Meet Kelly Chase of ChaseLife Together in Brookhaven

Kelly, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
ChaseLife was created in 2013 after finishing up my certification as a Health Coach with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Fabulous program. I did not realize the impact the name of my business would have on others, as well as myself come today. It has actually become a nickname for me, people use it as a verb when they’re either exercising or eating healthy, or even to be funny while chasing shots of alcohol. It’s become a part of me, a part of my every day.

It’s a term I will use forever because it is not just the name of my business, it’s a representation of my life. At the beginning of 2014, I weighed 100 lbs. Yes, that sounds very tiny, and looking back at photos, it was. But I felt well. However… I began gaining unexplainable weight. Six months later, I had gained a total of nearly 30lbs. Went from 100 to 137 actually. Considering I was a certified health coach, I felt embarrassed, ashamed, insecure, frustrated, even depressed. These feelings were rarely felt as I have always been this bubbly, happy-go-lucky girl.

Friends, family, coworkers-they all saw it. They saw the shift happen. I would often times wear a smile when I actually didn’t want to be around anyone, and just wanted to be alone to cry. I could see the eyes on me when I walked into a room, and my thoughts immediately went to “oh wow, look at Kelly,” “she’s gained so much weight”… “what’s going on with her?” I didn’t know what was going on either. I had been working out & eating healthy.

Side note, I had experienced digestive issues for years… so that wasn’t helping matters either. My definition of “eating healthy” went from eating intuitively and stress-free to eliminating foods that were bothering me & restricting calories because of course “to lose weight, you must restrict.” Well, not quite. I had eliminated gluten/wheat flour products, dairy, nuts, seeds, soy, sugar, and all fruit except berries (lowest glycemic load).

I had not eaten red meat in over eight years on a regular basis either because it never seemed to agree with my digestive system. Working out became daunting & frustrating as I began working out for two hours a day or even doing two-a-days. I hired a personal trainer for a month as well. I was kicking my butt in these workouts. I remember sitting on the floor in the gym thinking “what the heck? Why me? that girl over there is skinny & barely moving… but I’m over here lifting heavy, doing sprints on a treadmill, killing myself…”

The frustration was real. No matter what I did, the weight stayed the same. My happiness continued to decline; frustration at it’s highest. I was self-destructing myself, and I didn’t know it; I had gone from eating two servings at mealtime to eating half of everything on a salad size plate. I had become obsessed with losing weight that I became obsessed with restricting and Googling all the ways to “tone my thighs, lose weight, eat like a bikini competitor, tone my arms, lose my belly, is HIIT actually better for you..” You name it, I Google’d it. I was stuck right about 135lbs for about eight months.

Again, nothing I was doing was helping me shed the weight. I was lost. I was thick & swollen feeling all the time. Fast forward to October 2018, I was introduced to the 21 Day Fix Beachbody program by a Beachbody coach I had connected with about a year prior to online. At this point, I was at wit’s end. I made a $200 investment, and within just a few months I saw 125lbs on my scale. Ten pounds gone! The thing about this program was that it had me working out for only 30 minutes per day, and eating more food than I had eaten in probably a year….ta da!!!

The secret was out of the bag, you have to sometimes eat MORE to weigh LESS! After doing more research on this, I realized that due to my restrictive diet in 2015, I had put so much stress on my body that my cortisol levels skyrocketed which meant my body went into fight or flight mode. I had essentially been eating around 1000 calories a day and burning 2000… I was in a 1000 calorie deficit. WHAT THE WORLD?! And I did it for a year!! My metabolism slowed up, my hormones & thyroid, central nervous system, lymphatic system, digestive system–all compromised.

Due to the high levels of cortisol, I basically held onto everything and stored it as fat -I was in starvation mode. I continued to follow the 21 Day Fix and even enrolled as a Beachbody Coach myself so that I could share my journey & help others experiencing weight loss/plateau issues. This health challenge of mine only enhanced my profession as a health coach. I was more relatable to others now. My story resonated with other women & it made me “more human” as someone expressed to me.

Although I hated that journey, they’re right, it made me a stronger person and led me to where I am today. In the spring of 2016, I was hired as an Aaptiv trainer; still, not to where I wanted to be weight wise, but close enough, I felt confident in this role and continued to health coach on the side in addition to working 40 hours a week in a sales/account manager role. (where I had been for seven years already). Let me paint this professional picture for you: I have always worked a corporate 9-5 job because that’s the only thing I knew.

