The Busy Woman’s Guide to Basic Body Maintenance

The Summer Fitness Challenge That’s About So Much More

It’s May in Minnesota. So as an adult who cares about caring for her body, that means I am 1.) more physically active and 2.) yes, more focused on aesthetic goals because it’s graduation and wedding and beach season and 3.) in some ways busier than ever. I want to keep training for longevity, mobility, and strength. I want to keep building and retaining lean mass. And yes I want to look good on my boyfriend’s arm at the 3 weddings we have coming up this summer! Sue me!

Alongside my passion for movement (and for stunting on people at summer events let’s be honest) I have a passion for OTHER SHIT IN MY LIFE TOO, NOT JUST GYM-ING. I like being a good daughter to my mom and seeing her regularly. I like spending time with my brother and sister. I like going on dates with Oscar. I like cooking healthy meals at home and hitting my protein and fiber macros. I like reading (31 books and counting so far in 2026, gang gang.) And OH YEAH I ALSO HAVE TO WORK and pay bills and make sure tires are rotated, apartment is clean, laundry is done and my life isn’t flashing a “check engine light” in any category that matters to me. How do we make it all happen?

First off, we admit we can’t make it all happen (at least not all at once, all the time, perfectly, forever.) And then we make a plan. A real plan, one that leaves space and room to train and be an adult with kids to care for and parents to help and gutters to clean and lawns to mow.

You will be different from me. But what all adults have in common are commitments and constraints. If you want to prioritize your strength and conditioning while living a busy and full cool life, this is the summer challenge for you!

The Grown Girl Summer Protocol: Where Physical Health & Lifestyle Health Take Equal Importance

Unlike other summer fitness challenges from your favorite fit-fluencers, the framework below recognizes that your training routine is just a small part of your big, busy life where other people depend on you to be an adult and have your shit together because SURPRISE you are grown. Grown girl summer can still be fun and sexy and flirty and focused on training. But it also means making it home in time to cook dinner some nights and remembering to sign kids up for summer camp and teaching your daughter how to ride a bike and maybe helping your mom recover from hip surgery. And you know what? All of that is important and rad and just as edifying as setting a personal PR in the gym or on the track. So let’s make room for that shit and celebrate it too

Physical Health

Body maintenance is about doing the following simple things well. Moving well. Sleeping well. Eating well. Toileting well. Stressing well. (Yes, there is a good and a bad way to stress for your health.) That pretty much covers your physical health. Add “avoid smoking and drinking” to the list and that’s really all you have to focus on.

The Result: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfectly Perfect to Be Perfectly Wonderful

When your physical health is on-point, your job is solid, your family life is generative and meaningful, when you’ve got friends, a partner, a sense of purpose. Holy shit. Now you’re really cooking with gas. That is the true definition of BEING WELL.

So this summer challenge is focused on getting you to care for your health in all ways. Financial. Relational. Occupational. Physical. Sounds great right? Here’s how we’re going to do it. I give you the framework. You apply it to your life, relationships, goals, and needs. Then you come up with your own protocol.

Example Grown Girl Summer Protocol

Daily Top Three (A1 Steak Sauce Habits):

• Physical therapy session (45 minutes) followed by strength, mobility, or conditioning workout. (45 minutes.)

• Work and email 3 prospects (4-8 hours)

Daily Hit List:

• Study materials for NASM Certified Nutrition Coach certification for 1 hour.

• End or start the work day with 30 mins of admin to keep inboxes at non-nightmare status.

• Cook quick dinner for Oscar and I 3-4x per week, sometimes more if my schedule is more chill than his.

Daily Health Habits

• Be in bed with lights off by 10pm (Try to stop looking at screens by 8)

• Drink 3 liters of water per day by finishing a hydroflask of H20 by the end of each meal.

• Track macros in Nourish app. (Aim for 45 grams of protein and 15-18 grams of fiber per meal.)

