I was short, stocky, always concerned about being overweight and compared myself to other girls in school and in magazines. Trying aaaaallll the diets and exercises, I knew there just had to be a magic formula for me to look the way I wanted. Um, no.

Always a happy, fun-loving person, I had a great childhood growing up on Vancouver Island running around the countryside. I was a “cage-free”- though hard working - child surrounded by tons of neighborhood kids and a loving, fun family. Despite this pretty much idyllic childhood, I struggled with weight and had a hard time accepting my body type. I certainly wasn’t thinking about being healthy but only that I wanted look good, whatever that meant to me at the time.

After college, during the 15 years I worked as a social worker I fell in love with how I was helping people make big changes and turn their lives around for the better. I loved it. Loved seeing people make some incredible changes in their lives, with my help. But even while I was in the best shape of my life and running marathons at that time, I struggled to feel good about my body type.

I was stressed and not enjoying myself because

I believed I needed to make big sacrifices in diet and with exercise to attain some ideal of a body type that in retrospect had NOTHING to do with health.

Within a few years, my life got stressful. I was laid off from the job that I loved, my marriage ended (very amicably and we’re still great friends, but it was still tough), and I was a little homesick living far away from some of my oldest friends where I grew up. And the icing on the “things suck right now” cake? As I got older it was becoming harder to lose weight and reach my fitness goals. Oh yay, how fun! (yes, that’s me rolling my eyes).

At that time I decided to continue my love of helping people and my own journey in the area of health, fitness, and nutrition. As learning and science-based information is

very important to me, I got numerous certifications as Personal Trainer, Health Coach, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, Weight Management Specialist, Plant-Based Nutrition Specialist, and Healthy Aging Specialist. I continue with formal ongoing education and professional development and always will, to stay up to date on the latest research.

But being part of the fitness industry only increased my struggles with my weight even though now I KNEW what was healthy and good for me and what was not. I still compared myself to others even though I had stopped comparing myself to what I now knew were the unrealistic images I had years before.

I filled my life with a lot of distractions to fill the enormous feeling of knowing that there was something better for me - but not yet knowing how to get it. Some days I would feel fit and healthy, and other days I would fall off the health wagon. When I fell off, sometimes I would stay off for a long time. I lacked balance in my life, I was unhappy about my body and I knew I was holding myself back from reaching life goals and dreams through true health and happiness.

I had now reached a point where my health habits and unease with the health and fitness industry was leading me further away from the joy and zest for driving my own life that I used to feel and experience and I didn’t like it one bit. A piece of the fitness and health puzzle was still missing for me.