Kelly Gifford - Fitness, Nutrition & Mindset Coach (2026)

21/10/2021

When I started coaching over 3 years ago, I spent my time teaching about stuff that could easily be found on the internet, making intricate nutrition & workout plans and sending endless messages to my clients to “hold them accountable”

It worked. Sort of. But sometimes… too often for my comfort… clients weren’t getting what they needed to achieve their goals. The nutrition myth-busting, education & planning was just adding more noise and overwhelm. The workout plan was left untouched. The accountability check-ins were ignored. Communication fell off. They felt defeated. I felt… totally horrible.

The inevitable question on my mind became >>why can someone have all the resources, knowledge & support they need to achieve their goals and still not achieve their goals?Unworthiness. Self doubt. Procrastination. Fear of rejection. Fear of failure. Self criticism… to name a few<

It wasn’t until I learned how to move through my own blocks that it finally clicked. Now, I no longer see my role as an educator, plan-maker or accountability buddy.

has provided me with a depth of work that has profoundly changed my life personally, let alone my capacity to support my clients in changing their’s.

To finish of a year-long journey of personal & professional development, she’s challenging me to a month-long generosity challenge to get this work out into the world.

For the next month I am offering 12 gifted sessions for those that are ready to do the depth of work that will truly up-level their lives. 6 of those 12 spots have already been claimed.

If you want a session to support you in transforming anything that holds you back from achieving your goals, DM me to claim your gifted session ❣️

02/09/2021

Dear body🥺,

What a ride it’s been, am I right?

We haven’t had the best relationship. Okay, our relationship has been incredibly toxic. I admit that.

The amount of times I’ve told you that I hate you… that you’re not good enough… that you’re the reason for all of my suffering…

Through my words… through my actions…

It’s… a shame. A real shame.

I’ve held you hostage in more ways than one. I’ve restricted you of the love you needed while I manipulated your size and shape to try receiving that love from the world… instead of just giving it to you myself.

I’ve restricted you of the freedom to be however you want to be in hopes that one day, if I abuse you enough, you’ll fit the mold of a body that I’ve been brainwashed into believing is the only body worthy of acceptance.

I’ve restricted you of the pleasure of a muffin & latte on a rainy afternoon in favour of predictable & calculated means to control you.

The control I’ve forced upon you is rooted in a lot of fear.

Fear that if I set you free once and for all… you’ll turn around and stab me in the back.

Fear of the pain of feeling unlovable, unacceptable & not good enough that I felt when we were younger… of which I unfairly placed the blame entirely on you.

I’ve made promises to you in the past that I was finally going to set you free… but those promises were conditional.

My trust in you was dependent on your adherence to the unrealistic expectations placed on you by diet culture.

But I can’t keep promising you the freedom and love you deserve only to rip it from you as soon as I have to face the pain that I’ve been avoiding since childhood.

Your conditional freedom ends now. I’m setting you free. I’m placing my trust in your innate wisdom rather than the conditioning of diet culture, the media & the bully inside my mind.

I’m done tip-toeing around recovery. It’s about time I belly flop into the recovery pool. Anything to make up for lost time with you, my love.

🤍

13/08/2021

A client recently said to me “you wouldn’t think that a personal trainer or nutrition coach would struggle with things like over-indulging, guilt after eating, etc.”

It got me thinking about what other struggles of mine that I’ve been, knowingly or unknowingly, hiding from the world.

At this point, I’m very open about my struggles with disordered eating and body image. The further removed I am from these experiences, the easier it is for me to share.

A common theme I’ve recently seen arise in conversation is feeling guilty for resting and staying constantly busy.

It’s something I’ve gotten really good at coaching people on;

😴recognizing patterns like over-working, burn-out, guilt, inability to truly rest, staying busy, procrastinating and looking for external validation because we don’t trust ourselves

🥱discovering why it is we do it; aka. What we fear happening if we no longer were this way

😲and clearing any limiting beliefs & misunderstandings that created this behaviour so we can wake up to our worth beyond what & how much we do.

The thing is… this is still a present pattern in my life. Much more present than an unhealthy relationship with food & poor body image at this point in my life.

The difference is that I don’t get sucked into the patterns, stories & misunderstandings as easily as I used to, and when I do, I’m not sucked in for nearly as long.

The experience described in photo #4 is a raw representation of what was happening inside my mind today. If you can relate on any level, I see you.

I know how easy it is to get lost in self-criticism & worst case-scenario thinking. I also know we can free ourselves from our self-imposed imprisonment of the mind. I’ve done it many times, in many different areas, and I’ve witnessed others do it, too.

Let’s follow the bread crumbs to our inner peace & freedom together 🤍 comment below if any of this resonates with you??

