On November 1, 2018, my mother would have turned 55 years old.

But she was taken from us by breast cancer on December 31, 2012.
The entire course of the disease lasted 1.5 years - it was fast.

The cancer was aggressive and every time the doctors tried a new treatment, it worked well at first, but after a while the cancer cells became resistant. The cancer grew bigger and spread to the lungs. At the same time, the side effects got worse and worse. My mother's immune system couldn't keep up. I tried, desperately, to get her to start exercising.

I know that cancer patients who strength train during treatment have a significantly higher chance of survival.

That's why it's INSANE that we have a health and diet culture that focuses almost exclusively on peeling off the pounds, by all means, so that we lose both muscle and fat and have nothing to fight back with!!!

My mother struggled with exercise. She had been very active in her younger years, skiing and playing volleyball. But then kids and work got in the way... and my dad started abusing alcohol.

It started when I was 6 years old and got worse and worse until my mother finally said stop, got divorced, and moved me and my sister to Denmark in 1998. 

But all those years wore my mom down.

She looked more and more like a ghost and had periods where she couldn't get up from the bed, but just laid there staring into space.

But she was mentally strong. She found the strength to create a better future for us and herself. She found love again with my stepfather and my beautiful youngest little sister, now 19 years old, was born.

Her weight was on the rise.
An autoimmune liver condition was discovered.
Then high blood sugar and pre-diabetes...

And I tried hard to get her to come to my exercise classes.
To get her body moving. Told her how she should change the food she was eating (a bit of a touchy subject to bring up in the family, admittedly...).

But I wasn't successful.
Not because she didn't want to.
But because she couldn't do it.

She got out of breath too quickly, felt weak, and got very sore. And she didn't like to sweat.

Unfortunately, at the time, I didn't know enough about how to scale down the training and movements so she could handle it and endure it without feeling completely overwhelmed.

And then she called me the day she found the lump in her breast...

But it didn't work...
I remember the last time we trained together.

She had to take the elevator to the first floor of the gym because she couldn't breathe. And I wanted to yell at her to please pull herself together because her life was at stake.

It was hard for me to see this strong woman, my mother, weaken so much.

Two days later, she was hospitalized with water in her lungs - and 1.5 months later… she took her last breath.

Throughout my grief, through countless thoughts of how things could have gone if she had built her body in time after all those hard years... if I had helped her break her training down into manageable chunks...

... it made me very aware of what I want to help other women do:

• Build yourself up in time.
• Take care of yourself and not wear yourself out.
• Shift focus from calorie restriction and weight loss (breaking down) - to strength and muscle building.

So you have something to fall back on in case you get sidelined and can't stay active.

From my point of view, it's crazy that women spend so much energy on getting smaller and losing x number of kilos - while sacrificing health, well-being, and the long-term perspective in the process. The focus is almost exclusively on getting thinner, here and now.

But chronic calorie restriction and overtraining are some of the worst things for our immune function (you can also throw sleep deprivation and stress into the mix). All of which contribute to the breakdown of muscle mass.

• Muscles burn fat and carbohydrates, which provide you with energy.
• Muscles produce the immune-boosting and anti-inflammatory hormone-like substances myokines.
• Muscles keep you active throughout your life.
  
  And from an aesthetic point of view, it's the muscles that shape your figure.

Unfortunately, most training methods don't consider how vital it is for you to maintain the muscle mass you have right now...
But also rebuild the muscle mass you've lost with age and during periods of stress and inactivity.
And build a little extra - just to have a kind of 'insurance' in case something happens and you're sidelined for some time without the opportunity to move.

THAT'S WHY THE FIRST PART OF MY TRAINING SESSIONS IS SPENT REBUILDING WHAT YOU'VE LOST.

Repairing the metabolism and finding the hormonal balance.
To get the body to want to cooperate again.
That takes time. More than crash diets and boot camps.

But it's necessary and it's also what gets results in the long run. And most importantly, it doesn't destroy your health and immune system.

I wish I would have known that before it was too late for my mom. So I could have helped her build up some of the physical strength that was draining out of her in the years leading up to her illness.

And no, it's not at all certain that it would have prevented her illness and untimely death.

But I would have liked to know that we had done everything we could - if only to give her more quality of life and energy along the way. And looking back, I can see how many years in advance we should have started.

And here I am today.
With a tireless mission to help as many women as possible build a strong, stress-free, and pain-free body so they can stand stronger in good times and bad.

❤️

Love Anna