When Strength Meets Self-Love and the Future of Women’s Fitness
- Brainz Magazine
- Jun 5
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 6
Ange Helie, CEO & Founder of AfterGlow Lifestyle Coaching, spearheads an anti-diet health movement, empowering one million women to discover food freedom & their natural, healthy weight.
What if strength wasn’t loud, punishing, or performative? What if it wasn’t measured by sweat or scale weight, but in the quiet moment you chose to show up for yourself again? Goodbye Grind, Hello Glow: The future of women’s fitness is in strength training and food neutrality for the woman who's done with punishment.
As women, many of us have been taught to shrink, to please, to push, often at the expense of ourselves. But there’s a new kind of strength emerging not for approval, not for aesthetics, but for us. And it’s changing the conversation.
The hidden weight of being “fit” for the wrong reasons
Let’s be real. Most of us have been conditioned to think exercise means suffering. If you’re not dying during your workouts, you’re not doing it right. Your worth gets tied up in how much punishment, pain & sweat you can create for the sake of “fitness.”
I call BS.
Here’s what I’ve learned after 19 years in the fitness industry, and devoting my life to helping women who struggle with food/weight issues: most of us confuse self-torture with self-care.
We’ve been sold a lie that discipline equals deprivation, and that our weight is a problem to be solved rather than our body is a home to be honoured.
Here’s the kicker: when your strength is built on a foundation of “I’m not good enough,” it’s not strength at all. It’s just fear dressed up in workout clothes.
Real strength? Real strength feels grounding and supportive. It comes from feeling safe in your body, and then building muscle from that place.
The secret recipe: Strength training + food neutrality = your natural glow weight
There’s a quiet revolution happening, and it’s not about Instagram-perfect bodies or grinding through workouts you loathe.
It’s happening in living rooms where women are saying, “Screw this, I’m done punishing myself.”It’s happening in gyms where women lift weights not to shrink, but to take up more space.
It’s happening in kitchens where women eat & trust their bodies without guilt for the first time in decades.
This new wellness conversation is quiet, sustainable, and wildly powerful.
It’s the moment you choose a warm-up that actually feels good instead of skipping it to “burn more.” It’s the workout you finish feeling energized, not depleated. It’s enjoying a dang croissant without overthinking or feeling guilty.
It’s the moment you stop asking, “How many calories did I burn?” and start asking, “How do I feel in my body today?”
This shift is exactly why I created the GLOW Method, a neuroscience-backed framework that helps women stop spiralling in food stress, release the need for control, and relearn to trust their bodies. It pairs beautifully with Women in Strength (WIS), my strength training program built for women who want real muscle and confidence inside + outside the gym.
Together, they’re the antidote to diet culture hustle. WIS + GLOW = Natural Weight. No more bouncing between overeating and restricting. No more “I’ll start again on Monday.” No more dieting, counting calories, or cutting carbs.This combination of Women in Strength + finding food neutrality is not about becoming a clean-eating gal who never eats a chocolate bar. It’s about becoming a woman who knows her power and isn’t afraid to use it.
We don’t train for punishment. We train for presence. We eat to nourish, not negotiate.
Why this matters now (Spoiler: we’re all exhausted)
Let’s acknowledge it: we’re tired. The pandemic broke us a little. Social media gaslights us daily. Hustle culture shouts that we’re lazy if we’re not optimizing every breath.
And the fitness industry? It’s still selling the same old story that you need to earn your weight loss & worth through suffering.
Here’s what I know: women don’t need more hustle. They don’t need another pill to make themselves smaller momentarily. They don’t need to be fixed, calculated, or optimized.
What we do need is strength that serves us. Strength that fuels energy instead of draining it. Strength that reconnects us to our own body instead of making us doubt ourselves.
What happens when a woman feels strong in her own body?
I’ve seen this transformation countless times. When a woman feels strong, not searching for the next quick-fix diet, supplement, or cleanse, she feels empowered, lighter & free.
She starts saying no to things that drain her soul.
She sets boundaries that make her past people-pleasing self cringe.
She eats food without shame, maybe for the first time since childhood.
She doesn’t work out to feel worthy, but to feel empowered.
She eats a full meal at lunch, not just a sad salad with 3 almonds and a calorie limit.
Her power becomes unshakeable because it’s built on self-trust, not validation. She lifts with purpose. She rests without guilt. She glows.
Her confidence isn’t built on external validation; it’s built on showing up for herself daily.
And here’s the best part: she becomes living proof that there’s another way. That strength doesn’t have to hurt. That empowerment doesn’t need permission.
Strength isn’t just physical, it’s mental and emotional too. This part of the health + fitness industry that is less talked about: our relationship to food/weight. Inside AfterGlow, we don’t start with food or workouts; we start with understanding how your brain is wired by diet culture.
Because when your body feels stressed or overwhelmed emotionally, no amount of willpower will fix that. So instead of trying to “fix” your habits, we learn to understand them and work with your mind, not against it.
You weren’t born to stay small (and other truths no one tells you)
You weren’t born to stay small, quiet, or convenient. You weren’t put on this earth to take up less space, eat less food, or have fewer opinions.
Strength doesn’t mean hard or emotionless. It means being fully human, soft and strong, vulnerable and powerful, gentle and fierce.
The world tries to sell us the lie that we must choose: strong or thin, masculine or feminine, powerful or likeable, confident or kind.
I call BS (again.) You get to be all of it. You get to show up in whatever way feels authentically aligned to you.
Your soft invitation
If you’re reading this and thinking, “Heck yes, this is what I need,” welcome to the club. My approach isn’t about adding one more thing to your list. It’s about coming home to yourself. It’s about remembering your body is not the enemy, your hunger cues aren’t a sign you’re failing, and your desire to be strong doesn’t make you any less feminine.
Inside AfterGlow, we build muscle and confidence. We honour your emotions and challenge your limits. We create a foundation so solid that the chaos can’t shake you.
Because when women feel strong in their bodies and minds, they change the world.
They raise confident daughters. Build businesses that matter. Refuse to accept “that’s just how things are.”
The world needs you, not a smaller, quieter version, but the full, unapologetically strong you. Because you deserve to feel at home in your body. And the world deserves to see what you’re capable of. If something in your body said yes while reading this, that’s your sign. You’re not too much, too sensitive, or too late. You’re right on time, and you’re ready for this. Click here to learn more.
Read more from Ange Helie
Ange Helie, CEO & Founder of AfterGlow Lifestyle Coaching
Ange Helie, CEO & Founder of AfterGlow Lifestyle Coaching, spearheads an anti-diet health movement, empowering one million women to discover food freedom & their natural healthy weight. With over 15 years in the health industry as a Volleyball player, Personal Trainer, and CrossFit athlete, she battled with her own food and body relationship, struggling to shed weight despite trying various "healthy" approaches. After unlocking the secret, she now helps women find their "glow" through her wellness programs as well as offers the opportunity to pursue an AfterGlow Coaching Certification.
