About
About Tiffany Leah
Born and Raised In Southern California I grew up very active fishing, hiking, playing sports with my dad. My parents divorced when I was 3 and I only saw my dad every other weekend so when we spent time together my dad made it a rule we didn’t spend it indoors and we went outside and stayed active and explored all we could. My mom enjoyed fashion and travel; so my mom got me into traveling at a very young age and we loved exploring different cities and countries and all the fashion all around. I kind of grew up being two people – a fashion loving girly girl and a tomboy who loved to be outside and play sports. My parents divorce played a big role in my future relationships and had a very tumultuous relationship filled putting me in the center of their pain and anger towards one another.
When I was 18 years old, my dad was diagnosed with ALS and passed within 6 months of his diagnosis. My dad was my best friend and my best memories were spending our nights talking about everything in life. My dad didn’t care what anybody thought and lived everyday as if there was no tomorrow. he had no fear and lived a life full of adventure, travel, exploring, and being a true free spirit. His death was the hardest moment in my life and it made me realize how short life is and that I want to live a life full of taking chances, becoming my best self, and live with no regrets. His disease taught me how important taking care of our health is and that our body is a temple to be taken care of the best we can.
From the moment he passed I immersed myself in learning about nutrition and a holistic lifestyle along with realizing fitness was my true passion and that my mission here was to help as many people I could through my passion of fitness and health. At the same time his death led me to a dark path of mentally and physically abusive relationships, deep depression, damaged self esteem, and a path filled with light and deep darkness as well.
At 20 I quit my job and decided to pursue my passion in a career of fitness and health so I got my trainer certifications and started personal training as well as teaching at many fitness studios in Southern California. At 25 I opened up my own fitness studio S.E.L.F Fitness South Bay In Redondo Beach, Ca with my business partner and friend Kate and we built a big clientele teaching HIIT classes and focusing on one on one training as well. After two years we expanded our studio to double the size and continued to have a very successful fitness studio in the South Bay.
After 5 years of creating and growing my thriving fitness studio I had an urge to go to a place I felt a huge heart connection at and that was Kauai. It was a wild decision but I decided to leave everything behind a start a new chapter in Kauai and to bring my passion of health and fitness and living a life of adventure to this Hawaiian island. I sold my business and started a new chapter on Kauai where I’ve continued to build a following of personal training clients as well as still leading group fitness classes, leading hikes, and focusing on self healing and self love.
Beyond wanting to bring my passion of fitness and health to the island, I also felt the need to get out of my comfort zone of my hometown and that I physically and mentally need a change outside of California though I still hold California true to my heart. At 29 years old I started feeling insanely fatigued, an overwhelming depression I couldn’t seem to snap out of, and I gained 20lbs while working out and eating healthy. I knew something was off within my body so I got checked out and found out I had adrenal fatigue and thyroid issues. I get like I needed to heal internally and externally and listened to my heart instinct to do this on Kauai.
My time on the island has been a true test of my strength and love for myself. I have gone through many ups and downs and soul wrenching and soul building moments. I wouldn’t be who I am today without getting uncomfortable with my aloneness and feeling my past hurt and depression and allowing myself the time and space to go into deep soul and heart healing. After living on Kauai for a few years I decided to no longer wait for someone to live my dream with me and to start traveling internationally alone. My journey started with a month visiting my family in Greece and then I traveled to Bali for two months and ended my journey with spending 4 months living in Nosara, Costa Rica where I started completely over and rebuilt myself as a trainer to the community and surf community and unleveled on a personal level. I just came back from spending a month in Israel and I’ve learned the ups and downs of solo travel as well as how strong it makes you as a human being and how to stay healthy and feel your best while traveling and it’s become a mission of mine to show this others.
One of the biggest lessons traveling and living in multiple places has taught me is that everything begins with Self Love and that is my mission to continue to spread to the world as well as fully encompass myself. You can be the strongest person physically but if you aren’t comfortable with you and the shadows and light that embody you then you won’t be strong mentally. There’s also a beauty to staying active and working on your strength physically because it truly shows you that you can continue to gain strength and it affects you on a deeper level mentally.