• Take streamlined stack of 4 supplements at lunch, biggest meal of day.

• Try to avoid sitting during work and leisure time by using standing desk. Reserve sitting for meals and downtime with Oscar when he comes home.

Weekly Momentum

• Date night with Oscar

• Sit on floor at night while watching TV instead of sitting on couch/chair

• Walk 8k steps per day

• Text family member or friend

• Write for 30 minutes

Monthly Maintenance

• Help mom by cleaning house and doing laundry

• Have a brother/sister hang

• Go to a cute coffeeshop for “money date” and thinking session

• Publish a Substack article or launch a new product on the website.

Build Your Own Grown Girl Summer Fitness Protocol

All adults have things we need to do. Some need to be done daily. Others weekly. Others monthly. It’s never going to be perfect. But slotting the important shit into these three time-bound buckets will help avoid overwhelm or avoidance.

Daily Shit - The A1 Steak Sauce of Your Life

These are your top three. The steak sauce of your life if you will. You want your days smothered in it. If you’re having trouble figuring out what your A1 daily habits should be, ask yourself: what things, if not done daily over the long term, will cause my relationships to hurt, my body to hurt, or my finances to hurt? Once you’ve identified one for each category, that’s your list. These should not be big, huge, complex tasks. These should be small repeatable daily things like: “Email 3 prospects per day. Tell Oscar ‘I love you’ and ‘Thank you’ whenever I can. Do 10 minutes of mobility work in the morning when I wake up. Check my accounts balance. Complete the physical therapy exercises from my DPT.” You get the picture.

Daily Hit List

Next three goals, done anywhere from 7-3 times per week. Keeps the engine churning.

Daily Health Habits

Daily habits to sleep better, move better, eat better, toilet better, and stress less. Fold them into your days. Pick 3-5.

Weekly Shit

Priority 4: Weekly Momentum – Aim for doing the things on this list once every 7x days. Keeps your life balanced and nothing forgotten about from work to parenting to caregiving to finances.

Monthly Shit

Doing these things once every 30 days or so keeps the pilot light of your long-term goals ON. Schedule them in advance on a weekend day. Don’t lose sight of what matters most!

How to Determine Your A1 Daily Habits (Your Top Three)

If you have more than three things on your non-negotiable list, then said list becomes negotiable (because life is always imperfect and sometimes impossible). Which then totally defeats the purpose of having a priority list.

Stop negotiating with yourself. Decide on what matters most and then do the same small daily shit that will cause good shit to happen in that department of your life. Identify three tasks that will contribute the most to moving your most important goals forward in big ways. These are the habits that will have the most positive impact on your life both near term (urgent) and non-urgent (long-term).

You can figure out what your AI habits are by asking yourself “what will happen if I don’t work on this daily for a sustained period of time?” If the answer is: my body will hurt, my finances will hurt, or my stress levels will skyrocket, then the habits that help you avoid such financial, health, or lifestyle pain go here. This is the steak sauce of your life.

One of these things should always be some form of mobility practice. Never do nothing! Why? Because if you live your life as someone who moves a little bit everyday, then future you, 80-year-old you (Inshallah) is more likely to be here on this planet and living pain-free. Daily movement and mobilizations will never feel urgent until chronic pain or mobility limitations show up. And we want strong, durable, capable bodies so we can do rad shit with our lives!

Now, of course, you can do everything right for your health and everything can still go wrong with your health. That is just the curse of being human. But the curse of being a human with a human fallible body also comes with a huge gift: you have a body. And it can do really cool shit. And it’s actually a lot more durable and adaptable and hardy than you give it credit for. You can move. You can walk, dance with your kids at their wedding, help the older woman across the street carry her groceries inside, travel to new cities and restaurant’s and have cool experiences and not be worried about if you can physically do so without pain or limitation. You can have sex with your partner, go for a swim in the ocean, make new friends at a fitness class, go on an international vacation with your family, and explore everything this planet has to offer. The list goes on and is truly endless. Daily mobility work protects your ability to do these things, and protects you ability to do these things better and for longer.

