Celiac Shack NOW

The First Time Coach Ron Met Me, I Couldn't Do a Single Push-Up

I want to tell you what this blog is really about. And to do that, I have to tell you about a push-up I couldn't do.

Over a decade ago I was invited to join a 12-week group coaching program for business owners, taught by Coach Ron Williams. I was the only woman in the room. On the very first day, Coach asked me to demonstrate a push-up for everyone.

I couldn't do it.

I had been home from Mexico less than a year, and Lyme disease had done such a number on the connection between my brain and my body that I could not get my arms to obey me. So I sat there trembling in front of the whole group, unable to lower myself even once. My face and my neck were burning hot. Coach laughed it off kindly and said, "Well, I've never seen that before." I got to my feet with my cheeks on fire.

I never explained. I would show up and give a workout everything I had with the group, and then I'd be flat on my back for the next few days, unable to come back in. Coach thought I was weak. He thought I was full of excuses. I let the judgment land where it landed, and I just kept doing my best.

The Day Everything Changed

The turning point was a piece of equipment clipped to the floor.

I decided I was going to unclip it myself. I told myself I would not leave that room until I did. My hands trembled. My brain fought to send the message down to my fingers. Coach Ron came over to help. I could only get out one word: "No." He offered again. "No." For five long minutes he kept offering, and I kept refusing, fixed on that one clip, because I didn't have the words or the strength to explain what I was really fighting.

And then it came loose. I breathed out. And I finally told Coach what I had decided, and why.

Later, he and his wife Tonja pulled me aside. Coach told me he hadn't trained a woman one-on-one in over eight years. He had coached Olympians and national champions. And he told me I reminded him of an Olympian he had once worked with. A woman.

I went home. I talked to my husband. I prayed. And even though it made no earthly sense, I felt strongly that instead of pouring thousands of dollars into more Lyme treatments with my specialist, I was supposed to work with Coach Ron.

He Started With My Mind, Not My Muscles

Our first workouts weren't workouts at all.

We spent hours sitting in the gym. No weights. No cardio. Coach "Pastor" Ron prayed over everything he did. He knew my health was fragile, and the first place he took me was not my body — it was my belief. He wanted me to know that God could heal me completely and wholly. He wanted me to experience joy. He wanted me to be triumphant.

Coach quoted scripture to me. He had me memorize verses along with the promise and the blessing attached to each one. I am still living on things he taught me in those quiet hours.

"Don't give up. I believe in YOU." — Coach Ron, every single time we talk

Then He Taught Me How to Actually Care for My Body

Once my mind was steadier, Coach taught me the unglamorous, tedious, boring details of how to care for a body, and how to do it correctly so it actually heals.

He taught me about water and minerals. About adding cruciferous and sulfur-rich vegetables to my meals. About fiber, high-quality protein, healthy fats, and the right carbohydrates, and how and when to combine them. As I put it into practice, the inflammation in my body, and even in my face, began to go down.

Coach lives what he teaches. He told me he never eats sugar and never eats pork. He cooks with water instead of oil and adds good oil (olive, avocado, or coconut) back in after the food is cooked. He taught me to eat more of my food and carbohydrates earlier in the day, to eat MORE, not less, and to give my body enough to heal. For me, that landed around 1,800 calories a day, and we adjusted the ratios until my body was in a healing place. He taught me about fasting. About patterns of thinking. About trauma, and soul wounds. And most of all, he taught me by example.

Coach Ron came from humble, hard beginnings. He fought and adapted and kept changing to become the man he is today: a 21-time World Champion natural bodybuilder with more than 250 titles, yes, but far more importantly, an incredible husband to Tonja, a father, an adoptive father, a pastor, a coach, a brother and friend to people all over the world.

The last time we spoke, he had just come from the funeral of one of the last living leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, surrounded by some remarkable people, and he still took my call. Every time we talk, he tells me not to give up. He says, "I believe in YOU." He reminds me that I have a story to share, and that God has shown him a piece of what I'm meant to do: speaking in front of millions. So through every setback, every imperfect step, I keep coming back to the truths Coach Ron taught me.

So... What Is This Blog Really About?

It started as a place to figure out how to eat gluten-free in a gluten-filled world. It became the journal of my life.

Because health is bigger than food. Health is everything we let into our hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits, and everything we take out. It's what we plant ourselves in.

Think of a plant. If you keep pouring something toxic on it, it will die, no matter how good the seed was. To live, to actually THRIVE, you sometimes have to pull yourself up and replant yourself and your family in healthy soil. That's part of my story too: how stress and toxic relationships poison every part of a person, and what it takes to grow again.

This is also the story of my Lyme disease, undiagnosed for nearly twenty years, quietly wearing down my immune system and nearly taking my life more than once, until I finally understood what I was fighting. It's why I now take the herbs and essential oils I teach about here on the days I feel sick AND, most of all, on the days I feel fine.

Three Books Are Coming

This blog is growing into three books.

The first is for anyone learning to live with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance and survive in a gluten-filled world, and it also tells the deeper story of how stress and toxic relationships affect every part of a life.

The second and third carry the rest of the journey: the Lyme, the healing, and the tedious, real, learn-it-and-live-it details of the work I did with Coach Ron. Even now, more than ten years later, I can reread what he taught me and finally retain it and live it, because I'm in a healthy enough place to receive it.

The third will focus entirely on what I learned working with Coach Ron. 

Faith  •  Family  •  Fitness  •  Finance

These are the four things Coach Ron keeps coming back to, and you'll see all four woven through everything here.

And Friends, you're woven in here too. Your questions, your comments, your faith, your love, and your support are part of this story. Some of you will even find yourselves in these pages.

Thank you for coming on this journey with me. I've had an extraordinary teacher, and my prayer is that you'll feel the love, the focus, the intensity, the determination, and the grit of Coach Ron right through the screen as you read.

Here is Coach Ron's Website.

With love,

Steffi

A gentle note: I'm a Nutritional Herbalist and health educator, not your doctor. Nothing here is meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. These are my own experiences and what I've learned along the way. Please partner with a health provider you trust for your own care.