Brianna Lost 100 Pounds Walking to Fantasy Audiobooks—How BookTok Inspired Her Transformation

We all know we should move more for our health, but the trick is finding activities that don’t feel like work. Brianna Baker, 30, of California, cracked that code in a wildly entertaining way. She was inspired to exercise more thanks to stories recommended on BookTok, the popular book-loving community on social media platforms. Listening to gripping audiobooks helped her walk more each day and played a big role in her 100-pound weight loss success. Here’s Brianna’s inspiring health transformation and how you can use BookTok to write a new chapter in your personal health journey!

Finding a workout that doesn’t feel like torture

After earning her Master’s degree and going through a period of loss and grief, this public school teacher felt burned out. Brianna admits, “I was fearful I wouldn’t feel confident and strong again.”

And while exercise is an instant mood booster for some people, that wasn’t the case for Brianna. “I had spent years trying everything from gyms and Pilates to CrossFit and Hyrox, but nothing ever became something I truly wanted to return to every day,” she says.

Her challenge became finding a type of movement that she actually connected with emotionally instead of treating exercise like something she felt forced to cross off her to-do list.

How BookTok inspired her to start walking more

Then Brianna joined a book club. “I fell back in love with reading, especially romantasy and fantasy books like Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses.” Those book series provided hours of opportunity for Brianna to walk. “Walking and hiking while disappearing into my favorite fantasy audiobooks gave me mental peace,” she adds. Falling down the good-book rabbit hole also led to another exercise discovery…

What is WeaponUp? Inside the sword-style fitness trend

That same month, Brianna was scrolling through social media and came across a BookTok creator named Yaz, who is also an instructor for a sword-and-fitness-fusion program called WeaponUp. Brianna felt inspired and started giving the classes a try online. Imagine a mix of sword-fighting kung-fu moves with yoga stretching. During the practice, people even hold a straight sword, weighing between 1 and 1.5 pounds, in their arms during the movements.

“Something just clicked when I tried WeaponUp. I was reading about these incredibly strong female characters and then getting to embody some of that same energy in my own life,” says Brianna. “I would walk or hike while listening to my fantasy audiobooks, sometimes literally listening to characters train, and then come home and do my own WeaponUp practice.” She adds, “Suddenly, exercise felt less like a chore and more like stepping into my own fantasy world!”

The classes also helped Brianna, who has a dance background, reconnect with her dance roots. “WeaponUp brought back the artistry and storytelling together in a way no traditional fitness program ever had.”

A mental shift came before the physical transformation

Book-inspired fitness gave Brianna an opportunity to prioritize herself. “As an elementary teacher, so much of my day was spent pouring energy into other people,” she says. “WeaponUp became a place where I could put some of that energy back into myself.”

That shift changed everything and made healthy living more sustainable. “Because I genuinely loved what I was doing, consistency stopped feeling like discipline and started feeling natural. I was walking, hiking and training every day because I wanted to.”

Brianna confirms, “The emotional and mental changes happened first, and then the physical transformation followed. The biggest change was that exercise stopped feeling like punishment and became something I saw as a reward.”

Brianna started fueling herself like a strong main character

Over time, Brianna’s nutrition choices also began to align with her new active lifestyle. “After struggling with my weight for most of my life, I finally stopped feeling like I was constantly beginning another diet or workout plan, battling myself, and started building a life I actually enjoyed living.” This shifted her thinking from scarcity to abundance. “Instead of asking, ‘How many calories did I burn?’ I started asking, ‘How does this make me feel?’”

Brianna’s BookTok-inspired routine helped her lose 100 pounds

In the beginning, weight loss wasn’t even the goal of adding more movement into her life. “I did it because it gave me peace, made me feel strong and feminine and gave me something that belonged to me.”

But—jump ahead to the happy ending—Brianna’s body composition changed along with her mindset. She ultimately lost 100 pounds, dropping from 275 to 175 pounds in about 15 months. Her wardrobe also shifted from a size 4X to a size medium.

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“WeaponUp made me feel strong, feminine, creative and connected to my body again.” She gushes, “I was not just reading about strong female main characters anymore. In my own small way, I felt like I was training alongside them!”

How to start a BookTok-inspired transformation

Feeling inspired to tap into BookTok for your own wellness journey? Try getting lost in a good book with strong female characters like Elena Gilbert from The Vampire Diaries or Saeris Fane from the Quicksilver series.

Or sign up for WeaponUp. Classes can be taken online, on demand (for around $24.99 per month). Members are mailed the signature sword to use in training. Brianna found the approach affordable and convenient since she could listen to audiobooks and practice yoga moves anywhere—“from my backyard, to the top of the mountains in Zion, the beach.” Wherever she practiced, it felt “meaningful.”

For women who are inspired to follow in Brianna’s healthy footsteps, she offers this advice that worked for her, “I stopped chasing the idea of ‘losing weight’ and started becoming stronger!”