Send us Fan Mail

Still doing the same workouts and eating the same way you did in your 20s and wondering why your body just isn't responding anymore? You're not broken and you haven't lost your discipline. Your body changed. Your plan didn't.

In this episode, Mel breaks down:

• Why your body and hormones shift after 35, and why that changes everything about how you should train
• Why "more cardio, less food" backfires when you're already stressed and under-fueled
• Why strength training isn't optional anymore, and what actually counts as "enough"
• How stress, sleep, and recovery are part of your training plan, not separate from it
• How to build a fitness plan that fits your real, current, chaotic life instead of the life you used to have
• The 4 things worth focusing on right now instead of doing more of everything

This isn't about doing more. It's about training smarter.

Ready to stop guessing and follow an actual plan? Join us in the Fierce Mama Collective https://www.fiercemamacollective.com

💬 Let’s connect!
Come hang out with me on Instagram @fiercemamacollective
Tag me, DM me, or share what hit home for you — I love hearing from you.

 If this episode helped you:

• Follow the show so you don’t miss an episode
• Share it with a fellow mama who needs to hear it
• Leave a review — it helps more moms find us and join the Fierce Mama Collective!

Send us Fan Mail

You planned it. You booked it. You were genuinely motivated. And then the first week of September arrived and somehow getting back into your routine felt harder than you expected, maybe even harder than starting from scratch. 

In this episode, Mel talks honestly about re-entry friction: why it's completely normal, why most women misread it as a sign they're not ready, and what to actually do in the first two weeks so you don't talk yourself out of something before it has a chance to stick. 

She shares the two-week rule, the minimum viable session, and the one thing that separates women who rebuild their routines in September from the ones who are still planning to start in January.

💬 Let’s connect!
Come hang out with me on Instagram @fiercemamacollective
Tag me, DM me, or share what hit home for you — I love hearing from you.

 If this episode helped you:

• Follow the show so you don’t miss an episode
• Share it with a fellow mama who needs to hear it
• Leave a review — it helps more moms find us and join the Fierce Mama Collective!

Send us Fan Mail

This one's personal. I'm talking about growing up with a mother who had schizophrenia, what it's actually like living inside a family during active psychosis, and why I think we still don't take women's mental health seriously until it becomes a headline.

I'm using the ongoing Lindsay Clancy trial as the jumping off point. Clancy is the Massachusetts nurse on trial right now for killing her three children, with a defense built around postpartum psychosis. But this episode isn't really about the case. It's about the pattern I watched play out in my own home decades before I'd ever heard of Lindsay Clancy: psychosis getting read as a character flaw, "crazy," "difficult," "dramatic," instead of what it actually is, a medical emergency.

I share a memory I've never talked about publicly before, and I get honest about the parts I still don't have answers for.

Content note: this episode discusses psychosis, child death, and suicide. If any of this is close to home for you right now, please take care of yourself first, and know that support is available (988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, US and Canada).

💬 Let’s connect!
Come hang out with me on Instagram @fiercemamacollective
Tag me, DM me, or share what hit home for you — I love hearing from you.

 If this episode helped you:

• Follow the show so you don’t miss an episode
• Share it with a fellow mama who needs to hear it
• Leave a review — it helps more moms find us and join the Fierce Mama Collective!

Send us Fan Mail

It's that time of year: the school supply lists, the uniform runs, the endless logistics of getting everyone else ready for September. 

But here's the coaching question Mel wants to ask you: who's planning your September? 

In this episode, Mel talks honestly about the mental load mums carry in back-to-school season, why it so reliably pushes self-care to the bottom of the list, and why that's actually the exact wrong time to do it. She shares the coaching reframe that changes everything: structure returning isn't your window closing, it's your window opening. And she gives you the one practical thing to do this week that will make September completely different.

💬 Let’s connect!
Come hang out with me on Instagram @fiercemamacollective
Tag me, DM me, or share what hit home for you — I love hearing from you.

 If this episode helped you:

• Follow the show so you don’t miss an episode
• Share it with a fellow mama who needs to hear it
• Leave a review — it helps more moms find us and join the Fierce Mama Collective!

Send us Fan Mail

If you're on a GLP-1 medication, or thinking about starting one, this episode is required listening.

Everyone's talking about the weight loss. Nobody's talking about the muscle loss. Research shows that up to 39% of weight lost on GLP-1 medications can come from muscle mass, not fat. And muscle is the thing that keeps your metabolism running, your body strong, and your results lasting long after the medication does its job.

In this episode, Mel breaks down exactly what GLP-1 medications do, and what they cannot do, no matter how long you're on them. You'll learn why protein intake drops dangerously low for most GLP-1 users, why strength training is more important than ever when you're on a GLP-1, and what the five non-negotiables are that you need alongside your prescription.

This is not a shame episode. This is a strategy episode. The medication is a tool. This episode is the plan that goes with it.

What you'll take away:

• Why 88% of GLP-1 users fall below protein targets, and how to fix it
• The muscle loss problem nobody talks about
• 5 things you must do alongside your medication for lasting results
• How to build habits during the window while it's open

Hit subscribe and share this with every woman on her GLP-1 journey. 

GLP-1, Ozempic, Wegovy, perimenopause, weight loss women over 40, muscle loss GLP-1, protein GLP-1, strength training women, Fierce Mama Fitcast, women's fitness

💬 Let’s connect!
Come hang out with me on Instagram @fiercemamacollective
Tag me, DM me, or share what hit home for you — I love hearing from you.

