Growing up, I had an affinity for some sports and certainly for running. As I entered my adolescent years, I ran quite a bit to combat my early depression and struggles. At the age of 12 I began purging, starting a cycle that would last 20 years. Through high school and college, I was a competitive athlete, enjoying my precious time as a lacrosse team member and the camaraderie that it brought. I also found this time to be incredibly helpful for me to stay focused and as a retreat from the constant demands of bulimia. After college, I moved back to Massachusetts and began working in a catering company, and my bulimia was again in full force – and so was my exercise. I was 40 pounds heavier than I currently am, starving all day and bingeing at night, eating way too much of all the wrong things. In 2005, I graduated Simmons graduate school of social work with my masters degree. I decided then to lose my weight the right way; I added in small meals throughout the day and tempered my nighttime binges and began dropping weight easily as I added weight lifting to my regime.

Following graduation, my plan was to work in hospitals and I loved my time there, learning invaluable lessons from end of life and palliative care patients and their families. I still maintained a very high level of fitness during this time because it had always been a very positive outlet for me and over the years; and I had learned extensive information from personal trainers. In 2009 after having my second baby in under a year and a half, I decided to try to go back to work. I went back to the hospital setting and struggled with the incomparable pain and loss I was seeing on a daily basis and with the guilt of missing my babies. Through my new lens as a mother, I knew I needed a positive change.

Shortly after I left that job, I was approached by a friend at my local gym who complimented me on regaining my body and muscle tone so quickly after my children. I exercised during both pregnancies until the day I delivered and maintained a healthy weight gain throughout. I began training her, using the tools that I had learned over the years and simultaneously went back to eating disorder treatment to focus on my permanent recovery and my compulsions to exercise.

Serendipitously a few months later, a good friend asked me to join his team at the Get In Shape For Women franchise. Once I joined get in shape for women as their trainer, I earned my ACE personal training certification and I was hooked. In the years that I worked there, I learned exponentially more than I had already known about the engineering of the body, how it works, and training techniques for various types of people. I also learned that this is where I belong. The love and energy I felt when working was a real eye opener for me; something that I loved, something I was good at, something where I could still be helping people improve their quality of life! I am eternally grateful for what I learned there.

I left Get In Shape For Women after two years to begin the Ripped venture and create my own vision. Ripped is the product of the many years of my own struggles and education, and I hope for all of my clients to be able to truly know that if I can do it, you can do it! Finding your best self is a lifetime of work – start with me and let me show you how.