Contemporary Authors

• Lightness of Body and Mind: A Radical Approach to Weight and Wellness Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2016

• Strength Outside In - http://www.strengthoutsidein.com/bio

  My name is Sarah Hays Coomer, and I am a lover of all the yummies. I am also a hater of any activity that breaks my body. I believe fitness should be about supporting and strengthening our bodies — bringing them to life rather than depriving them and obsessively trying to shrink them.

  I'm a Certified Personal Trainer with the National Strength and Conditioning Association; a member of the American College of Sports Medicine; and a certified Nutrition and Wellness Coach and Prenatal Fitness Specialist with the American Fitness Professionals & Associates. My book, Lightness of Body and Mind: A Radical Approach to Weight and Wellness, was published by Rowman & Littlefield in June 2016. My work has also been featured in Huffington Post, Elephant Journal, Shape, MSN, New York Daily News, Bustle, xoJane, The Tennessean, and LifeHack, among others. More info on that is here.

  I kind of like to exercise, kind of not, and love all things sugared, salted, fried, or dipped in dark chocolate.

  I'm not interested in beating my clients' bodies into a state of exhaustion. I'm interested in helping them re-learn how to breathe, how to engage the muscles they already have to stand up straighter and stronger and how to feed themselves with food that makes them feel more alive. When our bodies feel better, good decisions are easier to make and we have more energy to take care of what matters to us. Fitness should be about reminding ourselves what it's like to be strong and light on our feet so we can go after what we want to achieve. Nothing more and nothing less.
  ​
  I live and train in Nashville, TN and do remote coaching sessions via phone or Skype. You can reach me here, on Twitter @strengthoutside, or Instagram @strengthoutsidein.

  In addition to traditional personal training and wellness coaching, I work with special populations on a regular basis and love that work. Some of the issues I have worked with are:
  
  First time exercisers
  Pregnancy and postpartum fitness
  Obesity (teen and adult)
  Sciatica
  Menopause
  Elderly clients
  Eating disorders
  Depression
  Cancer
  Heart disease

• Gersh - http://gershbooks.com/authors/sarah-hays-coomer/

  Sarah Hays Coomer

  Sarah Hays Coomer is a Certified Personal Trainer with the National Strength and Conditioning Association and a member of the American College of Sports Medicine. She is also a certified Nutrition and Wellness Coach and Prenatal Fitness Specialist with the American Fitness Professionals Association and specializes in physical fitness with a particular focus on mind/body health and wellness of women. ​

  She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and studied Nutrition, Philosophy, Sports Nutrition, and Physiology at UCLA. Sarah is a contributor to the Nashville Scene and The East Nashvillian and her book on the importance of lightness of mind and body was published by Rowman & Littlefield in the spring/summer of 2016.

Lightness of Body and Mind: A Radical Approach to
Weight and Wellness
Publishers Weekly.
263.14 (Apr. 4, 2016): p79.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text: 
Lightness of Body and Mind: A Radical Approach to Weight and Wellness
Sarah Hays Coomer. Rowman & Littlefield,
$35 (200p) ISBN 978-1-4422-5508-1
Coomer, a personal trainer and health coach, takes a novel approach to weight loss that rejects calorie counting, dieting, and strenuous workouts.
In this inspiring and compassionate book, she shares her own struggles with weight and body image, as well as her realization that deprivation
and treating the body as the enemy rarely work. Coomer asserts that the more effective approach is to replace poor eating habits with small,
positive changes. Instead of restricting foods, she argues, one should supplement them with healthy choices; rather than working out in a gym,
find a pastime that you love, and then stick to it relentlessly. Coomer shares illustrative stories from her clients, noting that those who emphasized
enjoyment of life fared better than those who followed restrictive diet or exercise plans, which often were eventually abandoned. Slow, constant
weight loss, she contends, is the more effective route; in a chapter called "The Tortoise Totally Wins," she demonstrates how "slow and steady"
wins the weight-loss race. Readers seeking quick fixes and recipes won't find them here. Though Coomer does include some familiar, practical
tips (e.g., pack a lunch rather than eating out; reduce portion sizes), she mostly digs deeper, focusing on transformation and long-term well-being.
(May)
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Lightness of Body and Mind: A Radical Approach to Weight and Wellness." Publishers Weekly, 4 Apr. 2016, p. 79. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA448902763&it=r&asid=9e2cd9f1f92ca46ae8926341cf58859f. Accessed 4 Feb. 2017.
2/4/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1486246892470 2/2
Gale Document Number: GALE|A448902763

