Hello! My name is Zoe Novota, and I am the trainer and coach behind EveryBODY Fitness. I want to share a little bit about my background and journey that has led me to YOU!

In a nutshell, I’m a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and Women’s Fitness Specialist as well as a Professional Certified Life Coach. I have a passion for women’s issues, self-love, and empowerment, especially through fitness!

Here’s the long version -

I started lifting weights at the age of 13 after school with some friends. I had tried every sport that my school offered at my school and let’s just say, anything with a ball is not my forte. At first, I just wanted to run on the treadmill and wasn’t interested in any of the weights. Unfortunately, like many teenage girls, I was obsessed with being smaller. However, the teacher overseeing the weight room encouraged me and my friends to pick up some weights. He taught me so much and shaped my base knowledge on form, how to safely lift, and so much more. I fell in love with lifting for how it made me feel physically and the release it gave me mentally.

Unfortunately, my relationship with exercise and my body wasn’t all good. I had always been heavier and had a “belly” which I hated. I looked at magazines and when swim season rolled around, I looked at all the models in the newest bikini trends and I wanted to look just like them. I hung pictures of these models on my bedroom door and did sit-ups so every sit-up I was reminded of what my goal was, to be skinny.

 Fast forward to college, I had several health issues and didn’t prioritize my body or my health. I was working four jobs and trying to cram a 4-year program into 3.5 years. I “didn’t have time” to eat or go to the gym. I “didn’t have time” to take care of my body. I was barely eating but gaining weight, I felt like a zombie most days. In my second year of college I could barely function and would go on to be diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which paired with my lack of care for my body was responsible for my weight gain, brain fog, and severe fatigue.

Initially when I got back to the gym, I was focused on changing my body. I wasn’t really getting any results, so I started to educate myself more on nutrition, lifting, and got down to the science behind it all. I fell even more in love with these subjects and quickly realized that I was severely under eating and that it was likely why I wasn’t seeing results in the gym and why I wasn’t feeling better.

 Finally, I stopped focusing on my appearance. I started following along with the body positive movement on Instagram and was so inspired by what I found. Bodies: all different bodies, and all so beautiful, vibrant, and full of LIFE. I started eating more, I still ate the foods I enjoyed, but ate the less healthy foods in moderation, and started focusing on what I needed to eat to nourish my body. I started working on becoming stronger instead of smaller at the gym.

Although I actually lost weight during that process, what I gained was even better. I gained confidence and gratitude for my body and what it was capable of. I learned that my body is so much more that it’s appearance, but I also learned to love its uniqueness too. And it changed my life forever.

Over the past 3+ years, I have dedicated myself to helping other women fall in love with themselves too. I’ve done this through my social media and have brought together all of my knowledge to become a NASM Certified Personal Trainer. I also built on my undergrad in which I studied Psychology by becoming a Professional Certified Life Coach. I believe that to start on a successful fitness journey you can’t ignore other aspect of your life to get there. I believe it’s imperative to assess the things in each of our lives that get in our way, and learn to accept them and integrate them with our goals all while giving ourselves much-needed love and grace along the way. I would love to help you start on a new fitness journey centered around self-love and both mind and body health.

Click here to learn more about what I’m passionate about and what EveryBODY Fitness can offer you!