About Me

Hi! I’m Alyssa. I was always athletic growing up. I was a figure skater and gymnasts. For fun I would golf, inline skate, and water ski if I wasn’t riding horses, climbing trees or racing my brother. As a teenager I started practicing Pilates. 

I have always loved to help others. I started out as an insurance agent. I did well enough to become supervising manager and have my team of agents. I didn’t like when some corporate policies changed and I decided to switch gears and get my CNA license and help those in nursing homes. I found I really enjoyed home health. In home health, among the many things I did, I was able to tag along and in some cases assist in physical therapy, aquatic classes, and chair stretch classes. I saw first hand the benefits these classes had on my patients. As the person assisting those in transfers and activities of daily living, I could feel the maintenance, build, or loss of muscles from attending or missing classes. I would get the extra workout if they didn’t get all their workouts. I realized through my time doing home health that exercise and nutrition is how you can stay independent as long as possible and be as independent as possible when you are fighting to make or keep your body doing what you want it to. 

As much as I loved home health, I love being a mom more. I was blessed to be able to be a stay at home mom. Even as a stay at home mom I was called into ministry and love to write nonfiction apologetics works. I went to college and got my degree in ministry. God is so great that even though I didn’t see her coming, God arranged for me to finish my degree a month before I gave birth to my daughter (my second child).
 

While I was pregnant with her, and living in my third floor apartment, hanging out with my son, and going to school online, I gained 100lbs. My hormones were going crazy and I was eating poorly (bad quality and bad portions). I know that’s bad for being pregnant but I didn’t know as much about nutrition at the time. Cravings can be crazy when pregnant. For the first time, I was not active. My whole life I was active. It never mattered too much what I ate.
 

At that time, I was sedentary and pregnant. I didn’t want to go up and down steep flights of apartment stairs especially after I was heavier and more exhausted in general. Also covid was going on. I wasn’t going out like I used to. Truly everything was harder to do from getting up off the ground, to doing laundry, to running to get something out of the car. Movement is harder with extra weight to move. Go figure!

I loved clothes and fashion. I was the girl with a heel collection others drooled over. That is extremely hard when clothes don’t look right on you and heels are physically just not happening. Even still I was in denial. I was smart enough not to be. I had gained more than 20-30lbs but I was unable to face the facts that I truly knew. I would tell myself, I’m just pregnant. I’ll lose it after I have her. Unfortunately, nothing changed even after I had my daughter.
 

I was six months postpartum and I was still 100lbs overweight. I hated it! It was extremely hard for me. I broke down. I was crying so hard just so disappointed and ashamed of myself. I hit a point. Something snapped. I finally fully faced the facts. That I really knew all along. All of them! Even the devastating ones such as skin isn’t the same after 100lbs. I remember thinking I will not stay like this. I can’t stay like this. I can’t do this anymore. I have to take a picture. This has to be a before photo because I absolutely refuse to stay like this. I put on some workout clothes not to workout but to take a before picture.
 

I actually put work into the kitchen before the gym. I was learning how to be healthy because I didn’t want to yo-yo diet and moving was much harder than before. I had seen to many crash with fad diets. I wanted to be healthy and stay healthy. I have to thank my husband for helping me learn more about making healthier choices with food. I wish I could say six months later, I was in shape! That’s not how it went for me. I slowly put work into the kitchen and into myself and life and then the gym. All these small and slow changes have completely transformed my life.
 

I was born with GERD (a form of acid reflux) and I have a predisposition to epilepsy (I’m not epileptic!) and I was showing signs of pre diabetes when 100lbs overweight. I learned how to control that with my nutrition. I don’t reflux anymore. I don’t worry as much about seizures. I am no where close to diabetes or pre diabetes. I had shoulder, back, and knee pain. I learned how to fix that with exercise. I can move and wake up without pain. I am no longer lethargic all the time. I have tons of energy! I’m not hungry all the time. With proper nutrition and exercise I am no longer struggling with depression and anxiety. The connection your body and mind have is amazing! 

I don’t want anyone remotely around where I was to have to stay that way if they don’t to.   We all have to give ourselves grace, love, and forgiveness along the way as we would give someone else. We all have the power to take steps and make choices to be and do better. Sometimes we lack the knowledge or support to be effective in making that change. 

Knowledge is power and without it, we fail. I wanted to learn what I could in order to help others feel better and look better while enjoying themselves along the way. I decided to get my certifications in personal training, nutrition, senior fitness, Pilates, strength and conditioning, and group fitness training. While I have some of these, I am still working on others. If I am not taking care of my kids or house, working, or working out, I’m studying. At least until summer when I can sneak away and paddle board or skate!