Building a Future: How Fitness Helped me Land My "Big Girl Job"

  Wake up, train, shower, eat breakfast, drive to work, work 9-10 hours, train again, eat dinner, sleep.  This has been my daily routine for as long as I can remember.  In college, I had no idea what I wanted to do and sometimes I still am not sure what exactly I want to do “when I grow up” but last month I landed what seems to be a step in the right direction towards my dream job and it is all thanks to fitness. When I started at my current company, I had just moved to San Diego and I did not know ANYONE.  I would come to work every day with damp hair because I did not have time to blow dry it after my work out and get to work on time and I would bring my big cooler with my lunch and snacks for the day. So here I was, the girl with wet hair who brought a feast to work every day and had no idea what she was doing sitting in this cubicle.  Then, one day, I was approached at my desk by a coworker and asked about my boiled chicken and asparagus concoction and if I was on a diet.  My mouth full of very dry chicken and smelly, but yummy, asparagus, replied, “No, not a diet, I am eating to build muscle.” And oh boy! Did that open up an entire conversation!  I now had a friend at my new job and they knew what I did outside of work!  Yay!  Soon, that one coworker started to tell surrounding coworkers that my degree was in nutrition and that I was a personal trainer and basically everything that I had told her about myself.  Coworkers started to ask me about workout tips and they would share their routines with me and it became a very fun topic of conversation around the office. I was now able to come to work with wet hair and not feel weird about it because everyone now knew a little more about me.  Talk turned into workout sessions at our company’s gym and that turned into me being asked to hold a weekly bootcamp for anyone at our company that was interested. Now, over a year later, I still teach those weekly bootcamps and I am now in a new role, because of my knowledge of the health and wellness industry and I am able to travel all over the United States promoting wellness! Looking back even a couple of years ago, I would have never thought that my love and passion for fitness would help me achieve the great job that I have now.  Thank you to the coworker who took notice to this strange and not at all corporatey looking  girl for talking to me and wanting to learn more about me.  Because of fitness and because of the relationships I have built within my company due to exercise and bootcamps, I now feel content and accomplished with my career and confident that I can achieve all of my goals with fitness in my life.