Why am I telling you this? 

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I hope to give you some insight into my background and previous experiences… Those experiences have really helped shape me as a woman, business owner, coach, and very recently, a mother. 

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I definitely don’t know it all, but I do have a lot of experience with making some drastic changes in my life, how I’ve adapted, and how I’ve overcome some pretty big obstacles.

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Let’s dive in… 😉

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I grew up in a small town outside of St. Louis, MO.  I spent the first 30 years of my life there, and I love it there.  I love my family. I love my friends. It’s a great place I hold in my heart. 

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However, I didn’t grow up with your typical household with Mom and Dad always being there. 

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Luckily I had a great, supportive family to back me up, but a good chunk of my childhood, my Dad wasn’t there…and since he wasn’t in the picture, my Mom pulled all the weight to support the family.  My Dad had his own issues. He wasn’t around because he had a problem with alcohol. It controlled his life, and eventually it ended up taking him to the grave. 

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My Mom’s work ethic has made a huge impact on me.  Having me at 19, she had to work two jobs to make it all happen, and she never held anything back.  We always had food on the table. We always had good, clean clothes to wear. We had a roof over our head, and we had a lot of happiness within those four walls.  Love my Mom, and she’s still my best friend to this day.

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Fast forward to college, I decided to pursue a teaching career.  Making my way through a bachelor’s program from Blackburn College in a small, little farm town in the middle of IL, I eventually graduated and became a teacher. 

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I taught middle school for a handful of years and really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t in an environment where I could succeed. The administration at the private school where I taught wasn’t in favor of learning about new methods and scientific trends that could help us improve so we often didn’t see eye to eye (even before coaching, I saw value in letting kids play and move when they learn). 

 

Long story short, I realized that I couldn’t fit my teaching style to that system so I decided to leave.

I wasn’t about to spend the rest of my life hating the situation I was in, so I changed careers. 

Was it easy? Nope, but the payoff was worth it. 😉 

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During my first year teaching, I married my college sweetheart, Arthur. 

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I know what you’re thinking…I thought you said your husband’s name is Jared? 

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Yep… 

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Here I am in my mid- 20’s…married…had a nice, big house on 2 acres…drove a big, new SUV…had a stable job with a future pension waiting for me (maybe?).  My family would have the dad I never had. American dream right? 

Not so much! 

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A few years into my marriage, I realized that I was constantly stressed out. I was always on edge. Always just a little irritable and felt like I was just “getting through the week”. 

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I tried to shake it off but slipped into a silent depression.

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I wasn’t happy.  I wasn’t healthy. My body was constantly hurting, and I didn’t know why. 

I was taking (several) medications for depression and anxiety.  

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No one in my family knew. I was too embarrassed to tell them that I was struggling. 

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Looking back at it, I remember how rough that time was, but it helped shape me into who I am today, and for that I’m grateful. 

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This is where I was in 2012, and this is when I decided to take a stand. 

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I decided I’d had enough. 

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After hitting my breaking point, fate sent me to a small gym named Accelerate.  My co-worker and friend was training there, and the gym was having this pretty cool bring-a-friend offer where I could train a month on the house.  

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Sweet! Just what I needed.  A reputable gym with a reputable coach to help get me into shape. 

I knew I didn’t want to be on medications and depressed the rest of my life, but most importantly, I knew I was too young to be in this much back pain.

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Taking care of myself FIRST ended up being the best decision I have ever made…bar none!

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So I went to the gym to meet my first (and only) personal trainer… JARED! 

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He got me started and moving in the right direction. 

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Remember that nice, big house and nice, big car? Yeah… With that, comes no money to spend on YOU! 

I was so glad they had that promotion going on because I couldn’t afford to train there if the Bring-a-Friend deal wasn’t an option.

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Back to the story…

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I came in everyday, excited to learn more, and get my value out of the free month (Remember…this was my first time in an actual strength training program. I had NO idea what I was doing, but it was fun figuring it out.). 

 

Soon my month was coming to an end, and I knew I had to figure something out. 

My husband was COMPLETELY against me going to the gym.  He struggled a lot with unhappiness at his job, and I think it was tough for him to watch me get excited about the gym when he didn’t get excited about much anymore. 

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We’d been growing apart for some time, but his resentment towards me for taking care of myself and slowly digging out of my depression-hole began showing up in so many other areas of our lives. 

I quickly learned that sometimes misery just loves company. It became too difficult for him to watch me happy when he couldn’t find that for himself. 

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Needless to say, I had NO money to invest into myself, but that answer wasn’t good enough for me. 

I’d seen my Mom make things happen growing up.  She figured it out. She showed up day-in-day-out.  I decided that I was going to make it happen too. I wasn’t sure how, but I knew I simply had to.  

 

There was no other option, remember?  I made the decision to take care of myself first.  After you really make a decision, things start to become clear.

 

I went to the gym, sat down in Jared’s office, and told him that there HAD to be some way to let me continue training there. 

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After hearing the sincerity in my voice, he thought of something. Get your mind out of the gutters, haha.  It’s not anything like that.

He gave me a job doing administrative work.  I would help him with some admin work after my “real job”.  I’d do a couple hours of work, get in a good workout, and then head home. 

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The gym quickly became my happy place.  

 

So many good things developed here. 

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After a few months, I was really happy with my progress and how things were going, but I still felt like there was still more I should be doing.