My Story

Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

As a young one, I was ALWAYS active and always in some kinda of sport. You name it, I did it; karate, t-ball, baseball (with the boys), ballet, tap, softball, gymnastics, to name a few). I was always considered a string bean, so much so that my parents often got asked if they fed us (my brother and I) HA! Check us out ... aren't we just the cutest? hehe

I was this way until about the time I graduated 6th grade. We lived in Colorado at the time and my mom was having health issues, so she had to move back to Florida. My brother went with her and after they got settled, my sister went with too. I stayed in Colorado with my dad while he worked and I just hung out most of the time. Bored a lot of the time, which meant a lot of t.v. and food time. I started to eat out of bordem a LOT. 

When we moved back to Florida with the rest of my family (after being away for a few months), I had gained a lot of weight. Being bigger than I normally was along with some awesome bangs, orange hair (I used Sun-in, which was a HUGE mistake (although I did it twice) for my DARK hair), braces and being a "tom-boy," I got teased and bullied a LOT in middle school. 

I rarely ever felt good about myself and I distanced myself from most everyone cause I felt like an outcast. I didn't think anything was wrong with me and I didn't understand WHY people would say the things they did about me. Here's a few pics of middle-school aged. While I look back and am not fond of how I looked and dressed, I still don't see any reason why I was bullied. 

Fast forward about 2 years and I decided to do something about it. I used to LOVE being active and doing sports, but hadn't in a few years, so I decided to start again. In 9th grade I was in marching band, school soccer, state-cup soccer (outside of school), and competitive cheerleading. In my "spare time" I liked to rollerblade and run. 

After about a year, people really started to notice that I had lost weight and "looked great." I got a little obsessive about working out and started to go from "best shape of my life" to "pretty scary skinny." My parents got me some help and I started to gain some weight and muscle back and decided to pick ONE thing to do and not 10. I quite marching band, quite cheerleading and focused on soccer. I had a personal trainer in the gym, a personal trainer for soccer and I did speed training. 

I was doing really good and then I went to college ... 1,500 miles away from my family. Let's just say that I had quite the alcohol problem with my new found "freedom." From what exactly? I'm not sure, as my parents were the most understanding people ever and I never had too many strict rules like some of my friends. 

Summer after my freshman year in college I got myself together, let go of the alcohol and worked off about  30 of the 50 lbs I had put on in college - you read that RIGHT, I gained 50 lbs my freshman year ... all from drinking, eating and being bloated ... grossly unhealthy. 

Sophmore year of college I was back to "best shape of my life" and felt amazing. From then on (2005/2006) I've felt pretty good and kept in shape for the most part. I used to be a gym person, but I stuck to working out at home (I had separation anxiety from being away from my kids more than 5 minutes ... still do lol) and eating a healthy diet (most of the time). 

The picture on the left is me 38 weeks pregnant (the day I gave birth) to our 3rd lovebug and the picture on the right is of me 9 DAYS later. I KNOW and feel that being active and eating healthy for the most part (darn those pregnancy cravings) helped me tremendously with getting my body back and feeling great! YOU can do it too!! I can help! 

Why am I telling you my background story? To share/show with you that I'm NOT perfect, never have been and never will claim to be. I've had a lot of ups and downs and struggles in my life, but I don't let it ruin the REST of my life. I moved on, life goes on and life can be SO incredibly if you WANT it to be!!

OK - Let's get to where I heard about Beachbody. It was about 6 months after I had Wesley (our 3rd lovebug), which takes us to April 2013. I loved cardio, but was finding that with 3 kids and a husband who works his butt off so I can stay home with them, it was hard to do the things that I use to do, like running, walking and playing soccer. So instead of being sad about it, one of my friends had posted that Focus T25 had kicked her butt. I was like hmmm. So I messaged her and asked her about it and it sounded AWESOME! I bought it, did it, and instantly fell in LOVE! My friend, kept after me, checking in to see how I was doing and talking about coaching, but I told her I wasn't sure about it ... yet. 

I FINISHED the program and after a summer of traveling and visiting our families, I was ready to start it again. That's when my friend approached me AGAIN and asked if I was in a challenge group and brought up that she thought I'd be a good coach. We talked on the phone and it DID sound really fun, but my husband wasn't exactly on board yet (I mentioned it to him in April when I had started to think about it). There was something about this time and this is what I said to myself ... 

This time I KNEW this is something that I COULD do. Why?

* I LOVE fitness, always have.

* I LOVE being healthy, because it makes me feel great, especially leading by example for my kids.

* I LOVE helping others reach THEIR goals, because I KNOW how it FEELS to reach them and set new ones. 

* Who couldn't use some extra income?

* I was ALREADY doing everything I needed to, so why not TRY it out?!

* Inspiring people MOTIVATES ME! I want others to feel what I feel when they tell me I'm inspirational, the feeling is like nothing I've felt - from total strangers, people I haven't talked to in a long time, close friends, family, they ALL matter! 

I signed as a "coach," I like to call myself a personal motivator in October 2013 and the rest is history. I'm here to build a business and make a life out of something I LOVE!

The saying above "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life" fits ME to an absolute tee. I wake up each and every day EXCITED about life. I wake up each and every day MOTIVATED to move forward. I look FORWARD to working out. I look FORWARD to sharing my journey to inspire others! This is what coaching is for me, it's about sharing MY story of living healthy and fit and motivating and inspiring others to do the same. Now that I  have a family, it's super important to me. I want YOUR health to matter to YOU! 

LIFE is SO much FUNNER when you're HAPPY!