NEWPORT BEach FITNESS PERSONAL trainer

Hi! My name is Amanda Prohaska, and right off the bat there are two things you need to know about me:

1. I understand that my last name is a pain to pronounce.
2. I’m about to change your life.

The first one is pretty obvious; I had to deal with teachers mangling it all through school, so don’t worry if you can’t get it right. 

The second one is way more important. Because, like I said: I’m going to change your life. Well…actually, I’m going to help YOU change yours the way I changed mine: through fitness. Now, before you start rolling your eyes, let me just say that, yes, it may sound cliché, but the truth is, it really is possible that getting into shape, changing your body and mindset, and taking control of your health can change every aspect of your life.

The thing is, you can’t just do it with any old workout or program. At least, I couldn’t. It took a very specific type of programming to help me finally make changes; and I’m going to share that information with you onthis blog.

My Story

But first…let’s go back. I want to tell you more of my story. You see, I wasn’t always fit. In fact, not even close. For most of my life, I was anything but. It wasn’t until I was about 20 years old that after trying everything under the sun I finally took matters in my own hands and start studying, learning and experimenting with all of the information I could get my hands on.

Before that happened…well, let’s just say things weren’t going so well. And it showed! Not just in my body, but in everything: my attitude, sense of self, my confidence. Everything.

A lot of people have a hard time believing this. As a matter of fact, even when I was going through that period of my life, very few people understood how big of a problem it actually was…because I didn’t look unhealthy.
You see, unlike many people who want to make a change, I wasn’t overweight. Really, it was quite the opposite. I was SKINNY.

Please don’t mistake me. I don’t mean to say that I was thin. I mean skinny. Bony, even.
People always assume that if you’ve not heavy, you don’t really have a right to be insecure about your body. But let me tell you, nothing could be further from the truth.
My entire life, I had dealt with it, and hated it. And it hurt, trust me.

It hurt when I was called names like “stringbean.” It hurt when I was told I had the body of a 12 year old boy. It hurt when I was accused of having an eating disorder (I didn’t!). All of these things hurt just as much as being called fat.

These experiences taught me from a young age that I should be ashamed of my body, that it was something to feel bad about. Obviously, I made the effort to change it. Part of what I tried was sports. Starting when I was about 11 years old, I was an athlete…but even that didn’t make me love my body.

In fact…it made it worse. The athletic pursuits I chose early on were dancing and figure skating—two activities that can really give you a complex about your body…or in my case, make it worse. You see, in both dancing and skating, you’re judged both on how you perform and how you look doing it. As a result, everyone from my coaches to my peers—and most of all myself—would be hyper critical about my body.

As you might imagine, it made me feel even less comfortable in my own skin than I already was. I hid myself in big clothes and baggy sweatshirts, never wanting to feel exposed to the world. This continued for years. Throughout my entire high school career, and even into early college, every time I looked in the mirror, I saw a skinny, gawky, gangly little girl, instead of a beautiful woman with a great body.

And then one day…something snapped.

Here’s how it happened…

One of my girlfriends was complaining about her body. In her case, it was that she felt “chubby” and “too big for her clothes.” Hearing the way she talked about herself really hit home for me. Although she used different words (“big” instead of “skinny”), the emotions were the same. Fear. Uncertainty. Self-loathing. Shame.

I decided then and there that no woman should ever have to feel like that.

Thankfully, right around that time, my grandmother bought me a personal training package. (Let me just tell you right now, my granny is 77 years old and still kicks ass in the gym!).

I was 20 years old, and thought I’d tried everything. But, I was desperate, and ready for something new. I went to the gym that week…in the same old baggy sweats. I expected to be disappointed again. But something incredible happened…

Once I was working with the right trainer, and learned the right methods, things actually started to change. Not just my body, but my mind. Within just three months of training I couldn’t believe how great I felt…AND how much my body changed i was hooked.

The moment I knew when I’d really made a huge mental shift came during my fourth month of training: during our session, my trainer commented that she really loved my shorts and asked where I’d gotten them. And that’s when I realized: holy crap I’m actually wearing shorts…in public. For almost 15 years, I’d HATED my long, skinny legs so much that I couldn’t remember the last time I wore them around my house, let alone in front of other people.

And there I was, rockin’ an awesome pair of shorts in front of a whole gym, showing my legs to the world, and feeling completely confident.

I convinced my entire family to join the gym and never looked back.

You Are Already Beautiful

So, here’s the moral of the story—I’m gonna tell you something you’ve heard a thousand times, ladies: you are ALREADY beautiful. And you should feel like that. And I can help with that…as someone once helped me.

In my case, it started that very day. I started to realize I was already worthwhile, and I could be beautiful even if I was “skinny.” Once I’d changed my mentality, it made learning about fitness fun, and changing my body pretty simple.

All in all, what I discovered is that being able to change my body actually empowered me more than changing it. And that’s what I’ve dedicated my life to helping women do.

My Mission

Every since my “ah-ha” moment almost 8 years ago, I’ve made it my mission to learn and share everything I can about fitness. At first, I just shared the information with my friends and family. But I wanted to do more.

I used my knowledge to put on muscle, and shape my body to my liking. Eventually, this led me to place in a national fitness competition. That didn’t satisfy me, though. From there, I used my methods to get lean for fitness modeling. Still, I wasn’t happy with who I was using my knowledge.

Of course, I knew what I had to do…I was just scared to do it.

Finally, when I was 23 years old, I decided I truly wanted to dedicate my life to helping other people the way I’d been helped. So, I did the unthinkable: I quit my corporate job and took a HUGE pay cut to be a trainer.

That was over half a decade ago, and I’m happy to say I haven’t regretted my decision yet. Sure, it was scary, but it was the right decision, because I get to help women just like you change their live, each and every day.

Since beginning my career nearly half a decade ago, I’ve racked up a lot of “qualifications” – I’m a Certified Personal Trainer through the NASM, and even a Bio-Signature practitioner. I’ve also been fortunate to work with some amazing Drs., trainers, physical therapists, and even professional athletes who’ve exposed me to many different methods.

And all of those things are great. But certifications and a list of experiences only tell part of the story. I personally feel that looking at what my clients have done is a much better way to assess just how much I can help you.

Once you do, you’ll quickly see that whether you’re a young athlete trying to gain an edge on the competition, or an on-the-go mother simply looking to lose those last few pounds, my unique training methods and approach to the human body allow me to create a customized workout and diet plan to get each of my clients into the shape they’ve always dreamed of.

Verus Life is an evolution of all these experiences and methods, I believe that it’s the one of the leading methodologies to help women create their own version of self-evolution.

Because that’s what Verus Life is all about: helping you become the best version of you.