My Journey
There was a time years ago that I was my own worst enemy. Nothing I seemed to do brought me JOY. I could be around friends and family, yet I felt alone and empty. I was raised in a home with 6 siblings, and my parents. From the outsider, as a young girl it may have looked like life was great, yet from the inside of my heart nothing I did ever felt “good enough”. I had 2 older sisters who were really high achievers growing up, and somehow as a young girl I believed the LIE that I needed to follow in their foot steps. It was a tough road to follow my sisters, as they were cheerleaders, excellent students, ASB president, and all-league athletes. I remember as early as 6th grade my oldest sister won the “American Legion Award” which was the highest award given to one 8th grade student who showed excellent leadership and scholastic ability. I remember saying to myself, “Oh no, now I need to get that award as well!” I felt so much PRESSURE performing through junior high to get that award. (Luckily, I got the award but I also lost a lot of joy in my junior high years from putting so much pressure on myself). The need to perform began to consume me throughout my junior high, and high school years. As I look back, I cannot believe I “didn’t lose it from all that I was doing.” I was a cheerleader, competed in 3 sports each year, ASB officer, vocal performer, drama, high achiever academically, and to TOP IT OFF I had a job from 11 years old on! I never remember just “Chilling”. I had a lot of friends, yet inside of me, my wheels were always spinning to achieve the next goal. With each new year, I began feeling more and more empty from all the DOING, and very little” BEING”. At 19 years old, a neighbor of mine, who was in charge of the Miss Glendora pageant called me, and asked if I would run for the local pageant. They needed a singer as a contestant in the pageant, and she knew I sang. I always thought pageants were pretty strange, yet I knew if I could possibly win, I could then move onto the state pageant! The state pageant winners were offered scholarships and monetary awards . I came from a lower-middle class income family so there was no available money for college. There were many open doors if one placed in the top ten or better yet, won the Miss Calif title. With some hard work and luck, I won the Miss Glendora pageant! The following year I competed in the Miss Azusa pageant, which moved me onto the Miss California Pageant. The preparation for the Miss California pageant was very grueling and added to my “already not good enough mentality” I began focusing on food, exercise, and dieting as my pageant coach wanted me to be in the best shape possible. There was a swim suit competition which was televised, so you can imagine all the pressure I felt! I began reading articles in magazines about girls who purged their food to lose weight. In my already “unhealthy self image” I thought, “What a fast and easy idea” (sad huh?). This is when anorexia and bulimia began. I competed in the Miss California contest at the thinnest weight I had been all my young adult years. I look back now and I was so SKINNY and sick. As I was on stage in the evening gown competition, my parents overheard the judges in front of them saying, “This girl is too thin to place”. That girl was me! I did not even make the top ten, and I was crushed. After I came home from Santa Cruz ( pageant is located there) my eating disorder became even worse. One time I remember taking 27 laxatives and fainted on my families kitchen floor in the middle of the night. I was a very sad, emotionally broken young lady. 21 years old on Christmas Eve night, my mom showed me a newspaper article about a lady who was helping women with eating disorders. I got on my knees that night and said, “God if you are real, please help me and heal me”. Soon after, I called the woman in the newspaper article, and my healing journey of over 20 years began! My LONG....painful…. yet, RICH journey took me from a very performance oriented “DOER” who did not know how to love myself — 37 years fast forward to a wife, mom, sister, friend, and trainer who is FREE of my addiction for over 20 plus years, has a passion for God and helping women learn to love themselves, who can now say I love me, yet of course I still find myself being hard on me at times, I care for who I am, (I really cherish my time alone and my hot baths) I love the gift that God created me to be, (I have a small circle of friends who believe in me and encourage me when I am down) and I love life. God has given me JOY in the hard times and the good times. I share this story so you can see where I used to be, and the HEALING POWER of Jesus Christ! He took a very broken young lady and HE took me on a long but very worthwhile journey and SET ME FREE! I am forever grateful and this is why I am so passionate about helping women learn to love yourselves more.
The Story Continues
I believe when we love ourselves more:
We will NATURALLY eat healthier
We will WANT TO EXERCISE MORE
We will take more time for ourselves
We will look in the mirror (and instead of criticize ourselves), we will thank our body for allowing us to move each day
We will SEE THE GOOD in ourselves and others
We will realize we are a treasure and we deserve to be treated that way
We will surround ourselves with loving people, and spend less or no time with those that are critical of us
We will focus on positive self talk and not entertain critical thoughts of ourselves.
These are some of the things I had to learn in my 20 years of getting healthy. I am a woman after God’s own heart that is growing, being transformed, struggling, surrendering my will, asking for daily forgiveness…. but I do the best I can each day to follow my God, to listen to Him, and I desire to make a difference in this world. I will FOREVER be thankful to the Lord for setting me FREE of the prison of my addiction. The world says: if one has an addiction you will always have an addiction. Gods says: I have come to set the captives FREE!
Thanks for taking the time to read some of my journey!
“I believe the best teachers in the world are people who have walked the walk”
-Nannette Aviles- Simpson
Certifications
Nannette is owner of The Wellness Coach Inc for over 38 years. Her fitness
career has included implementing a wellness/fitness program for Aerojet
Electro Systems, and Sunstone Hotel Development, a radio guest on the Frank
Pastore Show and The Dr Carol Show, a speaker to over 100 audiences on her
sought after topic: How To Learn To Love Your Body, developer of the
Fitness and Five Retreats, boot camps, and personal fitness training.
Nannette is very passionate about educating and helping people increase
their energy, learn to love themselves, feel stronger, and be their best
version of themselves physically, spiritually and emotionally.
NASM Fitness Trainer
Certified Clinical Nutritionist
AFAA Aerobic Instructor
AFAA Fitness Consultant (achieved the top 5% of certification program and was chosen to be an AFAA judge for the certification program)
AFAA Personal Trainer
AFAA Advanced Weight Trainer
CPR Certified
AFAA Pilates Mat Certified
