Meet Simi
Hi, I’m Simi!
But, you can call me Sim from here on out; it makes me feel like we’re old friends.
I’m a health coach, certified intuitive eating counselor, author of Letting Go of Leo: How I Broke Up With Perfection, and a barre instructor.
Through this work, I help women all over the world ditch perfection and heal their relationships with food and body image so they can begin to embrace their beautifully imperfect lives.
But a decade ago, my life looked drastically different. I was a food-obsessing, schedule-filling, to-do-list checking, corporate attorney.
And, I was majorly struggling with exercise.
I felt guilt and fear if I missed a workout.
I pushed my body as hard as I could.
I used exercise as a way to try to ‘fix’ my body and was obsessed with being smaller.
I prioritized exercise over other things in my life at almost any cost.
I didn’t feel safe or ok to rest when I was exhausted, sick, or injured. And definitely not 'just because.'
I obsessively thought about exercise and how / if / when I would get in my next workout.
I was trapped in my exercise rules.
I’d do anything I could to get in my workout – cancel plans with friends, skip a class in law school, ignore an injury, or wake up so early it felt like the middle of the night to get in all the miles of my run or make it to my daily 'sweat session.'
People praised my dedication to ‘health’ but the truth is I did NOT have a healthy relationship with movement. I felt obsessed, exhausted, and checked out of the other areas of my life.
Can you relate?
I had never done barre before because I feared that (1) I didn’t have the right ‘ballerina body’ for it and (2) it wasn’t intense enough to ‘count.’
But one day, shortly after I moved from Chicago → Columbus, OH and feeling desperate for some sense of community, I walked through the doors of Studio B Wellness: a barre studio located a few blocks from our new home.
The incredible studio owner + masterful barre instructor Nancy Cushman Brown instantly helped to ease my fears. And, after one class with her something inside me started to shift. She's a bit magic in that way. I felt more connected to and present in my body than I had in a long time. Maybe ever.
And I wanted more of that feeling.
I soon traded my intense two-a-day workouts and marathon training schedules for mornings at the barre mixed with a lot of rest. With it, I traded a self-critical voice for more self-compassion; punishment for loving challenge; and judgment for connection. Within the four walls of Studio B - and thanks majorly to Nancy - my relationship with movement healed from rigid obsession to gentle freedom.
After a year as Nancy’s student, I had the absolute joy of training under her for years and becoming one of the instructors at Studio B. I fell in love with both taking and teaching barre. Being part of Studio B was one of the great gifts of my life so far.
Barre has helped me care for and come ‘home’ to myself during so many different seasons of life: from a gigantic career change to grieving the loss of my dad to navigating pregnancy + postpartum and more. I love how practicing this movement has continued to be a soft place for me to land no matter how chaotic, challenging, or ever changing life has been.
So, when the doors to Studio B closed in 2018, my heart naturally began to wonder how I could pay the gift Nancy had given me forward. And, do it in a way that honors the vision I work to support each and every day as an intuitive eating counselor and anti-diet health coach:
To create a world where each woman feels confident in her natural body, knows she is enough, trusts her intuition, and is empowered to live her truth.
From this desire, the UnMeasured membership was born!