I have been physically active since I was old enough to walk. I grew up playing many different sports and finally found my passion through CrossFit.  I have been doing CrossFit now for 6 years and couldn’t imagine my life without it, however, I hit a wall in 2016.  I wasn’t improving or getting stronger and it was extremely frustrating.  I tried changing up my programming and focus more on building strength, but it was a very slow improvement. Something was still missing.

I have tried many different “diets” which always led to failure. They were too restricting leaving me with intense food cravings and left me feeling sluggish all of the time in the gym.  I struggled to find a balance between losing body fat while maintaining enough energy to get through my workouts.

I found my way to macro nutrient counting and paying close attention to my nutrition in the beginning of 2017. Not only did I lose a ton of body fat, but my strength started to increase more rapidly than it ever had before.  That is when I realized the value and importance of nutrition, and haven’t looked back since.  I have more energy than ever and the flexibility of IIFYM works perfectly with my lifestyle. I can still eat the foods I want, while making sure I am getting the nutrients I need to fuel my body.  After seeing the change that tracking macros had on my body and performance, I am extremely passionate about helping others understand the value of nutrition to reach their goals and develop a healthier lifestyle.​

Chrissy Daniel
Crossfit Level 1
Crossfit Regional Team Athlete
NCI Level 1 Nutrition Coaching

 

My story might sound a bit different from the others on this page. I’ve never been an elite athlete, although I played baseball and golf in high school (two-time Ohio state qualifier, thank you very much!). I was pretty studious and never really enjoyed working out. All through college and graduate school I treated my body horribly! I ate poorly, didn’t sleep enough, drank too much, and rarely exercised. I was lucky to have a strong metabolism, so I didn’t gain weight, but I felt bad all the time. As I completed my PhD, I decided I needed to make some changes and started running and eating more whole foods. Simple, but effective changes. I started competing in 5k and 10k races, and then onto half marathons and marathon training. I didn’t think much about what I ate, but on those high mileage weeks I was hungry all the time and pretty much allowed myself “cheat” meals whenever I wanted. Then I found Crossfit. I gained muscle faster than I ever had in my life! I also gained weight overall, though, bulking up from 165 to 195 in a little over a year, and I lost a lot of my endurance. Enter Coach Elizabeth and M2! Over the course of a few months I lost 17 pounds and dropped my body fat percentage by 5%. Flexible dieting works for me because it’s versatile. I can hit my macros in a wide variety of ways and it’s kind of like a puzzle I get to solve every day. Fueling my body properly has paid off in big ways in the gym, I feel energized during workouts and I’ve continued to get stronger while losing body fat and changing my body composition. I recover better too. A final benefit is that it has encouraged me to learn how to cook! Flexible dieting and Macros and Muscles coaching has been a life-changing experience for me. I can’t wait to share my experiences and help you achieve your nutrition and fitness goals!

 

Joe Genetin-Pilawa
Crossfit Level 1
NCI Level 1
Crossfit Masters
Crossfit Scaling
PhD – History

As a person that has always been very active, I have always done what I could to be as healthy as possible. I will admit though, at some points in my life I was more successful at this then others. For the longest time, I always thought that just lifting weights and eating healthy would do the trick. However, actually eating healthy and thinking that I was eating health were two completely different things. In the past I have done everything from eating everything I could get my hands on in the attempt to gain muscle mass to just eating protein, to paleo, and trying every fad diet out there. Most of these diets were shorted lived and not sustainable. I now know that I was doing everything wrong up until the last few years. Then, a great friend of mine turned me on to macros counting. This completely changed everything from my performance, to recovery, to the sleep quality I was getting, and just overall helping my mindset and health.

​ I can also say that one of the biggest changing factors in my life was when my son received a diagnosis of Celiac Disease. This was the point at which I began to pay attention to how important nutrition is and how it truly can and will effect how a person feels, not only physically but mentally as well.

The ability to perform at my best is very important to me, not only in my professional career but also in my day-to-day personal life. I believe that a flexible diet can be very beneficial and rewarding. These benefits can come from just being healthier, achieving a fitness or weight goal, or just plain looking better all year round (Not just during beach season). I know I can achieve my desired results with commitment and the correct macro balance.

