I was invited to three documentary premieres and screenings. Three opportunities to sit in a room and witness stories about sport, love, recovery, resilience and the complicated things that exist beneath performance. There was an ultrarunning story with HOKA, The Cycle of Love & Threshold* featuring an Olympic skier.

The details of each story were different but what a privilege it always is to be invited to witness someone’s story. I can sit in a room before the rest of the world gets to see it to listen and learn and to be moved by someone else’s experience? Truly grateful.

And then somehow I found myself sitting on a panel alongside Sara Hall and Olympic runners. I never really considered myself someone who experiences imposter syndrome. Generally, I have a pretty healthy ability to walk into a room and believe that if I was invited, I probably deserve to be there.

I’ll admit it. There were moments when I looked around and thought: how the heck did I get here?* Sometimes you have to pause long enough to acknowledge how far you’ve traveled from where you started.

Subscribe now

I’ve spent years in fitness. Teaching classes. Coaching. Learning. Making mistakes. Starting over. Building things that didn’t always work. Saying yes to opportunities that scared me. Trying to find ways to use my voice to make this space feel a little more accessible.

Suddenly, I found myself in rooms I could not imagine being in years ago.

Read more

The thought shows up. You realize it doesn’t have the same power over you anymore. I had one of those moments this week.

I was sitting on a park bench reading my book (Olga Dies Dreaming — a goodie) after my second breakfast (a Levain double chocolate chip cookie). I was very aware of my fullness and perhaps, a little uncomfortable.

I am very intentional with my food intake during marathon training. High sports dietitian recommends at least 6 g of carbs per kilogram of weight the day before a long run, I scale that up even more. Since I had a 20 mile run the next day, we are eating carbs. We are replenishing glycogen. We are drinking fluids. We are doing all the boring, necessary things that allow me to wake up tomorrow and ask my body to run for several hours.

Anyway, back to the park bench. A woman walked by. She was staring at me and eventually she stopped and asked, “Are you pregnant?” I told her no and said, “I would refrain from making comments about other people’s bodies.” She quickly apologized and walked away.

Read more

These are a few of the narratives you’ll never hear me promote.

#1. Health is simply a matter of personal responsibility.

Individual choices matter, sure but they don’t exist in a vacuum. Access to healthcare, safe neighborhoods and financial resources. And disability, work schedules, caregiving responsibilities and food security. All shape a person’s opportunities to engage in health behaviors.

If a coaching philosophy ignores social determinants of health, you’re not coaching real people! The truth is my job isn’t to shame someone for the barriers they have but rather help them succeed within the life they really do have.

Read more

“On paper,” I’d say it worked well enough. I suppose there wasn’t really a problem to solve. So why change anything?

Read more

Why are we so obsessed with controlling our bodies? Notice how I didn’t say “caring.” CONTROLLING our bodies.

We want to control our weight. Our wrinkles. Our blood sugar. Our biological age. Our fertility. Our lifespan. Our recovery. Our sleep scores. Our VO₂ max. Our gut microbiome. Our hormones.

We count our steps. We wear rings that grade our sleep. We track every heartbeat, every calorie, every gram of protein, every hour of fasting.

Increasingly, if there’s a pill, supplement, surgery or protocol that promises more control, we want that too.

I don’t believe these things are inherently bad. GLP-1 medications have been life-changing for many people. Cosmetic surgery can restore confidence after trauma or illness. Wearable technology can help identify dangerous heart conditions. Medical breakthroughs save lives every single day. I’m deeply (and personally) grateful for that.

I also think it’s fair to say our relationship with health changed. Health became about optimization...and productivity and morality. Now, if you’re not optimizing every corner of your existence, you’re somehow wrong. You’re lazy.

