Season 2: coming on Tuesday!

Midlife movement gets real, messy, honest, hopeful. Rebuilding your body in midlife shouldn’t feel impossible.

my Body can returns for Season 2 with a weekly look at what it actually feels like to move again after years of injuries, illnesses, and hormonal chaos. Instead of offering polished fitness advice or unrealistic midlife transformations, this podcast documents the real process: the mood swings that change your workouts, the days when strength shows up out of nowhere, the days when it doesn’t, the tiny signs of progress that feel huge, and the strange reality of renegotiating your relationship with your own body. Season 1’s 30-episodes-in-30-days challenge revealed just how much honesty and humor can change the way we approach movement.

Season 2 builds on that momentum, focusing on what’s ahead, not what was, and exploring how strength, stability, and confidence can grow in the middle of life without perfection or pressure.

If you want a real, relatable look at midlife movement, follow my Body can on any podcast app, YouTube or on Substack at mybodycan.substack.com. Because my body can, and yours can too, do a lot more than we realize. We just have to match our movements to our lives.

See you Tuesday,

Steph

Would love to know!

Thanks for your feedback!

Season 2 will start next week.

Steph

Thirty days. Thirty episodes. Thirty attempts to say out loud what I have been trying to make sense of privately for years. I knew this project would change something, but I didn’t know it would change this much.

I didn’t know that simply talking about movement while actually moving would rewire the way I think about my body, my habits, and myself.

I’m not exercising while recording this one, not really, although I am walking around the apartment with a resistance band around my legs because I think better when I move. I guess that’s part of the story. Things that used to feel like exercise now feel like living.

This episode feels emotional. It feels like an ending and a beginning at the same time.

💡 Transcripts, links and more: https://mybodycan.substack.com

There is something I’ve never said out loud before, but it’s been simmering in the background for months. As I rebuild my strength, as I try new routines, and as I settle into this new phase of midlife, I am realizing that my relationships are shifting too. Not because of drama. Simply because my daily habits and priorities have changed so much that some friendships no longer line up with the person I am becoming.

It feels strange to admit that out loud. But it also feels honest.

💡 Transcripts, links and more: https://mybodycan.substack.com

Walking has always been my movement home base. Out of every type of movement I have tried in my life, walking is the one that has stayed with me. Through childhood, through illness, through injury, through all the shifts and surprises of midlife. Today I wanted to talk about that. Not the pain, not the diagnoses, not the setbacks, but the thing that has consistently brought me joy.💡 Transcripts, links and more: https://mybodycan.substack.com

I didn’t expect frozen shoulder to shape my entire movement life. But here I am, years later, still noticing the aftershocks in my workouts, my choices, and even my confidence. Today I want to walk through what happened, what I learned, and why this experience affects the way I train now.

Before I get into it, if you’re following along with my 30-day podcast challenge, thank you. This project has taken me through more emotions and memories than I expected, and frozen shoulder is one of the big ones.

💡 Transcripts, links and more: https://mybodycan.substack.com

How Strength Training Improved Travel Days

I did not expect my travel days to become a marker of progress in my strength journey, but here we are. Today I want to talk about what it actually takes, physically and mentally, to move countries with only a few suitcases and a body that is still learning how to be strong.

Hi, I am Steph, creator of My Body Can. I am documenting my midlife strength journey after years of illness, injury, and wild hormonal fluctuations. I am doing a 30 day podcast challenge while I rebuild patterns, routines, and habits that help my body feel supported again.

💡 Transcripts, links and more: https://mybodycan.substack.com

I didn’t expect this to be the thing I uncovered during my 30-day movement experiment, but here I am: somewhere between dumbbell reps and editing my own voice for the 25th day in a row, discovering a weird little streak of resentment toward cute workout gear. And the more I heard myself say it, the more I realized I needed to sit with it instead of letting it float by like background noise.

→ New here? I’m sharing 30 days of honest movement reflections as I rebuild strength in my 50s.

Did I say that?

I record a lot of these episodes while I’m actually moving. Today’s was during my dumbbell workout; the overhead variations, the slow lifts, the huffing and puffing that happens when 2.5 kilos suddenly feels like ten because I’m paying attention to form. Something about exercising while talking always cracks open a different part of my brain. The filter drops. The truth spills out. I think more clearly when I’m using my body.

While I edited the recording, I noticed something that surprised me: every time I mentioned pretty workout clothing, my tone wasn’t neutral. It wasn’t curious. It wasn’t mildly annoyed. It sounded… disdainful. Like I had a problem with it.

That was confusing because I don’t actually dislike cute workout clothing. I’m not anti-color or anti-fun or anti-intentional outfits. I just don’t wear a lot of that stuff right now, mostly because I’ve been living in super basic clothes for years, especially during my time in Denmark when everything I bought ended up being black or neutral simply because nothing else fit me the way I wanted. But I don’t have any real issue with the clothing itself.

So why did I sound so irritated?

The more I listened, the more I realized it wasn’t about the gear. It was about what I associate with the gear. I’ve watched people prioritize looking good over doing what feels good or supportive for their bodies. Not everyone. Not most people. But enough that the story stuck in my brain.

At one point during an overhead lift, I said out loud, without planning to, something I hadn’t fully acknowledged:

I carry resentment toward people who seem to prioritize aesthetics over accessibility or honesty in fitness.

