I’m so happy you’re here!
I look forward to connecting with you. In the meantime, here’s a little info to give you some insight into my story and why I’m passionate about offering you inspiration and tools to help your kids become LOVE emPOWERed!
How I got here,
One afternoon, while watching Oprah, I experienced what she calls an Aha! moment. The show that day was about creating a career you love by finding a way to monetize your passion. From the depths of my subconscious, the words “Personal Trainer” flashed across my mental screen, making me actually laugh out loud. My whole life, I considered myself the least athletic person I knew. How did I find my way to a place where I would even consider pursuing a Personal Trainer certification?
I wasn’t born with any athletic inclination. In fact, I still get nauseous thinking about gym class! There was only one physical activity where I felt comfortable in my body – dance.
The day I learned to walk was the day I started shakin’ my groove thing and when my childhood dream of being a dancer was born. When I was an adolescent, my love for dance got real. I spent hours groovin’ and moving’ to the Physical album by Olivia Newton-John and the Flashdance soundtrack — OF COURSE! Did you, too????
But all the hours I spent dancing took place in the comfort of my own home.
You see, as a young girl, I was so self-conscious and so insecure about what I perceived as a chubbier-than-all-my-friends-figure that I didn’t want to be seen in a leotard. Makes it a little hard to become a dancer when you won’t take dance classes — all because you’re too sickened by the thought of looking like the chubby girl. After all, “beautiful” girls are not chubby.
Even at that young age, I knew I should eat better if I wanted to feel more confident about wearing a leotard. But I’d already developed an unhealthy emotional attachment to food that I had no idea, or probably at the time no desire, to change.
Food had become my surrogate friend — a friend who comforted me as I tried to navigate through the emotions of my parents’ painful, tumultuous divorce. As you likely know if you’ve struggled with emotional eating, the comfort I received only lasted a few minutes, leaving me feeling fuller physically, but emptier emotionally.
My distorted relationship with food reverberated into a distorted relationship with my body, exacerbating my inhibitions and creating stress around physical activity. Even more, it distorted my Spirit, preventing me from living each day as the fullest expression of my true self.
My body image haunted me for years to come. And like too many other girls in their high school years, I began to walk down an even more self-destructive path.
I had the power to change!
My shift
Then one day, I experienced an eye-opening moment that changed everything!
I still remember the day like it was yesterday.
I was sitting at the lunchroom table looking at my two closest friends who also suffered from body image issues and disordered eating when I suddenly became overwhelmed by a sadness that stung my heart.
How could these two girls who were so beautiful inside and out feel so uncomfortable in their own skin? How could they not see the amazing qualities in them that I saw? What caused them to want to change themselves so badly that they were willing to make choices that were physically and emotionally detrimental when they were so special and so lovely just the way they were?
Later that evening, I stood in front of the mirror and looked at my reflection in a new light.
Rather than pick out my flaws, I saw my body as a precious gift that God gave me to fully experience my life.
In that moment, I realized that if someone didn’t accept me because of my flaws, I didn’t need them in my life. The only person I needed to change myself for was me. Except what needed to change wasn’t my figure.
What I needed to change was the way I was treating myself and the motivation behind my choices.
For the first time, I understood that God had given me a life worthy of my LOVE.
This epiphany didn’t give me a reason to be complacent. It fueled my fire.
I sacrificed my dream of becoming a dancer to my body image issues and insecurities, but I was not going to make this mistake again.
I had the power to change.
And so my commitment to a new way of being was born. And so was my love for all things healthy.
My reason for eating healthy, exercising, and prioritizing my self-care shifted to LOVE.
And LOVE has sustained my motivation ever since!
Where I am now
Believe it or not, I’m now a total foodie and exercise junkie! Group exercise is my first love, but hot yoga, running outside on beautiful days (especially at the beach), and my solo early morning workouts in my home gym all light me up!
And I’m delighted to say that food and I not only got reacquainted years ago, but our friendship has gotten stronger over the years. It’s transformed into a beautiful love-love relationship.
The newest piece of my wellness puzzle that I’m the most excited to share with you is the Spiritual piece!
The challenges I faced as a child dampened my Spirit. This feeling resurfaced when I became a Mom. As Moms do, I was so busy taking care of everyone and everything else that I began to lose touch with the passionate, Spirited part of me.
About 4 years ago, I was away for the weekend and I took advantage of a free meditation class that was being offered to guests. This experience lead to my second life-changing discovery and an awareness of the piece of my lifestyle that I’d been missing.
Since that day, I’ve been learning and practicing soul-lifting, joy-boosting practices that fit into my busy life and are healing and encouraging me to finally give voice to the insecure little girl inside me with a big, purpose-driven Spirit!
I look forward to delving into deeper into that experience with you and sharing the insights and practices that have empowered me to Reclaim my Energy and Spirit!
To help you on you reclaim yours, I created a FREE cheat sheet with the 8 simple things I do every morning:
8 Simple Tools to Increase Your Energy & Brighten your Spirit!
Who’s On My Journey
I’m the mother of three beautiful, bright-eyed, loving, cuddly, affectionate, intelligent, totally silly, sometimes deafeningly loud, physical, “are you serious?”-ly messy boys!
And I’m blessed to be married to the love of my life.
Despite the busyness of our family life and work life, our boys are our reason for taking care of our health and well-being, not our excuse.
We are their most important role models, supporters and champions of love, health, and happiness!
Spirit-centered, LOVE emPOWERed Moms raise
Spirit-Centered, LOVE emPOWERed Kids!
