I grew up in Brazil. My mom raised 3 kids on her own. My father never spent a night in my home and technically, I was a bastard kid—yes, he had his other family when I was conceived. Needless to say, mom played the role for both and she did her best. I carry a few HUGE bags filled with crap from childhood. They stand in my way to awesomeness. I work on understanding them so I can let them go. WHY? I know I can do more, be more. I am far from reaching my potential. I want to discover the best version of myself. It’s hard work, it’s deep work, but I am up for it.
I started to work at very young age. At 12 years old, I got my first bicycle and I paid making moccasin shoes by hand. I worked on a mini-market, bakery, supermarket. At 16 I landed a job in a manufacturing company and worked as a HR Assistant and moved up to Import/Export Analyst – my dream job at the time. I was going to college for that.
In 1996, I left Brazil, college, a great job, family and boyfriend for an 18-month internship in Atlanta, GA. Well, that was ~25 years ago.
I worked for great companies, had great bosses who believed in me. I worked in International Business, Accounting, and Finance. I finished my undergraduate degree in Finance. In 2010, I earned an Executive MBA from Emory University in 2010. Shortly after, I had a come to Jesus’ conversation, I didn’t want to follow my mom’s footprint health-wise, I wanted to age beautifully and independently, and changed my health, lifestyle, and career 180 degrees.
I started my health journey in 2011. In the next few years, I become obsessed with topics of health. I overcame prediabetes, chronic digestive issues, and eating disorder. I discovered a new ME by applying the knowledge I was learning. I become so curious about the body that eventually I left a successful career in Corporate Finance, making over $100,000 annually, to be of service to others.
Financially, that was a TERRIBLE decision. At the same time, the company I was working at wasn’t doing well. My position was going to be eliminated. I had to make a decision of starting ALL over at a new company and take the leap of faith and try this thing. Be entrepreneur, something I had never aspire to be.
In early 2015, I let my corporate career go. What can I say about my journey since….
It’s very challenging, rewarding, super difficult yet rewarding. I hit a few big lows, financially, emotionally, and mentally. I invested a large amount of money in training, coaching, programs, etc. I piled up expenses of credit cards. The business wasn’t growing as fast. I was dealing with too many internal demons. I was one person working on dozens of things that I was terrible at…and still am…and that is, all and anything related to marketing. In 2017, I hit my first wall. I was broken physically and emotionally.
I took a step back and worked on getting recentered and healthy again.
In 2018, I realized that the financial stress from the credit card debt created a dark cloud on top of my head. Here I was in the business of alleviating people’s stress and getting them healthy, and I was so stressed out. There is no way I was going to grow and attract my ideal client.
I had to do something. I couldn’t get excited to get a ‘real’ job using my prior experience. I just couldn’t. I was going to lose my clients if I worked the 9-5. However, I needed cash to pay my debt.
I asked myself, what can I do that will put cash in my pocket quickly?
WAITRESSING! Cash and flexibility. BINGO!!!
Mid 2019, I started to work shifts at two local restaurants in Atlanta. Quickly, I noticed that waitressing was doing a lot more than paying my debt and clearing the skies for me. AMEN TO THAT!!! These jobs have become social outlets and brought me joy and fun. Sometimes, I have deep chats with guests. I have fun with their kids. I even educate them on healthy options. I even got a couple of clients out of it. Yes, the job is physically demanding. I work nonstop on weekends…Yet, I have an option of not working. It can be very stressful. But I stay focused on what I am there for. Be of service, get my tips, and pay my debt. Obviously, I don’t want to keep waitressing. I am working on refocusing and revamping my business and offerings so I can ditch these jobs. Until then, I will keep griding.
Getting back to my real calling and passion, as a health and fitness coach…
I find the body to be an AMAZING machine. We choose how/what/when we FUEL it. To me, fuel sources are mindset, nutrition, supplementation, exercise, sleep, stress, fun habits. Combine them with tools like functional blood chemistry analysis, nutrigenomics, consistency, and commitment and we are in for a treat.
And my friend, that’s really what I am here for.
So why would you want to listen to me? It’s because of the combination of my experiences and education, especially in nutrition endocrinology that allows me to offer you a comprehensive natural approach to better health. What I speak is based on science. I believe that you and I are responsible for building our health village. We are all unique and there is not one health care professional, coach, and trainer who will know it all. Uniting all these
Now, let me wrap up with a few more personal goodies about me…
I am [still] single, no kids, no pets—at least for the moment, and family is in Brazil. I am an open book and free spirit. I’ve been called crazy many times 😊. Among many of my ‘crazy’ activities, I’ve bungee jumped 10 times around the world (LOVE IT – freedom at its best). I’ve also done Great White cage diving (deep blue eyes).
I like to exercise, crack up, meet people, read, learn, and dance. I LOVE the outdoors, mountains/hiking and beach (my fav spot is the Destin, FL). Fav hobby: scuba diving. Fav sport: volleyball—due to shoulder abuse, I let it go 3 years ago ☹ Oh there is one more thing about me that you must know…I love whiteboards. I love to dump my thoughts on them.
That’s it about me for now. May I say that’s your turn to share? I can’t wait to hear your story.
