Happy Wednesday all! Today I am excited to introduce you all to Analena! She is a health and fitness coach filling us in on the realness of becoming healthy. One size definitely does not fit all. She is talking her journey to health and how all of you can join as well. Ready? Let’s go!
Hi, my name is Analena and I am an online Health and Fitness coach… kind of sounds like an introduction of myself at some type of AA meeting, but I couldn’t think of a better opener so if you could just let that one go.
In all reality, what does that mean really? What does an Online health and fitness coach do? Well let me first give you a bit of a insiders look into my background and what got me to this point in my health and fitness.
There isn’t a time in my life where I look back and remember a time where I wasn’t competing in some type of athletic event. I was a competitive swimmer and jump-roper throughout my youth and rowed collegiate crew into University. My high school job was as swim coach and much of my identity was wrapped up in athletics and sports. So I think it’s only natural that people who knew me then as “Analena the athlete” and know me now as “Analena the health and fitness coach” see the connection.
On the flip side, there are also people who know me from my past and say that although I inspire them to get healthy through my online health and fitness presence, it’s hard for them to see how I could empathize with what it means to actually have weight issues. Many wonder if I know what it’s like to gain weight or battle poor eating habits or if I can relate to getting winded from walking up a hill or flight of stairs.
The best way I know to respond to these concerns is through complete honesty and transparency.
Here is what I like to call my “Health Story”, not just my weight loss or fitness story. You’ll see below a comparison photo of my “body” over the last 10 years. I chose these last 10 years because at the young age of 32, the last 10 years represent my 20’s which I think for many women is a point where our bodies go through the first major change. Whether it’s about that infamous “freshman 15” the first years at a legal drinking age, or because you’ve finally entered the real world and have to now cook your own food, your 20’s are a time where young men and women really learn habits that will carry throughout the remainder of your life.
I met my now husband when I was 21 years old. We were both working at a restaurant in Seattle and living the restaurant life; working evening shifts, eating whatever the chef made us, drinking away our tips at the bar next door and sleeping in. Rinse and Repeat.
That lifestyle for both of us had a very quick shelf life and a few years later we were engaged and I decided it was time to utilize that college degree and start my “big girl” career. That was 8 years ago and in the time since we had a wedding, bought two houses, have grown in our careers and most importantly had our amazing daughter (who just turned 4 !). This was also the time in my life that I came to the realization that my “teenage body” and metabolism were no longer what they used to be and my unhealthy habits were starting to catch up with me. It was that undeniable time when you shift from teenage girl to woman.
In this photo you’ll see me at my heaviest, lightest and my healthiest weight. No I’m not going to talk about weight in terms of my number because that is such a subjective thing for everyone. Someone could stand at the weight I was in either the heavy or light picture and be perfectly healthy, while for me I absolutely was not.
I take my current weight as my healthy weight. I classify that as the weight I’ve easily maintained for over a year without restrictions or feeling like I’m not living my life. I eat carbs, healthy fats, vegetables, red meat and fruit. I also enjoy drinks with friends, indulge in great food and workout 5-6 days a week. I keep balance but have learned to be healthier in my choices.
In this first photo, I am more than 50 lbs. over my healthy weight.
This was taken shortly after I was engaged, about 10 months before my wedding.
At this point in my life I couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded, I ate processed foods late into the evening and drank cocktails like only someone in their early 20s could. When it finally hit me that I had let my health spiral out of control and I wanted to “look good” for my wedding I began the slow process of losing weight. This took a long road of personal trainers, gym memberships and hundreds of dollars a month which was all put on a credit cards. Unfortunately, all this money spent still did not give me the tools I needed to understand that what I was putting in my body were not healthy choices.
It took nearly 10 months but I dropped 30 lbs before my wedding and felt beautiful on that day- mostly because I was so happy to be marrying the love of my life and starting this next chapter in my story.
Over the next four years I yo-yo’d in the most common of ways. My weight fluctuated, I had major gut issues, the stress of traveling for work and eating out affected my body and mood. I realized that I needed to take control of my diet and was told that my gut issues were most likely due to a cow’s milk and gluten allergy, so I made the choice to go gluten and dairy free.
