T H E M I S S I O N
I started my fitness journey as a very unhappy overweight girl who decided she didn’t want to live the way she was living anymore. I knew I had to do something to get healthier. Among other things, I joined a gym and committed to going everyday-even when I didn’t feel like it. I modified my food intake and made smarter decisions with my food choices and I started to lose weight. It took me a year, but I lost 120 lbs.!
My life was transformed! I knew I had to share and help others get healthy with nutrition and exercise. I completed a number of health and fitness certifications to do just that. I started working as a Group Fitness Instructor in the gym that I joined in the year previous. I was on a mission to help as many people as possible.
What started out as a personal mission to lose weight turned into a movement to help women learn to love themselves again with the help of nutrition modification, exercise, support, and community.
My personal experiences fuel my love for fitness and I hope to encourage others to keep taking one step at a time even if they don’t feel like it. I have dedicated my time and energy to specialize in connecting with my clients to guide them on their journey towards their own health and fitness. I’m seeing women change the way they see themselves!
Every class or program I took to build a healthy relationship with exercise was about burning calories, getting smaller, and sculpting "problem areas." It was the complete opposite of what I was trying to accomplish in my endeavor to build my self-worth beyond my appearance. I began dancing just to feel a rush of happiness. I began doing yoga to feel more connected and at peace. I began researching and applying "How to learn to love yourself," and my entire life changed. I had found the key to taking back my power from the pressures and expectations we place on ourselves and each other, and I knew I couldn't keep it to myself. I had found my purpose, and I created The Studio to help other women discover their value, worth, and spirit through movement and music just like I did.
Be Free Fitness is unlike any other program you will find. We won't try to entice you with promises of sexy legs or a smaller waistline. We recognize how detrimental those thoughts are to our mental health and progress in truly living our lives to the fullest. WE ARE SO MUCH MORE THAN OUR APPEARANCE. Our classes are designed with the intention of giving you back pieces of yourself we all tend to lose as we experience different stages of life. Whether that missing thing is confidence after years of negative self-talk and battling a poor body-image, the loss of our true selves after attaching our identities to our children, careers, and significant others, connections within our relationships after feeling unworthy of another’s affection, friendship after the responsibilities of adulthood overwhelm our time, strength after being knocked down and experiencing failure, or freedom to dance wildly and just be exactly who we are without the fear of judgment, we are here for ALL OF IT. Each class provides something different, and NONE of it has anything to do with taking up less space in this world.
At The Studio, our emphasis is not on what our bodies look like, but rather, an appreciation for what these miraculous things do for us. You won't hear the instructors mentioning bikini season or how many reps are needed to burn the calories in last night's dessert. We focus on “big picture purpose” like being able to ride bikes with our grandchildren, dancing until we take our last breath, release from stress and depression, and keeping our brains sharp and our bodies strong for as long as we live. We will never encourage goals of visible abs or try to motivate you with destructive language like "love handles" or "bat wings." We WILL, however; encourage you to push yourself to your own personal best so that you can experience the confidence and self-belief that comes with doing really hard things. We WILL remind you that you are beautiful and worthy EVERY STEP of the way. We will give you permission to get ALL the moves wrong and not apologize for it. We will smile at you and love you and SEE YOU for the amazing human you already are.
Welcome to The Studio, babe. Let's move and sweat and FEEL AMAZING!