It’s live.
Strength Through the Messy & Beyond is on Amazon today, and after everything it took to get here, I’m not sure “excited” is even the right word. Relieved, maybe. Proud. A little disbelieving that a book that started as an image on a bedroom floor is now something you can actually hold.
If you’ve been following along, you already know most of this story. But indulge me — today feels like the day to say it all in one place.
Where this actually started
It started on the thin mattress in my kids’ room, after I’d brought all three to bed at once, the way I do most nights. The idea arrived not as a plan but as a picture: me, heavily pregnant, pushing an oversized bike through the Singapore heat, two kids on board, bags swinging off the handlebars. A little ridiculous. Somehow holding it all together.
That image became the whole book. Not because it was pretty — because it was true. Real strength was never going to be built in perfect conditions. It was always going to be built in the middle of everything else.
What it took to get here
The idea arrived around my youngest’s birth, when I stopped training clients for a while and found myself asking the quiet, unavoidable question: okay, now what? What followed was months of editing — round after round after round, more than I ever kept count of — because the content was reviewed by an OB/GYN, a pelvic floor physiotherapist, and a clinical nutritionist, and I wasn’t willing to hand you advice I couldn’t stand behind.
Fifteen chapters, in three parts — the foundation, the phases that change everything, and the messier seasons nobody else was writing about. A full exercise appendix with every movement on video. Sessions built for the days you only have ten minutes, because that’s most days.
Written in soccer sidelines. Nap times. That same bedroom floor, more nights than I can count.
What it’s actually for
This isn’t a bounce-back plan. It’s not one more thing to be perfect at.
It’s for the woman trying to conceive who wants to build strength before pregnancy. The one who’s pregnant and unsure what’s still safe. The new mum trying to figure out where her body went. The woman in her forties, noticing everything suddenly feels different. Anyone who’s abandoned a plan because life simply got in the way.
If that’s you, this book was built for exactly that.
Get your copy
The ebook is live on Amazon right now. The paperback follows in about a week — I’ll let you know the moment it’s ready.
If this book has meant something to you already, even before you’ve read a page, a review makes a genuine difference for how it reaches other women. I’d be so grateful.
Thank you for being here for all of it — the cover, the edits, the messy honest parts I almost didn’t share. It means more than I can easily say.
Also on Goodreads.
Daniëlle van der Leest
Women’s Strength & Wellbeing Coach | Founder of ActiveWomen | Mum of 3
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