About Me

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (with a brief stint in Scottsdale, Arizona), I have had a love of fitness from a very young age. My mother was into health and fitness and in the classic case of "monkey see monkey do," I wanted to be like my mama. I'd dress up in my little leotards and workout with her. And, also apparently beg her to get my photos taken in my little get up.

At the age of 3, my prized birthday gift was a Joanie Greggains workout RECORD (yep, pretty sure I just gave away my age with that little fact). Oh yeah - we're talking good old vinyl. 

Growing up, I was involved in dance & gymnastics. I was never really good at any of them - gracefulness was not something I was blessed with - but I LOVED taking the classes. By middle school age, I was paying WAY more attention to dance than I was to academics. So, it came time to pull back on dance lessons.

Once I quit dancing, that's when the weight problem truly started for me. I mean, I was always the tallest girl in my class, but I would have never considered myself having a weight problem. Until about middle school. We had moved to a new area (school district) and I didn't have many friends there. So, all summer, I laid out in the sun, drinking sugary iced tea by the GALLON and eating...and eating...and eating.

By 10th grade in high school, I had reached my heaviest weight yet. At 5'6", I was 180lbs. I was teased almost daily for my weight. Going to school was not fun & I dreaded it every day.

Dreaded it until the end of my sophomore year. Enter the drill team. I had found something that I loved to do again. The challenge of learning new routines felt like dance class all over again & I LOVED marching on the field during football games. I was one of those people who really LOVED band camp (and this one time at band camp...). During the school year, any free time I had was spent practicing my routines in my bedroom. If you look at my attendance record from high school, I had the LEAST amount of absences when I was a part of Bethettes.

Fast forward to college, and lucky for me, the opposite of the "freshmen 15" happened to me. I started to lose weight. I'm guessing mostly in part to my school being in the city & I had to walk EVERYWHERE and let me tell you, Pittsburgh has some nasty hills! During college, I ended up working part-time in a gym, as well as teaching kickboxing and aerobic classes. I was back in my element.

For most of my adult life, I was on some kind of diet. You name it, I've probably tried it. Pills, meal replacement shakes full of chemicals, counting points, pre-made meals - I've tried them all. I lost weight with most of them. And then gained it all back. Over and over. Why? I had the dieter's mentality. I saw the diet with a start and an end date. I'd reach my goal weight and then revert to bad habits. I had failed to realize the key to success. That I needed to stop dieting and start treating it as a lifestyle.

In early 2010, my husband & I found out we were expecting twins. While we were totally thrilled, it was still the shock of our lives. At 28 weeks, I was put on bed-rest. During pregnancy, we all have this grand idea that everything we eat is going to be 100% healthy. And most times it is. But, if we're being honest here, sometimes it comes down to eating whatever food you can keep down. I carried my boys to 38 weeks & 5 days. On delivery day, I hopped on the scale & was greeted with a number I'd never seen before. 244 lbs. 

I had a scheduled C-section and on November 10, 2010. Justin & I drove to the hospital where we welcomed William at 7lbs 11oz and Jacob was 6lbs 10oz. Yep. Almost 15 pounds of baby in there. The weight came off painfully slow. If I heard one more person tell me how fast the weight melts off when you nurse, I was going to pull their hair out. Because it wasn't falling off. And it got really discouraging - really fast. 

Once I got cleared to exercise, I was in for a rude awakening. My body felt so fragile. I had been on bed-rest for months - which did nothing for me cardiovascularly and I know I lost what muscle I had. Add on top of that a c-section incision that was still healing & all of that combined just made me feel weak. My friend, Victoria, had convinced me to run a half-marathon in May, so running was my primary objective. I felt pathetic on the treadmill. My run pace was a whopping 3.5 mph (yes, I realize that's most peoples walking pace) but that's how out of shape I was. Running at that pace for 30 seconds left me gasping for air. And severely discouraged. Something needed to change.

So, like the infomercial junkie that I am, I had seen an infomercial for TurboFire. I had TurboFire's predecessor, TurboJam, and really liked that, so I figured I'd get it and give it a go. Chalene Johnson - you are a Godsend. I had mastered TurboJam years ago, so I figured that TurboFire wouldn't be that much harder. Insert hysterical laughter here. I can remember my first TurboFire workout like it was yesterday. Yet again, I found myself gasping for air, unable to keep up, and eventually in tears. But, I kept at it.

So, where am I now? Head over to the Fitness Coaching section of my website to read more!

xoxo,