This weekend, on Instagram, a MAN commented on my latest IGTV Video about the Wedge for the Kettlebell Press that I, a WOMAN, have his leg goals!! His exact words were, “I’m really not embarrassed to admit that, this woman has my leg goals. Looking awesome!”

It was seriously one of the best and most complimentary comments I have ever received. Because the truth is, I used to HATE to wear shorts. Seriously HATE IT. I used to hate my legs and everything about them.

My legs were always the part of my body that made me think I was fat or big. As a young girl, they were never appreciated by my ballet instructors at a well known Boston based ballet school. Instead they cared more about how my legs looked and that they made my figure too curvy for their liking rather than what I could DO with them as a young ballerina.

Of course there were other incidents outside of ballet that contributed to my hatred for my legs, such as teenage boys commenting on how “BIG” my legs were.

My personal hatred for my legs plagued me for most of my life, even through my thirties.

It took conscious mental effort and positive physical action for me to change how I saw my legs and to help me slowly learn to love my legs.

When I started to study kung fu and lift regularly, I started to focus on what my legs could DO, and not on how they looked. Their strength, muscle and power became more important than any societal aesthetic mold and I stopped obsessing about their appearance.

In 2016, at 40 years old, I paused to take notice of my legs in a picture I saw from when I spoke Perform Better Summit in Chicago. They looked different to me. In addition to being more mentally sound when it came to my body image, all the years of kettlebell training and venture into powerlifting, combined with a conscious change and improvement in my nutrition had done them good.

Even though it is still a work in progress and always will be, since that moment three years ago in 2016, with each passing year, I learn to love my legs a little bit more because:

1. I am more mentally strong and although my body image demons creep into my thoughts from time to time, I do not let them run the house;
2. I am mindful of my nutrition and now at 43 years old have a detailed focus on it that includes specific attention to hormone balance.
3. I lift. A LOT. I lift heavy and I lift often and in fact I noticed even more aesthetic transformation with my legs after following both my Summer Shred programs and ESPECIALLY after following my husband Eric’s Circuit Shred program. 

Just one month ago, on August 1, 2019, I set out on a QUEST FOR BEEF; that is building beefy muscles with a particular focus on my legs. Eric suggested that I incorporate his Circuit Shred program into my weekly training. I incorporated two days per week of his Circuit Shred Program into my training and within a MERE 10 DAYS I started to see the aesthetic changes in my legs that I have always wanted! As a result I have been receiving comments from both men and women that MY LEGS are THEIR LEG GOALS!

Now I LOVE to wear shorts and show off my sexy, strong legs.

Also, I’ve extended the Early Bird discount for I Am Not Afraid To Lift® Iowa for ONE day through TONIGHT at 11:59 PM PST AND there are only 3 spots left for I Am Not Afraid To Lift® Albany. This workshop is almost SOLD OUT! Details and sign up links below…