up very easily. But with Kayla, it's getting better. She's amazing, and she's smart, and she's done such good. She's a great coach.

Nikkiey: She's good. Very passionate about who she's working with. And she is also just really good at laying it out straight and telling you what you need to hear, even if you don't want to hear it.

Melissa: Yeah, she is. She's very good at that.

Nikkiey: Go ahead and say that one more time.

Melissa: I said she's also good when you're having emotional moments, you know.

Nikkiey: Yeah. So tell me what it's like eating 1,900 calories now. Are you still at that point? Are you eating more or less right now?

Melissa: I think she has me just under 2,000. And I'm not going to lie, something clicked about two weeks ago, to where now I'm like a machine. I'm doing this. I'm adding my cardio. I'm doing my hot stretch at least three to four times a week. And I'm hungry all the time. So I'm drinking water to make sure: are you just thirsty, or are you really hungry? I'm drinking a gallon of water a day. And no, I'm hungry, but I'm afraid to tell her I'm hungry because she's going to make me eat more.

Nikkiey: I'm going to go message her right now. "Melissa needs some more food. Send it her way." Oh, wow, I love that. My favorite stories are the ones where you have those cues come back. Not only do I love hearing about WarriorBabes eating more food, feeling better and getting the results they want, but I love when those cues come back, their metabolism being like, hey. A lot of people go without knowing what that feels like. 1,900 calories at 58 years young. Not many 58-year-olds can say that they're eating 1,900 calories.

Melissa: Why? Because they're eating less?

Nikkiey: Oh yeah. Maybe 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day is very much the broad-spectrum average of what women eat on a daily basis.

Melissa: That's so gross. Now I know what it does to you.

Nikkiey: I know, it's crazy.

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. Look, 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: Can I ask you this? What felt different about WarriorBabe compared to some of the other things you've tried before?

Melissa: Education. I'm getting educated. It's not just, I'm going to do this for a week and lose these 20 pounds, and then it's done, and I'm going to live my life and stay 20 pounds skinnier. That's not what WarriorBabe is about. Kayla's coaching me on my lifestyle, so I can grow older, longer. I don't need to worry about falling and breaking my hip. I don't need to worry about taking arthritis medicine, because my arms and hands don't hurt anymore. If I feel crappy, I know how to go fix it. I just go to the gym and I feel better. My kids aren't going to have to worry about taking care of me, because right now I'm healthier than them.

So that's what's different. And regardless of the fact that I'm the customer paying for this, Kayla coaches me. She tells me, no, no, no, don't do that. She doesn't go, oh, I don't want to hurt Melissa's feelings. She gives it to me the way I need it so that I can be successful.

Nikkiey: Can you give me one or two highlights of an experience you had with Coach Kayla where you were feeling like, I don't want to hear the fluff, and she gave it to you very straight? Or something very eye-opening in terms of support that you really enjoyed?

Melissa: I think it was our second one-on-one, and she was coaching me, but I could tell she was trying to be... I don't want to say politically correct, because that's not the right word, but she was trying to be gentle. And I go, "Kayla, you don't have to be gentle with me. I don't need that. Just tell me if I'm doing something wrong. Just say, Melissa, don't do that anymore. Or, Melissa, if you keep doing this, this is what's going to happen." And then I'll just go, okay.

So now she does that, and she actually cracks up, because she's like, "I tell you that and you implement it straight away. Or you ask me questions like, okay, well, if I do that, or why was doing this not good?" She'll explain it to me, and then I adjust and keep moving on. And that's the compliment she gave me in my last session. She said, "You're always asking questions, and when I give you correction, you apply it and you just keep pushing on." And I was like, okay, that's a good one. I'll take that.

Nikkiey: I love that. You know what I call that when I'm working with the team or with the coaches? I call it the feedback application rate. And it applies the same way with clients, with babes. It's the exact scenario: you're asking Kayla for feedback, or having her tell you the things you need to hear straight out, or a recommendation to change this and do this differently. And then it's the ability to take that information and actually go apply it.

That's the hardest part for people, because they'll meet resistance, or they'll come up against their own excuses, or they're getting in their own way. But the ones who can apply it and turn it around within whatever that period of time is, whether it's 12 hours or 24 hours or 48 hours, that is going to take you so far. That's the feedback application rate, FAR. And I always say, if you can apply it that fast, you're going to be able to get to where you want to be even quicker. So I love that you're that type of human, that type of brain that just applies it quickly. Because that's how you got to where you are now within the program, too.

Melissa: Well, I do look at the website, and I do see the women who are getting good success, these women who have these ridiculous bodies, and it's like, oh gosh, it's so good. So I get mad at myself, because I feel like I should get there faster. And I tell that to Kayla. I look at that 76-year-old woman, for instance. Holy cow. I don't know her name, but I see her. There are a ton of women who look amazing, and you see where they came from to where they are. And I get mad at myself because I'm not seeing as much difference as I want to see.

