Meet FRÉ AMBASSADOR KRISTEN SIMMONS, Nutritionist & Certified Personal Trainer

About me: 

@kristen.maynard

I was born in Portland, Oregon, but I moved to Arizona when I was 2 years old, so I consider myself an Arizona native. Today, I live in Gilbert, Arizona. I spent years struggling with food and nutrition. Now, I work hard to try to bring balance to my clients through a holistic look at the physical and aesthetic side of things. 

My fitness journey

As a teen, I struggled with anorexia; it’s more a mental disorder than anything else. I wanted to get better and feel better. I wanted to mentally be ok. I was told to just “put on weight,” but I wanted to understand the why of health and nutrition. It was important to me to create sustainable change. So, I started getting certified through fitness and nutrition courses and found my passion. I wanted to feel well naturally and not through stimulants like caffeine; I wanted to do things holistically and, after a while, I realized I could make this into a business.

I graduated with Bachelors in Finance and worked for American Airlines, but when the company relocated I decided not to go with them. Instead, I turned my passion into my career. Initially, I was working on my own through my company, ReDefine U Fitness and Nutrition. But I realized that I loved nutrition as well as training and brought my business online. I started to do bodybuilding competitions, and that was when I found Amber Dawn Orton founder of ADO Fitness online. For 2 years, she was my competition coach and I decided it would be fantastic to work with her moving forward. So today, five other coaches and I work under ADO Fitness. Between us, we have about 700 clients online all over the US.

Three months ago, I became a mother and my life has changed a lot since then. Today, I’m focused on a vision for myself for the future, which is both mental and physical. Most importantly, I want to have a balance between work and home life. I didn’t want to be chained to a cubicle. I have a vision board with inspiring images that keeps me focused.

Here are my top tips for a healthy life

The biggest thing is a mental transformation. If you tell someone to go on a diet, they think you go on a diet and then go off the diet later, but in truth, what they need is a lifestyle shift and this is about habits. To build healthy habits, you need to practice them every single day. It takes 21 days to make a habit and 90 days to create a lifestyle.

A goal that is not written down is just a wish, so you need to start writing things down and tracking them. And it’s important to be realistic; if you don’t know how to eat healthy, you won’t suddenly know how, so schedule an appointment with yourself to learn about nutrition before radically changing your diet.

There are some small changes you can already start to implement day-to-day. For example, start your day with 16 oz of water before your coffee and refer to your written goals every single morning. In time, you will do your healthy habits automatically. And it doesn’t have to be all about diet and fitness—a healthy habit can be meditation or something as simple as turning your phone off before bed. So, set small goals and make them habits. Lifestyle changes are about maintaining your goals over a long period of time and when you achieve them, setting new ones. 

My biggest challenges

Taking too much on is my biggest challenge. Time management is my biggest struggle—I don’t leave those buffers in my schedule that I need. I need to learn to say no more and prioritize better. I’m really working on time management; now that I have a daughter, I want to be able to disconnect from work and have quality time with her. I love what I do, but I’m working on creating a balance between my work and home life.

All about skincare

My clients come to me with skincare issues that stem from diet and exercise, and if your diet is not on point it can really affect your skin. I’m into face mapping—it shows you what different skin breakouts mean. For example, breakouts on the forehead are caused by hormones and diet, blemishes around the mouth and chin are connected to gut issues, and flare ups along the jawline also are hormone related. You can really see how your skin reacts to your diet and lifestyle. Gut functioning is paramount to success; unhappy guts can cause inflammation.

Why I love FRÉ

I live in a hot climate, so in the summer, I sweat a lot, when I workout and even when I don’t. I can always squeeze in a quick workout, but it’s harder to find the time for a skincare routine. The main thing I need is something simple. FRÉ is great, because it’s so easy and fast. I keep DETOX ME in my gym bag and my absolute favorite is GLOW ME. It’s perfect, light coverage—so easy, it fits into my routine. I also use RECOVER ME and BRIGHTEN ME at night after I take all my makeup off and I AM LOVE is a wonderful oil that gives really quick results. 

RAPID FIRE:

• Favorite exercise? Glute bridges
• What comes to mind when you think of FRÉ? Trees
• What are you most excited about in life right now? Being a Mom - motherhood, watching my baby grow
• What’s something you’d still love to learn? A new language 
• If you were a hashtag, what would you be? #hotmess #mombrain #newbornbalance 
• Who do you admire the most? Business owner and mom, Amber Dawn Orton, who I work for. But I’m really trying to blaze my own trail, I hope one day my answer will be “Me.”
• What is your mantra? Control what you can control, accept what you cannot. 
• What is an issue that you wish we spoke about more often? Being where I am in the fitness community and being postpartum. The postpartum period: there is so much pressure for a woman to hurry up and get her body back, but it’s important to show women that it’s ok to take time to recover. I worked out every day during my pregnancy, but being postpartum, I know my limits.
• What’s one skincare tip you swear by? Develop a routine and be consistent. Don’t use a product “when you need it,” but take care of your skin every single day. It’s about prevention not just treatment. Today, my skincare routine has become a habit and I don’t even think about it.