Moiche
Crawford.

I taught Physical Education and Health in public schools. I taught kids how to fall and how to get up. I taught them — and I forgot, sometimes — that the body is not a problem to be solved. It is a place you live. The work is to make the place feel like home.

I was a group fitness instructor before I became a coach. A room full of people, music up, everybody moving together. It is beautiful. It is also crowded. You cannot see the woman in the back row whose knee is talking to her. You cannot see the man who hasn't slept, who is on his third comeback. You cannot truly see anyone in a group of forty.

So I started working one-on-one with a coworker after school. Slowly, quietly. We were not training for a competition. We were training for her life. I watched her weight come down a little. I watched her sleep get better. I watched her laugh more in the staff lounge. That was the moment. That was the decision. The road bent.

Why the second half

The fitness industry has a young person problem. It is mostly built for the very fit and the very young, and it speaks to everybody else in a language of guilt. I cannot keep doing that. I will not.

The clients I work with are 40 to 75. They are working professionals, business owners, and parents juggling a lot. Some are retired. Many are caregivers. They want to feel good in their clothes again. They want to climb a flight of stairs without stopping. They want their next check-up to be the one where the doctor smiles.

They are not broken. They are not behind. They have lived. The work is to honor that and to build forward from it.

Plants, and why I won't shut up about it

Strength can be built on a plant-based diet. I say this so often it has become a kind of small confession of faith. People are surprised because the dominant story about muscle is a story about animal protein and supplements and 200 grams a day. The truth is gentler. With lentils and tofu and beans and the green things and enough of them, you can build. You can sustain. You can be strong.

I will show you the math. I will show you the meals. I will not push it on you if it isn't your thing — that, too, is part of seeing you. But if you want to try, I'll be the loudest, warmest cheerleader in the room.