Joan Didion said it best: “The grave’s a fine and private place, but none do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that’s what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it.”

This is the point of daily movement and mobility work. It ensures we are able to get out there, do what there is to do, and make hay while the sun shines! So add it to the top of your list!

There is always going to be more you can do for your job, your kid, your spouse, your other preferred goals and activities. And believe me, habits to care for and nurture the most important people in your lives should be all over your daily habit list. Just don’t make the mistake of always putting your health, your mobility, your physical activity, your musculoskeletal health at the bottom of the list because it feels negotiable now.

Deciding to be the person who takes 10 minutes out of your day for mobilizations just like you would take time to eat lunch or go number two is a way you care for your now body and your future body later. What are my current A1 tasks?

· Physical Therapy (25-45 minutes)

· Strength Training or Mobility Work (25-45 minutes)

· Work (4-6 Hours) and email 3 prospects daily.

Physical Therapy: Stil rehabbing my hip and listening to my body. If I skip my foam rolling, stretching, strengthening, and compound movements that were assigned to me for more than two days in a row my hip starts barking. I’m supposed to do them 5-7x per week and I really try to hit that consistently. It’s my number one focus right now. Sometimes I’ll do them while watching television or listening to an audiobook. I do them in the morning first thing to get them out of the way.

Strength or Mobility Workout: The challenge with rehabbing my hip is it takes time. And if I want to rehab my hip and retain strength and mobility elsewhere I can’t just do the five exercises my physio gave me and then sit on my butt the rest of the day. Plus, retaining strength and mobility throughout my body is going to help me rehab my hip better and stay healthier longer when it comes to my joints. Right now, I’m aiming for 5 strength training sessions a week. 3 lower body, 1 core, and 1 upper body. They are low-impact, mat-based and use bands, mini bands, dumbbells, or just bodyweight. This allows me to do them at home when I need to be time efficient and I can also do them while I’m traveling and don’t have access to a gym. They’re laser focused on building muscular endurance and core strength.

Before getting injured I was lifting heavier on machines at the gym, but my injury set me back to zero. That’s totally fine. Now that I know more I can rebuild slowly and smart. In November right after tearing my labrum my goal was to do Pilates and functional yoga poses again without pain. I’ve hit that. My next goals are to be able to be in a deep squat (ass to ankle) position when I need to without my hip then hurting the rest of the day. The doctor told me to avoid deep squats the rest of my life but… I don’t know man as someone who cares about retaining max mobility and functionality longterm I still haven’t really accepted that tbh.

Current Training Split

· 3x glute and hip strength with bands, min-bands, and dumbbells

· 1x core strength workout with bands + dumbbells

· 1x upper body strength workout with bands, mini-bands, dumbbells

· 2x restorative or corrective flow – This is going to either be a yoga flow focused on core strength and balance, or corrective-exercise circuit with bodyweight or bands to support glute, core, and back strength

The Daily Hit List

Next three goals, done anywhere from 7-3 times per week, Perhaps not as mission critical as A1 steak sauce tasks but still important to be a healthy functioning adult who has kids, jobs, bills, parents, and a spouse or partner to prioritize alongside their health. What goes here? Stuff that is slightly less high priority than your A1 steak sauce habits, but still important to keep the pilot light on daily for maintaining your goals, lifestyle, and relationships. What’s on my list right now?

• Study NASM CNS 1 Hour Daily

• 30 Minutes Daily “Adult Oil Change”

• Cook Dinner for Oscar + I

Study NASM CNS 1 Hour – Currently working through my 1.9 CEUs to be a NASM Certified Nutrition Coach. Deadline is June 16, so we’re in the home stretch. If I read for an hour everyday and really absorb the material, that’s enough.

