I’m excited to introduce you to my friend Angela. In the world of BeachBody, I guess she’s my grandma (my coach’s coach) and she has such an incredible heart for other women. Here’s her story.
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I’ve always been interested in fitness, (I mean like since Kindergarten) which was a benefit to me, because since early childhood it been very easy for me to gain weight. I kept it under control for the most part by exercising, and in my late teens I began to learn A LOT more about nutrition and applied it. Fast forward a dozen or so years to when I became pregnant. I had a very difficult pregnancy. I was put on months of exercise restriction and eventually bed rest. I also suffered a huge tragedy during my pregnancy, (the sudden loss of my dad just before my baby shower, followed the next month by my husband being diagnosed with cancer) which kept my blood pressure elevated to such a degree that it was dangerous to just walk around. During this time, I put on an unbelievable amount of weight.
It wasn’t that I forgotten what I had learned about nutrition, but most of the foods that I knew to eat to keep my weight down made me really sick during my pregnancy. So there I was, a new mom, a Certified Personal Trainer who loved fitness and nutrition, weighing 196 lbs. The funny thing about it is, I only had a couple of days of feeling really self-conscious about it. I didn’t know if I would ever lose all of the weight but that was not my focus at the time.
God will often bring something good out of something devastating, (beauty for ashes). The good that I received then was to learn what is truly important in life which will in turn make you feel comfortable in your own skin right then and there before you have reached any of your goals. My husband was alive and his cancer was gone, I had a beautiful daughter, and I seemed to be getting healthier all the time.
That was enough.
I decided to try my best, and let my body settle in on a happy weight, and as long as my numbers were good internally (cholesterol, nutrient levels), then it was no longer going to be about a certain weight or a certain clothing size…my goal was to be as healthy as I could be to raise my girl and be a loving wife. The weight came off slowly, and the exercise took at least a good month before I could complete a workout that was at one time very easy for me, but I had a desire in me that was so much more than about appearance. It made the desire to want to help others light that fire in them as well even stronger. The fact that today, I get to wake up and be a fitness instructor, a fitness and nutrition coach, and especially a wife, mom & friend is a blessing that I hope to never take for granted.
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” Hebrews 10:24
Now, my “why” is a little sharper: I don’t want another woman in this world to not be able to fully enjoy the present and the memory making times in her life because she doesn’t feel good about herself. As a coach, if we tackle that area together, understanding that none of us are perfect, and keep ourselves focused on the One who made us…the rest falls into place. If we don’t address the internal issues along the way then when we reach our fitness and nutrition goals, something else could be there to mentally hold us back or cause us to go right back to square one.
Besides that, the external fades and I want to spread joy while I’m here, the whole time I’m here, which requires an upward and outward focus. So for me, faith & fitness go hand in hand. If you can daily remind yourself of Whose you are, who you are (the daughter of GOD, the Creator of all of the beauty around us) and get that so deep down inside of you, you may just find yourself wanting to scream that same truth into the soul of every other woman you encounter.
Your passion, your “job” may become all about making sure that the other women around you know exactly Whose she is, and who she is and that she has worth and value that goes WAY beyond a number on a scale or a clothing size. We can only do that successfully if we are committed to fight the battle to remember that ourselves. I don’t always get that right, in fact, I get it wrong more than I would care to admit, but fortunately teaching/coaching is the greatest source of accountability for me. That is where I’m at. That is my why & my passion, to help every woman find her Happy Weight in the literal sense of the word, and in terms of the burdens she carries when she doesn’t know Who is available to carry them for her.
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Angela is a Certified Personal Trainer and Independent Beachbody Coach who loves teaching Zumba and CIZE. She lives in Texas with her family and is inspired by Matthew 11:28-30 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” You can connect with Angela on Facebook.
