My Journey

My name is Megan Dee Ann, and I am a certified Yoga Instructor and Health Coach.

I help people relearn how to listen to their bodies, and show people how to find proper nutriment. I do like to push myself-both physically and mentally, so I’m always interested in engaging new experiences, going different places, and trying new foods. But I don’t eat the animals, and I do my best to be respectful of Nature. More and more people are deciding to get in shape and eat cleaner, I am here to give support and guidance every step of the way. My passion is Yoga, and that includes providing a safe space for people to clear their minds and move through their emotions. I meditate daily, and I like to teach people how accessible inner peace is. We all need to be reminded to breathe and be in the current moment; after all, this instant is the only time we truly have.

And that’s my life! It’s pretty fulfilling. I’m always meeting new people and learning interesting things, which always puts me in the midst of a unique adventure. And I plan on sharing all those things in this blog! So thanks for coming along!

But this is a journey, and I’m sure you’re interested in knowing how I got where I am now. So, I’ll tell you.

Once, upon a much earlier time, I was a happy frolicking child ☺️. I played outside with my siblings, I was engaged in sports and extracurricular activities, and I ate whatever my mother put on the table. And it was good, and I was happy, and life was unquestionable.

And then my mother got sick. Like, what we thought was just a really bad stomach virus actually ended up being the final stages of colon cancer. She was given 3 months to live. Needless to say, lots of changes were made. We started eating differently and becoming more aware of what we put into our bodies. We started paying more attention to what was going on in the world surrounding us and we became more interactive with the people in it. To put it simply, we started looking outside of the box that we had been living in. My mother actually lived for another 10 months after her diagnosis, without treatment. I strongly believe it was because of the changes that began incorporating-a greener, more active lifestyle. A lot of seeds were planted in my life during that short amount of time. Seeds that immediately took root, and seeds that are just now beginning to germinate.

I moved to a different state my senior year of highschool, decided that I needed to get “fine” for college (whatever that means), and joined a gym with one of my girlfriends. One day she couldn’t go to the workout, so I was there, looking crazy and clueless, and the guy at the front desk suggested I try out a yoga class. Sure, how difficult could an hour of stretching be? I played sports and cheerleading was one, so I could handle some Power Yoga, I was flexible enough. I could probably still do the elliptical afterwards, right? WRONG!! I had never heard of Bikram, and had no idea what I was stepping into. That guy at that desk should have given me a little more warning is all I’m saying. When I tell you that that class worked me all the way out…!

Yes, I was back up in there the next day! My friend didn’t care for it too much, but I have been doing yoga since then, even experimenting with different styles and types.

College came with the typical craziness that it offers to every young American out on their own for the first time. And by that I mean weight was added instead of lost, concepts revisited, and boundaries retraced. I lessened up on chemicals of all sorts, learned how to cook instead of spending my money on fast food, and I let my hair grow out. Then, my dad got sick, and I moved back home. I found a crazy boy to date, because life just isn’t complete if you don’t have at least one crazy ex, I started working, got my own place, and bought a car. I thought things were going fairly well until one day I was helping out at a local event and took a picture of myself. And didn’t know who was looking back at me. I mean, I had been through a few things (who hasn’t), and my ex was truly crazy, so I hadn’t been going out as much or taking pictures or even doing my hair and putting on makeup. I knew my clothes weren’t fitting and I was actually preparing to go shopping for more, but y’all, I was not prepared. I was not ready to see whoever that girl was in that photo.

So, I started working out! I never liked running so I started power walking. Walking, walking, walking-everywhere, and fast like I had somewhere to be. I never gave up yoga, but in college it became occasion and stayed occasional after I moved back home. The Ashtanga primary series became my daily devotion. I was out of shape so it took me a full hour to get through. I knew how to cook, but I didn’t know a thing about proportion sizes or food categories, so I studied, and began applying what I learned. I did workout videos, bought some 5lb weights, cut out soda and sweets…I was on a mission and I was not stopping until I could look in the mirror and be proud of what I saw. And then one day, I realized that I could no longer stomach meat. It had taken a little while to get to this realization. It was never intentional-I loved pork, I loved cheese, it was never a bad time for a burger...I just had been noticing that no matter how hungry I was, if I was eating something that had meat in it I could only get about half of it down. And then I began observing, as I was chewing, that I really didn’t want to swallow the foods that had meat in them. I was aware that I had been eating more salads lately, but then I noticed that I didn’t even want meat in my mouth. The final straw was when I went to Chick Fil-A and ordered a 6 ct chicken nugget. It took me two hours to get down 2 nuggets. I swore on that day, as I was spitting the 2nd one out, that I would never spend my money on meat, or eat it again. And I haven’t since then.

I really don’t even eat the by-products from the animals anymore. Everything that I was getting from the animals that I had been eating, the animals were getting from the plants that they were eating. So, what was the point really? I wasn’t missing anything, I had to re-learn where to get my nutrients from, but I wasn’t missing them. My new boyfriend, who was vegan long before we met, taught me a lot. He taught me the importance of a colorful diet, he taught me where different nutrients came from and how they are used in the body, and he taught me about supplements. I thank my lucky stars for him, because I didn’t know what I thought I knew and he taught me about health. I didn’t watch all of those documentaries on what’s happening in the factories because I had already made the decision that I was done, so I didn’t need help sticking to it. (We did watch What the Health, though, just because, and OMG we never watched another one). I feel so much better since I have quit eating the animals. I had dropped plenty of weight, and was feeling like I was looking-good; but I dropped another 20lbs after cutting meat, and I have never been more proud of my appearance than I am now. It’s not about numbers on a scale or the size of my clothes. It’s about walking up a flight of stairs without getting winded, or enjoying a stroll in the park without being blackmailed for ice-cream afterwards. It’s about enjoying my life without regret. I am a living being! I want to enjoy my life! You get out what you put in, so I seek out positive experiences and I eat living things.

And that’s how I got here. Yoga was integral to my weight loss and in putting my head back on straight after college, the crazy ex, and the death of my dad, so I decided to become certified and share it in some way with everyone I come across. My weight loss was truly a challenge, but several of my friends and associates were coming to me for advice, so getting a certification in Health Coaching only seemed natural. And all of this has just opened my life up to so many things. I’ve learned; I’ve grown; I’ve expanded! And I want to share! I want to encourage you and let you inspire me. I want to live! And I want to share this life with others 💗