Sarah Zander Fitness

05/02/2026

When I was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer 17 years ago today, I was told I had a 40% five-year and 25% ten-year survival rate. In planning my funeral, as one does in times like those, I realized I had like 5 pictures of me that I might want in my slideshow. And I decided that if I made it through, I would take all the pics and I would try to live until I die.

It’s wild to think of how much time I’ve wasted not believing in myself , being afraid to do things, putting them off for when things line up better or I’m more prepared. I still waste time, even right now in this very moment and the choices I currently make.

Eventually, I get sick of my s**t and remember that what I really want, is to feel alive.

Growth demands discomfort, and we adapt. Maybe this is actually where my journey to the gym started. The only way to get stronger is to come up against a challenge or resistance to adapt to, or create one, like lifting weights with progressive overload.

Sometimes I look in the mirror and I remember who I used to be and how much different life would have been if I’d stayed the same.

Tick tock motherf**kers 🔥 Live until we die

05/01/2026

17 years

Pics are for my, “trying to get after the gift of living my 17th year after cancer diagnosis”, memory bank.

When I was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer I was told I had a 40% five-year and 25% ten-year survival rate. In planning my funeral, as one does in times like those, I realized I had like 5 pictures of me that I might want in my slideshow. And I decided that if I made it through, I would take all the pics and I would try to live until I die.

It’s wild to think of how much time I’ve wasted not believing in myself , being afraid to do things, putting them off for when things line up better or I’m more prepared. I still waste time, even right now in this very moment and the choices I currently make.

Eventually, I get sick of my s**t and remember that what I really want, is to feel alive.

Growth demands discomfort, and we adapt. Maybe this is actually where my journey to the gym started. The only way to get stronger is to come up against a challenge or resistance to adapt to, or create one, like lifting weights with progressive overload.

Tick tock motherf**kers. It’s time to live until you die 🔥

08/07/2025

Build muscle. Lose fat. Transform your body.
6 months. No guesswork. All-in results.

Silverton, Oregon women — this is for you.

FULL SEND is a 6-month strength training, macro-based nutrition, and mindset transformation coaching package designed to change your body, your confidence, and your life.

📉 Lose fat
💪 Build muscle
🔥 Get strong
💥Walk away with proof —
🎯 DEXA scans
📸 Professional photo shoot

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been training for years, I’ll meet you where you’re at and help you get the results you’re after.

✅ Private + group training
✅ Weekly check-ins
✅ Custom macros
✅ DEXA scans
✅ Professional photo shoot
✅ Mindset work that sticks

You will change your body. You’ll feel strong, unstoppable, and confident as hell.

I’d love to work with you! 💗

Interested and want to learn more?

Comment INFO to receive a short overview PDF with pricing and what is included.

Click here for FULL details:
https://form.jotform.com/250856483599071

Message me to set up a 15 minute video chat to answer any questions.

08/02/2025

This didn’t happen by accident at age 55.

Lifting gave me strength.
Tracking macros gave me results.
Mindset changed everything

If you’re local to Silverton and serious about changing your body composition and you've wondered:

What should I actually eat for my goals?
How do I train for strength and visible muscle?
How do I sustain results long term?
How long does it take and where do I start?

This is for you.

👇

Picture yourself in 6 months. You're looking in the mirror and see yourself staring back with a smile. You look strong and confident AF—ready to chase adventures and goals. In one hand, you hold the results of your before and after body composition analysis DEXA scans. This shows how much lean muscle mass you've built, how much fat you've lost and what your bone density is. In the other hand, you hold 4-5 professionally shot photos. You were nervous about how they would turn out, but your eyes lit up when you saw that the photos captured your personality, grace, power, beauty, strength, and devotion to the process of learning how to lift and fuel your body. Skills you own for life.

How did you get here? You decided to start before you felt ready. You decided to go all in—Full Send.

What is Full Send?

It's a 6-month coaching experience built for women who are ready to invest in their health, fitness, and mindset and who are ready for visible and measurable results. You can expect to see visible body composition changes, learn how to fuel your body for fat loss and muscle gain- no cutting out food groups or extremes, and see and feel results.

Look in the mirror. Decide if you want to feel stronger, more confident, and more energetic. Decide if you want to feel the discomfort of growth, learning new skills, and pushing your true potential. Decide if you want to see and feel visible results, with proof.

This is for you if you're all in with your full chest.

Live until you die. Let's fu***ng go!

