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349. Why Strength Training in Midlife Isn’t Optional — with Mary Ellen Loranger

The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

Release Date: 09/08/2026

350. Why You're Afraid to Sell — with Nikki Rausch show art 350. Why You're Afraid to Sell — with Nikki Rausch

The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

If you run a business, you have to know how to sell — and yet so many of us do this thing I call the mom voice the second it’s time to say a price out loud. Something like, “It’s $300,” in this careful, coaxing tone, like we’re convincing a kid to tie their shoes. Meanwhile we’re talking to a fully capable adult who actually wants to work with us. This week I’m joined by Nikki Rausch, a sales strategist, speaker, and the founder of Sales Maven. Nikki spent 17 years in corporate sales, mostly in a male-dominated, technology-driven world, before she started coaching women...

info_outline 349. Why Strength Training in Midlife Isn’t Optional — with Mary Ellen Loranger show art 349. Why Strength Training in Midlife Isn’t Optional — with Mary Ellen Loranger

The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

My guest this week had a childhood nickname: Muscles. She wasn't the smallest kid on the block, but she could always outrun the boys and knock a softball clean out of the park. Somewhere along the way, that name got buried — and stayed that way for decades. Mary Ellen Loranger is a 56-year-old entrepreneur, author, and wellness leader who’s spent the past eight years, alongside her husband Wayne, coaching thousands of women through nutrition, health, and lifestyle transformation. A former Ironman athlete, she’s spent the last few years building Midlife Strong®, a strength training and...

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The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

My guest this week spent forty years studying death — first as a pathologist doing autopsies, later coaching people from inside her own pathology office. What she found in that work wasn't morbid. She found more life force in the morgue than she usually found walking around on an ordinary day, and that contradiction sent her looking for why. Sabine O'Laughlin calls what she found the mother line: the idea that everybody has one mother, whatever your relationship with her looks like, and that mother gave you exactly one thing — your life. Until you can accept that fully, Sabine says, you...

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The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

Lindsey Busfield’s resume doesn’t look like it belongs to one person. Starbucks barista. English teacher. Auditor of Amish chicken barns. Now she’s the vice president of one of the country’s top legal marketing firms. None of it was the plan. For years, Lindsey figured she’d eventually run her own business, the same way her entrepreneurial parents had. Then a two-day aptitude test told her something different: she wasn’t built to be the visionary founder. She was built to be the expert, the organizer, the person who makes the pieces actually run. In this episode, Lindsey and I talk...

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The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

Most of us think certainty means confidence — that bold, "everything always works out for me" kind of energy. It doesn't. Confidence is built on evidence: you earn it by looking back at what you've already proven. Certainty is different. It's a deep inner knowing you can access before you have any proof at all, and it's one of the most important skills for building a genuinely wealthy life — not just a life with more money in it, but one where you trust your next move even when you can't yet explain why. In this solo episode, I break down the real difference between certainty and...

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The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

Roberta Ravella spent 25 years in mortgage origination. She was good at it. She was also, by her own account, a classic case of burnout. She tried coaching. She tried marketing. She even opened an AI business with a friend. Two months in, something in her said no, and she couldn't push past it the way she used to. So she stopped. Her mentor sent her on a six-week break with one rule: shut it all off. What Roberta found on the other side of that break is what she now calls The Joy Experiment. This conversation is about what it took to get there, and what her mornings look like now that she's...

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The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

Most of us don't actually have trouble making money. It's the keeping of it — the receiving of it — that's the problem. If you added up how much money has passed through your hands over your lifetime, the number would probably surprise you. It comes in, you manage it, you pay bills, and then it's "gone," so you never really see how much you're circulating. That's not a money-making problem. That's a receiving problem, and most women were never taught the skill. In this solo episode, I break down what receiving actually is, why we were never taught to do it, and how you can start practicing...

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The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

For years, Abi Horton believed real estate investing wasn't for her. Not enough money, not enough experience, not the right background. So she stayed on the sidelines and told herself it was something for later. Then things shifted, not through one big moment, but through a lot of small, unplanned ones. Voice acting taught her she was capable of running a business. That confidence opened a door she hadn't been looking for, and stepping through it eventually led to Aros, a real estate investment technology company built around mid-term rentals. Abi is candid about what that process actually...

