Elissa Jewell from Directional Strength has been a coach and personal trainer for eight years and has pretty much seen and done it all. Deprivation dieting, exercise as punishment, crazy nutrition plans with nothing but greens and fish and cardio for hours and hours a day, women whose bodies and metabolisms have shut down because we are more focused on making our bodies look good than we are in lo
oking after them. It was in seeing all these negative impacts and the disparity between our pursuit of the body beautiful or the perfect life and the reality of how it affects our health - that Elissa has developed a passion for doing things better. To make health and a positive mindset and body image the focus of our training and nutrition efforts - and not to beat ourselves down and use training and nutrition as a way to make ourselves look perfect. Elissa believes that training and nutrition should cater to, and harness your strengths. That when you look after your body, and you feed your body and your mind in a positive and nourishing but challenging and rewarding way - you can use what you have learned in the gym to positively change your entire life. The irony of Elissa's "health and strength first" approach - is that by eating for performance, by looking after yourself and living a life which is congruent with your values, you're liberated from the very mindset and approach that held you back from changing your body in the first place.
