There I was, two days before Christmas, doomscrolling on my phone through a sea of social media posts about getting in shape in the New Year. One ad promised I could be lean and toned in three weeks with wall Pilates. Another said the answer is to put fresh grated ginger in my morning smoothie to accelerate my metabolism. A third promised its paid program had helped thousands of menopausal women to shed pounds forever without any grueling workouts.

All these conflicting messages had a common theme: I need to pay someone money upfront before they’ll give me any useful information and then hope they can deliver on their promises.

I put down my phone and picked up my eggnog, gave my dog a scratch behind his ear and glanced over at our little home gym, which had been collecting dust for at least a week and had as much hope of interacting with me as did the woeful cactus plant in the corner of my office. At least the cactus thrives on neglect.

I’d given up my GYM membership in the summer to cut costs, thinking our little home gym could still help me to stay in shape. But without the coaching and the accountability of having to show up somewhere to work out, I was finding excuses to sleep in instead of motivation to get out of bed at 6 a.m. to work out.

I’ve been at home for the past year, learning the ropes as a new entrepreneur while I set up Maverick Studios as a boutique design and communications company. I’d traded my little lunch bag for a full fridge. The numbers on my bathroom scale had been steadily climbing (I eventually stopped stepping on it, fearing for its safety) and by Boxing Day, when I realized I had to lie down on the bed to do up my favorite jeans (a trick most Gen Xers learned in high school when skinny jeans were first fashionable), I knew it was time to do something. I love those jeans.

And there was another item of clothing I wanted to fit perfectly: a little pink dress I want to wear to my daughter’s wedding this summer.

That’s it, I told myself. I’m going to lose the squishy layer around my waist that have crept on over the past 18 months. I’ve managed to lose weight in the past through Weight Watchers, kickboxing classes and then a gym membership to get down to a healthy weight. I can do this.

But I was younger then. I’m 55 now, and menopause and arthritis have both moved into my body like unwelcome roommates that keep me awake, make my bones ache, and generally make it hard to be enthusiastic about sweating and making myself sore on purpose. Worse, a recent visit to a sports medicine neurologist confirmed I may have a mild hip joint injury that is contributing to my overall aches and will require careful monitoring during exercise.

Can I get back into shape? Or am I doomed to watch the scale inch perpetually higher while my ability to move around gets incrementally worse?

Hell, no.

But while I’m stubborn enough to commit to a rebooted nutritional plan and a new workout routine, I’m also smart enough to know I’m going to need help to do it.

And that’s when I had an epiphany.

I met Leanne Kolbe years ago through a mutual friend, when our kids were small, and we all wanted a reason to get out of the house once a month to meet for “clothing club” or ladies’ night out! Good times, those. Leanne and I stayed in touch through Facebook over the years, and I noticed when she moved from being a certified nutrition manager to also launching TEAM IRON elles, her own fitness coaching business. I definitely noticed when she won a bodybuilding competition. She had things dialed. I could trust her advice on nutrition AND fitness.

So, last week I called her up and asked if we could create a Mother of the Bride Bootcamp that I could share with others who might have similar health and fitness goals. And she was as excited as I was!

Over the next 26 weeks, I am going to document my fitness journey under Leanne’s careful watch and advice. Mostly, I’ll be working out at home with my own equipment (with a customized training program she designs for me) and I’ll check in at her gym once a month so she can correct any issues with my form and recommend changes in weights or activities. She’s going to create a nutrition plan for me to help me learn how to make better food choices and increase my overall protein intake while shedding some bad habits — and hopefully some weight.

I’m going to share my stats — from my starting weight and body fat composition to my waist and hip measurements. (I KNOW. I must be crazy.) And we’re going to find out together if a menopausal 55-year-old with a love of cheese can manage to do what seems impossible today: to increase lean mass, lose inches, gain overall strength, and lose weight so that by mid-July, I can rock my little pink dress at the wedding.

Can I do it? I hope so. Leanne believes I can. And so, I’m going to borrow her belief in me for a while until I have my own. I invite you to follow us for this journey — I’ll be sharing my frustrations, questions, best advice and mostly, the knowledge that if I can do it, then you can, too. I hope you’ll keep checking back on our journey!

See you soon.
~Michelle