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The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

Some days you do everything right, and by 3 p.m. you're still completely wiped out. That's not burnout from working too hard. It's the specific exhaustion of doing tasks that were never yours to carry in the first place. In this solo episode, I walk through the exact questions I ask my own clients when they tell me they should be further along by now, or that something feels harder for them than it looks for everyone else online. Grab a journal, because I want you to actually answer these questions as you listen.   WHAT YOU'LL LEARN  The exact question to ask when a task drains you,...

info_outline 341. How to Increase Your Capacity for Happiness — with Dr. Peggy DeLong, The Gratitude Psychologist™ show art 341. How to Increase Your Capacity for Happiness — with Dr. Peggy DeLong, The Gratitude Psychologist™

The Game On Girlfriend Podcast

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My guest this week had a childhood nickname: Muscles. She wasn't the smallest kid on the block, but she could always outrun the boys and knock a softball clean out of the park. Somewhere along the way, that name got buried — and stayed that way for decades.

Mary Ellen Loranger is a 56-year-old entrepreneur, author, and wellness leader who’s spent the past eight years, alongside her husband Wayne, coaching thousands of women through nutrition, health, and lifestyle transformation. A former Ironman athlete, she’s spent the last few years building Midlife Strong®, a strength training and mindset platform for women navigating midlife and menopause.

I work with a lot of health coaches one-on-one, and right now they're going through a massive shift inside their industry because of GLP-1 medications — the wave of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. I think it's an incredible opportunity for entrepreneurs, you included, to understand how to pivot when the market changes on you. That's exactly what's happening with Mary Ellen — she's had no choice but to pivot her own business right along with it. In this episode, we get into what that shift means for muscle, for metabolic health, and for anyone whose industry is changing under them.

This one isn’t just for people who care about fitness. It’s for any woman in midlife who’s been told to shrink back, slow down, or settle, and for any entrepreneur trying to figure out what to do when the ground shifts under their business.

 

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

  • Why Mary Ellen's childhood nickname, "Muscles," disappeared for decades, and what finally brought it back to the surface
  • What the GLP-1 boom is doing to muscle mass, and why protein and strength training matter more now than they used to
  • The misconception about building muscle after 40 or 50 that the research says just isn't true
  • What a "progressive overload" strength training program actually looks like, and how to start with nothing but a couple of dumbbells
  • The simple three-part protocol Mary Ellen gives every client, whether they're on a GLP-1 or not
  • Why she and her husband just invested in a gym instead of keeping all their eggs in one basket

 

SPECIAL GIFT FROM MARY ELLEN

As her gift to Girlfriends, Mary Ellen is offering half of a four-week, customized progressive overload strength training plan through her Midlife Strong® app, for home or gym, at any level, for $25. She's also offering $50 off any nutrition plan — fat loss, calorie deficit, optimization, or GLP-1 nutrition plans. Get started → https://www.midlifestrongbyme.com/

 

CONNECT WITH MARY ELLEN 

 

ABOUT MARY ELLEN LORANGER

Mary Ellen Loranger is a 56-year-old entrepreneur, author, and wellness leader dedicated to helping women thrive in midlife. Alongside her husband, Wayne, she has spent the past eight years coaching thousands of people in nutrition, health, and lifestyle transformation while building a nationwide team of health coaches. A former endurance athlete who completed multiple Ironman competitions, she now focuses on strength training and empowering women to build muscle, confidence, and resilience.

She founded Midlife Strong®, a platform that supports women navigating midlife and menopause through nutrition, strength training, and mindset coaching. Mary Ellen is also the bestselling author of Win Today: A Jersey Girl's Guide to Living Your Best Life and Called to More: Stepping Boldly into God's Purpose in Midlife – A 30-Day Devotional. Through her work, she encourages women to see midlife not as a slowdown, but as an opportunity to step into strength, purpose, and possibility.

 

READY TO STOP SHRINKING BACK IN YOUR BUSINESS? 

This episode might have you thinking about where you've been shrinking back in your own business instead of stepping into strength. If so, let's talk about it. As my gift to Girlfriends, I offer a 30-minute discovery call. We'll talk about where you are right now and what might be getting in the way. Book here: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=13047670&appointmentType=2244195

 

FREE GIFT FROM SARAH

Get Sarah's Freedom Calculator and discover how much your business needs to make to finally be free. Download at https://sarahwalton.com/freedom

 

LEARN FROM SARAH 

Explore Sarah's online courses and free resources to start building your business with confidence.

 

CONNECT WITH SARAH:

 

ABOUT SARAH WALTON

Sarah Walton is a wealth consciousness coach, strategic advisor, podcast host, and mentor who helps women entrepreneurs build businesses they love.

Her mission is simple: to put more money in the hands of more women. 

She's the creator of the Abundance Academy, The Art of Receiving, and the Game On Girlfriend® podcast.

Sarah teaches authentic, heart-centered business strategies because when women have more financial power, they don't just keep it — they use it to take care of their families, support their communities, and build something bigger than themselves.

 

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