Hello! My name is Shaleen and I have been a full-time nurse for the last decade. I’ve worked in the healthcare field for over 20 years and I'm also a lifetime athlete and I love sports, health and fitness. Most of all, I just love helping people.
I am highly motivated and fulfilled by service driven work and being a nurse has taught me so many valuable lessons on vulnerability and providing genuine care for my fellow humans with grace and empathy. Being an athlete has given me so many life lessons on everything from how to set and achieve goals, know how to work out properly and how to be a strong team member.
I created this space in direct response to seeing patients in the clinics & hospitals and also from hearing my friends and family tell me about how hard health and wellness programs can be when you don’t fit the standard mold. I have spent my adult life advocating for patients and helping them to achieve their goals and help them speak to their providers in terms they understand and feel safe in. I suppose I'm a bit of a "physician whisperer"!
The only way I felt I could help more was to open my own business. I wanted to open a business where, regardless of situation, clients were welcomed and given the kindness, respect and patience they deserve. I am a professional at meeting people where they’re at. I love to solve a problem and I LOVE LOVE seeing people happy and in love with their own bodies! The only thing I love more than coaching clients in health and wellness is my awesome family.
I am so very proud of you for putting yourself first & choosing to work and learn more about yourself. Together, we can form a team built on honesty and vulnerability and create a space where you can feel open and safe while you take the next steps in your health and wellness journey.
I’ve always been overweight. I was a plump baby and an even plumper kid but I was always active. I was not the kid to sit around inside the house all day staring at video games or television. I biked, roller-bladed (yes, I’m a 90’s kid!), swam, played outside, danced, did marching band in high school and was an active chorister and drama kid. I was consistently on the go, but I was also consistently gaining weight. My family didn’t eat poorly either. As an only child with two working parents, they managed to avoid the pitfalls of easy fast food and overly processed meals. Not to say that Kraft Mac and Cheese wasn’t a staple, but Mom made my school lunches well until high school.
I tell you all this because so many health and fitness experts and professionals - including doctors - directly correlate weight gain with inactivity, laziness and poor diet. My doctors, coaches and even family members would always ask what I was doing to gain weight but never once stopped to question whether I had any conditions or genetics at play that were out of my control to help that weight gain. I’ve dealt with that “lazy” stigma my whole adolescent life and still continue to face it to this day.
While I know I wanted to focus on my own health & wellness journey, I’ve never been comfortable reaching out to someone with chiseled abs and biceps and thighs that could choke a bear (you’ll come to find I have a unique sense of humor). I’ve never been able to find a coach who was my size or someone who had lost a massive amount of weight without trying to get me to follow their routine to the letter. News flash: what works for some doesn’t work for all. I would grow increasingly frustrated that I wasn’t seeing “results” and then it dawned on me - maybe I’m not meant to live in a skinny body because my genetics simply don’t allow for that to happen.
It was only recently that I also had another epiphany - there aren’t a whole lot of health & wellness coaches that look like me. Through loads of encouragement, my wife convinced me that I need to be a coach with eMBody and not just work behind the scenes, handling marketing and web design. She saw I could easily relate to others who struggled with weight and body dynamics in a way she really hasn’t.
I have been heavy my entire life & I don’t know what it feels like to be thin or skinny and I realized that could make me a really fantastic coach for anyone who is struggling with body image issues. I won’t have that level of bias or expectation when it comes to coaching, especially because I’ve lived it my entire life. I hate working out and eating veggies but I’ve learned ways to make it fun and non-traditional. I truly believe that I’m the perfect coach for you if you’re worried about shame or judgment from a boot camp coach, because I am the exact opposite of all those kinds of coaches. I can help you understand your body and worth with an empathetic approach because I have been there and continue to be there.
Whether you’re looking to lose weight, or just learn to love the skin you’re in I’m here however you need it. I’m just here to be your biggest cheerleader & help you better navigate a world that doesn’t always want us to take up the space we deserve.
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