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How to Eat Well on Holiday When Life Is Already Full

16 June 2026 | Nutrition | By Daniëlle van der Leest I'm writing this from France. We're at the beginning of a seven-week family trip — three kids, the family holiday house, a lot of baguettes, and very little of my usual routine. I'm breastfeeding, we're walking everywhere, and "training" right now looks more like carrying a baby up a hill than anything I'd put in a programme....

How to Eat Well on Holiday When Life Is Already Full 16 June 2026 | Nutrition | By Daniëlle van der Leest I’m writing this from France. We’re at the beginning of a seven-week family trip — three kids, the family holiday house, a lot of ba…

The Recovery Nobody Talks About

Your pelvic floor has carried a pregnancy, and often a birth. Your deep core — the muscles that hold you steady through every lift, sneeze, and flight of stairs — has been stretched and switched off, and has to be taught how to fire again....

The Recovery Nobody Talks About Your pelvic floor has carried a pregnancy, and often a birth. Your deep core — the muscles that hold you steady through every lift, sneeze, and flight of stairs — has been stretched and switched of…

The Book Journey: Where We’re At (and the Story Behind the Cover)

The cover came to me on the floor. I was lying on the thin mattress in my kids' room, the way I do most nights — because I bring all three to bed at the same time, every time. The baby was still next to me. The room had finally gone quiet. And in that small, ordinary pocket of stillness at the end of a very full day, the image just arrived....

The Book Journey: Where We’re At (and the Story Behind the Cover) The cover came to me on the floor. I was lying on the thin mattress in my kids’ room, the way I do most nights — because I bring all three to bed at the same time, every time. The baby was st…

The Gap Is Getting Smaller: From Postpartum to Perimenopause

(and why you should lift more, not less) I fell down a rabbit hole the other night. I'd been reading about how the age of first-time mothers keeps climbing. Here in Singapore, where I live, the average first-time mum is now around 32. In the Netherlands, where I'm from, it's 30.4. All over the world, women are starting their families later than any generation before us — and for good reasons: education, careers, financial footing, finding the right moment, the right person....

The Gap Is Getting Smaller: From Postpartum to Perimenopause (and why you should lift more, not less) I fell down a rabbit hole the other night. I’d been reading about how the age of first-time mothers keeps climbing. Here in Singapore, where I live, t…

“I wrote a book. Here’s why.”

Daniëlle van der Leest on why she wrote Strength Through the Messy & Beyond — the personal story behind the book, from years of coaching women and living through three pregnancies herself....

“I wrote a book. Here’s why.” Daniëlle van der Leest on why she wrote Strength Through the Messy & Beyond — the personal story behind the book, from years of coaching women and living through three pregnancies herself.

How to Build Your Strongest Body Before You Try for a Baby

There's a mountain of content about training during pregnancy, returning to exercise after birth, navigating perimenopause. But the phase before — when you're thinking about trying for a baby, or actively trying — gets almost no attention. What you build now becomes the foundation you carry into pregnancy. The strength, the body awareness, the habits — all of it travels with you....

How to Build Your Strongest Body Before You Try for a Baby There’s a mountain of content about training during pregnancy, returning to exercise after birth, navigating perimenopause. But the phase before — when you’re thinking about trying for …

What Strength Training Actually Looks Like When You’re Pregnant

Strength training through pregnancy isn't about what you look like or what you can lift. It's about building a body that's prepared — for birth, for the fourth trimester, for the long game of motherhood. Real life is messy. Some weeks you'll train three times. Some weeks you'll manage one walk around the block. Both of those are enough, because what matters is staying connected to your body through a season that asks an enormous amount of it....

What Strength Training Actually Looks Like When You’re Pregnant Strength training through pregnancy isn’t about what you look like or what you can lift. It’s about building a body that’s prepared — for birth, for the fourth trimester, for the …

Getting Back to Training After a Baby — Your Honest Roadmap

You trained through pregnancy. You were consistent, committed, showed up. Then your baby arrived — and somewhere between the exhaustion, the recovery, and the overwhelming newness of it all, the training stopped. And here you are, wondering how to find your way back....

Getting Back to Training After a Baby — Your Honest Roadmap You trained through pregnancy. You were consistent, committed, showed up. Then your baby arrived — and somewhere between the exhaustion, the recovery, and the overwhelming newness of it all, the tr…

You've cut the carbs. Tracked the calories. Done everything right. So why isn't it working?
Everything you were told about weight loss was designed for a 28-year-old. You're not 28 anymore — and that's not a failure. The rules just changed.

Swipe through to understand what's actually happening in your body — and what to do instead. ➡️

I'm writing the complete guide to this — strength training for women through every major life transition. Want to be first to know when it launches? Drop "BOOK" in the comments and I'll add you to the list.

And if this helped — save it and share it with a woman in her 40s who's been blaming herself. The problem was never her. It was the advice.

Why You Still Feel Weak Years After Having Kids

At six weeks postpartum, many women are medically “cleared,” yet physically and emotionally they often still feel very far from recovered. Others may feel mostly themselves again within the first year, while some women notice lingering changes for much longer, especially after multiple pregnancies, difficult recoveries, years of broken sleep, high stress, or long periods of putting their own recovery last....

Why You Still Feel Weak Years After Having Kids At six weeks postpartum, many women are medically “cleared,” yet physically and emotionally they often still feel very far from recovered. Others may feel mostly themselves again within the first y…