The FitSister Podcast

What is the secret ingredient to developing fitness habits that last? Is it the outfit? Is it the expensive gym membership? Is it doing the thing that one fitness influencer told you to do? It is in fact none of those things. In this episode we explore the profound importance of belonging, specifically in the world of health and fitness. Moo and I discuss how a sense of belonging impacts motivatio...

Listeners, this week you are in for a real treat. Moo sits down with New York Times Best Selling author, Tiffany Crum. Over spring break Moo read Tiffany's debut novel This Story Might Save Your Life . In addition to loving the book, Moo also loved the acknowledgements. Tiffany explains that she had the dream of writing a novel 18 years ago when her son was born. Too often we see the success o...

Greetings listeners. For a long time, Moo and I have wondered about Pilates. But recently, something happened. We kept seeing articles and posts on social media that seemed to spark a Pilates controversy. Articles asked questions like who is it for really? Does it exclude a certain body type? But what was more interesting than these articles themselves, as we both quickly noticed, were the comment...

Do you constantly feel like your brain is a cluttered mess of thoughts? Do you ever walk into a room to get something while also looking at Team Snap to see what the latest message is about only to realize you totally forgot what you’re looking for? Do you find yourself scrolling through social media just so you can quiet the nagging reminders and the simultaneous realization that you’ll never get...

In this episode Moo and I discuss goal-setting in your 40s. Moo recently read a book and in the acknowledgements the author discussed how the dream of writing a novel took 18 years. 18 years?! We are all old enough to know that real goals take time, like decades! So yes, live your best life, but also, we are wise enough to realize the logistics of chasing our dreams are actually really complicated...

Hey hey, fit listeners. Welcome back to another week of the pod.  In this episode, Moo and I explore the complex relationship between stress and emotional eating. I share a personal story involving Trader Joe’s Ketchup chips while Moo shares scientific insights and practical strategies to manage binge eating and stress responses effectively. Before you go rolling your eyes, just know that sometime...

Greetings listeners! I recently discovered a plant-based cookbook with really great pictures that taught me how delicious cooking with vegetables could be. Now, I know a lot of you are thinking, oh good for you Natalie, but I don’t have time to chop vegetables with my busy schedule. Well, this may sound crazy, but this plant-based journey actually made my life easier. How, you ask? Well, listen al...

Listeners, let us engage in a thought experiment. What would happen if we imagined that exercise was not associated with body transformation? Then, why would we exercise? In other words, what happens when we think about the why beyond what we look like. In this episode Moo explores the benefits of getting away from body goals and instead exploring the soulful reasons why we might keep moving. Work...

Listeners, you are in for a treat. In this episode, I tell the tale of my wardrobe makeover. You heard that right, wardrobe makeover. First I have to tell you the history of me being a terrible dresser and the embarrassing moments where I was called out on two separate occasions by my superiors for not being dressed appropriately. Did that stop me from buying all the wrong clothes for decades? No,...

Greetings listeners! On today’s episode Moo and I discuss rest. What is rest again? I’m not quite sure, but I know I’m not getting enough and I need more. Moo shares how annoying she finds rest and yet how necessary it has become. I talk about a recent LifeKit episode that explores seven kinds of rest! 7 kinds! We get into our own relationships to rest (especially at this age... in bed by nine any...

Hi guys! This week on the FitSister Podcast, we go old school and I bring Moo a list of questions. Some are health and fitness related (what is the point of squatting with your heels raised?) and some are not (where do you go for an affordable, quality sports bra?) We talk workouts, food, hydration, supplements, good books and more. Join in for the fun!

Here on the FitSister Podcast we have not really embraced the world of body-driven New Year's resolutions, but we have seen gym goals emerge as a topic on social media and other outlets. Earlier this week I heard two ideas in the health and fitness space that I wanted to take up with my fit sister. We also get into the pros and cons of going to classes instead of standing looking at the free w...