After having a Nutrition Coach for about a year, I wanted to learn more. So I began to read and try to learn as much as possible. As I continue to learn and grow as a coach, I have a passion to share that knowledge with others and help them to reach their goals as well.

​

Shan
NCI Level 1 Nutrition Coaching

My passion for nutrition started over 20 years ago when I earned my Bachelors of Science with a concentration in Dietetics from James Madison University. After graduating from JMU I completed a dual Masters/Dietetic Internship program from Tufts University in Boston, MA. The beginning of my career had me working in hospitals and providing care to a variety of medically complex patients. Currently I work for a home infusion company managing patients who are home on nutrition support (receiving IV nutrition and/or formula through a feeding tube). While I love the clinical side of nutrition I also have a very strong passion for performance based nutrition.

Five years ago I was invited to try CrossFit in a friend’s garage. After my first workout I was hooked! I was also sore for DAYS! I loved the way I saw myself getting stronger, healthier and more fit. I’ll never forget the feeling of getting my first pull up. I went from doing Crossfit 2 days per week to 5 days per week. After about 2 years of starting CrossFit I felt like I had hit a plateau. It was getting harder to recover and I felt like I was dragging during my workouts. Something had to change.

I started doing some research about different nutrition programs. What I found was that I didn’t necessarily have to change the way I ate - I just needed to do a little fine tuning. I started tracking what I ate and drank and counting my macros. After just a couple of months of doing this I could see a huge difference not only in my physique but how I felt during my workouts and how well I was recovering.

​By being a part of the Macros and Muscles Nutrition coaching staff I hope to help others reach their goals the way my nutrition coach has helped me! Yes, every nutrition coach needs a nutrition coach! :)

 

I look forward to working with you!

Julie McGee, MS RD CNS
Registered Dietitian
CrossFit Level 1

As a child and young adult, I was a ballerina. Pointe shoes and all! Then life happened. I got married, had kids, and found I was completely lost on where to turn for exercise. Nothing was filling the void. When I tried CrossFit in 2013, I loved it from the start. But why was my body stubbornly holding onto all that post-baby weight even though I was working hard on fitness? I was super frustrated and had no clue where to start finding a healthy balance between fitness and nutrition. I was over whelmed with all the information out there, so I did nothing. In 2016, I decided to get help and hired Hanna to guide me to better performance and self-image through nutrition.

Finally, I was able to put the nutrition and fitness pieces of the puzzle together! Fueling my body correctly helped me gain back lost energy, feel amazing working out, and rediscover the body I once had. Through my nutritional coach’s influence, I realized I wanted to help my young family build a solid nutritional foundation by giving them the knowledge base to make healthy nutritional decisions. Why have them fight the same uphill battle I did? Leading my family to a healthier lifestyle through nutrition and exercise has become a focal point in my life. This is why I decided to become a nutrition coach and help other parents lost in the vast sea of information, as I was, get their families on the right nutritional path. That is me in a nutshell. I feel like a normal person who found something I love and am passionate about. I am looking forward to helping others find their path through nutrition.

Lisa Steedman
Precision Nutrition L1

I started my fitness journey back in 2012, after moving to Northern VA for my career in Interventional Radiology. Like many, I began with bodybuilding style training at a local “globo-gym”. I soon found myself competing in the Bikini Division at a few bodybuilding shows. While I did have some success, I found the dieting and lifestyle techniques used in this realm to be quite damaging to my health. I was rundown, tired, and with no energy, my training was falling into a rut. It was time for a change.

I gave CrossFit a try in 2016 and was hooked immediately. With that change in intensity and training styles, also came a need for a change in my nutrition. I had experimented with many different dieting methods previously and had to learn by trial and error on my own. Now that I had dialed in my own training and nutrition, I wanted to help others who may be experiencing the same frustrations that I had gone through. I want to pass on my own knowledge and experience to help people meet their fitness/nutrition goals, and hopefully avoid the pitfalls I made. Fast forward to today, I am with M2N and have the awesome opportunity to work with like-minded individuals who are ready to crush their goals. Whether that be to simply make better food choices and feel healthier or perform better and be more competitive in sport.

