Who is Kirsten

At age 34 I was the unhealthiest I had ever been. I was overwhelmed by life, having anxiety attacks daily. I was impatient and easily frustrated with my husband and our two young sons. I was depressed, stressed, and miserable.

I weighed 248lbs, a massive load on my 5’7” frame. I had gained over 100lbs in less than 5 years. I had plantar fasciitis and kidney stones, both incredibly painful and disruptive. My self esteem and self worth were at rock bottom; I ‘coped’ by binge eating myself into a sugar coma every night while my family were asleep.

How did I get there? The same way so many of us do: I was a wife and mom with young kids, both neuro-spicy but undiagnosed, running a business. All of this while trying to run a household and keep everyone else in my life happy. But, what about my happiness? My health, my wellbeing?

I struggled with yo-yo dieting and attempts to get my own wellness back on track for 5 years, always making a little progress, and then giving in when the stressors got too big, reverting to the easier unhealthy habits I had become so accustomed to, with even more vigour.

It took a massive loss, and a trip to the ER for me to see the light of just how I was systematically destroying my own wellness. I had to take a hard look at myself and question everything I had been doing to self sabotage. Over the course of a year, I focused on my physical health, literally one step at a time. As my physical health improved, so did my mental health, and vice versa. One cannot exist without the other, and this is where my holistic approach to wellness crystalized. I recognised I needed help, but I needed to help myself first.

I lost over 100lbs that year, and enlisting the help of a personal trainer, and a therapist, we took the rest of the steps together to get me to today. That’s not to say I don’t still have moments of stress, or self doubt. The reality is, those things will always be a part of life. What I now possess are strategic coping tools that assist, in a healthy way, to keep my life in balance.

Knowing how hard it can be to take that first step into caring for you, is what impassioned me to begin Relentless Wellness. I don't want anyone else to have to go it alone as long as I did. I want to stand side by side supporting you in your journey, supporting you to find your happy and healthy life. 

“Health is a state of complete mental, social and physical well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” – World Health Organization, 1948