Why Fall Is the Best Time to Start Getting Fit After 40

Nikkiey: Who do you want to be come January 1st? Do you want to be that person that's rushing around making new plans because summer is around the corner? Do you want to be that person that gets ahead now? And what do you want by January 1st? What habits do you want to instill? I would ask yourself these questions. Who do you want to be by then?

The body that you want for summer 2027, you guys working and striving to become a stronger, leaner, confident and capable version of yourself, that body is being built right now. In September, in October, in November, in the quiet months when nobody's watching and nobody is posting. Be the opposite of what people do. People go into hibernation mode in these next couple of months. We wear baggy clothes. We're like, I don't have to worry about it. We kind of let it unfold a little bit. Don't let that be you.

What's going on, everybody? Hey, you guys, welcome back. Before I dive into today's episode, I just want to stop right here, because things look a little different around here. I mentioned it at the end of the last podcast, so I thought that I would dive into it here. We have a new name. The WarriorBabe Show is now officially The WarriorBabe Show.

What I need to let you guys know is it's the same podcast. It's literally going to be the same conversations, the same mission of me being here giving women the real, honest information that they need to build the body and the life that they actually want, with the tactics and the mindset, giving you guys wisdom and knowledge when it comes to your fitness journey overall. It's just a name that I feel entirely matches who we are and what we've always been about. You guys know that I'm the founder of WarriorBabe. We had branched off by naming it The WarriorBabe Show, but it's still WarriorBabe-centric. It's just a simpler way to stay with the name of our entire ecosystem.

So if you are a longtime listener, welcome back. Thank you guys for being here through every chapter of this, from the start when we started it back in January of 2023, which is crazy. We're coming up on almost four years, going into 400 episodes. We've had over a million downloads, and we're also on pace, with only about 200K left to go, for 2 million downloads, which is just super cool. So thank you guys for the love and the commitment that you've given this podcast. If you guys are new, you picked a great episode to start with and you are in the right place.

Okay, so I'm really excited for you guys to be here. If you go back and listen to any of the other episodes, I'm introing them with The WarriorBabe Show. Now you know that that was once our name, and now we are The WarriorBabe Show.

Okay, so let's get into it. Today I want to start the episode with something that I've been hearing recently on social media, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, because when you pan out and look at it from a 30,000-foot view, it makes so much sense: September is grounding season. I love that. I love it. Because it's true in a way that, again, when you pan out and look at it from that 30,000-foot view, can maybe get people to look at September and the end of summer, but also look at their fitness journey, a little bit differently.

Summer's over. The chaos, the vacations, the kids running around, the grandkids coming over, the "I'll get back on track when things settle down" type of season is done. And what comes next is fall. It's the return to routine. It's the quiet after the chaos that's been going on. You're getting into shorter days, you're getting into colder nights. I feel like it's the most powerful time of year to build something real. Not January, not Monday, not after the holidays. Right now. There are four solid months going in. And I'm going to get into this, but prepping for January 1st should start September 1st. Prepping your new year now and getting grounded now.

Think how amazing it's going to be to be ahead of the crowd if you get started now. And I know it's crazy that I'm even talking about the holidays. It's September. You're probably like me when it comes to pumpkin spice. I'm like, yo, slow down. It's still summertime when pumpkin spice comes out. And now I'm talking about the holidays and we're still in September. But I'm doing it for a purpose, because I want you guys to be prepared. That's what I want to talk about today: how to use this season in a way to get ahead. Not to just coast into the new year, not to maintain until January, but to build intentionally and consistently right now.

So that you guys are standing on the other side of this as someone completely different. You going into January are completely different from who normal people are going to be on January 1st, you know what I mean? Because honestly, truthfully, you've probably heard this, but it's so real. The bodies that are built in this time, from September 2026 through the holiday season, are the transformations that people will see in 2027 and in summer of 2027. It's so true that your summer bodies get built in the winter. That's why I want to help you understand how you can get ahead now, and not be that person, and I'm sure you've been there, done that, where come March, it's like, oh my gosh, summer's right around the corner, I've got to find a plan. You fall into that quick-fix trap, and it's become a real cycle every single year.

So I hope this episode grounds you and makes you look at these months more intentionally moving forward, so that you are ahead of it. I wanted you guys to sit with this for a second, because I think this catchy phrase deserves more than just being a catchy phrase. I want to explain it. What grounding means is getting rooted, getting stable, coming back to the foundation after a season of movement, a season of change and a season of disruption.

And that is exactly what September offers you, if you choose to use it that way. In summer there's a lot going on. You've got social events, you've got travel, you've got late nights, you've got inconsistent schedules, you're going to bed later, you're waking up at different times. It's beautiful. If I could be in summertime all year round, that would be my time, mainly because of the weather. It's beautiful out and it's worth enjoying. But the way that I look at it, looking down from 30,000 feet, is that it's not a building season. It's not a building season. It's a living season.