Amanda Agostinelli
Precision Nutrition- Level 1
NCI Level 1
Crossfit L1

I've been involved in sports my whole life. I started playing organized football at the age of five, began wrestling at the age of six, and was a track & field athlete throughout high school. I learned at a pretty young age it was far too difficult for me to gain weight for football just to turn around to lose it again for wrestling (I wish I had a nutrition coach then!). After football, I found myself as a weight class athlete once more - in powerlifting (242 lb.) and strongman (middleweight and heavyweight). After moving to DC in 2005 I got the field sport bug again and played rugby in the Super League for Potomac Athletic Club. During that time, I was introduced to CrossFit as part of our pre-season conditioning sessions. By 2007, I was all-in on CrossFit and I started coaching in 2008. In 2009 I found CrossFit Football and used it as my primary training methodology for rugby and had great success with the programming. By the end of 2011, I was a CrossFit HQ SME traveling the world coaching the CrossFit Football Seminar.

As my athletic career progressed, nutrition became a huge focus. As a football and rugby player, and a competitive lifter - the focus was always gaining weight. It wasn't until I thrust myself back into weight class athletics in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that I really understood the importance of weight management and how it correlated to my performance in competition.

I can't wait to help people reach their goals with nutrition. It's the lowest hanging fruit in any performance endeavor, but it's often the most difficult piece of the puzzle to get your head around. I'm eager to share my experience with our clients!

Bobby Goodfellow

I have always been competitive and loved sports growing up. Being so active at a young age, I ate whatever I wanted to. In my early adulthood I realized that I had to change. As my weight jumped up and stayed up, I insisted on cardio, more and more cardio. I figured if I worked out more, I didn’t have to limit what I was eating. Although I saw some results at first, I never looked the way I thought I should.

Being a woman, I struggled with body image issues within myself. I struggled to be thin even though I was built thicker than most women and being in the military, it was a constant battle to meet the weight requirements.

In my mid-twenties, I incorporated weight training into my regimen and saw myself becoming more defined, but I was still not getting to where I wanted to be physically. In 2012, I was introduced to CrossFit. I loved the body image that it promoted, especially for women; that muscles and strength were beautiful. It wasn’t until 2016 when I really began to dedicate myself to my fitness. It was then I became truly consistent with CrossFit and I would strive to work hard to look like those typical CrossFit girls you see in the gym. It wasn’t until I started macro counting that I began to see the results I worked so hard to achieve. Not only did I feel so much better about what I saw in the mirror, but I felt better in the gym, felt fueled for my workouts and got stronger and stronger. I am the happiest I have ever been, and I am excited to share what I have learned with others.

Jillian Rich

CrossFit Level 1

From runner to powerlifter. It may have taken me 27 years to find my sport, but once I did, I knew that I was willing to do what it takes to succeed. It starts with nutrition! While I wasn’t a competitive athlete growing up, fitness and the weight room were always a part of my life. I spent 5 out of 9 high school periods between the gym and the art room and when I had the opportunity, I spent gym time in the weight room.

When it was time to pick a career I was stuck between art, and…. you guessed it, exercise science. Exercise Science/Human Performance won. After completing my Bachelor’s degree, spending some time in corporate/commercial fitness, I began my venture into graduate school at The George Washington University finishing with a Master’s degree in Exercise Science – Strength and Conditioning. I spent two years at the collegiate level as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at The University of The District Of Columbia. Between both degrees, coaching athletes, general population clientele, and my own personal performance, nutrition has always been a key piece to the puzzle. At different levels, from courses in school and coaching, I enjoy digging into nutrition and trying to learn the ins and outs for various athletes including myself.

Personally, I’ve done everything from low fat/high carb, high fat/low carb, bulletproof, and intermittent fasting and of course macro counting. This past year, I went through a really tough cut for a powerlifting meet and was extremely thankful to have M2N on my side. What I have learned over the years and through that specific experience is, it’s about balance. Balance between goals and balance between fuel. Regardless of goals, we are all individuals and require and individualized plan. I am lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of the M2N team and carry out one of my two passions in the fitness world. 1 being nutrition and 2 being empowering athletes through strength. You can’t have the second without the first.

