We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brittany Rosenthal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brittany below.

Hi Brittany, thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

When I started lifting weights in 2018, I had no idea the impact it was going to have on my life.

It wasn’t just a physical transformation; it transformed my entire being. It changed the way I empathize with others, it gave me confidence I never had before, and most importantly, it helped me truly learn how to love myself–I now view myself as my own best friend. I use that “best friend” strategy when coaching clients, particularly when it comes to mindset.

The profound changes I experienced by incorporating weightlifting into my life inspired me to want to help other women. I wanted every woman in the world to feel as good as I felt! So in 2021, I took a huge risk and dumped a chunk of my savings into a course that would give me the knowledge, skills, and certification to legally and ethically work with clients.

Brittany, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Brittany and I was born and raised in Boise, Idaho. I attended Boise High, then Boise State, and currently work full-time in nonprofit!

I got into lifting weights because I wasn’t getting the results I wanted from any of the other exercise I was trying; yoga, pilates, HIIT workouts, dancing…my body just consistently stayed the same and I felt so frustrated. I was putting in the work. Why wasn’t I getting the results?

In 2017, I met the most wonderful man (spoiler alert: I married him!) and he encouraged me to try lifting weights. Like most women, my initial reaction was a little incredulous; how was lifting weights going to help me lose weight? Doesn’t lifting weights make you bulky? Oh, diet culture. How very toxic and misleading you are.

So I took his advice. I mean, he was (and is) super fit and strong. I figured he probably knew what he was talking about. Within months, it transformed me…it changed my whole life. I had never, in my 37 years on this Earth EVER felt so good. It became part of my lifestyle. Part of my identity. Not in an obsessive way, but in a, “I just figured out the secret to life” kind of way. And with it, I learned about nutrition. I learned how to fuel my body to meet my goals. I learned how to find the right energy balance while still enjoying all the foods I loved. I couldn’t believe that as I aged, I was feeling and looking better than I ever did in my 20s. I felt strong, I felt confident, I felt sexy, and for the first time in my life, I felt athletic! That was a completely foreign feeling to me.

Fun fact: I was FORTY when I walked on a beach in a bikini for the first time.

So I took the leap, got certified, and started taking clients. I wanted so badly to help other women feel the way I felt. I had this new and profound happiness that was completely rooted in strength and self-love. By then, friends online knew what I had been up to, and my roster filled FAST. This is just a side hustle, but I’m so proud to have had a hand in changing the lives of dozens of women.

The biggest problem I help solve for clients is two-fold; finding sustainability and unlearning toxic health misinformation. We all know someone who has tried Keto or fasting or some other trendy diet. The problem is that most people can’t sustain those lifestyles forever and for most, it wouldn’t be optimal from a health standpoint.

I know women who, due to a diet they tried, have had their hair fall out or they stopped getting a period. I’ve had clients deathly afraid of carbs (the most glorious macronutrient ever!). I’ve had clients come to me eating 900 calories a day and still weren’t seeing results. So I work to help undo that harm while teaching sustainable habits that will last a lifetime. I do it with love, support, education, patience, a whole lot of empathy, and all of this takes place in a judgment-free zone.

The best part about this is that I can work with any woman, anywhere. I’ve worked with women from Boise to London. All she needs is the desire to change, Wifi, and access to some weights certainly helps.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The first time I walked into the gym alone, I was a wreck–I was shaking and sweating, dropping things–you’d have thought I was having a nervous breakdown. I mean, I guess technically, I kind of was. But I showed up. And then I went back. And then I did it again and again and now sometimes, five years later, I’m the only female in the weight room.

That’s the most badass feeling ever.

A few months into things, I threw my back out doing a deadlift. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I was lying naked in the tanning booth (I don’t tan anymore so no lectures will be necessary, lol), and couldn’t get myself out! I had to call my then-boyfriend to come and lift me out of the bed (ahhh, naked!), which to this day, is still one of the most humiliating and hilarious moments ever.

But I was devastated about my back! I had worked so hard, had hired a coach by then, and was making such great strides. Then this. But I didn’t quit. And within a few months, I was back to normal, hitting PRs (personal records), and kicking ass.

Then in 2019, one of my best friends in the world, my little sister in my sorority, died of suicide.

I had extreme grief coupled with survivor’s guilt. I felt so empty. The grief would wash over me in waves at the most unexpected times. I cried the first time I went back to the gym. It wasn’t right that I was still living my life, going to work, driving to the gym, and trying to take care of myself, while my little sister was a pile of ashes inside an urn. I had to mentally push through those months. I had to tell myself that doing good things for me didn’t mean I didn’t care about her. It was a really difficult experience that eventually, like all grief, got easier to learn to live with in time.

And then, more setbacks: a calf biopsy in 2022. A breast biopsy in 2023. But I never quit. I never quit. Over the years, when I have felt like I want to, I ask myself, “What would happen if I didn’t quit?” That has always been enough to help me to keep going. It has become my mantra.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Where do I even start? Well, a few things come to mind:

1. The scale is not how FAT you are.

The scale measures the weight of your bones, tissue, muscle mass, blood volume, the contents of your stomach/intestines, and can be impacted by other factors such as water retention, inflammation, stress levels, and more.

One of the most common conversations with clients is how to interpret the number on the scale. It’s easy to freak out when the scale goes up even just a couple of pounds because we’ve been conditioned to interpret that as “I gained two pounds of fat.”

A pound of fat is 3,500 calories. So if the scale goes up two pounds overnight, you can rest assured you did not gain two pounds of fat. To put it conceptually, you’d have to eat 10 1/2 Burger King Whoppers (mmm, my fave) to gain two pounds of fat. More than likely, you ate a lot of salt, didn’t get enough sleep, or have food still in your stomach or intestines.

2. Carbs do not make people gain weight.

CALORIES make people gain weight. Folks on the Keto diet often GAIN weight because they’ve shifted their carb intake to fat intake. Fat contains more calories per gram than carbs do. So it’s not the carbs, it’s the overall calorie consumption.

Imagine half of a small avocado. It can fit in your palm and weighs about 75 grams. That’s about 120 calories.

You’d have to eat just under A POUND (about 13oz) of strawberries to ingest 120 calories.

Clients learn a lot about nutrition when they work with me. They learn how to eat a more nutrient-dense diet, how to balance their choices to support their goals, AND how to fit all the things they love into their lifestyle. Because what fun is life without cake and cookies, wine and cheese, churros and Pronto pups, pizza and beer, and all the other things that bring us joy and help us to celebrate all of life’s important moments?

3. You can’t chase skinny forever.

Ah, ladies. You’ve got to eat. And you’ve got to eat protein. Protein is the building block for muscle. You know how women specifically always talk about being “toned”? Toned just means being lean enough to show MUSCLE. But if you don’t have the muscle, you can’t show it. One of the best things I’ve ever heard is that we aren’t over-fat, we’re under-muscled, and while the data points to both being true, women have got to accept that MUSCLE is the key to longevity.

Contact Info:

• Email: trainwithbritt292@gmail.com
• Website: https://trainwithbritt292.wixsite.com/trainwithbritt/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trainwithbritt/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trainwithbritt292/

Image Credits
Gerardo Guzman, Flawless 208 Anna Boyd, A.B. Photography