Erica - HER LIFE Magazine

celebrate, and if you make a mistake or two along the way, then justpull yourself up and count on the blessings of tomorrow. God does givedo-overs! All you have to do is believe and have faith. You can beginevery day like the first day of a new year!Erica’s story warms the heart, stretches the mind and inspires thesoul. We all have a journey that will inevitably involve a peak of somesort, perhaps more than one, and Erica’s story may just be the fuel yoursoul needs to scale your own mountain. If so, then her story has servedits purpose. She inspired herself, and in doing so, continues to inspirecountless others. She now owns an amazing fitness facility in Modestocalled Get Fit Guaranteed, located at 2801 McHenry Avenue, Suite D.To understand how she got to this chapter in life, however, we have tostep back in time a bit and work our way forward.Erica, 31, definitely lives her purpose in life in full living color.As owner and operator of her energetic and upbeat fitness center, shenot only challenges herself to be the best she can be, but she lovinglypushes her clients to do the same.“I realize that everyone has a story, as do I,” noted Erica. “Somany of us have struggled or are struggling. I know what that is like.I want to champion my clients to not only be conquerors, but alsoovercomers in life!”Erica is a living testament to being an overcomer in life. At a veryyoung age, she suffered at the hands of sexual abuse, which led to adestructive path in her teen years that involved alcohol, drugs, inappropriatebehavior and all sorts of self-defeating activities.When she was growing up in her native Colorado, Erica wasalways the star student, the accomplished athlete and the social butterfly.On the surface, she seemed to be the girl everyone aspired to be.However, boiling beneath that charming exterior were the demons thatgripped her soul. The alcohol and drugs were her refuge, the elixirs towhich she turned to mask the feelings of inadequacy, guilt and shamethat stemmed from her earlier years of sexual abuse.Among the activities that kept her spirit somewhat alive duringthose tumultuous years, however, was her involvement in team sports.She was never really into fitness for fitness’ sake, but she was a verycompetitive team player and played on the Junior Olympic fast-pitchsoftball team in the eighth grade and made the varsity team as a freshmanin high school. She enjoyed an active lifestyle but was not a gymrat by any stroke of the imagination. “I still enjoyed my quesadillas andhot dogs!” she joked.However, her inner strength and character firmly stood theirground. When she was a senior in high school and still struggling withthe alcohol and drugs, her mother gave her a book to read called RedeemingLove. Resistant to read it at first, Erica soon felt embraced bythe comforting words and discovered that her life did have purpose andmeaning. “I realized that God really loved me and that I am worthyand special,” she said.Those sentiments were simple yet very profound. They seemed tobreathe new life into her and motivated her to find a new path, livingeach day with renewed enthusiasm.Later that year, Erica graduated from high school and eagerlydecided to pursue her collegiate studies in southern California at BiolaUniversity. As a young girl, she always dreamed of living in California,and packing her bags to head out West was like a dream come true.After a couple of years at Biola, she transferred to California StateUniversity in Stanislaus, where she completed her studies in publicpersuasive speaking and organizational communications.It was during her time at Biola, however, where she discovered24 HERLIFEMAGAZINE.COM