How I Found Faith and My Self Worth

We sat at a cute little local coffee shop and as we settled in with our coffees, I pulled out my notebook and pretty much told her to start talking. This was her story to tell so whatever she wanted to say…go for it!

This is Mary Ellen’s story of finding faith and self-worth.

“I struggled with weight my entire life, but was always an athlete,” she began. “I swam in my younger days and never had a problem when it came to exercise.” Her issues, however, centered around eating. “I come from a family of big eaters where the focus was always on the food,” she said. She started her first diet at the age of 15 which led to a 25-year struggle with bulimia. “It was a vicious cycle of binging, purging and exercising,” she explained. After her third child was born, she decided to become a group fitness instructor and taught for years at several local gyms. One day, someone approached her needing a swimmer for a local triathlon. Mary Ellen agreed to do it and loved her first experience. She did really well at it and thought to herself “I can do the whole thing!!” She learned to bike and run and started competing in smaller triathlons throughout the area. This led to starting a social media page to meet and connect with other triathletes in the area. Even though she loved competing, she still could not conquer her eating disorder and obsession with food.

In 2012 Mary Ellen decided to do her first Ironman competition along with her triathlon community which consisted of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run. During this time, she went through a divorce and still battled her unhealthy eating habits. While training for her Ironman, she met her now husband, Wayne, and together they trained for more competitions while building a close knit triathlon community.

In 2018, Mary Ellen received an opportunity to become an ambassador for an organization called “Women for Tri” and race on their behalf at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, raising over $40,000 on the non-profit’s behalf. After the competition, she happened to see a picture of herself and was devastated by what she saw. “I looked really heavy,” she said. “I knew something needed to change. I had just competed in a 140.6 mile race so it wasn’t my exercise that was the problem, it was my food and unhealthy eating habits that was the culprit.” So she took to social media to find some help. Scrolling on Instagram one day, she came across a fellow triathlete posting about his transformation through a health program that focused on daily nutrition and habit changes. “I signed up IMMEDIATELY,” she said. As weight loss was her primary goal, it was suggested to scale back initially on the exercise. “My first reaction to this was ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT’ because at the time, exercise was my identity,” she said. But she knew she couldn’t keep doing the same thing and expecting different results, so she reluctantly agreed. “That one decision changed everything,” she explains. “I lost weight and inches and felt great BUT most importantly, I broke free of my food and exercise addiction!”

Feeling fantastic, she decided to pay the gift forward by becoming a certified Health Coach and began to share her journey on social media, never imagining what would unfold. She started to fall in love with helping others find optimal health, igniting a passion and purpose inside of her. What started out as a little side-hustle grew quickly into a large business and six months later, she left her corporate career to become a health coach full time. In just four years’ time, Mary Ellen, along with her husband and partner Wayne, has built a health coaching organization which helps others achieve optimal health through four main components: one-on-one coaching to deliver guidance and accountability, access to a community of like-minded people providing real -time support, clinically proven plans to help achieve health goals and an educational system offering easy steps to create a sustainable healthy lifestyles. Their team, which includes over 1500 coaches nationwide, has helped over 20,000 people transform their lives, one healthy habit at a time. “We say this is a personal development program with a weight loss component. People may come to us for weight loss, but they truly step into the best version of themselves,” she says.

Although Mary Ellen conquered her unhealthy eating habits, she still felt the need to prove herself in the fitness world. She decided last year to sign up for a bodybuilding competition at the age of 53, a longtime bucket list item. While she enjoyed the process, fell in love with her coaches and learned a tremendous amount through the training journey, she felt a real disconnect and emptiness afterwards. “I began to see a bit of a pattern in my behavior and a constant need to prove myself in extreme ways,” she said. “I needed to explore why there was this endless striving, massive goal setting and feeling like it was never enough.” In an effort to gain some clarity and a better understanding of this continuous cycle, she began to seek a relationship with God.

She started reading the Bible along with daily devotionals and was beginning to develop a personal relationship with God for the first time. Although continuing to grow in her faith, the striving continued and she decided to join her husband for yet another Ironman competition. “Stepping back into this world, from a physical perspective, was easy. But my heart, I knew, was just not into it,” she said. That all came to a head one morning after a 5-hour workout, 20 weeks into her training, when she collapsed on the floor of her garage in tears. “I knew this was God telling me to lay it down: the control, the need for outside approval, the validation for self-worth…ALL of it. That message was LOUD and CLEAR,” she said. Hours later, she withdrew from what would hae been her 6th Ironman race.

“The minute I made that decision, a weight was lifted off of me and I felt absolutely free! I didn’t have one regret. I can now focus on things that matter most to me: my family, my marriage and my team and clients. It’s the first time in my life I am letting God lead me and see where it takes me. God tore the desire right out of my heart,” she said.

Mary Ellen is now exercising her faith while seeking the form of fitness that focuses on God-first. “I know there is a form of exercise out there that not only makes me happy and brings me peace, but also helps me honor my body - which is ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ - while honoring Him. And I know He will direct me to it," she says.

You are truly an inspiration to us all, Mary Ellen. Thank you for sharing your personal story with us.

Kerri Sirinides is Editor of the Oakland Borough Newsletter.