My Personal Journey

Starting Out

Growing up, I was a really active kid with horseback riding, cheerleading, track, volleyball, etc. One day at the age of 15, I walked into my high school weight room and fell in love...with strength training! Deadlifts, squats, bench press...I loved it all. I went to college and spent time with a few bodybuilders, learning as much as I could. At 19, I got my first job at a gym in a small western Kansas town. As a weight room instructor, I assessed new members, designed programs, and taught people to use the machines.

Around this time Jane Fonda became huge. Yes, leotards, shiny tights, and leg warmers...I jumped in with bare feet! Teaching aerobics was exhilarating! The music pumped, the movements were exciting! We all felt like dancers and they paid me to sweat! I continued to teach aerobics classes and had my first personal training clients in Houston around 1986.

A Passion Grows

In the early 90’s I moved to a different part of Houston and began working at a club in the Memorial area. I loved Memorial Athletic Club. I taught tons of Group X classes. I wanted to further my career as a personal trainer, so my fitness director and mentor encouraged me to pursue my National Academy of Sports Medicine advanced certification. This was a pivotal moment in my life. It changed the way I saw movement. It changed the way I designed programs and the way I worked out on my own.

I continued to work for MAC and other corporate clubs around Houston for the next 7 years. I taught classes, trained clients, took up tae kwon do, earned my brown belt, all the while working 3 to 4 days a week as a flight attendant. I loved my active life!

Becoming A Mom

In 1997, I returned to the midwest for family and personal reasons. I continued to fly and workout on my own, but I didn’t teach or train as much.

I became pregnant with my daughter in 1998. I had a really active pregnancy. I continued my health and fitness education, getting my Fitness Kickboxing Certification at 2 months, and powerwalking the day I went in to labor. I had a difficult delivery, and a super colicky baby, but I was determined to get back in shape asap. I was walking just a few days after delivery, and running after 3 weeks. A lot of my pregnancy weight had dropped off, but I still wasn’t where I had been.

A “well meaning” friend told me that she had success with artificial sweeteners. Well, not one to do anything in moderation, I switched completely over to Nutrasweet and all other things fake. I dropped 11 lbs very fast. Funny thing was, during my pregnancy, I avoided caffeine, ate nothing fake, and even struggled with the decision to take a Sudafed. Yet here I was, willing to load my body with chemicals just to be thin again.

I had quit my job as a flight attendant and had returned to fitness full time. I was teaching quite a few aerobics classes, about 15 a week. My schedule was very broken. I taught morning classes, went home, and waited around to teach several more in the afternoon. I was exhausted most of the time, taking care of a baby, teaching classes, training clients, working out, etc. But, my weight had returned to normal, and I liked the way I looked. I remember a friend commenting on how thin I was. That felt really good.

The Struggle Begins

That feeling was short lived... A few months later I went through some very traumatic personal and financial situations. My stress level, that was already high, skyrocketed. I felt like I had no control over my life, and no real outlet for the stress I was experiencing. I continued to train, teach, and workout, but I was gaining weight. I gained 9 pounds in 3 months. I ate a very “Heart Healthy” diet, but it was horribly unsuccessful. I recall a friend asking how many classes I was teaching. It hurt, because I knew it was a comment about my weight.

Exhausted, I began using Diet Mountain Dew to get me through the day. I was well aware of the studies on aspartame. I knew it was a neurotoxin. And though my brain was fuzzy alot of the time, it wasn’t enough to break my 3-4 a day crack-like Diet Dew habit.

I struggled for the next few years, trying to get back to a good weight for me. Working out, training, teaching, eating low to non fat, heart healthy meals had been a way of life for me. That hadn’t changed. I had. I had turned 40. I couldn’t accept what was happening to me. I made a Gyno appointment. After carefully explaining my situation, she told me I was just getting older! I even had an ultrasound to check things out. Completely normal.

I continued to struggle with the guilt and shame of not being able to get this weight off. I was doing everything right, according to industry standards. I was firm and strong, but I had put on weight around my middle. My boobs were bigger, but for the first time in my life I had cellulite on the tops of my thighs and love handles! And again, I was a TRAINER! It was humiliating.

Starving For Answers

I felt like the activity side of my life was in place, but eating this way left me frustrated and starving. I knew deep inside that if I could get the nutrition side of my life in place, I would succeed in reaching my ideal weight once again.

I was very motivated to lose, so I went on a strict 1700 calorie diet. I had a calorie counter, log book, and a calculator in my kitchen. If it went in my mouth, it went down on paper. Everything was about numbers...and I was starving. I couldn’t sleep at night for the growling in my stomach. Miserable...

