I’m Megan Bowden, and The Ambitious Fox Training Studio is my dream turned reality.

I’ve been a Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutritionist through ISSA since 2014. I graduated from Michigan State University with my second Bachelors in Kinesiology in 2016 (my first was a BA in English in 2013). I worked for Fitness Together in Okemos, Michigan for four years, training well-over 150 clients, as well as pursuing an internship with Spartan Performance that allowed me to work with high school athletes of all sports and abilities. But my journey to health began much earlier than all of that.

If you train in my studio, you will soon learn I am an MSU fan girl.

I was not some great high school athlete. I was not someone who naturally felt comfortable in my own skin. And I certainly did not have the best nutrition growing up. I was a bookworm of a teenage girl, who first and foremost enjoyed school. I was naturally outdoorsy and active, but I wasn’t disciplined or interested enough to pursue high school sports. Like most girls, I went through high school with major self-confidence issues. So many of us have/had body issues from the people and media around us telling us we should look a certain way. For me, that was thinking I was never skinny enough, even though I was barely over 120 pounds. I thought shrinking myself would give me more worth. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Hiking the Narrows in Zion National Park, Utah

I wish I could go back and hug that girl and tell her to stop listening to those voices. Of course, it’s never that simple, and it would take many years to learn it the hard way. But for me, the most important puzzle piece in learning to love myself and prioritize my health over how I thought my body looked in the mirror, was learning to run and lift weights. That, and actually feeding myself.

If you are from the Midwest like me, you know what food the average household has in it. I was raised no differently. Lots of sugar cereal, meat, processed snacks, microwaved meals, junk food and pop at sleepovers. And once I became cognizant that my diet wasn’t healthy, I quickly moved to the other end of the spectrum: restriction. Diet culture is so pervasive in our society. And while men and women both fall prey to messaging that continually tells us we need to look a certain way, women especially spend so much unnecessary time on trying to fit into a certain size pants or hit a particular weight on the scale.

But what I’m here to say is that those things are secondary, or even tertiary. What is most important is feeling good in your skin, feeling capable and empowered. You don’t need to take up less space. You don’t need to fit into a certain body ideal. Instead, what helped me to feel my best was to shift my mindset to focus on doing things that promoted health in all aspects: strength, endurance, agility, and mobility.

There are so many benefits that come from shifting exercise and nutrition from a punishment mindset. No longer are you running because you ate that donut, but rather because you want to keep your heart healthy and you want to complete a 10k for the first time. No longer are you restricting calories so you can drop 30 pounds before your high school reunion. Instead, you are lifting weights because you like that you don’t have to ask your significant other for help carrying your bags of potting soil and you like the way your arms have defined muscle that outwardly portray your inner strength.

Everyone is on their own journey, especially when it comes to exercise and eating habits. Such things do not change overnight; results don’t come as quickly as we’d all like. That’s why my focus has always been promoting a healthy lifestyle. This isn’t a 5k, folks. It’s more like an ultra-marathon. It’s not something one does for a little bit and quits; it’s a life-long journey in taking care of our bodies, in living in good health, and gaining fulfillment and confidence in meeting goals and accomplishing things you never thought you were capable of.

And I want to be there with you through it all. I know how hard it is. I started working out when I was eighteen, and now, almost a decade and a half later, I still slip up. I am still learning new things. Eating healthy is hard, especially on the weekends. Choosing to go to the gym is hard, especially after a long day of work. But the funny thing is, when you start making those healthier choices, when you start consistently stringing them together, it does get easier. When you start making things habitual, it becomes engrained in your personality over time. Suddenly, you ARE a person who runs, you are someone who only drinks once in a great while, you are someone who prioritizes sleep and stretching and hydration to decrease all that stress you’ve been accumulating over the years.

Hiking Old Rag Mountain, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

I just want you to know that I’ve been there. I’ve had confidence issues; I’ve put too much trust in the scale to tell me my self-worth; I’ve struggled through hormone issues; I’ve worked through overtraining injuries; I’ve battled poor mental health and lots of life stressors. Through all of that, it can be easy to put ourselves on the back burner, especially our physical and mental health. But I’m telling you the best thing that you can do in those cases is to make yourself the priority.

It was the summer of 2013 that set my healthy lifestyle in motion. I realized that I didn’t want to just be skinny anymore. I wanted to be strong. I wanted visible muscles. I never wanted to have to be that damsel in distress, I wanted to be capable enough to do things on my own. I wanted to lift as much weight as the guys at the gym.

It was this change in mindset helped me discover a part of myself I didn’t know I had. I learned that the feeling of competing was addicting. I started signing up for races and Tough Mudders, and each time I completed one, I just wanted to get stronger and do it again. And it was then that I decided I wanted to pursue a career in personal training. It made me frustrated to look back and know that I had never had anyone in my life to help me cultivate my discipline, wellbeing, and hidden athletic talents. Therefore, I wanted to be able to help other people sort through all the misinformation and get to the brass tacks about how to change their bodies. I also wanted to be the one to motivate them when they felt like giving up.

Since that epiphany, I’ve had so many rewarding experiences with my clients. Their successes are my successes, and I’m thankful every day for my job that allows me to help people see the greatness in themselves and push their bodies to new limits.

My first and only marathon, Traverse City Bayshore, 9:57 pace

In my own progression, I’ve now run 35+ races, anywhere from 5k to a marathon. I’ve done three Tough Mudders. I’ve PRed at 285 for squat, 175 for bench, and a 7:23 min/mile 5k. And in 2019, I decided to go vegan, not only for the health benefits, but most of all for the animals (I don’t ever expect my clients to make such a lifestyle change; everyone has their own preferences).

What my experience has taught me:

1. Leading a healthy lifestyle is a progression. It doesn’t happen all at once. It takes time and small steps to develop healthy habits. It’s taken me 12+ years of developing habits to get to where I am now, and it certainly has it’s ups and downs. Progress is never linear!
2. We all are our own biggest critics. But health is what is beautiful, not conforming to society’s beauty standards. Exercise can help you embrace yourself for who you are and what you can do.
3. Find someone who inspires you to be healthier, who pushes you to challenge yourself. Avoid people who don’t try to understand your goals or don’t want you to succeed.
4. Anyone can start exercising and see major progression. I wasn’t the athletic type when I started, but I became an athlete when I started working out and thinking of myself as one.
5. You will fail. You will slide backwards. Something will happen and you’ll take a few weeks off from the gym or stop paying attention to what you eat. Just get back on the horse as soon as you can and pick up the reins.
6. Motivation is fleeting, so don’t depend on it. You may want to go to the gym for the first month of a new routine. Other times it’s going to seem like a chore. Discipline is more important. Establish your healthy habits and then hold yourself accountable, or get a trainer to hold you accountable.

What you need to know is that I am human, that I understand your frustrations when it comes to exercise and nutrition. I understand failure. I understand disappointment. I’ve also started at the bottom and worked my way up. I won’t sugar coat it. There’s no magic pill. There’s no quick fix. It’s solid, nose-to-the-grindstone, hard work. But I will be there to support you when you fall short and to push you when you need it. And together we will work to meet all the goals you have and to help you fall back in love with taking care of yourself.