Social media is full of influencers offering tips on how to live healthy lifestyles. But wouldn’t it be better to seek advice from an expert in nutrition and fitness who can help with a personalized plan to achieve healthy goals?
Amber Shaw grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida. Today she is a certified personal trainer and is also certified by the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaching. As a NBC-HWC coach, she focuses on integrative nutrition. But way before, since the age of 10, she has been familiar with the word “diet.”
“At 10, I already knew what it felt like to not feel confident and comfortable in my own skin. I was never overweight as a child, but I always looked older than I was and, therefore, I was always bigger than all the girls and most of the boys. In my early years I also had several family members comment on my size that really shaped my confidence and self-esteem (in a negative way). Because of this – that feeling of always wanting to be thinner and never feeling satisfied in my body was a theme that has been present most of my life. In high school, I threw myself into sports and continued to college where my exercise and dysfunctional relationship with food got worse. By the time I got into my early 20’s I was spending hours at the gym and engaging in bulimia on the regular.” Amber shares.
Accordingly, always looking to be satisfied with her body has been a long-standing theme in Amber’s life. That feeling got reinforced by her two pregnancies, after which her body was never the same again.
Amber tried every diet on the planet, but nothing seemed to work. She found herself in a vicious cycle of deprivation diets and was more unhappy than ever. But it all came to an end when Amber started working on herself and stopped all dieting.
“I started focusing on clean eating and an effective exercise program that didn’t require hours at the gym, and my body and my mindset changed. I started working on myself and digging deep to heal all the limiting and destructive beliefs when it came to my self-esteem and true confidence. I had worked on myself so much that I felt deeply called to help other women. That’s why I decided to become a coach.” Amber states.
Currently, Amber is a certified personal trainer and a holistic nutrition health coach certified by the NBC-HWC. She coaches busy women over 40 in the online space to feel good in their bodies through clean eating, fitness, stress management, and self-love. Today Amber is a weight loss coach for busy women over 40.
“I teach women how to build a sustainable lifestyle to get rid of weight and get off diets for good. I show women that losing weight doesn’t have to be so complicated and miserable. I educate women on how to use food as medicine to balance hormones and find relief as our bodies change. I empower women 40 and over to feel confident and sexy in their skin.” Amber explains.
In 2020, before starting her coaching business, Amber was working a sales job she had had for 17 years. She was working seven days a week, 13-14 hours a day, every day for eight months, while studying for the National Board of Health & Wellness Coaching exam. All of this, while navigating a pandemic and going through a divorce.
“I was too afraid to leave my six figure sales job and be a full-time coach. I finally got to a point where I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was exhausted, burnt out and I could feel that my creativity was really suffering. I made the decision to go full-time into coaching because I realized I was holding back my growth by trying to do both. It was really hard to do it and accept it, but I had to assume that God had brought me this far and he wasn’t going to let me down.” Amber recounts.
Amber’s next projects include launching an exclusive membership program for women ready to get rid of weight for good while escaping the diet train. She wants to build a community of women who support each other as they navigate life after 40.
Besides her work as a nutrition health coach, Amber also created a foundation called Peter Parker in honor of her father, a former rugby player. This non-profit raises money for scholarships for college rugby players. She also created a scholarship in his name at the University of South Florida. In addition, she holds a Master’s degree in Educational Studies with a specialization in special education.
Find out more about Amber and how she can help you rediscover yourself here.