Hi! I am Kathie and I decided to become an ACE Certified Personal Trainer for a couple of reasons. As you know, sometimes life throws you curveballs that you don’t expect, but they are generally lessons we learn from. They also may spark another direction your life takes. I took an interest in health and wellness and began reading all of the information I could get my hands on when I went back to college in my 50’s. Unfortunately, during my years in school full-time while working full-time, didn’t leave me much time to prepare healthy meals or exercise. I graduated 40 pounds heavier than when I started. At my annual physical, I discovered my cholesterol was high too. I had read enough by this time that I knew I didn’t want to take medicine to lower it. I asked my doctor to give me 6 months to lower it on my own.
I started riding my bike and walk/running at least 5 days a week as well as changing my diet to more nutrient dense foods instead of fast and convenient foods. I never enjoyed cooking, but because I was doing this to better my health, I enjoyed being creative with colorful foods. My efforts paid off. In six months, I had my blood work done and was proud to see that I had dropped my levels by 40 points! This showed me that nutrition and exercise can reverse disease. I just kept going. I became stronger, more aerobically fit and eventually lost a total of 50 pounds and reduced my waist by 10 inches!
Another reason I was drawn to a career where I could help people become healthy, is that I lost my mom to a long battle of cancer. It is so sad to see someone you love have to go through so much pain and misery during their last years. I hope that I can help others to prevent disease by staying on a healthy path through exercise and nutritionally dense eating to keep the immune system strong. Staying healthy will give you quality of life until the day you are called home.
The takeaway for me, is that we all have a choice. We can take control of our health by being proactive, or we can take a pill to suppress the symptoms of the disease instead of addressing the root cause. The inflammation started at your cellular level. The only way to reverse it is to feed your body what it needs and exercise instead of being sedentary. This formula works for everyone! If I can do it, so can you!
