My relationship with food and exercise started off as a desperate attempt to lose weight, and be good at sports at a very young age. I eventually developed a very unhealthy relationship with my body, food, and exercise and spent some 20 years studying personal development and empowerment to overcome these struggles. Somewhere along the way, I found Zen Buddhism and started connecting with my spiritual practice. I knew before I finished high school that I wanted to study health, first so I could fix myself, and then to help others.

I found intuitive eating, and intuitive exercise, meaning, doing things because they feel right in your body, to be the only solution to my obsessions.

I fell into CrossFIt about 2011 in the through of it, when I left the powerlifting community for a more holistic look at movement, and I’ve been obsessed ever since, although, my obsession is as non-dogmatic as possible these days. I love studying the body, and movement, and I love finding little things that people can do to help them in their real life. Mostly because it teaches people how in control they can be of their lives, if they believe in their power.

Being obsessed with the art of coaching and mentoring is something that has never become boring to me (much to my surprise)

I studied nutrition at Columbus State and The Ohio State University, and worked in public health for five years after college, working with low income families to help them make better nutrition choices. Working public health was hard for me because the program wasn’t progressive enough, for my idealistic mindset. I was terrified of becoming as numb as some of my older co-workers were to the problems of our clients.

I was also coaching, personal training, and running a kids’ fitness program part time, chasing the dream of taking my coaching full time.

I took an attempt at writing again, but just wasn’t ready and the project fell apart. (link to blog posts from 2014 and earlier.)

In 2014, age 26, with no plan, and no job, I decided to take the risk of my life and move to San Francisco and start a full time coaching practice.

I partnered with The Cave in Marin County and started a girl’s empowerment program called Strong Girls. I also started teaching gymnastics and doing private mentoring to help build confidence and strength. I developed a niche of working with the kid’s who don’t consider themselves athletes.

My mentoring style has always been about making choices depending on how it feels in your body.
I believe in giving children and everyone as much body autonomy as possible.

In 2016, I was asked to join the team at San Francisco CrossFit and studied to become a Level 2 MobilityWOD Coach, connecting the work of physical therapist to movement coaches and making the information about posture, alignment, preventative health, and daily maintenance a huge part of my message of health.

I became a Certified Functional Strength Coach in 2017.

I studied improvisational theatre with Leela Performing Arts school in San Francisco, and finished the program in 2018, where I learned to identify emotions, create somatic connections to my inner critic, and learn the value of fun, and play.

I still perform in a few indie troupes and it’s the most fun thing, ever.

In 2018 I did a 4 week intensive 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training with Kula Kamala Foundation & Yoga Ashram.
Coming out of this very intense month, I became more committed to my spiritual practice, and commitment to mental health. I joined the San Francisco Zen Center and attend regular sitting and lectures to continue my growth.

I started to recognize, our holistic look at health, need to include not just stress reduction, but joy, pleasure, connection, creativity, boredom, peace, and fulfillment from things outside of the normal job, money, aesthetics, etc. that’s become some type of American Dream.

After working very hard to create my dream, achieving it, being successful at it, and still being very much in love with what I do, I made a career choice to step down and allow myself more free time, to grow as a human and not work my life away. As easy as it sounds, this was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to trust myself to do.

I launched this website, taking huge steps toward overcoming the fear of not being a good writer, to allow myself to get feedback, and started taking poetry and creative non-fiction classes.

I fell in love the The Body Positive, and decided to study to become a Licensed Be Body Positive Facilitator, an achievement I received in 2019.

As the energy in the world shifts, and my feminist message of health, body positivity, and body autonomy becomes more and more holistic, I felt really pulled to do my part to help build my understanding around sexuality, consent, trauma, and body shame. So I applied and was accepted into The Somatica Institute in Berkley, Ca to become a sex, relationship, and intimacy coach. This 1-3 year program starts in April 2019.