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Are you a mom trying to get back in shape? Where have you been going wrong with past plans? How can Heidi help you transform?
In this podcast episode, Melissa Vogel talks to Heidi Powell about having your cake and eating it too – doing it all as a mom of four.
Meet Heidi Powell
Heidi Powell is the ultimate female force. She is a trainer, transformation specialist, mother of four, savvy businesswoman, author, nutrition nut, and overall health guru. Heidi became a fixture in America’s living room as she worked side-by-side husband Chris Powell on ABC’s hit show, “Extreme Weight Loss.
Heidi has more than a decade of experience as a personal trainer and holds both ACE and Crossfit certifications.
As a coach, mother of four, and manager of their family business, Heidi brings a whole new perspective and level of compassion to the Powell’s approach, helping others overcome many of life’s challenges to create effective, long-lasting success. When not traveling, she resides in Arizona with Chris and their four children.
Visit Heidi’s website, TransformHQ, and connect on Instagram and TikTok.
In This Podcast
Summary
- Self-love and transformation
- Doing it all
- Major roadblocks
- Advice for mom’s starting out
- A typical training routine
- Transform with Chris & Heidi
Self-love and transformation
When Heidi hears some of the ways that women talk about their physical goals, she gets the feeling that they think the weight loss will change how they feel about themselves permanently. It won’t, it will be temporary. Self-love, or the lack thereof, is really the root of what they’re dealing with. It was like that for Heidi with her eating disorder. She couldn’t get skinny enough, even at 89 pounds, and she couldn’t understand why she didn’t love herself. Now, Heidi can get to places where she never imagined she could be in terms of body fat and weight ranges and it doesn’t affect her because she is more educated, is more confident with who she is, and knows the reasons why she wants to be fit instead of just thinking she wants to be fit.
Doing it all
The world and our culture tells us we have to be a great mom or we need to dedicate our lives to a career. No, you can do it all and I believe that when we do it all, we’re empowering other women to do the same. And that’s really what I love, I love feeling like I’m making a difference in whatever way it is.
Heidi is the mom of four – two teenagers, an eight-year-old and a six-year-old. How does she juggle the kids, the business, and still find time for herself? Heidi says she drops a lot of balls. She throws them all up and catches what she can. For the vast majority of her life, Heidi has been a perfectionist but has had to let go of that in order to experience life to its fullest. She realized that when she’s so focused on doing everything perfectly, she couldn’t do as much as she wanted to and didn’t get to experience the joy that life and all of those different trials had to give her. It’s learning the power of living an “and” life instead of an “or” life.
Major roadblocks
Heidi blew out her ACL twice in high school doing cheerleading which kick-started her eating disorder and for Heidi, it is ingrained in her that ACL reconstructive surgeries put her in a bad place. Last summer, she blew her ACL again and cried because she had all these goals and didn’t have time to be on crutches. Within minutes, she decided that this was an opportunity to rewrite the story of how ACL surgeries affect her and see it as a chance to slow down and force her body to get some rest. After the birth of her last child, she keeled over in pain at home and discovered that she had kidney stones that had to be surgically removed. Heidi ended up having to have three kidney stone surgeries over the next year and a half which was a really trying time for her. She started losing her hair because of the medication and she felt really weak. She had just had a child without an epidural but she could not get enough morphine with the pain of the kidney stones, it would just wear off.
This was a very difficult time for Heidi but it made her realize that she couldn’t control everything but she could control how to view it and how to respond to it. When we realize that we can control these things it means that we also have to take responsibility not only for the good that happens but also for all of the bad that has happened. A lot of people shy away from taking control because they don’t want the responsibility, they want to be the victim but that creates a miserable existence.
Advice for mom’s starting out
1. If the show’s contestants can do it, you can do it
The reason why they always choose the super-obese to work with is that they want to prove that if the most hopeless, defeated, depressed individuals can change their lives then you can lose that last 5/10 pounds easily.
2. Don’t take on a mountain of commitments all at once
If the plans that you’re trying are rigid and hard to stick to then they’re not sustainable long term. It leads us to a trap of feeling like we’re not okay so before you know it most moms will stop trying. We succumb to this idea of being stuck with the body that we have when in reality, we just need to shrink it down to something that is simple and sustainable every day.
A typical training routine
In an ideal week, Heidi works out on six days. She knows that her body needs more rest but six feels good to her.
- 3 x lower-body days a week – mostly hamstrings and glutes, adding in quads occasionally as she is still recovering from ACL surgery.
- 2 or 3 x shoulders and back days a week – So, if she does 3 upper body days then 2 will be shoulder days and 1 will be a back day. If she does 2 upper body days then 1 will be shoulders and 1 will be shoulders & back.
Heidi’s body changes over time so she will change her routine according to what her body needs. Heidi is an advocate for resistance training, she loves weights and she loves bodybuilding. It’s all about understanding her body and the look that she likes. She likes being curvy and this gives her that curve.
Transform with Chris & Heidi
They created an app called “Transform with Chris & Heidi”. The app has everything from traditional weight loss, to bodybuilding, to cross-training, and scales specifically to your goals. It has two years of programming for every platform that they have, it has their workouts and it has nutrition plans completely scaled to suit you and includes hundreds of recipes. It is the most comprehensive fitness app out there. They also have a range of protein shakes and supplements.
Useful Links:
- How To Be a Bomb Mom, Doctor, and Titan Athlete with Dr. Jaime Seeman | BM 17
- Extreme Weight Loss
- Transform HQ
- Heidi’s free content
- BTBFM FREE EMAIL COURSE
- Connect with Melissa on Facebook and Instagram
Meet Melissa Vogel

Melissa Vogel is an energetic keynote speaker, business owner, certified personal trainer, certified group fitness instructor, 1st degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do, a mother of three, and a podcaster.
Melissa has been voted as the Best Personal Trainer for 2020 by Inland Empire Magazine, and Built the Busy to Bomb Fit Mom exercise system.
She is quickly becoming recognized for her expertise and influence in her field!
Melissa has contributed to numerous publications and has been featured in the Trail Blazer Magazine, and published in the April 2020 edition of Health Magazine. Her approach incorporates personal experience, energy, humor, and charisma.
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Bomb Mom is part of the Practice of the Practice Podcast Network, a family of podcasts that change the world. To hear other podcasts like Empowered & Unapologetic, Imperfect Thriving, Faith in Practice, Grow a Group Practice or Beta Male Revolution, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.