Samantha Pennell, CPT

I learned a lot in my last pregnancies. Honestly, this pregnancy although there was weight gain was the best. The liver protocol I did before left me without morning sickness. I stayed active and I get to do things differently postpartum this time. Labs have been ordered and we are about to go into a new personal wellness plan that will give me and this baby the MOST!

Best advice I can give is get those labs done so you don’t end up in a weird spiral like I did with the twins. No idea I was fighting hypothyroidism and just killing my body and rubbing it on empty chasing that lower number in the scale. It doesn’t have to be like that.

We are having dance this week!

Unfortunately, all of the numbers that were saved to send each and every one of your individual messages to remind you of class are no longer available. I updated my phone and those messages went away! Super bummed! If you can, please register for class by using the link in our story or sending me a DM with your phone number in it I will get you the invite ASAP!

- Samantha

If there’s one thing that I have always been, it’s the queen of supplements! At one point, I took every supplement under the sun just to start feeling better than I was at that moment. And for a little while, that supplement would work until I felt like a dinner and then I was onto the next!

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that some of that was compounding my problems. It is important to understand how your liver and kidneys are functioning before taking other supplements. Just like it’s important to know where your cortisol level is at.

Now, when people ask me how or what I think of a supplement, I usually ask them what their labs currently look like. More times than not they haven’t even had them done recently, and we have to start the process from there.

Please don’t blindly take supplements. Sometimes it can do more hard than good.

Feeling overwhelmed with PCOS? Start here ↓

One of the best first steps, whether you’ve been diagnosed or you’re just starting to question your symptoms is getting your labs done.

Because it’s not always that your body is “working against you”… it’s often that it’s dealing with a little dysregulation that we can actually work with 🤍

Labs give us clarity.
They help us spot red flags.
They give us direction instead of guessing.

And from there? We build a plan that actually supports your body.

If you’re ready to understand what your body’s been trying to tell you, let’s look at your labs together → book a call with me ✨

It’s almost a cliche’ and even the non-trainers of the industry are telling you “just eat your protein”. Many times they don’t even bother offering the education as to why. While this macro isn’t the end all be all, she definitely sits on the hierarchy of health! Run through these slides to learn a little about protein.

Next up- we talk about quality because trust me- it ain’t all the same !

Super stoked to be coming back! Join us for a line dance March 10th! 3 dances back to back- beginner friendly! More to come but mark your calendars!

Que the time I went to a PROFESSIONAL trainer with hoshimotos and PCOS. They had helped many other women get shredded, and had clients with these metabolic issues in the past. They gave me a meal plan and sent me on my way to slash calories and lift heavy weights in the gym.

6 month later, I was shredded, my labs were the worst they had been and then I started putting weight back on despite eating minimal calories and still working out.

Why? That wasn’t realistic, and if they were educated on endocrine function, they wouldn’t have done that to me. It’s on me- I didn’t do the research, I didn’t know better. But now I do- and I want to make sure that you don’t have those experiences. Get real help, get educated and get feeling better 💕

If getting pregnant is on your radar this year, I wouldn’t just “see what happens.” I’d prep my body like it matters. Because it does.
1. Baseline labs
Know where your hormones and nutrients sit. Low progesterone and imbalances can make pregnancy harder to sustain. I learned this the hard way after a miscarriage. Run the labs, then support what needs support.
2. Support your liver
A well supported liver helps you handle the hormone surge of pregnancy. This last pregnancy I had almost no nausea compared to my first two. Prep matters.
3. Create a fasting rhythm
About 90 days before trying. Cell turnover and metabolic stability matter for egg quality and hormone balance.
4. Check your weight
A healthier, supported body handles pregnancy better. Blood sugar, energy, and recovery all benefit from going in prepared.
5. Build a movement routine
If you aren’t moving before pregnancy, you likely won’t during. Start now and keep it simple.
If pregnancy is on your heart this year and you want to prep your body the right way, this is what I help women do.

What we don’t talk about with a C-section…

The room is fuller than you expect.
There’s the scrub tech, nurses (usually more than one), sometimes a pediatrician, your provider and their assistant — and the anesthesiologist, who quickly becomes your safest person in the room.
And then there’s your support person. Mine was my husband, holding my hand while my body did something incredibly brave.

I didn’t know I could ask for skin-to-skin. You can. And you should. This was the first time I did and it was the MOST magical feeling.

Sometimes it doesn’t happen right away, emergencies and baby needs come first but when it can happen, it matters.

You’ll stay in the hospital anywhere from one to three days.
And when you go home, the swelling can hit hard around days 3–7. No one warned me how intense that part can be. It’s hormones. It’s fluid shifting. It’s called third spacing — and it’s not you doing anything wrong.

Your belly might hang over the incision for a while. Mine did.
It softens. It changes. It takes time. Your body just brought life into the world through surgery it deserves patience.

This is still birth.
Still powerful.
Still beautiful.

And you are not “less than” for the way your baby arrived