12/08/2021

🌞The only two people you should strive to impress are your child-self and your 90-year-old self

🌻If both of them would be proud of who you are today, you’re doing one heck of a great job, honey 💕

✨Reminder to myself as I shift out of self-criticism mode: Being hard on myself isn’t working to motivate myself to create & be better.

🌟I’m a stand for anyone else who wants to drop being hard on themselves to test out what happens when you lead with kindness towards yourself & acceptance of your current situation.

07/08/2021

My body is the reason I can’t make a mistake.

👆🏼belief is the filter I viewed life through from a very young age. I thought that something was wrong with my body - not thin enough, not pretty enough, hair that was too thick & curly - and THAT meant I couldn’t make a mistake.

Any mistakes that I did made were not afforded the same grace as a skinnier girl, a prettier girl, a more popular girl.

This meant that saying the wrong answer in class, missing the ball in PE, offending someone and anything else that signalled I wasn’t smart, talented, athletic or nice enough crippled me with shame… because not only was there something wrong with my body, but I couldn’t even make up for it by being perfect everywhere else.

This created an operating system inside myself to perfectly curate every word & move I made to stay small and avoid standing out, because my body already made me a target of imperfection.

Even through the evolution of my appearance into adulthood AND the work I’ve done to accept my body… this operating system against making a mistake still runs the show of my life.

Something as little as not knowing the right answer or receiving feedback on what I could’ve done better tunnels me down a dark pit of shame that, if I’m honest, sometimes takes me weeks to crawl out of.

The thing is, developing this operating system served me when I was young. It was the best way I knew how to “deal with” my body shame.

It’s just that now, as the 24 year old who has the knowledge, experiences & resources to move through insecurities better than I did when I was a child - who understands humans can make mistakes - who can see my inherent worth beyond what society taught me I “should” look like - this operating system is a bit outdated.

And so,

🤍I forgive myself for buying into the misunderstanding that my mistakes & imperfections won’t be afforded the same grace because of my body. The truth is, I can’t know for sure if I would’ve been treated differently in childhood had my body been different. What I do know is the experience of feeling deeply insecure in my body growing up was a gift that allows me a deeply fulfilling career & purpose today🤍

05/08/2021

I had my goal body and hated my life.

I know I’m not the only one, either. I’ve spoken to many people who’ve achieved their goals without feeling any better on the other side of it. In many cases, feeling even worse.

I’ve reflected on this experience a lot and I think the primary culprit is:
↪️ Not being clear on what it is you REALLY want; the deeper desire behind losing weight
↪️ Not aligning the methods you’re using to achieve weight loss with how you want to feel once you’ve lost weight (ie. I want to lose weight to feel more freedom in my life but my diet/workouts feel very restrictive)

I’m working to prevent this from happening in my own life as I move towards new goals, and I love helping others do the same🙋🏻‍♀️

If you’re currently pursuing or planning on pursuing goals related to fitness, health & weight loss, here are some reflective questions that could help you achieve your goals much easier & feel much better in the process 🥰

❓How do you expect to feel differently in your life once your body has changed?

❕Do you believe it’s possible to feel that way in your life, independent of whether your body changes or not?

❓Is it possible that your body could change and your life won’t really feel any different?

❔What do you imagine would happen to your body if you put more of your focus into how you want to feel versus how you want to look?

25/07/2021

Last night I discovered the hidden secret to confidence.

My whole life has been curated around the intention to one day feel confident in my body & love myself.

Early on, this tunnelled me down a path of disordered eating, obsessive over-exercising & body dysmorphia.

When I was able to wake up to the fact that I wouldn’t find confidence & self love through changing my body, the doors opened to the next leg of my self development marathon.

Since committing to overcoming my poor relationship with food & exercise, I’ve continued deciphering what else doesn’t equate to more confidence & self-love; a successful career, an income level, validation from others, valuable skillsets, healthy romantic & platonic relationships, owning a house…

Last night, I was met with a heaping spoonful of insecurity. It’s a familiar feeling that I’m used to numbing & hiding from the world.

After marinating in the darkest corners of my inner discomfort, I found myself sharing my inner experience out loud with the people around me. Total strangers, btw.

Every thought & belief about myself & my story that has plagued my perceived self-worth was removed from the inner loop inside my head and verbally expressed.

Through openly exposing my darkness & pain, I discovered…
🪄Confidence comes from embracing insecurity.

I always believed I needed to completely eliminate insecurity in order to one day feel confident.

Turns out, the very thing I was running from was the key to unlocking what I’ve always wanted.

I’ve never felt more in love with myself than I did last night. I want more than anything for everyone to tap into this electric experience for themselves 🤍

05/07/2021

It’s Monday… and you’re already planning for the weekend, aren’t you?

