I’m Health Coach Cristina.
I love saying that, and it still feels odd sometimes.
Blogging for me has evolved so much since I started in 2012. This blog was started in 2014 and was to help me document my journey through weight loss, but that journey ended, and others began. I never realized how many things influenced my overall health, my motivations and my ability to make and be confident in my choices.
This site is now a place for it all – education, recipes, sharing my life with you. And you can work with me too.
I like numbers, and I’d be lying if I said that numbers didn’t help guide me before. The numbers that carry weight for me have changed though. It’s about being consistent.
It’s also about my confidence in my choices, the boundaries I set and how I use my voice. I recognize that it took a lot for me to get to this place and that’s ok.
I’ve had extreme weight gain, I’ve had extreme weight loss, I’ve competed as a bikini competitor and placed, I’ve cardio’d my heart out, I fell in love with lifting, I’ve experimented with different eating styles. I was diagnosed with binge eating disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in my early 20s related to childhood trauma. Recovery is interesting. It’s a lot of hard work and there are still symptoms present, but these diagnoses don’t run my life like they used to.
I’m telling you this because my health story isn’t just physical, and I know yours isn’t either.
Run, Sweat, Eat, Repeat has always bridged reality when I started running in the very beginning to a metaphor for getting through life.
In 2017, I decided that my journey didn’t have to be just about me. After leaving my career in higher education, I obtained my associates in public health because I wanted to have a foundation of health sciences that I knew I wouldn’t get through a certification.
I’m a board-certified health and wellness coach with NB-HWC. I’m also an ACE certified health coach and fitness nutrition specialist. I have a certification from USA Powerlifting as a club level coach and a certificate the University of Indiana for trauma-informed care. In my practice, I focus primarily on behavior change because I truly believe that underneath everything our mental health is our foundation for being capable of making and executing healthy choices.
I’m working on a masters in public health (MPH) concentrating in nutrition from UNC’s Gillings School of Global Health. For more information about my credentials, please check out the page, Work with Cristina.
I’m a proponent for thorough and diverse health education that helps build connections for my clients so they can get involved and take ownership of their journeys with me as a partner.
I love being a health coach, and I’m excited for the future as I continue exploring how I can incorporate public health work.