But then Kayla kind of got on me, and she's like, "No, Melissa, think about all the health challenges." For three or four months, I couldn't even get the benefits of the exercise because I was trying to work through arthritis in my hands and my forearms, and it just hurt to even hold the weights. I was like, oh my God, what am I doing? I can't do that. But one workout at a time, it got better, it got better, it got better. And I can remember the first time I felt sore in my pecs after I did a chest workout. For the first time, I was like, praise God, because I couldn't get there. So again, if it took all that to get me here, then I'm fine with it. But I didn't see that at the time. I didn't see that going from here to there, I had to overcome all this stuff. I didn't know it was there.

Nikkiey: Yeah. I love that you see that now. And I love that you recognize that, sure, that person... I did a podcast on comparison. Have you listened to that one yet? Okay, good. Because comparison is the thief, stealing the joy of your own journey and your own timeline. Everyone else has their own lifestyle, their own trials and tribulations, their own things they're going through. And so do you, as you just mentioned with those first four months. Just recognize that you'll get there. It's just on your own timeline. I love that you see that now. It's important.

Let's talk about some of your accomplishments. You mentioned the arthritis. What are some of your biggest wins, physically, mentally, emotionally?

Melissa: I'm hitting my macros pretty much every day. I'm getting the gold star coming up on my WarriorBabe app, which is awesome. And outside of hitting my macros, I'm also feeling it. I feel different. My clothes feel looser. It's funny, my weight, I thought it would go down. It's not. It's staying right at 150, 151. My measurements, I'm horrible at measuring. I don't know what my problem is there. I have to work on that.

But I have my little notebook with my goals and my notes, and I visually keep things in my line of sight to keep my goals on track. I want to be at 20% body fat by my birthday, which is December 12th. So I have a picture there with the date and a star around it, so I know what that looks like. So if I get tempted to go have whatever, get off my macros, or not go work out, I look at that and I'm like, no, I've got to go work out. No, I've got to drink some more water. I'm going to put some lemon in my water.

And I'm getting personal bests every single time I go to the gym. I'm actually quite surprised at how strong I am, especially on back workouts. I'm already up to 110 pounds, and I could barely do 50 when I started. And that was September. And I'm doing eight to ten reps, not just four or five reps, with 110 pounds.

Nikkiey: So huge, Melissa. You should be so proud of that.

Melissa: Oh, I am. But I didn't think about it until I went back and looked at my numbers, and I was like, oh my God, you came up a lot. Because I remember the 50 pounds was hard. It was not easy. So I am proud that I look better and that I feel better, but the biggest thing, I think, is that I've stuck with it every single day. There hasn't been a day that I haven't done something toward my goal or my program, the WarriorBabe program.

Nikkiey: Let's go. I love that for you. Kicking ass. Staying consistent. That's the best way you're going to show it: when you show up for yourself on a daily basis. You don't need to be perfect. You just need to be consistent. How has your relationship with your body and with food changed?

Melissa: Oh my gosh, tremendously. Now I look at myself in the mirror. Before, when I was getting in the shower, I wouldn't look. Now I look. Now I'm looking at my pictures. I have my comparison pictures here so I can see myself. So now I'm treating it like I would treat a project at work. I'm charting the milestones, if you will, so I can see my own progress.

I pay a lot of attention to my stats from my smart scale. I researched how the scale measures each one of these things, so I know which ones to take seriously and which ones to say, okay, this might not be my real body fat percentage, but at least I know it's going down, just based on how it's measured. Just educating myself, that's been my biggest thing. I think it's shocking how far off the tracks we get on what's really good for us and what's really not good for us.

Nikkiey: Yeah. Well, that's not really your fault, though. It's the marketing and the things out there telling you to do X, Y and Z: eat less, train more, move often. Those things serve a purpose for a bit, but they don't serve a purpose for long-term sustainability, for being realistic, or for the reality of what you live on a daily basis. And I love that, when we were talking earlier about how you avoided the mirrors and the photos, now you have a journal and you're taking your progress pictures and putting them in there. That's a huge difference. That's really cool.

So when you look back, what's something you can do now that you never imagined you'd feel good doing again?

Melissa: I hate calling him my boyfriend because I'm 58, but the gentleman I've been dating for 15 years buys me clothes all the time, really cute workout clothes. And he always buys me shirts that don't have backs on them, that kind of open up. And I wouldn't wear them. I've had them in my closet for five years. I wouldn't touch them. And now I'm wearing them. He loves it. He's like, "Oh my gosh, that looks so good. Why haven't you worn that before?" I said, "Because you lied to me and said I was sexy, and I wasn't sexy. I was fat." So now I'm feeling so...

Nikkiey: Oh, I love that.

Melissa: So that's been the one thing. Nikkiey, if I showed you my closet, it's got expensive, tons of leggings, tons of cute workout tops that you wear when you want to show your body off. And I would not wear them. And now I'm wearing them. And he loves it. We don't live together or anything; we're truly dating. But he likes it.

