CNU Fit’s Office Manager Alyssa recently finished her nutrition coaching certification to serve CNU Fit in addition to her Office Manager duties now that she has increased capaicty while living in Germany.
We are excited for her and wanted her to share a little bit about her story and why she decided to become a nutrition coach:
I think the first time I realized how unhealthy I was as a kid was when my dad had told me that he used to be afraid for my health and that path I was going on.
I grew up on a traditional kid diet: pasta, potatoes, meat, and ramen (with a few veggies thrown in here and there). It wasn’t until 7th grade that I really started feeing self consious about my body. I was bigger than most of the girls I knew, and we had done some experiements in science class that required us to take our weight down and I was worried about the other kids seeing the number on the scale. I knew I had to make a change but wasn’t sure how to do it, considering neither of my parents would be considered “healthy.”
The summer before highschool I was determined to lose some weight. I knew from TV that highschool could be really challenging and I didn’t want to make it more hard on myself, so every day for an hour I would play Dance, Dance Revolution and I ended up slimming down a little bit. I still felt self-consious though. The friends I made were much smaller than I was and my clothes didn’t fit me like the other girls did. As I got older I started going to the gym and monitoring what I was eating, and people started to take notice.
The recognition of my hard work felt good and I wanted to learn more about health, so as I transitioned to college I started reading a bit about nutrition here and there and became the most confident I had ever been when it came to my body. I was (and still am) determined to live a healthy lifestyle because I saw how it impacted other people in my life like my mom and dad. Both were overweight and I saw how much that impacted their ability to move and do normal day to day stuff. I didn’t want to be like that.
Flash forward a few years, I’m married and my husband is in the Air Force. I applied to be the Office Manager at CNU Fit because I knew I could both utilize my skills as a writer, but also learn more about health and fitness...and boy was I right! Watching the impact that Evans was able to make in our clients’ lives was truly inspiring. I loved listening to him talk about behavior change and how important that was to a sustainable healthy lifestyle, along with the more sciencey part of nutrition, and the smiles on the faces of our clients once they reached a goal was amazing.
When my husband and I learned we were going to be stationed in Germany next, I knew I wanted to stay on at CNU Fit in some capacity...I just didn’t know what kind. After brainstorming with Evans we came up with a game plan and I tinkered with the idea of becoming a coach. My favorite part of my job was interacting with the clients and helping them whenever I could...something I couldn’t necessarily do while overseas. That’s when becoming a nutrition coach became a part of the conversation.
I am so excited to be able to serve our clients in this new light and learn even more about nutrition and how to help people create a healthier lifestyle in a sustainable way. I’m so grateful to Evans for presenting this opportunity to me and supporting me through the move with encouraging words and insight! I can’t wait to start serving!