 If this episode helped you:

• Follow the show so you don’t miss an episode
• Share it with a fellow mama who needs to hear it
• Leave a review — it helps more moms find us and join the Fierce Mama Collective!

Send us Fan Mail

Just back from a cruise and a city trip, Mel gets real about what it actually looks like to navigate food, movement, and fun when you're out of your normal environment, without obsessing, restricting, or coming home feeling like you need to 'undo' everything. If you've ever spent a holiday feeling anxious about the buffet, skipping dessert while your family enjoys it, or white-knuckling your way through vacation in the name of 'being good', this episode is the permission slip you didn't know you needed. Mel shares exactly what she did, what she let go of, and the mindset shift that made all the difference.

fitness on vacation | how to stay healthy on a cruise | holiday fitness tips | working out on vacation | healthy habits travel | mom fitness summer

💬 Let’s connect!
Come hang out with me on Instagram @fiercemamacollective
Tag me, DM me, or share what hit home for you — I love hearing from you.

 If this episode helped you:

• Follow the show so you don’t miss an episode
• Share it with a fellow mama who needs to hear it
• Leave a review — it helps more moms find us and join the Fierce Mama Collective!

Send us Fan Mail

You're eating well, exercising regularly, and still not seeing results, and you can't figure out why. The answer might not be in your workout or your diet. It might be in your nervous system. In this episode, Mel Duettchen explains the science behind cortisol and chronic stress, why the "mom life" hormonal environment is uniquely challenging for fat loss, and the specific, practical strategies for managing cortisol that will unlock the results you've been working so hard for. This is the missing piece that nobody in the fitness industry is talking about,  and it could change everything for you.

cortisol and weight gain women, stress hormones belly fat, chronic stress weight loss resistance, cortisol reset for moms, why can't I lose weight stress, HPA axis dysregulation women, mom burnout and weight gain

💬 Let’s connect!
Come hang out with me on Instagram @fiercemamacollective
Tag me, DM me, or share what hit home for you — I love hearing from you.

 If this episode helped you:

• Follow the show so you don’t miss an episode
• Share it with a fellow mama who needs to hear it
• Leave a review — it helps more moms find us and join the Fierce Mama Collective!

Send us Fan Mail

Are you logging hours on the treadmill or in cardio classes without seeing the results you want? 

This episode will change how you think about exercise forever. Mel Duettchen breaks down the science of why strength training, not cardio, is the most powerful tool for sustainable fat loss for moms over 35. 

Learn why muscle is the key to a fast metabolism, how to get started with weights even if you're a total beginner, and why building a strong body will make you feel more confident, capable, and alive than any amount of running ever will.

strength training for moms, women's weightlifting beginners, cardio vs strength training fat loss, build muscle burn fat women over 35, lifting weights for weight loss women, strength training benefits women, resistance training moms

💬 Let’s connect!
Come hang out with me on Instagram @fiercemamacollective
Tag me, DM me, or share what hit home for you — I love hearing from you.

 If this episode helped you:

• Follow the show so you don’t miss an episode
• Share it with a fellow mama who needs to hear it
• Leave a review — it helps more moms find us and join the Fierce Mama Collective!

Send us Fan Mail

Do you ever look in the mirror and wonder where the woman you used to be went? You're not alone…  and you're not broken.

In this episode of the Fierce Mama Fitcast, Mel Duettchen digs into the emotional and psychological journey of identity loss that comes with motherhood, a phenomenon researchers actually call "matrescence”, and why your desire to get fit is about so much more than losing weight. If you're a mom in your 30s, 40s, or early 50s who has quietly put herself last for years and is finally ready to come back to herself, this episode will feel like a warm hug and a battle cry all at once. 

We're talking about why you can't "get back" to who you were before kids, why that's actually good news, and how building a strong body is one of the most powerful tools for rebuilding your identity on your own terms.

 identity loss in motherhood, matrescence, fitness for moms, finding yourself after kids, mom mental health and fitness, lose weight and feel confident, fitness over 35 moms

💬 Let’s connect!
Come hang out with me on Instagram @fiercemamacollective
Tag me, DM me, or share what hit home for you — I love hearing from you.

 If this episode helped you:

• Follow the show so you don’t miss an episode
• Share it with a fellow mama who needs to hear it
• Leave a review — it helps more moms find us and join the Fierce Mama Collective!

Send us Fan Mail

I thought I had it handled.

Years without major symptoms… feeling strong, consistent, and in control.

And then my body reminded me (real quick) that chronic illness doesn’t just disappear.

In this episode, I’m sharing my recent flare-up with Ménière’s disease: how it started, what I ignored, what likely triggered it, and what I’m doing now to recover.

But more importantly, we’re talking about the part no one prepares you for:

The mental spiral of feeling like you’re back at square one.

If you’re dealing with a chronic illness, or just going through a season where things feel hard, messy, and like you’ve taken a step backwards,this episode will help you reframe what’s actually happening.

Because you’re not starting over.

You’re just in the process.

💬 Let’s connect!
Come hang out with me on Instagram @fiercemamacollective
Tag me, DM me, or share what hit home for you — I love hearing from you.

 If this episode helped you:

• Follow the show so you don’t miss an episode
• Share it with a fellow mama who needs to hear it
• Leave a review — it helps more moms find us and join the Fierce Mama Collective!