Hey, what’s up? I am so glad that you are here. I started Journey to Fit with Debbie because I have been on my own journey for quite some time. For years, my focus was entirely on physical strength and nutrition—but along the way, I realized that true well-being is about more than just how we move and fuel our bodies. It’s also about having the peace of mind that comes with financial confidence. Today, my mission is to help you build both: a strong body and a secure financial future.
It has had many ups and downs.
I have made many mistakes.
I am still learning.
Weight is something I have struggled with since childhood. My complicated relationship with food has taken some time to unravel and requires continued work, learning, practice and growth. My journey through this process has taken a lot of twists and turns.
But through it all, I have also always been an athlete. I love sports. Moving my body is enjoyable. Sometimes more than others depending on what shape I was in at the time. The last few years I have taken that persistent interest in sport and exercise and really dove in.
My fitness journey has gone through many phases, starting with training in the weight room while coaching basketball and running a marathon with my brother. From there, I fell in love with OrangeTheory Fitness, and I eventually built my own garage gym during COVID.
Having my own gym drove me to want to learn more about how to work out effectively. There is so much free information on the internet, but I decided to pursue a Personal Trainer Certification because my organized, life-long student brain liked that it was all in one place. I had no idea that making the decision to learn for myself would start my journey to me training others. But since teaching is my current profession, it makes a lot of sense.
Training Clients
I have been training clients in person since December of 2022, and I absolutely love it. Watching people increase both their physical strength and their inner confidence has been incredibly rewarding. Once I completed my Personal Trainer Certification, I decided to dig into nutrition as well. The two go hand in hand, and for me, nutrition has always been the hardest part of the equation.
I quickly realized there are far more people I want to help than I have hours in the day. Online nutrition and fitness coaching felt like the perfect way to bridge that gap. My goal is to take everything I have learned on my own journey, through my certifications, and from working with clients in person, to help even more people find success on their path to better health.
A different kind of hurdle.
After spending 25 years in education—including 14 years teaching special education in the classroom and 11 as an EdTech TOSA—I always trusted that my retirement would just work itself out. I paid into CalSTRS, signed up for a 403(b), and didn’t think about it too hard.
Then, I got a real wake-up call. I was working with a financial advisor who was actually a friend, so there was nothing shady going on. But when I sat down and did the math on what a standard 1% management fee actually costs a teacher over a lifetime, I was absolutely stunned. I realized how much hard-earned wealth we quietly lose to high fees simply because the system is too confusing to navigate on our own.
Digging into CalSTRS and the 403(b) marketplace was a massive eye-opener. I didn’t just discover that managing investments is a skill anyone can learn; I found out that there are incredibly simple, low-cost options out there that we are rarely told about. The reality is that the teacher 403(b) world is designed in a way that allows educators to get preyed on by high-fee products, often sold by people we think we should trust. After all, the emails come to our district email and make it sound like the district is backing them.
Once I saw how the system was set up, I couldn’t just look the other way. I built Financially Fit Teacher to pull back the curtain. I spent my career helping students navigate systems that weren’t built for them, and now I want to help educators do the same with their retirement. True strength isn’t just about what you can lift in the gym. It is about the confidence of knowing your money is safe, your fees are low, and you are in total control of your future.
The freedom to say “yes.”
I have always loved to travel and make memories. But for years, like most teachers, I was doing it while blindly trusting a retirement system that was quietly chipping away at my hard-earned savings
Taking control of your retirement isn’t about hoarding money so you can stare at a balance on a screen. It is about building a financial reserve so you can actually live your life. It is about the freedom to book a cruise, upgrade your flight, and say ‘yes’ to making memories with the people you love, without a shred of financial guilt.