Instead of slowly removing the possible issues from my diet I went extreme and didn’t just stop eating gluten and cow’s milk, I stopped all carbs and all dairy entirely. I eliminated drastically which resulted in dropping weight quickly, like 1 month quickly. I got to my lowest weight, about 25 lbs. less than the day I got married, 10 pounds less than my healthy weight now. Now, some may say that a 10 lb. difference isn’t so bad, and in fact if you just were to do a numbers game and compare my height to the weight I was at, I’d have been considered “healthy”. However, I had no strength. I had no muscle tone. My energy was fueled by caffeine and my endurance and stamina were terrible. I wasn’t taking care of my whole self, so no I wasn’t healthy.
Soon after that dramatic weight loss I got pregnant with my daughter. I had a relatively easy and healthy pregnancy, ate well, exercised, and then 12 days past her due my amazing daughter was born via c-section. I, like most working moms went back to work rather quickly and jumped back into a new world where learning how to balance family, a new baby and a career became my goal.
About 6 months after my daughter was born I was unfortunately diagnosed with a thyroid autoimmune disease called Hashimoto’s.
This disease is a lifelong illness and can have a dramatic effect on weight and energy levels as well as other health implications. It was at this point that I knew it was time to take control back of my health and not just rely on my medication to keep me feeling normal.
For several months I went to the gym and worked my booty off training for a half marathon. I lifted weights, tried to find an hour a day to work out on my own as working out with personal trainer was out of the question financially. I was slowly getting healthier and losing the baby weight but the after work gym time was taking away from my child and husband I was still unsure of the direction I should be headed when at the gym or when cooking my meals.
Enter this amazing, life changing world of at home workouts, group accountability, healthy nutrition and guidance.
I had been watching this girl I knew from college post on social media about this program called the 21 Day Fix. What really drew me to her was that she did it after her daughter was born and was looking and feeling great. I also knew that she was like me, a fellow athlete and a working mom who needed to be able to balance her health with everything else.
After a couple months of trolling her social media posts, I reached out to her and committed.
That day I made the life changing choice to join the 21 Day fix and everything changed for me. In 3 weeks, I lost the last of the baby weight, I gained more energy than I’d ever had (despite a disease known to drain you of it) and I was stronger, healthier and learning how to make the proper food choices to satisfy and fuel my body. I learned that you can work out for just 30 minutes, from the comfort of your own home and completely transform your body and achieve your fitness goals. I learned that even this busy working mom can find the time to focus on herself every single day and just how much better of a wife, mother and employee that made me.
What I learned in those three weeks has carried over into the last year of my life.
I have learned how to gain energy from food and not feel like I must restrict myself or binge. I have discovered an amazing superfood shake called Shakeology that has transformed my gut issues and improved my immune system and given me my energy back. I know what balance and stamina feel like again and I feel stronger, happier and healthier than I ever have in my life!
The biggest blessing in all of this is that now I get to pass on that gift to others as a Coach for this and other programs like it. I get to use the power of social media, online coaching and help and show people that they too can forget about elimination diets or crazy supplements.
Daily I coach those on how they can live their life and not feel limited by what they can and can’t eat or the fact that they must work out for an hour a day just to get results. My job is helping people achieve their healthiest and happiest selves in a sustainable and lifelong way. I get to help people EVERY DAY and that gift is immeasurable.
Analena is an online health and fitness coach who specializes in helping busy women and men lose weight, get healthy through nutrition and fitness
, gain energy and ultimately feel better about themselves. She is passionate about helping others find their healthy selves and coaching them through life’s busy messes to carve out time to focus on their health. Analena believes strongly that in order to be the best for everyone else you must first focus on yourself. Her motto is that “you’re not a selfish person for taking care of yourself, just a happier one!”
To join Analena on your health and fitness journey or learn more about what she does as an online coach, please check out her page This Fit Life w/ Analena.