And most women feel the drift that comes with it. The workouts get patchy, the nutrition gets a little bit looser, the routines that you once had kind of get undone somewhere around July, right? Well, I want you to look at September as the exhale after all of that. Your kids are back in school, you're not having to watch the grandkids while their parents are at work, your calendar is more predictable, unless your kids are playing sports, and then you've got to work around that. But the urgency of summer plans gets replaced by a solid routine. This is where that structure returns, and this is the opportunity for you to lock in before the holiday madness starts to pick back up. This is an opportunity for you to get grounded and decide who you're going to be.

I was having this conversation in our VIP community, and I said, who do you want to be come January 1st? Do you want to be that person that's rushing around making new plans because summer is around the corner? Do you want to be that person that gets ahead now? And what do you want by January 1st? What habits do you want to instill? I would ask yourself these questions. Who do you want to be by then? Do you want to be better with your nutrition, consistently eating your nutrition? Do you want to make sure your workout schedule is on lock during the week? Do you want to get better sleep? Are you going to bed earlier? Maybe you're cutting out your shows, and I don't mean seven days of the week, maybe two days of the week, or you're going to bed earlier. You start stacking it. That way, come January, it's already a habit you've instilled.

So with everything I'm saying here, I don't want you to change everything like a lot of people do on January 1st. I just want you to identify one area. If it's, for example, going to bed earlier, okay, you stop watching your show half an hour before you're planning to go lie down in bed and unwind, you know what I mean? Or you don't watch TV in bed. Those types of things. And you get five days out of the week, or you get three days out of the week to start, and then you build on top of it, right? Maybe five days is too much to make that kind of commitment. You get what I'm saying? And you do that for other things as well. So this grounding season is not about being intense, kind of like what I just said. It's more about intentionality. It's about choosing what this next version of you is and how you're going to build into that person.

And then building it and being consistent about it, one day at a time. All right.

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I also want to paint two pictures for you here, because I think this contrast is really important to understand. Picture one: it's January 2nd. The gym is packed. Everybody's on a treadmill. Every class is full. There are just people everywhere. People are fired up. They're motivated. They've got that new year energy. I've got new goals, I've got new motivation. The energy is electric. It's packed at this time.

And it's real for about three weeks. Literally, come February, or even March, I'm like, yo, where are all these people at? It's crazy. By February, the gym is quiet again. In March, it's quiet again. The motivation at this point has completely worn off. The program you were getting into is now harder than it looked in January. And the results just haven't materialized yet, like I talked about in the last episode. They just haven't arrived, because you're going into week six, and week six is where you can really start to see that picture. But at week four people drop off. At week three people drop off.

Most women have already quit at week three or week four. And that January crowd that was in there turns into the February ghost town. So that's picture one.

Picture two: it's January 2nd, and you have already been at this for four months. You started this month. You got through October with the momentum of a new routine. You navigated November with a strategy already in place, not just you pushing through. You had a strategy. You had the holidays in mind. You had the systems on your calendar. You had your daily commitments lined up, like setting your water on your island in the morning in your kitchen where you see it. You know what I mean?

You had a strategy in place. And then you enjoyed December without derailing yourself, because your habits were solid enough by then that having a holiday dinner didn't undo four months of work. You knew, okay, I just got four months of solid routine under my belt, I can enjoy myself a little bit. Kind of what I was saying in the last episode.

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That week of Christmas and New Year's, enjoying yourself in that week is not going to derail the four months of progress that you've made. That should be something to look forward to, you know what I mean?

You walking into January, you're not starting over. You're just continuing that momentum. Your body has had four months to adapt. You have four months of progressive overload. You have four months of consistently hitting your protein. You have four months of sleep and recovery. You have four months of stacking real, visible, measurable change. And so the woman in picture two does not need this new year, January motivation, because she already has something better. She has evidence. She has momentum.

You've got that body. You've already started transforming. You've got the habits in place. They're already becoming second nature. That is what grounding season builds. That is the advantage that starting now creates. The January crowd is hoping for a transformation. The September you is building one right now, and you have four months to do it. This is the time that true progress gets built and made. Maybe a way I can say this that will help you reframe the next couple of months: the body that you want for summer 2027.

You guys working and striving to become a stronger, leaner, confident and capable version of yourself. That idea, that picture you see when you close your eyes and imagine where you want to be. That body is being built right now. In September, in October, in November, in the quiet months when nobody's watching and nobody is posting. Be the opposite of what people do. People go into hibernation mode in these next couple of months. We wear baggy clothes. We're like, I don't have to worry about it. We kind of let it unfold a little bit.

Don't let that be you. It's you showing up now, hitting your protein target even though nobody's watching you. Or going to the gym and building that consistency even though nobody's watching you. It's being built in the time when you choose to move your body instead of waiting until you just feel like it, and then January 1st comes around and it's like, summer's around the corner. You know what I mean? And it matters because you're not chasing a quick fix.

You're doing it intentionally. You're doing it slowly. You're doing it over months, not weeks. Because you guys know from listening to these episodes with me that a transformation takes a year to build. It's not the same as the 12-week transformation that people dive into on January 1st. Building muscle, metabolic adaptation, those things take time. And doing it right, that version of a transformation is actually going to last. It's not the one you sprint into on January 1st, sprinting through the 12 weeks, and then you can't maintain it because you never built the foundation.

