Coach Corner: Molly Avondet (#1 in Series)

Hello!  This evening I am beginning the first in a series of posts where I will spotlight one of the coaches on my team!  For tonight I have asked Molly Avondet to share some of her own story.  Molly was the first coach to join my team and this actually happened while I was still pretty new to all of this myself!  I first met Molly three years ago.  She was new to town and I was getting her set up to join our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group.  From the minute that she and I began talking, I knew that I LOVED this girl!  Talk about a burst of sunshine!  Molly had moved here from Florida and literally brought a warmth with her and this easily extended to everyone she met.  Fast forward a few years and you can see why I was THRILLED to have Molly as the first coach on my growing team.  I knew that with her as an active encourager of others, they would make enjoyable progress on their own fitness journey!!  Molly and I have now run quite a few challenge groups together and this has been great for both of us.  Here she is! 

Tell us about yourself...

I am originally from Cleveland, Ohio and I currently live in Erie, PA. We moved here for my husband's job, a little over three years ago.  I am married to my best friend and better half, Chris.  We have been together for 13 (going on 14) years, and married for seven, although I often feel like we are still dating!  We have date nights often, most of them just being on our patio or on the couch while the boys are sleeping.  We have two boys Finn 3 and Gavin 2, and they are busy!  I am beyond grateful for these three beautiful boys in my life.  I also cherish my time spent with family and friends!  I love nothing more than to laugh and make memories with them!  I am a strong believer that laughter is key to a happy and healthy life!  Before being a mom, I was an early childhood teacher.  I taught preschool in Rhode Island, and first grade in Florida.   I absolutely loved teaching, and I gave it my all, but after Finn was born I became a stay at home mom. Being a stay at home mom is not as easy as I once thought, but a job I wouldn't trade for the world!!! 

What prompted you to get started with this lifestyle change yourself?  Why did you become a coach?

I have had an interest in nutrition and exercise for many years, even before kids, but what I thought was healthy then wasn’t as healthy as I had once thought.  I would focus on low fat, or low calorie foods instead of whole, fresh, low sugar, all natural ingredients.  After Finn was born the baby weight came off fast from stress (but I wasn't toned).  He was born premature so we spent the first couple weeks living in the hospital. I started to focus more on nutrition, knowing that I wanted to provide only the best for this new  and amazing little guy in my life and boy did I learn a lot!  I read a lot about nutrition and did my homework with labels!  We found out we were pregnant with Gavin one week after Finn’s first birthday. I continued to stay active and did my boot camp class at the gym until I was 5 months pregnant, but eventually had to stop due to complications, yet again related to preterm birth.  After Gavin was born healthy and chubby, I didn’t have much time to go to the gym, so I started running again when I could fit it in.  No matter how much I ran though, I just couldn’t tone up the way I wanted to.  I thought I was eating healthy too, so I just couldn’t understand it all.  Why could I not tone up????  In the meantime I kept seeing things on my newsfeed about Beachbody and the 21 Day Fix which was a new workout program.  I decided to give it a try, what did I have to lose?!  After a couple weeks of doing the workouts and drinking Shakeology, I was in love! The 21 Day Fix worked, and I learned although I was eating healthy...I was still over eating those healthy foods!  I knew I wanted to share this experience with others.  I loved it that much! I was a believer, and I wanted others to feel as good as I did.   I became a coach shortly after, and I have never looked back since!  It is one of the best and most rewarding decisions I have ever made!  

What has been the biggest surprise so far?  What do you find most rewarding about coaching?

These programs WORK!  They define your body and produce lean muscle!  The programs are spelled out for you, so there is nothing left to the imagination.  You follow the program, YOU GET RESULTS!  It really is that simple!  No tricks or gimmicks!  It has also been nice to actually see definition in my arms!  Coaching in challenge groups has  been so rewarding!  I am a believer, and I am giver, so I truly believe in each and everyone of my challengers. I believe they can attain their goals with a little hard work, and dedication!  They are the ones that deserve to get all of the credit for their hard work, not me.  I am just their personal cheerleader along the way, and you better believe I am rooting for them!  I want everyone to succeed and reach their goals, because I want everyone to have confidence and feel good! Especially women, because we are just so hard on ourselves sometimes.    

Where do you hope to go from here? 
I will continue coaching, because If I am coaching, I am helping people!  I hope to continue to build my team, so we can continue to inspire others to be the best version of them while also working with an AMAZING organization, Beachbody!  Everyone deserves to feel good about them themselves, and it is truly amazing what exercise does for the mind and body.  I am a firm believer in leading by example, so I practice what I preach.  It is important to me that I create a healthy lifestyle for my family, and I love helping others do the same! I have learned from my mom from an early age to always help others.  This has been a value that has been instilled in me, and I find so much gratification seeing other people laugh and smile. I am ready and will continue to help others SHINE! 

Any suggestions for those who are on the fence about jumping in themselves?

We often let fear get in the way of our dreams because we are afraid to fail.  Who doesn’t want to be healthy?!  Transitioning to a healthy lifestyle is not just for people that are looking to lose weight.  It is for everyone!  We only have one body, so it is our job to take care of it the best we can!  Face your fears, conquer them and get ready to live a lifestyle you deserve.  I recently heard the saying, FAIL FORWARD, and it really sank in.  We are all going to fail at times, but as long as we are failing forward instead of failing backwards, we are moving forward and learning from those failures to be a better us.