Broads: The Bold & Badass Fitness Podcast for Women

Four years ago this month I had my last drink. A margarita, in Mexico, on our wedding anniversary.
There's no dramatic story attached to it. No crisis, no DUI, no scary night, nobody sat me down. From the outside nothing about my drinking looked like a problem. I just didn't like how it made me feel anymore, and that turned out to be enough.
In this one I go through the whole thing: what drinking actually looked like for me first, because it was fun and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. The four things that got me to stop. What changed and how long each thing took. What was harder than I expected.
And the practical stuff, because it's holiday season. How to do this when your partner and your friends still drink. How to order at dinner without it becoming a conversation. What to bring to a party, what to say when someone asks, and when to leave.
I'm not telling you to quit drinking. If you drink and you like it, genuinely, carry on. But if you've been thinking about drinking less and keep not doing it, there's one question at the end I'd like you to answer.

In this episode:
Why the absence of a rock bottom is the reason so many women never start
The low-grade anxiety I spent years thinking was my personality
What alcohol does to sleep, training and recovery, and why it gets louder as you age
The post-race beer, the brewery run club, the earn-your-wine workout
Whether not drinking counts as restriction
Boundaries without blame, and why your boundary is only what goes into your glass
Four things to do at a holiday party, all of them before anyone asks you anything

Mentioned:
Quit Like a Woman by Holly Whitaker
This Naked Mind by Annie Grace
Athletic Brewing, Biro

Full write-up: [blog URL]
If this one lands with you, a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other women find it.

How much evidence do you need before you're willing to believe something new about yourself?

Hold a real number in your head while you listen to this.

Because you've already got plenty. You strength train three times a week and still say you're not really athletic. You deadlift 150 pounds and still say you're not strong. You've trained consistently for a year and still say you've never been consistent.

The evidence shows up. The story doesn't move.

And at some point the evidence stopped being the problem, because you have plenty of it. The problem is what you're doing with it, which if we're honest is nothing. You collect it and set it aside like it doesn't count. Like it's the exception to the rule.

Your actions have already changed. Your body has already changed. The story you're telling yourself about who you are is still running on information from decades ago.

This one isn't about what your body is doing. We've covered that plenty. This is about what your identity hasn't caught up to yet, and what you're going to do about it starting right now.

In this episode:

Why this isn't a character flaw, a confidence problem, or self-sabotage
What your brain is actually doing when it ignores the evidence in front of it
Why six months of contradictory behaviour can't beat thirty years of repetition
What one of our clients called "an old narrative that simply hasn't caught up yet"
The notification that never arrives on the day you hit your first pull-up
I only used 10 pounds. It wasn't pretty. I was using a light band.
The hedge that turns every accomplishment into a built-in apology
What a man does when he adds 10 pounds to his bench, and what a woman does
Good thing I'm not trying to be fucking average
How to let a compliment land with nothing attached to the end of it
Why identity was never a reward waiting for you at the end of a body change
The woman I coach who's embarrassed to tell people she strength trains
Stronger at 37 than she's ever been, still waiting for someone to hand it to her
Why affirmations in a mirror don't work, and what does
The evidence that has nothing to do with the gym

Your body changed a while ago. Your identity is allowed to catch up.

Not after the next PR. Not after someone finally notices. Today.

Timestamps

00:00 Cold open
00:49 Welcome to Broads
01:18 How much evidence do you need?
02:06 You're collecting it and setting it aside
02:53 What today is actually about
03:07 It's not a character flaw
03:39 Your brain runs the most familiar story, not the truest one
04:22 Six months against thirty years
05:13 Identity takes reps
05:49 That's the whole mechanism
06:07 If you were told you were bad at math
06:59 An old narrative that hasn't caught up
07:42 Compassion, not confrontation
08:23 I only used 10 pounds
09:30 The built-in apology
09:59 Taught to be palatable
10:38 What a man does with 10 pounds
12:10 Good thing I'm not trying to be average
13:09 Let the compliment land
13:58 Identity isn't a reward
14:43 What if an athlete isn't a body type?
15:07 Embarrassed to say she strength trains
15:47 Stronger at 37 than she's ever been
16:45 The moment you're waiting for isn't coming
17:33 Why we built Broads
20:31 Your progress is data
21:32 Watch the videos back
22:30 The evidence that isn't in the gym
23:44 Affirmations don't work, proof does
25:09 To the woman who's waiting
26:25 Certainty comes after, not before

Learn more about Broads: broads.app
Apply to BroadsCOACH: broads.app/broadscoach
Connect with Tara:
instagram.com/taralaferrara · instagram.com/broads_coach · youtube.com/@TaraLaferrara · tiktok.com/@taralaferrara

You know what consistent people have that you don’t?
Nothing.
They’re not more motivated than you. They don’t wake up excited to train. There’s no personality trait, no chip in their brain, no secret discipline gene that makes this easier for them. I don’t wake up wanting to train either, and this is my whole life.
The difference between a woman who’s been training for three years and a woman who’s been restarting for three years isn’t motivation. One of them just stopped resetting the clock.
So this episode is about building the version of training that survives your actual life. Not the fantasy version of your schedule, where nothing goes wrong and every day has two extra hours hidden in it.
In this episode:
Why the version of you who wants this more doesn’t exist
The client who never decided to train, looked down, and was already in her leggings
Monday perfect, Tuesday perfect, Wednesday missed, Thursday “this week is ruined”
What’s actually underneath the Thursday thought, and why it was never about the workout
Why the all-or-nothing woman is perpetually at week one no matter how many years go by
Minimum Viable Consistency — not a downgrade, the actual plan
What it looks like in practice: hotel rooms, fifteen minutes, two sessions instead of four
The fear that permission to do less becomes permission to do nothing, and what happens instead
The bench press I’ve had on a list since 2018
The pull-up that took one of my clients more than two years
Why “still training in 2036” is a better filter than any thirty-day challenge
Fifteen minutes done is worth more than sixty minutes imagined. A smaller plan that keeps going beats a perfect plan that resets.
Write that one down somewhere you’ll see it on a Wednesday.
Timestamps
00:00 Cold open

