Throughout my life, staying in decent shape has been important to me. I was fortunate enough to be relatively successful at it, even when I wasn’t always doing the things that would have been best for my health. If I wanted to lose a few pounds, I would jump (back) into a healthier diet and eat more cleanly for a while, then return to old habits once I hit my immediate goal. If I wanted to gain a bit of strength, I would work out intensely for a period until I saw some results, then return to a more relaxed mode. This method worked well enough for me and my body cooperated… until it didn’t.

Once I hit my 30s and the normal aging processes kicked in, I began to realize that I had managed to stay relatively fit and healthy mostly because my strengths had overcompensated for my weaknesses. When I gave in to food cravings and ate junk, my body would let me push it with (overly) intensive exercise, for example. As I grew older, I found that these pushes took a bigger toll on my body. If I naturally gained a few pounds and tried to drop the weight quickly by overdoing it with training, my body would let me know through pain and injuries that it couldn’t handle it. Similarly with exercise, overtraining without proper recovery led to constant exhaustion and very little progress, despite putting in more effort.

Through enough experiences like these, I eventually realized that I hadn’t been taking care of my body and my health “the right way” (or, at least, in one of the various ways that could be “right”). I had set myself up to reinforce bad habits that were never going to be sustainable for a healthy lifestyle in the long run. Too often, I tried to find a quick fix with big results to make up for not maintaining my health. I was a bit like someone who makes a bad bet gambling and then follows that with an even worse, larger bet in the hopes of winning it all back and then some. The reality that this approach was never really going to be effective finally hit me like a truck.

Thankfully, both personal reflection and an education in psychology helped me to build insights about how I could approach my goals better, to get results that are both consistent and long-lasting. My passion for wanting to help others succeed and avoid the pitfalls that come with the inevitable challenges of aging drove me to develop the program that I’m offering now. 

Now the honest truth is that no major achievement comes without hard work and overcoming obstacles – and often there isn’t a way to “make it easy.” But, I’ve learned that shifting my mindset and seeing natural delays and setbacks as part of the process (or even as markers that I’m making good progress along the way) has made these challenges feel less daunting. Getting and staying health will always be a bit of a challenge for me; it’s never a finish line that I can just cross and not have to worry about again. But I feel more prepared and confident to be on this journey. My hope is to help others feel this way too.