Getting older doesn’t have to mean settling for less.

In August of 2023, I left my consulting role at Microsoft after spending over 20 years of my life driving marketing efforts in various parts of the company, with 8 years of those being a full-time employee. As many of my peers have experienced, getting rehired can be challenging after taking time to do consulting and raising children. After spending 2 years focused on finding the perfect marketing role that would fuel my passion, the brick wall I was coming up against suddenly provided the awakening I needed, and it hit me square in the face. The world I knew for over 20 years was no longer where I needed to be. What I realized is that I had pigeonholed myself into a construct based on the path I was on for all those years. I had a choice. I could either retire from the workforce and move on to greener pastures or I could make a hard pivot and reinvest myself in virtually unknown territory. But I was 54 years old and starting something new seemed daunting and honestly, not common place at my age. I struggled with the thoughts in my head telling me I’d reached my peak and was on the downhill slope. Then, something triggered in me that lit a fire in my being. I have always been passionate about fitness and recreation and decided to work with a personal trainer. As a former elite athlete, I was confident in my physical capabilities and excited to regain the strength and exceptional functioning that I once had. The string of events that followed could have taken the wind out of my sails, but instead propelled me onto the path I am currently pursuing. While the head trainer I initially met with asked me what I wanted to achieve, those goals never reached my assigned personal trainer. I recommunicated those goals in our crammed 25-minute session but those were dismissed, and I was given a workout for the “washed up female”. When I confronted the trainer, I was told that this is the workout he gives to all women. While this does not represent all trainers or all fitness facilities mode of operating, the needs of women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond are different and deserve individualized attention and an inspiring and motivating approach. The mature clients, as we are so gracefully referred to in the fitness industry, are no longer focused on appearance as the number one goal. We want to feel good in our bodies, move freely without pain and feel confident that we can do the things we want to do now and into the future.  Along with my background in Exercise & Sport Science and years of fitness training, I am now an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, an ISSA Functional Aging Specialist, an entrepreneur, and living a dream of working with women to achieve their fitness and recreational goals. Getting older doesn’t have to mean settling for less.