I work with them every day; so I know how awesome Precision Nutrition’s coaches really are.
Today you get to meet one of them, Denise Allen. This way you can find out too.
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Denise Allen loves to move.
In fact, throughout our entire hour-long telephone interview, she’s bopping along at her treadmill desk.
“Do you like the desk?” I ask her.
“Like it? I love it!” she exclaims. “I just feel so much better and more productive with my feet on the ground.”
“I’m like a monkey,” she adds. “I cannot sit still.”
Denise is completely serious about her love for the desk. This piece of equipment has made a positive difference in her life, and she’s an enthusiastic advocate.
But however big a proponent she is of the walking desk, she also sees the humorous side of a treadmill-focused office. “Of course, if I really have to concentrate, I do sit down,” she quips.
Clearly, this is a woman who doesn’t take herself too seriously.
Maturity and self-acceptance allow us to laugh at ourselves. And, having recently celebrated her sixty-first birthday, Denise has earned those qualities and wears them with pride. She wrote this inspiring piece shortly after her 60th birthday.
At the same time, as a self-confessed “A-type” personality, her energy levels rival those of many women half her age – and her passion for continued growth fuels constant exploration.
Grounded, yet dynamic. Spirited, yet wise. Put it all together and you can see why Denise is a superlative coach.
“I’ve always had a passion for wellness.”
As a kid, she tried to persuade her family to follow a vegetarian diet – and this was years before vegetarianism became popular. Then, as a teen, she became curious about different supplements, and wanted to experiment with those.
Tolerant, but puzzled, her family went along with it all, although they sometimes teased her about her whims. And Denise herself felt like a bit of an outlier. Where had this interest come from? What did it all mean? She didn’t know how to place it.
Without mentors and models, she had no inkling that her passions might point the way toward her profession. And so, when she entered university, she chose to study business.
At the time, her decision “seemed like the right thing to do,” she says. It was practical. Sensible. And in a way, business was a good fit, given her obvious talent for management and organization. Besides, the hotel industry, where she began her career, allowed her to combine her love of people with her love of travel. What could be better?
Meanwhile, her passion for fitness continued to simmer. Over the years, she took up many different activities, participating at different times and different seasons in running, Nordic skiing, biking, swimming, paddle boarding, hiking, and snowshoeing. She participated in triathlons and half marathons. She was always up for trying something new.
“Actually, I’m a little ADD with my sports,” she jokes.
Eventually, Denise earned her certification as a personal trainer.
She loved it. When her kids were small, the work gave her flexibility and allowed her to organize her schedule around theirs. So she happily gave up her corporate job to work in fitness part-time and teach a few weekly classes.
Later, with a friend, she started a successful bath and body products company. It was fun, creatively rewarding, and exciting, but eventually they had to choose: expand the business or let it go, and with their kids still needing a lot of their attention, the two of them decided to sell.
All the while, Denise continued to offer personal training on the side. When her son finally launched in college, she decided it was time to get a “real job” again.
She wound up as a national accounts manager, doing trainings via webinars for a large company that served the medical fitness industry.
The work was broadly connected with health care. And, as a training position, it also allowed her to use her impressive people skills.
Yet – as she slowly, and painfully, came to recognize – her greatest professional joy came not from her “real job”, but from teaching her weekly fitness class. In other words, from her “hobby.” And however much she might have liked to pretend otherwise, Denise felt stifled in her work. She wasn’t living her truth.
“The minute I learned about PN Coaching, I knew I wanted to be part of the program.”
“It sounded perfect for me,” she says.
She sensed an opportunity for growth and learning here – a chance to focus on what truly mattered to her. A chance to reconnect with the person she wanted to be.
Denise joined PN Coaching in 2012 as a client. And somehow, right from the start, change started to happen in ways she never could have expected. It wasn’t all about weight loss!
What had happened?
The answer is simple. She had started living in alignment with her values. By putting her focus on deep health, she was prioritizing the things she loved most. She even learned a little patience.
“PN Coaching gave me that. I gained so much understanding, so much self-knowledge, from being forced, really for the first time ever, to slow down.”
“It’s all trial and error,” she says. “We’re all a bit different, and ultimately, each of us has to figure out what works for us. The beauty of this program is that it gives us the tools to do exactly that.”
Besides fitness and health, her growing, extended family is Denise’s most important commitment.
In the years since she’s been with PN (2013), Denise’s family has grown to include a son-in-law, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.
She’s proud that her kids have inherited her sense of adventure. Proud that they share her passion for doing good in the world, and her joy in exploration and travel.
They also share her love of movement.
“They didn’t really get a chance to sit still a lot, with me as their mom,” Denise jokes.
But it’s clear she’s not sorry to have passed her pleasure in athleticism along to them. It’s a gift that she’s eager to share with her clients as well.
Denise has such a big desire to educate others, to share her knowledge about how to eat, and exercise, and lead a balanced life.
“She sees the potential in people, even when they can’t see it themselves,” says a former client. “And she communicates so well. She can relate to people from all walks of life, and help them understand things that might be tough for them.”
Dynamic, organized, and passionate, with the wisdom born of experience, Denise Allen is a coach who can help move you to major change.
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