Inspiring Goal Hoda Kotb’s Commitment To Strength Training Aimed At Being An ACTIVE And PRESENT Mom For Her Kids

During her time on TODAY, Hoda Kotb wore sleeveless dresses, no matter the season, putting her strong arms on display. But how did she get those muscles?

“What am I doing? Nothing?” Hoda tells TODAY.com. “I pick up weights and put them down.”

Hoda says she had one goal in mind with trying weightlifting: to be able to pick up her kids, Hope, 6, and Haley, 8.

“I was like, ‘I want to be able to lift 41 pounds, you know, for Hope and … 50 pounds for Haley, whatever it is,” she recalls. “And that’s what I keep trying to do. I’ve been upping it as they’re growing. I’m like, ‘Stop growing! That’s about as much as Mom can do.’ But literally, it’s lifting.”

Strength training hasn’t always been part of her workout routine, she shares. “I used to only like cardio because it made me feel good. It was like a rush. I’m sweating.”

But when she started “getting more into weights, it made me feel a lot better,” she adds.

At the same time, Hoda also decided to tweak how she was eating. “I was feeling kind of crummy about that,” she says.

A philosophy she encountered online made all the difference. Essentially, if you only eat the foods you love, you’ll enjoy the time when you’re eating, but you may not feel good the rest of the day; whereas if you eat food that is nutritious, you may not enjoy the eating window as much, but you’ll love how it makes you feel.

“I thought about that a lot lately, and I’m trying to make my eating windows maybe not so tasty, but also it makes for a better day,” Hoda explains.

She’s also trying to incorporate reflection as a big part of her wellness routine. “Whenever I’m at the end of a day where I have tons of energy, I’m like, what happened today? … Like, what did I eat? What was my dinner? What did I exercise? What did I exercise? How much water?” she says.

“Conversely, when I feel terrible, I’m like, ‘God, what did I do today? Man, I feel like crap. Let me figure out what not to do tomorrow.’”

Hoda’s dedication to wellness is at the center of her new venture after leaving the TODAY show — she recently announced that she launched a brand called Joy 101. She’s also continuing with her Making Space podcast.

A major reason she decided to give up her co-anchor seat was to be able to spend more time with her daughters. Her younger one, Hope, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes two years ago.

“You just get a priority check in your life,” Hoda said during a May 28 appearance on TODAY. “I can be here and sweating what’s happening to Hope in the morning and in the night, or I can be there and feel relief that I can see.”