COACH CHARLOTTE
My Story
As someone that has struggled with my weight from a very young age, I can relate to the burden it brings to all aspects of life. I was never good at anything that involved athletics and after trying and failing countless diets by my mid-twenties I was at my heaviest weight and wits end. I was determined to find a solution to why nothing seemed to work for me.
I started teaching group exercise classes and learned that working out could actually be fun (well at least sometimes), but my food was still a hot mess. I began to take pride in my dedication to exercise which led to running half marathons, trying my hand at a small triathlon and getting really good at teaching spin classes. However, I still wasn’t seeing the results I wanted, so I shifted gears once again. I started being diligent with weights and meticulously counting my macros. My dedication was slowly starting to look more like an addiction. After many tedious months of feeling deprived and anxious about anything consumed, I finally started to see results. This is when the real epiphany came, after pianistically accomplishing my goal I still found flaws, this was still too big or that was not tone enough. The list was of things I didn’t like about my body was different than before, but still just as long.
I started to ask why again, why am I constantly depriving myself and putting my body through such extremes? Meanwhile, my body was starting to revolt, I was constantly sore, tired and in denial of being stressed. The more I pushed my body to keep going under these unrealistic expectations the more it rebelled. It became hard to even move, my arms and legs felt like they were too heavy to lift and no matter how much I slept I still felt exhausted. Searching for answers led me to an unknown auto-immune disease and the diagnosis of PCOS which again started the spiral of why questions.
There had to be a simpler way to be healthy AND happy. Being gluten intolerant, I had dappled with recipes from the Trim Healthy Mama program when I counted macros, but found myself adjusting every recipe to cut out the fat or drop the carbs in order to not feel guilty about consuming it. By this time, I was desperate to try anything and honestly, I didn’t care if the peanut butter had too much fat, I found a plan that said I could eat it, so I did! I plunged in expecting to gain weight and have to be ruled by numbers again but it never happened. Guilt free weeks filled with complex carbs and healthy fats turned into months of food freedom which rolled into years of finally finding balance. I can honestly say this is the happiest AND healthiest my body has ever felt!
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Day to Day Life
I am married to my handsome high school sweetheart and have three overly rambunctious boys (ages 8, 3 and 1). When I am not running around after them or attempting to homeschool, I enjoy quite time (ha, ha, that's funny and like a hunting a unicorn), working out, decorating and spending time outdoors. I love the challenge of turning leftovers into new meals and cutting corners to save time and money in the kitchen.
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Feel free to follow me on Facebook and Instagram where I give encouragement, and tips for success as we travel through this ever-changing journey together!