About Coach Laura
Meet Coach Laura
Hi! I’m Coach Laura. I’m a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a co-worker, but most importantly, I am a coach. A health and fitness coach committed to building healthier, happier, more energetic women who want to feel strong and sexy again in their own skin.
I wasn’t always a coach. I spent about 20 years in finance building a career I was determined to be successful in. And I was! Despite a divorce, raising 2 kids as a single mom and all the stress that comes with, I managed to land a job I thought was my dream job. I had an income that gave me security and independence, a nice expense account and plenty of autonomy.
The dark side of that kind of career was extreme chronic stress and a lifestyle that eventually made me sick. After about 10 years in this career my health slowly deteriorated over time. I spent about 2 years going from doctor to doctor in a fruitless effort to feel better. I was suffering from chronic headaches, insomnia, chronic achiness that was hard to explain, chronic respiratory illness that led to a cough I could never really shake and got progressively worse over time. All of these symptoms finally led to severe anxiety that one doctor tried to medicate me for. At one point I was on 6 different medications just to get through a day. I was 38 years old.
Not one doctor was able to actually heal me. Not one. Oh, sure, I had medications to make my symptoms tolerable enough to wake up, work and go to bed but I wasn’t better. The idea of living this way without an end in sight was not sustainable and I knew it. I finally went to a naturopathic doctor who took a different approach. A functional root cause approach to finding out why I was feeling this way and addressing that specifically rather than just managing the symptoms. To make a VERY long story shorter, he and I worked together to heal me.
Remember, I was sick for 2 years. After taking a lifestyle medicine approach aided by some acupuncture, a potent probiotic and some chinese herbs to help support my immune system I was quite literally a whole new person in….wait for it…..6 weeks. That’s right, 6 WEEKS! That is how powerful removing foods that don’t serve me, appropriate movement, adequate sleep and stress reduction is. These factors and a few others can be the difference between symptom management and actual health.
When I discovered this, I felt both ecstatic and pissed-off at the same time. Ecstatic because I knew the power to have optimal health and vitality was in my hands. A very happy place for me, I like to feel in control. Pissed-off because I spent my whole life not knowing this AND not one doctor in that 2 year period that I was sick mentioned any of these things.
That is when I decided to do something, anything, that might be able to help even just 1 person. That is when my journey from finance to health and fitness coaching began. I am a certified health coach 3 times over. I am a certified personal trainer and MoveNat trainer. I am Board Certified through the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching. I now help coach other health coaches and am co-host of Health Coach Radio. As you can see, when I decide to do something I go all in for it!
Today my private practice blends a protein-first, whole-food nutrition philosophy with strength training and mindful movement to promote a lean, healthy, sexy body women, who are now in the shoes I was once in, are craving. I am committed to coaching women through making the lifestyle and habit changes to make looking and feeling 20 years younger a reality for the long term. I feel incredibly grateful to have a career building happier, healthier, fitter, sexier, satisfied human beings.