Bryan Johnson whose become famous for spending millions trying to reverse aging is probably the most extreme example of this. His life is an experiment in eliminating uncertainty. Every meal is prescribed. Every biomarker is measured. Every decision is optimized. Personally I find it an exhausting way to exist but do you, BJ. But seriously part of me wonders, what are we actually trying to outrun? Death? Aging? Or uncertainty itself?

No matter how optimized we become, the fundamental truth doesn’t change. We are still human. Our bodies will still surprise us. We will still get injured. We will still get sick. We will still age.

Almost ironically, Bryan was recently diagnosed with a autoimmune gastritis. Control has always been, to some extent, an illusion.

I see this in fitness all the time. People ask me for the perfect fueling plan. The perfect training schedule. The best strength routine. The plan A race strategy. I understand why. If I just execute perfectly…then surely the race will go perfectly too.

It doesn’t work like that. Sometimes you sleep terribly before race day. Sometimes it’s 85 degrees in October. Sometimes you twist your ankle stepping off a curb. Sometimes you train flawlessly and still have a bad day. If you’re always out to eliminate uncertainty, you’ll be prepared to navigate only perfect conditions.

That’s a very different relationship with health.

Share Real Talk Fitness, Running & Wellness by Amanda Katz

I believe some of this obsession comes from fear. Fear of losing control. Bodies are unpredictable. They’re vulnerable and constantly changing. That’s uncomfortable.

So perhaps optimization gives us something else. The feeling that if we just gather enough data, buy enough supplements, eat perfectly, lift enough weights, avoid enough seed oils, wear enough trackers and never miss a workout, we can bargain with biology.

Ironically, I think the healthiest people I’ve met aren’t the ones who spend the most time trying to control their bodies. They’re the ones who trust them. They eat enough. They move because movement adds to their lives.

They sleep without obsession. They take medicine when they need it. They get preventative screenings.

They lift weights because they want strong bones at 80 and they know it’s good for them. They care about their health but they don’t make health their entire identity.

I don’t think the answer is to reject technology or medicine. Far from it.

I’m incredibly grateful we have medications that can treat disease, surgeries that restore function and diagnostics that catch illness earlier than ever before.

The question isn’t whether we should use these tools.

It’s whether we’re using them to support our lives or whether our lives have become organized around the pursuit of perfect health.

As a reminder, perfect health doesn’t exist and if we’re not careful, we can spend so much time trying to avoid living imperfectly that we forget to actually live.

To more living,

Coach

We convinced ourselves rest is something you earn after you’ve completely emptied the tank but...why?

Read more

The promises may vary but the message stays the same: you should be able to accomplish extraordinary things while experiencing as little discomfort as possible.

We’re no longer selling actual fitness or health. We’re selling efficiency and it isn’t that efficiency is necessarily bad. Most of us have jobs, families, responsibilities and limited time. We should absolutely make our training fit our lives.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped questioning what a goal really requires. Instead, we started asking how little we could do and still earn the title.

The marathon medal. The before-and-after photo. The finish line. This external proof has become more valuable than the internal transformation.

I see it every time another headline promises you can run 26.2 miles on three runs a week. Or when a workout advertises “toned arms” in seven minutes to become “unrecognizable” this summer.

These programs have a similar halo effect in that the goal itself is impressive, questioning the process feels almost taboo.

“Well…they’re still running a marathon.” Sure but is this the healthiest way you can do it? Three days of running a week is amazing. Why can’t the goal just be run three days a week?

These outcomes tell us almost nothing about the habits, consistency, recovery or health that got someone there and yet we’ve somehow taught ourselves (and our kids in the process) that success is measured by the medal.

Forget the months of showing up or learning patients or becoming someone who honors commitment, even when motivation disappears. No why would we ever want that? *insert lol*

We’ve confused achievement with identity and that distinction is importantmatters because shortcuts don’t just change outcomes. They also change what we value.

If the goal is always to do the least amount of uncomfortable work possible, discomfort becomes something to avoid instead of something to learn from. Training becomes a problem to solve instead of an experience to have. Fitness becomes something we hack instead of something we practice.

