-WHY I BECAME A CPT-

When I was 5 years old I came home from the first day of school and told my parents I was going to be a teacher. I went through my whole life never questioning that decision. Every class I took, every job I had was to lead me to my future career as an elementary teacher.

Well, life sometimes has a funny way of working out. Post grad, and I’m still not in a classroom. I applied for probably close to 150 different jobs over the summer, went to countless interviews but when it came down to it, I just didn’t ‘have the experience’ they wanted and went with someone who had been a teacher in the past. This past summer almost broke me. I had no idea why I couldn’t find a job. I thought with all my connections it would be easy. I wasn’t prepared to fail over and over again and as I write this, the feelings are still raw and talking about it now I’m still close to tears over how my life didn’t go as planned.

In college, I fell in love with being in the classroom, but I also started to really care about how I was looking and feeling physically. I started getting up super early in the morning to workout before class. I started to track all the food I was eating. And I became fixated on this version of myself I thought was going to make me feel better and more confident.

It became a really unhealthy obsession as I phased out of college and moved home and started to take it more seriously. I dropped a lot of weight but somehow was never happy with what I looked like. (Side note, I did not have an eating disorder, just sharing my mentality). I would scroll through the internet to find the next best thing to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. Pinterest was my bestfriend and worst enemy because there were all these people I wanted to look like. I thought it was possible to have it all.

Through the research I started doing, I found out about 1^st phorm and did their free transphormation challenge. They give all these free videos and have a Facebook group sharing a ton of knowledge on training and nutrition through the entire 8 weeks. I got on the calls every single day and learned so much about how to train and eat effectively. I started to see some muscle definition and have more balance in my life and I was hooked.

As someone who is very flat through my whole body, having a little booty was like the biggest confidence boost of my life.

I wanted to know more, I wanted to do more. And I started sharing my journey on Instagram and saw others helping so many people through it that I knew I could too. I know I have a unique perspective on fitness now that I’ve truly found the balance I need in my life.

I’m not going to be the coach who tells you can’t go out and enjoy appetizers and a beer. I’m the coach who is going to teach you practical lifestyle habits so you can use them every day and don’t continue to cycle through fad diets or jumping from program to program just to gain back all the weight you lost.

Around March or April, I got pretty serious about my physique and invested in a coach. This was probably the best decision I could have made. I honestly don’t think you can be a good coach or have a solid foundation until you have gone through it all yourself. You just don’t know the mental struggle and can’t speak to your clients about all the ups and downs throughout the challenges unless you’ve been through it. Plus, you learn a lot behind the scenes work on how to complete check ins, what you like/don’t like in a coach, and how you can start yourself. And obviously all of the information and knowledge you gain through program decision and nutrition changes.

Anyways, it was the first time I was going through a bulk and knew I needed a coach because I’ve never gone through one before and didn’t know what to look for. I didn’t want to just gain a ton of fat and no muscle. After a few months with Chelsea, I knew for sure this is what I wanted. I felt almost called to sign up for NASM’s Certified Personal Training program over the summer and studied my butt off to get my certification.

Now that I’m officially certified, I haven’t decided exactly how I want my business to look and grow. But I know that through it, I will be able to help so many women and men who want to feel more confident in their skin. I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum from loving myself and being so frustrated I just want to quit. I’ve been in a place where I tracked every gram of food I ate and where I said screw it it’s not worth it and ate like crap.

I want to be the coach and mentor people need when they want to elevate their life and achieve the goals they’ve always wanted.

You can always reach out to me with any questions you have through my email lauren.jette96@gmail.com or dm me on Instagram @laurentaylorslifestyle . If you’re interested in coaching you can apply here!