Women’s Fitness: Over 40: Seeing Opportunity in Adversity

It was an exciting time for Dr. Taryn Williams and her family. 

After having to cancel a trip to Universal Studios during Covid,

she was finally all rescheduled and ready to go.

In fact, she and her husband Sy, 

were planning on surprising their daughters,

Olivia and Isla, with the news Christmas morning.

Then they would take off to Florida a few days later.

A great plan that unfortunately hit a major snag,

when Taryn suffered a painful foot injury.

That painful injury happened while Taryn was doing 

a Tabata sprint at boot camp class.

Suddenly, she felt a pop in the ball of her left foot. 

Immediately, she was unable to stand on it. 

An x-ray showed a fracture to the sesamoid bone, 

(which is the small weight-bearing bone on the ball of your foot). 

The prognosis? Six to eight weeks in a walking cast with no weight-bearing!

“This was a devastating blow of bad news,” said Taryn. 

“Boot camp for me is how I keep myself accountable to healthy eating, 

sleep, mindfulness, stress management, and exercise. 

How was I going to not weight bear on my left foot for the next eight weeks 

and meet my fitness and lifestyle goals?” 

Not to mention, that amazing trip to Universal Studios where she imagined 

walking for hours with the kids, enjoying the incredible theme park, 

clocking thousands of steps, and feeling fantastic.

For someone so active like Taryn, it would have been really easy to get frustrated 

and discouraged, and adopt a “what’s the point now” attitude. 

But in addition to her physical training, Taryn had made mindset work, self-awareness, 

and personal development part of her everyday routine. She decided right away to shift 

the focus from what she couldn’t do - to what she COULD. 

Immediately answers came. And she made a pledge to change her workout plan 

and perspective and find the opportunity in adversity. 

To start with, she reached out to a chiropodist (a foot specialist), 

who made a custom orthotic to offload any pressure the fracture caused. 

This helped immensely. 

Next, she got the all-clear from her doc to use her elliptical trainer in her basement.

Switch-ups to her training regime followed.

“Leslie and I met and came up with a training plan. I was going to work out every day of the week 

that I could, alternating 40 minutes of elliptical training with heavier upper body weight training. 

I could do this!” said Taryn.

She started on the plan right away. She increased her weights to build upper body strength,

stuck to her cardio training plan to burn calories and bust stress,

and continued her gratitude and meditation practices. 

She even added ankle weights for inner and outer thigh and glute work.

Despite her dedication to her training program, she would still need to stay off her foot 

for at least five more weeks, which would impact her trip. 

Again, keeping her mindset focused on what she COULD do, rather than couldn’t, 

she had an idea.

“I rented a shiny red scooter!” she said.

So three weeks after this painful injury, Taryn and her family left for Universal Studios after all.  

And guess what? She had an amazing time! 

“What I initially thought was going to be a huge setback with my training and fitness, 

I was able to change my training and mindset approach and have pulled through 

stronger than ever,” explains Taryn.

She is now back from Florida, and out of her walking cast. 

Her fitness level and upper body strength have improved, 

plus, she maintained her lower body fitness over the past few months 

while recovering from her injury. 

She’s slowly re-introducing higher-intensity training into her regime

and has even set a goal of running a half-marathon later this year!

Wow - that’s so inspiring, Taryn.

Thank you so much for sharing your story, and re-iterating the important lesson of shifting the focus from what you can’t do to what you CAN do! It’s truly life changing. (If you haven't checked out the video yet at the top of this page, please do! You'll see Taryn's awesome attitude first hand!)