Growing up, I was always active and an athlete that played any and every sport possible. When I hit middle school/high school age, I still played sports and was even Captain for some of them. I never took care of my body, though.

I was once where you are now. I am the living example that you can do it and I will help you along the way.

I would eat chicken patties and french fries every day at school for lunch. I would come home and eat multiple bowls of cereal before practice. Then, I would either order pizza or go to Dairy Queen almost every day after practice. High school stress flooded into my life: the drama, the anxiety, and even being cyber bullied. I would start to sleep in and was late for school almost every day. I ate away my emotions with an entire gallon of ice cream (seriously). Eventually all of my bad habits caught up with me, especially when my sport seasons were over. I became pretty overweight and was not living my full potential as an athlete.

Finally, entering my senior year of high school, a strength and conditioning coach went out of her way and reached out to me and said “I see your potential as an amazing athlete, and I want to work with you.” At that point, it was exactly what I needed. I needed something to make me feel strong again. Not just strong physically, but I needed to feel strong mentally. My strength coach did just that. She pushed my limits and helped educate me on nutrition and lifting. She was there with me through the tears, workouts, and days where I really didn’t want to be there (although I was always happy I hadn’t skipped). It became an entire new lifestyle and I felt like a whole new athlete and person. My body changed, my mind changed, and my career field changed. I originally wanted to go to college for Forensic Psychology. My strength coach laughed at this because she knew I was made for the Exercise Science field.

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.
-Arnold Schwarzenegger

When I had my first Intro to Exercise Science class, my professor even said “we need more women like you in this field, and I really think this is where you belong.” She was right. There was (and still is) nothing that I wanted more than for people to understand that I was once in your shoes, and I understand how long and hard of a process it is to get to where you want to be.

I want to educate females about the importance of strength training and be the coach to say “I was once where you are now. I am the living example that you can do it and I will help you along the way.”

Today, I am still not perfect when it comes to my nutrition or workouts. We all have our own setbacks, whether it be because of injuries, work, stress, etc. There could be days, weeks, or sometimes months, where I find myself in a slump and would only pick up weights that were for my clients. The important part is that I know when I’m in a slump, I have the tools to get myself out of it and start working again. We are all human and we can’t always be perfect.

Again, each and every one of us has our own stories and struggles. So, when you start to think we really don’t understand how you’re feeling or how hard this journey is for you, or if you’re afraid that we’re judging you… we actually might know you better than you think. Now I’m not just talking about weight, I’m also talking about injuries, performance declines, and any other kind of frustrations along your fitness journey.

We really aren’t as different as you think we are. There’s a reason why we have a passion for helping and educating people. We see the potential in you that you might not see in yourself. Together let’s crush the walls that are holding us back and become the better version of ourselves. We don’t need to talk about it. Let’s BE ABOUT IT.