In my search, I happened on a book called The SugarBusters Diet in a used book store. I was intrigued. I had always adhered to the energy equation, you know... “Burn more calories than you take in... Eat a low fat, low protein, high complex carb diet, etc." This was an interesting read, and it peaked my interest in other ways of eating.

I began researching popular diets, and found that when I added protein to my diet, I lost a few pounds! When I ate a higher carb diet, I gained. For the next year I experimented with Sugar Busters, South Beach, Low Fat, High Carb, High Protein... I had tiny bits of success followed by failures.

Cue The Hallelujah Chorus

A bad mammogram and a very scary biopsy changed the way I saw everything. I realized that I was poisoning my body with artificial sweeteners, fake fats, and diet foods. I stopped diet soda cold turkey, along with all sweeteners and fake foods.

I turned to the alternative community for answers. A very good friend turned me on to Mercola.com. He offered a Nutritional Type program that sounded interesting. After reading about this program, I discovered that it was based on a nutritional science called Metabolic Typing.

I wanted to understand the original, so I researched Bill Wolcott and Metabolic Typing.

A light bulb went off in my head, and things that I knew deep down, finally made sense. I went through the very basic program offered in his book, and had some success. But I wanted to take it further. I wanted be able to offer this to my clients as well.

I enrolled in the Metabolic Typing Advisor course in May of 2008. In order to become an advisor, I would have to also go through the program that I would offer to my clients. It was amazing. This was not a diet, or even just a nutrition plan, but a Dietary Wellness Program.

I discovered the uniqueness of every person, and why blanket diets fail. Light bulbs continued going off in my head. For the first time in many years, I had hope. Hope to feel like myself again. Energized, beautiful, vibrant. As I followed my program, I learned which foods were best for me, and why so much of what I had been eating was prohibiting me from losing weight and feeling well. Even “good, healthy foods” were causing me to fail.

Finding Me

Very quickly, I began to drop pounds. Mostly around my waist, then my thighs, and backside. I was amazed. I ate foods that I craved and, I learned that I should not be hungry. That it was no longer about me being a martyr or having will power, but it was about nourishing my body and fueling it. Amazing.

I had always taken vitamins, just in case, with no real plan or meaning. I learned that taking supplements that were wrong for me could derail my efforts. When I learned that I needed specific supplements that would replenish and balance vitamins and minerals that my metabolic type was lacking, I began to add these to my life. Again, amazing.

I began to make lifestyle changes to build and support health. Weeding out chemicals in my personal products, cleaning products, switching to organic and local foods.

I took the MRT Food Sensitivities Test and stopped eating foods that I was reactive to. More weight dropped off. I was satisfied more quickly at meals. My energy was high. I stopped having fever blisters. My cycles were easier. I didn’t feel the need to fret or obsess over things. I slept soundly at night. My sense of well being completely changed. I was beginning to feel like the girl I used to be.

I graduated the Metabolic Typing Advisor Course in December 2008. I returned to my pre-pregnancy weight without counting a single calorie or gram. I was never hungry, and it took no will power. Instead, I learned how to listen to my body’s cues and give it what it needed when it needed it.

Mindful Movement

My nutrition was now in place, and because I had completely changed the way I saw the body, it was time to look at fitness in a new light. In a scientific way, but also in a holistic way.

I began to see that workouts shouldn’t break the body down, but build health. There is movement for movement’s sake, and then there is movement with purpose.

I didn’t really believe in the energy equation anymore, so spending hours on cardio machines, trying to burn calories didn’t make sense to me anymore. In all my years as a trainer, I had never seen a client lose weight by doing tons of cardio... sorry everyone...

Fiery Soul Fitness

I began to experiment with a new style of workout. Borrowing from yoga, pilates, old school calisthenics, functional movements, traditional strength training, and short burst cardio segments, I found a workout that sculpts and shapes a body better than anything I’ve seen in my 33 years as a trainer.

I workout far less than I ever have, but because the movements are intense, and I have addressed nutrition and lifestyle, I feel better than I did in my twenties. I am stronger, faster, leaner, healthier, and happier.

Building health within is an amazing thing. I was able to make changes in my life that I would have never had the confidence to do. That’s why I want to share my story. I want to help my clients regain themselves. I’d like to see moms and dads, as one of my clients put it, “get their fire back.” That is why I started Fiery Soul Fitness. To assist clients on their journey to vibrant health.

..building from the inside out. :-)