Share Real Talk Fitness, Running & Wellness by Amanda Katz

The irony is that the things people say they want from fitness, confidence, discipline, resilience and they aren’t going to find those qualities at the finish line because they’re built in the ordinary Tuesdays.

The next time you see a promise to accomplish something extraordinary with the absolute minimum effort, ask yourself a different question.

Who is this helping me become?

Cheers,

Coach

Share Real Talk Fitness, Running & Wellness by Amanda Katz

Here’s what’s currently keeping me company.

Currently reading

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

I just finished The Life Impossible and absolutely loved it. Matt Haig has become one of those authors I’ll read almost automatically. His books manage to explore grief, loneliness, wonder, the meaning of life.

This novel follows a retired math teacher who inherits a house in Ibiza and discovers that life can still surprise us long after we think our story is settled. It asks questions about purpose and possibility which probably explains why it resonated with me so much.

If you’ve enjoyed The Midnight Library, I think you’ll appreciate this one too.

Read more

Welcome to The Yap with Amanda. A space for unfiltered, low pressure conversations with people I love in the running and fitness world. I’m joined by . She’s a run coach, yoga instructor, retreat coordinator, podcast host, writer, business owner, mother…should I continue or should you just listen to the yap?

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! These recordings are normally sent to the paid subscriber community but this month, I wanted to give a sneak peek to the whole gang. Join me for my next live video in the app.

Cheers!

Coach

I can say confidently that I enjoyed OR learned something from each one. When I say “learn” I mean There are also a handful I simply DNF’d because…life is short and my library check out list is long!

Some were actively frustrating like Strangers by Belle Burden. It had all the ingredients of something I expect readers to love and still left me feeling like I was on the outside of its emotional center. I didn’t understand why media wasn’t highlighting the immense privilege the author has or the lesson so many and especially women are not learning: turning one’s financial independence over to another person is a mistake.

Right now, I’m reading Conform by Ariel Sullivan which is very outside my usual genre comfort zone. A client gifted it to me and it also happens to check the final box I need for this year’s 52 Book Club challenge. To my surprise, I am enjoying it!

Here are the 5 books I would start with if you asked me what may be worth your time. Be warned, they are not your traditional beach reads. Prepare to feel.

There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone

This is one of the clearest examples of reporting and storytelling that changes how you see systems you thought you understood. It follows five Atlanta families who are working, doing everything “right” and still unable to access stable housing. It’s not an easy read, but it is a necessary one and a Pulitzer Prize-winner.

Read more

We live in a culture that treats weight loss as the default goal. Even when people say they’re training for something else, there is often an underlying expectation that their body should simultaneously become leaner, lighter or take up less space and yet, many of the goals we pursue in fitness require the exact opposite mindset.

Sometimes the goal is adaptation (i.e. performing well in a marathon) adaptation requires resources.

If you’re training for a marathon, your body needs energy to handle higher mileage, recover from long runs and build endurance.

If you’re trying to increase bone mineral density, your body needs adequate nutrition to support the process of building stronger bones.

If you’re working to gain muscle mass, your body needs enough fuel to glow up your tissues.

If you’re trying to restore a lost menstrual cycle, one of the most important signals you can send your body is that energy is available and resources are not scarce.

These are not situations where asking your body to do more while giving it less tends to work well and still, so many people find themselves caught in this contradiction.

They want stronger bones but they’re afraid to gain weight. They want more muscle but they’re hesitant to eat enough to support growth. They want to run faster, recover better and perform at a higher level but they’re still evaluating every meal through the lens of whether it will make them smaller.

The *issue* is that many physiological adaptations are what I like to call pricey.

Your body doesn’t build bone, add muscle, support reproductive function or recover from demanding training because it feels like it. It needs to believe the environment is safe enough and resourced enough to invest energy in them.

