06/01/2026
Welcome to June 1st! 🌞💪🏾
Summer is right around the corner — only 19 days away — and this is the perfect time to pick ourselves back up, reset, and make it happen again.
This month, we are excited to celebrate our June Client of the Month, Leah Bolden! 🤎
Leah’s journey is a reminder that fitness is not just about losing weight or getting smaller. It is about becoming stronger, healthier, more confident, and learning how to properly fuel and build the body.
She has embraced strength training, nutrition, and the discipline it takes to change her body the right way. Keep showing up for yourself and setting an example for your two young boys.
Congratulations, Leah! We are proud of your commitment, your growth, and the woman you are becoming. Keep going — your journey is inspiring. 💪🏾🔥
June Client Spotlight: Leah Bolden
Photographer: Andra Smith/Studio 57
In her words
I thought I was doing everything right. The cardio, the clean eating, the discipline. I checked every box I knew to check. But somewhere between the weight I lost and the woman I saw in the mirror, I realized that looking smaller and feeling strong are two very different things. That gap changed everything.
For years, my routine was simple and consistent: 30 minutes on the StairMaster, a quick run, maybe a few ab exercises if I was feeling ambitious, and then out the door. Weights? That was someone else's world. I convinced myself that cardio was enough, that the sweat and the elevated heart rate meant I was doing everything right. For a long time, I believed it.
After eliminating dairy, sugar, and sweets, I went from 169 pounds down to 125. On paper, that sounds like a victory and in some ways, it was. I had worked hard and the scale reflected it. But when I looked in the mirror and checked in with how I actually *felt*, something wasn't adding up. I felt frail. Skinny in a way that didn't feel powerful. I lacked strength, muscle tone, and the kind of vitality I thought the weight loss would bring. I had lost the weight, but I hadn't built anything in its place. That realization was humbling, and honestly, a little unsettling.
My persistent, loving, wonderfully annoying sister who had been hounding me for what felt like forever about the importance of strength training, especially as we get older. She'd talk about muscle mass, bone density, longevity and I'd half-listen and head back to my treadmill. But when my body started telling me the same things she had been saying all along, I finally got quiet enough to hear her.
In August 2025, I was introduced to Renee, and everything changed.
From the moment I stepped into FWR and started training, I felt something shift. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. Strength training rewired the way I think about fitness entirely. I used to chase the burn of cardio. Now I chase progress. I chase reps. I chase the version of myself who shows up stronger than she was the week before. Lifting taught me that being healthy isn't just about being thin. It's about being *strong*, being fueled, and building a body that can actually carry you through life.
The changes I've noticed since starting this journey have been nothing short of transformative. My body looks and feels different in the best possible way. I'm building muscle. My glutes are developing. My posture is better. I walk differently. I *feel* different. The fragility I once felt has been replaced with a quiet but powerful confidence that I carry with me everywhere I go. I no longer feel like I'm shrinking. I feel like I'm *growing* into the strongest version of myself.
Nutrition has been just as eye-opening as the training itself. For so long, food felt like the enemy. Something to restrict, something to fear, something to earn. I was so focused on losing weight that I never stopped to think about what my body actually needed to *thrive*. Now, I understand that eating is not the enemy. Fueling my body with adequate protein, balanced meals, and intentional nutrition has completely changed my relationship with food. I recover better. I perform better. I feel satiated. And for the first time, I'm maintaining a healthy weight in a way that feels genuinely sustainable, not like something I'm white-knuckling my way through.
But if I'm being completely honest, this journey has always been about more than fitness.
I lost both of my parents before I turned 40, within four years of each other. There are no words that fully capture what that kind of grief does to you. It shakes the foundation of who you are. It forces you to look at your own life differently, at your habits, your health, and your future. In the aftermath of that pain, I made a decision. I was going to turn it into power. I couldn't control losing them, but I could control taking care of myself. I could control showing up. I could control the example I set.
Because at the end of the day, I have two handsome boys who are watching me. They need their mommy. Not just present, but *healthy*. Not just surviving, but *thriving*. Every rep I push through, every meal I fuel up with, every early morning I get to the gym is for them just as much as it's for me. I want them to grow up seeing what it looks like when a woman chooses herself, chooses strength, and refuses to quit.
I am endlessly grateful for FWR, for this space, this community, trainers, and the incredible women who pour into each other daily. I'm grateful for Renee, who saw what I was capable of before I could see it in myself. And I'm grateful for my sister, who loved me enough to keep pushing me even when I wasn't ready to listen.
You helped me see that strength isn't just something you build in the gym.
It's something you become. 🤎
