I'm Kersten, NASM and ISSA Certified personal trainer and G-Transformation Academy certified Macro Nutrition Coach.
I help women to speed up their metabolism so that they can lose stubborn body fat and build muscle, in a truly healthy and sustainable way.
I believe that the foundation of healthy body composition is learning about macro nutrition, focusing on building muscle, and managing our stress appropriately.
Here's A Little Bit About Me…
In my early and mid 20s, my eating was extremely out of balance: I was eating as little as I could and ran as much as I was able to, up to 3 hours in the morning, fasted. At the same time, binged HARD on copious amounts of food couple of times every month. It was embarrassing, and all I thought is that I need more willpower, without realizing that this constant deprivation was exactly what made me binge.
My only goal was to be skinny, and I skinny I sure was, because I always ran all my binges off.
6-7 years of this behavior and I found myself burnt out, with flat hormones, super thin, and in very poor health.
From Skinny to Overweight — From One Extreme to the Other
To recover from this mess and get my health back, I had to gain some body fat…
Which was okay and needed but I went overboard and now found myself in the opposite end of the spectrum — eating too much and ending up with a lot more weight than I was comfortable with.
The eating that I justified with “but I don't want to get sick again”, had become excessive… I was gaining and gaining.
My light bulb moment was at the end of 2019 when I was shopping for a dress for my friends' wedding. As I tried on some options, I realized that I had gone up yet another dress size. I had gone from a healthy size of 8-10, to now 14…
I was not obese by any means but I also wasn't comfortable with all the weight that I had put on. I was missing my athleticism, I was missing my strength and being able to do any activity without getting out of breath.
The Turning Point
It was that moment in the fitting room that I decided to ask for help.
I had a friend who had told me little bit about macro nutrition, but every time she mentioned it, I brushed it off as something too complicated. Besides, I didn't want to do anything that was even close to dieting.
But as I was standing there, not recognizing my own body in the mirror, I decided that I'm ready to give this macro thing a try. I asked my friend, who was a macro coach, to help me.
She put together my initial plan and told me how many carbs, fats and proteins I should eat to lean out a bit.
To my surprise, it was nowhere as hard as I had thought it would be! I was still eating the things I liked, but now I was much more mindful about it. I could still have chocolate, but not two bars after lunch. I could still go out to eat, just choose better options.
I definitely learned how to prioritize my protein which, as I later realized, I had not paid ANY attention to at all previously.
In a couple of months, I saw better results than I had previously thought possible. I was really amazed by how easy it was after the initial learning curve that involved getting to know the app and how to track.
I Fell In Love With Strength Training
Around the same time when I started with macros, I also radically changed my workout routine. In my 20s, I had only done long distance running. In my late 20s, I did a lot of HIT training, with just a little bit of strength training sprinkled in…
Now I was ready to dive in to REAL strength training, with the goal to build muscle and get strong.
I learned how skeletal muscle is the cornerstone for excellent metabolic health, great hormonal health (heck YES I needed that!), how it was the most valuable tool for strengthening my bones, for slowing down ageing… All which could be summed up with two words: Faster metabolism.
I learned that with more muscle mass on the body, we don't only get the fantastic health benefits of more flexible metabolism, but also the ability to eat more and not gain weight. I learned that lifting weights is the one and only thing that is able to change the shape of our body, something that I had previously tried with endless cardio and not succeeded — and I now knew why.
I Wanted to Help Others, Too
After seeing how dramatically traditional weight training and macro nutrition really changed my health and physique, I knew that I wanted to share this knowledge with others.
I also knew how many women are struggling with weight and body fat, always searching for that next quick fix which would give them the fat loss results they wanted, without knowing how much these poor programs harm their health and actually slow down their metabolism. Not what we want!
I was already a personal trainer through NASM and ISSA, and now I became a certified Macro Nutrition Coach via G-Transformation Academy. And it is my passion to help women to finally get the success that they deserve.
To Sum It All Up…
I am so grateful that I found macro nutrition and strength training. Both have transformed my life and I am so much healthier, stronger and happier than I was before. I am also much more confident.
I knew that I didn't want to lose weight by doing any quick diets or instant fixes. They are not sustainable because they are extremely restrictive. If you have tried some of them, you know this — your results only lasted only for a little while. But I know you want something sustainable!
If you've been chronically under eating, like I did for years — you have to stop. It will wreck your hormones and metabolism, just like it did mine. And it will only get worse as you're getting into perimenopause and menopause. You have to stop that chronic cardio and overdoing HIT workouts to actually lose fat and be healthy.
But you do need to lift weights. Not only because it gives you the shape you want but also because it gives you the health you need, no matter if you are in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s or beyond.
Healthy fat loss isn't effortless, but it should not feel torturous. You should be able to eat your favorite things even when working on fat loss.
And my personal mantra — a little bit of chocolate never hurt nobody. I eat it almost daily.
If You Are Ready…
If you want sustainable muscle building and fat loss results, and you want to get them in a healthy way, I am here to help you. This is my passion and I can't wait to work with you! Before you apply, check out the Client Success page.