• Retifit
  http://retifit.com/lightness-of-body-and-mind/
  Word count: 261

  We're back with episode 15 of the Progress over Perfection Podcast. In today's episode, I interview Sarah Hays Coomer, the author Lightness of Body and Mind: A Radical Approach To Weight and Wellness. Sarah founded Strength Outside In, which is an uprising, a rejection of the idea that we need to control and overpower our bodies in order to make them better, stronger, and healthier. It's a movement toward authentic wellbeing in which we wiggle, wriggle, bounce, roll or otherwise crawl our way toward better health in whatever way we can manage. Sarah is a personal trainer and #DietAbolisionist. You will never find Sarah at a bootcamp. Instead, you will find her wandering the hills of Tennessee, California, and anywhere else with sunshine, air, and a mountain to climb- stopping whenever she feels like it to lay flat on her back with a bottle of water in one hand and a cookie in the other.
  Show Notes:
  • Her start in the wellness and fitness industry
  • Why she felt called to write her book
  • Her radical approach, and why she's knocking peoplep's socks off (in the best possible way)
  • Her client's success stories, and why they're able to maintain lasting results
  • Her approach on exercise, and why you can't get a body you love by doing things you hate
  • Why we need to move away from trying to control our bodies
  • Her strong emphasis on strength, power, adventure and vitality over appearance
  • How she chooses progress over perfection in her daily life

• This Project Woman
  https://thisisprojectwomen.com/2016/05/https://thisisprojectwomen.com12/what-can-your-body-do/
  Word count: 954

  What Can Your Body DO?
  written by Jamey Hood
  91
  Hopefully at (nearly) age forty I can count on another forty years in this body and I have to say, after reading Sarah Hays Coomer’s Lightness of Body and Mind, I’m actually looking forward to spending a lot more time in this capable, highly functional, extraordinary vessel of awesomeness.
  Coomer, with deep wisdom and accessibility, delivers the kind of message that our society desperately needs to hear. As if she herself steps off the page to become my personal trainer, cheerleader and friend, Coomer manages to completely alter my perception, opinion and attitude about my body in a positive and transformative way.
  Armed with her “toolbox,” a handy set of thoughtful, doable and simple assignments at the end of each chapter, I’m ready to turn forty in July with a celebratory attitude of gratitude.
  I’ve spent too much of my thirties and twenties worried about what others think of my body. Is it thin enough? Is it too thin? Why do I have cellulite even when I’m almost fifteen pounds underweight? Now that I’m an appropriate and healthy weight, should I maintain this exact number by weighing myself every single morning naked before drinking coffee? Am I sexy? Should I wear uncomfortable heels to mask how short my legs are compared to my torso? Is the skin under my arms ever going to not jiggle when I wave hello or goodbye? Is my neck actually starting to droop along with my eyelids? Why do I have a second butt developing under my actual butt?
  ENOUGH! If you saw a picture of me, you’d likely want to punch me in the face! I’m lovely but more importantly, I’m healthy.
  Gone are the days of depriving myself of a healthy breakfast in favor of a huge coffee to tide me over until happy hour. Goodbye to the days of skipping meals in order to continue to fit the Size 2 skinny jeans. A loving sayonara to weighing myself every day and counting calories.
  Coomer has a better plan and it’s a game changer.
  “Bodies are beautiful because of what they can do,” says Coomer, “not because of how tiny they are. It’s easy to forget what matters: the ability to bound up a flight of stairs to share good news, or the ability to stand outside on a cool, fall evening watching a storm roll in, with legs and strong abdominals to hold you up; clear vision to see dark clouds over a gray sky; ears to hear the scrape of leaves blowing on the sidewalk; the smell of rain on the horizon; and a chill on your skin.”
  With poetic language, gorgeous descriptions and practical reminders, she paints pictures of a life in a body that is useful and respected by me, not a body that is constantly scrutinized and berated. Coomer gives me permission to congratulate myself for being able to walk several miles on two healthy legs in order to explore a new city. She gives me permission to say thank you to a body that can carry a pint of ice cream up five flights of stairs without much effort and then lets me enjoy some of it guilt-free because “Lightness springs from devotion to people and pastimes you love, not from deprivation.”
  At thirty nine and ten months I can tell you that my sciatica gives me trouble. My left ankle has never fully recovered from a sprain and aches randomly. When my feet touch the floor in the morning they feel cramped and painful for the first few steps I take each day. I need physical therapy for my neck which is often stiff from tension. None of these things stop me from living the life I love; a life that includes world exploration, hiking for miles, eating exotic foods, performing on stage, making love, laughing, singing, dancing for fun and cardio kickboxing.
  It’s the sucking in, concealing, hiding and judging that prevents me from having a good time.
  “Bodies are beautiful because of their functionality and uniqueness. The fight to shrink and tuck them has been with us for far too long, and it has failed. The war is lost, and it is my fervent, idealistic hope that this living generation is the one that will step out of the fray and make it stop, that we are the ones who will finally prioritize nourishment and strength over appearance.”
  This year of “Extraordinary 40” is meant to help prepare me for the next decade so that I can look forward to it with confidence and hopefully a feeling of excitement rather than dread. Reading Coomer’s Lightness of Body and Mind has been a huge step in the right direction. I plan on focusing on my quality of life and pursuing the things I love instead of attempting to keep my body looking ten years younger than it actually is or trying to maintain some number on the scale because it makes me emotionally feel better. I want to celebrate this body that is super capable and strong, and yes, of course I still care about how it looks but not based on any of society’s norms but rather how I feel in this body and what I can do with it.
  “Getting healthier is about quality of life. It’s about serving our bodies the best we can by weaving an intricate tapestry of pleasure, rest, recovery, and motion.”
  Amen! Bring on my forties; this body can handle it!