Morgan Shetler, MS – Strength & Conditioning
Strength Coach
Owner of Beyond The Barbell LLC
Competitive Powerlifter | 57 kg | 312 kg Total

Growing up I was always playing sports and ended up playing soccer in college. I had a successful soccer career and felt like I could eat whatever I wanted. Fast forward to a couple of months after graduation and I was unhappy with the way I looked. I got into running long distances and eating 1,200 calories a day. I prided myself on being “good” throughout the week but then would binge on the weekends Eventually I stopped losing weight and hated running.

My husband had joined CrossFit and he convinced me to give it a shot. Immediately I loved it. I didn’t go crazy with training, but I was back on the “I need to eat less to lose weight” and would end up stuffing my face with junk food. I eventually stopped getting PRs in the gym and realized I needed to fix something. I worked (and still work) with a nutrition coach at macros and muscles. Initially it was a shock to weigh and measure my food, but I was able to make things that I really enjoyed still fit! Macros and muscles really has changed my life and I wanted to help others the way I’ve been helped because everyone should feel comfortable in their own skin.

Emma Gibbons
NCI L1 Nutrition Coach

I grew up playing soccer on a nationally ranked competitive team and overall sports junkie. After starting my college career on the soccer field, I then hit the streets and covered countless miles. Marathon runner turned into Crossfit to fill that competitive void and I was quickly hooked. As I progressed in the sport of fitness, I took an interest in nutrition. I began working with Coach Hanna in 2017 and quickly became fascinated with how food can not only aid performance, but overall well-being. No matter how active I was, nutrition was the one missing factor that kept me from feeling comfortable in my own skin.

Through my nutrition journey, I’ve learned it’s all about balance and have been able to find a healthy lifestyle. I’m extremely passionate about helping others do the same and accomplish the unthinkable. Outside of my regular fitness routine, I love the outdoors and spend my summers on the lake wakeboarding, and winters in the mountains skiing and snowboarding. I love seeing people pushing past what they think their limits are and hope my passion for fitness and nutrition help people realize that it can be a lifestyle, and it can be so much fun.

Laura Cook
Crossfit Level 1

Exercise and sports have been life-long passions of mine. I’ve done most everything from team sports, competitive running and triathlons, hiking, biking and have even instructed in many realms such as boot camp, indoor cycling, and most recently CrossFit. Of course like many others, I absolutely fell in love with CrossFit and haven’t looked back since starting in 2014.

So how does nutrition come into play? I guess I would say sort of by accident. My diet as a child and young adult was just atrocious, but thanks to my active lifestyle, I’ve always been able to stay relatively lean eating and drinking pretty much whatever garbage I wanted. I started eating much more cleanly throughout my 30s. But despite my cleaner eating and continued high activity level, I gradually accumulated flab around my waistline and my hips throughout my 30s and early 40s. I felt more and more like my physique didn’t reflect all the time and effort I spent exercising--I just didn’t look like I worked out!

I started wondering what might be possible if I paid more attention to what I was eating and how much I was eating instead of just eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, as I always had before. So I began weighing my food and tracking macros for the first time in my life. I was ABSOLUTELY amazed at my progress. I distinctly remember putting my hand on my hip after a few months of weighing and tracking and doing a double-take. I actually felt my hip bone, whoa!!!! When did that thing disappear anyway???? Also, my performance in the gym started skyrocketing! I was setting new personal records regularly. I didn’t realize that my performance was hindered by my food choices. Although I was eating good food and lots of healthy fats (olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado, coconut), I was not eating optimally for my performance and aesthetic goals.

Based on my experience, I am beyond passionate about helping others navigate their own nutrition journeys and achieve their goals. I can honestly say this experience has been life changing! I hope my story has inspired you to not waste another moment but rather to take action in creating the best version of yourself through nutrition.

Jessica Corea

Precision Nutrition Level 1

Crossfit Level 1