00:18 Welcome to Broads

00:53 Consistent people have nothing you don't

02:09 What we're building today

03:25 I don't wake up motivated either

04:13 The day that's never coming

04:36 Already in her leggings

06:22 Closer to brushing your teeth than a marathon

07:05 Monday perfect, Wednesday missed

07:38 Thursday: this week is ruined

08:41 What's underneath the Thursday thought

09:30 The boring version

10:03 Perpetually week one

12:03 Imperfect and continuous beats perfect and interrupted

12:23 What survives your busiest month

13:23 Minimum Viable Consistency

13:49 What it looks like in practice

15:56 The plan bends so you don't break

16:28 But won't I use it as an excuse?

17:28 Stop measuring in weeks

18:07 Eight years and a 105 bench

18:56 The pull-up that took two years

19:40 Still training in 2036

21:32 What to do with this
Learn more about Broads: broads.app
Apply to BroadsCOACH: broads.app/broadscoach
Connect with Tara:
instagram.com/taralaferrara · instagram.com/broads_coach · youtube.com/@TaraLaferrara · tiktok.com/@taralaferrara

Rocio Cortez had never played a sport. She'd never been in a weight room. At 27 she walked into a jujitsu gym, and three and a half years later she's training wrestling, striking, MMA and Muay Thai, and she's competed at Apex twice.
The number that matters in this conversation is not the 275-pound deadlift she pulled at a bodyweight of 119. It's three and a half years. That's how long it took to build the body she has now, and she never once trained for it directly. She trained to get faster, to jump higher, to get stronger. The body followed.
Tara and Rocio get honest about what that stretch actually felt like: the days she took progress photos and hated them, the clothes that stopped fitting, the body dysmorphia that showed up right as she was making her best gains.
In this episode:
Why the people you train around change what you believe is possible for you
How to build a circle when you're the shy one in the corner
Grieving friendships that fade when your lifestyle changes, and why the real ones modify the hangout instead
Starting at 27, and how Rocio stopped mourning the years she didn't train
What actually makes you an athlete, and why Tara says you don't have to compete to be one
Why being a beginner is an advantage, not a liability
Training for performance and letting the body sort itself out
103 pounds to 120: learning to use a body that's changed
Diet culture, double zero pants, and 100 crunches before bed
Injury, warming up, and why pushing through isn't a plan
Starting martial arts as a woman when the room is mostly men
How to know you're progressing when the weight on the bar has stalled
Screen time, comparison, and curating a feed that doesn't cost you anything
Timestamps:
00:42 Welcome to Broads
01:35 You are who you surround yourself with
04:24 Building your five people
07:11 When friendships fade
09:53 Starting at 27 and grieving lost time
13:00 What makes you an athlete
14:41 Why Rocio likes being a beginner
18:02 Where the intimidation actually comes from
21:18 Training for performance, and the body that followed
23:40 Diet culture and high school
25:26 103 to 120
27:16 Injuries and the machismo mindset
29:09 Being a woman in a male-dominated sport
30:18 How to start jujitsu when you're intimidated
32:31 "I work out but I don't look like I work out"
33:20 Three and a half years of reps
35:44 Progress when the weight stalls
37:25 Perfectionism, imposter syndrome and screen time
42:34 Curating who you follow
44:36 For the woman focused on how she looks
46:53 Get a coach
Connect with Rocio:
https://www.instagram.com/rockin_rocio/
https://www.rociocortez.com/
Learn more about Broads: www.broads.app

Episode Notes
Nutrition advice for women is loud, contradictory and usually built for someone else's body. In this solo Q&A, Tara answers the nutrition questions you sent in, and keeps it real about what actually matters.
In this episode:
Intermittent fasting for women: who it can work for, and why stress, poor sleep and under-eating can make it backfire on your hormones, energy and cycle
Whether you need to track macros, and why protein is the one number worth knowing
The protein math: 0.7–1 gram per pound of body weight (or goal body weight), and how to build up gradually instead of doubling overnight
Easy high-protein options at home and on the go
What to look for in a protein bar: 15–20g of protein, under 5g of added sugar, and fiber to keep you full
Healing your relationship with food: dropping the good/bad labels, getting out of the all-or-nothing trap, and why mindful eating starts with slowing down
Going alcohol-free when your partner drinks: boundaries without blame, NA swaps that make date night easier, and coming back to your why
You don't need to weigh every bite forever. Give it three days of looking at what's actually on your plate, find the protein, and build from there.
Tara is a Precision Nutrition–certified coach, not a registered dietitian. This episode is for education, not medical advice.
Resources mentioned:
Macronutrient Guide: broads.app/macronutrient-guide
Learn more about Broads: broads.app
Connect with Tara:
instagram.com/taralaferrara
instagram.com/broads_coach
youtube.com/@TaraLaferrara
tiktok.com/@taralaferrara
If this one helped, leave a five-star review. It's the fastest way to get Broads in front of more women who need it.