As a kid I was always active and had way too much energy for my own good. My dad would put me in sports when I was young and my two sports growing up were football and baseball. As I got older and into my teens, I began to get lazier and not engage in sports, although I was thin or as I’d like to say “skinny fat”. So how did I get to where I’m at today? Well I’ll try to make a long story short and sweet. 

My fitness journey didn’t start until about early 2010. My dad’s girlfriend, my cousin, and I made an agreement to go to a local gym and get “fit” one day. I was all for it because I liked being active, it would’ve been nice to have a ripped body, and I had never stepped foot into an actual gym before. My cousin ended up bailing but my dad’s girlfriend and I signed up for a two-week trial. I didn’t know a thing about weights and was more of a cardio person so I started with the group fitness classes they offered at the gym. I took advantage of those two weeks to take all and as many classes, dragging my dad’s girlfriend with me whenever I could. That’s where I fell in love with a cardio kickboxing class called Group Fight. I loved it so much that a year later I went and got my certificate to teach the program, thus breaking in as one of the youngest instructors at that gym.  

Wrapping up with high school, I also worked at a nearby Tae Kwon Do center unintentionally. The new owner had passed out flyers and trial passes at the local middle schools in my town where my dad’s girlfriend gained the idea to enroll her kids. The owner had us join in on the trial as well where he found a liking to me. He asked me to continue with his program and will help me along the way. I loved using my feet and doing all kinds of cool tricks and kicks so I ended up agreeing to work under him, dipping my toes into another aspect of fitness I began to enjoy.  

I enrolled in a community college not far from home to pursue Exercise Science and found another job because I couldn’t fulfill some of the requirements for the TKD center at the time. Life began to settle in. Things changed. Time was different. But in that time, I came across all kinds of stuff to do such as Zumba, CrossFit, and Insanity. I also enrolled to Bryan University Online, where I ended up obtaining my Bachelors in Exercise Science & Professional Personal Training. I began to purchase some home equipment to use since I knew nothing of weight lifting and began to apply the tools I was learning in school. I mean, what but better success story than yourself right?  

As I got more familiar and comfortable with strength training, I began to take my workouts outside with using equipment and the environment around me, got a membership at Planet Fitness for access to more toys and no time restriction, and explored different gym locations and classes with different instructors. I wasn’t sure at this point if my journey so far was for my own personal gain or if I really wanted take everything I’d done and share it with others. 

Skipping a few years to closer today I had worked in several gyms teaching and personal training. Fitness just wasn’t a passion; it was pretty much becoming my life. I enjoyed manipulating my workouts in different ways that I would take that approach and apply it to the group fitness room as well as the training floor. Along my journey I met a couple of trainers at a gym nearby my hometown that had newly opened. Through our experience training alongside one another, we made the decision to open up a place of our own to help others achieve their fitness goals as we had achieved ours. A little over two months later we had built Energized Fitness and Training from the ground up. A place where people can come work and achieve their fitness goals at the pace and direction that works best for them; from bootcamps to group classes to one-on-one training. 

I don’t plan to compete in a competition any time soon but I’m willing to keep an open mind on the idea. I’m open to new experiences and I believe a lot can be learned from it. My goal now is to just get better. With the crazy schedule, my workouts vary a lot throughout the week despite what I have planned. I try to get in some strength training at least 3-5 days in the week, same with my cardio. With six years of weightlifting under my belt, I’m always looking for new challenges and ways to improve. 

When John approached and asked me to work with him, I was a little taken by it. I was always open to modeling and taking fitness into a new direction but I knew I looked nothing like what John has worked with, so I was curious why my body type. Because my body type was different, John felt I had something different to offer and wanted to help bring that out with his camera. My first shoot with John was fun and we got some great shots in! I look forward to working with John more in the future and taking more steps in a new direction.