Oh, hey there, Muscle Homies!
It’s been about a month since I’ve been in your inbox. It’s great to be back!
Part of the reason I’ve taken so long to get in touch is because while writing the supporting articles for each episode of Muscle Moments, I discovered my writing muscles atrophied! ::gasp:: I’m not a fan of any muscle withering away, and the writing muscles dwindling without me realizing hit hard.
You might be asking yourself, “How is that possible?”
I appreciate your curiosity and I shall tell you!
I was never a great writer but thanks to a string of writing courses and career experiences, I became a strong storyteller. I wasn’t winning awards for my writing, but I wasn’t sitting down to write and then staring blankly at the screen like my brain just cracked in half.
Fast forward 20+ years: I’ve held 15 different positions (startups, amirite?) and with each role came more responsibility, including being more strategic and less execution focused. As much as I had my hands in the work, I really led the teams through the concept and strategy, then reviewed and approved; they put the words on the page.
Lest we forget about the uprising of technology. Growing up with computers; the Internet, laptops, mobile phones, streaming services, social media, and now AI have always been at my finger tips. Who else remembers the C-prompt?
These technologies fundamentally changed the way we communicate, the value of words, and the use of language. Preliminary research suggests that technology is making us dumber - to over simplify it - and is much more eloquently described in this 2025 MIT report “Your Brain on ChatGPT”.
Whatever the research says doesn’t matter because in my lived experience, not writing consistently has made me a worse writer, simply because I’m not training the muscles I need to be strong at it. (Is that a comma splice?)
Same with the gym or anything else in life, right? Right. And this is my point…
We don’t develop muscle, strength, or build health passively. It requires us to act with intention. To prioritize and train different muscles and habits, constantly pushing ourselves to the edge so we can go a little bit further the next time. In an IRL (IRL = in real life) training scenario, training looks different everyday. Some days, you have the energy to challenge yourself, other days it’s a struggle to walk through the door. So you take the step that is appropriate for you in that moment to generate momentum and keep going. You never regret a workout. Never.
The process I’m using to become a strong writer again is the same that I use for lifting: walk in the door, evaluate the energy I have and then sit down to write with intention. Get my brain going, generate momentum, and it’s Calgon take me away in alignment with what I can do that day. I’ve also started reading fiction again. If I can learn from other coaches, I can learn from other authors. I am confident that I will retrain my writing muscles, one rep at a time. Even in writing this letter I can feel them flexing a little harder.
This, my friends, is what we call scaling. Scaling is a strategy to help you build consistency and stay committed to your goal without driving yourself into the ground. My goal is to write articles and produce this podcast that will help you become the healthiest, strongest, most capable version of yourself. I do it because it’s something I LOVE and know the value of strength as a life strategy, and so do my guests on Muscle Moments.
Speaking of… we have three new episodes available on Muscle Moments (YAY!). Three different conversations, three different perspectives on strength as a life strategy, one common thread: the willingness to stay committed to staying strong through movement.
As always, if you have any feedback, want my perspective on a health or fitness-related topic, or you want to say “YO!”, reply to this email. I’m excited to hear from you!
To health and strength,
Dana
aka SweetDee
STRENGTH TRAINING FOUNDATIONS
I’m welcoming the first group into my Strength Training Foundations program. Feel healthy, get strong, and finally fit into “those pants”. 😉 Foundations is my 12-week, one-on-one coaching program designed for you to build real strength, boost energy, and feel at home in your body again. No crash diets, no guesswork. Results that stick. Grab time on my calendar to learn more.
Scale It, Don’t Skip It
with Jacki Ford
Okay, real talk: scaling isn’t something you do when you can’t hack it or don’t feel like it. It’s a strategy that keeps you ahead in the long game. I recently sat down with Jacki Ford — Nutrition Coach, CrossFit Coach, and Barber — and we got into why meeting yourself where you’re at now is the best plan for success. Musicians scale how they learn a piece of music before they ever play it all out. Turns out, this strategy works for us in many areas of life, too.
Find the Gym First
with Rudy Rubio
You don’t need motivation, you need to lose your excuses. I sat down with Rudy Rubio — someone who creates clarity from chaos for a living — to talk about how he made fitness non-negotiable. The answer: he got really curious about what he liked and let how he felt guide him. Now, when he travels, he can’t even go to his hotel room before he finds the local gym. It was a process, many different types of fitness, leaving CrossFit at his strongest, and dropping a barbell on his knee all helped him find the right place for fitness in his life. Most importantly he’s learned to refuse to let comparison get the last word.
The Lie Fear Tells You
with Dina Samara
Okay so this one wrecked me a little. I sat down with Dina Samra, someone who spent 15 years in venture capital before quitting with zero plan, buying a camper, and rebuilding her entire life from scratch. It wrecked me because I can totally relate. In this conversation, we got into the voice in your head that tells you you can’t do the hard thing (spoiler: it’s lying, every single time).
Muscle Moments is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
FROM THE HEADLINES
It’s not a headline but it’s been something I’ve enjoyed recently: Cottage Cheese Bagels!
A friend introduced these to me a few weeks ago, and I can’t stop thinking about them. Unfortunately, I keep eating the cottage cheese before I make the recipe. ::sigh:: So, I’m making them this weekend. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes right here on Substack. Mangia!
GET IN TOUCH!
If you have any feedback, want my perspective, or you want to say “YO!”, reply to this email. I’m excited to hear from you!
Damn right it is!