Today we’d like to introduce you to Meagan Fitzgerald.
Meagan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My love of health and fitness started at a young age. I remember making my friends play “workout” and “dance class” with me in 3rd grade (they were NOT as into it as I was haha). I should have known then that fitness would be my profession. I’d even do workout shows by Denise Austin on ESPN2 in the morning during the Summer. Very strange for an 11 year old. I grew up dancing, cheerleading and playing soccer. I was always really active but also very aware of my body, my shape and my weight. During high school and college, I was a perfectly healthy weight but I obsessed over everything I ate. I counted every calorie, tried every diet and let my perceived flaws take over my brain.
After years of struggling on diets and over-exercising, I was stressed and frustrated thinking I’d never reach my goal weight. I struggled with digestive issues, migraines, and cystic acne as well. In my mid 20’s, I had finally had enough. I cut gluten from my diet (plus, I haven’t been able to eat dairy since I was 14), eliminated the packaged “diet food”, ate only REAL food, plus added yoga, Pilates and dance back into my life. Things started to shift… finally. I realized that food was my fuel not my enemy. I chose to do workouts I truly enjoyed rather than add more stress to my life and go all in on hard core workouts everyday that didn’t feel good. I had found my happy place and it felt amazing.
It was also around this time that I realized my stressful job in sales as a media account executive wasn’t truly serving me either. I’ve worked in radio, TV and digital and while I had so much fun (maybe too much especially in radio) and met some of my best friends, including my husband, I knew I wanted something more. I decided to take my passion for health and fitness and turn it into my career.
I worked full time in my corporate job while I got my 500 hour comprehensive Pilates certification and barre certification. I also became a Certified Holistic Health Coach through The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. All this while working at a commission based 9-5. It was a lot BUT I loved it and found the energy to make it happen.
Today, I am a fitness instructor teaching group classes all over Boston, I have private training clients and run a very full health coaching biz. It is my mission to help women lose weight, gain confidence and feel their absolute best through a healthy lifestyle. I am a wife and a mama to a happy little 2-year-old girl. I am passionate about filling my body with whole foods that fuel me so that I can be strong and active for my family, my classes and my clients. I’ve been able to drop the destructive dieting habits that consumed my brain for so long and maintain my weight without stress, I help my clients do the same!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road has been anything but smooth but it has all been worth it! My advice would be to start before you’re ready. Dive in. You are going to make mistakes no matter what. Just do it, learn, and keep it moving! I see so many women who feel stuck and don’t want to take a risk. It was a MAJOR risk for me to leave the safety of my corporate job, paid maternity leave, 401k etc., but I haven’t looked back once. The bigger risk for me was staying in a job I didn’t love when I knew there was more. I worked long hours, 7 days a week to make this happen and worked my way into studios way before I was “ready” to teach. I put myself out there, stayed professional and worked my ass off. Oh, and nothing comes easy, challenges will always be there but you will be stronger because of them.
what should we know about Thrive Body Project? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am a fitness instructor – Pilates, barre, sculpt and a Health Coach. Currently, I teach at Equinox, Asana Charlestown, Trillfit and North End Yoga. My Health Coaching is offered on my own. I am so grateful to teach at amazing studios and work with such talented people. In addition to that, the people who attend my classes are some of the strongest, sweetest, most fun and motivated people I know. I am truly honored and excited to go to work every day. My private clients often become like family since we work so closely together and make some big changes. Again, I feel so fortunate to do what I do!
This past May I launched my first digital group coaching program called The Reset. This was a self-paced, 4-week program that focused on major mindset shifts and changes in eating habits to create lasting change. The woman in the group was open to the challenge, took action, and saw fabulous results. It was a huge success and I cannot wait to run it again in the Fall!
One thing that might set me apart as an instructor, I’ve been there, done that, tried it all. I’ve struggled with my weight and body image like so many women I see in class. I’ve picked myself apart and felt so insecure some days I didn’t even want to workout. It was a vicious cycle. Sometimes, walking in the door is the toughest part, not the plank or glute series! My goal is for people to leave a class or session feeling strong and confident. I want to help build them up so they feel nurtured but challenged in a big way.
Looking back on your childhood, what experiences do you feel played an important role in shaping the person you grew up to be?
On one hand, my Dad helped set me up for a success in a major way by consistently reciting quotes like “What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve” and “Do what you love and the money will follow”. There are many others that I can still recite at any moment. My mom would tell me “You can do anything!” not sure I believed them at the time but I sure do now!
On the other hand, both of my parents were not good examples of a healthy lifestyle. I love them dearly and they did the best they could but they were smokers, loved comfort foods, anything fried, sweets, the list goes on and on. They were overworked and very stressed. A healthy lifestyle was last on their list (of course now I would tell them the direct correlation between food/stress/exercise/energy etc). My father passed away when I was 19 after complications from emergency surgery where he had nine bypasses. That was a really really dark time in my life. One thing to come from all of that is that I am determined to be an example of confidence, strength, and health for my daughter. She will NEVER hear me say “I’m fat” or abuse my body. Body positive only!
Contact Info:
- Website: meaganfitzgerald.com
- Email: meagan@meaganfitzgerald.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/meg_thrivebody
- Facebook: facebook.com/thrivebodyproject
Image Credit:
Raya On Assignment, Lucie Wicker
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