Kari Kinsey: "Healthier, Happier and More Confident Through Health and Fitness"
I am a former home-ec teacher turned certified personal trainer, group fitness instructor, certified weight management specialist and a health and fitness coach with Team Beachbody. I know it sounds fancy schmancy, but the truth is that despite being a health and fitness professional, I am in reality a hot mess mama to 3 totally adorable, but totally crazy little dudes. 90% of the time you will find me with yogurt hand prints on yesterday’s yoga pants, crazy hair that’s supposed to be one of those cute “messy buns”, loudly counting to 3 over and over and trying to remember if the dishes in the dishwasher are clean or dirty. Fitness and my fitness business are what keep me sane with the insanity of motherhood!
The bottom line is that helping others feel freaking amazing inside and out & fully enjoy their healthy lives is my thing. Besides having 3 little boys clean up their toys, hear them giggle nonstop and tell me that I’m the prettiest and best mommy in the world, not much else makes me happier than seeing others gain confidence and self-love and crush their goals. Helping others become their best inside and out is what drives me as a coach! BUT it wasn’t always this way. My goodness, it certainly was NOT!
We all have a story… mine started many moons ago when I was just a wee teenager. Despite playing spots and being active, I started to pack on the weight. So I cut way back on eating and started exercising more, but despite that, the weight kept coming, my clothes got tighter and my self esteem got lower and lower. We knew something wasn’t right so off to the doctor’s office we went. Come to find out, I had something called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) . PCOS is a hormonal disorder and I was told that I’d likely always struggle with my weight, with acne, facial hair, thinning hair, irregular periods/infertility and that I was more prone to all the super scary diseases. After hearing that I literally thought my life was OVER (I totally wasn’t one of those dramatic teens, obviously). BUT after delivering all that awful news, the doctor also told me something that gave me a glimmer of hope… he said that many of the symptoms of PCOS could be overcome with diet and exercise. So after feeling sorry for myself for a bit, I made up my mind that I would do just that; I would overcome my PCOS. I would not let PCOS define me. I vowed that I would FIGHT it.
Truthfully, At first I tried fighting my weight in some really unhealthy ways; many fad diets, weight-loss shakes, weight-loss pills and starvation. I really had no idea what healthy meant or what I was supposed to do, so I dabbled in everything. But nothing really worked or made me feel good. The weight just wouldn’t come off and I was obsessive about it and very unhappy. In my mind, food was an enemy, working out was a chore and I only did it because I disliked the person in the mirror. Hate drove my eating choices and drove me to exercise. I hated my body for betraying me, I hated looking in the mirror and I hated that I had to eat lettuce and run on a treadmill. Hate drove me and I was not happy.
Loooong story short, with age I also got wiser (thankfully) and started to really dive in and learn what it meant to be healthy, what foods were best for my body and I started to explore new types of exercise. That lead me to find Beachbody, which has 100% been the game-changer for me. Beachbody gave me the support I needed, it helped me find strength I had forgotten I had, and I started to find the happy, bubbly ME again. I started to view food as amazing fuel, not as an enemy. I started to exercise to be healthy rather than just to be skinny. I really learned what good nutrition meant and actually started to feel in control of my PCOS for the first time. I began to love my body for what it did rather than just how it looked. I began to really work on becoming a better me on the inside too and not get so caught up on just the physical. I began to really love me! LOVE began to drive me to do these things instead of hate… And that changed EVERYTHING! I have found something that finally worked for me and I want to shout it from the rooftops! My mission is to help others find strength, happiness and themselves again, just like I have.
We all have a story. We all have a past. No matter where you’ve been or where you are now, you have the power to create your own healthy, happy future.