ABOUT ME

Hello Everybody!

My name is Natalie! I'm a Certified Personal Trainer through Fitness Connection at the Greenville, NC location. I've been training since November of 2012 and I have also been a Coach of the Bootcamp classes at our facility since Spring of 2013. I'm very passionate about what I do, I love to help people and see people with the confidence that every person deserves to have.

Where I started...

I've been an athlete my whole life. I started weight lifting in middle school and have always been active through sports, recreational and through the school system. My whole life I was convinced I wanted to study fish until my senior year in high school when I took our Sports Medicine class, and I fell in love with the anatomy and kinesiology of the body. I had a few things in mind of what I wanted to do but I couldn't zone in directly on what I wanted. I knew I loved helping people, I was a volunteer at the Real Crisis center for a short time and we answered the Suicide hotlines for North Carolina, it was an amazing feeling to know that you could have an impact on someone's life in such a positive way. And I knew I had gained a love of working out to better myself at the sports that I played and I loved anatomy and nutrition. So I went out on a limb and got a simple certification to work at the local gym. Little did I know just how much I would end up loving my job and the people that I worked with. It's my passion. 100%.

Influences...

I believe that to be a good Personal Trainer you must consider yourself a lifelong learner. Use every tool you can find, shadow every coworker you can and keep your eyes and mind open and always ready to learn new things.

While I was growing up, there were a few people that really influenced and helped build my foundation to being a good Personal Trainer besides my parents. I give thanks to my weight training coach in high school, my high school volleyball coach, my high school Sports Medicine teacher and Athletic Trainer, my college professor for Personal Training and my college advisor. Each of these people have given me tools to help succeed in what I do, but without my open mind it would have never happened. I still use tools for lifting and exercises from my Weight Training class. I continue to use the principles of integrity and passion from my Volleyball Coach. The knowledge that I recieved from my Athletic Trainer and Personal Training Professor at ECU will always be the platform of my success and knowledge in the industry. And my college advisor always stayed on top of me even when I felt like quitting. Find your influences in life, no matter what they may be and keep them.

Free Spirit

For the longest time I thought I didn't know who I was. I couldn't figure out what I wanted and where I wanted to be, the life that I wanted to live. But through hard times I found myself. I found myself to want to be free from the this world that everybody is so consumed in with money, live to work and work to live. I try to look at the world naked without all these things that we created that consume us.

All I keep thinking is that we won't ever be here again, and that's the way I wake up everyday. I have a new chance every minute, every second to make the best of a day that will be gone in the blink of an eye or the end of scheduled shift at work. So my first advice to you on becoming a happier and healthier person? Enjoy what you do. I never not enjoy walking into those gym doors no matter what time of the day it is or what has happened in my life. Find your center. Find your peace. Something that you can depend on but that cannot let you down, not a person nor an object that can be bought or traded. For me, when I feel myself having a tough time I just have to walk outside into a big field or park, just close my eyes and breathe. I don't know if everything happens for a reason, but everything that happens happens and you can't always control it. Control the things that you can control, and dont stress over the things that you can't.