Hi, welcome to my website! Here is a summary about me!

Mariah has been exercising since age 7, on a jump rope team performing to "Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes," by Paul Simon. At school recess, Mariah was always active - running, swings, swinging around the monkey bars with one leg, or climbing the playground web-dome.

At age 11, she began running and bicycling further distances on the country roads of Washington State, rain or shine. Running became her go-to stress management method, she loved the feel-good endorphins that lasted for hours! 

But . . . she needed to eat more to fuel her running, and the habit of bonding over donut holes and chocolate milk with her mom on the long country ride home after grocery trips, led to an emotional crutch of sugar addiction that became unstoppable, and later death threatening.

At age 15, Mariah became one of the few champion female runners on the cross-country team. Already very lean from running, her coach gave her the wrong advice to lose another 5 pounds to run faster. This resulted in losing her period (amenorrhea), shin splints, a knee injury, and ultimately dropping off the team. She was devastated. The running stopped, but the eating didn't. Turning to weights and less-weight-bearing cardio on the elliptical trainer, Mariah found a new way to burn the massive number of calories she was emotionally overeating, now with compulsive exercise. 

Although suffering from the undiagnosed Compulsive Overeating Disorder, Mariah was inspired to share her love of exercise with others and produced her very first workout VHS for teenagers, Ultimate Teen Tone-Up With Mariah, released in 2001, at the very end of her senior year in high school and community college double program.

Unfortunately, she missed her opportunity to market her workout video and "hit it big" as an exercise influencer, before YouTube existed. Eager to get into the sunshine, Mariah headed off to college in San Diego, California to study kinesiology (exercise science and nutrition) and earn her 4-year degree.

Lonely in a new state, her eating disorder just became worse. Mariah gained 40 pounds and was very uncomfortable as a personal trainer, self-conscious of her stomach hanging over her pants and bloated face from bingeing. She was grateful though, because at least her addiction wasn't alcohol or crack, and she knew if she didn't exercise, she would have weighed 300 pounds!

Emotionally traumatized from the eating disorder and the havoc it caused in all areas of her life, from daily chemical/hormonal imbalances, fog brain, validation to the wrong men and college loans stacking up, Mariah found relief hiking small mountains and crying out to God. One day, sitting on the top of the huge boulders of Mt. Helix in La Mesa, she made a vow that when she overcame the eating disorder, she would share the way with others . . . and her prayer was heard.

Grateful she graduated with her degree, Mariah was still suffering, moved back to Washington State and began working her first full-time job as a consultant in an esteemed weight loss clinic. The owner wanted her to add her exercise expertise to the program, but Mariah just wasn't motivated, exercise was still compulsive and didn't help her lose the 40 pounds she had gained. Although the 1200 calorie diets prescribed to clients seemed like a solution, Mariah knew there was still something missing that would help clients lose the weight and keep it off. 

Enter Life Coaching. Saddened by the low wage she was earning, even as the new director of the clinic, she decided to move north to Seattle to earn a higher wage and pursue a life coaching certification in a very expensive, yearlong program. The study of ontological coaching (the science of 'being') appeared to be the answer she was seeking and thought if she could just 'crack' through her limited beliefs and ego structures, she had a better chance of breaking the chains of the eating disorder. False.

Burdened by the cost of the program, the eating disorder became worse, and at times she became very sick and couldn't go to work, another stress. Mariah dropped out of the program and later learned she wasn't even supposed to be allowed to be enrolled because of the addiction/eating disorder, which she did disclose, but must have been overlooked by the administrator. It turned out that life coaching can't break an eating disorder. 

Unsure about where her current HR admin job was going, after all, her desk was moved to the dark basement as the company expanded, yuck! Still believing in herself to find "the way" and share it with others, Mariah was inspired to teach a nutritional workshop at local big-box gym. On one freezing night, she drove with courage to the gym to meet with the manager. While sitting in the dimly lit room talking, in walks . . . Joseph. 

To be continued, "the way" is beginning to appear . . .