As much of a self-proclaimed fitness fanatic as I am today, when I was younger, I was anything but. In fact, I was so NOT an active young adult, I remember hating gym class back in junior high because they made us RUN. 
I started getting into fitness in my last year or so of college…I’d moved down to Pensacola FL with my best friend Wendy (telling my parents that I thought it was a good idea to stop school at The Ohio State University and finish it a Pensacola Junior College….good LORD the stupidity of youth. Good thing I finally wised up after a year in Pensacola- I came home to finish college and ended up adding a second major and 3 minors– planning to go to law school at the time.) The time in Pensacola was FUN but it was filled with a LOT of alcohol and a lot of no activity whatsoever and a LOT of CARBS!! Our favorite thing to do was go to Old Country Buffet and I’d fill my hungover plate with mac n cheese, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes…with SWEET TEA on the side! When I moved back to Columbus to finish school I was 178 pounds at 5’5. GULP. 
At that time, the fat-free craze was going down as was STEP AEROBICS. I started checking out lo-fat cookbooks at the library as well as some VCR TAPES (LOL!) of Cher Fitness and Step Reebok. I started a lot of cardio and counting calories. I lost weight and felt good. Then after graduation and beginning work in corporate America, I gained the “corporate 10” or more. I started doing Taebo at home and was OBSESSED – truth is I still LOVE kickboxing. I then started working out with weights and discovered The Firm workouts — which are outstanding and way before their time….then I discovered Cathe Friedrich (who I have since become BFF with and interviewed on the podcast!). For years, I kept working out and loved it. I have never been a person who hates working out and only does it because they want to stay fit: for me it was always both. 
I’d always heard people say that your body changes after age 40 but I thought that sounded so weird- why would our body suddenly revolt at a certain age?? Well – somewhere in my early 40’s, things DID change for me and quite abruptly. My skin changed, my body temperature changed, my weight changed and my ability to lose weight changed, my sleep changed, my mood changed….EVERYTHING CHANGED. For years, my fitness-fanatic mindset led me down a path of trying to force my body into submission. I kept thinking it was ME– that I must be eating too much or not working out hard enough. I spent so much time constantly researching how I could diet better and train MORE — and I did- I kept dieting and restricting and working out more and more and more. Guess what……? My body didn’t respond- it fought me harder. It got worse.  

I would hear others talk about reverse dieting and healing their gut and working on meditation and mindset and all of this other stuff but I didn’t respond to that. The years 2017-2020 for me were so up and down and yet when I started to reflect on that time….and what I did do and what I didn’t get as far as results….I realized, I had been beating myself like a dead horse. No matter how hard it was to admit, WHAT I WAS DOING WAS NOT WORKING. I had interviewed Alex Mazurrco on the podcast about HER journey that was similar to the situation I found myself in: I’d gotten to the point that I was perpetually stuck. I could not lose weight. I didn’t seem to gain much, but I didn’t LOSE weight no matter what. I reached out to Alex and hired her in June 2020- and we began a path of REVERSE DIETING for me for 10 months. I learned that I had to go on a vacation from my overtraining and overdieting and give my body time to HEAL. I had to eat more to strengthen my body and heal my adrenal situation. I stopped all intense cardio for that time and only did weight training or barre type workouts. It was only in April 2021 that I was given the green light by my doctor to DIET again and add back in cardio and working out like I used to – within reason. I’m writing this new About My Health page in April and I can tell you that this first month back is EXCITING. I feel great and my body is responding. The hard path of doing the reverse diet for 10 months and giving up the idea of being able to lose weight– dealing with estrogen dominance issues (they are definitely getting better– my new hormone doctor — Dr. Ruthie Harper is INCREDIBLE!) — LET ME TELL YOU, it was not easy. It was a mind f**k every day. 
I’m proud of myself for sticking with it and earning the right to diet and train hard again. I’ve learned a LOT and this is all now part of my MISSION. My mission is to help other women who have hit this HEALTH WALL– save time and learn the lessons it took ME way too long to learn. I’m here to publish a LOT of free information here, on my blog, on the podcast and on my YouTube channel– to educate you ladies on how to optimize your health by balancing your hormones– making these decades after age 40 — the ones you look forward to. SERIOUSLY! It’s sooo doable- it’s not easy and it’s not cheap –but you can do this. You can absolutely look and feel better in your 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and BEYOND. If this is ringing a bell with you, stick around, I’ve got your back. Subscribe while you are here and tune in everywhere– on the podcast, the YouTube channel, follow me on instagram etc. If you have specific questions you want me to cover on the blog/podcast/YouTube, use the contact me form to send me a note. I look forward to hearing from you. Now let’s get to WORK!