Adult Oil Change – Processing mail, paying bills, texting family and friends back, clearing my email, updating and reviewing my calendar… All the little admin tasks of being an adult that require a computer or smartphone and an inbox of some sort need to be managed daily. Setting a timer for 30 minutes near the end or start of the day keeps these unimportant but urgent tasks from piling up.

Cook Dinner for Oscar and I (3-4x/Week) and Wash Dishes (7x)– Cooking dinner at home helps us save money and eat more fruits and vegetables while hitting our fiber and protein goals. I try to cook 3-4 days per week for us. Oscar probably cooks 3-4 days as well. Right now Oscar’s schedule is more demanding than mine with longer days so regardless of whose doing the majority of the cooking I tend to be on clean-up duty so he has more time to wind down. Since he needs to wake up earlier than me (like 5am) for his personal training clients I enjoy doing this for him because I want to ensure he gets enough sleep. We don’t have a dishwasher so the additional time in the kitchen helps me avoid the dreaded chair and get moving more.

Daily Health Habits

• Avoid sitting for more than 4 hours

• Drink 3L of water (approximately 90 ounces)

• Track macros to hit protein (135 grams) and fiber (35 grams)

• Take Calcium, Vitamin D, Berberine, and Fish Oil Supplement

• Sleep 7-9 Hours

Avoid the Chair: I keep track of how long I sit these days (like roughly, in my head) because prolonged sitting sucks for my hip pain and I know long-term it’s not the best for me. I use my standing desk during the week and try to floor sit when possible. Honestly it would be cool to have a longer couch because I feel like lying down is literally better than sitting for long periods since it doesn’t keep your hips flexed and your butt squished like a tortilla on a press, but that’s a future Libby purchase.

Drink Water: Unless I write it down on my to-do list. I will simply forget to drink enough throughout the day. (Crazy I know.) Having it on my list for the day reminds me.

Hit Protein + Fiber Macros: After my injury and being ordered to back off movement for a bit and avoid my normal activities, I lost some lean mass. Started tracking my macros to get back to muscle mami status by getting 135 grams of protein per day. Fiber is literally that girl so I’m really focused on getting 25-35 grams per day there.

Take 4 Supplements: I’m 35 but I want strong bones especially as I head into my 40’s and beyond. I’m a woman with a family history of hip pathology I’m at a bigger risk for developing hip osteoarthritis. Since I want to be as durable as possible and have as many options open to me I need strong bones. I have become diligent about taking 1000mg of Calcium in supplement form per day. (This is in addition to working to eat the recommended 3 servings of dairy per day because I believe food is always better than supplements.) I also take Vitamin D and Berberine because both have been shown to potentially have protective properties when it comes to markers of metabolic distress and inflammation. I also take Omega-3s daily because I know I don’t eat enough fish right now and the standard Western diet does not contain the right ratios of these healthy fats! These are the 4 supplements I have become religious about.

Sleep: Been having more night thoughts these days (Apparently that’s when my brain decides it’s time to solve all our problems and figure our entire life out at once? Lame.) Anyways, because of that I’m averaging like 6.5 to 7.5 hours a night, but I’d really like to get it closer to 7-9. Been working on going screens-off mode starting at 8pm this week but it’s so hard! My biggest opportunity area.

Priority 4: Weekly Momentum

If I’m having a great day and I’ve done my A1 steak sauce and my daily hit list, then I’ll move on to priority 4. Currently, they are:

• Text/Call Family Member or Friend

• Date Night with Oscar

• Floor Sit

• Walk 8,000 Steps Per Day

• Write for 30 Minutes

Text/Call Family Member or Friend – Henry (bro) is busy finishing up his Masters in Public Administration. Never (sister) is planning a wedding, working 2 jobs and OH YEAH GOING TO SCHOOL TO GET HER BA IN NURSING so siblings are busy and mom has stuff on her plate to prep for hip replacement surgery. We all have different things that keep us busy so I’m trying to be consistent with chatting in the family message thread and messaging friends when I see they posted or did something rad via Instagram.

