Losing weight, eating well, getting fit, feeling strong, having a spring in your step, reducing aches, gaining confidence, feeling clear and energetic, and sleeping well.
Fitness and nutrition is plagued with confusing and conflicting information – carbs make you fat, crash diets and cleanses work, cardio is best for fat loss, weight training is best for fat loss, hormones trump calorie math, heavy weights make women bulk up, eating fat is bad for you, don’t eat carbs after 6pm, crunches and sit-ups are best for a toned stomach, more crunches will burn fat from your belly, egg yolks are bad for you, you can’t overeat a healthy food, you need sports drinks when you workout, avoiding “bad” foods is the only way to lose weight. NONE of these are true!
We get caught up in black and white thinking, thanks to the diet industry, and don’t stop to pay attention to what works best for our own bodies. We look externally for plans and rules that will keep us on the right path, rather than learning to pay attention to our body’s signals. When we inevitably stop following the plans and rules, because life doesn’t match up often with rigid rules, we feel like we’ve failed again and can’t get it right. We think it can only be.. dinners at restaurants OR a diet.. working out every day OR waiting until we have time to do it every day.. enjoying a candy bar and failing OR avoiding the candy bar and succeeding. These are all myths as well! Diets, cleanses, and food rules (even those food rules we don’t consciously decide to follow.. just the beliefs in our heads guiding how we think, operate, and feel around food) lead us to believe we’ll only achieve our goals by making a big change, and mistakenly thinking we have to make the big change all at once and white knuckle our way through until we get it right. It will never work that way. Big change only comes from gradual small changes being practiced over time. Just like we learn to play an instrument or speak another language with consistent practice until it becomes more second nature, we learn to relate to food in a healthier way and naturally make better choices with practice as well.
With nutrition coaching, I’ll guide you through slow, manageable, sustainable change that fits into the life you already lead, with the habits you already have. With diets, there’s an end point, where you’re left without any mental energy (willpower). Truly ingrained habits take no mental energy.. ever drive home without remembering it? .. mindlessly brush your teeth while thinking about your day? Naturally thin people aren’t magically good at restricting themselves and being “good”. They simply have ingrained habits such as stopping when satisfied, enjoying/desiring a lighter, less full feeling, not stressing over what they’re eating by labeling foods good or bad, not rushing through meals out of underlying guilt and denial, naturally balancing heavier and lighter meals based on appetite, savoring every bite, tending toward other de-stressors besides food, not allowing others to influence what, when and how much they eat, and finally, overindulging at times without guilt or worry.
With fitness coaching, I’ll guide you through exercises that help you reduce aches and imbalances, meet your goals, and increase your confidence. Any amount of movement is helpful and makes a difference in how we feel, even a 1-second stretch. I’m prepared to give you only what you’re confident you can do consistently, about 80% of the time. There’s always room to build, but no need to lose a baseline level of feeling good due to an overwhelming workout schedule you don’t feel like sticking to. I’ll help you find movement that balances your mobility, flexibility, and strength while keeping time, stress levels, enjoyment, and fitness level in check.
I offer nutrition and fitness coaching, fitness classes, and incentive programs. I’d love to work with you and help you find what makes you feel AWESOME! Check out my testimonials to see how others have felt and/or contact me here if you have any questions.
Melanie
(707) 853-2831
mel@melzafit.com
All About Me
I was born in Hillsdale, MI and grew up in central IL (Cropsey – I dare you to find it on a map – and then Peoria). I got my bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign (UIUC) and moved to Concord, CA and later Benicia, CA after graduating. I worked for Club One Corporate Fitness as a trainer and then a manager until I had kids, but kept up with my acquired Exercise Physiologist certification (through ACSM – American College of Sports Medicine) and started teaching fitness classes regularly in 2016 (other than a little dabbling when my kids were young). I added a certification as a UJam Dance Fitness Instructor as well and then later became a level 2 Certified Nutrition Coach (as of April 2022, through Precision Nutrition – a company I was very impressed by from an ASCM conference I attended in 2015).
I currently provide fitness and nutrition coaching, both online and in person, run in-person group fitness classes, and host online incentive programs and challenges. I’ve been passionate about health and fitness for over 25 years and am always eager to learn and apply more. I’m married with 3 kids (ages 16, 13, and 10) and am a breast cancer survivor. I love to gather with friends and family to dance, hike, bike, ski, skate, swim, stretch, travel, adventure travel, “gymnasticize” (aka do handstands, cartwheels, and backbends), and occasionally things like zip-line, trapeze, ropes courses, and via ferrata. I also love to organize and make spreadsheets (ask anyone I’ve been in a car pool or done an elaborate trip with). Some of the crazier things I’ve done include an 88-mile skating event, the Half Dome hike 14 times (and I’ll go 14 more, let me know if you wanna go!), a 94-story stair climbing race, and a 210-mile 3-day bike tour annually from age 9-17 (though I did not complete every mile every year, but the effort counts!). I owe most of those adventures to both my Dad and older brother, but the love of gymnastics, swimming and organizing to my Mom.
When it comes to nutrition and more specifically my relationship with food and eating, something I’ve delved into more recently compared to exercise and fitness, I’ve noticed an interesting mind-set shift with slow and steady practice that I didn’t even comprehend was a thing to achieve, yet it’s made all the difference. I started off thinking it was revolutionary that I could affect my decision about how much to eat by simply asking myself why/what I was thinking (and had to stop and actually have conversations in my head, something that’s a lot more automatic now, but it took time). Basically, getting conscious of my thoughts to see what was causing me to decide to eat past fullness or rush or eat when bored or stressed. I now realize that “eating past fullness” is still a thing, like it is for anyone.. no one is going to never eat past fullness ever, but it’s on a whole different level than it was a few years ago. I’m slowly operating more and more like the “naturally thin” without so much effort, guilt, and anguish about it. When you take the time to practice tuning in and noticing things (and importantly, staying curious when you don’t do it well rather than getting down on yourself), you uncover thoughts around food and eating that you never realized were there and it makes a profound difference in your choices. Just see the testimonials from my nutrition coaching group!
Join me on the journey to better energy, clarity, confidence, and a more relaxed, fulfilling relationship with food and exercise that leads to a healthy body weight even when life is imperfect.
MelzaFit Training 