Thinking about all the delicious food you had last weekend, so you can plan your indulgences for next to be even better.

Looking up local restaurant menus, deciding whether tacos or pizza will be most worth it.

As the week goes on… the building anticipation for the weekend makes egg white omelettes and salads increasingly repulsive. Every workout is a check off the to-do list before the week is finally finished and you can get back to enjoying your life for a couple of days.

I used to live Monday-Friday in going-through-the-motions mode, like the week was limited to a list of to-do’s I had to get through in order to get my reward.

The worst part was… when the time I had been anticipating finally came - it was time to sit down at a restaurant or lounge in front of the TV with Skip The Dishes - the enjoyment of the moment was ripped away by the anticipation of having to make up for it once Monday rolled around.

The anxiety would start to accumulate in my mind, leading me to consume my precious weekend treat quickly and mindlessly. My dissatisfaction led me to stuffing myself with everything else I could find until I didn’t even want to look at food anymore. Then, I’d just hope that this repulsion to food lasted me until the following weekend… which it never really did.

It’s easy to identify the problem with this restrict-binge-restrict cycle being the restrictive mentality towards food during the week… but if we peel the layers back even further, what this behaviour is really insinuating is this belief that food is your sole source of pleasure.

If you believe food is the main source of pleasure in your life, it’s going to be next to impossible to break this cycle of over-indulging followed by restricting it as a means to balance it out.

Don’t get me wrong… food IS pleasurable. There’s nothing inherently wrong with enjoying that aspect of food😋

The problem comes when you’re limited inside this box of when and how you’re allowed to enjoy your life and feel good. This creates a hyper-fixation on food that is actually draining your quality of life more than it’s adding pleasure to it.

02/07/2021

You’re REALLY good at going all-in on your fitness and nutrition.

When you’re in it, you’re going ham in your workouts and never missing a beat.

You’re prepping and planning all your meals ahead of time and diligently following through with them.

You’re saying no to unnecessary treats in favour of staying on plan.

Everything is under control and that feels REALLY good.

Until a thread in your tightly-knit plan becomes loose.
↪️A planned workout that you miss.
↪️A prepped meal accidentally left at home.
↪️Unplanned staff meal at work.

And that triggers a familiar series of thoughts, that probably sound something like:
… This always happens.
… Why do I even try? I never stick to anything.
… I’m never going to reach my goals. I shouldn’t even bother.

And then you’re ALL-IN… becomes ALL-OUT.

😶One missed workout turns into a week...
🥴The remaining prepped meals stay in your fridge until they’re ready to be thrown out...
😅And you run through the drive-thru for lunch the rest of the week.

And you know this about yourself, you’ve been through this cycle plenty of times.

The thing is, your solution has always been to just try harder to NOT give up when the urge to comes up.

Chances are… that method hasn’t been working for you.

What’s really happening here is that this ALL or NOTHING mentality is one way you’re programmed to meet one of your core human needs: certainty.

When you’re ALL IN, you can be certain you’re getting the best results possible…

& when you’re ALL OUT, the results are also pretty certain. You won’t get any 🤪

But that middle ground, in between perfection & off the deep end, is really uncomfortable.

So when you can’t be all-in, you’d rather be all-out until you can be all-in again. That feels more safe to the mind that’s wired to find certainty.

Your mind will always unconsciously prioritize meeting a core need above meeting your fitness & weight loss goals unless you upgrade that programming to meet your needs AND your goals simultaneously.

02/07/2021

This is why most peoples’ weight loss is TEMPORARY🙇🏻‍♀️

[SOUND ON 🔊]

Approaching your goals this way is only going to work for so long.

Here’s the truth about long lasting results - you’ve got to look under the hood and upgrade the parts that aren’t working.

If you just ignore those parts in favour of a quick fix- another diet, another workout plan, another accountability buddy or group - your machine will eventually run out of fuel and your results will only go so far.

You can listen to the full conversation + more on this topic over on the podcast 🖤 (https://linktr.ee/colouryourconsciousness)

30/06/2021

✨Food freedom✨means:

❤️Choosing what you eat without rules for what or how much

🧡More spontaneity because you aren’t “planning ahead” 24-7

💜Trust that you won’t make a “wrong” decision with food (because there isn’t one)

💖Eating healthy because it feels good

🤎Indulging because it feels good

💙More space in your mind to focus on things other than what you “should” eat

💚More energy to live a joyful life, where food is a part of it but isn’t the centre of it🤗

Kelly Gifford - Fitness, Nutrition & Mindset Coach

21/10/2021

02/09/2021

13/08/2021

12/08/2021

07/08/2021

05/08/2021

25/07/2021

05/07/2021

02/07/2021

02/07/2021

30/06/2021

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