My parents worked 9-5 jobs and instilled it in my sister & I that going to college and getting a job was just what you were supposed to do in life. The careers I fell into were great, I met wonderful people, co-workers were amazing, but I was underpaid.. so I stepped into my hustle mentality as I had always been since college; and either bartended, worked promotions, or taught indoor cycling classes in addition to working full time so that I could have “fun money” -instead of just looking for a higher paying position elsewhere.

I was comfortable & content at my sales job which gave me leverage to be able to work on my health coaching outside as I never had work to bring home from the 9-5. However, during my time of weight/health struggles, I was too tired to work on anything consistently outside of work…as I als0 had to bartend, work on Aaptiv playlists & workouts, work on playlists for the indoor cycling classes, etc… there was no time…

During my workout recordings, I would always say “do it for someone who can’t” and “share your ‘why’ with me.” Oh wow was that impactful. Members from all over the world reached out to me with private direct messages sharing their story with me and how my workout & words motivated them beyond belief. Their stories were brave, their stories were humbling, their stories touched my heart.

In July 2017, something came over me; I said “enough.” I decided that I needed to leave the 9-5 space and pursue health coaching full time. I was making an impact on others lives, and I knew it was my calling to continue doing so. There was a spark being lit inside of me, probably for years, yet I kept dismissing it because “Kelly, you have to have a real job. How are you going to pay for anything without a steady income?” Well… I’ll tell you how later.

August 1st, 2017 was the first day of the beginning of a new life for me. It doesn’t end there, it only just began. I worked with a handful of clients helping them with their eating habits & educating them on the importance of eating more food, kickstarting their metabolism and understanding the importance of micro & macronutrients. I was riding on my savings though as I didn’t know how to market myself as an entrepreneur, I didn’t know how to begin.

Aaptiv income allowed me to pay my bills, but otherwise, there were moments I found myself sitting on my floor….again, frustrated, worried, stressed out… where am I going to get money from? How am I going to make it as an entrepreneur? I never went to business school. I am the only person in my family making any type of steady income right now. But it wasn’t enough, I had to figure it out; I had to figure out how to elevate myself so that I could provide for my family. That’s ultimately my goal: to give back.

In March of 2018, (six months after I resigned from my full-time corporate job) I was approached by a woman at TjMaxx sharing that her and her husband had recently started working on an entrepreneurship gig of their own and were looking for motivated people to join their team. Without further ado, I gave this woman my contact information and scheduled a time to meet with her and her husband a few days later. We met. They had me read The Business of the 21st Century by Robert Kiyosaki and report back in 3 days.

That book changed my entire perspective on life. Their opportunity, however, was not in line with my truth, therefore, I declined working with them.  I could not work another job that was not aligned with my passion -helping others. But that book put me into this leveling up, life-enhancing, motivated, ambitious, go-getter mentality. I began reading more and more personal development books, listening to podcasts, making sure I was practicing self-care daily (yes, making time for myself).

One of the podcasts I began listening to was The Angie Lee Show; I discovered her through Instagram actually and really resonated with her posts as well as her day-to-day life that she shared with her audience in her IG stories. She’s a holistichealth nut like me, yet there’s one thing she’s doing that lit another spark inside of me. She was a former health coach who turned into a marketing genius, business coach & motivational speaker. I want that.

2018 was my year of rediscovering who I am and who I am meant to become. It was the most beautiful year of self transformation.  I not only found myself, but I elevated in my business as well. I made time to figure out what I liked to do for fun, and not just go out with my friends drinking socially (as was a response when asked “what do you like to do for fun” prior to 2018).

In this entrepreneurial role, I am ALL of these three things:

Teacher: I educate people daily on health & wellness, overcoming self doubt, limiting beliefs, poor money mindset, stepping into their higher power, business strategy; basically how to create the life they crave.

Doctor: I create new programs, have celebratory program launches, and with each creation I am evolving as well; becoming a better me so that I can be the best version of myself for You.

Actress: I use live video daily to share my story, to share my life, in an effort to change at least one life.

Perhaps it’s not the city you’re in that’s the problem; You are attracting what you’re putting out there. Something needs to shift within you to attract the person you want to be with. So take a step back and look at your life. Are you doing the same thing each weekend?

Are you doing something each day to improve yourself, to take care of yourself, to ‘level up’? Another thing I suggest is celebrating yourself. You most likely did something this week that made you feel proud, so go celebrate that. Take yourself on a date; when we do this, we manifest that perfect person too.