Amy Evert is the proud owner of a fitness studio that bears her name (Amy Evert Fitness), and provides training and nutrition guidance to a vast and varied clientele.

You’d never guess that her initial foray into fitness just took place less than ten years ago.

“I wasn’t athletic, didn’t play sports,” Amy says. “I was in chorus. I was just one of those kids…kind of a goth,” she laughs. “I probably could have been more active, but just didn’t think I could.”

“But after I had my first child, I wanted to be healthier,” Amy explains. “I was still in college, I was young...I didn’t know how to do that, or what that meant. I had no idea what fitness entailed!”

Amy laughs again. “But we had a Curves nearby, and I thought, ‘I don’t know exactly what I’m supposed to do, but I think that’s the place I need to go!”

The mom of two utilized the onsite daycare, went on her lunch break, and did whatever she had to do to get to Curves on a regular basis...and then she ramped up.

“A friend invited me to Zumba,” Amy says. “I’d never been to a group exercise class, but I went. And I loved it. That was in 2010.”

Her newfound fitness pursuit preceded a few other life changes; Amy got divorced, and decided to go back to school.

Many of the stories about women that are featured in GORGO have a track that’s similar to Amy’s; a woman decides after giving birth, or encountering a difficult life change like a divorce that she needs to make healthier choices, and then life alters course.

For Amy, however...this was only the beginning of the story.

“I decided to go back to work, as a Montessori preschool teacher,” Amy says. “I loved Zumba so much, I’d started other fitness classes--bootcamps, things like that.”

“Then the seizures started.”

It was discovered that Amy had a tumor in her front temporal lobe.

“Because of the seizures, I had to stop driving,” Amy explains. “I couldn’t work...I became really depressed.”

But after the depression came a turning point.

“For all of my life, I’d felt so powerless over everything that happened to me. I didn’t want to feel like that anymore. When the brain tumor happened--I’d just gotten divorced, lost my house--and everyone was like, “Are you going to move back home?” I said, “No! I’m not! I’m not doing any of that! I’m stronger than that.”

She couldn’t drive, but Amy didn’t stop the fitness trajectory she’d started. “I couldn’t drive to the gym, so I got rides,” she says. “I took everything into my own hands, for the first time in my life. I went back to school, became stronger, more healthy, physically and mentally, on my own. All by getting ill.”

Amy studied exercise science online, and got rides to the gym until the tumor was taken care of and she had her ability to drive back. “I didn’t have a license for a year and a half,” she says.

After receiving certification, she worked as a trainer for other entities before opening her own 4,000 square foot fitness center outside of Lexington, Kentucky, Amy Evert Fitness, and she has a vibrant online presence and coaching business.

Amy also has certification in nutrition, and encourages clients to see the importance of the relationship between food and exercise.

“So many people don’t understand it,” Amy says. “And that was me, too--I’m from a small town in Kentucky! We grew up on pork chops, Hamburger Helper, stuff like that!”

“We just started a program focused on nutrition, in fact,” Amy states. “It’s focused on eating whole foods and learning about fats, proteins and carbs. Once clients get to where they understand those things, and get a healthy grasp on those, then we get into macronutrient tracking.”

Amy credits her experience with bringing something out in her--a drive to continue, which emphasized her own personal power.

“Most of my life, I did not feel very powerful,” Amy admits. “I’d ‘gotten by’. I got pregnant young, and I thought that meant I had to get married, so I did. Many decisions like that. I did what I thought I had to.”

“When this tumor came along, I decided I was done with that.”

In addition to her experience and inner fortitude, Amy is grateful for the GORGO community and the camaraderie and moral support she received there.

“I’m so, so thankful for GORGO, and Val Solomon,” Amy says.

When people contract a fitness coach, they’re often at a low point. Their lack of direction in a fitness sense may be impacting how they feel, or excess weight may be impacting their quality of life. Often they’ve gone through a major life change like pregnancy, birth, or divorce, and are addressing physical issues that have an effect on psychological ones.

Amy has a mission when it comes to women in that position, and it extends beyond simply “getting in shape”.

“I want women to know how important they are.”

“They have all these things going on around them. And I know the first concern for many women is about looks, but in my fitness challenges, I say, ‘If you just focus on your health, you’ll lose weight and look different. But you have to be healthy. To take care of your children, do all the things you need to do, so you can sleep well, just live a healthy life and feel good. If you get those things in order, you’ll lose weight and look good.”

Her experience has also put her in the unique place of being able to encourage others when it looks almost impossible to keep going.

“There are always things that are going to happen,” Amy says. “I’ve had lots of things happen to me--and I’m not saying that to be like, “Oh, big pity party”--just to say, something’s always going to be happening. You can’t let that stop you from taking care of yourself.”

“When you’re on a journey, you don’t always start at the top of the mountain. But you have to start, and you have to keep going. When I first started teaching fitness classes, it was at a church, and there were about three people there! I stepped up to subcontracting with a gym, and finally, I have my own studio, with about 300 women taking part. I would have never imagined that this is where I would be, and that this is what I’d be doing, ten years ago.”

Every GORGO feature includes one question that’s the same for every interviewee; “What do you want to say to the women reading this? What is your message?”

When Amy Evert is asked, she doesn’t hesitate for a second.