My Journey

I often get asked if I’ve ever been overweight, or know how it feels. Though the correct answer is, no if you’re going by numbers and pants sizes, but I have considered myself to be skinny-fat. A term used for people with little to no muscle due to poor eating habits and lack of weight training. They typically look healthy on the outside, but sometimes even have medical problems such as high blood sugar, low good cholesterol, high triglycerides or high blood pressure. Though I’ve been lucky enough to avoid those health issues; I did, however, suffer from vitamin deficiencies, such as low iron, which lead to fatigue, low concentration levels and regular migraines.

From a young age, sports and fitness were my favorite hobbies. It has been my escape from stress for many years and it’s a confidence builder for me–I’m a pretty shy person, so it’s one thing that I had going for myself since a young age! Starting in grade school I played soccer, then eventually got involved with basketball, track and cross country in High School.

I was extremely active growing up, but took on some pretty bad habits of eating whatever I wanted most of the time, and was lucky enough to stay at a pretty consistent weight. Nutrition was not something I was passionate about, but FOOD was my passion (is that even a thing?) Growing up my mom didn’t keep many treats in the house, and would try to teach us healthy habits. I still had a love for all kinds of food, especially chocolate! I thought I sort of knew what healthy eating was, but serving sizes and portion control was a different language to me. Let’s just put it this way, for as active as I was, I could put away more food than most dudes out there.

Fast forward to college, I remained active. Running was my favorite outlet and confidence booster so I continued to do it on my own. In college I began to learn more about exercise and nutrition through my undergrad degree in Kinesiology. I also started to notice that eating until I was a stuffed pig wasn’t working for me so well anymore. So I started paying closer attention to how much food was going on my plate.

Life after college Kenny and I lived on hot pockets, drank coke zero, and basically ate any processed, cheap, diet food. I still didn't feel right, and my weight was fluctuating all the time. I felt tired most the time and was dragging. I fought constant mood swings, weight fluctuations anywhere from 10-15 lbs, tiredness and low self esteem. I was fed up. This was the point where I knew something had to change.

I taught myself what clean eating was by researching it. Then I took action by first eliminating the diet coke and drinking only water (I still was not about to give up our hot pockets!). Little by little I started substituting different ingredients and healthier options. It started to become a game; I’d find a recipe and I’d make it my own by substituting healthier options! And today, I’m eating 80% clean. The other 20% of the time I’m eating whatever the heck I want; because I believe in balance!

I was finally starting to see and feel the positive affects that clean eating was giving me, I was more energized and I wasn’t getting migraines anymore! So I decided to take things a step further and change my body composition, it was time to gain muscle and get rid of the “skinny fat”. Running was not developing the definition and muscles that I wanted to see. I got into lifting weights, and circuit training. With this new balance of clean eating and lifting I found less of a need to run as much as I did! Now I can run a killer 5k (my favorite running distance), thanks to better eating, muscle gains and smarter training choices! After working a fair share of jobs outside of health and fitness, in 2012 I revisited my passion. I became an online health and fitness coach and starting teaching others this awesome way of life that was a game changer for me. Shortly after, I started teaching group fitness and personal training clients one on one as well.

Today, I can confidently say that I’ve developed a healthy relationship with nutrition and fitness. I no longer suffer from migraines and have more energy for my workouts.

Now it is my passion to teach and empower others to do the same! When we feel our best, we perform our best in all areas of life, which enables us to live up to our true potential. And EVERYONE deserves that!