Date Night with Oscar – Making a habit to do something fun or try something new on Fridays or Saturdays with Oscar gives us time to connect, talk, check-in, and just HAVE FUN. I think it really helps to maintain that sense of play and closeness that naturally shift as you live together and grow closer over time in a committed long-term relationship.

Walk 8000 Steps – I’m in a season of life that requires heads-down focus. Physical therapy is non-negotiable, and I’m really focused on improving my balance and my strength to support my hip, so the daily 45-minute strength or mobility workouts also matter. Walking too much, too fast, or up too high an incline can flare my hip and set my recovery back, so the 8000 steps is more like a minimum daily ideal that can be rad to hit on a specific day, but not as critical to my recovery as the PT, strength, and mobility sessions.

Floor Sit – This is a newer thing I have been doing daily. For a time, after my hip was super flared up and I tore my labrum I couldn’t even sit criss-cross applesauce because it hurt too much. So being able to hit this milestone is a big accomplishment! Once the dishes are done I join Oscar to watch TV and try to sit on the floor for 30 minutes before transitioning to the couch. This is a tip I learned from Dr. Kelly Starrett, DPT and his wife Juliet Starret of The Ready State. Sometimes I use my meditation cushion to make it easier on my hip if it’s feeling cranky. Days when I feel like my hip is saying “hey, we got way too much input today, let’s slow it down” I don’t sit on the floor, but I’m trying to touch that shape daily and see what happens. When I get down and up off the floor I try to use nothing to support me, just cross my legs and use the mobility of my ankles, hips, and knees to lower up and down. Right now one side is stronger than the other so I’m working on being able to do this with both legs easily.

Monthly Maintenance

Doing these things once per month keeps my relationships, finances, and family life feeling balanced. Right now these are:

· Help mom by cleaning house and doing laundry 1-4x per month

· Brother/Sister/Mom Hang 1x Monthly

· Money Date and Thinking Session 1x Month

· Publish a Substack Article and/or Launch a New Product in the Website

Caregiving - As my mom’s hip pathology has worsened I’ve been helping with cleaning and laundry around the house 1x per week. This is critical caregiving and cannot be skipped. I’m glad that I’m able to help my mom. Without our Father around (Rest in Peace Howard) my siblings, mom and our respective partners and spouses are the people who hold us down and help each other out!

See My Brother and Sister 1x/Month – My brother and sister are both balancing full-time school and full-time work right now so this one has not always happened but that’s okay because it’s a busy season. Currently we all live in the same state, and I don’t take that for granted. It likely will not always be the case. I hope to take advantage of this benefit more in the Summer when my brother graduates.

Money Date and Thinking Session 1x Per Month – I have financial goals and to accomplish them it takes time. I try to set aside one quiet weekend day a month (usually a Sunday) to check in on my finances and financial goals. I also use this day to think and strategize. Having defined time to strategize, plan, and dream keeps me moving forward. If I’m ever at a point in my life where I’m feeling stuck, it’s usually because I haven’t done my monthly thinking and money date sessions in awhile.

CONCLUSION

Life is busy. Taking care of basic body maintenance and healthy eating while balancing work, friends, parenting, caregiving, and life admin is HARD. Summer is here, so we also want to look good, and that’s valid! But to accomplish our muscle mami goals we don’t want to be spending time cooped up in the gym ignoring our adult responsibilities and missing out on all the rad sunshine either. Quite honestly, we endure winter in Minnesota so we can be at the lake (not inside a Life Time) in June. So do your training outside of the gym and at home if that makes it easier, or walk to a nearby park or field and be that freaky neighbor doing mobilizations and soft tissue work and body weight strength in the sun. Who cares?! No one that’s who! This body and life is yours to manage and enjoy take care of. So do it in the way that’s fun and easy for you to make work.