‘Be the person your dog thinks you are’. Dog number one (aka ‘Sweet baby angel’).
I’ve always been fascinated with health and wellness. Actually, that’s not entirely true. Between 2016 and 2020 I entirely disregarded my own health while I focused on caring for others. Just like everyone else, my path in health and wellness has rarely been a straight line.
But my passion for health and fitness began long before I understood it as ‘wellness’. As for most kids, exercise to me was dance classes with friends and basketball practice with teammates. A natural love for movement evolved into peaceful early morning runs and dabbling in resistance training as a young adult. Looking back you could say these were the first steps in my professional life as they led me to seek personal training as a potential career option.
Dog number two (aka ‘The crazy one’). My spirit animal for sure!
But curiosity drove me from personal training to wanting a deeper understanding of human health. A pivotal moment came during my personal training certification, when a dietitian’s lecture revealed the complexity of human nutrition. I wish I could remember who that dietitian was so I could tell her how formative she was in my life. I walked away from that lecture with the realization that personal training was only skimming the surface of what I wanted to learn. This spark of interest propelled me to pursue a Bachelor's in Science degree and then a Master's in Nutrition and Dietetics.
I was contented seeing clients between two small practices and starting a family in my native town of Sydney Australia, when a decision to move our young family to California in 2016 challenged everything I knew about myself and my career. And completely romoved me from my ‘village’.
36 years old, in a brand new country, toddler and new born in tow, with zero idea of the challenges ahead. Blissfully ignorant.
Isolated and disconnected from my support network and professional identity, two years into our move I found myself mentally and physically drowning—50lbs heavier due to using food as a ‘coping’ mechanism, disconnected from my once-passionate approach to health, feeling completely lost and wondering where ‘I’ went. The irony wasn't lost on me though: a dietitian losing sight of her own health? Yeah, it happens, we’re human too! It was a humbling experience that had very real consequences on my health. Just ask my doctor! Looking back, this challenging period was an important teacher. I realized that wellness isn't all about nutrition and exercise—it's about understanding individual history’s, breaking through personal barriers, creating sustainable, compassionate strategies and learning pro health ways to navigate life's little (and big) unexpected challenges.
Hiking or road running in gorgeous Northern California with girlfriends = my happy place.
In my own story, personal therapy and a spontaneous invitation from a friend to go for a run one day became my turning points and ultimately reshaped my professional approach as well. I realized through my own experience that what women need is less being told what to do and more coaching and collaboration. All habits have a purpose, even the one’s we know aren’t good for us. And breaking them down takes introspection and someone on your team to ask the right questions.
While maintaining a science based approach, my focus increasingly shifted from offering just clinical dietary advice to incorporating more behavior coaching strategies. Completing a comprehensive 12-month certification in health coaching and then a specialized women's coaching certification has refined my approach.
For as long as we can remember a huge emphasis has been put on how ‘large’ or ‘small’ women are, when all along all that mattered is what’s going on inside, mentally and metabolically. Every women’s health is unique and I understand that wellness is deeply personal, rarely perfect, and always evolving. It’s a privilege to be a woman’s health coach and I take the responsibility of my role very seriously. I look forward to meeting each new client and discussing her current situation and the goals she has for herself.