My Fitness Journey Through Every Season

When people find me today, they usually know me as the mom who shares pregnancy workouts, postpartum fitness, meal prep ideas, powerlifting, running, and all the messy in-between moments of life.

What most people don’t realize is that fitness has been a huge part of my life for over a decade, and the lessons I’ve learned have changed dramatically over the years.

If you had met me 10 years ago, my definition of health looked very different than it does today.

It Started With Sports

Growing up, sports were my life.I played volleyball year-round and eventually earned the opportunity to play college volleyball. At the time, I thought volleyball would always be a huge part of my identity. Until it wasn’t. When my volleyball career came to an end, I felt completely lost and kinda spiraled. For years my workouts had a purpose. I was training for performance, training to become better at volleyball, training towards my dream of playing collegiate volleyball. Once I decided to stop playing volleyball, I kind of let myself go. 

Multiple trips to the college cafeteria? Sign me up. I gained the freshman 15 in no time…

Chasing A Smaller Body

Like many women, I thought the answer was to lose weight & become the smallest version of myself. I became obsessed with looking a certain way. I spent countless hours doing cardio.I tried to make myself smaller. I tied way too much of my self-worth to the number on the scale and what I saw in the mirror. And while I got leaner, I wasn’t necessarily happier.I thought confidence would magically appear once I reached a certain weight or looked a certain way.

Spoiler alert: it doesn’t happen. Even though I was the smallest, I was actually quite miserable. I got down to 130 lbs but felt weak and frail. I actually ended up injuring myself during my bikini body building prep which ended up being a blessing in disguise as I realized how unhealthy my habits were becoming with food and exercise.

Once I decided to no longer prep for the bikini bodybuilding show, I decided to switch my focus to becoming the healthiest version of me!

Learning Balance

After getting injured, I spent months rebuilding my relationship with food, fitness, and my body.I stopped chasing perfection. I stopped labeling foods as “good” or “bad.” I stopped believing I had to suffer to be healthy.

Instead, I focused on moving my body in ways I enjoyed & that made me feel good. I focused on fueling my body properly while also allowing myself flexibility. I focused on training for strength instead of burning as many calories as possible. I started loving myself again. And that is when everything changed.

Building BodyFitBalance

Around this same time, I started sharing my journey online. Not just boring food pics from prep, but workouts & real life struggles. What started as a small passion project while I was in nursing school slowly grew into something I never could have imagined. In just a year, I grew my following to over 100,000 amazing women.

I created my own online fitness coaching business & continued to build it throughout nursing school. I ended up graduating in spring of 2020 and getting a job in the Trauma ICU at Rochester Mayo Clinic. I worked as a nurse for four months and then eventually took the biggest leap of faith of my life.

I left nursing behind and pursued my business full-time. Looking back, it sounds crazy, but helping women transform their lives through fitness has brought me more fulfillment than I ever felt anywhere else.

Then Motherhood Changed Everything

Just when I thought I’d learned everything fitness had to teach me, motherhood entered the picture. And let me tell you… Motherhood humbled me real quick.My first pregnancy was hard, I gained 65 pounds and was miserable. Then postpartum came around and it was even worse. I felt weak, I felt uncomfortable and my body felt foreign.

It took time, patience, and a whole lot of grace, but I slowly found my way back. I learned that postpartum wasn’t about “bouncing back”, it was about rebuilding. I started showing up for myself again, one walk, one workout, and one meal at a time. 

Over the next couple of years, I fell in love with movement in an entirely new way. I discovered running, something I NEVER thought I’d enjoy, and eventually completed my first half marathon 1.5 years postpartum. Then I ran another. I became stronger, more confident, and healthier than I had ever been before. I was in the best shape of my life when I found out I was pregnant with our second daughter in the spring of 2025. 

I was DETERMINED to have a VBAC this time around so I was committed to making this pregnancy so much better than my first and it was!

I prioritized daily movement, followed trimester-specific strength programs, focused on protein and fiber, and walked almost every single day. I wasn’t trying to be perfect, I was simply trying to take care of myself in a way that would support both my pregnancy and my future postpartum journey. I didn’t want to be miserable and hate pregnancy like I did the first time around. 

At the same time, my husband and I were building one of our biggest dreams: opening Built Gym. Between preparing for a new baby and opening a brand new business is not for the weak lol.

In November of 2025, I gave birth to our second daughter through a successful VBAC after just five hours of labor. A moment I will never forget! I felt SO empowered especially after having a very traumatic first birth experience.

Now today, seven months postpartum with baby number two, I can confidently say I am the strongest, healthiest version of myself I have ever been. Not because I bounced back. But because I rebuilt and took care of myself this time during my pregnancy.

Motherhood didn’t take fitness away from me. It gave it a completely new meaning.

It taught me that taking care of myself isn’t selfish, it’s necessary. It taught me that consistency matters more than perfection. And it taught me that strength isn’t measured by how little space you take up, but by how resilient, capable, and powerful you become through every season of life!

This journey has never been about becoming who I used to be. It’s about feeling empowered in the new version of me that I have become.

Final Thoughts

And if there’s one thing I hope you take away from my story, it’s this:

Don’t let anyone tell you that having kids means your goals have to disappear.

Don’t let anyone convince you that your strongest, healthiest, happiest years are behind you.

Let me be proof that you absolutely can become the best version of yourself after kids.

You can rebuild.
You can get stronger.
You can run the races, lift the weights, chase the dreams, start the business, and show your children what it looks like to take care of yourself.

Motherhood didn’t end my journey, it gave me an even deeper purpose and reason why. 

The woman I am today is stronger, more resilient, and more confident than the version of me that existed before children. And if I can do it, so can you.

Your story doesn’t end when you become a mom.

Love you! Bailey