In my 20s I looked fit. I worked at a gym, tried every diet trend that existed, and still spent every week the same way. Restrict all week, binge all weekend, promise myself Monday I'd start over. Then I had my daughter in 2014 and my son in 2018, and none of it worked anymore. I hid behind my kids in family pictures because I didn't want to see myself in them. I tried keto, fasting, more cardio, anything for fast results, and just kept gaining and losing the same 10 pounds.

Getting my nutrition certification in 2018 changed everything. I thought I'd learn about macros. Instead I learned it was never about the diet, it was about the habits I wasn't building outside the gym: how I fueled, recovered, moved, and handled stress when life got busy. I stopped fearing carbs, started lifting with actual purpose, and finally fueled my body instead of fighting it. Six months later I was down 18 pounds, wearing shorts again, and out from behind the camera.

That's how Lifts & Lattes was born, the belief that you can build a body you love without giving up your daily latte or another food you enjoy. Since then I've lost both my parents and gone through a divorce, and the habits I built were the one thing that kept me steady through all of it. Today I'm a full-time teacher, a single mom of two, and a coach with 20 years in this industry, and I help busy moms navigating perimenopause do less of the wrong things instead of more of the right ones, so they can feel strong and confident without starting over every Monday.