Learn more by applying here: https://form.jotform.com/250856483599071

The receipts:
NASM Certified Personal Trainer
NASM Nutrition Coach
Mark Carroll Performance- Program Design Level 1

NASM approved continuing education certifications:
Clean Health:
Training the Female Athlete Certification
Nutrition Level 1 Certification
Currently Enrolled in Nutrition Level 2 -Physique Athletes

HMCC:
Health Mindset Coach Certification Level 1 - Theory and Practical Applications
Currently Enrolled in Health Mindset Coach Certification Level 2 - Advanced Practical Applications

06/22/2025

The 5 hikes I did last year to prep for Mt Hood Summit.

Sat down to plan my summer and looked back on what I hiked last year. I dusted off my hiking shoes for the first time in 2024 on April 14th.

1. 4/14/24 Lyle Cherry Orchard
5.3 miles 1227 ft elevation gain

2. 5/11/24 Mt Defiance
11.83 miles 4869 ft elevation gain

3. 5/20/24 Timberline Lodge to top of Palmer chairlift
3.50 miles 2188 ft elevation gain

4. 6/8/24 Angels Rest
4.55 miles 1450 ft elevation gain

5. 6/15/24 Trail of Ten Falls
6.95 miles 1066 ft elevation gain

Summit: 6/19/24 Mt Hood Summit from Timberline Lodge South climb route
7.55 miles 5299 ft elevation gain

For the record, I struggle going uphill. It’s uncomfortable. If I trained more it would be easier. Looking back, I should have been more consistent and done much more leading up to this. It would have made that day easier. For sure I had been up high on Hood before, so it wasn’t my first time. But you guys, sometimes you have to go for things. Even if you don’t feel 💯 ready. I’m not saying go try technical things you don’t have any experience with, but I am saying you absolutely can do so much more than you think you can. You just have to try. And when you fail, you learn. And then you dust yourself off and strategize some more, and try again.

I’m trying again right now. To be consistent and actually follow through with uphill conditioning and learning new skills needed for the adventures I want to have, to create the life I want to experience. No one is going to hand us what we want in life. We have to make it happen. We’ve got this.

Also, this is a testament to what strength training can help people accomplish because that is basically what propelled me up the mountain. It helps not only improve the quality of your every day life, it also 💯 helps prepare you for physical adventures.

Tick tock motherf**kers

Live until you die 🔥

04/19/2025

Could’ve collapsed. Chose to rise.

Mindset isn’t loud. It’s that split-second war in your head—when quitting whispers, and you scream no!

That rep? It wasn’t just strength. It was also a decision.

I never knew how much I needed the gym until it showed me who I was. Lifting doesn’t just make me stronger—it gives me confidence. It teaches me to try when I’m scared, to keep going when it feels impossible, and to continue to believe I can do hard things.

That belief carries me to solo overnight backpacking trips, skiing lines I didn’t think I had the skills for, onto mountain summits, and into high mileage trails to alpine lakes that are so beautiful I can’t help but cry.

All because I stay with it, in the discomfort, where the growth is, when everything in me wants to quit.

04/12/2025

Tested my one rep max in the squat, bench, and deadlift today.

Six weeks ago I shifted from a bodybuilding focus to strength—and if I had to sum it up in one word? Humbling.

I haven’t spent much time building weight on squats. I rarely conventional deadlift and almost never bench press. Now, these are on repeat each week in a structured program. I’m no where near where I want to be on these lifts strength wise. Not yet.

But today was a good day.

I tested my limits. I failed. I kept going.
And I walked out of the gym with PRs on all three lifts.

It feels good to remind myself I can do hard things.
It feels good to know I can learn new things.
That I can test myself, push my limits, and see what I’m made of.
That I’m not afraid to fail—because without failing, you never find out what you’re truly capable of.

It feels good, at 55, to know I just reached the peak of my strength in this life I’ve lived so far, and that I have so much more potential.

Never too old.
Never too late.
Show up.
Try.
Fail.
Learn.
Try again.
Believe in yourself.
Celebrate your wins.
Live until you die.

(No, I don’t recommend testing 1 rep max on all 3 lifts in one day for several reasons 🫠. For the insatiably curious, I managed to get the PR by shifting from high bar position to low bar- sitting lower on rear delts (shoulders). I almost didn’t re-rack after the two fails but re-watched all the videos and got the light bulb moment. You can see that it changes the center of balance on those last two lifts which is a stronger position for me. I also sped up the descent while still trying to control it, so that I could use the momentum from the downward movement to capture and use any bounce created in the bottom position transition. I was too hesitant before.)

04/10/2025

Never too late, never too old

An unusual power lifter trains for competition in Cecilia Brown and Winslow Crane-Murdoch’s short documentary.Still haven’t subscribed to The New Yorker on Y...