We recently connected with Birdie Alexandra and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Birdie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

When I was 19 years old in college I began going through an extremely rough patch in my life. One thing after another was falling apart which then reflected onto my health. I was sick all the time, on loads of prescriptions, feeling depressed and feeling I had no control over my life or my body. This was what led me to an embark on a health journey. I joined an mlm company that marketed for a 30-days to healthy living program. What started off as an innocent health journey that helped me lose weight and feel healthier quickly became something much worse. I became overly obsessed and fearful at the same time surround what I ate, when I ate, and how much I ate. I kept losing weight and the compliments kept flooding in which only fuelled my fire. Shortly before I turned 22, I started noticing things that seemed a bit off. My hair was falling out, I was gaining weight, I was moody and tired all the time, and I was constipated and constantly bloated so I went to go see a dietician. That is when I was diagnosed with 4 eating disorders: anorexia, orthorexia, bed, and bulimia. I was in denial for some time and continue to reference wellness influencers to help me stay on track with being healthy and thin. Deep down I knew I was not well, so I decided I needed to begin recovery. I graduated college and instead of going straight into a career I went straight into recovery. While in recovery I had a lot of time for self-reflection and realized our fitness industry and these under qualified wellness influencers are harming so many of us. They are making us believe thin and restriction is healthy. Diet culture is a billion-dollar industry just profiting off of our insecurities and internalized fatphobia that society drilled into our heads. I wanted to make a change, so I decided to get certified as a nutrition coach and personal trainer. My focus is to change the narrative of the health and fitness industry by shifting away from aesthetics and focusing on overall well-being. I help others heal their relationship with food, exercise, and their body through food freedom, mindful eating, and joyful movement. I have had the incredible opportunity to work at a university where I can directly work with young women who struggle with similar things I have struggle with. We work together to shift our thoughts and become educated on what is actually correct when it comes to health and fitness. I make content online to help provide free information and hopefully drown out the false information put out by underqualified fitness influencers. I have created a fitness app to help individuals move their body in a joyful way that makes them feel good inside and out. I get the opportunity to speak in front of large crowds and spread my message to help others heal and ditch diet culture once and for all. Although I will never wish the struggle of eating disorders on anyone it has been a blessing with in a curse for me because they brought me to my purpose.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I received my certifications for personal training and nutrition coaching through NASM in 2020. I started working as a personal training in a local commercial gym to build up experience. I knew I wanted to work in the city as there are more opportunities there, and I specifically wanted to work with college level individuals, so I applied to work at a university’s campus recreation center. I started as a personal training just training clients at the rec but I continued to take on more opportunities. I created a class called Weightlifting for Women which is a small group class of 4 individuals that helped educated and empower women within strength training. This class has become an extremely popular class at the rec center and we now offer 3 classes in which individual can try and get a slot in however slots fill up very quick. Since I took on many opportunities and created more offerings with in the fitness department I was promoted to Head Personal Trainer with in less than a year of working there. As Head Personal Trainer I helped make resources for newer trainers to help them be better at their jobs. I also hosted wellness talks in front of many different departments on campus and workshops for the students. While doing all this I trained clients outside of the gym and continue to grow my presence on social media. I created a Food Freedom ebook to help individuals heal their relationship with food which can be purchase on my website (nourishedbirdieofficial.com). As I continue to grow and expand with in my position I received a title change to Lead Health and Wellbeing Assistant. This title change was to better reflect my role and all in which I do for the campus rec. My role involves directly overseeing a team of personal trainers, providing programs and resources for personal trainers and small group classes, running work shops and wellness talks across departments on campus, assisting with group fitness and wellness outreach as well as training clients and teaching small group classes. I still continue to train clients out side of this job, creating fitness and wellness content online, and I have create a fitness app in which individuals can subscribe to for workout programs (Birdie Alexandra on the Playbook app).

