About Emily McNamara

Meet Emily, a Certified Personal Trainer & Nutrition Coach. Coming from 10 years as a Special Educator, she now takes her licensure and experience outside the classroom for flexibility of travel, time, and better health! Since 2018, she has combined her love of lifelong learning to educate her clients on sustainable and fun ways to stay well in today's crazy, busy world! Emily loves the balance of enjoying life and food, while still staying well and hitting goals - it doesn't have to be one or the other! While previously working out of a local studio, Emily now takes her own "First Small Change" business on the road and online...going into people's homes for both training and nutrition coaching, as well as weekly accountability to encourage small, easy changes that can lead to big impacts! When she is not strength-training or teaching on simple pantry swaps, you can find her traveling with her husband across all countries and maybe squishing her furry cat, Ziti.

Growth Story

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a bit of a perfectionist…to the point where I oftentimes won’t let others help me. This perfectionism has really turned into not-so-positive self reliance. I’m all about girl power and knowledge, but I’ve definitely learned over time that there is a healthy balance. I joke with my husband often that, “I’m a strong independent woman and don’t need no man!” (I think that’s the funny saying anyway…) But really when I sit down in the mornings for my devotional or take a moment to slow down and sip my coffee or take a walk out in nature, I’m able to reflect and realize that my husband and I make a good team. So if I can rely on him and ask for help, I want to do that with the rest of my community. I need to be a good role model for that anyway - I preach accountability with my fitness and nutrition clients! It’s still quite difficult, though. What if there’s someone I can’t count on like I thought? What if by relying on others to help, it’s too vulnerable and I still fail anyway? Well. That’s possible I guess. But I have to start somewhere. I’ve started small: asking for feedback, accepting offers of assistance on projects, even trying to listen to friends as they told me to just “rest” or “be in the moment.” Each time I asked, I felt a little lighter, like I had more mental space for myself and more creativity. It also helped me feel better connected to the people around me. Through this learning, I now understand that life isn’t meant to be a solo journey. Strength doesn’t mean carrying all the weight by myself It means knowing when to ask for help, and appreciating that we’re all here to lift each other up. And with each new step forward, I’m grateful for the people who’ve walked with me and been my accountability buddies. As I continue working on this area of my life, I’ve had to take it one step further to practice being silent and content in the waiting. Sometimes my perfectionism and expectations spill over into wanting something in life here and now. But things come as they are supposed to. And again, with the community around me to help me and walk alongside me, I can be content in the here and now. What is supposed to be will be. It just may look different than I thought it should.

Other Posts By Emily McNamara

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