I was born and raised in Washington D.C. and was fortunate to be introduced to team sports at an early age. It was through athletics that I developed a passion for living an active lifestyle, built meaningful relationships, learned principles of teamwork and leadership, and created strategies to cope with ADHD, a learning disability, anxiety, and depression. My first job ever began when my middle school soccer coach asked me to assist him with clinics for younger kids, and I’ve held health and fitness coaching positions ever since. I am incredibly grateful to all of the coaches, teachers, and mentors who have given me a chance to lead, make mistakes, and learn, and who have had an enormous impact on my life.

 

In college, I played rugby and worked in an after-school program and for a youth development nonprofit organization. I continued down that path in graduate school, working as a counselor in a youth treatment center and coaching soccer at my former high school. I also developed a love for marathons and triathlons along the way. 

 

After getting a Master’s degree in psychology I joined the Peace Corps and spent over 4 years working in schools and communities on a number of different health, fitness, and community service initiatives.

 

Living on a volunteer stipend was a beautiful lesson in buying only what I needed, and getting minimalist when it came to food and exercise. I didn't know much about nutrition, but was fortunate that the cheapest foods were fruits, vegetables and eggs. My nutrition has never been healthier and more balanced than it was during that time. No measuring or weighing or feeling like I was depriving myself of anything. Just whole, unprocessed foods, and I could never get too full because I was on a tight budget. Simple. Same with fitness. I walked, jumped rope, and did bodyweight strength that required no equipment. My high school students and I started making equipment with paint cans, coconuts, rocks, old tires, and rice bags hung on strings. It was amazing what we could accomplish with some open space, a bunch of garbage, our bodies, and an appreciation for hard work.

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Returning to the States, I continued to incorporate fitness into my work as a Program Manager at the Latin American Youth Center, and as Program Director at Teens Run D.C, which allowed me to return to the D.C. Public School system that I attended, and was where I met my husband. Shortly before our son was born, I became a certified personal trainer and transitioned to coaching CrossFit full-time.

 

I was doing work that I loved, but the return to the States was an incredibly difficult adjustment, especially when it came to my health and wellbeing. My baseline for what I needed to be happy in life had shifted when I lived abroad, and the excess of, and easy access to food and entertainment options in the U.S. felt overwhelming, distracting, and exhausting. I was exercising more and working harder than ever before, but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted from those efforts. I was caught up in a culture that glorified stress and busyness instead of balance and productivity.

 

When my son was 6 months old, after working hard to lose 45lbs of pregnancy weight, I was diagnosed with pelvic organ prolapse. The doctor and physical therapists told me I might never run, jump, or lift anything heavy again. Even walking was uncomfortable. I felt like everything I loved to do, and my identity as an athlete had been taken from me. I was depressed, lost, and conceded to a victim mindset. Eventually, I realized that if I was going to be a model for health and an asset to my family and others, I needed to adopt a completely different mentality. I dug myself out of the negativity that had consumed me, and into one filled with gratitude for everything that my body could still do, and how privileged I was to be able to take on whatever challenges life presented. I have been humbled knowing people who have been through challenges I can't imagine facing let alone overcoming, but I do believe that once we see challenges as opportunities that we are unstoppable. I ask myself and my clients to do this regularly as we pursue fitness and create space for it in our lives.

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I’d known for a long time that nutrition was at the foundation of fitness, and like many considered my nutrition “fine.” Mostly vegetables, fruits, and well-sourced protein. Keyword…”mostly.” It wasn’t until I decided to hire a nutrition coach, and get a detailed view of what, and more importantly for me, how much, my body needed to fuel the life that I wanted to live, that I realized my perception of “mostly” was skewed. What was happening outside of real food was holding me back from getting where I wanted to be. The coaching I received was very different from how I approach nutrition coaching - it was rigid, strict, and completely based on the scale and grams of specific macronutrients that needed to be followed exactly. I was compliant, though, and got the numeric results I was seeking. More importantly, I was able to accept how I achieved those results, and consider whether it felt worth what I gave up. I became fascinated by the challenge of finding a balance between scientific principles and the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that allowed me to feel in control of and fulfilled by my nutrition and fitness. 

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My interest in coaching has nothing to do with telling anyone what to do. Instead, I provide my clients with structure, space, and questions to help them get clear on what they want, and together we explore realistic steps they can take to get it. While there certainly can be overlap in terms of what people want for themselves, each person comes into the coaching experience with a unique past and experiences that have shaped where and who they are, and what they feel ready, able, and willing to do. Finding a path to fitness that feels in integrity with our unique selves can take time, patience, and an ongoing cycle of reflection, self-compassion, and learning. What I hope to give my clients is that time and patience, and a process for that cycle of learning.