We don't want to repeat that again, you know what I'm saying? We don't want to fall back into that same trap that you fall into almost every year, unless you're someone who can consistently follow through on January 1st. But those people are few and far between. It's like 1% of the people in America. So I want you to be the one that's steady and grounded through fall, through winter, through spring, so that by the time summer arrives, you're already where you want to be. And you're not arriving as a result.

You're arriving as a full-blown person who has learned in these last couple of months sustainability and what it takes to live with an identity of fitness. It doesn't have to be perfect. But that is all available to you, and it's way better than a sprint. Because let me just say this: if you've been someone on January 1st over the last couple of years and the motivation fades by February or March or April, then why don't we just do something different?

Which would be what I'm talking about here. So I'll talk about the mindset piece really quick, because I think this is what actually separates the woman who uses grounding season from the woman who just lets it pass. The women who start now in September are not the most motivated. You're not going to be the most motivated to do it. You don't have everything figured out. That's okay. But they're the women who are imperfectly taking messy action to try and put a strategy in place, rather than waiting for the ideal set of circumstances to come.

Which is why people fall flat come January 1st: they think everything has to be perfect and they have to have everything mapped out. The women who start now make a different kind of decision. Like the one I'm describing, that starts messy and starts imperfect, and along the way gets to where it feels really good for them. It's not "I'll start when I'm ready." Ready never comes. Confidence comes with you taking action. It follows that. So it's not, I'm going to wait until after the holidays.

The holidays are six weeks out. So why don't we just use this time to figure out what kind of routine it's going to look like for me? Right? Or somebody says, well, I just don't have enough time right now. There's somebody who's going to make this decision and use this time wisely in the next four months, and the two of you, not probably, you do, have the same 24 hours in a day. The difference is not time.

The difference is the decision about what you're going to do about it and how you're going to strategically set it up for yourself. The go-getter mentality is not about doing more. It's about deciding sooner. It's about looking at the same season everyone else is coasting through and choosing to see it as an opportunity to set yourself up for success. It's about having the kind of relationship with your future self that makes present excuses, or even present sacrifice, worth it.

Like putting time on your calendar for a workout. Don't look at it as a sacrifice. Look at it as a future investment in the person you're becoming come January 1st. The women sitting in January feeling behind had September. They had October. They had November. They had December. They just didn't use them. Not because they couldn't, but because they were waiting for a better time. And the better time they were waiting for was the exact time they were in, which is these couple of months.

There's no right time, guys. So I would just encourage you, in the first two weeks, to take messy action toward getting yourself into a strategic routine. You're going to play around with that routine. Maybe you can't make four days a week, so you set it to three. Maybe you can't make five, so you set it to four. But you're at least figuring it out, and then what feels right for you in this season will land the way it's supposed to. Does this make sense?

So I would encourage you to make those types of practical choices. You guys know I like to give practical takeaways in these episodes. It's: okay, just go take messy action for the next two weeks if you're still feeling like you're all over the place. Now the kids are back in school. The only things you're really looking at are sports and when family dinners need to happen. Where can you set time for yourself now? Make that decision and figure out how to plug and play over the next couple of weeks until it falls into a consistent routine for yourself.

That would be the one practical takeaway I'd give you to start implementing right now. So if there's anything I want you to take away from this episode, it's that September isn't a waiting season. It's not for you to wait and coast and start the real work come January. September is grounding season. It's the most powerful time of year to build something real, something rooted, something that will still be standing when summer arrives and everybody is frantically just starting to begin, rushing into cutting calories and getting into the gym and doing tons of cardio and getting outside and running, et cetera.

What you build in the next couple of months isn't going to be the whole transformation, but it will be the habits you're ingraining in yourself, habits that no longer feel hard to start because you've already started them and you've gotten better at them. Think about it like this: it's a standard. You're setting a standard that will carry you through the holidays without a second thought. And it's a version of yourself that then shows up next summer, not as somebody who finally arrived at a result.

You're now someone who just didn't stop. Isn't it cooler to be able to say, yeah, I've been on my fitness journey however long, and I've been really consistent through the fall? Rather than, yeah, I started in February, but I was inconsistent, and then having inconsistent results come summertime. You know what I mean? You don't need January 1st. It's a fictitious date on a calendar that puts so much chaos and pressure on people to show up differently because it's a new year.

You literally have right now. And if you want to build the nutrition strategy that makes all this work, understanding how your body works and maybe why it hasn't worked through the years, because I'm talking more about mindset and the broader picture here, if you want to develop the day-to-day strategy that completes this approach and produces results that actually last, then come and join us on our free weekly webinar every Thursday.

We go live at 7 p.m. Eastern. I break down exactly how to put this into action and help you build the body for the transformation you're wanting to have. It's free. It's live. You get to come hang out with me. I also do hot seats, meaning I take three women from the room and I coach you live. It's free. Come hang out. It could be the best next step you take right now. I'm putting that link in the show notes for you guys. Go register, get your ticket, grab your spot and come hang out. And I'll see you guys in the next episode. Peace out.

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.