Lauren Lozier, an online coach and marketing specialist for a real estate group, is best known for her fitness-focused content on Instagram.

Lozier has accumulated just over 180,000 followers on Instagram, posting general fitness content with a focus on mental health. She began her fitness journey during the COVID-19 lockdown after her partner at the time, a personal trainer, introduced her to working out.

When she decided to create her platform during the lockdown, Lozier spent a lot of time browsing fitness content from other women who promoted training to be strong rather than training for aesthetics. Battling an eating disorder at the time, the women she followed inspired her to change the way she trained.

“It really inspired me to not only change the way that I was going about fitness and become less body-focused,” Lozier said.

“I realized you have the power to change the perspectives of other people, too, and I was like, I want to be a part of this movement.”

Eating disorders are becoming more prevalent among gym-goers as exercise becomes increasingly focused on physique rather than performance, according to ScienceDirect.

For Lozier, making the mental shift toward a strength-focused approach to fitness did not come easily.

“You have to rewire your brain,” she said.

Lozier said the biggest turning point came when she began weighing the personal cost of her habits against the perceived benefits.

“If you miss a workout, it feels like the world is ending and it seemed like it was all for a noble cause at the time,” she said.

“I felt like crap.”

Lozier said she was missing out on being social and spending time with friends because of how much she wanted to be in the gym and how poorly she felt at the time.

“I started to get motivated instead by all the activities that I could do if my body was actually strong and effectively fuelled,” she said.

“I like hiking and climbing and all these cool things I wouldn’t have been able to do in that depleted version of my body.”

As Lozier’s Instagram following grew, she said she felt a sense of fulfilment knowing her words were reaching her intended audience and making an impact. She said she sometimes receives messages from supporters describing how her content has helped them.

“I kind of go back and forth with them, giving them more advice or talking about more things about my experience that might have helped them,” she said.

“It feels really, really fulfilling.”

Along with the positive feedback, Lozier said gaining a larger audience also brought negative comments.

“You get hate comments from both sides of the spectrum,” said Lozier. 

“Just as many people say, like, ‘Oh, you’re way too jacked, you look like a man,’ I get just as many comments saying that I have no muscle and I don’t look strong at all.”

“It makes you realize that these people are speaking from their own frame of reference. So, like, why would I care? Because both of those things can’t be true at the same time.”

Building the mental fortitude to deal with online hate was a learning experience for Lozier. She said spending too much time arguing with people online was a challenge before she adopted her current mindset, choosing instead to focus on her brand and what makes her happy.

“I love the exercise of pretending that you’re, like, 80 or 90 years old and you’re on your death bed, like, looking back on your life—would you be proud of the things that you’re doing?” she said.

Staying focused on her own goals has become one of Lozier’s greatest tools, something she said she would also encourage others to do.

“You just kind of trust the plan,” she said.

“Even if you show up kind of imperfectly, you will reach the goal.”

Staying consistent in the gym and proving to yourself that you can achieve your goals can translate into other aspects of life, Lozier said, including work, relationships and daily routines.

“That discipline bleeds out into other parts of life,” said Lozier. 

Lauren Lozier at the gym by Joanne Inocencio