That investment often comes with changes. Sometimes the scale increases, your body composition shifts, your appetite grows. Sometimes your body looks different than it did when you were prioritizing weight loss above all else.

This doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong. In fact, it may be evidence that your body is finally getting what it needs to do what you’ve been asking it to do.

I think many of us would benefit from asking a different question. Instead of “how can I achieve this goal while keeping my body exactly the same?”

What if we asked “what does my body need from me to accomplish this goal?”

The answer might be more food, recovery, patience and trust.

There may absolutely be seasons where aesthetic based goals make sense and there are also seasons where pursuing adaptation is more important.

If you’re in a season focused on performance, bone health, muscle growth, recovery, hormonal health or rebuilding trust with your body, remember this season is about becoming a stronger, more capable you.

Cheers,

Coach

This personal best started two days before the race when I intentionally carb loaded for two days. Did I technically need to do this based on my finishing time? No. It was a decision. I felt confident in making cosigned by my coach.It continued when I took in 80 grams of carbohydrates per hour during the race. It continued when I packed an extra gel, even when my effort ended up feeling easier than I expected.

Read more

Some of the women I admire most are the mothers who trust me as their coach.

I get a front row seat to what they carry every single day. The early mornings before kids wake up. The constant “balancing” act between caring for everyone else while still trying to hold onto pieces of themselves. I’ve watched women train for races while raising babies, managing households, navigating careers and showing up for their families in ways that often go unseen.

Motherhood is real and sacred work. It is also exhausting work. Acknowledging that truth does not mean every woman must choose it in order to live a meaningful life.

Somewhere along the way, many women were taught that motherhood is the singular measurement of our worth. That if we do not become mothers ourselves, we somehow exist outside the full experience of womanhood.

Every year around Mother’s Day, I’m reminded how painful and loaded that narrative can become. For some women, this day carries grief. For many, longing. For others, relief. Some are navigating infertility. Some are healing from loss. Some are estranged from their mothers. Some desperately want children. Some are unsure. Some have chosen to be childfree and feel deeply fulfilled by it.

And still, women are constantly asked to defend whichever path they take.

Recently, I shared something online about wanting to raise my niece to become a powerful human who believes women should and do have a prominent place in sports. What struck me wasn’t the support from women but the number of men (okay, trolls) in my comments who immediately pointed out that I don’t have children as if that disqualified me from helping shape a young girl’s life, that nurturing only counts if it happens through childbirth. As if love and guidance are reserved exclusively for mothers.

It reminded me of something Tracee Ellis Ross said at the The New York Times Well Festival last year that stayed with me:

“I don’t believe I am any less valuable because I don’t have a child. I do believe I mother all over the place.”

I was searching for the words to describe how I’ve felt for most of my adult life. This was it.

Women mother all over the place. We mother nieces and nephews. We mother friendships. We mother communities. We mentor younger women entering spaces that were never built for them. We check in. We guide. We advocate. We create safety.
We hold people together. We care for aging parents. We build careers that support others. We teach. We protect. We nurture.

Yes, so many women mother children. Some women mother the world around them. Neither makes a woman more complete than the other.

I think what frustrates me most is how quickly society reduces women to what we produce instead of who we are. Men are rarely asked to justify their value through parenthood in the same way. Still, in the year 2026, women who choose to be childfree (or simply exist outside traditional expectations) are treated as though they owe explanations.

I don’t. Neither do any of you.

Being childfree doesn’t mean being empty or selfish. It doesn’t mean incapable of love and loving a child. It certainly doesn’t mean we have nothing to offer the next generation.

I know the impact I want to have in this world, the kind of woman I want my niece and nephew to see. I know the ways I show up for people I love.

Share Real Talk Fitness, Running & Wellness by Amanda Katz

This Mother’s Day, I’m thinking about all the women who mother but I am especially thoughtful to those who mother in unseen, untraditional ways. The women who pour into others without the same Hallmark recognition. The women carrying grief. The women making unconventional choices. The women building full lives that are expansive, nurturing and meaningful even if they do not include children.