Not resentment toward them as individuals… but toward the idea I’ve built around them. The idea that exercise is supposed to be performed rather than practiced. That it’s about appearing strong instead of building strength in real time. That it’s about looking the part rather than showing up with the body I actually have.

But as soon as that thought was out of my mouth, I recognized it wasn’t really about anyone else. It was about me.

The deeper layer

When I finally said it plainly, it all clicked. After years of illness, injury, and hormonal chaos, I think of movement in a very specific way:-function over form.-comfort over coordination.-showing up over looking good doing it.

So when I see someone in coordinated, polished fitness outfits, my reaction isn’t about them. It’s about the part of me that still remembers feeling like I didn’t belong in those spaces. The part of me that felt excluded from the “fitness world” because my body wasn’t behaving the way I wanted it to. The part of me that worried I didn’t look like someone who was “allowed” to be there.

It turns out that my resentment wasn’t about cute workout gear.It was about the version of me who felt invisible in those settings.

The truth is: a lot of people wearing beautiful, intentional workout gear have worked extremely hard to get where they are. They deserve to feel good in their bodies and in their clothing. Many of them are kind, encouraging, and offering genuinely helpful content. I even follow a few of them myself.

The issue was never their clothing, it was my projection.

I realized that the story I’ve been carrying is this:that fitness only “counts” if my body looks a certain way while doing it.

And because I didn’t always feel like I matched that image, I found something superficial to push against: the gear. The aesthetic. The outfit. It was easier than admitting the vulnerability underneath.

But this 30-day streak is stripping away those old narratives. When I record myself moving, actually moving, every day, I can’t hide behind assumptions anymore. I hear the patterns. I hear the tone shifts. And then I get to choose what to keep and what to let go.

This one? I’m letting it go.

My resentment doesn’t protect me. It doesn’t help me move more consistently. It doesn’t make me stronger.It pulls attention away from what I’m genuinely trying to build: a better relationship with my body.

So from this point forward, if I slip into that bitter tone about cute workout clothes again, I’m deleting the line. I don’t want to feed energy into something that no longer serves me.

The only thing that matters is that I move, in whatever clothes I feel good in, at whatever pace I’m capable of, one breath and one repetition at a time.

The gear I’m using right now: Dumbbells

Since today’s episode was literally recorded while I was working through dumbbell reps, I’m sharing the equipment I’m relying on the most right now.

I’ve been using light dumbbells (2.5 kilos) as part of rebuilding my strength without irritating old injuries. They’re perfect for overhead movements, gentle strength building, and every slow, intentional rep I rambled through in this episode.

If you want to try something similar, these are the ones I recommend:

If you live in the US, try these. If you live in the EU, try these.

If you live elsewhere, let me know the country and I’ll start including those links going forward (and send you one for this item).

Showing up every day

I’m always surprised by how much I learn about myself simply by moving consistently. Not just about my muscles or range of motion, but about my beliefs, my assumptions, my unspoken irritation, my internal monologue. The stuff I don’t notice until I hear it coming out of my own mouth.

This streak isn’t about looking good while moving.It’s about actually moving.

Showing up in the body I have.Wearing what feels comfortable.Letting go of insecurities that drag me backward instead of forward.

If you’re reading this and following along with my messy, reflective little journey: thank you. It feels good to keep going, even when what I’m learning is uncomfortable.

Especially then.

Tomorrow is a new rep.And I’m showing up for it.

Back tomorrow,

Steph

Planning is helpful but proof changes everything.

Today I realized something big: I’ve been putting all my exercise plans into Google Calendar and assuming that was enough. It worked beautifully when I only had two workouts to remember, literally two things to track. I would open my calendar, see the workout, tap the link, and do the thing. Super simple. No friction. No thinking. Just show up and complete it.

But now that I’ve expanded into multiple kinds of movement: fascia work, bouncing, strength tools, and more, I’m losing track of what I’ve actually done. And that’s where everything started to get more confusing. The more I added, the more I realized I needed something more than just a reminder system.

And honestly? It’s messing with my head a little. I’ll look back and think:

Did I do that yesterday… or did I just plan to do it yesterday?

And because I don’t have proof, my brain automatically assumes the worst: that I didn’t do anything. Even when I did.

If you’re wired like I am, you know how dangerous that mental loop can be. You end up discounting your own effort. You assume you’re behind. You forget that progress is happening quietly in the background.

💡 Transcripts, links and more: https://mybodycan.substack.com

I didn’t realize how many unspoken rules I had about exercise until I started breaking them. Accidentally at first, then intentionally, and now with a bit of curiosity. For most of my adult life, movement was supposed to look a certain way. Focused. Structured. Contained. Done in a particular room, in a particular order, wearing the “right” clothing, following the “right” exercises, and never—ever—multitasked.

But the more I work on this project, the more I notice that none of those rules came from me. They were absorbed. Picked up. Assumed. And for decades, they quietly shaped how I moved, or didn’t move at all. Today’s workout made that really clear in a way I didn’t expect.

I was recording during my mobility session. Yes, recording while doing a mobility routine, and I realized just how many things I do during workouts that the “exercise world” would probably shake its head at. And yet, these little rule-breaking moments are the reason I keep showing up. They’re the reason movement feels doable and not like one more performance I have to get right.

💡 Transcripts, links and more: https://mybodycan.substack.com