• The East Nashvillian
  http://theeastnashvillian.com/article/steady-as-she-goes
  Word count: 861

  STEADY AS SHE GOES
  http://theeastnashvillian.com/article/steady-as-she-goes
  With her new book, author Sarah Hays Coomer is charting her own course
  By Suzanne Nahay

  Discussions around fitness, nutrition, health, and wellness tend to lead average folks down a rather predictable path, one that’s been forged and monitored by a long line of lean, mean, and convincing experts. All along the way: strict rules, intense regimens, product prescriptions.
  Add to that the discussions dominating so much of the culture’s everyday conversation, which could easily be reduced to simple word association games: Goal. Skinny. Exercise. Boring. Diet. Guilt. Try. Fail. Repeat.
  With the just-released book, Lightness of Body and Mind: A Radical Approach to Weight and Wellness, personal trainer, nutrition consultant, and author Sarah Hays Coomer has leapt into the center lane and declared: Enough is enough!
  People are listening — perhaps because she’s not shouting. Instead, she’s inviting anyone who will listen into a new conversation, which she’ll initiate by seizing any opportunity to illustrate how pleasure and health merge in real yet profound ways. With Lightness, Coomer has crafted — from years of personal experience and clients’ stories, and with a refreshing cocktail of common sense, humor, and irreverent cool — a radical resource for personal wellness.
  Including “radical” in the book’s subtitle isn’t just a semantic play. There is a real rebel spirit at work here since Coomer reframes self-care as an act of defiance. She emphasizes strength, intelligence, satisfaction, fun, and forgiveness. She weaves lyrics from roots rocker Abe Wilson and the words of Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak with hard neuroscience, and offers up just enough expert, actionable advice to serve as a practical guide.
  Coomer admits she hesitated to include anything close to instruction. In the end, however, the editors prevailed, and each chapter of Lightness concludes with assets for the reader’s toolbox. But even these aren’t strict instructions. Coomer offers questions and prompts like: “What makes you feel like crap?” “What makes you feel amazing?” “Pick your poison.” Suggestions and examples follow, along with user-friendly checklists for getting started. In a refreshing departure for the genre, diet plans, step-by-step workouts, or photos of a Spandex-clad model illustrating proper push-up position are nowhere in sight.
  Coomer’s credentials as a certified personal trainer and nutrition and wellness consultant are impressive, and her years of experience, clearly inform her simple yet unorthodox approach. She describes her core clientele as having a certain type of brokenness in common; however, the themes in the book have universal appeal. About one client, Coomer says, “[She] has a long road in front of her, but so do the rest of us who are striving to build new, neural pathways. … Her path is harder, but the pursuit is the same. We should all hope to be so irrepressible.”
  Coomer gives voice to the condition many of us living and loving in this place, in this time, know all too well, as she reminds us: “We are all essentially groundless. The world can drop out from under us at any time.” For those stuck inside a looping reel of diet, exercise, stagnation, exhaustion, and pants that fit and then, well, don’t — seasons of pain and loss are made that much worse when they haven’t established an infrastructure for self-care.
  With science to back her up, Coomer reminds readers that they are equipped with tools — built right into their brains — which allow them to break free of bad habits and create new ones. Her book doesn’t hawk false promises and quick fixes; there’s an acknowledgement that it’s not always easy, but it doesn’t always have to be miserable either. Lightness emphasizes responsibility without ever wagging a finger or belittling the reader.
  Coomer’s storytelling is imbued with empathy and compassion, no doubt due to her own self-described history of depression and food addiction. She combines a fearless memoir with unpredictable stories of real clients. In many ways, the book is a love song to those men and women and an expression of gratitude for all they’ve taught her.
  Through Lightness, Coomer hopes to invite others into the conversation and, eventually, to change it — to reconsider their priorities and, more importantly, to say them out loud. As a mother to a young son, she’s especially mindful of the language and behaviors parents model for their children and suggests “stretching and stimulating our bodies, never starving or sucking in” in front of them.
  Fortunately, she acknowledges a gaining momentum — the pendulum swinging in the right direction, especially in communities where creativity and individuality are highly valued. Still, the war against people’s own bodies — to restrict, to shrink, to deprive, to dominate — has had deep, long-lasting effects. As such, Coomer will continue to teach and train, and wave, wiggle, bounce, dance, twist, and shout, in a passionate attempt to inspire and equip others to keep that pendulum from swinging back. To help them see new possibilities and make their own way.