With all my clientele, I focus on performance and joy. This means I help perfect my client’s form, range of motion, tempo, and stability while also ensuring my client is having fun and feeling good inside and out. If a client wishes to lose some weight I do not have weight loss as the main focus but instead see it as a side effect of something that may occur when shifting or adding more healthy habits to their daily routine. I do this because often when weight loss is the main spotlight it can become obsessive and often discouraging is expectations are not met. I prefer to have my client focus on all the other benefits they gain while engaging in consistent exercise with a structure program. These benefits include better sleep, increased mood and energy, boost of self-confidence, making day to day tasks a lot easier and painless to complete, and overall feeling a lot healthier.

I want others to know that my brand helps individuals heal their relationship with their body, exercise, and food. I help individuals feel confident and healthy. I show them that exercise and nutrition is not the only part of a healthy lifestyle and that it doesn’t have to be their whole life. I show clients that they can experience joy and still do and eat the things they love while living healthy and happy. I focus on the things we can add to better our health rather than take away. This mindset allows clients to be flexible with a structure routine so they can experience life and make new memories. I believe you can be healthy at any size and that thin is not the default to a healthy body. Health to me is defined by the individual as all bodies are different and what works for one may not work for another. I strive to accomplish each client’s goals and create a program that is personalize to them and their body. Living a healthy lifestyle is about the habits and how those habits allow us to thrive and have a good life, it is not about the size of our body. A healthy lifestyle does not include restricting in any forms, punishing yourself, working out past your limits to earn foods, obsessing over a habit or routine, nor taking away from your life in any shape or form. Healthy habits should work with in your life, not be your whole life. My purpose is to show individuals all this and more.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I was struggling with my eating disorders in college I was simultaneously in a very toxic and unhealthy relationship. My partner at the time enabled my eating disorders which held me back from recovery. Winter of our senior year we decided that we will breakup on graduation day (May 10th). As that approached I made a promise to myself, that day will be the day I fully embark on recovery. It was not an easy journey at all and I had moments in which I fell back because it was very scary. I was scared of the weight gain and I also had a hard time on letting go of the attachment I great to my identity of being the “healthy friend”. I realized that recovery was more than just no longer restricting foods and calories. It was much deeper in that I had to shift my way of thinking and unlearn a lot. Some of the things I had to unlearn was the internalized fatphobia that was installed in me from society. I had to unlearn all of the false information diet culture had taught me about nutrition and health as a whole. I had to drop the morals I created around food. I had to learn how to connect with my own bodily cues and respond to them accordingly. I had to be in a phase of trial and error to find what works best for me and what does not. Most importantly I had to learn to be more kind to myself and my body, to give myself grace, to be flexible and adaptable in order to keep growing and evolve, and to be patience as a I continue to trust the process. All this makes me resilient because something that once took over me and made me the worse version of myself was something I was able to heal from and overcome and in return become the best version of myself.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

The most helpful thing that has allowed me to succeed with in my career is being authentically myself. I made a vow to myself to keep it real and raw with my audience and clientele. This means my online presence; I show up as is. I do not edit my body, I show my unposed self, I share moments that are vulnerable and real to showcase that not everything is always sunshine and rainbows, I share the things I struggle with to let others know they are not alone, and I too am not perfect, and I also provide representation for both women and bodies that look like mine. As a personal trainer with a larger body, I am very unique within my field of work. I do not have the “ideal” body that most people think of when they think of a professional in the health and fitness field. I showcase that all bodies can be healthy, and all bodies belong in the health and fitness space. I will always be very honest with clients and let them know what is achievable and realistic and what is not. For example, clients come to me wanting to spot reduce and “tone” (a word created by diet culture in order to profit off of others’ insecurities and wants for quick results) and I will inform them that, that is scientifically not possible to spot reduce. I will then help shift their thoughts to make a more realistic, achievable and sustainable goal that will satisfy their needs and wants. I prioritize collaboration with my clients, which means we will work together to find a compromise to meet their needs while also making sure it’s something that is realistic and sustainable.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nourishedbirdieofficial.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourishedbirdie/?hl=en
• Other: https://my.playbookapp.io/alexandra-orr

  https://www.tiktok.com/@nourishedbirdie