Nikkiey: Oh, I love that. Let's go. And now you can walk into that closet, look at those cute, sexy outfits and be like, all right, which one am I going to wear today?

Melissa: Exactly.

Nikkiey: What if you never made the change? Where do you think you'd be today?

Melissa: I'd be in more pain. My body composition would just be getting more and more off. Because the worst thing is, I was still the same size. I was still the same weight. It was just that my body was changing in ways that made my clothes not fit right, not the way they fit when I was wearing them before. It's like everything moved.

It's like the old Popeye commercials, when they would take the gut and push it up into the chest and then he'd be all muscular. That's kind of how I feel my body's transforming, because I'm not getting lighter, but things are moving. It's getting denser in my waist area, my arms. I hadn't seen my youngest son for about three weeks, and I went to meet him at Jersey Mike's to pick him up. And when I walked in, he goes, "Oh my gosh, Mom, your legs are so muscular and your waist is so small."

Nikkiey: And how did it feel to hear that type of comment?

Melissa: It was awesome, because he just lost about 40 pounds. He's really into the macros and doing his thing. So it was awesome. I was like, "Really? You're not just saying that?" He's like, "No, your legs look so muscular." I was like, okay.

Nikkiey: Oh my gosh, I love that so much for you. And I love the comment you made about not feeling as much pain anymore with arthritis. Isn't that pretty cool? Do you take medication for it?

Melissa: No, I never took medication for it. I wouldn't. That's why it was so frustrating. I didn't want to take anything. And sometimes I'll push an upper body push or pull workout back a day because of a meeting, or I just can't get to it that day, or I'm flying out of town for business. If I push it too many days and I don't do my regular upper body workouts on the days they're scheduled, my arms will start getting sore again. So it's something where you have to stay with it. Your body needs it.

Nikkiey: Totally. That's so cool. Those are the wins I love, because I watched my grandmother go through arthritis, and it's painful. And she was someone who didn't exercise, didn't really move. And she was a nurse, which is crazy to me.

Melissa: I don't think people relate the two, because I would never have thought that doing push-ups would make my forearms and hands stop hurting.

Nikkiey: Right. True. It kind of is a catch-22.

Melissa: It's kind of counterintuitive. You think, oh, I can't do that, it hurts. No, I have to do it. I have to get through this so these get stronger.

Nikkiey: Yeah. So as we wrap up this conversation, thank you so much for sharing everything you have. I know a lot of women are listening to this going, yeah, I've definitely been in Melissa's shoes, and they've been inspired by the words you've shared with us. For the person who may be watching this right now who feels stuck or frustrated with her body and doesn't know where to turn, what would you want her to know about WarriorBabe?

Melissa: The one thing I say is, I started in September and I'm working every single day. My body might not be where I want it to be right at this moment, but I'm one day closer than I was yesterday. And if I stop doing it, progress will stop. And now my body and my mind are almost to the point where it's not even optional for me to miss a workout, because I physically need it and I mentally need it, just to keep sane. And because I want to feel healthy. I just don't want to feel yucky anymore.

Nikkiey: I love that. I love that you're still on this journey with us. You've still got more time to go. And I just thank you for showing up here today and showing other women that it's possible to change, not by doing more, but by just doing things differently.

Melissa: Yeah. And honestly, I shouldn't generalize, but I used to think that meal prepping was so hard. Meal prepping actually makes life easier, because you already know what you're going to do. You just need to do it. You just need to buy your proteins, buy your veggies, buy your starches, fix them and put them in the fridge. So it's actually made my life a lot easier. No more decisions.

Nikkiey: Say that louder for the people in the back.

Melissa: It's made my life easier. No more decisions.

Nikkiey: Yes. Let's go. You know exactly what to eat on a daily basis. How about that? Wild. You don't have to spend or exhaust your thoughts on what am I going to have for breakfast, what am I going to have for lunch, what am I going to have for dinner. It's already made.

Melissa: Yeah. Hard-boil my eggs for the week and done.

Nikkiey: Done. Wow. Well, your story is going to resonate on so many levels. Thank you for being here and sharing it with me. And if anybody feels like they're in Melissa's shoes right now, or they're experiencing some frustration, or they're where Melissa was before she found us, check out WarriorBabe. Go see how we can help. If you like me cursing, you're going to hear a lot of it, so you'll find your people inside of WarriorBabe.

Melissa: For sure. It is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. I have to work hard.

Nikkiey: Yeah. And like what Shannon said to you, we don't accept everybody in here. Some people can't make it, and that's okay. They're just not at the point in the journey where they're accepting that it could be a feat to learn and to understand. But you really have to want the change.

Melissa: Yeah. You really have to want the change. I agree.

Nikkiey: Cool. Melissa, thanks for being here.

Melissa: Thank you, Nikkiey. It was so great to talk to you. Bye-bye.

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.