Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Carpenter.
Hi Elizabeth, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Three years ago, at the age of 33, I took a leap of faith and left my career in Interior Design to pursue a career in fitness and personal training. I had my own journey with weight loss several years before, losing over 80 pounds. I knew I had to transform for my daughter so she didn’t grow up with the struggles and self-doubt I had.
The journey of losing weight was spiritual, emotional and I shed more than just pounds. I shed years of self-doubt, years of emotional distress and out of that transformation, I bloomed into a new woman on a mission. That mission became serving my community and helping others to find themselves not just through physical training but through emotional and spiritual support from the tools I used myself on my own journey.
I serve my clients through connecting them to other parts of our community, such as massage therapy, acupuncture, essential oils, therapy, nutritionists, yoga and intuitive healing, to mention a few. I also host community collaborations where the community can experience these tools while meeting new people, having unique wellness experiences in a loving, motivating, supportive environment.
My daughter Charlotte has always been my biggest motivator. Little eyes are always on me, and I strive to be the adult I want my child to be. I have been a single mom for almost four years, so through my career transitions, I also navigated a divorce. I’m driven to show her that the key to happiness comes from self-love and feeding your passions and from that, true happiness and success naturally follow.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has not always been a smooth road. I navigated a divorce through my weight loss journey and through my career transition. I balanced keeping it together so I could show up for my daughter and navigating the road to the woman who I wanted to become after shedding years of clinging to weight, thoughts, and ideas that were no longer serving me.
After I finished school, I was able to find a job at a local gym, and it taught me so much about believing in myself, my programming and learning how to listen to and support others because everyone’s fitness journey looks a little bit different. From this came my motto of sustainable fitness and nutrition. I believe you have to build a strong foundation from the ground up and practice tools that are sustainable for you in order to have lifelong health and wellness.
I struggled to find mentors who looked at fitness the same way I did. A lot of the industry is so focused on losing weight fast and not really looking at why and where that weight came from. I believe knowing the emotional aspects to your body is the key to success. A lot of women still come to me wanting to look a certain way, and I politely have to tell them that they are not the client for me. I’ve learned that I cannot help everyone unless they are willing to help themselves. If a woman or client comes to me saying that they want to learn better habits, live pain-free, learn to make better choices and feel strong, I say, “let’s do this!”
I’ve also learned through working with a lot of women that the postpartum fitness industry is lacking a voice in the gym. I specialize in pre and postnatal fitness because babies change our bodies, and we don’t always have someone in our corner telling us that what we are feeling and seeing is normal. Giving these women a voice and a space to talk about how their bodies have changed and to help them bring it back together after one of life’s most amazing gifts is something I also take so much pride in.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Studio Bloom?
Studio Bloom is operated out of my home gym in Bonita. I offer private training, semi-private training, group workouts and community collaboration workshops. I specialize in pre and postnatal fitness and love working one on one with mothers to help them rebuild their core and pelvic floor after bearing children.
I’m known for my badass strength training programs that encompass corrective exercise, mobility, flexibility and of course, building muscle. I’m absolutely known for not letting my clients get away with improper form. I pride myself on teaching them about their bodies and which muscles are working when and connecting their mind to their muscles so they know what to feel during their time with me. Nothing makes me happier to hear that a client “deadlifted” their heavy a$$ groceries and felt strong doing it. It’s all about functional fitness and translating what we do in the gym to real life.
I’m so very proud of all the community connections I bring to my clients and exposing them to wellness and spiritual outlets that help them on their transformation journeys. I think this is what sets me apart and also what fills me with pride. Intuitively, I can feel my client’s energies and tend to attract clients who have an open mind, an open heart and are looking for depth into understanding themselves better.
I would like readers to know that when looking for a trainer or fitness inspiration, it’s so important to align with your trainers mission. Fitness is extremely personal and vulnerable and just like everything else in life, you should feel supported, understood and that your goals and needs are being heard and valued. I’m constantly rolling out new workshops and opening my doors for pop-ups and classes to offer my Chula Vista and Bonita community. For example, I have an intuitive sound healer who offers pop-up classes on Mondays where you meditate, receive sound healing and can discuss what comes up with after the session to gain perspective. I regularly attend sound healing with my daughter. Fitness and wellbeing is mind, body, soul and spirit. Studio Bloom aims to transform, empower and help you bloom.
Can you talk about how you think about risk?
The biggest risk I took was leaving a stable career, very predictable in Interior Design. I love design, I love being creative, but I didn’t feel like I was fulfilling my mission of helping women to better themselves or myself. Design didn’t make me a better person. Leaving a marriage of 12 years and starting over was the biggest risk. I knew in my heart I was doing the right thing; but didn’t have an exact plan. I knew it would unfold as I went, and man, oh man, did that feel risky.
By nature, I’m controlling. I like to know what to expect. The unknown scares the shit out of me. But I learned that letting go and trusting in the universe was where the biggest reward was to come. I think without taking risks in life, we can end up with a lot of regrets. This goes back to having little eyes on me. I know my daughter is watching and learning and I never want her to be afraid to take a risk because she doesn’t know what’s on the other side of that risk. That’s the most beautiful thing, is trusting in yourself and the unknown.
Pricing:
- One on one training $70/hr
- Semi Private training $50/hr
- Community Sweat Sesh $15 drop in
- Community Collaboration – free – $50
Contact Info:
- Email: studiobloom.sd@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studiobloom.sd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studiobloom.sd
Image Credits:
Camila Margotta Photography
