This week, Thea sits down with Kelly and Audrey for an unscripted conversation about what happens when driven women lose the plot on their health and fitness priorities. This isn't a conversation about macros, meal plans, or ten step routines. It's a conversation for the those of us that know exactly what we should be doing and still can't seem to do it. If you're the entrepreneur who categorizes a one-hour walk as wasted time, the former athlete who can't reconcile who she was with where she is now, the high achiever who will move boulders but won't stack pebbles. We're coming to the table without a tidy answer, and that's precisely the point.

What unfolds is less a prescription and more a negotiation ... with your own expectations, your own timeline, and the version of yourself you keep comparing with the you you are today. Kelly reframes the entire goal-setting conversation by asking what would happen if we stopped chasing outcomes and started chasing the feel good. Audrey shares the raw reality of spending over a year unable to return to the gym routine she once maintained effortlessly. And Thea candidly admits that discipline, not talent, is the piece she's been skipping.

Together, we make the case that optimization means nothing without consistency, and that the most elite performers aren't elite because they transcended the basics. They're elite because they never stopped choosing them.

TL;DR …

1. Why treating your health like a "waste of time" is actually the most expensive belief a high-achieving woman can hold.
2. Kelly's reframe on goals: stop chasing specific outcomes and start building a daily practice around feeling like an absolute weapon for everyone in your life.
3. Audrey's candid account of the eighteen months it took to rebuild a gym habit she once considered effortless.
4. The critical distinction between simple and easy, and why confusing the two is where most driven women lose momentum.
5. How to negotiate with yourself when your identity is built on excellence and the current assignment is embracing the suck.
6. Kelly's two universal, non-negotiable foundations that apply regardless of your goal: sleep and steps.

Where to Go From Here

1. Your turn: what hit home? Tag @thea.does.all.the.things, @audreyetta, and @westernworkouts and tell us the thing you've been skipping that deep down you know needs your attention!
2. Ready to stop white-knuckling your routine? Connect with Kelly at Western Workouts for individualized coaching that meets you exactly where you are with no cookie-cutter plans, ever. Learn more by tapping here.
3. Trade the highlight reel for the real reel: Download the FREE Master Playbook for a sustainable framework that prioritizes consistency over perfection. Just tap here to request yours!
4. You've entered the group chat: Subscribe to the podcast, send this episode to the friend

This week, Thea sits down with Audrey for a mid-process check-in on what "locking in" actually looks like when you're committed to doing it differently this time. This is the unglamorous, honest conversation about what happens when high-achieving women try to expand their lives without repeating the patterns that led to burnout in the first place.

We end up in the middle of a frank discussion with no concrete answers about the difference between producing and protecting the experience, the value of training foundational practices instead of relying on talent and tenacity, and why the finish line matters less than the discipline of showing up (even inconsistently!). If you've ever felt frustrated when rebuilding feels slower than the shortcuts you took before this conversation will feel like permission to do hard things at a more human pace.

TL;DR ...

1. Why the rhetoric around "locking in" rarely includes the messy, frustrating middle of the process.
2. Training small muscles with lighter weights instead of relying on big movements and talent to power through.
3. How comparing your current chapter to your own past production levels creates a different kind of pressure than external comparison.
4. The critical distinction between producing outcomes and protecting the experience of your life.
5. Why structure isn't the enemy of creativity, but the foundation that allows high performers to expand without breaking down.
6. What it means to rebuild practices from the ground up when you've spent years skipping foundational steps, and why that process feels frustratingly slow.
7. The role of friendship, wisdom, and delusion in equal measure when navigating the gap between where you were and where you're headed.
8. How to navigate the tension between optimization and pace, especially when you feel the pressure of time.

Where to Go From Here

1. Your turn: What hit home? Are you caught between chapters, rebuilding practices, or navigating the messy middle of sustainable ambition? Tag Thea @thea.does.all.the.things and Audrey @audreyetta and let's keep this conversation going.
2. Trade frustration for framework: Download the Cowgirls Over Coffee Playbook, your quick-win guide to building sustainable practices that support doing it all well without burnout.
3. Looking for something more? Consider joining the Cowgirls Over Coffee Membership.
4. You've entered the group chat: Subscribe to the podcast, share this episode with a friend who's done with toxic productivity culture, and keep coming back for conversations that honor both your ambition and your humanity.

There's a difference between trying hard and training hard. One is an inevitable path to burn out while the other creates the capacity to sustain the life it feels like many people tell you to stop wanting. This week, it's just Thea on the other end of the line here to convince you that it's truly okay to want the high-effort life.

After speaking at the Boss Mares Lead the Herd Workshop in Fort Worth, Thea came home with a singular clarity about what rural women entrepreneurs actually need to hear: validation that wanting it all: the ranch, the business, the marriage, the community, the energy to show up fully in every role ... it isn't selfish. And the path to getting there isn't hustle culture power moves OR soft-girl simplification. It's a solid and strategic commitment to training for it.

This episode neutralizes the two narratives we've been sold as far as a solution to our overwhelm and exhaustion to either push harder or want less. Thea walks through her four-stage planning order of operations (Prime, Plan, Process, Preserve) and makes the case that planning itself is the training ground for the do-it-all life you're trying to create. You don't climb Everest on grit alone. You train for it. The same goes for juggling livestock, kids, a business, and your own sanity.

1. Why the "high-effort life" isn't a flaw to fix but an innate calling worth nurturing, and the permission you need to stop apologizing for wanting to do it all, and well.
2. The two false solutions keeping women burned out: hustle-harder masculinity or simplify-everything softness.
3. Planning as practice, not product: Why the process of planning itself, and not the perfect plan, is the strategic advantage that separates women who sustain momentum from those who white-knuckle it through every day.
4. The four-stage planning order of operations (Prime, Plan, Process, Preserve) designed specifically for women whose lives include weather, livestock, broken tractors, and kids who get sick on meeting days.
5. Why high achievers tend to skip the small steps and how that skipping catches up when you hit the end of your capacity (usually around motherhood, though it's not motherhood that breaks you).
6. A case for Thursday as your optimal planning day: How to use recency bias and week-ahead visibility to audit, adjust, and iterate without decision fatigue.
7. Muscle memory for decision-making: How consistent planning trains your brain to pivot quickly when plans inevitably go sideways (because they will).
8. The Mount Everest principle: You don't just show up and climb. You train. And if you want the high-effort life without burning out, the training is non-negotiable.
9. Why women under-resourced and exhausted can't solve the world's problems.
10. Boss Mares grant opportunity: Applications open now for 2026 business funding designed by Western women for Western women entrepreneurs.

1. 00:00 – The undervalued relief of "me too" and why conversation matters more than tactics.