About Melody

My Story

You’ve tried it all. From Jenny Craig, to keto, to juicing but nothing has worked. 

 

You’re still struggling to get the weight off. 

 

You’re so frustrated, and you’re ready for a change. 

 

But you don’t want to feel deprived, hungry, or forced to eat something you don’t like. 

 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could eat the foods you love and still lose weight?

 

You can, and I can help. 

 

Passionate About People

My journey to becoming a nutritional advisor was not a straight line.

 

It started, at a young age, when I began developing a passion for helping others. What, exactly, I was going to do with that passion was interesting because the ideas changed as my life changed. So when it came time for me to decide what I was going to do with my life, I knew that  I enjoyed doing hair and make-up, on friends and family, so I enrolled in beauty college.

 

After completing fifteen hundred hours of hands on experience, I became a licensed beautician. I loved the social interaction as well as the genuine opportunity to help others feel better about themselves. They would walk in feeling blah and walk out feeling amazing! 

 

I spent 10 years, in the industry before coming to the realization that although I loved my job, I needed a career that would provide me with benefits. I made the decision to leave the business of beauty and applied for a job as a mail carrier with the United States Postal Service.

 

 

More Than Just Delivering The Mail

Working for the postal service had all the facets I was looking for: hard work, discipline, social interaction, and the opportunity to make a consistent salary with benefits; not to mention the wonderful feeling of making someone’s day with the delivery of a simple letter or postcard.

 

The Post Office would also be where I would meet my first husband. It wasn’t a bump your heads at the copy machine type of encounter. In fact it was quite the opposite. More of an intentional act; at least that’s how Manny would describe it later to me. I remember the encounter vividly and being captivated by his bright blue eyes and contagious smile.

 

Instant attraction.

 

Tragedy Strikes 

Manny had been working at the Post Office for almost thirty years when we met, but shortly after would lose his job. Aside from the obvious financial burden it caused, the stress took a heavy toll… just two weeks later, he would be diagnosed with stage IV throat cancer.

 

We had been together for several years and the talk of marriage had come up more than once, but for me, this was the turning point. My focus was on taking care of him: making sure he had insurance, for his treatments, and alleviating any stress he would have worrying about finding a job as he fought for his life. My only concern at that time was him getting well and letting me take on the responsibilities of supporting the household. So we made the decision to get married.

 

Manny would end up having multiple surgeries followed by lengthy periods of radiation and chemotherapy. There were definitely some tense times but, through it all, we never gave up and it was during this time that the cancer went into remission. But it eventually returned with a vengeance. After five years of bravely fighting, Manny lost his battle with cancer, and my world as I knew it came crashing down around me.

 

Everything Changed

There are psychological effects that linger for a lifetime, when you watch someone die. It’s an incredibly humbling experience and enough to change one’s perspective on life. I suddenly found myself scared; scared of dying. Knowing that diet was a large contributing factor to health, I became obsessed with the thought of living and began frantically throwing things out of the house leaving only what I thought was “healthy” based on what I knew at the time.  

 

Three years would pass and during that time, I played with a variety of different diets: eating less red meat, avoiding processed foods, limiting alcohol intake — anything that might help prevent the onset of disease.

 

Finding Love Again

I had some dear friends who watched me struggle for years through my grief. They had been trying to set me up on a blind date, but I kept saying No. Finally, after two years of them bugging me, I thought perhaps it was time I ventured outside the four walls I had built around myself and agreed to go out on the date, although I wasn’t ready to meet anyone. To my surprise Lee was handsome, health conscious and funny which warmed my heart; something I hadn’t felt in a long time. After our first date we began spending more time with each other.

 

Returning to Life

Lee and I both had a love for travel, so almost immediately, we began mapping out adventures, making plans for road trips and traveling abroad. There’s something extremely magical about starting your day with someone you love in a place you know absolutely nothing about, and it brought me so much joy. 

 

Lee was also the person who introduced me to the gym and weight lifting. I was addicted to pushing my body to its limits which had a way of exhausting my mind; becoming an emotional outlet for me. Things were really looking up and after a few years of courting we decided to spend the rest of our lives together and married.

 

Then my dad was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer.

 

More Loss

I should have known something was wrong: dad had dropped a significant amount of weight in such a short period of time and as quickly as I was thrown into shock about the diagnosis, I was just as quick to believe that I might be able to save his life even though the cancer had spread throughout his body. I was in complete and total denial. 

 

When dad passed away, I felt myself slowly slipping into a deep abyss. Knowing that I needed to gain some semblance of control, again, I did what I always do under stress, and kept my mind busy; going to the gym at every moment I got. Sometimes squeezing in sessions as much as three times a day. It was during this time I had someone approach me, saying that I looked great, and that I should enter a bodybuilding competition. At first I didn’t want to, but when asked if I was afraid I thought “Afraid…I’ll show you!” From my point of view, I was just trying to exhaust myself, to get through grieving, and never thought of it going any further than that. That very day I went home and looked up local competitions, placed my entry, and began the twelve week process of  getting my body in the best shape of my life. 

 

At the end of twelve weeks it was showtime and, to my surprise, I walked off stage having won first place… it felt amazing! I immediately wanted to pick up the phone to call my dad and share the good news. That’s when the grief suddenly hit me again. 

 

 

The Silver Lining

I continued to compete and during that time I started helping a friend lose weight, and she was seeing amazing results. Word of mouth got out and, before I knew it, I was helping more and more people; some of whom were able to get off  their medications through the help of changing their diet. My husband saw how much work I was putting into it and encouraged me to get certified and start charging for my services. 

 

If people are invested in something, he said, they’re apt to stay committed in seeing results versus giving up. 

 

He also knew I needed to take care of myself.  By learning more about nutrition and its role in the development and progression of disease, I would be able to channel my obsession into something that could help others as well as myself.  

 

If I could teach others, I thought, a healthy and sustainable way of eating, that would prolong life, then both Manny’s and my father’s passing would not have been in vain.

 

 

From this experience I began creating my business and a process that I like to call healing through foods. 

 

 

Preserving Life

A friend knew I was interested in nutrition and told me about a course I could take that would allow me to manage my classes online while working full time. After some research I found the course to be desirable because I could work on the certification at my own pace; there was no time limit. 

 

You know those butterflies you feel in your gut just before a big job interview, that’s what I was feeling the minute I realized things were actually falling into place. Six months later I became a certified Nutritional Advisor and then went back for a second certification in Exercise Nutrition.  

 

Now I’m able to be that lifeline for someone in a time of crisis. Helping people that are looking to lose weight, or perhaps just struggling to keep weight off, using my experience to increase their skills and confidence.

 

My clients come from all walks of life and have become a true inspiration to me. 

 

When I see someone who weighs 350 pounds taking the initiative to commit himself to doing this, body pictures and all, I have no excuse but to be the best version of myself.

 

Are you ready to become the best version of yourself; then lets get you started.