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Living Wellness

I signed up for massage school on a whim; I'd never had a massage and had no idea how endless the possibilities in the field were but my wife was signing up for school and I was jealous. "If you get a new career I want one too!"

I am incredibly lucky my leap of faith didn't end with a splat! Not only did I fall in love with the field but I discovered a talent I didn't know I had. Not to toot my own horn (toot toot!) but I'm actually a pretty good therapist, or so I'm told.

I have been a Licensed Massage Therapist for over 8 years and with each day I'm more passionate about my career. Joining Weight Watchers shortly after I started practicing as an LMT opened my eyes to how integrated this entire wellness journey is. To live a healthy, balanced life we need to focus on habits, not just eating at a calorie deficit. Weight Watchers has taught me a lot about balance it has taught me how to focus on things Beyond The Scale. It has taught me to be more mindful, it's given me confidence, it's given me security and about 2 years ago it gave me yet another career option! I became a receptionist for WW in June 2016 and a lead my first meeting in December 2016!

I love both of my jobs and I feel extremely blessed to be have found 2 that I love so much. I also love how they seem so different yet they compliment each other so well. Weight Watchers helps us tackle our mindset about food, moving more and self care. It is so much more than a diet. I'm proud to be part of this lifestyle company and proud to promote healthy, balanced living. Living well isn't eating a balanced diet, stress management or moving more; it's all three!

If we only focused on eating well and at a deficit despite our attempts to do everything "right" we might not get what we want because our bodies are stressed. Massage can help with that but being relaxed doesn't mean a healthy weight; we need to manage our food for that. Then of course we have to factor in exercise because that's good for your body and your mind, but if we don't properly fuel our bodies we won't be able to get the most of our workouts and if we are maxing our workouts through proper nutrition we need massage to help us recover! We can have 1 without the other but it creates imbalance. Ideally to live our best lives we will embrace the Triple Threat: food, activity, stress management.

All three components of wellness are essential for living our best lives. I'd love to be a Personal Trainer someday, I've been saying that for years! I am not going to pursue that right now, I'm OK with that decision because I know that someday I'll actually follow through. I'm laying the stepping stones to making this Triple Threat concept a life style and a career but I'm approaching it with caution, slowing down, breathing, planning and not just jumping off the cliff hoping I'll fly like I've done several times. Yes, it's worked out in the past but there have been plenty of times that it hasn't and I'm kind of like a cat on my 8th life...I'd like to keep one in my back pocket, you know...just in case!

Observing how stress (physical and mental) effects my body as well as paying close attention to my food and fitness has been a fascinating experience. Though I don't have it all figured out (wouldn't that be nice!) I can clearly see that picking ONE area to focus on will not work. My approach has to be holistic.


I used to think that the more stressed I was, the more important I was. Ok, sometimes I still struggle to remind myself that stress doesn't equal importance. It's a hard belief to change and I'm not sure when I developed this unhealthy idea of what "good work ethic" meant but I know that I used to be very lazy and lax about money and adult responsibilities until one day I started working like a crazy person constantly paranoid we would go broke and feeling like I needed to do more, more, more. More massage! More WW! I kept asking for more work when I knew I couldn't take it on but promising myself I'd figure out how to manage it all. No surprise here, I can't!

Someday I will have balance. Someday I will figure out how to have the things I WANT and not feel guilty for them. It's a work in progress but I am working on it. I am building a bridge to get me from where I am to where I want to be. I see where I want to be as an island too far to swim too. I'm standing on the shore looking at it right in front of me but it's too far to get to. It's going to take time and work to build my bridge so instead of gathering materials I am just standing on the shore longingly. No more. I'm taking matters into my own hands and I'm going after what I want!

It's going to take a lot of confidence, a lot of belief in myself, a lot of trial and error and I'm OK with that. I have to be because the alternative is standing here on the shore longing for something I can see but can't reach.

I can and I will. One baby step at a time.



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