About Me

I remember exercising to Sweatin’ To The Oldies and Jane Fonda VHS’s alongside my mom when I was as young as 4 or 5. My mom was a group fitness instructor at a couple of local gyms in town. Of course, back then a Slim Fast diet and squeezing into much too tight jeans was all the rage, so unfortunately, I learned some pretty skewed ideas about what being “healthy” really meant.

Fast forward through teenage angst, insecurities, self-consciousness, needing to be skinnier to be pretty, and onward to young adulthood, still tightly hanging onto those skewed ideas from childhood about what being “healthy” really meant. Honestly, I hadn’t a clue!

After my second child was born in my mid-twenties, I bounced back into shape quickly with the help of Billy Blanks in my living room, but I still suffered greatly with body dysmorphia and self-consciousness. I knew I needed to dive deeper into what the heck being “healthy” meant!

I started reading. Learning about different foods that help the body function properly. I took a deep interest in the benefits of proper fuel. I also started lifting weights for the first time. What a game changer! I became a big fan of programs like P90X and Body Beast. I attended group Fit Clubs, went to the gym consistently, ate well. My kids had fun exercising with me and trying new foods. In 2010 I became a Beachbody coach and started helping others achieve their fitness goals. Realizing quickly, though, that product sales didn’t feel right to me, I quit Beachbody, but still maintained my desire to coach others. Through the years I have helped friends and family with their fitness, hosted group workouts, shown them how to use gym equipment, etc. I felt like I finally understood what being physically healthy meant, at least!

After having my third baby in my late 30’s, I found it exponentially more difficult to bounce back into shape. With those struggles also came those earlier insecurities about my body all over again. Add onto that raging hormone issues, PCOS, and a pretty nasty marriage. My motivation was lacking, but I remembered how good it felt to be active and take care of myself. I forced myself to do workouts in my basement when I would come home from work. I started tracking my food and over the course of several months I was able to lose the baby weight and start to feel more energetic. Unfortunately, my marriage came to an end, and although I had gotten myself to a point where I was starting to see results physically, emotionally I still needed a great deal of work. I was drinking every evening and making poor choices with men to feel worthy and wanted. I knew I didn’t want to be that role model for my kids. I sought out a therapist and dove into my growth and healing from the inside.

What I thought was just healing from my failed marriage, ended up discovering the healing I needed from my childhood and life-long struggle with my body dysmorphia, anxiety, and self-worth issues. It felt SO UNCOMFORTABLE, yet SO GOOD to finally address these things on a very deep level. I committed to personal growth and, in turn, became my best self for my children and myself. I realized when my mind felt right, then my motivation was higher to take care of my health physically as well. I was finally back on track with food and fitness AND mental health. What a liberating relief!

Then the pandemic hit. Gym’s shut down, the kids and I were home all day every day
together, my routine was swiftly shot off course. In July of 2020 the father of my children died unexpectedly and that turned our entire lives upside down. 2020 was the hardest year of our lives. Managing grief while keeping myself afloat mentally and physically and making sure my kids were cared for, the house didn’t fall apart, and working full time, seemed ALMOST impossible. Luckily, my solid support system AND the solid emotional self-work I had done the previous years really kept me from falling apart. John, their dad, did not take care of himself physically or emotionally. His lifestyle choices unfortunately caught up with him. I look back on the parental role model differences my kids grew up with; one parent always desperately striving for a healthy lifestyle, and one parent desperately trying to avoid one. I wanted to continue to prioritize my health, now more than ever, and be a role model for not only my kids, but for other people as well. I have the experience, I have the passion, and now I have the “why”.

There was a pivotal moment one night as I sat outside on my patio listening to music. The Tim McGraw song “Live Like You Were Dying” came on and the first line of the song made me bawl! “I was in my early 40’s with a lot of life before me, when a moment came that stopped me on a dime.” I thought about how young John was when that moment came that stopped him. I felt a calling at that moment. I felt like someone (John? The universe? A higher good?) was telling me that I had a gift and knowledge that I needed to pay forward. That I needed to start making a difference in other people’s lives for LONGEVITY, specifically those who are a bit older and feel like they need to turn their lifestyles around but may feel it’s too late and don’t know where or how to start. It was time to start coaching again, but on my terms, not pushing products, but pushing HEALTH for quality of life! I even had a dream that I went back to school for nutrition (though that same dream I also met Boy George…*shrug*).

I decided, at 42, to invest in getting certifications in both Personal Training and Nutrition. Two years later I graduated with a B.S. in Health, followed by an M.S. in Nutrition (now when do I get to meet Boy George??).

My goal is to commit to building a career out of my passion for health and fitness for as long as I am physically able, which hopefully will be a very, very long time! My objective is focused on educating people with helpful information, resources, and attainable tips so that they can feel confident that they will WAKE UP READY to achieve their goals. The core values that I prioritize for myself and my business that have the utmost importance to me are growth, higher good, resourcefulness, commitment, accountability, and consistency. As a health educator, I help people understand and apply these core values and how each of them can be beneficial in their journey to a healthier life.