There is no singular definition of womanhood. Women have always been more than one role.

Holding space for you, you and you,

Coach

“I don’t really take time off. This is what works for me.”

I get why it resonates with social media and society. This kind of consistency is praised and celebrated. In a sport like running, those things matter.

Live footage of me on one of my rest days.

We need to be more honest about what we’re actually looking at. The idea of “this works for me” has become somewhat of shield. It’s one that protects behaviors that aren’t working at all, are they?

Let’s define something clearly: if you cannot take a day off without anxiety, guilt, or spiraling, this is not a demonstration of how fit you are. That is a dependence on exercise.

Read more

“It works until it doesn’t.”

Subscribe now

There’s a version of “healthy” that looks very controlled. Meals that are light, portions that feel safe. And for a long time, that version feels normal. Many will get away with it until they can’t. Few will decide to step in sooner before the stress fracture or even osteoporosis diagnosis.

Eating enough to support performance and health does not feel intuitive at first.

In fact, it can feel completely wrong. Bloated. Unable to look in the mirror without feeling less than. Forget about stepping on a scale without having feelings about it (to be clear, you do not need to stop on a scale. I stopped weighing myself a long time ago. There is nothing more freeing than not knowing how much I weigh because it matters so little to me. 10 out of 10 recommend).

When you start increasing your carbohydrates, fueling your runs and workouts properly and actually eating to match your body’s needs, a few things tend to happen:

You feel fuller than you’re used to.
Your body will likely change.
You might question if you’re “doing too much.”

I think mentally is where the real work needs to happen. If you’ve spent any amount of time undereating even subtly, your baseline for “normal” is skewed. Eating enough can feel excessive.

Share Real Talk Fitness, Running & Wellness by Amanda Katz

What’s happening is you’re no longer asking your body to perform and exist in a deficit. Yay! Your body responds accordingly. Better energy on runs and in training. Your biomarkers improve. Your hormones don’t hate you. You absolutely slay your DEXA scan. You can recover between workouts. You are no longer miserable or moody.

And sure, they don’t happen overnight. It’s hard to be patient while not seeing the work happen in real time. It’s hard to sit with the discomfort after eating an extra snack. But what’s even harder is to live a life obsessing over food and having your body breakdown in the process.

So that initial discomfort is real but it’s very temporary. You start trusting that your body can handle the work you’re asking it to do. You start trusting that your body can carry you into every decade of your life, feeling more capable and independent than it had before. I think the best part is it changes your relationship with your body. It’s just getting there requires sitting through a phase where it doesn’t feel natural or easy.

That doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It probably means you’re finally doing it right.

We keep on keeping on. Cheers, friends.

Coach

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Read more

When I asked my doctor for a script to have a DEXA scan, they admittedly did not understand why someone who was conventionally, healthy, active, and consistent would be concerned.

And underneath that? Years of restrictive eating and multiple eating disorders in the most critical time of my bone development in my 20s.

After that scan, I took the results as an opportunity to dial in. I was lucky. I had time to course correct. If I could go back, there are a few things I wouldn’t leave up to chance.

Here’s what I would do to put my bones in the best possible position long-term:

1. I would stop treating eating before during and after my training sessions like it’s optional.

You cannot build or maintain bone in an energy deficit. Full stop.

For a long time, I normalized underfueling because I was still performing and feeling “well enough.” This isn’t enough though. Your body will compensate until it doesn’t.

Bone is metabolically active tissue. If your body doesn’t have enough energy coming in, it will downregulate systems that aren’t essential for survival. Your hormones, your mood, loss of cycle.

Bone health is one of those systems.

If I could go back, I would focus on:

• Eating enough consistently

• Not skipping meals around training

• Respecting hunger instead of putting it off

Read more