Dallas' Story
I’m Dallas & I am so glad you found HERFit!
I felt it was important that I share the story of how HERFit came to be and my own fitness journey with you…
I didn’t always embrace fitness or a healthy lifestyle. I was not a very active kid other than gymnastics, and family hikes. I honestly grew up thinking that exercise was only for athletes, I didn’t know everyday people workout. In fact, I didn’t step foot into a gym until I was 22 and didn’t start to train consistently until I was 26. It wasn’t until I graduated and entered the corporate world that I started noticing how my health was shifting. I was noticing weight gain, I was experiencing a lot of digestive upset and my energy was plummeting. I knew I needed a change and thus began my wellness journey
I began working with a Holistic Nutritionist and my life began changing because my health was changing. I made the decision to leave my job at 24 and and go back to school to give back what she had given to me, my health. I enrolled at The Institute of Holistic Nutrition and after graduation I began working with clients in 2016.
During the time I was working as a Holistic Nutritionist I began taking my fitness more seriously. I started to notice a huge shift in my physical health but more so my mental health was better than it had ever been once I began exercising regularly.
During the summers I was working with with athletes in their off-season which exposed me to new training styles, the dedication and work ethic these athletes had. I began to grow a deeper interest in fitness and decided to get my personal training certificate through ISSA. I began co-coaching a bootcamp with my husband called Rage Camp and fell in love with training. I was in, what I considered the best shape of my life. I was training 6 days a week, combining strength, yoga, bootcamps and pilates. My life was all about being the healthiest version of myself that I could be…but I also had the luxury of time and being able to commit many hours a day to this. I didn’t know how challenging this lifestyle of daily workouts, eating super clean and having lots of time to recover and rest would be to keep up long term.
In 2019 we welcomed our daughter, Sophia. I continued working as a nutritionist and was running bootcamps a few times a week. But I felt I had let myself go, I could no longer exercise whenever I wanted to and eating well balanced meals wasn’t always my priority, I was in survival mode in the early stages postpartum as many moms are. I had to accept my routine would look different but that it didn’t have to stop all together. I managed to find a new rhythm, embracing, home workouts and ate as well as I could with the help of more take out than I’d like to admit. I joined a Mom & Baby fitness program that helped me properly regain my strength postpartum and exercise is a safe way with my little one by my side which honestly made it so much easier and more motivating.
In November 2021 we welcomed our son, Luca and I felt like I was starting my health and fitness journey all over again. I gained a significant amount of weight during both pregnancies but after the second it seemed impossible to recover, physically and mentally. I had even less time for physical activity, not to mention less energy and eating well was more challenging than ever. I didn’t recognize myself physically or mentally. I felt so foreign in my body, I cried a lot about my body because I knew how hard I had worked before to get to my strongest self and could not even imagine how to do it again with two kids. Around 5 months postpartum I was diagnosed with postpartum depression so I was forced to shift my focus from getting better physically to getting better mentally. But I knew I couldn’t give up movement.
I knew no matter how tired I was, how little sleep I had or how little time I had, that I needed to keep my body moving. Fitness was the key to my mental health before kids and I knew it would be after. Like many moms, I felt selfish asking for someone to watch the kids so I could workout. However, I knew that if I didn’t do this I was going to stay stuck in this dark place. I wouldn’t be the mom I wanted to be for my kids or the partner I wanted to be for my husband. Taking care of my mental health was too important to not ask for the help. So we found a routine and I accepted that some-workouts would be 15 minutes and not always an hour, I walked a lot and developing the mindset of something is better than nothing that held me accountable.
Once I began feeling a little more like myself I started thinking…
There must moms in my community who feel similar to me; feeling isolated, lonely, discouraged, craving connection and a little bit of adult time. I wanted to help other moms and let them know they weren’t alone. I joined some Mommy Facebook groups and decided to created I a free weekly meet up for moms, so they could bring their little ones, get some movement in and connect with one another. After a month of this more moms were becoming intersted and they were asking for more classes, Mommy Fit Camp was born.
We added in more classes and I saw the difference movement was making for these mamas. We were helping to connect moms and create a community. My cup was filling back up and I was smiling again. I knew we were creating something special. HERFit Camp started a few months later as our women strength and conditioning program which was the perfect fit for moms to join after Mommy Fit Camp once they were back to work or they felt like they were ready for more of a challenge.
This community and business has seen a lot of growth in its first 18 months and I can’t wait to continue support as many women and amass as we can.
Thank you for being here & if you are looking for supporting on your fitness journey we would love to show you how transformative movement can be for your physical, mental and emotional well-being.