We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Allie Burke a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Allie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about the best advice you’ve ever given to a client? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

It’s a funny question because I give advice and recommendations all day, every day to my clients. As a fitness and nutrition coach, I have to meet people where they’re at to have any chance at helping them to reach their goals. Whether someone comes to me to lose 50+ pounds or they just want to feel better in their own skin, each person has their own starting point.

The best piece of advice I give ALL of my clients (regardless of their goal) is to start with what they can manage. I have had people who have come to me ready to make all the changes, do all the workouts, implement all the nutrition, and take all the supplements, and then I’ve had clients who can literally manage one change at a time. The person who is all in may not consider that what they want to do and what they’re capable of doing may be different. So my biggest piece of advice is to think about what they’re capable of doing long-term, not just in this moment of “I’ve gotta do all the things NOW.”

Jumping all in head first leads to burn out or fall off. If one day doesn’t go as planned, the majority of people throw in the towel. Life is about balance and someone’s health and fitness is no different. Being able to communicate that small wins, small habits, everyday, consistently but not perfectly, can lead to incredible, life-long changes. Imagine if you implemented walking 30 minutes every day where you would be in a year! That’s just ONE habit, ONE action, ONE daily win that can lead to an INCREDIBLE year of movement!

It’s not all or nothing. It’s being realistic and honest with yourself about what you’re capable of handling. Be consistent. Don’t seek perfection. And when you get one habit down, you add on to it from there!

Allie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m excited to share my story with you! I have always been into fitness in some capacity. My journey started when I was young and participated in dance and cheerleading. However, my weight was always something I was super (self)conscious of and never really felt secure with how I looked. I started dieting at a very young age that led to a lot of ups and downs with my weight, even though I was active. When I got into my teens, I started playing around with doing more structured workouts. Lifting weights, classes, and running became part of my regular routine. I would get to a good place and then fall off again for various reasons. Getting into college, I had all the negative influence of long nights out partying, cramming in study sessions, ordering fast food constantly, and barely moving my body. I realized that was not who I wanted to be anymore. I forced myself back into the gym with help of the people around me, and started finding a love for my body all over again. Weights literally brought me back to life!

Since then, I’ve become a wife and a mom to two beautiful girls. When my oldest was born, I was a stay at home mom for the first year of her life. Although I loved having that extra time with her, I knew God had even more in store for me. That’s when I decided to pursue personal training. While being pregnant with my oldest, I saw a very big gap in the health and fitness world. I didn’t know how to support my body and my pregnancy, while also still working out and remaining strong. So, I decided to do something about it. I became a certified personal trainer and then went on to earn my Pre- and Postnatal Coaching Certification as well as become a nutrition coach for 1st Phorm! Now I have the privilege to not only help women become their healthiest, strongest, most confident selves, I can also help them to thrive throughout pregnancy and after with fitness and nutrition.

What sets Burke Fitness apart is the ability to not only help women to reach their health goals but to make life-long healthy habit changes. Incorporating health and fitness into your life as a busy woman and mom is not easy, so our community helps to create a positive, supportive network of myself and other women who are looking to live into the journey instead of just trying to reach a goal.

I’m most proud of the women who are part of this community, who support one another, cheer each other on, and help hold one another accountable. There have been incredible transformations and weight loss successes, but what’s more important is that they’re finding a love for the daily actions and habits of living into the women they want to be. Finding themselves again, becoming better humans, better moms and wives, finding energy and confidence again, and taking back control of their lives is absolutely the most rewarding part. Creating Consistency in the Chaos!!

We are in the midst of our Fall GET STRONG Challenge and will have another coming up right after the New Year! My one on one nutrition coaching and custom fitness programming are still currently open for new clients and women who are interested in one on one personal training can contact me as well to get information about when spots will be opening back up!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pivoting was the name of the game for the first four years of my career! Since fitness and nutrition were not what I studied in college, and I had no idea how to run a business, it was a lot of trial and error! When I started (in the middle of 2020), there were a lot of hurdles to get around. My fitness studio was in my home so there were a lot of precautions taken to keep myself, my family, and my clients safe. I trained them with a mask and shield on (which had its own share of complications) and sanitized from top to bottom in between clients. I continued training in my home for 2 more years until my daughter was mobile and could no longer be kept content watching us train from her baby seat. At that point, I pivoted to an online only platform.

My clients who I trained in person wanted the one on one accountability and opted out for training virtually, so I had to build from the ground up again while also figuring out how I was going to train clients virtually. The business was at a standstill with virtual training only. I had a handful of clients, but nothing I did seemed to keep people consistently coming back. We did great with challenges but once challenges were over, they didn’t see the value in staying.

Fast forward two more years to the beginning of 2024. I started doing nutrition coaching for 1st Phorm and was making new connections within our community, trying to expand my reach out from behind my computer. As I made new connections, the idea of training in person started coming back up. Both my daughters were taken care of at least 4 days a week, so my schedule was more open than it had been previously. Because of the added time of cleaning my house and studio for clients and also not being able to give them all the equipment that would be optimal, I decided if I did start to train clients again in person, I would not train them in my studio. That added the question of, where WILL I train clients??

I had traveled to a couple clients homes in the past, so I decided I would start there. When I would go to them, I’d know what equipment (if any) they had available, and bring in whatever else was needed for that workout. Since that starting point, I, now, train clients in their community gyms, commercial gyms, and their home gyms. It makes the workouts and workout plans more optimal when we can workout in the facility that they’ll be doing the rest of their workouts in. And when they have questions about machines, I can give them hands on feedback and guidance. It’s been the best pivot combining the online fitness and nutrition coaching with in person training and is also creating the best results! Pivots are sometimes needed and when you learn from what wasn’t working and implement changes, there’s only room for improvement!

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

I’d say there’s two parts to this question, but I believe they work together to create the most success. For the first part, I’ll refer back to one of the previous questions about what makes Burke Fitness stand out to answer this, because I think it applies to both questions.

I believe I’m successful because I meet people where they’re at. I want people to earn real, life-long results and not continue to go through life struggling with fad diets, fat loss pills, and get skinny quick schemes. They might work for the short term, but unless you’re creating the habits to support it, it’s not going to last. Everyone has a starting point, but not everyone wants to start there. Lifestyle coaching has allowed me to have real conversations, set real expectations, and not bs my clients when they want the “lose weight fast” scenario.

I’ve also gone through majority of what they’ve gone through. Because I train and coach women only, I’m able (in most situations) to relate to them very personally. I’ve had three pregnancies, two babies, I’m a wife, I’ve worked crazy busy jobs, I have struggled with weight my whole life, and I’ve done pretty much any diet or fitness plan you can think of. That allows me to connect with them on a level beyond just being their coach. Living out what they’re currently going through and being able to give them real life feedback goes beyond what knowledge I’ve learned in books. It also makes me a real person to them and not just someone who’s telling them what they need to do to be healthy. Let’s be real, Most people know what it takes to be healthy. The relational and psychological part of getting healthy is by far the hardest part. And I’m thankful I’m able to connect with them, earn their trust, and help them to earn the results and feel good in their bodies again like they want to.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://burke-fitness.com
• Instagram: alliepburkecpt
• Facebook: alliepaigeburke
• Other: Private Women’s Facebook Group: Burke Fitness Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/burkefitnesscommunity

Image Credits

Rachel Baldwin Photography