Hi! I'm Tanja.
I am a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, Kinesiologist and High Performance Coach and I created Fit + Vibrant LIVE IT for women just like you.
I combine diagnostic nutrition and brain science to help you stop emotional eating, regain energy, and reach your healthy weight so you can live vibrantly.
I want you to know what it’s like to feel good in your body.
I’ve seen women living life from the sidelines, not fully engaging in life because they don’t feel comfortable in their body. And I know what it’s like to be obsessed with food, stuck in the cycle of emotional eating and feeling like a failure.
We have one life to live, and I want you to look back at your life and know that you fully LIVED.
That’s why I created Fit + Vibrant LIVE IT. To give you the tools, personalized coaching and support, based on body and brain science, to optimize your health and live your healthiest, fullest life.
You deserve to feel good.
I am so glad you’re here!
-Tanja x
Why I do what I do
When I started as a personal trainer and wellness coach in 2004, I thought that the answer to weight loss and better health was a one-size-fits-all approach with low carb diets, fewer calories, high intensity workouts and more will power.
I was great at helping my clients lose weight, but they could never keep it off. They would reminisce about the 28 day program that ‘worked’; because they lost weight. But it never actually worked because it never solved the real reason they struggled with food.
At the same time, I was struggling with my own disordered relationship with food. Losing weight was my full time job. I would ‘do well’ for a while, but then find myself hiding food, sneaking food, and being obsessed with my weight. It was like I was in my own self-made prison.
In 2015 I started my own journey to a more peaceful relationship with food, and started sharing my journey with others. My practice transformed when I stopped focusing on macros and calories and started helping my clients heal their relationship with food, build better relationships with themselves and learn to become better thinkers.
They worked through deep beliefs and fears that had kept them in the self-sabotage cycle. They learned that compulsive dieting doesn’t solve compulsive eating. They transformed their life.
And while mindset and our core beliefs are extremely important to lose weight for the last time, it’s not everything.
What you do also matters. Many women were doing ‘everything right’ and still not getting results. Truthfully, if you’re doing ‘everything right’ and not getting results, you’re not doing everything right for YOU.
What your body needs is individual to YOU. With concrete data from functional labs, I identify healing opportunities and underlying causes of dysfunction, and then help my clients implement an individualized health protocol to coach up wellness and support the body back to balance and resiliency.
In Fit + Vibrant LIVE IT, I’ll work with you every step of the way to build a healthy mindset and implement a holistic health protocol to make peace with food, lose weight for the last time, and live a vibrant life.
A bit more about me:
I’m a mom (to Jacob, and currently three cats), wife to Keith. I feel most alive when I’m love hiking in nature or staring at just about any body of water, from the Pacific Ocean to the Vedder River (that flows through my current home, Chilliwack). I also love my morning coffee. Yes, I bolded and italicized love. And cats. I even have cat earrings now!
I am always learning: from books, podcasts and my clients. My formal training includes:
- Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology (University of Victoria)
- Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner
- Nutritional Therapy Practitioner
- Certified High Performance Coach (High Performance Institute)
- Medical Exercise Specialist
When I’m not writing, podcasting, speaking on stage or in workshops, continuing my own education, running my health and wellness studio in Chilliwack, and working with my amazing clients, I am…
- Hanging out with the family! That could mean snowboarding, going for hikes, a dinner at my mom + dad’s, or an indulgent date with my husband, Keith.
- Going for a walk by the Vedder River, usually while walking a dog in the neighbourhood and to a podcast or talking with a friend or my sister.
- Doing ANYTHING active. Daily movement is non-negotiable for me- hiking, yoga, paddle boarding, cycling and strength training (also a non-negotiable- though I prefer going outside!)
- On an adventure. I love exploring. As a family, we spend a lot of time camping in our trailer, Carl.