If you live in the Midwest, winter is a beast. Like a house guest that stays way too long, she has moved in, taken over every inch of my life and makes all daily tasks more challenging. I start this conversation with Moo listing a lot of legitimate reasons why I am less active and how I do not want her Miami, Florida insights on how to cope with winter. But Moo gently and expertly gets me to the p...

Listeners! Welcome back for a special guest episode with author John Kenney. John is the author of I See You’ve Called in Dead , a novel about a middle-aged man who is forced to redefine his identity after a very public (and very funny) self-sabotage experience at work. Moo and I both read the book and loved the themes of redefining self in midlife, specifically in the midst of loss and change. Wh...

The time of year has arrived when the sky is the same color as the faded snow and we look at our weather app only to realize that it’s not going to be sunny until next Thursday. At least if you live in the midwest. For Moo in Miami, winter means darkness at 5PM, which can still be a challenge. Regardless of where you live, we are all fighting the urge to put on our pajamas at 4:30 and go to bed. I...

Happy New Year! As we all know, the start of January brings with it the idea of resolutions and revisions. And honestly, I am ready for some change. I have been on a diet of mostly coffee and sugar cookies and I am ready for regular gym visits, more water and seasonal vegetables. But instead of making big promises that I know I can’t keep, Moo and I are making tiny resolutions. What are the smalle...

Have you ever set a goal and then reached it and then realized that balloons did not drop from the ceiling and there were no confetti canons like you imagined? I set a goal at the beginning of the school year to establish a consistent gym routine. Moo and I discuss how I am doing and how managing expectations around goals is necessary and kind of annoying. We all know we could achieve more, but th...

Guys, no one is more of an expert at self-help than me. I have read all of the books, listened to all of the podcasts. I am the eternal student of self-optimization. Oh, but wait, did I mention, I’ve never really changed all that much in my self-help adventures. I still have a drawer full of single socks with no match among other issues that annoy me and most likely the people I love. In this epis...

Have you ever felt like your brain is a flood of negativity and anxiety? Have you ever wondered how to get your brain to empower you instead of being your biggest critic? In this episode, Moo interviews her friend and former life coach Muneer Al-Busaidi about the power of our thoughts on why it is important to talk to ourselves the right way. They discuss how to control thoughts, the power of self...

Rites of Passage play an important role in our youth. As we grow our parents, communities and religions signal our movement from one phase into another. But what happens in adulthood? We change throughout our lives, but gone are the ceremonies, events or experiences. Sometimes it feels like we could use something to signal our movement as we shed certain skin and take on new roles. In this episode...

Friendship is a simple concept with huge benefits, but it is often overlooked in the chaos and business of modern life. In this episode, I recap my recent trip to Florida where I met Moo’s friends. Moo shares her insights on the importance of friendship in our forties, especially when family lives so far away. But Moo’s mantra is: “there is no friends and family, there is just family.” The people...

Listeners, welcome back to a special episode of The FitSister Podcast. On today's episode, Moo interviews her longtime best friend Ashley Litwin Diego about her recent decision to run for State Representative for the state of Florida. Ashley is a mom of three and a cancer survivor who, now in her 40s, has decided to enter the political realm. What happens when a mom decides to listen to her li...

Friends and listeners, welcome back. In this episode I confess the bizarre ways social media has hijacked my brain and why I decided to make major changes to my social media diet. Moo and I cover the ways in which social media distracts us from what really matters and  turns us into binary thinkers. Life is complicated and nuanced and social media insists on making it two-dimensional and over-simp...

In this episode, I candidly talk about an Amazon purchase that I thought would be a gamechanger. Let me guess, you already know how the story ends. It changed absolutely nothing. Moo and I discuss how overspending is not only wasting our money, but it is preventing us from finding real solutions to our actual problems. Join us on a journey as we unpack why so many of us believe we are one purchase...

Friends! Welcome back. This week on FitSister Moo and I talk about the issue that all of us face-- the attack of overscheduling. Ironically, Moo and I are both simple people who would like to lead simple lives, but the world we live in has made this exceptionally challenging. Moo shares her tales of a travel baseball mom and how she has recently left the world of travel sports. How much is too muc...